A new golden age for gaming?

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Spoiler

I disagree, the Gears of War series was probably my favorite new IP from last gen. I also feel the other way about Uncharted, I found them to be rather lackluster but I can still appreciate it for what it was. The Gears of War series truly felt unique and like it had a very large budget compared to pretty much every game from the previous generation, then comes Gears of War 4 where it felt like they focused more on how to suck the most money out from your fans by adding tons of microtransactions than on making a worthy sequel for Gears 3. Same thing with Halo, Halo 5 really dropped the ball, 2 of my favorite series of all time disappointed me for the first time just 1 year apart from each other.

You don't have to tell me twice, I spent 60 hours in Divinity 2 in a week, turn-based games like XCOM and Divinity are really addictive. Still, they don't capture me the same way ex like Halo and Gears ever did, they were more than great in almost every way, the graphics, the story, the atmosphere, the gameplay, the music, the characters, the multiplayer...it was all so good. They were unique in what they did, almost every gen had games that defined that gen, in a positive way of course. Can't say the same about this gen to be honest.

Shadow of Mordor was a nice surprise but it wasn't amazing or anything, I've still pre-ordered the sequel despite all the controversy.

Titanfall definitely didn't start off on a high note, it was a multiplayer only game that really lacked content, a sure flop. Titanfall 2 was an improvement in every way, I actually just finished it the other day and it was good, though all characters were pretty generic and I can't remember the name of anyone. It was also incredibly short, took me about 5-6 hours to beat on Hard.

Overwatch was great but it's an online-only competitive focused game, just like CSGO. They create almost as many frustrating moments as they create good. CSGO is one of my most played games of all time, I got around 1600 hours of game-time but I still wouldn't put in my top 10 games of all time.

Destiny, a game that lacked content and left so many people disappointed, me included. I bought a PS4 for it, for god's sake. My favorite developer have fallen and it hurts me. I'm only giving Destiny 2 a shot because it's coming for PC.

Watch Dogs, another game that disappointed many, the biggest PR blunder this gen some might say, a game that completely tarnished Ubisofts reputation. Watch Dogs 2 was even worse, as a game that is.

Can't really comment on Horizon Zero Dawn but it seems like just another great game in a sea of great games. I don't see it becoming a multi-billion dollar franchise with millions of super dedicated fans, I rarely see anyone even talk about it.

Don't like Japanese games (with a couple exceptions like MGS and RE). There is without a doubt a larger net of games these days but with smaller fish. I'd rather want 1 amazing game than 5 great ones.

I only played Gears for like a half-hour at a friends once so I can't really hate or praise it really. I do know the gameplay isn't going to be what I feel is a top-tier TPS. Uncharted is nowhere near great TPS gameplay either, it really takes all elements firing on all cylinders (Uncharted 2) for Uncharted to be good. In a sense, Gears/Uncharted to me is like God of War where God of War is nowhere close to a DMC/Bayo in gameplay so everything has to be top-notch because the gameplay alone can't carry the game. I'd take Vanquish any day over Gears/Uncharted.

Spoiler

I don't really have a fondness for any of the big new franchises outside of Horizon. There was like no negative talk about Horizon on its Reddit or anything, you wouldn't believe the percentage of people posting that they were sad to have finished the game because they wanted to keep playing. It was really quite amazing for this day and age. The sequel to Horizon will be very anticipated. You really don't need people to constantly talk about a game, lots of games you play over the course of a week to a month and it was just a great experience, you don't keep talking or posting about it (even if it's your GOAT). Very few games have that ability to stay in discussion and those are mostly online games, which leads me to what has defined this gen for the most part...

And that is developers purposefully trying to make those type of games that stay relevant for years. The whole MMO-looter shooter is basically the MMS of this gen with Destiny, The Division, and Anthem coming. Of course, Overwatch is geared that way to but not nearly as Skinner box-y as the other shooters. You had lots of other games try and fail for the most part at that as well like Battleborn (better than Overwatch IMO), Evolve, and Titanfall to an extent (as EA really thought it would be the next COD). I'd take this gen of shooters focused on more skill-based gameplay with return of fast movement to the genre after that dreadful MMS dominated last-gen.

To me, last-gen was the peak of exploiting the shit out of anything that became popular. You had everyone copying off COD4 for example. Then, it really felt like every game that had melee combat had to have Arkham combat from now 4 Arkham games themselves to Sleeping Dogs and even freaking Uncharted. I don't even know honestly what I'd rate Shadow of Mordor just due to becoming totally done with Arkham combat. I remember looking at that skill tree for the first time and already knowing what everything did and what skills were best because like 90% of the moves were straight out of Batman. Then, of course, last-gen started the whole Open World: The Game that's still very much a thing. Nothing felt fresh or new, it felt like every new game you had already played before it came out. Gears obviously got copied ad nauseam too.

What has changed this gen for me is the mid-tier developers becoming a thing again with aforementioned Divinity and Shadow Tactics. Even the AAAs seem to be learning that you can make more so niche games on a budget without needing mass appeal with 5+ million sales. The Souls series seems somewhat responsible for that. The new Hitman (that came with its own bullshit) was at least budgeted for the Hitman fanbase vs trying to make the series appeal to the masses resulting in Absolution, a game no one really wanted. Arkane Studios is allowed to make their games on rather small budgets as well. Lastly, if you feel AAA is fucking everything up, you can go to that mid-tier for arguably better experiences that don't have the latest and greatest graphics but are very polished games with solid graphics and presentation. Whereas just last-gen that drop-off from AAA to indie was much farther.

Seriously how can anyone feel anything but dismissive cynasism and dispassionate loathing for gaming these days?

Sounds like you should get another hobby, why you even bother visiting a gaming forum when you hate gaming so much is beyond me.

Because gaming is worth defending. The AAA is in shambles right now, and no one should feel content. Everyone should be up in arms over microtransactions, stale IPs, remakes, marketing lies. Rolling over and just getting out of the hobby because some suits decided to ruin it makes me question how much someone was ever truly committed to the hobby.

I fully admit there's a lot of bullshit in AAA. However, there's still quite a lot of AAA games devoid of that bullshit. I played Dishonored 2, The Last Guardian, Horizon, and Prey since last November and none of those games had any bullshit attached. Just looking at 2017 releases, and correct me if I'm wrong (I haven't played these games), it seems like there's several AAA games you can play without any bullshit like RE7, Nioh, Yakuza 0, Nier Automata, Persona 5, Gravity Rush 2. I'm guessing the new Zelda is fine too outside of the Amiibo BS. I think new Wolfenstein will be fine as well. Every medium has stale IPs and remakes, you can just not play them. Outside of the infamous Aliens Colonial Marines when did marketing straight-up lie? You had that Watch Dogs graphics thing but open world games always have graphics in flux during development unlike a linear game. Plus, Ubisoft literally showed exact missions from the game, the gameplay perfectly matched the final product. If you don't like the AAA market, there's that mid-tier that is pumping out just as good if not better games than AAA. Don't like Bethesda's paid mod bullshit, Divinity OS2 just came out and it's better than Skyrim anyway. Hob just came out, give that a try. There's Pillars of Eternity, a passion project by Obsidian. There's Shadow Tactics, probably the best stealth game in over a decade. There's Cities Skylines, you don't need EA to make Sim City anymore. Then, there's stuff like Danganronpa. There's niches being filled that haven't been filled in a long time, there's literally something for everyone if you just look past the AAA publishers.

I always thought Gears was pretty overrated in terms of being an actual TPS. It?s basically designed to be a glorified gallery shooter, and most of the guns felt the same. Even Uncharted had more recoil and gunplay variety. I will say it felt more satisfying blasting down the bigger enemies in Gears but after playing 1-3 they all simply lacked the depth to warrant more than a playthrough.

 

[dscross]

We are getting lots more variety in games very recently that we just weren't getting last-gen IMO. Genres considered niche weren't being made as they were deemed unprofitable because every game had to sell like 5 million (like EA with Dead Space). Games became so homogeneous whether it was a shooter (1st/3rd-person) or open world game. Just about every game with melee combat used Arkham combat. Even a series like Hitman tried to go all mainstream last-gen. There's been a great push from the mid-tier market successfully bringing back genres.

It's true that I have noticed a resurgence in certain types of games that were few and far between last gen (on consoles). I was surprised to see a game like Thimbleweed Park available for PS4, for example.

Developers also seem to be making an effort to remake loads of much older games, rather than just remastering newer stuff. I never thought Wonderboy the Dragon's Trap (Originally for Master System) would be available on PS4.