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Every couple of years, a game comes along that does something never seen before. In recent memory we've seen FPSs, with GoldenEye. RPGs, with Pokemon. Action games, with Grand Theft Auto 3. FPSs again, with Halo. These titles are benchmarks, against which all future competing games will be judged. We saw Turok go up against GoldenEye, and Dragonball Z go up against Pokemon. Mafia's had a crack at GTA3, and TimeSplitters 2 has tried to surpass Halo's brilliance...but what all those games have in common is the fact that they didn't do anything new. And for that, they were written off as copycats. Shadows of their immortal heroes. But you know what? I don't care if a game turns a genre on its head...I just want to be entertained.
Is it so much to ask, just to have fun? Game manufacturers seem so intent nowadays on being a bit different, making sure they have something just to confirm their game's existence is justified. A great example would be the recent release, Quantum Redshift. The XBOX's considerable power allowed developers 'Curly Monsters' to create a real eye-scorcher of a game, with beatiful lighting, textures and...well, pretty much everything else. The maps are all great, with loop-the-loops, sharp turns, shortcuts and jumps and there's the usual array of fabulous weapons to use on your rivals. There's an added enemy system like in SSX Tricky, where you have a driver that will always single you out for punishment, and there's lots of other cool things about it like the damage model. Unfortunately, Quantum Redshift has gotten at best a lukewarm reception from the critics. Why? It's lovely to look at, a joy to play and a tidy little package all together...in fact, I'd go as far to say it's the best futuristic racer ever, even ahead of my beloved F Zero X...but it's just not "original" enough to get those 90+ percentages.
What this might mean is that thousands of people will look at their review in GamesMaster and not give it a second chance, when they're missing out on a real gem. It fulfils all the 'great game' criteria, but falls short because it hasn't revolutionised anything. Well...so what?!
Let's look at Super Smash Brothers Melee. All it really did was take the first game, add in a few more missions and make everything prettier. Is anyone complaining? It's a fun title, and one of the more enjoyable ones launched with the Gamecube. Let's look ahead to a frontrunner for Game of the Year even before anyone's played it, GTA: Vice City. From what we've been told, it's basically GTA3, but with every loose nut tightened within a millimetre of cracking and falling off. Everything from the targeting to the limited hand-to-hand combat moves has been improved tenfold, and really, that's all anyone could have wanted. Doubtlessly, it will be twice the game GTA3 was, and that's no mean feat.
Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth does the same, building on the last game to make an altogether better title...and it's shaping up to be a must-buy for all wrestling fans. Sure, it's not found a new niche market, and it's not a totally new idea or concept, but does it really matter that much? I play games because they're fun. Personally, I preferred Perfect Dark over GoldenEye, simply because it fixed a load of things I thought were wrong in the classic Bond game.
I'd much rather someone took an old genre and made a ruddy good game for it, than another person created a totally new idea but ultimately made an unfinished, buggy and flawed one. Developers, you don't have to open my eyes to whole new worlds...just give me a little entertainment. What are your views?
Thanks for reading.
-swander87
Is it so much to ask, just to have fun? Game manufacturers seem so intent nowadays on being a bit different, making sure they have something just to confirm their game's existence is justified. A great example would be the recent release, Quantum Redshift. The XBOX's considerable power allowed developers 'Curly Monsters' to create a real eye-scorcher of a game, with beatiful lighting, textures and...well, pretty much everything else. The maps are all great, with loop-the-loops, sharp turns, shortcuts and jumps and there's the usual array of fabulous weapons to use on your rivals. There's an added enemy system like in SSX Tricky, where you have a driver that will always single you out for punishment, and there's lots of other cool things about it like the damage model. Unfortunately, Quantum Redshift has gotten at best a lukewarm reception from the critics. Why? It's lovely to look at, a joy to play and a tidy little package all together...in fact, I'd go as far to say it's the best futuristic racer ever, even ahead of my beloved F Zero X...but it's just not "original" enough to get those 90+ percentages.
What this might mean is that thousands of people will look at their review in GamesMaster and not give it a second chance, when they're missing out on a real gem. It fulfils all the 'great game' criteria, but falls short because it hasn't revolutionised anything. Well...so what?!
Let's look at Super Smash Brothers Melee. All it really did was take the first game, add in a few more missions and make everything prettier. Is anyone complaining? It's a fun title, and one of the more enjoyable ones launched with the Gamecube. Let's look ahead to a frontrunner for Game of the Year even before anyone's played it, GTA: Vice City. From what we've been told, it's basically GTA3, but with every loose nut tightened within a millimetre of cracking and falling off. Everything from the targeting to the limited hand-to-hand combat moves has been improved tenfold, and really, that's all anyone could have wanted. Doubtlessly, it will be twice the game GTA3 was, and that's no mean feat.
Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth does the same, building on the last game to make an altogether better title...and it's shaping up to be a must-buy for all wrestling fans. Sure, it's not found a new niche market, and it's not a totally new idea or concept, but does it really matter that much? I play games because they're fun. Personally, I preferred Perfect Dark over GoldenEye, simply because it fixed a load of things I thought were wrong in the classic Bond game.
I'd much rather someone took an old genre and made a ruddy good game for it, than another person created a totally new idea but ultimately made an unfinished, buggy and flawed one. Developers, you don't have to open my eyes to whole new worlds...just give me a little entertainment. What are your views?
Thanks for reading.
-swander87
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
Every couple of years, a game comes along that does something never seen before. In recent memory we've seen FPSs, with GoldenEye. RPGs, with Pokemon. Action games, with Grand Theft Auto 3. FPSs again, with Halo. These titles are benchmarks, against which all future competing games will be judged. We saw Turok go up against GoldenEye, and Dragonball Z go up against Pokemon. Mafia's had a crack at GTA3, and TimeSplitters 2 has tried to surpass Halo's brilliance...but what all those games have in common is the fact that they didn't do anything new. And for that, they were written off as copycats. Shadows of their immortal heroes. But you know what? I don't care if a game turns a genre on its head...I just want to be entertained.
Is it so much to ask, just to have fun? Game manufacturers seem so intent nowadays on being a bit different, making sure they have something just to confirm their game's existence is justified. A great example would be the recent release, Quantum Redshift. The XBOX's considerable power allowed developers 'Curly Monsters' to create a real eye-scorcher of a game, with beatiful lighting, textures and...well, pretty much everything else. The maps are all great, with loop-the-loops, sharp turns, shortcuts and jumps and there's the usual array of fabulous weapons to use on your rivals. There's an added enemy system like in SSX Tricky, where you have a driver that will always single you out for punishment, and there's lots of other cool things about it like the damage model. Unfortunately, Quantum Redshift has gotten at best a lukewarm reception from the critics. Why? It's lovely to look at, a joy to play and a tidy little package all together...in fact, I'd go as far to say it's the best futuristic racer ever, even ahead of my beloved F Zero X...but it's just not "original" enough to get those 90+ percentages.
What this might mean is that thousands of people will look at their review in GamesMaster and not give it a second chance, when they're missing out on a real gem. It fulfils all the 'great game' criteria, but falls short because it hasn't revolutionised anything. Well...so what?!
Let's look at Super Smash Brothers Melee. All it really did was take the first game, add in a few more missions and make everything prettier. Is anyone complaining? It's a fun title, and one of the more enjoyable ones launched with the Gamecube. Let's look ahead to a frontrunner for Game of the Year even before anyone's played it, GTA: Vice City. From what we've been told, it's basically GTA3, but with every loose nut tightened within a millimetre of cracking and falling off. Everything from the targeting to the limited hand-to-hand combat moves has been improved tenfold, and really, that's all anyone could have wanted. Doubtlessly, it will be twice the game GTA3 was, and that's no mean feat.
Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth does the same, building on the last game to make an altogether better title...and it's shaping up to be a must-buy for all wrestling fans. Sure, it's not found a new niche market, and it's not a totally new idea or concept, but does it really matter that much? I play games because they're fun. Personally, I preferred Perfect Dark over GoldenEye, simply because it fixed a load of things I thought were wrong in the classic Bond game.
I'd much rather someone took an old genre and made a ruddy good game for it, than another person created a totally new idea but ultimately made an unfinished, buggy and flawed one. Developers, you don't have to open my eyes to whole new worlds...just give me a little entertainment. What are your views?
Thanks for reading.
-swander87
Is it so much to ask, just to have fun? Game manufacturers seem so intent nowadays on being a bit different, making sure they have something just to confirm their game's existence is justified. A great example would be the recent release, Quantum Redshift. The XBOX's considerable power allowed developers 'Curly Monsters' to create a real eye-scorcher of a game, with beatiful lighting, textures and...well, pretty much everything else. The maps are all great, with loop-the-loops, sharp turns, shortcuts and jumps and there's the usual array of fabulous weapons to use on your rivals. There's an added enemy system like in SSX Tricky, where you have a driver that will always single you out for punishment, and there's lots of other cool things about it like the damage model. Unfortunately, Quantum Redshift has gotten at best a lukewarm reception from the critics. Why? It's lovely to look at, a joy to play and a tidy little package all together...in fact, I'd go as far to say it's the best futuristic racer ever, even ahead of my beloved F Zero X...but it's just not "original" enough to get those 90+ percentages.
What this might mean is that thousands of people will look at their review in GamesMaster and not give it a second chance, when they're missing out on a real gem. It fulfils all the 'great game' criteria, but falls short because it hasn't revolutionised anything. Well...so what?!
Let's look at Super Smash Brothers Melee. All it really did was take the first game, add in a few more missions and make everything prettier. Is anyone complaining? It's a fun title, and one of the more enjoyable ones launched with the Gamecube. Let's look ahead to a frontrunner for Game of the Year even before anyone's played it, GTA: Vice City. From what we've been told, it's basically GTA3, but with every loose nut tightened within a millimetre of cracking and falling off. Everything from the targeting to the limited hand-to-hand combat moves has been improved tenfold, and really, that's all anyone could have wanted. Doubtlessly, it will be twice the game GTA3 was, and that's no mean feat.
Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth does the same, building on the last game to make an altogether better title...and it's shaping up to be a must-buy for all wrestling fans. Sure, it's not found a new niche market, and it's not a totally new idea or concept, but does it really matter that much? I play games because they're fun. Personally, I preferred Perfect Dark over GoldenEye, simply because it fixed a load of things I thought were wrong in the classic Bond game.
I'd much rather someone took an old genre and made a ruddy good game for it, than another person created a totally new idea but ultimately made an unfinished, buggy and flawed one. Developers, you don't have to open my eyes to whole new worlds...just give me a little entertainment. What are your views?
Thanks for reading.
-swander87