I was never a particular fan of the original Shadowrun pen-and-paper RPG. I preferred the more hardcore Cyberpunk 2020. I played Shadowrun maybe three, four times, tops.

What's sad is that I'm apparently a bigger fan of the setting than Mitch Gitelman, studio manager of FASA, creators of the upcoming Shadowrun for the XBox 360. Mitch recently wrote in his blog, "When we decided to do Shadowrun we realized there was a ton of baggage that came with it... there are magic spells, and shamanic spirit magic, and cybertech, and metahumans like elves, and dwarves and such, and astral space, and the Matrix..."

I just can't piece together how anyone even tangentially related to Microsoft could be thinking "What the Xbox 360 needs is another FPS." Nevermind the fact that their flagship first-party FPS, Halo 3, is already under development and will likely crush any newcomers.

I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!

Original Comment by: Greg

I was told you could see the joy draining from my face when I heard Shadowrun was going to be a first person shooter. But hope remained. "Surely they will go for a Deus Ex approach. It may not be unique, but they have to, right?" The giddy fanboy within demanded I see it with my own eyes.

I sort of wish I had gouged them out now. It was an FPS; worse, there were no roleplaying elements whatsoever. In fact, it looked like to many bad Counter-Strike clones tossed out by developers looking to make a quick buck on the style. Before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out, "What have you done to my game?"

I was ready to pack up and go home right there. E3 2006 will go down in personal infamy as the year Microsoft finally crushed my soul.

Original Comment by: Rory
http://www.animagnum.net
I was really excited about a new Shadowrun game. I had heard it was going to be an MMO, which I wasn't extremely thrilled about because what isn't an MMO these days? But an FPS? It is to gaming what the US version of Godzilla was to Godzilla movies.

Original Comment by: Nikudada

Arg, Shadowrun was my first foray into tabletop gaming compliments of my older brother. To see it basterdised (yes, I can't spell) like this is unforgivable. I second the notion of no Shadowrun game.

Original Comment by: Aaron

I was hoping for a revitalization of the Super NES shadowrun game. Not super similar, but something in the spirit. Maybe something like Deus Ex, or something similar in mood and feel to Phantom Dust on the xbox; I was enticed. Then I saw the gameplay videos, and I have no idea why anyone would be excited to develop or play this game. Completely uninteresting. Too bad.

Original Comment by: ike

IIdon't know how they could take the richest universe there is and not do anything with it. They could have gone any direction and still came up with a good game, but they instead threw out the universe it self. Not something I wanted to see and I will not be buying this game unless they can convert there current game into Shadowrun some how.

Original Comment by: X

Shadowrun for the Genesis was one of the best games ever made. If these clowns can't outdo that and have to rely on cutting out basic plot elements, they might as well throw in the towel.

Original Comment by: Jerry Godwin
http://www.escapistmagazine.com
It is really hard to describe the excitement I felt when, while walking toward South Hall, I saw a sign pillar with a big fat Shadowrun logo on it. My mind jumped back to the many hours of fun playing Shadowrun on my Genesis, and then again back to the many hours of fun playing Shadowrun on my SNES. Holy crap! It's true! Unfortunately, or apparently fortunately, I never found the time to actually go by and see the game. After reading the various articles, and what the people actually working on the game have had to say, I am going to try my hardest to curb my addiction to video game collecting, and boycott this one. I really can't believe I am reading that Mitch Gitelman basically gave Shadowrun the finger. "Oh hell... you mean we have to actually *work* and put depth in this game to get it right? Screw that, just grab that other game... what is it? oh yeah... Counter-Punch or whatever the hell that shooting game thing is, and put some new graphic thingies in it."

Original Comment by: Cybercat
http://protoshell.com
Mitch's statements don't even make sense, somehow he thinks he's going to use the name and make his own little storyline...with an FPS. The market is pretty much saturated with FPS games at the moment, so unless you have some vastly new gameplay elements you may as well just drop the bullshit and say,"I'm getting paid $10 million dollars to take make a doodie!".

Secondly, while not being one of the stalwart followers of the game, I recently picked up a few of the books and even with only a month of experience in the game even I can tell you your making a HUGE mistake in not doing it as an RPG, could very well be an MMO seeing as there aren't a lot of cyberpunk MMOs out there.

And what is the recent deal with developers going for one console only? It's like hanging a sign around your neck that says "sellout". No really, it's ok, you keep developing games for platforms that couldn't even dip into half the gaming market and ignore PC uers completely. I think the main problem here is that we're starting to get too many non-gamers taking over gaming management positions leading to an ever increasing amount of toilet games.

Anyone want to take bets on it's rating? I bet xplay gives it a 2 out of 5 at best :)

Original Comment by: Kelsey
http://www.tistudios.com
IWhat's happening here is Microsoft finally realized it had a game platform all along with Windows, so now with Vista Microsoft is trying to do all of this networking stuff with XBOX live. It's called something like Live Anywhere (?) and basically is suppose to be this huge deal where PC users can play against those on 360 (and destroy them with their mouse and keyboard?). Anyway, it seems that Microsoft is hoping to have a game that will showoff this new tech and popularize it. After Halo's success on Live and the universal success of FPS on the pc, they probably think a killer-app FPS is the way to succeed with any new tech. Shadowrun was unfortunately selected (It's coming out on Vista as well).

You can pretty much see the corporate headlock our prescious Shadowrun is in. It's a crying shame.

On the bright side, I don't have to buy a 360 now.

Original Comment by: Jon

I'm glad I wasn't the only one left crying when I heard Shadowrun was going to be a FPS ... I had pictured something more like Phantasy Star Online, but with all the Shadowrun elements ... and then that it was going to be a horribly generic FPS wearing the hollowed-out corpse of the Shadowrun license. As has been said: at least there's nothing pulling me towards a 360 now.

Original Comment by: dan

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo what the hell have they done to shadowrun, someone slap em please!

Original Comment by: Preston "Strykr" Smith

As a long time player of the table to game (from the first version done by FASA) all the way through to the newest by WizKids (4th edition), I had always hoped for a shadowrun computer game that actually captured the essence of the table top game. I imagined an RPG or an MMO. I imagined an Awakened world with dragons, magic, spirits and monsters from fantasy. I imagined a technologically advanced world not dissimilar from Johnny Pneumonic. It's a world of adventure, science-fiction and fantasy rolled into one. Shadowrun is that place...or should have been. I'm quite disappointed now. I suppose I can reminisce on the Genesis version of the game...that was a very well done game. I had hoped for something like that in all honesty, but alas, corporate bigwigs know how to screw the pooch, don't they? Guess I'll get back to playing Unreal Tournament...

I still think Shadowrun is one of the best xbox games ever though - Its just so simple, theres no need for a career mode because its just great as it is.
But Smartlink should be taken off though - its kind of ruining the game a little.

Nice bump, Sami.