I think I’m slowly Getting Over Video Games.
I don’t know if it’s that I’m playing the wrong games or whether the whole medium has become so tedious and homogenised that I’ve lost interest. I’m definitely at odds with popular opinion that’s for sure. If I look at the stack of games in current rotation next to me – NHL 12, Madden 10, UFC Undisputed 3, MotoGP 08, AFL Live, The King Of Fighters XIII, Rugby Challenge – a recurring theme becomes abundantly clear. These are games that aren’t weighed down by a strict narrative, cut scenes or scripted set pieces, they’re games built upon a tightly designed system of rules. Ultimately that’s what a “Game” is, a system within which players participate.
Imagine if a sports game was designed like a modern FPS, where the outcome was always the same, the same players were always injured in the same manner, the same people scored all the goals, and the game is constantly interrupted to show cut scenes of interchanges, substitutions, and the coach chewing you out on the sidelines. Would get pretty boring/frustrating after a while. Doesn’t sound like much of a game now does it?
Sure there would be a micron of difference between each game, you go left instead of right, you fake a shot, or pass to him instead of him. But this would ultimately have no bearing on the game.
This is how I feel about the current state of play.
How did we go from Doom to Call of Duty?
What ever happened to when we talked more about AI than emotions?
How does Max Payne 3 benefit from 4 hours of cut scenes and additional post mortem posturing?
In what world do people applaud the barest of interactivity in something that is supposed to be a game?
I swear people call stuff like LA Noire, To The Moon, Dear Esther and Heavy Rain “video games” out of convenience, rather than challenge the notion that they are in fact not games, and something entirely different.
I feel completely alienated from the whole gaming world. Reviewers and pundits alike applaud and champion things that I’m completely at odds with. And they’ll criticise things that I believe should be nurtured and encouraged. They’ll say shit like “lacks polish” to game with a well designed system that doesn’t use as many polygons and light sources, than something that funnels the player through endless corridors with all the HDRR and megatextures in the world.
Oh well, I guess I wont end up spending as much money as I used to.
reebzblog 