I have been reviewing all my 360 purchases and have come to a somewhat sad conclusion as a whole. I no longer feel as if games are being finished or properly tested, and in at least one case I don't feel the developer's best efforts were put forth. (To be clear, I am not so much blaming developers here as to wondering where the problem lies. It may well be a number of factors coming together.) I don't care for reviewing my games very early in their life as a general rule. I prefer wait to see how they play out over time, what I come back to, etc. I'll break that a little bit here due to how shallow some of the games have proven to be, but there is a theme of unfinished, unpolished, failure to correct problems and gaping holes in all these games that makes me wonder where the problem lies.
These are problems I had initially looked past, but now am beginning to seriously reconsider my purchasing choices. I do not play competitive vs. online and cancelled my Gold membership long ago since I never used it. I may no longer pay 60$, or even 50$, for my games anymore. The whole generation, on reflection, is becoming more and more a disappointment for me. The following are specific problems for the games I own and it is somewhat lengthy, feel free to skip to the bottom paragraph where the questions lie.
GRAW1 - The game was gorgeous when it came out, still is really. The disappointments? Length and the co-op quality. The game was just too damned short and I found this to be a recurring theme. The co-op was not even part of the single player campaign, was not developed by the same team as I understand it, and the visual quality took a serious hit. Such a serious hit that I thought something was going wrong on the hardware end. No cover system in co-op and the grenade throwing was different as well. Now, why can I not move squad members individually? What the hell is the point of that?
GRAW2 – Once again, LENGTH. Felt like the game had just gotten going when the rather silly ending came into play. Voice acting got even worse in this version, as did the story. Same problems with the co-op and grenades as the first. The lack of the cover system in co-op really annoyed myself and those who played with me as well. Nice mortars, why were they not put to better use? The air support options seemed even more contrived in this one than the first. Still no individual squad member movement. Fixes that should have been implemented the second time around and were not.
Gears of War – I don’t really care for the art style of this game, but it still had some great moments and some great imagery despite it not catering to my tastes. Loved the arcade style reload system, the sticky bow almost matches the plasma grenades for sheer joy, and the chain saw was most gratifying. The bad points? What the hell is up with the story-line? There are huge holes in this thing from the very beginning. It didn’t feel like they were holding back secrets to be revealed later, just more like they didn’t much bother with a story-line even though I believe they paid a well known outside writer to pen the script. How many enemies were there really? 4 not counting the couple of boss figures? Not exactly a great variation there and the weapon choices were even worse. The grenades were nearly useless and some of the weapon design just seemed stupid (The single shot sniper rifle reminded me of a Rainbow Six game I hated where your character’s first mission drops you into enemy territory with a single pistol and something like 20 rounds of ammunition.) It seems very unfinished in retrospect.
Oblivion – One of these days I will learn. I’ve owned 3 of the 4 in this series and they never fail to disappoint. Some of this is my fault in not caring for 1st person Fantasy RPG and the 3rd person view seems an afterthought. The graphics are rather horrendous, the load times barely tolerable and calling the gameplay and enemies repetitive would be a colossal understatement. It is technically long if you hit all the side quests, but they get quite repetitive. I may just have to stop buying these games entirely. I certainly will never pay 60$ for one again. Nor 50$, nor 40$. Hard to fit this into any of the above listed categories, but it still feels poorly finished and repetitive. Tip to the developer – hire more voice actors, it gets really annoying to run into the same voice from so many “different” NPC’s.
Viva Pinata – I have seen this “toy”, I refuse to call it a game, singled out for graphical prowess. Technically, that may be true. Visually it is rather unimpressive to me despite these statements. Even using web pages spelling out the details of attraction and getting them to stay, much of the play was difficult to figure out, or often just failed to work anyway. Some tasks were nearly impossible, or certainly not worth the time and effort. The helpers were either annoying, useless or a combination of both. The fences, of any grade, I found to be pointless since the animals always found a way through a solid fence without a gate, probably through some clip error when I was not looking. That or if there was a gate, the “helpers” would let the creatures out. The candy was nearly pointless as well, the “happy” either did not work or worked for so short a time period it was pointless and the “romance” candy never did work. Unpolished, at the least.
Forza 2 – Bought it and the racing wheel. First time in probably 15 years I have bought a racing game (going back to the 3DO days at least.) How do I put this? Far too few tracks, too few vehicles, and too few opponents. It’s like there is half of a good game here. Updates? What do you get? 1 obscure car per month or something to that effect? I really, really wanted to like this game, but the overall size needed to be doubled. (And that New York track was a travesty.) Unfinished, Length.
HALO3 – Where to begin. Giving the single-player campaign an 8 is probably too kind. Pop-in problems are back in style, the engine looks like an HD version of HALO2, many of the weapons were heavily altered from their old forms or the new ones had little to differentiate themselves utility wise from the old. The two new grenades? One is pointless (the spike) and the other is of limited use and a rare find for much of the game. I do like the equipment, but only a few of the items are actually very useful. Once again, as in 2, there is an utterly useless vehicle in the Brute chopper. The indoor graphics seem lacking and the outdoor suffers from some terrible pop-in and is still rather blocky looking. Once again, too short. Way too short. The one interesting point about playing the arbiter disappeared with the loss of his cloaking ability. The ending race was a poor copy of the first game and the parts which often made the first game so enjoyable, Cortana and her sense of humor and sarcasm, were missing until what? The next to last level? Bungie left something here. I seem to lack all the words to describe what is missing, but something critical is gone. Unpolished, Length, Failure to Fix previous problems (missing Cortana.)
Call of Duty 4 – How this game is getting the grades it has is completely beyond me. This isn’t just short, it feels like an extended demo. They actually used infinitely spawning enemies based on reaching geographical points on during the gun battles. Did they hire an ex-Id level designer or something? For such a beautiful game that finally abandoned WW2, it has been a terrible disappointment. What is it? 6 hours long? I literally feel cheated. Length.
Mass Effect – It used to be there were 3 developers I would trust without even really seeing a demo. Bioware, Bungie and Blizzard. Now it seems I may be reduced to 1, and that assumes a new Diablo is on the way. This has all the hallmarks of KOTOR 2 which Bioware did not even create if I remember correctly. The “morality” system? It affects nearly nothing in the game. At least in KOTOR it had real world consequences for your character’s abilities. Here it is nothing more than a few different side missions and some dialog tree changes. It also suffers from perhaps the worst inventory management system, and worst inventory choices, in recent memory. The high level ammunition upgrades are nearly useless. You are better off sticking with the mid-level tungsten, phasic, and anti-personnel rounds than any of the higher level (8+) choices. The “Mako” ground vehicle may be the worst I have ever driven in game. Exploring a planet with that thing is entertaining for about 5 minutes, after which it becomes annoying. Aiming the weapons is rather tricky as well since they certainly do not go where the reticle is barring your being on perfectly level ground. As in GRAW 1 and 2, you cannot move your squad mates individually, only as a group. They also have a tendency to get stuck behind doors if you move too quickly. Outside of the major missions, it’s all the same 2 or 3 stock buildings or ships. Many planets have no point to their existence, same with the quests. The “X” button you use to move quickly through dialog that you have heard before needs to NOT trigger a response. I have lost track of the number of times I have accidentally hit a dialog option I had no intention of using due to this flaw. Now, why no hdd caching? Just because it is possible someone has a 360 w/o a hdd (although the number are quite low) does not mean you do not use it if it is there. The damned optical drives are finicky enough without being hit this often. And, just as in KOTOR 2, there are obvious large sections missing entirely. I don’t mind the length, but at least remove references to missions which are non-existent. Unfinished, Unpolished, Failure to fix previous problems.
Assassin’s Creed – Let the platformer return. We built this visually stunning world with the best character animations I have ever seen. Then forgot to actually put anything in it. Outside of your 9 main assassination missions, there are what? 3 side quests (informers – with a couple of different variations, save the citizens, save the scholars, pickpocket, eavesdrop, beat the information out of him) of dubious value and a dozen of ZERO value beyond Achievement points. Having the ruffians help you or the scholars hide you is almost pointless anyway. You can easily beat any number of guards sent after you. The combat system is remarkably shallow. Remember the long tutorial (which, like the cutscenes, there is no way to skip) where you are taught to turn your head, which moves in a remarkable 360 degrees, it is almost pointless and difficult to use since it requires both the right thumbstick and the Y-button mounted on the top right of the controller. Where are the equipment choices as well? Something, anything! Abilities? Precious few once again. And little point to many of them, they are unnecessary. Length, Unfinished.
Madden 08 – And now my latest purchase. On-sale for 38$ at Target and I am giving money to EA for the first time in around 10 years. I haven’t played a football game in at least that long. I’ve played 2 games with the Oakland Raiders, average score about 90-7 me. I have played on rookie since it has been so long and I still do not know the controls. I am a little uncertain what to think at this point and am reserving judgement for a later date, but I would never have bought this game at 50 or 60$. Before or after playing it.
What is happening? Am I just remembering the gaming past as being better than it was? Are the fiscal pressures of the new architectures and art just too high? Is it not worth creating a custom engine for a game these days? Not worth the time for proper testing of major interactions? Is the EA method taking over? Are console games being dumbed down for more mass appeal? Is developer talent spread too thinly? I have not purchased the Orange Box or Bioshock because I no longer trust the situation. (Bioschok for the purported Length, Replay-ability, and the too shiny surfaces where water is in use and the Orange Box because I partially played Half-Life 2 already and it is the only game to ever make me physically ill to play and I failed to see what was so spectacular about the play or story.) I replayed games for years previously. I do not believe a single one of these games has ever been played more than a couple of months and those that were played that long was due to a lack of options rather than any special attributes on the games part. I am seriously going to be investigating a return to PC gaming if this continues, and for me to state that is something of a shocker for those who know me.
These are problems I had initially looked past, but now am beginning to seriously reconsider my purchasing choices. I do not play competitive vs. online and cancelled my Gold membership long ago since I never used it. I may no longer pay 60$, or even 50$, for my games anymore. The whole generation, on reflection, is becoming more and more a disappointment for me. The following are specific problems for the games I own and it is somewhat lengthy, feel free to skip to the bottom paragraph where the questions lie.
GRAW1 - The game was gorgeous when it came out, still is really. The disappointments? Length and the co-op quality. The game was just too damned short and I found this to be a recurring theme. The co-op was not even part of the single player campaign, was not developed by the same team as I understand it, and the visual quality took a serious hit. Such a serious hit that I thought something was going wrong on the hardware end. No cover system in co-op and the grenade throwing was different as well. Now, why can I not move squad members individually? What the hell is the point of that?
GRAW2 – Once again, LENGTH. Felt like the game had just gotten going when the rather silly ending came into play. Voice acting got even worse in this version, as did the story. Same problems with the co-op and grenades as the first. The lack of the cover system in co-op really annoyed myself and those who played with me as well. Nice mortars, why were they not put to better use? The air support options seemed even more contrived in this one than the first. Still no individual squad member movement. Fixes that should have been implemented the second time around and were not.
Gears of War – I don’t really care for the art style of this game, but it still had some great moments and some great imagery despite it not catering to my tastes. Loved the arcade style reload system, the sticky bow almost matches the plasma grenades for sheer joy, and the chain saw was most gratifying. The bad points? What the hell is up with the story-line? There are huge holes in this thing from the very beginning. It didn’t feel like they were holding back secrets to be revealed later, just more like they didn’t much bother with a story-line even though I believe they paid a well known outside writer to pen the script. How many enemies were there really? 4 not counting the couple of boss figures? Not exactly a great variation there and the weapon choices were even worse. The grenades were nearly useless and some of the weapon design just seemed stupid (The single shot sniper rifle reminded me of a Rainbow Six game I hated where your character’s first mission drops you into enemy territory with a single pistol and something like 20 rounds of ammunition.) It seems very unfinished in retrospect.
Oblivion – One of these days I will learn. I’ve owned 3 of the 4 in this series and they never fail to disappoint. Some of this is my fault in not caring for 1st person Fantasy RPG and the 3rd person view seems an afterthought. The graphics are rather horrendous, the load times barely tolerable and calling the gameplay and enemies repetitive would be a colossal understatement. It is technically long if you hit all the side quests, but they get quite repetitive. I may just have to stop buying these games entirely. I certainly will never pay 60$ for one again. Nor 50$, nor 40$. Hard to fit this into any of the above listed categories, but it still feels poorly finished and repetitive. Tip to the developer – hire more voice actors, it gets really annoying to run into the same voice from so many “different” NPC’s.
Viva Pinata – I have seen this “toy”, I refuse to call it a game, singled out for graphical prowess. Technically, that may be true. Visually it is rather unimpressive to me despite these statements. Even using web pages spelling out the details of attraction and getting them to stay, much of the play was difficult to figure out, or often just failed to work anyway. Some tasks were nearly impossible, or certainly not worth the time and effort. The helpers were either annoying, useless or a combination of both. The fences, of any grade, I found to be pointless since the animals always found a way through a solid fence without a gate, probably through some clip error when I was not looking. That or if there was a gate, the “helpers” would let the creatures out. The candy was nearly pointless as well, the “happy” either did not work or worked for so short a time period it was pointless and the “romance” candy never did work. Unpolished, at the least.
Forza 2 – Bought it and the racing wheel. First time in probably 15 years I have bought a racing game (going back to the 3DO days at least.) How do I put this? Far too few tracks, too few vehicles, and too few opponents. It’s like there is half of a good game here. Updates? What do you get? 1 obscure car per month or something to that effect? I really, really wanted to like this game, but the overall size needed to be doubled. (And that New York track was a travesty.) Unfinished, Length.
HALO3 – Where to begin. Giving the single-player campaign an 8 is probably too kind. Pop-in problems are back in style, the engine looks like an HD version of HALO2, many of the weapons were heavily altered from their old forms or the new ones had little to differentiate themselves utility wise from the old. The two new grenades? One is pointless (the spike) and the other is of limited use and a rare find for much of the game. I do like the equipment, but only a few of the items are actually very useful. Once again, as in 2, there is an utterly useless vehicle in the Brute chopper. The indoor graphics seem lacking and the outdoor suffers from some terrible pop-in and is still rather blocky looking. Once again, too short. Way too short. The one interesting point about playing the arbiter disappeared with the loss of his cloaking ability. The ending race was a poor copy of the first game and the parts which often made the first game so enjoyable, Cortana and her sense of humor and sarcasm, were missing until what? The next to last level? Bungie left something here. I seem to lack all the words to describe what is missing, but something critical is gone. Unpolished, Length, Failure to Fix previous problems (missing Cortana.)
Call of Duty 4 – How this game is getting the grades it has is completely beyond me. This isn’t just short, it feels like an extended demo. They actually used infinitely spawning enemies based on reaching geographical points on during the gun battles. Did they hire an ex-Id level designer or something? For such a beautiful game that finally abandoned WW2, it has been a terrible disappointment. What is it? 6 hours long? I literally feel cheated. Length.
Mass Effect – It used to be there were 3 developers I would trust without even really seeing a demo. Bioware, Bungie and Blizzard. Now it seems I may be reduced to 1, and that assumes a new Diablo is on the way. This has all the hallmarks of KOTOR 2 which Bioware did not even create if I remember correctly. The “morality” system? It affects nearly nothing in the game. At least in KOTOR it had real world consequences for your character’s abilities. Here it is nothing more than a few different side missions and some dialog tree changes. It also suffers from perhaps the worst inventory management system, and worst inventory choices, in recent memory. The high level ammunition upgrades are nearly useless. You are better off sticking with the mid-level tungsten, phasic, and anti-personnel rounds than any of the higher level (8+) choices. The “Mako” ground vehicle may be the worst I have ever driven in game. Exploring a planet with that thing is entertaining for about 5 minutes, after which it becomes annoying. Aiming the weapons is rather tricky as well since they certainly do not go where the reticle is barring your being on perfectly level ground. As in GRAW 1 and 2, you cannot move your squad mates individually, only as a group. They also have a tendency to get stuck behind doors if you move too quickly. Outside of the major missions, it’s all the same 2 or 3 stock buildings or ships. Many planets have no point to their existence, same with the quests. The “X” button you use to move quickly through dialog that you have heard before needs to NOT trigger a response. I have lost track of the number of times I have accidentally hit a dialog option I had no intention of using due to this flaw. Now, why no hdd caching? Just because it is possible someone has a 360 w/o a hdd (although the number are quite low) does not mean you do not use it if it is there. The damned optical drives are finicky enough without being hit this often. And, just as in KOTOR 2, there are obvious large sections missing entirely. I don’t mind the length, but at least remove references to missions which are non-existent. Unfinished, Unpolished, Failure to fix previous problems.
Assassin’s Creed – Let the platformer return. We built this visually stunning world with the best character animations I have ever seen. Then forgot to actually put anything in it. Outside of your 9 main assassination missions, there are what? 3 side quests (informers – with a couple of different variations, save the citizens, save the scholars, pickpocket, eavesdrop, beat the information out of him) of dubious value and a dozen of ZERO value beyond Achievement points. Having the ruffians help you or the scholars hide you is almost pointless anyway. You can easily beat any number of guards sent after you. The combat system is remarkably shallow. Remember the long tutorial (which, like the cutscenes, there is no way to skip) where you are taught to turn your head, which moves in a remarkable 360 degrees, it is almost pointless and difficult to use since it requires both the right thumbstick and the Y-button mounted on the top right of the controller. Where are the equipment choices as well? Something, anything! Abilities? Precious few once again. And little point to many of them, they are unnecessary. Length, Unfinished.
Madden 08 – And now my latest purchase. On-sale for 38$ at Target and I am giving money to EA for the first time in around 10 years. I haven’t played a football game in at least that long. I’ve played 2 games with the Oakland Raiders, average score about 90-7 me. I have played on rookie since it has been so long and I still do not know the controls. I am a little uncertain what to think at this point and am reserving judgement for a later date, but I would never have bought this game at 50 or 60$. Before or after playing it.
What is happening? Am I just remembering the gaming past as being better than it was? Are the fiscal pressures of the new architectures and art just too high? Is it not worth creating a custom engine for a game these days? Not worth the time for proper testing of major interactions? Is the EA method taking over? Are console games being dumbed down for more mass appeal? Is developer talent spread too thinly? I have not purchased the Orange Box or Bioshock because I no longer trust the situation. (Bioschok for the purported Length, Replay-ability, and the too shiny surfaces where water is in use and the Orange Box because I partially played Half-Life 2 already and it is the only game to ever make me physically ill to play and I failed to see what was so spectacular about the play or story.) I replayed games for years previously. I do not believe a single one of these games has ever been played more than a couple of months and those that were played that long was due to a lack of options rather than any special attributes on the games part. I am seriously going to be investigating a return to PC gaming if this continues, and for me to state that is something of a shocker for those who know me.
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