Doom Doom Doom Song

Well, I just got done reading a review of Doom 3 and I'm not feeling it. I read a bunch of reader reviews as well. While most of their scores ranged in the 8 to 10 point range, there were quite a few of less than ideal scores. While I can't trust reader reviews posted by fanboys, I can at least gleam some information from them and compare.

The graphics are great. The gameplay is not so great. I was planning to get it for XBox (BTW, if you steal my XBox I will not come knocking on your door, but I will be really sad. thank you) knowing that they had to put some dullness on the graphics for the three year old console. Reading that the gameplay is the same old gameplay, I will probably skip it. Maybe I'll rent it.

This is disappointing since they worked on it for four years and all they did was work on the graphics. I sense that some bright game designer is gonna take the doom 3 engine and bring it up to par with a great mod. I hope. heh Maybe the guys at id should have t-shirts made saying "My parents worked for 4 years to save up to buy me the computer of my dreams to play Doom 3 but all I got was uninspired gameplay." Yeah, maybe they shouldn't. Or maybe find another quote. That isn't mine.

I think that the game industry has spent too much time on the prettiness of games. It's time to dig deep and find some great AI and story design that will make gaming fun and entertaining again. Multiplayer with real people can only go so far cause there are always the idiots who sole reason for existence is to cause pain to other players who are online. That's no fun. I've had my run-ins with those players. They probably got cracked versions too. I hate those people too. It's interesting that I call them "people".

Game designers and game programmers need to step up to the plate. Consumers are always willing to spend $40-$60 for a game. But when consumers are forced to play crap that's not worth an hour of their time, consumers will let publishers know. I read an article/editorial about a possible future of the games industry a while back. The author was pointing out how a lot of games coming out are the same old thing, over and over and over again. He was comparing it to the video games crash of the early 80s. I want to disagree with his view of impending doom (no pun here people), but it's looking that way. Publishers have dollar signs in their eyes and those signs grow with each passing financial quarter. They only want the sure-fire hits. However those hits are all the same. We'll see. Maybe the guys at Valve will bring gaming out of it's funk with Half-Life 2. Then again, it might be the same ol stuff, rehashed in a new shiny box.

Well, that's all I got, for the short term. So until the next time.