The Year in Review: Videogames in 2005
While this past year started off well, most of the big games were last year's games. Being the year between generations, most companies seemed to start putting their efforts toward future consoles. The PC, after last year's huge hits like Half Life 2 and Doom 3, also hit a slump, but was much less hit then the consoles. This was also a year of controversy, which was started with a game from last year. If you don't know what I'm meaning, you must have literally been sleeping under a rock over the summer.
Gamecube: last trials
This was undoubtably a weak year for the Gamecube. While the PS2 didn't get any blockbusters, there were still plenty of good titles that have come out year after year. Nintendo didn't have that much luck. The only third party title to speak off is this year's Game of the Year, Resident Evil 4. RE4 was the revitalization of Resident Evil, and will hopefully be the bar for future installments.
The Gamecube did get a few ports that weren't initially released along with the other versions (Mortal Kombat: Deception, Lego Star Wars), but I'm doubtful they did too well because of the late porting. Much of the story with third parties was more of the same as 2004, fewer and fewer is supporting the little system, notably Blizzard (with cancelling Starcraft Ghost).
Nintendo also had the only AAA game for the holidays, but Zelda was delayed into next year, leaving the hits to a different realm of gaming.
PS2: average, but still worthy
There weren't any huge releases this year, but still a solid year for Sony's console. The year began with Game of the Year contender God of War, and ended with solid hits. The usual guys are also hear, Jak, Rachet, Sly, they're all here. We (heart) Katamari was the the game with the most accurate name for it's own discription. And Ico successor Shadow of the Collossos was a great game with solid, if unusual, game design.
X-Box: mostly dead
Microsoft's freshman system is running its last course. While regular games like Madden was released, no exclusive hits were put down. Conker was finally released, but wasn't the hit that Halo or even the original N64 game was. While this was the system for multiplatform games, like with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, it would be the future that developers would work on.
Preview the Future: next-gen consoles are shown and begun
This year's E3 was noted as a preview of 2006, with all three hardware developers showing their next-gen hardware. Microsoft showed their X-Box 360 early on a MTV special. Their stratagy, come out early, with the launch of the system made in November, with limited (*cough* shortages *cough*) results.
Sony showed their heavyweight PS3 at both E3 and TGS, showing unbelievable (more literally then metaphoricly) graphics. Unfortunatly, Sony has yet to show a playable game. The system has also been mocked for it's size (it's width is twice that of a DVD) and poorly designed controller (nicknamed the boomerang controler).
Nintendo was known as the secretive of the bunch, not even showing the controller until TGS. The Revolution was at E3 with the very small main console, but the controller is what marks it as different. Nintendo is not in the spec war, but is using a motion-sensoring TV remote. Unfortunatly, they have yet to show a real game on the Revolution, and has even said there are more features that have yet to be revealed.
Year of the Portible
Not all was lost in gaming, with the DS finding its feet and the PSP launching here in the US.
The PSP was released in Japan last year, but Sony waited until March to release it here in the US. While there was a good launch set of games, not much else other then GTA: Liberty City Stories came out. There were plenty of UMD (often cited as PSP) movies were released, and took almost half of software sales for the fledgeling portible.
Also marking the PSP was the homebrew community. A bevy of hacks came out shortly after the PSP was launched, and Sony waged a war to limit those hacks. Firmware updates would come out, and the hackers would go back to work making hacks for those updates. Along with that, the first portible malware, known as the PSP Brick, was released and would be a setback for the hackers.
The DS was the place for gaming. While it took a while, great games did come out for the system in the last half of the year. Ranging from conventional (Castlevania) to querky (Pheonix Wright), the DS finally had a reason to exist. It also got its system seller in the form of Mario Kart DS, the first game to show Nintendo's WiFi service (which was met with mixed feelings).
The Year of Controversy
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was only ported over to the X-Box and PC this year, but the PC version would reveal the dark secret that would rock the entire industry. Hot Coffee, as it would be known, would set off a bevy of complaints that not only would cause GTA:SA to be removed from shelves (via an ESRB upgrade in its rating from M to AO), but would cause at least four states, and the federal government, to put up legislation limiting the sales of M-rated games to minors. Currently, one of the state bills was ruled unconstitutional, the federal bill was only introduced, and all other bills are pending in courts.
Jack Thompson took advantage of the situation for his own cause, but was disenvowed by other groups for his antics. Thompson would often be more outspoken (to say the least) then he ever needed to be and would make statements that compares to the likes of O'Reilly. Because of his statements during the so-called GTA Killer criminal trial, he was thrown out (even after trying to quit) of the subsequent civil trial.
Which comes to his controversy of the year, his feud with Penny Arcade. After making a "modest proposal" , saying that he would donate his own money to charity if a ultra-violent game was made of his decription, he took (as Steven Colbert would say) backsies. After his game was made by the mod community, he claimed his statements were "satire". But Penny Arcade came in and donated money in his name to a charity. This sent Thompson fuming and a fued lasted a month or two in which Thompson would threaten legal action, and went as far as to send out letters to the Seattle Police and a federal attorny general. As of yet, Penny Arcade has yet to face any legal action due to this fued.
While the releases weren't as big as last year, gaming this year was just as interesting. With speculation of the next generation and Hot Coffee, there was just as much activity in the gaming community as ever. Podcasts would expand that community, SonyBMG showed that other industries could effect gaming, and World of Warcraft showed that games could even unintentionally simulate life. It may be a year between generations, but the portibles had great success and we still got some great, may be some of the greatest, games this year.
Gamecube: last trials
This was undoubtably a weak year for the Gamecube. While the PS2 didn't get any blockbusters, there were still plenty of good titles that have come out year after year. Nintendo didn't have that much luck. The only third party title to speak off is this year's Game of the Year, Resident Evil 4. RE4 was the revitalization of Resident Evil, and will hopefully be the bar for future installments.
The Gamecube did get a few ports that weren't initially released along with the other versions (Mortal Kombat: Deception, Lego Star Wars), but I'm doubtful they did too well because of the late porting. Much of the story with third parties was more of the same as 2004, fewer and fewer is supporting the little system, notably Blizzard (with cancelling Starcraft Ghost).
Nintendo also had the only AAA game for the holidays, but Zelda was delayed into next year, leaving the hits to a different realm of gaming.
PS2: average, but still worthy
There weren't any huge releases this year, but still a solid year for Sony's console. The year began with Game of the Year contender God of War, and ended with solid hits. The usual guys are also hear, Jak, Rachet, Sly, they're all here. We (heart) Katamari was the the game with the most accurate name for it's own discription. And Ico successor Shadow of the Collossos was a great game with solid, if unusual, game design.
X-Box: mostly dead
Microsoft's freshman system is running its last course. While regular games like Madden was released, no exclusive hits were put down. Conker was finally released, but wasn't the hit that Halo or even the original N64 game was. While this was the system for multiplatform games, like with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, it would be the future that developers would work on.
Preview the Future: next-gen consoles are shown and begun
This year's E3 was noted as a preview of 2006, with all three hardware developers showing their next-gen hardware. Microsoft showed their X-Box 360 early on a MTV special. Their stratagy, come out early, with the launch of the system made in November, with limited (*cough* shortages *cough*) results.
Sony showed their heavyweight PS3 at both E3 and TGS, showing unbelievable (more literally then metaphoricly) graphics. Unfortunatly, Sony has yet to show a playable game. The system has also been mocked for it's size (it's width is twice that of a DVD) and poorly designed controller (nicknamed the boomerang controler).
Nintendo was known as the secretive of the bunch, not even showing the controller until TGS. The Revolution was at E3 with the very small main console, but the controller is what marks it as different. Nintendo is not in the spec war, but is using a motion-sensoring TV remote. Unfortunatly, they have yet to show a real game on the Revolution, and has even said there are more features that have yet to be revealed.
Year of the Portible
Not all was lost in gaming, with the DS finding its feet and the PSP launching here in the US.
The PSP was released in Japan last year, but Sony waited until March to release it here in the US. While there was a good launch set of games, not much else other then GTA: Liberty City Stories came out. There were plenty of UMD (often cited as PSP) movies were released, and took almost half of software sales for the fledgeling portible.
Also marking the PSP was the homebrew community. A bevy of hacks came out shortly after the PSP was launched, and Sony waged a war to limit those hacks. Firmware updates would come out, and the hackers would go back to work making hacks for those updates. Along with that, the first portible malware, known as the PSP Brick, was released and would be a setback for the hackers.
The DS was the place for gaming. While it took a while, great games did come out for the system in the last half of the year. Ranging from conventional (Castlevania) to querky (Pheonix Wright), the DS finally had a reason to exist. It also got its system seller in the form of Mario Kart DS, the first game to show Nintendo's WiFi service (which was met with mixed feelings).
The Year of Controversy
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was only ported over to the X-Box and PC this year, but the PC version would reveal the dark secret that would rock the entire industry. Hot Coffee, as it would be known, would set off a bevy of complaints that not only would cause GTA:SA to be removed from shelves (via an ESRB upgrade in its rating from M to AO), but would cause at least four states, and the federal government, to put up legislation limiting the sales of M-rated games to minors. Currently, one of the state bills was ruled unconstitutional, the federal bill was only introduced, and all other bills are pending in courts.
Jack Thompson took advantage of the situation for his own cause, but was disenvowed by other groups for his antics. Thompson would often be more outspoken (to say the least) then he ever needed to be and would make statements that compares to the likes of O'Reilly. Because of his statements during the so-called GTA Killer criminal trial, he was thrown out (even after trying to quit) of the subsequent civil trial.
Which comes to his controversy of the year, his feud with Penny Arcade. After making a "modest proposal" , saying that he would donate his own money to charity if a ultra-violent game was made of his decription, he took (as Steven Colbert would say) backsies. After his game was made by the mod community, he claimed his statements were "satire". But Penny Arcade came in and donated money in his name to a charity. This sent Thompson fuming and a fued lasted a month or two in which Thompson would threaten legal action, and went as far as to send out letters to the Seattle Police and a federal attorny general. As of yet, Penny Arcade has yet to face any legal action due to this fued.
While the releases weren't as big as last year, gaming this year was just as interesting. With speculation of the next generation and Hot Coffee, there was just as much activity in the gaming community as ever. Podcasts would expand that community, SonyBMG showed that other industries could effect gaming, and World of Warcraft showed that games could even unintentionally simulate life. It may be a year between generations, but the portibles had great success and we still got some great, may be some of the greatest, games this year.
posted by SeanM at 2:19 PM
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