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[BBC] Gaming's Best Year Ever
Flippy_D
Digital ConquistadorLondonRegistered User regular
Digital ConquistadorLondonRegistered User regular
So, apparently, gaming rocks '07.
Now, I think this is pretty great news, but there are multiple ways this could be looked at. Is it that games are genuinely getting better, or can flashly titles disguise their flaws with style? And is that necessarily a bad thing? Not quite graphics over gameplay, more like graphics becoming a part of the gameplay - for instance, Assassin's Creed owes much to its graphical prowess, as it really establishes the scope of the game, and graphics are becoming more and more synonymous in terms of significance as a cinematographer in film. we've seen new graphical styles emerge, too: off the top of my head, the oft-imitated light bloom that appears in almost every game now, sometimes blindingly.
Additionally, PSN and XBL, and soon (hopefully) the Wii are opening the doors to affordable distribution of independent games - much of the groundwork that Steam eventually established has been seized on and embraced by the independent game-making community. However, will this further split apart the pedestals of originality and EA-style 'safe' franchises?
The year has seen the rise and rise of Nintendo in both markets, with the PSP experiencing a late surge in popularity at the end of the period. The new and sudden shift towards the power of the casual gamer is a cause for concern for many 'purists', as it seems that any game marketed the right way can now sell regardless of quality. But then, this was perhaps inevitable, and ultimately I think will be for the good of the business.
The edge gaming has over, say, cinema, is that taste has much less to do with it. If a game is good... well, it's good. You enjoy it. You have to really overhype an average game if you want it to sell well, and that frankly costs too much.
Moreover, the gaming community has become increasingly self-regulating. Gamers are more aware than ever of the workings and inner logic of the industry, with sites like Kotaku and 1up becoming increasingly important. This is not to say, unfortunately, that the games we hope will flourish always do. But the awareness is there.
Lastly, it's been a year of the powerhouses. Warcraft now has more players than the population of Sweden, and is right on the edge of the casual vs. the hardcore. Perhaps we will see in how WoW develops a microcosm of the industry as a whole.
One thing that's certain, though.
There's a lot to look forward to!
Now, I think this is pretty great news, but there are multiple ways this could be looked at. Is it that games are genuinely getting better, or can flashly titles disguise their flaws with style? And is that necessarily a bad thing? Not quite graphics over gameplay, more like graphics becoming a part of the gameplay - for instance, Assassin's Creed owes much to its graphical prowess, as it really establishes the scope of the game, and graphics are becoming more and more synonymous in terms of significance as a cinematographer in film. we've seen new graphical styles emerge, too: off the top of my head, the oft-imitated light bloom that appears in almost every game now, sometimes blindingly.
Additionally, PSN and XBL, and soon (hopefully) the Wii are opening the doors to affordable distribution of independent games - much of the groundwork that Steam eventually established has been seized on and embraced by the independent game-making community. However, will this further split apart the pedestals of originality and EA-style 'safe' franchises?
The year has seen the rise and rise of Nintendo in both markets, with the PSP experiencing a late surge in popularity at the end of the period. The new and sudden shift towards the power of the casual gamer is a cause for concern for many 'purists', as it seems that any game marketed the right way can now sell regardless of quality. But then, this was perhaps inevitable, and ultimately I think will be for the good of the business.
The edge gaming has over, say, cinema, is that taste has much less to do with it. If a game is good... well, it's good. You enjoy it. You have to really overhype an average game if you want it to sell well, and that frankly costs too much.
Moreover, the gaming community has become increasingly self-regulating. Gamers are more aware than ever of the workings and inner logic of the industry, with sites like Kotaku and 1up becoming increasingly important. This is not to say, unfortunately, that the games we hope will flourish always do. But the awareness is there.
Lastly, it's been a year of the powerhouses. Warcraft now has more players than the population of Sweden, and is right on the edge of the casual vs. the hardcore. Perhaps we will see in how WoW develops a microcosm of the industry as a whole.
One thing that's certain, though.
There's a lot to look forward to!
Flippy_D on
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That being said -- did you just include Duke 4 as a "game to look forward to"? We're gamers, not anthropologists, dammit!
Also, I see what you did there with Halo 3.
as a counterpoint for whats to come
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7151961.stm
I have a feeling this will push games to be more like movies, in that most of them suck, and are targeted at the largest demographics possible in order to recap the immense costs involved.
Games are already doing this with the sudden focus on marketting towards groups that were traditionally not into gaming.
Too much focus on huge companies and huge costs, not enough focus on making fun games.
Yeah. That said, as much as I love 'indie' games made on the cheap, there is, like movies, plenty of entertainment value in big budget blockbusters. Flash games with ridiculous production values and celebrity voice over casts and huge game worlds with sequels and whatnot will still have a place for sure, and will still make $texas.
For all the slack Kotaku is sometimes getting (*coughEvilAvatarcough*), one comment was perfect:
174 games released this year were rated an 80 or higher.
94 of those games were released in the last four months.
45 were on the PC.
43 were on the Xbox 360.
32 were on the PS3.
17 were on the DS.
14 were on the PS2.
14 were on the PSP.
10 were on the Wii.
27 games released this year were rated a 90 or higher.
15 were multiplatform.
4 were PC exclusives.
3 were Xbox 360 exclusives.
3 were Wii exclusives.
1 was a PS2 exclusive.
1 was a DS exclusive.
None were PS3 exclusives.
There were no PSP games rated a 90 or higher.
you know all those good games you remember on the Genesis and SNES? they were all released in 1994.
Gamerankings says Uncharted was rated 90% and is PS3 exclusive.
Metacritic.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Fallout and Final Fantasy 7 both were released in 1997, so was Jedi Knight. Enough said.
This year has been pretty damn awesome. Can't say it was definitively better than say, 2004, though.
Whoops.
Not a normal mistake, and has been corrected.
Though I did own an N64 and nothing else at the time, so that may be why.
That's three.
---
I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Pfft
Sonic 3
Sonic & Knuckles
Donkey Kong Country
Final Fantasy 6
Earthworm Jim
Shining Force II
Streets of Rage 3
Super Metroid
Secret of Mana
Breath of Fire II
Wario Land
Tempest 2000
Virtua Fighter
Killer Instinct
Rocket Knight Adventures 2
Dynamite Heddy
Ecco 2: The tides of time
Doom II
Jazz Jackrabbit
Daytona USA
Marathon
Mortal Kombat II
Tekken
Mickey Mania
Darkstalkers
Rise of the Triad
all released within 3 month of each other. And that's just the second half of 1994. There were so many crazy good games released in 1994 that it's amazing. It didnt matter which system you had, in 1994 you were going to have 7 or 8 AAA games to choose from within 3 months of each other.
EDIT: Shit, I can't believe I forgot Doom II, Jazz Jackrabbit, Daytona USA, Marathon, Mortal Kombat II, Tekken, Mickey Mania, Darkstalkers, and Rise of the Triad.
And there were even MORE incredible games in 1994 that were released in the first half of the year.
Those are good games, but those are three games.
Yup. It really is. That entire game is swathed in gigantic rose tinted goggles that do nothing. Fallout is too. Fallout 2 was superior.
The only other comparable year I can think of like 2007 would be 2004.
Not because it had as many quality games, other years have had more, but because they were all so packed into one small time period. November 2004 was redonkulous.
I don't know about the Genesis, but I think 1995 was probably the best year for the SNES. Just for reference, in 1995, the SNES saw its 2 best platformers (Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island & Donkey Kong Country 2) and 4 of its best RPGs (Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Lufia 2, and Breath of Fire 2). On the Genesis side, I'm not sure what was happening, but the game that finally made me break down and buy a Genesis + Sega CD, Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, came out that year as well.
Personally, I'm going to have to agree with people who say that 2007 is the best year gaming has seen yet. XBLA had a banner year with at least 3 times as many high quality games as it had in 2005 & 2006 COMBINED with Pac-Man: Championship Edition leading the way as quite possibly the best retro remake of all time. The Wii Virtual Console added Neo Geo and Turbo-Graphx CD support along with import games (2 never before seen in the US Treasure titles? Yes, please). The PS2 had one of its strongest years for RPGs ever (Persona 3, Odin Sphere, Rogue Galaxy, Grim Grimoire, Soul Nomad, Wild Arms 5, Atelier Iris 3). The Wii saw a good year with quality sequels to many of the Nintendo classics (Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, WarioWare, Fire Emblem), a light gun game revival, and a return of the Sega we knew and loved (Sonic & Nights). The PS3 did some experimenting with new ideas (Eye of Judgment, some of the PSN games) and had some quality traditional games (Ratchet, Uncharted). The music genre saw a revolution in the release of Rock Band. The XBox 360 rocked with more high quality FPS and FPS hybrids than you could shake a stick at plus other stuff. And Valve made us believe again with a little game compilation called The Orange Box.
Throw in some fantastic indie games like Aquaria, strong portable and PC lineups, and miscellaneous odds and ends and I don't think it's exaggerating to say that 2007 was gaming's strongest year yet. No matter what system(s) you owned, there was plenty of fun to be had for all.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure that Secret of Mana was 2003 and BoF2 was 2005.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
The whole "that game you like is terrible" schtick is annoying.
seriously, even if you didn't enjoy FFVII, it was still a milestone game. I think HL2 is overrated, but I still acknowledge that it's a milestone game.
1994 is hands down the greatest year in gaming, however. In terms of importance, you can look to almost any genre and pick out a genre-defining game which emerged from 1994. Often times, when people compare games to old games, they choose one of the games from 1994 as a benchmark. There were so many different games which could be considered the apex of their respective genres that it's insane to think they were all available at the same time. Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Super Metroid, and Final Fantasy 6 alone make the year jaw dropping.
Oh certainly. I recognise the impact FF7 had. And at the time it was pretty fucking great.
But a lot of people still hold it in regard as though it stands up today. Which it doesnt. Certain classics do, like Ocarina, which can still be played right now and enjoyed just as much. But FF7 cant. Hence my rose tinted comment.
But I agree, quite a thread derailment by myself for which i apologise. but really, 1997 doesnt compare to 2004 or 2007. 1994 the example you posted is a much better analogy, as all those years are characterised by a 'swarm' of great games, rather than just good games released in the year.
Good games are released every year. And not a year goes by without at least one 'game of all time' kind of title. But 2007, 2004 and others are better remembered for having an abnormally large amount of said titles closely released at the same time, eg within a few days or weeks of each other.
And see, I think you proved his point. If anything, I think FF7 stands up better than Ocarina today because none of the Final Fantasy games after FF7 were much like it in plot or gameplay. On the other hand, Ocarina has been supplanted in my mind by Twilight Princess: both games have a similar style, but I thought Twilight Princess was better in just about every way. Now, I can see someone liking Ocarina better than Twilight Princess if you throw in the nostalgia factor (in fact, most of the complaints I remember reading about TP was that it was too similar to Ocarina), but I think most people who hadn't played either would end up enjoying Twilight Princess more if they were given the choice of playing either now.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Gamerankings rounds up on the games individual page. If you look at the actual rankings and sort by PS3/2007, you see it as 89.635%. The only games released on the PS3 this year to break 90% average were Call of Duty 4. Oblivion, and Rock Band.
And as fantastic as this year was, Ive still got a lot to look forward to next year. Outside of the ones Flippy linked, unless there are more delays, theres also serious potential from Mercenaries 2, Fable 2, Halo Wars, Tiberium, Harvey Birdman, Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor, WH40k Dawn of War: Soulstorm, Mario Kart Wii, and who knows what else will get announced and released before the year is up.
It was as every bit as glorious as it was in 1997. Even more so, because I wasn't an idiot about how to grow materia or gain limit breaks.
I'm ashamed of the BBC though. To think that the NY Times put Mass Effect as their game of the year, and BBC doesn't even mention it?! Blasphemy! I consider the BBC my main source of news, but come on guys. You don't have to suck THAT much in reporting on games.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Yeah, no.
wow, what a convincing argument. You sure won me over!
Alrighty then. Streets of rage 2, Contra 3, Link to the past, R-Type 3, Super Mario World, Super Castlevania, Street Fighter 2 etc etc etc et fucking c
edit: Oh, I forgot Golden Axe.
edit 2: I can't not mention Mega Man X
None of them came out in 1994
Can you play Super Metroid or Doom II today? Sure.
Could you play Metroid: Prime 3 or Bioshock in 1994? No.
ARGUMENT SETTLED FOREVER
Hell, Super Metroid was even rereleased on the Wii in 2007, further cementing the fact that 2007 rocks.
1998. We had Half-Life, StarCraft, Grim Fandango, OoT, MGS, Panzer Dragoon Saga, RE2, and Pokemon. PSX's Gameday football titles were good. Saturn RPGs were plentiful. Tekken 3 was hot in the arcades. Oh, you can't beat 1998.
I like this point. Still, I think next year might top things.
Ha!
Streets of Rage 3
Contra Hard Corps
Secret of Mana
Darius Gaiden
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Castlevania bloodlines
Super street fighter II
EDIT:
Goldenaxe: The duel
Megaman X2
And, unlike the titles you listed above, all the titles I listed came out in the same year: 1994
If we're bringing this down to personal experience, I played.. one of those games in that year, Half-Life. I played Grim Fandango just a couple of years ago, MGS a few more eyars ago, and that's really about it. Tekken on the PS1 a few times, too. That's not doubting the quality of many of those games, I know a lot of people like them (even though I'm not the biggest fan of some of the ones you listed), but I've enjoyed far more of the ones I've played this year than I have in any other year.