I rolled out a friend's X-Box [non-360] and have been playing Panzer Dragoon Orta. The Panzer Dragoon franchise really is an interesting niche despite being a rail shooter. I was there for the very first game and played it to death, along with the second one. I never played Saga, but Orta remains my favorite. Too many games today shoot for the casual gamer and lack a lot of story and heart.
Now VG Cats did a great rant about the casual gamer and how companies are ditching their fan base in preference to turning a buck [I would have linked the site instead of the comic, but Scott may actually update in the next month :) ]. The problem with his rant is that the casual gamer has helped fund the gaming industry. Appealing to a niche may produce a great game, but it doesn't pay the bills. However, catering to the casual gamer saturates the market, alienates your fans, and doesn't produce any really great games.
Sure, we as the core fans are suddenly finding ourselves rubbing elbows with these idiots who are talking about their Guitar Heroes and Simon Says quicktime button mashing. But this is the world that we find ourselves in, and evolution is inevidable. I'm finding myself enjoying older games that I've dug up from my collection instead of trying to save up for new expensive systems and games. Until the economy gets better, I think that a lot of other people are going to do the same thing.
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