The Big Picture: Junk Drawer Rises

[MagmaMan]

Heh, agree SO much on the Mario front.

Thing is, even if they are just pumping out side-scrollers, things shake up a bit. New powerups, new enemies, new ways to interact with the environment (or using modern tech to put a unique spin on the old stuff) and generally giving us a grand experience.

No matter what CoD fans claim, reskinning guns and 'new' perks is nothin to write home about.

Actually, I just want to go to town on that particular topic. Call of Duty has some of the most god damn BORING shooting in all of videogame history. I just had a quick look through my collection of First Person Shooters, and here's a couple of gems from the 'retro' (PS2 and older) section, in no particular order.

A shotgun that fires nails.
A shotgun that fires bouncing explosive shells.
A triple-barrel gatling gun where each barrel is a six-barrel minigun.
A frag grenade made out of flubber.
A self-guiding drill that homes in on brainwaves.
A gravity gun that lets you fire anything at anyone, and by extension can be used to kill zombies with paint cans.
A watch laser.
The Big Fucking Gun 9000.

In this list we have everything from the nifty but near useless to the outright insane. Does any weapon in 90% of modern shooters deserve to be anywhere near this list? Honestly, the only gun I can think of in FPS land that feels half as fun as this is... not in an FPS. It's the Patriot from MGS4 - an infinite-ammo SMG that plays the Snake Eater song when you shoot with it. Even then, however, it's just a less ludicrous (and thus less hillarious) version of the RYNO-V.

Why must the FPS genre be so damn boring now? No wonder I've played 100+ hours of Dragon Age (and its DLC / sequels) consecutively as of late...

A good example of this also is the Goldeneye Remake. They old one you could dual wield AK-47s, lazers guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles, anything. The new one you've got... basically the same things Call of Duty has with no dual-wielding and only being able to hold three guns at a time, one of them always being your pistol. Yeah, there is a lazer, but it's not in campaign and is unlocked at the highest rank only in multiplayer. -_-

 

[nima55]

I don't see why django unchained is such a controversial thing to bob. I mean who likes slave owners?

 

[Use_Imagination_here]

Enough batman? BLASPHEMY! BURN THE BAT HERETIC!

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Before watching this I didn't even want to watch the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph because I believed it was going to be Disney making their own terrible mock versions of characters from games I've played. After watch that little segment however, I saw the trailer and now I am anxiously waiting for the movie.

 

[Taunta]

Isn't Zangief's non-villainy sort of the point of what he's saying? He's an opponent, an obstacle for the player, but he's not necessarily a villain. A "bad guy" but not a bad guy.

Quoted for Emphasis

Wreck-it Ralph: I'm really excited about this movie. Also, as a Street Fighter fan, I feel the need to say: Who cares? Zangief is in a Disney movie. Also, consistent lore and characters were really never priority number one for the series. I'm just saying.

Mario: Yeah, I'm a Mario fan. No, the new sidescrollers are not earth-shaking innovation. But really, the Mario franchise is just "playing their greatest hits album" as Bob said. Personally, I'm disappointed that all they're making is sidescrollers and not another 3d platformer adventure.

(Only slightly related, but I feel like I'm the only one who really enjoyed Super Mario Sunshine. Also also, a lot of people don't like the water jetpack, which added a new gameplay mechanic, so Nintendo took it out, now people complain about the gameplay being same-y. Which do you want?! /soapbox)

Django: Eh.

Brave: Having seen the movie, the main theme of the movie is actually not gender roles. It's more about over-controlling parents.

Batman: I feel like Batman is the least interesting character in the Batman universe. Everyone has this habit of putting the exciting focus on the new villain. By the way, I wonder if Bruce Wayne's back is going to get broken in the movie. I have a theory that the random beat cop kid is going to be Azrael.

Arrow: The only time Deathstroke was compelling was when he was Slade. Yeah, I said it.

 

[itsmeyouidiot]

Haven't we reached the point where maybe, just maybe, we've seen enough Mario for a while?

Pretty much this.

And as a fan of the EA Sports NHL franchise, I think it's asinine to talk about how much Mario has innovated and then say those games haven't innovated at all. It just comes off as super pretentious.

"Yeah. I grew up with the NES. My franchise of choice is better than YOUR franchise of choice."

I grew up with an NES too. I'm just not a pretentious ass about it.

The Mario series has spanned several different genres, and Call of Duty and EA Sports have done the same damn thing over and over again.