Wednesday, June 15, 2011

State of gaming via Tom

My friend, Young Thomas, posted something on his Facebook last night that we were discussing in detail about how many gaming companies out there are truly good still, and how many are just putting out the same old re-hashed shit every chance they get.  Surprisingly enough, we could not come up with as many companies as you may think.  The reason behind this is because, as I've stated, most companies are putting out the same IP just re-hashed.  To quote Tom:

"

1.they must still be active
2.they must have produced/developed at least 3 games

heres a list of what we came up with


bioware
retro studios
intelegent systems
insomniac
atlus
naughty dog
blizzard
nintendo
sucker punch*
Bethesda*
 "
 The companies with starts are the ones we could not fully agree on and let me just run down each company and the thoughts behind including them in this list.

Bioware -> Dragon Age (The first one, and the reason I do not include the second one is for a later date), Mass Effect, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, and KOTOR are all their efforts in gaming and they are all masterpieces in storytelling, innovative game play, and I cannot emphasize the importance of their storytelling and how good their immersion is with their titles.  Each one redefines and sets a new bar with their own unique style and twist.

Retro Studios -> Metroid Prime Series and Donkey Kong Country Wii.  Tom is behind this one more than I am because I think working on a series counts just as much as a single game, but I digress.  The 3-Dimensional Metroid games were perfect in every regard, defying what everyone thought of making a non side-scrolling Samus and shown that with the proper people behind it, a game can be completely re-envisioned and still keep what made it good to begin with.  Donkey Kong Country, while not an entirely original game, was still the perfect idea to make because, while not being the open world, banjo-kazooie style from the N64 days, did the opposite of what the Metroid series did and showed that also, an old format can still be good in the modern times.

Intelligent Systems -> Another one of Tom's preferences, but with their library, I have to agree.  A majority of the War game series (Advance Wars, etc), Fire Emblem series, and the Paper Mario series show how much this developer can innovate on simple ideas, but still keep them not only fresh, but add a new flair to ideas, a la Paper Mario, and make them fun instead of a pain.

Insomniac -> This company I have been behind since their inception with the debut of everyone's favorite purple dragon, Spyro.  It was the first of that generation of gaming that I saw and I was blown away by it and how fun it was to play.  Unfortunately, they stopped making Spyro games, but to start on another series that I have a deep love for, Ratchet and Clank.  An extravagant exception to the re-hashing rule that takes the same idea in every single game, but finds a way each time (and they are up to about the 10th in the series) to make it fun again and make it innovative again (how many games have a gun that burps for ammo?).  Also by them is the Resistance franchise, that I can't say I'm a fan of, but shows that they're capable of making the 'main-stream shooter' good as well as different.

Atlus -> This company may not be known to all, but any Japanese game that is NOT made by Square-Enix, are probably made by them.  One game in particular caught my eye and kicked my ass, Demon Souls.  Probably now known as one of the hardest games of all time, is unforgiving, but in a way that makes you want to keep trying anyway so that when you do succeed, you laugh in the game's face and say "HA, FUCK YOU, AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH" and then die to the next thing in the room.

Naughty Dog -> Another Sony exclusive company that I am in love with because of the quirky, yet amazing platforming games they are known for.  Sure, recently the Uncharted series with its perfect mixture of Gears style shooting plus Tomb Raider's exploration is noteworthy, but how many people really know them for their claims to fame, both Crash Bandicoot AND Jak and Daxter.  Crash, I did not personally play a whole lot myself, but have never seen anything bad written about the series.  One I have more personal experience with, Jak and Daxter amazed me.  The first game is a platforming haven all the way through.  But then the second game in the series changes everything, and with this risk, they IMPROVED the game play.  Something rarely seen nowadays.

Blizzard Entertainment -> The big one everyone can say they know.  Name one bad game Blizzard has made.  Go on, I'll wait.......Exactly.  Love 'em or hate 'em, Blizzard games have always been quality.  (While I do have a big rant for WoW one day, it was still quality upon release and still has a huge player-base so all biases aside) Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, all just amazing and perfect game franchises (aside from their long development times).  Blizzard's philosophy up until lately has been "It will be released when it is done" which made SC2 and Diablo3 some of the most anticipated games of all time and now they are actually doing something NEW for them which is a FPS-style MMO known only as Titan.  Unfortunately, with the purchase from Activision, their quality has definitely gone down significantly but hopefully, they will overcome the big money suit guys and revitalize their brand to be what everyone has come to expect it to be.

Nintendo-> While I disagree with a LOT of what Nintendo has done of late, I do still commend them for constantly taking risks and attempting to revitalize the market out there.  Pikmin, Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, Starfox, the list goes on for ages.  Nintendo probably has the most IP's out of the 3 major companies (Sony and Microsoft) and continue to revitalize old gameplay in the form of Galaxy, Skyward Sword, Smash Bros, and more.  Recently, I believe their design philosophy, however, has been too gimmicky, but that I will save for later.

Sucker Punch -> (No, not the trippy movie with scantily clad steam punk girls that was awesome despite reviews) This developer barely meets the criteria because they have not done much, but perhaps you would care to recognize Sly Cooper.  An amazing accomplishment with cel shading mixed with stealthy action.  Seems contradictorily, but they made it work perfectly.  And speaking of contradictions, a company known for their popular cel shaded game, brought us, what I consider to be the best sandbox super-hero game, inFamous.  Love it or hate it, inFamous' only flaw lies in that people need more of it and inFamous 2 delivered on that with even more bad-assery on the part of Cole.  And a huge side-note.  How many companies actually listen to their fans?  When the first images of the 'new' Cole were released in Game Informer, so many people spoke up about it and they listened and changed his look back to the way he was.

And last but not least that brings us to

Bethesda -> Bethesda is one of those companies, like Retro, that you wouldn't recognize unless you have played the games.  Elder scrolls ring a bell?  How about Fallout 3/New Vegas?  No?  How about the recently released Brink, that takes FPS and adds some amazing innovative multiplayer features and parqour?  Bethesda has had an almost hit or miss type of deal and (readies flame shield) I did not enjoy Fallout 3 at all.  However, that does not mean I cannot be excited for what new things they can produce and hopefully will continue to make in the future.

There you have it, the state of games according to two gamers.  What do you think about it all?

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