It's not that they're bad... or that I was ever one of the 'HUGE' crowd.
It's just that I've sat and played it for two days now. I've sat and played Gears 2 and Fable 2 at a friends, I've been playing Fallout 3 and Bioshock on my PS3, I've been playing some Left for Dead on my PC (demo so I can't say for sure on this one)...
And LBP is just the better game IMHO. There's no way to say this without sounding elitist so I'm not even going to try, but while all those other games sold better (and I'm confident L4D will too), they just plain aren't as innovative, fun and out and out amazing for me. They're good, but by comparison LBP is more than their equal, and deserves matching sales IMHO.
Gears 2, Fallout 3 and Bioshock feel like what they are to me... highly polished, very refined but pretty derivative of previous gaming experiences. I really enjoy them, I do. They are all pretty much AAA titles by any standard, but they are all about refinement and minimal risk taking... and they all seem a little 'samesy' (and I have to say I hope that Gears 2 represents the peak of 'large' guys with 'large' guns running around blasting, stamping and slicing 'large' chunks out of everything while trying to emote - it's not their strong point and I actually find Gears 2 weaker than 1 for trying to take itself more seriously, I just don't believe the franchise can support it).
Fable 2 is a nice balance of innovation with refinement, and is probably my next favourite title after LBP right now.
L4D is awesome but not as innovate as I'd hoped - I guess so many years of access to thousands of mods on PC FPS meant that many of its aspects would seem familiar. But it is innovate, and well polished and refined to boot (as far as I can tell from demo).
But LBP is just innovative, polished, refined and the best 'pure' game I've played for years (the next closest title would be Portal, but that was just a single new concept simply executed at the end of the day, even it did have the best song in a game ever). I just smile all the time I'm playing LBP. It's infectious.
Now I didn't expect such a cute, fun new IP to outgun shooters like Gears 2... but now I've played it I've found myself depressed because it's hard not to feel that it should outsell a title like Gears 2. Crazy I know, but it's how I feel. It's like when I see a great film do okay while something like 'Armageddon' makes millions (although that's worse because while Gears 2 is great and I'll be popping around to my mates plenty to play it, Armageddon is a POS).
So I find myself wondering what's up with the consumer? After all who else is there to blame?
Why do new IP's struggle? Why should SMG (which is very good) sell so much vs LBP (which is oh so much better)?
Why should games with oversized guns sell better than games with sackboys? And what's up with the Japanese? How in hell can they buy shed loads of games with cute characters, shun shooters for the most part, love Mario and Sonic platformers and not like this? Is it advertising? Do they even know it's out?
Or to put it another way... why aren't you buying LBP when it really is that good? I normally ignore scores but for once I find myself nodding as I look at its reviews and rating on Gamerankings.
I'm so annoyed at the gaming public... I better go calm down... and play some more LBP (after all it might be time to start my first level... or should I get an EyeToy first so I can have my own images?).
A final point. I think the recall really hurt LBP and I wonder what others think. I believe it had two negative effects:
1) it meant the title launched much closer to the big shooters (both PS3 and 360) than it should have plus it confused the whole release
2) the nature of the recal implied that despite its image LBP had managed to get itself unsuitable content - and any linking to content that could upset Muslims remains an issue I beleive (just ask that Danish cartoonist).
I think Sony should simply have released then patched. At the end of the day it was only 1 email for pete's sake. And the guy who sent it ended up mortified when they delayed release. I think Sony thought it was showing itself to be totally commited to this wonderful new IP that didn't deserve any blemish on its character, but I believe the recall turned out to be a very bad move on their part.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
