Vaxillus
The one and only severed head
In response to Walter's coment, you have quite a point. It's true that graphics and power cannot replace good ol' game designer genius. In truth, I still have yet to find a game that tops my copy of Chrono Trigger, and likely never will.
My excitement is not due to the new graphics pushing capabilities of the new consoles, but in the opportunities it opens to game designers. Sure it's easy to run wild and make a practically real experience, the movies have been doing this lately (and have been getting for the most part lamer and lamer), but somehow, there are still titles that come out that utilize the new technology to create an enjoyable and immersive experience that, while it doesn't top the classics, would have been impossible with older technology. For instance, I had the pleasure of renting the first DMC the day it came out. I played the game for hours and ended up with a throbbing headache. This game could simply not be made as enjoyable, or perhaps even possible, on older hardware.
Sure the system upgrades are really just a capitalist competition for our money, but new technology, despite the rif-raf that comes with it, still produces many new and varied games, a few of which reach the status of classics not through use of madern technology, but by using it as a stepping ladder to provide something different and unique. Let's not forget that MGS3 and Pikmin, graphics aside, could not run on a Super Nintendo simply due to the complexity of their gameplay. It certainly isn't necessary to upgrade every five years, but this is a recreational industry, and thus those sitting on the cutting edge of innovation are more appealing than those who sit back and let the thrid party game makers do their work.
As for system loyalty, that coment was born simply out of the fact that the Gamecube had very few games I considdered worth playing. Sure you could list all the good ones and we could get into an argument like you said, but the truth as I see it is that those game developers who, as you mentioned are the real ones to catapult the industry forward do not necessarily spread their efforts equally over several platforms, and being as it is that consoles are quite expensive, one has to choose. I'd rather choose the console which has the innovators working towards its success, rather than one that doesn't. In my case, I believe this is the Playstation 3.
Of course, we aren't really given a choice anymore, since the second a new console comes out, the developers stop making games for the old ones :-\.
Hope that was a decent response. I can see your frustration, and just wanted to let you know that deep down inside, I'm still waiting for the next Chrono Trigger.
My excitement is not due to the new graphics pushing capabilities of the new consoles, but in the opportunities it opens to game designers. Sure it's easy to run wild and make a practically real experience, the movies have been doing this lately (and have been getting for the most part lamer and lamer), but somehow, there are still titles that come out that utilize the new technology to create an enjoyable and immersive experience that, while it doesn't top the classics, would have been impossible with older technology. For instance, I had the pleasure of renting the first DMC the day it came out. I played the game for hours and ended up with a throbbing headache. This game could simply not be made as enjoyable, or perhaps even possible, on older hardware.
Sure the system upgrades are really just a capitalist competition for our money, but new technology, despite the rif-raf that comes with it, still produces many new and varied games, a few of which reach the status of classics not through use of madern technology, but by using it as a stepping ladder to provide something different and unique. Let's not forget that MGS3 and Pikmin, graphics aside, could not run on a Super Nintendo simply due to the complexity of their gameplay. It certainly isn't necessary to upgrade every five years, but this is a recreational industry, and thus those sitting on the cutting edge of innovation are more appealing than those who sit back and let the thrid party game makers do their work.
As for system loyalty, that coment was born simply out of the fact that the Gamecube had very few games I considdered worth playing. Sure you could list all the good ones and we could get into an argument like you said, but the truth as I see it is that those game developers who, as you mentioned are the real ones to catapult the industry forward do not necessarily spread their efforts equally over several platforms, and being as it is that consoles are quite expensive, one has to choose. I'd rather choose the console which has the innovators working towards its success, rather than one that doesn't. In my case, I believe this is the Playstation 3.
Of course, we aren't really given a choice anymore, since the second a new console comes out, the developers stop making games for the old ones :-\.
Hope that was a decent response. I can see your frustration, and just wanted to let you know that deep down inside, I'm still waiting for the next Chrono Trigger.
