No, not in the way you think. I forgive the Wii thanks to it's awesome 2009 lineup.

I'm disappointed in gaming these days because of the focus on First Person Shooters and online gaming. I loved my Playstation and Playstation 2 because of one thing: JRPGs. Sure, we still get some great JRPGs on the 360 but it's honestly not enough for me. There also seems to be a total lack of anything with real personality in today's gaming as the focus seems to be on the Western market and realism, what happened to all the colourful mascot platformers of the late 80s' and 90s'? I miss playing through a platformer and then talking to my friends about it later like say "did you find the secret jiggy?" which brings me to another gripe. What's with the extremely linear titles? No, it didn't start with this generation but I don't like it, I want to be able to explore a huge gaming world without any invisable walls blocking my way, I want secret areas, and yes I want to get stuck every once in a while.

This is turning out to be longer than I thought it would be so I'll end it on this... some of my greatest memories are sitting in front of the TV playing the Nintendo 64 with my friends, so what happened? Why are developers actually leaving splitscreen out of games that include multiplayer? Picking up my Playstation 3 with MotorStorm and two controllers only to find out there was no splitscreen was one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory.

There's way more wide open games in this era then any other era to date, it feels like. Or, at least, a lot more developers are trying to focus on that anyways.

HEY WAIT A MINUTE

You seem to miss where I said "huge gaming worlds" which all good JRPGs have, besides when was the last time you played a JRPG that was basically blocking you off from moving anywhere but up or forward? I mean just step into the overworld

I was aiming that comment more at linear FPS campaigns or 3D platformers like Ratchet & Clank where it's more just go forward and shoot some stuff up every once in a while, compare those to Metroid Prime & Half Life which involve a lot of exploration and puzzle solving or Super Mario 64 where your goal is to explore your surroundings until eventually coming across a star and you'll see what I'm getting at. Super Metroid was side scrolling and it still manages to offer much more exploration than 3D games do today.

I just feel like a lot of games are forgetting they're three dimensional lately. Linear 2D games? couldn't be more awesome. Linear 3D games? couldn't be more lame.

Stop being such a lolstalgia 'very nice gay man'

Edit- ^^^ oh lol

You know what? you're right I haven't tried playing that many current gen games other than MotorStorm splitscreen, I only own one controller for both my Wii and 360 which I'm sure have a lot of great splitscreen multiplayer games. Ignore that argument except for a few of the titles that really should have included the option.

I did forget to mention the Nintendo DS earlier too, so I guess I fail, it's really an amazing system for JRPG fans such as myself. I just wish I would remember to buy games for it more often.

I still say the two powerhouse consoles are way too focused on FPS gaming for their own good though. I find myself uninterested in most of the games for the 360, when looking around in a gaming store, even though they're all great games. I've just played the genre to death and I'm hoping for a little more variety. No, WRPGs and racing simulations don't count.

I love my games to have personality. I'll give a few examples: No More Heroes, MadWorld, Valkyria Chronicles, and Kingdom Hearts all seem to really appeal to me. I believe more games need to take risks to stand out from the pack like those games.

I'm in a really complainy/ranty mood lately. It's probably from my lack of sleep so I apologize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhzyOzItDnc

Reminds me a lot of the Game Overthinker. He points out several trends in today's games that you've mentioned. Maybe not jrpgs in particular, but he definitely has a love for the old console mascots.

Anyway, if you haven't listened to him before, give him a try.

*scratches head* What?...uhm nevermind.

Online gaming is a big deal and just a part of evolution. Nobody forces you to use it. You can still enjoy tons of games without ever having to play online.
As for FPS, it's everybodies cash cow atm, what fighting games were to many developpers in the 90's when Street Fighter II came out. Eventually we'll get into some times where another genre will take over...pretty sure about that. Still, it's not like it's all FPS nowadays.

Tell Squeenix to work faster.

3D happened.

Maybe you should try GTA, Saints Row or maybe even Mirrors Edge some day.

What'cha talkin about Bard?

when games are being made entirely too short, or with just very bland or meh single player experiences because everyone is focused soley on making the online play good ( im looking at you halo ) , its a problem IMO, call of duty 4 was criminaly short but people said that didnt matter because the online play was sooo good, not every one plays online, what about folks who dont, is it worth 60 bucks for a game that takes 5 hours but has "great online play" if your not interested in playing it online?

you know what, if developers want to make a deep, rich , fulfiling , long single player game with a great online component more power to them, thats just a tasty little bonus on the cake, but stop sacraficing the single player experience and justifying it by saying it has incredible online multiplayer.

the ONLY expection is if the game is multiplayer only, like a MMO or some other sort of game that doesnt have a single player mode.

in a world where games cost 60 bucks, the single player ( main part of the game IMHO ) should never ever be sacraficed to make better online play for said game .

Look what happened with Bioshock though. Amazing single player game, but people bitched endlessly about no online. The devs just can't win in thee situations.

That's true. A lot of 3D JRPGs do really direct you where to go, in fact they basically block you off from going anywhere else, an example would be Kingdom Hearts II. I think I forgive linear JRPGs a little more because of their length and they're usually full of side quests.

A good example of a more recent JRPG that doesn't hold your hand and point you in the right direction though is Infinite Undiscovery. Once you step out of the first town it basically tells you to go fuck yourself and find out what to do on your own.




Maybe it's just personal taste but I'm really looking forward to playing MadWorld, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Arc Rise Fantasia, Rune Factory Frontier(finally a good looking Harvest Moon game we haven't had one of those since HM64), Punch-Out!!, Kizuna, Monster Hunter 3 and more.

By the way, on the subject of co-op games, I'm plugging Co-Optimus again. <_____<