What do you reckon could improve modern games?

[AlmightyRa]

^ Post your ideas.

I reckon a bit of production time taken would be great. Yeah everyone wants a new game every month but if studios took say a year to 2 years developing games, more studios would get into the business to meet demand, opening up the market to creativity. Also it would mean that game could be longer. I mean i love games like bulletstorm to bits but i can run and gun those and finish the storyline in 3 hrs now. Thats not really a long game.

Well those are my ideas. Please post yours =)

 

[genericusername64]

Replace the brown with any other color

 

[Tsaba]

Less sequels, seriously, you can't seem to make anyone happy anymore or you can't do it right.

 

[Radeonx]

Related to what you're saying, Ra, but a little further - for publishers to be entirely removed from the game creation process. I can understand PR - I mean, MineCraft, for example, only gets by on the "d'awww" factor of them being indie devs - but limitations on the time available to create, directions to go in to appeal to certain audiences - it just takes so much away from the game. For example, my two favourite devs are Bethesda Game Studios and Valve, the former of which is almost entirely left to their own devices, and the latter of which are their own publishers.

So yeah, that.

This is probably the biggest problem I have with the industry, nowadays.
I'd say the perfect example of the injustice that publishers can do games is Dragon Age 2.
I don't know how long it took to make Origins, but I guarantee you that it was more then a year. The sequel just oozed a rushed feeling.

 

[LilCyan]

Production time with some companies will never be increased, especially if they've had a really popular game in recent years.
Formula:

1)Sell a game that took a year or two to make and it becomes a big hit.
2)Slightly alter game so that trailers look different enough to sell to the guys who liked the first game.
3)???
4)Profit

Call me cynical but I don't think that this formula will change any time soon. Why should companies make a new game if people go and buy the sequel even if they feel it will suck? I fall for the trick too even though I know about it because I'm a dumbass.

 

[Bambi On Toast]

I just want them to end the following series; Halo, Gears of War, Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid.

Some of these series have produced my favourite games ever, but I think they came to a dead end a long time ago. I think the Elder Scrolls series is doing fine, since new releases tend to change and add a lot of stuff. With Call of Duty, on the other hand, I probably couldn't tell Black Ops, Modern Warfare 2 or the newest one apart from a screenshot alone. There isn't enough innovation between releases. I can't see this series going anywhere new, or anywhere I would want to go personally. I might be interested if they make another CoD back in WWII, just for the refreshing change of scenery. Then again I could just play CoD2... That game was fantastic.

I'm still interested in the Half-Life series. Valve is making cool stuff I guess.

I just want there to be more original games, like most people.

 

[Stall]

I think an equivalent to the Academy Awards would be nice-- a real, centralized, meaningful set of awards. There's GDC, but it doesn't have the fame and lavishness that it really needs to have real influence.

Less sequels, seriously, you can't seem to make anyone happy anymore or you can't do it right.

Why would that just improve "modern games"? There have been billions of sequels since the NES era -_-

 

[Vault101]

eather go all out with multiplayer or DONT have it at all...its an extra, NOT a requirement (by that i mean dont put it where its not needed)

DRM...I dont know what the answer is but this ISNT working

 

[2733]

I've mentioned this before but I really want to see new tools that cut the time and cost required for game production so we can without risking the GDP of Sweden. I actually have some idea of how to do this but nothing useful yet

 

[TheRussian]

Cut out the gritty realism and replace it with a sophisticated art style,
Hire professional artists and graphic designers,
Don't forget that GRAPHICS < AESTHETICS

 

[Bad Jim]

Some way to license small amounts of content in a very streamlined way. For instance, an independant artist might model, say, a tree. An indie developer that needs to decorate their game then goes looking for scenery and licenses that tree along with many other bits and pieces.

That way, companies would not need to be big to produce AAA games. It would also promote reuse of minor assets like shrubbery and brick walls which would make development much more efficient and give the gamer better value for money. Lastly it would unseat the big publishers, as their funding would no longer be required for making games.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Getting rid of the goddamn Publishers.

 

[Zenkem]

Originality. Nowadays just not making an FPS or a 3rd person shooter would count as revolutionary. Its ironic that game industry is trying hard to look for new gimmicks rather than making a game of any genre that isn't oversaturated to the point of equaling daytime tv.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

My idea would be for the studios to take 4 years in planning their game at the most 2 years for concept and storyboard writing and the other two years actually designing the game along with heavy open/closed beta testing along with actually listening to the fans ideals and not the stupid "nerf/buff" comments and also try to be imaginative with mechanics over those 4 years instead of copying an already existing mechanic only to tune it up over the 4 years because it would still show and be outdated.

Also if it's going to be a AAA game they need to realize that DRM is not needed as it will only claw away at their sales and they also need to make it cross platform as much as possible to increase sales profits while at the same time keeping the price actually affordable instead of the beefy $60-65-£45-50 so that more people can purchase the game without the need to pirate it because of DRM and also the lack of funds they have.

Multiplayer games need to have at least a few years planning in advance to ensure that the game feels fresh to those that like to play it online and mostly to make it different from single player so it doesn't became stale so it gives the fans two sides of the game to play.

Movie made games need to come to a halt and redo the whole movie game scene since most movie games are normally received poorly by both fans and critics because of the lack of gameplay style within the game itself along with it's short time it takes to complete the game and if they are going to make a movie game they could at least in advance get the actors to be present within the game and if not they they can just as easily do a spinoff of the movie and create a new world within it.

FPS style games need to also come to a halt as many of them are released year after year with varying results rating from excellent to really poor but that's not the reason, the reason is that they keep creating the same simulation over and over and it sometimes drives us away and although it does still work it won't last for the next few decades because nothing lasts forever and neither do ideas over time.

 

[Strixvaliano]

I agree with a lot of what people say here so i won't reiterate most of it but one of the most annoying features is games that tack on a multiplayer and then tack on achievements to said multiplayer. 99% of the time (gross over exaggeration) the multiplayer is either crap or nobody plays it anyway effectively locking me out of those achievements.

Granted I rarely ever play multiplayer unless it is just with my friends anyway and could care less about achievements unless it is a game i'm having a lot of fun in.

For PC gaming bring back lan and dedicated servers. There is absolutely no reason to exclude these features. Also support modding and less restrictive DRM and why not scrap that always online crap while we are talking of DRM as well.

I'd also love to see support for games after they are pushed out the door since we get so many buggy turds that could have been good with a little more polish that get neglected for sequels that are buggy turds just like the first unpolished game.

Also if a series is going with a certain feeling to it, why shake it up. (I'm going with the Max Payne 3 trailer and how it looks to have dropped the whole noir aspect and other stuff what made Max Payne great.)

 

[w9496]

Make more games like Bulletstorm.

There's not a heaping ton of story, but enough to follow the plot.
The game itself is extremely entertaining.
The game is funny.
It rewards the player for their creativity in murdering bandits.

I don't think games need an awesome storyline, because although I like stories alot, I play games to have fun. NOT to play an interactive book.

 

[Squilookle]

When starting a new game, a dev team should be forced to play a wide range of well-regarded games of the same genre from the past, no matter how old the games are. That way we'd finally stop all the brilliant ideas from games -back when it was all about innovation and not graphics- from slipping through the cracks, and instead actually make it into modern games where it usually IS just all about the graphics.

 

[Last Hugh Alive]

Can we FINALLY just get over the "realism" fetish a bit?

Mind you I do enjoy games like Call of Duty and Battlefield, but this phase has over-stayed its welcome to me. GTA4, although I don't think its a bad game, turned a lot of people off because the "realism" restricted the over-the-top mayhem aspect that made the series so popular, and even got in the way at some points (yes I know people calling you up to hang out is the kind of thing people do in real life, but I'm in the middle of a 6-star shootout, here!).

Maybe I'm being unfair, but I feel that sacrificing ridiculousness for realism has become a detriment in some cases.

Replace the brown with any other color

Also, this.