Call Of Duty And Burnout: One Of The Same? Also Ridge Racer

Look, I've been doing some thinking lately, and I'm starting to see the parallel between the two.  Here are the similarities:

* Both of them are the most popular games of their genre today (well, Burnout may be usurped by Mario Kart or NFS, it depends).

* Both are American-made.

* Both involve violence and explosions.

* Both go for the "intense, edgy, fast-paced" experience.

* Both are a part of a long-lasting franchise which doesn't really deviate from its roots.

* Both games spawn a bunch of imitators who try to cash in on the series' successes.

EDIT: * Both take place in a relatively modern/contemporary setting.

* Both require a relatively little amount of skill to play or at least enjoy (THIS IS DEBATABLE, but people accuse these two games of it the most).

But you want to know where the similarities end?  "Well, Eric, one's an FPS and the other's a racing game," no, not that.

People HATE Call of Duty (or at least criticize the hell out of it).  No one dislikes Burnout.  Really, a lot of people can't stand CoD cause it's "fast-food" FPS--fun in doses but all it does is promote camping, stat whores, idiots/pinheads/trash-talkers (any popular game does), lack of teamwork, etc.  But with Burnout, it's the S.S. Ass Kisser all the way.  Pucker up, mateys!  (I think I heard this on House, but I can't find proof).

EDIT: Well, where's the dislike for Sega Racers?  Just take a look at arcades over the years--getting rid of all the arcades cabinets and replacing them with something else.  Yes, I know these games are getting old and you have to take that into consideration, but I say there's more to that (besides, Scud Race & Daytona 2 still look damn good).  It's subliminal but it's there.

Now I actually do like Call of Duty but that's a topic for another day.  Yes, I am part of the "let's ruin FPSes and line Bobby Kotick's pockets" crowd now, but nowadays, in today's scrambled eggs gaming world, you gotta pick and choose sides knowing full well that each has its downfalls.  I mean, what else am I supposed to play--this new Brink game which has a bug that deletes your characters and just sucks in general?  Fuhgeddaboutit.

Now let's talk about Ridge Racer: Unbounded, which is a joke as far as I'm concerned.  It's not even made by Namco...it's made by Bugbear, a Finnish studio.  Unbounded will be an off-shoot of the RR franchise so you'll still get your traditional RR's courtesy of Namco which just finished the boob-and-ass jiggle physics engine for Soul Calibur 5.  I've already moped about this game before so this isn't new.

Really, now you are gonna get Ridge Racers up the ass.  We already got Burnouts, Need for Speeds, Motorstorms, Fast and the Furiouses, including newcomers like Split/Second (which I guarantee will get a sequel) and hasbeens like Flat-Out and Smashing Drive.  Haven't you people had enough of trashing automobiles over and over again?  Now car damage isn't necessarily a bad thing (see Daytona 2), but how many times do you need to smash into the wall and fly Gordon Smiley-style into a burning wreck?  Go play friggin Mario Kart and leave me alone.

DUDE, AWESOME...oh wait, someone actually died there.

Sorry, I know I'm supposed to turn over a new leaf and be "nice," but right now, I consider myself being "nice" so don't make me act "mean."

"We make Sega look good."

------------

Oh, but Namco is doing something good!  They're making a Soul Calibur 5.  I know so because some Japanese dude is updating his Twitter account.  Here it is.  I love this message:

SC5 came true thanks to everyone’s support and passion! The team was dispatched after SCBD.. so I'd like to thank all the fans out there!

So fans can actually make a difference!  That is great.  Let's try that with Sega...hell, we've been sticking up for them for years and what do we get...?  Uh, bad Sonic games and you know what I'm getting at here.