I think I've figured out why most games are crap these days...

No no no...as I've said before there are certainly games that don't NEED good stories. When I go into a game like Just Cause 2 I don't EXPECT a riveting story and characters. I already know what I will be getting myself into. A game like Just Cause 2 is based more on its gun play, vehicular play, exploring, etc.

So when games LIKE Just Cause 2 come out and have by-passable stories I'm not upset by that. It's when games come out that ARE massively story driven that I get upset when that story within this massively story driven game is bad. If I play a game like Metal Gear Solid or Halo I EXPECT a good story. Good characters. If a Metal Gear Solid game came out that DID have a BAD story (completely subjective I KNOW) then it is over all a bad game in my eyes. The main reason for playing the Metal Gear Solid series is its story, not GAMEPLAY, though I am NOT saying Metal Gear Solid doesn't have good gameplay. But I would be quite interested to find someone that plays Metal Gear Solid NOT for the story. If you know someone like this I would like to know.
 
pigwalk said:
I think the reason you all feel games are crap these days is because you're all getting old, jaded and nostalgic.

Hell I know I am, and I don't hate half as much as most of the posters here.

And good god damn, RDR's ending was just fucking amazing.
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I am as well... but i think the biggest problem i have with games is "Microtransactions".... This has become so ridiculous even FPS'ers are doing it.. call of duty.. battlefield...hell atleast warcraft puts out content every few months for free, without saying, oh btw, pay us another $20 on top of the 15 you pay per month...

And where the fuck are the MOD's for FPS'ers? They dont exist anymore... the game companies who picked up talent from the MOD community and came up with great games, is gone.. destroyed by an unwillingness to promote the brand and instead fucking the customers over for more money for less maps, less originality, and shitty gameplay...

You also do NOT have control of FPS'ers anymore... you cant just start a server and ban and kick people from it anymore...UNLESS you pay the game manufacturers like EA to host a server thru them.... and yet... this isnt an anti trust issue? Others you have no control over banning/kicking.... without EVERYONE voting.. there isnt an admin to say, cheater BOOM... no it takes 20 minutes to kick anyone...

Ive quit and gone back to wow 3 times in 7 years so far.. honestly.. 15 a month for accesible content and a ton of players on the servers, although some more than others, just makes it a better game...and cheating, well they do a pretty good job of that... AND, this is the big factor ive stayed with WOW... they have customer support... it may take a day to get through, but its not like Star Wars where you spend weeks waiting for a reply...and if yer Free To Play... star wars isnt FREE TO PLAY either... its limited in almost everything.... and you have NO customer support...

I still play Empire Total War, Rome Total War, Starcraft, Civ 5...all on single player... its really about the only thing left that ive found i can play over and over... ahh well... im getting old.. big 40 coming soon..midlife crisis starting now...lol
 
JoeUser said:
DX:HR is a good example. One game I have beat. Not the greatest story or characters, but it did these things right at least. Gave me a reason to play. Wanted to see what happened.

Red Dead Redemption is another good example.

Well RDR brings another point. Endings. A lot of good games today seem to lack a decent ending. Fable 3 (RDR as well) is a good example of this. Great story and characters but the ending completely sucked and didn't make a lick of sense. Honestly ruined the game for me in the end. Made it feel like a waste of time.
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Red Dead Redemption has a fantastic ending....
 
Story and difficulty.

Story in that there are not enough good twists, or the stories are exactly the same. Difficulty in that making you have to shoot someone in the face 8 times instead of 1-2 just makes a game annoying and not fun. Having to figure out HOW to defeat someone is an interesting and difficult challenge.

I strive on figuring things out, not having to do things over and over again until I can click just fast enough to do what is necessary..


I've played fallout 1/2 /icewind dale /baldurs gate many times.. even recently i installed it again.. Spent a lot of time in skyrim.. why? Story.. interesting things.. comedy.. a variety of sights to see and to explore off rails.

Not being FORCED down a corridor, having some options..
 
JoeUser said:
SOME OF THE VERY FIRST VIDEO GAMES WHERE NOTHING BUT STORIES! They didn't even have graphics. Plus, weren't games really made to be interactive "tv/movies/books"? Everyone is of course entitled to their opinions but you, as with the last guy, sound completely closed minded and ignorant. If someone came to you and told you they just played a game that had the most amazing story and characters they had ever seen but ended by saying game play was only so-so you'd have no interest? Sad.
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Don't ALL video games have graphics? I would think that's why they're called "video" games.

AFAIK, the first video games were things like Pong, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, etc...

Those games were sorely lacking in story.

I enjoy games with a story too, my favorite genres are RPG and Action-Adventure. But I don't really believe that story is a defining element of video games. All that's needed is a player-controlled avatar, a defeat condition, and a goal to achieve. Everything else is optional.

Now, I do think it's somewhat sad if story is being taken out or glossed over entirely, story can add quite a bit to a video game and make it very interesting. But I find it hard to believe that modern video games could have stories any less compelling than those of the arcade games in the late 1970s/early 1980s.
 
SS_Wehrwolf said:
I am as well... but i think the biggest problem i have with games is "Microtransactions".... This has become so ridiculous even FPS'ers are doing it.. call of duty.. battlefield...hell atleast warcraft puts out content every few months for free, without saying, oh btw, pay us another $20 on top of the 15 you pay per month...
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I don't think that really matters one bit. The 50 bucks I paid for BF Premium didn't have anything at all to do with the 80 hours or so of fun I had with the base game before any expos came out. (for me that's a hell of a lot of gameplay).

I've played hundreds of hours of LoL, the skins I bought along the way wouldn't have affected how fun the game was.
 
games suck tv sucks movies suck music sucks... it's because people buy that crap guys. people actually sit down and watch 2 and a half men, they play call of duty seventeen, they listen to kanye west, and roger ebert gave avatar 4 stars. things wouldn't be this way if they didn't sell, simple as that.
 
I played Mgs for its gameplay just as much for story, both were incredible! It was finally a new genre and new way to play a video game had so much fun with that game but didn't like any mgs after..along with the story it had amazing characters.. I think game play and story go hand in hand to make a game amazing. I think the issue might be age..but also deep story/characters is not needed either just think back to super metroid.. Games such as castle Vania symphony of the night, resident evil 1,2 ff7 were amazing but for sum reason I cannot get into any current sequels for these games..
 
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My favourite games from the late 90's/2000's were Homeworld, Descent Freespace, and X-Wings. You know why? Great storylines.

I wish they would reboot Homeworld. Homeworld 2 had lame gameplay, but the story was enough to keep me playing
 
Between modern tv/music and video games, I'd still choose video games. :p There's just no hope for tv and music, if anyone asked me what's my favorite song of 2012, I have none.

But there are still good video games being made among many bad ones. I think we're just seeing many bad games these days due to the industry being more mainstream now and many companies are rushing out titles after titles. Despite many old great franchises being dumbed down these days (ie. Splinter Cell :mad: ) there are also classical franchises being revived or even new ones being worked on that looks promising.
 
Maplehamwich said:
As we get older our experiences mount and our tastes differentiate. Also, we grow rose colored memory glasses because we don't actively insert our new knowledge into our past memories. These things combine to mean most of human kind (at least in the western world) will always have a favored picture of the past. Most games aren't crap these days in comparison to older games, you've just grown older.
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I refuse to believe that. Everyone always tells me "You're crazy, it wasn't that good, it's the nostalgia factor", but I swear stuff just used to be better. I find its like this with a bunch of stuff. Shit is cheaply made now days to save a buck. IMO shit really was better back in the day.
 
TheToE! said:
I refuse to believe that. Everyone always tells me "You're crazy, it wasn't that good, it's the nostalgia factor", but I swear stuff just used to be better. I find its like this with a bunch of stuff. Shit is cheaply made now days to save a buck. IMO shit really was better back in the day.
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It was only better back then because there were fewer games and at the rate technology advanced each new game seemed awesome compared to all that came before it. Right now we are at a technological wall in which games have largely been based on the same technology for 5 years or more. Very little advancement has occured in most genres. Call it consolitis, etc. but the fact is that games within each genere are all basically the same. Only artitistic style (and sometimes not even that) and story are all that separate them. We also have a lack of creativity these days as the modern military shooter is pretty much all we get. At one point we were bombarded by science fiction games during the Unreal Tournament era, but each of them had a different look and feel. Military shooters rarely do.
 
Not sure if it's really age..I think it's just the direction many newer games take..take for example the metroid series. I loved all the side scrolling ones esp super metroid. I tried playing the newer ones but just couldn't get into it. Same goes with castlevania, resident evil (couldn't enjoy anything after 2 ) metal gear, star seige tribes, quake,ut, and lastly final fantasy series of which 7 is still king. It's even apparent with rts gaming for pc..I loved Totalannihilation when I was young and thought maybe my age had an effect on ever enjoying rts games again. I didnt enjoy any new rts until supreme commander came out..then came supcom 2 and I didn't enjoy it so it's not age but quality of the game more so..gaming is a hobby like anything else in life
 
I've had more fun and enjoyment playing Hotline Miami over the last few weeks than I have probably any other game this year. Well that + the Binding of Isaac.

Games nowadays really churn out and rehash the same 'ol shit. I used to yearn for more shooters; now I wish they'd make less of them. CoD has both saved and destroyed the shooter genre at the same time.
 
pigwalk said:
I think the reason you all feel games are crap these days is because you're all getting old, jaded and nostalgic.

Hell I know I am, and I don't hate half as much as most of the posters here.

And good god damn, RDR's ending was just fucking amazing.
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I could not agree more. The more you age, the more you get sick of the new games and wish for the "old days when them games were good!" . I started viewing myself from a distance when I talk and I realize that, that is exactly how we all sound. I just take games for what they are and enjoy the hell out of them. I don't think they got any worse, we just got more picky and started wanting more of the old days when we were young and the ideas were still new.
 
A well executed game might be what we're looking for in terms of a definition.

I do think what constitutes as a "good game" changes over time. I used to not consider RPG's as a genre that was up my alley, but through games like Deus Ex and Bioshock, they've been more interesting as a consideration.

I don't care what someone else says, if I don't like to play the game, for me it's not a good game. This isn't to say there aren't truly horrible games, but I think that more often, it's a matter of taste.

I don't particularly care for Super Mario Brothers, but that doesn't mean it sucks. Some games that have been reviewed harshly have been quite enjoyable. I still enjoy pulling out Quake 4 from time to time because for me, it's fun.

That's what games are primarily for: fun. Some pull that off very well and others fall flat.
 
The problem is that games are not longer directed at people who enjoy... playing games. Older games were crafted for people who loved games and required dedication to complete.

Now they are being made to pander to movie goers or a casual audience that don't care for the "game" aspect and a well crafted challenge. The fact that anyone would give a "game" like the walking dead a GOTY award is pathetic and sad state of what the industry wants.
 
TheToE! said:
I refuse to believe that. Everyone always tells me "You're crazy, it wasn't that good, it's the nostalgia factor", but I swear stuff just used to be better. I find its like this with a bunch of stuff. Shit is cheaply made now days to save a buck. IMO shit really was better back in the day.
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Shit was WAYY better in the day. Games actually had... story development, complicated game mechanics, use of more than 5 keys on the keyboard, and bugs that don't take months to patch. And everytime we got a patch, we'd get a free map!

Could you imagine trying to sell a game like Descent Freespace 2 to fucking 13 year olds today? (Btw, I was 16 when DF2 came out). I sound like a crockety old man, but honestly, I feel like "aiming down sight" is what counts as a "Complicated game mechanic" these days, along with "You must repeat the same thing a bunch of times to unlock some shit"

I wish we had 2012 technology to remake the Wing Commander Series. Or Tie Fighter. Or Homeworld. Or DF2. Or the original non-full-retard Rainbow 6.
 
It definitely isn't about story or characters for me. It is all about gameplay and I don't enjoy what has become popular.

I used to love the COD series, but what I loved was accuracy seemed to be rewarded over spray and pray. With all the modern shooters it is more about who can shoot their target the most the quickest. I found I enjoyed the modded games such as rifles only or pistols only but with mods going away we are now dependent on the developers adding them rather than focusing on more streaks that ruin the gameplay imho.

It also became all about DLC and how they can get you to spend more money on them. At the same time while they sell DLC, they still haven't fixed the bugs and stopped the cheaters in the game itself.
 
pigwalk said:
I think the reason you all feel games are crap these days is because you're all getting old, jaded and nostalgic.
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Yep. Life is more interesting these days. That's why my gaming attention span is shorter.
 
I already figured it out, we're all getting older, the end.
 
GushpinBob said:
By this logic, games like Just Cause 2 must be absolutely horrible and should never see the light of day.
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/Agree
JC2 is epic. If you can't enjoy that game then there is something wrong with you. It is also the finest example of occlusion I have even seen in a game yet. It's been installed on my PC since the day I bought the game. I still play it from time to time. Mostly, just to see how many guys I can wrecking ball with a statue head.
 
Games are crap becausae the emphasis is no longer on great gameplay but milking people....

Duke Nukem 3D
Hexen
Heretic
Descent
Jedi Knight
Replblic Commando
Mario Kart
Super Mario Brothers
Wing Commander 3
Star Trek Elite Force
Zelda A link to the past
Monkey Ball
Super Mario Workd
Super Mario Sunshine
Smash brothers Melee
Diablo
StarCraft
Red Alert
Sims
Sonic the Hedgehog
RoboCop vs Terminator
The Terminator (orignal)
Fall of Cybertron
NBA jam
Unreal Tournament
Star Fox

are all prime examples of games that offered quality game play

and a lot of games that are considerd crap at retail become worth it when they are significantly reduced (duke nukem forever for $3 as an example)
 
Ironchef Chris Wok said:
Shit was WAYY better in the day. Games actually had... story development, complicated game mechanics, use of more than 5 keys on the keyboard, and bugs that don't take months to patch. And everytime we got a patch, we'd get a free map!

Could you imagine trying to sell a game like Descent Freespace 2 to fucking 13 year olds today? (Btw, I was 16 when DF2 came out). I sound like a crockety old man, but honestly, I feel like "aiming down sight" is what counts as a "Complicated game mechanic" these days, along with "You must repeat the same thing a bunch of times to unlock some shit"

I wish we had 2012 technology to remake the Wing Commander Series. Or Tie Fighter. Or Homeworld. Or DF2. Or the original non-full-retard Rainbow 6.
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Preach on, Preach on.....
 
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