Can you guys relate to my gaming nostalgia? and my feelings on it all.

[GamingMethodist]

Hey guys I’ve just been thinking and I’ve reached the age now where I’m looking around and game some game studios are a shadow of what they once were a lot of the top dogs seemed to have massively declined and there are new studios creating amazing games. I know this is the circle of life. Just makes me sad and nostalgic to have flashbacks of 10 plus years ago knowing that you were going to get a masterpiece of a game from consistent studios like naughty dog, the old infinity ward mw2 (2009) days. Dice (Battlefield) rocksteady. BioWare…

 

Do you guys remember when these studios were on top of their game? I just realise I’m getting older as I have seen the cycle of these studios starting from the beginning to their peak to what some can see as an end.

 

it makes me sad and nostalgic 

 

Do you guys have any examples that make you sad/Nostalgic 

 

Can you guys relate? Or am I on my own on this one.

[Helyx]

It's almost like these developers don't understand why their games were ever popular to begin with. With each addition to a franchise, they lose more of the spark that made them successful.

 

Anyway, speak with your wallet.

[Dark_Overlord]

Mainstream appeal... it happens with every industry.  When it's niche they have to put out good stuff so you'll buy it, when it's mainstream and shareholders get involved, it's profit first.

 

I'm looking forward to the inevitable crash and rebirth.

[JAK-KRIEG]

1 hour ago, Dark_Overlord said:

I'm looking forward to the inevitable crash and rebirth.

I'm hoping this is what will happen with DICE and Battlefield with the epic nosedive that is BF2042. It's one of my favorite series but they have lost there way spectacularly. Very sad to see from a former good developer.

[BlackRogue187]

simply put avoid the trash you dont like and support the stuff you do wanna like easy as that

[DrBloodmoney]

No company stays at the top forever - I’d wager that at the time you recall as the “halcyon days” there were some older gamers lamenting the same song over some other previously great studios that had peaked before those ones and then faded in their eyes.

 

It’s just the natural cycle - it makes room for new studios to climb the ladder and fill that gap.

[Slava]

There's a lot of stuff that contributes to the described cycle from business decisions to creative differences. But there's often something new that comes out of that. For example, ex-Infinity Ward developers that made Call of Duty: Modern Warfare formed Respawn and later made Titanfall. After EA bought the studio, some developers left Respawn and started something else. I think many Call of Duty fans would name Modern Warfare games the golden era, and Titanfall fans (all 20 of them 😁) are probably not pleased with Apex being the focus of the studio for years. 

 

You can find many similar stories across the industry. I feel nostalgia for the old titles as well. But maybe in 10 years I will be nostalgic about the games I play now. 

[Zephrese]

There's still plenty of games releasing nowadays that I've enjoyed or am excited for, but over the years - especially lately - I've held strong to my belief that the 4th (Genesis, SNES, etc.), 5th (N64, PS1, etc.), and 6th (GameCube, PS2, etc.) console generations were where the majority of the "best games of all time" largely came from. Everything since then, while we're still seeing dozens of great games get released practically every day (even from long-established, popular studios), has felt more and more bleak by comparison as time goes on. That, and as publishers and investors find every possible and conceivable way to "casualize" things and fuck over everyone in the process in order to make the most money possible. Nostalgia and growing older definitely plays a part in how I feel about these things, obviously, but I really don't think it's just that either. It's a tad depressing, at times, I will admit.

 

Tl;dr: "They don't make 'em like they used to"

Not necessarily (nor completely) a bad thing, mind you, but I do think that a lot of things have gotten considerably worse on average despite other things having gotten better.

Edited February 18 by Zephrese

[HamiTosh]

My biggest nostalgia games are Pokemon and Uncharted.

 

Pokemon used to be my child hood,mit was super fun to play.After Black and White I lost interest.Then bought a switch to play the remaster of Pokemon Diamond.Well half the game had to be downloaded,back ups and save files re only available with an online subscription...That's why I sent back the switch,when I saw my friend playing the newest Pokemons, I was like what the heck in over 20 years they couldn't even offer decent 3D textures, the difficulty was always lackluster.

 

Uncharted used to be such an amazing title 2 & 3 we're fantastic, 4 was cool but MP was pay to win (one use boosters),lack of support by ND (lag switchers,rapid fire).

 

I gave up on those two franchises getting anything as good as the previously released games.

And it might be my teens nostalgia and feelings I had back then which set a really high bar for any upcoming game.

 

These days we have so many games to choose if one game doesn't perform well, it'll lose traction.

[chriee]

Gaming is both in a better and worse state than it was when I started in the 80s.  Games are no longer insanely difficult due to poor play testing, look much better, control very smoothly (in most cases), more variety overall, ease of access, quality of life features that make resuming a game way more efficient and various other improvements.

 

But I see your point about some studios being a shadow of what they once were, Rare is probably the best example I can provide.  On top of that there are buggy games being released intentionally to be patched later (I understand that happened in the past as well and they couldn't be patched, but nothing really comparable to today's levels), micro/macrotransaction oversaturation, online requirements (that can also lead to games no longer working if they shutdown the servers), games being just churned out and being very "samey" as prior iterations in a series and a plethora of other issues.

 

I'd say overall it's better just due to more choices and more conveniences.  Still waiting for the day I have the feeling of playing Chrono Trigger again for the first time.  I don't really experience nostalgia very often, the last time was when Breath of the Wild came out, first time as an adult I ever experienced the "feeling like a kid" thing we always hear about.

[DrBloodmoney]

I think that when the topic of "games are not as good as they used to be" comes up, (and it comes up plenty,) regardless of one's actual opinion on the argument, the unspoken caveat is "as it relates to big, "AAA" type games".

 

The fact of the matter is though...

...those types of games just don't really matter the way they used to, at least to us consumers.

 

Whether or not a person thinks the big, major releases are better or worse than they used to be (personally, I think there's plusses and minuses, but overall, they're about the same,)...

...the one thing that can't really be disputed is that those types of games are simply not as relevant in the gaming landscape as they once were.

 

The big "AAA" type games account for such a minuscule percentage of all games at this point, that a person could game constantly as their primary hobby, and never touch a single major release, and still end up with a backlog and a Wishlist that could stun a team of oxen in its tracks. 

 

Back in the day, the indie scene just wasn't a consumer-facing thing - Indies existed, but the first time most consumers actually experienced any of the new ideas and cool ideas coming from that indie scene, were when they were adopted and folded into bigger games, that got console released and attention.

Therefore, the bigger games at that time seemed like they were more varied and were doing more innovative things, because they were adopting new ideas spawned in the indie and game-jam scenes, but those were hidden away, and rarely seen by the customers at large.

 

Now though, there is an easier path to indie games appearing on consoles, and the "big AAAs" are so expensive, and such massive financial risks for a company, that they pretty much are forced to play it safer - with known, proven genres that are well proven to have the kind of mass appeal required to recoup the enormous costs...

...and all innovation is done at the smaller budget, more independent level.

 

Long story short: If you are sick of all games feeling/looking/being the same...

...stop playing the massive blockbusters, and start playing the smaller stuff - because that's where that innovation and originality you crave lives now.

[ruexnimbus]

I have a lot of nostalgia for the time when Sierra Studios had Half-Life and Blizzard had Diablo II: LoD and WarCraft III: Frozen Throne. The success of Half-Life spawned Valve and eventually Steam and they just stopped making games. I knew the old Blizzard was gone when Diablo III came out and the only benchmark for success on that was it made a lot of sales.

The studios can't even pretend to care about the gaming, they are just focused on sales and the consumers eat it all up and shout for more. 🤷‍♂️

[wajbsb]

I think it's a bit of the 'difficult second album' effect that bands have. It happens with films too. Someone smaller has plenty of time and limited pressure to create something, they make some lightning in a bottle and the people in charge (eg shareholders) demand they create the same magic again and again, but in less time with more profits; a lot of pressure. That's hard to do, so sometimes the studios struggle. Plus there's the law of diminishing returns...

Although I do miss the times when people were visibly more excited for games and midnight launches were a thing. They were good times.

[Baker]

SquareSoft ❤️

Edited February 19 by Baker

[Don_Chipotle]

There are brands that are rocking the park out like Capcom, Namco, Way forward, that had lows in order to reach the point they are right now, but they have amazing proyects and give love to their products and respect to their fans, its just that you check their new products that give hope for future proyects, well delivered and not so rough releases like annual games that need to come out yes or yes under a date.

[RadiantFlamberge]

Konami isn't what they used to be, but they sometimes still have a moment. They are working on Contra: Operation Galuga with WayForward... a series reboot which looks promising, esp. considering this is the lead dev of Contra 4 (Nintendo DS). It's going to have 4P play like Sunset Riders or Mystic Warriors. Good, but we're probably SOL for a new Gradius or Salamander.

 

Thankful that Falcom have always stayed true to theirselves. We are getting Ys X this fall, on PS5/4 and also Steam/GOG. No exact release date is given yet. Daybreak 2 is probably next year's release.

 

From Software have also been pretty consistent. You can trust them to deliver. Elden Ring lives up to the hype. They've really raised the bar for their next Soulslike, but I think they could pull off a good followup when the time comes.

[Lava_Yuki]

For me it was the old final fantasy games, where you had the whole victory fanfare, turn battles, tonberries and the job system. All that is totally gone now, it's all just a pure action game like any other action game with a bit of chocobo thrown in the mix to make it Final fantasy-ish, and too many cutscenes. 16 was decent, especially after how terrible 15 was. At least 16 had all the summons, a Cid, chocobos and moogles, so I think they made the effort to appeal to both old fans and also Gen Z. The pixel remaster was another nostalgic entry. 

 

Atlus seem to stay true to their core and are consistent in their release. All the persona and shin megami tensei games are pretty consistent.

 

For Tales games, I have played most of them since Symphonia, and I feel that they have been pretty true to themselves. Although the battle mechanics have changes between them, they are all pretty much an anime style action RPG with a proper party, dungeons, and have the usual Tales stuff like Skits, a mascot of some sort, lots of side quests and the same artes system. 

 

[sepheroithisgod]

I think a lot of big companies that fell off, did so for reasons outside their control...investors.

 

AAA gaming has gotten so expensive, that developers literally can't afford to take a risk anymore. I don't think game developers got into the industry to make borking formulaic titles, but when you are given a short timeframe to make a massive game that needs to hit X sales, well, your going to keep releasing what works. Not to mention, that title needs to have monetization paths that end up influencing every other aspect of the game in one way or another. You can't just have a fun little MP mode added to a game. It has to be loaded with FOMO and microtransactions.

 

When I think back to the golden era of COD 4-B02, those games were just hit after hit. Fun addictive gameplay where you could sit there for hours playing. Today, cod is a shell of itself, trying to survive off of nostalgia and name recognition alone. You can't go 2 seconds without seeing something locked behind a paywall, or some FOMO thing put in your face.

 

It's miserable

 

Some studios still deliver hits or have never disappointed me like Rockstar, From Software, Santa Monica,  and more. Others have become hit-or-miss. The majority have just fallen into mediocrity. I am a believer that AAA games will eventually fail as a business model. I'm sick of 6-year dev windows for a game that is barely an upgrade.

 

[RadiantFlamberge]

Yes, the CoD series has lost some of its spark lately. My favorite era of the series is 2012-2016 with BO2, Ghosts, Advanced & Infinite Warfare, and BO3. Infinite is criminally underrated. It's not "just" another CoD. The zero-G areas and space combat scenes give it needed variety. Main enemy Salen Kotch is well played by Game of Thrones' Kit Harington, and one of the trophy names pays homage to GoT.

 

Seriously, I think they need to make one more installment of Ghosts to close out that story. The first one's "20 minutes into the future" setting set it apart from MW. Playing as a German Shepherd for a bit was fun.

 

The new MW series is half decent. It just falls short of the 2012-2016 era.

Spoiler

Ghosts ending: Rorke survives, then captures Logan and sticks him in some caged hellhole. Welcome to one of the worst unresolved cliffhangers since Half-Life 2 Episode 2. I'd have it so you play as a new Ghosts member trying to rescue Logan and take down the Federation. It could be interesting to have to subdue a brainwashed Logan non-lethally.

 

Not having a new Ridge Racer with the technology of today's systems is a letdown. Even a remaster of RR7 with ESRGAN-upscaled textures, 4K, and raytracing (if possible) would be enough. Keep your Gran Turismo, I'd rather have this.

[here4headshots]

On 2/17/2024 at 10:45 PM, GamingMethodist said:

Just makes me sad and nostalgic to have flashbacks of 10 plus years ago knowing that you were going to get a masterpiece of a game from consistent studios like naughty dog, the old infinity ward mw2 (2009) days. Dice (Battlefield) rocksteady. BioWare…

I can definitely relate, but how did Naughty Dog make it to your list of developers that fell off? If anything they keep topping the quality they put out each time they release a game. My only negative thought is the remasters have got old. That's not a any reason to say they fell off. 

 

The rest of those devs definitely belong on the list. 

[EcoShifter]

19 minutes ago, here4headshots said:

I can definitely relate, but how did Naughty Dog make it to your list of developers that fell off? If anything they keep topping the quality they put out each time they release a game. My only negative thought is the remasters have got old. That's not a any reason to say they fell off. 

 

Not the first post I wanted to make on the topic sigh, but oh well. I'm not going to get into their full history, because that's far too much to cover and undoubtedly a waste of time on this forum. So firstly, you're utterly pretending they didn't just release probably the most controversial video game (with its bad story) in history a few short years ago. Definitely their most controversial one among the main 4 IPs they created regardless of what anyone says. Even before TLOU2's release they've had a known unbreakable habit of progressively ruining their good-at-launch online multiplayer components post-release, originating as early as Uncharted 2, a game which on other forums you'll find is commonly listed under topics like multiplayer components ruined after their release. This has been an ongoing pattern in all their releases following (U3, TLOU, U4). Furthermore, they also clearly gave into the negative practices related to microtransactions, pay to win designs, balancing issues, monetization greed, etc, complained about everywhere else in the gaming industry for well over a decade. Beyond that, for a studio with their reputation they've released some of the most disappointing and/or low effort-ish remakes and remasters after TLOU-PS4, one of which they charged next-gen AAA $70 for. Then there's the PC release for TLOU remake, which besides having evidently been an immensely horrible port, is also the studio's worst rated game ever and was the worst PlayStation exclusive port ever done at launch compared to its peers (Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, Marvel Spider-Man, etc). Speaking of re-releases it's all they been doing lately, with three back to back to back. . .

 

(Off the heels of that after all the stalling and consistently poor communication with fans for at least a year, they also cancelled their heavily hyped up standalone TLOU MP game, which they claimed was going to be "their most ambitious game to date". Vocal People fans have seen its cancellation as a pure W, but it's at least also an L for all the resources they clearly dumped into it and at least a couple of broken explicit promises on its future release, including some devs who had the audacity on Twitter/X to tell us not to worry about it.)

 

As for your "they keep topping the quality they put out each time they release a game" point, it's fine if you feel that way about their games, but it's very transparent many of us in the gaming community do not feel that way about their releases. The vast majority do not consider U3 better than U2, and TLOU2 irrefutably divided TLOU community right down the middle - which even the developers were completely self-aware of and anticipated ahead of release. As for my personal opinion on their game releases, I'd rather save that for a separate comment.

 

19 minutes ago, here4headshots said:

The rest of those devs definitely belong on the list. 

 

As do Naughty Dog. They are absolutely no exception. It's 2024... besides the studio's apologists, these type of things should be more universal common knowledge by now, especially to those who at least act like they know the company well and want to participate honestly (which excludes most people) in arguments involving their behalf. There's also been an abundance of lies and gaslighting (even in some patch notes across some games) they've done, as well as been involved in a plethora of drama they've had assistance from Sony in publicly protecting them from and taking constant damage control over.

 

I don't know GamingMethodist's reasonings for their stance, but it has to include some things I touched on. If not and it's somehow one of the things I've left out, I know I'll still easily be able to relate to it anyway because of how familiar I am with this studio as a former huge fan that use to buy all their games early on, dock hundreds of hours in every single one with online multiplayer, and 100% all of em' no matter what. (Hell one of my fondest memories with the studio is participating in one of their "play with the devs" streams during the U3 days, so their has been good times, but this is irrelevant.) I do want to hear GM expand on why though, as im I interested specifically in what did it for them... hopefully it not just being the mess that is TLOU2 or the recent trend with re-releasing their entire PS4 lineup. Those are fair but easy. And now here comes the storm 🙃.

 

P.S. I like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.