I AM WHAT I AM AND I'M............

In a time where gaming is coming into it's own, there are some things about the industry that I wish I could change. One of those things is game reviews. I love this site because there are so many people with great opinions that voice their concerns about the same thing. The reason I had to post is because I just finished looking at some reviews of some games both old and new and I am noticing a bad trend that affects gamers everywhere.

So I scanned the internet for awhile last night looking for reviews of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I came across 3 that were very interesting. The reason they were is because of the fact that despite giving a mediocre score of the game, they repeatedly bashed the game for borrowing ideas frrom other games. Hold on a sec here. Isn't that what games do? Isn't that what movies and television shows do too? For every Indiana Jones there's a Mummy Returns. For every Dancing with the Stars, there's So You Think You Can Dance. I mean let's face it, there is always a Simon Cowell on all of these shows. Some foreign person with a really cool accent that is usually the harshest critic of the people that perform. So when did gaming become different.

It alarms me because the gamers are the ones that are affected. Look at this scenario if you will. Darksiders came out and most review sites said the game is like Zelda and God of War. It didn't get really good reviews from critics for mostly that reason. But if you looks at comments and blogs, you will notice another trend as well. Most people that played it liked it despite it's flaws. Then you have a game like Alpha Protocol which was announced to officially be scraped due to poor ratings. Ratings that came about from review sites that made the game sound as if it is totally broken in gameplay save the story. So you have a start on a franchise completely wiped out due to reviews and a sequel that will never come.

Let's not forget, how many games have started by taking from other games. Let's not forget that Ratchet and Clank combined the platforming of a Mario game and the fast paced shooting of a Red Faction into one. Later iterations borrowed some RPG elements in upgrading your weapons and armor. Was that wrong? I didn't hear anyone say they shouldn't do that.

So when I hear complaints about decent games borrowing elements from really great games, as long as it is implemented right, I don't see why a game should be bashed for it. Another concern within that same frame of thought is, if a game is not taking those ideas from other games and doing something new with them, the game automatically loses points for that. Is the point of gaming not to have fun? So why should Castlevania: LOS, Darksiders, and Dante's Inferno be punished for putting what they know people said is fun in their game?

Keep in mind that I am no fanboy of any of these series. I am a collector of games so I come with an open mind to all games even in genre's that I don't normally play. I just find it unnerving to know that some games will never see a sequel due to sub-par reviews. And because the critics don't really care about people's perspectives because we don't know what we would and would not like, I guess we will all be left by the wayside. Just a rant and something to think about. Please feel free to voice your opinion if you think what I am saying is incorrect. My word is not law, just opinion.