Is gaming rubbish at the moment? Will it recover?

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Up until a couple of years ago I used to tell anyone who'd listen that gaming was exciting because it was improving every year- I could expect to be playing better games that Christmas than I had last Christmas. Game sequels were actually better than the originals because developers refined their games engines and tweaked the gameplay.

It doesn't feel like that any more though. Does anyone else feel the same?

So many triple-A releases are converging to become the same game. There is so much DLC, Season Passes and microtransactions. Nearly every game is multiplayer focused (which doesn't suit me).

I thought that some new hardware would resolve this but the PS4 and the XBox One are here and what I've seen of this year's E3 there isn't a lot to look forward to in the near future.

Yes, I enjoyed Dark Souls 2 and Mario Kart 8 this year but there seem to have been long periods when there have been NO games of interest coming our on any of the systems I own (which is most of them).

I know I'm getting on but I'm not actually bored with gaming per se. I'm bored with the type of games being released at the moment.

Does anyone else feel the same? Will the creativity come back or has gaming got as bloated and boring as the movie and music industries?

I'm happy to support Indie games. Have I missed any gems lately?

You really just gotta keep your eyes peeled for new games these days. There's some really nice games coming put for both the consoles and the PCs.

PC gaming is making a huge comeback and I am so happy about it.

My main complaints about gaming are as follows:

1.) Too many games follow exactly the same formula. I feel like the FPS genre is terrible about this...most of the games are nearly identical replicas set against different backdrops.

2.) Bad plotlines/writing. Most games focus more on the action, and add in a story as an after-effect. I hardly ever feel any emotional attachment to the characters, and rarely feel immersed in the game world. Mass Effect was one series that really did a good job with this. It has it's flaws with respect to writing (I felt that many characters were highly unrealistic and one-dimensional), but overall it was far better than most games. I think that games are an excellent means for conveying a story, and have the potential to do so in a more personal fashion than books/movies due to the interactive element.

3.) No more adventure games. I'm a huge adventure game fan, but there really haven't been any decent modern ones released. Most of the good ones still follow the Sierra format popularized in the 1980s, and most still use graphics straight from the 90s too. Sure, some of them are quite good, but most of them feel and play like old DOS games, and not like anything modern. I think that there would be a solid market for an adventure game with fully modern graphics and a strong story...we'll see how the latest in the Dreamfall series turns out when it's released.

wat, steam is filled with nothing but early access indie titles that promise the world but never deliver.

PC gaming has made me so sad that I actually bought a 360 controller so I could revisit old console games i missed out on through emulators.

Really wish I could afford modern console gaming though.

Wrong.

Gots plenty of games in my collection (200+) that are either indie games that released normally, or indie games that went through alpha/beta while in Steam itself.... and all of them turned out just fine.

But you have to actually LOOK for them. That's the thing about PC gaming. I switched to the PC for pretty much alot of the reasons listed in this thread: Because console gaming was going down the drain, and it was doing it REALLY REALLY FAST. So I dumped the accursed things.... particularly after I found out just how much stuff there was on PC.

But PC gaming is different. On consoles, the games come to you. Publishers will do ANYTHING short of jamming the games up your nose to get you aware of them, and to get you to buy them.

But on PC? Hahahahaha NO. It doesnt happen that way. Only the largest games, and I really do mean ONLY the largest.... ever get that treatment, and even then, it often tends to just not work that way. 99% of the time, you want a game, YOU go find IT, not the other way around. I have gotten used to this, which is why the number of games I have is so extreme.... and I dont just mean on Steam. Steam has only a fraction of them, really.

On consoles, there's next to nothing for me to do. The games really have gotten repetetive, boring, and worst of all for me: Way, WAY too easy. Very uninteresting. And filled with that most hateful of all things... CUTSCENES. Thanks, but no.

On PC? I'll just put it this way: I dont get bored.... period. And I buy games *extremely* frequently (every few days or so). There's ALOT of good stuff out there. I use Steam, Desura, GoG, and assorted other places.... and those are just for PAID games. There's LOTS of free ones out there too, and they can be just as good as the paid ones.... it's all up to the developers. It helps alot that EVERY genre... including many that never, ever appear on console.... is represented well on PC. Except fighting games. Not really those.


HOWEVER, if you absolutely must have super ultra AAA mega hyper resolution ultra-bloom HDR anti-aliased super-explodovision graphics all the time.... then you might wanna stick with the consoles. Only the largest games (or the ones that take 20 bazillion years to make) get that. Alot of indie devs dont care about this aspect, so you get alot of games done in 2D or.... well, however the developer WANTS them to be. They dont have to listen to some big publisher hanging over them, so they do what they want. For me, the "ultimate graphics of doom" sorts of games stopped being impressive years ago. Been there, seen that, not impressed anymore. Using a total monster of a gaming rig, and I've already seen the best there can be... and yeah, dont care. Just give me good gameplay, and that'll do.



But yeah, PC gaming is doing wonderfully. But you have to get used to taking a TOTALLY different approach than you do with console gaming. There's little effort involved in finding new games on consoles. But be ready to really browse ALOT to see what's really out there on PC..... IF you know where to look. And no, "where to look" isnt always Steam.


EDIT: Also, PCs are insane devices made of crazy. The more PC gaming you do, well.... the more you'll have to put up with things going horribly wrong. That's nothing against the quality of the games themselves.... that's all up to the developer.... it's moreso just how computing of any kind goes these days. Get used to it if you intend on jumping into this.... it's the major disadvantage and problem that PC gaming has. I dont like the consoles one bit, but at least they dont make me want to launch them down the stairs every few days.

Yeah, PC gaming is doing well because it's getting easier to develop and release games. So more "amateur" developers ( like me ) can develop and release games easily. And indie games are often more creative than games made by huge publishers.

I don't think so. I am excited about a few games but they are a year off . but at least Next gen is getting last of us and GTA5. It is actually the first time in years I won't have enough money to get all the games I want.

I like the DLC, and multiplayers. They keep the games interesting for longer times.

Being a fan of the AAA type games, it seems down this time of the year because there's not much new coming out. But those games are usually really good and if you can get through the slow time of the year, it will be pretty good. I don't do multiplayer so I'm focusing on single player experiences.

IMO, the only things about gaming that are rubbish would be:

1) lame gimmicks. Motion controls ( eff Skyward Sword... ), touch only controls ( DS Zelda games )...now I hear about a potentially annoying gimmick for the new Star Fox involving the Wii U Gamepad's touch screen having a cockpit view and I get worried...never mind the bs with Kinect ( which, incidentally, I only want for the Dance Central games )...

2) multiplayer focus. I have little interest in playing online with people so good that I want to kill myself. I barely get through the single player, why the heck would I want to suck horribly against others?

3) broken glitchy games. I'm looking at you Bethesda....also: Borderlands 2 compatibility patch infinite loop, and achievements/trophies I earn not unlocking. Serieously game devs, make sure your game actually effing works before you release it rather than the "patch it later" mentality ( especially since many games/bugs NEVER GET FIXED )

4) DLC discrepancies. There are good DLCs worth every penny ( look at most Borderlands DLCs, and everything for Skyrim, Fallout 3 and MGR )...but then there's overpriced bs like skins or Capcom's bs unlock key for SFXT ( to unlock characters ALREADY ON THE DISC ). Now, I hear Nintendo shying away from real DLC for Mario Kart 8 & Smash Bros....

5) Free to play tends to mean pay to win.

Gaming goes through peaks and valleys.

I probably find a real good game to play every 5 years or so. I loved Assassin's Creed. I'm stuck on AC3, because it sucks so badly.

I'd rather replay the Mass Effect trilogy or Deus Ex: Human Revolution before I run out to buy another video game. Most just aren't worth the money.

Agreed.

It's very rare these days that I'll bother with any AAA title.... too same-y, too boring, and generally WAY too easy. The damn games may as well just play themselves, for the very low level of difficulty that they typically have. Granted, my idea of "difficult" is a little warped, but still. Easy games cannot hold my attention.

But even beyond that, just.... ugh. I never see any that honestly look GOOD. There are very rare exceptions every now and then.... Titanfall recently, I actually did pick that one up and have been very glad I did, even though the PC version matchmaking is a freaking nightmare (hint: There's a reason why PC games typically DONT use a matchmaking system). But.... that's the first AAA game I've bothered with in.... many years, actually. Well, out of console-style games anyway. There have been the occaisional few among PC-exclusive games, like Diablo 3 or the various mobas, and a variety of MMOs. Even on PC though that's fairly rare for me.

And alot of it is indeed because of experience with indie games. I find ALOT of good stuff there... from developers that actually understand that GAMEPLAY is more important than any other aspect.... so the AAA games just dont add up to much compared to those. ANd they are indeed creative as heck. Usually no huge publisher they must answer to. And on top of that, I can actually work WITH some devs and have a real influence on a game being made. It's cool to be able to look at one and say "See this, this thing over here? Yeah, that bit was my idea." That one happens frequently and is satisfying every time.

Multiplayer games though are sorta iffy for me, really depends on the game. Fighting games are the genre I'm best at (console only), and the moba genre is great fun, during the times when either A: nobody is screaming at me, or B: I've muted everyone so I dont have to listen to the angry screaming. Getting into a few FPS games too, though not many just yet.


Overall, I dont think the current gaming landscape is bad at all... but it just depends on what your tastes are, and knowing where to look (which can be hard) in order to find things that suit those tastes.

Gaming is most certainly not rubbish at the moment, IMHO. The lowest point for me was around 2011-2012. With the rise of indie gaming though, to lack of variety is a thing of the past, and I'm even seeing a noticeable improvement in AAA games. Moreover, Japanese games are making a comeback, in both quality and quantity, and localizations are up tenfold. If you're exclusively a AAA gamer, the 7th gen was probably better for you than it was for everyone else. For the time being, most of the good AAA titles have been delayed, but I don't necessarily need AAA titles to satisfy me, and I do like variety and creativity in games, so gaming's just fine for me.

Listen to the good Doctor Me , it's called endoflifecycleconsoleieitis ,

Symptoms include frustration , anger , despair , it's been happening since I was a wee lad , it's where the "next gen" has nothing good to it's name , where "previous gen" at it's end of it cycle includes generic clone after generic clone , it also means you have already played the cream of the cream .


How to get over this medical complaint? faith , sure their will allways be paristical companies like Ubisoft , Capcom and EA , polluting the environment with their toxins thankfully their will all ways be real developers making real games for real gamers , I know past performance (30 years + in gaming) is no indicator of future performance , though what else can you rely on

I feel , I think I'm in the mist of a pc elitist, I am but a lowly console gamer

Totally agree on the Japanese thing , I decided to give the western market a chance in the mid 2000's and it was OK , like a popcorn movie , disposable "fun" Japanese games stand the test of time .