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Wednesday 8 August 2012

An Industry Without Innovation

The recent E3 conference in San Diego gave us one solid look at the lack of interest in the current platform but several of the big developers have noted that innovation across the industry is pretty poor.

This is a sad thing to hear following 10 years of Peter Molyneux hypes and radical game designs but I really see their point. It really has become a familiar lament in gaming over recent memory and the collective sense of disappointment at E3 only echoed our concerns. A common trend being thrown around is that every new announcement looks like something else – ‘That feels like Uncharted’, ‘It is just the same as Bioshock’ and ‘Why is Fifa always the same?’

It’s a terrible thought that a comparison with some of gaming’s greats can become such a detriment to building hype for a new IP. Unfortunately these comparisons are going to be synonymous with an industry where precarious production budgets need to be reached and taking risks is not the way forward. When you can’t afford a flop what is really the best option.

The landscape of the next 12 months at least is a valley of sequels, reboots and licensed titles tied into big budget franchises from large well known environments. The problem is that any successful business needs to take risks and know when to but again these same companies need yearly targets to be reached and any failure can indeed be the end of the line. Risks also come hand in hand with the possibility of bankruptcy or even worse industry embarrassment and we all know which option we’d choose.

The view from E3 showed us Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Gears of War: Judgment Day and Halo 4 to name just a few. All of these big blockbusters are coming from current franchises with successful heritages and apart from Watch Dogs by Ubisoft nothing original really caught anyone’s eye. Granted there isn’t anything particularly horrible about any of these franchises or their new offerings and will no doubt be well-made titles but they still lack fresh IP details or innovations.

There might be light at the end of the tunnel though as the next big hardware announcements are still due over the next 18 months or so. Alongside this we can no doubt expect new IP’s, ideas and future strategies that co-inside with the hardware manufacturers and the new mechanics being made available.

Anticipating the increased feeling of stale gameplay though giant publisher Activision have outlined several new ideas for the Black Ops II title due later this year and take steps to combat this trending issue. This comes off the back of Modern Warfare 3’s post launch Metacritic backlash created from stale gameplay and an increasing lack of new ideas. The single player story for Black Ops II will feature branching story points and new missions to implement within the gameplay; namely Strike Force. These punctuate the single-player narrative and sees players using ‘assets’ within each mission to complete their objectives. It looks like an interesting idea and is certainly one being used to combat their increase in backlash after last years outing.

Sadly though in general you don’t tend to let go of a good thing and Activision have been one of the key publishers to get this wrong. Look at Guitar Hero and the Tony Hawk series; both of these experienced similar customer anger as their now iconic FPS.

Whatever happens in the future it’s becoming a bleak landscape at the moment – at least for the short term – but hopefully with a bit more customer feedback and a few new ideas we can approach a new gaming era.

The Walking Dead FPS

Horray for fans of The Walking Dead again as a new video game has been announced…

Not to be confused with TellTale’s episodic game the new creation is of an FPS nature and is loosely based around the TV storyline and not the comic book story created by Robert Kirkman.

The announcement came on 6th July 2012 and will star the Dixon brother, Daryl and Merely. The timeline of the game takes place before the beginning of the TV series and focuses on their journey to Atlanta.

Although no screenshots have been released or the deep gameplay ideas the premise itself is something to certainly grab my attention. Being a fan of the Left for Dead games this ‘quieter’ approach to the Zombie FPS is a welcome reminded that the undead world is creepy and horrific.

While sporting a first person view the game will be more of a horror style than something like Call of Duty and will require the player to make specific choices to survive. The player will need to collect resources and ammunition; both of which will be scarce and require deep management. The Dixon brothers look like an ideal choice for the characters as both are keen hunters letting them put down the ‘Walkers’ as they are called, or by using stealth to slip by undetected.

It has been mentioned that new characters will make an appearance along with way – either helping or hindering the brother’s progress. Decisions will need to be made quickly heightening the tension and the hordes are easily capable of disrupting or in some cases devouring their plan.

The whole set up seems to be following in the successful footsteps of Day Z and if the quality of that ‘add-on’ is anything to go by then this is certainly shaping up in the right way.

Obsessive Compulsive Gaming

Jumping onto IGN this week I discovered a short but very interesting article about obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and how it affects gamers. This term gets thrown around quite a bit these days to generalise almost all quirky behavioural tendencies especially those related to gamers.

This disorder, like all illnesses, affects people in different ways and to different degrees. I have the good fortune of suffering an extremely minor case of OCD when gaming and even less in my personal activities outside of video games. I’m lucky enough to understand my quirks and actual found that gaming has reduced the OCD tendencies in my personal life too as I’ve learnt to live with some of my strange behaviours.

It all started in my childhood when ‘timed’ challenges provided me with anxiety and negative thoughts; completing a beep test worried me not because I was slow but because I ‘needed’ to complete the sections before the next beep sounded. The same happens when completing task on our video games that are on countdowns – Batman Arkham City’s phone tasks caused more than their fair share of issues for me.

Another area that I sometime suffer with is when playing large open-world style epics like Borderlands and Skyrim. I’m a lover of loot and all things fantasy but the though of missing the next good sniper rifle or a shield in Bethesda’s RPG became such an exhausting challenge that I’ve given up playing it on several occasions. The though of missing such treasures wore at my patience quickly. The numerous glitches and bugs that I’ve encountered haven’t helped either as I need to carefully completely ever aspect of each dungeon checking each chest, body and urn.

Some of the symptoms of OCD include the need to check things repeatedly; performing routines or personal rituals. These then cause distress if uncompleted and get in the way of daily life. This can lead to an overwhelming urge of anxiety that something is wrong and the sufferer can start completing specific behaviours called compulsions to combat this.

One of my rituals in gaming is to ensure my character stays following the same alignment path – good or bad this must be followed at all times (I don’t do grey areas). Mass Effect is the prime example for me of the problems this can bring forth as Renegade points being obtained for a Paragon character starts to slowly ruin my experience and overall enjoyment forcing my to replay areas or restart my character from scratch.

Over the years these feelings have fluctuated in intensity from forcing me to restart playthroughs to personal anecdotal stories. Fortunately I have never needed to consult someone on my urges but recommend that if you are experiencing problems controlling yourself that you contact your doctor to seek advice. There are thousands of others out there experiencing exactly the same thing and your video game hobby is a breeding ground for these anxieties.