Its not the same anymore

Gaming is now better than ever, I have too many too good games to replay right now, let alone wait for more to come out. And wait until the Oculus hits high-res mainstream, that could be mindblowing.

but of course, things were better in the old days, when I was playing at 640x320...
 
It's not just getting old and rose tinted glasses - games these days are designed to cater to wider audiences. Less and less often they're being made by developers with a genuine passion for the game they're making and increasingly often they're being driven by focus testing and the money side of things. They're still good games being made for sure, but look at the current multiplayer fps scene on the PC for a good example of how things have soured. It is absolutely bloody dire compared to what we had in the 90s. In pretty much every way that matters. Variety, depth, challenge, creativity. The days of PC fps being made for the PCs strengths and mods are all but over and in their place console ports. Let's hope things swing back full circle as otherwise there won't be any PC gamers left who remember how good mp fps used to be on the PC and will settle for this dross!

//end rant
 
I cant be bothered to find and quote the post that says that modern games are the best ever. Rubbish.

Modern games are not better. And here's why.

Press X now! The number of games that have huge cutscene after huge cutscene that sometimes require you to press a button when prompted. That's not a game, that's an interactive movie. (Modern Warfares, etc. BLOPS even has a video of a guy NOT EVEN FIRING throught the whole game and finishing it!)

The way that modern games are totally on rails, forcing you round an (at times quite intricate) pre-determined path from objective to objective. (Example: Delta Force had infinite maps, hell even DOOM was explorable, and many more).

Achievements. These have popped up as a way to add replayability rather than making real content. Baldurs Gate came on SIX cds! It was 80 hours of gameplay. If you fancied it again you could choose another of the 30 (or whatever) character classes, each with unique quests.

DLC. Oh god, DLC. Why do I have to pay for a game 4 or 5 times to get all the content? If it's just aesthetic fair enough but otherwise... eurgh.

Early Release. In "the good old days" you could get a demo on the front of a magazine and it was free. Why are we paying to test these games? I mean i dont personally but the blatant coporate penny squeezing is insulting.

Exposure by Design. Blizzard are the kings of this. Games that, by design, require you to play repeatedly every day in order to complete your objectives. Want that legendary cloak? You gotta log in and get maximum marks every day for a month. Then go to step 2. Want that item? That item costs 10,000 points but you can only earn 2000 points a month. PLAY OUR GAME EVRY DAY.

Games now are too easy. Except Banished. **** off, Banished. Regenerating health, no puzzles, blah blah. Another WoW example here, but there used to be epic solo quests that required actual skill, like the Hunter leaf quest. Now it's just exposure that anyone can do with enough time. Games like X-Com Enemy Unknown were BRUTAL in the late stages.

Dont worry, i wont go on my Counter Strike rant again.

Yes, its possible to name examples to the contrary but the fact is that previously games weren't a bankroll. People were making games because it was a small industry feeding a small community. Now, they're just giant cashcows. Even now when small, awesome developers come along they get swallowed up by whatever behemoth is going to rape them of all they're worth.

/rant.
 
Some games don't allow you to bypass intro/scenes and most are statistic nuts now. Most gamers are obsessed with achievements/unlocks now. I remember PC gamers really furred up about all the console stuff coming in. Every forum was really mad back in 2006/07+. Now it's pretty normal.
 
I'm in similar position. I haven't completed a game in yonks, all i play is MW3 with a few friends a few hours a day. When i was 15-19(27 now) was the gaming highlight for me with games HL2, COD, MOH, BF1942, RTCW, The Sims! lol probably missed a few as well. meh could just be depression or boredom.
 
kedge said:
Ever changing environments, realization kicks in, one starts to ask themselves questions like ..."is playing certain video games a powerful illusion like many other forms of mind stimuli?, is one convinced that playing certain genres of video games really entertaining input for the mind?. I myself can't play first person shooter games any longer, not even for short bursts, point click shoot to kill, it just numbs my mind, some of the game worlds and the graphics technology and the hardware i personaly find quite interesting but the core play of first person shooters or even third person shooter games is dull and mind destroying to me. I even struggle to make 5 laps in a driving simulator video game before i start to get bored, round and round and round i go, lol. One just needs to find something else to do that is more satisfying and rewarding for the mind, not always easy mind you. Avoid becoming the lazy gamer at all costs, take care of your mind, sometimes your input is your output, moderation is key word, but sometimes best to avoid certain things no matter what, try to attain equanimity. Violence breeds violence there is no escaping that, yes people will try to justify anything, don't be violent to the mind be kind to it take care of it.
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One could equally say:

Football. Chasing around after a ball, repetitively kicking the thing around the park, trying to get it in the back of a rectangular shaped onion sack.

Golf. Smashing a ball with a long metal stick towards a tiny little hole in a green. Then doing the exact same thing over and over again 18 more times

etc etc

The kind of fast twitch gaming that you are talking about, is fun (to those who enjoy it), because it is challenging to their reflexes and wits. Thier is also a certain amount of enjoyment to be had in the aesthetic qualities of the graphics themselves, but that comes a firm second place to how well the game tests reflexes and fast thinking.

People play games, and sports, because humans are competitive, but also just like to 'play'. Playing is enjoyable.Some games are more enjoyable than other. For example, I would suggest that football is a better game than tiddlywinks, but if I was forced to choose between a game of golf and tiddlywinks, I would probably go for tiddlywinks. Everyone has their own thing that happens to have hooked their sense of 'play', which may well be entirely different from the next persons thing.

If you are looking to work your cerebral cortex, then you probably want to be looking somewhere else other than video games, cos that isn't what 99% of video games are all about....unless you are into playing somehting like Chess v CPU on HARD.

You seem to be a fine example of someone who is stuck in a behavhiour pattern that has become wholly unrewarding to them. And that is either a symptom of depression or indeed might result in mild depression itself.

As for for the dude Dampcat who is foaming at the mouth about the increasing commercialisation of video games....pffft...whateva. I play through games and get all manner of little steam icons telling me I have completed an achievment or whatever. I don't care about any of it. I recently completed Bioshock Infinitie on HARD, yet only got about 40% of the 'acheivements' unlocked. I just ignore that crap and it's existence doesn't detract anything from my enjoyment of the game.

For all the lame assed COD style Whack-a-mole hand lead 'press a button NOW' games out there, there are plenty titles that offer more freedom and interesting ways of completing the objectives than ever before. I have just started playing the Dishonored DLC, The Knife of Dunwall. Since I always play on HARD, I got through the first level and found that I wasn't in the best condition for approaching the subsequent level, so I replayed the first level, and found a totally different route to acheive the objectives, learned lots of things about the game and the storyline that I never knew before, and realised that their lots of other options that could have been open to me as well.

Sorry, but I have been gaming since the days of Ping Pong on the Atari and although the period where I most suited to enjoying video gaming was surely between the ages of 10-20, the times when I have enjoyed video gaming the most was between the ages of 20-30 (GoldenEye, Gothic, PES series, BF2). I enjoyed gaming more as an adult than as a child cos gaming got so much better as I grew older and this is a trend that has continued and will continue. I am now almost 40. Well beyond the optimal age for enjoying video games, but I can clearly see that gaming is better today than it ever has been, even if I will never again be as immersed in any game as I was with Gothic, running at 640*320, 10-25FPS, blocky low detail textuers, with migraines, frequent crashes to desktop, and other technical issues and bugs that I would simply not tolerate in any modern game, being simply part of the price that one had to pay, in order to play....back in the 'good old days'.
 
For me the PC is obviously more than just a gaming machine, but I spend my time trying out new games, and playing games that are over 10yrs old there is just something about nostalgia that is so powerful.

but on occasions i will sit there for 10min wondering wtf to play then all of a sudden im watching stuff instead.
 
murah said:
and playing games that are over 10yrs old there is just something about nostalgia that is so powerful.
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Sadly the memories are but once you see those old games again like really old shows/cartoons. They look absolutely awful.
 
Alongside modern games I've always got an older game on the go. Currently playing through Quake mission pack 1after completing Quake and I'm loving it. Never had the privilege of playing the first two quakes back in the day.
 
V F said:
Sadly the memories are but once you see those old games again like really old shows/cartoons. They look absolutely awful.
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If all you care about is fancy graphics and not actually enjoying the gameplay then fair enough.
 
I can relate to OP and purely down to peoples recommendation in this thread for Tomb Raider I bought it in the sale & have been playing it this morning. Seems like a wicked game, no regrets & thanks for the heads up.

Makes me wonder how many other releases slip through the net that actually are pretty good.

I used to be into my Prince of Persia adventure types & Tomb Raider seems to be similar gameplay. Makes a great change from the generic point and shoot CoD releases
 
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