"new" games that are aparantly copys of old ones

[Phase_9]

"It's not where you take things from, it's where you take things to."

Basically, if you're going to take a design idea from another game, add to it, polish it, bring it forward in some way.

The Devil May Cray to God of War formula is a great example. They took a good design idea, added to it, refined it, and made it feel fresh.

 

[Mr. In-between]

Come to think of it, speaking of God of War, what was it about GoW that made it so innovative such that we've stopped calling it a Devil May Cry ripoff and now every single over the top beat-em-up is now a GoW ripoff instead of a Devil May Cry ripoff like it used to be.

The fact that the violence is (probably) more graphic and that's all that 70% of the current market cares about for some reason.

 

[Korten12]

Gamers standards are so bloody high these days, they need something new with every single game that comes out, I suppose its understandable but it makes it very difficult for developers to create anything original.

Heh i agree.

Myself i dont rather mind if the setting and theme are the same, i could play fantasy themed games for ages, all id like from developers is probably ineteresting mechanics, new visuals and immersion.

That is ofcourse, as long as the fantasy games are not a carbon copy of each other.

same. I dont care if its not the most original thing, as long as its fun, enjoyable thats all fine for me.

 

[Of-the-Lion]

People only like change when they don't have to. Gamers will continue to buy remakes and sequels as long as they are considered the norm. Nobody is looking at the bizarre third-party DS and PC racks thinking: i wonder what it would be like to try that game. We look at these games writing them offf as odd, bizzare, or retarded because we simply don't know anything about videogames other than what we've been taught. We feel comfort in complaining because when we complain we're in control. However, creating, playing, even considering a game that is "different" by industry standards, we take a risk. Ghandi said it best, "be the change that you want to see in the world".

 

[Of-the-Lion]

Exactly. The reason is that any game w/o blood and violence is usually tagged as being for little kids. Colorful non-violent games like Katamari are a rare breed.

 

[DarkPanda XIII]

Well, really there are alot of things about rip-offs that can teeter in on the good or bad sides.

Saints Row 2 is an example of rip-offs done right, as it's made in such a way that that it actually does have some originality. Much of the gameplay is different and some of the story is different, but looking around the town, looking at the character, and just about anything else you'll see rip-off, but looking at the rest of it, it has alot of originality.

Darksiders had a very different plot that was at least interesting, and did rather well for the most part. Heck, even finding out some bits and pieces at the end made it rather interesting even if you had to raise an eyebrow. The 'mash button' technique was also somewhat original, though not quite, but the major rip-offs were the weapons and the puzzles. I somehow was able to dodge the thoughts of how similar most of the weapons were to other games, until I got the voidwalker, which they didn't even change the colors of the portals to make it appear differently. Darksiders had alot of originality, but some of the rip-offs they made were too well exposed to be ignored.

Dante's Inferno. Fuck..really, that could have had more of a rip-off and I might have enjoyed it more. But the fact that I felt like I was playing God of War with an uglier man who happens to be a crusader (which crusaders to me are what Nazi's are to Yahtzee for the most part), is a little disappointing. The idea was....okay, but the fact that all the wrong parts were exactly like God of War, and any parts that I would have wanted them to rip from GoW, they didn't. For crying out loud, if it takes me 20 minutes to kill all the monsters in the room, then there's really no reason for it to exist x.x. At least with Kratos you could walk along a stupid hallway...

EDIT: But to conclude. Rip-offs aren't all bad, BUT, you need to do at least one thing to make it original, even if you have to have the main guy with a very long nose or antlers to make it original.

 

[Sebenko]

snip

Don't forget Mount and Blade.

Lead armies, but it's not an RTS
Rule empires and trade, but it's not a 4x strategy
Court princesses, but it's not a Japanese hentai game
Kick ass, but it's not Duke Nukem
It is... fucking awesome (add reverb as required)

Pretty much the only game that can be described as "an RPG with really good combat". And armies.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Every Nintendo game ever has basically been remakes of the same Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon with a few bells, whistles, and added gimicks in each new game.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

"Mario in Space", what do you really have left? Everything has been done to death.

maybe mario under the sea.....oh wait they did that one lol

Well Mario has already gone under the sea in his games before and he was even in space before galazy. Also there are no new ideas and there never will be a 100% original idea.

 

[Madman148]

not sure if anyone else found this, but i can garuntee that "prototype" is almost an exact copy of "the hulk: ultimate destruction" where the moves have the same sorta combo unlock scheme, the physics are the same, the way you pick up cars / weapons is the same, everything is the same!!!! even the way you more, turn when at speed, charge the jump and you slightly glow, stances change the same way depending on what you press etc..

everything is the same!!! they are both great though

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Prince of Persia, the game of the movie of the game is exactly the same as Prince of Persia the Sands of Time.

I do hope you're joking that there's a game of the movie of the game coming out.

The new Prince of Persia movie made by disney has a game coming out along with its theatrical release, however the movie is based on the game Prince of Persia Sands of Time. Therefore the new game (called Prince of Persia the Forgotten Sands) is actually the game of the movie of the game. Yeah...make of that what you will.

I heard the new game is set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

 

[SK7109]

OK... this is far from 100% new for a FPS, but it does hold a ray of hope for me... http://www.brinkthegame.com/ . I hope they do a good job. They do have ALL the right people to succeed.. http://www.incgamers.com/Videos/1313/IGTV-Splash-Damage-Developer-Chat .. They do have some original ideas and fresh game play. Only Time will tell how this will play out.

 

[Steeveeo]

Well, everyone says that there are no new ideas out there.

I disagree. Take a look at Achron's demos on youtube. Sure it's in alpha stage, but the concept is AMAZING!


For other demo videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=achron+alpha&aq=f

The graphics are, understandably since it's in alpha, crap. It is supposedly set for release next year, and I will definitely buy it when it does come out!

 

[NickCaligo42]

i recenlty got dantes inferno and i love it!! but when i came to tell one of my friends about it before i even said what it was like he said god of war clone and it got me thinking arnt all games similar for example halo and call of duty are both fps's but they are completely different, thats the same with dantes inferno,
i would like poeples opinion on the matter

Call of Duty and Halo are both first-person shooters, but the way you build play styles in them and even the way you think about/interact with guns is completely different so as to suit the developers' differing goals for their franchises. Call of Duty is generally a lot more lethal and "realistic" than Halo, and Halo is a lot more exaggerated and has license to employ much wilder guns with less subtle purposes. Halo has vehicles, Call of Duty does not. Call of Duty has the "perks" system, Halo does not.

Without going into too much detail, between these differences there's more than enough to argue that the two games have very different sets of features and play very differently, even if the basic ideas behind their simplified console-based controls are the same. Calling them "clones" of one another is a bit shortsighted, even if they are clearly and unapologetically aimed at the same homogenius market of multiplayer shooters. It's like calling Age of Empires and StarCraft the same.

Dante's Inferno IS, note for note, God of War. It has a couple of minor tweaks where the developers felt they were making improvements in the controls and it has the cross as a new weapon with its own separate experience track, but otherwise there's absolutely no difference between the two games' mechanics and they play exactly the same, and it even evokes a similar kind of grandiose mythic atmosphere. I'm willing to bet that no one will contest me on this.

If you want a good example of a similar kind of action game that genuinely IS different, I'd encourage you to look at Bayonetta. The base interaction is the same, with light and heavy attacks used for building combos, but the way it makes you approach just about everything is wildly different. Partly this is because Bayonetta derives its inspirations just as much from Las Vegas-style over-the-top burlesque shows as it does from baroque art, which, if you think about it, is a pretty clever combination of two ridiculously lavish styles. Partly this is also because Bayonetta's a more arcade-y kind of game and its scoring system is a lot tighter, penalizing players for every hit they take and every extra second it takes to finish a battle, but partly it's also because of the unique relationship that it creates with weapons: light attacks are punches, heavy attacks are kicks, and you can equip the many different weapons to either the punch OR kick slot to get different sets of attacks for both and build a huge variety of combos and play-styles.

It's definitely not a superior game, with a really cringe-worthy story, some incredibly obnoxious character design choices, and relatively less interesting level design all-around, but it comes off as being a unique action title where Dante's Inferno comes off as being a clone; a DECENT clone that juggles some pretty hefty themes, but a clone. Whether that bothers you or not is entirely up to you. Personally, I wouldn't let it bother me. Sometimes you just find yourself in the mood for Mega Man, but you'd prefer to have new levels to explore and bosses to fight over old ones that you've already beaten. It's perfectly natural to want a fresh challenge on an old activity, it's just a matter of whether you consider "Mega Man" to be the activity you're focusing on or whether it's digital games as a whole.

 

[InvisibleSeal]

-snip-

This is exactly what I've been thinking recently! Wow... spooky.
Anyways, it kinda annoys me how Yahtzee and other people say it - Dantes Inferno is as similar to GoW as other FPS games are to Halo. I mean, they have to have similar elements to actually be in that same genre and have the controls work.

It is irritating when someone writes off a new game as a GoW clone when at the same time they get all excited about a new CoD because it is supposedly new and exciting...
I would understand if a game with the same graphics style, similar storyline, similar protagonist and similar gameplay was called a GoW clone - but just using that phrase whenever you can't think of an interesting way to say "I just didn't like the game" is frustrating.