Games Why don't they?

[Everz]

Being bored lately I recently got a copy of Hexen working on my laptop. I'd forgotten how fun having a big map to explore was, with a decent dose of secrets to find, monsters, finding of keys/switches etc etc.

Question is.. why aren't games made like this anymore?!

 

[Ormorof]

wow Hexen, theres a blast from the past

I guess with more "modern" games theres quite a strong focus on narrative, and the idea of going all the way back to the start to press a button probably doesnt appeal to many of the core FPS customers

 

[Billargh]

They do, ish. Try downloading the likes of Serious Sam HD etc.

 

[ECA]

Having to actually find your way instead of drooling into a controller is just too difficult.

 

[Shagrat]

I picked up Terraria on Steam at the weekend, £5.99 and a nice old school looking 2D game.

Minecraft-esque sandbox style but with more mobs bombing around and loads of weird stuff to find underground, and lasers and light sabres you can make, and rocket boots and boss mobs that you need to clear to get into other parts of the world, and you can co-op play it with mates if thats your thing (which makes the boss fights really funny)..

 

[Keitanz]

Because pretty much every main stream game now focuses a hell of a lot more on graphics than gameplay.

 

[kirennia]

It's a bit of a phenomenon which still confuses me to this day, even after having experienced it first hand... it's the old carrot and stick style of gameplay design which is incredibly easy to implement rather then spending hours over creating gameplay which many players wont ever see.

Take the call of duties as an example; many of them are simple graphical rehashes based on pre-existing engines, widely advertised with an updated database. Perks and levels and the like keep people hooked when all they are are increasing meaningless numbers. Database improvements are pretty damn easy to make for simple gameplay implementation but creating extra content is a lot more time consuming; even if it'd get say an extra 5% of sales, it just isn't worth it when you can hook people for a countless number of extra hours, thus get future sales on basically throw away games for next to no effort.

I do think it's going to come to a head at some point, especially with multi-core processing finally being utilised (even if not efficiently) allowing for a greater quality of AI. Of course with AI comes a greater ability to randomly generate all aspects of a game (which really can be improved with multi-core systems), allowing for a greater replayability as well as all of the older style of extra content game positives.

I do agree, one of my favourite games of all time was final fantasy 7 even with all of its flaws because everyone who played it found different content and the story was pretty damn good.

As for finding switches/keys etc, a lot people (I'd even guess it's a majority)like to be spoon fed and made to feel clever. We live in a throw away society whereby people don't want to have to wait in order to obtain something. Having to activate your brain and think about something is an extra bridge to cross and most people get bored too easily. There are a lot of exceptions to the rule though; look at the new wave of indie games coming out at the moment. They give hope to an industry which is currently going through a pretty mediocre stage at the moment...

 

[Tuthmes]

Heroes of Might and Magic III & V
Age of Wonders

Gogogogo!

 

[old.Tohtori]

Movie style games(instant gratification) sell, so they seem prominent on the market due to PR alone, but it's rarely the case with all. Look around, look at different reviews(total biscuit does WTF, zero punctuation has a few random too) and you'll find those old styley gems.

 

[Everz]

Heroes of Might and Magic III & V
Age of Wonders

Gogogogo!

Next stop for me...?

Blood .. with maybe a bit of Heretic chucked in for good works.

It's a bit of a phenomenon which still confuses me to this day, even after having experienced it first hand... it's the old carrot and stick style of gameplay design which is incredibly easy to implement rather then spending hours over creating gameplay which many players wont ever see.

Take the call of duties as an example; many of them are simple graphical rehashes based on pre-existing engines, widely advertised with an updated database. Perks and levels and the like keep people hooked when all they are are increasing meaningless numbers. Database improvements are pretty damn easy to make for simple gameplay implementation but creating extra content is a lot more time consuming; even if it'd get say an extra 5% of sales, it just isn't worth it when you can hook people for a countless number of extra hours, thus get future sales on basically throw away games for next to no effort.

I do think it's going to come to a head at some point, especially with multi-core processing finally being utilised (even if not efficiently) allowing for a greater quality of AI. Of course with AI comes a greater ability to randomly generate all aspects of a game (which really can be improved with multi-core systems), allowing for a greater replayability as well as all of the older style of extra content game positives.

I do agree, one of my favourite games of all time was final fantasy 7 even with all of its flaws because everyone who played it found different content and the story was pretty damn good.

As for finding switches/keys etc, a lot people (I'd even guess it's a majority)like to be spoon fed and made to feel clever. We live in a throw away society whereby people don't want to have to wait in order to obtain something. Having to activate your brain and think about something is an extra bridge to cross and most people get bored too easily. There are a lot of exceptions to the rule though; look at the new wave of indie games coming out at the moment. They give hope to an industry which is currently going through a pretty mediocre stage at the moment...

Thats true, I haven't ever understood the Call of Duty crap.. the single player was just so linear and easy to do. Haven't had an enjoyable single player fps since I think the original Red Faction. But as you said it's true, all for convenience, why spend hours getting up good map design, secrets, easter eggs, good ai, interesting plot etc etc when you can slap over some nice graphics and promote the hell out of it and the masses will lap it up.

Agreed, people give up way to easily these days, 2nd level/world on Hexen yesterday I spent 2hours on it, of which the last half was running round the map trying to find the last switch.. turned out I'd being running past it the whole time but the sense of 'get the fuck in' when I found it made me want to play the game more. Shame that games have to be spoon fed for the masses these days, only have to look at the MMO industry to see this happening. Will cause an end to it at some point, gameplay surely must come first, couldn't give two bollocks about good graphics.

They do, ish. Try downloading the likes of Serious Sam HD etc.

Played Serious Sam for years.. it's what lead me to DAoC. Deathmatch is SS was up there with Quake, just a shame Croteam never developed a good enough server package to host bigger servers (16 was max) otherwise it could have been something much bigger.

 

[Vasconcelos]

Settlers of Catan for Android.

nuff said

 

[Shagrat]

And playing amnesia should be mandatory for anyone with a pc, and for designers so they can see that not everything has to be from the same mould

 

[Wij]

Painkiller.




PAINKILLER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Everz]

I have that on my steam account actually.. hmm.

 

[megadave]

i was playing that pile of shit rift and it got me thinking; why do medieval-fantasy RPGs now have built in satellite navigation systems? I was thinking back to Baldur's Gate where you'd enjoy exploring, instead of sat-nav you'd just have the words of the NPC and your journal to offer advice, but it didn't matter because exploring was fun, you'd find cool places, stumble into quests and have sweet battles.

 

[old.user4556]

Don't we always look back and think "those were the days"?

I loved Hexen.

 

[Billargh]

I'm going to buy Doom 2 from XBLA in celebration thanks to this thread.

In b4 OMG CONTROAL PADZ NOOB.

 

[Everz]

I've played Doom2 too much, knowing all the layouts is bad mmk :<.

 

[Wij]

I'm going to buy Doom 2 from XBLA in celebration thanks to this thread.

In b4 OMG CONTROAL PADZ NOOB.

You'd be better off downloading one of the Doom ports.

 

[Wij]

I've played Doom2 too much, knowing all the layouts is bad mmk :<.

That's what Nightmare mode was invented for.

 

[ilaya]

its down to the instant gratification mentality of well.. kids today.

they think content is loads of cut away scenes.. and progressing thru easy stuff where they are lead by the hand.

could you honestly see kids today playing games like Elite.. where the ultimate goal wasnt even revealed in game at any point? or any clues as to how to achieve it?

its the demand of people wanting to play thru the game on easy level so they can say to friends the next day... oh i finished that! you havent? LOSER!! but what they have actually done is play 6 hours of game and sit thru 8 hours of cut aways. thats not a game.

WoW is doing it more and more as well. but on that there's no end in sight. its been dumbed downed beyond belief for the console generation... however.. if they want to get to the end.. long wait

(btw.. how can blizzard even advertise a game where its about killing Deathwing in the adverts, when its not even content yet? isnt that like releaseing a movie thats 20 mins long and then it says... more coming.. we just have to make it! what is the point of paying 20 quid for the expansion?)

 

[PLightstar]

i was playing that pile of shit rift and it got me thinking; why do medieval-fantasy RPGs now have built in satellite navigation systems? I was thinking back to Baldur's Gate where you'd enjoy exploring, instead of sat-nav you'd just have the words of the NPC and your journal to offer advice, but it didn't matter because exploring was fun, you'd find cool places, stumble into quests and have sweet battles.

True, Still have recent memories of morrowind, where you were told in what direction the tomb/cave etc was and it was up to you to find it. Remember the clue to finding the Nervarine Cave. Go along the northern ash coast until you find an odd shaped tree then head south. Loved having to find it for myself even if it took me 4hrs of searching. With Oblivion it would be i'll mark it on your map just follow the arrow.