The fall in video game quality - a comment

As long as developers such as Valve, Blizzard, Epic, Relic, etc. are around then I don't give a damn what the rest of the industry is doing. If devs want to jump on the casual train, be my guest: most of them suck to begin with. Sushbag88

No disrepect, but PC gamers are always saying this, and yet surely they know you nedd many PC game releases in many genres for a format to survive, not just 2 or 3 AAA games a year from the above developers? I mean most people realise that TV is only meoderately good because there are so many TV stations and TV programs so we get to watch the shows we want to. People know if there was just one station with 6 shows a day the number of people watching TV's and buying TV's, etc would plummit! Same goes for movies. Imagine only 3 or 4 movies being produced per year and only 50 cinema's to show them on? Again, the number of people going to the movies would collapse.

In both the above examples it would be easy to see how both the TV industry and MOvie business would not be around for long if that sitiation were true, and yet, in PC gaming, because of a lowering of quality in story-telling and gameplay, we are getting very close to that situation, where there is not engough quantity OR quality? The half a dozen AAA PC titles we have had this year is just not enough. Espcially when they have only covered two or three genres!

Don't believe in this "quality" bs that everyone seems to brew up.

The fact of t he matter is that games are rated by PEOPLE. And another fact is that ratings aren't facts, but OPINIONS. Facts are undisputed statements such as, this game has 4 players, this game has 5 bosses, etc.

So now, there is no "drop in quality" nonsense that you would believe by these statistics.

The explanation for this is that some reviewers happen to rate more games higher in year 200X versus 200Y.

I don't believe Tony Hawk 3 deserved a 10. I don't believe Mario Kart 64 deserved a 6.4. These are opinions people. They come out of anybody.

The thing that you should be worrying about, is that games of this gen and further on require high budgets. This makes companies less inclined to release innovative products, as they want games that will keep them financially secure. In other words, games will be made for money - and to do this, they will work with what works, aka sequels of a proven series. So support the unique titles.

[QUOTE="CarnageHeart"]

1) You claim to be a gamer but you hide behind the opinions of others when discussing game quality. According to Gamerankings MGS2 is far and away the finest game in the series. Most fans (and probably most reviewers, most of whom jumped on the anit-MGS2 bandwagon once fans pointed out how poor its game design and story were) would disagree. Along the same lines, the fact reviewers fell all over themselves praising garbage like Ready 2 Rumble (nice graphics, too bad about the gameplay) and Skies of Arcadia (terrible writing, a lackluster battle system and the random encounter rate was set way too high) doesn't make the games in question good.

2) Your response to Archangel is nothing more than you making a series of assumptions about the reasons he enjoys games and a series of false statements about game design/quality in general.

dchan01

Solidwriting and story, great translation, memorable characters, incredibly creative setting, fantastic level design, excellent gameplay, and actually challenging. Best JRPG ever made in my opinion bar none.

skies of arcadia challening:lol:

On the PS1/2 it would be a middle of the road RPG at best, the battle system is busted, the areas except for the setting are cliched and the creators tried to walk the line between kiddy and mature with the storyline/dialoge.

[QUOTE="dchan01"]

[QUOTE="CarnageHeart"]

1) You claim to be a gamer but you hide behind the opinions of others when discussing game quality. According to Gamerankings MGS2 is far and away the finest game in the series. Most fans (and probably most reviewers, most of whom jumped on the anit-MGS2 bandwagon once fans pointed out how poor its game design and story were) would disagree. Along the same lines, the fact reviewers fell all over themselves praising garbage like Ready 2 Rumble (nice graphics, too bad about the gameplay) and Skies of Arcadia (terrible writing, a lackluster battle system and the random encounter rate was set way too high) doesn't make the games in question good.

2) Your response to Archangel is nothing more than you making a series of assumptions about the reasons he enjoys games and a series of false statements about game design/quality in general.

trifecta_basic

Solidwriting and story, great translation, memorable characters, incredibly creative setting, fantastic level design, excellent gameplay, and actually challenging. Best JRPG ever made in my opinion bar none.

skies of arcadia challening:lol:

On the PS1/2 it would be a middle of the road RPG at best, the battle system is busted, the areas except for the setting are cliched and the creators tried to walk the line between kiddy and mature with the storyline/dialoge.

I'd hazard an opinion that the only JRPGs better than Skies of Arcadia are Final Fantasy 4, Final Fantasy 6, and the two Secret of Mana games, if you can count them. Disgaea on the PS2 comes close, and maybe Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 1 and Vagrant Story could come within striking distance, but there's a noticeable dropoff in quality.