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The Year in Gaming

Posted by Zonk on from the another-year-another-level dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNN/Money's Game Over column looks at some of the gaming trends of 2004, including the prevalence of sex and sequels. Writer Chris Morris provides some follow-up as well, discussing the sad, sad sales numbers of "Singles," "The Guy Game" and "Leisure Suit Larry"; the odds of another Playboy magazine video game girls layout and whatever happened to the ApeXtreme." Gamespot has a nice Year in Review piece as well, and we've already previously mentioned Grimwell.com's MMORPG Year in Review.

9 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. So... modern by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Interesting
    So, here we are at the end of 2004, and the hottest game trend out there is those tiny self-contained units that play C-64, NES, Atari games.

    That is what the videogame revolution has brought us: the ability to run the old 8-bit games from 1988 on our TV but with smaller hardware.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    1. Re:So... modern by boarder8925 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      So, here we are at the end of 2004, and the hottest game trend out there is those tiny self-contained units that play C-64, NES, Atari games.

      That is what the videogame revolution has brought us: the ability to run the old 8-bit games from 1988 on our TV but with smaller hardware.
      Exactly. People who grew up in the early days of video games are jumping to buy their childhood memories again, either for themselves or their children. Hey, those games are pretty addicting. =)

      "What's old is new again," my friend.
      --
      Keep your eyes to the sky.
    2. Re:So... modern by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Insightful
      "Hey, those games are pretty addicting. =)"

      Seriously, way too many modern games on all platforms look pretty bad: so many have just about everything in colors that vary little from dark gray. The "muddy look" reigns. Not all games suffer from it, but many do.

      --
      Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
    3. Re:So... modern by demo9orgon · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If someone wants to make serious money they'll develop these joystick games with things like "The Bards Tale", or "Alternate Reality: The City/Dungeon", or "Elite", or a good collection of 8-bit RPG's/flight sims. That would absolutely rock! It wouldn't be any challenge at all to give them a usb/ps2 keyboard port--or just make a keyboard/joystick combo, something small. Save your game info to a stick or run a hub and use the keyboard to control it and save things to a stick. Either way, it would beat the snot out playing something on a gameboy advance (mud, it's just hand-held mud). Although these 8-bit games may seem a step backwards, every time I get into a modern 3D game of any kind it feels like we're doing everything the hard way and getting it wrong...collisions, splining...it's like "good enough" was let out of the lab and everyone just accepted it. There's one thing to be said about the non-rendered 8-bit stuff: nobody ever became sim-sick from 8-bit computer games.

      --
      Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
    4. Re:So... modern by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's because most newer games have adandoned any notion of simple, addictive gameplay. When's the last time you played a game that could be played with one or two buttons and a joystick? These classic games are a nice diversion to showcase what's missing from today's games. I'm not saying that gaming should revert to its one-button-plus-joystick glory, but it's nice to have a few fast, simple games to play from time to time.

  2. Dont forget! by Richie1984 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Gamespot failed to mention the continuing trend in game related court action, such as blaming game developers for all sorts of evils in society, and while this isn't unique to the 2004 gaming year, the rise in both subtle and blatent sexual/violent overtones in games, mentioned by Slashdot, can only help to fuel this trend. Even though the sales numbers for games with heavy sexual content are remarkably low, I doubt it'll stop any parents groups from using them as a scapegoat sometime soon.

    --
    I'm not stressed. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.
  3. Sequels by alphaseven · · Score: 2, Interesting
    But new franchises? I could only think of one that wasn't tied to a film: Namco's "Katamari Damacy."

    This is an often repeated point and generally agreed point about the prevelence of sequels, but he left out some major games such as Fable and Farcry... and even though it was tied to a movie franchise, Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay was a very original take on the FPS genre. But yeah it's probably like 80-90 percent of games selling are sequels.

  4. Alienware Discover System by sesshomaru · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It seems that Alienware is still marketing ApeXtreme type systems:

    http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/DHS_ 5/dhs_5_features.aspx?SysCode=PC-DHS5&SubCode=SKU- DEFAULT

    Obviously, these things can't replace an Xbox, though, they are too expensive...

    --
    "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
  5. The year in speed runs by Radix37 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Some highlights from this year in speed running games:

    Half-Life in 0:45:45
    Half-Life 2 in 2:14:58
    Super Mario 64 in 0:20:56 (only 16 stars)
    Zelda: A Link to the Past in 1:44:45
    Zelda: Ocarina of Time in 5:04
    Pikmin in 9 days with only 50 pikmin
    Super Metroid 100% in 0:55
    Metroid Prime 100% in 1:28
    Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2:11
    Mega Man X 100% in 0:41:36

    I wonder what next year will bring?

    --
    Speed Demos Archive - Lots of speed runs!