The sea of 360 dross

[DrSpike]

I mean, what's going on? 4 months in, and not a good game in sight. It's always slower this time of year but the 360 review scores are starting to resemble Wii shovelware.

And no, this doesn't mean that the PS2 is better or that PC gaming is about to mount a sudden comeback.

[El_Cid]

.................

And no, this doesn't mean that the PS2 is better or that PC gaming is about to mount a sudden comeback.

Are you sure?

But no on a more serious note i think the global economic situation IS haveing an effect. Pretty much no-one has been immune in the games industry over recent months(EA big losses etc). I suspect that this is making people even more cautious about spending money and most companies have been restructering like crazy - often it's the QA side that has been seeing massive slimming down.

I suspect this all will affect game quality in one way or another. I'm not sure how long this trend will continue.

[FrostyBoy]

Diablo III, SC II and CitiesXL are close on the horizon.

[lord of the mark]

I mean, what's going on? 4 months in, and not a good game in sight. It's always slower this time of year but the 360 review scores are starting to resemble Wii shovelware.

And no, this doesn't mean that the PS2 is better or that PC gaming is about to mount
a sudden comeback.

hmmm

[Asher]

DrSpike, are you new to gaming? This is a traditional lull period, with the exception of the odd big game that was delayed past their Holiday target.

There's also some highly-rated, good selling games that have very recently come out like Resident Evil 5 and Halo Wars, as well. Not to mention the Fallout 3 DLC (if you're into that game), Left 4 Dead DLC (which is free and better than most premium DLC), and some good arcade games (OutRun, bunch of puzzle ones).

[Felch]

It's a good opportunity to play some old games you missed the first go-around.

[Asher]

And take advantage of the poor economy to spot bargains on games.

[Maquiladora]

DrSpike, are you new to gaming? This is a traditional lull period

Same thing is happening with the DS right now.

[Zero]

there no good new games out on any platform right now.

[DrSpike]

DrSpike, are you new to gaming? This is a traditional lull period

Are you new to reading?

It's always slower this time of year

It's worse this year than the last couple - lots of really poor scores for games.

[Jon Miller]

Stick to:

EVE (Sandbox)
WOW or other MMO (Themepark)
CS:S or TF2 or possibly some other team based shooter
Civ4 (still the best TBS)
DwarfFortress (if you want all your time to go)
Nethack (at work..)

I guess there is no RPG, although I still have fallout 3 if I can get it to work. When does Dragon Age come out?

JM

[El_Cid]

well he was talking 360 titles - those are for PC.

But yeah Asher is correct that this is the quite time of the year for new releases....which is strange becasue the rest of the year is probably too saturated imho - making your game stand out is very tough.
But market research shows that this time of year people play/buy less games(i don't know who was surveyed for this?!) - maybe the first signs of summer after a long cold/wet winter...people want to go outside again etc?

But the quality of the reviews is news. I was not aware they were especialy bad right now, but if so(and Dr.Spike has looked into it, so thats good enough for me) then i again maybe think it might be due to all the recent restructuring going on in many game companies.

Or maybe we are reaching the first stages of the second big crash in video games, so who will make the next 'ET', and how long before it comes?

[Asher]

It's worse this year than the last couple - lots of really poor scores for games.

No, it's not any worse. The volume of games being released is actually higher is the only difference.

And no, it's not new. Look at the PS2 game releases by its 3rd or 4th year. It had a high enough installbase to start getting the shovelware attention also. Gamers just ignored it.

This isn't news and it isn't interesting, unless you consider the angle that the publishers now see the 360's installbase as being big enough for a "Hannah Montana" video game to sell well on.

[flash9286]

MS usually doesn't announce their upcoming games till E3, I would wait until then and then decide if there aren't any good games in sight.

FWIW, I'm looking forward to Borderlands

[DrSpike]

No, it's not any worse. The volume of games being released is actually higher is the only difference.

No, the proportion of released games getting bad scores is higher too.