Hello. My name is Jesse and I'm a life long gamer. I'm 32 years old and I live in West Texas. I don't really have any big plans for this blog. I just want to put my words down and voice my opinions on all things gaming related. I believe that games were made for you to have fun with. What this means for this blog is that I'm going to try to remain positive, and optimistic when it comes to the games that I end up writing about.
This does not mean that everything I have to say will be positive. I just think that people today are way too critical when it comes to new games. I believe this to be especially true when it comes to sequels for games. For instance: I really liked Diablo 3. I know a lot of people who think it is a terrible game that pales in comparison to the games that came before it. My take on it (and it's not an original one to be sure) is that Diablo 3 could never have lived up to the hype. I don't think it's as good or better than the previous two. However, I do believe that it is a very fun game. I spent a lot of time playing the game with friends and family on different platforms. I have to say that the single screen co-op that I played with my sister on PS3 is one of the best times I've ever had gaming.
I feel that there's a lot that goes into games these days that people take for granted. Subtle facial animations, and detailed layouts of entire cities are just a few things that people simply just expect from game developers. I know I'm going to sound like an old fart but think about how simple games where in the beginning. A lot of them weren't simple by choice. They also required the same hard work that games still require today. This is not to say that new games are all good because they take a lot work. When I hear complaints about a new game's graphics I chuckle a little to myself. I think that at this point things have come so far that graphics should be the last thing on anyone's mind. I think that graphics can still be considered good even if a game is 20 years old. If the art holds up then the graphics are still good they're just dated. I don't think being dated makes them bad
I know a lot of people that try to stay away from the N64 and PS1 era of games because they look "bad". Yeah the frame rates were lower than the previous consoles, but they had their own aesthetic. You have to keep in mind when it comes to that period there were limits to what was achievable. The N64 for example only had 4MB of RAM (8 if you had the expansion cart) Looking at it now it's amazing they were able to do anything at all with it. People working on games found a way to make what inspired them a reality. This is what lead to games like Final Fantasy VII, and Resident Evil. They pulled of amazing things with the pseudo 3D pre-rendered backgrounds they created.
My point is that those games never lost what made them good simply because of their graphics. However, graphics aside I know a lot of people would be pointing out game play flaws. There are some games that have game play flaws for sure. This usually is a combination of a few things rooted in how the game was made.
And then there's the writing. I'm all about game play so I don't care if the writing is bad. My best example of this would have to be Red Faction 2. A lot of people hated it. I played the PC version on Steam a full decade after the game was released and I experienced no bugs or glitches. It was (to me) a fun shooter. The story was pretty bad. The way they wrapped everything up at the end made me cringe. Would I consider it to be bad though just based on that? No I would not. Another example I like to use is the original Doom. That game had literally like 3 paragraphs of plot, but people still come back to it to this day. There are sites up right now that are dedicated to enhancing the original game. I personally use GZDoom.
At the end of the day what I really look for in a new game is it capturing the spirit of older games while pushing boundaries that held previous games back. A game having a good story definitely helps tremendously, but as history has shown a game doesn't have to have a Hollywood story, to give you a AAA experience.
In any event I seem to have rambled on quite a bit here. Welcome to my blog. In the next few days I'll be detailing my experiences with several different MMORPG's that I've been trying out. They are all mostly either free to play or don't require a subscription service for basic play. I've already been having a great time with a few of them and one of them in particular is way better than I had anticipated. See ya' around.
