I’m getting a real
sense of deja vu this
month. You know that
feeling that you’ve
seen, heard or felt
something before?
I know what you’re
thinking, that this is just going to be
another month and another column
where I spout a load of old nonsense,
exactly like every other month. No... well,
probably. But it’s not that, although
actually it feels to me as though I just
wrote this column. Which I kind of did:
last month I was late writing it, and this
month I’m early. No, it’s not that either.
It’s partly something to do with gaming’s
preoccupation with ‘the loop’.
We talk a lot about perfecting a
‘gaming loop’, the core idea of a game,
a mechanic central to its structure
that’s so good it keeps you doing the
same thing over and over. Like, say,
the combat in Halo. Once Bungie got
that right, that 30-second or so loop
of taking down a wave of Grunts, you
could seriously do that all day. These
days you’d expect games would need
more than just that loop, now that us
gamers are a sophisticated bunch who
require narrative and sprawling gameplay
arcs. But there are a bunch of games
announced at E3 recently, whose entire
existence is predicated on a loop, like 12
Minutes (a 12-minute loop over and over)
and Deathloop (Groundhog Day with more
guns). That’s following on from Outer
Wilds, where the whole thing was based
on a 22-minute loop at the end of the
universe. It’s a cool concept, of course,
and it kind of breaks the fourth wall as
soon as you realise, as a gamer, that you
are doing the same thing over and over.
The other reason I’m experiencing
feelings of deja vu is due to a bunch of
new games I thought I’d already played.
One of the stars of this month’s
Shooter Special is Call Of Duty: Modern
Warfare. It seems like only yesterday
(it wasn’t, it was a decade and I’m old)it’s going to be ace, but it’s pointing to
a new trend in games too, that follows a
long-established Hollywood movie model.
It would appear that the games industry
is now old enough and potentially cynical
enough to start pumping out an endless
stream of remade games.Giving it the rebooting
It’s made money for the movie industry
for years, all those remakes of movies
that were perfectly good and will live in
our memories and remain replayable on
DVD, yet still in order to keep the money-
making behemoth going: ‘Look! Here’s a
new one with The Rock in it.’ I know it’s
different for games – for starters there’s
a pretty good chance that games can
be improved with all the new tech and
capabilities of yer modern Xbox Ones and
Scarletts. Resident Evil 2 is, of course,
a superior game that oozes nostalgia
as well as advancing the gameplay too.
LEGO Star Wars is another one getting
the reboot treatment, though it does
look rather good with a different engine
and embracing all nine films. Still, I can
honestly say that I really thought I’d
never have to play as a brick version of
Jar Jar Binks ever again.
My point is, though, that I’d love to
see a lot more new ideas and IP’s being
embraced by gamers. Of course we’ll
never tire of Halo, Gears 5 will be great,
we’re all super-excited at the prospect
of sixth Elder Scrolls and GTA. But who’s
going to break the mould with a triple-A
game that doesn’t need a number
in its title? What’s going to convince
gamers to take an expensive punt on
a new proposition that challenges our
expectations? Those innovative game
designers are out there, and as our
Xbox tech gets better and better, so too
will the extent of the ambition that can
be realised in gaming. It’s an enticing
thought, for sure. Anyway, I’m getting a
real sense of deja vu this month... QFollow us on Twitter @oxm.since Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
came out on Xbox. Then we had it
remastered, and now it’s a refresh, or a
reboot, or a rebirth or a rehash. Or is it
a rewind? You can read what’s different
about this version of Modern Warfare
elsewhere in the mag, and I’m certainINSIDER OPINION
This month, Chris thinks he may have seen it all before
The Editor
Chris Burke is...
“I’d love to see
a lot more new
ideas and IP’s
being embraced”
020 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE