What's with Games these days?

[joeyjoe367]

Well, here's my rant.

If you look at computer/consol games these days, you see bigger and better graphics, and a lot of games SELL simply because the graphics are incredible.

Anyway, if you look PAST the graphics, and sit down and play the game, they all seem the same. Graphics and imaging have gotten exponentially better over the last few years, but how many games ACTUALLY do something with them? If you look at the Final-Fantasy line of games, many of the newer ones could have been 2-D (like FF6, FF3 here in the US) and you wouldn't have noticed too big of a change in gameplay.

I'm an Avid Counter-Strike player and play competitively, and I recently downloaded and played "Return to Castle Wolfenstein"... I was not impressed. There was ABSOLUTLY NOthing I hadn't seen in another First person shooter game in the 5 years before. It was your basic, shoot 'em up and get to the end of the level type game.

as far as FPS games are concerned, they've reached their eppitome(sp?) at Half-Life. Everything else has been or will be about the same IMO.

...another example is WarCraft 3. I also downloaded and played the beta of this game, and was not impressed either. Real-Time Strategy games hit the top probably around StarCraft. Probably the reason it's 'still one of the biggest games played today. Same goes for Counter-Strike.

Now an example of a game that HAS stood out, is Jedi Knight II, the light-saber duels in combination with the force-usage was really something quite fresh and new.

...anyway I hope you get what I'm trying to say.

[FutureMagOwner]

i definantly get what you say theres like a trillion of the exact same game with different graphics and if it isnt humoungously buggy then they sell alot and theres nothing really new you accomplish by beating these games.

the most creative game i have seen yet was a game where you had to escape out of a wwII german POW camp and you DONT just grab someones gun and shoot everyone and jump over the fence. but they rushed the game to get it out on release date they set and its a piece of crap there fore noone will play it really.

wolfenstein is the same as other games because it is a recreation of sorts of the original wolfenstein which was the first first person shooter(even before doom)

there are some real time strategies that are diferent from starcraft and its similar products(like WC3 from what i hear) such as Earth 2150 which i like alot but i suck at it so i give up.

there are many inovative games that have come out in the past couple years(metal gear solid, deus ex, fallout, halflife, morrowind took an old concept that i liked and made it work,etc) but the game industry seems to be riddled with games that are basically better graphic representations of doom with multiplayer

[Restola]

There just isn't that much variety possible when you look at multiplayer first person shooter games. Two teams, and then its eaither CTF, hostage rescue, infultration, or last-team-alive type game.

CS, while a great game (I played it myself for over 3 years) does lack something that new games have...evironment. In CS if you want to hide behind something its a box, or a wall. A newer game like Soldier of Fortune 2 you can hide behind fog, grass, rolling hills. The game is the exact same, shoot the other guy. But the graphics add something to it. And if you dont believe graphics matter then why did you even buy CS? Doom is the same game, as was Wolfenstein 3d. As much as people love to complain about graphics driving the industry (which it largey does) games are getting more realistic, more emersive, and offering something for everyone.

There is a difference between the following 2 screenshots (obviously shrunk quite a bit), and that difference is more than just 5 years of bugs, tweaks, and graphical improvement. The graphics have added an element to the game that didn't exist in CS. The game is simply old, there is no way around that. And while some people still play pong, those who wish can move on...

[Restola]

sof2

[magman007]

Well, my fealings are this. Wolfienstine was a great game, and i still play it. There are some things you can do for game play. That is one thing deus ex did. that made it a whole nother world. My personal favorite is deus ex.

Another grerat thing is digital paintball, but again its the same. not much difference there... Oh well.

One thing that is really great, any oyur all forgetting is rainbow six. R6 is awesomely amazing. good graphics, more real time situations, its just better IMHO than a regualar fps.

[Jack Napier]

I guess you don't really look into the FPS. Most of them have different themes. RTCW has the Undead Nazi army, SOF2 has terrorists, Time Splitters 2 is just crazy, and Metroid prime is METROID. I also know what you mean. I see it the same way you do, but I can also see how people could like those generic games. Do you have a gamecube? Im' having a lot of fun with mine. Maybe you should give it a try.

[FutureMagOwner]

well they are similar in the sense its basically shoot everyone and get to the other side and win and the likes and doesnt really need a story

[MagMan5446]

They don't run on my 400 mhz, 64mb ram POS computer....

[Spray Painter]

i used to play earth 2150 too. it i deffinaty different from CandC or Starcraft.

[Thordic]

HalfLife was the best FPS shooter since Doom.

Its been out what, around 4-5 years now and it is STILL competative with everything else out there.

Eventually there will be another game that blows the FPS scene wide open again, you just have to wait for it :)

[Restola]

Yeah last I heard there are 50,000 people playing CS at any given time. That number is old, but still...amazing.

Someone correct me in case I made that number up. I am really tired.

*edit* wow 1111 posts.

[SqueegeeKid]

I still don't understand what makes HALO to die for. Everything in that game has been done before and the graphics weren't awe-inspiring.

[Jonneh]

The fog and environment in sof2 may appear to help, until you realise that the enemies can see though, dust, fog, long grass, trees, doors, walls, the ceiling and anything else you choose to hide behind.

[Allen]

FPS games reached the end of their evolution at Quake, my friend, not Half Life. Nothing seen in HL (exceps perhaps what some would call the "story telling", which is a joke)Either way, I didn't like Half Life or Starcraft.
Time Splitters 2 is a good game, but none of the pre-made lavels are any good. I made a map that everyone I know seems to like better than any of the origional ones, and it took me 1 hour to make. I'm dissapointed by the lack of Goldeneye levels remade in there. Goldeneye had the best levels.
There are alot of people playing CS, but I don't know why. One theory is it's low sys req. Another is that it's free. Either way, I hate the stupidity spread by that game. I know many people who play CS. All of them now call Desert Eagles deagles, any sniper rifle is an AWP (which is just a typo, the real gun is an AW Magnum), and the only pistol that exists is a USP. Then there's the way everyone who plays that game acts (some kidd shot me with the AWM, and I didn't die. He started getting all mad, which for a CS player means "WTF POS MFer you GY FGT!!!!1" and said I was lucky. I told him I don't believe in luck, which made him even madder. Later he told one of my friends he was gonna beat me up. Funny.) CS just causes people to be dumb.

[virus]

for me fps topped out at first with ROTT (true fans know what that stands for) =)

but for pure enjoyment nothing beats kickin arse and chewing gum.... except when i'm out of gum :cool:

[Allen]

Rise of the Triad and Duke 3D.
See, I get it. Seeped in FPS history.

[Load SM5]

Anyone doing Battlefield 1942? Slightly more interesting in that you can climb into any vehicle you can find including battelships, bombers and subs. Great online.

[FactsOfLife]

Two games pop into mind when I think of genre busters...

one already mentioned, Deus Ex was and is an excellent idea and should be improved with the next installment. The open ended methods for mission completion are what the industry is headed for I think.

Not having one forgone scripted set of methods to reach a given conclusion is the way of the future. Red Faction had some promise in this area with the deformable terrain feature. Unfotunately it wasn't used enough in the game for me.


The second game and I'm suprised no one mentioned this is Hitman Codename 47.

Also a game with an open ended mission architecture. Although the original was somewhat buggy when released the gameplay was sweet. Hopefully the sequel expands on this.

[Restola]

Originally posted by Jonneh
The fog and environment in sof2 may appear to help, until you realise that the enemies can see though, dust, fog, long grass, trees, doors, walls, the ceiling and anything else you choose to hide behind.
Fixed with patch 1.02. And I was talking about multiplayer FPS games.

I have played Hitman. It was interesting. But no game can keep my attention more than a week or so if I can only play alone...

[halB]

if your really thinking theres no variety in FPS, check out tribes 2. its a damn good game if you find a mod to suit your personality, and its the only fps with a jetpack as far as i know, and that does really add a whoel new dimension to the game

[Miscue]

I loved Rainbow 6, played Rogue Spear a bit but wasn't overjoyed, I really like Ghost Recon...

I gave Quake2/3 and Unreal a shot... but just never really liked them that much.

Another example game:
I LOVE VirtuaTennis... I'm God at that game... can beat the hardest level w/o losing using my feet or doing one-handed. (No Joke) :) But the sequel... Tennis2K2 SUCKED. They added a bunch of features, and sucked out all the fun and playability. :)

[FooTemps]

yah... most games suck nowadays... games have gotten too easy imo. I mean, you can beat ffx in 1/2 the time it takes to beat ff3. I think that Halo is the only good console FPS game out there.

[joeyjoe367]

I haven't played Deus Ex, so I can't really make a comment about that.

The main thing that I was trying to get across in my rant, is that nothing TRULY creative has come across in recent games.

For example:
Realism came around with Rainbow six and CS (relativly), and now it's just been beaten into the ground. New games comming out scream "REALISM" but what they don't understand is that:

Realism != Fun ( "!=" is progamming for "not equal")

I feel that the reason for the extreem popularity of Counter-Strike is it's balance of realism and gameplay. In real-life a single bullet from any gun will take you down fairly easily, but what fun is that? In real life, if you get shot with a kevelar vest on, you'd be knocked on your "Male Donkey" and out for the count. Also no fun.

What I haven't seen is an absolutly, blown down, ORIGEONAL game. Single-Player OR Multi-Player. Everything nowadays involves moving your mouse, pointing it at something, and blowing it/him/whatever up, No matter what you're riding/driving/piloting/whatever.


One game, I just thought of actually, That stands out, is Final-Fantasy Tactics. This game is origeonal. It's like Chess, On Steroids. Every battle in the game is winnable, no matter how weak your characters are, or how "powerful" your adversaries are. It's all about strategy. Improving your character in differant character classes simply gave you more options on how to go about the battle.

...but it did have it's faults. Mainly it's super-100%-Linear story line. No room for creativity at all here. Also a bit lacking graphics-wise, but it more than made up for it in gameplay. Single-player only wasn't the greatest either. Pitting your characters against other human players would have been absolutly amazing, but PS1 could only take it so far.

this is the only game, IMO, that has really broken the standards of games that have come out today.

[Jonneh]

I just completed deus ex again, on all 3 endings, and it is the awsomest, most awsomely awsome game ever.

Warren Spector <3 <3

[Hemlock86]

Return to Castle wolfenstein is probably the BEST FPS ever. Its not just "Spray and Pray" like Quake or UT. It takes a certian amount of skill to actually kill someone. And if you try to spray-n-pray against someone who is good, your going down.

As for Warcraft 3, Im hooked on it. Its a great real time strat game with decent graphics for being 2d/3d. Its simple and fun.

I dont buy games for graphics, even though good graphics are nice. I play for the fun factor. Anyone who plays a game for JUST the graphics might as well go watch Monsters Inc or another CG movie.

[joeyjoe367]

Hemlock, you TOTALLY missed my point. I never said that RTCW was not a good FPS game. I simply said that there's absolutly nothing new about it. You "run & gun" unlock a few things and go to the next level. Replace the soldiers with marines, Germany with the black mesa complex, and the undead guys with aliens, and you've got half-life all over again.

Same goes for WC3.. lame-up the graphics, and change the characters around a bit and you've got SC again. Even the Undead have the same "creep" like stuff the zerg have in SC, where there's only a specific area they can build.

I also play for the fun-factor, and that's why afer downloading/borrowing any game, I end up going back to CS. IMHO, They're all the same.

[Allen]

Downloading games is illegal, and stupid. :-P

Tribes (I have Tribes 2) is just CTF. I don't like it too much.

Look at some of the games Nintendo has been making recently- Super Smash Bro, a 4 player 2d fighting game. Pikmin- no genre. Animal Crossing- no genre. Eternal Darkness- psychological horror (not too different from other horror games, but different enough basically warrent the creation of a new genre). You people are just looking at the wrong places for creativity. You will not find it in a FPS. Or almost any computer game, for that matter.

One FPS for computer that had a good mix of elements from most of today's popular games was Global Operations. Unfortunatly it was published by EA. Forced out early, then given no funding after words, the game was pretty buggy (in my opinion unplayable) with no hope of being fixed.

[Restola]

Originally posted by joeyjoe367
What I haven't seen is an absolutly, blown down, ORIGEONAL game. Single-Player OR Multi-Player.

Black&White

Unfortunatly I didn't like the game. But thats about as original as you are going to get.

[halB]

im just pissed off with all these games pushing more "realistic" engines and everything. if i wanted reality, i wouldnt be freaking playing videogames.

[Allen]

Good point. Some games, however, benifit greatly from "realistic" graphics. Look at Resident Evil- compare the PS and Game Cube versions. I'm more scared of a zombie dog than a bunch of difficult to distinguish pixels. Other than that, I'm not sure what you mean by realistic engines, and I don't want to put words in your mouth. I do know what you are talking about somewhat, though.

Black and White- forgot about that one. Fairly innovative, but I didn't like it either. Good thing I just played it at my friends house, though.

[joeyjoe367]

Originally posted by Restola


Black&White

Unfortunatly I didn't like the game. But thats about as original as you are going to get.

Yeah, origeonality doesn't really help if the game sucks.

[scribe]

half-life was ownage when it came out. very very good game.

counter-strike right now is the best fps out there.

quake - quake3 was also very good.

i believe q3 is dying now.

counter-strike is still going strong.

ut2k3 should've been alright, but i don't like it anymore. it takes too much computer to run it.


i'm a sponsored counter-strike player. -=]

www.adrenzone.com to visit my sponsor.

if you play cs, and have mIRC, support us at #adrenzone on gamesnet.net

[joeyjoe367]

Counterstrike will continue to go on, IMO. the new 1.6 involves new guns, and the riot shield.

I thought that they were supposed to be in CS:Condition Zero, but apparantly Condition Zero will carry on all of Counter-Strike, and this is just phasing it in.

...can't wait for CZ, the new engine and modeling looks great.