Genre fusion is a new thing? Uhhh. No. Action rpgs are from the 80's. Action platformers are nothing new. Earthworm Jim 2 had a fucking 2d shooter level. Resident Evil is a blend between traditional adventure game puzzle solving, action, and Metroid-esque large world labyrinth "I have to find out how to get over thur" gameplay. Genre hybridization is nothing new, and in fact, has served as a means to evolve games over the years.
For many games, the GTA formula was just an evolution of the traditional action adventure formula. One huge world. What's wrong with that?
What arcade racers started to blend together? What are you talking about? F-Zero GX is nothing like Burnout, and Burnout is nothing like Outrun 2006, Outrun 2006 is not anywhere similar to Hydro Thunder.
SSX3, despite being influenced by GTA, is still SSX. It's not one long track. If you think that, you haven't even played it. What changes to the track design is there?
The genre fusion of last gen actually lessened games. Saying RE was influenced by other games is one thing, but that is influenced in creation and any drastic changes(like 4) were improvements in gameplay.
The GTA elements hurt SSX and to say GTA was just action/adventure evolution is silly. Sandbox levels are an easy way out of having to design levels. The level design of Metroid games is amazing and show a lot of skill in game design. Sandbox gaming has hurt the art of level design. This is my issue. Tricky had great tracks, but SSX3 adopted the GTA philosophy and the track design greatly suffered. The great lines and multiple routes of Tricky were no more. EA Big wanted sandbox, but they just covered up 'cantgothere' areas with graphics that are misleading and only certain routes actually exist, with some variation that offer no real fun.
And yeah, I own and have played SSX3 plenty. It just lost the character and track design of Tricky, because it adopted trends instead of looking at what worked and refining that then adding more elements that fit. If you think SSX3 had the same charm, character and track design quality of the others then I don't know what to say to you. It just doesn't. It lacks the dynamic sound done in Tricky, the SSX3 DJ is god awful and the track designs are worse. I actually can't think of anything that is better about 3, just that there is more of some elements, like music selections and customization. Those little tidbits don't matter much if the more important elements have suffered.
And my arcade racer reference was referring to how Burnout, Need for Speed and even PGR started to adopt tons of elements to the point where I stopped caring. (And I liked the first two Burnouts, but then they add crashing as gameplay when the 'nearmiss' game play of previous Burnouts was the main hook.)
I'm sure you played it, but on the surface I have to agree with Himuro - it sounds like you barely played the game and decided you'd hate it based on what you read before it came out. If you played it, you'd realise the tracks could just have easily been located around the world like in Tricky rather than on the one mountain.
Actually it was the reverse. I was sold on it being great before playing it. I played it and felt something was off, but was so hyped up I ignored it until my friends played it and just honestly said what I was trying not to say. The tracks could have been done separately. but that's not the issue. They feel too much alike without the creativity and quality of the previous game.
