Ominous trends in video games

I thought that was a pretty great article. Looking at E3 it certainly rings true. Right now I enjoy my gaming, but a lot of what I'm playing is certainly just evolved versions of what I've played before...

- The 3rd person cover-based shooter with melee bits(Uncharted or Enslaved) 

- The FPS

- The open world game (both realistic like RDR and superpowered like inFamous)

- The slash-em-up (GoW, Castlevania or Bayonetta)

- Occassionally an RPG

It's hard getting truly excited about anything that falls into one of those categories.

It's really not all that different from the past, it's just that a couple of formerly-big genres were killed by the switch to more three-dimensional settings/graphics (The side-scrolling shooters, actioners, and platformers).

You can do a lot within the genres you've described.  Indeed, inventing entirely new genres altogether is...pretty tough.  While it often receives critical acclaim when developers veer outside the box, sales unfortunately don't tend to back it up. I don't know that I'd call it "ominous." Has there ever been a period where there was an endless variation of different types of games out there?  I'm hard-pressed to think of one.

I do feel one big difference is that there no direction in what the next big tech is.

At first it was huge leaps in quality that showed huge differences.  At first it was "unike the old system you can play video games right inside your home", than it was about stuff like speed and improved graphics.  Most recently the big trend was "look at the water dude, can you believe that water.  Its the best computer water of all time".  With computer graphics being at a pinnicle now, what is going to replace that (best guess is that everything next gen will be about how you do everything on the cloud).

Let's give virtual reality another shot!  Virtual Boy CAN work, dammit!

I feel that while the graphics have been racing off trying to photoreal, we see some of the best gameplay has little to do with reality at all. The resurgance of 2D gaming on phones, the DS, PSN, etc are more abstract gameplay. A chracter running around a perfectly realised 3D jungle, might not be as fun as a game as Plants vs Zombies which creates reality as a 5 by 12 grid.

I think games are in a weirdly similar place to movies right now. There's this constant need to bring best presentation money can buy but it just shrouds an empty interior. Take a look at Battlefield 3. I think the game looks stunning, but is also looks like any other FPS you care to name. They're always going to be the big sellers, but it seems that more and more games are taking a more inventive approach when they can't compete with the big boys. 

I can't help but think the rise of iPhone/iPad/DS gaming has something to do with it. Developers know they can't recreate Call of Duty, so they have to pull something else out instead. That's how you get games like Angry Birds or the insanely addictive Doodle Jump. 

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Originally Posted by MoonBaseNick 

I believe that the resurgence of the 2D games also has to do with the fact that current games are becoming even more complicated to play. When I play a game, I just want to play damn it. I don't want to have to memorize 20 different button combos. But then maybe I'm just a lazy gamer. People just want to kill time and have fun, not having to comment hours to play in a single sitting.

I am enjoying Darksiders at the moment though. Ha

This, a thousand times this.  More times than not, I want to pick up my controller and get into it.  I don't want to be figuring out where I am in the story, why I have to collect 16 of this and that and take it to the other side of the world.  The good thing with the gaming on mobile platforms is that game designers are having to creatively come up with concepts that dont rely on fancy graphics to wow people.

You know what game I've played the most on the PS3?  Super Stardust HD!

I just hope they kill fkn QuickTime Events and sudden control grabs from the player. NEVER take control away from the player EVER. Want me to look at something? Use lighting and level design to draw my gaze. Hell, put a dancing monkey on the spot you want me to look and I'll look.

Quote:

Originally Posted by PMR 

 

 

 

Also, this article contains spoilers for the author's novel "John Dies At The End", so avoid if you're in the middle of that or something.

Those were joke spoilers. Have read it (it's good).

QTEs are here to stay, so you may as well get used to them. There's simply no other way for certain cinematic events to be realized. It's either a QTE you participate in or a cutscene that you don't. I prefer the former, myself.

God of War notwithstanding, both Heavy Rain and Bayonetta both prove QTEs can be implemented in ways that work and enhance gameplay. Blame the developer for not having a grasp on how to use it, not the tool itself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kriegaffe 

I think Heavy Rain does a lot of things right with its controls, but Bayonetta frustrated me with a few insta-death QTE's.

At least in Bayonetta, the game usually restarts you a few seconds right before the QTE. That's actually one of a bunch of simple things that game gets right that should be standard.