Console Shooters No Longer Innovate, Says Original GoldenEye Director

[Logan Westbrook]

Console Shooters No Longer Innovate, Says Original GoldenEye Director

Martin Hollis, director of the classic N64 shooter GoldenEye, thinks that console shooters have lost their way, and any innovation in the genre is happening on the PC.

GoldenEye made such a splash when it was released, that more than a decade later it is still held up as an example of a movie tie-in that didn't suck, not to mention one of the games that defined the modern console shooter. But Hollis doesn't think that modern console shooters are really trying to do anything new anymore and instead are just rehashing the same old ideas.

He said that he always went into FPS games hoping to see something new, but felt that most of the interesting developments were happening in PC shooters, which had different cultures and different gameplay mechanics. He didn't think that console shooters were moving backwards necessarily, but he didn't think that they were moving forwards and that a lot of what he saw wasn't really very new.

He did acknowledge that console shooters had brought about one very big change however, although he didn't think it was a positive one. He felt that playing a shooter on a console had become a solitary activity, whereas when he was making them in the nineties, they had had a much greater social element. Even playing online was still essentially a solitary activity, he said, which was a lot more convenient, but lacked the emotional appeal of gathering with friends to play.

Hollis does have a point that console shooters aren't pushing the envelope with every release, but without some specific examples, it's impossible to know what PC shooters he thinks are doing it so much better.

Source: Games Industry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2010-10-22-zoonami-keeper-interview?page=3]




Permalink

 

[DTWolfwood]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

 

[SinisterGehe]

So it took a professional to do offical statement about that so it gets some attention...
Well... World is what it is...

 

[Hiphophippo]

I'm inclined to agree but I'd love to hear some of his examples.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

 

[Nieroshai]

I'd like to see those innovations on PC that didn't make it to console. As far as I know, there are few modern shooters that arent on at least PC AND one of the consoles.

Also, I do miss split-screen multiplayer. It's what made the Gamecube's shooters fun. And sure the Halos and Call of Duty do it, but everyone else has jumped that ship.

 

[DTWolfwood]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

clarification, in multiplayer.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Great, fuel for the Pc elitism.

Though I agree that consoles could do a bit more innovation, we still have some great FPS titles, whether it be because they're great of story, multiplayer or otherwise.

Also I could be wrong but I would have thought a lot of PC innovation is going towards other genres... the standard PC shooter is really no better than a standard console shooter.

 

[zHellas]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

clarification, in multiplayer.

Modern Warfare 2 allowed you to be prone in multiplayer.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Hollis does have a point that console shooters aren't pushing the envelope with every release, but without some specific examples, it's impossible to know what PC shooters he thinks are doing it so much better.

This was pretty much my thought as well. It's very true that console FPS games aren't exactly constantly breaking new ground right now, but then again how many PC FPS games are? And, for that matter, seeing as how a pretty good chunk of the FPS games that are released today are released on both PC and console, what is he claiming to be a non-console FPS?

His commentary about console FPS games being solitary is another sort of half truth instead of a real fact. If you don't count online play, gaming in general is more solitary now than it was in the past. It's not just FPS games that seem to be downplaying same room multiplayer experiences, it's all games that (aren't Nintendo titles and) aren't specifically designed around the premise of being a "party" experience.

To me, this commentary just boils down to "Hmm.. no one's talking about our game, let's say something sort of controversial so that it gets in the news!"

 

[Therumancer]

I think things would improve if you saw more developers building their games from the ground up. I think the problem is that right now you only have a few engines out there that are being tweaked to do differant games. UNREAL, GRAW, Havoc Phsix, and others are all constantly updated "toolboxes" that form the skeleton for games. Typically developers are buying the liscence to those toolboxs and building around those skeletons. Adding little more than a few tweaks (if that) and some new graphics and skins.

Right now one of the first things you find people complaining about is that the new games simply seem like clones of other ones that could be years old. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that the games basically are the same. It's just that certain franchises like "Gears Of War" were the first on the market with any kind of quality using the given toolbox. Other shooters using the same skeleton are likewise going to be very similar. I also think one of the problems with horrible AI in these games (which people constantly complain about) is that not all developers tweak it, a lot of them are doubtlessly using whatever AI systems are part of their toolbox of choice.

As Yahtzee has pointed out, you shouldn't be able to call having cover mechanics in your game "innovative". That seems to have become a standard "out of the box" feature that probably takes minimal actual work on the part of the code monkeys.... as one of many examples.

-

Of course, there is a flip side to all of this. That flip side is of course gamers who don't demand any real innovation in their titles. People line up sheeplike for the latest "Call Of Duty" title, no matter how the company treats them, or how standard the game might actually be in absolute terms. If gamers still allow "more of the same" franchises to make massive baknk despite everything, there is no motivation for the industry to innovate to try and garner customer interest.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

clarification, in multiplayer.

Modern Warefare 2 still did this then, and it just encourages camping

 

[archvile93]

Great, fuel for the Pc elitism.

Though I agree that consoles could do a bit more innovation, we still have some great FPS titles, whether it be because they're great of story, multiplayer or otherwise.

Also I could be wrong but I would have thought a lot of PC innovation is going towards other genres... the standard PC shooter is really no better than a standard console shooter.

I'm a PC gamer, so I think I know what I'm talking about when I say you're not wrong.

 

[Irridium]

Well Bioshock did innovative stuff. Well for the first 5 or so hours at least, then it turned into another generic shooter, but those first 5 hours were fucking amazing.

 

[The Ambrosian]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

clarification, in multiplayer.

Modern Warfare 2 allowed you to be prone in multiplayer.

and so did all current gen Call of Duty's.
I'm sure quite a few other games have as well...

 

[DugMachine]

Well come on there is only so much a SHOOTING game can do. Guns are simple, pull the trigger, metal flys, people die. There isnt much more to it. You can add crazy guns that shoot sharks or something but its still the same concept.

I love the shooting games of today and I feel like they are still innovative console or PC. TF2 is amazing in its own right (PC of course) while CoD is always a blast on a console. Both two very different styles of FPS. Who cares if they keep rehasing, its the fact that we have different styles of FPS that keep it fun and entertaining.

 

[Mr.Petey]

I agree with the OP that a few more examples would highlight exactly but I'm guessing the fella is afraid of pointing fingers. Can't blame him as generally we are all apprehensive to point out flaws and I'm sure the industry is a cruel mistress to lynch him should he name titles.

But he's hit it on the head. The FPS is nothing more lately than an online frenzy of death matches and other such modes, such as Modern Warfare 1+2 and the Halo saga. By no means do I mean to portray them in a negative light, merely that they are stuck in a rut that the public as a whole doesn't mind, so say the sales figures.

Crysis broke that mould for me, giving multiple options to assault enemy positions by use of the nanosuit. Each mission ended the same but the travelling between each objective could have many different approaches; the lack of invisible walls surrounding a fixed router gave a catalyst to that freedom for starters.

 

[DTWolfwood]

You know they can probably call it innovation if they gave Console Shooters a Prone option. XD

You mean Medal of Honor?

clarification, in multiplayer.

Modern Warfare 2 allowed you to be prone in multiplayer.

did it? hmm game didnt leave much of an impression on me so forgive me for not remembering.

 

[Logan Westbrook]

I can think of these examples on innovation:

Battlefield 1942

Deus Ex

Call of Duty 2

Crysis

Ok, not all of them are recently, but they are post Golden eye, and somehow they put a lot of innovations in their formulas, that were duplicated over and over in other PC titles and Consoles.

 

[SantoUno]

That's funny, last time I remember almost EVERY FPS released in the past couple years have been multiplatform. So it doesn't matter if they are innovative or not, none of them can be claimed as PC or console shooters. Therefore neither platform has had an innovative FPS to itself.

There, can we stop it with the separation between the two ?