RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Fenixp]

Arkane should re-score the game with late 70's/80's style synths and then I'd totally be on-board for the $60 price of admission.

Eh... I mean...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TRdx2tbUFI

[sorophx]

doesn't sound like it did in the 80s, though. the arrangement is modern, which makes it sound 'fake'

 

pretty much like in that Turbo Kid movie

[Fenixp]

doesn't sound like it did in the 80s, though.

I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to, just like the entire game is a refinement of what we got 23 years ago as opposed to being a mere replica.

[sorophx]

the thing is, I like replicas more than I like 'homages'

[Fenixp]

Homage is still a mere attempt at imitation; What Mick Gordon does with his soundtracks since DOOM (apparently) is more than that, building on the original inspirations while injecting parts of his own, and then creating something familiar, yet new. ... Kinda like the whole game :-P Regardless, System Shock 1 remake should get released soon enough, so ... Yay!

 

Incidentally, I'm quite wondering how does Night Dive aim to even remotely compare to Prey since they apparently don't aim to keep the remake entirely faithful, considering nostalgia seems to be their only viable advantage at this point. Oh well, we'll see.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Fenixp

[redneckdevil]

Fractured butthole got a new release date. Hopefully it sticks to this one. The only reason I've had the damn game on preorder for 2 years is bc only way to play stick of truth on the PS4 til it comes out

[Lexx]

I totally forgot they were making this game. Wasn't it supposed to be released like.. a long time ago?

[redneckdevil]

****ing A it was, feels like a long wait

[Hurlshort]

I don't know why anyone has hopes for the South Park game. They basically said "The first one was great, but we want to save a bunch of money on the sequel so we are going with an entirely different team."

 

This is kind of what happened with the new Mass Effect, now that I think on it.

[SonicMage117]

I don't know why anyone has hopes for the South Park game. They basically said "The first one was great, but we want to save a bunch of money on the sequel so we are going with an entirely different team."

 

This is kind of what happened with the new Mass Effect, now that I think on it.

That's actually the best example of older games being better than the newer games that I've seen.

 

Most of the time people let their nostalgic goggles blind them and they'll say something like "Well they don't make them how they used to." Which in most cases isn't true, but the South Park and Mass Effect series is where it legit applies and isn't just a biased opinion.

[Malcador]

[Tigranes]

You just can't stop ranting about these goggles other people must have at every opportunity, can you? "People who say older games are better are wrong, except for these games where I agree with them, there it's not biased!" Let it go, man.

 

From a purely money-making standpoint, they might be thinking that we can't exactly get Obsidian to make five more South Park games and make them even more widely accessible, so let's just leverage the success of the first game with a cheap sequel and rake in easy cash before calling it a day. I thought the Obsidian SP was awful, but yeah, I can't see the sequel greatly pleasing those who enjoyed the former.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Tigranes

[SonicMage117]

Well I don't really bring it up to often maybe once or twice in all the posts that I've ever posted but it's only because most of the time people get stuck on what they grew up with as being "the best" and it's not necessarily true most the time, it's just what has been in-grained upon their young minds. In actuality most of the great games we played were fun but limited to hardware and programming. So now we have the older generation which has the occultic-mindset of "More effort and creativity was put into games when I was gaming in the 90's" which if anything has debatably been proven wrong within the last 10 years.

 

 I'm not ranting about it and sorry if it appears that way. I feel that games in general  (especially Rpg's) are better than they ever have been, we have alot of examples to prove this. Even the stories and mechanics of the last 5 years are of higher caliber than anythung from the 90's or 00's. Today's indies have brought back creativity and the effort is there. It just seems like the older generations are the only ones stuck on that "golden" age of gaming. Mere favoritosm doesn't nor should ever pass as the best.

 

But especially relating to franchises, most people cannot or do not want to accept the changes being made. Most of the time the changes don't make the game lesser but people who do not favor the changes will make it out to be a negative and that could be anything from shorter game legnth to 3D graphics upgrade, etc. Maybe it's me... maybe these old eyes have seen too much and have wandered into the unknown.

[Tigranes]

Of course you're free to argue games are generally better now and that old games tend to be overrated. But if you want to argue that point, then argue it, and respect people with other opinions by not starting with the premise that your argument is already proven and people who disagree must be incapable of objective judgment. Otherwise why would anyone want to engage with you? 

 

Surely you can see how ridiculous it is to say "most people are unable to be objective about these games, but I can, and I'm here to tell you that yeah older games were better for Mass Effect and stuff but its just your bias for all those other times." I never played any of the Mass Effects, but it would be like me tellng you that's your nostalgia goggles and you just can't accept "progress" (whatever that means) and you're just in an 'occultic' mindset and it's proven that Andromeda is the shiznits. Talking that way doesn't really let you persuade anyone or open up debate.

 

(For what it's worth, I would agree that in the RPG space some indies have put out very creative and charming stuff recently, much more in line with the best titles from ye olde days - but you look at roughly the 2003-2010 period or so and that's a long and fallow period of mostly super-shallow 'cinematic' gruel.)

Edited May 22, 2017 by Tigranes

[Lexx]

 

I don't know. It looks all just so good, I find it hard to believe. Hype is strong in this one.

[SonicMage117]

Yeah, there was a break where gaming on both consoles and PC gaming was doing very poorly. At one point I even said "The gaming industry is so bad, the games are so bad that I just want to quit!" Devs were getting lazy. Then something happened...I somehow got introduced to indies like Super Meat Boy and Hotline Miami.

 

Sorry for the slow response I'm even more sorry for long this response is going to be. I don't blame you if you don't read it! I'll try to respond the best way I can

 

It's a crazy thing how technology and development methods have evolved and changed. Yeah, of course one can say "Games like CoD are terrible cash-grabs" which is true but people who are stuck in the 90's won't ever be so quick to point out the better games of today for the possibility that a discussion of newer games being of more quality may arise.

 

Without disrespect to any company or person, we have better artists, better writers, better programmers today than ever before... everything is excelling because the younger generation has more access to everything and are being fed to create. And it's not about experience because (I think we all know that) the best games are usually the developers' first games so that's another reason why 90's gamers cling to their old games but that's also why new indies prove that today's games are better than they were in the past gens.

 

For a while, PC gaming (especially was in drought), so I can definitely understand the mindset of people saying "The 90's were the golden age of gaming!" But from the last 5-10 years, indies have kicked off and pretty much have blown the 90's away in terms of innovation, originality, depth and story-writing.

 

Literally everything from graphics to voice acting has gotten better, it would take someone insane to argue that... sound, well we have 5.1 support, 7.1 support (and Atmos support around the corner for gaming). 2D Sprites are better now than they've ever been, artists have only just a few years ago added real time reflective lighting to sprites. HD sprites are far more beautiful. Then there's photo-realism, within the last 5 years, it's been kicked up into overdrive and games benefit it and now VR has finally become a thing... I admit I hate VR but it's a huge jump and will continue to make the industry better.

 

Mechanics wise for games - User interfaces have gotten alot better, a.i has vastly improved over the years, things are easier to balance, thanks to creative minds who are willing to think out the box. Online functionality "nearly" perfected.

 

But since my original comment was about franchises, I'll give an example...

 

The new Tomb Raider would be a good place to start. People seem to have a problem with it because they changed it but it's definitely better than the 90's ones. It actually gives a backstory to Lara and is just an overall pleasant experience than what we experienced in the first game but people have a problem with Lara not having her iconic big breasts, dual guns and not doing  jumping flips everywhere. It's strange to think people would prefer nodtalgia over a well-written story but that is where we are I guess.

 

Another thing would be people having problems with remasters because they have slight differences in graphic art style or animations but developers tell the fans "Funny because this is how we originally intended the game to be" and if the game came out this way in the 90's it would be a totally different story because that's the way my generation thinks on stuff.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think any developer of any 90's games have ever been as passionate or put as much as themselves into their games... which is another reason I'd say today's indies outshine 90's classic gems which inspired them.

 

Hyper Light Drifter is a Zelda-like who was made by a sick dude. He was so sick that he couldn't port the game to WiiU and other consoles that he wanted to because of th life-threatening heart illness but he put a bunch of expressions into the game which show what he's dealing with (the main character is sick so when he's walking around he coughs up blood).

 https://youtu.be/NUT5SBZkVys

 

That Dragon Cancer... a story about parents losing their small sick boy, based off of what they went through im real life:

 https://youtu.be/X9D8Hux9IQI

 

I think there's something to be said about intimacy being taken to a whole new level which makes 2010's the new golden age of gaming, because there's alot being done now that developers could have only dreampt of doing in the 90's but thanks to new hardware and software and techniques, they can actually put their vision out the way they originally intended. Considering that most gamers could play something back then and say "This is perfect" and the developers shaking their heads an saying "If only we were further along and had less limitations, then everything from story-writing and creating worlds would be how we actually wanted them to be" in fact, almost every developer has said that in the 90's but nobody says it now.

 

The industry is in a stronger place than its ever been, creativity, quality, originality and innovation is at a higher place than it's ever been as well. The thing of myself being an 80's and 90's gamer is that I have alot of fond memories playing games like DuckHunt and Super Mario Bros in a Ford Econoline Van and then getting off to play Galaga as the local Pizza Hut and boy do I love those times. I still remember the smells of Pizza Hut and Chucky Cheeses/Major Magics. Rip arcades. Still even with all those experiences I can look past the memories and look forward to the evolution of today. I'm so excited that my kids and nieces get to play awesome games being made now as opposed to ones that I played years ago - mainly because today's games are better crafted and more relatable to the players. I always think to myself, man I wish they had something like that when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't just go for games but other things as well but I'm happy that games have finally gotten to that place where creativity can flow without any boundaries, more than ever before.

 

Anyways that's my thought on the whole thing, sorry for it being such a long entry and being off topic #Derailing #MajorMajeks

[Mamoulian War]

 

Do you realize, that most of the indies with the best stories are written by the people who were awesome writers already in 90's???

 

So no, writers are not better than before. The best are still the best and the new writers, especially in AAA, are just doing what they are allowed to do, or are just bad. If you you spend ****loads of money on graphics and hype, there is not much of them left for quality writing.

 

I remember most of the games and situations in stories, in games I played as a young boy. Nowadays in some games I even can't remember names of some main characters in some games right after I finish them. That's how forgetable the writing in "modern" games is.

[SonicMage117]

Yes, I do realize that but that's not what I'm talking about here...

 

I'm talking about people who are making their first games (hence when I said later that developers first games are their best whether AAA or indie, also hence when I said it's not about experience as I imagine alot of people will not want to acknowledge). The best indies so far are by people who are just getting into game development. Probably because their minds are fresh. The only thing that the experienced devs are doing are re-creating and serving a fan-base but they're not doing anything spectacular or industry changing like the new generation of devs in the parents basements are. Heck, even have one person dev games that are introducing new things that no experienced dev has thought of and that's very impressive and should not be overlooked. The variety and quality has rocketed because of it. We've never had so many games, yeah some are crap rpg-maker games but some are extraordinary that not even vets could think up.

 

And no, that's just it. You don't have to spend $50 or $60 for a game with the best graphics. Unity engine as well as other engines have come a long way, you can get games with amazing graphics for $15 to $20. It's a new era, everything is becoming "affordable" and as I said before, programmers and artists are learning new tricks and techniques.

 

I guess our experiences differ because I'm the exact opposite, I can remember games with stories like Oxenfree, Life Is Strange, etc and I'd even go as far as to say it's the shorter 4-12 hour games that have the most memorable stories and captivating lores rather than a 25-40 hour game but I'm all about that personal impact/relatableness the game possesses. Of course there are a few that I remember but none of them have the depth and passion of the new games that are being released today.

 

I just want to give credit where it is due.

[Bartimaeus]

(For what it's worth, I would agree that in the RPG space some indies have put out very creative and charming stuff recently, much more in line with the best titles from ye olde days - but you look at roughly the 2003-2010 period or so and that's a long and fallow period of mostly super-shallow 'cinematic' gruel.)

 

Games kinda sucked in general from that period. The advent of awful shallow open world settings and gameplay mechanics, the popularization of MMOs (and the industry seemingly revolving around them and trying to ape their awful mechanics and norms as much as possible), and it was still pretty early into 3D graphics (graphics not mattering insomuch as the effect it had upon game design and mechanics)... There were exceptions, of course, but it was a pretty bad time for gaming, especially with the tiny indie scene - nowadays, there's so much more going on everywhere.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Belle Sorciere]

I kind of think it only makes sense to go on at length about people thinking the 90s were better for gaming if people were actually going on about thinking the 90s were better for gaming. While I can't say no one has done that around here (someone probably has) it doesn't look like it's happened recently in this thread.

 

And such a judgment is necessarily subjective and thus not really something that can be labeled "right" or "wrong." For that matter, your (SonicMage117) judgments are also subjective and thus not something that can be labeled "right" or "wrong" or even "unbiased" or "objective." If you stopped doing that, there'd probably be less pushback against your comments.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Belle Sorciere

[SonicMage117]

If you're unsure about where I got 90's specifically from, like I said earlier, it's my generation of gamers - 80's and 90's and people also refer to the 90's is also considered the golden age if gaming (which realistically, history suggests it isn't anymore).

 

It's not about what's right or wrong. I'm not trying to force anyone on what to like or what they enjoy. It's not about that. This is about what technically is without a doubt and people denying the evolution of gaming (graphics, sound, storytelling, variety, etc) in order to protect their favorite era is just silly. The state of the industry is better than its ever been.

http://www.mahesh-vc.com/blog/this-is-the-current-state-of-the-video-game-industry

 

 

 

There are tons of videos on how storytelling in games has evolved, how there are more ways to do it now than ever before. The creativity of now is much more than it has ever been.

 

Literally everything I said has already been proven true but if a group of people doesn't want to uncover their eyes to see something that is real, then there isn't much else I can do. In 40 years someone will conduct an experiment, they'll get a room full of people who have never played games, they'll ask them to play games from now or games from the 90's and mark my words - nobody will choose the 90's games because without the bias and nostalgia factor, the realization will have been that the 90's games have aged horribly. I imagine the reaction wouldn't change too much from this very funny but eye-opening "Teens React To NES" video:

[Chilloutman]

If you're unsure about where I got 90's specifically from, like I said earlier, it's my generation of gamers - 80's and 90's and people also refer to the 90's is also considered the golden age if gaming (which realistically, history suggests it isn't anymore).

 

It's not about what's right or wrong. I'm not trying to force anyone on what to like or what they enjoy. It's not about that. This is about what technically is without a doubt and people denying the evolution of gaming (graphics, sound, storytelling, variety, etc) in order to protect their favorite era is just silly. The state of the industry is better than its ever been.

http://www.mahesh-vc.com/blog/this-is-the-current-state-of-the-video-game-industry

 

 

 

There are tons of videos on how storytelling in games has evolved, how there are more ways to do it now than ever before. The creativity of now is much more than it has ever been.

 

Literally everything I said has already been proven true but if a group of people doesn't want to uncover their eyes to see something that is real, then there isn't much else I can do. In 40 years someone will conduct an experiment, they'll get a room full of people who have never played games, they'll ask them to play games from now or games from the 90's and mark my words - nobody will choose the 90's games because without the bias and nostalgia factor, the realization will have been that the 90's games have aged horribly. I imagine the reaction wouldn't change too much from this very funny but eye-opening "Teens React To NES" video:

Its like saying that books are better today because we now have kindle instead of paper book...

[Mamoulian War]

Sorry, one of your videos is FFVII. And with the evolution of stories at least in Square you are completely wrong. The biggest issue of FFVII was not low quality of story, but lower quality of translation, because it was first big japanese title translated to English. And lot of meanings, and cultural references were lost due to bad translation or censorship. If you want to have fair and objective comparison, you should compare FFVIII or FFIX with FFXIII or FFXV, and clear winners would be older titles, no question asked...

 

You are saying only what you think is true. I am saying you are completely missing a point...

 

And experiments like that are done daily on kids. And they rather play oldstyle games with cute graphics on their phones or tablets, or LEGO games, than play some photorealistic bull****.

 

My 40 years old girlfriend, which never played any games before we started to live together also prefers older games with handdrawn graphics than the new and hip "ultrarealistic" stuff for acne ridden teenagers whose favourite thing to do is to increase their self-esteem by teacupping their opponents and yelling GIT GUD... Her reaction to me playing Dishonored for first time says it all. "Oh god. It's awfull and depressing, please stop to play that game when I am around." She was used to watch me play my games and loved to uncover the story with me together.

 

EDIT: and NES is 80's not 90's. So you are making your own argument automatically invalid.

Edited May 22, 2017 by Mamoulian War

[Hurlshort]

I'd say it's more like saying books are better after the printing press, maybe? I'm not sure I like the analogy enough to go further.

 

Books became more widespread, and with it attention was brought to great authors and new ideas. You can say that has happened to video games today as well, given that the graphics and gameplay has advanced and a much larger audience is available. But in both cases, there were plenty examples of excellence before the technology blossomed. *shrug*

Edited May 22, 2017 by Hurlshot

[Mamoulian War]

Could't be bothered to do second edit, but showing anything to teenagers and then present their oppinion on the subject as a universal truth is (to put it mildly) laughable.

 

Have you tried to present to most teenagers Classical Music? Their reaction is mostly the same as seen in your video. By these standards, Justine Bieber would be presented as the best musician, who ever walked the Earth and close Universe... Thankfully there exists some standards, that the people who experienced much more in their lives can point fingers at these teenagers and have a healthy laugh, while listening to real quality music.

 

Same goes for games...