Veterans .Who thinks pc gaming have really evolved in the last few years ..

MINUS12

MINUS12

MINUS12

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I am an oldschool vetetan going back to the days of the zx spectrum ,amiga etc but Havent gamed for a while until recently as i have renewed my interest but I have read on a few forums that games have lost there innovation creativity and are just mostly repetitive and based on an old formula ..

I played a few games lately and found them to be highly immersive and graphically amazing and allmost photorealistic at times and i really feel games have matured in recent yrs , games like firewatch , oxenfree , the division , max Payne 3 to name a few ..

I found it a good idea to focus on different genres of gaming to renew my interest instead of focusing on my usual generic first person shooters etc
 
I think story telling has most definitely moved on in recent years. Easy to work engines such as Unity and Unreal along with simpler RPG Maker has allowed people without a lot of technical know how to create some outstanding gaming experiences.

That and of course there is now a lot more talent in big gaming studios as more and more people take up the craft since it's now a viable career choice.
 
Stagnated since 2006 the golden era ended late 2006.

There's simply been no games lately that have really grabbed me and hooked me, last truly standout game was bad company 2.

A lot of games these days have no "soul" is the feeling I get from a lot of games.

Trouble is as long as the masses are eating up crud like early access games and kickstarters games will continue to be made out of profit and keeping salaries going in mind and not making a game out of love blood sweat and tears.

Very few exceptions such as minecraft.
 
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There are some good games about - I've been playing Fallout 4 pretty solid since Christmas. However we have lost some of the classic genres, which actually got me into gaming in the first place - specifically in my case flight and space sims.

It was F16 Combat Pilot which occupied most of my time on the Amiga, along with F15 Strike Eagle II and F117 Stealth Bomber. When I switched to the PC in '94, it was just as the Janes series launched - USNF and ultimately cream of the crop, Longbow 2 - the 3DFX graphics were, at the time, something else. EF2000 etc., all good.

Ditto space stuff, the X games are okay but don't quite convey the impression of deep space. Where are the modern day equivalents of Wing Commander or the Lucas Arts sim. Mass Effect 1/2/3 are modern classics but they're not really space sims.

Yet to see any contemporary games which offer the experience of Command and Conquer/Red Alert. And I still have a soft spot for original Doom or Quake 2. FPS is probably the genre which has come through the generations best, though.
 
Vern1961 said:
There are some good games about - I've been playing Fallout 4 pretty solid since Christmas. However we have lost some of the classic genres, which actually got me into gaming in the first place - specifically in my case flight and space sims.

It was F16 Combat Pilot which occupied most of my time on the Amiga, along with F15 Strike Eagle II and F117 Stealth Bomber. When I switched to the PC in '94, it was just as the Janes series launched - USNF and ultimately cream of the crop, Longbow 2 - the 3DFX graphics were, at the time, something else. EF2000 etc., all good.

Ditto space stuff, the X games are okay but don't quite convey the impression of deep space. Where are the modern day equivalents of Wing Commander or the Lucas Arts sim. Mass Effect 1/2/3 are modern classics but they're not really space sims.

Yet to see any contemporary games which offer the experience of Command and Conquer/Red Alert. And I still have a soft spot for original Doom or Quake 2. FPS is probably the genre which has come through the generations best, though.
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There are plenty of space sims (elite dangerous, star citizen, no man's sky), and ashes of the singularity should scratch your RTS itch.
 
the good old days of the spectrum and amiga :(. the best gaming days of my life and still are.
I love gaming to day on my pc, but theres just something about the games on the spectrum and amiga that kept my attention more
 
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C64 said:
Stagnated since 2006 the golden era ended late 2006.

There's simply been no games lately that have really grabbed me and hooked me, last truly standout game was bad company 2.

A lot of games these days have no "soul" is the feeling I get from a lot of games.

Trouble is as long as the masses are eating up crud like early access games and kickstarters games will continue to be made out of profit and keeping salaries going in mind and not making a game out of love blood sweat and tears.

Very few exceptions such as minecraft.
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I agree.

Not much else I can add.
 
What I miss is games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Not the pixel hunting and weird combination of items part (although I did enjoy that), but the witty writing. Humour seems to have vanished from gaming these recent years, and I'm not sure why..
 
There are plenty of space sims (elite dangerous, star citizen, no man's sky), and ashes of the singularity should scratch your RTS itch.
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I was a huge fan of Frontier Elite II, but have no interest in MMO gameplay for this type of game. I was all set to get this until I read the SP game had been sacrificed for MP. Is Star Citizen released? Must have missed that one with my head buried in FO4.

I love gaming to day on my pc, but theres just something about the games on the spectrum and amiga that kept my attention more
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Back then, devs seemed to work harder to push the hardware and code to squeeze the best out of it. Of course, the one thing I don't miss from those days is having to faff about with boot discs or multiple configs to free up enough extended memory along with SoundBlaster and CD-R initialisation. Sometimes took longer than playing the first couple of missions!
 
Howling said:
What I miss is games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Not the pixel hunting and weird combination of items part (although I did enjoy that), but the witty writing. Humour seems to have vanished from gaming these recent years, and I'm not sure why..
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Try LISA: the Painful RPG (watch the trailer on Steam), or Edna & Harvey: Harvey's new Eyes (probably Daedelic's other point 'n clicks too, but I've not played any others). Both tickled my funny.

Shadow Warrior (2013) has some humour too, if you're happy with a game riffing on it's lead being called Wang.

Not forgetting Portal. And Stanley Parable.

And that's just the stuff I've played (don't play many games)
 
Vern1961 said:
It was F16 Combat Pilot which occupied most of my time on the Amiga, along with F15 Strike Eagle II and F117 Stealth Bomber. When I switched to the PC in '94, it was just as the Janes series launched - USNF and ultimately cream of the crop, Longbow 2 - the 3DFX graphics were, at the time, something else. EF2000 etc., all good.
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That pretty much sums up my early gaming years.. Add tomahawk to that on the spectrum...

My PC gaming from get go was MS Flight sim. Right up to FSX. I have thousands of hours invested in flight sims and was the driving force of my upgrade needs. Form that point of view, I don't think much has impressed me in years. Also other sims like Farming simulator made up quite a bit as well.

The game I play now and have have since Launch on the PC last year, is GTAV. GTA series has been the only exception in my gaming outside simulators. The latest iteration, in my view, is what GTA strived to be at every release but with so many more whistles n bells. As a result, I built my current rig from scratch to accommodate it.

If you include Elite Dangerous and Farming sim 2015, (which killed it as a PC game in my view) they are the only games I have bought in the past 18 months.

What I have seen though makes me annoyed. Farming Simulator was always a great game because of modding and community. However it seems games are now not only being made with consoles in mind but also mobile. So the PC version is a mish mash of those two gaming platforms. As soon as FS15 was released it was apparent it was a controller/touchscreen/micro payments based. The PC uniqueness that was FS13 had gone. So I am not sure how much PC gaming will evolve now as the devs try to make games a one shoe fits all product.
DX12 promises much but PC game innovation has stagnated.

All my opinion of course.
 
Howling said:
What I miss is games like Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. Not the pixel hunting and weird combination of items part (although I did enjoy that), but the witty writing. Humour seems to have vanished from gaming these recent years, and I'm not sure why..
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Thimbleweed Park is due out sometime soon. That should suit your needs :)
 
Vern1961 said:
I was a huge fan of Frontier Elite II, but have no interest in MMO gameplay for this type of game. I was all set to get this until I read the SP game had been sacrificed for MP. Is Star Citizen released? Must have missed that one with my head buried in FO4.



Back then, devs seemed to work harder to push the hardware and code to squeeze the best out of it. Of course, the one thing I don't miss from those days is having to faff about with boot discs or multiple configs to free up enough extended memory along with SoundBlaster and CD-R initialisation. Sometimes took longer than playing the first couple of missions!
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Man I had forgotten about soundblaster!

Just in case it's something that would change your mind, elite dangerous is practically a SP game due to the vastness of space, and if that is still too MP then you can play it in solo mode where you are in your own instances with no other players. I've put hundreds of hours into it and recommend it to anyone who wants a space Sim. SC is still in beta, and I haven't played it so can't comment

My general feelings are that while there are trends with big publishers that we don't like, we now have access to so many indie games that really fill those gaps. Whether you want funny or thoughtful, there are plenty of games or there.
 
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As both a gamer that started with HHGTTG text adventure, and a game developer by trade, I think people complaining about the state of games today have a serious case of rose-tinted specs.

Yes, the big developers and publishers are risk-averse because AAA development costs hundreds of millions of dollars and is a huge risk now....but the boom in availability of development tools/engines has completely democratised the industry. There is *way* more choice available to gamers than there has ever been before.

If you're into storytelling the standout examples from recent years are Bioshock Infinite and The Last Of Us.
 
Devrij said:
There are plenty of space sims (elite dangerous, star citizen, no man's sky), and ashes of the singularity should scratch your RTS itch.
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I beg to differ - three of those aren't even fully out yet and Elite Dangerous is sorely disappointing in its current form ( to me at least ). Apart from the X series ( and as someone else in this thread has already stated I too think those games fail to convey a sense of being in space ) the only true success on PC has been EVE Online.

As for gaming now - is it better ? Yes, and no. I think there are more games being made but you have to wade through a bigger pile of rubbish and mediocrity to get to the real gems. Some genres have seemingly faded into the ether ie. flight sims, space sims ... even RTS games have fallen away appreciably with the exception of one or two big titles eg. StarCraft 2, Company of Heroes.

If you like RPGs then they have regained popularity which is great to see, however I now lack the time to really get to grips with the lengthier ones. Old school RPG veterans may still be left wanting though if they insist on having full control of character stats, dice rolls etc.
 
i really feel games have matured in recent yrs , games like firewatch , oxenfree , the division , max Payne 3
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If you're happy that that kind of stuff is the future of gaming then might as well start writing the epitaph for pc gaming now lol. Most of those you mention are outright crud.
 
Surfer said:
If you're happy that that kind of stuff is the future of gaming then might as well start writing the epitaph for pc gaming now lol. Most of those you mention are outright crud.
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Well, half of them are well-regarded 'frontier' games, another is a well-regarded sequel, and only one of them is The Division. So, y'know, his list was OK.
 
I hate the way a lot of more recent games are so overbalanced everything meets in the middle and is kind of meh and/or spam useless ornamental items, etc. at you as if you should be grateful for every one, too many games just built up enough to do the job and no more (probably with the intention of selling you the cosmetically switched around next version of the game a few months later) compared to the much more complete experience in some older games, etc.

That isn't to say all recent games are like that but I find very little that really grabs me any more.
 
For me, I see that we have all this CPU power yet game/AI logic in the majority of games is total poop and sometimes inexcusable.

The problem nowadays is back in the day, a developer or group of developers would make a game in their spare time for the love of it. No commercial motivation. They just want to make a game as good as they can, in their own vision.

Nowadays, few take that "gamble", from day 1, they have Kickstarter/Early access backers to appease so they are already locked into commercial issues influencing their creativity/design.
 
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