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Too Many Good God-damned Games?
Machismo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I feel like there are too many good games right now.
Yes, I said it. I really wish there was a little more shit in the release pipe, recently.
Recent Titles:
*Dragon Age: Origins
*Borderlands
*Modern Warfare 2
*Brutal Legend
*Torchlight
*Super Mario Wii
*Uncharted 2
*Dead Space: Extraction
Soon:
*Assassin's Creed 2
*Left 4 Dead 2
*The Saboteur
All of this stuff came out in about a 2 month window of time. It is insane.
Not only that, but it persists into next year with Mass Effect 2
Hell, I didn't even mention a couple PC titles that I would normally give a purchase to, like Tropico 3 and Shattered Horizon.
What the hell is with the industry when they stack up the releases like this? There is no way for most people to even begin to afford the titles that they'd want to, much less play them. I am wondering if the industry is getting a bit supply heavy? What happened to the day when Quake and Duke Nukem being released within the same year was considered risky?
Anyone else experiencing this? It makes me wish I could take a week off and clean up my backlog.
Yes, I said it. I really wish there was a little more shit in the release pipe, recently.
Recent Titles:
*Dragon Age: Origins
*Borderlands
*Modern Warfare 2
*Brutal Legend
*Torchlight
*Super Mario Wii
*Uncharted 2
*Dead Space: Extraction
Soon:
*Assassin's Creed 2
*Left 4 Dead 2
*The Saboteur
All of this stuff came out in about a 2 month window of time. It is insane.
Not only that, but it persists into next year with Mass Effect 2
Hell, I didn't even mention a couple PC titles that I would normally give a purchase to, like Tropico 3 and Shattered Horizon.
What the hell is with the industry when they stack up the releases like this? There is no way for most people to even begin to afford the titles that they'd want to, much less play them. I am wondering if the industry is getting a bit supply heavy? What happened to the day when Quake and Duke Nukem being released within the same year was considered risky?
Anyone else experiencing this? It makes me wish I could take a week off and clean up my backlog.
Machismo on
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It's like complaining there are too many good movies, too many good comic books, too much good food at the grocery store. A more moderate person would only consider the top three or four from your list and let the others pass by, but we have to have it all.
So yes I agree there are a lot of good games but I can't say there are too many, plus it really isn't much of a problem when there are a lot of good games.
Are you saying I'm fat?
I was wondering that too. I work a full time job as do much of my friend's list. Generally, we are playing the same games or at least own the same ones. Recently, that isn't the case. Some, however, seem to have narrowed their list of genres they enjoy. For example, one friend only gets rythm, sports, or racing games. He rarely gets action games, for example.
And as I get older, the more I realize I don't mind having missed some of them. I wanted to play Metal Gear Solid 4, but I feel pretty good about not bothering now that we're so far past it. I'll probably do the same for Final Fantasy 13 unless it comes out on a platform I own (the main game, not the 35 spinoffs they have planned).
I experienced the same disinterest for MGS4 and all FF games.
I need ot bite the bullet here and just let some of these games go. And Torchlight looks so good! Although, screw MW2. Looks pretty damned annoying from what I've heard from friends at work.
DA:O is worth it. I never really played a game where I so effortlessly allowed the narrative to unfold like it did. I cared about the characters (like in a really, really good book). I don't want to hurt them. I feel a real empathy to them (or maybe just the story of them, but still). This became painfully obvious when my character was at the center of a love triangle that evolved out of a very organic bit of dialogue. Before I knew it, I was at real risk of hurting some of my favorite NPCs.
BTW, this is all before the sex scenes. ;P
I don't think I'll have free time spent not playing something brand spanking new until well after Bayonetta.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I just wanna play with the unreal UDK damnit. Stop releasing games.
It really is bad for the companies as well, with so much good stuff clogging the pipes a lot of sales will be missed.
OK I compiled the lists for comparison:
Fall 2009 looks like this:
New SMB Wii
Uncharted 2
Assassin's Creed 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Dragon Age Origins
Brutal Legend
DJ Hero
Borderlands
Demon's Souls
R&C Crack in Time
Tekken 6
RE:DSC
Zelda Spirit Tracks
Final Fantasy:CC:TCB
LBP PSP
also: Band Hero, Lego RB, Rabbids Go Home, Torchlight, Space Inv. Ex 2, Boy & His Blog, WOTS3, Operation Flashpoint, Wii Fit +, GOW collection, Silent Hill SM
And for comparison, here is Spring 2010:
Splinter Cell Conviction
Red Steel 2
Mass Effect 2
Dark Void
BioShock 2
God of War 3
Alan Wake
Heavy Rain
APB (maybe)
No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle
Bayonetta
Miles Edgeworth Perfect Prosecutor
Dante's Inferno
Sin and Punishment 2
Mafia II
Capcom v. Tatsunoko
FFXIII
Lost Planet 2
Alpha Protocol
Cho Aniki Zero
Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver
Super Street Fighter IV
MAG (maybe, according to Sony financial)
Brink (Splash Damage / Bethesda game)
Infinite Space (for NDS)
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey
Guitar Hero Van Halen
Serious Sam First Encounter HD (360)
Serious Sam Second Encounter HD
Puzzle Chronicles
Sony Motion wand
So you can see that while Fall 09 looks pretty packed, publishers have made it even worse for themselves by shoving all their big stuff into Spring 2010.
And if you think this year is worst than last, check out what happened in Fall 2007 and 2008:
Fall 2008 looked like this:
Resistance 2
COD World at War
Left 4 Dead
LIttle Big Planet
Guitar Hero WT
Fallout 3
Far Cry 2
Fable 2
Dead Space
Rock Band 2
Valkyria Chronicles
Mirror's Edge
Command And Conquer 3 RA
Wrath of the Lich King
EndWar
Quantum of Solace
Wii Music
Prince of Persia 08
Mortal Kombat v DC
GTA IV released on PC
Tomb Raider Underworld
Tales of Symphonia
Banjo Kazooie NB
Animal Crossing
Persona 4
Chrono Trigger DS
Castlevania Order of Ecclesia
There was also:
Skate It
Shaun White's Snowboarding
Need for Speed UC
Lips
Fall 2007 looked like this:
Halo 3
Super Mario Galaxy
Rock Band
Guitar Hero 3
Assassin's Creed
Crysis
Bioshock
Mass Effect
Uncharted : Drakes Fortune
Ratchet and Clank : Tools of Destruction
Project Gotham Racing 4
Unreal Tournament 3
Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Virtua Fighter 5
Portal
Team Fortress 2
Half Life 2: Episode 2
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Zack and Wiki
Contra 4
The Witcher
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
Yeah. Fall 2009 really isn't that packed compared to previous years, and it could have been much worse had the publishers all not decided to shove their games into spring 2010.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
In regards to Final Fantasy 13, do you only own a Wii? Or maybe just a PC? Cause it'll be for the PS3 and 360. I ain't all that hyped for it myself since Square seems to be doing everything in their power to make it look uninteresting to me, but that is a topic for another thread.
Speaking of threads, this thread title is as absurd as saying, "My wife is too sexy!" or "This cake is too delicious!". Though I suppose being a bachelor with a respectable salary my skew my thinking. :P
Actually in truth I agree. I can usually get whatever game comes out, but Fall has seen such a deluge of awesome that I have to pick and choose otherwise I run the risk of never finishing any of these games. However this is a problem that comes up every Fall so I am not surprised.
DA:O
Borderlands
Demon Souls
Torchlight
The games I want to play but haven't had a chance yet:
Brutal Legends
Ratchet & Clank
Assassin's Creed 2
L4D2
I guess I should be glad that I am stuck being unable to play Demon Souls because my PS3 HD froze up as I am currently donating all of my free time to DA:O
However, as for the industry, this is always the way of the holidays. The real problem is the months and months we will have next year without a good game to play
I've found the same thing has happened to me as well. I no longer feel that I have to get every game that looks promising the instant it comes out. Not only do you end up getting games for much cheaper if you wait, but a lot of the time, those games that I originally thought were must-haves end up falling to the wayside as I realize that I didn't really want them as much as I initially thought.
Like just last week, I picked up Tales of Vesperia for under $30 and started playing it and I'm really enjoying it (a lot more than Symphonia, which I didn't really like). Picking it up a year later didn't make it any worse of a game. If anything, I generally find that I enjoy games more when I pay less for them since I'm less worried about getting my money's worth.
Anyway, this holiday season, my big game is going to be RE: Darkside Chronicles. Aside from that and some cheap download games like Torchlight & Geomancer, I'll probably hold off on any big new purchases unless Black Friday will change my mind.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Well I guess that all comes down to the games you like. For me this year was mcuh more hectic than last year as the only game from last fall that drained a large % of my time was Fallout 3. I played a couple of the other titles from the list, but in terms of what I really devoted some significant time to only Fallout 3 fits that bill.
This year I have already devoted a large chunk of time to Demon Souls, Borderlands and DA:O and I am not even done with any of those three and have more games waiting that I actually really want to spend some time in. So how "busy" a year is probably has a lot to do with the quality/quantity of the games coming out AND the genre they are in. FPS and pure action games rarely elicit much time or energy from me except for the rare exception. Where a tactical RPG or deep open ended RPG will consume my life for weeks if done right
see: you buy games two years out from release, with some exceptions, and you save a crapton of money. i don't expect to play any games that are coming out soon within the next year. assassin's creed 2? i haven't started assassin's creed 1 yet. :P
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Seriously - I know about 'the thrill of the new', and that the industry derives a huge chunk of revenue selling in the first week of release, but why are people so insistent on buying at release? I realise that it probably happens faster in some regions than others, but waiting even a month or two yields price reductions of 50% or more, and a year anywhere between 60-80%.
I mean, would you buy a car at release under this model? Or even a book? It just feels like money wasted to me. Rather than pining over the 2009 line-up, you could comfortably own the entire 2008 line-up right now!
No - the limiting factor is always time. It was a factor in school, in Uni, in work, and even when I was unemployed. A game will always eventually hit a price-point that you can afford, but the chances grow fewer and fewer to actually invest the time to finish it. I'll bet in a couple of years COD:MW2 will look an attractive prospect - it'll be a no-filler 6 hours and cost slightly more than a movie ticket. And assuming the existing model survives the current turmoil, I think we'll see a move to even shorter, development-intensive experiences. Whether the cost justifies them is another matter...
I think the one of the main motivators to buy on release for many games is online multiplayer. Most games will have a gigantic online presence for a couple of months which will then die off quickly as people move on. If one of your major motivators for purchasing the game was some interesting multiplayer features, you might be out of luck in finding an enjoyable environment to mess around with that feature if you don't buy at release.
As far as singleplayer games go, I completely agree. There is no difference in playing some great 2008 blockbusters during 2009 season, other than the lessened hit on your wallet.
This seems to have been by design with Modern Warfare 2. They even mention in interviews that if you wait to buy, you will be behind the curve with their level up system. That other people will have better streak rewards. It seems that the design itself is around encouraging as many first day/week purchases as possible.
Consequently, it may mean that buying later on may be less enjoyable. Kinda like with an MMO, when you happen to hit that new character lull, and no one is in the low level areas.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
This is true, but it's made worse by the large scale of modern games. A movie buff might complain there are 'too many movies', but it's easier to take in all of then when a trip to the movie theater takes up two to three hours of your day. There aren't enough hours in the day to buy all of the AAA holiday game releases and actually play them during the holiday season without spending your life locked up inside your room. And even if you wanted to, $60 a pop times a dozen games is a lot tougher on the wallet than a $10-15 movie theater excursion times a dozen movies.
'08 didn't have a large number of games with wide appeal like that. There was Fallout 3, then Gears 2 for 360 owners. Everything else had a more specific target audience, and there wasn't any kind of ravenous overlap. Last year was dense, don't get me wrong, but most everyone seemed to pick out 3-5 of those games and felt pretty comfortable with skipping the rest.
This year is... man, this year.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
Though Dragon Age/Brutal Legends are going to be 35, so I might snag those too.
Well, Torchlight and Borderlands both would be of interest to a Diablo fan.
Modern Warfare and Borderlands would interest the FPS crowd.
Multiplayer fans would have a vast number of games to pick from. Ditto for the coop fans.
RPGs? Torchlight and Dragon Age. In fact, it seems like every game has some form of RPG element to it. Borderlands has it. Even Modern Warfare has it for the multiplayer. AC2 has some with the large world and character development.
I can't say that I agree with that.
I want Uncharted 2 but don't have a PS3 so you're right there.
Torchlight, I want and my PC can handle it. It's only $20 though so not a big deal.
I love RPGs and Dragon Age isn't a must play for me, because I don't own a good PC. I don't want the 360 version because A) I hear it's not as good as the PC version and
MW2 isn't a must play for me. I like shooters, but I don't really care about multiplayer-focused games.
I like Schafer and don't like metal. Not a big fan of RTS. I might pick up Brutal Legend when it hits the bargain bins.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I wouldn't really call Brutal Legend a game for "anyone" who's a metal or Schafer fan. If anything, it's a game for RTS fans.
I still claim that Fall 07 was the worst. Rock Band, Halo 3, COD4, and Super Mario Galaxy all in the month of November. Talk about wallet rape for everybody.
It's metal to like RTS.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I gotta disagree. I like Metal and I like Shaffer. I have enjoyed some RTS games, but more because of the story and despite the RTS. That said, I really enjoyed C&C back in the day. And I do enjoy the Europa Universalis games, which are grand strategy RTS games.
Brutal Legend is a great game. The music is amazing and the world just blows me away. I feel bad for it. I think more people would have bought it (same with Dead Space: Extraction) had there not been so many great games coming out. Between the big-bucks titles and the indie games, this has been a very crowded year for games.
Can trade TF2 items or whatever else you're interested in. PM me.
I'm planning on waiting for MW2 till after the holidays, the multiplayer is going to die on there until the next 2 or 3 COD games come out.
Steam: Kemlo
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
This year is the year of the #2, though. And I'd argue that it's pretty well established that, in the video game world, the second game is often the better of the two games, because typically the developer sees what went wrong with the first game and embellishes and improves the game.
For example, I almost always adopt a "wait and see" approach to games, not really worrying about them until after they come out and I see how they fare. This year, it's easy to see that these are actually GOOD games.
We do always have big games hit in the fall, but this year it seems like all the sleeper games are also great (Demonses's Souls's). And to compound that, the big games aren't just the multi-platform titles, as the PS3 has a ton of games unique to the platform that wasn't the case in previous years. There's something for everyone regardless of which platform you play on, which hasn't been the case. Now if you own multiple platforms you end up with a TON of games.
In addition, looking back at the list of holiday games, this is the first year where there aren't just a ton of FPSs. Much more of a range in '09.
True, there's always the titles I just don't care about anyways (racing games, military shooters, Tom Clancy games, Metal Gear, multiplayer-centric titles), but there are a lot of big titles from the last couple of years that I thought might be fun or interesting that I just haven't played, like Mass Effect, Tales Of Vesperia, Assassin's Creed, Rock Band (1, 2, or Beatles), coming up to the present day and stuff like Dragon Age... shit, there are games going back to 2006 that I was interested in but never played (Twilight Princess, Marvel Ultimate Alliance). More and more I just don't mind missing out on them. I've never played a Kingdom Hearts game but I don't feel like I missed out on anything, and I don't really care if I don't get to play Final Fantasy XIII either. (I also don't care if I don't get to play Fable 2, Fallout 3, or Oblivion. Just so you know my indifference isn't limited to JRPGs. :P )
I guess that's one advantage of liking single-player games more than multiplayer--I still enjoy multiplayer from time to time, but there's no real need to get a single player game on Day 1. A year from now, it'll still be the same game (aside from whatever patches or DLC comes out for it) and it'll probably be $30 to $40 cheaper.