Gaming has lost its spark for me

Hedge

Hedge

Hedge

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
19,578
Location
Somewhere in the middle.
Since the age of about 14 ive sat at my pc for god knows how many hours.

When my Mam first bought me a computer for "School work", i was so chuffed. Id even bought pc magazines prior to getting it.

At the time Half Life had just been released and it was getting all sorts of amazing reviews. So i managed to pursuade my mam to buy me it.

I sat on that game, worked out how to use a keyboard and mouse (at first using arrow keys because i had no experience with PCs), and i played it through until completion. It was awesome.

PCZone magazine then had cover disks with "Counter Strike Beta 5.2"... i got into that, made friends, joined small casual clans. We used to play every night.

My GCSEs probably suffered from it, but it was so much fun.

I totally ditched console gaming at that time. I had a Playstation which went on the back burner, i bought a ps2... played it sparingly. Enjoyed ICO, but not much else.

Then after CS, Diablo 2 joined in, and then eventually WoW for too long (which i regret playing somewhat).

Then after quitting wow, i just read forums, and play xbox a bit.

Are there any games that can ever feel fresh anymore?. I want to get back into something and game a bit in my spare hours. But there doesnt seem to be anything right now.

Maybe ive grown out of it :(

I bought Battlefield 2 for £2.50, aint played it.., Is it too old now to get me drawn in?
 
Strife212 said:
I always buy every single major new game and end up playing it 1 or 2 hours then it goes on the shelf :S
Click to expand...

Thats the stage im currently in. I bought Unreal Tournament 3. I tried to enjoy it, but It just had no charm.

I played Company of Heroes for a while, which was nice because RTS games arent normally my cup of tea.

Since then i just dont think anything has any depth.

Ive never games using a headset or anything properly. Should i be getting into games using a mic etc. I feel left out because everyone on this forum seems keen as hell on loads of pc games
 
Perhaps we are approaching the limits now of the keyboard/mouse combo and most genres are exhausted.

We need something radical tbh and I dare say this but only the Wii has bought something new to table in a longtime.
 
but the wii games are intresting for about 5 minutes then just boring, its only the fact you're playing with people that makes it fun. any console multi play + people + drink is the same.
 
Bf2 is still rocking son, loads of decent servers and people too :D

2142 is ace and their are also lots of Cool mods for Bf2 like Project Reality and AIX and such, should check it out mate, and stop whining ;)
 
Wii is just more arcade games + waving your arms about. Nice try but I dont imagine its a long term fix, cant beat good gameplay tbh and the best games have good online competitive gameplay
 
Ill install bf2 today and see how it fairs then. If you play it robbi gimme a shout on msn (or anyone else for that matter)

[email protected]

maybe someone can give me some pointers.

If anyone else is feeling a bit miffed by current games but still wants to somehow try and get some fun from gaming again. Maybe we could start even an old game together again or something. A few new people online might help make stuff more interesting!
 
I've not played many games since switching to mac. I really should upgrade my PC and get gaming again. Miss CSS and BF2.

I bought a few games before xmas including MOH: Airborne and UT3 but my PC wouldn't run them. :(
 
sid said:
Perhaps we are approaching the limits now of the keyboard/mouse combo and most genres are exhausted.

We need something radical tbh and I dare say this but only the Wii has bought something new to table in a longtime.
Click to expand...

I think you might be close to the point, at least for people who have been playing games for a while, it's rare to find something new that isn't largely a case of "ooh shiny graphics".
I think it's a case of far too many developers not wanting to take a chance and try something new/radically different as there isn't a recent proven market for it (despite the fact that a lot of the older genres that have largely been neglected in the past 5 years or so being so much cheaper to do than FPS #9012 revision 3, '09 video card version).

I've found that i'm mainly playing "odd", "quirky" or "fun" games on the PC for the past few years, things like Evil Genius, Stubbs the Zombie, Portal, and recently TF2.
The Wii has a much more interesting take on games (for me) than the 360, or most PC games now, not just because it's got a new control system but because it's got devs looking at new ways to do things, the same happened with the DS (point and click/blow/rub adventures).

Portal was the first really new idea i've seen in an FPS type setting for ages, we had multiplayer co op nearly a decade ago, we've had network/net games for about 15 years, we've had most weapon types done to death (with many of them poor variants of older examples).


If you're getting sick of games it's probably worth taking a "leave" from them for a while and just dipping in and out of stuff that looks interesting.
 
What I look for in a game has completely changed in recent years. I'm not really interested in game mechanics - it's gaming as a storytelling or learning media that interests me now. I think I persist with gaming more for its potential rather than what it generally is. Occasionally that potential is fulfilled and when it is, computer games deliver an experience unparalelled in most entertainment media.

Battlefield whatever - meh... It's the same thing with a prettier paint job. Crysis? Looks lovely but is the whole nano-suit thing really any different from Deux Ex's augmentations that we had in 1998 (Edit: Sorry 2000)? Speaking of Deus Ex, it's often hailed as a gaming classic and rightly so but was it really because of the gameplay? Only to a certain extent. Deus Ex had a very strong storyline and I think that's why many people remember it so fondly.

In this respect, most games still aren't up to scratch. The last 3 games to have really gripped me have been Knights of the Old Republic, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines and Fahrenheit (which became a let down towards the end). I have yet to complete Bioshock or Assassin's Creed. The jury is out on both of them. Half Life 2 - I've never been able to get past how flipping linear the thing is. Grand Theft Auto whatever? Too much faffing about.

I spend quite a lot of time playing Rome: Total War (and will go on to Medieval 2 when I finish it) but I don't think it's the game itself that grips me. I've played it in conjunction with a number of books about that period in history and I try to roleplay it with an element of historical authenticity, using tactics from the day rather than what I would think is most effective. I see it as part of an overall learning experience. Similarly with Assassins creed - I find the historical detailing (or the lack of it - there's an awful lack of stuff about religion for a game set during the Crusades) a lot more interesting than the gameplay itself. People criticise it for being repetitive. The vast majority of games are repetitive.

Unless a radically new genre is devised, I can't ever see myself being drawn into a game purely for gameplay reasons. I still see gaming as having a huge potential. It can immerse the player in a way that no film ever could. The narrative is experienced and participated in, rather than observed.

Gaming as an art form is something that's often discussed. It's an art form in its infancy and there are currently few genuine masterpieces. I'm still waiting for an Oscar worthy script to turn up in a competently made game where the player still retains an element of choice and creativity. That's what I'm hoping for.

Edit: Hedge - if you're looking for one game to recapture 'the magic' of gaming, I'd say Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. The actual gameplay mechanics are a bit clunky at times, and there are a few annoying bugs, but there's a kind of brilliance there that's not often found in games. It can be had on Steam or you might get it in a bargain bin cheaper.
 
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I think it's natural...gaming will never be as fun for me again as it was during the days of the original TF (Quakeworld) which also was around the time of my GCSEs. Pings were high, graphics were poor, but it was just so much fun because it was the first time I'd ever really got into gaming as a community thing rather than a solo hobby.
Gaming is still fun but it's not the near-religion it was in those days. I don't think it's any reflection on the games out today, just the fact that the first online game you play to death will always be the best.
 
You are right about Portal, i thoroughly enjoyed that actually, although i played it on a 360 orange box i borrowed off a friend.

Its probably not the control method that is making me tire of games fast. Its most likely what you say with the constant rehashes of games, or graphics with no depth.

Maybe the whole newness of pc gaming is what got me hooked at the time. Me and a good mate were probably the only 2 people out of our group of friends who were gaming like hell on PCs. Felt like some kind of secret heaven that only we knew about lol.

I have an uncle whos over 40 and he seems to give games more time than I do (albeit on xbox)... he happily plays games that to me are just poor equivalents to superior games that i played years before on PC.

Its frustrating because ive always loved games. But now its a chore to complete most stuff :(
 
Try Grid (demo) and see how you get on with that.

Its released next week and is pretty fun if not frustrating sometimes online.
It plays well with the 360 Controller, but any Analogue controller should work or a Wheel if thats your thing.

Im a huge FPS fan, but every now and then a truly awesome racer keeps things interesting
 
I feel the same way.

Call Of Duty 4 was the last 'good' game that I played, but it feels like a chore to play now. I bought COD2 recently, but I can't really be bothered to play that either.

I don't know. :( It's probably just me, but it still feels like there's been nothing fresh or innovative on the PC for a while.

There's too much emphasis on graphics in my opinion - they make a game look good, but they don't make it fun.

TF2 was good fun because it was different, the graphics are nice but you can tell they weren't the focus of the game.

What about Battlefield Heroes? That looks fresh, it's free and should be out in a couple of months.
 
Not imo:

I still play loads of games, old and new, and I won't get enough of it.
I've got drawn it by a different reason than you though, strategy games do it for me, not shooters, although I love shooters like CoD4 and Mohaa:s, I still stick to mainly the civilization games, and other strategy/sim games like openttd, supcom, worms, sim city, etc...

I would play a lot more if my pc wouldn't have problems atm ( got exams so cba to fix my pc atm ) eg. when it still worked I loved medieval 2 TW, TDU, GTA:SA (mp too) and CoD4...

Odd that you don't want to play BF2, I got addicted to it when I started playing on infantry only Karkand ( with some normal vehicle rounds stuck in too), shame I can't really play it atm like 90% of my 3d games :(.
 
You wait till the opening video of BF2 kicks in :D
The game is everything I ever dreamt about when I played Space Invaders Asteroids & Galaxion back in the day. For me a 64 man BF2 server is the pinnacle of online gaming. You have the joy of mastering all the classes & all the vehicles & the added bonus of Infantry only servers for Full on 32v32 Infantry battles on Maps that are Fantastic.
On vehicles servers you can jump in an Attack chopper, Parachute out of it into a Tank then bin that for a Jeep or APC or even a Jet.
I've played it since 1 second past 9am on the Faithful day of release & was playing on IO last night still Pawning.
Hundreds of Active servers & Hundreds of Dedicated players, Team work & Squadding up is a must these days for Survival so Immedietly you are dropped in to a Supreme platform for wasting people.
Nothing compares to BF2.
Load it, Watch the Intro Vid & then Enjoy the next couple of thousands hours playing time :cool:

See you on the Battlefield Soldier :D
 
I have Bf2 Installing as i write this, ill see what i feel about it this afternoon.

I feel that Co-operative play is a big part of gaming that seems to be overlooked. Diablo 2, as basic as it was, put you with a few random people, and you basically trawled through hacking and slashing and you felt equally important to one another.

I wish more games had this feature.

I dont know why everything needs to go into first perspective either. I think top down games could be made to look stunning with loads of great textures and maybe a more close detailed view. But panning cameras etc wouldnt be necessary.

All of us know that graphics need to progress, but we all also know how important it is to be able to pick up a game and get drawn in by story and a sense of achievement when you reach the end of something.

Just wish devs would risk taking a break from the norm
 
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