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I've never been one of those 'all games are the same, where's the originality' types. I believe in refinement of conventions and mixing/merging of gameplay tropes. Pretty much every traditional game-type has been innovated and the final frontier is refinement and fresh perspectives, just like Hollywood. Just like music. Those great leaps and innovative gameplay of the 80s to early 2000s, that's done with. And I accept that. From here genres diverge into sub-genres and we find games that speak our individual language.
My issue is while you can highlight a few nice indy games, I'm unimpressed by what a generation who grew up gaming has produced so far. This should be the punk era of gaming, but it seems we dodged that and it went straight to post-modernism development. Minimalist, 'quirky' design that aim to spark conversations rather than entertain. An art exhibit where there's like... a fucking moldy bread on a basketball or some shit? That's post-modernism in art. It killed art and actual painters and sculptors have been trying to get this word out for decades now.
Now I wanna be clear that I'm not attacking games that are atypical or irreverent by design, nor am I 'missing the point'. I completely understand what something like Journey or Flower was going for. They just come off to me as pompous games. I can certainly accept them as 'interactive entertainment', but supporters do not. You may remember my old issues with why people reject Casual Games as a term. This was in line with my feelings for No Man's Sky. And in fact; I believe much of its criticisms stem from the fact that people were expecting a Core Game out of what was obviously a casual Interactive Experience. People misidentified what kind of game it was and he (lead designer) suffered for it.
I'm oldschool. I look toward the technical design of gameplay. If something is dressed up in a very atmospheric and interesting visual design, but is at the end of a day a badly paced 2D platformer with awkward difficulty spikes, I simply can't look past that. I don't give it points for having gorgeous visuals. An in-joke I have with Khuntry and the guys when we check out some pompous interview with an indy hack is asking, "I wonder what happens when I press the A button?" This loss of craftsmanship is a big issue for me and it doesn't help that game journos are no better. Kotaku's recent coverage of that awesome looking DBZ fighter is laughable. Writer clearly didn't know what to talk about other than it seems like MvC.
I am 100% unimpressed with the Dead Space series. Looks good. Controls are functional. Unimpressed. I can't past it being a ho-hum western horror game.
I'm just a cranky old bastard. And Mario x Rabbids is on stage right now.
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