ManaMan wrote:If you get annoyed at the gameplay (A LOT do), just turn it down to easy. Don't let it be a pride thing, the storyline is good enough you don't want to miss out because of the below average gameplay
Is it a sad statement on the state of "game"-making when games are more enjoyable as interactive computer animation?
Hey, I adore the Metal Gear series and always thought that gameplay was just decent up until #4.
You can enjoy games for different reasons. I'm certainly not above great production value, I can handle mediocre gameplay well enough to not miss out on a great experience. And that's where a lot of the industry is going nowadays, the experience. The gameplay part is almost secondary in a lot of cases and that's a lot because of the costs nowadays. They spend shittons on art because, let's face it, even to hardcore gamers, graphics sell. Everyone, myself included, is a graphics whore to some degree nowadays. Sure a lot of us older gamers still look for other things but EVERYONE looks for graphics.
And that's why you get so little innovation in gameplay (and even variations in storylines, too) nowadays on consoles (I'm excluding indie downloadable only games). Have you noticed have EVERY SINGLE FPS aside from Halo uses the exact same control scheme as CoD? And even Halo is almost exactly the same aside from a few minor changes. I won't even start on the sad state of "boss" fights (if you can even call them that). That ain't by accident. They're delivering an experience to you and, quite honestly, gameplay is something that they just want to ensure doesn't get in the way.
But familiarity ain't a bad thing, either. I've always been a fan of a really good experiences of familiarity, I am a life-long Mega Man fan after all. And to be honest, right now there's more innovation in gaming than there has been in nearly 2 decades. The advent of downloadable titles where any single person can just make a game on their own, try new things, and have it be successful (Braid is the most prominent example). It's just in the AAA console stuff where we're seeing the stagnation.
And you're a Nintendo fan like me and they've been doing great stuff on the Wii U after a really slow first year. Familiar genres and series but lots of great new stuff. Mario 3D World, New Super Mario U, Smash Bros, Mario Kart 8, these may be the best and often most innovative titles in those series. So you still have those experiences while having all the big budget stuff on PS3/4, XBone, and PC....AND the deluge of quality indie titles that I can't even keep track of there's so many.
And Eric, I'm trying to make sure the guy plays the games, I'm advocating for them. But it is what it is, the gameplay ain't that great. And it's not just me, I know a ton of people who just didn't wanna deal with the gameplay and turned it down to Easy to they can enjoy the experience. I'm just letting Mana know that in case he has the same experience. Since he's a Nintendo fan and to him gameplay reigns supreme, it needed to be said.