Gaming Concepts That Would Revolutionize the Industry or at Least Make for a Good Game

[stompy]

Well as the graphics get better the AI get better, and it gives way to better art.

True, and Half Life is a good example of this, but what I'm taking about are games like Crysis, where the developers created a graphically intensive game that really didn't have much else for it. The selling point of the game was the graphics, but it led to the game being just an average FPS that practiucally no one can play.

I'm talking about developers moving in the direction of games like Okami or the new POP, where it's not the graphical bells and whistles, but the art-style. Hell, stop worrying about graphics so much and make a fun game. That's what I'm asking for.

 

[Unholykrumpet]

...I practice Kendo (swordfighting), and I really want some company to create a decent swordfighting game. Red Steel was a crime against Bokken wielders everywhere. The guns aspect completely destroyed it. I don't care how much it would cost, if they could make an arcade game (or electric entertainment of some sort) of a swordfighting Sim, I would pay out the ass for it. My dream swordfighting sim:
1. Wireless Bokken sword (or even cheap plastic katana with wireless response)
2. No guns, no projectiles
3. at least four large lcd display screens in the shape of a box around you (one on the top for enemies from above would be sick though)...although at this point I'd be satisfied with one large screen if it was a decent sim.
4. Some way to detect change in height (Crouched stance would actually make your character crouch and the screen go down)
5. NO HUD
6. One shot kills/deaths (AI becomes progressively more skilled as game goes on)

I actually played something like this at an arcade in Arizona, I spent over 100$ playing that game (pay per hour)...and it was the best way I could have spent 100$ EVER! But even that sim had glaring flaws like guns entering into play like 20 minutes in. Boo devs.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I know Crysis flaunted it's graphics a lot but I thought Crytek just had a big stiffy for making jawdropping tropical islands and did it because they wanted to, not to fool people into thinking the game is good - I mean, did anyone actually play Crysis or am I the only person alive who did? I'm seeing this quote everywhere:

what I'm taking about are games like Crysis, where the developers created a graphically intensive game that really didn't have much else for it.

The selling point of the game was the graphics, but it led to the game being just an average FPS that practiucally no one can play.

Seriously, am I the only person who played the game instead of turning it on and then staring out into the ocean because it looked so pretty and forgot that I was playing?

It's like nowadays it's cool to say that CoD4 is awesome and not condemn it for anything, but call Crysis shit because it looks good. Hell, people can also say that Okami, new POP, and No More Heroe's cell shading is "a gimmick" if they want to, No More Heroes is pretty much a repetetive button mashing stick waggling fest with a stupid hub that padded all the gameplay, Okami is interesting and creative and didn't just rely on it's style like NMH did and used it's style to fit the theme, not just to look cool amongst the crowd, and the new Prince of Persia actually is trying to sell itself with it's new art style because no other details have been released, except that pretty much everything in the old PoP's are gone - and yet everyone is gabbing off about how pretty those new graphics look.


I'll never understand the people who say "Crysis tried to sell itself with graphics" - I can't imagine anyone playing through the entire game and saying that, unless they are completely unimaginative and didn't take advantage of the environment or just the sheer amount of space and things you can do. I mean, saying it's an "average" FPS, but then being able to throw chickens at people's faces (and end up killing them) or crashing through the roof and killing everyone inside, must have not played a lot of the FPS games coming out.

Heck nowadays I don't see many games trying to "just improve the graphics" - even Gears of War (at the time being) when it was flaunting it's new Unreal 3 engine, tried to mix things up by making it emphasize heavily on cover (and then running out of cover to step on your enemie's faces and chainsaw them... ?) - and most sequels to those games just have a new coat of paint and some new features and items, and then continuation of the story. I have yet to see enough games this generation that tried to sell itself just with it's graphics alone - that I can fit on two hands. Even "intuitive" games like Assassin's Creed relied heavily on making the environment look pretty so that you wouldn't "see the bad parts".

 

[Korolev]

I would like to be able to base a character on the player's physical ability. For example, if the player is thin, the character is thin. If they player is heavy, so is the character. The characters physical strength, eye sight, athletic ability, will also be based on the player itself.

And based on that, the game play changes - a player who isn't physically strong might have to sneak around, while a player who is reasonably fit can attack directly and carry more gear.

Of course, I have no idea how to implement this sort of thing into a game, but I think it would be nice to alter the abilities of the character to fit with the player's abilities. It makes it more realistic.

 

[irrelevantnugget]

I would be very interested in a game in which time manipulation took a major part. (I will burn you if you say Timesplitters or Timeshift. Blinx I might exempt, though.)

What about Prince of Persia (the Sands of Time trilogy)? Those were heavy on time manipulation, except Warrior Within which doesn't count.

Those didn't occur to me.

How dare you!

At any rate, as for what I'd like to see:
Alone in the Dark apparantly has this episode system, which lets you skip levels at will (though you need a certain amount of levels cleared to reach the ending, or something).

Now imagine that system, with an interactive movie, such as Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, minus the raping of what could have been an awesome second half in a game.
Instead of effectively skipping the scene, you'd just see a bot take your character through the mission. At least I wouldn't break my gamepad in two (didn't really happen... almost, though) when Lucas wasn't able to climb a shitty fence or pole because the game didn't register my analog-stick-waggling properly.

 

[Ultrajoe]

God damn it gaming world, realise that no matter what the setting electric guitars add to combat.

Oh, your an elf? too good for some Power metal combat eh?

Im just saying, way too many OOOOWAAAHHH choir moments for my tastes...

(Halo is a bit of a paradox in my book, both the vocals and the guitar...

... Hmmm ...

I guess its better than both if i think about it, I love Halo's soundtrack, to me it almost makes up for the way they treated their fans expectations, beautiful first game, declining to average over the series.)

 

[The Thief]

I can think of a couple things I'd like to see. Not really revolutionary imo, and they may have been said already (only glanced over the thread)

A FPS/RTS. Kind of like Battlefield 1942, but scifi and you'd have more control over troop movement through a satellite image of the battlefield.

An FPS RPG with a non-linear main story. I imagine a game where your choices wouldn't just effect the ending, but the beginning and middle too. Where the differences made would be huge instead of minor. Not to be confused with a free-roam game like morrowind/stalker.

A game that would play itself, even while turned off. With code programmed into the startup that would check the system clock and create events or changes according to how long you were absent to simulate what happened while you were away.

 

[curlycrouton]

a combat system that allowed complete freedom to do whatever you want with whatever you want, and a lifelike damage and physics system e.g. a PKM (or gun to that effect) taking someones arm off with a spray of bullets, or blinding an enemy with a well aimed pistol shot. (i'm not a psycho)
Also, a method for wanting the player to absorb less damage, e.g. an actually painful white noise when you're hit, or something like that.
Don't get me wrong I'm not going for Flashpoint style difficulty, I believe in the FUN element of gameplay as well as realism, but realism in the physics, damage and interactivity areas needs improving

 

[JDLY]

And for the laser thing. Isn't it more for missles not planes? Since it's trying to get the thing to explode so it kills itself. Using it to kill planes would be harder. Well maybe not planes but tanks.

Yes it is for missiles but it would be a lot easier to destroy planes.
Missiles travel much faster and are much smaller.
Even if the plane had no explosives on it to target so it would blow up you could still always target the cockpit or the turbine.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I've been tooting this particular horn for awhile now, but I still feel the same.

An action game that is EVENT based rather than EXPLORATION based. While I like exploration, I've gotten beyond bored of wandering around level after level wondering where to go next. While I would like to see a game where straight up Exploration is a major point in the gameplay (One thing I like about Assassin's Creed and the Prince of Persia series) I definately want to see EVENT based gameplay integrated more strongly.

Here are some examples of what I mean, take Metal Gear Solid 4 and keep only the following things...

Spoiler

1) Evading the Gecko's
2) The first battle with the FROGS (Minus the poo jokes)
3) The Boss Fights
4) The Following Naomi Sequence
5) The Drebin Chase
6) The Town Gekko Evasion Sequence
7) Following the Rebel (but instead of having it be the entire scene, make it only for a single area)
8) The EVA Chase
9) The Explosive Gekko Fighting in Shadow Moses
10) The Metal Gear Escape
11) The Metal Gear Battle
12) The Whole Last Level.

There, you've halfed your gameplay time and doubled the exposure of awesome. Well, sort of, if the game still cost as much as it did I'd be annoyed.

My point is that I'm sick of "Time Padding" in games, why not keep the exciting events and ditch the boring go from Point A to Point B from place to place, fighting pointless enemies, solving boring puzzles stuff and keep the gameplay limited to the more exciting sequences.

 

[Kron_the_mad wants to be deleted]

how about an overcomplicated interface, like a full body suit the inflicts pain to the user as their character recives damage

 

[teknoarcanist]

@ saphatoreal and pedro
That's sort of what I was talking about earlier if you go read on the first page. A game in which you choose your own level of involvement, but it keeps going regardless, and your choices affect the narrative/cinematography. Take an opening; your character is delivering a voice over introduction, gets up, walks to the window, looks out over a city. Or, if you choose to involve yourself, you can make him take the gun off the desk as he's getting up, load it as he's walking across the room, and shoot the window out to let in the rain, which makes the scene more visually interesting.
I want to feel like a game has its own entire universe and is nice enough to include me, not that it's pandering and trying to tick off bullet-point lists of game mechanics and graphic power.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

 

[curlycrouton]

who wants to pay to hurt themselves?
that would never in a million years sell

 

[teknoarcanist]

who wants to pay to hurt themselves?
that would never in a million years sell

Sounds like a sci-fi short story to me. There would definitely be a passionate little clique of VR gaming purists; the kind of people that are into S&M and such.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

who wants to pay to hurt themselves?
that would never in a million years sell

Sounds like a sci-fi short story to me. There would definitely be a passionate little clique of VR gaming purists; the kind of people that are into S&M and such.

Yeah I was just about to ask if curlycrouton ever heard the term "masochist".

-but hey, we are here for "immershun" right? Bring the pain then damnit!

 

[defcon 1]

I have always had an idea of a life system. Let's say you're flying a plane and someone shoots out one of your engines. Instead of loosing HP or health, physics would bring your plane down and you could loose hitting the ground. Basically each shot would cripple the system(the plane and the way it works) and once the system is no longer functional, you loose. I'm not sure if something like that would make the game more fun than health based games, but I would like to see something like that happen.

 

[HSIAMetalKing]

I have an idea. It involves a vibrating electronic codpiece...

Eh. I'll stop while I'm ahead.

 

[Mr.Slayer]

What I personally thought was a pretty damn genious idea was the health meter in Ninja Gaiden. (maybe other games before, but i haven't played any other games with the same healthbar system) When you get shot in the face you should take some permanent damage from the shot, a small portion of health being unregenerable for long periods at a time. If you suck you should be punished for it, instead of just hiding behind a rock untill "the boo-boos go bye-bye." Yes I know health meters aren't very realistic, but running around with forty bullets in the face without any injuries isn't very true to real life either.

 

[ToyBox]

How about game where your player has to sleep, eat, go to their crappy job, and come home early enough to not miss American Idol. Sounds a lot like... like... real life?

I thought video games were meant to be all wacky and fun.