Frontier Developments boss: "Halo 3 schmalo 3"...

...or at least that's my interpretation of it.

Frontier Developments boss David Braben thinks that yes, Bioshock and Halo 3 were fun games, but ultimately, they fall short of the title "next-gen". Not that they don't look pretty; he places the biggest fault on their gameplay.

In an interview with Eurogamer, his thoughts on Bioshock are, "I loved the 1930s-1950s atmosphere of BioShock: the lovely Art Deco visuals and the audio that worked especially well. Overall the whole game was beautifully executed, but the gameplay itself was not 'next-gen'."

And Halo 3? He says, "I found Halo 3 great fun, too, but also a little disappointing - as although there were a few nice touches and improved graphical fidelity, it hadn't really moved on much from Halo 2 in terms of the gameplay."

So you might be asking yourself now, what is an example of a real "next-gen" game? Well Braben believes that the project his company is working on now, The Outsider, will be one of the first real examples of a new generation in gaming. He believes that what truly distinguishes a game is the ability for the gamer to be the biggest influence in how the game plays out; something that is far more than just simply picking an alignment(ex. good, evil, neutral good, lawful evil, etc.).

As for what I think...maybe he's right, but I just can't shake the feeling that he's only saying this to raise awareness for the game he's developing. No release dates or consoles have yet to be announced for The Outsider, so we'll just have to wait and see if he can really deliver in his promises.