Huh. A little exaggeration for comic effect aside, that's actually a really interesting and well thought out idea. (Not that that's unusual, Mr. Croshaw, perish the thought.)
As a primarily PC/Wii gamer, I probably don't notice this in quite the same way, but I can't help but think of the obvious parallel with movies. When stuntwork and modelling and real-world pyrotechnics were the order of the day, it was a lot easier to be impressed with action scenes in movies. Now that we're aware that that Ferrari power-sliding across five lanes of traffic as a semi-truck trailer flips inches over its roof was undoubtedly the product of a CGI lab... yawn.
Perversely, I suspect it's the things that don't grab us by the collar and shake us senseless these days that are far more likely to impress. Yes, we can give all the heroines 44-F busts and put them in outfits that make us wonder about how much spirit gum they must employ to maintain a "T" rating, or we can increase the particle counts of the lens-flared explosion that just rocked the brown-and-grey world... But I think in many cases what people find far more resonant is a world that feels vivid and alive, and explorable all the way to a distantly viewed horizon. Or even a level that didn't feel like it was force-marching the player through to the next barely-interactive "ooh-ahhh" set-piece.
As a primarily PC/Wii gamer, I probably don't notice this in quite the same way, but I can't help but think of the obvious parallel with movies. When stuntwork and modelling and real-world pyrotechnics were the order of the day, it was a lot easier to be impressed with action scenes in movies. Now that we're aware that that Ferrari power-sliding across five lanes of traffic as a semi-truck trailer flips inches over its roof was undoubtedly the product of a CGI lab... yawn.
Perversely, I suspect it's the things that don't grab us by the collar and shake us senseless these days that are far more likely to impress. Yes, we can give all the heroines 44-F busts and put them in outfits that make us wonder about how much spirit gum they must employ to maintain a "T" rating, or we can increase the particle counts of the lens-flared explosion that just rocked the brown-and-grey world... But I think in many cases what people find far more resonant is a world that feels vivid and alive, and explorable all the way to a distantly viewed horizon. Or even a level that didn't feel like it was force-marching the player through to the next barely-interactive "ooh-ahhh" set-piece.