Hmmm,
Well I was kind of hoping he'd do something like this. I actually suggested it in my response to the highlights reel, and I thought it was pretty good. Of course my idea was for something to do instead of a highlights reel.
At any rate, I don't agree with Yathzee on all things, but I also loved Saint's Row 2, it being one of the games I played non-stop all the way through to the end. GTA 4 didn't hold my attention that long. I do however tend to think that someone should take the ideas from both of these games, polish them, and smack them together. I for example liked a bit of the "filler" from GTA 4 such as the TV shows and such, and found myself wishing that Saint's Row 2 had a bit more of that kind of eye candy in it (though not at tne expense of gamability).
Also the way they set up the social elements with GTA 4 needed to be blasted. It started as a neat idea, but turned rapidly into an annoyance. I do however see the potential for something like that to be mixed with SR "Homies" providing they can liven it up a bit... and of course set it up so they don't call you. When your wandering around with a knife, looking for collectibles, and murdering passing pedestrians for a bit of extra pocket change, nothing is more jarring than "Hey, let's go on a date to the comedy club" and having to drop your exploration, and then come back afterwards.
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I think Yahtzee might be being a bit too hard on the horror genere. Coming up with something truely unique (in any media) today is tricky. Add to this increased concerns about ratings even in the US, and then even tighter regulations in places like Australia if you want an international release, and well... it gets tricky.
The thing is that we've seen so many great horror games over a period of time, that almost everything seems like a retread. Also being adventure games, the idea is for the player character to ultimatly survive, so everything must be beatable/avoidable. Depending on which you go for, it rapidly turns into a "jog through everything" game, or a slaughter fest.
I see the potential to make some really intense games none the less, but the big question is not just whether they can be made, but whether anything better than what we're seeing will be allowed by censors.
Still, I've sort of had my eyes on "Fatal Frame Zero". While another sequel from a long running franchise series, I'm hoping it will be a more worthy game than most of what we saw in 2008.
>>>----Therumancer--->