120°

Sessler's Soapbox: 2010 in Review

Adam discusses the past year in gaming and his feelings on the current state of the industry.

BYE4874d ago (Edited 4874d ago )

I agree with his point about safety driving the industry recently, this could become a problem in the future. With games getting more expensive to make even more safety next gen is very likely, but people might get sick of the same concepts all over again at some point...and stop buying.

Sooner or later, the industry will need to reinvent itself, there's no way around it.

kneelb4zod4874d ago (Edited 4874d ago )

Isn't next gen hardware suppose to be a revision of this gen,if it is then the games should still be in the same price range to develop for.

darthv724874d ago

The problem with taking the risk is the backlash these new original (some small some big) games get for being...different.

The safety net for the nintendo and sony and ms are the obvious staples in their libraries but they too can get tiresome. Especially if they dont reinvent themselves. The amount of free passes given to high profile games simply because of the stature they uphold (or upheld at some point) this year was pretty high.

I am not saying reach or galaxy 2 or gow3 werent worth of the praise they got. It is that they are considered obvious targets while other lower profile games worked their way through the system with not so much as a good write up.

We all want something new and original yet we cant let go of our "safety" blankets in the form of GT5 and metroid. The saddest part of the risk factor is people having a predetermined notion that if it isnt from a big company then it isnt worth playing.

Wii and ps3 and 360 have plenty of smaller "indie if you will" games worth playing but they dont get the respect. Those are the ones really taking the risk because they are the ones who get lost in the shuffle of high profile titles.

Next year looks like it will have a slew of sequels of high profile games. Those are a given but my eye is on the smaller ones that want to go big.

NecrumSlavery4874d ago

I agree. Safety steps is keeping the gaming head afloat, but without risks the game industry will not grow.

The other hand is the consumer. If the consumer doesn't support the Alan Wakes, the LIMBOs, or Heavy Rains out there, cause they rather take the safe route with COD that satisfies an itch, then the industry will suffer as well.

More developers need to work on new experiences and the gamers need to support creativity.

HolyOrangeCows4874d ago

I personally found it to be an iffy year. A large part of that being that not many of the big titles were in my personal tastes (See Heavy Rain, Halo, Mass Effect, GT5, etc).

And I must DISAGREE with what Sessler said about developers "finessing" formulas this year. Halo took a lot of side steps towards Call of Duty, Call of Duty took some steps backwards, etc. God of War 3, ME2, and GT5 made more natural evolutions than adaptive ones.

Dark General4873d ago

Sessler hit it right on the head. Ever since the worldwide economy went rocky 3 years or so ago all the entertainment mediums has gone with releasing safe products. It's been no secret that right after the dotcom bubble bust that the entertainment realm seemed to swell and balloon (amongst other things during that expansion period). I think what we've seen in the last few years has been just the effects of us a people becoming a little over zealous but I digress. Anywho I think it's been a real treat to get adventurous titles like Heavy Rain but like darth mentioned we'll see more titles via digital storefronts.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 4873d ago
rezzah4874d ago

Damn i love his veiw, very insightful on everything. Someone whos veiws can be truted without any sort of bias =)

R_aVe_N4874d ago

Sessler has always been pretty straight up for the most part. I have to agree with him this year was not the best I have seen. It had really great games, but lacked that "Oh SH!T" factor that we had in previous years. Like I said very good games just nothing really got me so excited I could not wait to get it. The games like Heavy Rain, Halo Reach, and God Of War were great don't get me wrong, but nothing to really hold my attention for long.

soundslike4874d ago

Gaming just got married and wants a house in the burbs. Call me when gaming has its midlife crisis, I'm dying to see what comes out of desperation.

340°

Adam Sessler on Game Reviews, New Games Media, and X-Play

On this week's episode, former co-host of G4’s X-Play and the current president of TheoryHead, Adam Sessler, joins host Josiah Renaudin to talk about the new games media landscape. They cover modern game reviews, how we talk about games, the importance of sites like Waypoint, how X-Play was done from episode to episode, the brilliance of Horizon: Zero Dawn's design, and what Adam's up to now.

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MONOLITHICIDE2544d ago

i prefer extended play and tech tv haha.

OldGuyStillGaming2543d ago

F this clown
He ruined God of War Acension because he's easily offended and sucked at playing it so they had to dumb it down for his sappy ass.

TheUndertaker852543d ago (Edited 2543d ago )

Uh...

Sony Santa Monica develops the game while Sony publishes.

If it was dumbed down it was by those two parties. Stating that they changed the game due to one individual is asinine as either

1) Sony Santa Monica and Sony then gave into the supposed demands of one individual and altered the game
2) Sony Santa Monica and Sony dumbed down the game based on their own opinion
Or 3) Sony Santa Monica and Sony wanted to push multiplayer with God of War Ascension then dumbed down the game to get individuals into the multiplayer with the micro transactions they introduced with the same title.

Either way it didn't come down to Sessler. He wasn't directly creating the game, publishing the game, or even involved outside of critique.🙂

Lionheart3772543d ago

That's not how video game development works, dude.

Fullmetalevolust2543d ago

I don't think his sphere of influence can impact a game and its development. However, he has made some statements I do not agree with but it doesn't take away that Xplay was fun to watch. They'd both shit on JRPG's almost every time and I'd shrug and still play them, lol.

dirkdady2543d ago

Actually if Adam did a mock review for Sony it could have heavily influenced aspects of the game.

Mock review for those that don't know is when a publisher hires a game critic to do a mock review for internal use/feedback only. It gives them a sense for how it will review upon release.

TheUndertaker852542d ago

@dirkdady: For them to want a mock review they'd had to have doubts with the product. Further for them to change aspects of the game comes down to Sony & Sony Santa Monica. They wouldn't do so unless they thought the feedback was valid.

Even still Sony & Sony Santa Monica would be involved in a green light. Not Sessler, again.

rainslacker2542d ago

Huh? Only thing I recall getting changed because of him was the name of a trophy.

Hardly something that would ruin the game as a whole. They didn't even remove the trophy....just renamed it.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 2542d ago
Pantz2543d ago

Hope they are together at E3 again. It warms my heart.

TheOttomatic912543d ago

I've never been a personal fan of Adam Sessler but hearing his insights about game industry (or specifically in being a gaming journalist) is quite interesting.

medman2543d ago

X-play and Aots all day every day.

fenome2543d ago

I used to watch both those shows all the freaking time. I lost a lot of respect for Sessler after some of his ridiculous rants though. God Of War was the first wtf seriously moment, and then the whole backing out of the industry because of the share button thing was just the icing on the cake.

OoglyBoogly2543d ago

His review of Bioshock Infinite did it for me. He talked about that mediocre game play experience like it was the greatest game he had ever played. Didn't make sense to me honestly.

TheUndertaker852543d ago

@OoglyBoogly: Yes, god forbid someone enjoys Bioshock while you don't.

fenome2543d ago

He literally just started contradicting himself and having little meltdowns toward the end, it would almost be funny if it wasn't kind of sad. Like I said, I used to watch X-Play all the time back in the day.

I'd post links just to show you what I'm talking about but my phone is ghetto and it's not worth the effort. Just look it up, it's not hard to find, he started slipping bad.

rainslacker2542d ago (Edited 2542d ago )

I lost complete respect for him the day he was at some E3 post conference show completely drunk off his ass, barely coherent, and just cynical as all hell. Claimed he had a cold, and was on cold medicine, even though he was fine early that day, and the next day seemed like he was not sick at all.

I've only enjoyed about half of the content he ever was a part of, and I did enjoy when he did interviews, because he was always fair, and even pushed hard on some questions at times, but his reviews either seemed shilled or extremely biased.

After that though he just started thinking his own opinion on how the industry should behave made him intolerable. Particularly his rant about not getting free stuff from the console markers. It's like the guy went off his meds, and all you ended up seeing what the bat-sh*t crazy side that just makes you uncomfortable to watch or be around.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 2542d ago
Segata2543d ago

Aos was trash. Screen Savers was better. Extended Play stomps X-plays crappy skits with interns and lame jokes.

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20°

Exclusive New Friday The 13th Game Interview On Spawn On Me Podcast

It’s a spooky, scary time of the year in Brookago! So it’s a no better time
to bring back our newest minister, Adam Sessler! Adam has so many great
things going on, and we get right into to it. Between his new movie
Lumberjack Man and his excitement about the kickstarter/upcoming video
game, Friday the 13th, The Sess is everywhere! What would a show with Adam,
Kahlief, Cicero and Shareef be if there wasn’t a ridiculous amount of
hilarity? Enjoy episode 82 of the Spawn On Me Podcast!

30°

Adam Sessler, Jessica Villareal and Jeff Cannata discuss the biggest stories out of E3 2015

Adam Sessler, Jeff Cannata, and Jessica Villareal sit down to discuss the latest trends and biggest news coming out of E3 2015. See what they have to say about the show’s hottest games, including Uncharted 4 and Halo 5: Guardians, as well as their thoughts on the impending arrival of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality headsets that could change the way we game forever.