Michael "Pyroph"
Editorial, Rant Saturday, March 7th 2009

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Hey, I know that everyone likes a good FPS, but limiting yourself to one game or one genre is silly. I was anticipating this week’s Live activity to see how a classic series would do alongside the dominating Call of Duty or Halo series. Half of the games on the list are FPS’s. After viewing it, the Xbox Live community continues to fail me.

I can definitely understand if you don’t like fighting games (I have some problems with them myself). However, seeing it place at a weak #7 is pretty disappointing. I don’t care about the list usually, I only use it to see how new games place and if they hold their audience. Street Fighter 4 got some pretty nice promotion and to see all of that re-visualization and effort go to waste irks me. Personally, “realistic” games that use the setting of the modern world, along with a lot of brown bore me.

I have no problem with someone playing a certain game everyday. The problem is with them playing said game exclusively, refusing to acknowledge or try out any new concept or idea in favor for the traditional shooter.

While it seems that a lot of people crave “innovation” and new ideas, the mass public still continues to buy safe, traditional game play titles. The new Call of Duty returns to the overused World War 2 era and offers little more than the previous titles, as well as cashing in on the zombie craze.

Last year EA brought out some new IPs in order to fix their image and use some fresh ideas. While flawed, Mirror’s Edge’s concept was a great idea. However, EA announced that with the new ideas in their games, sales were down.

Activision have this figured out. Their plan, as Mr. Kotick explicitly put it, is to “exploit” games year after year. Why anyone would have any respect for him or that business model when they directly point it out is beyond me. Nevertheless, Call of Duty continues to sell bucket loads year after year, changing little and consuming many.

Back to the main topic; Ever since Halo 3 the only games to sit at the top of these tables are the aforementioned Halo, Call of Duty 4 and Call of Duty: World at War. Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto are the only other titles to come close to taking the number one slot for any length of time. I’ve sadly met people in college that solely play the mentioned titles and nothing else. They could easily afford to play other games, but choose not to. Another problem is that many do not even know what the Xbox Live marketplace is. I’ve shown some people some great Xbox Live Arcade titles that before, never knew they existed.

Many gamers are afraid to try a new game because it is drastically different from how most of their games play. I’ve tried to hook people on Metal Gear Solid, which despite some game play flaws is still fantastic. They say no because they are turned off by the game play; having to use stealth rather than going in guns blazing. Or the mind-blowingly idiotic statement of it not being on the Xbox. Here’s a heads up: games are different. When I first played Metal Gear Solid I was also apprehensive to how it would work and thought it would bore me. After sneaking through the tanker in MGS 2 around hundreds of soldiers, I was having a blast. Try a genre before you write it off, some take getting used to and some may surprise you.

If we want to push for better games and new ideas, we need to stop buying rehashes and cash in titles. For me, if you are going to make a sequel for a game it needs to have major changes and differences to the original to keep it fresh and exciting. I’ve given up on games such as Rock Band, Guitar Hero and Call of Duty because often they add nothing that I’ve never done before. I’d much prefer if music games would have a sole game per generation and just pumped out loads of DLC.

If you see a game that looks different, try it out. There are a ton of ways to try games before you buy; demos, Gamefly or renting them to name just a few. Just for the love of god take your godamn Call of Duty disc out of the tray (preferably snap it in half) and try a new game. You may be surprised at what you’ve missed.