The lights are on
Power Member - Level 10
I'm going to try and describe something that may be indescribable, but I'll do my best. Naughty Dog did not meet or exceed my expectations with their latest game, The Last Of Us. They did not even, as some are wont to say, shatter them. Nay, they looked down and sayeth unto me, "Dude, you're doing this expectations thing all wrong." Then they proceeded to completely strip them away and replace them with something completely different.
Before I even get into what I think this is all about, I feel the need to express something fundamental to this "argument". I have been a PlayStation guy all along, and I've never owned an Xbox. In spite of that, I do not consider myself a Sony "fanboy". For me, it's always come down to the games. Microsoft has only had three exclusives that ever made me want to buy their console:
Like many of you I'm sure, I left work early so I could get home in time to glue myself to a computer screen for two hours to see what Sony had up its sleeve. After all the rumors and speculation, I wanted to see the real deal, to get a sense of what the next generation of the gaming experience would be like. I was cautiously optimistic, having lived through the slow trudge of the beginning of the PS3's life cycle, and I felt like Sony had to be much stronger out of the gate than they were 7 years ago.
One of the most popular, not to mention controversial, topics in the world of video games today is the rise of the used games market and the creation of the game studios' countermeasure, the online pass. Gamers have been waving banners across this fence with a fervor almost as intense as the old Xbox versus PlayStation wars. As consumers, we feel we own the physical property that we purchase, and it appears the law agrees with us. I can sell my old CDs, DVDs, and yes, games in a garage sale if I want, and there's nothing EA, Activision, or Bob's Development Studio can do about it.
The summer drought is coming to an end, and my obsession with Diablo 3 is beginning to wind down. So what does that mean? It means my PS3 is calling me back with the promise of a string of titles that I've been dying to play. Let's take a look at the games that I hope will revive my console corpse.
Really, Sony? Really? This is your big secret for your E3 press conference? Are we learning nothing from our attempts at ramming PlayStation Move down the throats of disinterested gamers everywhere?
See what I did there? Right, 'cause it's a horror game, ya know? And it's beginning to...no? Okay.
Looking at the release list for this year, I feel a certain amount of trepidation along with my expectation. There are plenty of games I'm interested in, to be sure. But at the same time, I'm not exactly drinking from an overflowing cup of confidence for some of these. So in the spirit of writing something down for people to publicly not care about, I'm doing a blog on the subject.
Am I the only one feeling these days like the gaming community is getting more and more vocal about just how much of a bunch of whiny, pathetic, entitled, immature brats they appear to be? Seriously, this stuff is getting out of hand. I've somewhat covered this topic before, so I'm going to try not to tread old ground here. But the recent metacritic activity for Diablo 3 has me in something of a tiff.
Not all sequels are created equal. There are some once-great franchises out there that just need to die (Final Fantasy, anyone?), and some fledgling new IPs that are just begging for a follow-up. So I thought I would spend a few minutes talking about what games I really want to come back, and also to complain about some series that need to play a round of Russian Roulette with a fully-loaded pistol.
I invested thousands of hours in Diablo and Diablo 2. That's not a typo, and it's not an exaggeration. Thousands of hours. I've logged more time in this series than in most other games combined. I've written stories in this world, created databases to help make leveling and loot finding more efficient, and written programs to manage my inventories and stats. It's safe to say I am an expert on the subject of Blizzard's forays into fiery real estate.
"No."