Defiance may be this years dark horse, and it may just be the real deal.

[Dodece]

What I find somewhat confusing is the lack of attention being paid to this game. Especially considering that what it is really doing is marrying a lot of concepts, and ideas that at least this community was really stoked about when they were major selling points of other games. Whether they were exclusive or not.

The over world in the game is every bit as massive as titles like Fallout, Skyrim, and Oblivion. Meaning that the game has a lot of areas to explore, Even if you couldn't care less about playing with other people. All the story driven content crammed into all of that space should keep most entertained for a good long time.

The player versus player system allows for non instanced battles that could easily involve as many or more players then battles in MAG. Hell the fact that any part of the game world could be used for these battles. Means that the players will effectively have more maps to fight on then were available in that game.

The weapons system seems to be every bit as dynamic as Borderlands is, and perhaps best of all. The weapons that a player loots will probably matter more then those games, because since this game is Massive there is more of a real incentive for the developers to keep the modding crowd off the servers, and you aren't going to be limited to all of just three teammates.

While the games presentation is straight out of Mass Effect. From meaningful character presentation, to the mechanical presentation. It is a straight up third person shooter. With the well designed surrounding Universe. Which was much of the draw of that series.

All of that plus it supports large scale cooperative player versus enemy combat, a really decent looking vehicular combat system, and a major television tie in. Meaning that the game will support a ever growing story. It should really be getting more attention on these forums. Even if it isn't the first or second game that people are wanting to play. It should easily be in most of our top fives, and should be a strong contender for a day one purchase, because it will actually have a continuing story line, and strong online competitive play.

I see a lot of good games coming, but only a few that would absolutely require a first day purchase. Anything that is fundamentally a single player game will still be as good if it is purchased a couple months later. While in Massive titles getting on board even a couple months out. Means you missed out on a certain rush to discovery.

Anyway at least I am not absolutely alone on this one. Once I really started looking into this game it moved right to the top of my must have list. I mean damn the game is looking near flawless even in Beta, and that means it can still get even better in the mean time.