Better Games Today?

[Bolivar]

I agree with this general sentiment, but that doesn't explain why the bar on crappy titles has been raised, and I don't agree that it's simply publishers and media trying to convince us that the next big thing is a must have that you will die if you don't play.

I said the Cartel-Trio of marketing explains why some people might think that there are better games today. As far as why there's more mediocre games, I think you hit the nail on the head, there's been more work to base it on foundation and start from. And like you said about the early 2D and 3D eras, I think the same could be said for the HD-era, there really weren't many games in that first year of the 360 that are worth still playing.

I can't be the only that doesn't fawn over CoD games, right? I feel like a game that gets such high praise should feel like more than just some sort of spiritual successor to CS.

Of course not. I like Modern Warfare 2, beat the campaign 3 times on normal and above, logged countless hours into the multipalyer, and knocked off a good amount of Spec Ops missions. But it wasn't even the best FPS of 2009, much less the best game over all.

But it highlights the convergence of Publishers, Retailers, and Journalists that I mentioned. Everyone was excited for the game going into 2009, and the very teaser-ish teaser set things in motion, but the hype train really got started when Game Informer, which is owned by GameStop, ran an exclusive cover story on it.

They were great for what they were but there are very few of them you could put on the shelves today and - aesthetics aside - expect them to be hits.

I think we should be hesitant to bring marketability into this discussion. It's not really a secret that to make really high sales-numbers you have to capture the attention of young children with access to their parents disposable income. We like to pretend a lot of these aren't children's games, but they are. From Mortal Kombat to Grand Theft Auto, their demographic probably averaged out at middle schoolers. KMart has Call of Duty pajama pants in the young boys section and Burlington Coat Factory has Gears of War boxer shorts in a 360-controller tin case. Nobody loves Gears of War more than my 11-year old nephew named Chase.

I'll just conclude by saying that there are more games these days than I can really play, and I'm limited to just the 360 and PC right now. Yeah, there's a lot out there that's not worth my time and money - but there's a lot that is, and I'm not sure I'm ready to complain about the situation until the latter situation changes. But even if it does, I can just go back and play the things I missed.

This is something I have to co-sign. What I really like about this generation is how quickly prices fall for games with a lot of effort put into them, especially ones with fun multiplayer components. You can get games like Bioshock and Bad Company for less than $20, less than a year after they come out.

I don't really know why anyone is unhappy though.

If you're referring to the articles' authors complaining they don't have time to play everything, I don't understand that either.

But my main concern is that the people writing about games haven't played enough important titles to warrant that position.