Somthing is different about video games 8-15 years ago then video games now. Help me out here.

Is it that the culture is different, the general attitude of video games, the streamlining, the most popular genre's, the new generation of gamer, etc. ? Like I don't know. I've been thinking about this constantly because gaming, specifically PC gaming is my hobby.

Back then I had a big list of video games I wanted to play and enjoyed, especially between 06 and 2010. FEAR 2, Battlefield 2142, Bioshock, COD4, Dead Space, Red Faction Guerrilla, CoDWaW, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Metro 2033, BF: Bad Company, Freelancer , Batman Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect 2, etc. .... I mean, what's up with today? Is it me?

Now, it's like, I have almost nothing to play or to look forward to. I'm finding myself going back to older games. Some happen to have been released in the last 5-8 years like Fallout 4, Skyrim, Arma 3, The Witcher 2&3, Civ4. There are more. But I've played them to death so I can't go more then an hour in them. The games that are even old I don't play anymore because they're dated.

Out of all the big upcoming AAA titles, Star Citizen, Cyberpunk 2077, and maybe Halo Infinite are the only games I'm looking forward to. I have about 8 games on Steam wishlist I'm willing to try.

I can't play the survival, survival horror, survival+zombies, movie games(ex. The last of US, Detroit: Become Human), and battle royal(Deathmatch on a large scale). Completely uninteresting and boring.

AAA PC built games that aren't console ports have become a rarity. It's usually indie games were you'll get to play something that feels specifically developed with the platform in mind.

Ignore alot of titles because of the company and business practice behind it. Fallout 76 being a big pile of shit, or Battlefielf 5 being some shitty COD killathon with unfinished content was no great revelation.

Of the consoles, Nintendo feels like the one with games in mind first and foremost. Tropical Freeze and Toad Treasure Tracker have no bullshit patching, dlc or other garbage. No attempts to be a shitty movie. Buy game, boot up game, have fun, be it 10 minutes or an hour. A reoccurring theme.

I feel you. Part of it is being jaded the other is games are less experimental than before. Most studios are forced to play it safe. In addition to that, games are trying extra hard not to be games.

I don't see how Gen 8 is any worse than Gen 7.

It feels like there are slightly fewer AAA games, but that they are bigger/made to last longer. But that could be way off.

I think gameplay feel is way better now than it ever has been, especially in AAA games, so I'm enjoying games even more.

Looking forward to a year of Japan with Sekiro, Tsushima, DMC V all leading the way!

AAA games are ramping up to a second major industry crash as the big companies garbage monetization methods become more grubby even if they lose popularity. They're all to eager to deliver a sterile, flashy experience with no substance, and force you to grind with psychological manipulation.

You've probably grown up too which doesn't help. Your inherent cynicism from maturing is combined with the cynicism of increasingly corporate driven, market-friendly, generic experiences.

Try playing lower budget games. The AA-A market and the indie market are as healthy as they've ever been.

I think its just you TC.

the big AAA games from EA, Ubisoft, activision and bethesda develop games are trash.

however 10 years ago. in last gen there were much worse games. and more of dumbed down games.

there are many excellent games coming out than cyberpunk 2077 which looks average.

Metro Exodus, Doom Eternal, Outerworlds, RAGE2, Dying Light 2 and Resident evil 2 remake are for example.

last gen we got many terrible and overrated games like mass effect 2 (aka one of the worst game ever), bioshock a poor mans system shock, COD populairty raise, stealth games like Hitman and splinter cell become action games, and many developers copying modern military shooter formula.

You’re a maximum of 15 years older

Whats happened is that, everything has been done. Nothing has really changed.

Going back to older games isn't bad, I plan to do that myself.

The main thing that has changed for me is that major publishers have replaced a lot of the 'fun' in games with 'grinding', this is done so people would be more inclined to buy microtransactions.

A lot of people said "Oh, but microtransactions aren't bad they are optional" but I think everyone knew they wouldn't be optional for very long, games are actually being designed around them.

I felt the same way OP until the Switch came out. I was only gaming on my pc this whole gen then suddenly between Master Blaster Zero and Zelda I just started having fun again. Now it has been over a year and a half since and I have been gaming on my Switch daily with a ton of great games to play. I’m not shooting for best visuals anymore and just playing the games that are the most fun. AAA games is what changed this gen. They have been destroyed and poisoned by the micro transactions and dlc’s. Once I accepted that and moved to other (and cheaper) games I’ve been a very happy gamer and gaming much more than I did last gen. I still have a ps4 but it is collecting dust and sadly my gaming pc has been as well. But whatever, I’m having fun. : )

Pretty much what Ghost Recon is now. Right down to the ability to throw flashbangs requiring level 10.

Much tactical.

Get into some indie games, especially the metroidvania types.

Try some Nintendo games. They're always trying to innovate gameplay mechanics, which are both fun and rewarding.44

No new ideas so you're bored.

Games are all window dressing. Take Vampyr. All fart and no sh*t is a phrase one commentator from these forums penned earlier in the year.

There is also a grim and morbid fascination with macabre tones and themes that I am feel is getting a bit relentless at this point.

Yeah zombies were post-ironic in the early 2000's. It's like the industry thought everyone was being serious the most vanilla enemy ever created was a fantastically creative idea that will never get tired...

It's generally accepted that for the last 15 years, 1 in 5 games will include a zombie.

Look at Vampyr though. Just look at the combat. How flacid. How awkward. Just wait for this animation. There you go kids. Eat that! Eat it you disgusting plebs!!!!

AAA action games are just not challenging enough to be fun. Unless you are quite happy just holding down forwards to wait for the next brilliant piece of storytelling.

ghost recon has been going downhill since last gen. the futerstic ghost recon game and console GRAW killed it. PC GRAW was actually good.

Consider that today there's more variety in gameplay and style of games that at any other time in gaming history. What that means is that there's basically something for everybody.

When people in such a context rant like you are doing here it's because they've grown out of gaming and find it less exciting and rewarding than before. It is you who changed, not necessarily games.

AAA games are overall complete shit today compared to what they were before. It's not just you, dude. The focus now is on milking people out of every last penny they possibly can instead of making the game fun. Some devs think you should buy their game for 60 bucks and then spend 2000 more on virtual crap that would've been free a few years ago as unlockables. I also think the mentality of "everyone should be able to play" is stronger now, and most devs just dumb down and simplify their games so that they don't alienate people who don't really play games and might buy the game as long as you don't need any skill to progress and the trailers are cool enough.

As @uninspiredcup pointed out, Nintendo are one of the few big devs left who still knows how to make games / care about making games.

This is why I'm a PC and Nintendo gamer. PC has access to so many games it's not even funny, even those lame ass presentation-focused console games for casuals, if you wanna play those for some reason. So finding something good is easy. Then you have Nintendo with their amazing first party titles that focus purely on fun game design.

My tip is just find what you like and stick to that. Let the suckers spend money on virtual cosmetics and console games that play themselves.

But nintendo rely too much on nostalgia and still keep milking same old franchise over and over again like mario, zelda and metriod. plus they only make games for kids.

If you actually played their games instead of spewing out nonsense bullshit, you'd probably have fun with them as well.

well if i were a kid then sure. now i cannot imagine playing mario and zelda. so i rather play Doom and Metro.

beside my kids will grow up playing nintendo games only because i wont let them play any of FPS or action games until they get older. so i for one glad they exist for kids.

@ghosts4ever: Shhhhh...adults are talking, you're at the kiddie table and nobody wants to hear you.

You're probably the most childish poster on this forum. Hope you grow up a bit before you have children.

I've said it before, but I play good games myself. Not hampering my hobby by having the requirement of blood in my games is great since I have way more than 3 games to play.

Anyway, you telling me your exact same bullshit over and over is slightly annoying and don't lead to anything. Mind stopping? Pretty sure it isn't fun to any of us.

if any mature guy watching something like tangled, wouldnot others make fun of him? absolutely.

same thing if i play something like mario, i would not feel confortable.

And that's exactly why you're immature.

elaborate how?

yes anyone can play nintendo games but thier target audience are kids. and kids under 15 looks good playing nintendo games.

beside when i was kid. i hated nintendo back then and prefer sonic over mario because sonic was fast paced ring collected innovative platformer and mario was just slow paced jump and kill. i hated it back then i was kid. although only nintendo games i loved were contra games.

Will people please stop pretending Nintendo care about gameplay.

They just remake the same games from 30 years ago in 2.5d. So what?

If you want kid friendly games from yesteryear in 2.5d there are many alternatives.

Before New Super Mario Bros the last 2D Mario game they made was Super Mario Land 2 in 1992.

This is a cliche' people bring up because they can't really attack Nintendo's gameplay, because it's usually, well.... it's better.

Personally, I'm happy to be getting New Super Mario Bros. U on the Switch, as a Nintendo console without a 2D mario title is morally wrong.

Tropical Freeze is alright as a hardcore manly game, and Kirby for old people almost dead and toddlers who are learning to form speech.

Its the similarity and unoriginality of games today that makes them feel less interesting.

Game devs today just keep copying stuff from other games, instead of coming up with new things.

As a result, all current gen RPGs are the same, all JRPGs are the same, all shooters are the same, all sandboxes are the same and so on.

Its like we are playing the same game again and again and again this gen.

Back during last gen, there was much more uniqueness and inventiveness in games.

You mean Wildlands ?

yeah the game seems awfully grindy in nature, I already stopped using ground vehicles and only use planes and choppers to get to objectives anymore because the objectives are just way too stretched out.

You were younger than and are older now, so things few different and that's how life is.

You probably feel like this towards music, movies and books, it's just your life experience changing the judgement of what you enjoy.

People that are kids now will feel the same way you feel now in the future.

Gaming has become more dumbed down especially MP gaming I'm looking at you Battlefield.

@Jebus213: You're getting older? People's habits change, and I see video gaming as a release nowadays, more than something to get excited about. Games are better than ever, and whenever I've tried a game more than a couple of gens old, I've basically found most of them unplayable.

The anticipation of upcoming games is nonexistent now, and the last midnight launch I attended - do they exist anymore? - was halo 3.

The reason is simple, games are getting very expensive. There really is no point of making AAA innovative games when 99% of them end up tanking in sales. Believe it or not.... brace yourself, games are a business and companies want to make money at all costs. Gamers mostly buy games they are familiar with. However, I disagree with you. The indie scene is brining a lot of innovation. However, how many gamers bother to play these games?

We are at fault. Not the industry or publisher. I'm sure if people bought unique games or quality based like you mentioned F.E.A.R, they'd make more of them.

Play more AA and A games. There is some great stuff out there if you're willing to step out from what the big marketing budgets try to pound down your throat. Not to say some of those games are very good, too, but a lot of them are just episodic or incomplete vehicles of selling DLC. For a good time from beginning to end, look for lower budget games and smaller studios trying to make a name for themselves by delivering quality gaming.

You annoying condescending idiot.

'Games are getting very expansive'. What does this mean?

99% of bullshit is made up on the spot. Like that statistic. There is no evidence for this.

Brace myself? No-one here has considered that fact? I suppose people are just being idealistic to hope for a creative product in a new game that is not designed by a committee with spreadsheets of marketing data.

Gamers may buy games they're already familiar with but there is very little derivation from the standard formulas or FPS zombie killing in post acpocalyptia or hack'n'slash in dark-fantasy setting 1.0 (lord of the Rings) - 3.17b (inside a giant organic body). Fifa can't have changed in 15 years.

The problem with AAA games is too much budget which leads to flabbiness and blandness like Destiny 2. Games need to try to one or fewer things well or end up being too many things not well. AAA 15 years ago was a fraction of the budget of current AAA games so had much more identity or uniqueness like Far Cry or Grand Theft Auto.

'AA' games are in a much better state but release too soon or fall prey to dlc or free to play models which don't suit them when they should just release full price and finished.

'A' games are successful Kickstarter type games which there are a few. Or one-man games like Minecraft or Obra-Din that take 3-5 years or so. These are in a good state with games like Prison Architect, World of Goo and Euro Truck Simulator.

'B' games are in a good state with playable 3d and 2d games being released daily to no fanfare due to not being high concept or shiny. For £5. Just a bit of fun.

'Indy' games are a pile of sh*t like Trine, Super Meat Boy, Mark of the Ninja flash games where moody teenagers spout cod-philosphy at each other or something maudlin and glum so therefore arty.

The charts are in a horrendous state.

For reference here is 2005. You can change the year in the url. http://www.vgchartz.com/yearly/2005/Global/

People really need to stop pretending there is a difference between the xboxone and ps4. Then Nintendo: party games, Mario 64 and Mario Kart.

Gamers are interested by new games, otherwise why would they play something in the first place. Minecraft is unlike every other game in every way but is one of the most successful ever. I think corporate MS/SONY hq would be happy with those kinds of sales. They just would not risk a game without zombies... No wait...

The indy scene brings no innovation. Only pretentiousness. Take away gameplay to concentrate on my philosophical musings for an hour, customer. Confused and bored? So was I when I made this game! Another homage to a 16 bit platform game is not breaking any moulds.

Also, Nintendo do not have the monopoly on gameplay. Just making something responsive and not changing the controls since 1996 (Mario 64) is not laudable.

Their games are so generic you can swop out any old platform game any no-one will tell the difference aside from the inclusion of one certain diminutive, dino-punching stereotype.

That's your opinion. Don't be stupid and think everyone is like you.

Game development moved from the developers to the marketing division and CEO's

All of the money built up from excellent IPs back then went to churning out business models with more ways to milk the stupid

Also a lot of genre defining PC first masterpiece franchises sold out to console, had their standards lowered, turned into mediocrity and died

We have reached a point where everything has been done. If not it doesn't take long before everyone jumps to the new trend. Innovation is hard. When you think about it not Nintendo or even Indies can escape that. You just need to jump into the sea and search for things. Genres that you never cared before. Given the list of the games you listed maybe its time to try other stuff. Stop looking forward to similar games. Buy a switch, to a lot of peoople its not only a nintendo console but its has picked up the cult button from pc, Indiestation and lol Vita. People use to make fun of this shit. It might save your gaming life. Heck even MS is coming along nicely with gamepass you can try a lot of shit.

I don't know there a whole genres that are different to what you use to look forward to. Give SoulsBorne series and Nioh a run. Try Nier Automata. Play Return of the Obra Dinn just try different things.

The cost part is true, though:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/31/why-have-video-game-budgets-skyrocketed-in-recent-years/#f7a15013ea57

Games are akin to movies now, costly to produce, the teams are bigger, the marketing budget is huge, the games are more polished and refined and there are a lot more going on than we know.

Here is a list of videogame budgets:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop

I still love games now, but I think MTX took a lot of joy out of the video game market at current. Too much stress over making money over what's actually fun. That's why we're seeing a drying up of the AA game, or any title that's a break from the norm. Hell, we couldn't even get a decent skateboarding game this gen. Tony Hawk was this cynical, begrudging thing that seemed to be made out of spite. Like it was made so we wouldn't even ask for another one.

I’ve been an avid gamer for over 40 years now and am still enjoying gaming as much now and in some aspects more then ever. Sure there’s some lousy things here and there but I’m still able to find more then enough great things to enjoy in the AAA game market myself.

Of course it's true. Jackamono is one of the stupidest posters on this forum that doesn't even do research prior to spouting crap that he has no knowledge of.

@BenjaminBanklin: Tony Hawk was this cynical, begrudging thing that seemed to be made out of spite. Like it was made so we wouldn't even ask for another one.

Lol. It probably was. Dev's are simply not prepared to make any more of these games and I don't blame them.

Mariah_Eater I'd wager about 40% goes on graphics. 50% on marketing and 10% the rest.

the AAA sector is not exciting in terms of new ideas. its the same thing over and over again with very minor tweaks. it does what it does very well but its been done and the sector is now incredibly risk averse. the cost of production is too high. thats the biggest bottleneck in the industry currently.

that part of the industry is going to go 1 of 2 ways soon

1) more F2P funded by micro transactions and it will be absolutely relentless. EA and co want more of that mobile pie. they will keep pushing it. their entire business model depends on it.

2) it's going to crash. its going to implode under its own weight. there have been worrying trends with reports of dropping sales of the big AAA franchises.

but the AAA sector is far from the only sector in the industry and is, for now at least, the least interesting part.

i always find trying something new can be a good way to relight the flame a bit. look further afield. play something you normally wouldnt even consider. if you have just focused on games in certain genres with big production values for the last 15 years then you are bond to be a bit jaded.

^this

@blackballs: Jackamono is one of the stupidest posters on this forum that doesn't even do research prior to spouting crap that he has no knowledge of.

Read the Forbes article dingus. It reiterates all my points. I always research my points, at least afterwards anyway...

Basically the article says mid range studios have been pushed into the periphery by the corporate dollar which was, in a way, inevitable.

This whole article links back to capitalism vs communism/socialism market systems.

You continue to be stupid, I never mentioned mid range studios so don't be stupid and change the subject.

I think gaming is always improving. This generation, in particular, have had what i would consider to be the perfect balance between old school and state of the art. Indies are reviving tons of dead genres and 2d gaming in general, AAAs finally look like Pixar movies and are super polished, and VR is just amazing.

There are some greedy practices like there always were, but with so many options available it was never this easy to ignore them.