Can everyone just shut up about what’s dying or what’s reigning? Does it really matter? Is it a matter of pride? Just enjoy videogames on whatever platform they’re on.
6th was the last generation when shit actually mattered.
It actually fucking hurts now, booting up HL1/2, Red Alert, Quake 3, Diablo 2, MGS, GoW or DMC and not being able to help but reminiscing that 2001-2006 period. Face it, gaming in general has seen its best days go by already. Now it’s just forever 8 hours for 60 bucks, with rare moments of bliss like Saints Row 3 or Alan Wake.
I dunno what is going to come out for it to change.
Thats because in that time games were a lot cheaper to make, thus making risks not as damaging if they flopped. Nowadays a game is considered a failure if it sells less than 7 million cocking units.
How about worrying less about the grain in the wood textures and more in the gameplay?
Having good graphics doesn’t make a game cost $100 million+ to make. Most of the games that are used as examples for this have marketing budgets making up most of their budget. I’m not arguing with you that graphics should be the most important thing but they should evolve just like everything else. And not focusing on graphics (and even games that are used as examples of games that do focus on graphics end up looking average because they’re designed for consoles) wouldn’t magically make games play better. I’ve had to tell so many people this that I honestly don’t know how it even became a belief. Devs are so stuck in their ways of making homogenized games that need to appeal to everyone that even if they were told they could make their games look like they were running on the PS1 the games still wouldn’t be good because of this and other flaws in the development process. Not to mention the plethora of redundant staff further bloating the budget. Wanting to have good graphics in a game in 2014 is the least of the worries of the industry right now.
It would be easy just saying that games should just get smaller budgets then, but we all know that’s not going to happen anytime soon. I kinda see why people keep talking about a 2nd videogame crash (although I still consider it unlikely).
The trend of gaming homogenization is, I think, not killing games. Well, it is for US, long time gamers who’ve been with the classics when they were spanking new (remember when Half-life was a benchmark?). It’s just making them blander and blingier, since it’s been proven that simple games with drop-in drop-out gameplay move simply massive numbers.
But not all is lost. The AAA industry will keep churning out mediocrity with some high notes here and there, but there will always be someone developing games out of heart instead of sole purpose of making money. It’ll become like the movie industry, where you know what you’re in for when you hear the words “Hollywood production” in the same way when you hear say, “an Infinity Ward game”.
The heart won’t go away is what I’m saying. I mean, look at Valve, still nOT RELEASING FUCKIN EPISODE 3 OR HALFLIFE 3 OR WHATEVER THE FUCKING HELL AGHHH
Plenty of great games have come out recently. The reason you think they aren’t as good as classic games is because nostalgia always gives you a positive view of the past. Actually go and play an old, classic game, and I guarantee you that for every two fond memories there’ll be some major gripe you don’t remember having. And that’s just for the really good old games - who remembers all the generic games that came out back then?