The Gamer’s Quagmire: 3rd Edition
- Jamison DeLorenzo

Gaming, humor, and insanity in harmony

Every gamer remembers the first really good game that got them addicted to gaming. Twenty years from now people will be talking about how games like Halo or Vice City got them hooked into the video game world. For me it was the graphics powerhouse of SimCity (which is fine- even the first version is a vastly superior game). However, being nostalgic is not my goal today. Instead consider it the start of a journey that I want to appreciate. For the first time in a couple of years, rather than gripe about the past year in gaming, complain about game legislation, or give my own staple list of favorite games of the year I want to focus on writing about a game that I am looking forward to playing this year.

The bad part about this is that my track record for getting excited about new games could be described as ghastly. Unfortunately I am still apologizing to people for pimping Deus Ex 2 and Real War- it’s a pain that never quite goes away. Thankfully with practice I am getting a lot better. Rome: Total War, for example, was a game I was psyching myself up for about two months before its release. Reading about all the things it was trying to do was almost like reading about my favorite parts of several games being combined into one game. It was scary because it felt like the development team may have been trying to do too much, and with all of the expectations and pressure to create the ‘Next Big Game’ this is always a valid concern. Thankfully many a gamer was rewarded upon its release. Rome was a fantastic game that was successful at combining the best elements of games like Civilization and Command & Conquer.

Innovation was a major draw for me this year, and the big reason is that because a lot of entertainment mediums are becoming way too formulaic with what is produced. I’m not even the first one on this site to write about such things, but it is a point that bears repeating (that is, until complaining about unoriginal stories and gameplay becomes too formulaic). It is a little hypocritical for me to complain about such things because the games that I was looking forward to the most all year were almost all sequels. Part of the problem is that people feel that when they go back to the same title they are going to get something they like, and so sequels provide that safety net for a lot of people.

However, when you want something new and fresh it can be extremely frustrating because new and fresh ideas are few and far between right now in the gaming industry. Aside from EA trying to create a sports monopoly, the most popular games are GTA clones, Doom clones (they are NOT Halo clones… Doom was a juggernaut 10 years before Halo), Rainbow Six clones, or Final Fantasy clones. This is one of the reasons the Nintendo DS was so compelling for many people. Showing off playing games with a stylus and a second screen opened a lot of gamers’ minds… and their wallets soon afterwards. Sure, it is nowhere near the success Nintendo wanted it to be (can you name more than 3 good games that take advantage of the stylus?), but it shows that at least Nintendo is continuing down the road of innovation.

Now before you think I am going to get all lovey-dovey with Nintendo please understand I am nowhere near being one of their delirious and blind supporters. I like it when companies try new things. Their new console is definitely headed down that road once again with their controller but if you don’t have some reservations about it you are asking for a huge letdown. After seeing the stylus on the DS go to waste Nintendo has something to prove to me. I do love my DS but the games that I play on it are all GBA games. No DS title is a must have for me, and if you think I am going to spend money to play a friggin’ pet simulator you are in need of a psychiatric examination. Sorry, but carrying a pooper scooper in real life is not fun at all. Want to guess what the odds of me turning my DS into a virtual pooper scooper are? Anyway, that new carpel-tunnel controller is not enticing to me in the least, and until I see proof of concept I am firmly entrenched in the “don’t give a crap” camp.

(Normally I avoid that style of language but the juxtaposition with the Nintendogs mini-rant was a little too enticing)

Okay, all of this does have a singular point, I promise. Here it is: I am still looking for a fresh gaming idea that will get me interesting in buying a new game this year. There were a lot of good new games that came by this year. Battlefront II was incredible. Civilization 4 gave fans of the series a great experience. While I could continue listing games it suffices to say that 2005 gave us a series of good games even if it won’t go down as one of the better years for new game releases. My plan for the rest of the year is to treat myself with opening a fresh new game on Christmas (and torture myself by purchasing it tomorrow and keeping it wrapped up for 6 days). It is about time I get to the point right?

The Movies! This game is a natural choice for any fan of simulation games. What impresses me about this game is that it gives the player creative control over creating a series of movies and bringing movie stars to fame and fortune. Sure, fundamentally this is no different than any other simulation. We have simulations for theme parks, railroads, cities, worlds and even lives. Movies have not been done before, and one of things I like to do is see the first of this type of game to see what the lead designer envisioned when putting this game together. Most gamers talk about things they want to see in a game, things they wish were included, or things that they would have done differently. This game provides a good look at a designer’s vision for what creating a movie empire was like.

With certain developers you can get that sense when playing their games. More often than not the most popular simulation style games are churned out from the Will Wright or Sid Meier studios, and it does take a good mind to come up with a unique game. Unique and fresh gaming ideas can come from anywhere, so you can’t always go to trusted sources. Viewtiful Joe, whether you are able to appreciate the 2D cell-shading graphics, provided a fresh gaming style.

Lionhead Studios, despite coming up with some great games, has not been on my trusted sources list. This was more my fault than anything else because I did something I normally do not do for the game Fable- I paid attention to press and hype. Peter Molyneaux promised us a lot of things in Fable that were not there. If you never bothered too much with the press for that game what you got was very enjoyable. If you read a lot about what was supposed to be in the game and were anticipating experiencing those promises what you did was played a good game only seeing what wasn’t there instead of what was there. I don’t know a whole lot about what was put into the Movies, but I do expect to be entertained this coming week in my gigantic two-day paid vacation from work. This is supposed to be one of the fresh new games, and if this fails to deliver a good gaming experience then I will be left to wondering when the gaming industry will get out of its rut.

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