Substance TV

Stop Single Game Syndrome

Posted by Brian On March - 31 - 2010

The other night I’m in a party on Xbox LIVE. You know, shootin’ the breeze with a few friends, catching up on life, and seeing what’s new. I was playing a bit of Battlefield 1943 while the rest of the party was deep in Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer. Feeling like the third wheel, I asked the guys what other games they had. To my surprise, each of them responded with, “I only have Modern Warfare 2”.

What?

Of course one guy chimed in, as if to impress the others, “Well, I have NBA 2K7”. Wow. Great. Of course curiosity got the best of me. I asked, “What other games are you interested in?”. Each of them say in unison, “I really don’t care to buy any other games and mostly likely won’t”. They didn’t even have a simple Xbox LIVE arcade game. Nothing. Just Modern Warfare 2.

Let’s do that magical math dance and figure the least you would have to spend to get this setup.

Xbox 360 = $200 (base arcade system)
Modern Warfare 2 = $60 (new price)
Xbox LIVE = $50 (1 year access)

We’re talking about dropping at least $310 to buy the system, game, and online service. All this to play one game? Look, I could care less what others do with their money. This just doesn’t make sense. Why spend all this money for one game? I can think of a few dozen better ways to spend $310 on a single experience. Mind you, these gentleman have owned an Xbox 360 for a few years and have a considerable amount of disposable income (well at least two of them do). It’s like going to a fancy restaurant and getting the steak every time. You’d miss out on a wide array of other great dishes.

My plea to you: rent, borrow, demo, but somehow step out of your comfort zone and experience new games. Think outside of your preconceived notions. I would have missed out on an amazing series like Mass Effect had I not just tried it.

So go forth and try!

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http://www.substance-tv.com Brian

@Refa: Agreed, after BF 1943, I have no desire to own Call of Duty again. It’s not a terrible game by many means, but I know if I bought it, I’d just be wishing I was playing BF 1943.
Refa

Oh god. Call Of Duty 4. I still don’t get why people enjoy that. I’d rather play…Battlefield 1943 …or Doom.
Nightmare26

I agree. I know people who only play mainstream titles and ignore the underrated/overlooked gems of each generation. They wouldn’t dare to try Tenchu: Shadow Assassins, yet when a Mario game comes out, they’re all over it (not to say Mario games are bad, quite the contrary).
http://www.gamespot.com/users/hart704/ HartKnight

ProtoEXE88: That’s very cool that you enjoyed the ’08 PoP game. I would still recommend it even with the problems I had with it.

The reason the combat was frustrating to me was because of the fluid combat from Warrior Within and The Two Thrones being much more fun. I also didn’t like that the ’08 game felt more on auto pilot with one scene down a small tower where control of the analog stick wasn’t used. Just a press of X/A or Circle/B was needed.

I hope that R1/RB returns as the wall run button with the great fluid combat I liked for The Forgotten Sands.
ProtoEXE88

Agreed so much. I friggin can not stand people who all they do is play CoD4 (or now, MW2). PLAY A VARIETY, THESE GAMES ARE NOT THAT GREAT

And also agreed on the XBLA, it sickens me how many people just have never played any downloadable games, I will cope with people who like to own a physical copy of games though, but chances are those same people would buy the shitty MW2 maps though for $15 instead of countless hours of fun with something like Castle Crashers, Castlevania, Geometry Wars, MVC2, etc.

And HartKnight, I loved Prince of Persia 2008, one of my favorite games this generation… this is coming from someone who hasn’t played any of the last gen PoPs though, which I’ve been meaning to do for some time now.
http://www.gamespot.com/users/hart704/ HartKnight

I’m definitely all about new/unique/different gaming experiences or at the very least more of them.

I was never a fan or even interested in the Tomb Raider series. However, I got interested once I saw Tomb Raider: Legend in action. I picked it up and was happy I did. In fact, Tomb Raider: Anniversary (finished too) and Underworld are similar so I’ve since picked them up.

I’ve also tried other games that I wouldn’t normal bother with that didn’t go over so well. The two that come to mind is Pychonauts and Splinter Cell. The former was a big collect-a-thon and I’m not into those kinds of games. The latter was too strict on the stealth which lead to a not-so-enjoyable experience. At least I gave those games a try. I have since bought the third Splinter Cell game, Chaos Theory, to see if I like it more.

Another great example is Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I never liked any of the 2D games so I didn’t think to look at this game when it came out. In 2006 I decided to give the game a shot. Not only did I like it a lot, I also bought Warrior Within and The Two Thrones soon after. I even did three speed runs of the game back-to-back with my best time being just under three hours. On top of that I’ve bought the PSP versions of the latter two games renamed Revelations and Rival Swords, respectively. The 2008 game was a big letdown with the frustrating combat. The Forgotten Sands looks to be a return to form for the series, which I greatly approve of.

With my most recent purchases I picked up Alter Echo which looked interesting after seeing some gameplay videos. I even decided to get the PS2 Shinobi game and Urban Reign, if I can ever find it, because your show made them look so good.