I hate the Sony PS line. I hate them because they pander to the “OMG IT’S IN 3D IT MUST BE GOOD” crowd and the “OMG IT’S GOT BLOOD IN IT ITS’ SO REALISTIC” crowd.
But mostly, I hate them for causing the downfall of Sega’s hardware line. This is the first new generation of consoles without any Sega in it, and it really, really annoys me. I root for the Xbox, sometimes, just so that Sony could possibly falter just a bit, and their jock player base be ignored… but then I realise that the Xbox is even worse in jock-pandering.
Mainly, a hardware platform that wasn’t afraid of innovation, or appearing to be “cutesy”. How many truly innovative titles have been allowed to publish from Sony, compared to Nintendo and Sega?
Depends on your definition of “truly innovative” I suppose, but I find Sony’s published stuff to be exceptional (well, not the sports games). A few off the top of my head:
Ico
Frequency and Amplitude
Parrapa the Rapper series
And maybe not innovative, but great:
Jak and Daxter series
Sly Cooper series
Ratchet and Clank series
And have you seen the craziness that comes out for the Playstation consoles in Japan? They’re not afraid to be cutesy, it just doesn’t sell here in the States.
Parapa and the like aren’t really innovative - the BeMani / DDR line already did that. And it was by no means exclusive to the PS - Sega was willing to and did have these titles. I’m talking whole new concepts of gaming - the best example I can come up with for the PS is Katamari Damacy. But for every Katamari Damacy, the PS encourages 20 bland, “realistic” GTA/racing/FPS type games. Games like Katamari Damacy, La Pucelle are few and far between, and it’s all Sony’s fault!pout
Also, Sony is generally reluctant to publish 2d games. Why? Again, the desire to appeal to the jock-masses, and no avoid having anything that’s “old fashioned”, regardless of actual gaming merit. (this isn’t GD, so I feel quite happy putting those statements out there. :D)
2001 called and is demanding that you return your rant to where it belongs. Seriously, it’s 2005 and you’re still pissing and moaning about the Dreamcast?
You know why I didn’t buy a Dreamcast? I was a Sega CD owner who felt screwed over by owning an expensive piece of hardware that barely had any worthwhile games. With the impending release of new consoles from Miscrosoft, Sony, and Nintendo I wasn’t willing to give Sega a chance.
Sony has a lot of good games available on their system right now. Grand Theft Auto 3 was a great game and it was in 3D and, oh my god, it had blood! Of course the PS2 also has a bunch of violent 3D games that aren’t very good and the sales reflect that pretty well.
Do you lament the loss of vector graphics as well? Just about all my favorite Nintendo 64 games were 3D as were most of the great Dreamcast titles. While I’m sure you’ll still see the occasional 2D game being produced I’m afraid the present and the future belongs to 3D.
I feel your pain though. I miss adventure games like Kings Quest and Escape from Monkey Island.
Come on … you want a PS3 … you know you do … it’s got 7 cell processors … it’s got blu-ray … it’s got cool boomerang-shaped controllers … come on … it’s gonna have the new Madden game … it’s gonna be so sweet … forget the 360 … forget the Revolution … join us … join us … join us … .
Well, the thing that is REALLY missing from the latest, and next gen consoles, are the good old fashioned text based adventures. Screw 3D it’s over rated.
I don’t know where the appeal is with these new consoles. Like Adam is implying, in the Good Ol’ Days it was a challenge to open the fucking door.
Ah, text-based adventures! So annoying and with so much typing that learning to program seemed like a more enjoyable use of my time. Thank God I discovered downloading low-res porn from a BBS at 1200 baud or I might’ve become a useful human being.
Color me confused. Is it bad to pander to the fan base that is paying money for a product that you sell? Is it bad for developers to develop games which will earn them lots of money instead of developing innovative games which may or may not be profitable? Is it bad for publishers to not translate more innovative foreign games because they feel the rework costs will exceed their projected revenue?
Game playing fans have spoken with their wallets, and have told Sony, the developers and the publishers what games they want. Are you asking that these corporations, who have a duty to their shareholders to maximize profits, not pursue proven, profitable revenue streams?
Or does logic and market sense have no place in this misguided rant?
i feel the same amount of hatred for the x-box, NOTHING will make me ever purchase one, and i want it to die a screaming, painful death…
aside from the obvious reason i hate it, it really has no games that appeal to me that aren’t available on PS2 or GC, or…Dreamcast (yes, i own one of those too, got it when they were being cleared out for $50), and the original controllers (yes, i know it ships with the smaller controllers now) were just too big and ungainly
still, that said, i have occasionally considered picking up a used one and a couple used games (that way no money goes to m$), and hearing all the hacks that are available for it is enticing, still, i must be strong, must continue my boycott of the Redmond behemoth
In any case, D_Odds, I don’t begrudge Sony their profit making (actually I do, but if I said it it would make me look bad… whoops ;)), but the fact is that Sony is actively rejecting games like Broken Sword 3, and making it difficult for games like KoF, LB2, MOTW to get published. Incidentally, all of them were very much on the Dreamcast, and were pretty close to arcade perfect as well.
I’m not even talking about cel shaded 8 bit graphics of old (But damn if Lucia 2/Chono trigger weren’t the best damn RPGs I’ve ever played), Chu Chu Rocket wasn’t 2D, it was 2D rendered… but it had a 2D playing field. What new games on the PS have a 2D, non isometric playing field? The entire market is skewed towards the jocks, fine, I accept that, their money is as good as mine, and there are a hell lot more of them. But that’s no reason to can projects, simply because they don’t “look cool” and might hurt their “cool jock image”. The DC had no such qualms.
To make an analogy, it’s like Hollywood churning out sequel after sequel of dreck, while actively suppressing (not out competing, flat out suppressing) movies that actually try to move the genre forward, simply because it doesn’t fit the standard BIG BOOM/slapstick/soft core options, and being able to do so because they’re the only players that really matter, and developers can’t afford to ignore them.
nowaday I use free creator made Interactive fiction, emulated games from ancient systems, and even a little bit of stuff I shouldn’t legally, but that is not avalible in stores, thus I couldn’t buy it if I wanted to.
