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PlayStation Earns An Emmy
Appropriate considering the PS1's 10 year anniversary, the PlayStation has been awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Technology and Advanced New Media. Eurogamer reports: 'When the concept for PlayStation was in its infancy in the early 1990s, we had a dream to elevate the quality of computer graphics from a 2D-based environment to a rich, realistic 3D experience,' said uberbigwig Ken Kutaragi. 'At the same time, we intended to bring in a new form of entertainment through the living room in a manner that would allow people all over the world to enjoy the pleasures of interactive entertainment ... Even with this lofty goal in mind, the achievement and market acceptance for PlayStation have exceeded my wildest expectations. We are honoured to be awarded a prestigious Emmy to commemorate the significant role PlayStation played in creating a new computer entertainment world."
I completely disagree - the PS1 phenomenally outperforms the PS2 in every category except physical power. PS1 launched with phenomenal, exciting games from studios like Singletrac, Squaresoft, Core, Psygnosis and Sony themselves that were brand new for everyone. NFL Gameday is the only significant advancement in sports gaming since Bill Walsh College Football. Tomb Raider was the second pillar to N64's Mario 64. Metal Gear Solid and Vagrant Story still have the best low detail art assets in the history of gaming. Not to mention the launch of franchises like GTA, Resident Evil, Wipeout, Tenchu, Metal Gear Solid (not Metal Gear) and Tomb Raider.
:P
The PS1 made a pretty big gamble switching to CD-based media, and it was richly rewarded. I'm a Nintendo fanboi for life, but the PS1 kicked some serious ass, and still does, with long-lasting achievements like Final Fantasy Tactics and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and the recently rereleased Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes.
PS2 is, for the most part, a money-making machine that Sony paid you to buy. It hasn't seen anywhere near the variety and intrigue of the PS1's lifecycle. The PS1 absolutely deserves this award, however little prestige or coolness it may actually offer
This post proves my point entirely.
Let me give a little background. I've been playing games since the mid 1980s. Along the way, I've owned (or had access to when owned by parents) umpteen home computers (C64, Amiga, several PCs) and at least one console from every generation (NES, SNES - later a Genesis as well, although after the generation had ended, Playstation, all 3 of the current gen consoles). Gaming has been my "main" hobby since about 1990. When I was at school, most of my pocket money went on games. Now I'm working, a significant part of my disposable income goes on them.
And I loathe Nintendo - and their fanboys - and what they have become over the last 10 years from the depths of my soul.
Over the last decade, I've seen games get better looking, deeper, more varied and more emotionally involving. I've seen companies such as Squaresoft/Square-Enix, Lucasarts, Bioware, ID, Valve, Epic, Capcom and... yes... even EA and Microsoft produce titles with the sort of quality and longevity that puts almost anything from the 10 years before that to shame. In virtually every genre, there have been advances in technology, gameplay contents and production values, be it RPGs, first-person games, beat-em-ups or just plain old fashioned shooters. But of all the companies who have driven the state of gaming forwards, there's one name noticably lacking: Nintendo.
The reason that people stopped playing Nintendo isn't that it became all "cool" and "hard" to abandon them. It's that they stopped making games that were worth the purchase price a long time ago. You mention Mario Kart. Sure, great game. 10 years ago (longer now, in fact). When the company is still pumping out the same game with slightly updated graphics every console cycle (with Double Dash being a really offensive example), people are going to get bored. Playing Double Dash rather than Burnout Revenge or Gran Turismo 4 (yes, both franchises - but franchises which have developed) does not make you a better person or a better gamer. It makes you a guillible twat.
Nintendo's rhetoric about wanting to return to "real" gameplay is a smokescreen - marketing FUD of the highest order. All Nintendo want to do on a business level is drive gaming back into its old niche corner. Too bad, that's not going to happen. Sony let that genie out of the bottle a decade ago and it won't go back in now. It's my experience that most so-called "real" gamers don't actually play many games, not least because their chosen Messiah-company puts out so few. Rather, they're like the Final Fantasy fans who bang on in every thread about how VI was the last decent game and anybody who likes anything since is stupid; sad, washed up old fanboys trying to impress the "vulgar mobs" by basing a spurious claim to authority on a skewed version of gaming taste that refuses to play anything less than 10 years old on principle.