Generational Crisis - PC Games 2010

Much of today's games lack of difficulty and challenge, to find challenges that we must look back to the classics of yesteryear. Instant health regeneration, checkpoints in every inch of terrain, obstacles that are passed automatically ... How did it come to this?

Every time I read the comments from readers regarding my articles appeared in Back to the Past, the retro gaming section PCGameTrek is not uncommon to end meeting people who says he is disappointed with the current generation of consoles, even to the point of rejecting it altogether. The grounds, away from the hackneyed "any past was better" or "no longer make games like they used to," speak of disillusionment, loss of interest of securities that fail to fill enough to be worth them spending their leisure time in them ... I, the undersigned have thought himself free from this, to call it somehow generational crisis. There has always been disappointed with what it offers a new generation about what could be found in the former. He passed on the baton from 16 to 32 bits, happen again in the replacement of 32 by 128, and was expected to occur also in the change of the 128-bit for this generation "high definition."

I had remained indifferent to all these generational changes in the sense that the new generation games as much as I loved the old ones. Concepts are transformed, mechanical ways of understanding both the game as the industry itself and a thousand and one things, but still enjoyed the same level of Donkey Kong Country, a WipEout, a Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time or Oblivion. My unconditional love for this world remained impassive without changing trends and developments of this and that kind could erode. "Till death do us part, you'll never be unfaithful" I used to think about my favorite hobby. But something is changing. It has been two titles of the current generation who have blown my internal alarm. In recent weeks I have been playing a couple of shooters who had outstanding taste for some time: Killzone 2 and Uncharted 1. The result? Never in all my life, I was so bored when playing pc games.

The two titles I just mentioned have technical levels brutal, overwhelming, tremendous. The staging, artistic values, overwhelmed in the moment you set eyes on the screen. However, both games have me bored. Why? They are simple walks without any emotion or challenge, empty experiences in which you feel to be an omnipotent god to anyone or anything get to kneel. Both Killzone 2 and Uncharted in the first I played with the maximum levels of difficulty, and yes, on occasion managed to lie down. But when you lie down and you see that continuing in the same exact spot where you have lost their lives (although videojueguil concept of "life" became meaningless long ago), or even somewhat later (recurring situation in Uncharted because if you fall off a cliff, more often than not you find that reappears a few meters beyond that barrier, finding yourself with the game has risen to the challenge for you), you lose all interest in continuing to play. Because that's what I do: play. And for that I need a challenge, I need the game somehow penalize me if I fail, so that the failure to have any meaning or rationale.

Also, it's not just that you do not get penalized when enemies lie down, but not care less that reach hurt. With cover you for a few seconds, all fixed. It is called "spontaneous regeneration" that the popular Halo franchise and has done so much damage to the shooters. Where are the health units of yesteryear? Where is this tension, that measure your steps to the millimeter, because your health is low ebb and you know you have a new impact will be the end? What happened with that "I found a kit but do not need, so your location memorizaré back for him if I am on minimum? "And that feeling of loss when, after a shooting, you see your health bar has fallen by 50%? The lives and health units or continuations, have stopped making sense. And with that the games are over simple walks in becoming the only thing you can do is admire the magnificence of the graphics. Never mind that the enemy AI is more or less realistic. Opponents of the first Doom, possessors of an artificial intelligence that allowed them to go straight to you while shooting, were far more dangerous than the current enemies, no matter how elusive and accurate they are or how well you know barricade behind a column.

And not just talk about Uncharted and Killzone 2, but Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia (of course the current, not the classic) and many games of this generation. Where did it come that denial on the part of developers in providing challenges to the player? "No, by God, facilitémosles things as possible, lest they become frustrated and stop playing." That seems to be the unwritten rule that today everyone keeps to the letter. What are the impact of a bullet? Curémosles automatically, at that moment. What fall off a cliff? Let reborn and saved with that obstacle. What end up losing a life? Let's put checkpoints on every inch of land to avoid having to repeat a single previous installment. Forward, forward and forward. That seems to be the only thing that can be done in most current games. For that, you see, I see a movie better.

Yes, instead, what I did was return to the past. After turning on my PSP and take a turn in the PS Store I found the first Rayman, a game originally released in 1995. A delightful little gem of a two-dimensional platform that I did not hesitate a moment to download. And it all came back to make sense: difficulty, limited lives, no more than two checkpoints per phase, no health regeneration spontaneous ... That really was a game, instead of walking through the park that flood the store shelves by day today. If we focus on the evolution that has been (and never better) the Rayman series since that first and charming title that the franchise is today (the Rabbids), one can not help regretting the way you are taking Much of the industry.

Fortunately, there are still titles that have not forgotten how to be a pc game or what the user seeks to take up a control pad. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer. Hopefully, that indomitable Gauls located in certain coastal village, now and forever resist the invader. If not, well, we can always look back. Before I say goodbye and go and have a little game the first Crash Bandicoot (another wonderful franchise now disgraced), let me applaud the statements of this man. I wish everyone thought like him.