The Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii... awesome consoles yes? Two of them are starting to push graphics that rival real life in some cases. This is both a good, and bad thing. I will explain why, IMO, that this is so, and also give my opinion on this generation overall.
Good- we have games that are competing with say, Pixar movies, in terms of graphics. Look at Ratchet & Clank. People that have dreamed of playing RPGs in more than blocky characters can finally do that. Shooters are still on top of their game in terms of always pushing the edge of graphics further, look at Crysis.
However, all these games trying to mimic real-life for graphics is bringing up a bad trend: developers and publishers are expecting us to fork over 60$ or more for games that will last you only around 6 hours unless you are a completionist and have to get all the achievements, trophies, secrets, unlocks, and spend lots of time on mutliplayer. Of course not every game follows this, I was merely using it as an example.
Some key titles have garnered tremendous hype before release, yet when I go into a GameStop or other local used game places, I see copies of that said game already on the used shelf only a few days later. Was there so much hype that people came away disappointed? Or do some people buy a game, beat it, then take it back?
This gen seems to be all about graphics and little gameplay. A lot of games are all trying to do the same thing: look very real. Where is the art form? The unique-looking graphics? Hell, the uniqueness period? Mind you im mostly an RPG player so when it comes to other genres my opinions are probably off. Most of the games today are not new ideas, merely changes on old formulas, sequels, rehashes, or the next annual re-release of a franchise. Guess what EA, football doesnt change much if at all from year to year. Very little seems to be new and unique.
Onto consoles. This gen seems like its the gen of screwing over the early buyers. I dont mean the gradual improvements to hardware as time passes, and the eventual price cuts, because thats always how technology goes. What I mean is the hard drive problem. Microsoft started it with the Xbox 360: you could get a drive-less console, or one with an HDD. Drives for the 360 started out at 20gb, and are at 120gb now, and will get bigger in the future. The huge issue with this is that M$ in their infinite wisdom decided to put a standard laptop drive into a proprietary case and then turn around and expected people to pay an arm and two legs for them to buy them not pre-attached to a console. $150 for a 120gb drive, are you insane?? I would very much like to upgrade my 20gb drive, but with prices like that why dont i wait until 360's are down to $200 with a big drive, and I will get better hardware in the process.
Luckily Sony countered that gripe with making the drives user-upgradable. But the bad thing about the PS3 is that it was one of the most expensive consoles in gaming history at launch. Why? Because of the blu-ray disc drive. Im still not sure why it was needed in the system. Look at games that are on both 'HD consoles' and there is almost no difference between the two in terms of graphics. Yet the PS3 games come on a higher capacity media, that is supposed to be better for games, but I bet you that most of the games on the system, you are paying for mostly empty space on the disc. Then Sony had the foresight to kill BC on the console by gutting the EE/GS chip. So it's the newer buyers getting screwed in this case. However most people own a PS2 already so this fact doesnt matter unless one really cares about BC.
Using a controller like a steering wheel was new and awesome on the Wii's launch right? Who didnt want to game while standing up and swinging the remote like a sword? You were lucky to see a Wii sitting on a shelf for about two years after launch, it was that popular. Now the gripe about the Wii im sure you all know: graphics. It's passable to the first Xbox but no where near the other two current systems in terms of power. And now we are in a situation where the system's library is full of crap and shovelware with only a few titles here and there that stand out. Unless a Wii is all you own, it's probably been collecting a lot of dust lately. And what is this friend code garbage? I really hope that next gen Nintendo wont be so afraid of graphics and online.
This may seem long-winded and probably whiny, but I hoped to shed some light on this gen and how I feel about it. There are many feelings i just cant shake off and most games these days Im not walking away completely satisfied like I was with the Playstation 2. Now there is all this new motion tech due out next year that is supposed to revolutionize things. Is this going to be true, or will it end up just being another fad?
On the portable front I have little to complain about actually. The DS is fun and has a big library of games of all genres. The PSP is finally starting to get more games than crummy ports. I think that Sony needs to stop making a new model of the portable though every six months. And let's not forget the mistake called the PSP GO!. Almost no one that already has a PSP will want to make the switch, since Sony has said there will be no UMD 'trade in' program. So guess what, you are going to have to buy all your games over again if you do want to 'upgrade' at the price Sony dictates. They are definately trying to fight the used game market. Everyone already knows the insane MSRP on the Go so no need to touch on that again here.
Give me a regular controller and good gameplay. Spend more time developing the story and quality rather than trying to push polygons and see how many people you can get into paying 60$ for something you can finish in a day. I wouldnt necessarily mind that price if the games lasted a good while and had decent replay value. Game on.
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