DC's Daily Discourse 2: Too Many God Damn Games! cont.

To further illustrate my point that there are too many games being pushed nowadays lets look at the other 8 years of this decade and note when the big shift occurs.

2001

Paper Mario

Sonic Adventure 2

Twisted Metal: Black

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

Final Fantasy X

ICO

Devil May Cry

Grand Theft Auto 3

Dragon Warrior 7

Halo: Combat Evolved

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Metal Gear Solid 2

Mario Kart Super Circuit

That's 13 games for a variety of consoles. Also, 3 popular consoles launched in 2001, the original Xbox, the Gamecube, and the GameBoy Advance. A pretty full year with a game for practically all tastes and plenty of content. Several of the greatest games ever made, according to various 'best of all time' lists, were released this year.

2002

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind

Super Mario Sunshine

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Ratchet & Clank

Metroid Prime

Just 5 games but they're all excellent. Think of this as a short breather after 2001's crazy year but business will quickly pick back up.

2003

Devil May Cry 2

Xenosaga Episode 1

Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

Viewtiful Joe

Final Fantasy XI

Beyond Good & Evil

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando

Mario Kart: Double Dash

Final Fantasy X-2

That's 10 games, a pretty solid lineup that's starting to show off what the new consoles can do now that every major competitor has thrown their hat into the ring.

2004

Unreal Tournament 2k4

Far Cry

Tales of Symphonia

Doom 3

Burnout 3: Takedown

Pokemon FireRed & LeafGreen

Katamari Damacy

Paper Mario: Thousand-Year Door

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Counter-Strike: Source

Killzone

Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal

Halo 2

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Half-Life 2

Metal Gear Solid 3

World of Warcraft

Wow, 17 games this time along with the launch of the Nintendo DS, a pretty full year with good games, not many great games though save a few. Awful lot of sequels here, in fact all but 4 are sequels of some sort.

2005

Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap

Resident Evil 4

Gran Turismo 4

God of War

Guild Wars

Battlefield 2

We Love Katamari

Quake 4

Guitar Hero

Mario Kart DS

Dragon Quest 8

Here's 11 games, a solid but relatively silent lineup in anticipation of the forthcoming console generation. Xbox 360 makes its debut and gets a head start on next year. Resident Evil becomes hailed as one of the greatest action games ever made, Mario Kart DS proves a capable Nintendo DS system seller and Guitar Hero launches a brand new (to the western audiences anyway) type of game and proves very lucrative to a certain publisher in a couple of years.

2006

Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

New Super Mario Bros

Half-Life 2: Episode One

Xenosaga Episode 3

Final Fantasy XII

Guitar Hero 2

Gears of War

Sonic the Hedgehog

Resistance: Fall of Man

Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess

Here's 10 games and 2 new consoles that cover a lot of ground. New games for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC show off the new, more mature realistic direction action games are headed. New PS2 games give new life to an aging console at the end of its lifespan in the eyes of developers. Nintendo bids farewell to the Gamecube and welcomes the Wii simultaneously with a single game. A pretty good year but with the explosion of new content, both digital and physical, coming next this may be the last 'break' we'll get for a long time.

2007

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

WarioWare: Smooth Moves

God of War 2

Super Paper Mario

Pokemon Diamond & Pearl

Overlord

Bioshock

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Warhawk

Heavenly Sword

Eternal Sonata

Halo 3

Orange Box

Beautiful Katamari

Guitar Hero 3

Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction

Hellgate: London

Call of Duty 4

Super Mario Galaxy

Assassin’s Creed

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Unreal Tournament 3

Mass Effect

Rock Band

Holy crap! That's 24 games compared to the 10 games the year before! The crazy thing here is that just about every game on this list is either a brand new IP or a brand new take on an old IP. The PS2 gets its last great game it deserves while the PS3 touts its share of new exclusives. The Xbox 360 establishes itself as the 'me first' console getting several of these games well before the PS3 does. The Wii has a strong showing with its typically awesome 'hardcore' franchises coupled with its unique 'waggle' games that were so addictive at the time. Several of the games we're playing or looking forward to today are sequels to this lineup.

It seems like this crazy list came out of nowhere, it must be an anomaly and next year will calm down a bit right? I mean, an average of 2 games every month, that insanity can't be repeated can it?

2008

Burnout Paradise

No More Heroes

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Devil May Cry 4

Army of Two

Mario Kart Wii

Valkyria Chronicles

Grand Theft Auto 4

Haze

Battlefield: Bad Company

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

Tales of Vesperia

Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty

Spore

Rock Band 2

Dance Dance Revolution X

Kirby Super Star Ultra

Dead Space

Guitar Hero World Tour

Fallout 3

LittleBigPlanet

Resistance 2

Gears of War 2

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

Call of Duty: World at War

Mirror’s Edge

Left 4 Dead

Sonic Unleashed

Last Remnant

That's 29 games. This is truly insane. There's a few sequels and a lot of experimentation on the list. Remember how I said several games we're playing now had roots in 2007? Well all the other games we're playing have roots in 2008. Also this looks to be the year where console online multiplayer really started to take off as a primary feature of a large portion of games. Of the 26 games listed here that appeared on either the PS3, 360 or Wii, 15 of them had online multiplayer and in most games it was superior to single player offerings as co-op gameplay was really hitting its stride here. 

Okay, we just got over 50 big games in the span of 2 years, how about we take a break, hmm? There's no way I can properly appreciate the games I have or even think about my backlog that's now started to pile up if the games keep coming at this rate.

2009

X-Blades

Street Fighter IV

Killzone 2

MLB 09: The Show

MadWorld

Resident Evil 5

Guitar Hero: Metallica

Infamous

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits

Overlord 2

Wii Sports Resort

Metroid Prime Trilogy

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Guitar Hero 5

Need for Speed: Shift

Wet

Halo 3: ODST

Dead Space: Extraction

Demon’s Souls

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Borderlands

Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

Torchlight

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City

Dragon Age: Origins

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

Left 4 Dead 2

Assassin’s Creed 2

What the fuck?! There's 30 games this year! This year had sequels to many of the big hits from 2007 and some from 2008 rolled into 1 year. Not only were the sequels good but they were bigger and better than their originals which is the most you can hope for in a video game sequel. A few of the best selling games of all time were launched this year which is pretty crazy when you think about it. For one thing there's 30 games on this list and over 50 from the last 2 years before that. Secondly, pretty much all the games in question are still on store shelves and are still capable of moving big numbers if not for the gigantic sales figures already.

Maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm not. Maybe advertising budgets have gotten bigger and smarter and we're just noticing more games than we used to. Maybe some of us have grown up and we're paying more intimate attention to the industry than we used to. Or maybe there really are way too many god damn games being made and pushed nowadays! These last few years have been record breaking for the video game industry, why? I think this list is why. It's a business and it seems to be working very well for you guys. However, you're forcing us to pick between a lineup of incredible games every year rather than trying a bit of everything and taking a few risks. Taking a risk on something unknown means not being able to play the latest and greatest sequel to our new favorite series. It's time to take a little break, take your time, your staffs are surely overworked and underpaid for how much money they're bringing you. Give them a paid vacation for a few months and come back next year with 15-20 games a year, please? I'm begging you...we're all begging you...