The thing is, I'm less concerned with having innovation in the way I play the game as I am with innovation in the gameplay itself. And because the PS3 is so hard to develop for, it's suffered from a lack of quality games. Simpler hardware (and comparatively, the 360 is simpler) means that developers spend less time figuring out the coding and more time being innovative with game play.

When developers are forced to spend more time with the hardware and figuring out how to code with it, then instead you end up with "innovations" like Lair. View

...precisely because he's playing on normal, which Bungie warned gamers was not how the game was meant to be played. Kick it up a difficulty notch and you'll see the AI come to life. View

Because in their latest podcast, Jerry and Mike talk about just this sort of mischaracterization--that because Lair is bad, PS3 is bad, which just isn't true. And yet the 'console war' rages on, as if it were real. Just enjoy the system you have, I say. :) View

and that's kind of the point. Things like the ever increasing popularity of digital distribution will give rise to more episodic content, among other things. But for right now, an immature market is creating a mine field of development and distribution pitfalls for any publisher.

One of the questions I'm excited to see answered in the coming years is can this model work--and by work I mean be really, truly successful both critically and financially--outside of a graphically stylized adventure-esque game, like Sam & Max. Something I never thought of before I did some research for this article is the unique hurdles that Half-Life has to overcome because of the focus on bleeding-edge graphics in the shooter camp of gamers, and how that may effect development time tables.

I'm not saying Valve can't/won't overcome some of the setbacks they've faced. But to me, it's an interesting question.

Thanks for your comments guys and gals. View