The video game industry is unforgiving. Indeed, of all the big players in the home console market during the 1980s - an era that saw the market both boom and flop - Nintendo remains the only one still in the business of making hardware, and for that they deserve a huge amount of credit. After single-handedly ensuring for the continued prosperity of the home console after the success of the NES, Nintendo has forged a legacy of iconic characters and video game hardware that extends to every corner of both the industry and the entirety of pop culture.
Ever since video game consoles were capable of producing 3D graphics, gamers have dreamt about the potential of photo-realistic visuals. Especially during the early 2000s, as the increased horsepower allowed for a more crisp aesthetic, immersion was often quantified by how realistic a game’s graphics were. In fact, it is only fairly recently - perhaps due to the influx of indie games available on console - that the mainstream appreciation of video games has become less heavily associated with aesthetics.
Nowhere else was the influx of solid game design during the 1990s more evident than among Japanese role playing games (JRPG). Scores of superb titles such as Wild Arms, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, Dragon Quest VII and Vagrant Story forged a legacy of quality; an era arguably unrivalled by any other genre era in gaming history.
Thanks to the connectivity afforded to console hardware, purchasing and playing video games has never been a more streamlined and easy process. Digital gaming has made available every single new title at the click of a button. It's generally a better experience, too; there's no laborious changing of CDs, and no tedious waiting in line for new releases. Digital games tend to load faster also, and the convenience of storing our games on centralized hubs such as PlayStations online network or Xbox Live can't be overstated.
Younger gamers won’t necessarily remember the days when we used to call DLC an “expansion pack,” especially those that didn’t venture into PC gaming. Of course, back in the day PCs were really the only hardware with which additional content was viable because of the nature with which they were installed and saved on hard drive. But consoles have since caught up, and thanks to the connectivity afforded by online networks such as Xbox Live and PSN, substantial additional content has become common place for most AAA titles.
While Uncharted 2: Among Thieves’ might put Naughty Dog on the map, few would disagree that the smash hit post-apocalyptic action game The Last Of Us is the studio's finest work. In fact, The Last Of Us is arguably one of PlayStation’s greatest ever exclusive games and one of the must-play essential titles of the last generation. No surprises then that a sequel to that much revered game is eagerly awaited, and now that the critically acclaimed final chapter to the Uncharted series, A Thief’s End, is done and dusted, many gamers are frantically scouring the internet for any details or clues to its release date.
Augmented reality, urban spaces, social anthropology, economics, meta; since Pokemon Go launched earlier this month the internet has been awash with buzz words to describe and make sense of its unprecedented popularity. Indeed, Pokemon Go hasn’t even released globally yet and it is already a phenomenon so massive that it has reached its way into all corners of everyday life, a near unavoidable facet of social media and news reporting.
We're in the middle of a big year for the video gaming industry; scores of titles are launching in unprecedented numbers, numbers that we haven't seen since the glory days of the 8 and 16 bit era of console gaming. It's great to see, especially considering the naysayers and doom mongers that would have had us believe that console gaming was on the way out when forecasting the potential success of the 7th generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles.
Was this years E3 one of the best in recent memory? Quite possibly, especially in regards to the press conferences themselves. Ok, EA's was as dreary as ever, and Ubisoft still seem to find new ways to make us all feel slightly uncomfortable, but on the whole the conferences were entirely effective in exciting the gaming community about the future of the industry for the next few years. After all, that is the whole point of the show, right?
2016 has been a busy year in the video gaming industry, with a host of big budget titles having launched in virtually non stop succession since January. Indeed, that's a theme that seems set to continue, and if you're a hardcore gamer then you'll no doubt have your calendar marked with the release dates of the season's most tantalizing looking titles. But with all the hype and anticipation for these massive AAA games, it's easy to forget about the host of promising smaller indie games sandwiched in between.
