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Marty has a point: I'm much more excited about the games coming out at the beginning next year than the ones that came out in the past few months. Do you think it's a problem that publishers are releasing big titles in January or February instead of the traditional holiday period?
This year, gaming started off with a hyperstylized, hypersexualized bang.
Just a few days after 2010 began, Bayonetta arrived. Her sassy attitude and pure sex appeal made many question whether they or not they could fall in love with pixels.
A few weeks later, EA unleashed Mass Effect 2 upon the unwashed masses. It was bold, compelling, fresh, and a lot of fun.
On the very same day Mass Effect 2 came out, MAG and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle landed on store shelves and wedged themselves into the cockles of gamers' hearts.
March effortlessly brought back grizzled veteran Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell: Conviction, while May introduced us to a struggling writer (Alan Wake) and an outlaw turned honest man (John Marston in Red Dead Redemption). And let’s not forget about July and the return of good old Jim Raynor in Starcraft 2.
Do you see what I’m getting at here?
2010 was front-loaded with dozens of absolutely incredible experiences for gamers to indulge in. But what's happened during the typically robust holiday season? The landscape looks bleak. Should I play the completely re-hashed and semi-broken Fable 3, or should I play the re-hashed and completely broken Fallout: New Vegas? And what about Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, a $60 exclamation point on the end of Assassin’s Creed 2? For the first time in memory, the games that came out at the beginning of the year were better than the ones that came out at the end.
While there have been several standout games to come out in the fourth quarter this year, including Super Meat Boy and Vanquish, the majority of releases just cannot stand up to the pedigree of the three previous quarters. And it just so happens that the part of the calendar publishers neglected was the one where people spend a lot of money on things they don’t need. A lot of money.
Madness? THIS! IS! WALMART!
Usually this ends up the other way around and no one bats an eye. However, video-game publishers are seemingly scrambling this holiday season to get games into stores and off of shelves by re-branding previous experiences. They are using the names people know and love as a crutch to move units instead of using true iteration, innovation, or risk.
While I didn’t mind the glut of amazing games at the beginning of the year, I am thoroughly disappointed with the lack of quality games at the end of it. Next year looks to start the same way, with Dead Space 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Bulletstorm, Dragon Age 2, Homefront, Crysis 2, and F.E.A.R. 3 all dropping within the first three months.
What is the cause of this shift in both quantity and quality? Maybe publishers are trying to space out the year’s releases, but I don’t think they’ve quite figured it out yet. Don’t tease me, 2011: I can’t take any more heartbreak.
