Mediocre but engaging games have been the backbone of the industry. What is the price of perfection? | games

IPerhaps it should come as no surprise that the sequel to the highly anticipated horror adventure Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 did not live up to expectations. Released this week to mixed reviews, it has faced difficult circumstances, arriving after seven years of development across two different studios. Some reviewers are disappointed that the title drops a lot of the complex role-playing elements of its popular predecessor, while others are frustrated that you start out as a powerful senior vampire and never develop much, though you are able to gain some additional abilities as you explore the snowy, blood-sucking city of Seattle and fight monsters.

What I’ve come across as absurd about this admittedly flawed game, and watching my vampire-loving son play with great enthusiasm, is that it’s both idiosyncratic and enjoyable. The slightly soft focus and icy, cold presentation of Seattle give it a film noir feel, accentuated by streets lined with neon signs and swanky members’ clubs where costumed vampires play classical music on the grand piano. You can flirt with strange vampires, and you can psychically throw sledgehammers at bad guys; My son especially enjoys making people explode by cursing their blood and then throwing things at them. He’s like starring in some forgotten ’90s vampire movie that has since developed an obsessive cult following.

The game also serves as a reminder that flawed but brilliant games were once the backbone of the industry. From the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, it was possible for a team with fewer than 50 development employees to create a good mid-budget adventure, publish it globally, and find an audience. I know because I’ve reviewed dozens of them, starting with the wannabe 2.5D platformer Pandemonium! From the riot control simulator State of Emergency to the terrifying shooter The Suffering. The PlayStation 2 has hundreds, thanks to its massive popularity. For every Gran Turismo or Metal Gear Solid game there was Enthusia Professional Racing or Kill Switch, Toca Race Driver 3 or Oni.

The Xbox 360 was packed with them, too – the game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 immediately reminded me of was Activision’s 2009 shape-shifting action adventure, in which amnesiac main character Alex Mercer wanders around real-life New York, turning his limbs into weapons and absorbing enemies into his biomass. It was the 360 ​​era that saw the ultimate example of flawed treasure: Hidetaka “Swery65” Suehiro’s ridiculous, outrageous, and brilliant detective adventure Deadly Premonition with its often terrible visuals and a narrator so unreliable you wouldn’t trust him to read you a bedtime story.

For the past five years, the mainstream gaming industry has been short on this kind of experience because development costs are too high to risk it. So I’m glad to see recent titles like this, South of Midnight, Mafia: The Old Country, Atomfall and Dying Light: The Beast come out and be a bit weird and awkward on a mainstream budget. It’s easy to forget in the psychologically revisionist work of writing the history of video games that not all of the best ideas came from the most popular titles. Introduced by Herzog Zwei, the Mega Drive strategy game gave us most of the features of the real-time strategy genre before Dune II or Command & Conquer; King’s Field laid the foundations for the Soulslike trend, but attracted only average reviews. Shiny Entertainment’s overlooked 1997 shooter MDK was one of the first games to feature an enlarged sniper rifle scope and its visual impact of the concept was adopted by many subsequent developers.

For many years, the phrase “classic 7/10” was a joke among gaming journalists as the score became appropriate when a game defied easy critical evaluation. But these seven often hid interesting treasures that players often discovered on their own by playing demos of magazine cover discs or renting them from Blockbuster. These avenues aren’t open anymore, so you’ll have to use Steam demos and YouTube videos to root out the slightly affected truffles in the gaming industry. It’s worth the effort. Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 may be taking a beating from critics at the moment, but it may turn out to be timeless.

What are you playing?

It bounced right off Scarlet and Violet, however Pokemon Legends ZA It has been well received at my house. It’s (finally!) an updated, remixed and modernized version of Pokémon, ditching turn-based creature combat in favor of highly frenetic battles where you direct your team in real time, unleashing moves and dodging your trainer out of the line of fire.

The film is set in the pseudo-Parisian city of Lumiose, which gives it a certain character; It has entertaining character writing. And while it’s attracted a lot of criticism for its bland graphics, I can confirm that kids don’t care about this at all (and frankly, neither do I – it still looks better than every other Pokemon game I’ve played, and if I could show that to my 11-year-old self playing on a monochromatic Game Boy screen, she’d lose her mind). I think I still slightly prefer the wilderness feel of Arceus, but this urban Pokemon paradise is stylish nonetheless. Kiza MacDonald

Available on: Nintendo Switch/Switch 2
Estimated playing time: 25+ hours

What are you reading?

• I was playing a a lot to Battlefield 6 Online and this IGN story about the war between the “Zoomers” and the “Battledads” amused me a lot. Younger players enjoy the nimble movement that allows you to jump, slide, and shoot with almost no restrictions, while older fans of the game prefer its more authentic, slower style of getting around. The game’s creators have to appease both fan bases one way or another. Good luck with that.

• I’m a retro console geek, so I was thrilled to discover that Atari was ready for a release Intellivision Sprinta modernized version of Mattel’s classic console from 1979. According to VGC, it will come with 45 games and a version of the device’s quirky controller, which features a number pad. It will be released in December at a price of £99.99 or $149.99.

• Kind of related to my article above is this article about infinite mode, with the title Shorter games with worse graphics would be better for everyone, actually. It makes the familiar point that we haven’t really gained any experience from the era of big-budget, ultra-HD games – and the development staff have suffered. Maybe it’s time to rethink.

What to click on

Question block

A potentially valuable question came via email from a friend of mine this week:

“I’ve noticed that classic video games have become collector’s items, sometimes selling for the thousands. How do I know what games are likely to be valuable in the future?”

There are two categories of valuable video games: older releases of beloved franchises like Pokémon, Super Mario, Final Fantasy, and Street Fighter; And incredibly obscure versions that no one has ever heard of, but have skyrocketed in value simply because they’re so rare. In the latter category are titles like Mr.Gimmick!, the Scandinavian remake of the 1992 NES console, Gimmick!, or Konami’s failed 2003 action game Ninja Five-O for the Nintendo DS – both of which are now incredibly difficult to find. If you’re looking to start a collection, stick to the big franchises I’ve already mentioned as well as new titles that are popular with hardcore fans – anything by From Software, Capcom, Nintendo, Squaresoft, etc. Limited editions and collector’s editions of these games in good condition are the safest bet. It’s not really worth bothering with more casual blockbusters like Fifa, Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto unless they’re an obscure or rare offering – Grand Theft Auto Complete Collection on PS2 is now around £3,000.

If you want to buy old toys, forget eBay and the big charity shop chains now that almost everyone is thinking about toys being worth something. However, car box sales and small charity shops are worth a look – if you find a SNES or N64 game in good condition (the cardboard packaging makes that a rarity in itself) it’s bound to be worth more than the few pounds you pay – in fact, so is almost any console game released before 2000, unless it’s a big annual sports game, a kids’ game or a major Nintendo DS title. You won’t get rich with Dr. Kawashima’s brain training.

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