I too enjoy complicated, difficult, or even unbalanced games- I play Eve Online - so it's not those things that make me rage at games. Cheap fights, overwhelming odds, and out-of-character mini games spoil it for me.
The stupid racing 'missions' in Red Dead, Prototype 2, and GTA are all the worst parts of those games for me. To make it seem like 'seat of the pants' action they give you only enough time if you make the course perfectly. Meaning you often replay these boring bits over and over to learn the course, just to move the story forward. ME 3 loved throwing a half dozen Brutes charging at you while the dodge button mostly put you into cover where you died. That game also won't just ditch the boring planet scanning mechanic from ME 2.
Other games like UFC are TOO REAL in that you spend all your time doing boring training mini-games for the fairly rare actual fight. That's realistic, but perhaps too realistic to be compelling in a game.
Bad AI and getting stuck in maps always sucks but forgivable with today's huge maps and complex gameplay. It's the obviously poorly designed, or outright tossed in for no reason at all- things that get me tossing controllers and keyboards.
When my first xbox had the Red Ring of Death cancer, I did throw it into the street and run it over twice with the truck. So uh, yeah I've lost my cool at my 'entertainment' before too.
Technological advances like more polys and such are not the main driving force behind new console development. Many games are don't let you stop to enjoy the scenery much.
The driving forces behind new consoles are the things the manufacturers and devs want to see- such as always-online systems and the notion of not buying a game but just a license to use it. Pretty much those things gamers accuse the devs of wanting to do to bilk more money out of gamers.
With the F2P concept gaining steam and gamers willingness to buy an already overpriced game, then spend even more on micro-transactions for do-dads in game- it's these issues that will force new consoles sooner than later.
Consoles will fall behind PC's not so much for graphics and such (apples and oranges to compare multi-thousand dollar PC's to a $199 xbox) but rather in the areas devs really care about- all those micro-transactions and F2P concepts talked about, for example, in the article here on GameSpot about the 10 things the new Xbox must have...
You'll get new consoles sooner than 2017 because the devs aren't going to wait to cash in on all those new ways to get your money.
Excellent review. Ignore the children obsessed with your personal life. They aren't worth the bandwidth they waste.
This review is on point, professional, and displays the vocabulary only envied by the inbreds taking the time to mock a reviewer.
Please continue bringing us involved, intelligent reviews on games. Let the chromosome-challenged hill-billies say what they will, there are few reviewers out there that I put as much stock in as yours.
Not for or against any special interest group, but simply an adult gamer that long ago out-grew the childish nonsense the kiddies enjoy blathering about.
moral issues, however, change with time. What is shockingly immoral today was common practice a very short time ago, and probably still the norm in many places. There is nothing in any game, movie, song, or play that is worse than the brutal reality of the world. What a conceited notion of protecting youth- while buying our kids sneakers and toys made by children as near slaves overseas. More kids carry real AK-47's in Africa than kids in the US carry cartoon ones in games. Protect the youth...that's just arrogance born from luxury atop our global soapbox. Only here do we even have the time to waste on the topic.
It just so sad that people elect and pay a politician to be this lazy and dumb. In the past (nearly) 100 years we've gone thru a litany of failed 'public morality' prohibitions that have all, to a one, failed utterly and miserably. Prohibition of Alcohol- led to a massive rise in crime and corruption. Prohibition of drugs- billions spent a year to stop maybe 1% of drug imports? Before my time- Elvis Presley was filmed only from the waist up on the Ed Sullivan show because his hips were a threat to the morality of America. The freedom loving (sarcasm) dems of today were the PMRC in the 80's that said Ozzy and Judas Priest told their fans to kill themselves... This kind of idiotic and failed policy isn't even rare, and yet here is someone elected and paid that seems to be wholly unaware of the history of legislation like he proposes. I think that point is more embarrassing than the actual bill itself. That this person is rich by doing this poor of a job? That ignorant or simply lazy to come up with an original thought? It's not about public safety, it's about one politician wanting his name on an 'action' bill to claim when re-election time rolls around.
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