Sci-fi renaissance or Xbox rut?

[SpiderMonkey]

Recently, I've been trying to make sense of a trend I've noticed with the 360's release schedule. So very many of its major games are sci-fi based - Gears, Halo, Crackdown, Mass Effect, Bioshock, etc. They're all very different takes on sci-fi, but at their heart they're all very different from the trend a few years ago for gritty-urban-realism.

But I can't make my mind up. Is this a serious renaissance for that spectrum of settings - that they are now doing millions of units and getting everyone excited again? Or are they a one-dimensional set of offerings from Microsoft that further serve to demonstrate how they can't sell to anyone except hardcore gamers?

Both situations are very interesting. In the former case, I wonder what it will mean for the next round of urban games, and whether the sci-fi thing will cross that tipping point into becoming a genuine fad. In the latter case, what with all the gossip about the 360's sales plateauing, I wonder whether it leaves Sony with a serious opening to outflank Microsoft with. I can't really see sci-fi games becoming the new cool, and Sony has always done great business off the back of cool.

[lobotomy42]

Well, seeing as films in recent years have veered away from sci-fi and more into fantasy, I am all for a glut of sci-fi games. Sci-fi beats "gritty army guys" any day in my book, so I am all for it.

Now, there's the problem that most of these new sci-fi games seem to still have the "gritty realism" aspect attached to them still (Gears, Halo, to some extent Mass Effect and Too Human), but whatever. Still an improvement.

[SpiderMonkey]

I'd also have to note that I consider today's revelations about a black 360 to be a mark firmly in the "rut" category. What kind of geeky name is "Elite"? And why are they unwinding their much discussed original design objectives for the box - weren't they supposed to be stepping away from the Xbox's black-monolith look?

[lobotomy42]

I'd also have to note that I consider today's revelations about a black 360 to be a mark firmly in the "rut" category. What kind of geeky name is "Elite"? And why are they unwinding their much discussed original design objectives for the box - weren't they supposed to be stepping away from the Xbox's black-monolith look?

Say whaaaaaa?

[miffy495]

He's right.

As for the games, I'm all for the latest Sci-Fi flood. They've been done pretty well so far. Gears was fun, Crackdown is hyper-destructive bliss, I've heard good about Lost Planet, and Halo is, well, Halo. You like it or you don't, but it's certainly popular. As long as they keep up the quality, I don't see a problem. None of the games (that have been released) that have been mentioned have seemed like cheap cash-ins when I played them. I'm also looking forward to Armoured Core 4. Something about giant robots kicking the crap out of each other just gets me all misty and nostalgic.

[Roderick]

The trend on sci-fi is applauseworthy, because it indeed kicks the living shit out of urban realism or WW2 settings. Finally we'll see an uprising of, you know, creativity again, instead of emulation of what we already have. I know this is terribly one-sided as a view, but for the purposes of my point there they stand.

A black 360 is a horrible, horrible idea. I've been ranting against it ever since I heard it, or heard people lamenting that they wanted it. So I'll say it again: black is 'last gen'. This generation, we are proud of our gaming consoles and we want them to be seen. No more black, but refreshing whites and broken whites or chills or whatever you name them. But a return to black is a return to indulging gothic fanboys who want a 'cool' console to put next to their Cradle of Filth array of posters. It's a bad idea, designwise (though not so commercially, since there are lots of weird people who would rather want an unseen monolith to hide somewhere in the shadows than have a slickly designed console perceptible with the naked eye).

However, an upgraded 360 hardwarewise is of course really nice. The price is shocking though: 475 Dollars? That will translate to roughly the same amount here, which, I'll just say it, is the price I'm not going to pay for a console. It nears the PS3 in laughing-out-loud-ridiculousness and is a step back. As far as I'm concerned, they should have adhered to the cap they set with the Premium version. Now they're shooting themselves in the foot because they're actually closing the gap between it and their main competitor, in favour of the latter. Bad move. Microsoft can take another beating, so lower the price or suffer mediocre sales.

[Marek]

Black 360 is for all the Comic Book Guys masturbating to their "awesome gaming set-up" pics with 40 inch screens and leather chairs they posted to NeoGAF.

Whatever. Maybe it will pave the way to a core or premium price cut.

Also this whole thing is racist. Blacks are better than whites? Elite even? What the... I'm OFFENDED!!!

[ysbreker]

As long as they steer clear of the fantasy settings. Orcs, Elves and wizards are boring! But what is wrong with contemporary settings? The best books written aren't science fiction or fantasy books. They're non-fiction books set in contemporary times for as far as I know. So it's waiting for the gaming equivalent of 'The discovery of heaven' or are we not interested in that kind of story telling?

But I'm still waiting for a cool steampunk game

[Ginger]

black is 'last gen'

gaming hardware Fashion FTW

I don't think that the Sci-Fi renaissance is just in gaming, it can be seen in film and TV, I'm amazed at how many non-geeky people I know that love BSG (not that they shouldn't, just that in the past the science fiction tag would have impeded them from being able to get into it.)

[Aussie Ben]

Didn't the Elite Beat Agents wear black? Maybe they want to be as cool as them.

[brkl]

Best books are non-fiction?

[miffy495]

I read mostly non-fiction, so I'd be inclined to agree.

Anyway, sort of on-topic, as someone who already owns a 360, I'm a little miffed about the HDMI option being denied me. I'll probably end up buying a 120GB HDD when they become available standalone, but if I ever (and I can't see why, but it's possible) want to jack my 360 in through HDMI, it looks like I'm SOL.

I wouldn't have used SOL under normal circumstances, but I felt that I had to keep the acronym train going.

[DanJW]

. They're non-fiction books set in contemporary times for as far as I know.

When you say non-fiction do you actually mean non-genre? A non-fiction book would be, well, factual. Like A Brief History of Time or something. Making a non-fiction game would be odd, and probably boring to play.

Non-genre though, that has potential, although I feel it will be some time before suitable gameplay can be devised for it.

I'm also not sure about the reality of any sci-fi renaissance on xbox. Gaming has traditionally been swamped with games in a sci-fi setting. I don't think that ever went away. Also, when compared to scifi literature, games are still behind. Most of the games mentioned are actually space opera (sometimes called Science Fantasy), as they contain no science whatsoever. Halo for example is complete fantasy. It's just fantasy with lasers.

BSG appeals to non-geeks, i suspect because of its naturalistic approach. I hold Trek's lycra responsible for severely damaging the genre for many decades

I'd love to see a scifi game that could be as mindblowing and cerebral as some of the classics. Good as the Dune games were, I can't say they made me ponder the evolution of mankind the way Frank Herbert did. Or even just get a "holeeee shit" moment like the first time you understand the scale of a ringworld. It's these kind of things that make sci-fi, for me anyway, and they are missing from games.

[Roderick]

Good science fiction has strong philosophical elements; hard to capture in an interactive environment. Not impossible, mind. But the two Dune franchises so far focussed on the vanilla events instead of the deeper meaning.

I mean, God Emperor of Dune blew my mind, and Chapterhouse: Dune is basically a manifesto against bureaucracy: Frank Herbert's own little The Republic.

[lobotomy42]

Best books are non-fiction?

Wait, what? You mean the "Here's my pet peeve about America/Canada/Economics/Politics/Big People/Small People/Smart People/Dumb People/Religion/Atheists/Roads/Frogs/Dairy Queen/Marmalade/Sub-zero Temperatures/Art, and my big stupid idea on how to fix it" type of book? The "Here's some anecdote about George Washington/Napoleon/China/The Sun/Frogs/Marmalade/Kabuki Theater/Solipsism that I will stretch out across 300 pages even though I have a grand total of 2 sentences of noteworthy insight about the topic" kind of book? The kind that tell you basically what you already know, but you read anyway because you love to hear your own opinions re-affirmed? The ones on the NY Times bestseller list and in the windows of Barnes & Nobles?

Or did you mean "the classic" non-fiction, a la Euclid, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Confucius, Hegel, Rousseau, Newton, etc.?*

Either way, I would argue fiction usually turns out to be more important than non-fiction. Even among the "classics," however you define them, I would bet there's more fiction than non-fiction. We have all (I hope) read Shakespeare and at least heard of Don Quixote, The Inferno, The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Candide, etc. How many straight political writings are that familiar? Sure, there's a few, but I maintain that by and large the books/movies/plays that have the most impact and last the longest are fiction. Even when an author *does* want to write about specific "non-fiction" type material, fiction is more likely to entice and demonstrate his point. (How many have read 1984 or Animal Farm? How many have read "Politics and the English Language?")

My point here isn't to start a debate or pick on you, brkl, but merely to dispel the common idea that fiction, especially genre fiction, is somehow "not important" or less worthy to be read than a class of books that largely consists of really long essays. Essays are important and great, but so are works of fiction and pop culture (most culture was "pop culture" to someone). I just want to nip in the bud this somehow-popular idea that people that are writing directly about the real world are somehow inherently more serious-minded than those who write from their imagination.

(End Rant.) And this ties into sci-fi* on the Xbox, how?

Because sci-fi, in recent years, has been kinda dead. (Sci-fi films boomed in 80's, fizzled slowly in the 90's, and were shot in the head by Lord of the Rings in 2001. Books, too, are increasingly barren - most stores' sci-fi sections are filled with Star Wars, Star Trek and military-in-space knock-offs.) Less so in video games, but even there we've seen it. Although games have been a natural haven for sci-fi since forever, the previous generation was

dominated by World War II, sports, and "gritty realism." The point being, anything anyone does to move a bunch of games into other genres is okay in my book. Welcomed with open arms. The more settings/genres, the better.

I just want some creativity and imagination in my world, dammit.

Alright, I'm done ranting for real now.

*These "classics" were pulled out of my ass, just now, and as such are probably not representative of the full range of classical works. You get my point.

*I use sci-fi here to refer to the setting of "aliens and lasers" and fantasy to "elves and magic wands." I know, we could get more specific and break things down into sub-genres and labels, but ultimately they're just names. So these are mine.

[DanJW]

Oooooh ooh I thought of a non-fiction game!

Microsoft Flight Simulator.

I think.

I can't think of a non-genre fiction game though. Facade?

[SpiderMonkey]

I'd love to see a scifi game that could be as mindblowing and cerebral as some of the classics. Good as the Dune games were, I can't say they made me ponder the evolution of mankind the way Frank Herbert did. Or even just get a "holeeee shit" moment like the first time you understand the scale of a ringworld. It's these kind of things that make sci-fi, for me anyway, and they are missing from games.

I agree, but I don't see it as something limited to sci-fi. Good as the Call of Duty games were, for example, I can't say they left me as speechless as seeing two guys fight for their lives in a small room with one knife between them. Always easier to go for body counts in the hundreds rather than in the dozens.

[brkl]

I think you may have misinterpreted my post a little, Mr. Lobotomy. See the question mark and the WTF smilie. I absolutely favour fiction over non-fiction and my favourite author is Philip K. Dick, so I'm partial to science fiction as well.

[ThunderPeel2001]

But I can't make my mind up. Is this a serious renaissance for that spectrum of settings - that they are now doing millions of units and getting everyone excited again?

This interests me because I've been wondering where games are going. You make an interesting observation. Now that "realism" has been done so often, and we've got the graphic power to make it look "real", will we start moving into fantasy instead?

[lobotomy42]

I think you may have misinterpreted my post a little, Mr. Lobotomy. See the question mark and the WTF smilie. I absolutely favour fiction over non-fiction and my favourite author is Philip K. Dick, so I'm partial to science fiction as well.

Yeah, I definitely went off a little, didn't I? Well, all I can say is "Whoops!" and slowly back out of the room with my tail between my legs.

[DanJW]

Heh, just saw this trailer for a possible non-fiction game.

What the History Channle is doing trying to take on Total War I have no fucking idea.

[brkl]

It's not non-fiction if you can change the outcome

[ysbreker]

I'm sorry for mixing up non-fiction with contemporary fiction. I always have trouble with keeping those two things apart somehow

A good science fiction book uses it's futuristic setting as a backdrop to figure out how a normal human being would react to the given situations. But I don't see this happening in games.

Speaking of scifi in games. Where is the William Gibson cyberpunk dystopian future? The only game who has a story coming somewhat near that is Deus Ex. That's the kind of scifi I want to see. Failing that, Neal Stephenson then?

[Redwall]

I believe there was a game of Neuromancer...

[DanJW]

There was a game of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. I haven't played it or read the story, but I want to do either or both.