Where did all the good games go?

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m33pm33p

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - August 2013
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I remember growing up (I'm only 27!) there were soooo0o0o many outstanding games. I can still recall the Christmas morning I woke up and had finally been lucky enough to get an SNES from my parents only to find that my father hadn't been able to wrap it because he had been up all night playing Zelda: A Link to the past. Then there was FFVI, a game I was ADDICTED to after seeing the first "cut scene" explaining the war. I remember trying for WEEKS to find a place that actually had the game so I could rent it, usually to no avail, because it was either rented or had been stolen! Shit, I remember when when I first played FFVII and had saved every penny I had to get the game, with no money left over to buy a memory card. I loved that game so much that for the first month I would restart from the very beginning every single morning until I was FINALLY able to buy a memory card and proceed past the Shinra tower. Then I found Xenogears and it nearly took over a year of my life...

So what the hell happened? Am I just getting old now? Is my imagination slowly fading? I can't find a game to save my life that will still hold my attention for more than a week. I recently finished Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii and for the first time in a log time had the satisfaction of finding a game with a story line so good, I couldn't stop playing. Even then, it didn't seem as good as the stories from past games were.

So what are the newer games now days who's STORY hold your attention? I'm not talking about getting to the next rank in COD so you can unlock that new grenade launcher either! But game,s you honestly cant put down because the story has you so pulled in you cant wait to see what happens next...
 
I haven't had a game catch my attention and hold it as you described. I don't get around to too many new games since I can't really afford brand new games but Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Metro 2033 and my secret guilty pleasure of Singularity were some of the more recent games I simply couldn't wait to get home from work to play.

Modern economic evolution almost demands companies to pump out games twice as fast (or more) than they used to. Also, since the casual gamer is the prime market these days, shorter and easier games sell better, so it only makes sense to make games that appeal to the masses and make more money.

My holy grail of a game story lines that captured my imagination the best? First, hands down is Myth: The Fallen Lords and Myth II: Soulblighter. A close second is the first Homeworld.
 
It can be difficult to rekindle some of those old thrills, but I'm not sure it's the games themselves. For me at least, I think it was easier to suspend disbelief back in the younger days and, perhaps, I was simply less experienced with games and easier to please all around. Our tastes have a way of becoming more refined as we go along - maybe to a detrimental extent.

For an example, I've been re-playing/ toying around with a few of the Final Fantasy classics on the PSN recently and when I really sat down and looked at the dialogue and storyline, I could see the flaws pretty clearly. Putting gameplay aside, compare them with somewhat more modern games with a reputation for decent storylines (Witcher series, Dragon Age 1 come to mind, possibly even Vampire Bloodlines), and I think you'll find modern storytelling is doing mostly fine when the companies want to focus on it. Do they match up with your personal tastes? That I don't know, but I enjoyed the stories in those games even if the gameplay had the occasional hiccup.

As for truly recent releases (last 6 months to a year) with good storylines, I guess I don't know either. I've been playing more sandbox and strategy games recently, but I'm always on the lookout for solid recommendations.
 
You are growing up, you cant get those first experiences back.

There are still good games.
 
I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in a game ... I found the story in Bioshock to be very interesting (it had elements of a Greek Tragedy) ... I also liked Fallout 3 ... some of the side stories in Oblivion were great (I loved the Lovecraft homage 'Shadow over Hackdirt') ... I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in a game ... but it is hard to get that wonder from childhood back again ;)
 
kbrickley said:
I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in a game ... I found the story in Bioshock to be very interesting (it had elements of a Greek Tragedy) ... I also liked Fallout 3 ... some of the side stories in Oblivion were great (I loved the Lovecraft homage 'Shadow over Hackdirt') ... I guess it all depends on what you are looking for in a game ... but it is hard to get that wonder from childhood back again ;)
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I can agree with you there. I did thoroughly enjoy the story with bioshock. Something happened with my save file thought and I could never get back into it.

I guess for the most part Im just let down with the recent final fantasy's and RPG's in general. I just don't see the depth that I used to see.
 
m33pm33p said:
I can agree with you there. I did thoroughly enjoy the story with bioshock. Something happened with my save file thought and I could never get back into it.

I guess for the most part Im just let down with the recent final fantasy's and RPG's in general. I just don't see the depth that I used to see.
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The FF series always went for the epic stories ... and yes ... those are not in vogue right now unfortunately ... but who knows ... maybe if games like Project Eternity are successful it will bring back the story based RPGs ... if not, GOG sells plenty of the older story based games and some of them play quite well on newer machines :)
 
i think it's half that we're growing up and have real lives with responsibilities and bills and careers and whatnot, and half that we are no longer the target audience - majority of gamers are just like we were, tweens and teens with boatloads of time.

for whatever reason though, shitty games sell well (see black ops) and thus will continue to be made
 
If you want story, there are a ton of great games out there. First and foremost: Walking Dead. It's an Adventure game, and the characters and your decisions take center stage. I just finished the first episode and only shot one Zom.

As for looking forward, Cyberpunk 2077 looks silly.
 
Walking dead has one of the better stories in a long while. Alot of great moments in that game.
 
John721 said:
It can be difficult to rekindle some of those old thrills, but I'm not sure it's the games themselves. For me at least, I think it was easier to suspend disbelief back in the younger days and, perhaps, I was simply less experienced with games and easier to please all around. Our tastes have a way of becoming more refined as we go along - maybe to a detrimental extent.

For an example, I've been re-playing/ toying around with a few of the Final Fantasy classics on the PSN recently and when I really sat down and looked at the dialogue and storyline, I could see the flaws pretty clearly. Putting gameplay aside, compare them with somewhat more modern games with a reputation for decent storylines (Witcher series, Dragon Age 1 come to mind, possibly even Vampire Bloodlines), and I think you'll find modern storytelling is doing mostly fine when the companies want to focus on it. Do they match up with your personal tastes? That I don't know, but I enjoyed the stories in those games even if the gameplay had the occasional hiccup.

As for truly recent releases (last 6 months to a year) with good storylines, I guess I don't know either. I've been playing more sandbox and strategy games recently, but I'm always on the lookout for solid recommendations.
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I dont think older console games ever had really strong stories. Ya sure Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, FF Tactics, etc.. had entertaining stories but they werent "strong;" neither was the dialogue. Older PC games had some of the best stories I'd say. Baldurs Gate 2, Planescape Torment, System Shock 2, etc...
 
But there are some areas that have fallen to the wayside over the years. A lot of older games were more ambitious as well, it's hard to find something as vast as Lord British's Ultima series anymore, I still marvel at Ultima 6 and 7's level of interactivity and ones ability to get lost in side stories and adventures. Even Bethseda's Elder Scrolls was massive in scope back in the Daggerfall days.

However, I do agree that overall, most of the problem isn't that games have become boring, but that we the players have become so. As we've gotten older, we just no longer put forth the imagination needed to make something more out of what we are given.
 
They have dumbed everything down for the stupid people.Kinda like giving partial credit for the right answer but the wrong units on test......people wonder why the USA is falling behind in math and science...BAWGH ...Rant rant!!!!
 
Well, these days many companies choose to take the safer path of making a game that's easily accessible, where anyone can easily pick them up and play it. If a kid have to read through a thick manual before he could begin a game, it would turn him off. And these people are the targeted audience. So if you are a large corporate with investors to answer to, you have no choice but to tap into this market that brings in the most revenue.

Back then when you are making a rpg game, your target is the rpg crowd, so you focus on making a solid rpg game that they would find challenging and fun. Now, when you make an rpg game, your target is everyone, so you have to ensure that its accessible by everyone.

There are smaller companies who continue to make products that target a specific hardcore fans like the DCS flight sim series, but they are very few. With crowd funding, we may very well see a return of these games that are made for the more specific fan base again, we'll see how it turns out.
 
I've got a pretty good idea where they have gone, they've gone right under your nose.

Max payne 3 held my attention for a good month. Cart life was another attention grabber for me. I just started the witcher 2 and I already know that I m going to get sucked in.

Skyrim was disappointing from a story perspective and there are ton of game that have no story or no need for a "story". However the games you seek out there, more of them than ever due to digital distribution, you just have to look. (I'm 25 and i have a full time job btw, so i m not some wide eyed teenager about games.)

One more thing, can we all stop with the obsession about the"dumbing down" of games? Really..
 
Gaming became popular. Corporation aim to take advantage of it and try to sell as many as they can. To do so, they make as many as they can. To do that, they gimp what they think they can get away with, and release their game incomplete or just plainly mediocre. The result is... as the same with everything else. It's gone the way of the corporation.

Clearly, though, this isn't the only reason. There are also ones that focus more on graphical fidelity and mostly ignore gameplay and definitely stories, or reuse old nes without an effort to make it better.
 
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TheCommander said:
I dont think older console games ever had really strong stories. Ya sure Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, FF Tactics, etc.. had entertaining stories but they werent "strong;" neither was the dialogue. Older PC games had some of the best stories I'd say. Baldurs Gate 2, Planescape Torment, System Shock 2, etc...
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See, those games you mentioned had some of the greatest stories and twists IMO. They all sucked up hundreds of hours of my time. He'll, I still own an original play station copy of xenogears.
 
Walking dead has a great gripping story, so does spec ops - the line.

Other good games of the year were hotline miami, story was ok but looked brilliant and had a good old school feel.

There are a lot of other really good indies out there, I am playing jamestown right now and if you enjoy shootemups its great.
 
xenios said:
Walking dead has one of the better stories in a long while. Alot of great moments in that game.
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Indeed. There are tons of good and great games each year , if you can't find anything that appeals to your taste perhaps you've just become to hard to cater to or maybe you just aren't as interested in gaming as you use to be.

I have yet to have a "dry" year where I can't at least 2 or 3 games that absolutely enthrall me.
 
XvMMvX said:
You are growing up, you cant get those first experiences back.

There are still good games.
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I swear on the gaming gods, I was about to express this exact sentiment. There are so many good games right now, that I find myself utterly frustrated knowing I that I own them, but don't have the time to play them.
 
m33pm33p said:
I remember growing up (I'm only 27!) there were soooo0o0o many outstanding games. I can still recall the Christmas morning I woke up and had finally been lucky enough to get an SNES from my parents only to find that my father hadn't been able to wrap it because he had been up all night playing Zelda: A Link to the past. Then there was FFVI, a game I was ADDICTED to after seeing the first "cut scene" explaining the war. I remember trying for WEEKS to find a place that actually had the game so I could rent it, usually to no avail, because it was either rented or had been stolen! Shit, I remember when when I first played FFVII and had saved every penny I had to get the game, with no money left over to buy a memory card. I loved that game so much that for the first month I would restart from the very beginning every single morning until I was FINALLY able to buy a memory card and proceed past the Shinra tower. Then I found Xenogears and it nearly took over a year of my life...

So what the hell happened? Am I just getting old now? Is my imagination slowly fading? I can't find a game to save my life that will still hold my attention for more than a week. I recently finished Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii and for the first time in a log time had the satisfaction of finding a game with a story line so good, I couldn't stop playing. Even then, it didn't seem as good as the stories from past games were.

So what are the newer games now days who's STORY hold your attention? I'm not talking about getting to the next rank in COD so you can unlock that new grenade launcher either! But game,s you honestly cant put down because the story has you so pulled in you cant wait to see what happens next...
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I'm 30. And I know how you feel. Getting older sucks doesn't it? :p

On that note, try S.T.A.L.K.E.R. if you want a good FPS/storyline experience.
 
m33pm33p said:
I remember growing up (I'm only 27!) there were soooo0o0o many outstanding games. I can still recall the Christmas morning I woke up and had finally been lucky enough to get an SNES from my parents only to find that my father hadn't been able to wrap it because he had been up all night playing Zelda: A Link to the past. Then there was FFVI, a game I was ADDICTED to after seeing the first "cut scene" explaining the war. I remember trying for WEEKS to find a place that actually had the game so I could rent it, usually to no avail, because it was either rented or had been stolen! Shit, I remember when when I first played FFVII and had saved every penny I had to get the game, with no money left over to buy a memory card. I loved that game so much that for the first month I would restart from the very beginning every single morning until I was FINALLY able to buy a memory card and proceed past the Shinra tower. Then I found Xenogears and it nearly took over a year of my life...

So what the hell happened? Am I just getting old now? Is my imagination slowly fading? I can't find a game to save my life that will still hold my attention for more than a week. I recently finished Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii and for the first time in a log time had the satisfaction of finding a game with a story line so good, I couldn't stop playing. Even then, it didn't seem as good as the stories from past games were.

So what are the newer games now days who's STORY hold your attention? I'm not talking about getting to the next rank in COD so you can unlock that new grenade launcher either! But game,s you honestly cant put down because the story has you so pulled in you cant wait to see what happens next...
Click to expand...

Full of good games get released each week. Check mmobomb.

Zelda was good on snes but I think blackops2 is by far better.
 
Krenum said:
I'm 30. And I know how you feel. Getting older sucks doesn't it? :p

On that note, try S.T.A.L.K.E.R. if you want a good FPS/storyline experience.
Click to expand...

I'll second both sentiments. At 60,getting older beats being dead. Slightly. :D
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a prime example of just how good a game can be if you put real creativity and time into it. And there in lies the problem,too many developers in today's console dominated market are only interested in cranking out games as quickly as possible. It's not an atmosphere that encourages creativity.
 
michael.pa2 said:
I'll second both sentiments. At 60,getting older beats being dead. Slightly. :D
S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a prime example of just how good a game can be if you put real creativity and time into it. And there in lies the problem,too many developers in today's console dominated market are only interested in cranking out games as quickly as possible. It's not an atmosphere that encourages creativity.
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Well, video games back in your day were going outside and banging two rocks together! Of course you'd think it was great!:D

I plan to give STALKER a try. I've heard a lot of good things about it and believe it in my endless list of steam games...
 
m33pm33p said:
Well, video games back in your day were going outside and banging two rocks together! Of course you'd think it was great!:D

I plan to give STALKER a try. I've heard a lot of good things about it and believe it in my endless list of steam games...
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Go for STALKER: Shadows of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat.
Also both mags have mods that you can install, for ex you can install Mysery mod for Pripyat and it enhances difficulty and creates better world economy. While adding new guns, armors, and makes AI 'smarter'.

PS: Get VSS Vintorez in both games as soon as possible, makes your life a whole lot easier.
 
OP, I hear you. Most games these days don't really capture my attention for more than a few days anymore. I can't tell you.. well, I could... how many steam games I have installed that I literally played for just a few hours before closing them out, never to return.

I miss games like Giants: Citizen Kabuto! I loved that game so much. It was unique for the time and damn it we need a remake already -_-
 
erf said:
I swear on the gaming gods, I was about to express this exact sentiment. There are so many good games right now, that I find myself utterly frustrated knowing I that I own them, but don't have the time to play them.
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There are many good games out there among the sea of bad ones, but I notice the OP mentioned outstanding games. This would be games that people still talk about years from now, games like Baldur's Gate for example where people still play it today, something that really stands out. I think that's rare these days.
 
Captivated by story? Asassin Creed series. Lost Odyssey, FF XIV; Sleeping Dogs

But... the game that I loved most, thanks to the story was Omicron; Nomad Soul. It's pity it was not noticed, it didn't get praise, and the engine along with tech capabilities of those times, didn't let it function properly. On modern machines it would be a blast now.
 
MorgothPl said:
Captivated by story? Asassin Creed series. Lost Odyssey, FF XIV; Sleeping Dogs

But... the game that I loved most, thanks to the story was Omicron; Nomad Soul. It's pity it was not noticed, it didn't get praise, and the engine along with tech capabilities of those times, didn't let it function properly. On modern machines it would be a blast now.
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Im on the third disk of Lost Odyssey and trying to force my way through it. It's an ok game but just seems like its missing something. The story itself is kind of meeehh. What I LOVE though is the recollection of the dreams, they are re told so well.
 
It's called getting old bud. Hell, I'm only 24 and I can't keep myself interested in gaming for extended periods. After working all day, I just want to come home, eat, drink, game for a bit and then bed. The games I'm playing are great but I don't have the free time I had 10 years ago either.
 
MorgothPl said:
Captivated by story? Asassin Creed series. Lost Odyssey, FF XIV; Sleeping Dogs

But... the game that I loved most, thanks to the story was Omicron; Nomad Soul. It's pity it was not noticed, it didn't get praise, and the engine along with tech capabilities of those times, didn't let it function properly. On modern machines it would be a blast now.
Click to expand...

Holy crap, I thought I was the only person that ever played that game. It was a good one and went on forever it seemed. Had everything, puzzles, FPS-missions, hand-to-hand, you could transfer your soul to another body, I mean hoy crap was that game good!
 
You're older. The stuff that you used to like has been replaced with whining about why stuff isn't the same as it used to be.

Candy used to be a nickel!

Rock music is the devil!

and so on.
 
pothb said:
Gaming became popular. Corporation aim to take advantage of it and try to sell as many as they can. To do so, they make as many as they can. To do that, they gimp what they think they can get away with, and release their game incomplete or just plainly mediocre. The result is... as the same with everything else. It's gone the way of the corporation.

Clearly, though, this isn't the only reason. There are also ones that focus more on graphical fidelity and mostly ignore gameplay and definitely stories, or reuse old nes without an effort to make it better.
Click to expand...

Case and point... :)
NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XiiU6zMDCTA
 
I think it’s only a small part due to games being dumbed down. I think another reason is that games are kinda like drugs. Your first highs are always amazing, but you get burned out on it eventually so you’re always looking for that next big high. But as you eventually try out every variety of game, new games are still too similar to older ones you’ve played so they’re no longer as novel. So those of us older gamers that have been around the block and have been gaming since we were kids have tried out almost everything, so anything ‘new’ is just ‘meh’ to us, but to the young crowd it’s great because they’re not burned out on them yet.
 
Split into platform exclusives and never-ending DLC releases.

The reason there are no "good" games being made any more is not that they aren't, but rather that they're heavily monetised to the point where one release in three is arguably done so with planned obsolescence in mind - content that would render the game world "complete" is released incrementally as people are starting to grow bored of it and look to other games, rather than being a genuine afterthought and add-on to an existing (complete) experience.

Maybe it's a case of growing old. That's definitely always a factor. But the way the game industry's shifted since about 2003-4 has been pretty profound and I think has affected the quality of the output a lot.
 
I think getting older certainly changes your perspective on games and even though there may be ones with good stories and gameplay, you as an individual are more reluctant to allow yourself to be immersed or be truly interested in these 'fantasies' or simply put non-realities.

That does not mean that you can't enjoy many of these games and certainly there are several already mentioned in this thread that have both excellent stories and even post 30 I can get immersed enough where I'm genuinely excited for the next gaming session.

As mentioned, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadows of Chernobyl (with the 'Complete' Mod) is very good. As are both STALKER Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat.IMHO, Clear Sky is less on rails and while initially more buggy, with a 'Complete' mod and other mod fixes can be quite excellent (The story certainly is).

Others:
Metro 2033
Assassin's Creed (1,2,2.5,2.75) - 3 is OK, but not quite the same caliber.
Fallout 3 ( Original only. I was not impressed by New Vegas)
TES 5: Skyrim
Bioshock (and even Bioshock 2, although others will argue about this :) )
Max Payne 3
Dishonored (sadly too short!)
 
When you are young every thing is new and bright. Growing up kinda like having on yellow tinted glasses on a really cloudy day. every thing is nice and bright and it looks like the sun is out, then you grow up, take them off, and its just another cloudy shitty day.

the same applies to video games. there was no golden age of gaming just yellow tinted glasses
 
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