Gamespot: Where are all the Great Console Games?

[greenmedic88]

A rewind to 2008 had me realize that the majority of Great Console Games from the early 7th gen weren't console games.

Bioshock, The Orange Box (Portal was the only new title in the collection), Mass Effect were PC games. Assassin's Creed, marketed as a console game, but on PC 5 months after debut. Gears of War, also on PC 7th months after debut.

For the sake of argument, call Gears (2006) a console game that unquestionably qualifies as a Great Console Game.

Call of Duty 4, unquestionably a PC game with console versions, but irrelevant because it was not a new franchise even though it could arguably considered a reboot. It's still Call of Duty "4"

The PS3 had Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Resistance Fall of Man. Heavenly Sword was a dead end franchise (no sequel, no franchise); hardly considered a Great Console Game defining the 7th gen. Resistance received its due, but saw early success mainly due to lack of competition (no games on the PS3 in 2007? Play Resistance: FoM). Motor Storm also saw sequels, but similarly, is unlikely to show up in the 8th gen.

It's a hard sell to say that Resistance or Motor Storm were Great Console Games.

So we are left with Uncharted as the only enduring new franchise in Playstation Land released in the second year of the 7th gen.

8th gen has Titanfall (sequel in development), Destiny (Bungie will make it a franchise), Watch Dogs, The Order (almost guaranteed a sequel given the R&D that went into setting up the game engine and game universe), Sunset Overdrive (may have suffered commercially due to being an exclusive on the smaller marketshare platform).

None of these budding franchises are being predicted as ones to cross into the 9th generation (a decent marker for the impact of a new franchise) even if they do see sequels, but all I'm really counting from the 7th gen as of this time frame (2008, second year of generation, 3rd year for XB360, but Gears was released in 2006, the 2nd year on the market) is Gears of War and Uncharted.

Granted, two of the best franchises to come out of the 7th gen (three games from each franchise in one hardware generation is almost unprecedented), but when I think of 2008, it's a myth that the 7th gen had all kinds of Great Console Games. Lots of sequels from existing franchises. Lots of cross platform games that were also for PC; no console required.

I don't know if I'm the only one seeing this, but about the only complaint that can be made about the 8th gen is that we haven't seen this generation's equivalent of Gears of War and Uncharted.

That hardly makes it a big disappointment, much less a failure.