The next video game system wars
May. 9th, 2006 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pandora_parrotI've always been a Nintendo fan-girl. Since the days of the NES, I've been hooked. Hell, I even loved the Virtual Boy, and I almost bought one at release. But when Nintendo made the foolish decision with the N64 to go with cartridge based games, I was dissapointed. Oh yes, the N64 had some fun games, but they lost content-filled games like the FF series, Mega Man X series, etc. Basically, games that I really enjoyed on the NES and SNES. So I went over to Playstation, and I kept with it until the PS2. I really loved both Sony's and Nintendo's consoles though. The Gamecube was overly-normal to fit back in with the rest of the crowd, but it was still a great console with loads of awesome games on it. I'm playing Resident Evil 4 on it right now. (Thanks ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eyesloveyou! It's SOOOOO fun!) And of course, I wouldn't touch an Xbox with a 10 foot long magnetically shielded pole. Oooh! I'm missing out on Halo! *twirls fingers in air*
So anyways, I've been noticing some of the information about the next generation of console wars. Both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 seem to be just PCs with really nice interfaces and simple controllers. What's the point of that? Maybe it's just me, but enhancing graphics just doesn't cut it for me anymore. There was a substantial leap from the N64/PS1 era to the GC/PS2/Xbox era of graphics, but I don't really see a big difference between those graphics and the graphics on, say, the Xbox 360. And now with Sony announcing that they'll be using the PS2 controller design, I'm just that much more dissapointed. It seems as though the gaming industry, for Sony and Microsoft, has become static. Their job: Produce the same titles they made last year, enhance graphics, and upgrade the customer's hardware every few years. Goodbye innovation.
I miss the days when gaming was actually... Oh I don't know... fun. Correction: Innovative. When I started gaming, it seemed like every game had a new and interesting play dynamic. The first time I played an RTS (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans) was incredible! My first space shooter (X-wing) was so much fun and it felt so original! I remember graphical adventures (Space Quest, Quest for Glory, The 7th Guest) and postcard adventures (Myst) and puzzle games (The Incredible Machine) and my first FPS (Doom)... It seemed like each game was a totally new experience. So unlike other things I had played before.
And I wasn't terribly picky.... I loved games with new dynamics within an established genre. I mean... How MANY platformers existed? And yet you had so much variety: Super Mario Brothers 3 with its powerups that let you change into different modes, and its wide variety of levels. Legend of Zelda with its top-down sword slashing adventure. 8-eyes with the bird/man cooperative play. A Boy and his Blob with all those nifty jelly beans! Mega Man, which, although completely identical from game to game, was unique when compared to other games. Another World/Out of the World with its rich science-fiction environment and realism. Sonic: The Hedgehog with its high-speed high jinks. Super Metroid and its excellent story/action/adventure. I mean... These games were all fairly unique. They were platformers, sure, but they had something that set them apart and made them special.
Nowadays, I see games, and there are set genres. What changes? Maybe a few powerups or something? Sometimes a great story. But the gameplay is so fricking identical. Seriously... is there really THAT much difference between the original Doom and most modern FPS games? Honestly? How many fricking Warcraft clones exist? (Technically Dune 2 clones, but whatever.) How many third person action platformers with the same environments, graphics, controls, and events? How many Myst clones have come and died? How many RPGs practically duplicate each other? How many fighter games are out there? *shrugs*
And the platformers I play... Although I'm loving RE4, it's not terribly different in gameplay dynamics from, say, Silent Hill or Legacy of Kain or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. They have some unique qualities, but they just don't feel as different as I used to feel games were. You find enemy. Attack until dead. Go to next area. Solve relatively simple puzzle. Move on. Sure, it's FUN... but it's not unique. A lot of the older games seemed to have less emphasis on the "fight all these bad guys" and more on the "explore the world that's populated by bad guys." It feels more like I'm playing a rail shooter than I'm playing an adventure game. And sure, I'm being a little over-critical here, but it emphasises my point.
I really don't even feel like buying games nearly as much as I used to. Some games are well done representatives of their genre, such as Half-life 2 or Metroid Prime or Ocarina of Time, and I buy those. But because games feel so cookie cutter, I feel little interest in buying half of the crap out there. Honestly, the only really original games I can think of discovering since the late 90s are the DDR/bemani games, Katamari Damacy, and Dungeon Keeper. ICO was kind of original-ish, but not really. *thinks* There's probably others, but these are the ones that come to mind.
Sorry, got off on a rant there. The point that I was trying to get to is that Nintendo is, in my opinion, poised to be the ONLY innovative developer for the next generation of console systems. The Wii is going to be unique. It's controller alone guarantees that, forcing developers to consider new concepts for games. Like the DS, it's not intended to be a gimmick. It's intended to change the way people play games and recapture that feeling of newness and originality that people like me used to feel when we discovered Warcraft for the first time. When Microsoft and Sony have elected to produce upgraded versions of this generation's compute- I mean console systems, Nintendo is choosing to keep the same capabilities in terms of content production, but are pushing it in a new direction. I feel like a kid again, looking at the system and thinking about what it is capable of, dreaming of the new possibilities... Of course, the developers COULD just wind up doing another gimmick thing with it and reproduce old games with the new controller... but I hope not. *crosses fingers and toes* Gods, I hope not.
In unrelated news, I haven't been able to find an actual news site with info on this, but this is simply a travesty. How the hell do you fuck Scooby-Doo up so much? Why.... WHY must these company execs continue to rape my childhood? *sigh* *Shakes angry finger at George Lucas* You started this, you evil bastard you.
eyesloveyou! It's SOOOOO fun!) And of course, I wouldn't touch an Xbox with a 10 foot long magnetically shielded pole. Oooh! I'm missing out on Halo! *twirls fingers in air*So anyways, I've been noticing some of the information about the next generation of console wars. Both the PS3 and the Xbox 360 seem to be just PCs with really nice interfaces and simple controllers. What's the point of that? Maybe it's just me, but enhancing graphics just doesn't cut it for me anymore. There was a substantial leap from the N64/PS1 era to the GC/PS2/Xbox era of graphics, but I don't really see a big difference between those graphics and the graphics on, say, the Xbox 360. And now with Sony announcing that they'll be using the PS2 controller design, I'm just that much more dissapointed. It seems as though the gaming industry, for Sony and Microsoft, has become static. Their job: Produce the same titles they made last year, enhance graphics, and upgrade the customer's hardware every few years. Goodbye innovation.
I miss the days when gaming was actually... Oh I don't know... fun. Correction: Innovative. When I started gaming, it seemed like every game had a new and interesting play dynamic. The first time I played an RTS (Warcraft: Orcs and Humans) was incredible! My first space shooter (X-wing) was so much fun and it felt so original! I remember graphical adventures (Space Quest, Quest for Glory, The 7th Guest) and postcard adventures (Myst) and puzzle games (The Incredible Machine) and my first FPS (Doom)... It seemed like each game was a totally new experience. So unlike other things I had played before.
And I wasn't terribly picky.... I loved games with new dynamics within an established genre. I mean... How MANY platformers existed? And yet you had so much variety: Super Mario Brothers 3 with its powerups that let you change into different modes, and its wide variety of levels. Legend of Zelda with its top-down sword slashing adventure. 8-eyes with the bird/man cooperative play. A Boy and his Blob with all those nifty jelly beans! Mega Man, which, although completely identical from game to game, was unique when compared to other games. Another World/Out of the World with its rich science-fiction environment and realism. Sonic: The Hedgehog with its high-speed high jinks. Super Metroid and its excellent story/action/adventure. I mean... These games were all fairly unique. They were platformers, sure, but they had something that set them apart and made them special.
Nowadays, I see games, and there are set genres. What changes? Maybe a few powerups or something? Sometimes a great story. But the gameplay is so fricking identical. Seriously... is there really THAT much difference between the original Doom and most modern FPS games? Honestly? How many fricking Warcraft clones exist? (Technically Dune 2 clones, but whatever.) How many third person action platformers with the same environments, graphics, controls, and events? How many Myst clones have come and died? How many RPGs practically duplicate each other? How many fighter games are out there? *shrugs*
And the platformers I play... Although I'm loving RE4, it's not terribly different in gameplay dynamics from, say, Silent Hill or Legacy of Kain or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. They have some unique qualities, but they just don't feel as different as I used to feel games were. You find enemy. Attack until dead. Go to next area. Solve relatively simple puzzle. Move on. Sure, it's FUN... but it's not unique. A lot of the older games seemed to have less emphasis on the "fight all these bad guys" and more on the "explore the world that's populated by bad guys." It feels more like I'm playing a rail shooter than I'm playing an adventure game. And sure, I'm being a little over-critical here, but it emphasises my point.
I really don't even feel like buying games nearly as much as I used to. Some games are well done representatives of their genre, such as Half-life 2 or Metroid Prime or Ocarina of Time, and I buy those. But because games feel so cookie cutter, I feel little interest in buying half of the crap out there. Honestly, the only really original games I can think of discovering since the late 90s are the DDR/bemani games, Katamari Damacy, and Dungeon Keeper. ICO was kind of original-ish, but not really. *thinks* There's probably others, but these are the ones that come to mind.
Sorry, got off on a rant there. The point that I was trying to get to is that Nintendo is, in my opinion, poised to be the ONLY innovative developer for the next generation of console systems. The Wii is going to be unique. It's controller alone guarantees that, forcing developers to consider new concepts for games. Like the DS, it's not intended to be a gimmick. It's intended to change the way people play games and recapture that feeling of newness and originality that people like me used to feel when we discovered Warcraft for the first time. When Microsoft and Sony have elected to produce upgraded versions of this generation's compute- I mean console systems, Nintendo is choosing to keep the same capabilities in terms of content production, but are pushing it in a new direction. I feel like a kid again, looking at the system and thinking about what it is capable of, dreaming of the new possibilities... Of course, the developers COULD just wind up doing another gimmick thing with it and reproduce old games with the new controller... but I hope not. *crosses fingers and toes* Gods, I hope not.
In unrelated news, I haven't been able to find an actual news site with info on this, but this is simply a travesty. How the hell do you fuck Scooby-Doo up so much? Why.... WHY must these company execs continue to rape my childhood? *sigh* *Shakes angry finger at George Lucas* You started this, you evil bastard you.
