The Gaming Trends (rants)

[Evi]

Actually, the last sales figures posted were 15.5 million for Xbox and 15.2 million for Gamecube as of June of this year.

That looks like a dead heat to me...

I hate a game that has absolutely no cheats that you can activate to enjoy the game more after you beat it once. Some games have things to unlock, which is fine, but not having EITHER is just incredibly annoying. Of course...then there\'s GameShark and CodeBreaker...but you know what I mean.

Short games bother me, as well. For example...not only was Devil May Cry 2 incredibly disappointing and utterly crappy, I beat both discs in under 6 hours. WTF? The puzzles were lame, the bosses were gay, and the overall experience left me with a heated rage of homicidal fantasies...and stuff.

Thanks for the clarification, Ginko, and for driving my point home.

I know that Xbox has the clear advantage over the \'Cube in the west, but it still bothers me how one competitor gets ignored while it continues to house some of the best of the best.

[Living-In-Clip]

I am tired of consoles thinking they have to do more than games. I don\'t want a system that does more than play games, it only leads to shoddy support. I point to the PS2\'s problem with DVD playback. I don\'t want systems with gimmicks (Nintendo DS). I want a system, that does nothing, but play games (NGC).

Just providing the facts, not sure what point you were getting at.

Nintendo isn\'t making any noise, how do they expect to be heard?

Nintendo carved their own little niche in the market and they\'ll be stuck there until they start taking some risks.  I think the DS was a major risk but it\'s been very well received so far, I\'m hoping the Revolution will be met with similar praise and reception.  I also hope Nintendo grows some hair on their balls and come up with some new franchises.  I can honestly say I don\'t care about the next Mario game, I\'m also not as excited for the new Zelda game (I\'m sure it will be great) as I am for new games like Jade Empire(Xbox) and God of War(PS2).

In the column I write every week, I mention all the systems. Heh, once someone said they noticed a Nintendo bias and I had to make sure to cover PS2 and Xbox more.

Lately I\'ve covered the DS obviously. I wrote about the EyeToy game Sega Superstars for Sunday\'s issue.

But I agree with the FPS trend. I haven\'t seen a first-person shooter that\'s inspired me since 007. Even Doom 3 just looked like a pretty version of every other generic shooter. And from what I understand, it was met with about as much praise.

Half-Life is the only one I don\'t know much about, but I do know that Halo doesn\'t do it for me, except for its co-op mode.

Co-op play is at least creative, and that\'s what this tired genre strongly needs.

I\'ve mentioned Geist before and how they\'ve added a few elements to that. But I don\'t know what it\'ll take to get me back into the genre.

Another trend no one mentioned is the shameless port trend. I\'m kind of sorry I picked up Mario 64 DS, for instance. It\'s too been-there-done-that.

I kind of wish I had picked up another title for the DS launch. I got Feel the Magic, at least, but maybe I should\'ve gone with Spiderman or something.

Ports are ok when they\'re inexpensive and as part of a collection.

-Dan

I\'m kind of going off the thread subject here.. but..

Eik: SM64DS was probably a lot better than any of the Mario Advance games, in value at the very least.

Obviously it\'s been-there/done-that for those of us who were gaming in 1996-1997 when the game was new, but considering the price, the amount of content (even without the 24+ stylus mini-games) and the fact that a minority of the DS\'s audience (adults included) have actually played the original game through.. I think Nintendo made a wise choice.

A new adventure would\'ve been better. I\'m peeved at Nintendo for not providing one on the GBA. (Wario Land 4 is great but not SMW3)

SM64DS brings a hell of a lot more to the table than SMA1-4 and SMB:Deluxe combined. New characters, new areas, 30 new stars. The GBA titles only had Mario Bros as an extra. Don\'t even get me started on the comparison between the GBA\'s NES Classic series versus SM64DS. $20 for Donkey Kong versus $30 for SM64DS.. which should I buy?

[Living-In-Clip]

I think the problem with handhelds as of late has been lack of original content. Honestly, Nintendo has banked on ports for the GBA and it already appears they are looking for the ports on the Nintendo DS.  From what I have seen from the PSP, Sony also seems to be banking on ports (Gran Turismo, etc).  I am not saying that there is not original content on handhelds, (Castle vania series on GBA!), but there does seem to be a lack of good original content.


As for the FPS, I would say the only true fun and intentive FPS as of late would be Half-Life . No, not even Half-Life 2, which is a fine game, but not nearly as breakthrough as the original was. Playing through Half-Life:Source, I can still apperciate what this game brought to the genre, something that I can\'t say for Doom 3, Far Cry or even Half-Life 2.

Lastly, slightly off-topic, but back onto the Nintendo DS, does anyone else get the impression that Nintendo is not really truly behind the system? Maybe it was the lack of launch hype, maybe it was the lack of launch titles, but I get the feeling that Nintendo is not quite sure what to do with the system, it\'s the same feeling I got when the Virtual Boy launched. And in the end, I think it may face the same problem. The very thing that makes the system so special, is something magazines can\'t actually show per say.

Good point, LiC. Really you have to play the DS to "get" what it\'s all about. Screenshots didn\'t really do anything for me.

I definitely had that feeling. I played the MP:H demo on a kiosk.. and I felt pretty "meh" afterwards about the touch-screen.  Only when I got home and plugged in SM64DS and started playing some touch-screen mini-games did I really understand. Right off the bat I was giggling like a schoolgirl at the Draw a Picture segment!

The touch-screen is really useful for bringing more advanced software to the handheld platform.. but I don\'t expect every game to be super-original with full use of the system\'s "gimmick" as it were.

It\'s not actually a gimmick, but if we don\'t see some game balance (i.e. less PS1/N64 ports) then it might actually go there.

Pick up Feel the Magic.

It bucks another trend that we\'re talking about, the lack of originality.

For software, Nintendo was always creative, but now there\'s very little in the way of fresh ideas coming from them. Even with the DS, Sega is the one showing it off best.

I look to Sega and with games like Prince of Persia and Viewtiful Joe, Ubisoft and Capcom to lead the way to innovative titles.

Silicon Knights was inspired with Eternal Darkness, but they don\'t produce much, and the MGS port was certainly nothing original.

-Dan

[§ôµÏG®ïñD]

how people bytch about games and hardware...  Why isn\'t it just, if you don\'t like it, don\'t buy it. If theres a feature u don\'t like. Heres a idea, don\'t use it.  



nuff said.

Nintendo can still be imaginative. Paper Mario 2 is a good example of that.

Although.. it\'s becoming tougher and tougher for everybody to be original today, Nintendo and Sega included.