Not everyone is excited at the thought of added features to their
video games, and to be honest some games should have followed the old adage "less is more" (Super Mario
Sunshine and its squirt gun gimmick, for example). John Tynes, contributing writer for online magazine The
Escapist, has written an article lamenting on the practice of
"feature creeping" – that is, adding features to make a
sequel look more appealing for purchase but ultimately makes the learning curve too steep. He even goes so far as to
say, had the good people at Bungie not spent so much time worrying over normal-mapped graphics, we would have seen a
real ending to Halo 2.
Tynes, unmistakably a fan of retro gaming, makes a great point – are gamers too focused on adding more that they
forget to fine-tune and improve what they have in the game? Tynes suggests a solution of adding more content – not
features – to existing games (for example, a new Splinter Cell level each month) to increase their longevity
while still giving publishers a cash flow, and making developers focus more on making games fun and easily accessible
to people. Are there any games that you feel are too complex for their own good?
Engadget
TUAW