Stage 1 - Part 7 - "Everyone's a critic"

Hello!

I have returned in the hope that I can once again maintain a regular schedule in trying hard not to look like a teen-girl blogging about life and how love controls it, but at the same time burns a hole in the void where her heart should be...
 

Never a hole you wanna be looking down

Anyway, in the last month or so a couple of relatively significant events have taken place. One is the ever-exciting release of Rockstar's new venture L.A. Noire. Another is more an observation in the frustrating nature gamers go about new releases.

I will only say this much about L.A. Noire. It is a landmark in gaming and the industry, and should mould and change the way games are developed from here on. Certainly intrigued about what will come out of GTA 5. If you haven't played it yet, then play it now or tomorrow.

The only reason L.A. Noire is involved here, is because even this triumph suffered a poignant case of gamer mentality that both aggravates and confuses me. We get orally plagued by the negatives of games before even appreciating the overall experience of the product. In a sentence, we focus more on what a game isn't instead of looking at it for what it is.

Will probably play this as soon as I'm done here

Example: Brink also came out recently. A fairly innovative online action shooter that to me, has sped up the heartbeat of a stagnant genre. It offers a fluid and seamless experience in purely objective based missions each with their own mix of goals. One mission you might need to hack a safe in order to retrieve valuable data, the next you'll be escorting a prisoner through a complex while trying to keep them alive, all under a strict time constraint. Run out of time and the game is over. On top of this, each class has a range of abilities to help you and teammates achieve these goals either in battle or in more technological processes. Your class can be changed any time in the match to fit the objective, so you don't need to worry about what you start the match as. There is no concern for kill/death ratio and there are a few different routes available to unlock all the hidden weapons and attire. Oh yes, the attire. You have the opportunity to completely individualise your character from head to toe, not excluding tattoos and body scars.

Now above all this, the game still receives an average rating. Why? Reviews come back saying the experience is far too short. Well, lets look at Call of Duty: Black Ops and see what rating that got. Exactly. Don't jump up and shout about how good that game is. The campaign is a few hours, and the mulitplayer is only "long" because you have to max the levels 15 times with almost no digression in experience in each Prestige. Sit down. Just because you can't level up 750 times with repetition, does not mean the game is short.

Screenshot of a game freezing........

What else was being said? The game was too buggy. Shame yes, and it always is a disappointment when a game freezes, but this happened about 30 times in Fallout: New Vegas. Did I get mad? Not enough to hate the game, just enough to stop playing for a while and come back later. To be honest, I haven't experienced on problem with the game yet. Then again, they were reported on the Xbox.

In regards to L.A. Noire I heard a lot of people saying "You can't just pull your gun out and shoot stuff" and "The campaign is not very long". Initially I wanted to wave my hands in the air and shout "THIS IS NOT GTA! JUST LIKE RED DEAD REDEMPTION IS NOT GTA ON HORSES!" but I know this would come to no avail and probably open up a new discussion about the difference between the wild west and Liberty City. Also, I just finished this game. Took me 20 hours overall. If that is short, then I think I should start doing ketamine like the rest of you.

The unfortunate stand that gamers take on some new material means that the games they fork £40 out for are not being appreciated in the slightest. Heavy Rain went through a tough time just being established as a game! Why? Apparently when you control a character, solve puzzles, find clues and shape a story in the form of quick-time events, it is not a game.

I hear a lot of players talk about how innovation is missing nowadays, and actually had a conversation with a friend about how games need an injection of 'ridiculous' that was rife in the years of the original playstation and before. Then we get offered such products and suddenly, it isn't the same old thing we are used to. I would strongly suggest that the next time you buy a game, throw away anything positive or negative you have heard or predict about the game and then play it. See how you feel then. I can almost guarantee that the game will be worth the money you spent and far more enjoyable for it. Unless it's Haze. Fucking game pushed me right to my limit.
 
If you have anything you wish to share with me or indeed the readers, feel free to comment or e-mail me at twentyfiveand0@hotmail.co.uk - Don't forget to check outthe What Have I Been Playing pages found on the right! OR Check out my channel at www.youtube.com/ike1luv