10 Things I hate about you, gaming

[Garcian Smith]

Senlis said:

theprof00 said:
10 was lame, because hey, look at 2001

red alert 2, DMC, GTA3, tony hawk 3, civ 3.....oh wait I'm sorry, that was just one month in 2001

ok how about 2004?
GTA: San andreas, Shin Megami Tensei: nocturne, Paper Mario thousand year door, killzone, World of Warcraft, Silent Hill 4, Fable, The sims 2, Starwars battlefront, Katamari Damacy, monster hunter, rome:total war, doom 3, viewtiful joe, pikmin 2, halflife:source, driv3r, red dead revolver, painkiller, manhunt, siren, cityofheroes, lineage 2, ff11, syberia 2

do I need to even bring up 2008? Or the mind blowing lineup that is 2010?

I could list a random year with some random games too.

Doesn't change that as time goes along, games get less and less innovative and original, even if they become more refined.

Calling BS. Let's take a quick glance at the past two years...

2007: Super Mario Galaxy, BioShock, Portal, Rock Band, Crysis, Mass Effect, Uncharted, Jeanne D'Arc, Zack & Wiki, Puzzle Quest, SMT: Persona 3, Skate, Peggle, Super Stardust HD, Odin Sphere, Pac-Man Championship Edition

2008: LittleBigPlanet, World of Goo, Braid, Left 4 Dead, Dead Space, The World Ends With You, Sins of a Solar Empire, Patapon, Valkyria Chronicles, The Witcher EE, Audiosurf, Professor Layton, Boom Blox, Spore, No More Heroes

And so far this year...

2009: Batman Arkham Asylum, Beatles Rock Band, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Plants vs. Zombies, Shadow Complex, Little King's Story, Flower, Trials HD, Swords & Soldiers, Rhythm Heaven

Most of these titles are new IP (and the few that aren't might as well be for all of their originality), and all are genre-defining in some way or another. And I didn't even list the worthwhile sequels/continuations of most existing IP, nor the myriad of innovative-but-flawed games that came out each year. (I was really tempted to add Henry Hatsworth and Bit.Trip.Beat to the '09 list, for example.)

 

While big-budget HD games may be (mostly) wandering down a path of sameness, what we're seeing instead is low-budget experiments from small companies carrying the torch of originality and innovation.