Why are games so boring/similar

Guest2

Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
Joined
6 May 2009
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A few days ago I installed an Amiga emulator, WinUAE and some ROMs. I owned an Amiga when I was young (almost 20 years ago) had many games and loved playing it for years

I have recently been firing up some games and whilst they look rubbish you get past this after a couple of minutes of playing due to the gameplay being so damned good.

I started playing PP Hammer and before I realised it I was on level 9 and about 3 hours had passed! I dont think ive done this with any PC recently apart from Starcraft 2

I then had a look on the net and found this thread http://www.warblade.as/feature01.html

Many games on the Amiga had brand new styles, Lemmings, Settlers, Rainbow islands, Speedball, Nebulus, Wizzkidd, Theme Park, Another world... The list goes on.

Why does PC gaming seem to 'drab' at the moment, like theres only 3 or 4 genres. FPS, RTS, Driving thats about it really!

Trine is a great game, more should be released like it, or Tron. At least they are a bit different than the usual. Games should be made like were made on the Amiga, or even remakes in HD. How good would HD Desert strike or Robocop be!
 
Guest2 said:
Many games on the Amiga had brand new styles, Lemmings, Settlers, Rainbow islands, Speedball, Nebulus, Wizzkidd, Theme Park, Another world... The list goes on.

Why does PC gaming seem to 'drab' at the moment, like theres only 3 or 4 genres. FPS, RTS, Driving thats about it really!

Trine is a great game, more should be released like it, or Tron. At least they are a bit different than the usual. Games should be made like were made on the Amiga, or even remakes in HD. How good would HD Desert strike or Robocop be!
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I agree. I think it is not just the case for PC but also for current-gen consoles. There hasn't been much variety in the case of ps3 like it was in the case of PS1 and PS2.
For once there haven't been many 3rd person action/adventure/platform type games like mario 64, crash bandicoot etc. Also fighting/beat'em up games have dropped down significantly.

I think 15-20 years ago, games didn't need huge amount of money to be made like it is in the case of today coupled with complexities involved. So we only end up with few titles each year.
 
look to indie gaming for invention. Easiet way to do that is to follow Neil79 around ;) .Big game companies are too scared to try something inventive as games cost a fortune to produce now. In the amiga days the developers were a 2-5 man band.
 
basically cause most games now are like dvds or a series on tv its big buisness they need to pump something out regular that will make cash fast not wait and be original as its too risky.

theres not that many original games about in last few years. shame as that is what brought me to the pc to game.

fps games need a really big shake up . thing is why would activision or ea spend three or four years out on a big fps changing game when they can make a billion pound every year from a retarted up game?

they wont.

if its going to change it will be from a smaller company who brings out something special.
 
~>Dg<~ said:
if its going to change it will be from a smaller company who brings out something special.
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Wizkid 2 would be fantastic, or 'Brutal sport football' in HD with some pumping hardcore tracks!

I would much rather pay small companies for new games than big companies for a pretty FPS on an old engine that has crap gameplay
 
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Someone needs to spice up the market... something like a FPS where you have to kill students before the SWAT team takes you out or something.

A bit of variety in the old FPS murder fest that we all play, tbh I think ive killed more Germans than Tom Hanks did when he won WW2.
 
There is more money to be made in re-creating a game in the past with updated graphics, a lot of people would like that.
 
Blame the consoles is the warcry of every PC gamer these days. The consoles have nothing to do with what Guest2 is on about. Games cost millions no matter what platform they are developed for.

In the days or yore graphics consisted mostly of something a hairy fella in a dark cupboard could knock up in a weekend. This left loads of time for gameplay and story creation. Now it takes weeks to create just a single model in a modern game.

It is easy to innovate when your failed projects only took a few weeks/months and cost a fiver.
 
I find game types such as simulation and strategy games have really suffered in recent times, mainly because of the need for studios to bust out hit titles, not games which appeal to a small market.
 
I think there are many possible reasons, including :

Less innovation, whereas in the past companies wanted to see what was possible, they now want to see only what is profitable.

Too much focus on shiny graphics and cutscenes and less focus on gameplay and replayability, resulting in games which you buy on Friday and have completed before the weekend has even finished.

A dumbing down of games, make games easier to appeal to the masses, but by removing the difficulty and challenge it can make things feel tedious. Its incredible when you play some old 8/16 bit games just how damned hard they feel.

Lack of ideas, resulting in repetitive mechanics and aesthetics that we've all seen time and time again.
 
Pyschonauts.

Good gameplay, good voice acting, good graphics, amazing storyline and humour.

Hats off to Double Fine, it's a shame their subsequent games bore a reduced budget :(
 
Brookert said:
I find game types such as simulation and strategy games have really suffered in recent times, mainly because of the need for studios to bust out hit titles, not games which appeal to a small market.
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Some simulators are still going strong. Such as microsofts flight sims... they're making a new one! and driving simulators... F1 etc.

Even sports simulators branch out quite widely!
 
Games would be so much better if they had a decent story. It still amazes me that they put in years of work on a game, for it to be chucked on a shelf after a short 8 hour single player.

Authors have written amazing books in less time. I wish they would hire awesome writers from the start! :(
 
I want the opposite. Sod the story - give me a focus on variety and gameplay. I can think of one game that gripped me from start to finish due to the quality of it's story telling. Planescape Torment. Everything else is straight to dvd action/sci-fi/fantasy. All we need is a bad guy and an objective and we're good to go.

The problem is developers trying to emulate movies rather than giving us games that are about playing with stuff.
 
Guest2 said:
....Rainbow islands....
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Was an arcade conversion so technically wouldnt count as an amiga game ;) However, it is probably the best game ever. Its simple and easy to play yet at the same time amazingly complex. Monsters drop different loot depending where they are on screen and whats dropped before them, collecting loot in certain order giving better power ups and opening new levels. I spent days playing it in an arcade one summer, great value could get about half an hour from 10p.

It got remade recently, played demo for it on 360, was terrible :(
 
A decent story lends itself to gameplay. There is only so much you can do with FPS. It will always been point and shoot. If I have a compelling story I will have a reason to keep pointing and shooting.

Take Crysis. Graphics are fantastic but I think the gameplay on its own is pretty mundane. Yes you can do interesting things with the nanosuit, but it is nothing special. Once you have snuck up and killed a patrol of Koreans once, you've done it a thousand times. Yet it was the story that compelled me to continue. True the story isn't amazing, but was better than a lot of FPS and did the job of driving me onwards.

Any gameplay mechanic will quickly get dull, no matter how exciting or varied it may feel at the start. The best games pair up story with gameplay and keep you coming back for more. Half-Life and its sequels is one really good example of this.

Though I should say I don't want a game to be all about the story, as I may as well go watch a film! :p
 
They're not you just getting old and jaded :) I too get the seen that done that syndrome. I tend to stick to a few games rather then playing loads like I used to.

My nieces could spend all day every day playing free internet games. Since, for them it all new and interesting. But I look at them and think, "Oh this is like x but not as good"
 
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Op should play some mmo's.

With mmo games the art designers are let loose to do pretty much as they please within the confines of the game structure.

So with these games you get to see the most varied art design in gaming today.
 
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