Are We Past the Point of Giving Games That 'Just Work' A Pass?

Despite the seemingly endless tide of doomsday articles being written about the video game industry — death of consoles this, casual iPhone games are taking over that — it is easy to see that video games are bigger than ever. It’s still in its infancy, but if you compared now to the ’80s, you would see two entirely different pictures, and this is where my point comes along. Should we still give otherwise unspectacular games a pass simply because they work?

[NonApplicable]

Rage was far from "just working". You stuck that image in for hits.

[DeeZee]

Enough with this "for hits" nonsense, if that really was the case there would be a picture of a half naked woman instead of the ugly Rage monster. Trust me, you'll now when we start trolling for hits. If we were, there would be more than one comment after an hour.

If you read the article you'll see what he's talking about. "Just Work" means games that play/look good, but they lack soul. It just works, but at the end of the day it's generic and soulless. Many would agree Rage fits that description.

[NonApplicable]

Perhaps the incorrect descriptive word was used then. Soulless and Just Work are far from being synonyms.

A half naked wouldn't make sense in this context, but including that image of rage is highly controversial because of it decisive reputation among gamers.

[snipes101]

If you can tell me one thing about it that was special minus the graphical engine (I'm talking game play here) and the driving and I will give you Rage.

Otherwise, it was a shooter that did not need to be created. They should have waited longer to show off their new engine.

[Tyre]

Most mobile games lack soul, RAGE not so much, @deezee, u could have easily said the same thing about Doom/Quake, RAGE has IdSoftware stamped all over it. U either hate it or love it. Gamers had weird over the top expectations about it, that's all. The game is great and i just have tons of fun with it. Only Id could have made it feel the way it does, u could easily turn arguments around that most games lack what RAGE does have. It is quite a humble shooter that does what is does better than other games. I like it from the start. I'm sorry to dissapoint most of the critics.

[ginsunuva]

I remember when Rage won a bunch of best of e3 awards left and right, but I kept saying "What's so good about this? It's graphics are good, not as great as people say, and the gameplay is extremely average."

[AO1JMM]

Rage worked perfectly on my 360....

[ShaunCameron]

I just call those games "good for what they are." That's it, That's all.