Why all modern games take place in the same feaking setting?

[XeroDesign]

Why not have it so ENGLAND starts it, or better yet AMERICA? But no, that just wont ever happen. We'll see ireland start it before we pin it on the UK or the USA...

Like I said, all these stories are US against "evil" ... when telling that story you can't paint the US or its allies as "evil." I was particularly pissed at Homefront for its portrayal of North Korean soldiers as "inherently soulless bastards." God forbid a studio ever bring light to any war atrocities committed by US soldiers in the past.

Like Yahtzee, you can chooce between the boring accountant with a steady paycheck (Gears of War) or a dangerous and exiting biker (Painkiller).

I kinda feel like this is an unfair comparison. Painkiller is a much older game and when Gears of War was first released it was in itself an experiment which succeeded. Since then we have only seen small trickles of innovation from the studio but if we look at Epic Games' history we'll see this pattern. Their formula changed conservatively from the first Unreal Tournament to Unreal 3. In that light Gears of War "was" the first attempt at innovation from the studio since Unreal Tournament.

 

[maturin]

The Witcher Universe is based off the works of a highley successful Polish author.
What about Science Fiction?

Also generic fantasy.

Also, funny that the OP could only mention a different setting to copy, rather than a new one.

LA Noire and Red Dead Redemption took place in very unusual territory for games.

 

[Treblaine]

How about GTA V London or something?

Im getting bored with the usual post-invasion US, WWII Europe and Tolkien`s Fantasy Land..

Maybe you need to expand your horizons a bit beyond the dumb cash titles.

How about 1910's steam-punk flying city? (bioshock infinite)

How about ork infested planet of year 40'000 AD (Warhammer 40k: Space Marine)

Not forgetting Mars, Post-Apocalyptic future, laboratory of evil AI, Venice (Red Faction Apocalypse, RAGE, Portal 2, Assassin's Creed).

CoD may have many imitators in the modern-combat genre but that doesn't mean there is a complete dirge of novel and interesting locales for games.

 

[Treblaine]

LA Noire and Red Dead Redemption took place in very unusual territory for games.

And only 36 years separate both games, actually a lot of the characters from Redemption could be wandering around LA as old timers reminiscing about the good old days.

But it's amazing how much things can change in 30 years, reminds me of Back To The Future.

Oh. My. God.

Doc Brown: "GREAT SCOTT! So you mean to say that I built a time machine in 1947 and you travelled back in time to now 1911..."

Cole Phelps: "That's right, and now my Grandfather, John Marston is the only man who can help me"

 

[DolorousEdd]

You're mostly right, but often the gameplay dictates the setting. You want action? You get either sci-fi, war, anarchic mayhem, or hack'n'slash fantasy. And... that's all there is, I think (RPGs are almost even more obvious). But I'd say L.A.Noir is as a combination of different gameplay elements and a more serious narrative quite far away from a GTA.

 

[Megahedron]

Seeing as we're going down this road, WHY RUSSIANS!? Why is it always the russians who start world war 3, or are the bad guys in said war? It's absurd, as far as i know, the russians haven't actually become kill crazy just yet, so why does everything seem to revolve around them firing nukes into random cities?

At the very least we could change it for varieties sake. Why not have it so ENGLAND starts it, or better yet AMERICA? But no, that just wont ever happen. We'll see ireland start it before we pin it on the UK or the USA...

Well, in the Fallout games the last war was either started by the US or China, (I think China... though I'm not sure it was ever revealed) but either way it was the result of the US being colossal dicks (hoarding the secret to fusion when the world is out of oil). And there was a small-scale nuclear exchange between the Middle East and Europe, so I doubt Russia was involved in that.

I THINK that's the story... I very well could be wrong, but I'm sure it's very close to that.

 

[Hristo Tzonkov]

I think Skyrim is fairly different from Tolkien's settings. The upcoming Deus Ex has a unique setting (it doesn't matter if geographically you spend some of your time in the US, the "setting" is fairly unique and different from most modern games).

Mass Effect also has a unique setting. The Metro games are set all the way in Russia. You just need to look towards the right games and you'll find that there are plenty of FPS titles that do away with the tired U.S. at war with "evil" formula.

Metro was awesome, but there aren't 'games', Metro 2034 should be in developement.
I enjoyed it immensely because there are very few games that I can enjoy in Russian.
mass Effect has a mimilar setting to most Sci-Fi flicks, and that's aliens. Don't tell me otherwise, you have aliens, no matter your originality - you're already in a genre.

You're saying we should totally go away from the genre to provide a setting never before seen?!

Cmon man pretty much everything has been done.The most original setting I saw lately was from a fairly unknown game that I don't even remember the name of.It was really creepy and made my skin crawl but otherwise it was amazingly different.You were dead - in a grey world where you need colours to survive and use them as weapons vs the evil.

Mass Effect was very sci-fi yes.It also managed to be deep and unique and provide stuff that weren't seen before.Metro's setting was much akin to STALKER except you know...more underground.

Everything fits in a genre one way or another.

 

[OliverTwist72]

What are you talking about, MW2 took place in nice quiet suburbia.

"RAMIREZ HEAD OVER TO BURGER TOWN AND GET ME A WHOPPER WITH FRIES!"

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I suggest Spore.

Why limit yourself to one time period, place, or species when you can choose and create all of it?