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Originality - a feature of gaming that isn't too commonly used these days. Yes, there's the odd spark of original magic in the form of games such as Pikmin, Super Monkey Ball and Rez, but not enough for people that are fed up of sequels and people that want something new and original to play all the time.
No-one really is at fault though, except possibly the typical western gamer wanting much more than should be wanted of developers, which leads to the developers becoming too scared to create original games in fear of abuse from the general public, which leads to an all-round drought of originality in Western gaming. It's not a pretty sight on the Release Date schedule on the way towards Christmas, with Stuntman, Animal Forest and Blinx being some of the very few 'original' games on the list. Most other games are sequels, or have had their ideas used before. Even Mario Sunshine looks like a plain old platformer, but with a little of Mario Magic included for effect.
Originality was present at E3 this year, but still lacking in numbers. We were treated to some nice and original games, but on the whole E3 was a pile of sequels and games that have just been rendered in 3D. Not very promising for the futures of either of the 3 next-gen consoles.
Developers though aren't really big fans of original games it seems on the whole. Approach them with a new idea such as Super Monkey Ball or something similar and they'll most likely turn you away, claiming that it wouldn't do as well as the latest sequel the company is developing for Westerners. The thing is, they don't know if the game would do well or not unless they experimented, and developers really don't experiment much at all, which is a shame. As long as the original game had the makings of a classic then the public would start to become interested, and as long as the game kept it's promise and turned out to be a great and original game, then original gaming would not be such a thing of the imagination. Developers quake at the prospect of releasing a type of game new to the general public, and that can't be described as good at all!
A question is though, how can developers keep coming up with new game ideas or even new plot ideas? They are fast running out of suitable ideas that will keep the typical gamer glued to their console, and more importantly, they particular companies games. Sports games will be sports games, and FPSs mostly all feel the same: you take control of a character, who happens to have a gun and a particular mission to complete, and you sit there, blasting enemies out of the way as you attempt to reach your goal. Platformers involve (usually) cute, furry creatures jumping about colourful levels with aims of collecting various objects and completing the level after they reach a certain amount - not very exciting after a while. These genres are some of the most popular, but you can't help noticing that they all connect to each other in some way, whether it be in levels, collectable items or enemies. New ideas are hard to come by, and this is probably the main reason for the drought of originality on this side of the world.
Of course, there are plenty of original and defining games appearing across in the East side of the gaming world - the home of the Japanese. They have enough original and new games coming out each week to keep them fully satisfied, but the type of games they witness almost all fail to see the light of day in Britain and USA, and are considered dead once they have strutted their stuff in Japan.
Originality is dead in Western gaming as of now. It has been for a few months now, as the new Next-Gen consoles emerged, developers slowly ran out of ideas, and now we're respecting the 4th installment of SmackDown, the 10th installment of Final Fantasy and the gazillionth Mario game, although really there's nothing wrong with that at all. Still, the main point that is being made simply states that new and innovative gaming is not what developers concentrate on, simply because they can't be bothered, or even more simply because they can't.
Originality will be missed, but hopefully we'll be able to live without it. As long as the likes of Nintendo, Konami, Square and Rare keep on amazing us with quality new games, even if their plots and other features are a bit 'old', then we have a very good looking future lined up whichever console you own. Originality is almost dead for Western gamers - however, updated but exciting and enthralling sequels are not!
AJ.
No-one really is at fault though, except possibly the typical western gamer wanting much more than should be wanted of developers, which leads to the developers becoming too scared to create original games in fear of abuse from the general public, which leads to an all-round drought of originality in Western gaming. It's not a pretty sight on the Release Date schedule on the way towards Christmas, with Stuntman, Animal Forest and Blinx being some of the very few 'original' games on the list. Most other games are sequels, or have had their ideas used before. Even Mario Sunshine looks like a plain old platformer, but with a little of Mario Magic included for effect.
Originality was present at E3 this year, but still lacking in numbers. We were treated to some nice and original games, but on the whole E3 was a pile of sequels and games that have just been rendered in 3D. Not very promising for the futures of either of the 3 next-gen consoles.
Developers though aren't really big fans of original games it seems on the whole. Approach them with a new idea such as Super Monkey Ball or something similar and they'll most likely turn you away, claiming that it wouldn't do as well as the latest sequel the company is developing for Westerners. The thing is, they don't know if the game would do well or not unless they experimented, and developers really don't experiment much at all, which is a shame. As long as the original game had the makings of a classic then the public would start to become interested, and as long as the game kept it's promise and turned out to be a great and original game, then original gaming would not be such a thing of the imagination. Developers quake at the prospect of releasing a type of game new to the general public, and that can't be described as good at all!
A question is though, how can developers keep coming up with new game ideas or even new plot ideas? They are fast running out of suitable ideas that will keep the typical gamer glued to their console, and more importantly, they particular companies games. Sports games will be sports games, and FPSs mostly all feel the same: you take control of a character, who happens to have a gun and a particular mission to complete, and you sit there, blasting enemies out of the way as you attempt to reach your goal. Platformers involve (usually) cute, furry creatures jumping about colourful levels with aims of collecting various objects and completing the level after they reach a certain amount - not very exciting after a while. These genres are some of the most popular, but you can't help noticing that they all connect to each other in some way, whether it be in levels, collectable items or enemies. New ideas are hard to come by, and this is probably the main reason for the drought of originality on this side of the world.
Of course, there are plenty of original and defining games appearing across in the East side of the gaming world - the home of the Japanese. They have enough original and new games coming out each week to keep them fully satisfied, but the type of games they witness almost all fail to see the light of day in Britain and USA, and are considered dead once they have strutted their stuff in Japan.
Originality is dead in Western gaming as of now. It has been for a few months now, as the new Next-Gen consoles emerged, developers slowly ran out of ideas, and now we're respecting the 4th installment of SmackDown, the 10th installment of Final Fantasy and the gazillionth Mario game, although really there's nothing wrong with that at all. Still, the main point that is being made simply states that new and innovative gaming is not what developers concentrate on, simply because they can't be bothered, or even more simply because they can't.
Originality will be missed, but hopefully we'll be able to live without it. As long as the likes of Nintendo, Konami, Square and Rare keep on amazing us with quality new games, even if their plots and other features are a bit 'old', then we have a very good looking future lined up whichever console you own. Originality is almost dead for Western gamers - however, updated but exciting and enthralling sequels are not!
AJ.
Page:
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Originality - a feature of gaming that isn't too commonly used these days. Yes, there's the odd spark of original magic in the form of games such as Pikmin, Super Monkey Ball and Rez, but not enough for people that are fed up of sequels and people that want something new and original to play all the time.
No-one really is at fault though, except possibly the typical western gamer wanting much more than should be wanted of developers, which leads to the developers becoming too scared to create original games in fear of abuse from the general public, which leads to an all-round drought of originality in Western gaming. It's not a pretty sight on the Release Date schedule on the way towards Christmas, with Stuntman, Animal Forest and Blinx being some of the very few 'original' games on the list. Most other games are sequels, or have had their ideas used before. Even Mario Sunshine looks like a plain old platformer, but with a little of Mario Magic included for effect.
Originality was present at E3 this year, but still lacking in numbers. We were treated to some nice and original games, but on the whole E3 was a pile of sequels and games that have just been rendered in 3D. Not very promising for the futures of either of the 3 next-gen consoles.
Developers though aren't really big fans of original games it seems on the whole. Approach them with a new idea such as Super Monkey Ball or something similar and they'll most likely turn you away, claiming that it wouldn't do as well as the latest sequel the company is developing for Westerners. The thing is, they don't know if the game would do well or not unless they experimented, and developers really don't experiment much at all, which is a shame. As long as the original game had the makings of a classic then the public would start to become interested, and as long as the game kept it's promise and turned out to be a great and original game, then original gaming would not be such a thing of the imagination. Developers quake at the prospect of releasing a type of game new to the general public, and that can't be described as good at all!
A question is though, how can developers keep coming up with new game ideas or even new plot ideas? They are fast running out of suitable ideas that will keep the typical gamer glued to their console, and more importantly, they particular companies games. Sports games will be sports games, and FPSs mostly all feel the same: you take control of a character, who happens to have a gun and a particular mission to complete, and you sit there, blasting enemies out of the way as you attempt to reach your goal. Platformers involve (usually) cute, furry creatures jumping about colourful levels with aims of collecting various objects and completing the level after they reach a certain amount - not very exciting after a while. These genres are some of the most popular, but you can't help noticing that they all connect to each other in some way, whether it be in levels, collectable items or enemies. New ideas are hard to come by, and this is probably the main reason for the drought of originality on this side of the world.
Of course, there are plenty of original and defining games appearing across in the East side of the gaming world - the home of the Japanese. They have enough original and new games coming out each week to keep them fully satisfied, but the type of games they witness almost all fail to see the light of day in Britain and USA, and are considered dead once they have strutted their stuff in Japan.
Originality is dead in Western gaming as of now. It has been for a few months now, as the new Next-Gen consoles emerged, developers slowly ran out of ideas, and now we're respecting the 4th installment of SmackDown, the 10th installment of Final Fantasy and the gazillionth Mario game, although really there's nothing wrong with that at all. Still, the main point that is being made simply states that new and innovative gaming is not what developers concentrate on, simply because they can't be bothered, or even more simply because they can't.
Originality will be missed, but hopefully we'll be able to live without it. As long as the likes of Nintendo, Konami, Square and Rare keep on amazing us with quality new games, even if their plots and other features are a bit 'old', then we have a very good looking future lined up whichever console you own. Originality is almost dead for Western gamers - however, updated but exciting and enthralling sequels are not!
AJ.
No-one really is at fault though, except possibly the typical western gamer wanting much more than should be wanted of developers, which leads to the developers becoming too scared to create original games in fear of abuse from the general public, which leads to an all-round drought of originality in Western gaming. It's not a pretty sight on the Release Date schedule on the way towards Christmas, with Stuntman, Animal Forest and Blinx being some of the very few 'original' games on the list. Most other games are sequels, or have had their ideas used before. Even Mario Sunshine looks like a plain old platformer, but with a little of Mario Magic included for effect.
Originality was present at E3 this year, but still lacking in numbers. We were treated to some nice and original games, but on the whole E3 was a pile of sequels and games that have just been rendered in 3D. Not very promising for the futures of either of the 3 next-gen consoles.
Developers though aren't really big fans of original games it seems on the whole. Approach them with a new idea such as Super Monkey Ball or something similar and they'll most likely turn you away, claiming that it wouldn't do as well as the latest sequel the company is developing for Westerners. The thing is, they don't know if the game would do well or not unless they experimented, and developers really don't experiment much at all, which is a shame. As long as the original game had the makings of a classic then the public would start to become interested, and as long as the game kept it's promise and turned out to be a great and original game, then original gaming would not be such a thing of the imagination. Developers quake at the prospect of releasing a type of game new to the general public, and that can't be described as good at all!
A question is though, how can developers keep coming up with new game ideas or even new plot ideas? They are fast running out of suitable ideas that will keep the typical gamer glued to their console, and more importantly, they particular companies games. Sports games will be sports games, and FPSs mostly all feel the same: you take control of a character, who happens to have a gun and a particular mission to complete, and you sit there, blasting enemies out of the way as you attempt to reach your goal. Platformers involve (usually) cute, furry creatures jumping about colourful levels with aims of collecting various objects and completing the level after they reach a certain amount - not very exciting after a while. These genres are some of the most popular, but you can't help noticing that they all connect to each other in some way, whether it be in levels, collectable items or enemies. New ideas are hard to come by, and this is probably the main reason for the drought of originality on this side of the world.
Of course, there are plenty of original and defining games appearing across in the East side of the gaming world - the home of the Japanese. They have enough original and new games coming out each week to keep them fully satisfied, but the type of games they witness almost all fail to see the light of day in Britain and USA, and are considered dead once they have strutted their stuff in Japan.
Originality is dead in Western gaming as of now. It has been for a few months now, as the new Next-Gen consoles emerged, developers slowly ran out of ideas, and now we're respecting the 4th installment of SmackDown, the 10th installment of Final Fantasy and the gazillionth Mario game, although really there's nothing wrong with that at all. Still, the main point that is being made simply states that new and innovative gaming is not what developers concentrate on, simply because they can't be bothered, or even more simply because they can't.
Originality will be missed, but hopefully we'll be able to live without it. As long as the likes of Nintendo, Konami, Square and Rare keep on amazing us with quality new games, even if their plots and other features are a bit 'old', then we have a very good looking future lined up whichever console you own. Originality is almost dead for Western gamers - however, updated but exciting and enthralling sequels are not!
AJ.
Page: