All the enthusiasm I might have felt for a Shadowrun FPS fades to nothing in comparison with the childish excitment I feel for this prospect!!!

There's a lot of screen shots about on the internet already and they look sweet, but they're scans from a magazine so I won't link to them.

Anyway. Think about what it will mean to be able to control a FPS that way, and try to imagine playing a similar game with dual-sticks after that.

Heh, the last time I heard the name "Miyu" was when watching "Kyuuketsuki Miyu".

Anyway, awesome tribute to Hong Kong style cinema that this game may turn out to be, you realize it still wouldn't really be like SR in the way that Deus Ex would be SR, right?

I'd also say See Also the Katana mod for Max Payne. Some people made a graphics-intensive anime style mod for Max Payne where your character is a katana-and-gun using anime hero. It's got al the advanced shootdodges from Kenneth Yeung's Kung Fu mod, a lot of fun custom weapons like a magnum revolver and a 1911, and there's pretty seamless switching from gunplay to katana slicing. Honestly, if what you want is guns plus katana with stylish and great control download that mod.

Be sure you download the really graphic intensive mod. There's an earlier Katana mod where your guy looks like a ninja but it's not nearly as good.

Not to deviate from the topic too much, but: Katana is the greatest mod made since Counterstrike!

Back on topic...

I would say that if they don't borrow from Morrowind it would be surprisingly original of a game on a new system designed to be part of its first wave (most early games for a next-gen console are just updates of old concepts. Case in point would be that all of the good 360 games right now are sequels or series). I suppose Nintendo has never adhered to such a concept (which has made them what they are today, which is to say Sony's bitches).

Overall I would be disappointed w/o XBOX live of some sort. Take all the social aspects out of RPing and you're just killing pictures. I prefer to kill pictures that represent real people...as dark as that sounds...

That sounds a lot like my view on PvP in video games. If I had the time and inclination I'd probably love it.

You could also do a WOW system where you won't really gain experience if you play too much.

I was going to respond but you summed it up in your last paoragraph. If you don't have the time to hit 60th level in WoW you're just fodder for the 60th level guys that think it's funny to one-shot a 30th level guy.

I won't start the hit point debate though, because I've stood on both sides of the fence on it. Some games would not work very well without the ability to withstand lots of damage. Instant death from being engulfed in flames makes it hard to hunt dragons. Other games need as much realism as possible to stay with the theme. Being able to withstand 10 rounds to the head doesn't make much sense in a WWII reinactment game. It all comes down to matching your tools to your goals.

The very best PvP I've ever seen in a MMORPG was in a text-based game called Gemstone: DragonRealms. I say that it was the best for one reason and one reason only, I had a great deal of fun PvPing in that game it my character's low levels didn't seem to hamper things one bit.

Several things conspired to make it fun and without any of these factors there could have been problems.
First, the weapons available to high level characters were not significantly better than the weapons available to fresh newbies. Your 50,000 platnum piece custom one-of-a-kind quest-reward rapier would cause the same meduim thrusting damage/light slicing damage/light impact damage as a 500 copper piece rapier from the general store. The expensive stuff was mostly for bragging rights.
Second, there were several different types of attacks one could use and an accompanying posture/balance system. A light jab will cause very little damage but has a swift recovery time and won't leave you off balance. A huge slice can cause great damage but can easily leave the attacker off balance. A character who was off balance or knocked prone was extreme vulnerable no matter what skill level. Most fights required a great deal of stratagy because of this.
Third, there were no visible hit points. Instead of giving hitpoints the game would give you certain wounds depending on how badly you were hit. Light scratches were most common but limbs could be completely severed, eye cold be gouged out, spines could be crushed, skulls could be split open, tounges could be cut out, and ect. There was internal bleeding as well as external. And injuries were reflected in the character's limitations. A person with a severed arm couldn't hold a weapon in the lost hand. A person with a severed leg couldn't walk. A person without a tounge couldn't talk. Bleeding was eventually fatal.
Fourth, it was very difficult to raise skills very high. The game raised skills as they were used and provided diminishing returns as they grew higher. Furthermore, you had to pay for your extra lives with skill exp so, as you became more powerfull, it became more difficult extra lives. This encouraged characters to diversify rather than practicing a single skill constantly.

My fondest PvP memory came when my Halfling Thief tried to pickpocket a Gor'tog (Dragonrealms' answer to a giant/troll PC race) Barbarian and failed miserably.
He caught me and was significantly pissed in spit of the fact that I got nothing. I say, no theft no foul. He didn't agree. He wanted a duel. Now, it was obvious to me at the time that this big Barbarian with a giant two-handed sword on his back could have easily crush my tiny little halfling so I pointed out the fact that we were in town and could be arrested for murder in town. Murder was a very serious crime in that game and the IC justice system was both swift and harsh. PKing in the field was allowed but PKing in town could render even a long-term character unplayable due to enormous fines and long prision sentences. I agreed and we went to the town gates to duel outside. Along the way I noticed the entrance to a secret tunel maintained by the thieves' guild and ducked inside, avoiding the fight for the time being.
However, that was not the end of it. Several days latter the same Barbarian showed up while I was killing monsters and he demanded satasfaction. This time, I agreed. There was no way around it. So, he pulled his giant two-handed sword off his back and began advancing on me. That type of sword causes severe slicing damage and severe impact damage. It was unlikely that my halfling would survive a single hit. The best I could hope for was to loose a limb on the first blow and be unable to escape the second. So, I did what any good thief would do. I pulled out my loaded crossbow and used the 'hide command'. This really made the barbarian angry. He made several attempts to find me and eventually did. However, I had been using this time to aim and had the best shot possible by then. Before he could even begin advancing I had fired. It glanced off his all too expensive armor. I waited for him to advance to me and that I retreated as fast as I could. I reloaded as he advanced again and hid once more. This went on for several minutes and I got a few bolts to stick in his chest but none penetrated deeply. At this point, I began to taunt him, accusing him of "stealing" my crossbow bolts which were stuck in his chest. He defended his honor and insisted that he wasn't a thief. He even went so far as to pull the bolt out and give them back to me. I gave him the time he needed to do so and then reloadd my crossbow with one of the bolts that he had so kindly returned. Again he advanced, again I retreated, I aimed for several seconds untill he was within sword range and I fired. With a complete aiming action and at point blank range there was no way I could have missed and I didn't. According to the text my bolt penetrated his heart but it did not kill him. I suppose a Gor'Tog could live with a small hole in his heart. At this point, despite the fact that he was still within sword range of my character he retreated and left the screen. I followed him for a couple of screens, jeering him for stealing the crossbow bolt that was still lodged in his heart, but eventually let him go.
That was a fun PvP.

The problem with modern graphics-based MMORPGS is that they just don't have the level of detail required to do something like that.

Of course, DragonRealms is the only game I know of that had traders as a character class. They were mostly useless in combat, although they could learn to use weapons just like anyhting else. Their claim to fame was the ability to buy donkey's at the trader's guild, load them up with useless goods, and take the donkey's from town to town selling the worthless items as they went. They actually quickly became the richest characters in the game.
There was also the lowly empaths who healed people be absorbing their wounds. (If you had a severed arm the your arm would grow back instantly but the empath's would fall off at the same time.)Empaths couldn't fight at all. Any attempt to injure any creature would lead to a nasty thing called 'empathic shock.'
So it wasn't examtly the most combat-oriented of games.

That's an impressive story.

I had a friend back in middleschool who played a lot of Gemstone. Gemstone sounded really badass, and from this story it sounds like it was.

I really like the idea of quest equipment only being slightly more powerful than crap equipment. For me what really ruined DikuMUD was over-the-top equipment, and that's pretty much one of the big factors that makes most MMORPGs asinine today.

dragonrealms was such a kick ass game, some of the descriptions sounded so goood, especially with crushing weapons. I quit for a while and when i came back it just wasnt the same because they had changed how fast you made exp and how hard things were, so when i came back, i was killing things and stuggling with them at like, level 25 what i had handled easily at like 10-15 before, it just wasnt the same.

my .02 nuyen:

If they make console game, I'm hoping for something similar to GTA. Add in some basic character creation (i.e. archetypes) and cut you loose with a broad general game story. Lots of people/groups to work for, possilbly random generation of runs.

One thing I'd like to see is no aiming retical unless you either stick a laser sight or a smartlink on your gun.

Smartgun should add some autoaim, too.

And I'd like more of a Elder Scrolls openness, with the ability to jack cars, except make it more System Shock than "Press Square to Throw Person Out."