No Really, It's All About The Games

A year's success is ultimately defined by its gameplay, and in the case of 2005, there was, um, a lot of it. Some of it could even be categorized as good, fun, maybe even innovative - if you stretch the meaning of the word to include non-innovative things.

God of War would be a prime example of one such version of innovative. No, it's not a fresh idea, and no, the gameplay isn't brand new, but when you take down a giant Hydra using flaming sword-whips in an act of divine defiance, butchering naysayers like heathen pigs and challenging the authority of the gods themselves, you get something so blasphemously good, you might as well call it innovative.

Thank Ares it wasn't alone in its greatness. We saw some spillover from last year as World of Warcraft proved that you don't need to re-invent the wheel so long as you build a kickass car around it. Lumines revived our obsession with blocks, just as Battlefield 2 helped us cope with the worst summer of all time. Guild Wars let us keep our coin and the DS managed to overcome its retarded start with a madcap holiday rush, highlighted by terrific games like Advance Wars and Castlevania. And of course, Resident Evil came back with a vengeance, perhaps because it finally left regular zombies alone and went after living, breathing cultists instead. Mmmmm...the power of fresh blood.

Actually, some of the freshest material came from the oldest systems. The PS2 went artsy with the riveting Shadow of the Colossus and rocked the peripheral race with the finely tuned Guitar Hero. Meanwhile, the Xbox shot us with an old-school mind bullet called Psychonauts and invigorated our chi with Jade Empire. And yeah, we still love katamari.

Perhaps strangest of all was the apparent end to one of the most dependable mainstays in video game reviewing: the curse of the movie license. We're hardwired to expect these games to suck, but then we're blindsided by the likes of The Warriors and Peter Jackson's King Kong. Has the curse been banished for good? Not if The Fantastic Four have anything to say about it. Call us cautiously optimistic.

So 2005's gameplay had merit: a generally solid feel throughout. But for the most part, you've played this year before - as in last year, and probably the year before that.

The sequel/port epidemic hit 2005 harder than the bird flu, spreading its wings and coughing up phlegm all over the industry. It's not that sequels are bad; it's that by their nature, they merely tweak old experiences rather than offer brand new ones. Unfortunately, the purchasing decisions of consumers have proven to publishers that sequels sell, and 2005 was littered with 'em.

For instance, we present the Battlefieldfront Conundrum�. First came 2002's Battlefield 1942, a great PC game that spawned a variety of rip-offs, the best of which was the console game Star Wars: Battlefront. Soon Battlefield fought back by announcing Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, a console version of the PC sequel to 1942 - which also came out this year - just as Battlefront lashed back with Battlefront II. Eventually both console games came out within about three weeks of one another; one a sequel, one a modified port, and both thoroughly unoriginal...and best-sellers. Don't get us started on the Battlefield 2 expansion pack. We might explode.

And it only gets more confusing. The top three game publishers - EA, Ubisoft, and Activision - did their part to ensure that you spent this year playing the same games you played last year. The latter cranked out new versions of Tony Hawk, True Crime, X-Men Legends, Spider-Man and Quake, while Ubi played it safe with more Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, MYST, Far Cry, and even Bomberman, not to mention Brothers in Arms, which saw both an original game AND a sequel in a seven-month span. Now that's forward thinking. Of course, nothing compares to EA's port parade, which alone accounted for no less than 20 sequels/ports, many of them merely piling a few new features on top of a 2004 engine.

Or worse, stripping features entirely. We watched in horror as the Xbox 360 launched with outrageous hype only to be supported by a resounding 12 ports'out of 18 games. It had its moments, but for a $400 rig and games priced at $60, we expect more than rehashed versions of older games. Apparently the next-generation looks just like this one, but with better graphics. Or not.

The most telling truth about 2005's lack of originality can be found in the virtual pages of our game reviews. How many times did we write the line, "If you're unfamiliar with the basics of (insert name here), go read our review of (insert name here) 2004."  Four thousand times. While we're usually content taking such a handy review shortcut, we feel empty in the morning when the guilt sets in.

Despite 2005's mostly solid gameplay, there's still a nagging hole in our gamer gut. Will 2005 be the last year in which we see such a deluge of decent but unimaginative games? Will consumers be forced to pay higher prices for slightly tweaked versions of yesteryear's dreams? Will innovation come in the form of daring new gameplay concepts rather than just beefier graphics? Will we ever stop playing World of Warcraft?!?

Guess we�ll just have to wait for 2005's sequel before we get any answers.  

Or we can get to the grade...<< PAGE 4 >>