Is it just me or...
...are modern settings turning into the new WWII? I'd actually prefer Medal of Honor to go explore WWII some more (there are still battles and stories that have gone untold, despite the apparent saturation of the market) instead of modern warfare. Hell, maybe even something like Vietnam or the Korean War. In fact, why do these games have to involve America at all? There are so many other wars with great potential to make a fun and original game out there.
Screw this and screw Call of Duty, I want some original settings and original stories. There's so much potential for a historical setting or even modern setting that doesn't involve the Middle East or the basic WWII stories that everybody knows. I want new settings and new stories, and if that is not possible then I want the developers to explore them and take them to new levels. Get intricate. Get into the details. Do proper research. Show the smaller stories, the ones aren't mentioned constantly in the history books. SHOW ME SOMETHING I HAVEN'T SEEN BEFORE IN A VIDEO GAME. Every war and every battle (no matter how seemingly insignificant) has a story, but developers are foregoing these for the usual generic stories we see in these games.
For this unoriginality, we have the sheepish and content masses to thank. The one's that don't care about characterization or plot or the emotional qualities of a game and instead focus on the action. And it may seem wrong for a "shooter" to focus on plot instead of "shooting," but it is damn well possible, and it would add heaps of value to the game. It IS possible to mix in a solid, interesting, and original plot with engaging and intuitive action. But that isn't where the money is, although I certainly wish it was. It's being done with 3rd person action games so why can't it be done in 1st person? Half-Life has shown us that it can, so why not take that sort of storytelling and implement it in realistic scenarios? It's more than possible.
I'm sick of shooters. I pick one up and say "I've done this sh*t before; I don't care about it." And I know that this can go for any genre of games, but at least they sprinkle original settings, stories, or gameplay mechanics on top of them.
Although I will make ONE concession: I'm glad that they are at least basing the story around real events and people. Sounds so much better for the sh*t that comes out of Call of Duty.
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