Since I’ve been knocking out some of gaming backlog, I’m currently tussling with a few titles that I wouldn’t ordinarily play in the midst of some heavy hitting releases. At the moment, I’m trying to knock out Alpha Protocol, which is a meager portion of gaming goodness at best. While the game isn’t bad per se, to me it just highlights everything that Mass Effect 2 did right with that style of play. Even Mass Effect 1, which wasn’t nearly as good as the sequel, does many things better than AP.
But as good as Mass Effect 2 is in my mind, I know that it was a game that was far from perfect. And as I thought more about this, I realized many of my favorite games have some huge glaring flaws. Anthony, a newcomer to the 360, just finished Halo 3 over the weekend, and had some legitimate complaints about the last third of the game, really (though I’ll let him speak more to that himself). The game is one of my favorites of this gen, but I won’t argue about all the things that are wrong with it.
Interestingly enough, one of my other friends calls Halo 3 multiplayer “the perfect game”. While I disagree from just a game play perspective, I think I must disagree from a philosophical perspective as well. Is there such a thing as the perfect game? I’m not talking about just a game without any technical glitches or whatever, but a game that is the perfect blend of all the things that make gaming good? Some of my favorite titles are far from perfect. And really, the closest thing I can think of off the top of my head is Portal.
So what do you guys think? Can there ever be a perfect game? And what games to you hit the closest?
I think no. Games can improve on previous aspects (Assassins Creed 2) but you can never perfect it. No matter how good the game you can always find a small flaw that could keep it from so called “perfection”. To me HL2 seems close but Portal is closer.
Nothing is ever perfect, and it’s easier for Portal to get close to there since it’s only 3 hours long and only single player. However I think Mass Effect 2 was about as close as you can get, and Halo 3’s MP was perfect for me, and the only thing that kept it’s SP from there was the damn Cortana mission.
Portal wasn’t perfect, it just didn’t do that many things wrong. There wasn’t a lot of content to begin with, so it just happened that Portal never corrupted what little content it had. Nevertheless, it was bloody short.
And of course there cannot be a perfect game. That would mean that it blends all genres and all game styles seemlessly, which I think by definition is impossible. It’s possible to make awesome games, but perfection is a fruitless endeavor since not everyone will agree and whatnot. As long as a game has solid gameplay, perhaps innovates in a some way, and has enough content to give people enough choice so they get what they want out of the game, then that’s what you need.
I don’t think there can be a perfect game b/c it would have to be perfect to everyone. It might be perfect to one person, though.
Halo 3…*sigh* Cortana’s level was crap, worse than the Library and the final mission was a rehash of the first game’s last level.
The ending was edited to make you go WHOA, but it just made me miss out on any emotional resonance due to confusion.
Great game, but far from perfect. Halo 1 is still my fave.
And the perfect game for me is Final Fantasy VI. But you knew this…man.
A Perfect game in essence would have to be Perfect. It would have to have balanced the weapons around. Made the game funa nd enjoyable. An understandable plot. ETC. No game could ever be perfect. Like take Halo 3 Everybody loved the Multiplayer but as I was replaying single player it just made me remeber all the part that made it nearly impossible. I think the best game is Halo 1. The perfectness of it really touches my heart. But I guess my most hated level was the Library but it was okay.
I’m less demanding in my criteria. A perfect game for me is one that never frustrates me unintentionally and provides a ton of enjoyment. A lot of this has to do with how I remember a game. If I can’t recall any strong negative memories associated with the game, then it’s pretty much perfect in my mind.
The first Metroid Prime and Panzer Dragoon Orta are two of the greatest games ever made. They’re both about as perfect a game I could expect to play. I have no complaints about either of them. Same goes for Halo 1, Deus Ex 1, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
No such thing sadly. Even my favourite games (we’ll say my top 5 as an example) all have flaws which, to me, are not game ruining but still existent. Some are big flaws (MGS4’s third act) which the rest of the game makes up for. Some are slight niggles (mounting and controlling Argo in Shadow of the Collosus) which annoy me from time to time but not enough to really frustrate me. Others are game mechanics with so much potential but have poor execution (the notoriety system in Hitman: Blood Money) but don’t have a NEGATIVE impact on the overall game.
So there’s a few reasons. K?
Super Mario World was perfect.
There is no such thing as a perfect game, let alone a universally perfect game that everybody accepts. You always end up finding some annoyance with even the best games.
Oblivion is the closest thing I’ve seen to perfect, because it was at a time when I was weaning myself off the Nintendo and had never played a deep RPG before. It still stands as one of the best games I have ever played.
And even that game isn’t perfect. The programming is absolute shit, there’s bugs everywhere, the voice acting is dull, the game crashes like a drunk man in a Ferrari, the graphics are average (even for that generation), the dungeons are repetitive clones which respawn too fast, and…well, I could make a book with my complaints in that game.
And even the mods don’t make it any closer to perfection, because they seldom work with each other and require a good knowledge of computer files.
But that aside, I still love the game, even for all its imperfections. I think if there were such a thing as a perfect game, we would never need to buy another video game again. All games get boring at some point, and that defeats their perfectness.
No, never will there be a percect game. People are too opinionated. Its all going to vary.
See, I think that Halo 2 had the best multiplayer all around, followed by Halo CE for the PC, then Halo 3 (though 3 had some of the best features, it wasnt as epic as the first two) Some will argue differently. Others will say that other games like Bad Company 2 have the best multiplayer. I think that even beyond multiplayer, no game will be perfect in the sense that it will have no flaws and be considered fun by everyone. Perhaps we will have games that are perfect in the sense of they have little to no flaws and a majority likes the way it plays, but Iv yet to see that happen.
I think it cant really be done hands down.