Dissapointed Gamer

Aren't the current generation of video games disappointing? Perhaps you don't think so, but I do and here's why.

Only my true friends will know I was once a gaming junkie. Oh yes, I was addicted. I more than often anticipated new game releases and frequently visited gaming sites like Gamespot & IGN. However, two years ago I decided I would no longer fall victim to the video game market.

Why? Because now a days the industry is much more quantity than quality.

I'd like to start with the game consoles themselves. Remember the days of the Nintendo 64? I do and what great fun they were. The system it's self was superb - sure, it wasn't the technological time bomb like the current systems (as expected with evolution) but it was pure quality. What I mean by quality is reliability. In the total of six years which I owned my N64 I suffered no technical issues whatsoever. Occasionally it froze or required the game cartridge to be blown out but nothing which required me to pump money out. In fact the only thing I was spending money on was new games and new controllers to replace worn out ones.

Now forwarding to the last generation of gaming systems. Nintendo remained rather faith full with reliability, as did Playstation, but newcomer Microsoft suffered terrible reliability issues.

To be fair, the newcomer is always going to have problems, but even today's XBOX 360 is suffering from poor reliability. Just ask it's owners.

I personally went with a toil having owned four (yes, four) of the first generation XBOX's. I am indeed on my fourth, the first was the faulty "Thompson drive", the second stopped reading discs entirely, while the third resulted in a warped and partially melted disc tray (which the second one also started to suffer from) and now, onto the fourth one (which I bought used) is a yet another "Thompson drive"

I guess I shouldn't have bought a used XBOX, especially with a "Thompson drive" - but then it's kind of hard to tell when it's in a package...As it is now it refuses to play CD's and cannot successfully run Splinter Cell or Project Gotham Racing 2.

Meanwhile my Playstation 2 is working excellent - except for the fact that there is a recall for the power adaptor on all PS2 models built in August 06. Which happens to be when I bought it..

So yeah, the gaming companies seriously need to work on technical issues. What's even worse than the terrible technical issues is the absurd price at which these consoles are being sold at. Anyone remember the first XBOX that came with the built in harddrive? As most now know, 360 requires you to buy a "special" XBOX to have something that was standard on the base model of the first generation XBOX.

Although I wouldn't want to stop at the console systems, because game quality has also gone down the toilet. Ever since the online fad hit the gaming market, companies no longer feel it's important to make a game with single player playability. "Don't worry chums, screw the single playing gamer and focus on multiplayer"

Can you blame them? Yes and no. No, as in the online fad has in turn brought in a ton of a money for the game company, but also for the game console developers which runs the online world(s)

Nearly every new game has been hampered by online playing and quite simply, if you don't have "online" the games are substandard. That's not how things were like in the past - but oh my, should I swallow a shoe and accept evolution? No way. Games such as: MarioKart, Mario 64, Golden Eye and Perfect Dark did not require this. They were great as they were and thankfully there are a few games I have found which carry the traits of those N64 greats.



Above, Perfect Dark in action

I suppose most are expecting Halo to be brought up and I will. I've got Halo 2, but before we go on, I think Perfect Dark crushes it. Halo is a good game indeed, but I feel Halo suffers from repetitive motion, quite badly in fact.

At this time, I would like to talk about some of my "greats". When it comes to racing games, Forza Motorsports and Project Gotham Racing 2 are my drug (even though I can't play PGR at the moment..) I find them both to be highly addictive and entertaining, further to that they have tons of re-playability. Both of these games feature online play, but I've never used it on either of them. No need to.



Also in Bruce's "great's" is SSX Tricky and Splinter Cell. SSX is highly addictive and having played it for four years I now consider myself a professional.

Arguably you could say Splinter Cell lacks replay, but as far as I see it, the sequel's which followed focused on multiplayer and completely ignored the story line. Aside from that, I feel they tried to go overly complex with features.

I never could see the appeal of a multiplayer Splinter Cell, In my opinion that was always reserved for Rainbow Six.


Above, the brilliant Splinter Cell

Of course, any game collection would be incomplete without at least one first person shooter. As I mentioned earlier, I do own Halo 2 - but honestly, I much prefer the TimeSplitters series (both 2 & 3) They are both fantastic! If you didn't know TS2 was developed by the same team who developed both Perfect Dark and Golden Eye (Rareware). TS3 on the other hand was developed under the supervision of Electronic Arts. Having said that you'd usually assume anything made under the EA badge to be garbage and while TS3 did retain some of EA's traits, it remained Rareware at heart.

Despite featuring an online multiplayer, the story was good - IE: there was one.

When you don't feel like playing "story" mode you can always choose a pre-developed "challenge" - IE: kill sixty guys in five minutes. When you're done with that you can always advance onto the "arcade" mode where you can set up your own gun fight. Options including level selection, weapons selection and even the ability to choose the exact number and difficulty of the bots which you fight against. Even the game type is selectable, whether that be "Capture the Flag" or "Team Deathmatch" it's all up to you. Obviously an "arcade" mode is not a new concept, In fact Perfect Dark had done it back in '99, but the question remains - why the hell does Halo not have this feature?

Is it because they are bloody money hounds? Perhaps so.

The question in your mind at the moment might in fact be "has this guy ever tried online multiplayer?" The answer to the question is yes, I used to be a frequent online multiplayer of Alien Vs Predator 2. It's great fun no doubt, but that doesn't give companies the right to make substandard rubbish with no story or replay value.