Its finally happened.

Posted on April 25, 2008
Filed Under Games, Rants |

I have become disillusioned with videogames. I can hear the gasps now.

I have a lot of games at my disposal, available to play at any time on either my PC or my 360, but none seem to be hittng the right buttons any more. I yearn for something different, something new and innovative. All the RTS’s I play seem very samey at the moment; build a base, build an army, attack, repeat as needed. It doesn’t matter what extra frippery is tacked on the basic premise is the same. The same with FPS’s; the scenery is different but the motions are identical.

The stories are still, for the most part, tacked on and half thought out; with plots and characters which would tax the credulity of a child. A notable exception being Call of Duty 4. I want depth, drama and emotion in my games and not simply a series of explosions, gunfights and clichés.

MMO’s are not the breeding grounds of innovation that many think they are, maybe when they first appeared but now it seems that its the same old mechanics being reused over and over. Leveling, grinding, collect x of y from monster z quests and crafting were all great things when they were new but now that everyone is doing them they’ve lost their shine. I want to create believable characters, not superhuman, super-attractive, perfect specimens of whatever race I happen to choose.

I want real choices, which I don’t know I’m making. I want my actions to have a wider impact than the next thirty seconds of gameplay. i want more flexibility, no more simply choosing a side, race or class and letting that define how I play the game. If I want to field an army of rabid exploding ferrets in my RTS then I should be able to. Balance be damned.

I’m not asking for greater realism, that would be silly. The point of games is to be unreal, flights of fancy which let us escape from our humdrum lives for a few brief minutes. There is a need in me for unrestricted freedom in the games that I play. I want choice and variety in spades. For example, in an FPS I’d like to be able to break down any door, climb any mountain, hop over that irritating barbed wire fence, which even though it is only waist height, I can’t get over. Most of all I want something different.

There is only one game on the horizon which seems to promise this kind of freedom but using the inverse law of video game hype, I don’t think that it’s going to deliver. Spore is the name of the game and its due out in September.

If anyone has any suggestions of games which might rekindle my interest and give new life to the gamer within, let me know in the comments.

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Comments

5 Responses to “Its finally happened.”

  1. FoxTwo on April 27th, 2008 9:00 pm

    Heh sounds like you need to get into RPGs instead of MMOs :) Stuff like Oblivion or Morrowind.

    By the way, COD4 is too dang short. Took me only 5 hours to complete the single player “campaign”. Really I did (Pictorial proof).

  2. mandrill on April 27th, 2008 11:39 pm

    I’ve played Oblivion, Both Neverwinter Nights, both KotORs, and many others. Oblivion didn’t grab me, it was very pretty and the possibilities were staggering but I lost interest quite quickly.

    As to giving up MMOs, I think that their social side is what keeps me coming back to them. The fact that you cannot predict what other players are going to do most of the time is what intrigues me, even if the world itself stays relatively static.

    Yes Call of Duty 4 was short, I’ll give you that, but I found the narrative and drama compelling and gripping. I actually felt for the characters and had a lump in my throat at the end.

    I should maybe get straight in my head what I would want in my perfect game before I rant about how no-one is making it.

    I may revisit some of the RPG’s I’ve played and see if I can eke some more entertainment out of them.

  3. greetje on April 30th, 2008 2:14 pm

    I heard someone yesterday evening saying about the same.

    I’ll tell him about your blog.

  4. Osama on May 6th, 2008 9:47 pm

    I couldn’t agree more. I loved Assassin’s Creed because it was (more or less) different. Fine, it was repetitive at the end, but some games are repetitive from the get-go! I loved Portal. Short and Sweet. Dead Rising was a pleasure too. Not many games like that. Good story telling and a-typical presentation.

    Otherwise? We have to sail in a sea of clones. That’s gaming life I guess.

  5. mandrill on May 6th, 2008 11:13 pm

    There are other seas though, unexplored waters of amusement where few have ventured. I have made it my goal to find these mysterious waters and harvest their bounty.

    There be games out there that no man has ever seen…

    A bit overly dramatic perhaps but you get the point.

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