Shenmue 3: Good Idea, Bad Idea?

Very recently, I have been made aware of a rather sizable community of people all in support of a Shenmue 3 to be released.  This makes me very happy, Shenmue and its sequel are amazing games and it's a story that has been left unfinished for years now and that's just wrong.

Just to fill people in who don't know, Shenmue was a Dreamcast game that came out in Japan at the end of 1999 and in the year 2000 for everyone else.  It was, at it's core, an adventure game about a guy called Ryo Hazuki trying to get revenge for his father who was killed in front of him by a dude called Lan Di.  The player would walk around town, talking to people, gathering clues and items to progress the plot and having a few fights on the way.

Now after reading that you may think "what's the big deal?" but that's the problem with Shenmue, it's really REALLY hard to describe.  It's so much more than just a bog standard adventure game and there is so much to do crammed into what today would be called a small playable area it's staggering.  Aside from the adventurey revenge plot stuff, there is basically a Japan life simulator in here.  As Ryo you are free to go to shops, talk to basically anybody in the street who all have fully voiced lines, play games in the game center, enjoy some slots, collect gatcha figures....the list of stuff to do is fucking huge.

Hell, if you bought Shenmue you had access to full versions of fucking Hang On and Space Harrier as goddamn MINI GAMES.  Games that you could literally sit there and play for hours are nought but side attractions in the world of Shenmue.  So if the story is so good, and the game play is awesome with lots of content, how could a potential Shenmue 3 possibly be a bad idea?

To put it simply, gaming has changed and it's changed a lot.  Shenmue, as good as it is, is a slow methodical game.  Even the battle system revolves around finding spacious areas to practice in because it's not a simple one and if you don't put in at least a little time getting the hang of it, you'll be screwed.  There's also a lot of aspects to Shenmue that really weren't all that good but gave the game it's own charm.  The voice acting is a good example of this, it's kind of slow, stilted and weird in a lot of cases but not once has anyone called it bad, including myself.  Although, if you sit our current generation of gamers in front of a Shenmue title and I guarantee it'll be nothing but complaints.

Yes, this is what I'm worried about, Shenmue being drastically changed to suit the lowest common denominator.  The battle system being simplified, the amount of freedom being reduced for a "more streamlined experience", the once well placed and well done QTE's turned into a massive annoyance as they just do most of the combat for you, just like the list of the old games positives, the list of things that could go wrong is also huge.

Not that I don't have any faith in good old, Yu Suzuki.  I'm sure if he's in charge of a Shenmue 3 it'll turn out just fine, but keep in mind that he works for Sega, the company that basically wrote the rulebook on how to shit on your own gaming series'.  The other risk a Shenmue 3 runs is that it might come way to close to becoming another Yakuza game.

Not that there is anything at all wrong with Yakuza, but Yakuza is NOT Shenmue, not even close.  If a Shenmue 3 came out and it played just like a Yakuza game I can guarantee there would be the same amount of fan outcry as if you made the game shit.

Don't get me wrong with any of this post, I WANT a Shenmue 3, I really really do.  Nothing pains me more than to see something this good go unfinished and not get the degree of love and attention that it deserves.  My point is that Shenmue was very much a game of it's time and if it was made now, I can guarantee that Sega would not allow it to be made the way that we want it, it would be changed because they want it to sell.  Remember, gaming is now this mainstream thing filled with people who don't want to put in the time and effort to experience something like the people back in my day.

One final point to address.  There is some talk of people wanting a Shenmue HD collection, which sounds like a great idea at first, but let me just leave you with one image about why you might want to be careful with that idea too.

Yeah, this isn't the good old days of the Dreamcast anymore, let's pray that maybe something will happen with the Shenmue series, but let's also be very careful what we wish for.

I thought Patches were to make things better, not worse

Sim City is just the shit gift that keeps on giving, goddamn.

So, while I was browsing round the net on Thursday morning I came across an article about Sim City patch 2.0.  What does patch 2.0 do exactly? well it breaks your fucking game is what it does.  Go and give it a google search but this patch has caused all sorts of weird things like small making all your sims shit absolutely everywhere and causing trees to make car noises along with much more.

I'm hoping that as I write this post that it's been fixed because a patch breaking your game is bullshit.  A while ago I made a post about how people need to stop finished unfinished fucking games.  If you're going to put something on the shelf and charge £40+ for it, then at least make sure the fucking thing works was the general gist of that post.

Now I'm a reasonable guy, I'm not expecting the developer to iron out 100% of the problems, a couple of little bugs aren't too bad providing they don't break the game, but shit like this is just fucking everything up and ruining it for everyone.

What makes it worse is that these aren't release bugs, the game was PATCHED to do this.  The whole point of a fucking patch is to make bugs that you missed go away, yet when EA patched this mess of a game it went and broke it even harder, what the fuck.

EA isn't the only one guilty of this shit because Silent Hill HD did the same fucking thing.  But in that case the patches just did nothing rather than break it.  You couldn't really break that game any harder.

Fucking stop this shit, indie games made by 3 or 4 people have less bugs than these huge budget games with massive teams.  What sense does that fucking make? you'd think with all these people working on it, it'd be easier to spot something going wrong.  Just make sure your game fucking works before you start selling it in the first place.  Fuck your deadline, I'm sure fans would appreciate a delay for a product that works out the goddamn box, pricks.

Stop HDing Things

You know I don't really have a problem with HD collections, at least not most of them.  It's sort of nice to be able to get one disc and have all the Devil May Cry games available so that I don't have to change discs if I want to play DMC 1 instead of DMC 3 for example.

That said, I do think they are a little bit unneeded.  It's not like I was sat here thinking "oh, Shadow of the Colossus is a really good game but it looks like shit and I can't play it anymore".  The game looks fine on the PS2, and playing it now is just as much fun as playing it when it first came out.  Sure the HD collection made it look a bit nicer but at the end of the day it's still the same fucking game.

It's not like all HD collections have been successful either, with Silent Hill basically ruining whatever legacy Silent Hill 2 and 3 had by convincing all new users that the game is a load of arse.  Some HD collections even seem a little pointless, like God of War since it's not like original PS2 copies of those games are hard to find.

Well the reason I'm moaning so much about HD releases is because I'd rather see the money spent on that put into something new.  One of my biggest problems with this industry is that there are too many sequels to things and some things are getting a little stale.  Instead of pumping money into HD remakes of old games, why not try and create a new IP.  Something new and exciting that we can all point and go "holy shit look at that!" instead of "oh....another Assassins Creed" or "oh.....more Call of Duty"

Even something like Metal Gear Rising would be fine where your making a new game within an established series universe.  We get more of the story and characters we like but a fresh new way to play with them, which at least prevents me from being bored.

Basically, money should be going towards new stuff, not making old stuff prettier.  Give me something new and not just an up scaled version of a game I played less than 10 years ago, goddamn it.

My Faith is Being Restored!

I'm not going to lie to you here, 2012 was a shitty year for gaming, a REALLY shitty year.

There were a few good releases but generally speaking it was full to bursting of disappointment, shit games and stuff being ruined by idiots.  It got to the point where I was moaning and griping about so much stuff that a good portion of my friends started saying stuff like "maybe you just hate video games now" and other such crap.

Deep down I was sort of worried that was true as well, all I was ever really doing was complaining, but then a couple of days ago it happened....

...I started playing Metal Gear Rising.

Holy shit I've not had this much fun with a video game for a long LONG fucking time.  I shall "review" it properly at a later date but the long and short of it is that so far, I've been having so much fun with it that any problems I do have with it I am able to completely ignore.  At least for now.

Also if you look back through the recent posts there have been quite a few "holy shit check this upcoming game out!" posts, so all in all I think the video games are about ready to stop sucking and making me upset and start delivering on the fun again.

It's a shame that there are still so many companies treating people like dicks though....but one step at a time.