Whenever I see another Wii game, or any other casual game, trying to make more sales by featuring a picture of mom or grandma playing the game, I'm constantly reminded of how powerful the casual audience has become; there are just too many to ignore. And this is inevitably shaping today's game industry, and I don't like the way it's going.
To make more money off of this massive audience, more and more developers are trying to make more (and not necessarily better) casual games that can appeal to the normal, non-gamer audience. And by doing so, the quality of games is lowered. For a longest time, people relied on market's competitiveness to advance the market forward, resulting better and better games. But if there's just so many not-so-well-informed consumers eating up any trash games devs put out, who'd try hard to create a triple-A, high-quality title costing them a pile of gold in developing it?
Game has been nothing more than toy as long as humanity existed. Now that we've developed technology to finally thrust game forward and turn it into something more meaningful, we're suddenly struck with this very distracting second renaissance of casual games. I just hope the troubling situation of today's Japanese game development doesn't become a global trend.
Below is the list of all the game systems and titles I own. I'll be updating this list as I acquire new titles, and also link any of my own reviews if and when I write them.
Microsoft Xbox 360:
Armored Core 4
Armored Core: For Answer
Assassin's Creed
Blue Dragon
Braid
Call of Duty 4
Castle Crashers
Chromehounds
Clive Barker's Jericho
Dead Space
Fable 2 Limited Edition
Forza Motorsport 2
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Hail To The Chimp
Hexic
The Last Remnant
Lost Odyssey
Mass Effect
Mirror's Edge
Project Sylpheed
Rez HD
Soul Calibur 4
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent
Tom Clancy's EndWar
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Sony PlayStation 2:
Ace Combat 5
Final Fantasy XII
Guitar Hero 3: Legend of Rock
Killzone
Odin Sphere
Okami
Musashi Samurai Legend
Persona 3: FES
Persona 4
Prince of Persia: Sand of Time
Shadow of Colossus
Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
PC:
Diablo II
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Longest Journey
Starcraft
Starcraft: Brood War
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
Hmm, I thought I had more games than this. Am I missing any games that I should play or own?
I was one of them who were really interested in these videos that compare graphics of each system when a multi-platform game is released. But that quickly grew old, as there isn't really a notable difference to be found--developers quickly mastered working on each platforms, and most multi-platform games are pretty non-differentiable. Here's what I had to say to GameTrailer's Street Fighter IV PS3/360 Comparison Video:
I strongly doubt these videos will do anything more than starting yet another fanboyism war.
The difference between the consoles will be drawn not by 3rd party, multi-platform games, but by exclusive titles like inFamous. Because those are the ones that will really try to take advantage of a given platform.
That said, I think there will be more PS3 exclusives in the future, given that their hardware spec and architecture can provide some extra juice. 360 being easy to work on, any 3rd party game on 360 will also come out on PS3, unless Gabe Newell's behind it. :PTo MS's credit, since they have price advantage, they can retire their machine earlier and introduce another, more powerful system that can top PS3's power, and go ahead in the race while Sony's still tied to that system since they need to make up for the dev cost and all.
So, GT.com, you can stop making these pointless video.
I am with a lot of people who backs Dead Space, and that length of a game does not define its quality.
While we would love never-ending stream of content with great gameplay to occupy our time, the audience of today's games is growing up. More and more are getting jobs and starting families. And thus, shorter games that packs tight and deep content are thriving over ridiculously (in my opinion) long games of the past.
For instance, I used to love playing RPG games like FF series that took above 40~50 hours to finish. But now, with a job, I just don't have time for games like that. It's taking me months to finish Lost Odyssey right now. And do I think that drawn-out-to-death playtime necessary? Absolutely not. They could've cut so many parts and end up with much much tighter and cohesive story, and ultimately, overall fun.
I think Dead Space got it right. It's pace, playtime, everything was right on the target, and I hope more games like that comes out.
With the release of highly-anticipated installment of overly-popular Halo franchise, Halo Wars, a heated discussion has been resumed: "Is PC's control of keyboard and mouse superior to that of the console systems', and are they necessary to enjoy games?" Well, I think that's an obnoxious hardheadedness to hold on to the way it is and has been in the past. Thinking everything is flowing and evolving, and that we should evolve with it, I've posted the following comment on Wired magazine's review of Halo Wars.
Of course, there is a sense of achievement for those who has time, energy and money to invest on a decent PC to enjoy games on it. But not everyone has that kind of free resources. No, MOST people don't. Shifting of games' preferred platform from PC to consoles is just another step of this industry's evolution. It does so to expand and flourish.
That said, I think RTS genre will also evolve to accomodate console systems' (somewhat limited) controls to provide as fun and rich experience as PC games with mouse and keyboard controls. I think EndWar shows it pretty well. I think it was a great first step towards this. No economy, more tactic.
And let's stop to kid ourselves. We call RTS games RTS just because we've been calling it that, not because they truly involve "strategy" in any meaningful way. Every game is tactic with mechanically glued-on microeconomy. So, don't start arguing EndWar-like RTS games without "real" economy system are not TRUE RTS games.
So, my point is, today's RTS games on console is just a start. If you want to hold onto your dear PC and your futile stubborness, brace yourself. You'll see a flood of games like that in future.
Here is a comment I left on Giant Bomb's Quick Look video feature of Halo Wars. Below the video, numerous users has expressed their negative thoughts about RTS games being developed for console systems, and that they must stay on PC where the complex controls enable gamers to battle with precision and fast-response. Seeing this as a mere resistance to change, I expressed my thought against them.
Wow, anybody who bashes console's capability to house decent RTS games fail big time, in my view.
You seem to forget that historically, there were hardcore fans of specific portion of games that clung to the traditional style of gaming, trying to resist change. And what happened? Things kept changing and they had to move on. Adapt.
Today's no-RTS-on-console argument is just the same, I think. As hardcore games evolved to become (in hardcore gamer's point of view) easier to accomodate not-so-hardcore gamers to enjoy, RTS games will also do the same to survive. I think EndWar is a great example (not sure how well it's doing. Haven't pop that thing in 360 in a while). It enables gamers to show skill in managing troops, yet it perfectly utilizes consoles unique control scheme. And it is very enjoyable, too.
The notion that a RTS game has to be based on economy, base-building, and unit control is just about to become passe. Just as "having to retry 100 times or more to finish a game" became a thing of the past.
NPD charts are unavoidable. They're released monthly, and when it does, each and every news outlet out there, be it a magazine, a news website, or even a blog, seems to write it up as if it's an obligation. So, failing to avoid the unavoidable, I took a look at this month's chart and found it very un-surprising; Wii-whatever is on the top! Just like last month, and few dozen months before it.
Then, I thought:
Maybe, just maybe, the reason Nintendo's flagship titles* sell like crazy is because their games are not really "games" at all. *I mean Wii-Fit, Wii-Play, Wii-Music and stuff like that, not their traditional major titles like Zelda.
This theory comes from my belief that gamers who're in gaming for epic experiences are still a minority in this stinking world, that even with stellar technological and artistic achievements numerous titles contributed, the term "video game" is still mentioned as a degrading, childish play-thing ..thing. So, whatever that will go beyond the usual nerdy audience and reach out to the "normal," busy people with real lives will inevitably float to the top of the charts. And this is where Nintendo seems to excel.
Of course, I don't have a Wii and only had some playtime with it prior to the release of the balance board. So, you can and probably should take whatever I say here with a grain of salt.
But just look at that damn thing. It's a board you stand on and some simple instructions on the screen for exercising. Yes, excercising! It's not really something where a "player" "plays" it to enjoy the experience (by this I mean characters, stories, and interaction between players and characters). And besides this instructional program, the only thing that can be considered "game" are some extras that can barely be called games.
Let's think about the majority of people who buys Wii and Wii-Fit. Without any scientific data to back my theory, I say they are some average Joe who enjoys drinking beer, going out to movies, watch television, and only when friends come over does he fire this Wii up for maybe an hour of laughs and happy happy time. Is this what I consider a gamer? They are as much a gamer as bleak a game Wii-Fit is, if you ask me.
This is why I think NPD should not include Wii-Fit, Wii-Play, or any other so-called "casual" games in the same chart as games that traditional gamers, who enjoy games for game's sake, plays.
And when we do that, and start counting casual games seprately from traditional games, I bet there isn't as much expansion in the market as there is heralded to be.
Now, please sit back and enjoy this promotional video of the popular *tiny pause for dramatic effect* Wii-Fit:
