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Why are games worse these days?

S

Sunner

Elite Member
Taking a few small brakes from WoW lately I've looked for some other more "relaxing" games to play, but I've came up short, so I decided to try some oldies that I never got around to playing or finish back in the day.
Just wow, there were so many extremely good games back in the day, they were dime a dozen, no wonder I never got around to all of them.
Of course even today we get the occasional good game, but back in the day they just kept coming, one after another(Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island, Sam&Max, Quest for Glory, etc etc) in a seemingly never ending stream, you couldn't even keep up with them unless you put a $hitload of effort into it.

I know this has been discussed before, but it always tends to boil down to "Games was a more fresh thing back then, you're just to used to it now", but I don't think that holds up, if it did I wouldn't be enjoying old games that I've never played before so much.
I don't think the old "It's all about graphics now" holds up either, sure some games are just tech demos, but some companies would surely be putting out good games as well.

Well, the reason I'm writing this is really because I'm sitting here listening to the soundtrack of Quest for Glory IV(one of those games that I started but couldn't finish due to a nasty bug), it's old but it easily beats anything I've heard in years.
downloadable here by the way.

So, any old time gamers care to take a shot, aside from the usual tired old arguments?
 
My take on it would be to use the example of the music industry.

Look at the manufactured bands that are a dime a dozen these days. Sure they look great and the finished product is well produced...

I believe the gaming industry is going the same way with lots of money poured in to hype up the next product which is ultimately lacking.

I read good things about FEAR (which I am playing right now) and aside from the very creepy atmostphere (every so often) the ,game is simply average.

The last game that I thoroughly enjoyed was Far Cry and prior to that it was the all time greatest Half Life.

I think the other problem is that although graphics have progressed we are basically not seeing anything new in the gameplay. That is to say we have all the different types of games but they are all just the same basic story or principle.

FEAR makes me think of of "Deus Ex meets Max Payne".
 
Well, if anyone is up to making a new 3D version of Planescape: Torment, I wouldn't say no...
While they're at it, update Baldur's Gate 2 as well.

Another one is mechwarrior 2 (and MW2 Mercenaries). Yeah, ****** graphics compared to today's games, but good gameplay and background information.
MW2 had the computer with lots of info (different info on different sides as well) on the past, present and so on.

MW2 Mercenaries had very detailed missions and a diary of the player with lots of interesting comments.

MW4, MW4 Black Knight and MW4 Mercs have...none of this.

Can't speak for the really old games. My first game was Road Rash in 1996, I think. That game had very cool videos, BTW.
 
Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries was the first game I played a lot of online... such an awesome game where it took skill to play. If you used jumpjets right the smaller mechs became better than the bigger ones.... Then mechwarrior 4 took all that stuff out it was just a matter taking the biggest mech with the right gear to win... although in 4 I did have a lot of fun using a kamikaze vulture packed with explosives and 4 medium lasers... I would run around till 2 or 3 people got close to each other and then BOOM get 3 kills and a suicide : ) Sometimes I'd get close to top scores in FFA matches doing that... Then Mech4 mercs took even that out >.< Yea the Mech series has gone downhill in every aspect except graphics since mech2: mercs.
 
I'm mostly thinking single player games, or at least games with a single player part(Far Cry, StarCraft, Half Life, etc), seeing as multiplayer is one of those areas where games can still earn fame simply by coming up with something new, seeing as multiplayer games on a big scale is still a relatively new thing.
 
when HW was lame, story & game play had to pick up the slack

now those elements take a back seat as the developers masturbate w/today' HW
 
Why are games worse? Because companies are no longer willing to take risks in games. They follow the same formulas, they follow the same styles thanks mostly in part to EA.

Also, most companies are more interested in getting a ton of particles on that explosion instead of whether or not the story makes sense and flows.
 
Originally posted by: IdaGno
when HW was lame, story & game play had to pick up the slack

now those elements take a back seat as the developers masturbate w/today' HW
Click to expand...

I agree with that. How many game boxes have you picked up in the last few years and said "man, these graphics aren't very good." I can't think of any. Graphics are always at least ok now.

The other thing is the economy slowed down quite a bit in the past few years, and publishers were less willing to take risks on new ideas...prefering to rehash old concepts and churn out more sequels. This had the side effect of killing a lot of the innovative development houses that were probably just scraping by before anyway. Bullfrog and looking glass for instance made a lot of innovative crazy games. Some of their ideas were a little wonky, but you couldn't ever accuse them of being old hat.
 
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Yea the Mech series has gone downhill in every aspect except graphics since mech2: mercs.
Click to expand...

They even removed some of the CGI movies too or at least made them smaller and less awe inspiring.

MW2 Ghost Bears Legacy, Vulture/Mad Dog on patrol picks up a strange reading, radio'ing into base, massive mech bursts through the ice, pilot radio'ing back 'KODIAK BASE, KODIAK!!!'.

Needless to say, when a 60 ton support mech comes into close combat >50m combat with a 100 ton beast, it doesnt stand much chance of surviving combat. The kind of movie intro that made you think 'holy **** thats cool'. Mech Commander 1, although not exceptional but fun, had an amazing CGI + Acting intro, quite C&C-esque. Excellently done also.

Graphics and atmosphere are the main ingredients to Mechwarrior games in my opinion. The Battletech universe opens games up to a whole world of graphical goodness with the range of weaponary available and the detail in mechs, perhaps even adding in surface scratches and damage.

RPG elements should be added to mech pilots and adding in decent ground/air vehicles like the triple ER PPC tanks etc.

What games lack today is the small details which differentiate a computer game from a great computer game. Most often, these are simple things or quirks that may not be special in terms of coding, innovativeness etc. but just add to the feel, the concept, the creation of an alternate reality the envelopes the user in its atmosphere.
 
Originally posted by: Modeps
Why are games worse? Because companies are no longer willing to take risks in games. They follow the same formulas, they follow the same styles thanks mostly in part to EA.
Click to expand...

EA had Multiplayer Battletech 3025 in Beta for 6 months...then it got canceled along with other games after 9\11. 🙁
Loved that game, still remember beating 3 Kuritans one by one with a single Panther. Needed a break after that fight...

Anyone else remember it or played it while it lasted?
 
Nowadays, it's a lot easier to create good looking games, and deliver them quickly.

Programmers "only" need to know how to call a graphic's engine routines to display awesome looks to the games, and they often try to keep up with the latest pixer-fvcking-shader-version-bla-bla to deliver a better smoke, fire, and stuff like that.

Often their aim is to make quick action games which are the ones with more portability to consoles, and often tend to forget about the actual game itself.

Also the companies are more than ever looking for profit, rather than to deliver the future-to-be classics ... for a big company like EA, they make some games, and throw them out to earn some cash. Mainly christmas is the best time for that, as people often look to buy games to kids, and so fork their cash on some nice looking package, or screenshot on some lazy magazine. I mean, in that period, every single games seems to almost vanish from the shelves! Amazing money amounts flowing into digital-trash-maker's pockets.

So big companies keep doing it, earning some big cash ...

Let's face the facts: anyone of you with such a company would target what you want the most ... profit at all costs! Then it would be a matter of personal satisfaction to develop some new idea game, a content-rich game. So you see great minds of computer games that see their companies bought, and their objectives changed, to quit and open some new company studios where they can further develop their ideas.

The classic games we still see under development (for example, civilization), are so because they are great classics, with a successfull formula and lot's of fans. There is almost no way they can ruin that up (but they still can). Any other new ideas will see the light by the personal satisfaction of the great mind behind it, that will take it to the end no matter if it becomes a flop or not. Other than that, I see a very black future for video gaming.

If you want great games, you have to turn for those low-profile stealth-companies which are small, and will deliver great games. The more recent case of that, in my opinion, was Crytek, which launched FarCry, which is a great game, WITH great graphics ALSO. And many people didn't even saw it coming ...

Those are the companies that deliver great games, inovative ideas, and which will inevitable be bought someday by EA or some other monster.

Back then, a company would develop an engine from scratch, which would then be applied to all their future games launched. Any respected company would have their engine, and all their games would graphically have a resemblance. But also back then, they would take a lot more time to develop a game, so it would be logical for us to have

There seems to be NO hollywood movie that doesn't come with a video game, in PC, PS2, XBOX, bla bla bla ... they seem to make games in about 6 months ... what quality content do you expect to find in them?

I just hope some companies continue to develop nice looking and great content games for the PC. We are all at risk because as the games become more portable between platforms, and as we all know, consoles are not known for their rich user interface (cmon, we have a full keyboard, and mouse). So this "globalization" of games may (I hope not, at least completly) end up dumbed down for ease of console usage (no flaming here, I have nothing against consoles).

As I see, there is a market for console and another one for PC games. Each one must be distinct at some point. Want a quick sport game? -> Console! Want some deep simulator or rpg game? -> PC. But the cross-platform seems to be a threat against this ...

Just my thoughts ... a ended up a big off-topic.
 
it's just that many of the truly great ideas are already used and developers are unwilling to take risks with millions of dollars.

Chronicles of Riddick is a GREAT example of REdefinging the FPS . . . much of what they do is "old" - yet prersented in a completely different way [like dispensing with that stupid "light gem" to show that you are "hidden"]

and MANY of the "classics" aren't that great - today. Let's take System Shock2 - a true classic [in that it was 'ripped off" by many subsequent games}. However, the interface plainly SUCKS {the Dark Engine is NOT suited for it}. Nor would it be that awesome if it was ReDone as it has been done "better" byfollowing games like DeuSex. 😉
 
Alienation of the original core audience is inevitable to some extent for products that go from "underground" to mainstream.
 
There are classics from every generation. Perhaps I'm a realist but I wouldn't expect myself to be the only one to realize that. The original post lists some damn good classics. It's not like every game was as good as sam and max or day of the tentacle.
 
Not every game was as good as those, but he's right that there were a lot more good games overall than there are today... part of the reason in my own mind is simply that everything has been done. I can't think of anything that could be done that has not been done before. I remember waiting with my finger on the "enter" key , an ftp command ready on the command line ready to go the moment the clock struck midnight so that I could be among the first to download the original "DOOM" demo. AFter that, every game was doom... and now years later we still have more doom, quake, and a zillion other games that have awsome graphics, bigger maps, better multiplayer, but when it really comes down to it, it is *STILL* doom. Then the RTS craze started and then there were a zillion of those... RPG games are all rehashes of each other with linear paths and generic fantasy storylines (yes the elderscrolls games were more open ended , but I found myself fairly bored with the morrowind once I'd spent a bit of time in it...).

So what could be done? I can't really come up with a new genre or type of game myself... there is a lot more genre mixing in games today trying to create something new, but nothing feels new. I don't really know the answer.

-jd
 
Seems like what you really mean is: why aren't there any good Adventure/CRPG games out these days? I would argue there are lots of games in other genres that are worth playing.

Adventure and CRPG games proved over the years to have a relatively small market, and they are expensive to develop. There just aren't as many companies doing them as there used to be. Sierra and Origin drove a lot of it back in the early days, along with Westwood and a few others. Morrowind and KoTOR are two sorta-current games that fall squarely into this space.
 
Simple....

Back then graphics and eye candy werent up to par to compensate for lackluster gameplay. Nowadays I guess game developers figure they can wow us with the pretty's and we will be happy.
 
Despite what we may think, I suspect most 10-18 year old sh1t-for-brains kids are quite content wasting away in front of Rollercoaster Tycoon 45, the Sims and the assorted FPS clones.

The days of Planescape: Torment and Deus Ex (the first one of course) are gone. Gothic is a bright spot, but it's pretty lonely out there.

Open-ended games with big, branching storylines and good character development do not have a high enough profit/cost ratio. Plus, let's not forget that the PTB want to dumb us down as much as possible - that is certainly in their best interest.
 
I agree that it rests chiefly on the investors/publishers. When you have a relatively small group of publishers willing to pay for the costly production of major games a lot of choices that gamers would prefer to keep in the hands of developers/creators fall out of their control.

It's really heartbreaking for those of us whose favorite games are followed with sequels that are very promising, but at some point just lose support. I won't even bother going into details here, I know a lot of us have seen it repeatedly.
 
its the way everything is now, everyone wants a quick buck, who cares what the end users and fans think.

game are all smoke and mirrors now, now substance for the most part.

like someone else said, they are afraid of taking risks and losing money. i'm tired of quake 4, civ 4, aoe3, etc. its the same with movies now too, every fvcking movie released recently is a remake of a classic, trying to cash in on it again.

also, look at how many games are released with major bugs and the "we'll patch it later" attitude. i'm really tired of it. you used to be able to buy a game and it worked right out of the box and never had to be patched.

i don't know how to get it to change, but it needs to change.
 
Originally posted by: AyashiKaibutsu
Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries was the first game I played a lot of online... such an awesome game where it took skill to play. If you used jumpjets right the smaller mechs became better than the bigger ones.... Then mechwarrior 4 took all that stuff out it was just a matter taking the biggest mech with the right gear to win... although in 4 I did have a lot of fun using a kamikaze vulture packed with explosives and 4 medium lasers... I would run around till 2 or 3 people got close to each other and then BOOM get 3 kills and a suicide : ) Sometimes I'd get close to top scores in FFA matches doing that... Then Mech4 mercs took even that out >.< Yea the Mech series has gone downhill in every aspect except graphics since mech2: mercs.
Click to expand...

I played the original MechWarrior game with its big ugly polygons, but it was great back when it was new. 🙂 I missed 2 and 3, then tried 4. It was OK, but then I went back and bought 3 to try. It was basically a simulator (3) versus an arcade game (4). I prefer the simulator. 😛
 
Originally posted by: pontifex
its the way everything is now, everyone wants a quick buck, who cares what the end users and fans think.

game are all smoke and mirrors now, now substance for the most part.

like someone else said, they are afraid of taking risks and losing money. i'm tired of quake 4, civ 4, aoe3, etc. its the same with movies now too, every fvcking movie released recently is a remake of a classic, trying to cash in on it again.

also, look at how many games are released with major bugs and the "we'll patch it later" attitude. i'm really tired of it. you used to be able to buy a game and it worked right out of the box and never had to be patched.

i don't know how to get it to change, but it needs to change.
Click to expand...


Yup back in the day with no internet you could not patch the game. In away the internet has hurt game development. Also there was no marketing hype years before the game release because of no internet. You needed to be publish in a game magazine and only the top games got published.
 
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