Why are games so boring/similar

OP, its because these boring/similar games SELL as consumers are willing to shell out money for them. Big companies are milking every last buck they can from these genres.
 
they know what works, if they keep it similar they cant go wrong everyone tries to make the next best selling thing! Which is always a copy...
 
SiriusB said:
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.
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Spot on. Give me a great story and I'll keep playing til it's concluded.

Also agree with the points about it not being consoles faults. Some of the best, most original games (for story and gameplay) for me over the last few years have been on a console. Not just small budget titles either.

Half the threads I read in the PC gaming sub forum seem to be full of whingers going "Wahh, consoles are dumbing everything down". Unsurprisingly, these all seem to be people with a pretty short sighted view of what's available.

I think games that are bland are bland because many publishers are stifling creativity for short bang for buck releases with the intention of maximising profit.
 
Guest2 said:
Why does PC gaming seem to 'drab' at the moment, like theres only 3 or 4 genres. FPS, RTS, Driving thats about it really!
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The "EA" mentality. Make games that people will buy, don't implement new ideas in case they don't sell, and don't make any games that go against the status quo, we need to guarantee selling so many copies(and I can see their point, considering how much it costs to make games now).

New software houses with fresh ideas(Quantum Dreams, Heavy Rain), and software houses that concentrate solely on one genre (CK Project, Witcher 2) therefore make a damn fine job of it, but also take a risk.

We still get original thought and high quality games, you just won't see many of these games on your favourite game shops shelves.
 
It's like the music and movie industry, only so many things they can come up with before it gets bit a repetitive. Plus, in the current climate it's all about safe bets. Getting the most return for the least amount of effort. Big franchises like COD etc being hyped to hell and back to convince people its the 'in thing' and everything else is rubbish.

Fortunately though, there are still dev studios out there that value innovation more than huge profits...
 
Eames said:
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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Of course the only drawback with MMOs is that they are one of the worst genres for repetitive mechanics. So many MMOs are clones of other MMOs that its often hard to find one with innovative gameplay mechanics.
 
Loved my Amiga A600. It had a Hard Drive! Yeah, that's how I roll - with a HD - don't you ever forget!

Rome AD92
SWOS
Champ Manager Italia
Sensible Golf
PGA Tour
Cannon Fodder 1 & 2
Chaos Engine
Striker
Monkey Island
Theme Park/Hospital
Lure of the Temptress

All classics! I think early nineties to early 2000s were a bit of a golden period for gaming and many of the games that arrived then became the basis for today's games.
 
*looks at Steam games folders*

Super Meat Boy
Plants Vs Zombies
Peggle
Trine
The Ball
Audiosurf
VVVVVV
World of Goo


Don't see a problem with originality myself, think the OP needs to look a bit harder.
 
Qdos said:
*looks at Steam games folders*

Super Meat Boy
Plants Vs Zombies
Peggle
Trine
The Ball
Audiosurf
VVVVVV
World of Goo


Don't see a problem with originality myself, think the OP needs to look a bit harder.
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I can see where the OP is coming from, you've listed 8, if I was to create a list of ones lacking originality I could list 100s of thousands. 8 out of 800,000 would indeed suggest there is a problem with originality.
 
Indie games are staying quite original. Valve have seem to have gone their own direction as well. FPS wise it seems EA and Activision have decided the CoD formula works with perks and killstreaks. I'm hoping BF3 keeps the BF2 style that you choose your class and perhaps choose an unlockable that suits that class. BC2's perk type system isn't too bad. The perks don't seem to impact on gameplay too much. Crysis 2 is quite bad, nothing like Crysis Wars and has almost the exact same system as CoD which is a shame.

I have hope for this year though. Dota 2, Portal 2 and BF3 should hopefully be good.
 
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I think it is partly just natural evolution of the gaming genre - 20 years ago gaming was relatively new so it was easier to be original. There was no such thing as a FPS or even RTS in the sense that we know it now.
 
I remember when Doom came out, I was an editor of this dodgy PC mag and said in my review "this will never catch on".

What we need now is a "Doom" moment. This Wii, Kinect and the other crap is not the way forward, I hope. Heavy Rain should be the spark to create a new genre, Faranheit didn't though... FPS games have ruined everything imo.

I made a mistake in my review, what I should have said was "i hope these games don't catch on", because that is what I meant.

Johm Carmack is the devil, look at him, the make-up cannot hide his redness.

Actually what a coincident he called it Doom, it got gloomier ever since, so its like "Doom" and Gloom.
 
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SiriusB said:
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
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Crysis was a great graphics game, but a crap shooter, just like Fallout 3, a shooter is only really exciting if it's very easy to get Killed, this means that the mental challenge has to be tactics speed and stealth.

that's why i play Vegas 2 ``Terrorist hunt`` all the time, it's a huge challenge just to stay alive, i liked Fallout 3 but as a shooter it's total crap i.e shooting a Talon Merc in the head 5 times with a .44 mag and he's still alive.... now this seriously annoys me and takes the ****, Crysis was similar too, the AI has far too much health.

why are all shooters similar or sequels?.... Loads of fans thus it's easy money and a safe bet, but something new is risky isn't it.... look at the disaster of Clive Barkers Jericho.

so we have loads of shooters similar to Fallout 3, COD modern warfare, or boring zombie shooters

there isn't anything that's totally original, maybe because nothing original can be covered anymore; it's all been done before
 
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Mal X said:
that's why i play Vegas 2 ``Terrorist hunt`` all the time, it's a huge challenge just to stay alive, i liked Fallout 3 but as a shooter it's total crap i.e shooting a Talon Merc in the head 5 times with a .44 mag and he's still alive.... now this seriously annoys me and takes the ****, Crysis was similar too, the AI has far too much health.

why are all shooters similar or sequels?.... Loads of fans thus it's easy money and a safe bet, but something new is risky isn't it.... look at the disaster of Clive Barkers Jericho.
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Very good point which makes complete sense.

I WILL complete Jericho (I started but rebuilt my PC) for the very reason that it's slightly interesting plot wise, and different dynamics and so forth.

This is why I'm attracted to Vegas 2.

I don't expect fireworks, but a one night stand is good for me it's better then self abuse.
 
Speak for yourself bud, I spend more time gaming then any other sport.

Without gaming life would simply suck, it is the best form of escapism bar none.

I'll be playing as long as my body and mind allow.
 
davewhite04 said:
Speak for yourself bud, I spend more time gaming then any other sport.

Without gaming life would simply suck, it is the best form of escapism bar none.

I'll be playing as long as my body and mind allow.
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this is true :D

no entertainment is as good as gaming, nothing stimulates the mind like a good scary atmospheric shooter

the best games for me are FEAR, DOOM, VEGAS, GRAW, the rest are ok, just dont have great shooting mechanics, Boarderlands is ok as well, just a bit too much like F3 and Rage will be a bit too much like this as well.

i might ignore Rage this year and go for FEAR 3 ( WHICH LOOKS REALLY GOOD) crysis 2 and crysis warhead, but first; i need a new PC
 
Iunno. There's loads of different games that I've never tried/played before. Usually when I pick up something new it's pretty different.


Perhaps people that feel that games are too same-y play games too much.
 
Guest2 said:
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!
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I've not read the thread so forgive me.

I think the "big" game developers are very much targeting an audience. It's just playing it safe if you will, they make games that are popular and will have a market. This means doing similar things to other games.

I think more and more indie developers are doing things different, they're trying new things and new approaches to genres.

It's also similar to film, you see lots of unoriginal story lines each year, because there has simply been so many before doing the same story line. Every so often there is a game of film that does it better then the rest, or that does something different and is a success.

S'all about generating money. Activision are a great example of this. I'm sure if they could they'd roll out CoD using the current engine just adding a few features each year ala FIFA / PeS style it's a license to print money and play it safe.
 
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