Are games as good these days?

[RoosterLad]

Yeah I have seen all of his videos I reckon, when I first discovered him I spent a while watching them back to back. Some of his reviews bring back painful memories.

There will be another Castlevania episode as well which should be good.

 

[scooterb]

I've been watching him since his Angry Nintendo Nerd days and I have to say that his first Bible games review was the best, closely followed by "B-17 bawmerrrrr" on the Intellivision.

Terminator 2 on the SNES is hilarious as well. I love how the Terminator hops around.

 

[Dagless]

Boomshakalaka!

Some of my fondest memories consist of sitting around with my homes as a 15 year old, playing 4 player NBA JAM with a multitap.

We would play that shit for hours drinking goon and eating samboys and pizza pockets. Good ****in times.

Johnson and Mourning FTW

Hey I did that 3 weeks ago All about the Hang Time though.

 

[Dagless]

Just watched that new AVGN video then, **** that was funny shit.. loved that nitro part.

DAAAAAAAAMMMMMMNNNNNNN

The other N64 one he didn't review was equally terrible fwiw.

 

[Zarrix]

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. My most intense gaming days have passed me, but I can't say that games are any better yesterday than today though. However, there is an increasing emphasis on the casual market, I hope that doesn't overwhelm the more hardcore side of things. Also games are becoming more costly to develop, so the corporate side of things has to be emphasised to ensure a profit. Plus sticking to less risky projects. I.E, originality is a dying beast.

 

[Hoffy95]

Nothing comes close to beating the N64 in terms of epicness.

Goldeneye, Mazza Kart and Ocarina of Time are probably the best 3 games of all time.

Most games you don't appreciate till you're able to reflect back on them, just like most things in life.

Clocking a game at the arcades was so much more of a rush than it was knocking off the same version on a console, so in that respect it can be more the experience and environment rather than the game itself that give you such fond memories - think TMNT and The Simpsons arcade 4 player. Win.

 

[magtrev]

Mario Kart was a SNES game first and foremost.

I maintain the SNES was the peak of console gaming

 

[amer]

Variety in console gaming has dwindled and another industry crash looms on the horizon, no question. We're closing in on the tipping point. Development expenses are ballooning to movie budget levels which is putting strain on, and killing some of, the most talented development studios out there. A core of franchises and genres continue to sell well to very concentrated audiences, giving the impression that things are healthy. Too many genres have died without new ones emerging; this is not sustainable and if nothing changes (I'd suggest things hinge on what in the way of new experiences are offered following the shift to motion control), it's inevitable that we'll see a second crash.

Some things have most definitely improved. First person shooters have been refined to the point of masterpiece, and the WRPG has evolved and matured at a similar rate. There's no question that certain things have taken a step up from last gen, but overall (and once again I speak only in terms of the home console market, not handhelds) it's not as rich and varied an industry as it was say, in the early 2000s when several more genres were strongly represented.

 

[amer]

The gaming industry really does operate on a model very similar to Hollywood with one huge exception, and that is that they have no system for harvesting new concepts. Hollywood knows that it needs new ideas. The games industry doesn't know. Hollywood goes out of its way to provide itself with a seed stock of new talent and ideas, the games industry doesn't. Hollywood spends an enormous amount of money supporting colleges and universities, and training programs at those settings. The games industry does not. Hollywood has a system for honoring weird ideas that aren't necessarily commercial. The games industry really doesn't.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060612/murdey_01.shtml

No one wants to pay it mind right now, but soon the industry will be forced to undergo a fundamental shift, or it will die. New ideas need to be encouraged, not suppressed so that 100% of a company's resources can be devoted to the next CoD installment. Retro gamers aren't imagining things, creativity is dying and anyone who doesn't derive enjoyment from a narrow core of franchises is increasingly being left out in the cold.

 

[Mitchell Madness]

nope, I think they have gone too realistic. I liked playing games, especially the sports ones, that had an arcade feel to them, now it is almost like watching a live sport

 

[tarky]

As far as fighting games go, nothing has topped street fighter II for me. That game was an obsession when it hit arcades / milk bars back in 1992. Absolute classic.

 

[Dewy006]

I've been watching him since his Angry Nintendo Nerd days and I have to say that his first Bible games review was the best, closely followed by "B-17 bawmerrrrr" on the Intellivision.

Terminator 2 on the SNES is hilarious as well. I love how the Terminator hops around.

Oh man, the first bible games review ep is hilarious, the part where the squirrel knocks out the lion with the acorn whilst the other squirell knocks himself out with an acorn had me in tears.

 

[thomas_m18]

As a 14 year old, games are alright. I just think the magic's lost for you older guys. Work, maturity and getting a life all take their toll. But you're right, I don't think there are as many standout games, because a lot of games are good and the standards are now set so freaken high. Sure, something like Half-Life will come along and blow minds, but whether there are as many mind-blowing games now, I'm unsure.

2c worth from a relative noob at my age to gaming.

 

[WoGiTaLiA]

I think it is the focus on the types of games that have changed.

The main thing is that graphics and physics have taken priority for most games over gameplay. Take the sports games, I'll talk Madden because it is the one I am most familiar with, but the newest Madden is just a prettier version of Madden 06. Nothing fundamental has changed since that game, just roster updates and graphical improvements. The NFL games in general have been getting worse since 2k was forced to stop making them but apparently this is what the masses want, the "hardcore" gamers have been left out do dry essentially.

The only sports game that I can think of that continually gets better each year is the Football Manager series and even that is starting to stagnate as to how they improve it.

As for other games. I think that if you are a FPS or MMORPG player things are good but even MMORPG are an example of how little games are improving. The two best are still Everquest and WoW. Nothing that has come since has really tried to do anything new, they all just follow the template those two set out and try and add a twist. FPS by nature can offer very little in the way of changes. The games themself have not changed since Doom went 3d. Graphics, Physics and those sort of peripheral elements have improved greatly but the gameplay hasn't changed. RTS is on life support at the moment, Starcraft 2 will basically make or break the entire genre, if it is not successful RTS will basically be reduced to what it has been for the last 8 years since Warcraft 3 came out and that is a shell that is reliant on unknown developers.

RPG is the interesting one. While it has improved graphically and some have even become cinematic, the games themselves haven't improved. I found Fallout 3 to be vastly inferior to Fallout 1 or 2 on just about every level that was not superficial. Chrono Trigger was a better game than any RPG I've played in the last 5 years.

Perhaps that is it, if you are a FPS gamer then your game of choice has got a lot better because it is such a simple concept and basically the only way to improve it is superficially. A few games like Tribes tried to take it to another level but the masses didn't take to that and preferred the tried and true formula. It would also explain why they are the games that most appeal to the masses, at their most basic level anyone can play and do alright and if you put enough time to it you will get better. MMORPG are literally just how much time you are willing to commit, again making them good for the masses. I think that plays a huge role in why RTS games are "dieing" because a casual gamer can not just pick up and play, hell they take that much more skill than other games that they have a serious barrier to entry.

I do think that a large part of why the Wii has been so successful is because it offers something different. Goldeneye did the FPS better than any game has since, Final Fantasy 7 did RPG, Starcraft did RTS, NBA Jam did arcade sports but the Wii has offered a new style of game that hadn't been seen before, the controllers make Mario Kart seem new, Golf and Tennis are just much better. It is a limited console but it is new.

I eagerly await Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 because Blizzard have always pushed the envelope and they are both games in very stale categories so will be interesting to see if they can ressurect those categories.