Killzone 2

[slapaham]

Am I getting old and skeptical or is the game extremely overrated? Mine turned up today (release day in the UK) and while it looks quite pretty what exactly does it do any differently to, say, the original Doom? I know Edge Magazine gave it an average review based on it not innovating but this is ridiculous - linear level design, run, shoot, run, no particular objectives - there was more innovation in Goldeneye than there ever was here - a real step back! Plus I truly suck at the multiplayer - so much so I just ended up dying all the time and not knowing what the hell was going on (though I think this is a sign of my lack of skills!)

I am so bored of the current generation of games - uninspiring, unexciting, predictable...

The only games I thought have been excellent are Portal, N+, Street Fighter 4, Everybody's Golf, Condemned, Call of Duty 4, Left4Dead, Dead Rising and thats about it (still need to get Mega Man 9 and Resident Evil 5 (please don't be awful RE5!!))

I'd much rather play Bubble Bobble on my MAME cab! 

[versapak]

I haven't played 2, but the first one really sucked, and it surprised me that they were even making a second one.

As for this generation of games in general, it has been a great generation for gaming.


There have definitely been some uninspired cookie cutter games, but then that is the same for every generation. They all have had a few standout greats, with a bunch of other games running the gamut to fill the gap.

Also, when you look back at past systems, you are looking at the overall collection of games from the entire life of the system. It isn't really fair to compare 7 years of releases to 2-3.


Also, age definitely is a factor. When I was younger I did indeed have a lot more time to game, and mediocre games were still worth my time to play. Once that time becomes limited, you start looking at only the great ones to occupy your time.

[Visitor Q]

Todays the day!

[slapaham]

versapak - I agree with a lot of what you're saying, I really do, but I definately think there is a real lack of innovation nowadays - I know it gets more difficult to, in time, but it really feels like a lot of games developers have just given up entirely!

I very much doubt this game is going to save the PS3's ass in the sales war!

[MrMojoZ]

I'm sure it will sell well at first then flood the used market. It is a very pretty game afterall, which makes those early sales easy to grab.

[clok]

if you are a gamer over 20years old  you have been playing FPS for 20 years... its going to get old, plain and simple. The PS3 and 360 are about 75% FPS (I think the 360 is closer to 90%), the Wii is only 50%, and 49% shovel ware    *

Unforntanlty being able to count hairs on a persons head, or see powder burns from guns or 50 square miles of the same 20 buildings over and over  doesnt make a game better, it just makes it better to look at. We are in the age of "same old thing, but shiny" Take a FPS shooter and add a UFO to drive, its "NEW", dont mention the fact that being able to drive a vehical in a game is old as a 2 week banana in the sun. Its NEW cuz its a UFO and not a plane. Games all have "new cover systems" now, we just wont mention that games have had a cover system for years, we just called it "lean left and lean right, and crouch" and it didnt stick you to a wall so when you wanted ot run it felt like you had a bungie cord hooked to your butt. You can only remake Doom/wolfenstien/kens labrynth/DukeNukem3d/etc so many times.

I think your assesment is to harsh, its a pretty game, new, nope.... its no worse or better then say, GOW, R2, or a host of other FPS. I personally enjoyed Resistance (first one) more then GOW, but R2 and KZ2, less. Its like the people makeing these games forgot they where "fun shooters" and are trying to make them movies. Adding 25 more button combos to master in a fast action game seems a bit silly to me.





*yes those figures are an exageration, and I had to note it here as nobody on the internet gets sarcasm anymore, especially when it comes to consoles.

[shmokes]

Yeah, there have been a lot of good games this gen:

Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, Resistance 1 & 2, Burnout: Paradise,  Metroid Prime 3, Rock Band 1 & 2, Portal, Zelda Twilight, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Trauma Center, Mass Effect, Saun White Snowboarding, Fallout 3, Metroid Prime 3, Braid, LittleBigPlanet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Boom Blox, World of Goo, Gears of War 2, GTA IV, FarCry 2, Call of Duty 4, Street Fighter 4, Dead Space, GRID, Flower, Bionic Commando Rearmed, Halo 3, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil 5, Prince of Persia . . .


Lots more, too.  But those are probably most of the best so far.  I know that some of them are exclusives so if you don't have the hardware you're out of luck, but if you have a PC, PS3 or a 360 most of those are available to you.  Think about it, it seems to me that we're getting at least as many high quality videogames as we get high quality movies per year.  And a movie only provides you with a couple hours of entertainment.  Surely you don't have the kind of time to devote to all the games in the list above.  I think we've got plenty of quality coming out of developers these days.  And the depth of the games we're getting is so much greater than it's ever been before.  I think it's good times, personally.

[Dartful Dodger]

I've only gotten through about half of GTA and all these new war games look like Unreal.

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I'm not as psyched about new games anymore.


Bionic Commando(when I can get it for under 40 bucks), and playing two Toby Keith songs on RockBand this weekend, are the only things in gamming I'm looking forward to.

[shmokes]

Well . . . I don't know about you, but I don't count many war games in that list.  Call of Duty.  Maybe Resistance and Halo if you consider those war games.  For me, I just have much much much less time to play.  But the games I do get to play are pretty excellent.  By the way, the Bionic Commando I'm referred to is the remake of the original 2D NES game.  It's out and it's well under $40.  I think it was released at $20 so maybe it's even less now.

[Samstag]

Well . . . I don't know about you, but I don't count many war games in that list.  Call of Duty.  Maybe Resistance and Halo if you consider those war games.  For me, I just have much much much less time to play.  But the games I do get to play are pretty excellent.  By the way, the Bionic Commando I'm referred to is the remake of the original 2D NES game.  It's out and it's well under $40.  I think it was released at $20 so maybe it's even less now.

There's a new BC on the way that's going to be a full retail game and in a 3D environment.  It looks like it won't be worth $40, but maybe that's just me.  It's one of those things that looks really neat at first, but then watching the developer play the demo it looks like it's going to get real old in 15 minutes.

As for Killzone 2, I get the impression that the single player is pretty but dull, but the multiplayer is one of the best around.  So if you're not interested in multiplayer or not willing to deal with the frustration while you learn the ropes, there may not be much in it for you.  I prefer a good single player game and I'm not finding any lack of great titles in all genres right now.  My big problem with games lately is there are too many great ones for the amount of time I have to play them.

[shmokes]

There's a new BC on the way that's going to be a full retail game and in a 3D environment. 

Yeah . . . I know about it and hope it's awesome.  But the one that's already out is definitely awesome.

[Dartful Dodger]

the Bionic Commando I'm referred to is the remake of the original 2D NES game.

I saw that one, I'm tempted to download it for my PS3, but I don't have the need I use to have, to get games.

The anticipation I use to get for games just isn't there anymore.

The only game I'm sort of anticipating is the new 3D Bionic Commando, but I won't pay $60 for it, I can and will wait for the price to drop under $40.

[shmokes]

I saw that one, I'm tempted to download it for my PS3, but I don't have the need I use to have, to get games.

The anticipation I use to get for games just isn't there anymore.

See . . . this is a perfect illustration of what I'm talking about.  I don't think this has anything to do with the quality of games.  I think it's just a function of getting older.  It's just impossible to argue that Bionic Commando Rearmed is not better than the original.  It can hardly be described as anything except the same game, but better.  We're just getting older, that's all.  If hardware had plateaued at the SNES, and developers were still developing on that platform, you'd still have the exact same waning enthusiasm for games. 

Games aren't getting worse.  We are.

[clok]

I agree, games are not getting worse. But I dont think we are, we (if you have been playing for several years, And I think most here have) have just "seen it all". I still think there are way to many FPS, eat your favorite food at every meal, never eat anything else, you will get sick of it.

Sad as it seems to some people, some of my favorite console games are the ones nobody seems to like that much. EDF for the 360, i have spent hours on it. BulletWitch, another mindless shooter, but I enjoyed it. Castle Crashers, old school platformer (sorta), its a blast. And I cant count how many Tower Defence games I have played lately on all platforms(garden Defence!).

I still say WAY TO MANY FPS out. Not that they are bad, but put a rainbow6 game in, then a GOW, then a Resistance, then a Halo, then a Killzone, then a COD, then a Tom Clancy game, far Cry, Crysis, etc... How cant it get old?

[shmokes]

FWIW I'm under the impression that GOW is not an FPS.  I don't have a 360 and have never played it, but . . .

I see what you're saying, and I can identify with it, to some degree.  But I just don't really buy it wholeheartedly.  FPS is just a perspective, ya know?  Like complaining that too many books are narrated from the first person, rather than the third person perspective.  In fact, Far Cry and Halo are worlds apart.  Rainbow 6 and Oblivion bare very little resemblance. 

So while many games are derivative, I don't think this has much to do with the fact that many games are presented in the first person perspective.  Go back a little way and scrolling shooters were a dime a dozen.  2-D platformers were once all the rage.  2-D fighters once flooded the market.  Adventure games used to rule, and they all had similar mechanics.

I don't think games have become any more derivative.  It's just always going to be most prevalent in whatever genre is most popular at any given time. 

[clok]

I do lump most First Person View games into one pile I must admit. But most are run and gun, some do use Stealth, so i guess that could be listed as different. GOW, hmmm i must admit I played it very little, was that 3rd person? wow, I hated the "help Im stuck to a wall" crap so bad I didnt play it much, I have sorta forgot about it, so now you got me thinking, maybe it shouldnt be grouped with the rest.One quick Youtube search (at work cant fire it up to see) and yep, is a 3rd person shooter.

I just Wish we would see more stuff like Puzzle Quest/ Boom Blox/ Little Big Planet, none really "original" but they are different then 90% of the stuff out there. Dont get me wrong, I have been playing the crap out of Left4Dead, MGS4, Resistance2, even...halo3 (sorry is my Anti MS showing?) I just like to see something Different now and again.. I really Love Boom Blox, but I heard it pretty much flopped... Every single person who has played my Wii, when you show them games that is the single game everybody comes back to, likes playing, and asks to play when we fire the Wii up..

I maybe shouldnt be discussing console games... less the 10% of my gaming is on them, im one of those sad WoW players... I think i was playing TRON :Deadly discs on my intellivision as the last console game i spent more then a couple hours on lately.

[Dartful Dodger]

We're just getting older, that's all.  If hardware had plateaued at the SNES, and developers were still developing on that platform, you'd still have the exact same waning enthusiasm for games. 

Games aren't getting worse.  We are.

I wouldn't be viewing threads in consoles if I was too old to care about new games.  I'll reading these threads because I want something to look forward to.

I bought the PS3 a year ago, and I'm tired of all the new games, I'm even tired of the games that haven’t been releases yet.

I’ll admit that part of it is priorities that come with my age, but I do think they've run out of new ideas for games.
The Bionic Commando you're talking about is still just a side scroller.  It's the fond memories of the original bionic commando that makes it better than the others.  If it was named Grappler Arm Guy, it wouldn't have even been given a second look, except to say it's not as good as Bionic Commando.

Games aren't getting worse.  They just aren't getting better.

[shmokes]

See . . . I disagree on so many levels.  Especially the ability for a game to convey narative has improved dramatically, and continues to do so.  I mean, Psychonaughts compared to Super Mario Bros.?  The platform genre has come a long way.  Half Life compared to Wolfenstein 3d or Doom?  FPS has come a long way.  And the advances in physics and graphics that allow us to play games like GRID and Burnout vs. what we had with Rad Racer and Cruisin' USA.  Look at the quality of writing in the Grand Theft Auto series.  Look at the quality of writing in Metal Gear Solid 4 vs. "The truck have started to move."   

Bioshock, WoW, Fallout 3, Liberty City.  Look at the immersive, detailed, nuanced virtual worlds you get to play in today.  It's effing incredible.  Compare those to the virtual worlds you had on the SNES.  Link to the Past.  Earthbound.  Final Fantasy II.  Don't get me wrong.  Those games are brilliant, but we're seeing progress.  And really, things are still advancing at a pretty fast pace.  The Liberty City in GTA IV is substantially more fleshed out and detailed and amazing than the Liberty City in GTA III.  That's just PS2 to PS3.  Put the two side-by-side, for real.

And so on . . .

[clok]

Excellent list of improvments, some are easy to overlook (and I did). You did mention one that i must admit really had my interest. Fallout 3 is something anybody who likes RPG's and FPS, and heck, action games should really check out. Best game I have played in several years IMHO.