Bulletstorm Dev Trashes Idea of Shooter Saturation

[Zhukov]

There Aren't Too Many Shooters, Says Man Who Earns Living Making Shooters.

Phht.

 

[vxicepickxv]

Finally, somebody puts the situation into perspective. I'm sick of snotty kids rolling their eyes and groaning every time a new shooter is announced because the developers would rather make a profit from the application of their talents than catering to the hipster mentality that is running rampant in the gaming community.

Okay, I guess that's not directed at me since I don't really buy a lot of FPS games.

I'd rather see a wider variety of games, rather than rehash mode. Madden 11 and a new Call of Duty game. Color me shocked. Didn't this happen last year? Didn't this happen the year before? Somebody get me out of my time machine.

 

[scotth266]

Originality has kinda died in the genre.

I [http://steamreview.org/wp-content/images/bioshock/bioshock_fairground.jpg] love [http://imtalkingames.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/borderlands-itg-image.jpg] it [http://www.veterangamers.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fallout-3-pics-20080421102025604_640w.jpg] when [http://www.teamfortress.com/] people [http://www.wallpaperez.info/wallpaper/games/Mass-Effect-Commander-Shepard-1357.jpg] say [http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/14/g_prey1_wideweb__470x349,0.jpg] this. [http://www.rollattack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/crackdown_2.jpg]

 

[Plurralbles]

this made me think... In the olden days... did anhyone complain about there being, "yet another platformer ?!"

 

[vxicepickxv]

snip

You are aware that Crackdown 2 isn't an FPS, right? You also linked to 2 sequels, something hotlink blocked, and something I'm not even sure what it is.

I'll give you borderlands, for the most part. They really did try, and from what I played of it, it wasn't horrible, but it didn't seem great either.

Mass Effect was good for the most part.

 

[Aphroditty]

You've got four honest-to-goodness shooters in that list.

Fallout is an RPG. Dead Space is survival "horror". If Red Faction: Armageddon is anything like it's predecessor, it's more of an open world game action game. Portal is a puzzle game.

Of the four left, they're all pretty different games.

It'd say that Chmielarz has a point. I noticed a while ago that there didn't seem to be as many shooters coming out as there used to be, especially since the bottom fell out of the WWII shooter market.

They're all shooters though, because their main mechanic is shooting. Certainly they're hybrids in some ways, but that don't mean that the shooting is somehow less important. Hell, I would even classify ME2 as a shooter--RPG-shooter or not, still a shooter. Also an RPG. So really there hasn't been much of a decrease in the number of shooters, it's just that they've learned to appeal to people who never strictly fell under the banner of those gamers that bought WWII shooters.

If one were to average out the aesthetic design, quality, and general themes of every first person shooter, the result would be a dull, brown, six hour long pro-military gunwank.

Just because its a generalization, and just because there are a very small amount of good games floating amidst the liquid shit that is the general landscape, doesn't mean generalizations are wrong, bad, or even unnecessary.

Generalizations are not wrong, bad, or unnecessary; they are an important way for human beings to organize their world and cut out a lot of thinking. Because, if you can imagine having to think about every. Single. Thing you do. It would be overwhelming.

It's when we start using these non-thinking heuristics in ways that they shouldn't be used that they begin to be a problem--like when we label an entire genre of gameplay of mediocre with no empirical evidence, no framework to judge it on, we're simply taking strategies that have worked in the past and pasting them, slapdash, over this new surface so that we don't have to look at the wormy, rotten, assumptions that form the foundation for our viewpoint.

Which, if you'll pardon the startling generalization, is almost exactly what you sounded like.

 

[rsvp42]

Originality has kinda died in the genre.

I [http://steamreview.org/wp-content/images/bioshock/bioshock_fairground.jpg] love [http://imtalkingames.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/borderlands-itg-image.jpg] it [http://www.veterangamers.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fallout-3-pics-20080421102025604_640w.jpg] when [http://www.teamfortress.com/] people [http://www.wallpaperez.info/wallpaper/games/Mass-Effect-Commander-Shepard-1357.jpg] say [http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/14/g_prey1_wideweb__470x349,0.jpg] this. [http://www.rollattack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/crackdown_2.jpg]

Exactly. I'm not really sure why people get into this mentality. I'm not necessarily the biggest consumer of shooters, but I don't think any one I own is the same as another. They're not even mostly the same. Bioshock, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Halo: Reach, Gears of War 2, Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil 4... all games with shooting guns as the core gameplay mechanic, yet none of them feel the same to me and none of them play the same. Maybe the problem isn't too many shooters, but too many people buying crappy, copycat shooters and blaming the entire genre. Or maybe people just like to exaggerate.

 

[scotth266]

snip

You are aware that Crackdown 2 isn't an FPS, right? You also linked to 2 sequels, something hotlink blocked, and something I'm not even sure what it is.

Mass Effect wasn't a FPS either, technically. I'll give you Crackdown 2 (I was sort of being lazy with that one.) Toss in Dead Space and Resident Evil 4 instead.

Arguing that Bioshock isn't an original franchise is like arguing the sky is green. Fallout 3 is also completely different from it's predecessors, so your argument that "it isn't original because it's a sequel" doesn't quite fly.

The other things I linked were the TF2 homepage (dunno why hotlink blocked that) and Prey, a game which was both totally original and therefore totally overlooked by the gaming community. It's not the best game ever, but if you're looking for something that's off-the-wall awesome it's worth a shot... and it did Portal before Portal.

 

[Jared]

I think when ot comes to it there are diffeent kinds of shooters, all catering to different people

 

[MercurySteam]

That 'aint happening for a long, long time. Let's see....... Fallout: New Vegas, Dead Space 2, Black Ops, BulletStorm, Portal 2 (technically), Gears of War 3, Red Faction: Armageddon and of course Halo: Reach.

Looks like you may as well get used to shooters. They're here to stay.

You've got four honest-to-goodness shooters in that list.

Fallout is an RPG. Dead Space is survival "horror". If Red Faction: Armageddon is anything like it's predecessor, it's more of an open world game action game. Portal is a puzzle game.

If we're gonna do this, let's do it properly.

Fallout: New Vegas is a action role-playing game /role-playing shooter/sandbox. Dead Space 2 is a survival horror/third-person shooter. Red Faction: Armageddon is a third-person shooter/survival Horror and Portal 2 is a first person puzzle game, though many people consider it to be a unique FPS.

I'm just calling them out as they are.

Just because its a generalization, and just because there are a very small amount of good games floating amidst the liquid shit that is the general landscape, doesn't mean generalizations are wrong, bad, or even unnecessary.

There's no doubt that many developers are making mediocre shooters as they are "safe", though they lack ingenuity. I wouldn't go as far to say that the crappy shooters outnumber the good ones but as the years go on, the shovelware will pile up. That said, the originality of shooters such as Brink and BullertStorm tells me that shooters are far from going out of style.

We 'aint seen nothing yet.

 

[tendo82]

I mean to be fair, the number of shooters with guns shooting lightening and shurikens are exceedingly scarce, so I can see why this developer in particular might feel the market is far from saturated.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

The saturation isn't the amount of shooters being released at a time, its the amount of shooters that all look like they bought the same color palette from Gears of War.
No more brown FPS's please... unless you can come up with fluorescent brown. Then instead of shit, you can have radioactive shit.

 

[Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon]

Meh, these days I tend to stay away from shooters for the most part. I prefer RPGs, I make a exception to things like ME and Borderlands though. Which are technically part RPG...

 

[Cynical skeptic]

-snip-

A sequel, a mad max ripoff/hommage, a sequel, toy story meets the original TF, lol, LOL, ROFL?

Seriously, you start off with something that has a somewhat fresh aesthetic (steampunk) then just get more and more derivative/generic with each link? Have you simply not been playing video games very long?

Finally, somebody puts the situation into perspective. I'm sick of snotty kids rolling their eyes and groaning every time a new shooter is announced because the developers would rather make a profit from the application of their talents than catering to the hipster mentality that is running rampant in the gaming community.

I could slap you around a bit for clearly having never watched citizen kane, but you gave me a bigger target.

Yes, everyone who wants something other than safe, uninspired, unoriginal, meaningless, depdthless bullshit is an asshole. They should always be perfectly happy with their piss easy halo clones.

 

[Wakefield]

Originality has kinda died in the genre.

I [http://steamreview.org/wp-content/images/bioshock/bioshock_fairground.jpg] love [http://imtalkingames.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/borderlands-itg-image.jpg] it [http://www.veterangamers.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/fallout-3-pics-20080421102025604_640w.jpg] when [http://www.teamfortress.com/] people [http://www.wallpaperez.info/wallpaper/games/Mass-Effect-Commander-Shepard-1357.jpg] say [http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/07/14/g_prey1_wideweb__470x349,0.jpg] this. [http://www.rollattack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/crackdown_2.jpg]

Bravo good sir. I agree.

There's originality there in the genre, there's also mediocrity. It's in every single genre. The reason its to pronounced in shooters is that people focus in on it because its been making a lot of money recently.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

Bulletstorm looks hilarious, I can't wait to play it. The only shooter I've even taken notice of this whole year has been Halo: Reach, so I can't say I'm tired of them.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

They're all shooters though, because their main mechanic is shooting. Certainly they're hybrids in some ways, but that don't mean that the shooting is somehow less important. Hell, I would even classify ME2 as a shooter--RPG-shooter or not, still a shooter. Also an RPG. So really there hasn't been much of a decrease in the number of shooters, it's just that they've learned to appeal to people who never strictly fell under the banner of those gamers that bought WWII shooters.

You could just as easily say that Dead Space is an RPG because the main character can buy better armor and upgrade his weapons. And, yes, having an open world with character interaction as your main draw does make the shooting less important. The shooting in Fallout is awful, and could never carry a game on its own.

If you have to expand your definition of "shooter" to "any game with guns" in order to fill out your list, then clearly actual shooters are not quite as numerous as you assumed.

 

[MercurySteam]

WOAH!! DID I READ THIS RIGHT?

People Can Fly's creative director

Painkiller dev is making a new game!

Uh yeah, it was announced ages ago. Where have you been?

 

[GeneticallyModifiedDucks]

WOAH!! DID I READ THIS RIGHT?

People Can Fly's creative director

Painkiller dev is making a new game!

Uh yeah, it was announced ages ago. Where have you been?

Well, I had heard a few things about Bulletstorm at E3, but I never knew who the developer was.