Video games are one of the high points in entertainment today, and like movies there’s originality in them. But also like movies, the makers of such games seem to be running out of ideas. I’ve been seeing way overused story traits in video games today. To name one: a person who works for a company and/or government and then finds out things out about them that they didn’t know and turns against that company. While overused things may be bad, some people have managed to use them in a way where you don’t think its been used before. For example, the Metal Gear series.

Both Solid Snake and his predecessor Big Boss/Naked Snake worked for their government and also went against them, but in quite different ways. Big Boss trying to set up a nation for Soldiers and Solid Snake trying to rid the world of the mobile nuclear equipped bipedal tank, Metal Gear. While both are Enemies they are also enemies to the nation they once served even though Solid’s intentions are for the betterment of mankind.

I’ve played the Metal Gear series in it’s entirety and loved it, even though it uses some of the most elementary of story traits it’s back story is incredibly complex. I’ve recently had a chance to play one of the new exclusive titles for the PLAYSTATION 3, HAZE. This title also uses the same story trait, but as I’ve noticed it’s more straight forward, no complex back story, like a feature film.

Here is another thing that’s drowning the video game mass, a genre that seems to be overflowing, the First Person Shooter. While I enjoy some FPS games, most of them feel and look the same way. That’s one thing the movie business has over the game business, it’s not all the same genre, there seems to be in equality, the number of movies that use a genre in a year.

Developers need to find a new medium of getting their stories out as people are tired, including myself, of the FPS. Perhaps a 3rd Person Shooter as some developers like Epic, Zipper, and Kojima Productions have been doing. Or possibly create a new way to use the First Person element like Digital Illusions CE (DICE) and their new IP Mirror’s Edge. I doubt we’ll be seeing a change that soon from now but if the game community is more vocal about what they want we may see a change in the coming future.