The Video Game Cycle

[The_Grudge]

It's been about two years since I played my Xbox with any regularity. While I was never one to sit down 5 nights a week for 5 hour sessions at a time, I always dabbled in video games.

So after a two year hiatus I decided to pick up Gears of War 3 on the way home tonight. A friend of mine grabbed it so I figured why not.

I haven't really played vids since Gears 2 so I asked him upon entering the game "so tell me what's new...what are some new controls, new moves...that kind of thing". His reply was "uh, nothing really...there's a few new guns but that's about it". So I played this blasted game for about 90 mins with him tonight and couldn't get over how nothing had changed in the past two years, but here I was shelling out $70 for a "new version".

Maybe I it's just me, but polishing the graphics and adding 2 new guns isn't really worth $70. The basic gameplay is exactly the same. I just don't get it.
I'm at the point now where the games I find fun are the one-off arcade games, not the constantly renewed shooter/sports title that just gets rehashed year after year after year. Pretty sure I'll be selling Gears immediately and putting my Xbox back on the shelf until someone can write something original.

/rant

[Nightwalker83]

A lot of the price is down-the-line stuff such as box, manual, etc that is why games/software seem so expensive. They all just append their profit amount on to the original cost so by the time it reaches the shops it costs $70 plus for a game, etc.

[SambaNeko]

I haven't played any of the Gears series, so I can't speak of them in particular, but they won't tamper too much with the formula of a guaranteed seller, and they won't stop makin' 'em while people are still buyin' 'em. It's not surprising, really. Same thing is going on with movies - sequel after sequel of movies that were lousy from the start.

But... it's not a hard problem to deal with: play somethin' else. Personally I almost never buy a game new, either; the price is not worth it when you can get a used copy soon afterward for much less (or wait a little longer and get it super cheap from an eventual Steam sale, if applicable).

[FunkyDexter]

I've just had the same experience with Tropico 4 so it's not just shooters. As far as I can tell the only significant change from 3 was that they made the graphics alot worse. My inner dictator was most dissapointed.

[The_Grudge]

Here's a perfect example of where my head is at right now. I dropped .99 cents on "Cut the Rope" for my iPhone. It was way more innovative and way more fun than Gears 3.

[BackWoodsCoder]

You should check out some of the indie games that have been released to XBLA lately. There's a bunch of great titles out there that can be had for super cheap that are a lot of fun to play. I feel for you on the state of video games these days, it's really hard for me to go out on launch day and buy titles anymore. Most of the stuff coming out is just utter crap with a few gems tossed in here and there. Hell, even games I was really excited about turn out to be crap (dead island comes to mind) when they finally release it.

It's also a really bad time to be a game studio. These days all it takes is one bad game to shutter your company.

[formlesstree4]

I've seen the pattern that mostly Indie developers have been shining the past few years. The big game companies might've released a few gems hidden in the rubble [Portal 1 & 2, in my opinion], but it's been mostly Indie games that have caught my attention.

[The_Grudge]

I've seen the pattern that mostly Indie developers have been shining the past few years. The big game companies might've released a few gems hidden in the rubble [Portal 1 & 2, in my opinion], but it's been mostly Indie games that have caught my attention.

I did play Portal 2, so when I say above that I took a 2 year hiatus I forgot to mention Portal 2. That's EXACTLY the kind of game I'm referring to though. I had a blast playing it and it felt so fresh.

Gears 3 - that felt like I had paid $75 for the same dude-on-rails shooter we're all accustomed to.

[Blakk_Majik]

I haven't played any of the Gears series, so I can't speak of them in particular, but they won't tamper too much with the formula of a guaranteed seller, and they won't stop makin' 'em while people are still buyin' 'em. It's not surprising, really. Same thing is going on with movies - sequel after sequel of movies that were lousy from the start.

But... it's not a hard problem to deal with: play somethin' else. Personally I almost never buy a game new, either; the price is not worth it when you can get a used copy soon afterward for much less (or wait a little longer and get it super cheap from an eventual Steam sale, if applicable).

This is absolutely correct.

Blockbuster games such as Battlefield, Call of Duty, Gears, Halo, Uncharted, God of War, among others would be taking a big risk by making drastic changes to the gameplay that millions of users like. I mean, if it ain't broke, why fix it?

[The_Grudge]

I agree to some extent. You can't mess with a winning formula. If Marcus from Gears of War started moving around like Master Chief things would go south pretty quick.

At the same time though, could they not include a few new features? For example, why couldn't they allow you to take cover in the prone position, or have a button that let's you quickly come out of cover to punch an opponent who's waiting on the other side of the wall.

Okay, maybe that last one is a bit much but you get my point.

Remember those racing games when you were a kid - the ones where you could tell the car didn't actually move, but it was the road in the background that moved? That's what these games feel like to me. It feels like the framework remains exactly the same and they just "skin" a few things differently.

You guys are right though. Only thing you can do is stop buying sequels and start digging through the Marketplace and other game makers for more original titles.

[lehgzil]

IMO... sequels though with or without new features still worth time playing... its not the "game features" but the story behind it that makes "us" buy/play it again... with or without new features sequels come with new and different challenges coping with your old playing skill to that game which in turn re-living the fun from the prequel...