The age of Modern Gaming...

[Graedius]

Tell me, how do you feel about the way the video game industry is turning out? Do you like the way games are being made? Think we've entered another "Golden Age", or perhaps are on are way into a Recession of Garbage? Think the future shall hold good things, great things? Bad things, things not even worth wasting your time on?

I again expect to be quite alone, really. But nevertheless...

Personally, I think gaming is beginning to biff it harder and harder with each passing day... I was very eager to get a GBA, but, I feel absolutely no inclination to get a DS... whatsoever. I was once interesting in the up-and-coming games, but now... it just seems like one repeat after the other, one remake, one alteration... a newer version, even. It seems that now people try to invoke so-called "Innovation" and end up with a bunch of corny lameness, or put graphics over gameplay... something I've noticed abast amount of. People've been trying to use gimmicks to boost sales and create a false sense of innovation... but it's all a joke to me. You don't need an extra cable to use your GBA as a controller... you don't need 2 screens... I suppose they are interesting ideas, but they are more cumbersome and awkward than useful.

Something else that fills me with disgust is the abbhorent amount of Sports games there are being made.... It seems thatthese companies can just infinitely crank out a hundred new nearly-identical sports game a day... I never saw attraction to sports, why you'd ruin the videogame world with them is beyond me...

Do you also notice the intense amount of just... crap games being released? Honestly... like.. I can't find any examples right now, but grab a PlayStation Mag sometime... look at the hundreds of ads for literally bogus games.

And people putting Graphics before Gameplay... it's happened a hundred times, it'll happen a hundred times more... And lastly, is people getting the strangest ideas just to make a series continue, like Metroid Prime II: Echoes... Seeing as Metroid Prime 1 is the second in the series plot-wise, how is this whole dark-light dimensional thingy gonna fit in there? It seems things are just happening to keep hype up...

I'm not interesting in Mario Party 6... I'm not interested in the DS or PSP... I"m not interested in FFXI... I"m not interestedi n any DS or PSP titles as of yet...

Games no longer appeal to me. As the age of the GBA ends, so will the age of spritey games... and when that does, all that I stand for in gaming goes, too...

[SSK]

...

I have to admit there, you're right.

Back then, you'd be willing to rip out an arm or a leg for a GBA.

Now that I've thought about it even more...the DS isn't so well, appealing now...I'll still get it though. Why am I not so surprised I don't know...

[Kailing]

It's getting harder and harder for script writers to come up with a totally "original" game these days, as ideas have been used over and over again, to the extent, in which you have pointed out, they have been slaughtered.

No, I am not really interested in the new gaming platforms, the more I think about it, the more I wish that I didn't go ahead and spend AU$400 on the GCN when it first came out. The problem is as simple as this - Nintendo's ideas really sucked. x.x

They proved that when MP5 (Mario Party) was created. (And MP4 and 3.)

It's quite sad really.

Of course, I'll jump for joy whenever a new RPG has been released, but some of their ideas can be thought over twice as well...

It makes one wonder where the gaming industry is heading. ^^;;

So.. I think I will stick with computer games. Or something like that.

[sakura]

tales of symphonia was a really good rpg, normally i loathe rpgs but well this one had a somewhat original plot (save the world... done that!) the stuff inbetween was cool and intresting and i liked the fighting style (real time).

if you have a xbox i suggest maybe getting fable its a good game for about maybe 14-16 hours theres ton of things you can collect and do. you can be evil or good and your appearance changes based on waht you become. I was evil and i had horns flies and red gas around my feet and i looked scary, wheras my brother was good and he had a halo (full head of hair) butterflies and shined.

The one game i'm looking forward to getting is paper mario 2 it looks good and i love mario games there always fun ^^ (whether or not yoshi is in it). mario and luigi superstar saga was fun and kept me entertained, and it was funny because they were always ripping on luigi ( mario and uh... greenie over there)

i agree with graedius though graphics are being put first before the plot, I just hope that the new zelda game won't be like that *hope hope*. I mean I like nice graphics... but gameplay is way more worthful than the graphics...

longest post ever XD

[Yoshi9]

I agree about the games only wanting to show off their graphics now a day. Haven't they learned from movies that you can't do that? Its the plot, and the storyline that counts, and how fun the game is with action, ect, not "ohh, look, these graphics are so much better, they look so real, you must buy this game, buy, buy, buy for the graphics". It gets bad when that starts happening. You know, I don't think its been a good game year for the gamecube, really, how can one even call it golden? I just haven't been as into games as I once was. I know its not just me. But despite this, there are a few games I think, and really hope, will be good. As Sukura said, the new Paper Mario looks good, and I really, really hope that the new Legend of Zelda is fun. Now those games I get excited for. But....its been.....just different with the gamecube. The games for this system, the feeling of being really excited isn't around like it once was. Now I don't know if this is just me, but have you guys felt like there aren't as many games out for the gamecube? When I was younger, and the N64 had just come out, there were new games about every week it felt like. You finish one game, and another was out and ready for you. Almost everyday you were asking your parents for this game or that. The N64, during its day, I really liked, and the snes is really good too. They had great games on those two systems, and RARE was still with nintendo at the time, making the famous Donkey Kong games. Now it just seems like there is nothing out, and what is out, isn't an action game. Its just a puzzle game or some sport game *shutters* Your right Graedius, their out all the time. I've never played sport games or many movie games (but I think movie games might be fun to play, I've played show games, to be more exact, Buffy Chaos Bleeds, for PS2, and that's a fun game) but this game year has not been anywhere near golden in my opinion. I'm not as excited as I once was for the games, but, I do feel that this will pass, and that nintendo will rise up again with new ideas, fun new games, and get back to that state. I was thinking, maybe they need some more people in there, fresh new ideas. Its sad though. Hardly any action games out at all. And of all ideas to get, can't they make something up with yoshi as the star?

[Lazo]

The video game industry has not changed. You have.

I remember what it was like back when I was six and got a Super Nintendo. I was amazed at the ability to actually control the characters on the screen for the first time. For the first time. For the first time.

Now, you lament about games being produced and sold only for their graphics. Now, you say that games are mostly cookie-cutter clones of each other without any room for originality, and that it's their fault that you don't get excited by new products anymore.

I distinctly remember, when I was around 5, wanting whatever was hawked by any toy commercial, no matter how stupid or innane it was. It was the same with video games. Eventually you get older or more mature and you find things that you don't like more and more often.

Maybe now tastes have been so skewed that you only like games for a particular genre, or, name- such as only jumping for joy when a new RPG comes out. Any other genre or type of game is either lame or has been done before.

Games these days have more story and more plot then NES games could ever dream about. NES had stories that were not much more than "get the item off of FireIce mountain" or "good guy, get bad guy."

And there were plenty of so-so and bad games back then too! Remember Xardion, Zoop, Super off-road, Bad Street Brawler and Doom Troopers? Probably not.

Untill you can see the world of video games as you did when you first began playing them, through the eyes of someone younger and with less experiances, you will find that playing new games never quite feels the same as the old ones.

[Shadow_Teh Ninja Yoshi]

gaming is completely different....the graphics are way better yes but the story plots are really bad....

The games are just not getting fun anymore, the old games on the old systems did not really have and story line but it was still really fun to play in its time...

I just think that gaming is changing so much in the past years....

[F-15 Yoshi]

ah... sadly.. this is the same for me... I'm not much of a consoler now.... look at my GCN for example.. it's sitting there... it's more powerful than my pc.. but look at it as it sits in the dust.... The pc seems to be the main source of home entertainment for me.... My gameboy advance is not touched that much anymore... [although.. i do have great games for it.... Heh... Metriod fusion btw has great replay value] and yea.... Gaming industry for consoles is dropping.. you'd be better off nowadays i think with a good decent pc.... but.. let us not forget though.. there are "some" great games out there for consoles..

[teh yoshi]

Uhhh... You know, I truly haven't gone past the N64 yet. To this day, all of my friends would get together and we still have parties on the N64. We'd all be playing Mario Tennis, Mario Kart, GoldenEye, or whatever. I never played GBA games on an actual GBA before, really.
New games never really did appeal to me. My favorite Mario Party still has to be the first. I sold my PS2 because it had nothing but rubbish and that it was best used as a DVD player. One time, my friend (I think deliberately) left his Xbox lying in my room for a couple of months or so. I never once TOUCHED the damn box, and all it ever did was choking up my floor and TV.

Well, so much for those... and I won't even BOTHER touching computer games. They just really disgust me.
(Yes, as you all can tell, I'm a very cheesy gamer. However, I rarely ever do play games, so I kind of have no say in this, if not much at all).

[PinkFloydYoshi]

It's kinda like how the Final Fantasy Franchise took it's fall from FF8. Not so many people liked ff8 compared to 7. Although 8 had great graphics and all, the plot wasn't the best in the world. Those who liked the game would be called 'Graphics Hunters', and will like any game with excellent graphics. The fool's.

While I belive the Mario franchise seem's to be going down too, which is a huge shame, it seem's to be taking console's with it. When the PS2 first came out, most of the fool's that bought it don't have any sense on how a game is meant to be played or specs or anything like that. They just bought it for the badge and those that did buy it, mainly were townies and 'shirts'.

Gaming now, is turning Formal. Console's are coming out with media center capabilities. While their featureset greaten's, Console gaming drops to an all time low, and I have no idea why. To buy a PC that play's a top notch game to play to full performance, it'd cost you over £150 to get a decent Graphics card alone! The rest of the machine would cost £600 - £1200! And this is to make a game with silly requirements like Unreal Tournament 2004 run at full throttle with all graphics capabilitie's switched on. Machines like this are called High Performance Gaming Machines, and an example of quality of worksmanship of a High Performance machine can be found at www.alienware.com with really stupidly high prices. Thing is, it's going to be out of date in 12 months when the next game that comes out will require double the power of your high performance kit! And this is what bug's me. Console's sell for around £150 - £300 and can play all the game's made for it at full throttle. no doubt some of you have noticed the 'Nintendo has another rival' thread in Yoshi's Cafe? The console mentioned in there 'The Phantom' run's embedded Windows LEVEL UP ! !, and could well allow many pc game's to run on it. In the screenshot's you'll notice the pc version of Unreal running on it. If this is the way console's are going, it's good but if they're Windows powered, I really would not like it if a blue screen appeared right at the end of a really important bit on Final Fantasy 11.

I think the industry is trying too hard to outdo their competitors and in the process, making a hash of their games.

Shiregu better buck his ideas up and make Princess dissappear again, like in the good old days and like in SuperMarioDS, allow you to change your character. I'd gladly take Yoshi to the end of SMDS, without using another character. Today's Gamer want's power and that feel of urgency that game's such as the Tom Clancy serie's provides. In the old day's, I had that feel of urgency while playing Mario world, and still do when playing Yoshi's Island. When I play Sunshine, there is no urgency, more of a burden I have to carry. Nintendo are making fun of their characters if anything, but thankfully, not made Yoshi out to be an outcast. Right now, Yoshi appears to be the most 'Cool' Character out of the lot. Yoshi's not gonna have a paint stripper strapped to his back, that's for sure, but they really need to knuckle down with their ideas now, before no-one cares anymore, although, I will alway's play nintendo stuff, they aren't gonna get rich off me alone, and that's not gonna pay for publishing charges for each game.

It's sad, but console gaming is taking a fall. Big time.

[Bry]

Good question, no straight forward answer.

I had typed up a really huge post on this, but it was probably pointless and wouldn't have been all read, so I've just got the basics.

So, to sum up:
- Nothing has really changed.
- There is as much rubbish today as there ever was.
- For any console, only about 5%-15% of games were ever worth buying.
- We are more critical of titles today.
- Games are more polished and for some, this has reduced fun. One of the best things about Mario Kart 64 was finding all the bugs. Mario Kart DD barely has any.
- EA Sports is a bane to all existance that should be destroyed.
- The Single Player game is being dismissed far too often. While I am very fond of multi-player games, I like to have the other people in my room for that party like atmosphere full of shouts and screams over SSBM or Mario Kart 64 matches.
- Far far far too much is being put into online games. OK, online games can be great, but they are not for everyone and should not be branded as the certain future of gaming. I'll bet that the single player game is still the most played.
- Technology has to be given a chance. I'll try the DS before I knock it. Maybe it will be clumbsy, but maybe it'll be a whole new experience that streamlines games? The N64 analog stick too a lot of people quite a while to get used to, but could you play Mario 64 without it? (Well, ok, we'll find out pretty soon with Mario 64 DS... it can be done, but I'll miss being able to tiptoe past sleeping pirana plants)
- Graphics and sound do not make a great game. But they can help make a great game excellent. Zelda: Wind Waker, MGS: Twin Snakes and even Luigi's Mansion all benefit amazingly from a surround sound system.
- As we've gotten older, the wait for a game has become less exciting. Just like I doubt we get as excited about Christmas or our Birthdays as we used to. This isn't just about game quality, its a personal issue.
- Sometimes innovation or new ideas are great. Like co-op play in Mario Kart DD. The games best feature and yet most overlooked.
- Sometimes 'innovation' can make a reasonable game awful. Case in point, Rogue Squadron 3. I don't care what you say, the ground missions are PANTS. Did they not learn their lesson from Shadows of the Empire? And why do we have to visit Hoth in every single darn game. Lets take advantage of the Extended Universe a bit eh? You know, that whole X-Wing series of books based after the Battle of Yavin.
- Rareware are the most overhyped company in existance. They had Donkey Kong Country, they had GoldenEye. The rest are just rip-offs of other peoples ideas. And for the most part they are inferior rip-offs that still take 3 years+ to make. How many Xbox games have Rare released? Oh yeah, one, and it was rubbish.
- Story telling is now an important driving force. You'll either like that fact or hate it. Personally, I like story and cut-scene heave games like Metal Gear Solid.
- Though on that note, while Nintendo now try to have worthwhile plots in individual titles, you should not try to tie them all in together. The Mario universe just doesn't make sense, so don't try.

Overall, there is plenty of bad stuff, but there always has been. The NES wasn't perfect, neither was the SNES, Mega-Drive or N64. Its just natural to look back on them with rose-tinted glasses and remember only the very best things, dismissing the bad.

As a European, gaming is now actually better than it ever has been. Up until the Dreamcast, European gamers have been stuck with awful PAL conversions that destroyed the picture aspect (games ran like a widescreen DVD, black borders at the top and bottom) and they also ran 17.5% slower. Litterally, if you played Mario 64, everything moved 17.5% slower. Mario ran slower, jumped slower, the camera panned slower, the enemies moved slower. If you ran the European and NA versions of the games side by side, you could spot the difference instantly at a glance.
They started fixing this during the N64... StarFox 64 being the first European Nintendo game that ran full-screen. But still slower.
The Dreamcast finally resolved the problem by introducing the PAL 60Hz mode option. Somthing that is now more and more common, but still not standard in every game sadly.
Also, back in the SNES days and even the PSX, many games simply didn't make it to Europe.

Apart from Mystic Quest and the Gameboy games, Final Fantasy 7 was the FIRST Final Fantasy game to get a European release. FF3/6j was NEVER released in Europe until the PSX port.
The same is true for the vast majority of SNES RPG's. Many people consider these the greatest games ever made, but since they were never released in Europe, I can't look back on them in such a fond way.

Other games to have never been released over here include: Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Chrono Crisis, Bahamut Lagoon, Super Mario RPG, Xenosaga, Breath of Fire 1 & 2, Chrono Crisis.

See what I mean? I can't look back on those titles as part of a Golden Age because they simply didn't exist over here. And no, its not as simple as 'just import them' US games will not work on a European console. This was before the Internet was an everyday thing the vast majority of people here had absolutely no idea what these games were.

Shiregu better buck his ideas up and make Princess dissappear again, like in the good old days and like in SuperMarioDS, allow you to change your character. I'd gladly take Yoshi to the end of SMDS, without using another character

Highly unlikely to be possible. Me thinks the whole idea of these games is to make you switch characters often to get anywhere with their unique abilities. Just like Mario & Luigi has you swapping between them constantly. Yoshi can't even get Star 2 in the first world of Mario 64 DS.

[Yoshata]

Ahh...I'm more laid-back about it than you guys. I already have Game Boy Advance, X-Box, Playstation 2, and GameCube, but I don't think I'll be buying any new systems. I just like to let the gaming industry do its thing and I can just sit back and keep playing all my old games...including the ones I haven't completed yet...*frusteration*

[Soul]

I was once interesting in the up-and-coming games, but now... it just seems like one repeat after the other, one remake, one alteration... a newer version, even. It seems that now people try to invoke so-called "Innovation" and end up with a bunch of corny lameness, or put graphics over gameplay... something I've noticed abast amount of. People've been trying to use gimmicks to boost sales and create a false sense of innovation... but it's all a joke to me.

I think you're just moving up to the next phase of your life. You are feeling the exact same way I did when my interest in gaming started going downhill. For me, it started with the release of Smash Bros. Melee. That game is a PERFECT case of putting graphics & music over gameplay (MY own personal opinion). For me, SSB was and still is 10x better. SSBM is so annoying because it is so easy to play. ANYONE can become good in SSBM, no matter what (Hence why SSBM is so popular). Not so in SSB. It is also very noticeable how in SSBM it is much easier to win out of pure luck due to the idiotic amount of things in the arenas that can kill you, besides the other players (F-zeros? Stupidly-powerful pokemons? Constantly moving super-tiny fighting platforms? bleh...). Hence why everyone has a better chance to win, and hence why it's pointless to try to become a master fighter- The n00bs can still kill you out of pure luck.

Younger gamers (the really little ones) aren't getting bored, because they've never played many of these games before. They're playing them for the first time, just like all of us did once. Remember, the 2nd time is always lesser than the first. And not just in gaming...

However, I do believe gaming is entering an age of recession. Gaming is not going to go into any new golden ages anymore, mainly because there is no more space left for innovation because there are no limits anymore. In the 90's, videogames were limited by the hardware's capacity. So when the hardware improved, the games improved a lot. For example, with the N64 basically came the 3D gaming world for the masses. You could now walk in real 3D worlds, something which had never been possible before in mainstream gaming (save for a few select cases...). That moment was truly a golden age. But remember, there is no 4th dimension... so, once you have the 3rd dimension, there is not much left to do other than add more processing power. And once you have more processing power than your games will ever need, where's the space to innovate? Big space for innovation died with the arrival of super-powerful hardware. Anything's possible now, and it has already been done. And even if truly cinematic videogames aren't yet available (though they're getting pretty close), I highly doubt it would be cost-effective to produce such a game. Entrepreneurs would have a far better chance at making money by using the same resources to make a 3D movie instead (movies like Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Ice Age, etc.). Remember, videogame companies won't produce a game if they know it's not going to be profitable.

And a very similar thing is happening with personal computers. Nowadays, even the cheapest new computer you can get has enough power to do almost anything a home user could demand, except for running top games. So now PC prices WILL have to start falling. And they are. For example, less than a year ago, the cheapest laptop you could buy was around $1,100, and it would have been a somewhat crappy laptop. But Dell now has a really nice one for $700. And it's not refurbished, it's brand new. Even the absolute cheapest new computer you can buy today has more power than the most powerful desktops from 3 years ago (which is not surprising really, since computers have been improving at this pace for decades). Any performance improvements over what currently exists will benefit only hardcore gamers and enterprises that use powerful computers, such as for 3D design for example.

Any of you seen the parodies at newgrounds.com about the future of gaming? LOL those are good...

To this day, all of my friends would get together and we still have parties on the N64

Hell, where do you live? *pays him a visit*

[Graedius]

Lazoshi said:

The video game industry has not changed. You have.
and that it's their fault that you don't get excited by new products anymore.

No, the gaming industry has changed... greatly. What I used to like in games no longer exists in nerwer ones. There was specific things I liked in games that has changed.

And you complain that NES games had little to no plot... well yeah, what the hell do you expect, it can only display 16 colors on screen at one time and display a maximum of 255 binary digits... you can just use that as a scapegoat because the technology wasn't good enough then.

And yes, there was indeed shitty games out there before... thing is, today, the ratio of crap to worthwhile has shifted much more to the crap side. Second, the crap games of old were usually funny because they were SO bad... today they're just bad to the point of being sad and just a joke, moreover.

[teh yoshi]

Haha, I live in southern California. Not many of my friends are gamers to begin with, so we all still live off old systems and games with groovy gameplay . I love it!
And even those who are of the new generation gamers still have loads of fun with us.

Man, I love hearing "Party at John's house!" I'd fire up the N64, and we'd be Karting all night or playing some Tennis. Whoooo! ;D

EDIT: Oh, hmmm... did I mention playing SSB at my house wouldn't even be considered among my friends since I'll just slaughter anyone? XDD I'm so mean, I take the fun out of that game because I can't help myself giving others a chance. Hehehe.
However, playing SSBM is different... I can't play that game too well. A couple would want to, but they'd kill me instead .

For me, it started with the release of Smash Bros. Melee. That game is a PERFECT case of putting graphics & music over gameplay (MY own personal opinion).

Firmly agreed.

[Bry]

Multiplayer parties are a regular even here as well when people are home from Uni. And yes, Mario Kart 64 is still one of the most played games in this house when it comes to a good old bash.
*shrugs*
Though we're quite happy to play SSBM too. Can't say if its as bad as you guys say since I didn't get to play the original. That was another game which very nearly didn't get a European release. And when it did, it was stupidly limited numbers at an equally stupid price. If the original is so much better, its a shame I missed it. Maybe that's why I'm also less critical of the sequel.
The N64 era came to an end before I got a job, so I couldn't just enjoy any game I wished. Though I did manage to track down Paper Mario just last year thanks to ebay.

No need to get mad grad. The game industry has changed in its ways, but we have as well in our own ways. To various levels. I don't think there can be much debate in that really. Exactly what is it that's missing from games now that you liked? I'm interested. Not often I can see that kind of debate with people who have a clue what they're talking about, and your rep proceeds you.
I suppose I'm lucky that I can still enjoy the new games as well as the old without becoming too critical of the new titles. Sure, things could be better but they could be worse as well.
For me, sure, some... no, quite a bit of the magic is gone, but I can still enjoy myself. I used to be a constant gamer and now I'm not. I will not play a game for hours and hours on end, replaying it over and over, but I don't feel I need to because I have so many more things to do than just play.
Infact, the internet has probably done the most damage to my gaming. If the internet didn't exist, we might still be turning to games a lot more. But that's a fair chunk of babble. There is that thing called work as well.

I'm not eager for the next gen of consoles, but if some of the games appeal, I'll probably dive in. Overall, I can probably find myself content.
And if I feel like it, I can always crack out the Mega-Drive and relive the old days. Yes, a game could be so bad it was funny. Just like Rebel Assault on the Mega-CD.

For me, hope is not quite lost yet. I'm still looking forward to Paper Mario 2 next month, Mario Tennis and the new Zelda game. And Mario & Luigi was one of the most pleasent gaming surprises I've experiences. Sometimes its better to not know much about a game until you play it.

[Toshi]

Not entirely bothered! To me, if i see a game i like...i get...if i see a game i dont like...i dont get.

Basically what i am saying is games come and go, you get bad games and you get good games, each one gets better and better, but still some get worse and worse. It happens! They are made to suite anyone, so as for us older guys, we are mainly looking forward to the likes of Metroid Prime: Echoes and Resident Evil 4 where as the younger ones are looking for such things as Paper Mario 2 (but im getting that!!!)

So i dont care if gaming is getting better or worse, as long as there are games i like, i will still be playing the god darn things until the day i die...i hope i can achieve that!!!

[Moot]

Toshi said:

They are made to suite anyone, so as for us older guys, we are mainly looking forward to the likes of Metroid Prime: Echoes and Resident Evil 4 where as the younger ones are looking for such things as Paper Mario 2 (but im getting that!!!)

..That seems a bit of a stereotypical view.

[Toshi]

True...but would you see a young kid playing Resident Evil 4? I sure wouldn't think so!

[Moot]

It really depends how you define "young."