360 perspective.
Posted by Adam | Filed under Blog, News
I bought an Xbox 360 a couple of months ago and It’s made me really reconsider what I’m actually after, what’s good and what sucks. I love games. I do. I’m not very good at them but that’s OK. Who cares. And I thought an Xbox was perfect for what I’m after. Cheapish, lot’s of games, talks to my Media Centre PC, too easy.
So I get it home and thrash the crap out of it. Gears of War II, Assassins Creed and an embarrassing amount of Burnout Paradise. Two of the games where good. Assassins Creed really does try and off some innovative gameplay while Burnout is a great in a I-got-20-spare-minutes-lets-destroy-this-town kind of way. So far so good.
But then I got really busy and didn’t really play with it much for a couple of weeks. I busted out some new games – which seem indicative of the sea of crap out there. Each one more frustrating than the other. So I play Call of Duty 5 – a game with so much hot air blown up its ass someone should call Ghostbusters. Lot’s of 90%+ reviews on Metacritic. And it’s the most unplayable game I’ve ever seen. It’s simple, FPS simply do not belong on a console. Unplayable with a controller. The worst. You spend all your time learning all 23 buttons on the controller only to run into a wall and spin in a circle as you stare at your feet. Like everyone else in the world my first FPS experience was on a PC – WITH A MOUSE. Nothing is better than that so why try? GoW2 gets close with their cover system but it’s criminally dificult to master. Looked good though.
And then all the rest of the games were we marred with the conventions of their respective genres I just felt like I was playing hi-res versions of my old favorite games. Not just a lack of innovation but a FEAR of doing anything different. If I was in a games studio I’d get everyone together and go right “Take your hands off the keyboard – we don’t need a new rendering engine. We need a single idea that makes you look at a game in a new perspective.”
Look at the Wii – or rather the promise of the Wii. A new way to interact with games. Nothing else. Old graphics. But a compelling reason to look at gaming with a new perspective. Then everyone realised the Wiimote was really dumb and you didn’t even need to stand up to bowl, or box, or sword fight. And we felt ripped off. And the graphics got worse in our mind as we became more and more disheartened. The Wii Motion Plus should be very cheap for anyone who own a Wii – $10. Nintendo owes it to us and they need everyone in 12 months time to have the same hardware platform.
What else about the Xbox?
- It’s so noisy and every time it get really loud I see red rings when I blink my eyes.
- Xbox Live! is a great system but the gaming barrier to entry is too high. You get schooled for ages before you get anywhere. It should be like Quake Live – play for a bit and it grades you and puts you in with people around your skill level. Less tears and makes everyone feel good.
- I find my iPhone a much more interesting gaming platform than the Xbox. The touchscreen is nimble, fast and agile. I can listen to music I love at the same time. It looks as good as a PSP. It’s in my pocket every time I have a spare 28 seconds. Games are more like micro-payments than a massive financial investment (which further encourages conservative purchasing decisions). The iPhone makes the DS look very crappy.
PS) Oh, my favorite game in ages is World of Goo. Simple, clever and not like anything else I’ve played in ages. Learn it in three minutes and love it for hours.
So there you have it. Boring games everywhere you look. Is it that hard to spend 10% of your budget on concept development?