Games getting worse...

[Ryan-3]

Gran Turismo 3 A Spec vs Gran Turismo 5 - This comparison's a little old but GT3 was so much more fun to play than GT5. The range of cars, mods and single player campaign made GT3 feel fantastic and well worth £40 at the time, GT5 had far less in comparison and was promptly sold later that week.

This one especially for me. I watched a YouTube video recently comparing tracks on the game and how they've come on over the years, and I noticed the way the graphics, sound and engine had developed over the years. I think GT4 was the high point of the series. Things were continuing to improve game by game - although some aspects in 4 for example were copied straight from 3 (like 6 from 5, premium and normal cars..) - and since I feel the time between games seems to get longer each time, any upgrades seem less and less of a step forward.

 

[Warbie]

Agreed with the examples other than Doom 3. That was pap! The recent version wees all over it from a great height.

Zelda botw and Mario Odyssey are the best modern examples of games doing it right.

 

[malachi]

a lot of focus has turned to mobile games.

"Lets make a 5 min game and see how much money we can get"

So standards on a whole has dropped.

 

[Dredd]

Still decent games, I have games I purchased years ago are still getting free updates Evan have Xmas events going on right now.

I will try and avoid games take things to far.

 

[Fry750]

In terms of value I think Bloons TD5 (mobile) and Rocket League are among the best games. Obscene levels of replayability for a few sheckles.

 

[V F]

As soon as gaming went from niche to big business this problem was inevitable.

If there is one word that I feels sums up the games mostly produced for a good few years now it has to be safe.

Decisions are not made by devs on what can be an outstanding IP its by the publishers and their shareholders on what they feel they can market to generate the best dividends. Markets hate uncertainty and risky new IP's aint gonna fly with the board!

So other than the odd exception, safe recycled IP's are sadly all we will ever get.

Well, unless gamers make a stand and refuse to buy the reskinned yearly releases. But you only have to go into the COD threads for the last few years to see many gamers behave like turkeys voting for Christmas.

.......cod sucks I'm never buying it again.
Then next title is announced:
.......The new COD looks great and im hopeful they will fix the issues from the last games.
.....then a week into release:
OMG this COD sucks, im not bothering again!!! Herp derp.

Rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

So nothing will change, sadly.

Ok, I agree to a certain point but how did we get the Uncharted series, The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn if they’re only playing it safe?

 

[Fry750]

They're all PS exclusives.

Most multi platform games tend to suffer from the same 'as-much-profit-at-all-costsitis'.

Sony seems to have the first party games down though, as Nintendo has always done. Microsoft sadly seems to think an ageing Gears of War, Forza and Halo series is enough...

 

[Bigpig]

Ok, I agree to a certain point but how did we get the Uncharted series, The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn if they’re only playing it safe?

Because Naughty Dog and guerrilla games are owned by Sony and not Microsoft or EA.

Both Microsoft and EA are doing a good job on closing good studios

 

[Narj]

Horizon Zero Dawn was the last example of doing something slightly different paying off. OK it nicks a lot from Tomb Raider but it was the most enjoyable game I've played in a while. Ratchet and Clank deserves a mention for fun factor.

Agree about the last Deus Ex... I quit after less than an hour - what a pile of garbage. DX:HR was so much better.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Personal 5
Zelda Breath of the Wild
Mario Odyssey
Witcher 3
GTA V
Nier Automata
Half Life 2

All arguably the best of their series, even if not, they are not even bad games, hell, to call them merely good is an insult, they all are great games.

 

[Narj]

Personal 5
Zelda Breath of the Wild
Mario Odyssey
Witcher 3
GTA V
Nier Automata
Half Life 2

All arguably the best of their series, even if not, they are not even bad games, hell, to call them merely good is an insult, they all are great games.

Great list although not sure about Persona as I've never played them and don't think it's my bag.

Wish I had time to play TW3 and GTAV all over again.

Nier is a good shout - I'll give that a go on PS4. Can't quite bring myself to buy a switch but I'd love to play a new Zelda game.

 

[Rroff]

Personal 5
Zelda Breath of the Wild
Mario Odyssey
Witcher 3
GTA V
Nier Automata
Half Life 2

All arguably the best of their series, even if not, they are not even bad games, hell, to call them merely good is an insult, they all are great games.

I know this is the console forum but GTA V on PC had horrid mouse input - sensitivity scaled with framerate, the Y axis was a different sensitivity so if you drew a circle physically with your mouse the motion in game was an oval and a lot of people had input stutter - so it was unplayable for me and personally I don't enjoy those kind of games on a controller. So for me that game goes down with the bad ones.

 

[Fry750]

I know this is the console forum but GTA V on PC had horrid mouse input - sensitivity scaled with framerate, the Y axis was a different sensitivity so if you drew a circle physically with your mouse the motion in game was an oval and a lot of people had input stutter - so it was unplayable for me and personally I don't enjoy those kind of games on a controller. So for me that game goes down with the bad ones.

It always struck me as odd as on the console (X360 & X1 at least) there'd be around a 0.25 second delay between button press > action on screen. No idea if intentional or if hardware limitations, either way very annoying.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I know this is the console forum but GTA V on PC had horrid mouse input - sensitivity scaled with framerate, the Y axis was a different sensitivity so if you drew a circle physically with your mouse the motion in game was an oval and a lot of people had input stutter - so it was unplayable for me and personally I don't enjoy those kind of games on a controller. So for me that game goes down with the bad ones.

Can't comment on the PC version but that's merely a bad port, it does not translate to a bad game.

For the same reason, PUBG is a terrible game on XB1…or it is merely a bad port because it is great on PC.

Personally I cannot play FPS on the joypad, it is just slow and counter intuitive. GTA is fine on the joypad because it is a 3rd person game, like Tomb Raider, that's fine on the joy pad too, just like Mario 64 was and Mario Odyssey now.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

Ok, I agree to a certain point but how did we get the Uncharted series, The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn if they’re only playing it safe?

They are all good games but look at them in a bit more detail. They are all variations of tried and tested game mechanics so are a lot safer than you might think.

For example, HZD. Yes it was a good game, but lets be honest - in terms of gameplay it wasn't anything original and it did some things really badly. For example, town areas were very one dimensional and didnt feel believable.

Open world, fast travel system, collecting resources, crafting items, task specific weapons and ammunition, skill tree, player levelling, cover/stealth mechanic, npc side quests, secret caves to find/explore.

Those are all pretty standard mechanics. Indeed I couldnt help drawing similarities between HZD and something like Morrowind / Oblivion or Farcry 3/4.

Uncharted and TLOU arent anything particularly new or exciting either, but what they are is polished and well presented. Great writing and story and voice acting. Like interactive movies.

There is a game out at the moment called outcast second contact and it is a remake of the original outcast released in 1999. It was doing back then a lot of what we see in AAA titles of similar genre in recent years.