E3 2012: The Year of Disappointment

Every year E3 kicks off the gaming convention madness with giant announcements, jaw dropping conferences and a plethora of new titles to be released in the coming year. For several years E3 was the benchmark to which many conventions aspired to be, set in sunny LA with hundreds of thousands of guests flooded E3 in anticipation of what was to come but a few years back E3 closed its doors to the public, shattering the dreams of many and alienating those who have supported gaming for years in favour of journalists and other developers.

Since then E3 has been a mixed bag of announcements ranging from the extremely out of date Mr Caffeine, the booing of AT&T and the excitement that followed after the Vita was announced. Much like your taste in games the conference has always been a hit and miss based on your preference although there was always something there that had your blood racing.

Unfortunately I struggled to find anything that left me breathless. Many of the games announced were sequels, prequels or just plain ass. Yes there were the odd one or two diamonds in the rough but it is hard to keep such high spirits after spending hours rolling around in filth.

It seems that even the greatest of franchises did not believe in this year’s E3 to the point that Halo 4, the Gears prequel and many others made announcements in the week or so before the show. If Microsoft cannot be backed by their own poster boy then why bother with such an illustrious event. On the PS3 front it was very disheartening with no news from the team working on The Last Guardian (even though Sony assure the fans that it will appear I find it harder to believe by the day) and what looks like a Super Smash Bros rip off on the horizon for Sony there was very little to look forward to. Hell even Netherrealm’s new fighting game surfaced the week prior to E3.

As for the nintendo conference we were promised 23 games and well we did see these games but they were either already on the market of were passed over so quickly in montages it was very hard to judge if they had actually met this quota. There was of course a new Mario game and the announcement of some cool new online features on the Nintendo side of things but it was largely underwhelming and the big announcements that were made were almost expected with a new consoles.

In a perfect world all these developers, excluding Nintendo are hiding their best for the new consoles they have stashed away in their evil headquarters awaiting to unleash the behemoths of gaming on the unsuspecting public at the next major conference. Although I can’t quite help thinking this is nothing but a pipe dream.

Hopefully there will be an upturn in next year’s conference with the announcements of some new and impressive IPs from both sides, it could be time for Kratos to hang up the gauntlet, Baird to drop the Lancer and the covenant to get a rest.

After all is said and done there are some awesome titles out this year and in spite of the delays of Bioshock Infinite we still have Borderlands 2, Persona 4 Arena, Assassins Creed 3, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 and Halo 4 all to look forward too. And after E3 all the speculation on Watchdogs, The Last of Us and a few others to keep us all going until next year. Failing that we can always hope for more big announcements at Eurogamer, Tokyo Games Show and all the others.

Achievement Unlocked

After many discussions over the introduction of achievements I thought it would be appropriate to discuss it in a more formal manner. I will refer to these accomplishments in game as achievements for the rest of the article but it is worth noting that the same can be said for PS3 Trophies, Steam achievements and other types of achievement like rewards.

Gaming from its origin was based on high scores. Each and every cabinet had it’s own leader-board and it was everybody's aim to be the best. Competition is in our blood, there has always been a way to show that  you were the top player. So much so that in the mid 80’s there was a massive boom of what could be described as the origin of pro-gaming, many people flocking from all over America to beat each others scores and prove that they were the best. This competition was so hyped that it gained acknowledgement from all over the world, it was at this point that many people started to take note of achievement in gaming.

Fast forward a few decades and we are standing amongst the gaming wave of the 90’s, although the leader-board system of the 80’s had taken a side step many gamers still participated in competitive gaming. Consoles had now became a staple of the modern home, they may still be frowned upon and those who played them may have been judged but consoles were becoming more and more common.

Several years passed and online gaming was introduced. Everybody could now share their scores and discuss what they have accomplished online. Some games had their own leader-boards, like Bungie’s stat tracker on their website and other online games that monitored their players progress.

Now it is debatable who revolutionised the online achievement system but in my eyes it was Xbox 360. With the current generation of consoles there are many online profiles and each with their own slant on their personality. To make sure they stayed on top Microsoft had allowed their users to not only compare games in their collections but also provided a new and innovative way. With a base of 1000 gamerscore, that can be obtained through various different in game objectives and the players profile being updated accordingly.

Some people argue that these achievements ruin gaming in general. They even say it’s damaging to the experience of a game. People no longer just play a game they want to, but instead they are influenced by the achievements and become obsessed with the accumulation of score.

There are some cases where this is true. Some people endure a tremendous amount of dull game play for the sake of a few points and in some cases will seek out games with easy achievements to further their score. Although this is prevalent in many peoples cases, I blame the company for resorting to such cheap tactics. Some companies do a lot of research in to achievements and in some cases make them easily obtained for the sole reason of pulling in more consumers. It is this kind of achievement that is frowned upon. It’s the kind of games that enable the user to obtain most of the achievements from the start of the game, I’m sure you are all aware of Avatar which happens to be the most infamous gamerscore whore game. This is how many people judge the credibility of a gamer, if they happen to have the full 1000 in this game they can be frowned upon.
Other reasons gamerscore is judged as a bad thing is that it encourages a kind of hierarchy within the community. People are more than aware of their current score and have competitions amongst their friends. Through this it can alienate people from groups because they might not have a lot of point. Although this is not a major problem it can cause tension when people start to be judged because of a number on their card.

On the other hand you have those that argue that achievements enhance gameplay. These achievements can make players aware of certain tactics the might not use or alert them to secret areas in games.

In the case of achievements being used to enhance gameplay many developers use these achievements to direct their player. Sometimes this can be used to encourage a player to use certain items in game or seek out secret areas they might not have before. If done well many players will experience a lot more of the game than they may have seen without this level of guidance.
There is also the argument that achievements can be used as an affirmation for the player. If they succeed in game the success is recognised, not only do you have the satisfaction that you completed a difficult part of the game but you also get a shiny pin to put on your e-lapel.

One final argument is that it is our nature as gamers to seek competition. I have mentioned it before in this article, gaming as a whole is based on the foundation of achievement. It started with leader-boards and has evolved in to gamercards/online personas and so on. We are now able to view not only the people who play at our local arcade but everyone on our friends list. We can compare, share and view each others progress together. It’s a friendly type of competition that we can immerse ourself in and adds a layer of meta to all our gaming if we wish to indulge each other, if only for a little while.

I think achievements are a great idea. They innovate play and have brought a new level of competition to gaming. This kind of influence can allow a developer to flesh out their game to encourage players to experience parts that they may normally shy away from. I myself tend to indulge a little too often in the gamerscore race but it just so happens to be my vice. I hope they stick around for a long time and who knows maybe in the future we might be rewarded for our dedication to a certain game with more than just a pop-up on screen.

Is The Games Industry Becoming Stagnant?

As I sit here looking at both last years titles, and those to come, I can’t help but ask myself, is the game industry becoming stagnant ?


Take a look at your favourite publishers, games companies and producers and think about their back catalogue. In the early 90’s the industry was frothing at the mouth with new ideas, we had finally entered a plausible 3D world in which every industry designers dreams were that one step closer to reality. Fast forward to the 00’s and our current generation:Since the introduction of these next-gen consoles should we not expect the same enthusiasm for the life cycle of the hardware itself ?

When confronted with nearly an identical “top sellers” list every year I find it disheartening to see less and less breakthrough in ingenuity. That’s not to say I am against sequels or franchises, in fact it’s quite the opposite. I used to be a massive fan of the “Final Fantasy” series and continue to support Capcom and their range of fighting games.

What I am sick of however, is the large amount of drivel pushed in to our stores year in year. Yes, I’m talking about Call of Duty (CoD) and the way Activision are treating the market. They are not the only guilty party but I for one feel that I have been wronged by this company. Year in year out they regurgitate practically the same franchise, yes there are minor changes but with each iteration I can’t help but having and overwhelming sense of déjá vu and extremely underwhelmed by the lack of changes in the single player.

Some games do need to be treated as franchises, here I’m talking about your sports game. I say this only because sports teams in general tend to change every year and so do the players. One year many can retire and the next new teams could graduate to a higher division. These are the type of factors that need to be integrated in to game play to keep it relevant.

I am using (almost picking on) CoD. this is a game that I feel could be balanced through possible updates. With each iteration they have boasted better online performance and a more balanced set of weapons. Surely some of these changes are minuscule, to the point that it could factor just the tweaking of variables. It’s not like they have a problem supporting games after release, hell look at the number of map packs they are promising to bankrupt each and every fan with. Is it too much to ask for them to maybe for a brief second think about supporting the community as opposed to supporting their bankroll?

There are other companies that also fall short of meeting expectation in my book and we will get round to that. But first I want to try and analyse why is it companies continue to release practically the same game on almost a yearly basis ?

Is it because of a struggling economy? Maybe they are struggling to break even. But that can’t be true, again in the case of Activision, last year they broke records and saw what could be their most profitable year in a long time. This doesn’t solely come from the CoD but if you weren’t aware they have been reaching astronomical figures with their new Skylanders franchise. With each figure retailing at roughly £6/7 and a multi-pack going for just under £20 these small figures are a new revelation in marketing towards today’s youth. These figures have taken off so drastically that they have became almost unobtainable. So how does Activision treat this behemoth? The only way they know how, just recently they announced that not only do they plan to release a sequel but they intend to introduce a set of up to 16 new characters to it’s already large roster of 37. With the game itself retailing at about £50 with 3 Skylanders coming, parents are expected to purchase the remaining 34. And I do mean expected, we were all young at one point and some fell prey to the “Pokemon” phenomenon. This would be a potential £280 just to have the full collection in the original game, now with a further 16 characters and another £40ish game it could climax to a whopping £432 just for one game. Although these figures are based on simply buying the toys separately.

I’m sure if you are an avid fan of either series at this point you may be contemplating a heinous crime or formulating your counter argument against my blatant attack on Activsion. Maybe some of you have even started to compile a list of games that have revolutionised the gaming world that have flown straight out of the doors of Activision or their subsidiary companies. Although if you even look at their back catalogue they have been doing this for years;the Cabela franchise, Guitar Hero, Spiderman, Tony Hawk, X-men and countless others have all been driven in to the ground one way or another. Some of which may have had overhauls on mechanics or slight tweaks in direction but for the majority of them have remained the same and some of which were bled dry to the point that they no longer exist.

There are other companies guilty of this and another big offender is Capcom. They have offended some of their loyal fans to the point they have been renamed “Cashcom”, “Crapcom” and many other names. All because of their money grabbing tendencies.

To add insult to injury most of these companies are now opting for what has to be the cheapest get out ever. I am talking about none other than the HD remakes. Never before have their been HD remakes (yes I know it hasn’t been possible until recently) but come on, £50 for some titles that many still have. It seems to be a fad that has swept across many companies ranging from Capcom to Insomniac. These games are churned out fast and retail for full priced games. Sometimes there aren't even extras like the terminals in “Halo Anniversary”, these are the same games with upgraded graphics. How long will it be until our next set of favourites are upgraded, with rumours of FFX being redone and a lot more in the pipeline.

Why is the industry so devoid of ideas that we rely on reboots, rehashed and ridiculously unnecessary HD remakes. As a games designer in training I find it extremely disheartening to see that there is such a lack of creativity in what could potentially be what was once the job of a lifetime. That being said there is still hope for the games industry as there are still absolute gems to be discovered amongst the hordes of sequels, prequels and HD remixes. Although you only need to take a look at last years online list of most played games to see that some of these games are not receiving the attention they deserve.