PokeMedic said:
When something like Spike TV does video game awards, you should take their results with a grain of salt. They don't pick the best games. There isn't any journalistic integrity behind the results, no reviews, and the only critical critique games get these days are how the graphics aren't up to snuff. It also doesn't make a lot of sense to nominate very recent games in a contest to determine what was the best game of that year. Do it the following year; rate the best 2011 game in 2012 -do something that shows you actually stopped playing the game for a minute to examine it.
Portal 2 is a fun game, but I think it only exists because people felt it needed to. There's nothing fancy about it. I am upset that Deus Ex got shrugged off like it did, but only because somewhere along the way, people forgot to pay attention to it. When the original Deus Ex game out it was a ground breaking thing. There wasn't a game like that before that had blended so many elements together and told a story so well. That being said it had a lot to live up to. I want to say that Deus Ex wasn't chosen because it required an attention span, but you could dismiss that argument because of the investment people make in Skyrim, a game where guys are actually ignoring their girlfriends to play. That's a sign of a personal problem, not a good game.
The problem with game reviewing is the same with games in general. Nowadays, everyone does it. Everyone is in on it, and the market is made to appeal to a mass audience. This means things are dumbed down to the lowest common demoninator and made simple so anyone can play it. Games, particulary things on the computer, were complicated and required time, patience, and passion. Now though it's about money. Why are there so many shooter games so often? Because people want to play them and they'll give their money away.
Stay tuned for Skryim of Duty: Portal of the Skyward Halo; Game of the Year 2012, releasing on December 30th 2012"
Absolutely agreed 100%. The original Deus Ex remains my favorite game of all time (it remains in somewhat fierce competition with Fallout 2 and Paper Mario TTYD).
The problem the television and film industries have faced for the last two or three decades has unfortunately translated to video games as well. Anything that is popular is, by default, good, and will be remembered that way over somewhat less popular things. Because a game is able to appeal to the largest demographic does not make it a good game. Modern Warfare 3 understands who is going to play it and so it caters to those people. The people who play Modern Warfare 3 and Deus Ex Human Revolutions are similar people, but the people who play Modern Warfare 3 and the original Deus Ex are universes apart. Modern Warfare 3, Portal 2, Skyward Sword, and Skyrim were all immediately dubbed "good" because they are formulaic, bland, necessary sequels. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and call these games bland. I enjoyed Portal 2, I enjoyed Skyrim, and I'm sure I'll enjoy Skyward Sword when I actually get it (let's not mention Modern Warfare 3). These games, even though they belong to different genres, are all the same in the sense that there is little to no great innovation in these games. It takes a previously successful idea and capitalizes upon it. Portal 2 is especially guilty of this. The original Portal was never meant to be successful. That's what gave it a quirky charm that was unprecedented at the time. Portal 2 was created with the idea in the back of the developers' minds that it would be successful no matter what and that they could shrug off some of their responsibilities. The exact same goes for Skyrim, Skyward Sword, and Portal 2. The companies who created these games KNEW that they were going to create Game of the Year contenders because they have been so successful in the past. Video games that were once good remain good. Zelda was good 10 years ago, it will be good 10 years from now. Elder Scrolls was good 10 years ago, it will be good 10 years from now. Modern Warfare 8 will probably be just as "good" as Modern Warfare 3.
The same problem plagues the television and movie industry, as I previously stated. Pretty much every film that James Cameron or Michael Bay releases from now on will be considered "good". Maybe not amazing, but "good". It will be a film that will be remembered. I want to go back to the whole Deus Ex thing. Deus Ex, the original, was an outstanding game. I mean, I cannot put into words how much I have enjoyed this game over the years. Deus Ex Human Revolution was also an outstanding game. The gameplay was decently enjoyable, the story was really cool, and the graphics were nothing to write home about. Why was this such an outstanding game? Because it was different. It was a break. It was something that was necessary not in the way that Portal 2 was, but in a similar way when a film no one has heard of wins an Oscar for Best Picture. Very few gamers of this generation knew about the original Deus Ex before Human Revolution. Very few have even played the original (a true crime). Human Revolution gave us something that wasn't Zelda, that wasn't Portal, that wasn't Bethesda, Naughty Dog, Activision, or some fifteenth sequel of a game. It's a sequel, sure, but dammit if it wasn't a great one. And it was overlooked.
Spike is put into an awkward position. Gamers are a tough crowd to please. They want to be funny, quirky, and interesting enough to keep them focused when they're not talking about video games. And when they
are talking about video games, they want to be talking about the video games that most people enjoy. That means they want to be talking about whatever is popular. And whatever is popular is (usually) whatever is easiest. Portal 2 was a 4-6 hour game that was not nearly as challenging and intricate as it should have been. It was somewhat quirky but it was trying to hard at points to be so. I don't want to accuse Valve or any wrongdoing because who am I to question our almighty kings, but I just feel as though the effort that should have been put into the game design was just not there. But I digress. Compare this to Deus Ex. Deus Ex is an exceptionally long game, but a good game a long game does not make. Deus Ex finds the perfect median between too short and too long, and it capitalizes on this by allowing the player to have his or her choice between multiple endings, some of which have to be achieved in different playthroughs. You can tell Eidos really tried to enforce player interactivity with the story, but also try very hard to appeal to the current generation. They had to cut corners. I know they did. I want to show you guys something.
Unbelievable, huh? None of the levels of Deus Ex Human Revolution were this intricately designed. Having said that, they were still more complex than levels in any other "mainstream" video game I can think of today. They were certainly more complex than any video game that was nominated for an award. Do complex levels a good game make? Maybe. It depends on what kind of person you are. But it certainly adds depth to a game, and no one can argue that that is an important factor. Human Revolution definitely had depth as far as story goes, and the gameplay was at least comparable to the original Deus Ex. It had its flaws, but I don't blame the game or the developers. I blame the current generation of games and gamers for making video games what they never wanted to be. An experience where you can just turn your brain off and do what the game tells you to do. Kill this guy? "lolsure". Move over here? "Too lazy, do it for me, please." We want to be SPOONFED. We are ASKING for this. We are ENDORSING this. It's disappointing, but unfortunately, it's happening.
I never asked for this
Look, I don't want to sound like I hate anything that's "mainstream". I really don't. Like I said, I enjoy Skyrim. I enjoy Arkham City, Portal 2, Uncharted 3, all of those games. I think they're all great games. But against Deus Ex Human Revolution, I don't feel like any of them can COMPARE. Human Revolution wasn't even a worthy sequel in my eyes and I still think it's the best game of this year. I'm just disappointed, I guess. I'll continue to play video games because I love them, and video games will continue to devolve before my eyes. At least I was able to play Deus Ex. It's not a big deal if it didn't get any nods.
...on the FLIPSIDE, I would start an ENTIRELY new rant on The Witcher 2 and why I think it MORE than deserves best PC game of the year, but eh. I think most everyone agrees with me on that one. Also I haven't reread this monstrosity of a post so I hope I didn't say anything stupid by accident.
