Game Devs Should Lighten Up

Why are there so few light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek games? Team Fortress 2 is one that springs to mind, yet there are too many games of the melancholy variety. Global Thermonuclear War? That could happen, I don't want to think about that. A seven foot wall of Soviet flesh and bone, reminding me that "Cart vill not push self!"? That's quite unlikely in the real world, and something that manages to combine humour with just an ounce of austerity to give the combat some plausibility.

That's where more games need to go. I'm not saying we shouldn't have serious games though - we need something to remind us that shooting people is actually pretty naughty. It would be nice, however, to have a change of tune from time to time. I'd like to think that TF2 can, at least in part, thank it's lightheartedness for it's degree of success.

Let us, for example, compare TF2 with Battlefield 2. BF2 is based on modern day warfare, and as such there is little leeway (if any) for devs to invent some mega-hyper-supadupa tank toaster, or to test out the US Marine Corps' prototype freeze-ray. In fairness, neither of those things are in Team Fortress 2 either, but that's just because Valve haven't thought of it yet. We'll see Mr Freeze manning the battlements of 2fort by christmas. Probably.

I think I've got my point across now, laid-back games rule. We need more. Make it happen devs.