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A few people are whining amid the comments that I’m being negative about recent movies and video games.
Well, kids, I’m negative about them because: they’re crap. Not in a “oh, everything was so much better in the olden days”, view-through-rose-tinted-glasses, “I don’t like new things”, luddite’s view “crap”. I mean they’re flat out sh*t.
I’ve played a hell of a lot of games and watched a hell of a lot of movies. There is quality out there in spades, all of it providing comparisons for us and benchmarks for them to aim for. The problem is that, recently, all that good seems to have been looked at…..and then studiously ignored.
THAT’s why I rage on about this stuff. That, and the apparent apathy of the collective masses who are quite happy to bend over, take the endless mediocrity and pay for the privilege.
Nothing seems to be fun anymore. I used to leave the cinema with a spring in my step, the score still ringing in my ears and each memorable scene replaying in my head. Now I’m asking myself if I saw the same movie as everyone else.
It can’t be an age thing. There are movies from before I was born that I think are examples of high quality cinema. There’s a REASON they’re called “classics”.
It’s the same with games.
I’ve been enduring Wolfenstein: The New Order for the past week. I thought it would take the bad taste of Ass Creed 4 out of my mouth. It didn’t. It’s an endless battle of attrition to traverse tiny levels populated by bullet-sponges who fire insta-kill weapons in an effort to make the game last longer, leaching all of the fun out of it. It’s crap. It’s not fun. It sure as sh*t doesn’t feel like Wolfenstein.
Don’t believe me? Go fish 2009’s Wolfenstein out of a bargain bin, or better yet, go play Return To Castle Wolfenstein. Both are more fun, especially the latter. Play them and tell me I’m wrong.
And don’t roll out the “oh, you just don’t like it because you’re no good at it” BS. There are lots of games I like that I’m no good at. The difference is that, with those titles, I know the failure is mine and not the games’.
Example of failing at a good game: I know the move-set of my preferred Street Fighter character, I just didn’t deploy them in time.
Example of failing at a bad game: I get shot to pieces because I’m wrestling with a terrible weapon-select wheel and cannot highlight the required tool for the job.

People tell me that it’s unfair I should pass judgement on upcoming content from Michael Bay or Ubisoft without having seen it.
In order to see it, you have to GIVE THEM MONEY, thus perpetuating the problem we have. Look at what these people have done in the past. Look at their track record. If it’s naught but an ongoing brown smear, I think I’m quite justified in saying “I am not going to watch anything Michael Bay is involved with ever again” or “I am not investing time or money in another Ubisoft title”

I don’t think everything new is crap, nor do I think everything old is good, it’s just we live in an age where the makers of a movie or game are obsessed with sales figures rather than creating a quality product. Rather than target one audience, they try to target all of them, resulting in bland or flat out bad products that have nothing memorable or redeeming about them at all.
I’m not negative, but I am negative toward garbage that actually aims to be mediocre.