Console Wars II

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Dude, El cid's philosophy, or whatever it is, is barely coherent. I don't think it's actually ruling out anything except perhaps Micro$oft products.

Ignore list time.

rereading his post, I dont think thats a fair charecterization. he dislikes ALL closed source gaming, as he feels (rightly or wrongly) that the profit motive is responsible for everything he dislikes about gaming. Thats not incoherent, though it seems rather extreme to me.

Of course I think the profit motive in general is a lovely thing, that has achieved much for society. I can certainly appreciate the point that its impacts are more ambivalent in cultural products (which games ARE despite being expressed in code) I certainly dont know games as well as you or El Cid does, and so cant comment personally on the overall state of or history of gaming.

Anyway, my response was to Dr Spike's take on the implications of El Cids statement about never buying a Next Gen console, NOT to El Cids philosophy, or anyone elses here.

[DrSpike]

El Cid is often incoherent but I'm not going to put him on my ignore list and miss the fun.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
El Cid is often incoherent but I'm not going to put him on my ignore list and miss the fun.

well it probably beats taking one more crack at the third (China) scenario of the Gengis Khan campaign in AOK. I swear, this was fun for a while, but I think Ive played it out for now, after 14 scenarios (plus mucking about in skirmish), and with 10 included campaign scenarios left, not counting the whole damned xpack.

BG2, Half Life, AOK - why did so many of the best games of that era come with SO much game play? Makes it really hard for us OCD types.

But Im psyching myself up to put AOK aside and finally load up the Sims.

[snoopy369]

You just couldn't resist that final troll could you

[DrSpike]

I shall not rise to your obvious bait.

Edit: cross-posted with Snoopy.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher

I've seen far more 360 in TV shows?

Asleep: Did he say those comments before or after MySims bombed on the Wii?

ISTR recently seeing that MySims has so far sold 1 million copies. I dont think they said how many were on the DS though.

[lord of the mark]

Ok, about AOK - aside from getting a bit tired of the gameplay after the 16th scenario Ive played, there are lots of little annoyances.

1 - Joan of Arc is constantly fighting to drive the British out of France. Er, can we say anachronism folks? She was driving the frigging ENGLISH out of France. Britain was only a geographic expression at the time.

2. - Okay, Salladin was a nice dude, whatever, the PCness of this is a bit too much

3. Each scenario is preceded by an elaborate historical intro, is on a historically realistic map, and is a clever tactical puzzle of one sort or another. However the classical puzzle usually has ZERO to do with the historical battle. I realize this isnt a War game, or a TW game, and this is what the AOE series is, or has become (in the origianl AOE the included campaigns were more or less fictional, though they changed that with the xpack), but it gets annoying.

Anyway the Sims comes with a nice paper manual, and its a lovely day here, so I will be going outside to read. Bye folks.

[Asher]

What the hell is AOK and why are you discussing this here? FOCUS.

If AOK= Age of Kings, then how dare you insult the rest of the gaming world by calling it one of the "best games of the era".

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
What the hell is AOK and why are you discussing this here? FOCUS.

Get mellow.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Asher
What the hell is AOK and why are you discussing this here? FOCUS.

I vaguely recall using FOCUS. I think it was a regression package, or something like that.

[El_Cid]

For the record I don't hate Microsoft - infact if it wasn't for microsoft the world of gaming would be the poorer.
Where I do think they fall down(as a company) is the strategy they often employ to strangle opposition - at that point they are not about furthering the world of gaming so much as just trying to make as much money as possible and that may not actualy be good for gaming.

It was only with the rise of the PC as a viable games playing platform(around the time of the introduction of VGA imo) that had the power to enable the step up from where gaming had got with the 8bits and AtariST+Amiga platforms. Windows was an essential part of that possibility.

So I don't even hate technology(if people want to accuse me in error), but I do hate how the advantage of technology has mostly been missed in current game production. We've focused too hard on how a game will look imho - games are so much more than that.

What I find dissapointing is what has happened to current games production. It's become a victim of it's own success as a medium of home entertainment, and pretty much any game I've played over the past few years(especialy on console) has shown aspects of that.

Still atleast I know what to expect from any game I pick up at the store these days, so that helps me make more informed gaming choices, and as a by product often saves me money.

LotM has pretty much understood where i'm coming from, so I don't think i'm being deliberately cryptic on my views.

For all the hype we get, from game sites/magazines, all pushed by a huge marketing machine, I find that games today are actualy no better than games from the beginning when looking at it from a broad perspective.
That is disapointing from a medium that really has the potential to be so massive in all our lives, and help build and improve us as a species.

[Asher]

Well, the 360 has another AAA game: Call of Duty 4 gets 9.4/10.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a fantastic game. The single-player experience is easily Infinity Ward's best work to date. Calling it intense may be an understatement. The overall story is standard action movie fare, but the relationships built over the short five hours of play are surprisingly strong. Though the single-player lacks length, the multiplayer should keep you invested in COD4 for the long winter. This is a truly fantastic multiplayer offering that's as deep as any other online game available.

Infinity Ward has done it again. Call of Duty 4 is a winner.

[Wiglaf]

I don't see how it's much different from the last two. I wish they'd stop making those games.

[El_Cid]

But they want your money - thats what the 9.4/10 rating is for isnt it?

To make you feel like your missing out if you don't get it - to kind of paraphrase Dr.Spike "you'll miss out on all those great games".

next-gen console gaming = yawnsville 90% of the time imho.

"oh look shinny stuff!! lets shoot it! - BANG! Oh look at the shinny stuff explode!"

10hours later

"ok thats the end of that game - what next?"

[Asher]

Call of Duty 4 is also a PC game...

Troll is weak in you, my son.