Older games focused on the story? Give me a freaking break. Maybe I'm thinking too far back, but back when I was a little kid, the story consisted of "save the princess" and "your princess is in another castle".
And we had to walk uphill to get to the arcade, to play the same sequence of levels until half the screen bugs out at level 256!
Sarcasm aside here, I'm serious. There's plenty of challenging games, you just have to know where to look. They don't get as much exposure because the mainstream audience isn't as interested, but guess what? We were never the mainstream audience. Video games weren't nearly as popular when we were young, so almost all of the games were marketed to our little niche. Now, you just need to find the games that are still being made with people like us in mind.
It's easier if you don't waste time complaining about popular games being too simple.
Older games focused on the story? Give me a freaking break. Maybe I'm thinking too far back, but back when I was a little kid, the story consisted of "save the princess" and "your princess is in another castle".
And we had to walk uphill to get to the arcade, to play the same sequence of levels until half the screen bugs out at level 256!
' Wrote:Older games focused on the story? Give me a freaking break. Maybe I'm thinking too far back, but back when I was a little kid, the story consisted of "save the princess" and "your princess is in another castle".
Still better than walking down a straight path battling 100 of the same monsters with the same crappy turn based combat system developed years ago before proceeding to the next cut scene and repeating from the beginning of this sentance.
' Wrote:...Do you think that gaming industries are making games for stupid people?
That is their focus and I don't believe it is debatable. They're called the "lowest common denominator" and that's where the most money is.
' Wrote:I defy you to play Mass Effect
Mass Effect "borrows inspiration from" Star Control 2, mentioned earlier as The Ur Quan Masters. I'm not exactly making a point here, but you should try it.
Simple. If games are hard, that will mean less buyers. If they look good, but have a level of hardness as that of pong, all the 3 year-old's will want it.
It's even easier if the game had prequels that made history in gaming. But its even more disappointing then.
Here's a list of games that I've found fun and challenging. Most are ongoing franchises, so getting a recent one shouldn't be to difficult. For the others, well, that's why they make emulators.
Suikoden V: Really, any one of the series is good. I wouldn't get more than one of them as they do suffer from repetitive battles. What's nice about the series is the shear amount of puzzles and strategy mixed in with the classic fantasy rpg formula. The franchise is characterized by large casts, strategic turn based battles involving armies, massive story lines, classic party based play, and puzzles that can take hours to solve.
Dynasty Warriors/Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Dynasty Warriors is a real time strategy game played in third person. You can create your own character or play through as one of 180 unlockable historical characters. This game can be played through without using any strategy or tactics at all, on the easier levels, at least. But when you crank it up to chaos mode you better be ordering officers, planning routes and strategies before the level, and making efficient use of abillities and equipment. Each level is timed, and in chaos mode even the best players can find themselve running out. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is the more strategic turn based version of the franchise. Since it's based on history the characters are mostly the same, but you still have the option of creating your own characters and forces.
Shin Mugami (Persona): Persona is a apocalyptic rpg with a distinctively anime flavor. It uses a party system, but the battles are real time with abillity cooldowns as well as the classic magic points. This game is different than most in that the monsters you fight change, and change often. In fact the big challenge in the game is figuring out how to change your own summoned demons to combat the evolving wild ones. The latest version of this game is a free mmorpg made and run by Aeria. It's free to download and play.
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Oldies but Goodies
Postal 2: You can crank the difficulty up so much that harsh words kill your character.
Deus Ex: Great shooter with some good puzzles and tactical problems.
Fallout 2: Has lots of hidden side quests and an in depth character system. May irradiate your room, though
Leisure Suit Larry: Best puzzles ever. EVER! Plus you get laid...or dead.
Bards Tale: The Lord bless Charlie Mopps, the man who invented hopps! Beer Beer Beer Beer Tiddely Beer!
Civilization: How fast can you cause Armageddon? Also try Freeciv, the poorman's free alternative.
Vampire the Masquerade: Some good puzzles and challenging combat. Plus guzzling nuzzling hookers.
Games are being capitalized for mass income and so they are being designed according to certain pre-tested for success tables.
This is a known fact and people are constantly discussing this at the dev conferences, that is also the reason of indie development boom.
Gaming industry has bloomed to be a mass income source and now capitalist big boys are squeezing it till it turns into another Hollywood massacre with "ZOMG visuals" and "crap out of my ass" storyline.
maelstrom, you meant the OLD vamipire: the masquerade, with christof being the main character? or the bloodlines? b/c story-wise, vampire the masquerade was friggin epic, but in terms of character control ... WTF?! i enjoyed the story nonetheless. playing as a crusader night, turned into a vampire, then getting from 13th century prague and vienna to present london and new york...
it's a hard-to-beat game though, due to the mouse control.
HA! I agree, I agree all too much. While I belive you can still find a great stories in some games out there, finding game engine is a bit hard. Complexivity is switched for action, and parts where you have had to use brain are not really popular anymore. I can't see into all genres, but in RPG and strategy ones, it definitely is the truth. Also MMOs - it's kind of funny, if you played Ultima or Lineage back in the time (before year 2000), you may notice even the MMOs are getting more and more simple, reapeating, action focused.
On the other hand, I understand why. The game industry or electronic entertainment, if you like, got a lot bigger. It's a business - will you rather make complex game that will get you 10'000 loyal and satisfyied fans, or a game which isn't really complex or original, yet people buy 100'000 copies, even tho 50% of them will think it's a shi*t and 40% will be fat brainwashed kids? It's just about money, and the more you generalize the game (As in - remove complex character creation and progress, make it simplier to follow the story, make it simplier to choose right items, add more nice-looking action), the better chance you'll get a lot of money, since you won't focus on only one type of people. Just busyness.
It's not about fantasy and imagination tho. Most of the developers are owned OR relying on money from bigger companies (EA and such) which comes with limitations - Make the most money you can. And how... I told above.
I buy things I don't want to make an impression on people I don't like.
Older games focused on the story? Give me a freaking break. Maybe I'm thinking too far back, but back when I was a little kid, the story consisted of "save the princess" and "your princess is in another castle".
And we had to walk uphill to get to the arcade, to play the same sequence of levels until half the screen bugs out at level 256!
Sarcasm aside here, I'm serious. There's plenty of challenging games, you just have to know where to look. They don't get as much exposure because the mainstream audience isn't as interested, but guess what? We were never the mainstream audience. Video games weren't nearly as popular when we were young, so almost all of the games were marketed to our little niche. Now, you just need to find the games that are still being made with people like us in mind.
It's easier if you don't waste time complaining about popular games being too simple.
Bingo. Also, how about those awesome story based games where you play a green triangle trying to destroy those vicious blue squares?
' Wrote:Still better than walking down a straight path battling 100 of the same monsters with the same crappy turn based combat system developed years ago before proceeding to the next cut scene and repeating from the beginning of this sentance.