A few minutes ago, I had a 3-hour marathon of House of the Dead: Overkill with my brother. And you know what? We has a blast, we has a real f***ing blast and enjoyed yourselves a lot through the whole game. That (as well as finishing No More Heroes last week) remembered me of something I has known for quite a while, but hadn't thought about recently: how I wished more games nowadays didn't take themselves so goddamn seriously. I wish they could once again remember what they really are: just games.
Ever since systems like the Sega CD, Saturn and PSX started pushing optical media for games, lots of things changed. Games now could have FMV scenes, full-voiced dialogue, CD-audio music, a whooping lot more space available, and lots of other neaty stuff. That made possible more ambitious and intricate projects as well as stories in games, such as the cinematique Metal Gear Solid, the Jill-Sandwichy background pre-rendered Resident Evil and the 3-CD epic Final Fantasy VII with all its glorious CGs. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, 'cause it's not, and these are great examples of games that did it well. Thing is, not every game has done such a good job.
Due to the rising sucess of these kinds of games, some of these characteristics became gaming standards. It didn't take long so that almost every game out there had full-voiced dialogue, a nifty FMV intro that took almost a third of the whole game space and HAD to have a story so that the public could take the game seriously, even though the story itself wasn't something to be serious about. Lifeless, cliché-filled stories presented stale characters with uninteresting motivations. Role-Playing Games now spawned dozens of hours to be completed, most of themracking up 100 hours or more. Complex systems were placed upon complex systems, spawning gigantic tutorials and more button functions then what was needed, throwing simplicity out of the window. Later on, we've come to an age where the presentation counts more towards selling a game than the game itself - the gaming part of it was starting to become a chore.
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Ok, perharps I've overreacted a little there, but I think I have made my point clear for the most part. Am I the only one who thinks that lots of games have gone too far from what they were supposed to be? My most loathed aspect is without a doubt the ridiculous amount of attention stories receive in gaming, as I've seen some good games getting annoying because of their unusual focus in a terrible story. My most recent example is Sonic Unleashed: at its core it could be a decent experience, but the horrible story told in the cutscenes (which are both looong and UNSKIPPABLE!) and a time-waster "there and back again" gimmick in some cities turned it into a crapistical waste of one's time.
I just think most games shouldn't be so god-damned serious about their own job, it's not like we need to see the end of the world at every single game we play and find it interesting. I've noticed most stories/settings in games I've enjoyed lately are either light-hearted, for comedy purposes or are simply there for the FUN, not taking a dead-serious tone for its most part. Games such as this new HotD I just finished (it just simulates a B-movie all along, taking a cool approach, curseful writing and some of the bizarrest ending dialogue I've ever seen), No More Heroes, God Hand, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (hilarious!) and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year-Door (which has some great writing, and it's a MARIO game!). When it isn't that, I'd rather not have a story and go straight to the meat of it: one of the reasons why I love the Metal Slug series so much.
As I said, it's not like I completely despise gaming stories and complex systems, they are two aspects than when done great create real masterpieces, I just think most devs shouldn't cut down the fun we're supposed to get out of a hobby because of that. To me, that's missing the point of what makes games... games.
Sorry about the gigantic rant, and thanks for the attention of those who have read all of it. =P
Ever since systems like the Sega CD, Saturn and PSX started pushing optical media for games, lots of things changed. Games now could have FMV scenes, full-voiced dialogue, CD-audio music, a whooping lot more space available, and lots of other neaty stuff. That made possible more ambitious and intricate projects as well as stories in games, such as the cinematique Metal Gear Solid, the Jill-Sandwichy background pre-rendered Resident Evil and the 3-CD epic Final Fantasy VII with all its glorious CGs. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, 'cause it's not, and these are great examples of games that did it well. Thing is, not every game has done such a good job.
Due to the rising sucess of these kinds of games, some of these characteristics became gaming standards. It didn't take long so that almost every game out there had full-voiced dialogue, a nifty FMV intro that took almost a third of the whole game space and HAD to have a story so that the public could take the game seriously, even though the story itself wasn't something to be serious about. Lifeless, cliché-filled stories presented stale characters with uninteresting motivations. Role-Playing Games now spawned dozens of hours to be completed, most of themracking up 100 hours or more. Complex systems were placed upon complex systems, spawning gigantic tutorials and more button functions then what was needed, throwing simplicity out of the window. Later on, we've come to an age where the presentation counts more towards selling a game than the game itself - the gaming part of it was starting to become a chore.
===
Ok, perharps I've overreacted a little there, but I think I have made my point clear for the most part. Am I the only one who thinks that lots of games have gone too far from what they were supposed to be? My most loathed aspect is without a doubt the ridiculous amount of attention stories receive in gaming, as I've seen some good games getting annoying because of their unusual focus in a terrible story. My most recent example is Sonic Unleashed: at its core it could be a decent experience, but the horrible story told in the cutscenes (which are both looong and UNSKIPPABLE!) and a time-waster "there and back again" gimmick in some cities turned it into a crapistical waste of one's time.
I just think most games shouldn't be so god-damned serious about their own job, it's not like we need to see the end of the world at every single game we play and find it interesting. I've noticed most stories/settings in games I've enjoyed lately are either light-hearted, for comedy purposes or are simply there for the FUN, not taking a dead-serious tone for its most part. Games such as this new HotD I just finished (it just simulates a B-movie all along, taking a cool approach, curseful writing and some of the bizarrest ending dialogue I've ever seen), No More Heroes, God Hand, TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (hilarious!) and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year-Door (which has some great writing, and it's a MARIO game!). When it isn't that, I'd rather not have a story and go straight to the meat of it: one of the reasons why I love the Metal Slug series so much.
As I said, it's not like I completely despise gaming stories and complex systems, they are two aspects than when done great create real masterpieces, I just think most devs shouldn't cut down the fun we're supposed to get out of a hobby because of that. To me, that's missing the point of what makes games... games.
Sorry about the gigantic rant, and thanks for the attention of those who have read all of it. =P