I'm as chuft as chips right now.
Playing through the Panzer Dragoon series has reminded me just why I play videogames, if I ever needed reminding.
Then I've got Prime, Shenmue II, Monkeyball 2, Mark of Kri, Resident Evil Zero all waiting to be played.
And Wind Waker on it's way.
The quality over the past six months, whatever type of gamer you are, has been very high in my opinion. The simple fact is, just as in every other entertainment medium, at least 90% of the stuff out there is pure ****. And it'll always be like that simply because money is ultimately the prime objective when it comes to creating games.
Mr. Mass Market is the target man and that means fewer games are willing to experiment, go out on a limb, or try and show a bit of individuality. One area I would say gaming is increasingly losing the plot on is soul. There's lots of good, polished stuff out there.
But too many titles have no spark or personality to them. One positive aspect of this is that generally when a game comes along which does have that quality, they are usually easy to spot.
Last six months has had some true big hitters that have managed (for the most part) to live up to expectation. Whether this can continue is debatable.
I suppose E3 will give a better impression as to what's in store. My main area of concern is the PS2 because although there are a few interesting games in development, there are a touch too many sequels on numbers 3 and 4 for my liking. Nintendo are typically keeping their cards close too and if I didn't know them any better then I'd be worried they don't have anything on the horizon. No doubt just like so many times in the past, they'll prove everybody wrong. XBox on the other hand is already looking fairly hot when it comes to a a few new franchise ideas, and it'll be interesting to see how these pan out.
The fact is, like a lot of you, I simply don't have the time to play Identi-kit Game X... I wouldn't necessarily call it elitism, but I honestly do think I've only got the paticence for these days for AAA titles.
And as we all know, they usually don't come along all that often... Which suits me fine, because ultimately the more **** that gets put on the shelves, the more delicious the cream of the crop look.
Simple as.
I think generally nostaligia is playing a big part in distorting people's views on the good ol' days. Sure the late 70's and 80's may have featured more people willing to experiment, but such an open attitude was traded off against a lack of quality.
Nowadays, even sub-standard software is of a certain quality. So again, the balance has shifted.
Do we want inspiration or quality? In an ideal world we'd like to have both. But if you get what you want then you become complacent or lethargic. There is cause to moan due to the conservative business climate and how it's stiffling the evolution of videogames on a creative level.
But then it's always good to have goals. If we had everything we wanted, handed to us on a plate, then why would we keep coming back?
Playing through the Panzer Dragoon series has reminded me just why I play videogames, if I ever needed reminding.
Then I've got Prime, Shenmue II, Monkeyball 2, Mark of Kri, Resident Evil Zero all waiting to be played.
And Wind Waker on it's way.
The quality over the past six months, whatever type of gamer you are, has been very high in my opinion. The simple fact is, just as in every other entertainment medium, at least 90% of the stuff out there is pure ****. And it'll always be like that simply because money is ultimately the prime objective when it comes to creating games.
Mr. Mass Market is the target man and that means fewer games are willing to experiment, go out on a limb, or try and show a bit of individuality. One area I would say gaming is increasingly losing the plot on is soul. There's lots of good, polished stuff out there.
But too many titles have no spark or personality to them. One positive aspect of this is that generally when a game comes along which does have that quality, they are usually easy to spot.
Last six months has had some true big hitters that have managed (for the most part) to live up to expectation. Whether this can continue is debatable.
I suppose E3 will give a better impression as to what's in store. My main area of concern is the PS2 because although there are a few interesting games in development, there are a touch too many sequels on numbers 3 and 4 for my liking. Nintendo are typically keeping their cards close too and if I didn't know them any better then I'd be worried they don't have anything on the horizon. No doubt just like so many times in the past, they'll prove everybody wrong. XBox on the other hand is already looking fairly hot when it comes to a a few new franchise ideas, and it'll be interesting to see how these pan out.
The fact is, like a lot of you, I simply don't have the time to play Identi-kit Game X... I wouldn't necessarily call it elitism, but I honestly do think I've only got the paticence for these days for AAA titles.
And as we all know, they usually don't come along all that often... Which suits me fine, because ultimately the more **** that gets put on the shelves, the more delicious the cream of the crop look.
Simple as.
I think generally nostaligia is playing a big part in distorting people's views on the good ol' days. Sure the late 70's and 80's may have featured more people willing to experiment, but such an open attitude was traded off against a lack of quality.
Nowadays, even sub-standard software is of a certain quality. So again, the balance has shifted.
Do we want inspiration or quality? In an ideal world we'd like to have both. But if you get what you want then you become complacent or lethargic. There is cause to moan due to the conservative business climate and how it's stiffling the evolution of videogames on a creative level.
But then it's always good to have goals. If we had everything we wanted, handed to us on a plate, then why would we keep coming back?
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