I think the only genre I've really fallen out with over the years has been FPS games. They just went in a direction that really didn't interest me at all.
Game genres you used to love
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I can sort of relate, I was just getting into the genre when suddenly all the aspect of it I liked started disappearing.Clive Howlitzer said:
Platforming action/adventure games. Crash Banidcoot, Tak, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, etc. I loved those games as I kid. Nowadays, I have a tough time getting into them. I seem to prefer more hack n' slash games nowadays or beat 'em ups.
I have to agree with the OP. I used to love JRPGs growing up. Now I find them hard to get into due to both mechanics and the amount of time needed to properly enjoy them. As a result, there are dozens of older titles I missed out on growing up that could easily be potential favourites (Breath of Fire IV, Rogue Galaxy, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy 9/12, etc) that I just have mark down as a missed experience due to how hard I find them to get into now a'days.
I can't think of any genres I used to favor as a kid, but I do have a reversal.
I used to be kinda "Meh" on the whole spectacle fighter thing, then rising came out and I went and bought ALL THE SPECTACLE FIGHTERS.
The entire genre just feels so fucking amazing to play.
I used to be kinda "Meh" on the whole spectacle fighter thing, then rising came out and I went and bought ALL THE SPECTACLE FIGHTERS.
The entire genre just feels so fucking amazing to play.
Can you elaborate on that OP?remnant_phoenix said:
I'm quite interested. To me not all J-RPGs are badly written but most indeed are... *cough* all Final Fantasies *cough* except for maybe Final Fantasy Tactics which is supposedly based on the historical: "War of the Roses".
Honestly, RTS. I'm an old hand. Stafcaft, Warcraft, all the Command and Conquer games, Mech Command...And I love Dawn of War II, Warcraft III, Starcraft II, X Comm, etc...
(at least in terms of mechanics. Plots can always be improved. I mean Starcraft II and Warcraft III! Jesus Christ!)
But recently, RTS has taken a huge hit. Either from too easy fights where I can conquer an "elite" opponent with a few tanks and a destroyer or those moronic nostalgia blinded gamers who think absurdly hard missions were what we had in the 90s.
Early Starcraft missions were hard, yes. But you could beat them with a dozen different strategies(usually just 200+ marines charging the lines for me, but fuck it, it works!) but now a days, RTS are simply puzzle games, where you guess what the oh so intelligent and beneficially endowed creators thought would make for an "interesting" tactic.
And all I can say is suck my beneficial endowment.
(at least in terms of mechanics. Plots can always be improved. I mean Starcraft II and Warcraft III! Jesus Christ!)
But recently, RTS has taken a huge hit. Either from too easy fights where I can conquer an "elite" opponent with a few tanks and a destroyer or those moronic nostalgia blinded gamers who think absurdly hard missions were what we had in the 90s.
Early Starcraft missions were hard, yes. But you could beat them with a dozen different strategies(usually just 200+ marines charging the lines for me, but fuck it, it works!) but now a days, RTS are simply puzzle games, where you guess what the oh so intelligent and beneficially endowed creators thought would make for an "interesting" tactic.
And all I can say is suck my beneficial endowment.
I guess my tastes have changed some as I have aged. But I can still enjoy any genre I've ever liked in the first place. The only ones "I used to love" that I can't anymore are the ones that are gone. Most of all, spacesim. Freespace kept it going with mods for a while, but that was just life support for a brain dead corpse. It's gone and I miss it. Also, vehicular combat. The halcyon days of Twisted Metal 2, Vigilante 8, and Rogue Trip. The PS 2 era and the crapfest that was Twisted Metal Black killed that genre.
But everything else I ever really enjoyed... still going.
But everything else I ever really enjoyed... still going.
I used to love JRPGs too but at some point between now and the early 2000's JRPGs went from being turn based to trying to oddly emulate MMO RPGs when it came to their combat systems. I'm mostly thinking of FFXII, Last Story and, Xenoblade Chronicles here; the trinity of disappointment for me. FFXIII didn't feel as much like an MMO but it didn't have my preferred turn-based combat and it didn't steal the combat from Kingdom Hearts, leaving the game feeling extremely Style-over-Substance. At least there are still the Pokemon and Mario RPGs.
I used to love arcade racing games like Hydro Thunder and Burnout but I don't know if that genre still exists. It seems like most racing games are either sims or, they're the worst parts of open-world sandboxes.
I used to love arcade racing games like Hydro Thunder and Burnout but I don't know if that genre still exists. It seems like most racing games are either sims or, they're the worst parts of open-world sandboxes.
Thanks for the feedback.Fox12 said:
And yeah, I've heard a lot about how Silent Hill 2 employs storytelling in a way that is unique to the video game medium. Me being who I am, that sounds like just my kind of thing, except that I have a very finicky relationship with survival horror.
Strangely enough, Jedi Outcast: Jedi Knight II ruined First Person Shooters for me.
To me that was the last great game in the genre. The level design was creative, the graphics were colorful and engaging and you get blasters, a lightsabre and Force powers! Everything else paled by comparison.
After that, I just stopped playing FPS games until Bioshock came along. It seemed like a worthy successor since it wasn't just a "run 'n' gun" type game. But I just found myself getting bored by the repetitiveness of it all. Yes, there were same great gameplay innovations and it had an engaging story, but after awhile it all just seemed...the same.
I think that's my problem with all games of this genre. I haven't found any sufficient variations on this theme to hold my interest. Or perhaps that's just the curse of the genre.
Or maybe, I just outgrew them.
To me that was the last great game in the genre. The level design was creative, the graphics were colorful and engaging and you get blasters, a lightsabre and Force powers! Everything else paled by comparison.
After that, I just stopped playing FPS games until Bioshock came along. It seemed like a worthy successor since it wasn't just a "run 'n' gun" type game. But I just found myself getting bored by the repetitiveness of it all. Yes, there were same great gameplay innovations and it had an engaging story, but after awhile it all just seemed...the same.
I think that's my problem with all games of this genre. I haven't found any sufficient variations on this theme to hold my interest. Or perhaps that's just the curse of the genre.
Or maybe, I just outgrew them.
I fell in love with RTS via Command and Conquer Red Alert on the Playstation. Sadly, when I finally got a PC and I wanted to sink my fangs in Supreme Commander, college happened. Suddently I had no patience or time to play and had to find my strategy fix elsewhere. So I turned to rogue-likes.
I prefer games that rely on gameplay. Story isnt that important for me unless i have many ways i can chose from. But Gameplay is most important for me. i like the grand strategy games of paradox interactive, round based tacitical games or real time strategy with pause option like Total War Games. besides that i like economy simulating games if theyre logical or rougelike RPGs. I also play realistic shooters, driving simulators like GTR or Assetto Corsa, Tactic Shooters (the old rainbox six'es with planning phase and so on), action rpgs if they have a challenging fighting system (Dark Souls, the old Gothic's) and i play a lot of (indie)games that have a unique idea, such as the escapist or Faster than light or games with classic gameplay systems, dungeon crawlers and so on.
Honestly, I'll just tell you what I've told other people. Watch a mature lets play, and then visit the wiki or watch the lore videos. It's got a pretty active community, kind of like dark souls. Just don't take anyone's word as gospel. I love Matt and Patt, for instance, but they got a lot wrong.remnant_phoenix said:
Edit: I stopped playing RTS's after going to college a few years ago. I loved them, but they became kind of easy after a while. More then that, they're a MASSIVEtime sink if you're not careful.
Racers - largely because of Turn10's Evil Empire approach to season passes, VIP content, and DLC packs for Forza 4. And so my racing wheel has been packed away, perhaps for good.
Also fighters/beat 'em ups, to an extent, in that I can no longer play them regularly any more, online or off. As with racers, the 'goal' of the game is so simple and set in stone it's hard to evolve, ergo it can get tirsome. Hence RPG's being more of a focus in the last gen and at present.
That said, it was the increasingly gimmicky, OTT designs and aesthetics of Tekken and Soul Calibur which began my move away from fighters - for me, both went down hill the moment they hit the number 3. Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue:CS got me back into the fold, at least for those IP's.
Also fighters/beat 'em ups, to an extent, in that I can no longer play them regularly any more, online or off. As with racers, the 'goal' of the game is so simple and set in stone it's hard to evolve, ergo it can get tirsome. Hence RPG's being more of a focus in the last gen and at present.
That said, it was the increasingly gimmicky, OTT designs and aesthetics of Tekken and Soul Calibur which began my move away from fighters - for me, both went down hill the moment they hit the number 3. Street Fighter IV and BlazBlue:CS got me back into the fold, at least for those IP's.
I used to be really into Myst clones. DON'T JUDGE ME.
Man, I used to somehow justify playing some really awful games back in the day... I wonder if I can still find The Crystal Key and warn the world...
Man, I used to somehow justify playing some really awful games back in the day... I wonder if I can still find The Crystal Key and warn the world...
When I said that "the JRPG genre is one of the biggest offenders", what I meant is what you said: that most, but not all, are badly written.Lazule said:
What really stands out to me is the flaunting of basic, fundamental storytelling elements.
Something like Uncharted could be argued to be derivative, relying too much on tropes of western action games and western movies, but it still has a comprehensible setting, understandable character motivations, and a well-paced plot with a clear exposition-rising action-climax-falling action-denouement arc.
Even Final Fantasy VII, for all it's striving to shock and disorient the player with character deaths and twists that reveal that the character is not who we, or he, thought he was, it still has a comprehensible setting, understandable character motivations, and a (mostly) well-paced plot with a clear exposition-rising action-climax-falling action-denouement arc.
From FFVII forward, it seems like JRPG writers, in a strive to either emulate FFVII or break out of its shadow, have (intentionally or unintentionally) broken out of basic guidelines for competent storytelling. FFXIII didn't have a comprehensible setting or understandable character motivations unless you read the in-game datalog, and that is just BAD writing. Also, the plot has NO sense of pacing whatsoever.
So, what I mean by saying that JRPGs are the worst offenders when it comes to bad writing, what I mean by that is that while video games in general have weak writing, relying too much on tropes, JRPGs are the worst (that I've played) about breaking fundamental rules of competent writing, leading to plot holes and/or incomprehensible characters/settings.
Ok, I thought it was going to be a post about how genres changed, and not how personal tastes changed. Oh, well, colorful platformers like Mario, Yoshi and Kirbi. I think I reached my saturation point when I couldn't keep playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 (I just went plain bored). Fighting games also is something that I used to love (Mortal Kombat was my favorite), and now I really don't have an itch for them anymore.
All the genres I used to love as a little kid have carried with me all the way here usually. MMO, RTS, Shooter, Platformer, Spectacle Fighters, Turn based Strategy...I love 'em all.
Though one type that has kinda floated off my radar for a while is co-op games. As a kid I used to have friends over all the time to play on the console to do co-op missions and stuff like that. I don't really play any co-operative games anymore. Games that were you and your friends vs an AI. Like Diablo or Borderlands. Mainly because of two reasons, lack of friends who have the game and are willing to play, or my ghetto PC can't run the new AAA title that everyone but me can hop on the bandwagon for.
Though one type that has kinda floated off my radar for a while is co-op games. As a kid I used to have friends over all the time to play on the console to do co-op missions and stuff like that. I don't really play any co-operative games anymore. Games that were you and your friends vs an AI. Like Diablo or Borderlands. Mainly because of two reasons, lack of friends who have the game and are willing to play, or my ghetto PC can't run the new AAA title that everyone but me can hop on the bandwagon for.