So like most people, they used to play all the time, and now wondering why the hell is it so hard to enjoy games as much? Do you believe its because of the growing load times, since almost all games started out on cartridges, like N64, Gameboy, Sega's games, etc... What do you think? ''

ps i think long load times is like reading a long pointless paragragh in a book.

I think this is because of a lack of interest in the newer games. Back when NES was out and SNES was coming out there were MAJOR breakthroughs in software and hoardware. I loved those days so much, all the new original games, now the only thing that seems to change is the graphics... This is partially why I will be getting a Revolution as it will have some new innovative ideas not just better graphics.

man i feel the same way too...i remember u could play any game and enjoi everytime...now-a-days we expect so much outta games that the game industry cant keep up...

Getting older and growing up. Expectations rise and we get nostalgic. That's all there is to it. If we played games of today in the past, the fun factor imo would be the same (or more).

Approaching 2 decades of videogaming would do that to a person. It takes that much more to impress us. And graphics, believe it or not, are becoming less important.

I think it's because games have not become more inovative, just more realist as far as gfx go. All you see is people saying "it looks great". When the truth is a game can look crappy and still be fun. This generation of consoles might be a big flop gamewise unless someone comes up with some new ideas.

A-freakin-men. I hear you. Do you know what game I love? Kirby's Dreamland for the NES (I own that game, but for some reason couldn't get an Xbox NES emu to play it, weird). It's just plain fun.
I might bust out the NES and play for a while.

i think this can be said about almost anything. when we first do something nothing that comes after that can live up to it. what i try to do in games and movies is find something diffrent. it might not be the A+++ titles or even something you want play long or watch again. for me this helps a lot so it doesnt feel like i am playing or watching the same thing over again.

personally I think this is the reason why xbox live has become such a big hit.... and nintendo is following suit...


I think being able to play your video game classics with online multiplayer and chat is just sweet

the one reason i will never sell my xbox - emulation. akari warriors all the way. i think you really have to put what next gen means on the table. people keep thinking next gen means the end of all and as good as it can get. the sublte details that seperate the 360 from the xbox is where next gen is. this isnt the end folks. its all about ambiance and the surroundings. its going to get better on the 360 and the ps3, and you will be blown away. but you cant expect realism, the consoles cant stop here. we have a long road ahead. the switch from 2d to 3d was drastic. mind boggling in a few words. but whats after 3d? time will tell, and thats all we have got. hang in there.

ham bone

Lunar is 100% right, if it was like 15-20 years ago would be different, you would love them all (even though you would porbably only have 1 or 2, since no $$) Let's face it when we were kids there was no interent and lots of people didn't even have computers, 486 was sweet..... Now a days my 7 year old nephew has a 3.2GHZ PC to himself and knows more than I do... We all have more and more expectations,, we find a game that plays good and great grpahics but complain about framerate. Or a game with poor graphics.. Dammit back in the day we didn't even care about graphics


Anyone remeber 3 on 3 NES ICE HOCKEY or Blades Of Steel,,,,, lol

Oh, p'shaw! I remember when Yar's Revenge was the proverbial "shit"! I remember playing the crap out of it on my new Atari 2600!

You're not taking into account all the games that were carbon copies of other games. SMB was emulated to an agonizing degree in "those days."

This argument holds the most merit, but it best suits those of us like myself who grew up in the late seventies and early eighties.

I don't think games are "not as fun as they used to be." I think they're as fun as they always were. Maybe some you are outgrowing videogames. None of us can be dispassionate about answering this question because we all grew up in different times. I have an extremely unfair bias because games "grew up" as I did. Although I wasn't yet born for the genesis of videogames, I was around when both of us were toddlers. I was seven years old when the NES came to town. Although there were game systems in existence then (Atari, Colecovision, etc.), it was the NES that cause the "Big Bang." Even as a kid, it took me aback and I thought, "Holy shit, they're actually gonna take gaming seriously. This should be exciting."

There are, and always will be, games that are good, bad, great or horrible for every system you play. I also don't think technology is what's making them good or bad. It's all personal choice. There's no proof that games were more fun then and are less fun now. It's a matter of opinion. I'd rather play PGR3 than E.T. for the 2600. On the same note, I'd rather play Super Mario Bros. 3 on my NES than Kameo. As far as greatness goes, the pinnacle of videogaming to me was during the years of PlayStation.

My two cents.

I think it's partly to do with growing up and also that games used to be simple and addictive. Now games are 'epics' with huge story lines which you can generally only fully enjoy in 1 play through. Re-play value these days is incentivised with extra costuimes, weapons, backdrops etc. etc. it no longer seems to be many games that you just can't stop playing because it is so addictive. The most addictive games of this nature recently for me were Katamari Damacy and Lumines. That's not a lot considering in the same periond of time since Katamari Damacy 1 was released I have probably bought about 30 games and played even more.

Our life style have changed, compare 80's and early 90's to now. All we did back then was school and nintendo.

Yeah, so true.

I think one of the reasons Ive been liking DOA4 so much is because of its difficulty.

I remember back in the day of NES and SNES, games were FU*KING HARD! Rush'n Attack, Contra, Silver Surfer, Ninja Turtles III, Mario Kart, Super Metroid, etc. These games where a pain in the ass, and it made it fun. It was a challenge to beat the game. The games couldnt rely on graphics, cuz there were none!

These days, you get recycled gameplay taken from other games, with only graphical updates (if at all) or just same game, with different levels.

i can only speak for myself here but i think its down to piracy, i downloaded all my xbox and ps2 games and found that i was only playing them for about 5mins then going onto the next game i had downloaded, im enjoying games more now i have started buying them again but not as much as i did before i started downloading. i have decided that im never gonna mod my 360 now unless there are some good emulators available & even then im not gonna download any games

you know i was almost going tos say something along those lines. but the i remebered i payed 60$ for perfect dark zero and i cont stomach playing it. i love FPS's, but this game feels like chunky poop.

1. Sex- and spending time with significant others
2. Mobility- a car, especially.
3. More money,and/or less time- work, more homework, etc
These all add up to more energy going to real life games.
Ill bet the 10 to 15 year olds are still enjoying the games like we used to enjoy them.
One thing though, theyll never have Win95/98 with starting up Unreal, Quake 1, Diablo, Half Life the first time, or the time we started up Halo on the Xbox. We had that.

Yeah, it's a combination of all of the above.

We've been playing games for a long time so they don't have that "OMG, this is new and amazing" feel to them anymore. Plus, some of the games aren't new. When Turok on N64 came out that was the first FPS I played(besides PC Doom and Duke Nukem, but I prefer console) and it was awesome. Now all games are FPS. You can change the enemies and the weapons, but it's still just a FPS.

Also, when we were kids, we were just that. Kids. All we did and wanted to do was have fun and we could have fun doing anything. I want you to go to the toystore and buy a couple cap guns. Call up one of your friends and go outside and play Boyz n' the Hood(when I was real young it was cowboys and indians, but it graduated to bnth). Just start running around and ducking behind cars and shooting eachother. See how long that lasts before you say, "This is no fun. Let's go drink some beer."

Which brings me to my next point. Besides not being happy-go-lucky kids anymore that can have fun doing anything, we have different things to have fun with now and different things to do. We've got to pay bills, go to work. We don't see our friends every waking minute of everyday anymore. We didn't have the internet and 200 channels on the tv. We couldn't go out driving, have expensive hobbies, or drink beer. We didn't have girlfriends or interests in T&A&P. We also didn't have money. We asked our parents to buy us a new game for our birthday, or rented one when we had a sleep over.

Having money gives you so many more options to do other stuff, besides the fact that it gives you more options on video games themselves(which is good too). Right now, I have every game I want for the X360 out of the ones that are out. So I have 8 games to choose from anytime I go to play. So other than King Kong, I have a lot of play left in all of them because I never play one too much. So I'm not enthralled in any one game and have to constantly play it to accomplish something. I can just put in another game. So I don't get as involved in one game like I did as a kid.

On top of that, there is so much more to the games. I can play Cod2 with a friend, or I can play online, or I can play multiplayer. Generally I like FPS only for multiplayer, but I've always like the COD campaigns. Yet I haven't played the campaign in about 2 weeks, because I have other options and other games. Again, just adding onto my inability to get into the game. I'm glad there are more options, but if that was the only game I had and all it had was campaign, I'd probably play the game more. Though, afterwards I'd be bored. So I think I should stop buying so many games and chill with one at a time.

Then there is difficulty. It depends on your camp, but difficulty can be good or bad. I remember games were hard as hell. River Raid for Atari, did that thing ever end, it just got harder and harder. Contra, impossible. It gave you a challenge, but I don't really like challenges anymore. I like that you can't really die. You just get sent back to your last checkpoint. On NES you had 3 lives and 3 continues, if you couldn't beat the game on that, shit on you. If today's games did that, I'd play even less. But some of you like difficulty, and aren't getting it with today's games. Now that I'm older I get frustrated. We have different emotions I think. As a kid, you'd sit around and laugh with your friends as you took turns trying to accomplish an impossible task in the game. Now if it takes me more than 10 tries, I'm audi. Remember, I'm older and have money, I've got other things to do.

I think it's a combo of all that junk. We've become jaded by seeing the same stuff over and over again, but since we're older, we also don't have to put up with it anymore. If we were 10 years old, we wouldn't have lived through Atari, NES, Genesis, SNES, N64, Playstation, Xbox, PS2 and all of this would be new to us. Plus, we would have been happy-go-lucky kids with nothing better to do. And to top it off, those systems had jumps. Atari was 1" x 1" blocks making up the graphics. A racing game was a square being directed through pylons. Nintendo gave us smaller blocks, better graphics, less repetitive boards and new play throughout the game. Unlike Atari which basically meant the next level looked the same, but was harder. SNES gave us more of the same, but better and longer. Colors were amazing when that system first came out and we even got a taste of some breaktrhough games like StarFox. Then we entered the world of 3d with N64 and PS1. Xbox and PS2 followed this generation with a great leap in graphics, but otherwise the same gameplay. Now we're on to the next gen and we have the same again, but with better graphics. So essentially, we're on our 3rd generation of the same games. Without the giant leaps we had from Atari to NES, or from NES/SNES to N64.

lol same here...when i first got a modded ps2 and xbox i downloaded like 90 games each and only played each one for like 20 minutes at a time. now that i have an unmodded 360 im all into the games and actually playing them till finish. piracy killed my gaming experience i think, and i wont do it anymore, its just not as fun when you have tons of free games, dont ask me y???

I feel games arent as fun as they used to be because society is more focused on looks that content. This is something that is spreading across almost every industry not just gaming though. In rap music now people are focused more on how rappers appear rather than content and because of this that crap also leaks into games. Like 50cent bullet proof, they took a lyrically weak rapper put some ice on him backed him with a Great company and he sold a lot of records. Then they take the same idea and put his face on a game box with some out dated Dead to Rights game play and try to sell it but they forgot to add content to the game and make a game that was actually worth something. Also many games seemed to be rushed now, you dont spend much time playing them because they have very little story and end quickly with little or no resolution. Like when I played F.E.A.R, the gameplay was great the A.I was great the graphics were amazing but when I beat the realitivly short game I felt like the story was still incomplete, because of that I would never play the single player again.

Another reason, games are focusing more on multiplayer online gaming, like Halo 2 was great with multiplayer but the single player was garbage. It tied you in with in interesting idea for the story and never finished it. It was also fairly short for the epic I was expecting.

I think alot of Developers are being pushed more as far as the time that they have for making games. Since there is so much competition out there they have to keep thier name in the game unless they are established companies like Square or Capcom. This of course doesnt explain how EA sports can keep releasing the crap they do (AKA Every 360 launch title they released).

Those are just some of my ideas. As a gamer I say yes I am impressed with Graphics and hey I want to see even better but I dont get as many games because I do still like to play the game and I dont want to beat it in a day and have something with no replay value.

EA SPORTS YOU SUCK.

Anyone that dislikes EA is good in my book! lol

I love games as much as I have in the past, for the most part. I also agree that too many are relying on the online mayhem aspect. Halo 2, perfect example in my case. The story was junk(opinion), and I didnt buy it for the online play, so into the shitter that went.

Thats why Im excited about Gears of War. Specifically made for SP and Coop play, the story revolves around it.

i think i played halo 2 for one week... sucked

/goes back to the 12 hour battlefied 2 marathon...

Yeah, I hear you guys...I guess its just getting old. My first computer was a commodore 64 which had tons of fun games 'jumpman jr' being one of my fav's.
NES was my first console played it nonstop..actually dragged me out of the arcades (do they even have arcades anymore)?

Went thru the psx,dc,ps2,xbox,gc days and now most recent the psp and 360 I'm just bored.
I have more fun playing the original 'super mario bros' on my xbox or psp than these new titles.

However i'm 30 years old now with a wife,toddler,mortgage and demanding responsibilties at the work place, I guess you just start to like the good old days.

And all you young punks laughing at me right now...your day will come, and its not that bad, infact its better!

Later!

I got bored of "Generic FPS with spangly new "funky" tech but no new gameplay, hyped to death in every mag & forum"... none have fulfilled since System Shock II.

games that don't hype and lie about their gameplay don't piss me off and I often enjoy them...

whoa!

now theres a blast from the past! I havent thought about or played that for 20 years!

ahh to be a kid again

Isnt it funny how the most basic of games were the best, back when you had a D pad and 2 buttons for attack and jump.

The 2d platformer pwned back in its day.

Personally the last really good game I played was Final Fantasy 7 that was a game that I played beyond the clock stopping at 99:59:59. I have played some fairly good games since then, but most have still left me wanting. Most of the games I have played like everyone said have Technical Advancements but are still the exact same game.

Here is furter reason why EA sucks

EA Sports took this too the next level, some games like Halo 2 came out with a crap storyline due to it adding multiplayer which sucked but hey they did replace it and I understand many didnt buy it for multiplayer and I understand because I wanted a good single player campain as well. At least they had a crappy storyline there, EA releases its next gen of sport titles there and makes the look pretty freakin good, but wait it seems they forgot something........... Oh yea Content!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean its bad enough that they made the same game over again from 2001-2005 for the PC xbox ps2 with just adding 1 or 2 features (that just made the game more frustrating anyway) each year, but then they go and buy all the NFL exclusive licenscing so they can only make games since Segas NFL 2k series was starting to kick its butt (Go play NFL 2k5 it beats any Madden Game that has ever been released with its half time shows better commentary player models that look close to the 360 version of Madden 06). So we have all this and we expect a game of epic standards and what do we get......? A coaster with madden on it that is less entertaining than Bread growing Mold, what was EA thinking??? I will tell you what they were thing it it will be explained in the next 20 spaces NOT A THING, they have to be idiots to think people want a game that looks cool but has no content in it what so ever, like hey guy we finally changed the graphics engine you should be happy now????? Well no I am not happy and I hope EA goes bankrupt so I can see a real football game again. Or a golf game or a Basketball Game without players who are already in a deepsweat in the first quarter of play. I mean wow what idiots they have to be.

AHHHHH I feel better now.

I've felt this way for a long time as many of you have. I think the real killer of fun for me was when the dreamcast did so poorly. I always felt like Sega was always really creative and was never afraid to do something different and that even stands true today. They just don't have as much say anymore in the industry. You all have already talked about all the points of why games just don't feel as fun anymore so I'll just add to the pile. To me the industry has decided to try and please the "mature" gamer to greatly. The amount of FPS, Fighters, Racing, and other blood/sex/car type games greatly exceeds the "everyone" type games. Most of the games that I've loved over the years were not those types of games but instead were the more childish games. Thats not to say that those games shouldn't be made...but rather that they shouldn't be such a main focus. Gamers need choice and variety. Games have become to serious. Yes games were always serious to people but it just isn't the same as now. People take it as life and death and by doing this it becomes like a job not a game. And as stated before graphics seems to be all anyone cares about anymore. Actually realistic graphics is what they are worried about. One of my favorite games in the last 2 years was Viewtiful Joe because of the gameplay and innovative style. This exact topic is why I will always support Nintendo because I feel if we lose them then there will be no more innovative gameplay just more realistic games. Yes I am nostalgic like many but I don't think it is correct to use that term to act as if it's our fault that games made years ago are without a doubt more innovative and more fun to play then games today. With the 360 I'm feeling a little better about the future of gaming. Online play is a great thing to bring back some fun. But I think the greatest thing I see from them is when looking at their game lineup I see much more balance in the types of games. For instance games like Blue Dragon (which is probably the game I'm most looking forward too) is a game I would never have imagined being developed on the xbox. But to be honest I don't see the industy ever getting back to the way it was when they actually had to work to make enough money just to get bye. Basically they are already so high up that they have no reason to take risks anymore and will continue to stick to the winning formula. I think if the industy is going to see any major innovation it is going to have to be from something major. What I'd like to see is Sega get back into the game with a new console. I know it is wishful thinking but I feel deep in my gut that when the time is right they are going to strike back big time. Of course this could just be me dreaming but I don't see why they couldn't. We all know they are capable of it and if they wait long enough they will have a huge nostalga thing going for them. I'd bet that everyone in here would get one. Same thing with companies like atari and such. Basically what I'm saying is it's going to have to be either (1.) a game developer who gets tired of watching the industry sit at a stand still, or (2.) a new company that has enough drive and isn't going to take any shit and is willing to take risks. Like I said this is just how I feel and I just felt like adding onto the pile. Take it for what its worth.

it would be nice if sega would come out with a new system but i dont think that will happen. i was glad when they said they were going to just be making games. i figured at lest i would still be able to play there games. where did they go? they havent published much more then sports and developed even less. sega is a company ms should buy up throw a bunch of money at in hopes of them coming up with something great.

I've told people for years that the more difficult games are the old ones. Look at it like this. In Super Mario Bros. Mario could run out of time, touch and enemy, fall off a cliff; and each of these things will make you start the level over. Granted the levels were shorter then, but now you have a much easier path through a game. 3-D movement makes avoiding obsticles a little too easy at times. I find that as time goes by, more games get made for the people that are only ok at games, and that leaves the experts feeling unsatisfied.

There are other furstating measures that cause me to like games less than I used to. Like getting online only to hear some 10 year old cursing. Or loosing rank, on a game that you are proud of. Heck I've avoided some games out of fear that I would de-rank thanks to some sort of useless teammates.

Back when I was a kid we didn't have a disliking for a developer. Some were great like Konami and Rare. While Ultra was not so good, we didn't feel a hatred for them. Now, I actually avoid some publishers because the history is long enough that you know the game will be a mistake to play.

I also think that games are crossing a line I never expected. I started gaming in the 80's. Back in the 80's you could shoot a lot of bad guys and no one really cared. Then in 93 Mortal Kombat's much hyped use of blood causes parents to get concerned. I never really cared about how violent games were because they weren't real life and anyone with sense knows better. I had been playing games for a long time, but from 01 to 03 I was a little out of the loop. When I return to gaming I find that all of a sudden you have games using the F-word, characters that are prostitutes, and in general more sex than I'd prefer to see. I have a bit of a problem with this because it doesn't really add to the gameplay, it just causes media ruckus and on top of that I think it reflects were our society is heading. Mortal Kombat's blood didn't add anything to the gameplay, but I now see that it was a gateway that opened the door to material that I actually object to.

My two cents on this topic:

We're now in our third decade of games. My first console was the Atari 2600 back when I was 6 somewhere in 1983. That makes me a 24 year old expert! I truly think that we expect more out of games. I have two nephews 4 and 5 years old, and I got to see them during the holidays. They were playing Spider Man for the Nintendo Gameboy, I was amazed on how many hours this kids were playing the same boring level over and over again. I actually tried it and I gave up after five minutes of not being able to make all four pizza deliveries before time ran out.

Back then we were all like that. I would replay a level over and over again because it was either the only game I had or had all the time in the world to try and do it. Now a days I can't stand to replay the same level more than three times I would rather move on to other games. I have yet to beat any of the 6 games that I bought since I purchased the 360 on day 1. For example on Friday night I played need for speed most wanted, I'm currently third in the blacklist and need to complete a nine minute cop chase without getting caught for me to be able to challenge the #2 racer in the blacklist. After an hour of playing it I was not able to accomplish the goal, I kept getting caught every time. I was so frustrated that I though about returning the freaking game the next morning, I wanted to log online and find a cheat to beat the game, I felt that I wasted and hour of my life without accomplishing nothing since I did not get any further in the game. The emotions that I went thru Friday night of pure dissapointment are not felt by a young gamer like we were back in the day.

I guess now we want a sense of accomplishment more quicker than in our hay day, now that we all have our own goals, jobs, money and other toys to play with we feel that time is taken from us if we don't accomplish a game in certain amount of time. I do think our mindsets and needs are way more differen then back when we were young bucs playing this games.

I couldn't DISAGREE more...

While I agree whole heartedly with just about everyone in this thread, we're aging gamers and our attention spans are growing shorter. The game companies are delivering more realism and less fantasy... yes yes yes.

Unfortunately I don't see it changing, in terms of gameplay and innovation vs graphics and realism it's going to get worse before it gets better.

The thing is despite our (as in the people in this thread) cries for more innovation, the "gamer" at large doesn't care. The gamer at large doesn't support Nintendo, they never owned a dreamcast, and that last version of madden released was the best game ever because it's football and they like football and it's got the latest roster.

If gamers truly wanted the innovation we're asking for here, then the market would be dying right now, but it's not, actually the video game market is the biggest it's ever been, and making the most money it's ever made. Because all the crap that we say we hate... is what is actually selling.

on a different note I don't know that I fully agree that games are less innovative now... We're looking at all the generic titles that have been released recently and comparing them to the highlights over several decades of classic gaming. Take a slice of time, I'll give you a whole year, "back in the day" and give me a list of the worthwhile games that came out in that time frame. Not to mention there were literally 100s of knock-offs of the popular titles that were just pure TRASH. There were about 7000 games made for the NES throughout it's live span, most of you never even played a whole 1% because less then 5% was worth playing. Contrast that to the PSX which only had about 900 titles in it's life span. Sega consoles had even less. Both that Saturn and the Dreamcast had less then 400 each. I can name just as many if not more DC titles I enjoyed then NES titles I enjoyed when I was young.

Back in the day every game was a side-scrolling platformer.... now every game is an FPS... it's just evolution, 2D graphics lend themselves well to platformers, 3D graphics lend themselves to FPSs.

If you're really looking for innovation, innovative titles are still being released, but they're met by such apathy by the buying public that anything other then the sequel to the last generic hit release is a death sentence for developers and publishers...

I believe new generation of games require more thinking. Honestly when I come home from a long day of work I kinda want to unwind and play a game that doesn't require much thought. For example back in the day it used to be Pac-Man, Super Mario Brothers, ect . . . Don't get me wrong I still love an analynically challanging game, but only on the weekends . . .

I think it's mainly because the companies are becoming increasingly agressive in sales and marketing. It's (mostly) Sony and MS battling it out over who can generate the most sales. This leads to the companies releasing sub-par games in order to make a quick buck. I've got my fair share of FPS's for this gen (except for Black, it looks amazing ), and I'm looking for different genres.

I recently aquired King Kong for the Xbox, and it is amazingly refreshing. It may be a FPS, but it is an FPS with a difference. It combines elements of puzzle solving, shooting, and basically how fast you can run. Then there's Kong (it?)self. This changes the whole perspective of the game, rectracting to third person, and moving over to the 3D fighter side of things.

Another great innovative title is Stubbs the Zombie. Even if it was a little short, it was a different game. It was great fun to eat people's brains, instead of shooting them. They used the Halo engine, designed for FPS, and changed it into something completely different.

Even though I will be purchasing an Xbox360, I am becoming increasingly interested with the Revolution, becasue (as the name suggests) it is changing the way we look at gaming. (Just look at the controller. Interesting...)


Phew....

Developing is much easier in 2D games.
3D gameplay brings a plethora of challenges to developers.

I think that's the main reason for the decline in fun games.


But one of the biggest contributing factors has to be the over-rated-over-hyped graphical aspects of gaming.
Way too many developers (and some gamers) are enamored with graphics to the point where gameplay (the most importent gaming ingrediant) rides shotgun.


Another factor that has to be pointed out is the same problem that's often found in the entertainment industry in general. Big time publishers are reluctant to try new ideas.
They often elect to go with proven formulas of game developement and game types.
How many sequels, spins offs, and rip offs do we see in the video game industry?
If you don't think this is a major problem then perhaps you need to talk to David Jaffe from Sony SCEA Santa Monica. For years Jaffe wanted to create his own game but Sony rather had him develope what ever they wanted. They finally gave him the liberty he was looking for and the man unleashed God of War....

Acidsnow you hit it right in the nail when it comes to analytical thinking. Sometimes I have time to play a couple of hours after work but just to think that I have to do more thinking after a hard day at the office makes me stay away from playing and just unwine with some wine and watch commercials.

I'm a corporate financial accountant so I'll I want to do when I come home is to not think about numbers and to have to play a game that involves critical thinking or decision making games makes me hold off until I have a clearer mindset.

That's why I enjoy a good Geometry Wars during the weekday to unwind and shoot Geometrical Lines like crazy. Nothing better than an accountant unwinding by shooting the shit out of a quadrant filled with geometrical signs.

Said by others, but your's was closest to quote. But you guys are right. It is a business and they are out to make money. I don't oppose that, I applaud that because that is what makes the world go around. Going out to make a buck has been the reason we have everything we have today, from cars, computers, video games, cures for diseases, etc.

That being said, it would be crazy for a company to not make a sequel to a great game. And because we enjoyed the first one so much, we buy the second and it will probably be an even bigger hit because it's got a lot of marketing and word-of-mouth behind it. So naturally, they keep making more and more sequels. It makes business sense, but eventually it gets tiresome and the consumers will change their ways. It may be slow, but it will eventually happen.

It's the same thing with movies. Every movie that has come out over the last 6-10 years has been either a remake, a sequel, a remake of a sequel, a sequel to a remake, a sequel to an old movie we haven't seen in a while(such as exorcist, and the planned Rocky, Iniana Jones, etc.), a remake of a foreign film(Taxi, Ring, The Grudge), or a comic book movie. And I'm sick of them all. Sure some good ones come out here and there, and I kind of like the idea of remaking foreign movies because they're good movies but don't have that American pizazz(sometimes a bad thing). I want to see movies that are new and depend on their story, not that they made that CG monster look real. Hollywood is in a slump right now, and they will have to change and they will. So will video games. New great titles will come along and the industry will follow the lead, then we will get sick of those, and innovation comes again.

Hey Twisted, I agree tolally but doesnt "several" refer to seven? like 'couple' is two, and 'few' is four.
You havent really been play'n vids for 7 decades...have you? <jk>



Yes, but atleast if smart at the time you could return the game and choose a better title without ANY hassle...nowadays if opened, they treat you like a criminal returning gaming software.



As mentioned....you nailed it.

Later!

C&C games had to be the best I ever played.

Though I will say that I loved Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 I cannot put down, DoW pwns, CoD 2 was fun while it lasted, and WoW has me addicted beyond any other game.

Though I will say that Half Life 2 sucked nuts, WHO EVER THOUGHT THAT UNSKIPABLE CUT SCENES ARE A GOOD IDEA SHOULD BE KILLED. Though its mods such as Source Forts, The Hidden, Goldeneye Source, Battle Grounds, Dystopia, and Garrys mod are awesome.

And as for Star Wars Empire at War, I WILL BUY THAT GAME THE FIRST CHANCE I GET!

Finally a, hopefully, great Star Wars RTS.

No, several does not mean seven it just means more than 3, but not too much more. So 4,5,6,7,8 could all be counted as several. Since gaming began for the most part in the 70's, several works.

about the comming home from work and just playing a fun- non thinking game, i think that might be what it is, and why geometry wars is so fun =)

I used sequels as an example, but it's more than just sequels. They're just a contributing factor to the overall picture. True, at times sequels are not only good for devs and publishers, but for gamers as well.

Yes it's all a business now days.
But I don't like the way businesses work now days.
They're all about pleasing share holders. Nothing is ever good enough anymore.
Something as profit isn't good enough even if it doesn't surpass previous year revenue for the same period.
I phucking hate this!
This philosophy has found its way into the entertainment industry, both the music and movie industries are much more conservative now days.
They're both in a slump and it's because they keep recycling the same trash over and over.
It's going to go further downhill from this point on if they don't open their minds, and or grow balls and start taking chances.
The video game industry has already adopted this business model and it really sucks because it affects the quality of video games collectively.

The previous (or current if you will) console generation saw many devs break off to start their own dev houses because of this. Which is a great thing. But this isn't going to work with the next generation because of steeper development costs.

Its not all doom for video games, the industry will only get bigger but it's just that we're going to see more and more $hitty titles for a long time. At least from big time publishers (which dominate the industry unfortunately), smaller dev houses will be forced to put out only top quality software. Which is great because unlike other entertainment industries, gamers can give a shit about name recognition as long as games are fun. The success from smaller development houses might open the eyes of big time devs and publishers.
Gotta remain optimistic I guess....

I think its because the companies that make most of todays games, make them to make money. They just aren't making them as great because the main motivation is money, not a fantastic story or plot. They think they can just take any generic idea and throw money at it to improve the graphics and such and that will make it a great game. It just doesn't work that way. As with any great medium, such as music, movies, and such the thing that makes it great is pouring the heart and soul into it, not just throwing money at it. The movie industry nowadays is the exact same. It's a "all about the money following the trend" scenario, not the "WOW this a fantastic story, but thats not what the people want because we want the money not the exuberent audience" scenario

Yesterday I finally played what I consider a good game. DOA4 is a great freakin game, the reason is the difficulty in the game, you really have to learn how to play it. There arent any set paterns in the game that allow you to garuntee domination over a character. The last boss feels like a last boss, her difficulty is ridiculous and it gave me that same feeling of frustration that I got from trying to beat M Bison in Streetfighter 2 for SNES for the first time, like wow I beat everyone in 2 or less battles and here I am at my 15th round vs the boss and I am still getting my butt handed to me. Also the endings are pretty worth beating the game for, some of them less than others, Ryu Hayabusa's ending was just AMAZING I have watched that thing like 50 times now its soo coo. It seemed like most fighting games other than DOA forgot that people like to have a reason to beat the game, the endings in Soul Caliber are just pitiful to say the least which is what makes DOA such a better choice to me. Maybe there is hope after all for the future of gaming.

Ninja Gaiden 2 needs to come to the 360 quick.

The games that I enjoyed on N64 were Goldeneye, Conkey, and another racing game that I cant remember the name but RARE made it. Halo 2 is an awesome game I think and Halo 3 is going to be the next great game for next gen systems.

Most games are not as fun as they used to be for many reasons.

It seems like there are more movies and less gameplay in many games today.

Controls have become very complex, in many cases, this can have a negative impact on the gameplay.

Graphics have become one of the most important parts of games today.

The worst problem of all, copycat games.

I'll agree with these reasons, for the most part.

I think cutscenes can help push a story along as long as they are there to show part of the story that you wouldn't otherwise be able to incorporate into gameplay. I always thought Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden had good cutscenes... especially after furious fights with bad guys. "Thumb resters".

Control schemes have become incredibly difficult to learn. I think that's why I love Geo Wars so much. 3 control buttons. It's also the reason I love driving games. What's easier than brake and accelerate? I'm not saying that I can't handle complex motions, it's just not so much fun memorizing button combos or configurations just to have a little "fun". If I'm kicking ass on DOA online, then yeah, combos must be learned, but that's the nature of the beast.

I'm still out to lunch on graphics. I think they are important, second only to mechanics of gameplay (ie. control). But the whore in me doesn't want to look at nasty images. Especially not when I know it could be better.

Unfortunately, I think the gaming industry has suffered the same affliction that ALL industries succumb to... the fast buck. If they can't make the most money out of a safe formula, they don't want to invest. Medicine, transportation, etc... all want to see immediate returns with a minimum amount of risk. And unfortunately, that means the money-makers (FPS's, Racing, & Fighting) are all top-tier. This also means that the innovative games are often crowded out by the over-hyped, over-advertised garbage that the big companies regurgitate. Honestly, the only way I forsee this trend changing is with some kind of vehicle to allow independent developers access to many gamers without much investment. And I believe that vehicle is XBLA. If MS opens up the XBLA to allow "homebrew" games (but still certified by MS), I can easily see developer minds changing. You can equate it to Hollywood. They make crap. But once in a while, an independent film comes out that really twists Hollywood's nipples. And then the game starts over. I want to see that happen in video games.

I can't believe I just agreed with deftones...

Oh, and

At least you understood the points I was making. Graphics, I'm 100% happy with anything but jaggies and glitches.

One of the reasons that games aren't as fun as they used to be is the advent of game saves. Right now, you can pretty much save a game whereever you want. After beating a hard level you save right after it. You have nothing to worry about, you can get killed one hundred times and keep starting where you left off.

Now turn back the clock. Remember some of those old games, with no save points? You would play these outrageously hard levels, jump off a cliff by accident, then have to start the whole level over. Now you have something invested in the game...time. IMO this made some of those old games great.

Now mind you, I like the game saves, but remember when there was a time when nobody said, "That game was fun, but it was only 10 hours long, much too short".

To me it somewhat feels like that, but when you look at it, the whole case of the fun factor of games decreasing so much is age. When you are 5-7 you will accept almost anything that comes your way, be it uniracers, or the donkey kong country series, (I really enjoyed a motorcycle game for the snes that was 3d, i think it was something like motoextreme FX). While several still are good (mainly the 2D sidescrollers as we haven't seen many since the snes), a game like motoracer FX (not sure of the name) suck compared to today's standards, and are no fun at all. As well there is the issue of money/number of games people buy. for the SNES I got approximately 2 games per year, aquireing 8 or 9 over the console's lifetime. with the N64 I increased the amount of games bought annually to 3-4 ammassing a collection of 13-15 N64 games. But come the Xbox, I had much more money which I could spend, (and I started to check out the previously played sections of some stores, and pawnshops) and ammassed a collection of 50 games for the original Xbox. While in the SNES and N64 era I completely passed every game multiple times, I only completely passed a few games completely on the xbox. finally It is not like games today are worse than the ones on the N64 ors SNES, it's our expectations for them have gotten higher. It is not like Tony Hawk 7 (american wateland) is worse than Tony Hawk 1 when speaking in modern terms, a side by side comparison, but for it's time Tony Hawk 1 was awesome, and Tony Hawk 7 in it's time (now) is pathetic. Games aren't getting worse, our expectations for them are getting higher.

boy after reading this topic it kinda makes me laugh how true it is,everyone is mostly buying the 360 just because of graphics and such, and to be honest i will never mod it either because im actucally beating games instead of never touching them again if i copied them... must be a psycological thing.. but i will tell everyone something, i can remember from grade 6-11 playing diablo 2 and the expansion almost everyday for hours, and even if i quit and a new patch came out, or i got banned or something i always went back, or bought a new copy... hell that game was like crack... just something about it i guess.. too bad they couldnt remake some of the old games and put it on 360 or something... but i think they should start to take ports from the pc and toss it on the new box... i kno half life 2 came out for xbox.. but if it was for 360 and had CSS or DODS hands down it would kill ps3 and revolution... lil side note but wasnt there a picture way back when 360 was first announced that valve was making hl3 for 360? dont call me nuts or luagh but it was in a picture... hopefully someone can link it... neways justm y 2 cents