Are You F-ing Serious GamePro?

DISCLAIMER: I own all three consoles as well as one kick ass PC. I currently have no bias against one or another system and generally all of my consoles get equal playtime depending on what games are currently available. I, in no way, support one company over another. Chill out fanboys…

So I was surfing through the interwebs this fine morning when a chance forum thread lead me over to an article by GamePro. It wasn’t anything super special just the typical “we need more hits on our website” type of spiel article you’d find at nearly any major gaming website (IGN, GameSpot, 1UP, etc.). This article, however, wasn’t just reiterating the same garbled crap we have all heard time and time again; no, they mislabeled, under-represented, and praised a good chunk of their list titles that deserved none of the aforementioned.

Before I begin, you can check out the article for yourself and read it HERE. The last thing I want is for people to get all hopped up on my angst and not even read the article in question. That’s not cool.

Anyways, onto my point. This article is full of crap. Just to reiterate for those who decided not to read it, it is a comparison of the 2008-2009 exclusive titles between the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, where in, they took all of the exclusives they could muster (10 for the Xbox 360, 16 for the PS3) and said a little something about them and whether or not they were a “system seller” or not. Sounds like a fun read, right? Well wait until you read some of the reasonings behind their judgements including the list:

Xbox 360:

1. Ninja Gaiden 2
2. Left 4 Dead
3. Too Human
4. Gears of War 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
5. Fable 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
6. Halo Wars
7. Splinter Cell Conviction
8. Alan Wake
9. Banjo Kazooie
10. Halo Chronicles
PS3:

1. Gran Turismo 5 (SYSTEM SELLER)
2. Haze
3. Metal Gear Solid 4 (SYSTEM SELLER)
4. Metal Gear Online
5. Singstar
6. LittleBigPlanet
7. Resistance 2 (SYSTEM SELLER)
8. Killzone 2
9. Motorstorm 2
10. SOCOM Confrontation
11. InFamous
12. The Agency
13. Final Fantasy XIII (SYSTEM SELLER)
14. God of War III (SYSTEM SELLER)
15. Tekken 6
16. Twisted Metal

First up: Ninja Gaiden 2. Generally, I’d agree that this game won’t be a system seller. To be honest the games are just too hard for the American audience. However, in GamePro’s logic their reasoning behind the fact that it won’t be a system seller lies within it’s God of War like nature, i.e. it’s too repetitive and has little mainstream appeal. But what’s that? You guessed it: God of War III is most definitely listed as a system seller. How can you honestly knock a game for it’s God of War-like gameplay and then turn around and praise that very game where the inspiration comes from? Absolutely ridiculous. Oh, and for the record, Ninja Gaiden’s gameplay is not all that similar to God of War… get it right GamePro.

Next: Alan Wake, Banjo Kazooie, Halo Chronicles. Should these titles even be included in this list at all? I don’t think so. In an effort to at least make their faux-list at least a bit more appealing GamePro is apparently populating it with games that don’t even have a tentative release date, and almost no screenshots whatsoever (none in the case of Halo Chronicles). I’m not saying these games won’t ever get released (although I’d say there’s a good chance one of them will get the axe), but why did they include them at all? Microsoft’s 2008-2009 line-up may look a bit thin right now without them but thats something Microsoft needs to worry about not GamePro.

Third: Gran Turismo 5: Prologue. Who ever said that demos were system sellers? GamePro apparently. Despite only coming with 8 tracks, 40 cars and an online mode, GamePro seems so sure that the game will sell as well as it did in Europe and Japan. Think again. Both of those territories are used to getting demo versions of the GT games, the U.S. is not. As a huge fan of the series even I won’t spend $40 on a game that isn’t even half complete. Call me crazy, but I think the game will meet stiff resistance here in the U.S. Anybody down for a game of Forza?

Fourth: SingStar. While not listed as a system seller (and rightfully so) the game being listed as a top title here at all is laughable. SingStar was a hit on the PS2, but it won’t be on the PS3. Sorry to break the news to everybody but, here’s the shocker, the PS3 is not the PS2. Last generation the PS2 became the defacto “casual” console. As such, games like SingStar were bought by many of these same people. This generation, however, the Wii holds that crown and many of the same casual gamers who bought a PS2 before are buying a Wii today. This will probably be the least successful SingStar ever and I won’t be surprised if they kill off the franchise because of it…

Fifth: Final Fantasy XIII. While I have absolutely zero doubt that this will be a system seller, I do doubt when it will be released. GamePro says 2009, but I am thinking even later. Look at it this way: Final Fantasy is Square’s most important franchise, by far. Nothing else comes close. Final Fantasy XIII is planned to be their most important sequel to the franchise. The mere fact that we are almost in the middle of 2008 and still we know next to nothing about the game means that the game will probably be announced for November 2009, but delayed into Spring 2010 for extra “polishing”. Don’t expect Square-Enix to let this title go one second before it’s ready…

Finally: God of War III. God of War is a huge Sony franchise, there is no doubt. While it’s not really the equivalent of Microsoft’s Halo, in terms of sales, it can definitely stand on it’s own two feet. However, that said the third installation may meet with some stiff resistance if the developers fail, yet again, to improve on the formula. When the first game came out it was awesome. I loved and played every minute of it. Then the sequel came out. It was still good, more of the same, but don’t fix what isn’t broken right? Then the PSP game came out… still exactly like the first game, I didn’t buy it. The third game in this franchise can’t just be more of the same.

Of course picking apart the games, themselves, is only one reason why this is such a shit article. If I really need to state the obvious the mere fact that they wrote this article which predicts well into 2009 is absolutely ludicrous. There is still plenty of time for both Microsoft and Sony to announce new titles as well as cancel current ones. Perhaps Sony announced every major title they already have, and Microsoft is just sitting on tons of announcements for E3? A very real possibility. For those that recall, this same (but opposite) scenario happened last year at E3/GDC where Microsoft had already announced most of their games prior to these events, leaving Sony to announce a treasure trove of goodies for us. Sony is widely regarded as having the best E3 last year…

Also, let us not forget the Wii. I know a lot of people like to say there is no competition between Sony/Microsoft and Nintendo, but there is. In fact, Nintendo is probably more of a competition to these companies today than they were during the entirety of the last generation. Excluding them from this article was about as shitty as some of the judgments they made.

Anyways, I’ve ripped my hair out enough over this. Feel free to comment or flame me below. I’m sure many here will think I am arbitrarily bashing the PS3… I’m gonna go play Folklore now.