It's just that game publishers can no longer push out "Successful Game XII - the Crappy Sequel" and expect gamers to buy it.
Really? Let's check out the top 50 PS2 games of 2005...
1. Madden NFL 06
2. Gran Turismo 4
3. NCAA Football 06
4. Star Wars Battlefront II
5. MVP Baseball 2005
6. Star Wars Episode III
7. NBA Live 06
8. LEGO Star Wars 9. SmackDown vs. RAW '06
10. God of War 11. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
12. Star Wars Battlefront 13. Need for Speed Most Wanted
14. SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs
15. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
16. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
17. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
18. Major League Baseball 2K5
19. Burnout 3: Takedown
20. 50 Cent: Bulletproof 21. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
22. Sonic Mega Collection Plus
23. Fight Night Round 2
24. Need for Speed Underground 2
25. Mercenaries 26. Blitz: The League
27. Madden NFL 2005
28. Ratchet:Deadlocked
29. NBA Live 2005
30. NFL Street 2
31. NBA Street V3
32. Jak 3
33. Tekken 5
34. Soulcalibur III
35. Peter Jackson's King Kong 36. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
37. Madagascar 38. WWE SmackDown vs. RAW
39. Devil May Cry 3
40. Medal of Honor: European Assault
41. Call of Duty: Finest Hour
42. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
43. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
44. MX vs. ATV Unleashed
45. World Championship Poker
46. Destroy All Humans 47. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
48. SOCOM II: U.S. NAVY SEALs
49. Need for Speed Underground
50. DDR Extreme 2
I'm not saying I don't want some new and different games, but it's easy to understand why publishers prefer sequels...
I think, given the restrictions placed on psychological studies, the "noise blast" is probably reasonable. Sure, "whiffle bat to the head" might have been a better measurement of violence, but that probably wouldn't get you printed up in any journals.
I think a more valid complaint might be the study's muddying of "competitive behavior" and "videogames". The result I'm assuming we're supposed to draw is that videogames make you more violent, because people playing these games were sending more noise blasts to their opponent. But doesn't it seem like the whole idea of having an opponent in the first place is what's causing subjects to be more violent, as opposed to playing a videogame?
What I'd like to see is a study where players engage in a real-life competitive activity like touch football and a virtual competitive activity like an FPS (although maybe Madden would be a more suitable comparison) and see how violent activities result from each of those.
Yeah... Jamdat's got a market cap of... lesse... $549 million. I suppose you could consider that "small" if you want to compare them to a company like Activision, ($3.68 billion) but it ain't exactly "couple of guys in a garage" territory.
How about that horrible game where innocent civilians are subjected to a slow toture of being crushed under successively heavier and heavier weights (while enduring some nasuea-inducing motion) until they're shot into the vacuum of space and burned alive in a giant hydrogen explosion?
Parents, keep your kids away from Katamari Damacy!!
Because if we could only review games made for consoles that WEREN'T produced by heartless evil corporations, we'd be left with... uh... Word Challenge for the Tapwave Zodiac.
There's a point in Eternal Darkness where, just as you leave one of the rooms, there's a loud pounding on a door somewhere. I was too scared to go on for several minutes.
Shortly after that, I went upstairs, explored the bathroom, and realized my first instincts were probably right.
How well do you think these movie makers would cope if 50 different states had 50 different vaguely-worded laws about what consituted a PG-13 rating, and what constituted an R rating? (That's even assuming all 50 states decide to have a PG-13 rating and an R rating.) 'Cuz that's where this California law is headed.
Movies aren't complaining because they already have a single, voluntary, self-imposed regulatory systems that labels a movie for content nationwide. Just like games do. So, as you said, why should games by any different?
As I recall, Manifesto games is intentionally avoiding going after the casual game market. They're looking for Indie Hardcore games. TFA seems to use "Indie" and "Causal" interchangably, which is true for a lot of the games out there right now, but not all of 'em...
According to GameSpot, Valve is self-publishing the title. EA is only distributing the game (i.e. using their contacts to get their games into stores like Toys R Us and Target). That's it. Nothing to freak out about.
Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so I'm relying on Google's translation. It kinda looks like the DVD only version is 3,900 yen, and the DVD-UMD bundle is 5,250 yen. I don't see how much the UMD would be by itself, so I don't know how much of a savings (or not) you would get through the bundle.
They're not quite the same image -- the earlier image you're talking about (this one here) is slightly different than the new one. Whether one is a pre-rendered mock-up and the other is a real screen shot, I don't know. It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference...
Actually, depending on how much you play it, it can save you money. God of War, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Timesplitters 3, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich, and Jade Empire have all gone into my "I'd like to play them, but I don't have enough time now. Maybe I'll buy them used later" category, saving me from shelling out from $250 for instant gratification. If you look at it that way, my last 2 months on WoW have been a money-saving bargain.
Yes, well, we all know that it's hard to deny the power of a legal argument that rhymes. But is Hasbro really the party with the lack of innovation here?
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, Treyarch did most of the Spider-Man sequels. Neversoft was involved in the very first one, but that's about it.
They did do Gun, though, for what that's worth...
I think people need to start writing aricles complaining about the lack of originality in gaming articles that complain about a lack of originality.
Really? Let's check out the top 50 PS2 games of 2005...
1. Madden NFL 06
2. Gran Turismo 4
3. NCAA Football 06
4. Star Wars Battlefront II
5. MVP Baseball 2005
6. Star Wars Episode III
7. NBA Live 06
8. LEGO Star Wars
9. SmackDown vs. RAW '06
10. God of War
11. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition
12. Star Wars Battlefront
13. Need for Speed Most Wanted
14. SOCOM 3: U.S. Navy SEALs
15. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
16. Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
17. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
18. Major League Baseball 2K5
19. Burnout 3: Takedown
20. 50 Cent: Bulletproof
21. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
22. Sonic Mega Collection Plus
23. Fight Night Round 2
24. Need for Speed Underground 2
25. Mercenaries
26. Blitz: The League
27. Madden NFL 2005
28. Ratchet:Deadlocked
29. NBA Live 2005
30. NFL Street 2
31. NBA Street V3
32. Jak 3
33. Tekken 5
34. Soulcalibur III
35. Peter Jackson's King Kong
36. Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal
37. Madagascar
38. WWE SmackDown vs. RAW
39. Devil May Cry 3
40. Medal of Honor: European Assault
41. Call of Duty: Finest Hour
42. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
43. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
44. MX vs. ATV Unleashed
45. World Championship Poker
46. Destroy All Humans
47. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005
48. SOCOM II: U.S. NAVY SEALs
49. Need for Speed Underground
50. DDR Extreme 2
I'm not saying I don't want some new and different games, but it's easy to understand why publishers prefer sequels...
Ahhh... so you've played Second Life, I see...
I think, given the restrictions placed on psychological studies, the "noise blast" is probably reasonable. Sure, "whiffle bat to the head" might have been a better measurement of violence, but that probably wouldn't get you printed up in any journals.
I think a more valid complaint might be the study's muddying of "competitive behavior" and "videogames". The result I'm assuming we're supposed to draw is that videogames make you more violent, because people playing these games were sending more noise blasts to their opponent. But doesn't it seem like the whole idea of having an opponent in the first place is what's causing subjects to be more violent, as opposed to playing a videogame?
What I'd like to see is a study where players engage in a real-life competitive activity like touch football and a virtual competitive activity like an FPS (although maybe Madden would be a more suitable comparison) and see how violent activities result from each of those.
Yeah... Jamdat's got a market cap of... lesse... $549 million. I suppose you could consider that "small" if you want to compare them to a company like Activision, ($3.68 billion) but it ain't exactly "couple of guys in a garage" territory.
How about that horrible game where innocent civilians are subjected to a slow toture of being crushed under successively heavier and heavier weights (while enduring some nasuea-inducing motion) until they're shot into the vacuum of space and burned alive in a giant hydrogen explosion?
Parents, keep your kids away from Katamari Damacy!!
Because if we could only review games made for consoles that WEREN'T produced by heartless evil corporations, we'd be left with... uh... Word Challenge for the Tapwave Zodiac.
There's a point in Eternal Darkness where, just as you leave one of the rooms, there's a loud pounding on a door somewhere. I was too scared to go on for several minutes.
Shortly after that, I went upstairs, explored the bathroom, and realized my first instincts were probably right.
How well do you think these movie makers would cope if 50 different states had 50 different vaguely-worded laws about what consituted a PG-13 rating, and what constituted an R rating? (That's even assuming all 50 states decide to have a PG-13 rating and an R rating.) 'Cuz that's where this California law is headed.
Movies aren't complaining because they already have a single, voluntary, self-imposed regulatory systems that labels a movie for content nationwide. Just like games do. So, as you said, why should games by any different?
As I recall, Manifesto games is intentionally avoiding going after the casual game market. They're looking for Indie Hardcore games. TFA seems to use "Indie" and "Causal" interchangably, which is true for a lot of the games out there right now, but not all of 'em...
...until Jack Thompson uses these mock-ups to prove how videogames are nothing but "murder simulators." (Sigh.)
The Republican who's using videogames as a scapegoat, or the Democrat who's using videogames as a scapegoat?
So, where can I find this vampire stripper game?
Apparently, you're missing a sense of humor.
According to GameSpot, Valve is self-publishing the title. EA is only distributing the game (i.e. using their contacts to get their games into stores like Toys R Us and Target). That's it. Nothing to freak out about.
Yeah, if you look at TFA, it says...
"Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD"
Which the article author reworded as...
"WiFi ready, DVD-RW, 3 USB ports, and 512 GDDR3 RAM."
Which the slashdot contributor reworded as...
"The Xbox 360 iself will have a DVD-RW"
These are how rumors get started, folks.
Did anybody get flashbacks of The Ring when looking at the teaser page?
Oops. Gotta go. My phone's ringing...
Unfortunately, I can't read Japanese, so I'm relying on Google's translation. It kinda looks like the DVD only version is 3,900 yen, and the DVD-UMD bundle is 5,250 yen. I don't see how much the UMD would be by itself, so I don't know how much of a savings (or not) you would get through the bundle.
They're not quite the same image -- the earlier image you're talking about (this one here) is slightly different than the new one. Whether one is a pre-rendered mock-up and the other is a real screen shot, I don't know. It's getting harder and harder to tell the difference...
I might be wrong, but I believe Forza Motorsport has licensed cars that take realistic damage.
Actually, depending on how much you play it, it can save you money. God of War, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Timesplitters 3, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich, and Jade Empire have all gone into my "I'd like to play them, but I don't have enough time now. Maybe I'll buy them used later" category, saving me from shelling out from $250 for instant gratification. If you look at it that way, my last 2 months on WoW have been a money-saving bargain.
They might understand why a magazine called [b]Computer Games[b] Magazine might not be mentioning Halo 2.
I think declaring any device as the "winner" at the moment might indicate just a touch of fanboyism. :)
Yes, well, we all know that it's hard to deny the power of a legal argument that rhymes. But is Hasbro really the party with the lack of innovation here?