All the new "psychic" games

[FantasiaWHT]

There seems to be a preponderance of games where your character has psychic powers lately... Chronicles of Riddick, Second Sight, Psi-ops... there's more, I know, but...

Isn't that just a "modern" and less "nerdy" way of putting MAGIC into a game? Making things happen with your mind instead of your strength...

I just found that funny.

[forcenotmatrix]

not long befor the psychic crap was all the time manipulation
blinx, prince of persia, matrix, max payne
you can even do it in fable

[dethink]

dunno, riddick could just see in the dark.

psi-ops was great fun, in a wild 9 sort of way. not a genre-defining keeper, but lets see, do i:

A) pick up the guard and smash him against the floor/wall, or into the other guard?
B) throw him into the high voltage wires in the elevator?
C) float him over to me and riddle him with bullets?
D) enter his brain, kill the other guard standing watch with him, then jump into the high voltage wires?
E) pull down all the piping out of the ceiling and crush them both?
F) light a crate on fire and send it over to them via psychic express?
G) pull one guard over, kill him, then use him as a hoverboard to fly over and attack the other one?

etc. etc.

[YoshiM]

Thanks to the power of the modern systems, developers can really let loose with abilities we only scratched last gen (Wild 9 was a good example, one could say Jedi Knight for PC is another example). But I do see one problem: it can get old really quick if multiple "psi" games get cranked out.

It may be me but the demo of Second Sight didn't impress. Not because it was a bad game but because I could do a lot of the stuff in Psi Ops. Thanks to my "training" in the Psi Ops demo, after figuring out Sight's controls it was gravy tossing guards and scientists about like rag dolls or having them play catch with a 100 pound gas tank. Other than the story (which helps as a grabber but isn't the end-all be-all of a game) and a couple powers it was TOO much like Psi Ops.

[dethink]

the same can be said of any era though...

look at all the fighters that came out once SF2 took off, all the platformers in the mario era, etc. the lousy ones get relegated to the dustbin of history.

[Habeeb Hamusta]

Yeah, wow. Psychic games. Just another bad trend.

[YoshiM]

the same can be said of any era though...

look at all the fighters that came out once SF2 took off, all the platformers in the mario era, etc. the lousy ones get relegated to the dustbin of history.

But the thing is the "psi" genre hasn't taken off..it's barely even started. At least with Mario or SF2 it landed, it got popular and then people jumped on board to make their clones. And even the clones usually (well hopefully) have unique elements that make those games compelling to play like more chracters or more abilities (like MK's Fatalities). Chronicles of Riddick is a good modern example of a game that could have been "just another FPS" but rises above that with elements that separate it from the rest of the pack to make it an excellent (albeit short) game. Second Sight doesn't really do that.

[forcenotmatrix]

think about how many princesses/girlfriends were kidnaped in the nes days
mabey that is why i am so protective of my girlfiend