Its not just me, games used to be better

[ZebMacahan]

Having played thru gear 4 and 5 after getting my XSX and gamepass (I skipped xbox one), I tried the remasted version of Gears 1, ultimate edition or whatever its called, and god damn its much better. Artisticaly it looks alot better. The arcitecture, the composition of scenes, the scense of scale, attention to detail. Everything is just above gears 4. Gameplaywise its also better. Its much more focus on getting to other covers and flanking. For this purpose the awkward roadie run makes sense and is useful. Enemies dont take 200 bullets to kill so it isnt as tedios, and you actually feel like your weapons are doing damage. No boring crappy story no one cares about, no unnececiary long walking talking sequences and awesome dialoge: "Hey Marcus, you wanna take the traing route or head straight into combat?", "Combat, Im ready to kick some ass!" F**K yeah!

I´ve noticed similar things when playing ME remaster. The environments look so freaking good, despite, or maybe because, of the technicaI limitations of the time. I like almost every character (except for that emo chick), I love the story, lore and world.

I suppose that to create games in the past you needed a lot technical know-how. Modern game engines and other tools has lowered the bar significantly. Modern game engines can make things look pretty decent even if assets and compositions arent really all that great. Kinda like to create a movie these days you can get a cheap video camera and a laptop. Some years ago you had to spent alot more to get something to look decent.

My guess is that as technology and tools has gotten better, you dont have to rely as much on artistical skill and technical know how to get something to look good. To get something to look decent is pretty easy. In the old days you had to rely on technical and artist skill and hence older stuff in many ways look way better. Arkham knights vs gotham knights, halo 1 och 3 vs halo infinite etc. Maybe most people think someling looks better if its shiny so they cant tell the difference.

So more developers who arent as technicaly and artisticaly skilled, combined with alot of people doing careers in game development because its a career, not because they are passionate about the game and understand fellow gamers, has led to this decline.

 

[pcchen]

I'm not sure about this. Back in the days there were many games which look pretty good but otherwise bad, and I mean in the Ultima 8 days, or even earlier. I can't say if the proportion of bad AAA games is increasing (or decreasing) though.
If you want to have more revolutionary gameplay advances you probably want to look at indie games instead of AAA games. AAA game stuiods won't be the ones doing "courageous" games. The indie game scene are thriving more than ever, so there're plenty to choose from, and they are generally cheaper than AAA games.
I guess if you think it's used to be that big studios were making advances in gameplay, etc. you'll feel disappointed, but I think it's not a new thing and it's probably this way for 10 or maybe 20 years already.

 

[Karamazov]

you have to take into consideration that for Halo and Gears for example, the dev teams are not the same, so that impacts the look and feel of the new games.
If you look at Destiny, it has that strong older Halo games vibes, because it's done by the original Halo team.

 

[ZebMacahan]

you have to take into consideration that for Halo and Gears for example, the dev teams are not the same, so that impacts the look and feel of the new games.
If you look at Destiny, it has that strong older Halo games vibes, because it's done by the original Halo team.

Yeah, thats what Im seeing also. The talented ones, the passionate nerds (meant in a good way), who created these IPs have started working on other stuff, and the new developers lack the insight/talent/understanding of what made the originals great in the first place. IMO Halo 3 look way better than infinite from an artistic point of view.

 

[techuse]

I don't agree that older games were better. I think the good games of today are as good as they were before. The amount of good games has fallen off a cliff though. There are many more games that are mediocre or worse. I think there are many reasons for this, not all of them suitable for this thread.

 

[iroboto]

I think games back in the day were better because they didn’t have the whole world pointing out every single flaw. People could just enjoy a game.

Now, if you let yourself be tinted by others,
And nearly everyone does due to doom scrolling, you will see every flaw and dislike every game.

 

[iroboto]

I think games back in the day were better because they didn’t have the whole world pointing out every single flaw. People could just enjoy a game. But games back in the day were also harder. They were not made to be accessible to the masses. The whole industry was more niche back then. Today games are designed to be dopamine vending machines. Endless stupid loops to keep you grinding away.

There’s that. And then there’s my other perspective that if you let yourself be tinted by others, And nearly everyone does due to doom scrolling, you will see every flaw and dislike every other.

But yea. Classic WoW versus modern WoW. Everyone loved classic more. Probably a great point for this argument. Removing convenience actually makes WoW better.

 

[ZebMacahan]

I'm not sure about this. Back in the days there were many games which look pretty good but otherwise bad, and I mean in the Ultima 8 days, or even earlier. I can't say if the proportion of bad AAA games is increasing (or decreasing) though.
If you want to have more revolutionary gameplay advances you probably want to look at indie games instead of AAA games. AAA game stuiods won't be the ones doing "courageous" games. The indie game scene are thriving more than ever, so there're plenty to choose from, and they are generally cheaper than AAA games.
I guess if you think it's used to be that big studios were making advances in gameplay, etc. you'll feel disappointed, but I think it's not a new thing and it's probably this way for 10 or maybe 20 years already.

Im not really after groundbreaking gameplay, Im thinking more about solid gameplay mechanics. Portal was very groundbreaking, but I´d rather kill stuff in games 1000 times again if its done well. That plus setting/vibe/characters which I dig, and something which is aestethicly good looking.

 

[ZebMacahan]

I think games back in the day were better because they didn’t have the whole world pointing out every single flaw. People could just enjoy a game. But games back in the day were also harder. They were made to be accessible to the masses. The whole industry was more niche back then. Today games are designed to be dopamine vending machines. Endless stupid loops to keep you grinding away.

There’s that. And then there’s my other perspective that if you let yourself be tinted by others, And nearly everyone does due to doom scrolling, you will see every flaw and dislike every other.

But yea. Classic WoW versus modern WoW. Everyone loved classic more. Probably a great point for this argument. Removing convenience actually makes WoW better.

Naa, I dont really think that applies to me. I didnt have high hopes for gears 1 remastered when I started. Im not a huge fan of the series.The gameplay is like a good looking version of whack-a-mole. They are more like popcorn movies, a spectacle and quite fun for a little while. I tought it would be like the newer ones with worse graphics and worse controls, so I was surprised it was the opposite.

 

[davis.anthony]

I sold a £4k gaming PC set-up and moved to the set-up in my signature and have zero regrets.

There's just something about newer games that I just don't like, like they've lost that special thing that makes them games.

 

[snc]

I think games are better but its harder to show something new/groundbreaking

 

[techuse]

Most games are no longer made by people who wanted to make games because they loved games. That is one of the primary reasons.

 

[cheapchips]

I feel like blockbuster games used to be more fun. But then blockbuster games of a decade ago tended to have the budget of larger indie titles today.

Gaming had never been more amazing. If you're looking to blockbuster titles you're (mostly) looking in the wrong place.

 

[Cappuccino]

you have to take into consideration that for Halo and Gears for example, the dev teams are not the same, so that impacts the look and feel of the new games.
If you look at Destiny, it has that strong older Halo games vibes, because it's done by the original Halo team.

Modern destiny feels nothing like OG halo and also shares almost none of the original team.

 

[Daozang]

Most games are no longer made by people who wanted to make games because they loved games. That is one of the primary reasons.

Game development pays way less than any other equivalent job in a different industry.
The working conditions are also a lot worse.
Loving games is the only reason to go for a job in the games industry.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Its not just me, games used to be better

It's just you.

 

[Ivan]

I could never understand people saying that there is no change. It would be same if you said that the music and movies are of the same quality as 80s and 90s stuff, it's just your age. I couldn't disagree more. We really did have a golden age of console AND pc gaming...

 

[ZebMacahan]

Most games are no longer made by people who wanted to make games because they loved games. That is one of the primary reasons.

I think someone from 343 tweeted something about how he only was ok making sound effects for the weapons in Halo because it was a sci fi title. I think there might be some people better suited working on a military sci fi shooter.

Have you seen the 343 vs bungie video?

 

[Scott_Arm]

There are more games than ever, so there are a lot of bad games, but tons of good ones. I think my only real issue is with the big budget games. I rarely find them good, but it's hard for me to separate that they're almost all established genres I've played a million times. Some younger person that doesn't have the same history with games might find them amazing. My gut feel is that they are actually worse because they're cranking out "safe" games, or what they think is safe. So you get ubisoft fetch quests or these hyper-cinematic story games with bland gameplay. But there are endless good indie games that are creative and interesting.

 

[davis.anthony]

Modern games aren't as good because developers aren't limited by hardware now, and haven't been for years.

It was the hardware limitations that lead developers to come up with creative solutions to solving hardware limitations, and this positively affected game design choices and meant they had to place more emphasis on story telling and gameplay mechanics.