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More and more do I notice how games are starting to value graphics over gameplay. Take Metal Gear Solid 2, a huge dissapointment for most gamers who owned or played the original and had long awaited it's return to the Playstation. What they got, was a game that played like a film. Or rather, hardly played at all.
I sat through it all, obviously. Not that that's saying much, I completed it in 6 hours on Medium, which is good by my standards as I have trouble completing most games outside the sport genre. It's not to say that it wasn't a pleasure to watch, by all means, it was, but we buy games to play them, and at £39.99 a hit we don't want to be getting a DVD.
And it's not just games. Take cases for instance, where you can now pay £79.99 for a PC Case. It does nothing, really. It's like a storage box. With flashing lights. Now, I pay about a tenner for a pack of three at Ikea, so I thought it must do something pretty good to warranty that price tag. And does it? Well, yes. It has a little flap that covers your CD / DVD drives. A plastic flap. And rails, to hold them. Oh and it's big too. So what do you get for £80? A piece of plastic, an empty metal box with rails and some space. Great value for money.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying wouldn't it be better if it was more functional. If it was cheaper. If the best qualities weren't that it has a little flap but that it has some other clever function. Like being simpler to install to.
The strangest thing to me is people are more than willing to pay £50+ for a case. They write reviews like "Oh, it's so wonderful, the lights on the front are brilliant." Umm... Hello? Lights on a metal case cost fifty quid? I don't think so.
It is enough to have gameplay alone. If any game proves this, it's Vib Ribbon for the PSone. A hugely clever game, where it analyzes a music CD and creates a ribbon with different twists, spikes and gaps, which you navigated simply by pressing one of the four buttons, x for twist, o for spike etc. The graphics weren't more than a few white lines on a black background. Wonderful.
These days, most games are looking for a balance, but are they finding them? EA BIG have probably been one of the best at this, with their Street series' and SSX & Co. They are all beautiful and have great gameplay. They found a good balance, and excellent sales and reputation reflect this. Another game to mention are the Tony Hawks series, which betters itself everytime, with some of the smoothest graphics. Once again, it's sold great both here and in the US, telling us they must be doing something right.
Thesedays, you find less and less creation, less and less ideas. EA have now installed an "off-the ball system" whereby you tap L2 to select a player, then press and hold square to pass. Now this works great, but it also worked great on Madden. Soon all EA games will be the same games just with different pitches and players.
This annoys me, having not been around to witness first hand much of the real originality of games. I started with the N64. Some really original games then, the Zelda series was, obviously one of the best, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and a handful of others. Then it all went wrong with the GameCube. Once again, this has been reflected in a dejected outlook from the Nintendo faithful. The graphics are nice, but they are just as nice on the PS2 or XBox. That's the problem. Multi-platform games are squeezing out every last penny out of every idea, and other games can no longer afford to be original. The sole place for people to look to for originality is, unsurprisingly, Japan.
Japan, home of Hideo Kojima, the brain behind MGS2, home of Nintendo, home of, well, everything. Nearly. It's recent original games have been solely for the Eastern market, just like Animal Crossing. Back in the days of N64, I had great expectations for the products at the end of the N64, Nintendo promising a whole host of games before switching to the GameCube completly. Instead, gamers saw release dates slipping like sand between their fingers, and soon all the titles were labeled "GC".
The GameCube itself is an example of just how much the game industry values it's image, as it strived to make itself smaller, cuter, another feature close to the heart of the Eastern market. If, it had, instead of trying to look nice, focused on creating a console that tended to a gamers need, it would undoubtedly have done better over here. It could have used CD's, rendering the GameCube an istant multi-functional machine, as it could play DVD's. Why the GameCube chose to have smaller disc I have no idea, but it seems pretty pointless to me, as all they've done is missed the all important edge that both the XBox and PS2 now have on it.
But looking good doesn't really seem to be a big issue for the XBox. A console the size of my freezer isn't going to make people stop and say, "Gee, ain't that the cutest thing ever?" No, and you know why? Because it was made in America. They don't give a thing whether or not their console looks good, they place importance in the money, and the games. See, with both the XBox and the PS2, you get a lot more for your money, as you're effectively getting a very good DVD player with each of them, which, with the GC, you would have to shell out again, maybe up to £150.
But then people will sacrifice money for looks, as is all the more apparent in todays culture. Everything must look good, you, your house, your room, your car, your TV, your kitchen... I could go on for hours. It's all important. People will pay thousands to whiten their teeth or get plastic surgery, and that's effectively what the games market is doing, getting a makeover. No more "raw" power, it now has to be in the bonnet of something refined, beautiful even. No more Vib Ribbon, either.
What the games industry must understand, is, like I am always being told, is that it needs balance. A balance between graphics and gamplay, a balance between looks and functions. It needs to support projects who perhaps don't look so hot, perhaps have a few more ideas to bring to the market, not the big EA companies, simply snapping up rights left right and center, making everything carbon copies. Only then will originality start to come back to the market.
I sat through it all, obviously. Not that that's saying much, I completed it in 6 hours on Medium, which is good by my standards as I have trouble completing most games outside the sport genre. It's not to say that it wasn't a pleasure to watch, by all means, it was, but we buy games to play them, and at £39.99 a hit we don't want to be getting a DVD.
And it's not just games. Take cases for instance, where you can now pay £79.99 for a PC Case. It does nothing, really. It's like a storage box. With flashing lights. Now, I pay about a tenner for a pack of three at Ikea, so I thought it must do something pretty good to warranty that price tag. And does it? Well, yes. It has a little flap that covers your CD / DVD drives. A plastic flap. And rails, to hold them. Oh and it's big too. So what do you get for £80? A piece of plastic, an empty metal box with rails and some space. Great value for money.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying wouldn't it be better if it was more functional. If it was cheaper. If the best qualities weren't that it has a little flap but that it has some other clever function. Like being simpler to install to.
The strangest thing to me is people are more than willing to pay £50+ for a case. They write reviews like "Oh, it's so wonderful, the lights on the front are brilliant." Umm... Hello? Lights on a metal case cost fifty quid? I don't think so.
It is enough to have gameplay alone. If any game proves this, it's Vib Ribbon for the PSone. A hugely clever game, where it analyzes a music CD and creates a ribbon with different twists, spikes and gaps, which you navigated simply by pressing one of the four buttons, x for twist, o for spike etc. The graphics weren't more than a few white lines on a black background. Wonderful.
These days, most games are looking for a balance, but are they finding them? EA BIG have probably been one of the best at this, with their Street series' and SSX & Co. They are all beautiful and have great gameplay. They found a good balance, and excellent sales and reputation reflect this. Another game to mention are the Tony Hawks series, which betters itself everytime, with some of the smoothest graphics. Once again, it's sold great both here and in the US, telling us they must be doing something right.
Thesedays, you find less and less creation, less and less ideas. EA have now installed an "off-the ball system" whereby you tap L2 to select a player, then press and hold square to pass. Now this works great, but it also worked great on Madden. Soon all EA games will be the same games just with different pitches and players.
This annoys me, having not been around to witness first hand much of the real originality of games. I started with the N64. Some really original games then, the Zelda series was, obviously one of the best, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and a handful of others. Then it all went wrong with the GameCube. Once again, this has been reflected in a dejected outlook from the Nintendo faithful. The graphics are nice, but they are just as nice on the PS2 or XBox. That's the problem. Multi-platform games are squeezing out every last penny out of every idea, and other games can no longer afford to be original. The sole place for people to look to for originality is, unsurprisingly, Japan.
Japan, home of Hideo Kojima, the brain behind MGS2, home of Nintendo, home of, well, everything. Nearly. It's recent original games have been solely for the Eastern market, just like Animal Crossing. Back in the days of N64, I had great expectations for the products at the end of the N64, Nintendo promising a whole host of games before switching to the GameCube completly. Instead, gamers saw release dates slipping like sand between their fingers, and soon all the titles were labeled "GC".
The GameCube itself is an example of just how much the game industry values it's image, as it strived to make itself smaller, cuter, another feature close to the heart of the Eastern market. If, it had, instead of trying to look nice, focused on creating a console that tended to a gamers need, it would undoubtedly have done better over here. It could have used CD's, rendering the GameCube an istant multi-functional machine, as it could play DVD's. Why the GameCube chose to have smaller disc I have no idea, but it seems pretty pointless to me, as all they've done is missed the all important edge that both the XBox and PS2 now have on it.
But looking good doesn't really seem to be a big issue for the XBox. A console the size of my freezer isn't going to make people stop and say, "Gee, ain't that the cutest thing ever?" No, and you know why? Because it was made in America. They don't give a thing whether or not their console looks good, they place importance in the money, and the games. See, with both the XBox and the PS2, you get a lot more for your money, as you're effectively getting a very good DVD player with each of them, which, with the GC, you would have to shell out again, maybe up to £150.
But then people will sacrifice money for looks, as is all the more apparent in todays culture. Everything must look good, you, your house, your room, your car, your TV, your kitchen... I could go on for hours. It's all important. People will pay thousands to whiten their teeth or get plastic surgery, and that's effectively what the games market is doing, getting a makeover. No more "raw" power, it now has to be in the bonnet of something refined, beautiful even. No more Vib Ribbon, either.
What the games industry must understand, is, like I am always being told, is that it needs balance. A balance between graphics and gamplay, a balance between looks and functions. It needs to support projects who perhaps don't look so hot, perhaps have a few more ideas to bring to the market, not the big EA companies, simply snapping up rights left right and center, making everything carbon copies. Only then will originality start to come back to the market.
*cough* gad attempt *cough*
Thought it was on about girls again...
Damn, sorry, wrong forum... That's what I hate about having 7 or 8 windows open at a time >.<.
More and more do I notice how games are starting to value graphics over gameplay. Take Metal Gear Solid 2, a huge dissapointment for most gamers who owned or played the original and had long awaited it's return to the Playstation. What they got, was a game that played like a film. Or rather, hardly played at all.
I sat through it all, obviously. Not that that's saying much, I completed it in 6 hours on Medium, which is good by my standards as I have trouble completing most games outside the sport genre. It's not to say that it wasn't a pleasure to watch, by all means, it was, but we buy games to play them, and at £39.99 a hit we don't want to be getting a DVD.
And it's not just games. Take cases for instance, where you can now pay £79.99 for a PC Case. It does nothing, really. It's like a storage box. With flashing lights. Now, I pay about a tenner for a pack of three at Ikea, so I thought it must do something pretty good to warranty that price tag. And does it? Well, yes. It has a little flap that covers your CD / DVD drives. A plastic flap. And rails, to hold them. Oh and it's big too. So what do you get for £80? A piece of plastic, an empty metal box with rails and some space. Great value for money.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying wouldn't it be better if it was more functional. If it was cheaper. If the best qualities weren't that it has a little flap but that it has some other clever function. Like being simpler to install to.
The strangest thing to me is people are more than willing to pay £50+ for a case. They write reviews like "Oh, it's so wonderful, the lights on the front are brilliant." Umm... Hello? Lights on a metal case cost fifty quid? I don't think so.
It is enough to have gameplay alone. If any game proves this, it's Vib Ribbon for the PSone. A hugely clever game, where it analyzes a music CD and creates a ribbon with different twists, spikes and gaps, which you navigated simply by pressing one of the four buttons, x for twist, o for spike etc. The graphics weren't more than a few white lines on a black background. Wonderful.
These days, most games are looking for a balance, but are they finding them? EA BIG have probably been one of the best at this, with their Street series' and SSX & Co. They are all beautiful and have great gameplay. They found a good balance, and excellent sales and reputation reflect this. Another game to mention are the Tony Hawks series, which betters itself everytime, with some of the smoothest graphics. Once again, it's sold great both here and in the US, telling us they must be doing something right.
Thesedays, you find less and less creation, less and less ideas. EA have now installed an "off-the ball system" whereby you tap L2 to select a player, then press and hold square to pass. Now this works great, but it also worked great on Madden. Soon all EA games will be the same games just with different pitches and players.
This annoys me, having not been around to witness first hand much of the real originality of games. I started with the N64. Some really original games then, the Zelda series was, obviously one of the best, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and a handful of others. Then it all went wrong with the GameCube. Once again, this has been reflected in a dejected outlook from the Nintendo faithful. The graphics are nice, but they are just as nice on the PS2 or XBox. That's the problem. Multi-platform games are squeezing out every last penny out of every idea, and other games can no longer afford to be original. The sole place for people to look to for originality is, unsurprisingly, Japan.
Japan, home of Hideo Kojima, the brain behind MGS2, home of Nintendo, home of, well, everything. Nearly. It's recent original games have been solely for the Eastern market, just like Animal Crossing. Back in the days of N64, I had great expectations for the products at the end of the N64, Nintendo promising a whole host of games before switching to the GameCube completly. Instead, gamers saw release dates slipping like sand between their fingers, and soon all the titles were labeled "GC".
The GameCube itself is an example of just how much the game industry values it's image, as it strived to make itself smaller, cuter, another feature close to the heart of the Eastern market. If, it had, instead of trying to look nice, focused on creating a console that tended to a gamers need, it would undoubtedly have done better over here. It could have used CD's, rendering the GameCube an istant multi-functional machine, as it could play DVD's. Why the GameCube chose to have smaller disc I have no idea, but it seems pretty pointless to me, as all they've done is missed the all important edge that both the XBox and PS2 now have on it.
But looking good doesn't really seem to be a big issue for the XBox. A console the size of my freezer isn't going to make people stop and say, "Gee, ain't that the cutest thing ever?" No, and you know why? Because it was made in America. They don't give a thing whether or not their console looks good, they place importance in the money, and the games. See, with both the XBox and the PS2, you get a lot more for your money, as you're effectively getting a very good DVD player with each of them, which, with the GC, you would have to shell out again, maybe up to £150.
But then people will sacrifice money for looks, as is all the more apparent in todays culture. Everything must look good, you, your house, your room, your car, your TV, your kitchen... I could go on for hours. It's all important. People will pay thousands to whiten their teeth or get plastic surgery, and that's effectively what the games market is doing, getting a makeover. No more "raw" power, it now has to be in the bonnet of something refined, beautiful even. No more Vib Ribbon, either.
What the games industry must understand, is, like I am always being told, is that it needs balance. A balance between graphics and gamplay, a balance between looks and functions. It needs to support projects who perhaps don't look so hot, perhaps have a few more ideas to bring to the market, not the big EA companies, simply snapping up rights left right and center, making everything carbon copies. Only then will originality start to come back to the market.
I sat through it all, obviously. Not that that's saying much, I completed it in 6 hours on Medium, which is good by my standards as I have trouble completing most games outside the sport genre. It's not to say that it wasn't a pleasure to watch, by all means, it was, but we buy games to play them, and at £39.99 a hit we don't want to be getting a DVD.
And it's not just games. Take cases for instance, where you can now pay £79.99 for a PC Case. It does nothing, really. It's like a storage box. With flashing lights. Now, I pay about a tenner for a pack of three at Ikea, so I thought it must do something pretty good to warranty that price tag. And does it? Well, yes. It has a little flap that covers your CD / DVD drives. A plastic flap. And rails, to hold them. Oh and it's big too. So what do you get for £80? A piece of plastic, an empty metal box with rails and some space. Great value for money.
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it. I'm just saying wouldn't it be better if it was more functional. If it was cheaper. If the best qualities weren't that it has a little flap but that it has some other clever function. Like being simpler to install to.
The strangest thing to me is people are more than willing to pay £50+ for a case. They write reviews like "Oh, it's so wonderful, the lights on the front are brilliant." Umm... Hello? Lights on a metal case cost fifty quid? I don't think so.
It is enough to have gameplay alone. If any game proves this, it's Vib Ribbon for the PSone. A hugely clever game, where it analyzes a music CD and creates a ribbon with different twists, spikes and gaps, which you navigated simply by pressing one of the four buttons, x for twist, o for spike etc. The graphics weren't more than a few white lines on a black background. Wonderful.
These days, most games are looking for a balance, but are they finding them? EA BIG have probably been one of the best at this, with their Street series' and SSX & Co. They are all beautiful and have great gameplay. They found a good balance, and excellent sales and reputation reflect this. Another game to mention are the Tony Hawks series, which betters itself everytime, with some of the smoothest graphics. Once again, it's sold great both here and in the US, telling us they must be doing something right.
Thesedays, you find less and less creation, less and less ideas. EA have now installed an "off-the ball system" whereby you tap L2 to select a player, then press and hold square to pass. Now this works great, but it also worked great on Madden. Soon all EA games will be the same games just with different pitches and players.
This annoys me, having not been around to witness first hand much of the real originality of games. I started with the N64. Some really original games then, the Zelda series was, obviously one of the best, Banjo Kazooie, Perfect Dark and a handful of others. Then it all went wrong with the GameCube. Once again, this has been reflected in a dejected outlook from the Nintendo faithful. The graphics are nice, but they are just as nice on the PS2 or XBox. That's the problem. Multi-platform games are squeezing out every last penny out of every idea, and other games can no longer afford to be original. The sole place for people to look to for originality is, unsurprisingly, Japan.
Japan, home of Hideo Kojima, the brain behind MGS2, home of Nintendo, home of, well, everything. Nearly. It's recent original games have been solely for the Eastern market, just like Animal Crossing. Back in the days of N64, I had great expectations for the products at the end of the N64, Nintendo promising a whole host of games before switching to the GameCube completly. Instead, gamers saw release dates slipping like sand between their fingers, and soon all the titles were labeled "GC".
The GameCube itself is an example of just how much the game industry values it's image, as it strived to make itself smaller, cuter, another feature close to the heart of the Eastern market. If, it had, instead of trying to look nice, focused on creating a console that tended to a gamers need, it would undoubtedly have done better over here. It could have used CD's, rendering the GameCube an istant multi-functional machine, as it could play DVD's. Why the GameCube chose to have smaller disc I have no idea, but it seems pretty pointless to me, as all they've done is missed the all important edge that both the XBox and PS2 now have on it.
But looking good doesn't really seem to be a big issue for the XBox. A console the size of my freezer isn't going to make people stop and say, "Gee, ain't that the cutest thing ever?" No, and you know why? Because it was made in America. They don't give a thing whether or not their console looks good, they place importance in the money, and the games. See, with both the XBox and the PS2, you get a lot more for your money, as you're effectively getting a very good DVD player with each of them, which, with the GC, you would have to shell out again, maybe up to £150.
But then people will sacrifice money for looks, as is all the more apparent in todays culture. Everything must look good, you, your house, your room, your car, your TV, your kitchen... I could go on for hours. It's all important. People will pay thousands to whiten their teeth or get plastic surgery, and that's effectively what the games market is doing, getting a makeover. No more "raw" power, it now has to be in the bonnet of something refined, beautiful even. No more Vib Ribbon, either.
What the games industry must understand, is, like I am always being told, is that it needs balance. A balance between graphics and gamplay, a balance between looks and functions. It needs to support projects who perhaps don't look so hot, perhaps have a few more ideas to bring to the market, not the big EA companies, simply snapping up rights left right and center, making everything carbon copies. Only then will originality start to come back to the market.