Poll: This Gaming Generations Degradation

[Spektre41]

We view the earlier NES/SNES/GEN/N64/PS1 days as full of nothing but instant classics because we've distilled our views of the era. There were tons of shovelware titles on all those consoles, but as time goes on we see which games still play well to this day and hold them up. In about 15 years we'll all talk about the 360's awesome line up like Mass Effect, Condemned, or BioShock, and shovelware crap will have been forgotten.

 

[similar.squirrel]

It's partly nostalgia, and partly the change of audience. I don't think it's as discerning these days.
Jockocracy, as the Game Overthinker would probably say.

 

[Caligulove]

good god no.
the gaming industry is unlike the film industry in that things usually get better from sequels and from new ideas to make them better. I think it keeps getting better, actually

 

[FROGGEman2]

I am very disappointed.
Lets look at GTA4 vs GTASA. San Andreas is a MUCH better game than its sequel. GTA4's attempts to be realistic means it loses all the variety and color from before and it suffers greatly. Besides GTA4 stealing ideas more more than Carlos Mencia steals jokes, it also is much less fun. Driving is terrible and the cheats you could use are also terrible. GTASA had a lot of fun codes to use and a lot of weapon and vehicle choice. The vehicle selection also changes as you go from area to area. GTA4 always has a butt-load of taxis and less than half of the weapons.

GTA isn't the only series to go to hell. Doom 3 can't compare to the greatness of Doom 1&2. The new monster designs aren't near as memorable and its gameplay switched from monster-spam mindless fun to attempted-horror.

Plus there are hardly any new and unique titles. Everything is just the same as before with a larger number. Games in the old days could a chef fending off murderous hot dogs as he attempts to make giant hamburgers. Games nowadays seem to be afraid of being unique.

But what about god-awful GTA: Vice City?

SA was just a good game. The generation makes no difference.

 

[Charli]

Nolstagia's a horrible monkey on your back ain't it?

Ah I dunno, who can say? I still have good times. More sporadically but hey! Im supposed to be a productive member of society now! Cuts into my joy-time.

Edit: Oh sh- better pay out Escapist I gots 777 on my slot machine.

 

[londelen]

There will always be crap in any industry, it's just shiny in ours and has blinking lights to bring you in.

 

[B4D 9R4MM3R]

Less time spent > less developer costs > greater profit margins > greater profit.

Essentially, the same as every other industry.

 

[Numb1lp]

It's all in finding what kind of game you like.

 

[TBR]

The problem with gaming this year (and to an extent the last few years as well) is completely summed up by that fat Bobby guy from Activision. And by summed up by, I mean he is the perfect example of the cancer killing gaming. Massive idiot in charge of a massive company means massive failure incoming, cap'n.


What the core gamers should be doing isn't looking to the money-hungry slobs that are the commercial giants (because all you'll get is COD:MW2), but to the smaller companies and teams, who actually have to do something to sell their product other than put Call of Duty on the box. They have to bring in good gameplay, because their survival depends on it. They're not in the business of fan service, rather attracting new fans.

As such, we've actually had quite a good year. I'll throw some examples out...

As for the RTS genre, well, we had to endure Hola's attempt to try that sort of thing, and fail epicly, but the lack of a good well-known RTS doesn't mean there isn't a good RTS.

EVERYONE HERE GO ON STEAM AND DOWNLOAD EUPHORIA. NOW.
(or, at least download the demo, available here: http://www.eufloria-game.com/read.php?page=8)

Brilliantly simply RTS, and an absolute steal through steam. It's not overly complex like most big-name RTS games (oh look we have the most features buy me now!), so you can get right into it.

The racing genre has had to deal with a new Need for Speed (oh god NO) and another Forza. Both really miss the mark, because the need for speed isn't as beautiful as it once was (hot pursuit 2 and Porsche Unleashed still set the benchmarks for NFS games) and Forza is trying very, very hard to be GranTurismo for the casual crowd, so not a huge success.

IF YOU HAVE AN XBOX GO BUY HALFBRICK ROCKET RACER NOW.
No exceptions. It is to racing games what Jesus was to people.
SSBB-quality multiplayer, and some of the most tense racing in single player EVER. You WILL find yourself chasing that extra thousandth of a second. None of this pretend realism, heck, no AI! But it's all the better for it.

My main point is that for new, genuinely fun gameplay, don't bother looking to the big businesses. Look to the people who are still in this because of passion.

World of Goo (bet you'd forgotten about this little gem, right?)
Braid
Plants vs Zombies
Eufloria
Rocket Racer
AAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAaaAAA: a Reckless Disregard for Gravity

And tons more.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Why is it that the gaming industry has quiet literally taken a step back in game quality? It was apon playing Soul Calibur 4 and Tekken 6 that I realized that there preivous installments where significantly better and more user friendly. This should'nt be. It's like when the console generations upgraded the games seemed to go in the shitter.

Dose anybody have a good reason for this? And I don't mean oh they have to leave out things for the graphics because thats not good enough. Not to mention the looks of games are shit unless you have the specific TV they made the game for.

Apart from a few new IP's (Assassin's Creed, Dead Space, Borderlands etc) this generation of gaming has been quite lacklustre.
the gaming industry just absolutely boomed for the ps2, and there were just so many new, innovative and original games for the playstation 2, could it be... that everything's now already been done and we've become jaded to any attempt to try and recreate past successes??

 

[Admiral Stukov]

Well I'm a PC player to the degree of not even owning a console, and I wouldn't sav that the PC-games generally are getting worse. As for consoles I'm totally clueless.

 

[Daedalus1942]

The current state of the industry makes me weep. While there are some brilliant GAMES being made, there are so many things going wrong with the industry as a whole that I dread the future. IW giving the giant finger to PC gamers and using the low standards of console gamers to get away with doing a shoddy job on MW2; Bobby Kotick still not tarred and feathered for being a gigantic douche; Australia STILL not having an R18+ rating for games thanks to the machinations of Michael Motherfucking Atkinson while still being obscenely price gouged at every turn; games being released as betas to be patched into completion later; games being released with content removed so publishers can force you to pay extra for "bonus content" that you should have got with the initial fucking purchase; good games going underappreciated while overhyped mediocrities rake in cash like a Michael Bay movie- it's just getting to be all too much.

I'm just going to keep my head down, stick my fingers in my ears and play whichever good games I can get without thinking about things too much.
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amen to that brother

I agree with you completely.
Suffice to say, I did actually buy modern warfare 2 for the ps3. I played it for an hour or so online got bored and went back to Assassin's CreedII(one of the few decent original IP's still aruond. I feel dirty as hell, it's basically just the same game as cod4, apart from an awesome single player (which is just too short) and a marginally updated multiplayer.
Ffs... I know people who sold borderlands to buy modern warfare 2 (they're insane)...
One thing is for sure... I'm not buying modern warfare 3 when it's released..
Fuck Kotick, fuck activision.

 

[liquidus118]

well, I have been dissapointed so far, but 2010 looks VERY promising (GT5, Heavy Rain, Versus 13) so hopefully next year will be the turn-around.

 

[beddo]

Why is it that the gaming industry has quiet literally taken a step back in game quality? It was apon playing Soul Calibur 4 and Tekken 6 that I realized that there preivous installments where significantly better and more user friendly. This should'nt be. It's like when the console generations upgraded the games seemed to go in the shitter.

Dose anybody have a good reason for this? And I don't mean oh they have to leave out things for the graphics because thats not good enough. Not to mention the looks of games are shit unless you have the specific TV they made the game for.

Well this is what happens with series that fail to innovate and improve on each iteration. The reason they are made is because they are popular. Just because you don't think these games are not as good as previous ones doesn't mean that others do. Not to mention that you are referring to fighting games, these are the most open to sequels as they are so specialised in gameplay and style.

 

[Quistnix]

This generation's degradation is exactly the same as last generation's degradation. And the one from the generation before that..

Just like this generation's moaning over a decrease in quality is the same as last generation's moaning on that subject.

 

[Mr.Black]

There are more good games today than there were back in the days you are nostalgic about.

 

[MercurySteam]

Games from 09 that I bought and really liked:

Halo 3: ODST, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Prototype, Borderlands and Saints Row 2.

That's not even including AC2 and Brutal Legend which I have yet to get.

If there is a decrease in the quality of games then either I'm not seeing it or it's not affecting me.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

Buy a PC stoopid.

 

[hazabaza1]

No. There are lots of good games out there, it just seems that people like you look back on nostalgia when you were won over easier by games, and instantly think "This game isn't better than the one I played in my childhood! Shun it! Shun it quick!" when it could actually be very fun, but those rose tinted glasses make it hard for you to see that.