Is Next-Gen Gaming Bad for Gamers?
The list of broken promises is as long as a spoiled kid's Christmas list: no load times, more features, more innovative games, user-created content. But let's go down that list carefully. Whoever promised the elimination of loading must've been half dog and had no sense of time. The Xbox 360 version of Splinter Cell Double Agent is a prime example: There's a loading screen when you go from the intro screen to the game menu. A loading screen when you click on "single-player" or "multiplayer" to get to the appropriate mode's menu. An excruciating load time when you actually fire-up your single-player progress. And then, depending on the size of the level, a mid-mission loading screen as you get the latest checkpoint. And this is a second-generation Xbox 360 game.
Don't think it's just the Xbox 360, though; the PS3 will have more than its share of load times. With all that data on those much-touted Blu-Ray Disks, something will have to give, and I highly doubt it's going to be content. What's ironic is that the only thing to deliver on the next-gen promise of no load times is Xbox Live Arcade. And forgive me for pointing out that Microsoft probably didn't have Frogger in mind when it talked about a world without delay.
posted by Ian White at
7:06 PM
1 Comments:
I found that most game companies simply try to push out a concept that they think will sell very well. Very rarely do games come along that try to create a visceral, mind-expanding-type experience. Although, I'm not sure if it's simply the limitations of the artists behind the game, the budget, or the over-ambition of game studios.
Some games do shine through, though. These are usually the only games I'll spend my money on -- which means I usually pick up between 3 or 4 games a year (if that). Why so little? Well, I found that most of the games I really like are the ones that take around 5 years to produce! They don't come around often.
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Anonymous, at 8:43 PM
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