Sometimes designers are known for being quite clear about their feelings on a subject. In this case, the subject is the current state of the FPS (First-Person Shooter) genre, and one designer in particular who thinks they could use a good retooling.
That designer is Stuart Black, former Senior Designer for Criterion’s PS2 blockbuster Black, using the colorful phrase “f***ing boring” to describe current shooters and their shortcomings. I admit I agree with some of it, even if graphically shooters are as good and realistic as they’ve ever been, especially for the PS3.
The newly hired Game Director of Codemasters FPS that’s being designed was quoted at OXM, an XBox web site:
“There’s a lot of cover-based shooters out at the moment [...] when a guy hunkers down behind something, you’ve just got to sit there and wait for him to pop his head up. Pops up, couple of bullets to his head, pops back down again… and I’m waiting for him to pop back up again? F***ing boring. I can’t be bothered hanging around like that.”
I admit it; there’s a lot of FPS multi-player games with this type of strategy, and its assumed the game he’s working on will change this for the better. We await the game that will blaze new territory in this genre.
2K Games has released their plans for a BioShock follow-up for PS3 that sounds awfully cool. Here’s a snippet from their press release:
Seven years had passed between the events of the original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and its rough-edged sequel The Warrior Within, and now Ubisoft is poised to bring back the acrobatic stylings of the Prince in this chapter of the franchise, which is slated to release May 11, 2010, a few weeks before the Sands of Time movie release on May 28, 2010. Movie tie-ins usually have a history of not being very good, but this one may have a chance to be more, due to the fact it was a game first before it was a movie.
Ever since Orange Box released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 a few moons ago, PlayStation gamers have felt like they have been shafted, especially when Valve decided to give PS3 gamers an uninspired and inferior version of the game, the pres of Valve stated he disliked the PS3 quite intensely, and then announcing their game Left 4 Dead would be a XBox360 exclusive, you can see where PS3 owners might not have a warm spot in their heart for Valve. But things may be changing.
Naughty Dog has announced some grand plans for its new batch of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves downloadable content for your eager killing sprees. Below is detailed some of the goodies in store for users.
Exclusivity: It’s a double-edged sword. Many games were once pitched (at least originally) as PS3 exclusives, including this game. Now its coming for XBox 360 as well, but hey, its still something to look forward to, to be certain. We’ll ditch all the “sell out” talk that’s floating around the web for the moment. The game will feature an old-school style quite prominently and appeal to gamers of all ages.
The much-rumored, anticipated Final Fantasy VII PS3 HD remake that was reported by a number of sites reportedly isn’t going to happen after all, it appears. The latest reason (excuse?) Square is putting out there? A HD makeover of the PSX classic game is too tricky to reproduce on PlayStation 3 and that the “style” of the game would take too much work to complete. Never mind that it would sell well; that isn’t the point, really.