Speaking of genre aversion have any non-sports lovers here tried MLB Power Pros (Wii/PS2)? It's a highly chibi* version of baseball complete with a dating sim-esque simulation mode.
Speaking of genre aversion have any non-sports lovers here tried MLB Power Pros (Wii/PS2)? It's a highly chibi* version of baseball complete with a dating sim-esque simulation mode.
(extended from anime fansubbing discussion)
*Chibi means little/super deformed
I love it as a baseball geek, largely because I can make Bomberman-looking versions of Kirby Puckett and Reggie Jackson if I want to.
And racing sims are definitely an acquired taste—and I've found their fans tend to be insular in the way that fans of shmups and fighting games are—but I don't know if I could live in a world without EXCITE TRUCK.
I avoid racing sims because I'm just plain bad at them, whereas in Mario Kart I can kick ass abusing items.
I just dislike sports, so playing sports in a game is as boring as playing them in real life (But even I liked the Blitz series, because who deosn't want to catch fire and run like a maniac?).
And racing sims are definitely an acquired taste—and I've found their fans tend to be insular in the way that fans of shmups and fighting games are—but I don't know if I could live in a world without EXCITE TRUCK.
Excite Truck is a racing sim?
Why don't people tell me these things!?
You didn't see the part in Gran Turismo where you can install tailpipes that shoot out flames while an electric guitar squeals in the distance?
Actually, I was jumbling around my paragraphs a bit. :oops: I meant to say that racing sims aren't my cup of tea, but I love much more arcadey racing titles, like EXCITE TRUCK or Burnout. So it's strange to see people dismiss "racing" as a genre when there's such diversity amongst its games.
Speaking of genre aversion have any non-sports lovers here tried MLB Power Pros (Wii/PS2)? It's a highly chibi version of baseball complete with a dating sim-esque simulation mode.
Can.... Can you towel off your sweaty players with the wiimote?
What I've noticed is that a lot of people are saying that not much can be improved when it comes to X except graphics or "realism". It doesn't matter if X is a soccer game or an fps and personally I think that's is just plain wrong. When it comes to sports games I've realized that what can be - or rather has to be - improved is the way one interacts with the game. The ten button (or something like that :P) control with two analog sticks isn't cutting any more. Now you're all going to be like "wiiiiiiiiii" but calm down, little ones, calm down.
Certainly is the Wii a step in a good direction, but it's hardly precise or even reliable sometimes. Still it's the way to go it seems, especially for sports games where it's gotten rather ridicolous with all the combinations and things that's basically automatic. (last sports game I played was NHL 2004, so ymmv)
tl;dr - people have no imagination and games aren't just about gfx
edit: motocross games have just recently (like ps2-recently) started to be somewhat close to the real experience so I guess there's a danger in lumping together everything from darts to elephant soccer in "sports games"
The "it's not just about graphics" thing is true, but I'm actually trying to think of some good-looking games that have sucked on the 360 lately, and not many spring to mind. Generally it seems if a developer's not going to pay much attention to the gameplay, they're not putting any extra effort into how it looks as a result.
I'm also in the no-racing/sports-game boat. It's not that I've never tried to like them. I bought Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec because well, heck, it just looks awesome. And I've no doubt it is awesome, but the sim aspect of the racing just kicked my ass, and I gave it to my older brother. Later, I went out and got GT4 - same story - I just didn't give a crap about it. I know if I invested as much in Gran Turismo as I did in Virtua Fighter, God Hand or even Hitman I'd get a large return of perfectly executed races, big money, fast cars, beautiful women! Well, maybe not big money. Maybe it's just that I've never been a gearhead, but outside of the Sabre Turbo, Sultan or Comet in GTA IV I just don't give a crap about cars.
Same goes for sports games. As a Canadian I should have a deep and overwhelming love of Hockey in particular, but I don't. If I approached such games as simply games that require some practice to master, maybe I could glean some pleasure from the experience - but (as was said before) with no story to get me interested, I don't feel any need to compete with these virtual enemies. Unless it's a multiplayer situation, there's no purpose to the conflict. It's not Me Vs You, it's team I don't care about vs. team I've never heard of.
I'm not too big on FPSes either, particularly on consoles. I didn't mind the more intelligent tactical aspects of the original Killzone, but after a while the bland graphics got to me and I never finished it. The other day I rented Resistance: Fall of Man to see if it was worth a purchase, and while it's a very enjoyable rental I know I won't have much desire to go through it again after it's beaten.
For the most part (a few excellent RPGs aside), I'm all about the third-person action or stealth game. Which reminds me, if you want to play a fairly genre-bending game with some interesting mechanics, give Siren (PS2) a try. I picked it up the other day and really, I've never played anything like it. It's a survival-horror stealth game so far, and has some seriously challenging stuff in it. I'll likely go right back to it once I've finished Resistance. It's not perfect, but it's really different and very interesting, so far.
Chance on
'Chance, you are the best kind of whore.' -Henroid
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Grudgeblessed is the mind too small for doubtRegistered Userregular
I'm a sucker for a good narrative, so that basically rules out any type of sport/simulation type game. No story? No thanks.
Does it also rule out, say, Pac-Man? Or Tetris?
Yeah, these kinds of casual games bore me very quickly.
I find I do get tired very quickly with having to chase scores. I just don't care enough to try and have a bigger number than the next guy, even if the game is great. This is a shame, because Geometry Wars is a great game, I just don't care enough to play it.
Agreed, a high score list or a set of "Achievements" is not enough of a motivator for me to play a game. I need something deeper than that.
It's an interesting thing to consider. When was the last time you saw a high-caliber military flight sim? Longbow back in '96? Maybe something more recently, but certainly at least ten years ago.
Niche markets are becoming more expensive to develop for, and the returns aren't improving. Unfortunately, that means some of them will die off. I don't think racing will - there's an awful lot of racing fans, both here and over seas. But stuff like adventure games and military flight simulators are already pretty much dead, and western RPGs have been circling the drain for years now. (In fairness, adventure games pretty much deserved to die.)
See, people say that adventure games are dead and yet for a dead genre, there's a ton of new stuff. The genre is going very strongly on the DS (Phoenix Wright, Hotel Dusk, Professor Layton), there are the PC Sam & Max games, the upcoming Strong Bad game, Zac & Wiki on the Wii, and a gazillion fan-made Adventure games. Plus the whole survival/horror genre is basically the Adventure game genre mixed with some action and horror.
And the Western RPG genre isn't dying, it just got more focused (MMORPGs).
I'm actually trying to think of some good-looking games that have sucked on the 360 lately, and not many spring to mind.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I thought GRID stunk. It landed in the uncanny valley of car handling, where one minute I felt like I was playing a powerslide-happy semi-arcade deal like PGR and the next I had to recover from a spinout using careful throttle modulation like in Forza. I wouldn't've minded a fast-n-stupid arcade racer to tide me over between the inevitable returns to Forza 2 (which is why I also, probably foolishly, bought the last two NFS games -- this is called "desperation"), but it just felt all kinds of off.
Oddly enough when it comes to Forza, the appeal to me isn't necessarily that it's a race sim that I can spend a lot of time messing around with tuning settings in; I like the idea of getting into the guts of a physics model and tweaking it but often enough I go by a quick-and-dirty online tuning calculator and am happy enough that I can drive well without my car's handling getting away from me. What really hooks me with Forza 2 is the idea that I can take a car in the game and make it mine -- switch out the rims, put on some bodykits (where applicable), push it right up to the top of a certain class with exactly the right mixture of upgrades and give it whatever paint job and graphic design I want, whether it's a recreation of the classic '60s Gulf livery or, I don't know, Muppets or something. I'd be just as happy with an arcade racer if I could do the same thing, which is why I'm geeked for Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
As far as whether or not sim racers are becoming a niche, well, given the kinds of things said by various developers in this article, maybe I've got reason to be nervous.
And why is it always sports and racing games, anyways -- is it something specifically due to the game mechanics, or is it more of a cultural thing?
I think it varies from person to person, but for the most part I'd say that the typical American gamer doesn't overlap a whole lot with the typical American NASCAR fan.
SPORTS
I avoid the video game versions because I don't care about sports enough to play them in person or watch them on TV so it makes sense that I would avoid them in video game form, too. The exceptions to this are things like Mario Golf because it's less about getting that perfect shot and more about laughing when a chain chomper eats the ball.
RACING
Like sports, I don't care about racing. I find it boring to watch, and when I find them frustrating to play. Combine "the concept bores me to tears" with "I'm bad at it to boot" and I'm not buying your game. There's also more investment. Those that are good at Forza most likely have a racing wheel and know enough about cars to tune them well. I don't have the money to buy a racing wheel, and I don't know enough about cars to tune them. If you want me to race you're going to have to give me rockets and reward me for slamming an opponent into the wall.
What really hooks me with Forza 2 is the idea that I can take a car in the game and make it mine -- switch out the rims, put on some bodykits (where applicable), push it right up to the top of a certain class with exactly the right mixture of upgrades and give it whatever paint job and graphic design I want, whether it's a recreation of the classic '60s Gulf livery or, I don't know, Muppets or something.
Nooooo!! This is the reasoning that gives us all those crappy modified cars you see out in real life. But keeping it confined to a game is good, I guess!
It's an interesting thing to consider. When was the last time you saw a high-caliber military flight sim? Longbow back in '96? Maybe something more recently, but certainly at least ten years ago.
The Falcon 4.0 Allied Force fan made compilation of addons was pretty recent, but the original game is quite old. I'm looking forward to Steel Beasts 2, which should be released sometime this year. I've never been a sim nut until I built my backlog and branched out to genres I missed. I tried the demo to Steel Beasts and was pretty impressed with the modeling of an M1A1 (not that I've ever been in one, but the real-life sound effects, nice training, and various roles you can play seemed well done).
They've got the pro version out now for military training in a classroom, but the consumer version is not out yet. Come on guys, no one's going to shoot anything in a tank these days anyway! Mindless consumers should be a much higher priority. ;-)
It's an interesting thing to consider. When was the last time you saw a high-caliber military flight sim? Longbow back in '96? Maybe something more recently, but certainly at least ten years ago.
The Falcon 4.0 Allied Force fan made compilation of addons was pretty recent, but the original game is quite old. I'm looking forward to Steel Beasts 2, which should be released sometime this year. I've never been a sim nut until I built my backlog and branched out to genres I missed. I tried the demo to Steel Beasts and was pretty impressed with the modeling of an M1A1 (not that I've ever been in one, but the real-life sound effects, nice training, and various roles you can play seemed well done).
They've got the pro version out now for military training in a classroom, but the consumer version is not out yet. Come on guys, no one's going to shoot anything in a tank these days anyway! Mindless consumers should be a much higher priority. ;-)
Hell, with the exception of Ace Combat 6, good arcade military flight games have been scarce as well.
Me and JRPGs don't go well together. From the often ridiculous, to characters, writing, gameplay, I find pretty-much nothing there that appeals to me.
What he said.
Aye, same here. JRPGS seem pretty ridiculous.
But I'm going to try and break this one down, I just ordered Eternal Sonata from Play.com on the cheap, I quite liked the demo. Well, More than the Blue Dragon and Tales of Whateverthefuckia demos anyway.
Me and JRPGs don't go well together. From the often ridiculous, to characters, writing, gameplay, I find pretty-much nothing there that appeals to me.
What he said.
Aye, same here. JRPGS seem pretty ridiculous.
But I'm going to try and break this one down, I just ordered Eternal Sonata from Play.com on the cheap, I quite liked the demo. Well, More than the Blue Dragon and Tales of Whateverthefuckia demos anyway.
I love JRPGs. But I also sort of hate them. I like playing them because I can grind. But I really am sometimes embarrassed by the writing and characters.
Actually, I can't think of the last one I bought or finished. I know I bought FF12 but I don't have any plans on finishing it.
It seems I share similar aversions with everyone else. Sports games and racing games don't do anything for me. The last sports game I played was NBA JAM on the 32x, and I still have a copy of it. I don't like sports, so I don't want to spend my leisure time simulating something that I don't like.
I also have a pretty strong aversion to the FPS genre. There are a few shining exceptions, but I really don't like FPS games for the most part. Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are pretty great though.
Me and JRPGs don't go well together. From the often ridiculous, to characters, writing, gameplay, I find pretty-much nothing there that appeals to me.
What he said.
Aye, same here. JRPGS seem pretty ridiculous.
But I'm going to try and break this one down, I just ordered Eternal Sonata from Play.com on the cheap, I quite liked the demo. Well, More than the Blue Dragon and Tales of Whateverthefuckia demos anyway.
I doubt ES will do much for you if you don't normally like JRPGs. The story is completely nonsensical and stops making much sense partway through. The art is good and the battle system is sort of fun though. It was worth renting for that.
I can't take most story heavy JRPGs with very few exceptions that are actually well written. I am okay with cliche stories that aren't too obtrusive and don't take themselves seriously. So long as the gameplay and character customization is fun (playing rogue galaxy now and it definitely fits that criteria).
Me and JRPGs don't go well together. From the often ridiculous, to characters, writing, gameplay, I find pretty-much nothing there that appeals to me.
What he said.
Aye, same here. JRPGS seem pretty ridiculous.
But I'm going to try and break this one down, I just ordered Eternal Sonata from Play.com on the cheap, I quite liked the demo. Well, More than the Blue Dragon and Tales of Whateverthefuckia demos anyway.
I doubt ES will do much for you if you don't normally like JRPGs. The story is completely nonsensical and stops making much sense partway through. The art is good and the battle system is sort of fun though. It was worth renting for that.
Yeah it was the art and combat which sold me on it. I'm not expecting the story to make a whole lot of sense.
But it has been a while since I've sat through an entire JRPG, figured it was about time to have another go.
fragglefart on
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
edited June 2008
I am not a big fan of sports games, but I do love me some Hockey. In the realm of racing I would die of boredom playing a NASCAR game, but give me a Gran Turismo type racer or a rally racing themed game and I am good to go.
Fighting games tend to bore me. I guess I am just no good at them nor do I have any motivation to become good at them.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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acidlacedpenguinInstitutionalizedSafe in jail.Registered Userregular
edited June 2008
I love sports games and I love racing games. I hate Madden and pretty much every single EA sports game, so that makes it look like I hate sports games.
Also, I think Mario Kart is a shitty game, and not because "olol arcade racer, nub" but because I hate every single racing game where their idea of making the game harder is to just put everything on a rubber band. I'm actually getting fed up with nintendo right now because their idea of game balance is to just remove all skill whatsoever from deciding the game and replacing it with random chance and luck.
you know what I really want? I want there to be a road rash game using the motoGP engine, or 187 ride or die in the forza engine. That would be supreme.
I play games to relax and have fun, and to me the real-as-can-be driving titles are the opposite of fun. I would instead describe them as mind-numbing tedium. I have, on occasion, played gran turismo (3, I think) with a mounted pedal/steering wheel setup. That was only kinda fun. For a few minutes. basically until the novelty of the wheel ceased overshadowing fnishing dead last.
On the other hand, I do enjoy arcade style racers. Just not to the point of actively seeking them out. I played quite a bit of burnout revenge and remember having fun with cruisin usa and the like when I was younger.
Same deal with sports games. I'm barely interested enough to pick different plays in a single game of madden, let alone play through an entire season. Give me mario strikers or nba jam though, and I'm golden.
FWIW, I don't care for the vast majority of strategy games either. Micromanaging just bores me quickly.
I'd say for most people if they're not fans of sports or racing in the real world, then they won't be playing them as video games. I know a whole gaggle of Europeans who only play football (soccer) games. Those are the only video games they play. And they love them a whole bunch. They'll play for hours. They'll tweak plays and edit lines and simulate favourite matches. Good for them.
I don't watch sports, haven't for many years. I do play sports games. But, it's only for the competition. I play most games for competition. I would never play sports games against an AI unless I was practising moves or plays for a real opponent. But I'll play anything, if it's against a real person.
I also don't like racing games. I don't drive, have no interest in cars. I also don't know anyone else who plays them. If I did then I might start, because I'd want to play against someone else. At the same time, and I know this is oversimplifying things, a racing game, to me, is just trying to do the exact same thing over and over again. Not something I would willingly do unless it was against humans.
I also have a problem with "realism" in games. As I've said before, real world combat is unfair and short. Not something I'd look for in a game, especially a competitive game. I did enjoy the first few Rainbow 6 games, though, up to Rogue Spear, so go figure. And style trumps graphical power any day for me. I'd still rather play a game of Quake 3 than R6:V, but that also has a lot to do with how boggled I am about the console FPS trend.
But I would never play games for the story. There are very, very few video game stories that could live up to even the weakest pulp novels. If I want I story I'll read a book, or even a comic. If I want an escape, some interesting mechanics, maybe a few good characters or an interesting setting, I'll play a video game. People who play games for their stories are like people who eat at Taco Bell for the nutritional value of the food; there may be a ittle something there, but every other alternative is preferable.
I'd say for most people if they're not fans of sports or racing in the real world, then they won't be playing them as video games. I know a whole gaggle of Europeans who only play football (soccer) games. Those are the only video games they play. And they love them a whole bunch. They'll play for hours. They'll tweak plays and edit lines and simulate favourite matches. Good for them.
I don't watch sports, haven't for many years. I do play sports games. But, it's only for the competition. I play most games for competition. I would never play sports games against an AI unless I was practising moves or plays for a real opponent. But I'll play anything, if it's against a real person.
I also don't like racing games. I don't drive, have no interest in cars. I also don't know anyone else who plays them. If I did then I might start, because I'd want to play against someone else. At the same time, and I know this is oversimplifying things, a racing game, to me, is just trying to do the exact same thing over and over again. Not something I would willingly do unless it was against humans.
I also have a problem with "realism" in games. As I've said before, real world combat is unfair and short. Not something I'd look for in a game, especially a competitive game. I did enjoy the first few Rainbow 6 games, though, up to Rogue Spear, so go figure. And style trumps graphical power any day for me. I'd still rather play a game of Quake 3 than R6:V, but that also has a lot to do with how boggled I am about the console FPS trend.
But I would never play games for the story. There are very, very few video game stories that could live up to even the weakest pulp novels. If I want I story I'll read a book, or even a comic. If I want an escape, some interesting mechanics, maybe a few good characters or an interesting setting, I'll play a video game. People who play games for their stories are like people who eat at Taco Bell for the nutritional value of the food; there may be a ittle something there, but every other alternative is preferable.
so if you don't like sports, racing, shooting, or anything with a story, what genres do you like?
I'd say for most people if they're not fans of sports or racing in the real world, then they won't be playing them as video games. I know a whole gaggle of Europeans who only play football (soccer) games. Those are the only video games they play. And they love them a whole bunch. They'll play for hours. They'll tweak plays and edit lines and simulate favourite matches. Good for them.
I don't watch sports, haven't for many years. I do play sports games. But, it's only for the competition. I play most games for competition. I would never play sports games against an AI unless I was practising moves or plays for a real opponent. But I'll play anything, if it's against a real person.
I also don't like racing games. I don't drive, have no interest in cars. I also don't know anyone else who plays them. If I did then I might start, because I'd want to play against someone else. At the same time, and I know this is oversimplifying things, a racing game, to me, is just trying to do the exact same thing over and over again. Not something I would willingly do unless it was against humans.
I also have a problem with "realism" in games. As I've said before, real world combat is unfair and short. Not something I'd look for in a game, especially a competitive game. I did enjoy the first few Rainbow 6 games, though, up to Rogue Spear, so go figure. And style trumps graphical power any day for me. I'd still rather play a game of Quake 3 than R6:V, but that also has a lot to do with how boggled I am about the console FPS trend.
But I would never play games for the story. There are very, very few video game stories that could live up to even the weakest pulp novels. If I want I story I'll read a book, or even a comic. If I want an escape, some interesting mechanics, maybe a few good characters or an interesting setting, I'll play a video game. People who play games for their stories are like people who eat at Taco Bell for the nutritional value of the food; there may be a ittle something there, but every other alternative is preferable.
so if you don't like sports, racing, shooting, or anything with a story, what genres do you like?
I actually dislike sports games of the sports I follow. I've never played a hockey game that actually plays like "real hockey". The next time Saku Koivu knocks Ovechkin off the puck (and off the team due to a 2 month injury) with a thunderous body check on route to a Art Ross winning season, maybe I'll pick another one up.
(Oh, I'm a Habs fan, too...)
Litany on
Steam: Litany || PSN: Litany- || Nintendo Network ID: Litany
I'm also not a big fan of sports games, but I did pick up Hot Shots Golf on the PS3 and I'm enjoying that. But I usually avoid all the yearly release stuff.
Also, I hate first person shooters, mostly on the basis that I get motion sick from playing them. For me, getting headaches and nausea don't make a fun gaming experience. Mostly I play JPRGs, and adventure games on my PC(well, iMac with XP installed just for the adventure games). I also like to try actiony style games now and again, and strategy games(although I suck at those).
The genres that I don't care for are realistic sports, realistic racing, and WWII shooters (not an actual genre but there's so many of them they deserve one). I just don't find them as entertaining as the other genres and I'm not really into real sports. I enjoy playing certain sports in real life though. I am not into real life racing at all. WWII shooters have never really caught my attention since I prefer modern and futuristic shooters like CoD4 and the Halo trilogy. Modern and futuristic shooters tend to have better weapons and more creative levels since the levels in a WWII shooter are usually based of off actual battles that already occurred so there's not much creativity involved (haven't played any WWII shooters so I might be a little inaccurate).
Also certain JRPGs don't interest me like the ones where there's an extremely feminine looking male protagonist, where all the characters are designed to look cute, and where I'm forced to do endless grinding just to have a chance of getting through an area.
The games that I like tend to vary in terms of genre. Basically if a game is entertaining and enjoyable to me, I'll play it.
While the Medal of Honour "one man army" approach to WWII shooters came over as largely unimaginative, I'd say Infinity Ward showed that there certainly is room for creativity within the era. Call of Duty 1 and 2 are absolutely outstanding, atmospheric titles and well worth playing.
While the Medal of Honour "one man army" approach to WWII shooters came over as largely unimaginative, I'd say Infinity Ward showed that there certainly is room for creativity within the era. Call of Duty 1 and 2 are absolutely outstanding, atmospheric titles and well worth playing.
I'll probably give CoD2 a try someday since I heard it was really good.
I never really thought about it before, but I just realized something.
The spectrum of gaming genres has become much narrower than it was in the 90s. Many genres are basically endangered species, and nothing is really replacing them.
There was a time when Rainbow Six existed in a different genre to Counterstrike.
While the Medal of Honour "one man army" approach to WWII shooters came over as largely unimaginative, I'd say Infinity Ward showed that there certainly is room for creativity within the era. Call of Duty 1 and 2 are absolutely outstanding, atmospheric titles and well worth playing.
I understand genre aversion. There are lots of gametypes that I hardly ever or even never (ie sports) play. But there are fans for them, so I hope those genres always stick around. I'd hope that if the field of game-types really narrows, we end up seeing that online game distribution can make up for it where there's a demand from gamers who like that game-type. Some things are probably at a real risk of being marginalized into oblivion though, like turn based tactical squad games. Could be I'm wrong there of course, I know people love them.
I really enjoy multiplayer, and the bigger the community the better (I do enjoy playing games with friends but don't do that sort of gaming nearly as much), so that more than anything has constrained my gaming. At the start it was whatever people were playing on Kali that would actually work for me. I added shooters when I found out that Tribes was playable with 500-600ms ping. Broadband opened up a lot more options, but being that I enjoy the competitive community aspect of it, I still only really have a pick of a handful of games at any one time, at best.
While the Medal of Honour "one man army" approach to WWII shooters came over as largely unimaginative, I'd say Infinity Ward showed that there certainly is room for creativity within the era. Call of Duty 1 and 2 are absolutely outstanding, atmospheric titles and well worth playing.
It's called Medal of HONOR.
I really hope this is a joke and you're not as big of an asshole as it looks like you are.
The spectrum of gaming genres has become much narrower than it was in the 90s. Many genres are basically endangered species, and nothing is really replacing them.
That's a pretty bold claim. Care to share some examples?
Posts
(extended from anime fansubbing discussion)
*Chibi means little/super deformed
I love it as a baseball geek, largely because I can make Bomberman-looking versions of Kirby Puckett and Reggie Jackson if I want to.
Why don't people tell me these things!?
I just dislike sports, so playing sports in a game is as boring as playing them in real life (But even I liked the Blitz series, because who deosn't want to catch fire and run like a maniac?).
You didn't see the part in Gran Turismo where you can install tailpipes that shoot out flames while an electric guitar squeals in the distance?
Actually, I was jumbling around my paragraphs a bit. :oops: I meant to say that racing sims aren't my cup of tea, but I love much more arcadey racing titles, like EXCITE TRUCK or Burnout. So it's strange to see people dismiss "racing" as a genre when there's such diversity amongst its games.
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.
Certainly is the Wii a step in a good direction, but it's hardly precise or even reliable sometimes. Still it's the way to go it seems, especially for sports games where it's gotten rather ridicolous with all the combinations and things that's basically automatic. (last sports game I played was NHL 2004, so ymmv)
tl;dr - people have no imagination and games aren't just about gfx
edit: motocross games have just recently (like ps2-recently) started to be somewhat close to the real experience so I guess there's a danger in lumping together everything from darts to elephant soccer in "sports games"
Same goes for sports games. As a Canadian I should have a deep and overwhelming love of Hockey in particular, but I don't. If I approached such games as simply games that require some practice to master, maybe I could glean some pleasure from the experience - but (as was said before) with no story to get me interested, I don't feel any need to compete with these virtual enemies. Unless it's a multiplayer situation, there's no purpose to the conflict. It's not Me Vs You, it's team I don't care about vs. team I've never heard of.
I'm not too big on FPSes either, particularly on consoles. I didn't mind the more intelligent tactical aspects of the original Killzone, but after a while the bland graphics got to me and I never finished it. The other day I rented Resistance: Fall of Man to see if it was worth a purchase, and while it's a very enjoyable rental I know I won't have much desire to go through it again after it's beaten.
For the most part (a few excellent RPGs aside), I'm all about the third-person action or stealth game. Which reminds me, if you want to play a fairly genre-bending game with some interesting mechanics, give Siren (PS2) a try. I picked it up the other day and really, I've never played anything like it. It's a survival-horror stealth game so far, and has some seriously challenging stuff in it. I'll likely go right back to it once I've finished Resistance. It's not perfect, but it's really different and very interesting, so far.
Agreed, a high score list or a set of "Achievements" is not enough of a motivator for me to play a game. I need something deeper than that.
Niche markets are becoming more expensive to develop for, and the returns aren't improving. Unfortunately, that means some of them will die off. I don't think racing will - there's an awful lot of racing fans, both here and over seas. But stuff like adventure games and military flight simulators are already pretty much dead, and western RPGs have been circling the drain for years now. (In fairness, adventure games pretty much deserved to die.)
And the Western RPG genre isn't dying, it just got more focused (MMORPGs).
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This might be an unpopular opinion, but I thought GRID stunk. It landed in the uncanny valley of car handling, where one minute I felt like I was playing a powerslide-happy semi-arcade deal like PGR and the next I had to recover from a spinout using careful throttle modulation like in Forza. I wouldn't've minded a fast-n-stupid arcade racer to tide me over between the inevitable returns to Forza 2 (which is why I also, probably foolishly, bought the last two NFS games -- this is called "desperation"), but it just felt all kinds of off.
Oddly enough when it comes to Forza, the appeal to me isn't necessarily that it's a race sim that I can spend a lot of time messing around with tuning settings in; I like the idea of getting into the guts of a physics model and tweaking it but often enough I go by a quick-and-dirty online tuning calculator and am happy enough that I can drive well without my car's handling getting away from me. What really hooks me with Forza 2 is the idea that I can take a car in the game and make it mine -- switch out the rims, put on some bodykits (where applicable), push it right up to the top of a certain class with exactly the right mixture of upgrades and give it whatever paint job and graphic design I want, whether it's a recreation of the classic '60s Gulf livery or, I don't know, Muppets or something. I'd be just as happy with an arcade racer if I could do the same thing, which is why I'm geeked for Midnight Club: Los Angeles.
As far as whether or not sim racers are becoming a niche, well, given the kinds of things said by various developers in this article, maybe I've got reason to be nervous.
Metal Gear Solid 2-flashback. "Raiden is the player who is lost and new to the world-yadda-yadda-yadda" Still, worth a thought.
They've got the pro version out now for military training in a classroom, but the consumer version is not out yet. Come on guys, no one's going to shoot anything in a tank these days anyway! Mindless consumers should be a much higher priority. ;-)
Hell, with the exception of Ace Combat 6, good arcade military flight games have been scarce as well.
Aye, same here. JRPGS seem pretty ridiculous.
But I'm going to try and break this one down, I just ordered Eternal Sonata from Play.com on the cheap, I quite liked the demo. Well, More than the Blue Dragon and Tales of Whateverthefuckia demos anyway.
I love JRPGs. But I also sort of hate them. I like playing them because I can grind. But I really am sometimes embarrassed by the writing and characters.
Actually, I can't think of the last one I bought or finished. I know I bought FF12 but I don't have any plans on finishing it.
I also have a pretty strong aversion to the FPS genre. There are a few shining exceptions, but I really don't like FPS games for the most part. Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are pretty great though.
I doubt ES will do much for you if you don't normally like JRPGs. The story is completely nonsensical and stops making much sense partway through. The art is good and the battle system is sort of fun though. It was worth renting for that.
I can't take most story heavy JRPGs with very few exceptions that are actually well written. I am okay with cliche stories that aren't too obtrusive and don't take themselves seriously. So long as the gameplay and character customization is fun (playing rogue galaxy now and it definitely fits that criteria).
Yeah it was the art and combat which sold me on it. I'm not expecting the story to make a whole lot of sense.
But it has been a while since I've sat through an entire JRPG, figured it was about time to have another go.
Fighting games tend to bore me. I guess I am just no good at them nor do I have any motivation to become good at them.
Also, I think Mario Kart is a shitty game, and not because "olol arcade racer, nub" but because I hate every single racing game where their idea of making the game harder is to just put everything on a rubber band. I'm actually getting fed up with nintendo right now because their idea of game balance is to just remove all skill whatsoever from deciding the game and replacing it with random chance and luck.
you know what I really want? I want there to be a road rash game using the motoGP engine, or 187 ride or die in the forza engine. That would be supreme.
On the other hand, I do enjoy arcade style racers. Just not to the point of actively seeking them out. I played quite a bit of burnout revenge and remember having fun with cruisin usa and the like when I was younger.
Same deal with sports games. I'm barely interested enough to pick different plays in a single game of madden, let alone play through an entire season. Give me mario strikers or nba jam though, and I'm golden.
FWIW, I don't care for the vast majority of strategy games either. Micromanaging just bores me quickly.
I don't watch sports, haven't for many years. I do play sports games. But, it's only for the competition. I play most games for competition. I would never play sports games against an AI unless I was practising moves or plays for a real opponent. But I'll play anything, if it's against a real person.
I also don't like racing games. I don't drive, have no interest in cars. I also don't know anyone else who plays them. If I did then I might start, because I'd want to play against someone else. At the same time, and I know this is oversimplifying things, a racing game, to me, is just trying to do the exact same thing over and over again. Not something I would willingly do unless it was against humans.
I also have a problem with "realism" in games. As I've said before, real world combat is unfair and short. Not something I'd look for in a game, especially a competitive game. I did enjoy the first few Rainbow 6 games, though, up to Rogue Spear, so go figure. And style trumps graphical power any day for me. I'd still rather play a game of Quake 3 than R6:V, but that also has a lot to do with how boggled I am about the console FPS trend.
But I would never play games for the story. There are very, very few video game stories that could live up to even the weakest pulp novels. If I want I story I'll read a book, or even a comic. If I want an escape, some interesting mechanics, maybe a few good characters or an interesting setting, I'll play a video game. People who play games for their stories are like people who eat at Taco Bell for the nutritional value of the food; there may be a ittle something there, but every other alternative is preferable.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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so if you don't like sports, racing, shooting, or anything with a story, what genres do you like?
Sports games, FPS, fighting games, good action games, puzzle games, adventure games, strategy games, RTS games, RPGs.
Anything that will challenge me, entertain me, or that I can compete against other people in.
Really, the only games I don't play are racing sims, console FPS games, and MMOs.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
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(Oh, I'm a Habs fan, too...)
Also, I hate first person shooters, mostly on the basis that I get motion sick from playing them. For me, getting headaches and nausea don't make a fun gaming experience. Mostly I play JPRGs, and adventure games on my PC(well, iMac with XP installed just for the adventure games). I also like to try actiony style games now and again, and strategy games(although I suck at those).
Also certain JRPGs don't interest me like the ones where there's an extremely feminine looking male protagonist, where all the characters are designed to look cute, and where I'm forced to do endless grinding just to have a chance of getting through an area.
The games that I like tend to vary in terms of genre. Basically if a game is entertaining and enjoyable to me, I'll play it.
I'll probably give CoD2 a try someday since I heard it was really good.
The spectrum of gaming genres has become much narrower than it was in the 90s. Many genres are basically endangered species, and nothing is really replacing them.
There was a time when Rainbow Six existed in a different genre to Counterstrike.
https://medium.com/@alascii
It's called Medal of HONOR.
I really enjoy multiplayer, and the bigger the community the better (I do enjoy playing games with friends but don't do that sort of gaming nearly as much), so that more than anything has constrained my gaming. At the start it was whatever people were playing on Kali that would actually work for me. I added shooters when I found out that Tribes was playable with 500-600ms ping. Broadband opened up a lot more options, but being that I enjoy the competitive community aspect of it, I still only really have a pick of a handful of games at any one time, at best.
I still consider myself an RTSer at heart.
I really hope this is a joke and you're not as big of an asshole as it looks like you are.
That's a pretty bold claim. Care to share some examples?
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