Innovation - what games did something new in 2011?

[LookingGlass]

We've had a lot of sequels this year, and plenty of games just trying to copy what's popular to make some money, but I'm sure we've also seen games pushing the industry forward. So let's focus on them for a bit.

1) What games of 2011 did something that either hadn't been done before, or hadn't been done well before? Did it turn out to be a good idea (e.g. Magicka's spell system), or just a necessary mistake on the way to coming up with better ideas (e.g. the Kinect control system for Rise of Nightmares)?

2) What do you think was the best new thing 2011 brought us?


Off the top of my head I'd go with the aforementioned spell system in Magicka. For those unaware, you create spells on the fly by combining different combinations of 8 elemental spells (fire, cold, water, shield, arcane, lightning, earth, life), e.g. fire+earth = fireball, cold+water+shield = ice shards come out of the ground around you as a "shield". I'm not completely sure it had never been done before, but I've certainly never used anything quite like it with so many possibilities.

What have you got?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I nominate Catherine just for the concept. Combining that story with that kind of gameplay was a huge gamble.

 

[iFail69]

Portal 2.

Combining paint with portal technology for all your interior designing needs!

Though I did feel immature when I was putting the white paint all over the place, making various sexual puns with my co-op partner. It was... great xD

Best thing 2011 gave to us? Lots more F2P MMOs. I'm having an absolute ball playing Fallen Earth at the moment.

 

[skywolfblue]

Portal 2's bouncy/slidy gels. Well, primitive versions may have been in 2d platformers to a limited extent, in 3D with portals its pretty much a completely new experience.

Skyrim's shout system. Yes some of them are similar to rather common magic spells, but some are really unique. The concept of "shouting" as done with the whole norse theme I don't believe has been done before. Storm Call/Clear Sky are the first time I've ever seen a player controlled mechanic affect the weather.

 

[Savagezion]

L.A. Noire was a mistake that needed to be made on the way to something better. It was still a great game, but will forever be haunted by people swearing it was just an action form of point and click adventure games. Had you been able to record evidence that is insignificant to the case and lead Cole astray, this could really heat up to a great new "detective" genre. For me, a game that actually pushes forward the possibility of a new genre this late in the game impresses the hell out of me.

 

[The Madman]

I absolutely love Bastions take on story-telling with the persistent narrator that follows your adventure. Absolutely brilliant, if I hadn't played the game myself I'd never have believed it could work so well.

 

[Serving UpSmiles]

Portal 2 probably for being a sucessful comedy

 

[Who Dares Wins]

Well, Rocksteady made ANOTHER good comic adaptation video game. That's a new to everyone.

RAGE and DNF had unseen dissapointment.

Serious Sam 3 could be considered "new and interesting" among the FPS titles in 2011. ALL OF WHICH WERE EXACTLY. THE FUCKING. SAME.

Bastion made some graphical innovations where you can't tell in which dimension is the game.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Innovation - what games did something new in 2011?

Well, Rage creators said something like "we don't care about you that much to release working product, however what you're going to do ? We own you bi*ches" and people accepted it sheepishly instead of boycotting all corporations involved. That's new. Bottom of degeneration i mean.

 

[Joccaren]

Magicka, definitely for its spell system.
L.A Noir for starting a concept that, when expanded, could result in some amazing detective games.
Bastion's narrator that narrated everything you did sounds like a gimmick, but works very well.

Other than that, I'd be pushing to remember anything that had innovation, or making up excuses for it. E.G:
-Arkham city actually did a good PC port. I would not have known it was developed for consoles first if I hadn't have heard about it. Excellent work was done there.
-BF3's graphics have knocked the socks off anything to date, whilst still maintaining large matches and large maps compared to other modern shooters
-Deus Ex's conversation system was done properly, as opposed to Mass Effect's, where it didn't tell you exactly what to say, unless you got the CASIE mod and payed attention to what it told you. Otherwise, you just had to pick what sounded like the best option based of what you heard them say, and what their Bio said.

 

[Joccaren]

Innovation - what games did something new in 2011?

Well, Rage creators said something like "we don't care about you that much to release working product, however what you're going to do ? We own you bi*ches" and people accepted it sheepishly instead of boycotting all corporations involved. That's new. Bottom of degeneration i mean.

From what I remember it had something to do with Drivers that were promised to be released by the release date of RAGE not being released by the companies, thus breaking the game as the drivers required had not been released by other companies. More of a 'We wanted to use new stuff, but these guys completely forgot about that' than a 'We don't care about you' IMO.
The bottom of degeneration is Ubisoft, with their developers calling PC gamers 'Whiny bitches', and saying that 90% of us are pirates. That is seriously just stupid and sad. A new level of low for game developers.

 

[Dandark]

Innovation - what games did something new in 2011?

Well, Rage creators said something like "we don't care about you that much to release working product, however what you're going to do ? We own you bi*ches" and people accepted it sheepishly instead of boycotting all corporations involved. That's new. Bottom of degeneration i mean.

I hope Activision and EA didn't notice that or the shooter genre will now be doomed.

 

[Frybird]

Even though some of them have been said.

L.A. Noire - Modernizing police procedual style adventure games by combining it with Open World Elements and making

Frozen Synapse - Basically making Turn Based Combat more "realistic" and much, MUCH more complicated

From Dust - Interacting with the World by changing it as you would with an Editor while still having to fight the rules of physics.

Driver: San Francisco - "Jumping" between Vehicles as a gameplay tactic. Kinda similar to the "Singleplayer" of Battlefield 2 on Xbox 360 and that one Clive Barker Game, but i always thought the idea of switching between multiple characters mid game to be very clever.

As mentioned, the combination and cooperation of spells in Magicka

And then theres the Tower Defense genre wich seems to innovate itself every other minute. Specific examples would be Iron Brigade/Trenched for adding a new dimension to the pre-level "loadout" selection by deciding on specific playstyles for specific levels, and Anomaly: Warzone Earth by Inventing the entire dynamic of the genre (better than that minigame in Plants vs Zombies did)

 

[JesterRaiin]

Innovation - what games did something new in 2011?

Well, Rage creators said something like "we don't care about you that much to release working product, however what you're going to do ? We own you bi*ches" and people accepted it sheepishly instead of boycotting all corporations involved. That's new. Bottom of degeneration i mean.

From what I remember it had something to do with Drivers that were promised to be released by the release date of RAGE not being released by the companies, thus breaking the game as the drivers required had not been released by other companies. More of a 'We wanted to use new stuff, but these guys completely forgot about that' than a 'We don't care about you' IMO.
The bottom of degeneration is Ubisoft, with their developers calling PC gamers 'Whiny bitches', and saying that 90% of us are pirates. That is seriously just stupid and sad. A new level of low for game developers.

Ubisoft you say... Well, maybe.
As for Rage. Yep, developers blamed lack of drivers, and that makes me wonder what were they thinking about while releasing their shi*ty product despite not being supported by modern machines. Also there was no immediate, official statement after the release regarding the case. I'm not sure if it's only me but i had the impression that they were genuinely surprised by these problems.

I'm surprised that gaming industry still works and thrives despite pulling off stunts that should end in the courthouses.

I hope Activision and EA didn't notice that or the shooter genre will now be doomed.

Unfortunatelly i am convinced that each case like that serves as another precedens leading gaming industry into the land of "and no f*cks were given".
I believe that even now some people sitting in their private airplanes are having nice chats going like this :
"- We won't make it."
"- So what, remember XYZ case ? We'll miss deadline for a few months and people will do sh*t about it."
"- It won't work on 70% machines."
"- Naaaaaaah, XYZ doesn't work to this day and money still flows."
"- It's complete shi* not FPS."
"- Who cares, it's another installment of XYZ, people will buy it even if we'd remade it into platformer."
"- But it's exactly the same stuff as before."
"- Heavens, no ! We added 5 new pointless achievements, 4 recycled maps, one new weapon called 'fartgun' and an action figure of protagonist's cousin completely absent in our game. So like you see, it's brand new and unique product."
...and so on.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Skyrim's shout system. Yes some of them are similar to rather common magic spells, but some are really unique. The concept of "shouting" as done with the whole norse theme I don't believe has been done before. Storm Call/Clear Sky are the first time I've ever seen a player controlled mechanic affect the weather.

I agree, it's very cool.

However, a little nitpick - Zelda brought us the

Spoiler: song of storms, amongst other things.

 

[Wieke]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution's conversation/social encounter/challenges felt quite innovative to me. (Televised political debate as a challenge in an action game, awesome.)

If I actually noticed it's effect Skyrim's Radiant Story would have been a good contender too.

Frozen Synapse gave you the interesting option to manually simulate your opponents turn's.

Brink's movement system is quite awesome.

Fate of the World had what seemed to me a very detailed simulation of realistic scenarios.

But no big noticable innovation, yet there are quite a number of noteworthy games.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Skyrim's shout system. Yes some of them are similar to rather common magic spells, but some are really unique. The concept of "shouting" as done with the whole norse theme I don't believe has been done before. Storm Call/Clear Sky are the first time I've ever seen a player controlled mechanic affect the weather.

Well, Dynasty Warriors 7 features a character that shouts as one of his special attacks and it blows people away. I don't think "shouting" is really anything new, even if it has some Norse meaning behind it.

Players being able to control the weather has been done before, like in Ifamous where you can call down lightning, and the Killzone series features weaons that use the surrounding air to create electricity.

Of course that is excluding "god" games.

 

[Sjakie]

Well, Rocksteady made ANOTHER good comic adaptation video game. That's a new to everyone.

RAGE and DNF had unseen dissapointment.

Serious Sam 3 could be considered "new and interesting" among the FPS titles in 2011. ALL OF WHICH WERE EXACTLY. THE FUCKING. SAME.

Bastion made some graphical innovations where you can't tell in which dimension is the game.

Erm, i think you best look up what innovation really means.

Im nominating LA Noire (even though it was shit, it was innovative)
I would have liked to say Catherine but i haven't played it yet and im fairly certain some raunchy Hentai game has probably done it all before.