# The tumbleweeds in this forum reflect the time of year...



## The Groke (Jul 31, 2009)

Why is there so often a massive dearth of AAA titles over the summer?

Aside from a few indie releases, there really has been absolutely fuck all for the last few months and scanning the release dates shows nothing worthwhile happening until late September/early October?

Is the "Holiday Season" thing a particularly Yank obsession as far as sales go?

Stupid if you ask me - developers would be far better trying to stagger the big titles rather than blurt them all out in the last quarter of the year.

grrr


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## isitme (Jul 31, 2009)

less people play computer games in summer cos it's sunny and even tho adults play them it's still more for teenagers


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## The Groke (Jul 31, 2009)

isitme said:


> less people play computer games in summer cos it's sunny and



Not in stupid desert countries like this where summer is the time you spend indoors because it is too hot.

What about the half of the globe for whom it is currently winter?




isitme said:


> even tho adults play them it's still more for teenagers




I would hotly refute that - though perhaps this isn't the thread to do so.

I vaguely recall some statistics showing that the "average" gamer (i.e. committed, not "casual" was late-twenties-ish.



Holiday Buying season can suck my rancid balls. Gimme some new games dammit!


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## upsidedownwalrus (Jul 31, 2009)

The Groke said:


> Not in stupid desert countries like this where summer is the time you spend indoors because it is too hot.
> 
> What about the half of the globe for whom it is currently winter?








> I vaguely recall some statistics showing that the "average" gamer (i.e. committed, not "casual" was late-twenties-ish.



Indeed.  I've been pointing this out recently - games are no longer the province of spotty inadequate ad&d suffering teenage geeks and ADHD suffering 8 year olds.  They're now mainstream mass market entertainment...


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## upsidedownwalrus (Jul 31, 2009)

Meanwhile can you give me any advice on my laptop issues?


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## kabbes (Jul 31, 2009)

I can't put my finger on it, but I never feel like gaming in the Summer.  Except for the DS of course.


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## kained&able (Jul 31, 2009)

what about the poor aussies???

what do they get for thier winter holidays?

won't somebody think of the convicts?


dave


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 31, 2009)

kabbes said:


> I can't put my finger on it, but I never feel like gaming in the Summer.  Except for the DS of course.



Yeah I know what you mean, winter months is gaming heaven!


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## upsidedownwalrus (Jul 31, 2009)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Yeah I know what you mean, winter months is gaming heaven!



Except that summer here is just the same as winter. Practically.



I can't wait to move back to civilisation.

Why did I choose the cocking NorthEast.


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## starfish (Aug 1, 2009)

Maybe theres more on the telly for our girlfriends to watch.


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## The Groke (Aug 1, 2009)

upsidedownwalrus said:


> Meanwhile can you give me any advice on my laptop issues?




Dunno - what you done to it?


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## kabbes (Aug 1, 2009)

starfish said:


> Maybe theres more on the telly for our girlfriends to watch.



Ah, there is much truth in jest.


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## Awesome Wells (Aug 1, 2009)

isitme said:


> less people play computer games in summer cos it's sunny and even tho adults play them it's still more for teenagers


the weather for the past 3 yaers should have popped that myth.

tbh i'm pretty disappointed with what passes for gaming these days. i remember enjoying games on the ps2 way more than now. everything now seems short, badly made and with an online component hopelessly open to abuse.


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## kabbes (Aug 1, 2009)

It's not so much to do with the warmth as it is to do with the amount of daylight.


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## The Groke (Aug 3, 2009)

Awesome Wells said:


> i remember enjoying games on the ps2 way more than now. everything now seems short, badly made and with an online component hopelessly open to abuse.



I remember when all this were nowt but fields...





It is _you_ dude.



I would imagine that due to rose tinting and just having been a gamer for a while and seen most of what is on offer before, you have become slightly jaded at many of today's releases.

I would however completely refute that the quality of releases has dropped in any meaningful way since the PS2.

Cripes, some of the shit they pumped out for that thing...


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## The Groke (Aug 3, 2009)

kabbes said:


> It's not so much to do with the warmth as it is to do with the amount of daylight.



I shun daylight.

Hhsssssss!


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## Awesome Wells (Aug 3, 2009)

The Groke said:


> I remember when all this were nowt but fields...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


And a lot of the shit that's released now: design in a hurry, hope it gets patched later.

No doubt there was a ton of shit for the ps2. But those were simpler times without having to pay to play online or deal with gamertags, abusive yanks, avatars, patches, DLC, etc.

I can count on the fingers of Homer Simpson's right hand the number of decent 360 games there are, as opposed to the amount of drivel I've played. It's depressing; I like video games. I just have found so little that lives up to the promise of 'next gen' gaming that it's not funny. All the stuff I've looked forward to has been riddled with crap or just plain rubbish (or both). I kinda wish I hadn't bothered, but there's always the promise that the next big release mightwell be decent after all.


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## The Groke (Aug 3, 2009)

Hm.

Ok - I do agree with you that there is now a tendency to skimp on QA and release buggy games at the behest of the publisher, made possible since consoles have supported post-release patching, but hey - as a PC gamer I have been putting up with that for a decade and more!



On the plus side, now that consoles have online capabilities, you can get add-ons, updates and improvements to games which, a generation ago, would have remained as released.

I would still argue that perhaps your tastes have changed, that your expectations have risen and that perhaps you may be slightly more jaded about new releases which, had you played them 5 years ago you would have been elated with.

That does happen - there comes a point where a game rarely offers anything genuinely new simply because one has played so many in the past.

I still maintain that the XBox360 is a good console and I have got a lot of good play time out of a lot of good games - I can't accept that there is an utter dearth of good games!


Out of interest, what the titles on the PS2 that you feel tower so far above current efforts?


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## The Groke (Aug 3, 2009)

Awesome Wells said:


> I just have found so little that lives up to the promise of 'next gen' gaming that it's not funny.



To add - I recall we have discussed exactly what this_ means _before and I reckon that until you know what it is you want from "next gen gaming" you will always be disappointed...


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## kyser_soze (Aug 3, 2009)

The reason publishers drop all their releases into the Xmas and Easter periods is because despite what everyone _says_ about wanting to buy games 12/12 months of the year, the simple fact is that if you release a game in summer, unless it's something like a Halo or COD it'll tank - it won't sell well during the actual summer, and by the time the main buying periods are back there will be other, shinier titles to compete with.


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## kained&able (Aug 3, 2009)

my joke about the convicts seems to have been ignored.

But to gamers in the southern hemisphere get there titles released in our summer months? Or do they get everythinthing released over the hot xmas period.

Enquiring minds want to know but can't be arsed to look it up.


dave


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## Boris Sprinkler (Aug 3, 2009)

So any decent new titles for Xbox 360 or the Wii?


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## grit (Aug 3, 2009)

I think considering the major markets are north of the equator that the seasons reversals down south doesn't really factor in to the marketing decisions, just a guess.


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## dlx1 (Aug 3, 2009)

Boris Sprinkler said:


> So any decent new titles for Xbox 360 or the Wii?



Xbox No 
I guess Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood but that about it Assassin's Creed 2 out November
Still playing TF2 and bit of LFD


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## Kid_Eternity (Aug 3, 2009)

Xbox, yeah check out Battlefield 1943, great fun!


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## treelover (Aug 3, 2009)

New demo out for East India Company, Empire Total War type game, plus Death to Spies 2


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## Awesome Wells (Aug 3, 2009)

Batman demo this friday for 360 (at least).


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## The Groke (Aug 10, 2009)

I quite enjoyed the demo - even though some of the gameplay mechanics were a little contrived (Gargoyle jumping) the fighting was fun, the atmosphere was good and the graphics/voice acting very well done.

If It can stay entertaining for the duration of a game, then it might be worth a look...

Ah - who am I kidding - I will download it anyway.


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