Games Close but no cigar?

old.Tohtori

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I've noticed lately, couple of years, that games have a similar problem when talking about 10/10 titles.

Graphics rock.
Gameplay rocks.
Controls rock.
Something is missing.

Be it the "realism" in GTA4 that is over the top, for otherwise a fine game, fallout 3s lack of storyline, or the annoying lack of a knife i Killdeath 3000, something is always missing.

Fallout 3, GTA4, etc etc, all top games, fun and entertaining, ALMOST perfect.

It seems that the trend for modern games is that they are just that, almost.

Any opinions on why?

I personally think it's partly due to producers and partly due to "cock-nowledge syndrome".

Producers is simple, they want the game out NOW. This means that tweaks and other lil easter eggs and balance issues can't be made, as they are deemed unnecessary by the money holders.

The "cock-nowledge" means that the creators of a game think that because their previous title was SO good, that they know best. Even if the "best" is utter shite and they'll have no other opinion on it.

For example GTA peeps could've made a MASSIVE super fun game, if they had taken a bit out of saints row and integrated it in their own brand. But no, cock-nowledge strikes hard and others can't possibly do it better.

Discuss, or don't.
 

Vasconcelos

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I strongly think that games nowadays put much more effort on graphics and gameplay related visiual fluff, than in the story itself. This is a trend started some years ago.

Games are, afterall, just a variation of reading a fiction book (ofc with the exception of sport games, guitar heroes and similar).

I rly miss games with a lot of in depth background like Baldurs Gate saga, the old Resident Evils I and II, Monkey Islands, Mafia, Legacy of Khain saga, ... to mention the first ones that spring to my mind.
Those games rly succeeded to put you into the story rather than being a "FX Show".

Ofc there are some exceptions, and sure, some games are rly fun to play just for the charisma of the hero or for the visual display. For instance, Im rly having a lot of fun playin Batman Arkham Asylum this month.
 

TdC

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I still think it's (lack of) replay-ability. after finishing, for example, Fallout3 I really had no immediate wish to play it again. I've had that with just about every game, with the possible exception of Civilization IV, and even that gets really old after a while.
 

fl3a

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whats missing is that extra piece of polish that they would have spent their time on a couple of years ago.

in the times when there were only a small handful of games available of both pc and the consoles (and even less games available on multiple different consoles) pc game developers didnt have to think about what can be or cant be done on the consoles - they were only limited by state of the art pcs. its pretty hard making a strategic shooter when you know its gonna be ported to consoles that only have that many buttons and no pointing device available. but that point is moot i guess, since most games these days are developed for the consoles and THEN ported to the pc, adding something in the process if the porting company cba to do it. compare for example the first rainbow six games (the awesome ones with the mission planning stage etc) and rainbow six vegas - its not even the same kind of game! of course the action is more 'actiony' in vegas, backed up by breakable environments, loads of hdr/bloom and better graphics. but as a strategic shooter the older games are far superior.

when games take as long (or less) time to be developed these days than they did at the times we remember the classics from, yet come out on 1238 different platforms with 10 kinds of pay-to-download content available at launch date you realise that they cant have really taken the time to make it good in-depth.

sadly very few developers these days think that making games is an art form, the rest just think that its a way to give people AWESOME ACTION BLOCKBUSTER VIOLENCE SEX AND ROCK N ROLL PEANUTBUTTER WITH BEER, WITH EXPLOSIONS. but people are content with buying shit like that. and then the people who are making art have to do something to catch up - get their games out faster than they would like (to beat the next blockbuster), add some bullshit elements that look nice in trailers, skip some depth and difficulty to make it more accessible to this generation of console gamers.
 

old.Tohtori

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Also to add, i do think the players are to blame as well.

Casual becoming more norm, people needing their hands held etc.

If we compare fallout 2 and fallout 3, even if it's a bit sacrilege, the beginning shows quite ewll how games have gone too soft these days.

And when people keep buying halo x and Softdeath 2k, the producers look "oh money!" and make more, leaving less and less room for good challenging games.

These days i have to set every game to the hardest level just to get the normal challenge :D

Gamers should start boycotting the easypeasy games and demand some challenge.
 

Marc

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Storyline is what makes a game for me
 

Olgaline

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Daoc combined adventure/role play, with arcade and a three way senario.

it was perfection.

then ToA came along.....


WoW was just a rip off for the masses,
 

Lethul

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Also to add, i do think the players are to blame as well.

Casual becoming more norm, people needing their hands held etc.

If we compare fallout 2 and fallout 3, even if it's a bit sacrilege, the beginning shows quite ewll how games have gone too soft these days.

And when people keep buying halo x and Softdeath 2k, the producers look "oh money!" and make more, leaving less and less room for good challenging games.

These days i have to set every game to the hardest level just to get the normal challenge :D

Gamers should start boycotting the easypeasy games and demand some challenge.

I wouldn't go as far as blaming the players. If you look at the "real" gamers they still want proper games. But sadly it is no profit making game for gamers now days, it's better to simplify it and port it to console so you get a lot more costumers.

I don't think anyone who has played games for a long time really likes the game as much nowdays as before. Of course there are a few gems but in general games were better before when only "nerds" played computer games and the games were designed for the "nerds" rather than the regular hillbilly.
 

Madmaxx

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I recently started Two Worlds again on the Xbox360 as i always wanted to see what happens at the end, and it was an epic disappointment. Basically you just had to do about 10 quests to get a relic and save your sister. Wish i knew that before i got my char to lvl49 and loads of items lol :rolleyes:.

Anyway best games ive ever played are the final fantasy games and I doubt anything will come close for a while for me.
 

Wonk

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Street fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix was perfect, and it's not even a year old. I don't see the problem really.
 

Zenith.UK

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I'm an FPS nut. I've tried RPGs and MMOG's and it always falls back to the same thing. I want a game I can pick up and play, get immersed in, and yet still be able to put it down and come back another time.

IMO there are only a handful of games that I consider 10/10, A*, OMFG!

Elite
Lemmings
Quake / Team Fortress (original one, not TFC)
Half-Life (including HL2, ep1 and ep2)
Starsiege Tribes
Wipeout HD

Honourable mention: Unreal / Return to Na Pali

Pretty graphics help, but I want my games to "grab" me. When I bought Unreal and Half-Life, they both lasted AGES. The gameplay and story just kept on going for hour after hour.
If you buy an FPS game these days, it doesn't have anywhere near as much "depth" and certainly doesn't last as long in terms of hours played. It's part of the reason I rarely buy games now. The last game I bought was Buzz:Quiz TV in January, mainly for my little girl.
 

Lethul

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I'm an FPS nut. I've tried RPGs and MMOG's and it always falls back to the same thing. I want a game I can pick up and play, get immersed in, and yet still be able to put it down and come back another time.

IMO there are only a handful of games that I consider 10/10, A*, OMFG!

Elite
Lemmings
Quake / Team Fortress (original one, not TFC)
Half-Life (including HL2, ep1 and ep2)
Starsiege Tribes
Wipeout HD

Honourable mention: Unreal / Return to Na Pali

Pretty graphics help, but I want my games to "grab" me. When I bought Unreal and Half-Life, they both lasted AGES. The gameplay and story just kept on going for hour after hour.
If you buy an FPS game these days, it doesn't have anywhere near as much "depth" and certainly doesn't last as long in terms of hours played. It's part of the reason I rarely buy games now. The last game I bought was Buzz:Quiz TV in January, mainly for my little girl.

Quake and DAoC where great. DAoCs greatness came from the fact it was my first mmo tho.

Elite and Civilization (first) where the two games that really amazed me when they were released. I could spend hours and hours and hoooooours. In differnet ways etc etc.

Quake is the game i played the most, from release something like 2002-2003. And DAoC was amazing as well. But those two i played a lot more like competition. Not pure "fun" as Elite and Civ where. It's hard to explain, espicially when not using swedish :p

And not forgetting Baldurs Gate, my first roleplay game. How I loved it :) I think it was the first game my classmates, who really were not interested in computer games started talking about games in class :p
 

Aoami

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Quake and DAoC where great. DAoCs greatness came from the fact it was my first mmo tho.

why is that? daoc wasn't my first mmo and it's still my favourite game, i'm sure the same could be said for a lot of people
 

tris-

Failed Geordie and Parmothief
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camelot was one of the best games i played, but it also ruined my life for about 3 years.
 

Everz

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the people on camelot for the early years made it great imo, combined with 'never been before' rvr.
 

Genedril

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Elite
Baldurs Gate
Half Life (though more original CS after a while - CS on modems was.... fun in a twisted way)
Championship Manager (now Football Manager) - playing a spreadsheet nearly cost me my degree
Ultima Online in the early days.
DAoC
Eve

Of those only HL back in the day & Eve really made me look at it & say 'Oooooo pretty', every other one was based on great game play &/or a really good story.

Honourable mention to Planescape: Torment; Beneath a Steel Sky & Spy Hunter (on the C64). Though I used to mainly play adventure game son the C64 & Amiga. Damn, now I have a hankering for Police Quest :(.
 

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