With the launch of Destiny a lot of talk about first person shooters is being had. Some people are saying Destiny is revitalizing the first person genre, some are saying it's just another reskin of the basic first person shooter. That judgement is up to the player to decide, but the fact still remains. First person shooters are repetitive and unsurprisingly similar.
Majority of first person shooters are military based. Every year we hear people arguing about Battlefield vs Call of Duty. But in reality you could probably put screen shots next to each other and you'd never be able to tell the difference. Arguing about these two isn't arguing about NBA2K or NBA Live. It's not Madden vs All Pro Football. Both of these series are highly polished and there isn't anything that makes one stand out more than the other besides individual preference. They're identical in most aspects. The question becomes "Do you want more vehicles or a dog?" They're both running at the same fps, the characters are all dressed in fatigues, there's multiplayer with so much DLC that it eventually costs more than the base game.
When first person shooters were being developed in the early 70's nobody envisioned that they would take off the way they did. It was simply an alternative to playing as a 16x16 character. But it did. First person shooters are now some of the highest selling games on the annual basis. But they lack variance between them. Why is that?
It's not like games haven't come along and tried to do something different than military combat or zombie shooter in the first person genre. It's just that fans used their wallets to pay for yearly installments of series rather than something different. Games have tried to break free and it rarely works.
Borderlands will never be as popular as Call of Duty or Battlefield, but it's managed to carve a niche for itself. There are still reviewers who complain that the cartoonish style is unrealistic as if realistic is the only way. There are still customers who complain that there aren't any M-16's and Jets. There are still people who somehow have never heard of Borderlands. But it's managed to survive. Other games haven't been so lucky.
One game that wasn't so lucky was Bulletstorm. Bulletstorm attempted to put a satirical spin on the first person shooter. The game was filled with over the top gore. It featured trick shots that were completely insane. The game openly poked fun at first person shooters during dialogue. The game spent a lot of time on comedy. Poking fun at the fact that first person shooters are usually lacking greatly in the story department and rely on huge set pieces being destroyed. For the most part reviewers and customers loved the game. But it's hype was short lived. It was too far from the typical military or zombie shooter.
It may seem like I'm knocking people who enjoy first person shooters but I'm not. I'm just saying that there's more to the genre than Call of Duty and Battlefield. I can't actually blame the player. The pressure is on the developers to push boundaries and try something new. It seems like first person shooters have fallen into the trap of repeating what works until nobody cares.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He's also playing Pokemon Liquid Crystal on YouTube
Follow @OriginalKingD
When first person shooters were being developed in the early 70's nobody envisioned that they would take off the way they did. It was simply an alternative to playing as a 16x16 character. But it did. First person shooters are now some of the highest selling games on the annual basis. But they lack variance between them. Why is that?
It's not like games haven't come along and tried to do something different than military combat or zombie shooter in the first person genre. It's just that fans used their wallets to pay for yearly installments of series rather than something different. Games have tried to break free and it rarely works.
Borderlands will never be as popular as Call of Duty or Battlefield, but it's managed to carve a niche for itself. There are still reviewers who complain that the cartoonish style is unrealistic as if realistic is the only way. There are still customers who complain that there aren't any M-16's and Jets. There are still people who somehow have never heard of Borderlands. But it's managed to survive. Other games haven't been so lucky.
It may seem like I'm knocking people who enjoy first person shooters but I'm not. I'm just saying that there's more to the genre than Call of Duty and Battlefield. I can't actually blame the player. The pressure is on the developers to push boundaries and try something new. It seems like first person shooters have fallen into the trap of repeating what works until nobody cares.
You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He's also playing Pokemon Liquid Crystal on YouTube
Follow @OriginalKingD
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