What has become of games these days?

[Kevnvek]

Seriously, I can't stand the direction game design is headed these days. It started with achievements and DLC, piecing out games and letting the consumers be public beta testers for patches and extra paid content, then kept getting worse with every game having you do dumb RPG nonsense like do X Y times to get Z. Experience points, unlocks, ranks, collectibles. In Assassin's Creed III they have bonus objectives for every mission that I stopped caring about (do all that nonsense just to unlock an Altair skin, nothing that special), but there was no way to stop the game telling me I failed the objective every two goddam seconds. Now I'm seeing gameplay from Far Cry 3 and it looks like nothing but collectible hunting type gameplay.

In other words filler. Filler is one of my least favorite things in a story of any kind, be it a movie, game, book, show, anime, or what have you. Unnecessary padding expanding the time you spend experiencing that world without any meaningful advancement, or even interesting moments. Run around the same areas over and over looking for little collectibles. See lame attempts at joke episodes in an anime that make the characters into complete retards and don't follow the manga at all (Naruto being a major offender). I hate filler.

But back to games, another thing I'm hating is how everything is trying to be like an eSport. Leaderboards, stats, how big you think your epeen is because you got a kill streak. In Halo 4 the red and blue teams now have mascots/logos, a shark and a stingray respectively. No point to it, just trying to make it more like a sport it seems. I dislike sports as well, partly because of all of the obsession and stat-mongering.

Case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSNu-unfMeU

This is what games have come to. Drink your soda, eat your chips, get your XP, obsess and be better than your friends.

Another thing, have you ever stopped and wondered, "What the hell am I doing? This guy I'm playing is a mass murderer." Kill, kill, kill, more waves of enemies, meaningless to cut down, no repercussion, your character doesn't care. I wondered that in the Uncharted series. Drake is supposed to be this good-natured adventurer, yet around every corner he trivially murders 20 or so mercenaries, some just doing it for the money, many of whom have families. Then there are other games where every single living thing wants to kill for no other reason than f*** all. All the wildlife. Even ones that realistically will shy away from humans. Kill 'em all. Collect their parts craft craft craft. Kill 50 of 'em to unlock the ability to wave your hands around. New skill. Perks, pick this one to move 20% faster while crouching, but you'll never learn to do all that other simple stuff from the perks you didn't pick.

You could point out that many of these features were present in games for a long time now. But the annoying OCD features are getting into more and more titles, think of any AAA or mainstream game and it'll have some kind of this nonsense in it. Used to be we got complete games, got the collectibles to unlock actual things like costumes without having to spend real money getting them. Used to be that games had cheat codes you could use by choice, with nothing major getting disabled for doing it. I hate what most games have become. With so much opportunity to be this amazing thing, more potential to experience a unique world than books, movies, or shows will ever have, because they can have all of the text, cutscenes, and such that any of those media have all in one piece of media, progress seems to be going backwards.

Then you have games with amazing story like Planescape: Torment. So much story, so much text, nothing wrong with that at all. Practically a hybrid of great book and good game. Yet there will always be people complaining, "If I wanted to read I'd get a book". Why does there have to be a separation like that?

Too long; didn't read: Games these days are trending towards meaningless OCD nonsense and I hate it. It's a waste of amazing interactive media potential.

F*** all of that. There need to be more games with proper, interesting stories like To the Moon, Dear Esther, Portal 2, and Planescape: Torment.

Also relevant:

[PeeKnuckle]

+1

[ThermoNukePanda]

Planescape: Torment.

YES PLEASE!

I agree with you on quite a lot of that dude. The constant fetch quests and filler and random nonsense. I haven't really played a game I actually enjoyed in a while. The last RPG I even semi-enjoyed was The Witcher 2 when I played it on Xbox, but even that had a bunch of filler.

*sighs*

Dunno man. I see it getting worse before it gets any better.

[Siren]

Agree. My 360 has turned into a netflix and hull playing machine. It sucks, but games have been declining in quality and I'm very picky when it comes to games to begin with.

Oh and I'd like to see a Jade Empire 2.

[ThermoNukePanda]

Oh and I'd like to see a Jade Empire 2.

YESSSS!!!!!!!

That and a new (and legit) KOTOR, not that silly MMO SW:TOR crap that they eventually ruined unfortunately

[ThermoNukePanda]

Hey Kev....

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/03/pleasure-without-planescape-a-new-torment/

[StealthyShadows]

I usually dont read long walls of text but for some reason i read through this, and to be honest i agree with you 110% kevin. Ive tried to play my xbox many times over the last several months (could even argue years) and i always turn it off in a very short time. You use to be able to sit down and play a game and next thing you know its 3 am and your still exploring the second lvl, or grinding your xp to be able to kill the last boss in the game. I cant even remember the last game I played that had a good story line that i thoroughly finished to see every little detail of, might have to go back several years to find that think it might have been quake 4

Everything now is simple and short, and usually regardless of the genre just a copy/paste of another game. Hell I picked up Halo 4 (after a long debate with myself considering that it was microsoft and not bungie making it) to give it a shot. Fired it up cleared the first level but something was bothering me, something was off. It took me a few to realize that they took a lot of the style that you had in the CoD games. It wasnt halot anymore it was just another CoD skin to me

[PeeKnuckle]

Stealthy, have you played Dishonored? I think you'd appreciate that game.

In case you haven't seen it's trailer

[Dateranoth]

I do agree with what you said for the most part. Well, all of it actually. Except I don't mind filler if its optional. I'll use Far Cry 3 as an example since we were talking about it last night.

The collectibles that you have to get to increase ammo slots etc. They would be fine if they just gave you what you needed as the game progressed. Want to power level and enjoy stalking animals? Fine, go skin to your hearts content. However, what if you want to experience the story without jumping out of a high speed chase to mow down goats? It's so irritatingly simple to fix. Simply unlock the equipment or give you the materials as the story progresses.

Good RPGs do this. Take the shouts in Skyrim. You could, aside from, I think two story related ones, go unlock them all before you do any main quest. However, the main story will progress you through areas that have word walls as you play it.

Choice, that's all we want. The choice to play the game how we want. Hell, give me a cheat menu from the beginning. If I think it's worth $60 to buy your game and play it with everything unlocked, why not let me. Who does that hurt?

I really think a lot of the crossover stuff is to keep people addicted. So, in two weeks, I'm still obsessing over animal skins and then, what do you know? There's that DLC they are pushing. So, my mind is still in the game and I buy it.

I don't know what to do about it. The only power we have is our wallet, but what if I enjoy the rest of the game? Far Cry 3 is a good example. I actually had to play it before i could know it was worth buying.

[vectordream]

I read all the way through this and I also agree. I mean who wouldn't?!

I don't know about all of you but each game these days for me is disappointment after disappointment. There were some good ones recently like Borderlands 1 and Skyrim but for the most part I am finding myself not even finishing most games now out of sheer boredom that happens way too quickly. AC3 was a perfect example. That game could of been so much more. They made it so damn tedious.

I am so bored that COD Black Ops 2 has been more fun than what I would usually play. No offense to you COD junkies

I just feel like there is no innovation anymore. It's all copy and paste. They are just pumping out half-assed games, selling it in parts. It is gonna get to the point where I get really really selective about what I buy.

Dat is right , I want games that give me choices, let me explore, give me some freedom and stop ripping the controller out of my hand every 5 secs!

P.S.

I am planning on getting Far Cry 3 because in most ways it seems like it might give me some choice aside from the hunting. We shall see.

[StealthyShadows]

Stealthy, have you played Dishonored? I think you'd appreciate that game.

In case you haven't seen it's trailer

no i havent played it yet but that did look pretty cool. ill have to see if i know anyone with it that i can borrow it from

[LGWyant]

*you have unlocked level 3 bullshit goggles*

You now have the ability to see through 3 layers of game publisher b.s.

[eminutia]

I don't know but it's gotten out of hand with that Mountain Dew thing. Even though every time I pass a milk store with that ad outside, I'm always tempted to go in and buy some Doritos and Mtn Dew.

[Kira Onime]

Quick note about those mt dew and doritos promotions.

Halo 4 has a daily experience cap that you cna earn each day.

I remember reading on the halo forums, some guy was complaining he had reached that cap and his experience woudn't go up until the next day and he had 38 bottles of 2l of mt dew bottles.

[Kevnvek]

Yeah that's another point I didn't touch on, freedom in games. I love games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored that give you more options. You can play through those games without being a mass murderer, using nonlethal skills and tools. And those are mostly linear games, too. I don't have a problem with linear games if the story advancement is good.

I could keep going, there's so much to say, because there's so much wrong with games these days. If I cared to take the time I'd make it into an article on the main page.

[ThermoNukePanda]

Relevant....