Old vs New

[Pchan 5,162]

I think I realize now why I'm not much of a gamer these days and it's probably a personal preference among other things going on in my life as far as having not enough time for it. But, when there's a passion towards something, I'd make the time for it much like I make it a point to go swimming after work or if there's a social meetup I'd work around that and make sure I swim regardless. So, modern gaming falls in the category where I'm just not that interested getting into and there may be a lot of reasons for it but here's a few at the top of my head - 

 

1. never-ending games ... I know how some love the fact that games just don't end but there's some closure and excitement getting to the finality of the boss stage of Contra or Metroid or Duke Nukem 3D or Doom or Castle Of Wolfenstein or King Of Fighters for instance. I can't get into multi-player games that had no real end or direction or it's endless with multiple possibilities like war-themed games of today (compared to war-themed games of old)

 

2. I'm here in NY and when I go to an arcade I get to play older games, which's AWESOME but it makes me think - popular games that I see you guys playing aren't in arcades, because the focus and design of the games have changed. Today's market deals with sitting at home and playing endless multiplayer games (like above point) but there's no arcade experience like an old school street fighter or king of fighters or metal slug or pac man. The fun of seeing high scores and making your mark at an arcade is just a different experience. 

 

3. if you died in an old game, you had limited lives and it's game over. Continues allowed but still game over. I'm not talking about cheat codes. Today I see Lara Croft or the game I saw recently at a friend's home where you can die many many times and it doesn't affect you, maybe take a weapon away or level of ability or whatever but there's no end-game. It's funny cos as I type this it kinda reminds me of the education system here where schools make it a point to pass a student versus failing them for bad grades. It makes me want to see those lazy chaps in Wall-E. Maybe it's why I like Demon and Dark Souls cos it's genuinely hard like the old days and there's no cop-out like new games. 

 

4. up, down, left, right, 4 buttons and that's it. Now you've got 10 different things to press which is really really useless to me and for me, takes away from MY gaming experience because now I'm focused on pressing the right buttons versus enjoying the game. I can't get into L1, L2 and R1, R2 and silly joysticks on both sides or either side of a controller, it's not working for me. PC gaming was fun in that regard, I'll give them that. Mouse and keyboard combo ruled. 

 

5. Most war-games look the same, bleh. Most zombie games look the same too. All jungles or waterfalls or cities are very similar. Don't get me wrong, they're all realistic looking as hell but I feel like there's no originality in just that. Blade Runner looks different than the world we see in Total Recall or Minority Report, if that makes any sense. 

 

6. games back then were more affordable and less intimidating from a price point. If I spend 60 bucks on a new game and don't play it, it would hurt my wallet. 

 

7. no real music talk anymore and I think it's something I'd like to explore in the sense, I feel like there are good soundtracks out there for fantasy games but the people I've seen gaming only play war games or survival games, so there's no real opportunity for something like Zelda or FF to be heard, so no novelty because it's supposed to be all serious and gun shots etc. Funny cos we don't like violence when afflicted on ourselves but we're more than open to being super violent in a game to a point where it's celebrated (head shots, etc) ... sorry I digressed a bit in this point. 

 

I'm sure there is more but I have to run to the post office and get on with my day. 

[Myk JL 1,731]

Based on Pchan's List

 

1. Never Ending Games: I was happy when I reached the end of God Of War 3. After that I could then focus on playing its previous installments once they became available. But then the prequel God Of War Ascension happened during what became my annoyance with Preorder Season. With my sense of completion gone came the 2nd implosion to my PS3 Gaming Library where I sold off a ton of M rated games.

1.01 Multi-Player: I avoid most unless I'm hanging out with online friends. That would eventually be backed up by how much I hate GTA Online. GTA Online I could best some up as the evil version of PS Home.

 

2. Arcades: There was a decent Arcade here but it got replaced by Applebee's. There are still some Arcade Machines in the South Side Mall Movie Theater which are from the late 90s. There is or was also an Arcade area underneath a China Buffet. Very 80s looking. Arcades died out anyway due to how easy console gaming could finally keep up with graphics & eventually surpass them.

 

3. Limited Lives: I'm glad they're gone. I play video games to escape how much reality sucks. The only game I own with limited lives is The Original Steel Battalion on The Original Xbox. I'd end up with a list of how many times I died or was fired. Which would then lead to me erasing my save file so I wouldn't have to stare at it when I started over.

 

4. Console Controllers: I like all the buttons except for the Left & Right Clickers underneath the control sticks. There I would be in an intense moment where I'd have a strong grip on the controller.... Then *click* I'd press the hidden button I forgot about & probably die in the process. If only Emotiv & NeuroSky were the future right now. Things like Wii U's Touch Screen & Xbone's mandatory Kinect only make me glad I don't want those Consoles so far.

 

5. Spunkgargleweewee & Zombies: I hate real war FPSs. They take what should be Surreal & turn them into a poor re enactment of history or current events. Although I'm Okay with alternate history, as in it does something that is in fact surreal.

The only good Zombie Games I ever played was Resident Evil 2 & 3 before Resident Evil 4. Since RE4 this franchise has become a generic 3rd person shooter with no sense of atmosphere that was made by camera angles.

Dead Island's commercial looked promising but the actual game is intended for Online Multi-Player. You don't even die you just pass out & respawn somewhere nearby.

Zombies in Saints Row The Third didn't make up the majority of the game play & as a result made them more bearable to be around. Then again its always funny to shoot a Zombie with the Genki Gun & watch the other Zombies attack the shot Zombies.

Zombies can make a good video game. But without the emphasis on tragedy & the emphasis being on instead fast pace action there no point in them even being Zombies. It might as well be called Offline Multi-Player because you're only mowing down a bunch of people you don't care about.

Creatures similar to Zombies are more fun to kill anyway when dealing with fantasy settings at least. When fighting Draugr in Skyrim or Hollow Men in Fable 3 I at least know I'm fighting a form of undead that was trained to kill. Where as a Zombie just tends to be just a civilian who is hungry & literally brain dead.

 

7. No Real Music Talk Anymore: I have nothing to really say about this other then it has become much more easier for games to license music into games instead of make their own.

 

-

 

My only rant after that is I've come to hate the use of Hard Drives in disc based console games. It use to be I could by lots of games on discs without having to worry about whether the console needed room for them all. This problem might have been caused by High Definition as the Wii didn't need a Hard Drive in order to play games. Now in most cases I just settle for Free Games through online subscription or Humble Bundle.

Maybe if High Definition died we wouldn't need Hard Drives for disc based console games. Then the cost for AAA Games could go down to where they could be profitable again. And there be more room to then go back to making games that could fail financially instead of relying on franchises that need to pump out sequels.

Until then it is plausible that the Indie Games could end up being more interesting in the long run. And the AAA Gaming Industry could die when that happens.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

I'm going to reply to each point so I don't have one gigantic reply thats all over the place because I have alot of text I'm typing.

 

1. never-ending games ... I know how some love the fact that games just don't end but there's some closure and excitement getting to the finality of the boss stage of Contra or Metroid or Duke Nukem 3D or Doom or Castle Of Wolfenstein or King Of Fighters for instance. I can't get into multi-player games that had no real end or direction or it's endless with multiple possibilities like war-themed games of today (compared to war-themed games of old)

I love games that have an ending, modern games call them "Campaigns". I'll buy a game and play the campaign and enjoy the game's story, computer controlled enemies and boss battles. Multiplayer is the second part of games. Many people over the years have complained that campaigns are too short and are not worth the $60 price tag for a game. Because of this, many games now come with a multiplayer game mode that allows you to compete against other human players, either against everyone in a free for all, or in a team environment. Multiplayer games are generally broken down into rounds with a set point structure and objectives. Some people will play a couple rounds of a multiplayer game and be done with it, or others play it endlessly to get new weapons or abilities unlocked based upon their score and achievement criteria. Some games with multiplayer appeal to me, like Battlefield, but others like the Last of Us or Tomb Raider multiplayers never held my interest. Battlefield had a campaign that took me about 9 hours to beat. The overall plot line and story was better than BF3 and the tank mission was extremely difficult, but the ending was a bit of a let down. I think of multiplayer games nowadays as the modern equivilant of playing a game of cards with my friends back in high school. We'd play spades every day at lunch, if we got bored with it, we'd play chess or Magic the Gathering the card game. People could say it was the same thing over and over, but each game had its own unique challenge and a different outcome based on the play style.

 

2. I'm here in NY and when I go to an arcade I get to play older games, which's AWESOME but it makes me think - popular games that I see you guys playing aren't in arcades, because the focus and design of the games have changed. Today's market deals with sitting at home and playing endless multiplayer games (like above point) but there's no arcade experience like an old school street fighter or king of fighters or metal slug or pac man. The fun of seeing high scores and making your mark at an arcade is just a different experience.

In modern games the high scores are called leaderboards. The multiplayer games of todays times are the equivalent of arcade games. However, instead of competing for high score of just the people in your local community that play that one specific arcade machine, everyone can now compete on a global scale. And in that global point competition you can compete in a variety of criteria. We can also change the leaderboards from global to friends only or regional or local.

Against my friends my brother has a dominating score with handguns.

On a global scale, I'm not even close to the people in the Division 1 leaderboard.

I've also noticed over the years that arcades are more focused on specific games that are only available to those specific chains or are available only as an arcade machine. One of most interesting arcade games I ever played was a Star Wars game that was a first person lightsaber fighter. It was crazy. I have never seen that game available outside of a Dave and Busters or Gameworks. Same with 3 puck air hockey, both players had two paddles, it was intense and awesome.

 

3. if you died in an old game, you had limited lives and it's game over. Continues allowed but still game over. I'm not talking about cheat codes. Today I see Lara Croft or the game I saw recently at a friend's home where you can die many many times and it doesn't affect you, maybe take a weapon away or level of ability or whatever but there's no end-game. It's funny cos as I type this it kinda reminds me of the education system here where schools make it a point to pass a student versus failing them for bad grades. It makes me want to see those lazy chaps in Wall-E. Maybe it's why I like Demon and Dark Souls cos it's genuinely hard like the old days and there's no cop-out like new games.

The lives you have depend on the game or style of game that you play. Many games have an in depth campaign with an amazing story. I don't know that many people that would pay $60 for a game just to get to the 3rd level or area, die and never get to see the completion of the story. Sure you can die, but you basically have unlimited continues. Some people prefer a challenge and set these games to maximum difficulty. On these harder settings, some consumable items are extremely restricted. You could get half way through a game and it could become impossible to progress farther because of the difficulty. Regardless of infinite continues, that game is over and you have to start it over and play better. You could also check out some games like Super Meat Boy or Binding of Isaac. Both games are incredibly fun and difficult. You have one life in both games. In Super Meat Boy if you die, you have to restart the level and you will never progress unless you beat it in one life. In Binding of Isaac you have one life period. If you die, you have to restart the game. No saves, no continues.

 

4. up, down, left, right, 4 buttons and that's it. Now you've got 10 different things to press which is really really useless to me and for me, takes away from MY gaming experience because now I'm focused on pressing the right buttons versus enjoying the game. I can't get into L1, L2 and R1, R2 and silly joysticks on both sides or either side of a controller, it's not working for me. PC gaming was fun in that regard, I'll give them that. Mouse and keyboard combo ruled.

Games like Street fighter is what evolved the controller game pads. Instead of just having one button for kick, you'd have 3 for kicking.. high, middle and low. Same with punching. And all the Down, Down-Right, Right, Punch combos is what progressed controllers into having analog sticks to simulate an arcade joystick. Now we have 2 analog sticks, numerous buttons, shoulder buttons, etc. All the buttons have specific functions in a game. Its a standard progression in controller input. Like how computer mice used to have a single button. I love PC gaming. Half-Life was a great keyboard / mouse game. But the most complicated games I've seen are on PC. Games like World of Warcraft or other MMORPGs and MMOBA have incredibly complicated multifunction keyboard layouts. The most complicated game I've probably played is Starcraft 2. Sure, the entire game could be played with just a mouse on very easy, but on normal difficulty, you really have to work the numerous keyboard buttons to win.

 

5. Most war-games look the same, bleh. Most zombie games look the same too. All jungles or waterfalls or cities are very similar. Don't get me wrong, they're all realistic looking as hell but I feel like there's no originality in just that. Blade Runner looks different than the world we see in Total Recall or Minority Report, if that makes any sense.

Many war games and zombie games do look similar. The major differences in these games is in the gameplay itself. Its like all vodka in the liqour store looks like water, but each one has its own quality and price.

 

6. games back then were more affordable and less intimidating from a price point. If I spend 60 bucks on a new game and don't play it, it would hurt my wallet.

When I was a kid almost every NES game I bought cost around $30-$50. Now games are $60 or more depending on if you buy the DLC. If anything, games are much more affordable now. A Steam or Origin sale can get you almost any game you're interested in for 50%-75% off or more.

 

7. no real music talk anymore and I think it's something I'd like to explore in the sense, I feel like there are good soundtracks out there for fantasy games but the people I've seen gaming only play war games or survival games, so there's no real opportunity for something like Zelda or FF to be heard, so no novelty because it's supposed to be all serious and gun shots etc. Funny cos we don't like violence when afflicted on ourselves but we're more than open to being super violent in a game to a point where it's celebrated (head shots, etc) ... sorry I digressed a bit in this point.

There are some great game soundtracks out there. When I bought Last of Us digitally on PS3, it came with the soundtrack. It has great music. Also, many game bundles from humble bundle, groupees, etc have game soundtracks as part of the bundles. There are also quite a few fans of 8-Bit music among indie gamers. But because its all indie music, its alot of new people. It all goes under the radar. People don't know about it until they play the game and experience it.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

By inflation standards games were not more affordable back then. What was worse was the whole review scene didn't exist. The only trailer you got was a 20 second hype reel tv commercial telling you: "THIS GAME IS F'ING AWESOME". Other than that, you had to go by the picture on the label and the publishers description and hope for the best. It was easy to get burned out of $40, and as a kid that didn't have a steady cash flow, it was a big hit to the wallet... Nintendo Power was another option for information as well... I almost forgot.

 

 

Steam actually makes gaming more affordable than it has ever been.

 

I agree with Sledge on the aspect of gaming is like playing cards with friends. That's what most of my gaming consists off. As a kid, I'd use every penny I'd ever receive on gaming alone. I had massive libraries of NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, and PS2 games, and had friends that has even more, and we'd constantly borrow games from each other. As I reached my 20s, and PS3 and Xbox 360 came a long, my interest in gaming cooled a bit. I started sticking with familiar series that came over from the previous generations. I went from buying 10-15 games a year to 3-5 maybe... This year I plan to buy more games than I have in a long time, because there are some pretty innovative stuff going on gameplay wise with Watchdogs, The Division, and Titanfall. While I mostly play competitive multiplayer I really enjoy co-operative games a lot more. The only issue is that good ones are a lot rarer. PAYDAY 2 is a really good one, along with Borderlands, Earth Defense Forces, and some of the Halo games. Army of Two (the first one) was pretty fun as well. If they made more games like that, I'd buy them up as other friends did. Those types of games, I'm willing to put it on the hardest setting and try to grind it out, because when I'm with a friend it just more fun. When I am by myself and getting my ass handed to me non stop, I tend to lose interest quickly.

 

I love casual games where I can enjoy a good story and interact with it. I don't have the patience to deal with 3 lives and then start all over again if I cant make it. They should still make those types of games though because a lot of people still probably enjoy them.

 

I do miss original soundtracks in games... I'm waiting for an purposely nostalgic over the top action game with the classic electric guitar rift heavy sound tracks that loop 3-4 times a level.

[Strider Hiryu 2,704]

Not going to quote everything but I’ll cover each point GG mentioned.

 

Never-ending games: This is something I’ve found myself struggling with accepting lately. Much like you I prefer my games to be played and done when I get to the end, not end and be told that to find out the rest I need to buy the next installment. This has always bugged me, more so because I know it’s a ploy by the developer and the publisher just to get more money by forcing people to buy sequels to get the rest of the story (which is why I hate the expansion dominated MMO market yet still love it (it’s a sordid relationship)). However, I make exceptions for certain IP’s (Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect, Halo (story only), Starcraft, and a few others) because they stand out as great games that make you want to play them instead of forcing you to play them just to get the rest of the story (though 343, imo, dropped the ball with Halo 4). Multi-player is its own beast and much like Yahtzee I believe a game should be able to stand on its own based entirely off the single-player aspect.  A game solely bought for multi-player is the biggest waste of money.

 

Arcades: Growing up I never had access to arcade games like most people I know. We never had one in my hometown and the only arcade games were at Pizza Hut and the bowling alley (which to this day I still hold all the top scores on all arcade games at the bowling alley) so for me it was always about console games. Sadly the arcade fad died in the 90’s (unlike in Japan) and actually finding one in my area is a slim to none chance, kinda sucks as I like the arcade scene. Sadly though it’s cheaper for me to play consoles, I’ve dropped more money in arcade games then I have console wise over the years (in one sitting at a motel I dropped more than $40 playing arcade games. Sad I know).

 

Limited-lives: For certain games this works and works well but sadly those type of games aren’t as popular as they were in the past (Contra for example). Now-a-days limiting the lives of a player is paramount to shooting yourself in the foot as you’ll lose all your potential sales. Gaming has evolved to almost be a solely multi-player dominated genre now and limiting lives in a multi-player game is retarded as the game wouldn’t be fun. Certain games still do it but it’ll never be a major thing again. I point you to Sledge’s post for more in-depth coverage on this because I really don’t want to rehash what he already said. I honestly don’t mind either way as I play mostly RPG’s and when you die you have to reload from your last save point (which sometimes can mean three hours back if you forgot to save recently). If I was limited on how many times I could do this I would just quit gaming. I’ve grown spoiled in my old age, sue me. I do still enjoy me some Contra though, if only to get pissed because I ran out of lives at a very critical point.

 

Multiple buttons: I turn you to Sledge’s post again. I actually enjoy having a lot of buttons to press, makes me feel like I’m actually playing instead of hitting 6 different buttons to do anything. Plus I’m a huge MMO player so pushing multiple buttons is an everyday thing for me so it doesn’t bug me when I switch over to a controller to play a game.

 

War/Zombie Games: I tend to stick away from these games. Zombie games for me are boring. Where’s the challenge in killing an enemy who can’t think for themselves? There is none. Plus the Zombie thing isn’t that interesting, it’s been overdone so much I cry everytime I read about another one being made. Let’s stop beating the dead horse with the stick guys because the genre isn’t getting any better. War games I only play if I have friends playing them because honestly the SP campaigns for CoD and BF are extremely boring and in most cases extremely bad as the company’s focus more on multi-player aspects which I’m not really into (though I will be buying BF4 when I get my PS4, only if to play with DX and Sledge). Honestly the War game genre is much like the Zombie genre, it’s not getting any better so let’s just let it die (only in the FPS aspect, I still enjoy modern day/past war based RTS games).

 

Price: I point you to DX’s post on this. Games cost basically the same as they did back then when you count inflation into it. Honestly I buy maybe 2-3 games a year now unless something really wows me. Believe me I understand you on the spending $60 on a game and not playing it, I have a stack of about 10 games I bought brand new and still haven’t played (some of which are for the PSX and PS2). I ran out of free time to play them when I bought them and just haven’t found time to go back and play them. *looks at his copies of Remember Me, Halo Anniversary, and FFXIII*

 

OST’s: They’ve gotten nothing but better over the years. Hell I have every FF soundtrack there is and listen to them constantly when I’m in work mode.  Sadly though this only for most genres except for FPS’s (though the Gears soundtrack was rather amazing). Most of the time when I play multi-player games I usually have my own music running in the background (especially for games like BF and CoD, puts me in the zone). Haven’t really run into many games that I have not enjoyed the soundtrack to. Then again as I stated earlier I play mostly RPG’s which always have amazing soundtracks (like FFXIV, yes it’s an MMO but its soundtrack is freaking amazing. Can’t wait for March to hit so I can actually buy the CD when it’s released).

 

That's just ole crazy Strider's thoughts on the subject.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Yes, you need BF4 Strider, so you can enjoy the fruits of my rpg no fly zone that Sledge gets the pleasure of seeing in action. I really need to upload them to YouTube. It would be great to have another squad mate and have more spawn options.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Yes Strider, get BF4.. We can squad up and have some fun.

 

DX.. You really should upload those. Its mind boggling how accurate you are with that RPG.