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GameBump's Most Wanted List for 2008: It's time for change

Shiva Stella — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:56:27 -0600

If 2007 taught gaming journalists anything it was that much has changed since the days of yore - no longer are we paying $30-50 for quality titles that challenge, engage, and entertain us as gamers. Instead we are forking out boatloads of cash for matching accessories, consoles we can't locate without ebay, games that require patches to actually operate, and new, disappointing sagas without endings.

In the hopes of promoting change for 2008, then, here is GameBump's "most wanted" list written by avid gamers and directed toward the gaming industry. If you've been playing through 2007's offerings and wondering if you're the only one who's been confused about the latest industry trends - don't worry; you're not.

Xbox Live. It's broken. Fix it. And give gold members some additional boons.

We are not paying $50 bucks a year to beta test your product, Microsoft, and the more than lackluster service provided during and immediately following the Christmas holiday is not something gamers expect from the company behind the industry's current #1 console. Thankfully Microsoft is offering both its gold and silver members a free Xbox Live Arcade game as compensation for the screw-up, which is nice, but we'd rather have the stable, reliable service we paid for. For 2008 we'd like to see zero hiccups from Live as well as bonus material implemented for gold subscribers to further differentiate between gold and silver membership.

Buy me.

Only ship complete, functional games to retailers that do not require patches or the purchase of an HDTV to play.

Gamers are wondering why they are spending $60+ on incomplete games, essentially spending more money for less game with pretty graphics. Developers, we beg of you, please do not release a title that is damn near unplayable and then expect for us to be happy when you release patches to fix what should have been functioning properly to begin with. If that means your game isn't on store shelves for a holiday, so be it; if it means delay after delay in order to get it right, go for it - we'd rather have a full, complete game upon release instead of playing through beta versions for the six months it takes you to launch a patch. Remember that the very first gamer in line to purchase your product the day of release is your target audience and your strongest support: do not forsake him/her by selling an incomplete product.

Now what the hell does this shit mean?

While we're at it, stop it with the "buy the sequel" endings.

We also don't enjoy games that require guides to decipher their ends; we at GameBump are especially tired of titles that end just as the plot is really getting good. An ending should tie together all the previous plot elements into a complete, cohesive picture that leaves the player with the feeling that he just spent 20+ hours of his life solving a mystery that was "worth it."

Hire more writers, or at the very least acknowledge that the average gamer is no longer a 14 year-old brat screaming "fuck the world" every time he's asked to clean his room.

Dialogue has joined plot design on the back-burner of game development as of late, with developers seizing the opportunity to portray content to an adult market by "faking" adult; "fuck this" and "shit that" every single line does not offer quality entertainment, and in fact does nothing but enable Nancy Grace, Hillary Clinton, and attorneys that shall not be named to insult the industry by pointing out our nonsensical violence and trashy dialogue. While we're on the topic...

Rockstar, you can totally stop with the production of incredibly, unbelievably violent, crap-games.

Especially those that provide no entertainment value whatsoever and actually sicken the player with their pointless, extreme gory action that depicts the industry as excessively violent for no other reason than gamers are just murderers in the making. If we never type the word "Manhunt" again it'll be too soon.

Companies other than Nintendo providing quality games for the Wii that are more than just gimmicks or kid-friendly bundles of playable joy.

We love Mario. Everyone loves Mario. Mario is quite possibly the most recognizable icon on the planet, and we just about swooned over Super Mario Galaxy and its stupendous release on the Wii. The problem as we see it is that every Wii game not made by Nintendo does not reach the level of quality that Nintendo itself strives for, and in essence, reduces the console to a gimmicky, expensive paper weight. The Wii is an interesting device that has the ability to differentiate itself from its competition thanks to the popular Wii remote, but Wii Sports and Mario's offerings from the 90's aren't cutting it.

It's been over a year since the Wii released - where's my Wii?

For that matter, where are the Wiis being offered at base price ($250) to customers who can not afford the $500+ idiotic bundles that retailers keep forcing down our throats? We'd like to see Nintendo take great steps toward increasing the Wii's availability at retail and forcing retailers to offer the console at base price. I'd buy a Wii and I might even play more than Super Mario Galaxy on it - assuming I could find one.

Where are the game rental services besides Gamefly and Blockbuster?

I've spent most of 2007 shuffling between Blockbuster and Gamefly for rentals and have been nothing but disappointed by the high prices of both. I would love to see some increased competition in this area, especially from a company that actually has games in stock to rent out as opposed to some of these other, more affordable "options" (affordable apparently means "out of stock").

What about implementing release limits?

Some of us are of the notion that publishers should go back to yearly release limits like those previously imposed by Nintendo of America. Now that a company can release dozens of games a year there is zero incentive for anyone to produce a quality title - the industry just wants something, anything on the shelf, which is usually a something not worth buying.

How about some original protagonists?

Maybe instead of a grizzly, 30-something, short-brown-haired dude starring in every game, how about a kid or a black dude or a female who doesn't belong on a Maxim cover? We'd love to see some games that actually reflected a realistic demographic, one in which all Muslims weren't terrorists and all women weren't damsels in distress or prostitutes meant to be run over by a Grand Theft Auto character in a nice car.

I'll have no more of this, thanks.

A return to integrity for the industry.

We encourage our gaming journalist friends to adhere to their own strict integrity policies before selling content to the highest bidder; we'd also love to see publishers spending less money on marketing pieces of crap in deceitful, gimmicky ways and more money on releasing quality titles. Remember Metal Gear Solid? The original Tomb Raider? Mario Kart? That first Final Fantasy you picked up pre-VII? These are games that managed to sell due to their own quality and innovation - they did not require nor rely upon multi-million (or billion) dollar advertising campaigns to get the word out. Gamers, who are the people spending money on games, will do your advertising for you; all the industry has to do is create and release a quality product. The consumer's purchasing power and the gaming counter-culture will handle the rest.

GH Preview: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (360)

The Gaming Horizon Archive — Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:38:00 -0600

This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Chuck Landry.

I skipped the last Need for Speed. Underground was a bit too cool for me to even give it a chance. The street-racing scene was a little too much for me to swallow, and so I missed a supposedly great game because I was turned off by its urban flare. But I love the Need for Speed series. NFS 2 was one of the first games I ever played using a 3D graphics accelerator in a PC. It was a 3D Monster FX chip, and it kicked ass. The pinnacle of the NFS series was when they called in the fuzz. There was something about outrunning and/or outmaneuvering the cops that brought NFS to a whole new level.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted aims to combine the flashy tuner world with the thrill of escaping the black and whites into one seriously fast racer. In Most Wanted your goal is notoriety. Youll begin the game as another racer strips you of your car, and you must climb your way up the Black List 15, becoming the most disreputable street racer in town before you can get it back. Along the way youll race against several min-bosses (other ranking racers) who each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

What makes Most Wanted different from Underground and Underground 2 is, of course, the police force. Police chases promise to be the most exciting part of the game, and videos of the unfinished product confirm it. You might start off against three or four cop cars early on, but as you progress youll face six, eight, or even twelve at one time. The developers also claim the police will use real-world tactics to try and bring you to a stop, including rolling roadblocks and the like. Players will have some nice tricks at their disposal to give them an edge, including a bullet-time mode to let you squeeze through a small gap or dodge a messy wreck. There will also be areas marked on your map that provide some sort of diversion. The only one Ive seen thus far is where by hitting a column, you can make a giant donut fall off of a cafe and block the road behind you, letting you escape.

Need for Speed Most Wanted is coming out on just about every platform you can imagine, so clearly what makes the Xbox 360 version special are its graphics. Most Wanted supports 760p resolution for HD monitors and all sorts of special effects that you wont see on the other versions. The cars look absolutely amazing thanks to the sheer number of polygons that go into modeling each one, and effects like normal and bump mapping on the textures. The entire color scheme of Most Wanted is gritty brown and washed out, giving it a dusty and grimy look. The result is a very stylized environment we havent seen before in a racer, and judging by the screenshots and videos available, Id say it works very well.

This isnt just a straightforward racer, though. There are times when you are simply cruising around town, looking for an opponent. Here youll spend some time hiding from the cops while a meter runs down to signal that youre all clear. Some modes also include cost of state and bounty, which let you see how much damage you can cause to the city and how much illegal crap you can get away with, respectively. Youve also of course got multiplayer over Live, supporting up to four players online.

Need for Speed Most Wanted has the luxury of being a launch title, but its going up against some stiff competition in the form of PGR 3. There ought to be room for both, though, as PGR is more about exotic cars and straight up racing whereas Most Wanted focuses on more action-packed pursuits and import tuners. It ought to at least be a nice way to showcase next-generation graphics, and if its anything near as enjoyable as Hot Pursuit was back in the day, Im going to have to grab a copy.

GH Preview: Need for Speed: Most Wanted (360)

Tim Grube — Thu, 19 May 2005 17:28:56 -0500

This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content.

While over at the Electronic Arts booth, on display was one of the first Xbox 360 titles. Need for Speed: Most Wanted was on hand and to tell you the truth, it looks absolutely amazing. The first thing youll notice right away is how remarkable the graphics are in every way. The cracks in the road, the wet areas, and the amazing details of the vehicles are all jaw-dropping.

We were unable to do a multiplayer game, but the few races I did play were easy to get into. It follows the traditional Need for Speed style, so you have the cops chasing you down while you build a street cred and a rap sheet. There are several short cuts in every map that can be found hitting certain objects in the race.

Gamers will be able to build up there rap sheet with breaking record time, street challenges, and out-running the evil cops. Since all Xbox 360 games must have Dolby Digital support, NFS does a good job in that area of pulling off precise vehicle sounds along with the killer background music. No word on what music will be licensed.

Electronic Arts seems to be going in the right direction for the Xbox 360. I was amazed of the visuals and sound. Although, Im kind of curious if there will be any downloadable maps since the new Xbox can support it. Well have more information as soon as it becomes available.