the pre-Christmas onslaught

I have a friend named Aaron. He bought the Sims 2 a few weeks ago. He was wrapped up in it - raising his sims, cultivating virtual life, planning to make movies using the game engine.

Then Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out. His Sims died as he played hours as a gangsta wearing a Groucho Marx mask, riding stolen dirt bikes around fake California. It's the best GTA game yet, he argued persuasively - the music is fantastic. The mini-games are awesome, the world is huge, riding bikes is rad.

Then I bought Halo 2. He came over to my house and played hours of it with me. That was great fun, but he doesn't have an Xbox. I was happy enough with that though. Multiplayer was fantastic - waging total mayhem.

Then tonight he got on chat with me.

Aaron: man half life 2 is incredible
Justin: ?
Justin: wtf
Justin: I'm sick of new games
Aaron: yea
Aaron: but half life 2 probably eclipses them all
Justin: WTF
Justin: you gotta be kidding me
Justin: why is that?
Aaron: its just amazing
Justin: what's so amazing?
Aaron: its the most immersive interactive game world i feel like i've ever seen
Justin: ?!?!
Aaron: and just the whole world of it is so well crafted
Justin: them's big words homie
Aaron: yeah. this is far more impressive than GTA SA
Aaron: you don't even get a weapon for like the first half hour or so
Aaron: you're just sort of experiencing this world and being led around by very subtle cues
Justin: how are you supposed to immerse without a weapon?
Aaron: well you can pick up various objects and throw them around
Aaron: stack them and stuff
Justin: um
Justin: like tetris?
Aaron: yea
Justin: but with more graphics?
Justin: um
Aaron: haha
Aaron: the way the narrative is told is great
Aaron: its basically a must play
Justin: you fuck
Justin: I'm broke and tired

Comments

[Clubberjack]

Hear hear! Even if I could cough up the cash to get my hands on the slew of great-sounding games that are coming out this season, I wouldn't have time to play them all. As it is, I've got a backlog of games, slowly piling up next to my TV. I'm really excited about Half-Life 2, but I'm forcing myself to at least put some significant time into Halo 2 and the World of Warcraft beta before I buy any more games. At this point, I breathe a sigh of relief when I don't like a game, because then I can put it down and move on to something else.

I guess this is a good thing, as I'll have plenty to keep me busy when the eventual drought comes along. On the other hand, with the DS and PSP coming out soon and some interesting games slated for next Spring (Oddworld: Stranger, Psychonauts, the Movies), I don't see a drought coming for a while. Perhaps this is an indication that the industry is maturing towards a new level of quality across the board.

[Mike]

I'm frustrated because companies and reviews tout each game as something along the lines of "The Most Amazingly Game You've Been Ever Waiting For in Your Entire Existence." Each box tells me it's the sequel to the #1 selling whatever game. How its previous carnation received a billion awards from magazines you've probably never heard of. That the new whatever engine will make the same game so much better this time.

Are these games all good? Well, yeah. But they are by no means innovative. The Sims 2 is pretty close to The Sims 1. Halo 2 has a lot more multiplayer capabilities, but it's certainly not the second coming of Christ that my friends who waiting in line at midnight said it were going to be. Doom 3 was something of a disappointment after it was cool to show to friends. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is, well, a Grand Theft Auto game. Big, fun, epic and somewhat repetitive after "drive here" mission number ten.

Even the, and I'm quoting from the box here, "Most Anticipated PC Game of All Time" – Half-Life 2 – isn't that amazingly life changing. Everyone says how fun and immersive the game is. But hell, isn't that what a good game is supposed to do? Anyway, the game is undeniably easy, and the past few hours I've felt like the game holds my hand from interactive scripted-event to interactive scripted event.

Are my standards too high? Not really. I'm just pissed off that the game industry can dump eight or nine games on its audience, tell them that these games and none other in the history of mankind will improve their lives and make existence worth living, and we eat it up.