The Top 9 Current Gaming Myths

Ah, the internet. While an occasionally reliable place to get the biggest and latest scoops, for the most part, it's really juts a giant web of not so carefully constructed lies generated by fanboys, general morons and people just out to wreak havoc for fun. Luckily, most myths can be debunked fairly quickly, but some are kept alive by ardent fanboys or sometimes even self-deluded people who buy into their own bullshit. So, here, in my opinion are the 9 biggest myths still floating around that just aren't true.

9. Duke Nukem Forever is coming out: Possibly the biggest example of vaporware ever. Nobody has spent more time (or possibly money) on a single title. Hell, the last Duke Nukem game was over a decade ago, and it's little more than a joke now. I'm not even sure there'd be any viability in the title now with a market flooded with FPS games left and right as it is. Time has moved on, so should anybody claiming this game is real.

8. Licensed games ALWAYS suck: The general thought about licenses is that they are all bad and are bad for the industry. While a good majority of them are mediocre, many aren't given any credit simply because they are tied into a license, be it a movie, Comic Book, TV show or a Cartoon. But good licensed games aren't that hard to find really, you just have to be able to pick out the good from the bad. Hint: If it's based on a crappy property, it's probably gonna be a crappy game. Most solid properties (Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Marvel) have had some incredible games over the years. So don't pass something up just because it's a licensed property. Hell, one of the best Xbox games was a license from a shitty movie.

7. People want their consoles to do more than just play games: Today's consoles have online play, downloadable content, can play hi-def movies and can probably make toast as well. But how many people even take advantage of these features? Not nearly enough to justify the huge focus Sony & MS are putting towards those type of features right now. In the future, this will most likely be the case, but who's to say how far off that is? A year? 5? 10? More? Both Sony & MS have said they want to expand the market, but these massively intimidating machines they produce just don't send that kind of message to your average consumer that they are trying to reach.

6. Final Fantasy VII is getting a next-gen remake: I believe it's completely possible we will see the most popular Final Fantasy game get a re-release on a console in the near future. But if it happens, it's not going to be some full-fledged high def remake. It'll be released on a portable system or via a download service or possibly even as part of a compilation of some sort. But no high-def next gen remake is happening. Ever. There's just no real motivation behind it for Square Enix. Sure, they redid FF3 and are re-doing FFIV for the DS with a graphical overhaul, but that's a fairly minor monetary commitment. If the did the same for FF7 for any of the 3 home consoles, it would require really completely reworking the game from the ground up, and they've got more important things to work on (like pushing out Kingdom Hearts III sometime this century!).

5. Xbox Live is a great deal: Yes, Xbox live is the best online setup of any console right now. It's slick interface and constant stream of content cannot be matched by any competing console. But it's not really as great a deal as it seems when you really break it down. I can download movies, but I can only "rent" them for a severely limited period. Many things that should probably be free or at least reasonably cheap are given a ludicrous price tag. I have to pay just for playing my online friends, yet the competition lets me do it for free. The Xbox Live Arcade selection is mostly a joke and embarrassment, offering butchered classics and mediocre original content. But the real, final straw is the "points" system. Every console is a little guilty of this, but MS has perfected this art of ripping off the consumer, because you can only buy points in increments that don't really match up if you download content you pay for on even a semi-regular basis, and MS is purposely vague about just what the points really equal. There's always leftover points, which essentially becomes wasted money, much like when you've got less then $20 in your bank account. It's there, you can visit it, but even though it's your money, you can't really use it. Some drastic changes need to happen on Live if MS is going to continue justifying this setup.

4. Sony is dying: This has been the rallying cry of the anti-Sony crowd for awhile now. Sony's had a rough time over the last couple of years, no argument there, and there is still some things that need plenty of work. But Sony's not going anywhere. 2008 looks like it might really be Sony's year (after all, we have no real clue what MS & Nintendo have in store, but there's plenty of exciting stuff coming for the PS3). The tide is starting to turn in Blu-Ray's favor, and temporary cut or not, Sony's sales are steadily improving, which all points to the end result being very positive for Sony in the long run. They definitely won't have the massive stranglehold they enjoyed the previous 2 generations, but they'll probably be successful, and may even end up winning the thing if high-def adoption really takes off in the near future. And even if this round is a "loss", there's always next time, and Sony certainly has enough yen to tough it out until then at the very least.

3. The most powerful console wins: Whenever you ask a Xbox 360/PS3 fanboy (not owner, just moronic, loyal to death fanboy) why they think their console is going to win, the answer almost always is because it's the most powerful. Obviously these people flunked history. In the entirety of videogame wars, only one time has the most technologically advanced system come out on top, and the was in the 16-bit wars, where the differences were fairly minimal to begin with. Every other single round has seen the most powerful consoles usually fail to keep pace with the less powerful ones. It's plain and simple fact. Which makes it sort of ironic since Sony won with the least powerful hardware the last 2 rounds and this time they are trying with the most powerful system.

2. Nintendo is abandoning the hardcore crowd: It's easy to see why some idiots believe this. Nintendo is aiming their system to truly be for everyone this time around, and with that strategy apparently working, you are bound to see a greater influx of games simply not meant for those of us who spend a large portion of our time and money on games. But seeing as the system hasn't even been out a full year, it's idiotic to make any assumptions at this point, and the library just doesn't support that notion. Zelda, Paper Mario, Resident Evil 4 and plenty of good classic Virtual Console titles should've kept most hardcore gamers pretty busy during the first half of this year, and both Nintendo and 3rd parties are stepping it up this Winter with a slew of great games like Metroid, Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros., Zak & Wiki, Nights 2 and plenty of others. The Wii is just as loaded with potential big hits for the hardcore gamer as any other console, and they will continue to support that base.

1. My console of choice is>Your console of choice: Hey, I like what Nintendo is doing this round and I don't like what Sony is doing (and I tolerate Microsoft cause of games like Halo 3 & Mass Effect). I've never made any pretense otherwise. But it's an opinion of what's right for me based on what my likes and preferences are, and it may change next year depending on what happens in the industry. It doesn't mean my choice is superior to yours or vice-versa. Each console has it's strengths & weaknesses and anybody who seriously mocks you for not choosing the same thing they did is just an idiot and deserves no serious response. You picked your console, for whatever reason you have and you don't really need to defend that to anybody.

And there you go. Great myths debunked. Course, knowing my luck, they'll probably announce a firm release date for Duke Nukem Forever, an PS3 full remake of FFVII, and Sony's imminent bankruptcy tomorrow. In the mean time, here's your TRAILER OF THE WEEK:

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