Multiplat Are games getting worse?

[Tbonefreo]

The gta remastered fiasco shook my belief in the industry heavies.

Cdpr and rockstar have let their fans down massively

 

[BallaratBulldog]

Publishers are getting very lazy and know they can get away with patching shit later (if ever) so they force quicker dev times. Parts of Nintendo, Sony, 2K, EA, Konami (when not making a pachinko machine) and Activison are either declining on arrogance or have been shit for awhile.

Thankfully like posts above mentions, you can find many, many fantastic games and ignore some of these guys

It’s important not to buy shit when it’s not deserved, although the masses still will.

I disagree however, with people blaming gamers with expectations. I think too many people are willing to accept shit and support poor business models. So the opposite side of it. If you do fall for marketing, wake up and research when the games out.

 

[00Stinger]

This doesn't help either

 

[Jack Richards]

Sports games used to be sports games, not card collecting/buying games, and global ladders mean people are too obsessed with avoiding losses/kills instead

This.

2k use to be great. Now your starting character is so mediocre its a grind to level up without spending VC. Even games you play earn sweet F all.

They even charge you for clothing, tattoos and hairstyles. If you dont like them and want to remove or change, you have to pay..

 

[Del80659]

Ps2/Gamecube/Xbox/DC is THE golden age, things are worse now

 

[Burningleviathan]

It does feel like RPGs have been dumbed down/simplified. I do wonder if the desire for voice acting over text has played a part.
Skyrim, Mass Effect, Fallout 3/NV, Dragon Age, etc. Doesn't feel we have repeated that era of games. In fact it feels like remasters of these games or FF are still your best option if you want to play an immersive RPG.

 

[dwwaino]

It does feel like RPGs have been dumbed down/simplified. I do wonder if the desire for voice acting over text has played a part.
Skyrim, Mass Effect, Fallout 3/NV, Dragon Age, etc. Doesn't feel we have repeated that era of games. In fact it feels like remasters of these games or FF are still your best option if you want to play an immersive RPG.

For the "mainstream" I mainly agree. With the big budget ones RPGs have definitely been watered down. I'm pretty sick of any game with a skill tree or shallow dialogue options being called an RPG, or RPG elements. These games have pushed the good RPGs under the radar a bit but with games like Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin, Pathfinder, Wasteland etc good and pure RPGs are still being made.

 

[SugarShane]

I don't think they're necessarily getting worse. There are still some amazing games coming out. They're definitely getting more ambitious, for better and worse. There seems to be more emphasis than ever on how many hours a game takes to finish, often to the detriment of the story and/or playability.

Some games love to omit a fast travel option, and then make you backtrack over and over again which is clearly just to artificially inflate the length of the game. I'd much rather a short game that has quality story telling like a Control type, over something that is just bloated for the sake of it.

In general though, more things in the game mean more bugs. That's just natural.

 

[dirty2]

I don't know if it's just me... But games seemed to be just aimed at 12 year Olds these days... As an older gamer I enjoy games with a bit more substance to them.

Give me a world to explore.. NPC's to meet.. let my choices effect the world around me.

 

[LennyHayes77]

Another example of a game being released with an ungodly amount of bugs and glitches - Cricket 22. I actually feel sorry for people who buy games day one and needs to wait weeks even months before they are truly playable. It's actually brain-dead consumerism

 

[netslave]

It's a lottery to pre-order games these days, you're better off waiting a few days to see how bug riddled it is and how big a patch you need to download to fix it.

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

The only criticism I have with games atm there seems to be less game play and more cut scenes

game play for 5 mins and then a 10 minute cut scene. I feel like now big AAA games feel like you just playing to trigger a cut scene

 

[BOMBERS 4 LIFE!!!!]

I don't know if it's just me... But games seemed to be just aimed at 12 year Olds these days... As an older gamer I enjoy games with a bit more substance to them.

Give me a world to explore.. NPC's to meet.. let my choices effect the world around me.

So many fortnight/battle Royale type games now can’t stand them

 

[dirty2]

So many fortnight/battle Royale type games now can’t stand them

Exactly.

 

[Jack Richards]

Exactly.

Yea but these games are targeted for the those who love online co-op play thats fast paced.

Many of these buying teenagers who have have trouble socialising amd prefer to play at home.

 

[biaseddustyfan]

the super lazy mainstream games and their game design philosophies are more trash than ever that's for sure. vast majority of MMO's are total filth as well. many of the games are starting to get slaughtered in reviews but at the same time many other garbage games get a pass for some reason

however at the same time my main genre is CRPG's/WRPG's and the last 7 odd years has just about been the best ever. I still love classics like VTM Bloodlines, Arcanum, Baldurs Gate etc but the recent era has been so good, maybe even better than back in the day. no complaints at all there. many games kept that old school RPG feel while improving nearly every complaint we had back the day. also a lot of these RPG's coming out in the next few years so I'm happy there

gotta say, multiplayer games are totally ****ed up these days. what is with this trend of making them feel less and less like online multiplayer games? I've tried a few recent games like BF beta etc and it hardly feels like you're playing humans. No chat, no leaderboard, no teamwork, extra bots, etc etc. What's the point? The whole reason I loved online games back in the day was all that stuff... so much shit talking, so much banter, so much competiveness on the leadboards, so much rivalry. and you could deal with the truly terrible people because you had dedicated servers you could boot people from. now days it's like you log on and play some anonymous people that never talk and you never hear from again. it's truly terrible and I'm sad people these days never get to experience real online gaming and MMO's

For the "mainstream" I mainly agree. With the big budget ones RPGs have definitely been watered down. I'm pretty sick of any game with a skill tree or shallow dialogue options being called an RPG, or RPG elements. These games have pushed the good RPGs under the radar a bit but with games like Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin, Pathfinder, Wasteland etc good and pure RPGs are still being made.

ye yeah

actual RPG's have been as good as ever. pillars, tyranny, enderal, shadowrun, divinity, pathfinder, underrail, wasteland, elex, kingdom come deliverance, disco, witcher etc etc

those games are as good as the old school RPG's easily

 

[Jack Richards]

the super lazy mainstream games and their game design philosophies are more trash than ever that's for sure. vast majority of MMO's are total filth as well. many of the games are starting to get slaughtered in reviews but at the same time many other garbage games get a pass for some reason

however at the same time my main genre is CRPG's/WRPG's and the last 7 odd years has just about been the best ever. I still love classics like VTM Bloodlines, Arcanum, Baldurs Gate etc but the recent era has been so good, maybe even better than back in the day. no complaints at all there. many games kept that old school RPG feel while improving nearly every complaint we had back the day. also a lot of these RPG's coming out in the next few years so I'm happy there

gotta say, multiplayer games are totally f’ed up these days. what is with this trend of making them feel less and less like online multiplayer games? I've tried a few recent games like BF beta etc and it hardly feels like you're playing humans. No chat, no leaderboard, no teamwork, extra bots, etc etc. What's the point? The whole reason I loved online games back in the day was all that stuff... so much sh*t talking, so much banter, so much competiveness on the leadboards, so much rivalry. and you could deal with the truly terrible people because you had dedicated servers you could boot people from. now days it's like you log on and play some anonymous people that never talk and you never hear from again. it's truly terrible and I'm sad people these days never get to experience real online gaming and MMO's



ye yeah

actual RPG's have been as good as ever. pillars, tyranny, enderal, shadowrun, divinity, pathfinder, underrail, wasteland, elex, kingdom come deliverance, disco, witcher etc etc

those games are as good as the old school RPG's easily

I use to love those type of games. I still do. But for me, it needs a good open world element where I can just explore and chill. Not be locked into one path. But I have also been getting into games where I can build homes which keeps getting me back to Fallout 76 and Ark Survival Evolved.

For me the greats were
Fallout 3
Fable (when I had an Xbox)
Witcher 3
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

I have just been getting into Kena- Bridge of Spirits which is like a version of Dark Souls... such a grind for an Indy platform but the graphics and scenary are beautiful.

 

[Geelong_Sicko]

Every gaming community is full of toxic assholes with unrealistic expectations. If a company doesn't meet those, they cop a ridiculous amount of abuse. Gamers are definitely getting worse.

I feel like publishers are also to blame by putting hard deadlines on games, so they end up getting pushed out before they should.

100% this. There are 'release seasons', like say a week before Christmas. Publishers need a title to hit shelves or online stores by that date, complete or not. When it's a bug-addled mess there's a drip feed of patches for however many months or years afterwards.

That's the way the industry is now.

 

[Gethelred]

Games are like music, the pool of genuine creativity gets shallower over time.

For all the 8K graphics and amazing processing power in the world there won't be another first side scroller, first FPS, first 3D game etc.

Weird post.

Music's existed for most of human history, but the guitar is a relatively recent invention (having only taken its current form in 1850) with the electric guitar being invented in the early 1900's. Who in the preceding 500 years could've predicted the influence that the electric guitar would have on music?

Art's another one. 3d printers have only just become available, and it's mainly for engineering; can you say it won't influence sculpture at all in the next few years?

Seriously. How many times will art or entertainment need to be revolutionised before people get it through their heads that it all evolves, changes, becomes something else; not worse or better, just different. Each era will have its high points and its low; the Witcher 3 only came out in 2015, ffs! We're only just coming out of Covid prompted lockdown of entertainment development; give them some time to develop some actual ****ing games properly again.

Your post ignores the fact that at one point there was no side scrollers, FPS, 3D games, and now there are. There was once no Pokemon, and now there is. There was once no FF, no FIFA, and there was no Shane Warne Cricket. There was no Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, and there was no Skyrim. And now there is.

We cannot know what games there are to be made, but why would you be anything other than absolutely psyched about ****ing playing them?

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Halo got congratulated for essentially being a functional game. Such was the surprise that a released big game actually works.


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[Dazb86]

I think a lot of big developers are pumping out garbage nowadays.

A lot of indie/smaller companies put genuine care into their games though and it shows.

 

[Hubnester]

I think a lot has to do with the big publishers and pleasing shareholders. All the big companies now just churn out uninspired rehashes and kill franches all in the name of making a buck. But somehow it's lost on them that just making a genuinely good game would still be profitable. Look at the state of Battlefield, Call of Duty, EA Sports games, bascially anything Ubisoft, EA and the like touches. Compared to the early games in those franchises which were some of the great gaming experiences. Classic series like Command and Conquer or Heroes of Might and Magic were killed by big publishers pushing mobile games or changing what made them great in the first place. "Games as a service", microtransactions, DLC and other strategies to nickel and dime players is also concerning and a massive turnoff that cheapens the experience as a whole because now games are designed to exploit these systems as the first priority.

Heroes 3 for example still has a huge loyal fanbase around the world. The next 4 iterations of the series went downhill until it died after the studios were taken over and dissolved, but the fans have stuck with 3 and developed HD patches, mods and expansions to keep it alive. Meanwhile the 'official' HD remake that came out a couple of years ago was a lazy cashgrab, charging a decent whack for some upscaled sprites and neglecting to even include the expansion content or any other improvements - making it inferior to the free fanmade patches in every way. Surely there's a lot of money to be made here if somebody can do this right?? It's baffling.

Games are being simplified and dumbed down too much as well. Elder Scrolls a good example of this. People seem to struggle to enjoy Morrowind now that Skyrim is what they grew up on. Removing huge amounts of depth from the world, stats, skills, choices, development, and variety with each iteration. Sometimes it's nice needing to follow directions and use your brain a bit rather than blindly following a quest marker back and forth too.

Indies and smaller studios are keeping things interesting and the fact that a passion project can still be profitable is encouraging.
Project Zomboid is one that's been in development for close to 10 years, it's almost unrecognisable now to what it was back at intiial launch and it's just had a huge resurgence with a massive new patch and is getting tonnes of players getting involved. Terraria is another one that was treated with love for years and years and has proven to be hugely successful.

 

[HairyO]

1. Improvements are more marginal these days. Graphical jump from PS1 to PS2 to PS3 was mindblowing. Now consider the graphical jump from PS3 to PS4 to PS5.
2. Microtransactions (particularly for sports games). Their is little incentive to innovate the game per se, when all the money is in Ultimate Team or whatever crap NBA 2k has. FIFA for example has basically been the same sh*t since about 2015, since EA realised profit-maximising behaviour was to just pump Ultimate Team as hard as possible. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, read about some of the patents game companies come up with. For example, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563219302602
3. Physical release isn't a thing anymore. It is less imperative to have a bug-free game, because you can just continually pump out patches, DLC etc. Obviously this wasn't possible back in the day.
4. We are getting older and we all have nostalgia. The amount of fun I had playing FIFA 07, Age of Empires I & II, Counter Strike: Source, Battlefield 1942 is probably comparative to the amount of fun kids these days have playing whatever they play.

My 2 cents.

My 13 year old has the most fun playing Minecraft and Terraria.

He plays new games when they come out but always falls back to Minecraft and Terraria.

 

[Free Agent]

I think it's like everything these days. We have all become over consumed and spoilt with choice. I've been brought up since gaming pretty much envolved from the Atari to Nes in the 90s to the 64 and PS2 and now onto next Gen.
Todays games are mind-blowingly good and the graphics are something I could only dream of back when I was a kid playing my NES.
It's come along way and there's so much vareity in games aswell these days.

I still have just as much fun as I had back when I was a kid. Some games just don't appeal as you get older so you start looking for new and mostly it's those indie games that I like these days. I think as kids when you grow you see things for the first time as magical and exciting. You want to feel that again but those memories are when you were a kid. Everything back then was new and exciting. It's the video game cycle of life my friend. Games are great today and only getting better but if you read to much into it as you get older or are trying to find that magical moment of reliving you're childhood game memories all over again it just won't happen because we know too much now as adults. Everyone's pretty much a gaming expert or developer these days with too much knowledge in how it gets made. Santa doesn't exist anymore kid and so we move forward with our gaming. Stop comparing games to those childhood memories and start playing games for what they are. Find out what you like old man and just relax and play it, damn it, it's not that difficult. haha.


Sent from my CPH2025 using Tapatalk

 

[Jack Richards]

Microtransactions have been a nightmare and a way developers have been able to rake it in.

Fallout 76 for example... woeful game at launch and cost like $80. On face value, could argue it is realistically worth about $50 if that.

Their 'atom shop' where you can basically but reskins of in game items that they just cycle through like clothing, furniture for your camps and prefabs etc... cost like $30 for 1000 atoms (but item bundles cost like 1500 atoms)

They are making 3x the amount of the actually game off each player just on pumping out "additional items".

2k sports are notorious for it and offer so little of the actually in game currency that you can grind for, it almost forces you to pay with real money. Most of what you buy are things you don't need like jump shots, dunks, clothing, tattoos (in nba).