Are we victims of game gluttony at the moment?

[Chris_redfield]

Right, I just popped into the pre-orders section of game to make sure I got a pre-order in for the new Street Fighter IV on PS3 so I could get a copy on day of release.

Oh look , Killzone 2 is also available for pre-order as well I've been waiting for that as well so another pre-order.

I then wondered what else was out soon as tbh I have been fairly busy catching up with the sheer amount of games that were out just before christmas (fallout 3 is STILL in its celophane wrapper as I didn't want to start it until finishing the main story mode of Fable 2 and then I got way laid by motorstorm 2, Resistance 2, L4D, C&C RA3, MK VS DC, Dead Space and a few others.)

And then I noticed that Halo Wars (whether it will work or not is still open to debate but as I love the Halo Universe its a pre-order I compulsively have to make.) Warhammer Dawn of War 2 (no one makes RTS titles as good as Relic.) And Resi 5 and Fear 2 will also be gracing shop shelves next month.

Is anyone else starting to get annoyed at the current rate at which devs are churning out qaulity software all of a sudden. I mean last year gamers were giving up the PC as dead for a gaming platform, but all of a sudden not only is Dawn of War 2 set to make an apearance shortly, but Empire Total War will follow very closely behind.

I'm actually starting to wonder whether the current tidal wave of quality titles is going to have a back lash on the industry, as the econmy slows down surely people will start buying fewer games. And if they don't reduce their intake of games surely they will start turning toward the pre-owned titles. Pre-own's are great because they give people a chance to trade and experience more titles, but they are bad because on each subsequent sale of a game the developer doesn't see a penny.

Well, anyway I was also wondering what everyone else is looking forward to playing over the coming months and whether or not I had missed any coming titles. Next month should definately be exciting anyway, if anything just to see whether my head explodes over the difficult decision which game do I play first on the 27th Halo Wars or Killzone 2. One is a re-invention of a much loved universe that I have already inhabited and become familiar with through many hours of single and multiplayer campaigns. The other promises to deliver everything that its predecessor didn't, what could have been essentially one of the greatest FPS's of all time was held back by the PS2's ageing hardware and control system.

Still, chances are I wont play either if I haven't finished Resi 5 on hard by that point. Mind you Resi 5 has the potential to dissapoint not only because it has so much to live up to but because Shinji Mikami is no longer at the helm and also because other recent horror survival titles like Dead Space offered an incredibly exciting and new veiwpoint on the ageing genre (well for games anyway. I can't even begin to comprehend how many times the sci-fi horror in space has been rechewed and spat out for both cinema and literature.)

[Gator!]

go outside.....j/k

[eligray]

Explore older titles. Namely: Red Alert 2

Another game I will love forever: Twisted Metal 3 on the PS1

Some games just stay great...

[Chris_redfield]

Killer;3586322']go outside.....j/k

:rofl:

I love RA2 thats great, I have fond memories of playing that against my freinds at school in the IT room. I never got into twisted metal games tho, I was more into Vigilante 8 on the N64. Great visuals for the time with the expansion pack in the system and the tongue in cheek humor and game-play was a lot of fun.

[PhxProvost]

personally i think its the exact opposite, i have not played a "great" game in quite some time. Fallout 3 was pretty good and kept me going for 3 plays through but the game was so buggy that immersion was nearly impossible. Dead space was ....good except the whole game i felt like i had already played it sorta like a bioshock<>systemshock<>Resident evil hybrid. Mirrors edge...was boring and not what i had expected. L4D is fun when alcohol and friends are thrown into the mix :up: . Dont get me wrong they are all "good" games but i dont see them as "quality" titles. ITs pretty much just sequels being stamped out one after the other with no original IP's in sight :down:

[trueplaya4ever8]

Explore older titles. Namely: Red Alert 2

Another game I will love forever: Twisted Metal 3 on the PS1

Some games just stay great...

Red Alert 2 is still my favorite strategy game... And to me RA3 was utter fail :down:

[Chris_redfield]

I've read nothing but complaints about RA3 but I've been playing that quite a bit at the moment.

I actually think it's quite good. OK its a bit of a removal in terms of style from the original but the cut scenes aren't that bad and remain true to the original and the units are colorful, inventive, but more importantly don't seem imbalanced from what I have played so far. The secondary abilities of the units are quite useful and add an extra layer of depth and its nice to see that, while in essence some of the special abilities may have the same affect across similar unit types from different factions (i.e. clearing a building,) the difference in the animation's never make it boring and make each faction feel distinctive.

The engineers new found ability to use an inflatable dingy is also really useful though his ability to take buildings over straight away with no contest was a bit of a dumb decision. Thankfully though that has been patched.

I understand what you mean PhxProvhos about how every game that comes out at the moment to be a sequel but I don't necassarily think thats a bad thing. Some of the best inventions are a simple re-invention. Take the rubber on the top of a pencil for instance. Someone took what was already a really good design, and improved it. OK there were strong elements of Resi and Bioshock in dead Space, but the setting offered from some truely great set peices and there were some great new additions made to the formulae. The most impressive one I thought was the lack of the HUD. Being able to monitor the characters health, stasis metre, air and ammunition as well as bring up info on computer screens without a HUD not only helped to make the game more immersive but it looked incredible.

It would also be very unfair to accusse Bethseda to having made exactly the same game as Fallout 2 when they made Fallout 3 as well.

And while mirrors edge may not have contained quite the excitement that people were expecting (not got round to getting this one yet. Looking at getting a GTX295 tho so will definately pick it up then as I had a good long play in Gamestation and I thought it was OK.) But its a style of gameplay I have never seen before. Just because its about delivering messages to say it had been done before because Paper Boy was based on the same premise would be a tad unfair.

In fact the most impressive thing I would say about the current market is both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space were Published by EA. The big gaming corporation that gamers love to hate. Well I would say the only company who seems averse to inovation at the moment is Nintendo. Their last brand new IP was pikmin, which while great doesn't make up for the excuse of a console that the Nintendo wii is. 'Ohh look the cursor moves when I waggle the remote how novel, lets buy one!' say the countless droves of morons who think that getting a console with 'big game party,' is a good deal. Don't get me wrong there are a few titles on the wii that I wouldn't mind getting such as Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart, Super Mario Smash Bros Melee and Super Paper Mario, but lets be honest these are hardly worth the £180 price tag of the wii for.

Shigeru Miyamoto stop waving your :banana::banana::banana::banana: in the air pretending it's a wiimote whilst taking the piss out of us gullible westerners for buying tat like 'celebrity sports showdown.' (seriously, avril lavigne playin tennis who the :banana::banana::banana::banana: thinks this :banana::banana::banana::banana: up!) And come up with a brand new ip!

[pphx459]

Funny, just read an article about how many crappy games are out there:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/is-the-wii-failing-to-meet-its-potential-/1281752

[Chris_redfield]

Thats crappy games for the wii though.

All other platforms still have an increasing catalogue of great software whereas the wii had a load of delayed/cancelled GC titles put on it at launch that were OK and no one has really bothered to try and do anything revolutionary with the wii mote other than a retarded party game or stupid lifestyle software that tells you it can improve your physique or brain.

Every week I wonder into game and peruse the wii shelves because as an obsessive compulsive completes who already owns all the other consoles of this generation I would like to get one to complete the set but there are only a handful of games that I would play and even I wont justify that kind of purchase at that kind of price.

While the wii may have shored up Nintendo's financial situation which lets face it was starting to look a little unstable going through the gamecubes life cycle it has done nothing for their artistic out put. Whereas I would argue that all the other platforms are firing on all cylinders, and I think this year should be a very interesting one for the PC, 360 and PS3. If god really does exist Nintendo will announce the Gamecube 2 because the original was starved of software was killed off in favour of a childish parlour trick that really hasn't revolutionized anything.