Today I saw a link on twitter to an interesting article on the Wall Street Journal website. I do occasionally check this site for some of the interesting news in technology, some of the their writers are good. However there is one section of news that I would not look there for – Gaming news.
Apart from the occasional article related to the finances of companies, such as news on Zynga’s profits and privacy breaches, gaming is not exactly what their core demographic want to read about. However that does not excuse the sheer ineptitude of the article in question.
Here is the article
The Unsung Videogame Heroes of 2010
No Mario Kart. No Beatles. No Halo. Here are the titles that existed under the surface of the hype but still delivered hours of fresh action for gaming pro and rookie alikeCheck it out here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704111504576060003073227560.html
Did you go check it out? Are you done laughing yet?
These are supposed to be the games that got missed, the ones that slipped under the radar. Looking at the list I can only find one that would fit into the group and then only in comparison to everything else on the list and stretch the definition. That would be Dance Central, overall its a fun new title that slipped under the radar kinda, if you count being eclipsed be the technology that the game was released to take advantage of.
Dance Central was nothing more that the Kinect’s answer to Just Dance, but it did what it was supposed to do and that was to take advantage of (show off) the power of the Kinect’s full body motion sensing technology. But it was the universally accepted as one of the best launch titles for the device.
So as you see I had to stretch it a bit there.
But the rest of the title’s most certainly hyped up to the eyeballs and then had an extra dollop of hype slapped on top for good measure. There is not a single game in this list that has not sold millions, or been praised by critics and gamers alike. Just take a look at this list, and I would like you to try and see what other fault I spotted with their description of the list.
Fallout: New Vegas, Mass Effect 2, Gran Turismo 5, Super Street Fighter 4, God of War III, Goldeneye 007, Tiger Woods 11 & The Force Unleashed II.
Spotted it yet? Yes that is right the are all sequels, with the exception of Goldeneye 007 which is a remake. So how exactly they all ‘delivered hours of fresh action’ with that fact in mind just put the proverbial cherry on top of the whole thing.
Now as I made sure to mention at the very start of this post that the Wall Street Journal are not exactly known for its gaming credentials. However I find it incredibly difficult to believe that nobody at all in their editorial process saw this article and didn’t at least recognise 1 of these titles that should not have been there, then used that question the accuracy of the thing.
This is all before you get into the details of what they have actually written about the games themselves. Kratos is after Ares in God of War III? I’m sure we finished him off long ago? RPG’s are nothing more than pressing A to attack & B to defend, while New Vegas requires complex tactics?
What was this guy smoking and where can I get some?
You want a title that was overlooked this year, Try Singularity or Enslaved: Journey to the West both seemed to get overlooked somewhat and are were great games.
I do so look forward to next years unsung heroes, Little Big Planet 2, Gears of War3, Uncharted3, Elder Scrolls V & Mass Effect 3.
