You know the saying; Too many "D"s spoil the gameplay:
Of course this is discussing why I dislike 3D games. I have only a few qualms about 3D games, but to tell the truth, these are very important ones. To start off, I still have hope for 3D games, because like it or not...they're here to stay. The only salvation we would EVER have from 3D games would be the GBA and SNK/NeoGeo. The very fact that the GBA has become almost the "neutral system" in the battle of the consoles, goes to show how important it is in supporting what I consider a vertible golden age of gaming, the 16 bit era.
I do consider that 3D games are in what could be related to the early 16 bit era of video games...if not, then at least in the late stages of the 8-Bit era. WTF am I exactly talking about? I think 3D games are at a point where developers are still trying to iron out the details of what is and what isn't good. I think that I should be at least patient because the developers not only have an incredibly amount of dimensions to work with, but also how to use the camera to facilitate it. Given time I think that we would be seeing much better games.....despite how the PSX initially broke into the market and basically pioneered the pratice of quantity over quality.
Anyways here what I have a problem with 3D games:
1. 3D games for 2D minds: This may be the case since I was weened in the 8 Bit era - 16bit era of gaming. I joined the 32 bit era half heartidly due to the lack of buying games plus the fact that I only bought a PSX for FF7. But I'm digressing. The fact of the matter is even though it might be the problem that I am conditioned to play in a 2D world (which I feel I'm not but I do have to acknowledge it as an explanation) I still think that our human minds are still too simple to even fathom the idea of a 3D plain. Hell, even our lives are mainly 2D with both our feet planted firmly on the ground, and yet developers expect us to jump 20 feet in the air, fall down caveren and not feel dis-oriented? Ok I'm pushing it a bit too far, but the fact of the matter is one main problem is "how" we see ourselves in the game. FPS' may not be such a problem due to being the driver's seat 24/7. Third person's are probably worse off due to camera angle considerations. We might sometimes want a "movie-esque" fighting/shooting sequence, but for that we end up losing on practicality of movement and periphial vision.
But ranting once again, just to say there's just WAAAY to many dimensions for the simple mind to fathom which leads to my next point
2. The more stuff you have, the more "crap" you have: I'm not dissing the fact that level designers have to stare at a computer screen from hours upon end (as a job!!!!11!!) to develop an enviroment that would blow our minds, let alone try to confuse us into thinking it to be some sort of "real life" equilavent. Kudos to them to make it wonderfully beautiful....but one damn thing that pisses me off is the amount of wandering involved in these carefully detailed, but half heartedly constructed worlds. And it's not JUST wandering, but how "wandering" suddenly becomes this dominant theme. Just like the recent PS2 Shinobi, the basic run down is:
1. Run down hallway
2. Enter room full of enemies
3. Flip out and kill them
4. Repeat 1-3 until you hit the boss.
Now yes...there is plenty of action, but as you can see it's almost like a burst of action. It's like the enemies get aquainted with a 3D world and say "Wow! Look at all this room! Well fuck this...I'm not going to stay in the hallway anymore. This broom closet could fit 10 of us!" See what I mean? Suddenly the concept of "action games" become "wandering into action" games. Granted in the early 32 bit systems were too slow or lacked power to exactly put about a dozen 3D enemy characters cramming down your throat while you banish them to hell with your Invincible God Fist attack, hell even "Zelda" who's biggest attractions was entering rooms FULL of enemies and having to kill them all. Nintendo somewhat rectified that in Majora's Mask.
Plus the fact that what you see is what you get. I was always surprised by the fact that two dozen enemies on the screen "and see them" but with 3D games especially FPS', with stuff blocking your view, it suddenly becomes a seemingly tedious task of "who's coming next?" especially seeing that when you defeat something, an elaborate death scene only distracts you and muds up the scene all together.
Another thing with this wandering is disorientation....not ONLY due to the "fake" walls that developers put up, but also the the whacked out way that cameras can shift worse than a carnival ride. Example? Playing Donky Kong on N64...hell I was swimming in the sea for 10 minutes only to figure out that I wasn't getting ANYWHERE and was swimming along a fake wall. Anyways speaking of Zelda it brings me to this point......
3. Auto-Targetting: I appreciate the fact that there is auto targetting. Playing Zelda while actually strafing around a targetted object was cool indeed. Despite that still some games are rough even with auto targetting, but the fact remains it's lazy. This is almost like shooting fish in a barrel...no....make that shooting fish in a barrel WITH a laser scope AND some husky dude guiding you to aim for it's head. There was nothing to prevent me from just auto-targetting the enemy and just arrow the shit out of it. Nor in Perfect Dark with the "Rail Gun" (with a convenient x-ray scope I might add), I was picking off bots with only two buttons, the "secondary function" auto target of "R shoulder" and the shoot button.
Now with FPS's I imagine, yes we do need it because one shift in an angle could make the difference between a bullent settling in nice, warm, gooey, grey matter or the side of Fido's doggy house. But seriously, even if the US Army are specifically trying to recruit people who played a lot of "multiple tasking" violent video games, would you want a soldier to come up to you and scream "Is there auto targetting in this Army Issue M-16 SIR?!!!!111!!".
I say, instead of auto targetting, replace it with guns that have shit for accuracy (like an uzi) but becomes "indirectly" the "spread gun" of Contra. You may not be the best shot in the west, but at least you have a firing range of 20 meters LONG and 3 meters HIGH...more than enough to hit at least some of the hulking mass of green alien lumbering your way. If you want to improve your skills, switch to a sniper rifle. Deadly accurate but your auto-targetting skills are ALL in your hands. But the fact of the matter is that it's game. We want all people no matter how lacking in hand-eye coordination in order to join into a lovely death match and watch their best friends lungs become part of the decor.
3D stop playing with ma heart.
Of course this is discussing why I dislike 3D games. I have only a few qualms about 3D games, but to tell the truth, these are very important ones. To start off, I still have hope for 3D games, because like it or not...they're here to stay. The only salvation we would EVER have from 3D games would be the GBA and SNK/NeoGeo. The very fact that the GBA has become almost the "neutral system" in the battle of the consoles, goes to show how important it is in supporting what I consider a vertible golden age of gaming, the 16 bit era.
I do consider that 3D games are in what could be related to the early 16 bit era of video games...if not, then at least in the late stages of the 8-Bit era. WTF am I exactly talking about? I think 3D games are at a point where developers are still trying to iron out the details of what is and what isn't good. I think that I should be at least patient because the developers not only have an incredibly amount of dimensions to work with, but also how to use the camera to facilitate it. Given time I think that we would be seeing much better games.....despite how the PSX initially broke into the market and basically pioneered the pratice of quantity over quality.
Anyways here what I have a problem with 3D games:
1. 3D games for 2D minds: This may be the case since I was weened in the 8 Bit era - 16bit era of gaming. I joined the 32 bit era half heartidly due to the lack of buying games plus the fact that I only bought a PSX for FF7. But I'm digressing. The fact of the matter is even though it might be the problem that I am conditioned to play in a 2D world (which I feel I'm not but I do have to acknowledge it as an explanation) I still think that our human minds are still too simple to even fathom the idea of a 3D plain. Hell, even our lives are mainly 2D with both our feet planted firmly on the ground, and yet developers expect us to jump 20 feet in the air, fall down caveren and not feel dis-oriented? Ok I'm pushing it a bit too far, but the fact of the matter is one main problem is "how" we see ourselves in the game. FPS' may not be such a problem due to being the driver's seat 24/7. Third person's are probably worse off due to camera angle considerations. We might sometimes want a "movie-esque" fighting/shooting sequence, but for that we end up losing on practicality of movement and periphial vision.
But ranting once again, just to say there's just WAAAY to many dimensions for the simple mind to fathom which leads to my next point
2. The more stuff you have, the more "crap" you have: I'm not dissing the fact that level designers have to stare at a computer screen from hours upon end (as a job!!!!11!!) to develop an enviroment that would blow our minds, let alone try to confuse us into thinking it to be some sort of "real life" equilavent. Kudos to them to make it wonderfully beautiful....but one damn thing that pisses me off is the amount of wandering involved in these carefully detailed, but half heartedly constructed worlds. And it's not JUST wandering, but how "wandering" suddenly becomes this dominant theme. Just like the recent PS2 Shinobi, the basic run down is:
1. Run down hallway
2. Enter room full of enemies
3. Flip out and kill them
4. Repeat 1-3 until you hit the boss.
Now yes...there is plenty of action, but as you can see it's almost like a burst of action. It's like the enemies get aquainted with a 3D world and say "Wow! Look at all this room! Well fuck this...I'm not going to stay in the hallway anymore. This broom closet could fit 10 of us!" See what I mean? Suddenly the concept of "action games" become "wandering into action" games. Granted in the early 32 bit systems were too slow or lacked power to exactly put about a dozen 3D enemy characters cramming down your throat while you banish them to hell with your Invincible God Fist attack, hell even "Zelda" who's biggest attractions was entering rooms FULL of enemies and having to kill them all. Nintendo somewhat rectified that in Majora's Mask.
Plus the fact that what you see is what you get. I was always surprised by the fact that two dozen enemies on the screen "and see them" but with 3D games especially FPS', with stuff blocking your view, it suddenly becomes a seemingly tedious task of "who's coming next?" especially seeing that when you defeat something, an elaborate death scene only distracts you and muds up the scene all together.
Another thing with this wandering is disorientation....not ONLY due to the "fake" walls that developers put up, but also the the whacked out way that cameras can shift worse than a carnival ride. Example? Playing Donky Kong on N64...hell I was swimming in the sea for 10 minutes only to figure out that I wasn't getting ANYWHERE and was swimming along a fake wall. Anyways speaking of Zelda it brings me to this point......
3. Auto-Targetting: I appreciate the fact that there is auto targetting. Playing Zelda while actually strafing around a targetted object was cool indeed. Despite that still some games are rough even with auto targetting, but the fact remains it's lazy. This is almost like shooting fish in a barrel...no....make that shooting fish in a barrel WITH a laser scope AND some husky dude guiding you to aim for it's head. There was nothing to prevent me from just auto-targetting the enemy and just arrow the shit out of it. Nor in Perfect Dark with the "Rail Gun" (with a convenient x-ray scope I might add), I was picking off bots with only two buttons, the "secondary function" auto target of "R shoulder" and the shoot button.
Now with FPS's I imagine, yes we do need it because one shift in an angle could make the difference between a bullent settling in nice, warm, gooey, grey matter or the side of Fido's doggy house. But seriously, even if the US Army are specifically trying to recruit people who played a lot of "multiple tasking" violent video games, would you want a soldier to come up to you and scream "Is there auto targetting in this Army Issue M-16 SIR?!!!!111!!".
I say, instead of auto targetting, replace it with guns that have shit for accuracy (like an uzi) but becomes "indirectly" the "spread gun" of Contra. You may not be the best shot in the west, but at least you have a firing range of 20 meters LONG and 3 meters HIGH...more than enough to hit at least some of the hulking mass of green alien lumbering your way. If you want to improve your skills, switch to a sniper rifle. Deadly accurate but your auto-targetting skills are ALL in your hands. But the fact of the matter is that it's game. We want all people no matter how lacking in hand-eye coordination in order to join into a lovely death match and watch their best friends lungs become part of the decor.
3D stop playing with ma heart.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home