A Gamers Contemplation

[Angel]

I've always considered myself a hardcore gamer. Played my first game of Asteroids at the age of 3 and have been hooked ever since. Being 26, married and with my first child on the way, i know i'm going to have to put my collection and hobby on the side burner, but gaming will still always be with me. But thinking about things and what i've seen i began to wonder.

The first system i owned was a 2600 i was born 1 year after its release. I've seen and played, and practicaly own every home system since. And watching tv this christmas season i believe i've seen the end of home gaming.

I can't remember the last time something "original" has been made for a new gaming system. All the tv commercials are for sequals and ports. How many Jax games do you need, how many Crash games, how many Ratchet and Clank, how many 1st person WWII shooters do you need, how many Sonic games do you need? How many GTA clones, how many True Crime clones, Why do you need the same game on 8 systems? I understand money, but also understand the need for system exclusive titles. How many puzzle games do you have to release? Eventually they all become the same thing, how many tetris clones and Yahoo game puzzle clones do we possibly need?

Even back in the days of the Intellevision, Atari 2600/5200 and Colecovision, you had thousands of very simple games and 3/4 of them had an original idea. Now with more power, better sound, better graphics, you get the same old thing time after time. what is up with that?

I don't think gaming is going to get better, even the Rev seems to be relying on old games from its old systems, so theres more not original content. I think game companies are running out of ideas and see a long plateau for the gaming industry.

Sorry its long but wanted to add my thoughts and see if anybody else agreed with me.

 

[yaustar]

I agree, everything is just computing power to make things look better and ran faster but the problem is that it takes a full dev team about a year or two to actually make a game that uses that power.

However I am intrigued about the Live! Arcade on the 360 as I hope there will be a lot of decent indie games there and will also help small companies to stay aflaot in this market.

The other problem is that it is hard to make anything fresh because almost every decent idea out there has been done before to a degree.

Hopefully a new golden age will come along but until then, I be busy catching up on the classics that I missed in the past....

 

[Nova]

Ever played 'Gregory Horror Show' on the PS2. It's amazing, and it shows that cool, innovatove games are still being made.

Also if you havent already, get 'katamari damaci'

 

[declaration]

sorry to say, but I disagree.

There was no golden time of gaming. Old consoles may have had some original games, but they certainly had just as many clones and ripoffs. There are many original games still made. they are often quoted, but deservedly so- Ico, Katamari Damachi, Viewtiful Joe etc.
Also, classic genres such as FPSs have devloped massively. Games such as Half Life 2, Far Cry and Metroid have innovation inside them.

And the Rev won't be relying on games from older systems. Thats one feature of it, but not it's major feature.

Sure there is a lot of crap, but there are also some amazing new games. Just like its always been.

 

[Kop_007]

I agree with Declaration..it's nice to look back and remember the greats...but we quickly forget the endless clones that have always existed.

Although simple looking games are fond in the memory, when we play them today...is it really about the 'gameplay' or is it about recapturing youth?

I remember getting a hold of an emulator for the first time...when I think about it, it was less about enjoying my old Amiga games, and was more about remembering the good times I had with them when I was younger.

 

[yaustar]

I call it the golden days because that's how I remembered it. At that point I enjoyed gaming to a more fuller degree. Whether that's a side effect that I am getting older now and actually know what I am playing .

Saying I do own quite a few of niche titles on the present consoles:
Alien Hominid on the xbox (and soon GBA )
Meteos DS
Viewitiful JOe
Uplink PC
Lumines
Mutant Storm


I just wish there were more of them...

 

[Angel]

the golden age of gaming for me was the 16-bit era

 

[junker]

yeah! golden age was def. 16-bit for me. i've had plenty of fun with the playstation/saturn and dreamcast later, too. things aren't as great as they used to be, but i'm hoping that'll turn around as these same boring old games won't be around for long, and more people want new and fresh stuff.
anyway, just picked up an x360 from a friend and about to load up pgr3 it better blow me away!

 

[darkman]

I like the old hand drawn graphics. The cartoon look in video games. I liked a lot of that in the arcade games of the past. The 16 bit era tried to put it into the home console. And I enjoyed that. A lot of the 16 bit era had some great games that I still play today and I still enjoy them. When we finally got home consoles that could handle it, we switched to 3D stuff. I really have not enjoyed a lot of the 3D stuff as much as the 2D.
When it comes to each generation of consoles since then, it seems that there has been a lot of emphasis on graphics and sound and not very much on gameplay. Yes I agree that there has been some good games that have happened on all systems. It really is not the norm. And I am guilty of wanting and liking some sequels. I think you would probably see more emphasis on gameplay if there were no new “bigger better consoles” hitting the market and the companies continued to support the old systems that are presently on the market. It seems that the video game market is fueled by the “bigger and better” mentality to a certain extent. And in the mist of it all some great innovative games do leak through the system.

 

[Alpha2]

There were atleast two differnt ages of console gaming, The days of Atari, Intellivision and Colecovision which lead to the great crash and then Nintendo's revivial of the Console with the NES created the next age.

This one has lasted far longer and seen a great many advancements over the previous age which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because of what's been achived but also a curse because the failings of gaming in general are magnified by the expanded time frame in comparison to the first. A catastrophic corporate failiure like Atari's ET game , hundreds of thousands of them being dumped in a landfill for instance is replaced by hundreds of stinker movie games over the course of 20 years.

 

[aQwaBlaz3]

Games today arent as good. THey all now have the same GTA-like formula. I liked it better in the 8 and 16 bit eras were games had more diveristy and wackiness. Stuff like the early Mario and Sonic reminds you of a acid trip gone horrible horrible....good. :blink: I think they need to stop the push of M rated games everywhere. My 13 year old brother rented True Crime Streets of New York today. I saw him chase down a crook in the same in a sportscar and a ocean of blood splat all over like a tidle wave in while stuck between to cars (the dude was glitched between the 2 and while my brother rammed into him at like 100 Miles Per Hour the two cars cut unstuck and smashed with by brother's car) while gruesome, I did laugh.

But anyways...Kids today don;t appriate games anymore. You go over a kid's house and you see scratched up discs and a dog gnawing on a controllor wire. Wheres the respect? These parentss buy them a 300 dollars console, a game cost 50 bucks and the kids throw it around like a peice of shit. At least my brother knows he better not mess with my CDs...at another good thing: while he does play the GTA/violent BS, he does like the classics. Six months ago we would come how from school and go on a like 6 hour Zelda and Mario marathon. B)

 

[Alpha2]

Blame the parents that let those kids come home from school and play 6 hours of GTA which they shouldnt b doing anyway because they shouldnt even have it, not being 17 yet and all.

But it's always been the same. Someone comes up with a formula and 16 other games come out right after it with the same formula. Beleive it or not after the 6th game where you had to jump on something head to kill it while walking right, people started to get a little annoyed so you can't blame one game or genre for making gaming suck.

 

[Magus 86]

I agree with Declaration..it's nice to look back and remember the greats...but we quickly forget the endless clones that have always existed.

Although simple looking games are fond in the memory, when we play them today...is it really about the 'gameplay' or is it about recapturing youth?

I remember getting a hold of an emulator for the first time...when I think about it, it was less about enjoying my old Amiga games, and was more about remembering the good times I had with them when I was younger.

​

I say it's a little bit of both, Kop. I play Tecmo Super Bowl to this day because it reminds me of when I was younger, but also because it seriously is the most fun I've ever had with any sports game. Ever since that Madden crap was made, every single football game to come after it was made in the same exact style. A few games had minor alterations(the only one I actually know of is NFL Blitz, but it's still the same style. The only difference I know of is that you can like beat the crap out of people, and it's a lot more wacky), but for the most part, they were the same recycled crap over and over again. It also seemed like the players' stats/ratings didn't even matter. Every single team I played against felt exactly the same. I get the game, and it's really hard at first. After a day or 2, it gets to be a bit of a challenge, and I'm enjoying it. Then a few days later, it's gotten to the point where I can win every single time with almost no effort. Tecmo Super Bowl has players I actually know(i stopped paying attention to football a LOOOOOONG time ago). The players' stats affect their performance A LOT. Since it's a wacky style of football game, people are sent flying into the air, some people run 40 mph faster than humanly possible, and some people are just completely unstoppable. When I play the Buffalo Bills, I always have to watch out for Bruce Smith. I know that Jerry Rice will catch almost any ball ever thrown to him, whether he's covered by 4 guys or not. I know that Christian Okoye is like a damn freight train. If I don't have a teammate with me to take him down, I'll get knocked on my ass. And I know that I have to watch out for Randall Cunningham because he's one fast little bastard. I love it. It's totally random. I never know exactly what's going to happen, and it's challenging...

The golden age of gaming for me was the time when the NES reigned supreme. Ever since the end of those days, it seems as though videogames have been going downhill for the most part. The 32-bit era leveled off and then started to climb back up the hill, but the climb was quickly halted by the next generation of systems. There were a few great titles, but not nearly as many as there were during the 32-bit era... And the newest systems coming out really soon... It seems like nobody gives a shit about gameplay or originality anymore... It's all about showing how realistic they can make something look now.

 

[Viperman5686]

When is the golden age? I think it's always. To me, games have always been fun. I don't look back and think "wow, games were good then." I don't think now that everything is a GTA clone. A lot of shit is incorporating GTAs style into it, letting people roam more, instead of holding them into a specific path that must be taken in the right order with no break to do whatever you want. I like that.

Maybe i'm just weird, but I just see the game as the game, and if I like playing it, it's fun. What I mean is, I don't get complex in my thinking when it comes to games; if it has been done before, I don't really care. If it's something more of something I already liked, it's good. I don't get tired of any specific genre unless I didn't like it to begin with.

Games are just as good to me now as they were a long time ago. If I had to play Atari for a week, and no PC, I wouldn't care as long as I got some decent games.

New systems aren't necessarily good because of more power, but because that's what all the new games are being made for, at least to me.

So simply: I love all generations of games; to me, there is no golden age.

 

[Alpha2]

Back before free roaming games ever existed people complained... COMPLAINED about games that were "on rails" now that we have games that arn't you want to complain again? I remember when Cut scenes were concidered an award for completing a level, suddenly they became the most hated part of gaming, why is that?

I compare Gaming to Anime, Back in the 80's when you had to dig through the back rooms of comic stores or make 2 hours trips to conventions for 20 dollar fansubs on VHS Anime was at it's "best" No one hated it, it was fun and people who saw it found it wonderous and new. Now you can download hours of free anime, there are cable channels devoated to it and it's in the FRONT of the comicstore now, It's more widely availible than it has EVER been and you know what? a lot of the "true anime fans" from back in the day say alot of the stuff we have now sucks ass. The truth is the stuff we have now just looks shinnier on DVD than 3rd generation VHS tapes we had to settle for back then, and there's more of it. The more you get of something the less you appreciate it.

If Gaming today was as small as it was in 1985 you'd think it was FUCKING AWSOME.

 

[Goity]

You're all just a bunch of graphic hating old fogles.

 

[judge0]

You're all just a bunch of graphic hating old fogles.

​

What's that you say, sonny?

Speak up a little . . .

 

[Nova]

Just played some more of "Gregory Horror Show"

Anyone who complained about todays graphics and gameplay in this thread should play this game.

It is a marvellous slice of laid back brilliance, and it looks delightful.

 

[PSyMastR]

You all may bash me for this, but that I why I like what nintendo is doing. Its trying so hard to put original ideas back into the videogaming scene. With the Nintendo DS, and Revolution, it may not be everyone's favorite, but atleast they are trying to get new ideas out, and are, in a way, forcing new ideas. Because the controllers are so different, there are so much possabilities to do things with it. And that is a reason I dont like the XBOX, because its just sequal, after sequal, after sequal.

 

[Angel]

i agree with you except that you shouldn't force it. I predict the revs controllers are going to be a nightmare situation. I hope its not because right now it looks the most appealing to me, basically because of the price rumors. But if that controller sucks ass and i'm forced to use it and not use a normal controller, then its going to turn lots of people off to it. Forcing is not good.