Matt’s Somewhat Serious Bit
I’m going to be frank and say what’s been on my mind for the last year and a half.
This generation sucks. That’s right. But why does it suck – all of the advancements we’ve had in video games in recent times have been pretty good, right? Well, no. And due to my lack of ability as a writer, I have little choice but to use a top ten list to describe what I don’t like about this generation and why. Keep in mind that there’s no particular order to the list, I just wanted to list ten.
1 - Two Years too Soon
Let’s face it; in 2004 and 2005, we got some damn fine software. Many developers had a firm grip on the hardware, sales were climbing dramatically year over year, and the games were very technically impressive. Thanks largely to Microsoft pushing forward and releasing the Xbox in 2005, it’s caught most of the market unawares. There hasn’t been time to adjust to multi-core programming. What about the difficulty of the PS3 architecture? If you ask me, THIS year should have been the start of the new generation. That way, there’d have been some quality launch software (worst launches ever – a GameCube port doesn’t count), and some killer titles in the first year.
2 - Microsoft
Microsoft is pretty much responsible for this generation sucking. Their rush to kill the Xbox so that they could produce a console that they’d actually maybe be able to make a few dollars on not only harmed themselves, but also harmed the market. The Xbox was around for just four years, quite possibly the shortest period for a “successful” console (you can’t call being $6 billion in the red a success now, which has blown out to $8 billion now). In their rush to “win” the video gaming market, they have essentially lead to this generation to be under baked – lack of developer familiarity with hardware, rushed software, and absolutely crap manufacturing quality. Look at what’s happening with the 360 – you’ve got distinctly different hardware iterations, significantly favouring the mid-cycle consumer. HDMI, dual heatsinks and 65nm fabrication for a lower price – makes me never want to touch another Microsoft console at launch again.
Put it on a t-shirt - "I spent billion and all I got was some lousy mindshare"
3 - HD Gaming
Yeah guys, let’s make the main focus of our systems for the next five years a technology that less than 10% of people have adopted, and fewer than 50% will have adopted by the start of the next cycle. I’m not technical genius, but I imagine the technical overhead of producing a 720p image is far more straining than a 480p image. While I use a HD set for all of my new generation experiences, the ends does not justify the means. If the PlayStation 2 can make God of War 2 look like it does in 480p, imagine what the current consoles could have done if they were targeting the technology that people actually use.
4 - Rare Ltd.
Oh Microsoft, you make some daft decisions. $US377 million, and all you got was a mediocre beat ‘em up, a remake that came two years late, an Xbox game with some fancy filters, another Xbox game with bizarre mechanics and a 1000 extra characters on screen for no reason, and a gardening sim too complex for its intended market. Banjo 3 better not suck – because Perfect Dark Zero was a slap in the face – especially after 7 years of waiting.
A sample of Rare's recent output
5 - Pricing
I know for a fact that nobody likes paying $120 for their new generation HD software – that’s well documented. Yet there doesn’t seem to be enough complaining about the pricing of Wii software – it really should be more competitive, considering the market that Nintendo is trying to target. The price of accessories is another kick to the groin - $80 for a SIXAXIS? No thank you.
6 - Online Gaming
Everybody likes to kiss Microsoft’s butt when it comes to online services, and while Xbox Live has a lot of good features, it has one big problem – we’re paying $79.95 for the right to play peer-to-peer. Microsoft really needs to offer dedicated servers for our dollars – and it’s not like it’s very hard. Just about every single ISP in Australia (excluding Optus) offers dedicated servers for PC games, I’m sure they could come up with some sort of arrangement. Nintendo’s hardly done a damn thing on this front until the last few months and are still sticking by their silly friend codes. Sony’s almost got it right – Home should have launched with the machine (sticking by my previous statement of Holiday 2007 PS3 launch), and more games need dedicated servers.
7 - The Games
Gears of War? It’s kill.switch + Aliens + shakey cam. Dead Rising? Way of the Samurai + Dynasty Warriors + Dawn of the Dead. Resistance? Middle of the field FPS only praised because the rest of the launch lineup sucked hard. Motorstorm? Motocross Madness + Smugglers Run + “poo shading”. Wii Sports? It’s all fun and games until you get tendonitis. Twilight Princess? Would have liked it back in 2005, for the GameCube, like it should have been. It’s only just recently with BioShock that the new generation of gaming has started to get it right, (and even then, the original System Shock had far more interactivity and other fanciness than its underwater sibling) and judging by my 90 minutes spent with Metroid Prime 3 this afternoon, things are looking up.
It's been done.
Look back 6-7 years ago when the last lot of systems came out. Soul Calibur blew everything out of the water. Tekken Tag Tournament looked absolutely luscious. Rogue Leader really captured the atmosphere of the Star Wars classic trilogy and played like a dream. Halo broke new ground for the FPS genre on consoles. What did the new generations launch titles do, other than suck hard?
8 - Digital Distribution and Marketplace
Digital distribution is not such a bad thing really, but I think there’s a few kinks to be worked out, and they’ll probably work themselves out as market forces come into play. There rarely seems to be any form of discount to entice people into buying that little something extra. In many cases, add-on content is frivolous. And what of charging people for cheat codes and fully powered up characters? One would also think that all regions could access digital content, but in some cases archaic intellectual property rights issues have ruled that one moot (where the hell is my XBLA Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?).
9 - Nintendo
Our new market leaders seem to be making the same old mistakes. Why has there been bugger all in the way of new Wii games to play this year? What the heck is coming out on the DS this Christmas? What are your plans for 2008? Nintendo’s making a mint out of the Wii and DS, but what are they doing with all of this money? Surely there should be some sort of expansion effort under way at Kyoto to produce more games and new and/or different types of games at that. Though, rumour has it that Matsuno of Square fame has joined the fold. Nevertheless, do something with your dirty, ill-gotten money, or give it to me.
Iwata seems a bit worried about where that Wiimote has been
10 - Still no Shenmue III
Seriously. Do it Sega, do it now. Although Sega has what I affectionately call the “Shidas Touch”, meaning everything they touch turns to shit, they need to finish this series now. I don’t care if it’s a video game, a manga or a children’s pop-up book, I just want to know what the hell happens.
Retro Box Art Classics
It’s about time we did a new section in Easy Mode. For many years, I’ve seen articles on bad box art, but it’s always the same old crap everybody knows – like the US NES Mega Man box, Phalanx for the SNES and so on. There are far worse box arts out there, and I thought I’d show you all a few more I’ve discovered over the years. The various personal computer formats popular in Europe in the 80s and early 90s are often a goldmine for terrible box art, as presented by today’s example.
That's a nasty pussy
Apparently, in the 80's, wearing a vest and a head band made you tough. Maybe in regional Tasmania.
Indie Game of the Moment
There’s a certain level of charm that surrounds independently developed games – often the fact that the game does something that no other commercially published game does, or they’re extremely addictive. Today’s example, New Star Soccer 3, does both.
It'll swallow your soul
Essentially, New Star Soccer 3 is what happens when you combine Sensible Soccer with RPG style stats building. Simply put, you control a player from the tender age of 16, try out for a football team, and control him (and only him) in top down matches. Your performance on the pitch affects the coach’s opinion of you, the chemistry with your team mates, your popularity with fans, and your press coverage. There’s also other off field shenanigans to get involved in – girlfriends, race horses, gambling, alcohol addiction and all of that lovely stuff. It’s bloody addictive too – spent more time with it this afternoon than I did with Metroid Prime 3.
A demo of New Star Soccer 3 is available from the official site. It’s limited to 10 matches – after that, it’s $US19.95 ($AU24) to register the full version of the game.
Views and opinions expressed in Easy Mode remain those of the writer and do not reflect those of PALGN, it's affiliates, advertisers and other interested parties. Mostly because they're able to make valid opinions, and back them up with hard evidence.
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