Now to see about reviving that bloody Aerith.
Pillsburyhitman Blog
Question of the Day
by Pillsburyhitman on Comments
Is nostalgia dangerous? Are old games truly as great as we remember them, or were our standards simply set much lower at that time? This blog entry is largely in response to a topic made by another user on the above subject. Do ancient "classics" still truly matter, or are we just glorifying them because of fond memories?
It depends. Certainly older games retain their incredible gameplay value to this very day, while others are virtually obsolete. I believe it also has a lot to do with genre types. Genres that rely heavily on graphical power and a good physics engine, namely the FPS genre, become obsolete *very* quickly. However amazing Half-Life was at the time, it really doesn't hold up at all these days.
On the other hand, take a genre like turn-based strategy, where graphics mean virtually nothing. Civilization 2, which is much older than Half-Life, is still incredibly fun to play, and retains its value to this very day. If it was just being released for the first time, it would likely still score highly on every value except graphics, which it doesn't really need in the first place. It's a remakarbly deep and inifinitely replayable game. Also, I've noticed that a lot of genre-defining games manage to retain their gameplay quality longer than others. NES games like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. are still quite playable and fun even in this new generation, as we've seen by the excellent GBA Classic NES series. However, old NES games that were popular at the time, like the original Final Fantasy, are barely playable now, and downright obsolete.
What defines the lasting qualities of a game? It's certainly not style. No matter how incredible a grame's graphics or physics engine are, you can be sure that they will be obsolete in only a short few years. However, certain games have a *substance* that can last far beyond the point where their graphics expire. How else can a person explain the massive success of Starcraft now 8 years after its initial release? It's still the most popular RTS in the world by far. And what about timeless RPGs from the SNES days? To this very day, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI remain as some of the finest games ever created. Despite their outdated graphics, their plots and character development are as stellar as ever, and the gameplay mechanics still manage to be up to standard all these years later.
It depends. Certainly older games retain their incredible gameplay value to this very day, while others are virtually obsolete. I believe it also has a lot to do with genre types. Genres that rely heavily on graphical power and a good physics engine, namely the FPS genre, become obsolete *very* quickly. However amazing Half-Life was at the time, it really doesn't hold up at all these days.
On the other hand, take a genre like turn-based strategy, where graphics mean virtually nothing. Civilization 2, which is much older than Half-Life, is still incredibly fun to play, and retains its value to this very day. If it was just being released for the first time, it would likely still score highly on every value except graphics, which it doesn't really need in the first place. It's a remakarbly deep and inifinitely replayable game. Also, I've noticed that a lot of genre-defining games manage to retain their gameplay quality longer than others. NES games like The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. are still quite playable and fun even in this new generation, as we've seen by the excellent GBA Classic NES series. However, old NES games that were popular at the time, like the original Final Fantasy, are barely playable now, and downright obsolete.
What defines the lasting qualities of a game? It's certainly not style. No matter how incredible a grame's graphics or physics engine are, you can be sure that they will be obsolete in only a short few years. However, certain games have a *substance* that can last far beyond the point where their graphics expire. How else can a person explain the massive success of Starcraft now 8 years after its initial release? It's still the most popular RTS in the world by far. And what about timeless RPGs from the SNES days? To this very day, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI remain as some of the finest games ever created. Despite their outdated graphics, their plots and character development are as stellar as ever, and the gameplay mechanics still manage to be up to standard all these years later.
Christmas Blues, aka "2005 in review"
by Pillsburyhitman on Comments
Alright, let's skip the crap and get straight to the point:
This was a bloody AWFUL year for gamers.
Let's review, shall we? An abysmal selection of both PC and console games to start it off. Sure, there were rare gems like Psychonauts, God of War, and Shadow of the Colossus (which I finally had the pleasure of playing), but overall the games sucked. Isn't it a little sad that the best action game of the year was just a rehash of a great game from last year? Yes, I'm talking about Ninja Gaiden Black. Of course, Biohazard 4 was amazing, but it's the exception this year instead of the rule. In actuality, this year game us some of the best action games ever made, but there were honestly too few of them, and they were too short-lived.
And don't even get me started on the FPS status. If F.E.A.R. was the best that developers could possibly do this year, then it was an awful year indeed. F.E.A.R. had absolutely terrible level design, monotonous and repetive enemies, and a poor multiplayer to top it all off. Sure, it was still a great game, but it's nowhere near the quality of the plethora of shooters we saw last year.
And what about strategy, both turn-based and real-time? Like the action genre, the best we got was rehashes. Sure, Civilization 4 was a great game, and I'm sure someone somewhere enjoyed Shattered Union, but the former did virtually nothing to differentiate itself from its numerous predecessors and the latter just wasn't very good at all. In fact, Civ4 doesn't come close to comparing to the quality of Civ2, which is now nearing its tenth birthday. As for the real-time area, the only half-decent product we got was Dragonshard. Sure, it was good and all, but not nearly good enough that I would have expected it to be the best RTS of the year. Age of Empires 3 was nothing short of a colossal disappointment.
Platforming? Ok, I'll admit that platforming had a good year, but platformers have never been considered a major genre. They're generally just too short and simple to be taken very seriously.
Tycoons? The Movies disappointed everyone. Sims? Virtually nothing. RPGs? Dragon Quest VIII and Fire Emblem 9 were just about it. Racing? Come on, we didn't need another Burnout clone sequel.
And to top all this off, we've got the regular whining stupidity of Clinton and Lieberman coupled with the added imbecility of Thompson.
So, in retrospect, it wasn't even close to a decent year for consoles and PCs. However, one major portion of gaming, which has been largely ignored by the mainstream, had an incredible year:
Handheld gaming.
This was perhaps the greatest year of handheld gaming the world has ever seen. Wtih colossal achievements like Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Lumines, Mario Kart DS, Gunstar Super Heroes, and countless others, there's been something for everyone.
Strategy? Advance Wars DS, while hardly an improvement over the rest of the series, is one of the best handheld games ever created. Yes, it was pretty much the only great handheld strategy game of the year, but there is so much to do and so much to unlock that this game was able to last me the entire second half of the year. Take the incredible multiplayer into account, and you have a game with near-endless value. And some might even call Fire Emblem 8 (GBA) a turn-based strategy game (though I consider it an RPG), and if it is, it's one of the best ever made.
Shooters? While we only got lackluster FPSs, we had the wonderful Socom: Fireteam Bravo and the intriguing Metal Gear Acid on PSP. I personally enjoyed Socom more than any PC shooter I've played all year, and I know that quite a few other PSP owners felt the same way. And while some fans were turned off by the card-based nature of MGA, it was an excellent game and worthy addition to the Metal Gear universe.
Racing? Handhelds this year had some of the best racing games ever created on any platform. Mario Kart DS perfected the greatest kart series of all time, Burnout Legends (PSP) showed that handhelds could deliver an incredible crash-tastic experience as great as that of their console bretheren, Racing Gears Advance showed off the true power of the GBA, and Wipeout Pure was just about as thrilling as high-speed techno-racers can get.
RPGs? The DS and PSP failed miserably in this regard (although the DS did produce the excellent Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time), but the GBA delivered with style, as always. Final Fantasy IV felt as amazing now as it did the first time I ever played it, and I enjoyed it even more in handheld form. Riviera was perhaps the most innovative RPG I've gotten my hands on in the last decade, and had one of the best, most original plots I've seen all year. Fire Emblem 8 proved once more that the FE formula is vastly superior to virtually every other strategy RPG ever created, and delivered an experience unparalleled even by the highly-anticipated Fire Emblem 9 on the Gamecube.
Puzzle games? Meteos and Lumines are (aside from Tetris) the best puzzle games ever made. Nuff said.
Platformers? The DS gave us a massive library of top-notch platformers in sidescrolling finest. With Kirby: Canvas Curse, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Sonic Rush, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, Ultimate Spider-Man, and much more, there really was something for everyone. Even the PSP had its own charming Tokobot, which was remarkably fun, albeit short.
Sims? The handheld Sim 2 versions were average at best, but Animal Crossing: Wild World is perhaps the best virtual life game ever created. And Nintendogs is so incredibly realistic that it's downright scary, not to mention that the touchscreen/voice recognition innovation is enough to give me shivers.
Anyhow, in retrospect it wasn't such a bad year after all. I'm just a cranky young scrooge infuriated by the plethora of terrible PC/console games and complete lack of good FPSs/RTSs. The handheld department was so good, however, that it more than made up for this failure. The online play of Socom FTB, Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing WW has been enough to keep me 100% entertained and enthralled.
Lucky for us, things can only get better in 2006, especially considering the incredibly good previews of upcoming titles like Oblivion, Zelda TP, Metroid PH, FFXII, and more!
Merry Christmas and happy new year, everyone!
This was a bloody AWFUL year for gamers.
Let's review, shall we? An abysmal selection of both PC and console games to start it off. Sure, there were rare gems like Psychonauts, God of War, and Shadow of the Colossus (which I finally had the pleasure of playing), but overall the games sucked. Isn't it a little sad that the best action game of the year was just a rehash of a great game from last year? Yes, I'm talking about Ninja Gaiden Black. Of course, Biohazard 4 was amazing, but it's the exception this year instead of the rule. In actuality, this year game us some of the best action games ever made, but there were honestly too few of them, and they were too short-lived.
And don't even get me started on the FPS status. If F.E.A.R. was the best that developers could possibly do this year, then it was an awful year indeed. F.E.A.R. had absolutely terrible level design, monotonous and repetive enemies, and a poor multiplayer to top it all off. Sure, it was still a great game, but it's nowhere near the quality of the plethora of shooters we saw last year.
And what about strategy, both turn-based and real-time? Like the action genre, the best we got was rehashes. Sure, Civilization 4 was a great game, and I'm sure someone somewhere enjoyed Shattered Union, but the former did virtually nothing to differentiate itself from its numerous predecessors and the latter just wasn't very good at all. In fact, Civ4 doesn't come close to comparing to the quality of Civ2, which is now nearing its tenth birthday. As for the real-time area, the only half-decent product we got was Dragonshard. Sure, it was good and all, but not nearly good enough that I would have expected it to be the best RTS of the year. Age of Empires 3 was nothing short of a colossal disappointment.
Platforming? Ok, I'll admit that platforming had a good year, but platformers have never been considered a major genre. They're generally just too short and simple to be taken very seriously.
Tycoons? The Movies disappointed everyone. Sims? Virtually nothing. RPGs? Dragon Quest VIII and Fire Emblem 9 were just about it. Racing? Come on, we didn't need another Burnout clone sequel.
And to top all this off, we've got the regular whining stupidity of Clinton and Lieberman coupled with the added imbecility of Thompson.
So, in retrospect, it wasn't even close to a decent year for consoles and PCs. However, one major portion of gaming, which has been largely ignored by the mainstream, had an incredible year:
Handheld gaming.
This was perhaps the greatest year of handheld gaming the world has ever seen. Wtih colossal achievements like Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Lumines, Mario Kart DS, Gunstar Super Heroes, and countless others, there's been something for everyone.
Strategy? Advance Wars DS, while hardly an improvement over the rest of the series, is one of the best handheld games ever created. Yes, it was pretty much the only great handheld strategy game of the year, but there is so much to do and so much to unlock that this game was able to last me the entire second half of the year. Take the incredible multiplayer into account, and you have a game with near-endless value. And some might even call Fire Emblem 8 (GBA) a turn-based strategy game (though I consider it an RPG), and if it is, it's one of the best ever made.
Shooters? While we only got lackluster FPSs, we had the wonderful Socom: Fireteam Bravo and the intriguing Metal Gear Acid on PSP. I personally enjoyed Socom more than any PC shooter I've played all year, and I know that quite a few other PSP owners felt the same way. And while some fans were turned off by the card-based nature of MGA, it was an excellent game and worthy addition to the Metal Gear universe.
Racing? Handhelds this year had some of the best racing games ever created on any platform. Mario Kart DS perfected the greatest kart series of all time, Burnout Legends (PSP) showed that handhelds could deliver an incredible crash-tastic experience as great as that of their console bretheren, Racing Gears Advance showed off the true power of the GBA, and Wipeout Pure was just about as thrilling as high-speed techno-racers can get.
RPGs? The DS and PSP failed miserably in this regard (although the DS did produce the excellent Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time), but the GBA delivered with style, as always. Final Fantasy IV felt as amazing now as it did the first time I ever played it, and I enjoyed it even more in handheld form. Riviera was perhaps the most innovative RPG I've gotten my hands on in the last decade, and had one of the best, most original plots I've seen all year. Fire Emblem 8 proved once more that the FE formula is vastly superior to virtually every other strategy RPG ever created, and delivered an experience unparalleled even by the highly-anticipated Fire Emblem 9 on the Gamecube.
Puzzle games? Meteos and Lumines are (aside from Tetris) the best puzzle games ever made. Nuff said.
Platformers? The DS gave us a massive library of top-notch platformers in sidescrolling finest. With Kirby: Canvas Curse, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Sonic Rush, Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble, Ultimate Spider-Man, and much more, there really was something for everyone. Even the PSP had its own charming Tokobot, which was remarkably fun, albeit short.
Sims? The handheld Sim 2 versions were average at best, but Animal Crossing: Wild World is perhaps the best virtual life game ever created. And Nintendogs is so incredibly realistic that it's downright scary, not to mention that the touchscreen/voice recognition innovation is enough to give me shivers.
Anyhow, in retrospect it wasn't such a bad year after all. I'm just a cranky young scrooge infuriated by the plethora of terrible PC/console games and complete lack of good FPSs/RTSs. The handheld department was so good, however, that it more than made up for this failure. The online play of Socom FTB, Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing WW has been enough to keep me 100% entertained and enthralled.
Lucky for us, things can only get better in 2006, especially considering the incredibly good previews of upcoming titles like Oblivion, Zelda TP, Metroid PH, FFXII, and more!
Merry Christmas and happy new year, everyone!
Log in to comment