Starting from NES all the way up until now, what games can you remember in say less than a minute? Super Mario Brothers 3, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Halo, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy VII are a few that pop in to my head. But for you did any come to mind that were on a next gen console. Are there any games that you own for your Wii, 360, or PS3 that you know you will refer to like you do with the above mentioned games? I don’t think so, and I am sure most of you can say the same.
Now I know you are all thinking by now, “What about Modern Warfare and Assassins Creed?” Well I kind of agree and disagree at the same time. Yes Modern Warfare is a game that will never be forgotten but was it revolutionary. I can say that is was revolutionary for first person shooters, but once all the fat is peeled back, it is still a FPS. Then there is Assassin’s Creed. To me this game is revolutionary but will it be remembered? I think it could have been but with its repetitive boring story line, it will be forgotten. So we move on to Assassin’s Creed 2, which is an awesome game but it is nothing more than what the first Assassins Creed should have been but wasn’t. It will definitely be remembered but unfortunately all of the revolutionary aspects of the game were already done in the first one. So I would have to put these games in the maybe pile.
I have been talking about this for a while with various people, Brian T. included and no one can pin down a single game on a next gen console that just says wow this game made a huge impact on me. This is a game that I will revisit every year or so. I began to look forward at upcoming releases and a couple come to mind that may do that. I am talking about Splinter Cell: Conviction, Final Fantasy XIII, and Gran Turismo 5. Why do I think these games might be revolutionary; because if you have seen videos for Final Fantasy and Gran Turismo then you will see that visually these games have been taken to the next level. But is it the game itself that is revolutionary or the system hardware that is responsible for the visual experience that will be tied to these games. I would say a little of both, but I would think that it is mainly the console hardware itself that allows these games to look the way they do. Then you have to take into account the amount of time that went in to these games. We are looking at 4 or 5 years of development on these titles. From a gamers stand point it is definitely worth it because then we get an awesome game, but from a company’s point I can easily see how it wouldn’t be beneficial because of the amount of money and time it would take to create the game. A good example would be Gran Turismo vs. Forza Motorsport. Turn 10 has already produced two games compared to Sony’s half a game (Gran Turismo Prologue). Both Forza Motorsports were great games, and I do not think that any more time put in to the development of the games could have made them that much better than they already were.
Finally there is Splinter Cell: Conviction. Let me start by showing the video of the co-op gameplay that was recently revealed.
I have never seen a game rely on so much interaction between players before. It definitely puts your characters life in the hands of the other player and vice versa. It also shows the amount of teamwork that will be necessary in order to complete the missions. From what I can tell, and from what I have played, I have never seen a co-op mode go in to as much detail as this game looks like it will. My anticipations are high for all 3 of these games to finally come out because I want to see if they live up to their expectations.
Personally I think we have reached the thresh hold of what we can do as long as we are stuck sitting behind a controller. Everything that can be done has been done, and anything semi-new that gets released is nothing more than an extension of a previous game style or an improvement on an existing game engine. Adding more and more buttons is doing nothing more than making too many options for developers and too much confusion for gamers. I believe that once Natal is released for the 360 we will start to see a change in gaming on a revolutionary scale. We will see games played and interpreted like we have never seen before. Or on the other hand it will be a huge failure and be nothing more than a skateboard peripheral that is absolutely worthless and overpriced. Let me know if you think differently and if there are any games that you think paved new ways in gaming since this generation of consoles has been released.
-Brian R.
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I find it a bit funny that both Microsoft and Sony wrote off Nintendo's motion controls and are now both entering the motion control market.
ReplyDeleteI think at the end of the day, both Sony's and Microsoft's attempt at motion controls will be written off as gimmicks because they'll never take over as the main way to play a game for their respective console, unlike the Wii, which is the primary way.