Edge columnist Mr.Biffo on the power and effects, usually negative ones, of the game industry hype machine:
"Presumably because it wobbles on an economic knife-edge most of the time, the games industry drives one of the biggest hypemobiles on the entertainment superhighway. I can't think of a film or a music release that has ever been subject to the same level of sustained, pre-release hysteria as the biggest games releases are treated to. Consequently, the big games are so forcibly rammed down our oesophagus that I end up resenting them. And I end up resenting them because I'm an idiot, and tend to end up buying them."
"At least there are occasions where hype doesn't work. Public relations is a balancing act, and sometimes you can tip the wrong way. That's precisely what has happened with the PlayStation 3."
"But in the same way that everyone has apparently been brainwashed into believing that Halo 3 is flawless, game-of-the-year material, the games-buying public now has an ingrained conviction that the PS3 is irredeemably awful."
Not every Halo game has been a banger, but the franchise still has a raft of the greatest games of all time.
Infinite is a dumpster fire and as much as I like ODST, in no universe it ranks above Halo 2. This list is trash.
Best to worst: Halo 3, Halo 2, Halo Reach, Halo CE, Halo 4, Halo ODST, Halo Infinite, Halo 5.
The Xbox 360 was a fantastic console in its day with some truly classic titles, but what are the seven best games for the console?
I'll go with,
Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Culdcept Saga, Shadow Complex, Ace Combat 6 with the flight stick,A Kingdom for Keflings, A World of Keflings.
Bonus Kinect Games: Happy Action Theater and Sesame Street.
*Skyrim was so bad on PS3 that it almost deserves to be #1*
Ah yes, Shadow Complex! Good indies back in the day. Summer of Arcade. I enjoyed Trials Evolution as well.
Was this made by a.i.? No human being would put Shadowrun, Fable III, and Splinter Cell: Conviction into a list of the 7 best Xbox 360 games.
Would love to play Ace Combat6 on PlayStation, but Xbox decided to buy exclusivity and keep it off a competing platform.
The only mainline game I never played except for one level at a friends place. Game sold less than any other in the series if I remember correctly.
360 had Namco hitters AC6 and RR6... both quality titles. You should at least bust out the 360 for AC6 if you can score the flight stick. Its great.
When the current gen XBOX offering is so lacking people need to refer to games released two generations back....
It's a nostalgia peice same reason we get thousands of YouTube videos on sega genisis. Something people have fond memories for but the era is long gone.
It's xboxs golden year imo it was their genisis years the time where they stuck it to the market leaders Sony.
They stuck nothing. Sony screwed themselves giving Xbox an opening. They would have gotten the usual smack down if the PS3 had launched at $399 and was easier to develop for.
The Xbox 360 launched in North America 18 years ago, and is now officially old enough to buy you a drink in Europe.
Great platform, and many of its games (not bc) still hold up well to this day. Like the PS3, I keep a 360 hooked up for those games you can't play any other way.
The last gasp of greatness from XBox, you are missed, except the RROD that was lame, but amazing exclusives until the Kinect dropped.
I really enjoyed my X360, some great exclusives on it. Used to play the shit out ot Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, two masterpieces
But I agree 99.9% on what he's saying except the fact that the PS3 has no games. Sure it's been a year since it's been out but it has a lot of great games that've come out throughought it's short lifespan. The PS2, now that console had no good games at it's first year. I bought Onimusha Warlords because it was by far the only interesting one it had during it's release.
Now I understand if Warhawk, Uncharted, Heavenly Sword, Folklore (etc) isn't really his cup of tea, but to say that the PS3 has no games is so 6 months ago.
From the article:
"even with its desperate new entry-level model there’s no way I’m buying one of the wretched things. Release some decent games, Sony"
Thats a very harsh view. Personally this guy seems to hate hype more than anything, regardless of the product attached to it. I can completely understand his annoyance that the ps3 game library is, shall we say, somewhat lacking in a decent number of high quality titles, but the console itself is a damn capable bit of kit, and the games are coming. The ps3 is clawing back some credibility after countless sony screw-ups on the lead up to its release - the negative sentiment is slowly dissipating in my view.
Lets be honest, hype is only initiated by the games companies when they start their marketing campaigns. Its up to the people buying the stuff to keep it going. Its our fault as gaming consumers that a game like halo 3 gets a life of its own regardless of the quality of the final product (although i'm a big fan, i know many who arent). The anti-ps3 sentiment that may have existed is exactly the same - loads of people annoyed at sony made a big fuss before it was released and in its early days - the negative press is now dissipating, but the whole time, sony has been marketing it positively.
Hype is gamers fault, no-one elses - m$ and sony (and everyone else) just fuel it every so often.
So is he saying that EDGE made a mistake in giving HALO3 a 10 and BIOSHOCK an 8?How can you give a game a perfect score and later on say the game is not worth the hype.Even if he might not have been the one that reviewed the game but EDGE as a publication should ensure that there is consistency in their published articles.because if they like it or not they contributed to the hype train for HALO 3 and helped in Killing BIOSHOCK because once i saw the EDGE review i rented the game and was simply blown away by its brilliance.Bye then i couldnt justify buying it new again but instead bought it used.Iam not saying BIOSHOCK would have sold like HALO but BIOSHOCK would have sold a bit more because alot of people really on EDGE more than any other magazine.
The latest edition of EDGE gave MASS EFFECT 7?They made little or no mention about the frame rate issues.Reading the article you will know the game at least deserved an 8.
Mark my words in a couple of months you will pick up a copy of edge were they will be talking about the brilliance of MASS EFFECT.
EDGE is loosing their credibility.Iam now trying GAMEStm,so far they seem to be good.