A different take on E3 07

[Arcmanov]

Here's a decidedly controversial opinion on the state of the big three (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo), in the wake
of the mega showcase that was E3 2007.

The gaming world is changing. There are many people out there playing games today, who did not play games a few years ago. The gaming world is more diverse, it has different requirement and needs. Yet Microsoft and especially Sony appear to be stuck in the past and the today. Listening to the Sony keynote today and what the PS3 will bring, then I now know that it will mostly bring a lot of bloody games. The more bullets and the more blood, the better.

Wow.  Stuck in the PAST!!?   
It's a good thing there aren't people like this chap working in the gaming industry.

Your thoughts?     (Especially Shivadee.  I REALLY need to read your comments on this)

[TrinireturnofGamez]

He IS right to an extent . Little effort has been made to raise the bar for gaming, we still play the same basic FPS with sh!tty storyline, shooting aliens in dark corridors as we did 17 years ago with Doom. ( Doom III, Quake 4.. Prey even though i liked it , dark corridors are BORING)    For the most part you might get ONE or TWO innovative features in each game eg. walk on ceiling..
 
But its all basically the same sh!t more or less . We still stuck with the wheel when i'm sure we are capable of building a jet engine , you can pimp that wheel out all you want, it still does the same thing.
   
  Building on Franchises like Halo , Metroid , Madden NFL etc. are safe investments of money but for the gamer (at least me) it means a high level of mediocrity...

For example  , I had borrowed my friends gamecube hoping metroid prime 1 & 2 would keep me occupied for the vacation , but after an hour each i got fedup... Its the same thing as the 2d Snes and Nes games,  collecting powerups and revealing whatever weak storyline they built the game on .
 Now ordinarily i would have no problem killing time that way.. but i have lessons to go to , girls to track and better FPS on my PC to play.. so i returned his gamecube within a few days.

     The bar for gaming needs to be raised and the big companies , with the exception of Nintendo in a small way, aren't doing so . Personally , I want to see more innovative FPS with engrossing storylines , better RPGs that dont' come out of the Final Fantasy or Dungeons and Dragons cookie cutter , and innovative MMORPGs... e.g. Massively Multiplayer Fighting games or FPS where you have to help your race conquer a planet.

I had a talk with shiv on a similar note.. i think he'd agree with what i said .

[BloodWar]

Ok i dont agree completely i think they are moving forward i just think its moving so slowly its hard to notice. But for one im glad to see COD stop the WWII storyline i hated that shiz. However i never found anything wrong with final fantasy and i dont know if u meant we need more good rpgs besides that line, or that line sux lol.

I actually like the alien storylines in FPS although i think they need alot of work its better than fighting humans lol ( sometimes since more abilities/sizes/shapes ). But as for originality Assassins Creed looks awesome and although the fighting engine doesnt look very advanced the story looks original and the gameplay looks great. Maybe we just have to wait a little longer into the consoles lifespans to get more original and better gameplay.

[shivadee]

I understand what the writers is saying but he hasn't gotten his point accross quite clearly. Its always an opinion someone has. What he is doing is comparing the success and games of the Wii to that of the 360 and PS3. In other words the "future" of gaming is the games aimed at those that are not hardcore gamers.
The Gears of War, Killzone 2 and such games are meant for the hardcore community. A newcommer to games, which is the untapped game market, and the ONLY way the industry can expand, cannot pick this game up and start playing it. however they can pick up a Wii as most people know already and have read countless times.

Honestly in a sense he is right. I was quite bored of watching the Demo's video's shown by the companies at this E3. there was NO gameplay or hardly any atall. COD4 yes and a few others, but i mean.......meh. Killzone 2? I saw one stage, a set of what looked like pre rendered lightning and stuff and....thats it. It looked GREAT, but as in something to immerse you...neh. How many times have we see then "drop em in hard combat from the beginnning" scenario.....TOO many times...no point or reason for it either. For someone like myself and others here on GATT playing games for the better half of 23 years we can see innovation a mile away, and we dont realy REALLY see it here. We see realy nice graphics, we see tight gameplay, but innovation, that is something lacking....severely.

Im not saying for everyone to jump on the Wii style gameplay atall. Actually LIVE and Playstation Store handle the retro/newcommer gaming just fine.  You can download PacMan, Geometry Wars and some simple 2 button arcade style games on both networks and play them on your console. It kills 2 birds with one stone in a sense. But the fact of innovation still remains. In other words, that isnt inovation, thats just old school.

I finally managed to get a Wii and got all 3 consoles to be honest

1. I play my 360 off and on....but not as much as I would like.
2. Only Ps2 games are in my PS3
3. My Wii is awesome and i get a great workout playing Wii Sports but I havent gotten time to get new games for it.
(dont tell me what to get like you think you know-please save yourself the trouble )

I know allot of GATTers love their FPS, Kaizen being one, who has to play every.....single FPS out there.....good or bad

Personally I like GOOD games, Im not stuck in any one genre so im always looking for a game with gameplay that is innovative, something that could be a jumping off point for other games. I have not seen that in a while

However, this Darkness game seems to have twisted my arm, I have it rented from gamefly and will check it out. I understand its very short and the online is rubbish, but nonetheless Im looking for innovation, I just what to see what it can do. Its the ideas im looking for in games

ANOTHER thing....moving forward is all about change. And people dont like to change. they like a certain style of gameplay and really dont want to switch to something new. To innovate you then have to bring something out that is worthy of change and then something that will beat the current state or bar to be crossed.

WWII games are fine, the problem is people hate them not because there are so many, its because they all look the same. How many times you mix up Medal of Honor and Call of Duty in a convo....."oh sh!t yea yea COD" But you wont mix up something like Resistance, which is a WW2 based (sortof) but COMPLETELY different in most aspects.

Assassins Creed i have high expectations for, but was sortof dissapointed.. The gameplay needs some SERIOUS refinement, they need to work VERY hard on the AI mechanics as well. Enemies were not teaming, and waiting one at a time to attack your character. They mentioned that sepparate buttons were used to use feet and hand mechanics in the game to alow more control of your character. honestly I think it has complicated the game, Now Assassins creed is deffinitely aimed at a hardcore audience, so you can have complexity.

Heavenly Sword I hope is COMPLETELY revamped. The gameplay is fine but what I think will DEFINE this game is the storyline, which i HOPE is compelling. they have something here, they have a storyline here that is VERY good. The graphics, technology, gameply here can make a TREMENDOUS story that will take the God of War style gameply and blow it out of the water. I hope they get this right.

Again....innovation. Innovation fails and succeeds all the time. I idea is ALWYS there and its BRILLIANT on paper....when applied and after going through developers......crap happens. Its how the industry is. Games fail because people follow a generic "we can at least get back the money spent" route...but never to advance the industry.

[BloodWar]

 Ok did u manage to see echo chrome? now thats inovation lmao. I personally dont like most of the games on wii id prefer my bloody FPS my Final Fantasy and Metal Gear and such and although i agree it wont appeal to new gamers im not a new gamer so it doesnt bother me lol.
 Anyways i think new gamers are usually brought in by the older gamers like my little cousins started playing ps2 by me and now they are lvl game piongs lol. I think sony and xbox are expecting it to work out like that and maybe thats why they dont try to hard for new gamers.

[Synchronomyst]

Synchronomyst's short opinion:

It's clear to me that all three of them have made good and bad decisions this generation. However, above all, Nintendo is -pointing- towards the future on console gaming this generation far more than the other companies which are very much using the same formulaic approach from the beginning of the "console wars". If you don't agree you're wrong; the figures alone speak for themselves. You must notice that this is a sentiment in not only within industry, but also in mainstream media. Mainstream media's perception is important from an economic standpoint because mainstream coverage, propagation and perception allows the market to expand and ultimately, these three companies all desire to make money ahead of making games. However, again, the future isn't in the binds of visuals and photo-realism; in fact, that's very much passe right about now and some people don't even know it. The future hinges on creativity of design and immersion and interactivty. Graphics (and sonics) only assist immersion. With the current method being employed by some developers the market was bound to become stale to all but the avid gamer and the hardcore gamer.

Nintendo lucked out this rounds...but if they aren't bloody careful they'll be left behind once more. It's not all about untapped markets and all that bulls**t their press machine keeps spewing. Everything and every group matters when you're making a console.

[BloodWar]

 I agree everyone and every group matters but as for saying nintendo's figures point out that they are  pointing to the future i disagree i think the figures are just saying that yes more people are trying gaming but although nintendo is selling the most consoles its not selling as much games as the 360 and i guess ps3 still doesnt have any really good titles so i cant compare to them till late this year.
 
I believe that if u say graphics is not needed thats your opinion and i disagree i prefer that graphics and inovation go hand in hand. Honestly i didnt buy a wii cuz id prefer not to play a downgraded version of games that are on the other consoles and although i love mario and zelda ive not seen any other titles on wii that really make wanna buy it.
 
Dont get me wrong i think the wii is a great idea to bring in new people into the industry but i have been in the industry a while and im more into some games with decent stories difficult gameplay and such. And besides my 10 yr old cousin plays ps2 and ps3 just fine lol he owns in ratchet and clank lol. There are alot of platformers on ps for the kids so i dont really see a problem.

[Synchronomyst]

"figures are just saying that yes more people are trying gaming but although nintendo is selling the most consoles its not selling as much games as the 360"

Less titles available. Fewer 'killer aps'. 360 has been out for over a year.

"ps3 still doesnt have any really good titles so i cant compare to them till late this year."

Well yeah. They're coming...but I really do think the 360 has a stranglehold on that slice of the market.

"I believe that if u say graphics is not needed thats your opinion and i disagree i prefer that graphics and inovation go hand in hand."

Re-read my post. You've incorrectly interpreted what I've said. By a long shot. I said photo-realism is not the future of gaming.

[shivadee]

photo-realism vs game physics. If it looks just slightly unreal in physics movement....it fails. Lots to do still in that department
The lastest with graphics or animation is characters and skin and lighting.
In other words, parts of the skin like ears, edges of fingers etc etc where light can go through or look "red" on. Without that the skin, vein detail still looks rubbery.

[BloodWar]

Re-read my post. You've incorrectly interpreted what I've said. By a long shot. I said photo-realism is not the future of gaming.

yeah im sorry i mis interpreted i agree i dont think photo realism is the future of gaming either.

[BloodWar]

here's a question:

how do you make a title in an existing Genre more innovative? eg FPS

FPS really aint got much to do so i say story needs work, graphics, Make enemies different cuz alot of times enemies are just bigger u kill em same way, Make blood look awesome ( for more information view killzone 2 trailer ) hmm not much in a FPS but there is room for improvement.

OH! and add injuries like for shooting in arms legs etc.

[shivadee]

FPS is usally where you see the "cutting edge" graphics taking place. There are 1 or 2 very very good FPS games that come out with something new in them but mostly its a company showing of the game engine...which later sells to other companies. The FPS game is usually the promo for the engine.

[BloodWar]

i think what will sell first person shooters more are some new multiplayer modes because everything else is basically done ( other than graphics ) there was this mode in unreal i forgot name its kinda like a football now that was awesome .

[BloodWar]

Bombing Run!!!!

yeah now thats what i call making a fps awesome .