Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wait, Haven't I Played This Already?

"Thank you sir, may I have another?" by Micheal Abbot, The Brainy Gamer

So, for the past few days, I've been mesmerized by all those sweet, sweet trailers and gameplay footages of exciting and adrenaline pumping action filled games shown at E3 2009. I guess this is precisely why I failed to really understand why I responded to each of big press conferences in the way I did. When I read the post I've linked above, it hit me: Everything shown here at E3 is pretty much the same thing I've enjoyed so far.

As Micheal puts, "[i]t's pretty much one male power fantasy game after another (featuring, by the way, powerful white guys presented on stage by loquacious white guys to an audience of mostly white guys.) Awe-inspiring technology aside, it's hard to see where the progress is." High-powered action FPS? Check. Brutal stealth game? Check. Cool cars? Check. How about meaningful, touching, and deep drama that reveals something about ourselves? Um.... not check.

As you can see, the line up of titles at the conferences tell what kind of audience they had in each hall: as Micheal quotes Heather Chaplin's rant at GDC, "[they] aren’t men. [They] are stunted adolescents." And thus, each companies showcased toys that'd make them go awe and yay about.

When I finished Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I was truly satisfied; it was the pinnacle of what today's video game experience can bring about. However, it was released already two year ago, and I moved on. I want to see something different now. But Moden Warfare 2 demo, while intriguing, didn't seem like a full sequel; with same gameplay mechanics, it was more of an expansion pack.

The change I want is not here.. ..yet, I hope.

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