Yeah, but that's not my point at all from this. An evolution in how a developer makes games is hardly influential, but something that causes every single developer to rethink their design philosophy is.
Skylanders could be a game changer, but we need to see. Could be the next Guitar Hero/Rockband, an even shorter fad, or something huge.
Funny thing is FFXII actually has heavy WRPG influence. The two genres have some similarities and crossovers, but I'd never expect Atlus to develop Deus Ex or Bethesda to develop Persona 4.
Mass Effect 3's and Operation Rainfall seem more like business as usual more than something that triggered a change. X-Com did the same thing with Enemy Unknown. Same goes for Mirror's Edge and Burnout, haven't really seen them used in other games. They're innovative for sure and I love them, but not really influential.
You missed the point of this article, which I even stated in the introduction. Quality is irrelevant, what matters is did these games change something. That you acknowledge WRPGs are more dominant in sales helps prove my point as that was the point. Also the quality is subjective because I've reviewed a lot of shitty JRPGs this year with less bugs than Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3 but that doesn't change that the others are littered with terrible combat and design choices while ME2 and F3 are much better thought out and designed games.
Maybe I did overstate the dominance of retail ones a little, but you are ignoring quite a few and NSMBW still did cause a shift for the genre where they're much more common than they used to be.Not to mention there's more lisenced games opting for it instead of 2D and Nintendo releases at least one full priced 2D platformer a year on a console after it.
Braid, well, I'm betting you didn't see the hype the games media was giving that before it came out. That was the first XBLA game to get really hyped by MS TV commercials are not the only way to generate that you know.
People absolutely bought a Wii just for Wii Sports. The thing has an attachment rate of like 2.3 games including the bundled one, you expect me to believe that many people don't have just that game with those numbers?
Gears, once again read my intro. I knew someone would have a say like this, but from the sound of it, you just don't like Gears. And I don't get how those are "bad" things either, they're part of what I love about Gears.
Last of Us is my second favorite game this gen after Mass Effect, but influential? Not in the slightest. It hasn't even had time to influence anything, so how could it be influential? Quality doesn't matter, what changed because of it does for this and TLOU hasn't changed a thing (at least yet).
You just didn't get the point of this man.
That definitely factored in at least a little, but I was more focusing on how people don't give a shit about this really, it's just a hot button issue. It's like how they bitched about Tomb Raider and Bioshock Infinite's "ludonarrative dissonance" when Uncharted did the same thing over five years ago even though those developers fall in the same safety zone Bioware does from critics. They just follow what's hot at the time, which back then was...did we actually enjoy games back then?
I really don't see how this design is under so much shit when no one said a word about Jack from Mass Effect 2. Maybe that game was just lucky to have released in 2010.
You still need to buy DLC with used games. So piracy is the more morally correct way.
I write them for a site called Rotorob. It's normally a sports site (I'd recommend it if you're into fantasy, they do a good job there), but they also have video game reviews. There's also a seperate gaming site there for smaller games. I'll send the links for them (have a Rayman Legends review on the first one)
I still like that episode, but thought the end was too mean spirited. That alien nerd they killed really didn't do anything wrong until Bender was an ass to him and didn't deserve that. Didn't ruin the episode, but I turn it off once it gets to that part.
