Top 3 Favorite Games of 2009

[Kinokokao]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[epicurius7]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Kinokokao]

[scy]

Edit: Tagged since long, off-topic (I suppose) and blahblahblah.
[spoiler]The thing is, "Same ol' shit" != bad game. The point I was going after, which in my "durdurdur what is sleep?" haze came out terribly, was that to say that is to be pretty damn ignorant of the fact nearly every game title / series does this. To some degree, they are "the same ol' shit." It really is a stupid argument. I attribute the "lawl generic" argument to be the same; it's just "same ol' shit" with a different phrasing. There is nothing inherently "bad" about generic; there is nothing inherently "bad" about a game not changing dramatically. It's a tiresome argument I see way too often (and it happens a lot here, hence the entire reason I even bothered posting about it).

The "worst" of it, I suppose, is the fact this angle is usually used by people who don't even play them. I'm sorry but if you don't play it your opinion is pretty much irrelevant. If it's not your type of game, fine, but it's pretty fucking silly to drop "generic", "same ol' shit", etc. over it merely because you don't like those games. Quite frankly, if it isn't your type of game, not much you can really say about it that can be taken with any grain of salt. "I don't enjoy RPGs so FFXIII / KH2 / Persona / etc. are bad" is a stupid statement.

Is Modern Warfare 2 (random example) "generic"? Well, sure; the game mechanics have not evolved much outside of aiming tweaks, weapon revamps, and hit detection and the overall setting ("oh shit son war") is still pretty much the same. It is still, however, a fundamentally great FPS game; the SP experience is fun and MP is still a blast (once you get over some of the other people >>). Quite frankly, the FPS genre does not have much to change outside of setting/story/how progression is done (i.e., RPG-FPS vs typical FPS); it's not like there's some massive change in FPS mechanics that can be done yet retain the FPS element (i.e., what the fuck are you changing in first-person perspective + shooting things).

Generic is by no means a bad game; bland, uninteresting, boring, etc. is probably a bad game. Just because a game uses a tried-and-true formula for mechanics or setting does not make a bad game; it may weaken the overall experience but as long as the gameplay itself is good and the story is interesting, it's still a "good" game.

It does, however, make for a "there's no surprises here" kind of game ... but that doesn't make it less "fun." Well, unless you put story/setting/mechanics over the actual gameplay.

Not that story / setting / etc. isn't important. Just saying that a game that is boring to play or tedious to play through is still a boring/tedious game even if the story is amazing; Lost Odyssey, before it shits itself anyway, has a good story (mostly the 1000 Year Stories, to be honest) but my god the combat is painfully slow that completing it for the sake of those felt like a chore. When a game feels like a chore, there really isn't anything to save it.

Also, for example, Demon's Souls (gameplay footage, not the actual game as I cut it from my purchasing~) looks to be a boring game to me; it moves slow, looks clunky, and I just can't get behind the overall combat. I'll probably buy it down the road since the overall opinion of it makes me wonder if I'm retarded but I can't help shake the feeling of Vagrant Story when I see DS and I fucking hated VS.

Edit: If anyone even reads this far before "fuck it, Scy's a dick" and quits and has played DS, how is it really? Everything I've seen of it just seems painfully slow to play; not in the sense "I NEED INSTANT ACTION" but movement and combat seem so rigid that watching footage was actually quite boring. But, it's not like gameplay footage alone is enough to say much about the game so ... yeah. I've been meaning to ask this for awhile since I kept looking at DS and contemplating the impulse purchase to see what's the love about.[/spoiler]

Anyway, more-or-less agree with epicurius' points; FPS get a lot more hype (or, rather, more titles for hype) mainly due to "lol western culture" or whatever is hip now to say about why we have so many FPS games. Overhype (or underhype) doesn't really make a game bad, though, but god does it really fuck with expectations some. I tend to media blackout myself for any game I'm interested in.

[spoiler]But some things slip through the cracks that make me sad. Like the FFXIII English theme.

/wrists

Edit: To make others suffer:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q0_mNC5FQ8[/youtube][/spoiler]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[scy]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[scy]

[epicurius7]

I have this weird thing where I only seem to like game soundtracks when I'm actually playing the game (sometimes I just boot up SNES ROMs to listen to the intro music).

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Maxine MagicFox]

[Kinokokao]