Depends. Most of the games in the '80s-mid '90s were built with the premise of developing some sort of skill and playing them over and over. Sure, there were games (primarily JRPGs) where this wasn't necessarily the case, but most games would beat you up and the draw was to keep coming back and trying again and again until you got past point X. And even once you beat the game, sitting down and beating it again was just a fun way to kill an hour or so. These days, games offer a ton of content generally but don't require much in the way of "skill". I know someone will come in and yap about difficulty levels and things of that nature, but even then it's more just a grind what with save points and stuff like that. Also, for a lot of us there isn't much replay value because once we finish the game we're pretty much done. For instance, I'm a big Witcher fan (having read most of the books), and despite this the chances that I'll ever go back through Iorveth's story in The Witcher 2 or even play through The Witcher 3 again are slim. Or consider that my favorite game of last generation (and of the past two generations) was Lost Odyssey. How many times have I played through Lost Odyssey? 1. I guess the best way I could say it is that the earlier games were about great gameplay and level design and that modern games are more about "experiences" (that still require "level design", but likely in a different sense).
Today, only everyone talks about the graphics of the game. Youtube comments everywhere, first thing they say graphics suck or there good. If there bad they say I am not going to play it. I wish it was different. Especially little kids with NES, eww graphics are horrible. I would rather play NES then most consoles.
I mean, if games 15-20 years ago could be patched as easily as today (yes some PC games got patches, but they were not as robust or as common, due to the either lack of internet, or slow speeds back then) you'd probably have seen a lot of games that got released half-done only to be patched. Instead they just got cancelled if they missed the Christmas window. That's another big change in the industry since about the last PS1 to the PS2 era, games get released a LOT more often, and throughout the year. Back then you'd never see a big game released before October, now it happens pretty often.
Game quality hasn't gotten worse, its just that the industry has changed. That's not a good or bad thing, its simply a fact. N64 had amazing games like OoT and SM64, but it also had mediocre games like Quest 64 and legendary pieces of shit like Superman 64. Lets compare with the Wii U for example: Wii U has amazing games like Super Mario 3d World and Bayonetta 2. It also has mediocre games like Wii Party U and Game & Wario. Its hard to say if it has a game as bad as Superman 64 though. My point is that there is always a spectrum for every console and generation. The reason it seems like its gotten worse is because nolstalgia makes you selectively forget the bad games and bad practices of yesteryear and all you remember are the greats. -doulomb
Fallout 2 was ridiculously buggy on release. Half-Life had an uninstaller bug that could wipe your hard drive. That's just two examples of PC games being rushed out to market just to be patched later, which actually happened quite often even back then.
On length, lots of older games were short. The NES had a ton of games that can be finished in under an hour. Hell, even the fifth generation had games that were rather short. Die Hard Arcade & House of the Dead can be completed in about 35 minutes. Those are arcade games I realize, but their console ports don't have much more content to bolster replayability. The Silent Hill games are pretty short, with the first one clocking in at around 2 hours and 3 clocking in at under 2 hours. Those lengths don't bother me; I don't need to constantly experience something new with the game. Multiple playthroughs bring familiarity and it's fun reliving those moments. It's just like with anything else: we are currently seeing it all get released. The filtering process hasn't happened yet. Good games in the past are cherished, generic ones are forgotten, horrible ones live in infamy. People will be saying the same thing next generation, just like they did the past generation. We give the past an unfair advantage.
This so hard. Glad someone else sees it the same way. Read my post if you haven't already and let me know what you think! -doulomb
Yeah, how many people remember Hooter's Road Trip? Besides the fact that I just made you remember it. Though, the fact that games get patched from the get-go does mean that I bet a lot of eighth-gen games won't be as collectible down the road, since once the servers are taken down, they'll be the buggy, unplayable mess that was put on the disc (without hacking, which will certainly happen)
For me it's always been about gameplay and game mechanics. I don't mind the graphics being a bit off (Altered Beast anyone?). But when the game engine sucks balls, it can be the prettiest game in the world but is not worth the media it is printed on. What is an interesting precedent, is the recent development success of Shenmue III on kickstarter. A game that has been held back by the lack of interest by game companies who only care about profit, is given support by eager gamers, clearing the required $2,000,000 in just 24hrs. This could pave the way for other games which gamers want to see, not what companies think we want to see.
Also AB was incredibly short. That one is a good example of Borman's earlier post about 4 levels and you're done, since the Master System port was literally 4 levels and you're done. Although to be fair, the Arcade and Genesis versions did have 5 levels. Bonus! I'll never forget those sultry young lasses. Never have I played a better drunk driving simulator. I was actually one of the poor children who bought Superman 64 brand new. I still remember getting it from Wal-Mart. Best part? Back then I didn't think memory cards were necessary, so I never purchased one. All my favorite games at the time either didn't save or saved on cart, although I eventually got one just to make some progress in S64. Before that it was replaying the first ring level every time I tried to scrape some value out of that disaster. I am now an unfortunately experienced ring killer. Thug life.
Yeah, for example, I play Sega Rally and Panzer Dragoon a lot in the Saturn nowadays and that's it. You just want to play those games. And they're too short! Imagine a game like that being released today. It'll be crucified by the internets. Just remembered a case while typing> that was this game that's in my list of "still played games" and it is Nightwarrios in the Saturn. A game I've bought all the useless DLCs in the 360. And wasn't a flop by today's standards? Darkstalkers Resurrection is a good example of the games that we (me) never get tired of playing.
The bad habit of patching after release. They go gold and press the disc, and push out a day one patch so they can go to sale but still use the 3 month production window to finish the game.
I'll use a good example. Original Legend of Zelda took me about 4 months to complete in my free time, I figure about 100 hours. That is just the first quest. No hand holding, had to find every secrets, had to figure out how to kill everything, etc. Majora Mask I did it in 3 days when it came out on N64 (just coincidence it was 3 days) because of some hand holding and some easier quests. Last year A Link Between World, not even 15 hours to finish it. Today game practically walk you through everything, I would kill for something comparable to original Zelda in overall gameplay and difficulity.
I had to get a Memory Pak for HSV Adventure Racing. Even though that game can be finished in a few hours.
Of course, that's not an atrocious game (isn't it identical to Beetle Adventure Racing just with a different car?)
Yep, same tracks, also a localised announcer. About it. Oh man, that game in HD would be pretty neat. Considering it's one of the good looking games of N64.
I simply don't like the direction gaming has taken these days, but the consoles themselves are a big part of the problem for me. It's not that there's particularly anything wrong with the newer consoles (I still consider PS3 and 360 to be newer consoles, as well), but it just isn't for me. I never needed my gaming system to be an internet porthole, and certainly not one that constantly tries to tell me what I should be buying and what new TV shows are coming out, for whatever stupid reason. I also don't appreciate being constantly accused of not being connected to the internet when I'm playing games offline. Anyway, it's "progress," and I get it. As for me, however, I'm not interested in the future of gaming, and I'll continue to play my trusty old Gamecube that does nothing but play great, complete games... oh, and only one of the games on that console is a Resident Evil 4 clone... and it's Resident Evil 4 itself. At the end of the day, though, some developers are still making great stuff, and I hope they're successful. Me and my girlfriend have been playing through Dragon's Crown again recently, and that's definitely an example of a solid newer title. The last game I'll be looking forward to is probably Metal Gear Solid 5, because as much as people like to hate on that series (because hating Kojima is cool, apparently), it's one of the few franchises that has managed to stay current without losing what made the original games great.
I think atleast for the Xbox 360, you can actually put game updates on a flash drive. Also when games get later pressings they generally update the disc with the latest patched version. Particularly in cases of "Game of the Year" editions. You have to remember when you played LoZ you probably were not as experienced of a gamer at the time. I mean no one was going to be an expert at "zelda style games" when LoZ was new. But after all these years, you're going to be much better at them. If you really want to play Zelda games that are fresh worlds and dungeons you should check out the fan made game Zelda Classic which has been around for over 15 years now. It allows users to create and play totally customizable "quests" with new graphics and music as well as far more expansive worlds.
I'm actually not sure game quality has dropped. It could be as simple as game dev's not paying enough for advertising of some of their games and as a result (((these games result in becoming obscure gems))) lets not forget alone how many steam/pc games are out there.
