Nintendo broke away from competition with Sony and, new arrival, Microsoft with what some call the “Blue Ocean” business strategy. The Blue Ocean strategy is the metaphor of leaving a “red ocean” (one dyed by the blood of competition) for unclaimed waters filled with the potential for creating new demand. From a business stand point this brave (or stupid) move has paid off and now Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 are competing for second place.

Nintendo managed to succeed because they did something more than incrementally improve and repurpose old features. Yes, Gentle Reader, I’m talking about the “I” word, innovation. It’s debatable if the Wii controller is a true innovation as some gamers will still belittle it and mock it, but from a business standpoint it’s a successful change that’s brought in tremendous profit. Nintendo is as guilty as everyone else of giving us sequels by the truck load, most games in each series offer something new every one or two games. In truth, sequels are not really a bad thing as long as they are different enough that it stands on its own or adds to the previous experience. (continue reading…)

Square Enix released a trailer for the mysterious Final Fantasy XIII Versus. And to be honest? It looks amazing.

Final Fantasy XIII Versus

The grahics are breathtaking: It’s like you’re watching a live-action movie. The shadows, the reflections, it’s amazing. But really, Square-Enix, can’t you tell us something about the actual game?

This trailer is similar to your average action-movie trailer. There’s a lot of flashing pictures, a hint at romance, the main character looking cool, and a lot of spectacular special effects. But you still don’t know anything about the movie. You have no idea whether it’s good or not. You have a slight idea what the plot is about, but nothing more than that. And you have no idea whether the movie is good or not.

What did we learn from this extended trailer? Well, the cutscenes look amazing. And we have four guys very much in touch with their feminine side. And a car. Oh, and some random girl shows up.

But we still don’t know anything about the actual gameplay. And that is what a game is about, not how pretty the graphics are. The fighting scene is obviously not how the actual gameplay works,  so we’re still absolutely clueless.

Will there be party members? Will there be spells, or mechanics similar to them, like in the regular Final Fantasy series? Will the gameplay be button mashing?

Please, Square Enix. Don’t just throw some pretty graphics at us. Tell us about the actual game. The thing that will keep most players busy, not the pretty graphics.

You can download the trailer here

If you’ve got a Sony Playstation 3, then chances are you’ve snapped up Naughty Dog’s platformer-slash-cover shooter, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. While it didn’t exactly wow over critics with its gameplay mechanics that had obviously been inspired from quite a number of other IPs, it definitely made waves with its stellar presentation, poloygon-crunching graphics and superb voice acting ( which made Nate and his associates quite the memorable crew). Now, we get wind of its sequel, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, via the cover of GameInformer’s upcoming issue.

In their website, GameInformer teases the reveal-all article by letting slip a few details about the sequel: the game will revolve around the exploits of Marco Polo this time around. The game will also feature a new free-climbing mechanic to set itself apart from its predecessor, as well as stealth sections that will probably have Drake sneaking around to avoid enemy encounters.

Stealth gameplay? Free CLIMBING? I’m sorry, Naughty Dog, but since when was blatant imitation and thoughtless copying part of the deal? And in this day and age of dry humor, witty one-liners and shooters that utilize cover effectively? You had a market with Crash Bandicoot, hell, you had a HUGE following, and that series of PlayStation One games have gone on to have legendary gameplay that rivals that of Mario and Sonic. The videogame world considered HIM as a viable rival for those two icons. You’ve got a market for people who want something different, and yet you churn out more of the same. Not just more of the same, but literally regurgitated and recycled material. We don’t blame you for trying something new, but if you just thought for a second about how Free Climbing was done already effectively by Assassin’s Creed and stealth gameplay is but one of gaming’s most tired (and most annoying) cliches, then you’d have thought twice about putting them in as key draws for your game. Your game of mishmash gameplay mechanics from other games that do them better and had done them BEFORE.

I’ve played the first Uncharted and I had fun with it, but even with graphics whore glasses on I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I’ve done it all before. Sure, you’ll say that other games do mimic other games’ key features but at the very least they tried damn well to be original.

Bring back Crash, you immensely unoriginal pollocks.