It seems graphics are all the rage this console generation, along with gimmicks. You’ve got the two powerhouses of technology with the Xbox 360 and Sony’s Playstation 3, which specialize in HD technology. Then there is the family friendly Wii, but it seems that great games are appearing less and less these days. What happened to gameplay over graphics? Or new innovations in old genres? What happened to last-gen?

From 2000 to 2005, last-gen gaming was around. There were no fancy 1080p graphics or motion controls, there were just games. The games that appeared in this time frame were some of the best ever and the play-per-dollar ratio was amazing. Single player games were at their peak as well last-gen with great titles including: Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid series, Halo: Combat Evolved, Grand Theft Auto series, God of War 1 and 2, and of course, Resident Evil 4. There were many more epic experiences but these are just a few of last-gens great titles. These single player experiences would last you easily 10+ hours and give loads of replay value. The stories in these games made sense and weren’t there just to be there. You played as these characters for a purpose. The average single player experience nowadays will last you 8 hours at minimum with the exception of RPG’s, and a few stellar single player games like GTA4 or MGS4. This gen seems to be focusing on the online play which is turning out better and better, but developers shouldn’t forget the great sense of an epic storyline.

It also seems as if this gen is leaning more toward sequels. Almost everywhere on a gaming store’s shelf you see more than a handful of sequels and very few new IP’s. This can go two ways, because some sequels are a joy to play while others fall short of their predecessor. Let’s use Grand Theft Auto 4 as an example. GTA4 was a superb game, and had a great play-per-dollar ratio as did all of the other games. Every new GTA game is completely different from the previous one in both setting, gameplay, and graphics. GTA4, while viewed as both amazing by critics and horrible by forum junkies, was a completely revamped game and had a lot of changes that were for the better. Aiming was a big feature that was fixed because now you have a nice crosshair which you can now freely use anytime and get a lot more kills. With prior GTA’s, you had a terrible lock-on feature and only a few guns had free aim, but now it’s easy as pie to kill those cops and hot-dog vendors. The GPS was also a nice touch because it sure made getting to locations a lot easier. The only flaw I found in this title was the stiff driving mechanics which is hopefully fixed in the next installment, but other than that GTA4 was an excellent $60. Oh, and to all of you who complain about its realism, well that’s your fault. When San Andreas came out didn’t we all say, “Man, the next GTA will look so realistic on the next consoles that are being talked about.”? Exactly…

Mmhhmm….you smell that? It’s the smell of mediocrity. Yes, I am in fact talking of Gears of War 2. This game was GV’s biggest disappointment of 2008, and it very well deserves it. In a nutshell, this game is basically taking Gears 1, adding another blood stream to the crimson skull logo, stamping a 2 on it, and putting it on the shelf ready for your $60. But what about the new guns and abilities that were mentioned on our podcast in the summer you ask? Well I respectfully say to all of you, try finding a decent enough server to use them in, and use those new guns quickly because a shield glitcher is right behind you! Also, what about people eating up bullets and still chainsawing you? What about Pavillion and Jacinto being the exact same map? The hammerburst was dumbed down so that it doesn’t even burst anymore, matchmaking is abysmal, and the ranking system is non existent. No matter how many new gameply features Epic added, the flaws definitely outweigh them. Yes, horde is fun, but if I’m gonna do that, I may as well play “teh epicz” Left 4 Dead.

Now what happened to platforming? This was basically the genre that brought gaming back with Super Mario Bros. Naughty Dog and Insomniac had the great platforming series with Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. Now although towards the end of last generation these titles were becoming a little bit dry since the developers kept pushing them out, no one can underestimate their presence. Now we’ve got gimmicky platforming games or the streamlined new Prince of Persia game which was made for the casual audiences and is nowhere near the greatness of the last trilogy. So far the only amazing platformer to come out this gen was Super Mario Galaxy, which is one of the only things to come out of Nintendo’s gimmick.

Nowadays companies are so obsessed with having every wrinkle on a characters face be shown and detailed lighting engines that they forgot that gameplay means everything. Now some people ask, “Well what about Nintendo and the Wii?” With that question I will give this answer, gameplay doesn’t equal gimmicks. The Wii is singlehandedly ruining gaming with it’s cheap gimmicks and loads of bargain bin shovelware that people buy anyway and companies still profit off of them. This shows companies that they can make anything and still get paid from it. Let me state that I am all for the whole “casual gamer” idea, but don’t take them for granted and sell them pointless games.

Graphics this generation of gaming are indeed breathtaking and I love them myself, but I don’t want graphics meaning I only get 8 hours of gameplay or just a half assed game. I want developers to look back at the greatness of last generation and build graphics and all these new ideas on those games. Don’t just take a franchise everyone loves and completely change it as many games this gen suffered from already. Indeed, this is why last gen was the peak of gaming.

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