Yeah, how come Games now adays suck ballz?

[WildCard]

I've noticed games have been going down hill for a while. Sure graphics are getting better and new little conveniences are discovered, but at what cost?  Games, more specifically RPGs have become shorter, less entertaining, and tightly linear. Examples? For one, what happened with Fable? Dont get me wrong, i enjoyed the game for what it was, but It was extremely short, and we were promised alot more that what was given. Also, Mass Effect, We were cheated there, Very short game play and the planet travel thing sucked, travelling a barren nothingness to find one freakin little base and kill a couple people. Lame my friends, lame. 

What happen to thing like Morrowind, Knights of the old republic, Golden Sun, Even the old pokemon. A couple of those were more linear sure, but  there was not really anything to complain about there. Compelling stories, battle systems, or even just the simple systems within.  Oh, Shining Force was an rpg, that was awesome, and 2 as well.

Anyway, What are game companies thinking now adays? They completely abandon their old ideas for the new stuff. 

 

[moog]

I blame SE. Most of the recent awful RPGs are spewing from that shithole. Thank god for Crisis Core.

 

[Nachos]

They are focusing too much on the graphics and stuff. That's what happened to all my games, and I ended up erasing them.
If the games has a battle system that REALLY, REALLY sucks, I don't really care, I mean, it's important, but I care more about the story line, otherwise the game becomes boring becouse you have nothing to battle about.

 

[mawk]

I don't think it's a matter of games getting worse -- good games are like lightning, you can't really predict when a new Earthbound or Super Mario RPG is going to appear. It's just been a long time without any clouds, that's all. :x

I think people might have come to expect a little too much, as well. Little gameplay bells-and-whistles like SMRPG's extra focus on action and exploration used to be bonuses -- you'd see them and think "oh, wow, this is really cool." Now we've goten jaded, and have come to expect them. The old formulas just aren't doing it for us anymore.

So it's not that game developers as a whole are losing their touch or have somehow forgotten how to make games. Impressing us is just very hit-or-miss all of a sudden.

That said, though, I have seen a lot of pure shit out there in the commercial side of things. Another Earthbound would be pretty well-received right now. :x

 

[mega_man_aXe]

Well...I'm anticipating the FF4 remake for DS...sure its just a remake but right now, its the most exciting thing coming out ^_^  Of course, IMO, Xenosaga was a great game and that wasn't too long ago.  I guess its just because whatever is most popular at the moment seems to be the basis of their decisions...shooters and exploring type games seem to be pretty popular now, unlike 10-20 years ago when RPGs were considered to be some of the best.  I mean...look how many damn RPGs were spewed out for the Playstation!

 

[candle]

I, for one, am actually a little glad that rpgs are getting a little shorter.  I still have over 15 rpgs half done, and that's not even including the games with multiple endings (but have only gotten one), or the roms I have on my computer.  More like triple that number.  I just don't have the time anymore.  Still, there are quite a few games coming out with 30+ hours of gameplay.

 

[Danny]

Games aren't really getting suckier, per say, the industry infact is at a peak of productivity, it's just that alot of developers are taking advantage of the vietnam war or inter galactic war layouts for games which have been flying off shelves lately. There infact however have been many games that have surpassed this standard in the past 6 months, Drakes Fortune and Dark Sector for instance. I think it'd be fair to say that next gen RPG's are in a slump, but there are plenty of good looking, and good playing games out there.

 

[Venetia]

Are you people high??

Mass Effect has rave reviews from everyone. I'm getting it the second it comes out for PC. Shooters have been amazing lately, hell, look at Half Life 2 (and the whole Orange Box -- hello?), one of my favorite games of all time. Also read up on Shirokishi Monogatari (or White Knight Chronicles) coming soon for the PS3, that has previewers going nuts.

Oblivion was fucking awesome, that only came out a few years ago, and its expansion is, dare I say, even better.

The Tomb Raider series has been 100% restored with Crystal Dynamics, and TR: Underworld will be coming late this year.

And Spore?! Did you forget Spore is coming??

MGS4 is coming soon and Resident Evil 4 was kickass too, I can only expect good things out of RE5. Umbrella Chronicles is fun, too.

BioWare is making a Sonic RPG that looks fucking awesome, if that's possible, and I've seen vids of Sonic Unleashed, which looks like a 2d/3d blend with a static camera; something the blue guy sorely needs.

Also I heard Lost Odyssey was spectacular and refreshingly different.

Smash Brothers Brawl was everything people wanted, and Super Mario Galaxy was easily one of my most favorite platformers ever, and trust me, I'm a hardcore oldschooler.

So I'm really not seeing the whole "Games are sucking lately" thing. I'm really not.

Lastly, you people seem to not realize this here. Those oldschool RPGs, they're classics because they're classic. They're old. Everyone has played them by now. They're remembered fondly. In ten years, I'm sure a good many games of today will be receiving the same acclaim.

 

[Prexus]

Venetia is right on all accounts.

 

[Anonymous]

except one

Oblivion was fucking awesome, that only came out a few years ago, and its expansion is, dare I say, even better.

shivering isles was AWESOME but oblivion was utter shit.

 

[Venetia]

Shaddap <3

 

[Dopples]

Are you people high??

Mass Effect has rave reviews from everyone. I'm getting it the second it comes out for PC. Shooters have been amazing lately, hell, look at Half Life 2 (and the whole Orange Box -- hello?), one of my favorite games of all time. Also read up on Shirokishi Monogatari (or White Knight Chronicles) coming soon for the PS3, that has previewers going nuts.

Oblivion was fucking awesome, that only came out a few years ago, and its expansion is, dare I say, even better.

The Tomb Raider series has been 100% restored with Crystal Dynamics, and TR: Underworld will be coming late this year.

And Spore?! Did you forget Spore is coming??

MGS4 is coming soon and Resident Evil 4 was kickass too, I can only expect good things out of RE5. Umbrella Chronicles is fun, too.

BioWare is making a Sonic RPG that looks fucking awesome, if that's possible, and I've seen vids of Sonic Unleashed, which looks like a 2d/3d blend with a static camera; something the blue guy sorely needs.

Also I heard Lost Odyssey was spectacular and refreshingly different.

Smash Brothers Brawl was everything people wanted, and Super Mario Galaxy was easily one of my most favorite platformers ever, and trust me, I'm a hardcore oldschooler.

So I'm really not seeing the whole "Games are sucking lately" thing. I'm really not.

Lastly, you people seem to not realize this here. Those oldschool RPGs, they're classics because they're classic. They're old. Everyone has played them by now. They're remembered fondly. In ten years, I'm sure a good many games of today will be receiving the same acclaim.

Especially agree about The Orange Box and Tomb Raider. Though I get the feeling that Underworld is going to be another Angel of Darkness.

 

[skirtboy]

The only real problem with current-gen games is the limited control options. Even on the PC, which has many times the buttons of a gamecontroller (especially if you plug a game controler in) a large number of games use every single combination of keys possible. So, if a game developer wants to add a new feature, it requires the deletion of an old one.

 

[arcthemonkey]

Never mind the fact that they still make Pokemon games, so asking "What ever happened to games like Pokemon" is a bit silly.

I have no problem whatsoever with modern games.

 

[Venetia]

If anything, I'd almost call this a golden time for games.

In the past, we were experimenting. We didn't know what was fun, or what elements exactly would play right. We only had 16 (or less) colors. We had a D-Pad and 2 buttons. We had strange, floating platforms, because that was the easiest way to convey a change in elevation. Sometime, look at a large library of SNES games. Yes, many of them stand out like shining beacons. Breath of Fire. Legend of Mana. Super Ghouls and Ghosts. Mario 3. Etc. But then if you mentally put all those classic, amazing games off to the side, you'd see the pile of totally unknown, obscure, crap-games, would vastly outnumber it. But you don't remember the crap knock-off games, you remember the great games. So it seems like there're more good things in the past than in the now.

But games today can be either 2D or 3D. They can look painted or realistic or classic. Their gameplay can involve not only the presses of 2 buttons and a D-Pad, but can even sense where you are on a Z axis, or if you're shouting at it, or can be as precise as your mouse. Grotesque gore, real nasty stuff, is now possible. Realistic war tactics and smart AI is possible. It's not just about thinking outside the box anymore, as cliched as this sounds, it's about blowing the box open and licking up the pieces.

Games are great now and they will continue to be great. Just because the bad ones outweigh the gems doesn't mean that the industry has gone down in quality--there will always be knockoff Nike sneakers and generic Pop Tarts and crappy games that bite off tried and true concepts, only to fail.

Just take it with a grain of salt, research a game before it comes out, only buy the ones with high reviews, and eventually, you'll see, the market will only churn out even more diamonds in the rough.

 

[BellGoRiiing]

...Venetia pretty much said what I was about to say...She left out Sins of a Solar Empire though...*loves game*

And according to all these reviewing sites, Mario Kart Wii looks like it could be another big hit...not too mention Star Wars; The Force Unleashed looks awesome.

 

[Marcus]

I love it when people say "old games were better" because then I know they have their NostalgiaGoggles(tm) on a little too tight.  Fact of the matter is, there were more developers in the 80s and 90s and more arcade games that were being ported to the consoles; finding a good game was harder back then than it is now.  Now that there are less developers and bigger budgets, they can focus on more high profile projects. 

Also, graphics were more important in the 90s than they were today.  SEGA's whole marketing campaign for the Genesis was that it had better graphics than the NES and SNES.  Shadow of the Beast, one of the most popular games on the Amiga, sold stupidly high numbers simply because it boasted 16 scrolling parallax backgrounds.  The Atari generated buzz because it promised Arcade style graphics on home televisions (which was a huge lie; the Atari version of Packman and Paperboy were utter shit).

Videogames aren't getting worse, people's expectations are just getting too high.  Video game critics are turning into art critics; if a game doesn't grab them by their nuts and yank 'em off they are wholly unimpressed.  It's good to challenge developers, but games haven't deevolved and unlike cinema which has hit it's peak (as far as production and cinematic techniques go; the only thing that can improve now is special effects) virtual entertainment still has a ways to go in terms of evolution.  There's only so much you can do with pen and paper or paints and canvas but creating virtual worlds with realistic AI is still new and unexplored.

What happen to thing like Morrowind, Knights of the old republic, Golden Sun, Even the old pokemon. A couple of those were more linear sure, but  there was not really anything to complain about there. Compelling stories, battle systems, or even just the simple systems within.  Oh, Shining Force was an rpg, that was awesome, and 2 as well.

Golden Sun?  That was one of the most generic RPG's ever.  Morrowind and KotoR were released this decade so I wouldn't call them old and Pokemon has more crappy spinoffs than it does original games. 

 

[khmp]

I believe its relative to time and cost. Games that spend a lot of time in development especially in the hands of a well known name tend to do better than the rush job rts engine with new units. It isn't cost effective to work on a truly unique and inspiring system when you can do what's currently popular and knows makes money. So they cover up flawed hackneyed design with shiny stuff. WW2 shooters anyone? Besides we are quite complacent with getting rehashed franchises with spins. Mario god bless him for his figure head qualities, has very little else to do. Perhaps a plumber sim? Still, people will demand to see him picking his nose. So instead of something new. We get Samus, or Mario preparing taxes. One final thought, let us not forget who decides what will be successful and what won't be.

 

[handsome lamb]

Because you're older and more jaded and want everything to live up to your nostalgic values of the older games, but fail to realize that they never will.

 

[Vampiriclayer]

all i can say is thank god for emulators...