2-D vs 3-D | Style vs Realism

This is more of an observation.... I find it odd that 10 years ago technology was limited and yet games had more style. Animation styles were perfected and creativity was easier to find. Of course there were the rare combinations of amazing style and gameplay... (Castlevania SOTN comes to mind along with many early RPG's).

My point here is that 2-D art was most often an expression of style over reality. There was a brief time where Mortal Kombat and Pit Fighter were an amazing sight... but it was short lived.... and never stuck.

Now games are primarily in 3-D.... with 3-D it seems far more common for the goal to be realism instead of 3-D style... and when 3-D is done with a more stylish flair it seems to be cell-shaded designed to appear 2-D....

Why? I want to see more stylish 3-D that isn't cell-shaded in a game made for someone at least in their teens. There are examples now, but not too many come to mind....

Superman Returns Sequel

OK, this is not game related, but I wanted to get my 2 cents down cause I think I know where they are going to go with the planned sequel.

I read that an alien threat will be at the heart of the story and I think they either hinted at Zod or someone drew that conclusion and people on the net jumped at it.

I don't think we'll see Zod again though... I think the alien threat will be Braniac... and it will have something to do with those crystals that Lex's lady dropped onto the kryptonite island (which is now in space).

My guess is that either Brainiac followed Superman from the area of Krypton when he was there, or Superman threw the island to where Brainiac is, or Brainiac grew from those crystals in space....

One rule of movies seems to be that they never show you anything just for the sake of it... and they really focused on her dropping them on the island and on the fact that Superman wanted them back... BUT he never found out where they were dropped, at least not in he movie... it just seemed like a set up to me.

The Nintendo DS Lite

Nintendo's new machine... about half the price as the PSP with twice the screens. It's a nice little machine and a step above the original DS. It's also selling like crazy in Japan which should mean increased support and more high quality games.

My only concern is that Nintendo is pushing companies to use the touch screen in new ways... I'm all for inovation but not if it hurts how the game plays. Take the newly announced Starfox for example.... touch screen controls... no mention of using the d-pad... at least give me the option of using the d-pad. The touch screen is a feature of the DS not the reason for owning it.

Support for the GBA has slowed which means that the DS is the new Gameboy.... unless there's a new Gameboy in the works at Nintendo, they did claim the DS was a 3rd pilar device to go along with the home console and the Gameboy line. So as the new Gameboy it should be getting a lot of ongoing series newest versions and I'm worried that they'll push it to fit with the touch screen.... ideally they'll just work with the better processors and push out some amazing and creative games while using the touch screen when the game demands it.

It begins....

Just a spot for me to geek out and ramble about games and stuff..... no idea who will ever bother looking at the page... and that's ok.