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While keeping an eye on my Rockstar games ( TTWO ) and Ubisoft ( UBI ) shares I ran into an interesting article about the quality of games being lower (reference links at the bottom of this post).All this following the massive apology by Halo Master Chief, apologizing for the poor quality of games that are being forced out to reach investors "deadlines."
For consumers, they feel ripped off because of the amount paid per game, excluding the downloadable content (or DLC) can be anywhere between £40 - £60. This is a lot of money for a teen -adult audience to fork out, but since the early days of Online Gaming, I've been cautious to purchase a game straight away because of gaming company promises. Online gaming has always been a bit iffy, and at best it's always a risk to trust companies that have let you down in the past.
Let's look at some facts; UBISOFT are responsible for some big titles. And as Uncle Ben would say; with great titles comes great responsibility.
For example; Assassin's Creed has been guilty of using cliche mission styles throughout all their games, but this is what the gamers love. While Assassin's Creed 2 was a phenomenal step up in story and gameplay, it seemed Assassin's Creed 3 (AC3) left a sour taste with the whole "pro-America/Evil British" storyline, following a native American Indian (who will be wiped out by his American cousins at a later stage.) The story was weak, and overly sentimental. The big bad guy was not that epic, the clever twist in the beginning was crushed by the weak ending.
On to the missions: while being engaging, the character dialogue was so drawn out and boring that most players would rather skip the yawn-fest and get straight to the action, only to discover that the mission WAS to listen to these characters prattle on. Who's idea was that?
Fortunately for Ubisoft, they followed up their AC3 title with Black Flag. It saved the franchise, in my opinion, taking the best and smallest elements of AC3 (the ship and mysterious island missions) and expanding on them.
Now they've gone back to the snore-fest history lesson with AC Unity.
The problem here is the quality control; (apart from me) no one is honest enough to step into the studio and tell them that some of the elements are complete and utter crap. UBIsoft, feel free to mail me and I'll come in to your offices and set you straight.
Next is Rockstar Games: The big hit was GTA San Andreas. That's where it all went big for the studios. Your character could fly planes, jets, helicopters, jetpacks, use parachutes... the game felt like full escapism. Going back it was as if every prayer that people made on the multi-platinum Vice City had been answered and addressed with a bow.
Then came GTA 4.
No planes. No parachutes. Clunky movement. Getting pulled over quickly if drunk driving. Flying through the windscreen and dying if going to quick. It came so close to reality that it wasn't escapism any more, just a role playing restricted world. A big step backwards.
Was it the censors or investors restricting the creative minds? No planes allowed in virtual cities because of what happened in 9/11. Everyone knows this happened... what's the point in restricting a gamers experience? A virtual world that looks similar to New York can't be enjoyed on a virtual level?
And then there's the time it takes to travel between areas in these new "open world" settings. A player shouldn't have to spend twenty minutes to return to a certain spot because of a failed mission. It's the part of gaming people don't like. Let the gameplay or boss be the difficulty, not the journey (unless the mission is to reach a set marker in a given amount of time.)
Lastly, in closing, I sympathise with the big companies out there. I've run some online gaming projects, and a lot has been compromised for what investors, clients and managers want to see (which is dollar signs.) It's difficult to trust that one person will lead your project to greatness. But from experience, the elements of a good story can't be bottled and formulated. It takes a master storyteller to spin a good yarn, and an excellent team to produce what he was saying. Creatives are people who have been shouted at their whole lives, nurture them and you will have a good product.
Check out more at www.jamesbrough.com ref: http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/will-assassin-s-creed-unity-change-the-way-critics-review-games
and http://venturebeat.com/2014/11/25/halo-the-master-chief-collection-is-still-broken/
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