Kinda lends credence to the talk I've heard about no innovation when it comes to producing new games. This above problem is not only in the arcades but in the console world also.
The lack of creativity is killing the PC platform (or has already killed, according to some) as well. Crappy PC games from floor to rafters at any local software depot. It sucks. I used to follow the PC game scene with a religious vigor, now I have a hard time leafing through a PC game mag without feeling disgusted afterwards.
I know this topic has come up a billion times on a billion different forums, but it always worth noting. I mean, what do we have for new games (non- homebrew) coming from the remaining software houses? Me too MMORPGs, FPSes with well armed characters running around shooting each other or sneaking somewhere, RTSes that have very little difference from last year's RTSes...
Even software pioneers and creative icons like Sid Meier is dripping me tooisms from his sphinchter nowadays.
...and in other news, Microprose is still dead.
Lucas Arts, the one software house that had some of the most creative titles known to man (from Ballblazer to Grim Fandango) now make games that aren't even worth scraping from your shoe if you accidentally step in one.
The sorry thing is that people buy the latest craporama and that's why they keep making it. Painkiller, ballyhoed by game magazines everywhere, had nothing new to speak of and the multiplayer is terrible. Same game, new ways to kill people. Snoresville: Population- Me.
Rome: Total War. Wow, pretty. Loved the creative, pioneering first two of the series. Rome went down like a beer opened for two days and left on the radiator. Prepare for the expansion pack.
KOTOR II... More bugs than a certain scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and a storyline that can be described as a really, really long joke with the lamest punchline in the world. I had to run six fans 24 hours a day for two weeks in order to destink my home from that lousy ending. Pee-yew.
What do you get when you wrap a classic title in reams of soiled toilet paper and sell it? Master of Orion 3, that's what. It's so bad, it's used to exercise demons from the posessed.
But I go on.
Whether it's arcade games, console titles or PC software, I think what we have now is what we are going to get. Sure, somewhere down the like someone will create something new which will be fun or groundbreaking (like The Sims or Grand Theft Auto 3), but in its wake will be a dozen titles just like it filling up the shelves of Best Buys everywhere.
I used to hate it when people would pronounce PC games dead (usually related to console / PC discussion) but all three platforms are seriously mired in garbage. So, as a consumer, I must sit and wait for the next great thing with my fingers, toes and arms crossed in expectation.
Good luck to us all.
APf