IGN : Ten Trends destroying Video Games

IGN provides their opinions on 10 trends which are destroying the gaming industry which include :-

1) The controversial Unreal Engine 3 Overdose
2) A Great Cast with a Dud Script as seen in Gears 2
3) Sequelitis
4) Too Human Syndrome
5) Production Values vs. Wii Production "Values"
6) Sonic and Mario Visit the Rainbow Dentist
7) Motion "Control"
8) Promises, Promises, Promises
9) Strong Female Lead Character = Edgy, Clever and Desirable
10)Casual Gaming

[omega7]

great read

Frankly i think Unreal engine and Wii should be banned

Casual gaming is killing the industry.

ban wii

@below

man

UE3 runs great on x360 but poor on PS3.
Almost 70% games use UE3.

and if improperly implemented then u get bad games like LR.also UE3 isnt compatible with some Nvidia and Ati cards too

[UnSelf]

but yea anything comin from IGN i usually reads. Good points

[omega7]

IGN is a very unbiased website

They always give the scores games deserve

@others

dont bring up Socom/Fable 2 here.

IGN is world's no1 gaming website because of their editorial integrity

[Watkins]

Not to sound fanboyish or anything, but come on. Half the games on the list is 360 (apart from multiplat and casual crap, plus Lair), and that is not because 360 is a bad console, it's mainly because of UE3. UE3 is fit for the console, but it is NOT fit for every game you can possible start developing. Developers take the cheap way around, and as a result we don't get any new interesting games on the console.

[mint royale]

pogfinder and omega 7 are the same person? Pogfinder submits and suddenly there is omega7.

Oh well omega7/pogfinder/cahill/nasim I hope you get a life one day.

[mint royale]

1.Videogame journalism
2.Videogame journalism
3.Videogame journalism
4.Videogame journalism
5.Videogame journalism
6.Videogame journalism
7.Videogame journalism
8.Videogame journalism
9.Videogame journalism
10.Videogame journalism
11. IGN

I have lost respect for IGN after this. I never thought they'd join in with the senseless bashing that has been going on. YOU are ruining the industry by portraying the industry as bad with 'x console might die' or 'x console has shovelware and is ****'. We should be glad we have an expanding industry but no. The games industry doesn't deserve to expand considering how stupid fanboys and fanboy articles are. GRR!

[ThanatosDMC]

Wow, IGN is aiming at Gears. Hmmm... they didnt mention Cliffy's "promises".

Anyway, as Bob Dole's video would surmise. http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[fanboi hater]

All of these points are perfect and honestly these have what i have been thinking to myself for awhile. Especially the overuse of the UE3 engine which i really cant stand anymore.

[omega7]

hey IGN is the world's no 1 gaming website.

neoBOT troll just get the hell out of here

IGN is the most unbiased and biggest site in the world .

N4G is 50X bigger than neotrash forum

IGN is 1000X bigger than NEOLAME forum

Cant believe that you have the courage to report IGN article

Just go back to neogaf and never come here again

[windmill145]

Hmm, I dont want to start a flamewar but I have a feeling Gears of War and Halo are going to be on the list in a couple of years.

EDIT: I agree, Omega7

[omega7]

dont you think both those games were overrrated

I just bought a second hand x360 arcade for 60$ (stolen) and chipped.

I played Gears 2 . although the end stages were good but man i wasnt that impressed

[Nihilism]

lol, speak freely my friend, i couldn't agree more, i have absolutely no idea why everyone thinks halo was so good, single player sucked..although i admit it's simplicity was it's best point, but there was like 3 variants of three enemies...multiplayer was ok but meh

[omega7]

a neogaf troll even had the courage to report IGN's article as LAME

now that is hilarious

Neogaf is a forum which is 1/50 the size as N4g in terms of traffic

and 1/1000 as IGN .

seriously Neogaffers we dont want you here.

dont come to N4G again

[Mr Tretton]

yeah, I think I read on GAF that they 'banned IGN from the site' because of this article.

wtf? And they banned Gamesradar

I was considering joining that site, it is very informative and full of inside scoop, but a bit wussy as well. I'll just continue to lurk and get what I need

[omega7]

bad means real bad

as bad as Ripten, Gamespot , 1up, GT and others

[Mr Tretton]

ign isn't however. I'd in fact say it's one of the best, flaws in all. there certainly is no perfect gaming site

[Graphics Whore]

Haha, no offense but the community at Neogaf is one of a kind, it's a lot more civilized. I would not screw with Neogaf so don't try it. Just some friendly advice :).

"Neogaf is a forum which is 1/50 the size as N4g in terms of traffic"

KILLZONE 2 - Nov/Dec Media Blowout ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page )

Replies /// Views
16,051 /// 1,301,763

You were saying.

[mint royale]

I really don't think you know what your talking about. If I ever want a civilised conversation game realted I wil go to GAF before any other websites especially will the like of cahill/nasim/pogfinder/omega 7 trolls on this site.

[GEESE]

Unreal Engine is starting to show its age, but of all of them I would put casual gaming at the top.
Casual gaming? That really means "Sh1tty graphics, simple play for grandma and douche bags type gaming."
Oh, and 360 fan boy so called journalists.

REPPUKEN

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[Chubear]

#1 Editorial gaming sites e.g IGN etc

[Hercules]

can someone explain to me what the UE3 is? i mean i know what it is..but is it from UT3?

edit: i see..i also did a wiki on it..wellabout 50+ games use the UE1-3..i guess deves just get lazy and dont want to maek their own like some games do (lbp, mgs4, etc..)

[GEESE]

Owned by Epic. Is a development middleware tool. 3d gaming etc..
Trouble is, it's getting on and is easily identifiable. Was the sh1t when it first came out though....

[Pika-pie]

Mass effect made good use of the Unreal engine.. I hope they are not refering to the chuggy 360 version.

[Dmitry Orlov]

Mass Effect works a lot better if 360 version is installed on the HDD.
Lost Odyssey also uses UE3 quite good - no lags and looks wonderful.

[Cajun Chicken]

This should be 11.

Seriously, It's annoying that's its basically a requirement for rechargable health in nearly all games now.

It's like when EVERYBODY had to have bullet-time back in the last gen.

If I get shot about 10 times and I'm bleeding to death, If I go and hide away for a bit, are the bullets from my body just going to drop out and heal myself like Claire from Heroes?

[Hercules]

but some games have suits...mgs4....and some guys just did make sense...uncharted...so i see your point

[Cajun Chicken]

Some do, like Uncharted, Gears (I suppose) and Halo but I hate it with nearly all first party and multiplat games trying to do this now.
It's just when EVERYONE does it because it seems to sell a game, I sort of like a difference of game mechanics every now and then, some of the games coming out don't even NEED health recharging and just have it because apparently, the public want it.

I don't want to be playing the same game over and over again when I get a new game, or at least have a mode once completed where you have a healthbar (R:R, 'Infected Mode').

I admit, I was quite annoyed with the full recharging health mechanic in Resistance 2 compared to the cool 4 health bars in R1 and when you got damaged only the most recent healthbar recharged back on that game.
Victim of a dev craze, I guess.

[m-s-8-2]

It made no sense in call of duty or uncharted, but in games like Halo or Resistance they actually have a somewhat plausible reason for it.

[LeShin]

...I also prefered Resi 1's health bar system, though I suppose it makes a little more sense as Hale is becoming more Chimera like now so his healing power increased.

But putting this mechanic in all fps's or shooters is getting annoying. Seems devs have run out of imagination. Any character that has a special suit or have powers should be the only people allowed to do this. You can't make a gritty realistic fps like COD4 and Killzone 2 and make them ignore bullets like they were gnat bites!

[shamv]

I read somewhere that after the first mass effect bioware they will use their own engine. Can anyone confirm this?

[Hercules]

on UE3..and mass effect used it

[notpill]

...
11. IGN

[MURKERR]

..

[Nathan Drake]

WAIT A MINUTE IGN,WHATS UR GAMERTAG?!??!!!/??!!!U DIDNT PLAY IT RAWWEFRERW GET HIM!!!!!!

Back to seriousness,like I said in an earlier post,we may be witnessing the last truly hardcore gaming generation,that's not to say the next gen won't have hardcore games;I'm saying we may never again see a console from either Sony/Microsoft(Nintendo have already abandoned the hardcore market)that focuses primarily on satisfying the needs of the hardcore gamers...

So in other words,if Sony and Microsoft were to make another console,their respective platforms would be home to nothing but shovelware with the occasional first party gem.Just like Nintendo with the Wii.

[heroicjanitor]

RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE

[NJShadow]

Excellent stuff. I love IGN.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

The Unreal Engine comment I definatley agree with, cause it drags down... games advancing in the graphics department. But Gears is the only game that truely milks the graphics to the core, but it should be that way Epic came up with the engine!. I also hope Killzone tool sets don't go out, sure I want my PS3 games to be just as visually awesome. But the minute they start to almost mimic KZ to a t... then KZ loses its flair. Which would totally suck to see, and at the same time would cancel out KZ for the achievements it already has and is soon to accomopolish!

Gears is still played tons on my 360 to this day. Sure the story wasn't all that great, but I found the campaigns gameplay to be the best I've played in 08 for sure. Epic moment after epic moment. Ride Reevers, Brumaks, A huge tank called Betty, slice up a giant worm, mutilate the tonsiles of a MASSIVE water creature, etc.. Just truely bad @ss campagin all around. Sure the story sucked in the game, but it didn't ruin the game by any means. Was I supposed to cry, what kind of emotions am I supposed to feel?. Best story in a shooter this gen goes to Bioshock easily (not including MGS because it's a series that goes beyond this gen). Also about the cast of Gears having a person of every race, etc.. Since the old school trailer compared to the gameplay now... the characters went from being all white dudes... to diversified races. Watch for yourself. So is Epic the only one doing this? I don't think so!

Sequals... yeah Im getting burnt out. New IPS are something we ALL need. Sonys the only one with them at the moment and there aren't even a handful of them on the system. Shame really!

Too Human syndrom? I think that all actually started with Lair, then game Haze, then came Too Human. I still know people though that STILL love to play Lair and Too Human. Too Human I have plenty of friends that still invest hours of gameplay into that game. I can't say the same for Haze though. But there are groups of people that still love those games, who are we to knock them? but looking at the MAJORITY of the gamers that came into contact with the games... they sure were flops!

5-6 are negated cause it's the Wii. It's not even in the same league as what the hardcore gamers are into seeing, playing, and buying!

Motion control is a gimic in the Wii, for being put in the Dualshock/Sixaxis it sure in the hell isn't used enough to justify it, and for 360... Im just damn thankful it isn't even there!

Promises... now that's truely one that could go on forever!

Strong Female Lead? isn't there Tomb Raider? what about Bayonetta? etc.. There are those games, they just are few and far inbetween! don't understand that one!

Casual Gaming? it's still there and very much so used... Wii was built for the casuals and 360/PS3's arcade titles are more than enough for the casual crowd to be satisfied. Now on the newer scale... yeah it is kinda rare!

[Cajun Chicken]

Nah, UTIII should of got all the focus with the UE3 as the UT series is the showcase of the UE in the past; compared to the work of Gears you can see a real slapdash job in UTIII, it's quite shocking on all platforms compared to the technical jumps from UT, UT2003/4.

It's crazy how 2K actually shown Epic how to use the engine BETTER than Epic who created it, madness. Oh well, I guess Epic should of focused on the real poster child (UT) instead of a 'invisible walls' pathway based game.

The choice on not using the usual open ended FPS UT series compared to the enclosed of Gears seems like a big mistake, because it just gave an illusion of the power of UE3, it's not really as powerful or large in technical steps from the old jumps in Unreal Engines.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

while Gears is here to stay. This is what I mean by FPS's becoming forgetable. Good graphics or not, UT would've been forgetable. Im pretty sure why Epic chose to give the goodness of the engine to Gears. A new title that also could stand out from a vast majority of shooters with its 3rd person gameplay. Also with PS3 getting UT3 first over 360, PS3 has always been hindered with operating the engine. Either way, UT3 would've been passed over... no matter what the circumstances were. Did nothing new for the genre and had nothing to make it stand its own ground. It was the same gameplay as the older itterations just with new maps. Woopty doo!. Epic realises that they can do more within the Gears franchise than with the UT franchise. Thus why UT was such an easy push over... the gameplay alone cannot compare!

[ChickeyCantor]

Lol @ Casual Gaming

Casual GAMING basically keeps saving the damn industry.
Core gamers are NOT the backbone of this industry.

You can all disagree with me, but even you guys know its true.

[YonasJonas]

Not if they're not buying the 3rd party games bucko. The only thing they're saving is Nintendo, and Mario/Zelda/Smash Bros. Heck I doubt most of them know you can play more games then just wii sports on their console.

[Sangria]

That's right, even if casual means globally shovelwares, it's a very necessary part of the industry. Casual games are low cost and targeted to sell much. With that, big publishers like Ubisoft or Electronic Arts can dare to finance more ambitious projects.

In my opinion, games like Assassin's Creed, Prince Of Persia (PS3 / 360), Mirror's Edge or Dead Space would never have born if Ubi or EA hadn't a foot in the casual market.

Another point is that the Wii and the DS helped the gaming industry to enter in non-gamers mind. People don't think anymore a kid that plays video games is a future serial killer, because themselves, they play (casual) video games and see that they are not necessarily ultra-violent.

[ChickeyCantor]

@sangria

Exactly.

If more people get hands on "video-games" we gamers won't have to feel like aliens(Or NERDS as people like to call gamers in the past).

It would be more accepted and the chance of people getting in more stuff is also bigger.

And yes all those big budget projects? I don't think all that money grows on trees.

=) good post have a bubble.

@yonas,
But thats the thing, if you leave it at what you think is better, casual gamers will NEVER know about these games we play. You need to start somewhere.
Maybe not now maybe not in the next 5 years but if these casual gamers keep growing the chance of new born kids who grow up with video games will be instant "core" gamers. I mean most People think that gaming is bad or something.

[YonasJonas]

I could care less about the people who are jumping into the casual gamer fad. The threat to the hardcore gamer marking from the casual market is what really grinds my gears. Obviously a company like Sony must be entertaining the thought that, "hey we just put out the most technologically advanced console on the market, and where in dead last when all Nintendo did is make a wii 1.5 slap a gimmicky control in the box, and now they're destroying the competition." I just don't want the next Playstation to be ps3.5 with the only difference being they added some 3d glasses instead developing a real deal Ps4.

[ChickeyCantor]

Are you kidding me, so just Nintendo goes for a affordable alternative you think sony and Ms will do the same?
I don't know if you noticed but SONY always brings a new format with their system.
They are a company who MAKES hardware. They are bound to advance in their own hardware.

Their only problem is that they don't provide enough content for the casual gamers the way Nintendo does(this gen). And if you look at the Ps3 look at how much it is doing gfx wise and it still needs to be utilized like the PS2. So by that time even if they make a PS3.5 Games would still look good.

Ps3 and the 360 still have sh/tloads of concepts open.
Even IF sony goes the "cheap" road. Hardware will be made more efficient and new features will be added anyway, they are BOUND to advance their hardware.

Now please stop crying, holy crap people like you pretend dooms day is coming.

Also your first line indicates that you don't want the industry to progress, you don't want the new comers to make gaming a normal thing, you basically want to to separate them from us...and if we keep doing that my friend "casual" gaming will always be casual gaming.

[JOEdANGEL]

Casual gaming is like fast-food franchises. I say this because the casual game boom seems similar to the fast food explosion over the last 50 years. Casual games aren't saving the video game industry they're simply making it more bloated and over-saturated.

[Mahr]

"Casual gaming is like fast-food franchises. I say this because the casual game boom seems similar to the fast food explosion over the last 50 years. Casual games aren't saving the video game industry they're simply making it more bloated and over-saturated. "

Wait, are you saying that fast food franchises are bad? I'm confused. That can't be right.

[Sangria]

As a video game retailer, you can't know how much Ubisoft's Imagine pisses me off. You got tons of DS games that wont sell, and when you think it's finally over, Ubisoft creates new ones and floods you. Ubisoft even paid for having a special Imagine series part in shops.

I (almost) totally agree with the article, which was really nice to read with all that crap that is posted these day on N4G. However, there are two points i have to talk about.

First, i don't think The Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 is a woman for marketing strategy. Sure, leading women can be enough to tilt perverts' spider-sense, but IMO The Boss is not in that case. She has a really deep and sad story, she has a special relationship with Naked Snake, she doesn't shake her ass every 5 seconds, there is no boob gravity control for her and she's a milf. I'm not sure any buyer of MGS bought the game to fap on her.

And Fable 2 really should be in the broken promises part. I bought my 360 especially for Gears Of War 2 and Fable 2, i was really excited about both, even more with the hype and the promises Mollyneux made. It will be awesome, a total revolution, fixed every problem that had the first Fable... But i played the game, i was really deeply disappointed. The game looks more a next gen Fable, with all its defaults and few useless features, than a real twist for Fable.

[ChickeyCantor]

The whole female thing is just lame, I mean Dead or Alive, now that's a game that was made for guys who need to jack off on some polygons.

And look at Samus, pretty much the first female heroin covered in metal.
(not like if people knew that it was a woman...)

[JasonX43]

They forgot fanboys! And I'm not just talking about specific ones!

[js_mac]

Games are fun, and lots of people didn't know that until the Wii came out (yeah, whether the Wii is actually fun is debatable). It's only a matter of time before some of those casual players realise the gaping difference in quality between games, and start taking more care in what games they buy. I have personally noticed a big difference in the penetration that video games are making - TV commercials are on all the time, people like Speilberg and Peter Jackson are lumping praise on them, your parents start talking about them with you - and that's all come around only in the last year or two.

[emazzuca]

And i will explain why.

1) the unreal engine is a great engine, its one of the most stable and efficient engines. Its been used and tested on many boxes, and looks great. It runs on most machines, and honestly, we aren't ready for ever developer to switch over to the crytex engine.

Sequelitis??

final fantasy,
mario
Zelda
GTA
Metroid...

We can just list sequels that are bad... Sequelitis drives sales for most consoles and are the backbone of the industry.

Too Human Syndrome :

this isn't destroying video games... it is stupid to declare a trilogy before the first game has been released... but destroying games? where do you even get that from?

Production Values vs. Wii Production "Values"

The Wii having so many more games i honestly think its a good thing.

Yes , it increases the chance for bad games to get in.. But sorry guys, being a gamer isn't going to IGNS list of games that rank above 9 and staying on the trend. There are a lot of low ranked games that are really good. It also gives the oppurtunity for gaming companies to start up and try to work on a game, instead of having a solid publisher like microsoft or EA backing the game. The Wii has had some crazy idea for games, and if you don't like them, don't by them, most of them are really cheap too. There are still a large amount of Quality games on the wii.

Sonic and Mario Visit the Rainbow Dentist : yes, sonic in the olympics should just be unfair, i agree there.

but the Mario series of games, are among the best quality, best selling, inovative and fun games... why can them? we look forward to them, mario kart, mario , smash brothers, tenis, soccer, supersluggers, this list is really just massive, and i know i am leaving some really good ones out.

Motion "Control" : now this is just silly, yes Liar was killed because of a bad implementation of motion control, and mario kart wasn't like by everyone, with the new motion control ... but to say its destroying gaming?

The Wii, the system that broke records, jumped to the top of the other players? out sells all the other systems? and we are claiming its destroying gaming? its pushing the envelop, its one step closer to virtual reality, its attracted all sorts of new ideas and new talent. What a rubbish statement to stay its destroying gaming.

Promises: yeah, it sucks when a developer can't deliver what they originally planned, but this has been part of gaming from the beginning, we are in the era where many games take 3+ years with a team over 50-100 ppl. Most of them now are stuck with publishers like EA. Which really push the deadlines. so in the end they have to cut ideas/content. It does suck, but its part of the industry. Would i say its destroying gaming? No

Strong Female Lead Character = Edgy, Clever and Desirable :

Laura croft?
Samus?

come on, again, such a claim saying they are destroying?

first laura croft filled a video game niche that you continue to see grow. its another market, samus? how can you even put samus on the list? one of the greatest video games series of all time. And to say its destroying video games? again.. i feel ign here is just starting to reach and lost focus of their main point.

Casual Gaming : probably the most ludicrous topic listed yet,

A) not everyone is a hard core gamer, there is a massive market, and sometimes i will casual game, and sometimes you get great games that evolve from it.

B) right now you have examples like the iphone, full of casual games, and we are currently seeing the birth of a whole new industry for gaming.

c) Flash and Java games, are more popular then ever, It is a massive market, and thousands of games are constantly being created.

casual gaming is not destroying video games, its another market, for the casual gamer, or for when you want to play a causal game. I have played everything, and casual games included.. some of them being a lot of fun, and are great examples and ways to test ideas of a game.

Well there you have it, What i think to be a very inaccurate article and my reasons why =D

<3 N4g

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

nice, bubbles for you

[Graphics Whore]

I agree with most of what you have to say however the UE engine has been slaughtered. The over compensation of HDR and Bloom, obvious looping bitmaps, greasy brown 'wet' look.

It's been whored out alot, I could get into more detail since my name is Graphics Whore anyway, however there's just to much to list.

Hope this trend stops. It worked for UT3 and Gears of War 2 (Kinda of) and that's as far as it should go.

[N2NOther]

It was a fun read but a bit off base. Especially about "Strong Females" being a cliche and how it's destroying video games? It's still a fresher idea than a tough marine. And how is it destroying games? Wow that was a dumb statement that reeks of trying to fill space.

The other one is sequelitis. How can this be a trend since it's been going on since the advent of the medium? It's not a trend, it's the standard.

[Gr81]

Excellent post. This is why I'm begining to question IGN's credibility. It was starting to waffle after GTA4s perfect 10 scores, but after constant nonsensical articles like this one, I take pretty much what they say with a grain of salt.

I still don't know what the hell a casual game or a hardcore game is, and please don't anyone try to explain it, its a dead-end topic, with nothing but opinions and no definitive answer. There are ppl who are gamers..that's it. Whether you play tetris or Metroid, Pac-Man or Metal Gear, its all games, and to claim this phantom word "casual" is killing gaming, give me a break.

You wanna know what is killing gaming? You really want to know? Hint its not on the IGN list. Development Costs vs Diminishing returns, the so called "Shovelware" ppl b/tch and moan about actually fund the big budget projects, an thank goodness they do otherwise we'd be seeing more factor 5's and Free Radicals..O actually, wait for 2009 to show even more similar situations to come to light. And blame "casual gaming" for their demise too.

[Lord Vader]

1. Too Many FPS's = We Need More Variety
2. The Unreal Engine
3. I'll Patch it Later
4. Promises, Promises
5. Adding Online Co-op & decent MP

[SSCOOLCHEA]

my opinion destroy gaming....it came along with some of the biggest xtards with it .xbots create a whole bunch of SHEEPS

[Greenaj04]

Ok well as a developer I'm going to say I completally disagree. Now if your easily offended then stop reading here please...

There are several reasons that the videogames industry is being destroyed these are:

1)A truely CRAP buisness model leaving developers without any profit until the development costs are recouped by the publisher which takes ages, meaning a developers has to have another project lined up or they go bust before they can collect their royalties from past games. Whats more were likley to see most developers going out of buisness as they need investment for another project, and they are unlikley to get it in a global economic crysis.

2) Overly demanding needs of consumers; a AAA game used to cost £1 to 2mill to make and make a reasonable profit selling at £20 ish. Games now cost £20 to 100mill + for a AAA game (Over a 10 fold increase in costs) and sell at £40, now the development cost is obviousally not matched in terms of the ratio to the game retail price, yet because of consumer demand developers are forced to do it with a high liklyhood of making a loss... This has lead to less innovation due to publishers wanting to take less/ no risk due to the large amount of money invested. On top of this is has lead to the success of the casual games market which are far less demanding that all hardcore gamers... No offence but hardcore gamers have largely doomed the games they like by expecting too much for too little cost... Not only this but pirates are continuousally ripping off games, and equate to a 30% loss (if not more) of profits for publishers and developers...

Everyone seems to assume that games developers have tons of money and are like movie producers or something... NO sorry not true, we largley struggle to survive as an industry due to crap un-matured buisness models and overly high customer demands...

Now personally I am happy theres a recession, I'm hoping it'll mature the industry and buisness models will change to a more developer friendly model. Also I think the casual gaming boom will create a ton of innnovative concepts and hopefully some new genres; due to the now high development costs, almost all games developed now are derivatives of old genres; FPS = tank wars (1970's), Space shooters = SpaceWar in the 1970's, I could go on but you get the point...

The reason for this is as publishers know they sell... Now that theres a casual game boom I'm hoping we'll see a few new genres formed with innovations, as casual games are relativley low cost to develop and therefore dont need publisher investment, and as the current casual game audience gradually want more hardcore games we'll see these new genres develop into something amazing.

Anyways thats my 2c, disagree if you want, as I dont care lol...

[laaakokaracha]

I thought good developers that produce "good" games make GOOD money!

[Dragnipur]

1) The controversial Unreal Engine 3 Overdose:
I agree in part with this point, definitely not helping JRPG's at the moment, if companies like SE think that the quicker way to make money is via UE then the are very wrong!

2) A Great Cast with a Dud Script as seen in Gears 2:
This is the same for a lot some other games last year, in comparison to a game like MGS4 which was over the top with the script, and offered a lot in terms of story and plot!

3) Sequelitis:
Well truth be told, I am fed up with unimaginative sequels as in ... Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Halo 3... come on people, use some imagination when naming a sequel. Just look at the movie industry, and how the "Dark Knight" changed peoples concept of what a sequel should be called!

4) Too Human Syndrome:
I dont see their point here!

5) Production Values vs. Wii Production "Values":
The Wii is the biggest con job this century, and all respect for Nintendo for pulling it off. In essence the create a hardware that doesnt do much, but instead create a new customer base to justify this new platform, thus naming them "casual gamers" ... Funny nintendo people! ... lol

6) Sonic and Mario Visit the Rainbow Dentist:
Its about time Sonic was put out of his misery! Mario is living on borrowed time!

7) Motion "Control":
Well motion control can be fun, so I disagree with this point!

8) Promises, Promises, Promises:
............................

9) Strong Female Lead Character = Edgy, Clever and Desirable:
Well i'm guessing they'd rather have = dorky, nerd and undesirable?

10)Casual Gaming:
(Copy and paste Nintendo rant in here!)

My Top 5 Trends destroying Video Games....
1. Online component to every game! i.e. Co-op, Multiplayer!
2. DLC
3. Patches... leave that for my PC thank you very much!
4. FPS.... where is the variety!
5. Video game journalism

[Bathyj]

Personally I wish eveyone would stop copying Halos stupid "You can only have 2 guns" rule. If I only only wanted to carry 2 guns I'd be walking the streets.

I'm playing a shooter, I want to be able to use any gun I've already collected and have ammo for. It cuts down your strategy.

Now in Halo in was ok, it was novel, and in games like Rainbow 6 I have no problems with it, but in Resistance or Gears I dont see why you should be so limited. They're arcadey shooters. Sure it might not be realistic but if I really wanted to I could carry at least 2 on my back, one in my hand, 2 pistols and grenades, but even thats not enough. Give me the old days when you could cycle through 10 weapons you had and use the one YOU thought appropriate at the time. Variety is the spice of life, especially with guns. The way it is now you only get to use certain weapons when they say you can, and 80-90% of the game will just be played with your standard rifle.

[laaakokaracha]

I really thought for a long time that casual gamers destroyed the industry.

so many crap games out in the market