I have been waiting for Until Dawn for more than three years. The idea of being the characters in a classic horror film situation (i.e. Friday the 13th) really piqued my interest. Who lives? Who dies? Who sleeps with who? How will the next character die? These questions and more are staples of any good slasher film, which is one of the biggest things that drew me into this game to begin with. Over the course of the years, Until Dawn had all but fizzled out of the public eye, and it was generally believed to have been canceled, Luckily, Sony Computer Entertainment has rushed in to the rescue to revive the game, and on their new PlayStation console to boot. What I have seen so far from trailers and demos is simply amazing. The control schemes that seem to slightly hinder such interactive cinema games like Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls seems all but resolved here, and the only minor issue I've really heard about so far is the framerate. Hopefully the developer will have the game fully complete by the time it is released later next month.
The Order: 1886 is a game that seems to be panned by critics and fans alike. Why? According to many people, it's too short, which is completely understandable to me. I've yet to beat the game, but I've already fallen in love with the cinematic style and the incredible graphics (yes, even at 30 frames per second). "It's like paying $60 for a movie" I've heard people say. Why do we, as gamers, tend to turn away innovation and new mechanics for the same bland shooters that we get year after year? Why do repetitive games like Call of Duty and Destiny get millions of pre-orders, yet innovative games like The Order and Beyond Two Souls fail to impress the mainstream audiences? Maybe a lot of modern gamers don't like to be presented with their own choices. Maybe the like being brainwashed by the same, boring fetch quests constantly thrown at us in games like CoD and Battlefield. (Yes, I'm being slightly hyperbolic.)
Seriously though, I wouldn't mind in the least if developers started making a few more games like this and less games that involve running and shooting clones for ten hours. Beyond Two Souls got panned by IGN when it was released, and yet I call it one of the greatest games I've ever played. Maybe it's a deep connection with my love for cinema that causes me to favor these "cinematic style" games, but can you really deny that some developers are really trying to think outside the box? I'm all for any open world games, but sometimes a choice-driven game is something that really tends to catch my eye. I haven't touched Dragon Age: Inquisition in months, yet I find myself replaying episodes of Tales from the Borderlands more than I ever would have thought. If we had more full games that are driven by choices that player makes, we would see more innovation and more originality outside of Nintendo.
I'm not going to lie here: up until now, this has been one of the most depressing generations in video game history. Both of the new consoles (PS4 and Xbox One) suffered from their own issues at release. PlayStation had a lackluster catalog of launch titles, they were so bad that for the first few months, I only used my PS4 as a blu-ray player. None of the launch titles managed to catch my eye, and I can only play Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes so many times in a day. Even Outlast had problems with me, and I yearned for better titles. Luckily, there has been a steady stream of decent to great titles coming in, and the next few months look to be some of the best (as a gamer) in a long, long time.
The public needs some originality in the gaming community. Releasing the same Call of Duty and Assassin's Creeds every year have proven to be cash cows for the industry, but where do the gamers begin to reap the benefits? Where's the fun in playing the same game every year with a different coat of paint? Why can't we allow more creative types to make their own dreams realities so that we can experience them for ourselves? I understand that these games I am condemning are nowhere near going away, but that doesn't mean they aren't a problem. The fact that Call of Duty: Run and Gun 5000 gets more love from the community than a truly innovative form of art such as, say, Beyond Two Souls, is disheartening. Film and video games alike can both be viewed as forms of expressive art, but when the most publicity goes to the crappiest artist, how is that really benefiting the advancement of entertainment technology? Why do we reward unoriginality and condemn those who try to make good of their own visions? I'm not saying that everything that's unoriginal is bad and everything that is original is good (there are extremes on both ends), but the thought of massively overhyping a repetitive game frightens me. I myself was a victim of the "Destiny Ghost Edition" scam, but I was lucky enough to get almost all of my money back. I have simply become disillusioned with the mass marketing of the same generic crap each year, and seeing solid original games fade into oblivion.
Luckily, the latter half of this year looks to be one of the best in the history of entertainment. We've got some solid sequels and promising original films, and we are even on the brink of an entirely new Fallout game! Microsoft has finally taken their heads out of their butts and allowed Rare to release 30 of their most treasured classics, including the incredibly difficult to find Conker's Bad Fur Day. Even their flagship Banjo games are getting some nice HD upgrades (from their Xbox Live counterparts) and I am excited to revisit and discover new treasures. Heck, even Halo 5 looks incredibly promising. The Halo franchise is the only shooter franchise outside of Far Cry 4 that has actually kept my interest, and hopefully I will complete the campaigns in The Master Chief Collection in time for the release. The future of gaming looks fairly bright to me, and I look forward to trekking into the unknown, whether by myself or with friends or other online gamers. Either way, I'll be sure to have a blast doing it.