"Innovation?" Whatever.

"Innovation" is a word that's been thrown around a lot latelyin the video games biz. Innovation is supposed to be something new or creative. I'm not seeing it. I'll go through a few things that have been called innovative lately.

Shadowrun. Not innovative. This game built up a good deal of hype because of how "new" and "different" it was. If this game intrigues you and you haven't played it yet, I can save you sixty dollars. This game has two game types. One is a single life neutral flag. The other is the same thing, except there's nowhere to take the flag. You cannot change any game options. You will play first to six rounds. You will play neutral flag. Some things you could maybe bring up are the different races you can play and the weapon and magic purchases at the beginning of the round. What this boils down to is a class system like dozens of other games have and the weapon and item purchasing from Perfect Dark Zero. In fact, this game plays so much like PDZ that it seems to me like the game uses the same game engine. Movement and shooting is all the same. I played in the beta for Shadowrun.It had two maps and all of the races were available. If you get the retail version of this game, you get better lighting, one new magic spell and five or six more maps than the beta. And no campaign mode. Also don't expect this thing to be anything like the RPG it's supposedly based on. Nothing new there either.

Nintendo Wii. Not even close to innovative. Two words: Power Glove. I didn't like the idea for this 20 years ago. Why is it any better now? I prefer my video games to require some kind of precision. If you can flail your arms wildly about, you can play anything in Wii sports. This is just a gimmick. The Wiimote is so clunky for games that aren't designed specifically for the system that they sell a real controller that plugs into it for their Arca... I mean Virtual console games. This means less third party support because most game companies don't want to spend the extra money to put in motion controls for one out of two systems. Most companies making games for this system just tack on some awkward kind of motion controls. They don't care. With the awful drought of quality games for the Wii, you'll buy anything with Wii stamped on the box. If you buy a Wii, all you have to look forward to is a Mario game, a couple new sports games with Mario in them and the new Smash Brothers with, that's right, Mario. If you like Mario, you're set. You could've gotten the new Zelda game for the Gamecube.

That's right. I spoke poorly of the Wii. I don't care how many units they've shipped. It's still a glorified Gamecube. They could have made a unit that plugs into the bottom of the Gamecube with a sensor bar and wifi and exactly matched the functionality and graphics of the Wii for fifty dollars. You know why they didn't do that? Because they killed the Gamecube, just like they're killing the Wii. Just wait. They'll make a real console in a couple of years.

Lastly I'd just like to say that to be innovative, don't you have to be doing something that's never been done before?

Halo 3

Halo 3 is one of the most highly anticipated video games ever. We've been waiting for almost three years now. It's going to sell millions of copies on the first day. I am chomping at the bit to play it. The brief taste I had in the beta only made me want it more. Now I sit here and I wait. I wait for the ultimate application for the Xbox 360. The one game that will surpass every first person shooter I've ever played. That's a long list. I've played a lot of shooters. I'm starting to have some doubts, though.

Explosives. When I'm playing Halo 2, I have to worry about relatively few explosions. There are 2 kinds of grenades, 1 rocket launcher and the brute shot. In Halo 3 there are 3(possibly 4) types of grenades, 2 rocket launchers, the Spartan laser, the trip mine, the shield drainer, the brute shot and the banshee now fires a rocket in muliplayer. Counting vehicles Halo 3 doubles the explosions of Halo 2. I'm not even counting the Brute Hammer, which explodes on contact in Halo 2 and is rumored to be playable in 3. Lots of explosions. I can't even count how many times in Halo 2 I was killed by an explosion out of nowhere. In Halo 3, It's going to be far worse. If you add in the fact that you can change the amount of grenades of each type you can carry in the customs menu up to six and the rumored fourth grenade type the player can potentially carry 24 grenades and two different rocket launchers. That's nuts.

Rumored map editor. This can be a double edged sword. In Halo 2 you had a bunch of maps, but you played them all so much, you knew every nook and every cranny of every map. In Halo 3, if you have a map editor somedbody will always be laying new maps on you. "Hey, guys, wanna check out my new map?" Get used to hearing that. It may be said a lot. Look what it does for FarCry. In FacCry what killed the gamed for a lot of people was having to download a map every time they played. FarCry now is just basically an arthouse style game where people just exchange maps and look around at eachother's creations. I can see this happening in Halo 3. On the other hand, the controls and the way the weapons work in Halo 3 are far smoother and the game is so much easier to play, that this might not happen.

On the other hand, there are a bunch of things in Halo 3 that I really enjoy. The game has unrivaled customizability. You can change just about anything from the customs menu, if the beta is any indicator. A certain friend of mine will not be allowed to host a game. Ever. The saved films thing is going to be awesome. You can save your ultimate victory or your friend's utter humiliation for posterity. The assault rifle is back, thank God. Spawning with an SMG for three years really casts the assault rifle in a charming, even romantic light. The customizable armor is just awesome. That will not only help me look cool while I'm getting my ass kicked. I'll also be easily identifiable to my teammates. And if they do the four player co-op, I will cry tears of pure joy.

Crazy!

I bet you can't tell me which one of these people is crazier.

One of them lives in a fantasy world where you can lay the blame for every mass murder in our society at the feet of video games. He has been twice asked by a court official to undergo a psychological evaluation. Given this bit of information, you would think he understood that some people are just crazy. He refers to himself in the third person in open correspondence, which may be a lawyer thing, but I think he's just nuts.

The other one is Michael Jackson. Pedofilia. Swinging babies out over balconies. Nuf said.

First post.

I work at an auto parts store in West Tennessee. I consider my job to be on the front line in the continuous battle against the ignorance that rural America seems to thrive upon. It's not exactly a proactive kind of thing. I'm just trying to hold my precarious grip on sanity in an effort to not kill my neighbors. The house next door to me is a rental house. It has been host to more inbreds than I care to think about. Honest to God inbreds. One of them simply could not grasp the concept of numbers. I've sold the man parts before. If you tell the poor guy his part costs $5.99, he's as likely to lay down a twenty as he is to lay down fifty cents. When they lived there, the two weeks before and after the 4th of July they would shoot off fireworks all day and most of the night.

My main hobby is video games, which I primarily play on my Xbox 360. It's got 95% of the video game worth playing on it. I also own a PS2, a DS and several older systems. I don't see any point in paying $600 for a PS3. It only has one game on it currently, that I would consider playing. I genuinely feel sorry for the portion of the gaming community that purchased a PS3 in the last 9 or so months since its release. I believe it's a technically outstanding system. It's the lack of software and support, not to mention competitive price that hurts it so badly. It seems like every time you surf the internet lately Sony has stuck it's foot neck-deep in its mouth. I know things will probably start to turn around gradually in a few months, but I think the damage is done. Sony loyalists will stick by their gargantuan baby till the world ends, but in the end that won't be enough. Sony just needs to get their heads out of their asses and make it a gaming system, not just a blu-ray platform that plays a couple games. We need the competition for Xbox and Wii. It's how we get good video games. Several times in the past a game company has attained dominance in the video games industry and every time it has almost resulted in the complete collapse of that industry.