Raging over recycling and the reduction of creativity (Get over it Mike)

Rage

Now I haven't played Rage. My friend Chris raves on about it every time we go running, but the game never really got me going quite like it did for him. I remember seeing videos and thinking to myself, "Eh, looks like Borderlands and Fallout." Upon reading reviews for Rage after it's release, something did strike me about the game; the premise. In Rage you play as a young fellow who comes out of a vault and enters a post apocalyptic world with danger and wild characters. Naturally your character has little to say and you are sent on a bunch of quests, some important and some mindless. After reading this I was taken aback. My god, this is nothing like Fallout... It IS Fallout!

I'm all for games based in an end of the world setting, but seriously. Did these writers even try? Of course, I figured that this would never stand. A game can't straight up be ripped from another popular game and be praised by critics. But I was wrong. Rage has meta critic score of 83. 83!? Based on my frantic hours of reading and drinking coffee, the only thing I could find that really made the game distinct was that it had a cool driving mode. And even from watching videos of this mode, it looked like a Twisted Metal rip off.

I needed to reevaluate my life. I ditched the coffee, poured some scotch, and walked over to my video game collection. I began to list my recently played games. Dead Island; zombie clone, Red Dead Redemption; wild west grand theft auto, Dragon Age; Mass Effect with dragons, and not mention sequels upon sequels upon sequels. Good God, what have I done? Who am I? I knew original properties were rare, but I didn't realize it was this bad. Nothing I enjoyed was original anymore and for some reason I seem to praise and get excited for shit that was clearly recycled.

It's not a new concept. Every media has it's trends and remakes. Movies green light squeals all the time and books only make money on large volume series like Twilight and Harry Potter. I get it; it makes sense, people like familiarity. If a game is fun, then why give it a bad score for copying the exact set-up of something that came out three years ago?

I was a little up set over this situation. I was also a little drunk from sipping my scotch at 8:30 in the morning. But then something caught my eye. Catherine... oh what a fun game you were Catherine. Original, unique, and best of all sexy.

Catherine

I gave a sigh of relief and went back to my computer. I can't just hate the industry for cloning itself every year with updated versions of games as if they were a Madden series. This is, after all, an industry. Without those large franchises making all the money, there wouldn't be any funds to drive those small new franchises. Story and creativity is still prominent in gaming. I'm sure Rage has some amazing original technical marvels that will make me look past its cookie cutter end of the world setting.

Recycling can be good. It helps keep the circle of video games going. After watching some more videos and pouring myself another drink, I began to smile. It may be the alcohol or just the realization there's nothing I can do about this issue, but I felt good about Rage and decided that maybe I'll borrow it from my friend Chris once he's done. After all, I did like Fallout 3 and why wouldn't I want to play it again? I need another drink...

Tags: Fallout 3, Rage, Catherine

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Ed Grabowski

October 15, 2011

I loved Rage, all 22 hours worth. It sorta gets under my skin when people say it is ripping off Borderlands or Fallout, especially since the game has been in development long before Borderlands and Fallout were even announced, and according to Carmack, the art design and overall style of the game was already laid out long before Borderlands and Fallout launched as well. They have been working on this game for 2 full years before Fallout 3 even launched, and 3 years before Borderlands.

I think Borderlands and Fallout 3 are the better games, but Rage was great nonetheless. They had their post apocalyptic setting nailed down before it became a popular thing again in games like Fallout 3, Borderlands and New Vegas. It would be like if a different company made a movie sort of like Star Wars right before Star Wars launched, when George Lucas has spent the last 5 years writing, planning, and directing his space opera epic.

You can't fault George for taking his time and making sure the movie was as perfect as it could be, and it isn't his fault that other film studios had the same idea and spent much less time on their creations. Rage is a great game for many reasons. The A.I. is amazing. They will kill you. The animations are unmatched. The driving is a blast. They could have made a whole driving game out of the driving mechanics in Rage and I would have loved it.

The graphics are gorgeous. The gun play is fast and brutal. The sort-open world rewards exploration. But best of all, it is a meaty game. It took me 22 hours to finish it. I really, really enjoyed it. I never expected it to be Fallout or Borderlands. I knew exactly what it was going to be. It was going to be a few hub worlds dotted around a reasonably sized world with missions peppered throughout. I never expected Fallout and maybe that is why I loved it.

I think that people saw the driving and heard "post apocalyptic" and wrongfully made assumptions, even when Id was telling them to stop thinking this is Fallout.

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Emery Calame

October 16, 2011

Fallout Borderlands and Rage all borrow from the Road Warrior to some degree and the idea of being in a post collapse would with a gun and lots of stuff to salvage in the ruins. Borderlands was set on an abanondoned colony world amongst those who were left behind to face the animals and aliens, or those who came back to profit from selling them stuff. The post Apacalyptic shooter is a classic sub-genre not unlike zombies, vampire slayers, space opera, or crime noir. Fallout 3 and beyond never had vehicles. Borderlands had one usable vehicle and the Knoxx expansion adds four more and ditches the original model. Rage combined a shooter with CoD style control, iD style weaons,a Bioshock like loot, hack, upgrade, Diablo-like missions and vendor NPC's, strangely acrobatic enemies who react where you shoot them. and the ability craft and upgrade stuff. Then THAT is mated that with a Mariokart/Twisted Metal-like combat racing game. It also has an arena shooting mode, minigames, a collectible card game of surprising depth, strange gambling events, coop mode with short scenarioes, and online combat racing multiplayer and overall it is a fairly odd bird. I think it's pretty distinctive and weirdly bimodal game, sort of like a mixed drink or a parfait with layers that you wouldn't normally find together.

I'm also not sure that an abused-male centered Japanese sex comedy with demons/aliens is really all that original a concept. (Uruseu Yatsura, Outsiders) The only original bit is attaching that to a block puzzle game.