Is it just me or are games a little bleak?

Where's all the humor? Top 5 PC games from GS: 1: psychologically tortured young girl battling monsters, 2: Nazi soldiers dismembering each other from close quarters then driving around inside a giant wheel 3: wizards and warlocks firing jets of fire at each other to become 'the emperor' 4: Legions of monsters and humaniods wiping each other out in the hundreds 5: more zombies...

I don't know about you, but many of the games that I play have good sense of humor.

"Tales of" series has great sense of humor. Even Berseria, which is one of the darkest game in the franchise has humor with characters like Magilou.

Uncharted has a lot of jokes. Drake and Sully are kidding all the time.

Ratchet and Clack, also has great sense of humor and happiness.

Yakuza 0- While the game is super dark and serious in main quests, all of that that changes in the side quests which are mostly funny.

World of Final Fantasy- one of the most charming games I've played.

And and I don't need to even talk about Senran Kagura and Sengoku Basara which are some of the most unserious and with crazy funny characters I've played.

Here is a small list I keep handy to demonstrate some great titles that have come out in just the past few years.

Space Engineers

Medieval Engineers

7 Days to Die

Imperium Galactic Survival

The Forest

Subnautica

Life is Feudal

Stranded Deep

From the Depths

Kerbal Space Program

StarMade

Another Brick in the Mall

Elite Dangerous

Cities Skylines

Planet Coaster

Kenshi

RimWorld

Hospitalize

Kingdoms

Wurm Unlimited

My Summer Car

Banished

Out of Reach

Shadow of War is straight up goofy as hell; it's a game really at war with its own tone.

As for the general comment of games being bleak, yeah a lot are, but a lot are still fun. There are many games that are comedy, as well, or simply objective.

Kerbal Space Program is kind of a black comedy; you're sending these "minions" to space and they're dumb, they blow up and die, a lot of the part descriptions are pretty funny like "Oh we found out this wing works when you tape a piece of cardboard to such and such" and you are running like NASA only with low standards lol

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun arguably had some of the best voiceacting that I can remember. The characters are all compelling, with their own quirks, sense of humor, and personal struggles. It's an all-encompassing drama.

The better games out there just tend to either have more action or good, emotional stories which is hard to do with rainbows and butterflies. There are plenty of Disney games and such out there you can play if these bleak, violent games are too much for you to handle.

Not a game I'd recommend for everyone (even myself) but for your description look into that South Park game that came out recently?

If you're looking for a none serious comedy game. It's in a hybrid genre; average Tactical RPG and a pretty bad Point and Click game.

Yet, for those that want some fun in a game seems to do a good job. May be what you're looking for.

Perhaps they're just reflecting the times we live in. Let's face it, it's pretty grim out there...

@tryit:Well I have taken the time to decide which of these games I think have positive themes. I decided it was only Planet Coaster. It seems like the melancholic and morose are really spoilt for choice in this generation.

Tone: > positive < negative / neutral

/ Space Engineers

/ Medieval Engineers

< 7 Days to Die

/ Imperium Galactic Survival

< The Forest

/ Subnautica

< Life is Feudal

/ Stranded Deep

/ From the Depths

/ Kerbal Space Program

/ StarMade

/ Another Brick in the Mall

/ Elite Dangerous

/ Cities Skylines

> Planet Coaster

< Kenshi

< RimWorld

/ Hospitalize

< Kingdoms

< Wurm Unlimited

< My Summer Car

/ Banished

< Out of Reach

TOTAL: >1 <9 /12

@Starshine_M2A2 ...for those that want some fun in a game...

That's a strange sentence.

Cook Serve Delicious is very nice original idea for a theme if a bit of a shallow game.

But fantasy, war, zombies, or survival are feeling mighty tired to me right now. All with varying degrees of ultraviolence.

I understand the need for conflict to create friction and the need for urgency but this is ridiculous.

HERE ARE MY FAVOURIT GAM IDEAZ I JUST FORT OV...

Bouncing ball game, maze explore game, helicopter race game, matching face/clue game (detective puzzle game), treetop-village building game (Prince of thieves stylee), fish swimming game, bird flying game, circus game (no animals), that was off the top of my head. All we have above is survival game, mining game and manage business game.

HERE R MY NOO FEMEZ..

Here are some themes which aren't fantasy or post apocalyptic/steampunk: underwater, caribbean, child's perspective (rugrats), squirrel's perspective (woodland/urban theme), polynesian theme, cornish theme (sea shanties...? fishing management game? 2d graphics Like Robin Hood the Legend of Sherwood, jazz theme (50's new york, clubs, cigar smoke) I actually have a rhythm game crossed with a cheapo loop building dance music app idea for this but with jazz... ok thinking of themes is hard but you can create your own world which can be ANYTHING. Creatvity in't hard, you just have to be brave. Probably why is 50% fantasy and 50% post apocalyptic these days.

Catburgling game, a running Pepsi spokeman hero. Thats it.

Oh yeah and and more Sega Tennis.

yes...any quick look at Netflix can confirm that without question. agreed.

with that in place I suggest the following titles

Kerbal Space Program

Planet Coaster

Cities Skylines

Airport Sim

Hospitalize

I agree with what you say and I agree there could be a lot better games in the area of positive reinforcement of life values so there is that

I tend to find the bleak games are generally quite bleak but on the other hand the less bleak or not bleak games are not bleak.

Play Little Big Planet or Tearaway Unfolded.

Grim times are usually when comedy thrives the most.

Damn, you guys beat me to it

WD2, Persona 5, AC games, GTAV, Shadow of Mordor, MEA, Just Cause 3, Fallout 4, these games all have lots of humour to them. Wasteland 2 had the best joke, as when exploring the deserts, I found thousands of ET carts someone had buried there! (even funnier wsa when I carried them to town to sell them, I found they were worthless!!!)

Even Doom had a sense of humour.

If I had to name one game on PS4 that had no humour whatsoever... well, Dishonored 2 was not funny at all.

@valgaav_219 Play Little Big Planet or Tearaway Unfolded

Maybe a little young or shallow for me.

I want to play The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game by Douglas Adams. I am not interested in playing various versions of DayZ and I care not for the themes of horror, anime/horror/war horror, or fantasy horror.

By humor I meant 'good humor' as in, sure, there's conflict, but let's have a laugh and maybe as normal people, we don't just run about gunning down everything in site and then move on like you just completed your tax return.

As games and character models get more realistic, the game becomes less abstract in your imagination and where I would happily play an 8bit game and imagine the world, this is now less the case and violence is recreated in incredible detail, leaving the imagination only to wonder about the thoughts and motives of the characters.

They generally don't have thoughts or emotions though, above yeah I killed the bad guys again, I'm great/serious and brooding but stalwart and determined, for some reason. Making games more realistic but not making the environments, stories or characters nuanced makes for a very strange and unreal experience for me much like being trapped inside the head of a young MS exec fresh out of Harvard and ready for some sanitised ultra violence.

Take Saints Row. Why would I play that game? It's so fucking stupid. Where are the game mechanics. "Do anything you want! Dress as a clown and shoot rockets out your arse - it's your choice." Games need to grow up big time because I'm still waiting for a game to be released that draws me into the stories and characters like a real book and has the bravery to explore a theme which is not gothic or psychological horror or zombies. All the indy games fell short for me this year too - they would have looked dated in the early 90's.

Also, making a game which is a 'concept' is not a game. Keep your arty pretensions to yourself, out of work angry game devs. You have not made art, you have made a hype money sponge you lazy git.

Why can game developers not employ writers? There must be loads. Get 2 or 3, sit them down and say, look we need 500 fetch quests, 3 branching stories and 4 central characters in this game world. Make it work. But no, you get "Gary! Have you finished modeling those cabbages? Great, we need another fetch quest story, you got 10 minutes!"

I went off topic.

Games have lost a lot of depth i agree

Mainly because simple games sell, people don't want second jobs

why the change though in your mind? or rather why did peoples tastes change do you think?

in my mind however games are deeper then ever before by a long shot, just not in the AAA market

@tryit:

Games require easier entries to play with your friends. As games have become easier and easier peoples thresholds and patience to stick around has dwindled.

The AAA market will never really be focused around games with depth (Mostly sandbox) due to players having to invest too much time to learn mechanics. Hand holding/theme-park gives more people accessibility.

ah kind of the 'boiling frog' idea. ok fair answer.

I think its becasue the demographic of a gamer is now much wider and the games that are complex are moved to the 'indie' space which are doing just fine on the complexit level in my opinion

@kail11 :Hand holding/theme-park gives more people accessibility.

Yes but what do they do if they want to play for longer? They need to buy another game. That is the current business model since DVD's at least. So younger players don't expect to be challenged perhaps and may not even be aware of the satisfaction of increasing your skill level and understanding of a games mechanics and achieving a thing which isn't based on time played / crap collected. That is, apart from playing online but they are ALL arena shooters. @boycie Except when they're not.

Anyway. This is about tone and not difficulty. There is even a morgue game where you prepare dead bodies for an open wake. How is that a good theme for a game? Because it's IN. Horror is the new black and has been for like the last 5 years. So everyone bases their themes on that.

Yeah there's lots of good indy titles but they spawn so many clones. I mean, just play Prison Architect. Games like Airport or Hospitalize are just clones. Everything else is platform nostalgia or lame mini games. I would have liked Kingdom Hearts but I can't get past those boobs. They literally are too big for me to squeeze past. Foreshame to dev team that made that.

yeah when it comes to theme the gaming industry has always been bad. Bad to the point where most people just assume the only way to have fun is to shot something.

but I suggest Kerbal Space Program, Cities Skylines, Planet Coaster and even Hospitalize for relief

@tryit: yeah when it comes to theme the gaming industry has always been bad. Bad to the point where most people just assume the only way to have fun is to shot something.

You're confusing theme with genre. Shooters are only too prevalent at the mo too. It's just lazy design.

There are other themes but it just seems a given there will be killing, shooting, maiming or physical violence meted upon fellow sentient or feeling beings of some kind.

Take Monster Hunter. I do not feel comfortable, tracking and murdering animals, simply because they are giant or scary. Just leave them alone. Why are you murdering all these 'monsters'. Isn't 'monster' even reductive term? I don't want to kill big beautiful monsters or even big giant gods just because I've got an ego to fill or axe to grind.

The Atari 2600 days were much more interesting in terms of game design, despite the lack of quality control collapsing the industry, there are game ideas in that library which explore way beyond just another shooter.

I would say Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines are not games but sandboxes.

There are no meaningful objectives in Planet Coaster, it just looks so devoid of life, love, character or atmosphere and no fun. It's the shit game Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (also shit) wanted to be. A dry 3d modeling app with faux humor. I watched someone make a giant burger, putting all the pieces together individually. Mind numbing. Lifeless. Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 is where it's at.

As for Cities Skylines, also a game lacking in love. Technically impressive but no thought was put into how to make building a city meaningful. It basically needs about 4 times more textures and models to give cities a more unique feel with different areas having different characters which it tried with the dlc's but failed. Cities are just too bland although watching traffic is mesmerizing.

If the above two games were in 2d, they might have been interesting.

I agree. I have never played a game that makes me laugh, smile or at least feel happier, everything is just so dull and gray. There are some exceptions, tho. The GTA series has always been for me. Vice city: Ken Rosenberg character had some hilarious moments. San Andreas: "I'll have 2 number nines" line still makes me laugh. GTA IV: Even if the graphics are very gritty, some characters are very funny, like Roman. GTA V: the whole game, even the graphics are colorful and beautiful. One of my favorite games was Conker and it's Xbox version, but it wouldn't be too funny today as the references are outdated. I really wish games took themselves a bit less serious. I think of Skyrim as the biggest and greatest gen 7 videogame, but it takes itself so damn serious I end up depressed when I play it.

@dyangzb: I have never played a game that makes me laugh, smile or at least feel happier

I'm sure you're exaggerating a bit here. I suggest you go play Chuck Rock. If the first boss doesn't make you giggle the first time you see him, your dead inside. Also the original Toejam and Earle.

Yeah all my references are 20 years old.

lol...

you would consider Cities Skylines not a game but sandboxes?

yeah sorry gotta end it there

game is best

I find the game industry more bleak then ever before if they continue this direction buckle up for a crash.

While I don't agree 100% with the TC but I do agree that today's games, especially PC ones are more into styles over substance. Take Hatred and Huniepop for examples. Critics including Gamespot mercilessly trashed it to the ground but Steam users have soft spot for it and to this day it still have "mostly positive" reviews from users. Not to mention that there are many far-right PC gamers that keep its studio Destructive Creation alive. While its sexual themes prevented Huniepop from getting official reviews, in Steam it got "overwhelmingly positive" reviews from the users. In fact it could the be the only highest-rated game on Steam without any official reviews from the critics. I'm not even touching the sh*tty fanservice-driven "games" which ported from PS4 and Vita such as Onechanbara, Senran Kagura, Valkyrie Drive(which basically a re-skinned Senran Kagura) Gal*Gun and Hakouki, which aimed at completely different audiences that those aforementioned games but still a crap nonetheless.

@lembu90: there are many far-right PC gamers that keep its studio Destructive Creation alive.

Are these political games?

They are certainly getting more real!

@SoNin360: I think this is a good point! The games industry is maturing as a medium and I think many AAA studios feel obliged to show the depth of mood and story-telling that's possible in games. Someone used Uncharted as an example of a game with quips but it obviously has a wide-ranging spectrum of emotion - in fact you can see how Nate progressed over the series from a treasure-hunting joker to a more nuanced human being. Having said that, games like GTAV are a perfect example of balancing big stories with humour - I love how they maintain the tone the whole way through. Finally, I think it's worth pointing out that many gamers are providing the 'playground' for humour to emerge. The Garry's Mod TTT can be hilarious but it's because the players make use of the ingredients they're given.

PC is not a good measure for pure gaming trends as the user base are not all people who have gone out of their way to by gaming hardware per se. It's not clear how many would play a PC game if they didn't already own the system. This is not true for Xbox, PS4, Switch etc.

Safe content is boring content

yes they are

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