Vet gamer have a hard time going back to single players.

Been gaming since early 90's from arcade, NES, SNES, PSX, gameboy (completed over 90% of all games, yup...) then some Dreamcast and LAN PC before I got my PC end of 2001 and moved on to multiplayers. Put a lot of hours mainly on RTS and FPS, but also MMORPG's. Played almost all there is to play that was great until 2011, after that DC Universe Online was the last new game to interest me enough to spend $ on.

Why? Because everything felt generic, more of the same, just better graphics. In fact there is less depth and challenge than ever in single player games. I already know I can complete the game on easy/medium/hard, but if the purpose is to go through the story, why waste time going on hard when it allows me to go easy? That's just one example..

Back in the days games were simply challenging, took 60-100 hours to complete, had hidden stories, and I got so involved in their stories and the characters that I was immersed enough to feel like playing a MMORPG. Yes I'm talking about games like Suikoden, Xenogears, Final Fantasy to action ones like Crash Badicoot, racers like Gran Turismo 1/2 with career mode, unlocking licenses, cars and tuning em, to such amazing and deep RTS like Civilization II etc, etc....I've played and completed everything.

This is why MMORPG's are the only genre that holds my interest today, since they can bring the most features, depth and feel like virtual worlds, sadly I have not seen a quality one in the market for way over 5 years.

Today, even if I could play super popular single players for free like GTA V, Witcher 2/3, Tomb Raider, etc I just can't, cuz I already know what they will offer based on how they are designed, and its something I've already went through in previous games, but like I said minus improved graphics.

Only game I hope to spend $ on this year is WOW: Legion, but still not enough info to be sure, beside that nothing basically, cuz I don't see anything pushing gaming to a whole new level, to something greater...

I want to see more FPSMMOs, it's such an untapped genre.

Yeah, I agree with you. Games these days just don't have that mystical feeling anymore. Immersion has gone completely out the window because many of these games that have come out in modern times keep focusing on being online all the time and/or purchasing dlc/season passes rather than focusing on the actual game. I've got some of the hits right now: MGSV, The Witcher 3, Fallout 4, Bloodborne, Street Fighter V. I beat all of these games (SFV is different of course) and I actually want to go back and do everything in them, but I'm seeing more and more immersion-breaking games that I just can't bring myself to want to do.

Far Cry and Assassin's Creed games have so many things popping up on different parts of the screen that say "collected 3/4 of this" or "find 2 more mani wheels for next reward". This same thing is in Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor when the game has a counter of how many of this type of orc that you have left to kill in the side of the screen. I can see it being important in some games for maybe arcade purposes, but personally when a game tells me how many I have left to do, what to do, or whatever and keeps it on the side of the screen for good, it turns the game into a chore list. I've gotten so burned out from games because I had bought so many modern games that did a lot of this and it just makes me not want to play anymore.

EA games have taken the nasty route of leaving single-player pretty much out of their games when they force you to always be online (new Need for Speed) or have a barebones, next-to-nothing SP mode (Star Wars Battlefront) and have the focus be on multiplayer. I still have my old NFS games and Star Wars Battlefront 2. I can fire them up when I want (I did a couple days ago) and play some rounds in them. I don't have to worry about EA shutting down the servers and rendering the game non-playable because it only had multiplayer. Thankfully, I didn't buy either of these games so I don't have to worry, but I agree.

Games these days are just not as creative anymore. They want gamers to keep paying for the game they bought by adding in more dlc. The characters are always super boring, nothing memorable about them. Music in games has become so dull as well. Games used to have creative soundtracks such as Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country, Deus Ex 1, System Shock 2, and I could go on and on, but now there is nothing. So many games' soundtracks all sound so dull and miserable or painfully similar to the other shooter game that I played before. Writing is pretty bad too, but thankfully The Witcher 3 is a nice breath of fresh air with regards to the characters and quests and the many things that can happen that don't feel like a cardboard cut-out of the last objective that I did (**** you, Far Cry 4 for this).

But this is just the way it is. I don't have too much hope that it will get better. There are a few gems out there that I'm excited for like Dark Souls 3 and Uncharted 4. I could be wrong, but those games don't look like they are rushed or have the gamer just go through the motions like the last COD, AssCreed, NFS, or whatever copy/paste game you wanna think of. I know FromSoftware does the season pass thing, but their DLC is worth it in my honest opinion as they seem to take their time and add stuff in that is actually challenging and helps add to the Dev's reputation, rather than milking the franchise.

Otherwise, I just keep playing my PS3 and emulator for those wonderful games of the past that really captured my attention. Right now I'm on Final Fantasy 9. Never played it before, but this is a very memorable game. The devs really took their time with the story, the music, the characters. Zidane is such a nice break from the protagonists like Cloud and Tidus that have that moodiness about them. He's always thinking about girls and I can't remember playing as a character that talks so frequently about wanting to get with this girl or that one. So many are just so dull or miserable, or even silent.

One last thing I'd like to add. It's pretty sad when out of all of these games in the new and improved console generation, in 2016, I'm playing a game that came out 16 years ago or even older. That adds credit to these older games and older developers for doing such a great job with taking care of each and every aspect of a video game, but it also is a shame that we are in an age that seems to not WANT to do any better. Yeah the graphics are flashier and the mechanics are wayyyyy better with revolving camera controls so as not to lose sight of where you're going, but that seems to be about it. I could go on and on about how dismayed I am since I started gaming back in 1998, but it truly does come back to what everyone is complaining about in games these days. Yet these kinds of games just keep getting made because we all keep buying them. Very sad.

i agree most of the new games are just reworks of old games with better graphics...sure gta5 is miles better and looks miles better than gta3 but can u say u had more fun playing it!!

NO! becuase you have played the same games and near enough same missions 100 times before,

Only games exciting are games that try something new, last of us was kinda unique and fun. Batman when it first came out but now thats boring also.