Anyone else think the current gen mainstream games are stale

[Retrozoa]

Gaming isn't stale. You just have to know where to look. These days, most of the innovative titles have moved to portables, where the costs are lower and the install base is higher.

However, with the new 3ds and PSvita coming into focus, I'm worried that the new graphical possibilities of these portables will create the same problem current home consoles have, namely higher development costs and more risk to innovate.

[isiolia]

Anyone else never really put A and B together and consider two games as clones? Like when people say every FPS is trying to be CoD now, I dont see what they mean. Is that something you see after playing alot of newer games or am I that naive.

I dunno, to me, I don't really consider something a "clone" unless it was a blatant ripoff/reskin.

In general you'd need to have some level of awareness to realize that though.

What people likely mean more is that developers are seeing the success of CoD, and in turn making games in the same genre, with similar settings, gameplay, all that. Kind of like you see a lot of vampire TV shows/movies right now. They're not all copy/paste of Twilight, but they're being made because of it.

In general, the more of a given media you're exposed to, the more you'll recognize trends/copying/etc.

[Inazuma]

There are definitely way the hell too many FPS games and other stale games. I watched the Uncharted 3 presentation at E3 and it was basically one giant quick time event. I prefer to actually play my games, not watch them. I am also very tired of super realistic games and graphics. Games should be more wacky and creative. I want to throw a koopa shell at a block, get a leaf from it, turn into a raccoon and then fly around. That's much more interesting than games restricted to things that can only happen in real life.

But all of those bullshit games aside, there are still a lot of great games coming out all the time. The Wii has many excellent games, they just happen to be buried under a large pile of shovel-ware. I just ordered Taiko no Tatsujin for Wii last night. Can't wait to play it. It looks to be a million times better than shit like Call of Duty.

On the subject of DLC, it has the potential to be a good thing but instead it is an underhanded tool that scumbags use to scam and control foolish people. It is completely disgusting what DLC is in our current video game industry. Until we start to wise up and stop supporting it, it won't get any better.

[Gao]

I've been watching through Chrontendo lately, and it's really helped me put this sort of thing in perspective. For those who haven't seen it, Chrontendo is a video series that gives gameplay footage and brief reviews of every single Famicom/NES game ever released in order, usually with 15 games an episode. I've watched all 38 episodes, which covers up to December 1988, and to be honest, there are usually only 1-2 noteworthy games an episode. The vast majority of the lineup is made up of shovelware anime/manga/other Japenese media games, mediocre platformers, by the numbers shooters, dozens of identical adventure games (most of them being murder mysteries), and Dragon Quest rip offs that are at least as blatant as anything else complained about in this thread. We're looking through rose colored glasses, and we have the ability to pick out the good stuff retroactively rather than having to wait around for something good to be released. I'm not as into newer games much, but it looks like it's more due to the fact that the current trends don't really appeal to me than the good game/bad game ratio really being much different. 90% of everything has always been crap, you just need to sort through it to find games like Uncharted 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, and the like in the same way that you have to sort through mountains of crap like Atlantis no Nazo and Super Pitfall to find Super Mario Bros. and Metroid.

[AppleQueso]

Anyone else never really put A and B together and consider two games as clones? Like when people say every FPS is trying to be CoD now, I dont see what they mean. Is that something you see after playing alot of newer games or am I that naive.

I dunno, to me, I don't really consider something a "clone" unless it was a blatant ripoff/reskin.

In general you'd need to have some level of awareness to realize that though.

What people likely mean more is that developers are seeing the success of CoD, and in turn making games in the same genre, with similar settings, gameplay, all that. Kind of like you see a lot of vampire TV shows/movies right now. They're not all copy/paste of Twilight, but they're being made because of it.

In general, the more of a given media you're exposed to, the more you'll recognize trends/copying/etc.

That's not always a bad thing, necessarily.

Alien (1979) was greenlit only because of the success of Star Wars, for example.

I mean that's the exception moreso than the rule but you get the idea.

[AppleQueso]

I've been watching through Chrontendo lately, and it's really helped me put this sort of thing in perspective. For those who haven't seen it, Chrontendo is a video series that gives gameplay footage and brief reviews of every single Famicom/NES game ever released in order, usually with 15 games an episode. I've watched all 38 episodes, which covers up to December 1988, and to be honest, there are usually only 1-2 noteworthy games an episode. The vast majority of the lineup is made up of shovelware anime/manga/other Japenese media games, mediocre platformers, by the numbers shooters, dozens of identical adventure games (most of them being murder mysteries), and Dragon Quest rip offs that are at least as blatant as anything else complained about in this thread. We're looking through rose colored glasses, and we have the ability to pick out the good stuff retroactively rather than having to wait around for something good to be released. I'm not as into newer games much, but it looks like it's more due to the fact that the current trends don't really appeal to me than the good game/bad game ratio really being much different. 90% of everything has always been crap, you just need to sort through it to find games like Uncharted 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, and the like in the same way that you have to sort through mountains of crap like Atlantis no Nazo and Super Pitfall to find Super Mario Bros. and Metroid.

Definitely this, too. You could build a house or two out of shitty NES, SNES, etc games.

EDIT: Oh and lastly, DLC.

Give me a game that's complete and 100 percent worth the retail price. If you want me to pay for nonessential DLC after that? Sure, I'm fine with it as long as the costs are reasonable.

Really the only time it seriously pisses me off is when it's "lock and key" style, where the content is already on the disc and you basically just pay to unlock it. That's bullshit.

Oh and DLC-bonuses for preorders are just lame. Simple as that.

[wootcube]

I think a lot of the "current gen sucks" stuff comes from growing up. When I was younger my neighbor had a SNES and I ended up getting a PS1 eventually, so that's what I mostly played as a kid. Not surprisingly, I really love a lot of the platformers that were popular in that era, despite the fact that they probably aren't all that great to someone who didn't grow up with them. Because I didn't read any game news of watch much tv as an elementary schooler, I wasn't really aware of any "bad games". Looking back now I can see that there certainly was a ton of crap that I wasn't aware of.

Also, looking at the darksiders vs. shadow of the colossus videos - does anybody else think that Shadow of the Colossus looks way better? Maybe the video quality is just bad but Darksiders looks more like a PS2 game that SOTC did (I've never played Darksiders so I could be wrong). I think it might be the camera angles and animation quality that makes the difference.

[Gamerforlife]

EDIT: Oh and lastly, DLC.


Really the only time it seriously pisses me off is when it's "lock and key" style, where the content is already on the disc and you basically just pay to unlock it. That's bullshit.

This goes back to what I was saying before, the industry is so brazen now. Yeah, we're locking content on this disc and making you pay extra. No, we're not even hiding it. Give us your money sheep

Everything is just so blatant and in the open now. No ones hides that you're paying extra money for basic features in games now in the form of DLC. No one even tries to be subtle about the games they are ripping off. It's pathetic

[MrEco]

We've gone from an industry of borrowing ideas to just out and out ripping games off and I don't really like it

You make a very good point. Though I would like to point out that Shadow of the Colossus is not the first to have an underground worm (Skip to about 1:00 in the video).

Can't tell if you're being serious here or not...

Epic nonetheless.

Oh shit. I see what you mean. I should have said giant worm. I suppose "underground worm" is a little redundant isn't it? What with all worms being underground traditionally.

EDIT: Oh and lastly, DLC.


Really the only time it seriously pisses me off is when it's "lock and key" style, where the content is already on the disc and you basically just pay to unlock it. That's bullshit.

This goes back to what I was saying before, the industry is so brazen now. Yeah, we're locking content on this disc and making you pay extra. No, we're not even hiding it. Give us your money sheep

Everything is just so blatant and in the open now. No ones hides that you're paying extra money for basic features in games now in the form of DLC. No one even tries to be subtle about the games they are ripping off. It's pathetic

Yup. It sucks. But just wait, one of these days Capcom will release Super Street Fighter IV Turbo HD XX Remix Special Unlimited Platinum Edition and will ask us to pay $15 to unlock the on-disk DLC that adds the "super combo" feature to the game that allows all characters to string together longer combo's than ever before. When shit like that happens I think people will finally stop supporting any and all DLC like they do now (For the most part).

Or maybe I'm wrong.

[J T]

I've been watching through Chrontendo lately, and it's really helped me put this sort of thing in perspective. For those who haven't seen it, Chrontendo is a video series that gives gameplay footage and brief reviews of every single Famicom/NES game ever released in order, usually with 15 games an episode. I've watched all 38 episodes, which covers up to December 1988, and to be honest, there are usually only 1-2 noteworthy games an episode. The vast majority of the lineup is made up of shovelware anime/manga/other Japenese media games, mediocre platformers, by the numbers shooters, dozens of identical adventure games (most of them being murder mysteries), and Dragon Quest rip offs that are at least as blatant as anything else complained about in this thread. We're looking through rose colored glasses, and we have the ability to pick out the good stuff retroactively rather than having to wait around for something good to be released. I'm not as into newer games much, but it looks like it's more due to the fact that the current trends don't really appeal to me than the good game/bad game ratio really being much different. 90% of everything has always been crap, you just need to sort through it to find games like Uncharted 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3, and the like in the same way that you have to sort through mountains of crap like Atlantis no Nazo and Super Pitfall to find Super Mario Bros. and Metroid.

Exactly. We forget about all the bad games from the past because they were, well, forgettable. We are aware of all the bad games in the present only because they are being released now. I will say though, that it is different now how the big players rely so heavily on sequels that are very similar to their predecessors. In all of the big E3 presentations by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, there were hardly any new IPs being promoted (though there were some interesting new IPs at E3 if you looked for them).