Getting out of touch with today's video games.

[Arcesius]

I also think we cannot put all AAA games in the same drawer. I don't play too many AAA games, but the ones I do I usually like. Horizon Zero Dawn is a great example of what a good open world action game can look like. Also RDR2 might have been controversly discussed, but what you cannot accuse R* of is not caring about their own game. Sure some players might find it boring, and that's an OK opinion to have. Myself I find it extremly grindy, but I think it's very well put together nonetheless and can understand that after creating a game as extensive and elaborate as this one, the devs want their players to experience everything said game has to offer.

Then of course The Witcher 3, but also God of War were, in my opinion, great AAA games that I can recommend playing without hesitation. 

 

I've also just played Darksiders III -- which I would not say is a AAA game --- and I had a ton of fun with it, but it is also very, very bad from a technical perspective. Did you see the "All Sins" speedrun? That really shows the technical mess that this game is.  

 

(As for Fallout 76, many EA-games or even Final Fantasy XV, that's a different story, with games being pushed by corporate greed.)

 

 

If you are dissappointed by today's games, I just recently watched the first and second episode of the No Clip documentary about the development of Hades, the fourth game by Supergiant Games, and I would strongly recommend watching this... As long as there are studios like this one, we will keep getting amazing games developed by people that really care about their product and player base. But working myself in a team of 5 people within a larger company (not in the gaming industry, mind you), I also know that internal communication and finding compromises is much easier when you are part of something smaller, rather than being one of 1500+ anonymous developers in a company making billions every year. 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Arcesus7

[Feral]

2 hours ago, Arcesus7 said:

I also think we cannot put all AAA games in the same drawer. I don't play too many AAA games, but the ones I do I usually like. Horizon Zero Dawn is a great example of what a good open world action game can look like. Also RDR2 might have been controversly discussed, but what you cannot accuse R* of is not caring about their own game. Sure some players might find it boring, and that's an OK opinion to have. Myself I find it extremly grindy, but I think it's very well put together nonetheless and can understand that after creating a game as extensive and elaborate as this one, the devs want their players to experience everything said game has to offer.

Then of course The Witcher 3, but also God of War were, in my opinion, great AAA games that I can recommend playing without hesitation. 

That right there (the bold bit) is one of the problems people are having these days because that is nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with the bloody trophies. People (not saying you Arcesus or the OP) judge whether a game is good based off how hard or easy the plat is, which takes away from their experience of the actual game.

[Arcesius]

4 minutes ago, Feral said:

That right there (the bold bit) is one of the problems people are having these days because that is nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with the bloody trophies. People (not saying you Arcesus or the OP) judge whether a game is good based off how hard or easy the plat is, which takes away from their experience of the actual game.

 

I will agree with your comment there because I think the same. And I know you mentioned that you are not saying I'm judging the game based on the plat, but I want to make clear that I'm really not I think RDR2 is a fantastic piece of game design, I think the voice acting, the music, the setting and story are fantastic, and the experience overall is very well put together. 

 

But, since I'm also a completionist, going for the plat also makes me realize how grindy it is in terms of what the devs intended for us to do if we want to complete the game. That's all. 

 

But yes you see a lot of topics here on this forum caring more about trophy lists than the actual games themselves. Personally, I don't play a game because of its trophy list or avoid it for the same reason. I play games that I'm interested in, but then also aim at completing them. 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Arcesus7

[joeyc138]

I'm blaming complacent publishers that don't care about quality and only money. Locking out content until a later date, this garbage MMO-lite genre that spawned with Destiny and intrusive microtransactions have really pushed me away from online gaming as well as 90% of games developed current day. 

 

That's not to say that games are bad nowadays, but I'm usually on the outside looking in with most of my friends who are obsessed with Battle Royal and looter shooters where I'm usually the only one bragging about how sweet of a game example: Wolfenstein 2 or Doom was only for everyone to tell me they haven't played them.

 

Fewer games nowadays have original game design, good storytelling or any real originality and it's frankly pretty sad to see when you grew up gaming and have experienced maybe a handful of truly memorable experiences this console generation.

[AJ_Radio]

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

I don't either. However, the people complaining are a minority. That was my point. I saw plenty of comments saying they didn't care either way, and my guess is that a majority of the people playing the game on PC got it through whatever means they could.

 

I couldn't care either way. But just like I said in my previous post to you, I would of complained if I was exclusively a Steam gamer.

 

Apparently going to another platform to buy the game you've been looking forward to over the past couple years is too much effort for some.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

My issues here are that your posts seem to indicate the opposite. The entirety of this thread seemed like you closed yourself off to a lot of things based off of media/controversial matter. I'm trying to see if I can help you move past that mindset because that's what you seem to be expressing. It's not a matter of like/dislike. It's a matter of losing interest in something you like for a very inconsequential reason.

 

I get tired of all the crap that seems to surround a lot of AAA games these days. The Playstation exclusives are one of the few AAA games where I feel you are actually getting the product you are expecting, and not thrown a bunch of bullshit for the sake of trying to get more money out of you.

 

EA and Activision are obvious, I don't need to explain them to you. Ubisoft has their own ways of making money and for the most part they are hugely successful off of it.

 

Bioware's Anthem was obviously to compete against the Destiny games. But for every multiplayer game like this to come around there has to be micro transactions and lootboxes and that sort of shit. Lootboxes generate controversy, I'm fully aware of that. I have my reasons for not buying a lot of these games. 

 

I don't know what else I can say to you here. I don't think my reason is inconsequential, and if you think I made my decision purely based on what the media does then you are completely wrong.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

Yeah that's the thing. I won't enjoy them. I despise anything mob/gang/thug related. (not in the post apocalyptic rag tag groups kind of "gangs") Doesn't matter the platform it's on. I find my brother playing GTA San Andreas on my account a stain but I wasn't going to have him make his own account just for one game. Not to mention just knowing the premise of a show is enough for me. It wasn't any sort of controversy or media attention. I got burned only a few times with blindly buying a game. One so annoyingly so I hid it lol.

 

That is just personal taste. I don't like a lot of anime and hentai. I just can't get into the anime culture and I never understood the purpose of having an anime club.

 

Lots of young people here love anime, it's pretty obvious with the games they play and the television shows they watch.

 

I watched a movie starring Tupac Shakur the other night that was mob/gang/thug related and really enjoyed it.

 

Yeah I used to blindly buy a game back in the Playstation 2 days. I rented a lot of old Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 games at a video rental store I went to as a kid that is now long gone. Played a lot of crap, ended up returning some of those games the very next day.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

There's a difference between knowing if you're not going to like a game because it's not your style, and knowing there's a game coming out you're interested in and then dropping it due to media/controversy which was seemingly the topic here. The only time microtransactions and lootboxes would/should affect a decision is if they are somehow necessary for the game. In every single game I've played where they're a thing they are not, but I believe some people have had to pay quite a bit in sports games to get certain things?

 

It's both.

 

Most of the time I don't care about the media, since they don't speak out to people like me and I don't speak for them. But for something like Star Wars Battlefront 2 to come out and receive such a huge backlash is disheartening.

 

In that game microtransactions and lootboxes were indeed necessary, and then tons of people bitched over at EA until they finally felt they had to go and change it.

 

I love the old Star Wars games, and the old Star Wars movies. Some of the best and most iconic science fiction of all time. Obviously I was going to be pissed that EA was going to piss over the games, but I feel that a lot of these games that have a huge budget are getting attention that isn't necessarily the games themselves, but the reception they get outside of them.

 

Obviously sports games are a crapshoot. Madden hasn't been great in ages, and 2K's NBA series has it's own ways of suckering more people for money. The reason Rocket League still remains popular is because it's what more sports games should of been. Taking something as old and standard as soccer (football for you folks outside the US), putting a spin on it, and making it highly addictive and fun.

 

I enjoy sports, but not if I'm paying to get the same game over and over and over again.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

And my point, as well as others, is that you've seem to not lost interest in gaming itself. You've lost faith in its ability to be something that's yours that other people can't ruin for you. That's why retro games appeal to you. They bring you back to a time where you couldn't be bombarded by other people's opinions ruining something for you and why indies, which I see plenty of people say go back to older styled games, seem to be more appealing. There's less attention surrounding them.

 

I find indie games to have a lot more leeway and breathing room. A lot of AAA games have to be under a set standard because they are marketed towards a mass audience, and the publishers who offer the finances and distribute the games expect them to generate a big profit.

 

There is crap in indies. Orc Slayer like I just mentioned earlier, Jack n' Jill DX, Little Adventure on the Prairie, and a number of others. To me, indies can offer just as much enjoyment as a $60 AAA game for a fraction of the price.

 

Guacamelee 2 is a game I am really looking forward to. Same with Axiom Verge. Indie games when done right can be extremely satisfying and rewarding.

 

Most indies won't appeal to the masses. To them, having 4K graphics and seeing explosive cinematics and fancy CGI in games like Bioware's Anthem and Battlefield V is enough to keep them satisfied. I don't think it's so much about the raw gameplay, it's about making them look good because they're also marketed towards the next generation of gamers.

 

I never bought a game for the graphics, or because it was visually impressive. The game could be the 100th re-incarnation of fucking Pac Man from the 80s but if it looks like something that is a lot of fun and is within my ability to play then I will likely get it eventually.

 

AAA games are right in line with today's Hollywood blockbusters and today's mainstream pop artists, and I just feel a lot of it doesn't speak out to me. In my view, the video game industry was a lot more interesting back when it was a niche hobby that some geeks in your school were obsessed over while everybody else looked at video games as some sort of weird entertainment. That's a part of why I enjoy retro games.

 

I hope that explains some of your questions.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

I won't lie though, I found the latest AC game, albeit a fun play, to be the worst direction the company has taken and I think they realized that when the vocal whiny minority bitched about a trophy for having a fucking kid in the game and naming it "growing up". That's why on a channel I watch to stay updated it seems like a "story" setting will be implemented. Because they fucked up by adding choices instead of writing a story for us to play through and witness. The animus was never meant to give us choices. It doesn't take away from the overall fun I have of playing. I simply see it as people liked to see Black Flag. A game masquerading as an AC game. (although you could argue that they are objectively different. won't get into that.)

 

I feel Ubisoft has mostly scattered the Assassins Creed fanbase at this point because of their stupid decisions regarding the storyline and how they've handled the Assassin/Templar conflict.

 

The best game story wise was Assassins Creed 1. You had an average guy (Desmond Miles) who is caught and put into the Animus. You had a crazed Templar (Warren Vidic) who was looking to find and seek the Pieces of Eden through re-experiencing memories that Desmond's ancestor Altair went through. You had Warren's assistant (Lucy Stillman) who was secretly working as an Assassin at Abstergo.

 

Meanwhile the story of Altair, Al Mualim and the various targets that were assassinated I found highly fascinating. Ubisoft has failed to recreate this because I personally think that most people are too impatient to sit through a story like Assassins Creed 1 and watch all those lengthy cutscenes.

 

There was a strong correlation between the memories of Desmond's ancestors and the present day, and I feel that has been mostly shoved aside because of Ubisoft. Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood I still found to be fairly alright story wise, and those Subject 16 puzzles are probably my favorite portions. Since then the story has devolved to killing what seems to be random targets. At some points in Black Flag I felt like Ubisoft was simply making fun of those assassination cutscenes, whereas the present day portion was a complete mess.

 

Assassins Creed Syndicate sort of made the story a bit better but it wasn't the same. I'm at the point where they should just ditch out the present day storyline and focus exclusively on the ancestors of the past that were great assassins.

 

5 hours ago, Avatar_Of_Battle said:

I do enjoy AC. I found the idea of living an ancestor's memory through a machine reading DNA to be interesting, but also I found the gameplay and stories fun. One game a year or one every few years makes no difference to me. People act like they play the same game every single day of the year and somehow act exhausted when the next title comes out. At best they play a month, or if a game has DLC like Odyssey once a week, and somehow 300+ days later filled with tons of other games they, all of a sudden, are tired? That's what happens when people turn a hobby into a chore. It doesn't become something you look forward to, it becomes something you do with a feeling of dread.

 

That's taking trophy hunting too seriously.

 

I will never have a 100 percent account. I think having a 90 - 95 percent overall average is good enough, especially if you have as many trophies and as many games played as I do.

 

Crash Bandicoot Warped's DLC came out nearly an entire year after the trilogy was released. I didn't mind going back to it because I actually enjoy a little Crash Bandicoot.

 

Hell if The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt were to somehow come out with more DLC four years after it's release, it wouldn't bother me at all. It just depends on the game.

 

People who play for several hours a day trophy hunting, then wonder why they are tired and exhausted are the problem themselves.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Spaz

[AJ_Radio]

30 minutes ago, joeyc138 said:

I'm blaming complacent publishers that don't care about quality and only money. Locking out content until a later date, this garbage MMO-lite genre that spawned with Destiny and intrusive microtransactions have really pushed me away from online gaming as well as 90% of games developed current day. 

 

That's not to say that games are bad nowadays, but I'm usually on the outside looking in with most of my friends who are obsessed with Battle Royal and looter shooters where I'm usually the only one bragging about how sweet of a game example: Wolfenstein 2 or Doom was only for everyone to tell me they haven't played them.

 

Fewer games nowadays have original game design, good storytelling or any real originality and it's frankly pretty sad to see when you grew up gaming and have experienced maybe a handful of truly memorable experiences this console generation.

 

I outright refuse to say everything out now is terrible and bad, because it's not. But sadly I have to agree with you.

 

I find it sad that Wolfenstein 2 and DOOM both seem to have been pushed to the wayside while Destiny 2, Anthem, Battlefield V and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 continue to generate more fans and more intrusive microtransactions.

 

The Wolfenstein series needed a make over and The New Order did just that. I found it to be very good, BJ was a guy I could care for while I was mowing down Nazis. Great old school FPS fun. DOOM is the same way, only I haven't quite gotten around to that game yet. The multiplayer is more reminiscent of those old Quake multiplayer sessions people used to get into back in the 1990s. 

 

My problem is video games have taken more of a beaten path mentality rather than trying to be original. When I was growing up you had Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound and Duke Nukem 3D. You had huge shifts and changes in the video game industry. Comparing the years 1992 to 1997 was a completely different world. Comparing 1997 to 2005 - 2006 was significant, you had so many different ideas that were being put to use.

 

Going from Super Mario World 1 and 2 to Super Mario 64 was a big deal. That's one reason why I stuck to gaming for so long because it was interesting to see how it evolved. Nowadays it's about being on the beaten path. But as far as innovation goes there hasn't been much.

 

Look what Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 did for story telling, and compare to what you see in story telling today. Huge dip in quality.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Spaz

[RadiantFlamberge]

15 hours ago, Arcesus7 said:

(As for Fallout 76, many EA-games or even Final Fantasy XV, that's a different story, with games being pushed by corporate greed.)

One of those super-long epic RPGs such as Skyrim or Witcher 3 would probably be a $250+ game if it were released by EA.  Skyrim's guild quest lines would most likely be stripped away from the main game & sold as $25 DLC packs.

 

Black Ops is my favorite CoD sub-series.  With that said, Black Ops IIII is not a real Black Ops IMO.  Treyarch used to take their CoD installments off the beaten path until recently, when they decided to go all battle royale with it.  Now it seems they're following PUBG's lead.  They lost me when they killed the campaign mode.  Battle royale should've been something extra rather than the main draw.  Not everyone cares about MP.

 

Too bad Raven Software doesn't get to do their own thing anymore.  Their Singularity & Heretic II are really good, but we will probably never get any sequels to them.  Sadly now Activision has cut down their staff & left them doing nothing but helping out on CoD games.

Edited February 28, 2019 by gameoverDude189

[AJ_Radio]

1 hour ago, gameoverDude189 said:

Too bad Raven Software doesn't get to do their own thing anymore.  Their Singularity & Heretic II are really good, but we will probably never get any sequels to them.  Sadly now Activision has cut down their staff & left them doing nothing but helping out on CoD games.

 

EA did the same thing with Maxis.

 

I played the original The Sims and all it’s expansion packs and I consider that game to be one of my all time favorite PC titles. It was certainly Maxis most successful game, which took ideas from their flagship SimCity franchise. 

 

Then EA butchered Maxis starting with The Sims 2 and I hear the latest Sims game was a complete joke. The SimCity game that came out in 2013 was a disaster. 

 

Maxis is gone. If I was Will Wright I would of been pretty upset. 

 

A bit surprised you know Heretic 2, since that came out over 20 years ago.

[Dauersack]

It is natural to feel this way. Not only are we getting older and therefore are no longer in the target demographic for most videogames, the number of games we played is also ever increasing and therefore the surprise and awe is harder to reach. At some point, you just have seen everything in one form or another and most companies today can't be bothered to create something unique. Also let's not forget that the creativity in the industry decreases each year, promising studios are closed by shit cooperations, games are mostly made without any risk taking, almost everyone is chasing the flavor of the year trend, paid content sours the taste of what otherwise would have been an ok game and some developers literally make all most of their games according to the same formula.

 

The worst offender for that is Ubisoft in my opinion. Apart from being lead by human beings so vile they make every criminal look like a saint, their special editions whoring, their terrible practices and many other faults, they also have the most obvious and boring formula for open world games. People like Jim Sterling hilariously pointed out that they felt a high amount of fatigue for Ubisoft games because they all look, feel and play almost the exact same, they are the junk food of the industry and I have no idea how anyone can play them all because Ubisoft floods the markets with this shit. Most popular games, especially the yearly ones, are carbon copies of each other, they do not push the bar, they add almost nothing new and are only supposed to make you buy, invest some money in broken multiplayer and then throw them away a year later for the next overpriced addition. Look at what 2k games has produced in recent years and compare the innovation there with something like The Witcher series, there are worlds between them.

 

I find that whenever I play old games, be it the ones I already have played or some I haven't played, I still enjoy myself a lot and rarely ever have this dislike that often creeps up for some newer games. I play Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2 on the ps2 at least once per year in a big session with a friend, we know both games inside and out but we still have fun because it just feels right. When I got to play one of the new Star Wars games that had been violated by EA on a friends console, I could not really get into it and already had my fill after 2 hours, not kidding I just did not want to play anymore because it was underwhelming.

 

There are positive exceptions. Aside from great indie games, there are great games with lots of money behind them, better approaches and thought, they have something of a second coming recently. God Of War made me so excited about everything in it I completed it in a week, and that was in a week of normally rather limited gaming time. There were moments I was so genuinly immersed into the game that I forgot the time and pulled 2 all nighters in a week I would have benefitted from some sleep. I try my best to support these kinds of games, games like Spiderman that do the name associated with it justice and won't try to bleed out the players for the next pathetic live service creation attempt.

 

I have a long list of these games and I buy them in a way that the game makes money, I even bought the special edition for GOW and maybe will for Cyberpunk, I vote with my wallet. Whenever I buy a game from a developer or publisher I see as a part of the problem because they contribute to the industry getting more shit each year, I borrow them from someone or buy them used from another player so they won't make money. More likely is that I just put them further down my priority list whenever something better cames out though, can't even remember how long games like Watch Dogs have been vegetating on the low arse end of my to do list because fuck supporting Ubisoft. Might sound a bit hard to say that, but whenever I see someone complaining about the industry who has his list chock full with games from Ea, Bethesda or Ubisoft I can't help but think that is more than a bit hypocritical.

 

To end this rant, yes I and many others are getting more and more fatigued and out of touch with todays videogames, partly because of us, but mostly thanks to the majority of games getting worse, more repetetive and more exploitative each year and we are old enough to know how much better games tended to be on average. The younger players don't have that experience, they think this shit is normal because they don't know it any other way and won't touch most older games due to graphics and lack of comfort. I fight my own game fatigue by playing some old games from time to time, sometimes it is a nice experience like with Destroy All Humans 1 and 2, sometimes it is a bad experience like with GTA 3. When I play a newer game, I make sure they are cheap so I won't get disappointed as easily, like The Forest(which had its fair share of problems but was dirt cheap) or I choose games I know are great. After my current nostalgia trip is over, I play 1 or 2 smaller games and then I will treat myself to play Nioh, which will be a fantastic game I am sure. This is my usual approach, play something old, put some smaller games in between and then start a good big game that keeps you busy for long.

Edited February 28, 2019 by Nighcisama

[RadiantFlamberge]

1 hour ago, Spaz said:

Then EA butchered Maxis starting with The Sims 2 and I hear the latest Sims game was a complete joke. The SimCity game that came out in 2013 was a disaster. 

2013's SimCity is the one that used always-online DRM, which in this certain case also gave hackers a shot at wrecking your city.

At least EA eventually dropped the AO requirement & allowed creating cities for offline play (but these couldn't be used with an online profile).  That reminds me... Blizzard should really think about allowing offline profiles in the PC Diablo III.  It's good that the PS4 version never has required that you stay connected to PSN to even play it.  Always-online DRM is IMO one of the worst anti-consumer practices.

 

Namco gets a yellow card on Tekken 7.  Some characters like Anna, Lei, & Julia who are already included in previous Tekkens cost extra.  Seriously, they should've been added to the PS4/X1/PC base game as a core improvement.  Charging for brand new characters that didn't appear in the series before wouldn't bother me.

 

A game can have triple-A graphics & always stay at 60 FPS without a single drop, but if the gameplay is bad (thanks to some serious flaw like broken controls, major imbalances, weak enemy AI, etc), then all that is for nothing.  I disagree with Jim Ryan's assertion that nobody wants to play older games.  There is room for them alongside the current gen ones.

[Feral]

19 hours ago, Arcesus7 said:

 

I will agree with your comment there because I think the same. And I know you mentioned that you are not saying I'm judging the game based on the plat, but I want to make clear that I'm really not I think RDR2 is a fantastic piece of game design, I think the voice acting, the music, the setting and story are fantastic, and the experience overall is very well put together. 

 

But, since I'm also a completionist, going for the plat also makes me realize how grindy it is in terms of what the devs intended for us to do if we want to complete the game. That's all. 

 

But yes you see a lot of topics here on this forum caring more about trophy lists than the actual games themselves. Personally, I don't play a game because of its trophy list or avoid it for the same reason. I play games that I'm interested in, but then also aim at completing them. 

Oh yeah, there's no denying it's a bloody hard slog to plat RDR2. The singleplayer trophies take a lot of effort but then online is a bitch especially after yesterday's update.

 

Yeah it's mental, this tunnel vision on trophies and not caring what the game is like. That's cool because you're not letting trophies dictate what you play and I can respect that.

[cris3f]

On 2/27/2019 at 1:29 AM, Spaz said:

As I'm slowly working on my backlog I find myself becoming more and more out of touch with today's video games. AAA games in general to me have become a bunch of polished turds that once you get past the first few hours of gameplay, they're not as exciting in my opinion as they could be.

 

Case in point, I'm talking about games like Far Cry: New Dawn, Just Cause 4, Fallout 76, Darksiders 3 and Metro: Exodus. The way I look at them, I couldn't give two shits about them. Only Metro: Exodus and Darksiders 3 are games I have any interest towards getting.... at some point. By the time I purchase and get around to these games it's about six months to one year past their release date, and there are a bunch of new AAA games for people on this website to buy and share their thoughts with others.

 

I find myself going back to older PS3 games and the older PS4 library (roughly 2013 - 2015ish). It seems very standard these days for a AAA game to generate some sort of controversy, because that's what the media dickheads want and that's what people want to hear. It's been a recurring trend since the Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 controversies back in 2011 - 2012. Then comes out Dead Space 3 a year later and more controversy arises.

 

Today however, it has to be every few games. Fallout 76 is online only and people bitched about that, not staying true to what Bethesda did before. Battlefield V was released to a lot of controversy and that game hasn't been as successful as Battlefield 1 or Battlefield 4. Metro: Exodus is being bitched about for it's exclusivity.

 

Because the video game industry is so big now, there has to be a controversy to keep the wheels rolling. Big head companies like EA, Activision and Ubisoft are under constant scrutiny. Rockstar Games is no stranger to controversy, going back to Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001. But even their latest game, Red Dead Redemption 2, generated a little controversy, just not as much as the other games I mentioned.

 

The Playstation 4 exclusives that are enhanced for the PS4 Pro and published by Sony Computer Entertainment are the only AAA games left I feel where they're not just a bunch of bullshit thrown at you. But even I have become a little disappointed in these games because they're offering the same selling point. Days Gone was a game I was looking forward to these past two years but seeing that it's yet another zombie apocalypse game with the same kinds of mechanics that we've seen in many other AAA games I have my doubts on buying it near release date.

 

Is this self entitlement? Do we expect too much from video games now? Maybe. But I find myself being a lot more engaged with old retro games and indie games that cost a mere fraction of what you have to pay for a new AAA game. Older AAA games on the PS3 and early PS4 era I find myself enjoying a lot more. Maybe I'm just weird that way.

 

Personally I couldn't give two shits about all the trending gaming articles out there, what Jim Sterling says, or what said dickhead on Twitter who is a head developer is tweeting about why said game is having problems. These new games just don't cut it for me like they used to. They're a fancy way of trying to make money.

 

Ubisoft did just that with the Ultimate Edition of Assassins Creed: Odyssey. Oh look, you have to pay over $100 for it but since you're buying through the Playstation Store you can't get a lot of the cool collectibles that you normally would if you bought a Collectors Edition. 2KGames put Lebron James face on the cover of NBA 2K19 on the Playstation Store, and they offered a deluxe version for over $90. Capitalism at it's finest.

 

What do you all think?

 

Video Games is no longer something done with passion and naivety like in the starting days of the industry. It's a business, a big business, and it's handled like that with its benefits and handicaps. The main point is that innovation is no longer something most publishers look for, instead betting for the tried and tested because that's what the mainstream customer wants. Something that will hold their attention for a few hours. Or in some cases, because of financial reasons or just because they just enjoy one or two games, a lot of gamers have a limited number of titles. Innovation is coming mostly from indie developers, but the video games industry is a lot like the movies industry theses days. Mostly tried and tested stuff, repeated ad nausea. It sells anyway, so no changes will come. And like in the old days a lot of indie stuff is junk or unplayable.

Granted it was a lot easier to be innovative in the NES era. A lot of stuff was new in those times, even with the limitations of the hardware of the ancient days. But playability and fun was more important to developers than these days, where looks and show off are what is more important. What sells is the first impression, not the long run.

I don't put my money on any PS4 or xbox One titles at launch. Frankly the only ones that have really impressed me in the last few years are Horizon Zero Dawn and No Mans Sky, which although neither is totally original they're really clever and well done. And yes No Mans Sky was somewhat a disappointment and a mess when launched, but to their credit they managed to turn it around. Only console where I buy titles at launch or soon after that these days is the Switch, and just a few. The previous one was the Vita.

Sad is that this only will get worse. Adulthood of the video games industry isn't as interesting and fun as its childhood. There's a pattern there...

 

 

 

[Alantor32]

To Spaz, the creator of this topic. If you're really not happy with today's gaming, I suggest finding a different hobby and not paying attention to social media. Especially social media topics about censorship, war and other crap, those things poisoned the mind.

 

I know you are not into anime ( I mean, I and many others love anime and play games that the anime is based on), but may I suggest some Dungeons and Dragons table top games or other table top games that can get you interested? Or try playing trading card games (I know Pokemon, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh are out of the question since they are anime themed trading card games.) like sports and other stuff that interest you.

 

Or try collecting comic books and read them like any hobby.

 

If those don't work, then I don't know what will. But like I said before, you could have turned this into a status update instead of a thread, but I see it's too late for that. ?

[thepeaguy83]

I have no problem with today's games, but I do feel that the 80s and 90s are of the golden age era of gaming. Why? Because I played video games since 1987, so I followed the trends for 32 years.

Maybe it's due to age, but gaming has lost its magic for me ages ago. Most games today are, like Spaz said, polished turds: fancy graphics with game play mechanics that haven't evolved in years.

Again, I still enjoy video games, but I do agree with Spaz's assessment on gaming today.

Edited March 2, 2019 by thepeaguy

[AJ_Radio]

On 2/27/2019 at 0:19 AM, Arcesus7 said:

~snip~

 

I understand there are lots of young people today who almost automatically love the new video games. It caters to them, that’s what they’re targeting, and they are the audience that gets these companies the most money. 

 

But no matter how many times people try to tell me that Far Cry: New Dawn is fantastic or that Kingdom Hearts 3 is absolutely worth a buy, I just can’t see what’s so fantastic about them. 

 

@Nighcisama said it best on this thread. I understand that somebody 10 years younger than me will likely have a much more positive opinion on games today. I was the same way with the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation 2 games. But I’m older and quite frankly, video games just don’t have that feeling like they used to. 

 

I mean, I’ve been gaming for over 25 years, so that is probably why I feel the way I do. Older people have a more difficult time getting into the new stuff, but that’s completely natural. It all happens to us eventually.

[ProfBambam55]

reading this thread makes me wonder: am I the only satisfied "older" gamer here?...haha...i love the current gaming industry and think I can somewhat comprehend, accept, and embrace the evolution that has taken place to create today's market...there are many things that make the playing field completely different to when we were kids...technology (an obvious one), accessibility, variety, cost (both of production and to consumers), risk factor, and competition...

 

with technology, I think games have evolved with other forms of technology and that this often limits what is possible within them...we went from controllers with a few buttons to ones with over a dozen...for monitors, from 8-bit to 4k, 3d, and vr...from wires everywhere to wireless everything...from analog to digital...from memory cards to HDDs and online storage...

 

accessibility and variety are also huge factors...we have access to so much, sooooo much content and so easily...both old and new all readily available from our comfy chairs at home if we wish...of course some of it is going to be good, some of it is going to be bad, some epic, and some horrible...is there a larger proportion of bad games now than there were before?...i don't know...i think the market appeals to a broader audience so it may seem that way but likely is the same as it used to be...there's just more of something for everyone...so my question is: is it the market that has gotten worse in quality or are people just more critical of games that they are not a fan of?...or of a direction a franchise or company has taken that they use to/want to/many people like?...

 

if we take sports, fighting, racing games as examples, what can feasibly be added to newer games?...there are only a certain number of button combinations and prompts and possible boundaries that can be developed before they become so complicated the gameplay suffers and we complain: "I miss the days when madden (fifa, mortal kombat, gran turismo, etc) was just playing football...it's all math and strategy now"...so I think it's natural for games to be somewhat repetitive generation after generation...change too much and consumers complain that the franchise is not what it used to be...don't change enough and complaints of boredom and repetition arise...so it would be logical for developers to take small risks to see what works and what doesn't...again, some succeed, some flop...

 

on to cost...and here's a touchy one for some...i can honestly say that the cost of gaming has not changed much since I was a kid...i'd even argue that i've seen it get cheaper over my lifetime...what other industry can claim that the cost of their products has barely risen over the last few decades?...i can't think of any really aside from porn...the ps and online stores are always chalk full of deals...full games and ultimate editions for under $30?...insane...i think gaming is cheaper than ever if you're a bargain hunter...and the options to bargain hunt are impressive if one is balling on a budget...

 

and what about those of us who have disposable income who want to pay higher prices for "better" content?...well, unfortunately, people who don't want to spend money want access to the same content as the big spenders so we've shifted to a microtransaction market...not one I'm a fan of but an inevitable shift in strategy for companies to keep profits higher than production costs and to make money off those who want to spend it...yes, in most cases it's still a choice...i'd prefer not to delve too deeply into microtransactions other than to say that they are kind of a necessary evil that exists that I think most of us can agree we strongly dislike...

 

a little off topic here, but yes, I'm also a big business advocate...companies making more money to me means more potential families fed, more money flowing back into the economy, and more productive hands and minds on projects...if you look at activision for example, one that seems to get criticized a lot, they have been rated in the top 100 companies to work for for several years now...and ubisoft regularly makes canada's list...no small feat imo and a sign that perhaps they are not as evil and greedy as they might seem despite engaging in what some may consider shady business practices...

 

and this all ties into risk factor...with millions and billions (and likely trillions soon if not already) of dollars at stake and fierce competition between the mobile, pc, and console market, everyone is looking to grab our hard earned pennies however they can...it's no surprise that companies are investing huge sums into advertising and yes, even psychologists, to help in their fight for profit (running a business with a "let's try to make less than last year" mentality is odd to me)...and it's all about risk vs. reward...let's take vr as a very simple example...3d is also one that comes to mind...new technology, the possibility to create something epic arises...but at what cost?...what if a company invests a huge amount into what they believe is an epic game or technology and it flops?...well, more safe and cost-effective to re-release skyrim or borderlands to test the waters before considering investing huge sums into vr...and how about that touchpad on the ds4?...useless, right?...i wonder how much it cost to develop...for this reason, I think we can expect to see a call of duty x, assassin's creed galaxy, gta viii, and so on...they are proven sellers and promoted accordingly...of course companies invest a lot in making us want to want them and try to keep the same formula while only changing the setting, story, gameplay, etc. just a tad...

 

I think what this has created is a broad, baby-step, often very slow and rather safe-evolving market where the ones who take big risks tend to be copycatted quickly as everyone tries to get a piece of the pie...or criticised heavily and $hat on from 1000 different directions...with new games coming out what seems to be every week, which ones will we choose to buy, for how much, and how invested will we be in them?...and what about games that take longer to develop and are a huge investment like god of war, last of us, uncharted, gta, etc?...what sets them apart from the rest and how are they going to compete?...before we buy, are we going to wait for reviews to make a decision on whether to buy them or not?...and who is reviewing?...and what is being reviewed?...the company, the franchise, the gameplay, the multiplayer or lack thereof, the visuals, the platform, the trophy list, the frame rate, etc.?...will we pre-order or wait for a sale?...

 

if we think back to when we were kids, the playing field is entirely different here...there is so much more of a critical market that likes comparisons and defines quality and perfection in so many different ways...it's kind of a mind-boggling perfect mess, really...this site serves as an excellent example of this...how many threads have we seen for new games (or this one criticising the industry as a whole) that are basically people arguing over opinions on some kind of 1-10 scale of epicness?...

 

side note: remember when we were kids, going to school and everyone talking about the latest game, ogling over screenshots in the latest issue of nintendo power, only to then rush to the nearest store and cream our shorts over the box art before buying the one that everyone was raving about?...gaming shops were scarce...arcades existed; everyone crowding around the machines, pockets full of (often ill-gained) quarters, waiting, yes waiting, for their turn to shine (now that's what I call multiplayer)...well, they were epic times but the cost of rent went up, so inevitably did the cost of playing, technology and gamers' mentality changed, and a variety of other factors led to the end of this epic era...my point is that industry evolution led to change  and we never know what will be the catalyst in attaining the next level...will it be a new technology?...a brilliant idea?...an accident that turns out to be a game changer?...this is the idea I've been trying to convey...

 

to sum it all up, at the end of the day, we all have the same choices...buy what we want to buy, play what we want to play, like what we want to like, and think what we want to think...i tend to be a positive person so I tend to try to see things in a positive light...as with anything, the gaming industry has many flaws but also many great aspects to it...and yes, I do believe that great games are being released every year that will go down in history as classics in someone's books...focus on the negative and in today's world you will find a ton of people to agree with...same goes for the positive or the indifferent...and sometimes getting out of touch is what's needed to get back into touch with things, too...all lead to evolution so all are necessary...can't help but love this world...

[AJ_Radio]

On 3/4/2019 at 11:47 AM, ProfBambam55 said:

~snip~

 

Variety is the biggest factor in gaming today. I can buy 10, 20, 30, 50 different games within a span of just one day thanks to the internet. I don’t have to spend that much either because there’s a good chance one or two games are going to be on sale. It’s easier than ever to buy a bunch of games priced under $10 - 20 each. That’s basically how I got a backlog of over 100 games. 

 

Technology makes us more at ease and we’re more comfortable. But it also makes us less excited for things we otherwise would be excited about. 

 

I used to go to a local video store and at Blockbuster to rent my games. Because I was only allowed to go once every few weeks, the feeling of waiting to play your game was much greater. This didn’t apply to kids either. Grownups made a lot less money but they were able to buy a lot more with $1 back then. Video games however were priced rather high, in fact some Nintendo 64 games were fetching prices for over $60. So being able to grab that game you were looking forward to for a long time felt good, even if it turned out to suck. 

 

Today I can buy dozens of games without having to leave my chair, but that feeling of looking forward to a game is long gone to me. 

 

I feel today’s kids don’t get out much and that is reflected in how much they use the Internet. I made a topic on this a short while ago, but I truly feel I was one of the last kids who was able to experience being a kid, without the presence of social media. Back then social media was basically sitting in those old Yahoo chat rooms and talking to some random idiot, and browsing a bunch of poorly constructed websites that were hosted by Geocities. 

 

I’m just not as excited about video games as I used to be. The reason is probably because I have played them for over 25 years. I do my best to get the most enjoyment I can out of video games, regardless if they’re little indie games or AAA games that cost over $100 million to make. 

 

I can go on, but for now I’m just going to stop here.

[ProfBambam55]

13 minutes ago, Spaz said:

I’m just not as excited about video games as I used to be...

then I'm confident that you and I won't be able to relate on this point...i've also been gaming for just over 30 years now and still loving it...my unplayed collection is well over 300 titles and I look forward to getting to every single one of them (don't tell anyone, but I sometimes secretly drool over them...haha)...i have to wonder why you would amass a backlog of 100 games if you're not overly inspired to play them...seems kind of odd...i'm quite the opposite...so many games look good that I just have to buy them while I can...and so far only a few have been a bit disappointing but all have been fun in some way or another...

 

our generation probably was the last to live without social media but it is what it is...our great grandparents were probably the last generation without cars or TV and they probably thought that you and I didn't get out much...haha...it's all relative...as previously stated, I try to embrace evolution...as far as I'm concerned, we're lucky to live in a time like now so why not love it?...

 

i'm not trying to convince you to be excited about gaming...i'm acknowledging that you're not and sharing a different perspective...our upbringings are likely quite similar despite our differences in interests so I'm suggesting that perhaps how long you've been gaming and the shift in society has nothing to do with your current lack of excitement...here's a thought and do what you will with it: it may often seem easier to blame the world around us for our lack of happiness as it allows us to look away from ourselves and the part we have to play in it...

[AJ_Radio]

46 minutes ago, ProfBambam55 said:

then I'm confident that you and I won't be able to relate on this point...i've also been gaming for just over 30 years now and still loving it...my unplayed collection is well over 300 titles and I look forward to getting to every single one of them (don't tell anyone, but I sometimes secretly drool over them...haha)...i have to wonder why you would amass a backlog of 100 games if you're not overly inspired to play them...seems kind of odd...i'm quite the opposite...so many games look good that I just have to buy them while I can...and so far only a few have been a bit disappointing but all have been fun in some way or another...

 

My backlog is nothing drastic. But playing through all those games takes a long time, it's not going to take a few weeks.

 

Many of these games I got because I was interested in getting them and at the time they were released I simply missed out. I used to spend a lot of time on MMOs such as Runescape and World of Warcraft, I poured thousands of hours into those two games when I could of been trying out dozens if not hundreds of different console games.

 

You have over 300 unplayed games. That's fine, but for me that isn't something I can properly manage because I will likely never get around to playing all of them.

 

The point I was making is it's very easy now to amass a large collection of games, especially digital since you don't have to wait for an Amazon order or go to your local Best Buy to grab a new copy of Days Gone. I may pick that up next month depending on how things go for me financially. For now my focus is to reduce my backlog to around half. 50 games or less is pretty ideal.

 

46 minutes ago, ProfBambam55 said:

our generation probably was the last to live without social media but it is what it is...our great grandparents were probably the last generation without cars or TV and they probably thought that you and I didn't get out much...haha...it's all relative...as previously stated, I try to embrace evolution...as far as I'm concerned, we're lucky to live in a time like now so why not love it?...

 

The time we spent on games as kids is nothing compared to how much time kids are spending today on their iPhones, iPads and laptops.

 

Our generation is good at technology. We are very good at conversing on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Reddit. But I find a lot of kids today and even a lot of my peers are very poor at communicating face to face. My parents did not have internet or computers, they were encouraged to talk face to face.

 

There are a lot of good things today. But I'm not going to pretend that everything is all well and good because it's not. Admittedly I am a pessimist, I generally look at the worst outcomes before I start to look at the good outcomes.

 

Our great grandparents complained about the Hippies. Those same Hippies who once rebelled against the government and wanted equality and Civil Rights are now the people running our government. They're complaining about us and our kids in the same fashion as their parents and grandparents did on them, but they're ruining our government. It's a generational cycle. They're out of touch of what our expectations are and what we want. But so were their grandparents when they were young. That is something that has never really changed.

 

Technology enhances our lives, but with technology comes new problems. Today one of those problems is working on implementing a new series of IP Addresses and upping our cybersecurity. Our generation is at the forefront of those problems.

 

46 minutes ago, ProfBambam55 said:

i'm not trying to convince you to be excited about gaming...i'm acknowledging that you're not and sharing a different perspective...our upbringings are likely quite similar despite our differences in interests so I'm suggesting that perhaps how long you've been gaming and the shift in society has nothing to do with your current lack of excitement...here's a thought and do what you will with it: it may often seem easier to blame the world around us for our lack of happiness as it allows us to look away from ourselves and the part we have to play in it...

 

I'm not giving up on gaming. There are plenty of games out there still that I look forward to playing and games in my backlog I look forward to playing.

 

Gaming has been my life. But it's no longer the primary focus. A few people have brought up that I lost interest around the time that gaming became totally mainstream dependent. To me it's no longer special and doesn't hold that charm like it did.

 

It's mostly probably to do with the fact that I'm older and I understand things from a different perspective. I'm going to guess that you grew up playing your share of NES and SNES games and you've seen how much the industry has changed over the past 30 years. It used to be where gaming was mostly seen as an activity that kids were into, while the parents and the adults saw it as nothing more than a waste of time. Today gaming has become streamlined and it's easy to pick out what you want to play and try out. But I feel it has lost a lot of originality and most of the big companies have stopped taking risks for fear that they might upset their publishers. That's why I enjoy a lot of indie games because they are more readily able to experiment with different ideas, you can get a game that is wildly different from the other.

 

Nostalgia plays a huge part in why I feel the way I do. I just haven't been "up-to-date" with the latest consoles, especially the PC market which I'm about a good 5 to 6 years behind everybody else.

Edited March 6, 2019 by Spaz

[DarkHpokinsn]

On 2/26/2019 at 7:29 PM, Spaz said:

As I'm slowly working on my backlog I find myself becoming more and more out of touch with today's video games. AAA games in general to me have become a bunch of polished turds that once you get past the first few hours of gameplay, they're not as exciting in my opinion as they could be.

 

Case in point, I'm talking about games like Far Cry: New Dawn, Just Cause 4, Fallout 76, Darksiders 3 and Metro: Exodus. The way I look at them, I couldn't give two shits about them. Only Metro: Exodus and Darksiders 3 are games I have any interest towards getting.... at some point. By the time I purchase and get around to these games it's about six months to one year past their release date, and there are a bunch of new AAA games for people on this website to buy and share their thoughts with others.

 

I find myself going back to older PS3 games and the older PS4 library (roughly 2013 - 2015ish). It seems very standard these days for a AAA game to generate some sort of controversy, because that's what the media dickheads want and that's what people want to hear. It's been a recurring trend since the Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 controversies back in 2011 - 2012. Then comes out Dead Space 3 a year later and more controversy arises.

 

Today however, it has to be every few games. Fallout 76 is online only and people bitched about that, not staying true to what Bethesda did before. Battlefield V was released to a lot of controversy and that game hasn't been as successful as Battlefield 1 or Battlefield 4. Metro: Exodus is being bitched about for it's exclusivity.

 

Because the video game industry is so big now, there has to be a controversy to keep the wheels rolling. Big head companies like EA, Activision and Ubisoft are under constant scrutiny. Rockstar Games is no stranger to controversy, going back to Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001. But even their latest game, Red Dead Redemption 2, generated a little controversy, just not as much as the other games I mentioned.

 

The Playstation 4 exclusives that are enhanced for the PS4 Pro and published by Sony Computer Entertainment are the only AAA games left I feel where they're not just a bunch of bullshit thrown at you. But even I have become a little disappointed in these games because they're offering the same selling point. Days Gone was a game I was looking forward to these past two years but seeing that it's yet another zombie apocalypse game with the same kinds of mechanics that we've seen in many other AAA games I have my doubts on buying it near release date.

 

Is this self entitlement? Do we expect too much from video games now? Maybe. But I find myself being a lot more engaged with old retro games and indie games that cost a mere fraction of what you have to pay for a new AAA game. Older AAA games on the PS3 and early PS4 era I find myself enjoying a lot more. Maybe I'm just weird that way.

 

Personally I couldn't give two shits about all the trending gaming articles out there, what Jim Sterling says, or what said dickhead on Twitter who is a head developer is tweeting about why said game is having problems. These new games just don't cut it for me like they used to. They're a fancy way of trying to make money.

 

Ubisoft did just that with the Ultimate Edition of Assassins Creed: Odyssey. Oh look, you have to pay over $100 for it but since you're buying through the Playstation Store you can't get a lot of the cool collectibles that you normally would if you bought a Collectors Edition. 2KGames put Lebron James face on the cover of NBA 2K19 on the Playstation Store, and they offered a deluxe version for over $90. Capitalism at it's finest.

 

What do you all think?

Umm what is Days Gone doing that other games have done? Cause from what I’ve seen they’re doing some great revolutionary stuff in Days Gone. Sounds like a personal problem, if you don’t like modern games no one really cares, cause video games in general are in a great place. Capatalism is great by the way.

On 3/4/2019 at 0:20 AM, Spaz said:

 

I understand there are lots of young people today who almost automatically love the new video games. It caters to them, that’s what they’re targeting, and they are the audience that gets these companies the most money. 

 

But no matter how many times people try to tell me that Far Cry: New Dawn is fantastic or that Kingdom Hearts 3 is absolutely worth a buy, I just can’t see what’s so fantastic about them. 

 

@Nighcisama said it best on this thread. I understand that somebody 10 years younger than me will likely have a much more positive opinion on games today. I was the same way with the Nintendo 64 and the PlayStation 2 games. But I’m older and quite frankly, video games just don’t have that feeling like they used to. 

 

I mean, I’ve been gaming for over 25 years, so that is probably why I feel the way I do. Older people have a more difficult time getting into the new stuff, but that’s completely natural. It all happens to us eventually.

Video games have only gotten better, you’re just getting cynical with age. Also Far Cry New is fantastic.

On 2/26/2019 at 7:44 PM, MidnightDragon said:

I definitely think that the golden era of gaming was the 90s to early 2000s. That being said, not everything about modern gaming is bad. Played some really good stuff. I will say I don't care how the industry's trying to bleed us dry and try to force this games as service BS on us.

Lol no, now is the golden era of games, cause there is so much vareity and choice and amazing quality games. Take the nostalgia glasses off.

Edited March 7, 2019 by DarkHpokinsn

[AJ_Radio]

3 hours ago, DarkHpokinsn said:

Umm what is Days Gone doing that other games have done? Cause from what I’ve seen they’re doing some great revolutionary stuff in Days Gone.

 

I look at it as yet another post apocalypse game with zombies. 

 

Doesn’t mean it’s bad, because if God of War and Marvel’s Spider-Man showed us anything then Days Gone is going to have a high standard of quality. 

 

But... we have Dying Light, The Last of Us, The Evil Within, Dead Island, the Dead Rising games, and about a hundred other zombie games. We have enough.

 

3 hours ago, DarkHpokinsn said:

Sounds like a personal problem, if you don’t like modern games no one really cares, cause video games in general are in a great place. Capatalism is great by the way.

 

Yeah, because I’m just one person making an opinion.

 

I can give you countless reasons why capitalism is bad, but that’s another topic for another time. 

 

3 hours ago, DarkHpokinsn said:

Video games have only gotten better, you’re just getting cynical with age. Also Far Cry New is fantastic.

 

Far Cry: New Dawn looks to be another iteration of Far Cry, and virtually identical to Far Cry 5 in many ways. 

 

It doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest. Then again I was never much for first person shooters. 

 

3 hours ago, DarkHpokinsn said:

Lol no, now is the golden era of games, cause there is so much vareity and choice and amazing quality games. Take the nostalgia glasses off.

 

And I suppose everything that’s old is bad and everything new is good. 

 

There was lots of innovation in that time period, and I consider it to be the most important years for the medium. 

 

You’re talking about accessibility, thanks to today’s technology. That is the biggest benefit we have. It’s not just video games, it’s TV shows, movies, music and virtually every medium that gives us even the slightest of entertainment value. 

 

Everything is going digital. I don’t see that as entirely a good thing. 

[jackmadrox]

I feel like this current generation of gaming (PS4, Xbox One) was dead in the water for the first couple of years. There was nothing I wanted to play, really. As my PS4 collected dust, I plugged in the old PS2 and went down memory lane. But then after awhile, it began to feel stale. I realized I wanted to stay up to date with the current generation of gaming because there's always something that comes along that kicks ass. When I heard Friday The 13th was being made for current gen, that just got me all excited and optimistic for the current gen. I really have no interest in COD games or Assassin's Creed etc, all the typical over hyped garbage that tends to get pushed to the moon. There has to be a game that caters to a certain niche market to get me interested. I guess you can say F13 brought me back to current gen. 

 

But holy hell, the unbelievable buggy glitch fest F13 was brought my excitement down a few notches. I mean, you couldn't even play the game on release day! And more and more you see games that get released that are obviously NOT FINISHED YET, and you're all excited to play them, but let's say there's a game breaking bug, you have to wait until the game developers issue a patch to fix it. But by then, they don't care, they got their money. What happened to games being finished before they're released? Sometimes it feels like there's no drive or passion put into making a video game anymore, with very few exceptions. It feels like a game gets shat out for the sole purpose of a cash grab (*cough* Fallout 76). 

 

But I have been pleasantly surprised as well. For example, WWE 2K19. Now the game has it's problems, (nothing new there) but I was very happy with the story mode this year. WWE games have been souless husks of their former glory days (early 2000's). But 2K19 took a small leap forward. The story mode is fun, imaginative, and reminded me very much of Tony Hawk's Underground for PS2. Unfortunately, online play is full of players who spam the same moves over and over again, and the submission system is damn near impossible against the cpu. But, improvement was made nonetheless.

 

 Maybe current gen games did hit a low there for awhile. But, it's getting better I think.

 

[Fing3rButt3r3]

A little bit, thats why I prefer remasters and remakes. Its all old story telling, a blast from the past! New stuff just tends to cater to the new younger audience...

[Don_Chipotle]

I guess you sometimes get burned from playing the same not because you want to, but because you dont know some franchises that have years, or are something that you knew existed, its a good thing that gamepass/ps plus extra deluxe exists because that way you can search for games or things you like, i love rythm games and thanks to ps extra i looked at invector avicci, and its a game thats its fun, straight enjoyable, and simple, yet a challenge to master the game at higher difficulties just for the thrill, since the trophy list isnt that impossible, but try that, go blind in a game, it can be a good experience doing it sometimes