Halo 3, MGS4 & Bad Company:- Does every game need to be a grade-A blockbuster title?
Would you play more average games or should every game shoot for 10.0 rating?
Halo 3, MGS4 and Bad Company are all Grade-A games, however, crap games are in ever increasing abundance, yet these are by far out numbered by the monstrous quantity of mediocre games.
With the exception of a few months such as October and November the “Grade-A” titles are always outnumbered by an alarming amount. The question here is whether developers should be aiming for perfection or content with less than that ?
All the titles that I would dub either mediocre or crap are always absolutely adored by at least a few people. For example Dark Armada and his unnatural affection for the horrid game that is Two Worlds. (Of course he does hate Gears of War so we tend to ignore much of what he says anyway.)
If its just a few oddballs purchasing your game, you won’t really make a profit. Luckily with uninformed parents and kids these titles while not achieving success with us critic types can still nab more than a decent profit.
The point that I’m trying to make amidst my ranting is that there is not all that much incentive for developers to aim for perfection when they can just crank out trash and make money. One only needs to look at the sales figures for any movie based game to see my point.
I would like to think that this is where us games journalists come in, and that we are here to help steer you clear of purchasing the sort of game you will regret spending money on.
I doubt anyone sets out to make a trash game, but at the same time it is quite obvious that some are not really aiming for anything even remotely close to the “Grade-A” experience. While only an arcade game rather than an actual retail release the Fable 2 Pub Games are the most recent example of this. (Review here)
Games like Alone in the Dark carry incredibly obvious flaws that it is rather unlikely it could have made it all the way through the development cycle without anyone noticing them.
It seems like someone would have had to be like “Hang on a second. This game is horrible!” Yet here we are more than a month after release and these issues are still quite present.
Now to actually answer the questions that this article is meant to answer. Does every game need to be a grade-a blockbuster title? No of course not, but that does not mean that they shouldn’t aim for it. Would I be willing to play more average games or should every one shoot for the 10.0 rating? Well I am going to play average games no matter what.
It is my job to play them and let you know just how average they are. The fact is no matter how average the game is lots and lots of people are still going to play it, and they are still going to make a profit, which they are still going to use to crank out more and more average titles. If anything every game should aim for an 11.0/10.0 rating.
After all you are spending your hard earned cash on these things. The only real solution to the increasing multitudes of mediocrity is for you to all quit your jobs, spend your days getting people to not buy crap games, and your nights fighting crime.
Other Blog Banter articles on the subject:- Check them out
Zath!, Delayed Responsibility, Silvercublogger, weblog.probablynot.com, Crazy Kinux, Gamer-Unit, Unfettered Blather, MasterKitty, Omnivangelist, Lou Chou Loves You, Game Couch
Filed under: Console gaming, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News | Tagged: A grade games, aaa games, Alone in the Dark, Halo 3, MGS4, Too Worlds
Im sorry but until the games stop costing 60 bucks a pop, then i might settle for a mediocore title
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure! Or some such crap as that.
I have the first Robotech game on the old Xbox. It is a mediocre game yet I still have it. Reason – I love Robotech!
So on that, even if a game is below standard you will always get the die hard fans buying them anyway.
But these days if a game does not score at least an 8 out of 10 or has some glaring faults and still scores highly I won’t look at it. Even if it is something I am really interested in. Games are too expensive to waste $100 on a crap one.
Gamers these days are spoilt basically. They expect way too much. Please don’t go saying “oh, but times have changed, we don’t have those sad old games of yesteryear” . .Thing is, back 5- 7 – 10 yrs, those games were the same as today’s games.
Groundbreaking, innovative, daring and technologically advance for their time. Yet, they were scored appropriately, where 5/10 was a decent game and well worth a possible look at, 5-7 was a decent game and well worth grabbing, 7-9 was an absolute must have, with 10 rarely being handed out and when it was it was a you HAVE to own this one.
Gamers these days have pushed that score up, there is no more middle roadd, there simply is 8 and above, if it’s not 8 and above, it’s branded as rubbish and not worth owning. Seeing so many posts on forums and sites where ppl say things like”hey man, if it aint got a 8.5 or above, I aint buying it – ever, it doesn’t deserve my money.” etc.
Thing is, they are doing themselves a huge injustice. They are cutting themselves off from some of the most fun games ever, all in the pursuit of the “perfect game” – which basically does NOT exist, nor will it exist – period.
Im not saying that a title has to be amazing or perfect, Im just saying that they should put the effort in to titles when they make them rather than allowing them to be average. Obviously some titles will still be average, but at least they can iron out some of the more obvious problems with games before releasing them. I dont understand how some people are reading some of the things that they are into what I said. :S
I see what your saying, and agree. Games should be good quality and well honed pieces of work . . They need to be well presented and of a quality befitting a good game.
What ruffles my feathers is the fact that so many dismiss so many great titles that Do have great polish, detail, work and commitment loaded into them, but do not have the marketing budget or the clout to garner solid support. So they slip down the score ranking, not based on the game its self, but on the hype.
Then there’s the crowd that sees AAA and assumes it means HIGH quality . . it doesn’t, it means that lots and LOTS of $$$$ has been thrown at it to get it into the public/gamers eye. It might be a big pile of doggie dudo, but it has the hype and $$ and is thus called a AAA in the industry. But it’s certainly NOT a Grade-A game title