old style gameplay should return

[khululy]

I think games these days need less checkpointand more lives and health bars. If you play games like contra 4 of bionic commando Rearmed you get your ass handed over to you in such a manner that it you WANT to beat the game. Most games these days tend to make you forget to do your best because you will respawn at the previous checkpoint or at the last place you stood anyway.

 

[super_smash_jesus]

I agree. These days any game I play through I go gung ho because I will just be able to try that same spot over and over without really any consequence. That being said, I did enjoy the regenerating HP bar for a little while after it came out, now I wish that idea was never thought up in the first place.

 

[Wargamer]

I'm currently playing through the Orange Box, and I truly love the HP / Armour combo in it. I've always loved that system; regenerating Health is just too easy. Frankly, any game with Regenerating Health becomes an exercise in patience - you just need to find a quiet spot to crouch down while your health recharges and you're off again! On the other hand, games are a LOT Harder when the only health pack is on the other side of the street, the street is full of tanks and storm troopers and sharks that fart grenades, and you've only got 4hp left.

That's probably why we've lost them; we've raised a gaming generation of Halo Fanboys who can't handle REAL FPS games, and so need to have this nice, wimpy "can't ever be killed" health system.

 

[The Electric Wizard]

I definately think old styles of gaming need a revial. I tend to play old games these days because of this. Reqenerating health is a joke imo.

 

[Janus Vesta]

I agree with health bars but Ye Olde Life Systeme is something that should stay dead and buried. The life system is fine in arcades but when I'm at home I don't need a little counter telling me how many turns I have left. It's my game I'll play it all I want.

I summary: Health bars yes, Life system no.

 

[tiredinnuendo]

I agree with health bars but Ye Olde Life Systeme is something that should stay dead and buried. The life system is fine in arcades but when I'm at home I don't need a little counter telling me how many turns I have left. It's my game I'll play it all I want.

I summary: Health bars yes, Life system no.

Consider, though, that without a life system, games like Contra would be pointless. It'd be a walking tour of a 2d shooter, since you could never lose. With a life system, on the other hand, you're driven to do your best, and as you get better you see more and more of the game. The replay value increases tenfold.

I think the loss of a life system, combined with a limited continue system, was a great blow to games being able to claim that they were actually "games". Now they're more like activities. I miss feeling like I actually had to try when I was playing a game.

- J

 

[pxZero]

Another old gamestyle that I want back is the 'Adventure' style. I know there are a few, but none in my mind stand up to the Lucasarts adventure games. Oh, Monkey Island... how I loved you.

As for health bars, I wholely agree.
As for life systems, why not revitalize the life system with a 'free play' option? You get infinite lives if you so choose... but you lose all your score when you die 5 times. Works at the arcade. Works for me at home. Free play is the FPS equivalent to easy. Let's be honest... WHO loses on an easy FPS?

 

[CriMs0nC0bra]

I don't think lives fit in with the new gaming era. Health bars will always be around.
And regenerating health can be just as hard as lives. Ever tried CoD4 on Vet? Or CoD2?
That games was HARD, and sure made me try as best I could and made me really want to beat it.

That is of course why I tend to play most games now on the Hardest difficulty to start. It's the biggest challenge, and the most enjoyable.

 

[pxZero]

I've played CoD 2 & 4 on vet... they hold NOTHING to COD1 on vet.... NO heath anywhere. What you start the level with, is what you end the level with. So try not to get hit.

Or MoH on the hardest. 1shot from a Kar98. Quicksave really was my bestfriend in any mission where there was a sniper... which was every single one after D-Day.

 

[Iron Mal]

Well, you could look at what DOOM did, you have health meters (so it's a return to form there) but you did also get infinate attempts (with the penalty of begining the level with every enemy respawned and with your only weapons being your burly fists and the weedy pistol), and that worked great! (for me anyway) While you are given a very good reason to be cautious (dying does leave you in a spot of bother), it doesn't go over the top on deterents (last life?...bugger).

 

[Serious_Stalin]

Another old gamestyle that I want back is the 'Adventure' style. I know there are a few, but none in my mind stand up to the Lucasarts adventure games. Oh, Monkey Island... how I loved you.

If it helps i've heard that there are some new Sam & Max games coming out!

 

[Anton P. Nym]

How old-style are we talking about?

Insert Coin(s) to Continue

That'd help with the revenue stream problem, I guess.

-- Steve

 

[islagatt]

Honestly I'll go with any system that seems right for the game. For instance- you don't play unreal tournament 3 the way you play gears of war, and you don't play gears of war the way you play halo, and you don't play halo the way you play half life 2. Half Life 2 and UT3 use armor health so why don't they play the same? They're just different games, and the systems they have are appropriate to them. Basically what I'm saying is, if you don't like health regeneration, don't play the game that has it. The statement that health regeneration in games like Halo and GoW is 'dumbing down' the game for simpler audiences is phenomenally judgmental and rather elitist. The games both have plenty of challenge in my opinion. In point of fact, playing halo 3 and half life 2 on the same difficulty, I have a harder time on halo than half life.

Which brings us to checkpoints, what's the difference between checkpoints and lives other than their unlimited use? I can't really see one. As far as I can tell checkpoints are really a console thing, that since you own the space and equipment, allow you to say 'okay I'm done for the moment/and/or need to go do something else' without losing tons of progress, with computers you just save where you are, essentially they remove checkpoints so that you can make your own. But I don't hear people griping about being able to save their damn game and quickloading it.

I didn't play games like contra or bionic commando, so I'm not going to denigrate them, I did play Sonic and Mario, which featured lives and continues, and I did play some of the old 2d fps games and honestly those just weren't shiny for me, watching me on-screen die and pop back at a position maybe a few paces prior, sans whatever I had was less frustrating and more depressing. It didn't really make me feel better if I ever beat it, just made me wonder why I bothered.

Sense of satisfaction from the process, or sense of satisfaction from the conclusion. I prefer to enjoy things as I do them, so for me, it's whatever system best enhances the game.

 

[khululy]

nah it's more the diffuclty the fact that you quicksave/load is because you screwed up or you just beat a hard part of the game and are lucky to come out alive.
Take a game like prince of persia for instance... it's a beatiful well told story with excelent gameplay but a mere 6 hours of fun.. games are too easy and to short these days IMHO.
I don't hate modern games but they make me less interested in progressing because progress is not rewarding. you don't have to try your best.. you can just try until you succeed. and if you have lives you will try harder because life's are valuable. I had great time playing GoW but on the second run the game felt so easy.
And in contra 4 A friend of mine(a casual gamer, not too bad in games like mario kart or wario ware) playd it on normal and did not survived her first 5 seconds. It doesn't need to be "I wanna be that guy" because that game is almost unfair hard.
but I just feel like more games need a little bit of a challenge oomph.

 

[monodiabloloco]

Personally, I like both methods. Why not combine them? Have a health bar and a regenerating shield. You take very little damage with the shield up, but only a few shots to kill you with the shield down. Really, even better, have the shots mapped to where they hit you too. So, shield down and take a leg shot? not too much overall damage to the health bar, but you are limping until healed. Take a shot to the head with half shields? You are knocked down and half dead. Take one to the arm no shield? Weapon change to off hand with shaky aim until healed.
Think Action Quake next gen.

 

[Unholykrumpet]

Challenging games...don't sell well as far as I can see. Developers nowadays seem more interested in letting the player have more options concerning how to approach a situation rather than making the game difficult. A great example of this is Bioshock. All the developer commentary I've watched from that game is all the same. They all talk about how many different ways you can go about the situation. You can grab his bomb and throw it back to him, electrocute him in the water, lay trap bolts and have him charge you, freeze him and shatter him into pieces....the list goes on and on. While that makes for interesting gameplay, the vast number of options available to you actually makes the game easier, because you'll no doubt find some way that is super simple to do (Trap bolts are imbalanced).

A friend of mine recently purchased Hellgate London, and while she was making dinner I played it for a while. It seemed pretty difficult right from the get go, and when she was playing it looked damn near impossible. I'm thinking about buying it once my new laptop comes in.

Also, maybe instead of the games getting easier...we're getting better? Just a thought.

 

[BallPtPenTheif]

I think games these days need less checkpointand more lives and health bars. If you play games like contra 4 of bionic commando Rearmed you get your ass handed over to you in such a manner that it you WANT to beat the game. Most games these days tend to make you forget to do your best because you will respawn at the previous checkpoint or at the last place you stood anyway.

you do know that they added a save feature and unlimited continues to rearmed, right? it really isn't that old school and in my opinion perfectly balanced. i'm a dad now, i'm not an unemployed kid who can blow a whole evening on 1 game so these additions are perfect.

 

[khululy]

challenging games can have several options as well, take the splinter cell games, you can get past guards in many ways and a game like Deus EX had plenty of options to choose from, but they do not have like, respawn chambers and healt machines all around.
and bionic command: Rearmed is not that forgiving gameplay wise. Having unlimited continues doesn't make you have easier timing or breeze trough levels.
but maybe they should give the players more options about diffuclty in the menus..do you play with lives or with regenerating health and so on.
and yes we are getting better but games are more adjusted towards the mainstream, back in the glory days (8-bit/16-bit era)gamers where an underdog group and games were far more challenging and you could boast about the fact that you had beaten contra and now beating halo is like: "well yeah! Can you NOT beat it?" in some games it seems impossible to get killed or screw up, they are just too forgiving and too short.

 

[SilentHunter7]

Health bars suck. They've always sucked. I've always thought regenerating health, particularly in games that are focused on balls to the wall action, to be a major improvement. You cant argue realism either, because last I checked, being all fine and good after taking 9 bullets, and falling over dead after the 10th is hardly realistic.

Instead I'd prefer location-based damage. If you take a sniper round to the knee, you cant walk, and you'd have to prop yourself against a wall to reliably use a rifle. Getting shot in the shoulder and arms messes up your accuracy, and ability to handle heavy weapons.

 

[Joeshie]

They won't return because more and more developers are more concerned with $$$ rather than appealing to a minority of gamers.