The videogame industry is making more money than ever, but has creativity been sacrificed in the process? Future Gamer goes in search of that rarest of beasts: the good idea.
Keith Stuart

Jet-lagged journos returning from E3 last month had but two complaints: that LA is a bloated, self-important distopia, blanketed in smog and scummier than a tramp's y-fronts, and that there was nothing 'new' at the show.

They didn't mean it literally, of course (over 2,000 games were premiered at the event); no, what they meant was that nothing original, innovative or unusual managed to make it through the E3 entrance hall. Bombarded by sequels, first-person shoot 'em ups and, most gallingly, sequels to first-person shoot 'em ups, many a long-term gamer left the event dazed, confused and alienated.

In many ways, they are right to be concerned. A cursory glance at the show's roster reveals a veritable army of sequels, including Quake III, Diablo II, Need for Speed: High Stakes, Gex 3, Tomb Raider 4, Dark Reign 2, Heavy Gear 2, V-Rally 2 and God knows how many EA Sports year 2000 updates, vying for attention. The big money-spinning genres were also well represented, with dozens of 3D platformers, 3D action adventures and RPGs hanging about in the shadows mumbling about amazing realtime lighting and advanced AI.

Okay, obviously publishers are going to want to exploit successful franchises and game styles as much as possible, especially in this day and age when it costs less to run a small country than it does to fund the development of a videogame. And, of course, if people will go out and buy stuff like 'FIFA - the road toward the first friendlies before the qualifying matches of the World Cup 2002' in their millions then who can blame EA for continuing to produce it? The question is, are there really no new ideas out there? Has innovation been sacrificed once and for all at the bloody altar of guaranteed success?

Well, not quite. Not yet. But good ideas are hard to find these days, and they hide in unlikely places. At the moment the best many developers can offer by way of innovation is melding two or more genres into one heterogeneous glob. Ion Storm's Deus Ex, for example, is a futuristic adventure that splices a first-person perspective head onto an RPG body, which is, in a way, what the heavily plot-lead Half-Life and King Pin have also been doing.

A less obvious combination is provided by Racing Lagoon from SquareSoft - an RPG mated unceremoniously with a driving game. Here, rival street gangs battle for domination of the Tokyo streets, organising high-speed races to apportion territory - it's a nifty idea, but the depth and quality of both game styles are likely to be fatally compromised in the union.