Personal stuff #4, Rants about more stuff
By Valkyr 5 Comments
Rant of the day: Insomniac and Resistance franchise
I think most of us agree that Insomniac has a pretty good record of high quality games, making their business the introduction of new IPs and developing games exclusively for the Playstation platforms with well received and beloved franchices like Spyro and Ratchet and Clank. But what happens when you stop focusing on what you best do and start looking at other over saturated market like the fps genre? Things like the Resistance franchise happen, a franchise whose story was written to be spammed through at least three games but failed to deliver a high quality experience in order to create the minimum fanbase to maintain the initial schedule, the end result, little to no profit.
The genesis of the failure
We all remember the first trailers and information about the first game, the hype built around the idea that Sony needed a Halo Killer, a sci-fi shooter with good graphics and multiplayer that could stop the userbase bleeding from turning to Microsoft and the already great online platform they started with a failed console, the original Xbox while at the same time setting the cornerstone of one of the greatest industry landscape changes since the launch of the Playstation 1, a industry reigned by Sony.
The failure itself
As most of us hardcore gamers think, the game failed, the art direction was bland, the main character sucked, nobody gived a damned about him, the multiplayer was not as good as the competition and the fanbase was not big enough to secure that the sequel wasn't going to be another failure.
Time passed and Resistance 2 came out, although the multiplayer was substantially better in comparison to other choices PS3 users had at the moment, the game failed too. The problem was increased by the fact that the art direction was changed again, the sequel, while keeping the vibe and the setting of the original, looked really different and the graphics weren't good either from a technical standpoint.
Not even your mother was hyped Ted, and she loves you!
Now with the in game footage of the third resistance revealead at the VGAs (and the screenshots that we saw some time ago), we know that the art is different again, what the hell is wrong with you Insomniac?, haven't you learned anything?. We all know that a franchise has to maintain its art and soul for at least several games till a 'reboot' takes place and we can start all over again. Halo 1, 2 and 3, looked almost exactly the same, only with a few changes from 1 to 2 but 3 art was almost kept identical from 2 which was the most iconic original Xbox game. Even the Ratchet and Clank and Spyro games respected this basic gaming axiom. We have a lot of of other examples, Tomb Raider, Devil May Cry, Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Zero gba/ds games, Sonic gba/ds games, Metal Gear Solid and the list goes on and on, all franchises which games have a very similar art direction till some kind of reboot or spinoff comes and changes everything, from the looks and the gameplay to the story.
Stop resisting please, move on!
Resistance 3 will be a failure, shadowed by Halo:Reach and Killzone 3 in the sci-fi fps genre, with an almost inexistent consistency between its iterations. I hope that Insomniac, now a multiplatform developer, starts focusing again on doing what they do best, platformers, a genre that is dying in the home consoles, with only Mario being really successful, we a new character that can carry the flag and make gamers of all ages love a game for the sake of being a game, pure nonsensical and fun gameplay, withouth the need of headshots, chainsaw executions, crazy convoluted stories or space marines, please Insomniac give us another R&C/Spyro-esque IP.
Personal stuff #4
After the inevitable wall of text, here comes the update of my personal life. Dad's already home after the aforementioned pancreatic cancer surgery, he's doing fine but I'm really worried about his mental health because he acts like nothing happened and sometimes he even believes his own lie, that with the surgery everything will be the same as before, that leads him to act rebelliously towards his new diet and medication, which could be a real problem. He has very little chances of entering remision, the only and miraculously way he could live more than expected or get cured, and he only makes things less possible if he doesn't obey his sugar free, quemical free and mostly alkaline diet.
Relative to me, just playing a lot of games after a successful year at college, looking forward to get some cash in christmas eve to buy a Playstation Move Starter pack, Gran Turismo 5 and save money for Killzone 3, that Wii seems to always slip out of my hands!, there is always other things I want more, shame on me, almost every human being in the world owns one by this moment!, I'm now scared that Nintendo will make a Wii HD announcement the day after I buy one, maybe if I get enough money for my birthday on February I'll finally play Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.
See ya!