Random Gaming Thoughts Thread *NO NEWS ITEMS*

Still my point was they were atComic-Con yet Gamescom there almost no where to be seen.

Been lot's of good stuff this year, it's getting bigger each year. It will eventually pass E3 to the place to be when likes of Kojima are showing up.

I just feel they don't seem to care about us Europeans that much, why not have a gamescom direct like E3 or a twitch on show floor there their and some must be people showing the games to the public when not stream it.

Had a thought today - where did you think gaming was heading ten years ago? What would you from 2004 predict gaming in 2014 to be?

Did you envisage a market filled with ports of games you'd have just played ten years ago? I didn't. I don't think I'd have expected the graphical improvement we've seen in such a short space of time either.

I remember thinking around the time of Soul Calibur 2 and the first Need for Speed Underground (ten years ago) that graphics in gaming couldn't possibly get any better - I felt they'd peaked in terms of how they'd look. I certainly didn't think that touchscreens, dual screens or motion gaming would take off either. In 2004, I'd have bet the farm on the PSP selling hundreds of millions of units.

Well in 2004 I would of been playing Ninja Gaiden, Twin Snakes, FireRed/LeafGreen, Dead or Alive: Ultimate and even Goldeneye Rogue Agent which are all reboot's/ports/remakes. So the port thing has happened before in 10 years ago of games which in DOA2 was only about 4 years old.

JayMoyles wrote:

Had a thought today - where did you think gaming was heading ten years ago? What would you from 2004 predict gaming in 2014 to be?

Did you envisage a market filled with ports of games you'd have just played ten years ago? I didn't. I don't think I'd have expected the graphical improvement we've seen in such a short space of time either.

I didn't see mobile and free-to-play coming and ruining everything opening gaming to both creators and players it didn't before. I don't think I saw what we used to buzzwordily refer to as 'Web 2.0' being so important either.

Everything that Cappa said, with one major exception.  I would have assumed that graphics would have gone up several levels of amazement.  How I wouldn't have been able to say - 3D maybe, probably with glasses, and VR?  (I would have thought that VR would be a properly implemented thing by now too.)  Instead, and I understand that this is unlikely to be a popularly supported view, N64 -> GC remains the last really important graphical upgrade.  Everything else is just fluff and relatively unnecessary development effort.  This is supported by a GC game still being among the most beautiful games in existence, even including its HD remake.  

I'd probably have guessed eight people around the same console rather than online taking off, too.  And then my mind would have collapsed that into a fantasy of me and seven attractive females breaking off from Mario Kart Multitap to have an eightsome, because I was 14 at the time.

Oh, and I never would have guessed that NoE would be better than NoA.

masofdas wrote:

Still my point was they were atComic-Con yet Gamescom there almost no where to be seen

I knew what your point was, I just labelled some possible reasons & also comic con isn't just about one medium as it covers a wide spectrum of products.

Balladeer wrote:

Instead, and I understand that this is unlikely to be a popularly supported view, N64 -> GC remains the last really important graphical upgrade.

To each their own, but I'm of the opinion that whilst there are certainly pretty games back on the Cube/PS2 era, the average game is pretty ugly to look at these days. Having said that, I think that this generation's graphical upgrade is negligible and that Cube --> Wii/360/PS3 was the last important graphical upgrade.

Mas: Porting/remaking wasn't anywhere near as prevalent as it is today though. Surely you could say that speaks volumes about the waning creativity in today's market compared to ten years ago?

Cappa: I'd agree with the touchscreen comment. It all seemed gimmicky back when it was first announced.

beemoh: And to add to that, the whole concept of DLC was pretty alien back then. Certainly, there's expansion packs, but they felt more... expansive than DLC.

I agree with you Jay about the graphics the big leaps have been 2D to 3D eg SNES to N64 & SD to HD which would of been xbox to xbox 360 for instance.

Yes and no as how many ports are there really not counting launch titles such as COD: Ghosts on a PS4. I think there's 6 by the end of the year with one of them being more of a GOTY edition (injustice), and there's been the downloads ported but most of them are or will be free. So really that's no more then 10 years ago but I think why it seems more prevalent is due to lack of games (some will say, I've still played over 20 games on my ps4) & these ports are being highlighted as the games on the system along with company's making a big song and dance about them coming to PS4 unlike 10 years ago.

On creativity, I don' think there's been that much really for years look at what sells every year AC, COD, FIFA etc. So studios just do what they know with a odd gem in there but if you want creativity you go to indies now which 10 years ago you wouldn't even thought about indie games part from maybe on PC.

Looking even in 2004 the 10 best selling in America games were 3 sequels, 1 port, 1 movie tie in, 4 annual sports games and Halo.

On DLC, the dreamcast had it back when it launched and even both that the SNES had DLC in japan, so wasn't anything new in 2004 with likes of halo 2 coming which to balla's point really made online gaming take off on a console.

@jas yeah I know that jas but when the 2nd biggest GAMING event is on you'd think they take more notice off that then a event which they could be missed due to cooler things happening.

With most console generations I find the difference in graphics between the first game on a console and the last game is bigger than the difference between that console and the next.

Drunkalilly wrote:

With most console generations I find the difference in graphics between the first game on a console and the last game is bigger than the difference between that console and the next.

That's a really fair point.

The PS2 has a huge gulf in graphical quality going from the beginning of its lifespan to its end. For example, take Dynasty Warriors 2:



and compare it to Shadow of the Colossus:



There's an obvious massive improvement there.

Still looks fine to me!

There are exceptions (Jak and Daxter was early in the PS2's lifespan and I think it looks great still) but I think on the whole the graphical quality is much better at the end of a console's lifespan as opposed to at launch.

Here's another example - Gun at the 360's launch:



Compared to Call of Juarez: Gunslinger last year:

I'm not saying that there's not a difference. It's just not all that huge - not compared to N64 -> GC. In the Gun shot, you can see the man's nice scarf, and there are no obvious jagged edges - the only problem is the sky, and in fact the general boring lack of colour, which is a problem with the art style more than anything else.

The texture and effect quality is really lacking in the first picture compared to Call of Juarez though. I'm not disputing that there was a bigger graphical leap going from N64 to GC, but I still maintain that SD to HD was an important leap too.

Textures are definitely a "nice-to-have" for me, rather than anything that makes much of a difference to how I enjoy the game. Nor are they as relevant to many of the non-realistic games I enjoy. Like I said, though, I recognise that I'm in the minority.

SMB still looks good, though, textures or no!

I can see where your coming from Balla and lot of titles that are SD look good especially Galaxys and a lot of nintendo's games hold up very well, I think due to there colourful nature and more realistic titles just don't & I know there not really your thing.  But you've played rayman legends for instance which I would gather you would agree looks lovely and so much better to rayman on the ps1 due to having it's ubiart engine in HD. Another example is rime which has similar art style to wind waker but look how gorgeous the water is.

So even you must admit there is improvements due to HD but also due there styles there likely still to look good in years to come still.

I maintain that 2D to 3D biggest leap, SNES to N64

Edited

Got a few more thought's twilight princess is a more realistic game from nintendo now that's starting to look dated which brings me back to style of the game is what makes Wind Waker for instance still look great.

On the N64 to Cube yeah I can see where your coming from as most of N64 games are bit blocky even though still enjoyable and even looking at early cube games such as luigi mansion they do look much better but looking as it as a whole industry which was jay's original question about where gaming would be. Looking at the 5th gen & it's most popular system the PS1 & then 6th to PS2 which was it's gen most popular, I don't think the leap was that huge as if you look at FFIX okay a very late PS1 game it looks just as good as a early years PS2 game with the PS2 games not looking really good such as SotC in till the end of it's life-cycle, it might of just been a more noticeable of leap from N64 to Cube.

masofdas wrote:

@jas yeah I know that jas but when the 2nd biggest GAMING event is on you'd think they take more notice off that then a event which they could be missed due to cooler things happening.

Since when have Nintendo ever got involved in a dick swinging contest?

Jay wrote:

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger

That was a really fun game.

masofdas wrote:

I maintain that 2D to 3D biggest leap, SNES to N64

Well obviously. Don't think anyone's doubting that.

The_Jaster wrote:

masofdas wrote:

@jas yeah I know that jas but when the 2nd biggest GAMING event is on you'd think they take more notice off that then a event which they could be missed due to cooler things happening.

Since when have Nintendo ever got involved in a dick swinging contest?

You never saw the original design for the Wiimote.

(Also, am I the only person who remembers the N64 ad slogan "The fastest most powerful games console int he world"?)

You might be Beemoh

Anyway you might know I'm a fan of a indie game but after gamescom. I believe this has just come a buzz word & the indie scene is kinda going the way of the music industry. Looking at gamescom both MS & Sony showed quite a few indie titles which there helping publishing or paying to have first on console etc and your now hearing things like AAA Indie from studios such as Ninja Theory (Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, DmC) saying this about hellblade along with a few others. How's it indie, it feels like it's just going be a downloadable title and the other one is activision now having a indie label a lot like in music.

So what's peoples thoughts has indie now more of genre like in music with a few proper indies about.

Also remember when I did my top 10 survival horror games and we had a little discussion about them which was mainly me not putting res 4 in it, anyway watchmojo has just done top 10 resident evil games and good god the comments on it are kinda hilarious & are split your either for pure survival horror or against it. With lot's moaning about Resident Evil 4 being number 1 as it started the bags of shit, guess which camp I'm on but RE4 is still a amazing game though in it's own right.

There's an interesting opener about the word "indie" in the most recent Edge magazine (#270) in how its meaning as been skewed quite a bit in recent times, they basically said that finding an "100% bulletproof definition is impossible" with the sturdiest being "not having to answer to anyone but yourself" which I totally agree with.

masofdas wrote:

You might be Beemoh

No, no- I definitely am beemoh.

I'm Beemoh and so's my wife!