Articles
The
GameGuy: The “Consoles Win” Edition
By
Mark H. Walker
Consoles will rule the world one day.
Heck, am I crazy? Consoles
rule the world TODAY! That that isn’t
a PC put down… well, actually I guess it is, but my point is
that I have no axe to grind. I own several PCs and work on them all
day (You ever tried to type on a console?). But what used to be a
rivalry five years ago, a battle two years ago, and a slaughter last
year, has now ended. Consoles have defeated PCs and reign supreme,
now and for ever more. Amen.
You know why? I’m sure industry analysts could throw down
a dozen reasons, but to me it comes down to two: Reason one… the
games ALWAYS work. Please don’t email me with your one-out-of-a-million
bad console experience. What I’m saying is simple. As a rule,
console games always work. You pop them in the machine, and out pops
a playable game on your TV screen. No warnings asking you to upgrade
your drivers, download a patch, or buy a new computer.
Reason two… my daughters.
Well, it’s not so much my
daughters as people in general. It’s fun to be around people
and cool to have them sitting in the chair next to you as your Spiderman
wastes another criminal. My daughters flock to the room when I play,
even if I’m playing something as lame as Lucas Art’s
Gladius. You just can’t get that same audience participation
on the computer. And PUHLeeese don’t bring up online gaming.
Chatting with some large-breasted Everquest chick who’s
a ten year old boy in real life is NOT my idea of fun.
But hey, let’s not pack in our computers yet. There are some
things that they do way better than a console. Specifically, what
they give us an adult gaming break from the seemingly endless stream
of rodent mascots prevalent on consoles. Consoles don’t do
strategy, at least not well. I loved Final Fantasy Tactics and Front
Mission 3, but they are but two drops in an endless sea of arcade,
sports, and action titles. At least PCs offer Total War, Codename
Panzers, and Silent Storm 2. And adventure games? I don’t think
one has ever been written for a console.
Bottom line, the gaming
wars are over and the consoles have won. But that doesn’t
mean the PC will roll over and play dead. Both have advantages,
and there is room for each in my home.
Tight Takes
Ground Control II… The folks at Massive Entertainment have
done it again. They’ve taken a bunch of turn-based tricks,
such vehicle armor factors that differ from front and side, terrain
bonuses for infantry in woods, and on call artillery, and tossed
them into the most scrumptious gaming engine I’ve seen this
year. Good game, great fun.
Spidey 2… The movie was great, the game is predictable. Not
predictable like your wife, but more like the Boston Red Sox. It’s
fun, but also a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, swinging from scrapper
to scrapper, your kids egging you on, the bad guys falling beneath
your fists, is worth at least a rent, if not a buy.
Finally, Satoru Iwata
(Nintendo’s President) claims that gamers
don’t want online games. Well, no kidding. I’ve said
that for years. Gamers don’t want online games, game companies
do. Online games are inconvenient, persnickety, and irritating. They
are, however, a great revenue model. Unlike consoles, they will never
rule the world, but they’ll make money.
© Mark
H. Walker, LLC 2004
Mark H. Walker is a veteran interactive entertainment journalist who has written
over 40 books including the recently published Games That Sell – and designs
games including his just released board game Lock ‘n Load.
