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News New Wolfenstein coming this summer

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 12 Feb 2009.

  1. Phil Rhodes

    Phil Rhodes Hypernobber

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    Further to the above excellent examples:

    Total Annihilation -> Supreme Commander
    Flight sims -> No flight sims, anymore
    Anything that requires more than eight nanoseconds' consideration -> Anything that doesn't
     
  2. eek

    eek CAMRA ***.

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    Personally, I'm trying to move away from PC gaming (such a chore to keep up-to-date!) and am going to jack it all in next month for a PS3 and a Sony P series 'netbook'.

    Can't wait to sit on my comfy sofa, 5 ft from a nice 40" 1080p tv playing games to my hearts content (before anyone starts, I know that most games aren't native 1080p and tend to be scaled up).

    If only the new Total War game was coming to the PS3 I'd be even happier!
    The more games that a cross platform the better (for me, and it is only me I care about after all... :p)
     
  3. Gunsmith

    Gunsmith Maximum Win

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  4. Zurechial

    Zurechial Elitist

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    I think it's fair to say that the media attention that surrounds major pop acts is a chicken & egg scenario. The media focus on major pop acts because they're popular, as much as the pop acts become popular because the media focus on them.

    And to say that Mozart, Beethoven or Bach would be more popular if their songs fit into a radio-friendly 3-minute timeslot just strengthens the very point that I make.
    Planescape Torment is a Beethoven epic, but how do you make something like that the gaming equivalent of 'radio friendly' without taking from it exactly what makes it the classic epic that it is?
    The whole point is that, in my view, the pursuit of mass popularity and huge sales figures has resulted in a watering-down of games, making everything a 'radio friendly' 3-minute product, with quality-control to match, and leaving us with only bitesize morsels of mass-market-friendly gaming excellence, instead of the masterpieces we used to get.


    That's undeniably a factor, but I think it's a symptom of the whole situation. The diehard fans of Fallout would have much preferred to see Fallout 3 made by Interplay, but economics and mass-market dealings meant that Interplay went bust and had to sell the licence on to Bethesda.
    Deus Ex Invisible War was made by the same company, but not by all the same people, and most notably, Warren Spector wasn't heading its development. That's something Joe made a point of informing me on a while ago. ;)
    Bioshock's production was headed by Ken Levine, and interviews with him at the time made it seem like he was out to make another game every bit as good as the System Shock games, yet the end result was a samey shooter with only an imitation of the depth & complexity of the System Shock games, and a rehashed plot ripped straight from System Shock 2, twists and all. Why? My guess is money. (And that's not a slur on his integrity - Who doesn't want to make money? And what developers truly get to express themselves freely without a publisher breathing down their neck? Very few.)

    A few people have suggested to me that it's all part of a cyclical process, and that once graphics in gaming reach their pinnacle, developers will turn again to compelling gameplay, involving plots and well-made, well thought-out games.
    All I can say is I hope so - From what I've seen in other entertainment markets like music and movies, the deeper side of things becomes a niche within the market as a whole, and maybe that will happen with gaming too.
    In the 'good old days' of quality PC gaming the deep, complex classics like Deus Ex, System Shock and Planescape Torment were 'big' in the market, while the market itself was still a niche in real-world terms.
    Now gaming has become a mainstream thing, for everyone from the most typical chav to the bedroom-bound geek, but maybe the market for those kind of classics can be a niche within the greater gaming market when it expands.

    So far the indie market, as much as we'd all like to love and praise it, has produced mostly 'casual' games - The kind that end up on sale on Steam for €10 or show up on XBLA as a novelty, but I hope that maybe the Indie market can spawn the niche I refer to above, away from the colossal sales figures and commercial drive of the major publishing houses.
    There's nothing to suggest that this is even beyond the capabilities of indie developers, since modern indie dev companies are often the same size as typical dev companies 'back in the day'.

    Just as a kind of disclaimer here, before people get the wrong idea about me..
    I don't hate consoles, console games nor console gamers - I have a bunch of consoles right here and I regularly play them alongside my favourite PC games, whether on the original or through emulation.
    I love Japanese RPGs like the Final Fantasy series (almost) as much as I love western classics like Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment.
    I played and enjoyed Halo numerous times from start to finish, I just don't rank it as highly as console gamers tend to.
    I played and (somewhat) enjoyed Gears of War, even if it felt like a cynical product to fit a perceived market of braindead violence-addicts - (And believe me, it kills me to say that about a game headed by CliffyB - That man was one of my heroes as a child, from the days of Jazz Jackrabbit and Unreal)
    I played Bioshock from start to finish (in 2 days, I might add) and thought it was piss-poor. Well-presented, pretty, fun - but ultimately nothing more than a shallow imitation of its predecessor with some shiny water effects and a change in scenery.

    I AM an elitist, I could never deny that - but only in the same sense that I'm an elitist about music, art or any other creative 'product'.
    I don't truly begrudge anyone their taste in games, music or art, even if they think that Gears of War is the best game ever made and that Britney Spears is better than Beethoven - What I do begrudge is the loss of creative freedom and the pursuit of excellence in artforms like gaming because of the influence of money and the drive for the mass-market.
    I'm not going to stop anyone from buying, playing & enjoying the games made for mass market, not even myself, but I will decry the loss of gaming excellence until someone listens.

    And yes, I know that could be a long, long time - But I care about my games.
     
    Last edited: 13 Feb 2009
  5. Gunsmith

    Gunsmith Maximum Win

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    a riviting read, come my bretherin, let us carve this niche in teh fat underbelly of the mass gaming machine and rule the basements with an iron fist of awesomeness.

    viva la reveloution
     
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