Changes in Video Games

For the most part I like a lot of things that have changed in Video Games over the years; better graphics, better (more advanced) GamePlay, DLC at times (when it is actually extra content and not something that should have been included in the Base Game), the way gaming has gone more mainstream and it's often easier to find people to play with.

But there are some things that I dont like as much, like how there seems to be an abundance of "Retro Style" (not counting classic games and remasters) Video Games that purposely have lazy graphics, the way that some games are made short before DLC so you actually get less to do in a game than you used to for the same money, and even DLC at times falls short of what you should get for the money (Destiny 2 for example), how a disproportionate amount of people seem to flock to only a few different games that honestly arent that great, but people play them because of the size of the community.

Also I prefer games that have a real Story/Campaign Mode, I cant really get into a game with a 2 hour Story Mode, and then all there is to do is play online, rank up, "Reborn" (keep some kind of a bonus, reset to level 1, Level/Rank up all over again), repeat.

I also think some "Open World" games feel like they have no direction in them, like at least put map points in and have a stated recommended level for certain quests/areas.

I also am digging the free games you get for having an online subscription (though they might not always be games I'm interested in, $5 a month is cheap for the games they give out).

I also think some games have changed a bit too much (Assassins Creed feels less like your character is an Assassin due to the "Evolution" of GamePlay), while some games feel like the same game sold as something new (Halo series, Destiny 2, etc).

Anyways, feel free to comment, add on, debate, etc.

The open world trend in video games needs to die, and this is coming from a guy who is still currently enjoying playing Breath Of The Wild. While I'm still liking the game, I feel like the open world aspect of it, as well as of other games, doesn't reward the player as much as it should. And yes, the lack of direction is infuriating; the developers just expect you to stumble around until you find out what you need to do, and somewhere along the way, you might come across an area you can't seem to traverse due to a lack of your character's skill, and you don't know for sure whether this is an area you need to get past or one you need to put aside later.

My biggest problem in general with the state of gaming these days is casualization. While I said the open world trend needs to die, I can safely say that it doesn't have this problem; most of these games are only taken up by players who actually want to dedicate time and effort into the game they're playing. I feel like a lot of video games these days are casualized and anything that presents even a little bit of challenge is heralded as bad game design, or "as hard as Dark Souls". Cuphead, BOTW, even Mario Tennis were all heralded as "as hard as Dark Souls" when they aren't even really that hard, just difficult but fair (and Dark Souls isn't even truly unfair).

Oh ho ho, and Assassin's Creed. Assassin's Creed. There was a time when I was one of the biggest fans of that franchise one would ever meet; bought every single game on day 1. Assassin's Creed is unfortunately a franchise that is very guilty of following trends that it didn't need to follow, and the loss of the original creative director didn't help at all with that. To this day, while they haven't aged too well admittedly, the Ezio Trilogy reached soaring heights that this franchise will never reach again; Revelations was effectively the last fantastic AC game. AC3 was where it all started; the basic-ass Arkham control scheme, the tailored free-running, and the American Revolution. These were all attempts at casualization of a game that didn't need to be casualized. At first, I stuck through with it and put AC3 in the books as the black sheep of AC, but then the continued open world sailing trend alienated me as a fan of the old games. And then Unity; I could go on for hours and hours about how that abomination stole a full $60 from me, but the biggest issue with that game was the RPG system, which wasn't asked for, wasn't necessary, and wasn't at all well implemented.

Origins was my last Assassin's Creed game. I held good faith for it hoping the open world trend wouldn't bastardize it too much, but then I went into an area with enemies that I was way underleveled for. My thought as a long-time AC player: "If I can stealth assassinate these enemies, I won't get wrecked shamefully." I got the jump on the first enemy, a basic enemy mind you, and was very certain that a stealth air assassination would get the job done... I did zero damage to this guy. I did zero damage from attempting a stealth assassination in Assassin's Creed. And that was the day I swore off AC Origins and all future Assassin's Creed titles forever.

Hope you enjoyed my brief AC rant.

im just gonna say this, gaming is the same still as the 90s and early 2000s. Reason it doesnt seem so is because the advent of twitch and only ever seeing popular things in media. Great games are still made but they are buried under countless hype machines. You gotta look for em. As the saying goes, Nintendo for gameplay, sony for graphics, microshit for lol halo, pc once you realize all other options are garbage and it should be your main platform while leaving the other big 3 as side consoles to compliment your pc. I have a switch and pc combo and its great. I have no need for a ps4 as graphics are not a concern to me and i have a decent gcard anyways so its not like im missing out on that either. Why would i ever fuck with an xbox? Maybe the only thing dead is couch co ob but if you still have a buddy and a good game to play togather in essence its still alive. I would love to meet another little irl someday and have a gaming session with em.

Well, I wasnt saying story modes are dead, I'm just saying that most games had a good story mode back in the PS2 Generation, and a lot of games have moved away from that in favor of a short campaign and getting people to purely play online vs other people.

For example Mortal Kombat games used to have a really cool, long, open works kind of feeling story mode; like whichever one had the Dragon Brothers and I remember one or two had the Dragon King whom you didn't realize was manipulating you to do bad things.

Fighting games in general seem to have Universally had good story modes before, sometimes necessary to play through with different characters to get different rewards like bonus characters, weapons, etc.

Also newer racing games just don't excite me like Midnight Club (the last one being 3 Dub Edition Remix, which had a lot of bonus stuff), and the older Need For Speed Games, which seem to have become god awful after the PS3.

It would be great if Need For Speed could go back to how Most Wanted and Hot Pursuit were, but I kinda doubt it as Rivals and the remade "Need For Speed" just suck.

BabyTyrant said:

the way that some games are made short before DLC so you actually get less to do in a game than you used to for the same money

Click to expand...

Some games are guilty of this, but most games, this is simply not true. Most games are rushed due to the deadline that they are given by the publisher. A lot of ways they resolve this is by free DLC, or to justify to the publisher, paid DLC.

BabyTyrant said:

and even DLC at times falls short of what you should get for the money (Destiny 2 for example), how a disproportionate amount of people seem to flock to only a few different games that honestly arent that great, but people play them because of the size of the community.

Click to expand...

Or maybe it’s because a unique style of game, with components of Halo, that was spread to both PlayStation and PC. As well as it’s online play being unique.

What you said is merely opinion.

BabyTyrant said:

Also I prefer games that have a real Story/Campaign Mode, I cant really get into a game with a 2 hour Story Mode, and then all there is to do is play online, rank up, "Reborn" (keep some kind of a bonus, reset to level 1, Level/Rank up all over again), repeat.

Click to expand...

Then continue playing your taste of games.

BabyTyrant said:

I also think some "Open World" games feel like they have no direction in them, like at least put map points in and have a stated recommended level for certain quests/areas.

Click to expand...

What open world game doesn’t have enough direction for you to not enjoy the game?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It actually seems to be a trend in a lot of "open world" games these days that they somehow expect you will be able to figure stuff out with no direction, probably the worst though was Dragon Age Inquisition.

BabyTyrant said:

It actually seems to be a trend in a lot of "open world" games these days that they somehow expect you will be able to figure stuff out with no direction, probably the worst though was Dragon Age Inquisition.

Click to expand...

Dragon Age doesn’t give you map points of where you need to go? Or some sort of indicator on your HUD or map to know where you need to go?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CrinklyConnor said:

Dragon Age doesn’t give you map points of where you need to go? Or some sort of indicator on your HUD or map to know where you need to go?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

No it doesn't, it literally expects you to figure it out with no guidance of any sort, which I feel shouldn't be included in games just because they are "open world", a little guidance in an open world games goes a long way because going where you aren't supposed to yet is nothing but frustrating.

BabyTyrant said:

No it doesn't, it literally expects you to figure it out with no guidance of any sort, which I feel shouldn't be included in games just because they are "open world", a little guidance in an open world games goes a long way because going where you aren't supposed to yet is nothing but frustrating.

Click to expand...

I’ve never played it, I don’t know. But I did just look up images of the HUD on the game, and it does appear to have some sort of map/navigational system for when you have missions/quests.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CrinklyConnor said:

I’ve never played it, I don’t know. But I did just look up images of the HUD on the game, and it does appear to have some sort of map/navigational system for when you have missions/quests.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Well, I just remember that game being exceedingly hard to figure out where you were supposed to go because it literally has no structure to it, it is like it wants you to choose where to go, even if there is nothing there for you but way overpowered enemies you cant hope to kill.

I dont know why the game developers of these open world games have an Aversion to a little bit of structure.

BabyTyrant said:

Well, I just remember that game being exceedingly hard to figure out where you were supposed to go because it literally has no structure to it, it is like it wants you to choose where to go, even if there is nothing there for you but way overpowered enemies you cant hope to kill.

I dont know why the game developers of these open world games have an Aversion to a little bit of structure.

Click to expand...

I don’t have hardly any experience with the game so I couldn’t offer much of a personal opinion on it, but there are a lot of open world games that do have the necessary structure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

CrinklyConnor said:

I don’t have hardly any experience with the game so I couldn’t offer much of a personal opinion on it, but there are a lot of open world games that do have the necessary structure.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Yeah, but it seems to be a growing trend in the last 2 or 3 years to not have any structure in an Open World game.

I think it's pure laziness to not throw in some sort of menu/map system to give you that little bit of direction to make figuring the game out easier; perfect example of how to throw in some guidance was The Witcher 3, you could accept quests, they had markers on the map, and they had a recommended level, and you didn't often run into overpowered enemies either (I mean it might happen, but at least running away was always easy enough)

The one thing I hate in most games is too many Carebears gamers that want everything on easy mode. They need to shove a pacifier in their mouth to stop them whining.

quietcutie said:

im just gonna say this, gaming is the same still as the 90s and early 2000s. Reason it doesnt seem so is because the advent of twitch and only ever seeing popular things in media. Great games are still made but they are buried under countless hype machines. You gotta look for em. As the saying goes, Nintendo for gameplay, sony for graphics, microshit for lol halo, pc once you realize all other options are garbage and it should be your main platform while leaving the other big 3 as side consoles to compliment your pc. I have a switch and pc combo and its great. I have no need for a ps4 as graphics are not a concern to me and i have a decent gcard anyways so its not like im missing out on that either. Why would i ever fuck with an xbox? Maybe the only thing dead is couch co ob but if you still have a buddy and a good game to play togather in essence its still alive. I would love to meet another little irl someday and have a gaming session with em.

Click to expand...

Well put! Steam might have its issues, but the sheer amount of amazing indie stuff that I'd otherwise never have access to makes this an amazing time to be gaming.
My game needs have also changed as I've gotten older and there really is something for everyone.

- - - Updated - - -

Lestat said:

The one thing I hate in most games is too many Carebears gamers that want everything on easy mode. They need to shove a pacifier in their mouth to stop them whining.

Click to expand...

Hahaha! Is this a thing? I don't want to be challenged I just want to press buttons and be told where to go sometimes. Games like Diablo scale difficulty rather well so you can have truly easy and truly nightmarish.

beeble88 said:

Hahaha! Is this a thing? I dn't want to be challenged I just want to press buttons and be told where to go sometimes. Games like Diablo scale difficulty rather well so you can have truly easy and truly nightmarish.

Click to expand...

They whine if the grind to long they whine if the combat too hard. They whine because they rather have spray and pray vs Combat Discipline. They need a diaper change and a pacifier.

structure in a open world game that has advanced mechanics is nigh impossible without reverting to sandbox shenanigans. What you are asking for simply cant be done, without massive amounts of money, artists, time. more movey than even triple A titles are using. Open world games with simple mechanics like minecraft work because you are not overwhelmed with info and everything seems pretty straightforward and no matter where you are plopped in the world you can get right to work doing whatever it is you wanted to do. Open world RPG's are some of the most challenging genres to make.

quietcutie said:

structure in a open world game that has advanced mechanics is nigh impossible without reverting to sandbox shenanigans. What you are asking for simply cant be done, without massive amounts of money, artists, time. more movey than even triple A titles are using. Open world games with simple mechanics like minecraft work because you are not overwhelmed with info and everything seems pretty straightforward and no matter where you are plopped in the world you can get right to work doing whatever it is you wanted to do. Open world RPG's are some of the most challenging genres to make.

Click to expand...

I'm not saying it has to be a rigid structure, something like The Witcher 3 is perfect, let's you know where to go for a quest and you don't simply stumble into enemies that will murder you for being in the wrong place

BabyTyrant said:

I'm not saying it has to be a rigid structure, something like The Witcher 3 is perfect, let's you know where to go for a quest and you don't simply stumble into enemies that will murder you for being in the wrong place

Click to expand...

call me a masochist, but im a old timer when it comes to games, being told where the quests are and having my handheld is kinda insulting to my intelligence and navigation skills. Witcher 3 (dont get me wrong, great game) came at a cost. There is hundreds of game breaking bugs that show their ugly head at least twice in one session for prolonged play. But my opinion is pretty insufficient on these genres as i like games that challenge me both in intelligence and reaction timing. Online games like overwatch and platforming games like donky kong country tropical freeze tickle my fancy.

I don't think its hand holding to have a little direction in Open World games; Hand Holding would be if it told you exactly how to beat the quest; like if you were fighting a boss and it gave you the necessary strategy or if you were doing a puzzle and there was a button that automatically solves the puzzle.

Knowing where to go gives you a start, you still have stuff to figure out when you get there; just because you know where to go doesn't mean a game cant be challenging and fun.

BabyTyrant said:

I don't think its hand holding to have a little direction in Open World games; Hand Holding would be if it told you exactly how to beat the quest; like if you were fighting a boss and it gave you the necessary strategy or if you were doing a puzzle and there was a button that automatically solves the puzzle.

Click to expand...

I am with quietcutie on this one. Having an icon of the location of the mission is diaper mode. You are following your mother father to the destination. You miss out on having that think about your area and find the location your self. That why I like Elite Dangerous. Like one mission on Elite Dangerous, say fetch 2000 tons of one item like Fish legal or Narcotics which in some system they are illegal. You also have to look at legal/illegal as a real risk. With illegal, you have to risk being scanned and found out.

They don't hold your hands or pat your diaper and going it will be all right. You have to locate a source of goods. Like with the Fish you want to check water world system has a food source. Narcotics you have to locate Anarchy system or Agricultural But you have to do it your self.

Knowing where to go gives you a start, you still have stuff to figure out when you get there; just because you know where to go doesn't mean a game cant be challenging and fun.

Click to expand...

You really don't know what challenge is until you disable that feature.