Next Gen Consoles

[Musopticon?]

I really hope that Killzone 2 video which has stirred the net doesn't feature only scripted sequences. Nevertheless; the feeling is amazing.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

The speed of gameplay.

The immersion factor of the environment.

The AI. 

The detailed level design.

How alive and chaotic the action is all round you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I couldn't gauge all that from Gears of War's footage, so I can't really share the optimism or discuss those elements which I usually can only get a feel of when playing a game.

[metadigital]

One thing I dislike about a feature like 7 player support is the idea that it'll be wasted on sports games. Though I suspect it might be good for sports games enthusiasts.

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I have never liked one sports sim yet (aside from 10 yard fight in the arcade, oh, and Super Punch-Out, with Mr Macho Man and Bear-Hugger, oh, and that car one, but again, all of these were in the arcae with specifically designed equipment to play them on -- apart from Tten-Yard Fight). Okay, amongst the Sports Sims there are Three I do like ... Surprise and Fear ... Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

...

Innovation is the stuff of explorers, and so only through exploration can you discover it.  I'll leave it at that.

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True. Before id popped up, there were other games making the sales. The Next Big Thing will appear from left field, and then be cloned and improved on by the big corporates (which is what they do best, and that, in turn, is best for the industry).

[EnderAndrew]

Didn't Sony patent a design for beaming electrons directly into your brain?

[metadigital]

I could tell you but it would break Non Disclosure ...

[EnderAndrew]

Well, there was an article about it. Maybe I can Google it.

 

I remember people talking about how Sony was cribbing off the Riddler from Batman Forever.

[metadigital]

Well, there was an article about it.  Maybe I can Google it.

 

I remember people talking about how Sony was cribbing off the Riddler from Batman Forever.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't see how bombarding the brain -- which, although it is mildly charged, the electro-chemical reactions are by-products of the actual neuronal activity that makes up the endocrinal soup of thought-generation -- with charged particles will do anything except create huge problems.

 

After all, shock therapy was abandoned in the sixties (apart from incurable special cases). (Then again, drug therapy isn't much better. )

 

I guess the technique would be to excite the hypothalamus in just the right way (or is it just for occipital lobes visual cortex vision replacement?) to generate sensations.

 

I doubt it'd work, because everyone's brains are different, even if the general areas are generally the same.

 

I'd be interested to read the article, though.

[Guest Fishboot]

True. Before id popped up, there were other games making the sales. The Next Big Thing

[metadigital]

I remain hopeful, after all I was a BIG fan of the texxt adventures (not the VERB NOUN ones, although I could play them for a while, but the full English language parsers from Infocom, like the Zorks and Witness and Planetfall.

 

I would play them now, graphics are not my first priority.

[Guest Fishboot]

I remain hopeful, after all I was a BIG fan of the texxt adventures (not the VERB NOUN ones, although I could play them for a while, but the full English language parsers from Infocom, like the Zorks and Witness and Planetfall.

 

I would play them now, graphics are not my first priority.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well of course I agree - I just played through A Mind Forever Voyaging a couple of months ago, for the non-nostalgic first time even. But I personally cannot imagine a low- or non-graphical game even being mentioned in a gaming magazine, so how could it find a wide enough audience to give the biggie gamemakers a reason to copy it?

 

I dread a time when we have an (inarguably) clear dileneation between inexpensive-to-make and likely pretentious "art house" subculture games and big, stupid mainstream corporate games the way Hollywood has gone - I want big, smart games sometimes too.

[EnderAndrew]

True. Before id popped up, there were other games making the sales. The Next Big Thing

[metadigital]

Well of course I agree - I just played through A Mind Forever Voyaging a couple of months ago, for the non-nostalgic first time even. But I personally cannot imagine a low- or non-graphical game even being mentioned in a gaming magazine, so how could it find a wide enough audience to give the biggie gamemakers a reason to copy it?

 

I dread a time when we have an (inarguably) clear dileneation between  inexpensive-to-make and likely pretentious "art house" subculture games and big, stupid mainstream corporate games the way Hollywood has gone - I want big, smart games sometimes too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've heard of it, but don't recall anything about it ... certainly don't think I have played it ... is it a PC title?

 

I remain hopeful that non-/low-graphical games might provide the engine and EA, or some big company, will buy the IP and plug it into a graphics engine (after all the research has been done, the sunk cost is waiting for someone to turn a small marketing investment into a huge return).

 

I dred that too, but I don't think it'll happen that way; simply because it would be impossible for the small guys to get a look in, let alone compete. I think the little guys might end up having to plug their ideas into an exiting system, like an NwN2 or Renderware (even though that's now owned by EA); hopefully Epic's UT2007 engine will provide a quality SDK and competitive pricing for the little guys.

[EnderAndrew]

A Mind Forever Voyaging is one of the best Infocom titles of all time.

 

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/amfv.html

 

Infocom never released these titles in the public domain, and abandonware is not fully legal, otherwise I would direct you to a copy of the game.

[metadigital]

A Mind Forever Voyaging is one of the best Infocom titles of all time.

 

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/Infocom/amfv.html

 

Infocom never released these titles in the public domain, and abandonware is not fully legal, otherwise I would direct you to a copy of the game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks.

 

 

(I believe that Infocom aren't going to prosecute anyone for copyright infringement.)

[EnderAndrew]

That's precisely why I don't feel bad collecting them all for software preservation.

[metadigital]

Offsite robust multiple redundancy archive.

[EnderAndrew]

You won't see me pirating Halo 2.

 

But I have a hefty collection of classic RPGs and the like that you can't find anywhere.

[Azarkon]

http://spore.ea.com/

 

The art in the game is dynamically created as you go along.

 

Exactly what's so exciting about next-gen games. Less artists, more programmers :D

 

Kidding. The reality, though, is that procedural graphics is *likely* the way of the future in terms of large-scale games. I don't mean the death of personalized graphics - far from it. You'll still have your hand-crafted NPC's with unique skins/models, your uniquely stylish weapons, whatever. The difference, though, is that the *art* itself will be easier to produce. No more artists spending weeks perfecting a temple that's only "up to par". Imagine, instead, the ability to translate your idea of the scene into the computer in 1/5th - 1/10th of the time, which leaves room for both better details and more (longer?) gameplay. It's happening with animation. It will happen with games.

 

Not that I've anything against slow-and-steady handcrafted art. It's just that, in today's consumers' eyes, the baseline of a game is having "decent" graphics. The bar will only rise with time, and we can imagine that in order to produce a game in the coming decades, you would either need to hire teams of hundreds of artists (thus making mass appeal and corporate dominance even *more* prevalent, not to mention the management ability to distribute work over such a large crowd), or discover new technology that would allow you to create better art at ten times the speed through a combination of procedural modification of previous or base models. and better production architecture

 

Personally, I'm thinking the latter will come true sooner than the former.

[EnderAndrew]

Honestly, I see sandbox games like Spore and complex AI in titles like Black and White and wonder why other games are so horribly lacking in these areas.

 

Can't EA put together a basic FPS AI library that they can share with any development team putting together a FPS under EA's purview?

 

Games today are short, and static. They're also a bit too easy.

 

When I replay old NES games I find myself considerably more challenged than when I play a modern XBox/PS2 game.

 

I keep hearing the excuse that we need to make the games easy to target kids. Little kids aren't buying $60 games. Furthermore, when I was a kid, NES games were challenging, but that was a good thing.

 

Can we please kick-start a revolution to stop dumbing down games and add a bit of complexity?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

I keep hearing the excuse that we need to make the games easy to target kids.  Little kids aren't buying $60 games.  Furthermore, when I was a kid, NES games were challenging, but that was a good thing.

 

Can we please kick-start a revolution to stop dumbing down games and add a bit of complexity?

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No, parents are buying them for them. :D Has it occured to you that you have simply gotten better ?

 

I'd suggest playing Pokemon, nice complex game that.

[EnderAndrew]

The age of video game players keeps going up.

 

Games should reflect that.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

The age of video game players keeps going up.

 

Games should reflect that.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm sure it's occured to people that one of the reasons for that is because young gamers dont answer surveys :D

 

 

They already do. But that has little or nothing to do with difficulty.

[Child of Flame]

Didn't Sony patent a design for beaming electrons directly into your brain?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Not electrons, ultrasound!

 

And Ender, some of the most challenging experiences I've had as of late, are on the cube. You are right though, most Xbox games are pitifully easy. Meh.

[EnderAndrew]

What games in particular?

 

I'm waiting for the PS2 port of RE4, BTW.

 

And thanks for hunting down that article.

[Child of Flame]

What games in particular?

 

I'm waiting for the PS2 port of RE4, BTW.

 

And thanks for hunting down that article.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I remembered the article and what it used (thank you photographic memory) so all I had to do was type 'ultrasound, Sony, patent' into my Google toolbar in Firefox and hit enter.

 

Eternal Darkness is quite challenging. It is also an awesome adventurey game based on Lovecrafian mythos.

 

Wind Waker has it's moments, if nothing else, the world is massive and looks and feels like a world despite the cartoony graphics.

 

Some of the Boss Battles in Metroid Prime had me down to 22 health.

 

<Edit> I forgot to mention them, because I do not have them, but the Viewtiful Joe games are supposed to be the Uber Hardness, I will probably pick them up when I have monies after I get Mario Kart Double Dash to appease my sister. </Edit>