To tell the truth, I hate this console generation. I really do. Never in my life have I felt so apathetic toward videogames. I’m not sure if that was due to just my own personal issues in life. And yes, while real life issues may have been somewhat the cause of it, I couldn’t help but feel as if there was perhaps something wrong with the industry itself. I saw no clear winner in the “console wars” in fact I couldn’t care less about dumb console wars, never have. It was all just laughable pointless bickering amongst fan boys each pimping their own merits of the console they bought failing to see any of its weaknesses or just flat refusing to accept them all together. They all sucked to me. They each had their problems and I just hated the direction the entire industry was going.
Until E3 this year.
E3 this year gave me a sense that maybe videogames aren’t moving in such a bad direction after all. Sadly, the only ones I saw an indication of good things to come from this year was Nintendo. But at least someone gets it. To tell truth, Nintendo has always gotten it for the most part. The only difference is that now, they’ve finally got some results to go along with their vision. Initially, back in 2006 I was contemplating on which console I should get first and my initial knee jerk reaction was to support the Wii. After a few months my interest waned. While Nintendo had the right mindset, sadly the industry wasn’t on board or catching up to them quite yet. My biggest problem with the Wii was that the only ones who cared about making products for it were Nintendo themselves. Everyone else saw its technology as nothing but a gimmick and dump their shovel ware titles and flood the system with it, not bothering to take care or interest in the design of the game itself. Nintendo sees the technology as more than a gimmick but rather a useful tool with which to design a good game around. The technology supports the game, not the game supporting the technology and that is the difference to me. However at this years E3 I finally got the sense from other developers in the industry that they too finally understand this concept. In short, the Wii has become more appealing to me because it finally looks to have some quality variety.
All of the greatest consoles in the short history of the industry have all had variety in games. That is the number 1 reason a console is successful. Nintendo showed me that they understand this concept. Emphasis was not placed on gimmickry, but rather on showcasing a variety of games that people want to play. The Super Nintendo, Playstation 1, the original NES, all of these had the most variety of good games for everyone’s tastes. That’s when I realized what I had been irritated with concerning this console generation. The sheer lack of variety games lacked anymore. Contrast the original Playstation with the Playstation 3. When comparing library of good, varied titles it puts the PS3 to shame. Sure the PS3 does hit the mark occasionally (Heavy Rain/Little Big Planet), but more often than not they’re simple rehashes or knock offs of other titles that don’t bother to utilize the power of the PS3 and are instead HD versions of games I already played on PS2. For example, I played about 3 stages of God of War III, realized it was just a goof in clashing red and white paint killing every damn thing on the screen, screaming about Zeus again (except this time its in HD!) and got bored with it.
I eventually settled on a PS3 in early 2008 after holding out for a long time after seeing no real reason to launch to the next generation. I was perfectly fine with my old PS2 and Game Cube. But eventually the fan boyish lure of Metal Gear Solid 4 finally enticed me to make the plunge because I felt it was the first game and still 2 years later one of the only games on that system to utilize the PS3 to its fullest. I chose the PS3 over the other two because I honestly felt it to have the most potential out of the three to deliver a truly next generation experience, and in some cases it does. However more often than not that is simply not the case. Most games don’t utilize the full resolution they’re capable of, Six Axis use is all but ignored, or at worst given applications that don’t have even a modicum of sense or purpose (Ninja Gaiden Sigma’s jiggling boobs comes to mind). PSN is a joke, lame avatars, no cross game chat, constant getting signed out of the network while you’re playing a game, freezing…of course a PS Plus membership might fix all that but screw you you’ve given me little reason to warrant a purchase in the first place.
I hate this console generation because more than ever game companies flat don’t get it. You want to know why Wii is outselling the market consistently? It’s not motion controls you damn fools. It’s the fact that Nintendo puts emphasis on games and product quality. Basically they view games as more important than the other two companies, because that’s all they do. It’s what they specialize in. Its not just another piece of the corporate pie. Now I’m not naïve enough to think that Nintendo isn’t just like any other business and doesn’t care about things like sales figures and marketing, but the difference with them is that that’s not just all they care about. Sony and Microsoft just flat don’t have a freakin’ clue and are painfully attempting to mimic the success of Nintendo rather than focus on their systems own merits. PS3 sadly sees Blu Ray capabilities as not a way to deliver a truly revolutionary game play experience, but rather as a way to sell some movies.
Microsoft was an even unbelievably bigger joke offering absolutely nothing of merit. You know when you open up a press conference showcasing two multiplatform games you know haven’t got anything to deliver but shit on a plate. Once again they’ve shown that Xbox 360 is almost all about guns and guns and blowing things up and in the case of Gears of War manages to fail on that front more than anything the PS3 has to offer with Killzone or Resistance. How fitting they end with the biggest joke of all the Kinect, a piece of hardware costing up to 150 dollars that allows you, yes you to bounce around like an idiot as long as you stand 6 feet away from the TV standing up. You know if you want to stand up and move around I have a better idea that doesn’t cost 150 smackers. It’s called go outside. Walk your dog, shoot some hoops, jog; you know, the old school way to exercise. You fools don’t have a damn clue, you never did and the only thing you’ve ever done is ride the coattails of Sony’s successes and mimic them. You suck and have been more harm than good the industry. Not that Sony is a whole lot better mind you. While on the handheld front, Nintendo delivers the promise of fresh revolutionary technology supported by a plethora of games each with variety, Sony delivers the promise of even more lame ad campaigns telling me about how games are “the bizness” instead of actually focusing on those games. I don’t care if my console does EVERYTHING when it excels at NOTHING. I just want a damn game to play and a variety of them.
But there is perhaps hope on the horizon. For the first time I’m seeing a clear “winner” of these companies. Finally the industry is on board with Nintendo’s vision. Nintendo has always had the right mindset, but needed industry backing to get there. I truly believe still that the PS3 has the capability to shine and deliver, but that’s all it is, potential. Potential never got anything anywhere. Being the most powerful dog in the yard doesn’t make it the best. No one still talks about 3DO despite it being amazing for it’s time after all. I’m holding out hope that Nintendo can make me enjoy the direction video games are headed. They’ve managed to accomplish one thing, they’ve at least made me feel hopeful for the future and that’s more than the other two have managed to accomplish in ten years.
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