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Alright so that night I didn't want to talk about?
The power went out.
It was 100 degrees in this house.
The folks (after a couple hours) insisted on getting a hotel room, we had to find one that would take dogs
there was
A
ONE
SINGLE
hotel room available in town, so I had to sleep on the floor.
Fahkin
hurray.
I guess I could've gone into greater detail about that while I was still pissed, but ... meh.
Short version is, sleeping on the floor blows
my parents snore and are old
my dog is exciteable and barked at people in the parking lot while I was trying to sleep
and...
I dunno that's about it
so...
melting in my house led to
not sleeping, laying on the floor in a cool hotel room.
I didn't get any real sleep until last night.
Meanwhile... I'm less than enthused about the "evaluation" tomorrow.
What do I tell him?
"I thought 26 would be better. Its not, I don't see it getting any better, I'd like to quit now."
Meanwhile I continue to anihilate Front Mission 3.
15 minutes of turn based strategy in robots
... 20 minutes of skipping dialogue, loading screens, skipping more dialogue, skipping cut scenes,
15 minutes of turn based strategy in robots
20 minutes skipping
5 minutes of buying new gear/upgrades/parts
20 minutes of skipping
Repeat.
I need something to do, huh?
I should really get a job, and grab my PC, copy my files or strip and mount the harddrive as an external and get a new PC for Saints Row 3 and an innevitable GOTY New Vegas, and get another look at my gigantic "game wish list" I think there's still a grab bag of good games in there that I've still not played/finished.
Anyway, me and my brother talked about "old games" and sometimes, you really just can't go back
yes, Dead Space 2 was... easy.
I mean, compared to Kuon and Resident Evil 3? I was a roided out fully armored spacedeathfuckmachine!
The music cued all action, and the only time I died was due to some bullshit instant win shit (like RE5) where 10% of the time, anyone would die.
That's not entertaining
that's not a challenge curve
that is not game balance
I had a constant surplus of ammunition, health items, money, and adequately functioning armor and weapons that never broke down in a clutch situation.
No tension
just oogey stuff
and gratuitous meat splats and gore.
So yeah
... a neat horror movie, an easy action game.
My brother played it the first time for some club/work thing and he (bear in mind he doesn't play shooters NEARLY as much as "hardcore gamers" and he NEVER plays them on console) blew through the middle of the game with little to no effort
he didn't even use the "stasis module" that freezes/slows down groups or large enemies. "What the hell is that??"
"ZOMG THAZ THE STASIS MODULE U HAV 2 UZ DAT!!!"
"... I didn't"
It was like me and chris on FEAR and FEAR 2. Yes, I have the option to go into bullet time (where everyone slows down and I'm fast enough to see/dodge bullets ala the matrix), and that ability refreshes every 40 seconds which is enough for... pretty much every shootout in the game.
Did we need it?
No.
So after the meeting, he calls me and asks me
"remember when games were hard- like, you were a shitty player if you couldn't rocket jump, kick a dude in the face, cook a grenade, do a 180 spin and midair headshot a bunny hopper across the screen after a quickswitch?"
"yeah"
"is that because there's more imput points on a PC and a controller is actually restrictive and shit for shooters"
"yes."
He then explained his experience in deadspace 2 and we talked at great length about nostolgia factor and
"that's just something nice you'd say"
And he makes that statement in reference to something you
should do
something that would enrich you as a person
like
learning a foreign language
or reading war and peace
but you don't have any ACTUAL intention of doing it because it will be tedious.
So
we determined that:
1. Some games aren't as good as we remember, and are SO much better to us, because that's what we grew up on, just like how every generation thinks their music is the best and everything older/newer than it is shit. Nostalgia factor cannot be overlooked, but also- some of the 30 year franchises "need to die". Yes, Megaman 6 was pretty neat- but would it have been better as "Megaguy 1" with fewer fanchise limitations and gimmicks that HAD to be repeated- the answer is most likely.
2. 90% of new games have no concept of a difficulty curve, and the only exceptions I can find are intentionally and ludicrously hard games like Demon's Souls- but compared to standard fare quarter eating arcade games like Raiden and Ninja Gaiden, Bad Dudes, Double Dragon, etc its a breeze (and yes games were harder in arcade era because they intentional tried to make you spend money to play them instead of just purchasing them and beating them once, easilly)
3. Japanese game studios are treading water. (this constitutes its own blog post, and really, you should just google this from a professional)
4. The culture/leadership of corporate video gamedom is evil, and moneyguys should not be making decisions for artists and entertainers or you'll see the same feces factory as the movie industry and more of what we're already seeing in the game industry (see also monopolies, Microsoft, distribution wars IE Netflix vs Blockbuster and now a parallel, Steam Vs EA)
5. The heroic rebels that overthrow the evil empire almost always become the evil empire.
6. It is hard to go back. Try playing GTA San Andreas after months of playing Saints Row 2. Try playing Resident Evil after deadspace. Try playing Front Mission 3 after any Gundam game. Try going back to Shadow of the colossus after you beat the game once.
The action is typically more instant, and more visceral in new games, and there's no longer a need or call for a WALL OF WORDS to explain a scene- its there, its pretty, go kill that giant rust giant in the distance. Try playing Way of the Samurai 1 and 2, or Samurai Western when WOTS 3 is RIGHT THERE and superior in every conceivable way.
Some games are wonderous, timeless and infinite.
Some games are good once every year.
Some games are good until you try the vastly superior competition or sequel.
Some games are good in their era in some microclimate of time and mood, and some are only good once.
Some games are good for what they did to the industry, how they were innovative and HUGE beyond the scope of their technology and their industry.
Some games are shooter clones and deserve your contempt.
Some games are awful derivative pandering shit in a plastic box.
Some games are joygasms. Constant, gratuitous, silly joygasms.
Do I have a list?
Probably.
Am I gonna make one right now?
Nah.
I'm making duck/chicken stock and thinking about finishing as much of FM3 as possible.
It's such a marathon of dull for so much nifty shit. I kinda hate to punish the oversite of years bygone.
They couldn't know 12 years ago that today that we'd invent the phrase
"too long didn't read".
(it also doesn't help that the characters are a bunch of melodramatic teenagers that scream at everyone for no reason, and that I've already sat through both storylines at least twice- I just wanna blow some shit up, alright?)
