That's what I'm saying, is that very few console games/series do any significant amount of leaps and bounds to provide anything new. In PC terms, innovation can mean a number of things, and the competition can be a bit more fierce, but moreso it's also diversified into subgenres that don't exist upon consoles. With consoles, it seems (particularly in SquatSoft's case) that they are as of late complacent enough to do a load of pretty artwork, throw in a barely thought-out system (which is nothing more than a barebones combat system, particularly with FF8), and then shovel it out. I've seen MS-DOS CRPGs with more thought behind them. THAT is the console problem, is that most are simply not willing to do anything outstanding and just aim a couple of steps above what they just released or the competition. Or go for the "sequel-hook" to drag the fans further. There are A FEW innovative or groundbreaking games (kind of a different term, really), but yes, those are good. Still, makes it a hard sell unless you're one who absolutely *must* have a certain game. What I don't like, is the slow pulling of money out of the nose from consumers of this, and it's a coldly-calculated method of bringing them back through franchises on an "upgrade console", much like how the PS3 is already in planning for a couple of years from now, if reports are correct. What then, of the PS2 and games/support for that? Sequels will be planned for the PS3, excused as needing more shine and resources, tipping the hand of the consumer to go out and drop another $300 or so.
Whereas in the PC market, RAM upgrades are cheap, vid cards for modern games can run you about $40, a decent sound card about the same, a processer and MB at thrice that. To do upgrades, you just need to lay down a bit here and there, without having to lay down a serious chunk of money for something that will be obsolete in the long run and will never be provided for in a short time, and if it burns up you're looking at a pawn shop for a replacement to play that $600+ collection of otherwise useless plastic and/or silicon. The old hardware for PC can be used for a clunker machine, and the old programs can usually still be run on the new upgrades.
Black and White was a bit innovative, but it was the overall game design where it landed flat. It had a load of potential and didn't even bother to take and utilize it at all, instead opting for a Populus/Tamagotchi hybrid.
Innovation as far as simulation? Easy, The Sims. A tad dry for my liking, but it's taken the simulation genre a bit further with allowing for different playstyles other than "lay down roads/paths, railroads/trees, and zone/put rides on it and wait until you die of old age", and definitely further than those which seem to be nothing more than a feature-stuffed rehack of Lemonade. RPG, the end of current innovation ended in actuality with either Fallout or Arcanum, in allowing a multitude in playstyles in a mostly nonlinear environment - from hack and slash to diplomat, to thief, evil, good, whatever, et alia. The world tended to respond to your playstyle and provide for it, a bit moreso than Daggerfall's freedom in that you had more than just combat. Most of the crap out there is linear stat-level hack and slash. RTS is a bit of a tough one, but I'd have to hand that to StarCraft, as it took 3 different sides with their own unique building structures and pitted them against each other and did fair for balancing. Most other RTS games have construction trees much the same for either/any side, with slight variations, or the quirky Red Alert "air force vs. naval force".
-Rosh
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