Gaming Trends

[KentaRawr!]

Good Trends:

The Return of 2D and 2D gameplay - I've been waiting for this to happen for awhile but it seems like 2D is making a bit of a comeback thanks to games like Odin Sphere, Guilty Gear, Disgaea, and SNK. The return of 2D gameplay is also welcomed in titles like SFIV and Bionic Commando. The World Ends With You is another fine example of excellent 2D mechanics along with a host of titles on the DS and PSP.

I never felt 3D was as grand of a revolution as people made them out to be back in the late 90's, probably cause the games I liked playing were not exactly titles that needed it (RPGs) only fighting games got a drastic change and I'm still waiting for them to get good in 3D. :rolleyes2

Yes, this.

Not really a 'trend' thing, but I'd also like to see some more games that never get released outside of Japan. I've gone so far as to buy a Japanese PS2 to play games that never got released here. It's great for games with minimal Japanese, but other games are difficult to play if you can't read kanji. :x

I'd also like to see some visual novels get released in this region too-- *is shot*

If Ace Attorney counts as a visual novel, then I agree.

[Skyblade]

And I don't understand how a better CPU doesn't mean next generation. That's all the XBox, PS2, and Nintendo Gamecube were - improvements upon the PSX and N64, and those were next-gen consoles. Have you not played Gears of War? LittleBigPlanet? Assassin's Creed? Silent Hill V? Resident Evil 5? MGS 4? Not only the games, but the new generation of consoles has been defined by things like XBox Live Arcade, DLC, user created content, procedural generation, etc. and so on. Not to mention the object counts, destructible environments, and ridiculously improved enemy AI.

Maybe you can define what "next-gen" really means, then?

Go play the original MGS, then play one of the PS2 ones. Then play MGS4. Tell me where you notice an actual change.

You think that user created content is new?! Every RTS for the past 15 years has had map editors. FPS's have also had huge amounts of user generated content. You think that because gaming companies have gotten lazy and decided to release only the editing tools in lieu of actual games, it qualifies us for a new generation?

Yes, the object counts have gone up, as have the number of things you can destroy. Whoop-de-doo. I truly hope you get your wish of an FPS that lets you destroy the entire planet that your character is on. Some of us look for something other than explosions in a game.

[Momiji]

If Ace Attorney counts as a visual novel, then I agree.

Kind of like that, I guess. I'm not too much of an Ace Attorney fan, but I'd like to see more games along those lines. I'd really like to play School Days sometime.

[Madame Adequate]

Regarding next-gen: Dead Rising.

[Ryth]

Fallout is definitely better than Oblivion, but Fallout 3 looks like a complete tub of when compared to the first two games. Neither TESIV or FO3 are all that good.

Looks like? So either you mean the graphics are bad or you've not played it I'll assume the latter. It's better than you'd expect. I agree and concede that it's not much like the first two, and this is a shame, but I wasn't going in expecting it to be.

The graphics are just fine, and I have played the game. The post-apocalyptic environment hopes to push itself on graphical prowess alone, and I'm into such a shallow approach. I guess I wasn't expecting the point was "run around a gray wasteland and shoot things" but rather "exploring a post-apocalyptic wasteland and trying to make ends meet." The problem with OwG is that there is no feeling of vulnerability or weakness, I never felt frightened in this game because Super Mutants came around every corner and you could mow them down with relative ease (INSTA-HEADSHOT VATS LAWLZ).

In the first Fallout, I was in some little cave with nothing but the clothes on my back and a couple bullets with the fate of the entire Vault in my hands. In OwG, my only goal in leaving my little allegorical cave is to go dick around and shoot some mutants and ghouls in identical-looking locales. The first time I heard about a SuperMutant I knew these guys were going to kick my ASS, so I naturally decided to gtfo when I saw one... and know what I did when I saw one? I smurfing RAN like HELL because I was SCARED and I would often die. I would die a lot. I found I had good reason to be scared of these mutants, because everyone else was just as terrified as I was. In OwG, the Mutants are absolutely nothing to be feared and the game reflects that. The first Fallouts had only a couple settlements-- in a post-apocalyptic wasteland there isn't a lot of people and that ones that exist keep together and work despite their differences in order to survive. You could FEEL something... and that only further emphasizes that OwG never felt like a living, breathing world for me. It is, as someone once put it, "a collage of script." I couldn't agree more, theres an overabundance of different communities all within reasonably close proximity and Super Mutants just live down the block. Theres no desperate clawing towards making it to the next day. There was a terrifying curiosity in exploring the wastelands of the first Fallouts, I felt absolutely nothing for Fallout 3. Not a goddamn thing, and if you look at the main plot (and namely, it's horrible ending) the game obviously didn't expect you to. The whole thing is so poorly written and the ending is so disgustingly abrupt and anti-climatic unlike the endings of the old games where you actually saw how you affected your little world... you just get some generic narration and still shots in OwG. Maybe I'm stuck in the past, I wasn't really expecting a real Fallout experience... but I was hoping for a GOOD experience. I didn't get anything out of this title.

[Slothy]

Still waiting for the Next Generation of gaming to start - I'm probably alone on this one but I just feel the new generation has not presented anything that feels like a "herald of the next generation". We've seen a few good sequels on better hardware but nothing has really gotten the ball rolling it feels.

Little Big Planet. I'll honestly say that it is one of the few games which couldn't have been done on the previous gen consoles. Even all of the physics based platforming wouldn't be the same without next gen hardware since I doubt last gen systems could handle the calculations that would have to go on. And User generated content may not be new per se, but few games have ever made it as easy to create while still offering a powerful content editor, or as easy to share content quickly, easily, and also filter through it to find stuff that doesn't totally suck.

I could've told you that when the consoles first came out. There is nothing revolutionary about any of them. The Wii is the only one that changed anything (with the Wiimote), and a lot of people didn't like that change. A better CPU does not a revolution make. We aren't going to get a true next gen in gaming for a long time. Graphics and controls have gone as far as they are going to go for a while. Sure, screen resolutions and object counts will increase, but nothing fundamental will change, which means no next-gen.

A better CPU does not a revolution make, but it offers more opportunity for companies to be innovative. Nobody can tell me games like Half-Life 2 and Portal weren't innovative, and there are plenty of other games out there that wouldn't even be possible (from a gameplay standpoint) if we were still playing games on SNES level hardware. And people can say that it's the publishers fault for not bringing out awesome games that do innovative things with more powerful hardware, but I think most of the blame lies with consumers. Lot's of companies try innovative things all the time, but then no one buys them. A lot of devs would love to be creative and try new things, but even if they work out great, a lot of the times they still don't sell. Then you have a vocal minority who want innovation complaining about companies not taking chances, but they're rarely rewarded for that, and why would anyone want to run or work for a company that never makes any money?

And don't even get me started on how non-revolutionary the Wii controller was. It was mishandled in about every way possible, right down to the media creating false expectations of what it could do. The motion controls are fairly innacurate for fine or fast movements, and the pointing function (the only part that works as well as anyone expected it to when it was announced), makes it essentially a glorified mouse.

[Wolf Kanno]

I will admit that I feel LittleBigPlanet is probably the closest to a true "Next Gen blockbuster" but I'm surprised, more haven't appeared.

As for Depression Moon's comment.

MvC series is popular among the hardcore crowd as was CvS; it was hardly the same phenomena as SFII/MK/SNK was back in the day. They were popular games to us old time 2D fans but most people were more interested in Tekken of DoA. I felt the audiance was small even though I enjoyed those days. There has been a real lack of strong and accessible 2D fighters for a few years and I don't count SSB cause it also took a bit of steam to finally catch on. Melee created the core base while the recent Brawl has made it a true phenomena and even then, these are somewhat recent trends.

Yet its the fact I can now go to a gaming store or one of the online arcades and be able to choose from a whole wealth of 2D fighters is what I'm really getting at. SF Revival with SSFIIT: HD Remix, SFIV, Fatal Fury Anthology, KoF Extreme 2, KoF XII, SSBB, Arcana Heart, and Guilty Gear Accent Core are just a few of the titles I can freely go and choose to play instead of waiting 2 years for the next Guilty Gear title or having to import Samurai Showdown Anthology. Its good to be a 2D fighting fan again and hopefully, SNK, Arc System, and Capcom will keep the love.

As for Tekken, SolCal, and any other 3D fighter. They all are pretty terrible in my opinion and cannot create an experience as thrilling as their 2D counterparts. I haven't liked Soul Calibur since SCII, Virtua Fighter is too slow, and I never liked Tekken, as hard as I have tried to enjoy it, I find the game terrible. *hides from a certain female Tekken fan*

[Lionx]

MvC series is popular among the hardcore crowd as was CvS; it was hardly the same phenomena as SFII/MK/SNK was back in the day. They were popular games to us old time 2D fans but most people were more interested in Tekken of DoA. I felt the audiance was small even though I enjoyed those days. There has been a real lack of strong and accessible 2D fighters for a few years and I don't count SSB cause it also took a bit of steam to finally catch on. Melee created the core base while the recent Brawl has made it a true phenomena and even then, these are somewhat recent trends.

Lol i am pretty sure Marvel was popular all throughout America, but CvS however is more or less dead at this time with only Japan and NorCal having any real player base anymore and SFIV killed it. You would think people get more excited about games like CvS but instead of that you find people sticking with the games they grew up with. My friend would rather play SFIIHD over SFIV because it feels too different...which is fine i know classic is nice but its not giving SFIV too much of a chance. If they rehash too much its the same thing with new gfxs or a remake/port, if its too different people will go SFIII on them and say its too hard to pick up...how difficult to get the perfect medium..=/

Melee created the base yes, but Brawl apparently is 'too watered down' for people who play it competitively and dont like it from what i heard....blargh, again with the 'do you want it to be the same game or different?" -_-

Thats the trend we need to see gone..seriously. ADAPT PEOPLE. If its not horribly broken we can all adapt! At least try before going back to an old game.

[Skyblade]

As for Tekken, SolCal, and any other 3D fighter. They all are pretty terrible in my opinion and cannot create an experience as thrilling as their 2D counterparts. I haven't liked Soul Calibur since SCII, Virtua Fighter is too slow, and I never liked Tekken, as hard as I have tried to enjoy it, I find the game terrible. *hides from a certain female Tekken fan*

Don't write off the 3D fighting genre just yet. Dissidia is looking fantastic.

[JKTrix]

I don't know about any specific gaming trends I want to see, but I definitely want developers to be able to continue doing what they want to do every now and then. I picked up two excellent Wii titles this last week. One got a lot of press, the other not so much. MadWorld I can say is really fun. The very same day I went to pick up MadWorld, I asked for Marble Saga Kororinpa and most of the store employees looked at me like I was speaking Japanese.

Actually, that did make me think of a trend.

I don't mind if companies whore out other titles, as long as we get something of quality back once in a while. All the rehashing of Mega Man and Street Fighter over the years has been a big part of the quality stuff Capcom has brought back out (even if Clover's underperforming games got them the boot). All of these garbage Sonic games gave Sega enough of a financial cushion to support the commercial flops of both Yakuzas, Virtua Fighter 5 and Valkyria Chronicles. Namco Bandai's draconian DLC could have been key to green-lighting Noby Noby Boy. All those years of EA's sucktacularness brought us Dead Space, Mirror's Edge and tomorrow's Henry Hatsworth.

Ultimately, the consumers do decide the fate of what happens. Chances are, a lot of you might not care at all about at least one of the games I just mentioned. So while a lot of these games may not have been adequately successful, and even if some development teams get axed because of it, I have hope that these companies won't resort to churning out cash-ins.

So, a trend I would like to see continue: Big Developers taking a step back from the licenses and rehashes and remakes every once in a while to squeeze out something special.
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Don't write off the 3D fighting genre just yet. Dissidia is looking fantastic.

Saviour of the 3D fighting genre this isn't.

[Wolf Kanno]

Lol i am pretty sure Marvel was popular all throughout America, but CvS however is more or less dead at this time with only Japan and NorCal having any real player base anymore and SFIV killed it. You would think people get more excited about games like CvS but instead of that you find people sticking with the games they grew up with. My friend would rather play SFIIHD over SFIV because it feels too different...which is fine i know classic is nice but its not giving SFIV too much of a chance. If they rehash too much its the same thing with new gfxs or a remake/port, if its too different people will go SFIII on them and say its too hard to pick up...how difficult to get the perfect medium..=/

Melee created the base yes, but Brawl apparently is 'too watered down' for people who play it competitively and dont like it from what i heard....blargh, again with the 'do you want it to be the same game or different?" -_-

Thats the trend we need to see gone..seriously. ADAPT PEOPLE. If its not horribly broken we can all adapt! At least try before going back to an old game.

I think it depends on who you ask, Brawl still has mixed impressions among its fans but the wait and anticipation Brawl created was nothing like Melee or the original.

Beyond that, I agree with your post.

[
Don't write off the 3D fighting genre just yet. Dissidia is looking fantastic.

Just watching the videos, I can already tell you the combat system is a bit broken and needs balancing. The whole Brave system is nice in theory but the videos show its got serious faults as all you need to do is raise your bravery with a few moves and summons and then you can one hit kill your opponent. The videos on the main Japanese website show this phenomena. The Cloud Vs. Cecil video especially highlights this problem. It may work out a bit better against a human opponent since the games A.I. is not very aggressive even on the highest levels but the system has a lot of broken elements. I'm still looking forward to it a lot but I doubt it will change my view on 3D fighters.

Course I won't know for certain until I play it.

[Skyblade]

Don't write off the 3D fighting genre just yet. Dissidia is looking fantastic.

Just watching the videos, I can already tell you the combat system is a bit broken and needs balancing. The whole Brave system is nice in theory but the videos show its got serious faults as all you need to do is raise your bravery with a few moves and summons and then you can one hit kill your opponent. The videos on the main Japanese website show this phenomena. The Cloud Vs. Cecil video especially highlights this problem. It may work out a bit better against a human opponent since the games A.I. is not very aggressive even on the highest levels but the system has a lot of broken elements. I'm still looking forward to it a lot but I doubt it will change my view on 3D fighters.

Course I won't know for certain until I play it.

The summons do seem a bit broken (specifically, Magic Pot and Behemoth [Magic Pot makes your Brave equal to your opponent's, and Behemoth doubles your current Brave]), but there seem to be a lot of counters for most of the various moves, and the movement system leaves a lot of room to dodge attacks until you can lower your opponents Brave. The AI does seem a little weak, but then that's not unusual for most of the fighting games I've played. The vids I've seen between two players seem to be very well matched, and I'm impressed with the variety in characters and abilities, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[Shoeberto]

Regarding FPSes: Every generation has had a quick-buck genre that's been exploited with small increments in graphics gimmicks, with a rare few that actually matter - it's just something you have to get used to. See: 8- and 16-bit 2D platformers, 3D third-person run-and-gunners. Now we're on to FPS games, which are incredibly profitable with how much people love online deathmatch. It's possible we'll see some changes with different types of technology and new means of input - not to mention general disinterest with the genre.

The trend I'm most excited to see is the growing popularity of indie games. Small teams are the foundation of gaming, really - late '80s and early '90s saw a lot of gems come from small teams, but the explosive costs and team sizes on recent projects has made an impossibly high barrier of entry for anyone trying to start their own team that isn't already in the industry. But with the increasing availability of mainstream digital distribution methods it's easier for anyone to get involved.

Accessibility is important in any artform, in my opinion (and, yes, game development is one). When anyone has the opportunity to get their ideas out to the public then everyone wins.

edit: Another thing to realize about certain genres dying out is what ones were products of the technological limitations at the time. JRPGs were easy to make because pre-rendered backgrounds, limited FMVs, and text-rich stories were cheap and easy. As expectations rose to games that had full voice acting and complete 3D worlds, the costs and time require to develop them just got ridiculous. It's no coincidence that most JRPGs that have come out recently have been on the DS. Yahtzee had a good rant on that with regard to the point-and-click adventure genre. I recommend checking it out.

[Old Manus]

WALLS OF TEXT