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As of my freshman year, I will be posting content centered around a certain topic. You can expect my blog posts to feature well-written sentences.
Brady Bryan
Ever since mainstream game consoles have cemented themselves as the primary form of video game entertainment, video game companies have released AAA games for the magical number of $60. Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption, Monster Hunter, and more recently Nintendo Switch games now cost a hefty $60. However, as more games that cost $60 are produced and shipped to stores or obnoxiously advertised on the home consoles' game store, more and more people began to realize that perhaps paying such a large sum of money for a considerably lackluster game is less than desirable, especially now that the typically cartoony, kid-friendly Nintendo has increased the price of their games from around $40 to $60. So why was this done? The switch to console game production (no pun intended) warranted an increase in game prices for numerous possible reasons. One of the most possible reasons is that console games are considerably more expensive to make especially since they will have to run optimally on the latest firmware and hardware. This is largely due to keeping up with the current innovations and standards that AAA games are known for, along with making the game at the very least look enticing to the consumer; a sort of eye candy if you would. The marketing and general budget behind most console games are comparably pricier than other games as most AAA games are the flagship games of each game company, so it would only make sense that the developers would want to invest as much as necessary to ensure the success of sales. Another reason why AAA games cost $60 dollars is to keep up with competitor prices. Reasons like these are understandable so long as the quality is assured, but in recent years, the quality of console games (and by extension, triple AAA games) have gradually dwindled. Take Pokemon Sword and Shield for example. The game already has extremely mixed feelings surrounding it, and the damning evidence to support the claim of the game being a product of lazy production is abundant. For the first mainstream Pokemon video games to be $60 dollars (other than arguably Let's Go Pikachu and Let's Go Eevee), the game lacks proper animations, freezes at certain areas of the game, and could be textured better. At this point, one would have to ask themselves whether or not that sounds like a $60 experience. With all of the bad press that the games have been receiving, those adamant in saying that the games are a joke seem to have an extra platform to stand on. Other AAA games such as Breath of the Wild also lag considerably in certain areas. However, it is more excusable than Sword and Shield due to its higher resolution textures, always-rendered landscape, and other 3D models and objects. In short, $60 games no longer meant that the experience would also be worth the money spent, and it is for that reason why many consumers wait for the games to be on sale as the price then is far more suitable for the quality and content. It is made clear that the workspace provided for the developers was not carefully considered as the games ported to and created for the Switch (among other consoles) run at a sub-optimal frame rate. Recap:
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Brady Bryan
Earlier today, the latest installment of the main series Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield, released. Both games have been the subject of much conversation (especially on social media) for the last few months after The Pokemon Company released several game trailers showing off some of the new features and mechanics of the games. As the games are the newest generation of the main series games ("Generation 8"), fans came to expect the game to look vastly different from the older handheld games as these two would be released on the Nintendo Switch. Due to the technological innovations of the Switch, fans expected the games to have high quality graphics and textures. However, certain 3D models within the game appear to have low-resolution textures and lacked shadows where necessary. One model that the community has used as the front runner for Game Freak's laziness is this infamous tree. Due to the extremely low quality of the tree from one of the trailers, numerous memes revolving the tree have spawned such as this one. This is the result of a larger issue taken with the two games: Game Freak, the company that created the Pokemon franchise, has been heavily neglecting the quality of their games in recent years. While this sounds typical of most fanbases of video games, this takes the cake for the most divisive topic, especially on Twitter. It's borderline dangerous how this topic has divided Twitter with such hashtags such as #GameFreakLied which stems from a statement from Game Freak in which they claimed to not reuse any old 3D Pokemon models in Sword and Shield, but was proved by dataminers to be false as the wireframes and models appeared to be one-to-one. Another hashtag that trended on Twitter for the last few months was #Dexit (referencing Brexit) or #BringNationalDexBack. Both are a result of the most troubling and polarizing feat of the controversies. As many who grew up with Pokemon may recognize, the main catchphrase of the series is "Gotta catch 'em all!" which is also the goal of each Pokemon game: gathering every Pokemon in existence. However, Game Freak decided to reduce the number of available Pokemon in Sword and Shield to 400 as opposed to the grand total of 890. The other 590 existing Pokemon do not appear at all, regardless of any attempt to transfer them. It is easy to see why this would raise many eyebrows. Despite people of Twitter going on a tweeting rampage to coerce others to boycott the game to send a message to Game Freak about how the game is incomplete, it still sold with much eagerness. Based on the general reception two hours after the game released in North America. people still seem to thoroughly enjoy the games. Although it is still too early to definitively gauge where the game lies in terms of quality, if the reception continues to be the same as it is right now (albeit with two hours of personal experience), then the game will still sell successfully regardless of backlash. Recap:
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AuthorBrady Bryan is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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