Smiley wrote:Not that surprising I guess. The idea seemed like shit to me when I heard about it, but they pulled it off pretty well all considered.
Then again, I don't compare it to the System Shock series in any way, they have nothing in common in my opinion.
While I could tell you how in my opinion they're basically the same game, I'll let
this guy do it since, for one, he's actually humorous. I mean, even the titles are similar for Pete's sake.
Smiley wrote:I guess it's because when I look at Bioshock, I just see a regular shooter with its on gimmicks and not anything close to System Shock, Deus Ex or anything else along the multiple choice/RPG-esque shooter genre.
That was partially my point. When a 15 year old looks at Fo3 he isn't expecting anything other than a standard FPS with level-ups.
A pussy-padded FPS at that, one with the useless RPG qualities of the worst of them all, the MMORPG, where all you do feels like a grind until you're confident you can move on and actually accomplish a mission. Not that it matters since enemies and loot are leveled to you anyway. Much in a similar way to Bioshock, where you can, besides saving/loading your game, resurrect literally 10 feet from where you fell with no tangible cost to your Player Character, thus removing any speck of challenge from the game.
Furthermore, like Fo3, Bioshock suffers from the same problem of letting you be whatever you want to be. (EDIT-What I meant to say, is that your choices in character in no way prevent you from becoming a master of every trade, essencially an uber-character) Whereas in the originals you could only be what your starting character allowed you to be, and from then on have to make serious, meaningful choices as to how you develop yourself in a way that let you complete the tasks you're confronted with, which combined with the game providing multiple ways to complete said tasks promoted replayability, not to mention making every unique playthrough that more memorable.
There's none of this in Fo3 or Bioshock. You get 2 ways to complete a task in Fo3, usually one that's saintly good and another that's devilishly evil, while on Bioshock you get to chose between saving or killing little sisters. What promotes itself as choice with moral consequences is in reality only your uber game-self deciding whether he wants the good or the evil ending. That in itself warrants what, two largely equal playthroughs? Because, again, all of the possibilities and choices for customization of the PC are open to everyone.(EDIT-Again, this isn't clear, but what I meant is that every single character ends up exactly like the previous one, when you're not forced to chose between skills (or tonics/plasmids) and can end up a master of all)
Smiley wrote:Difference is though, even with that mentality you could never see Fo3 as a decent spin-off.
That is, in fact, the problem with my original argument. Whereas Bethesda bought the rights to Fallout and released an obvious "bona-fide" sequel, Bioshock (even though I've hopefully shown by this point how similar it is to SS2 and how this similarity can be compared to how Fo3 stacks up to the originals) is NOT a System Shock sequel. In fact a quick google shows that the SS license belongs to none other than the bane of my gaming existence, Electronic -motherfucking- Arts (and not to 2K games, Bioshock's distributors), and in fact even Dead Space has closer ties to SS than Bio.
Now let's be blunt, shall we? Bioshock and Fallout 3, however overhyped and overrated are proper "good" games. I've been, now, and in a couple of past news threads, vocal of how I dislike them both, but that does not change the fact that for the vocal majority they are AWSUM; THE SHIT; OMG OMG!!1!!one1!!!, or whatever asinine comment you wish to bestow the "idiots", or whatever ye olde Fallout(e) fans usually call those who actually enjoyed these bestialized copies of the favorite games of our youth. But they are right. However bland and uninsteresting for us, these "new" gameplay genres are, they enjoy them.
These are the new bait, these are the new target audiences, these are the ones to whom these unoriginal, copy-pasta, repetitive, franchise-raping, boxes of turd we call games are made for.
It should be the gaming journalist's job, as older, more game-experinced folk, to tell this new generation that what they're being offered is custom-made crap when compared to what they used to play when they were young. They don't, for reasons most DaCers are aware.
But there's no reason we shouldn't.
I mean, I'm writing this (and certainly not because I'm getting paid to) as someone who used to have a lot more fun playing games in his youth, not because I have adult obligations or other things to do now, but because I think the majority of new games are comparatively shit.
And that's why I proposed solidarity with the fans of SS2 on some made-up SS DaC affiliate, so that at least from one part of the gaming spectrum, the corporate interests that run game-making nowadays get the damn message.
Re-releasing re-sprayed, re-branded, dumbed down necro-rapes of old material is
NOT. FUCKING. ACCEPTABLE.
Phew.
(Edited for clarification. Also, sorry KoC, for turning yet another news post into a rant. Those of you who still want to comment on the actual news, please, don't let my drivel deter you.)