We Support an R18+ game Classification

If the past few years, hell the past few months, have been any indication then this generation could be one of the best in gaming. Sure in the future we will look back on this generation and think of the inherent problems of the consoles; with the 360’s RROD plaguing almost every owner at least once, the PS3’s blu-ray drive failures and the Wii’s disk slot filling with so much dust that when the one game a year that you want to play finally comes out, you cant fit the disk in there.

OK Wii fanboys that was just a joke, but in that joke lies a hint of truth. Why is it that the Wii, or Revolution as it was code named, generated so much excitement but is now the laughing stock of hard core gamers. Revolution has been very slim this generation; look at the games released at the start of the year. You show me one game that is original, chances are you are going to show me a game that has taken either a previous game in the series or another games core mechanics and refined it. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, these games have been great, but it can’t be a good thing for the future of gaming.

If the past few years, hell the past few months, have been any indication then this generation could be one of the best in gaming. Sure in the future we will look back on this generation and think of the inherent problems of the consoles; with the 360’s RROD plaguing almost every owner at least once, the PS3’s blu-ray drive failures and the Wii’s disk slot filling with so much dust that when the one game a year that you want to play finally comes out, you cant fit the disk in there.

OK Wii fanboys that was just a joke, but in that joke lies a hint of truth. Why is it that the Wii, or Revolution as it was code named, generated so much excitement but is now the laughing stock of hard core gamers. Revolution has been very slim this generation; look at the games released at the start of the year. You show me one game that is original, chances are you are going to show me a game that has taken either a previous game in the series or another games core mechanics and refined it. I’m not saying that is a bad thing, these games have been great, but it can’t be a good thing for the future of gaming.

Modern Warfare 2, Bioshock 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3, Mass Effect 2, Bayonetta, Darksiders, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Assassins Creed II, New Super Mario Bro’s Wii and a bunch of other games that have been released in a similar time frame have all been a refinement of their previous games, excluding Darksiders and Bayonetta which each take heavy influence from Zelda and Devil May Cry respectfully. The one game released in this time frame that hasn’t had a traditional template to follow was Heavy Rain, though it is meant to be very similar to Quintic Dream’s previous game Indigo Prophecy.

None of these are bad games; that isn’t what I am saying in this article. It seems that Publishers and Developers are less likely to take a risk on game in what is a very volatile development culture. With the risk of a AAA game failing and the staff being laid off being too high for many people to want to stray from the path. It has been left up to downloadable games to take the crown of innovation.

We shouldn’t be blaming Publishers, we should be blaming ourselves. The Wii had an opportunity to revolutionise how we interact with games. Yet every game aimed at the hardcore audience has failed where it counts, where you put your hand in your pocket.

This is the reason I don’t own a Wii, it can’t provide the experiences I want. So obviously Playstation “Move” is going to give me what I want right? Well no, what did they show that was aimed at the hardcore audience the Wii hasn’t done and that the audience has ignored? Ok, what about Project Natal? Well my gut feeling is that it will follow the same basic template. We won’t know until they show it off at E3.

Here lies the point of the article, are things like the Wii, Playstation “Move” and Project Natal getting in the way of traditional gaming revolutions? Since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare added their RPG style levelling and Gears of War introduced an easy to use and effective cover system we haven’t had something that changes how we play games. Someone could make an argument for Red Faction: Guerrilla’s destruction but it hasn’t been widely adopted and I don’t think it will be for a long time.

It seems this generation has been full of game play refinements and graphical updates. Remember when the 360 and PS3 launched? That was the main criticism levelled at the consoles, neither did anything different to start with and unfortunately it seems we have come full circle and are back where we started at the beginning of the generation.