J-Dude said:
I personally define "hardcore" and "casual" in terms of innate difficulty. Subject matter is irrelevant, but it must be admitted that most games you'd find outside the Wii will likely tell the player once how to perform a certain action and then fling them into the game. Lets face it, when I refer to a "casual" gamer, I'm not so much referring to the people who play games but only ever now and then, as I am to the people who can count on one hand how many times they've held a controller. Ever watch your parents struggle to grasp what are in your opinion, very BASIC controls and are ultimately defeated by the game's equivalent of a Goomba? This is what I'd consider a casual gamer. We "hardcores" are the ones who have mastered the basics better than we realize and are adapted to guiding a game avatar through a game world so well that we can pick up and play just about every game and have SOME idea of what to do.
I know, that probably will get the people who play every game on hard and do things like enter options for "no vita chambers" in Bioshock a bit upset, but the truth is most games are gamers games, expecting, nay, demanding that after a short demonstration you're prepared to do it for real, whereas a new gamer will panic and go, "No, wait, what was that button again? Press X to not what?? What's X? Oh God, what is that! ARGH!!!"
Not really, pretty much out of home by age 10
But in relation to your topic, i'm drawing on your inference that a hardcore game needn't explain to you gameplay specifics BECAUSE it assumes that you've played something much likte it in the past?
So a 'Canon' shooter being presented to a 'standard hardcore gamer' needn't explain to you in game, that right trigger shoots, left trigger - grenades, etc etc?
But surely this shouldn't be the goal of games.
If 'hardcore gamers' were truly worried about the concept of games becoming too 'samey' then anything that attempts to create something that postmodernity-style 'jams' you from immersion to make you recognise that you're playing something unlike anything else should automatically be WELCOMED by gamers? :]
In the truest sense, a truly 'hardcore gamer' must accept that the value of a game comes from learning how to best it by utilising aspects of it that are traditionally not aspects of what is the 'norm' for that genre, not about using what's familiar in genres in the most familiarised way.
Because as most gamers would tout, 'familiarity breeds contempt', originality in new IPs are necessary.
As having played this game, I can certainly say that this is the case with Red Steel 2... it delivers a new experience, with grand precision, and exceptional drive.
As such is also the case with Wii's premiere shooter Metroid Prime 3 .... the third person action/adventure/(very slight)rpg Fragile: Sayonara Tsuki no haikyou, MoH Heroes 2, Madworld, No More Heroes (1 & 2), upcoming Monster Hunter Tri, list goes on
Like other console shooters, the wii has some awesome games, and even if they are of the same genre, the learning curve in how to use the controls is much higher than shooters on the PS3 and XB360....
Surely if gamers (particularly 'Hardcore' as you define) we're truly welcoming of change, they should snap up the wii because it offers crucially different gaming styles even within the same genre. If only because it gives them the sense that they can truly conquer any game.
In the end, the wii delivers an experience that is critically overlooked on the PS3 and 360 ... and as such it would be foolish to simply tout that console as 'childish' when the Nintendo has , literally, created a 'paradgm shift' in the way we perceive games and gameplay ... Not only that GOOD wii games are EXTREMELY enjoyable ... and simply would not work on any other platform....
Am I the only one to think that this is a GOOD thing, and that originality and new gameplay ideas SHOULD be pursued to their logical limits? I personally do not view the wii in concepts of 'hardcore/casual' ... I view it as concept shattering.
