I think the element of death - especially in the context of zombie games - is handled really poorly. As you point out, it ruins the tension and acts as a safety net. In another way, it's also a sign that players are not fully immersed because dying isn't considered to be a big thing.
Anyway, you got me interested in Zombie Smasher so I'm going to check it out.
Blunt was too strong of a word. Let me rephrase, I believe Kojima put a lot of effort into making his points vocal.
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MGS2 is great. Although it's a bit blunt, the story is doing some really interesting things on many levels, and I know I risk sounding pretencious here, but I still see a lot of gamers to this day not 'getting' the ideas that Kojima is trying to portray.
As for Raiden; he was great in MGS2. He offered a new experience to the story, added a more emotional tone to the story and let Kojima develop Snake into a more interesting character. It's a shame that MGS4 that basically ruiend his character by turning him into Grey Fox 2.0, but then again, MGS4 pretty much ruined the entire franchise.
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Dead Island seems to be taking all of the big features from zombie games in this generation, and thats all right, but I fear that it'll just copy them without understanding why they worked in their original games. Jack of all trades kind of thing.
Like with Dead Rising, the huge amount of zombies was awesome, but what made it so great was that you could interact with the entire world, and that Capcom used the element of time to structure the game. I know Dead Island is open world, but it'll be disappointing if it's just an excuse to run around and kill things mindlessly.
Actually, I was talking to a friend about the DI trailer and we were wondering would it actually be able to make a game that shared the same structure as the trailer, i.e. start and the end and finish at the beginning. It would need work, but potentially it could a incrediblly interesting experiment.
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I'd love to see a Power Stone 3. A next generation version with a new selection of items and online co-op would be great. The series always bosted a great selection of charracters and arenas, and I'm not quite sure why Capcom didn't make another sequel!
Also, dare I say it...Shenmue 3???
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I got really bored of the Pokemon franchise quite a few generations ago cause it was getting stale, but I gotta admit, like Chris, you somehow managed to get even me exicted for this game!
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I think it's a shame how much focus is put into metacritic and all that. THQ stock drop by 25% due to poor reviews. It's getting to the point where we're putting so much focus into review averages instead of the games themselves.
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I think another interesting element is viral marketing. I don't really approve of it because they're concentrating on promoting a game by abusing the score system, as opposed to making an actual good game.
Good timing actually, because one of Biowares employees have been caught red-handed giving DA2 a 10/10 to counteract the negative community reception it is getting. There's nothing wrong with being proud of your game and promoting it, but assuming another internet identity is misleading because as a developer you're obviously going to be biased.
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Great article. Also reminds me of Battlefield 3, some of the leaked footage was of a earthquake and a building collapsing. I think that actual video is supposed to be officially released today or tomorrow, but I wonder if EA will go through with it.
As for the docu-drama thing. It could be done, but it really needs to be handled correctly. I think the problem is that when it comes down to it, most people view games as a platform to have fun, so it runs the risk of people thinking the game is exploiting a tragic event for their own means and devaluing the life that has been lost. If someone was going to approach an event like this, they'd have to sit down and think this through carefully.
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Wow, thanks for putting this onto the front page!
@ Mooez, I really recommend that you try out Dead Rising. It's a great game, and it's what I believe to be a good example of game design.
Thanks for all your comments!
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The console games is dying line made me roll my eyes, just as I do when people say the exact same thing about PC gaming. The markets are obviously not dying, although it would be more fair to say they're changing, as you point out in your article.
Anyway, good article and I agree with what you say! The fact that the market has become diverse and more people are playing games is a good thing.
Hmm, I think there's a embed option on the post manager, try posting the normal youtube link into that, maybe? Not quite sure!
Hopefully Bitmob 3.0 will have a preview option!
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