First off, I love video games. I've been playing them since I was a kid back in the days of Tomba, Spyro, and Rayman. They've played a big part in my life, probably too big a part. However, lately I've seemed to become more and more jaded when it comes to video games. I can hardly get half-way through a game before sending it back to Gamefly. The list of my partially played games is long: Persona 3, Persona 4, SMT: Strange Journey, Hotel Dusk, (I got bored and lost the little fucker unfortunately) Mass Effect, Killzone 2, The Saboteur, (can't blame me for that one) the list goes on. Only a few games have I had the joy to finish all the way through, Bioshock 2 being one of the most recent to my recollection.

Now, I have different reasons for not finishing all the games, such as the Persona series taking just so much of my time despite how awesome it is, but I fear it's more then that. I can't place my finger on the cause exactly, but it may be that I'm just getting tired of the lack of evolution in certain kinds of games. That sounds vague I know, but that's because it is.
But I'll give you an example, because I'm just that nice a guy.



The Invisible Inventory


Grand Theft Auto IV has been one of my favorite games of all time in one of my favorite series of all time, and when it first came out I was in love with it. The changes they made from the previous games in the series was a breath of fresh air to me. The characters, story, gameplay, and just about everything else about it felt...grown-up. It felt closer to reality, it felt so much closer to earth, it just felt less...gamey. Fast forward a year or so, I started seeing commercials for the new expansion for GTA IV 360, and even though I couldn't get the expansion due to my PS3, I started to get the urge to hop back into Liberty City and speak in a Russian accent. I got about half way through, when I started to notice the game's odd inventory system or more accurately, a lack thereof. In a game with a more realistic atmosphere as compared to the other games in the series, Niko being able to pull a, sniper rifle, pistol, sub-machine gun, grenades, a bat, and whatever else you can get your psychopathic hands on, out of his fucking pocket started to get on my nerves. It's kinda hard to treat a game's engrossing story and well written characters seriously when you can pull out an AK-47 from your pocket like your the next Houdini, but more bad ass because "Holy fuck where did that RPG come from!?". Five minutes later I ejected the disc and never played it again. This may sound harsh considering how much I love this game but for some god damned reason I just can't get over it. Most games I can deal with an invisible inventory such as in RPGs like Oblivion and whatnot, but now even those games are starting to bug me just a little bit.





Another one of my favorites, MGS4, has started to bug me with this system. In a game where heat, cold, stress, and hunger all effect your character's performance, a game where I can zoom in and count the individual hairs in Snake's glorious mustache, all of which added to the superb graphics in the characters as well as the environment make this game ooze with the words "gritty realism", (ooze? fuck it.) and yet it still uses the classic gaming invisible inventory.





Look at that picture. Now where in the fuck does he find the space to hold the 50 or so weapons you can carry in the game? His mustache? His bandanna? Does his undeniable bad assery break the laws of the know universe just so that he doesn't beat the shit out of it? Maybe, but more likely it's just the developers who try and make their game seem as realistic and brown as possible, but refuse to put any effort into updating simple mechanics still used from the olden days of video games. Perhaps old habits just die hard.

This isn't the only gripe I have with certain video game mechanics that I feel have grown outdated. But I'd rather not ramble any longer then I already have. I'm not saying developers should sacrifice Fun for Realism. I love video games that don't try and be anything more then fun for fun's sake, but I'm if your gonna make a game with realism in mind, don't half ass it. Despite what some people may think, I believe it is possible to not have to sacrifice one for the other.





Perhaps I'm over thinking things? Maybe I just can't appreciate games like a used to because I've become a pretentious prick? You be the judge.