There was a time...

[quan chi]

If by train sim you mean csx overhaul then that game is badly optimized see the steam reviews. I think they have released some patches you can try again.

Anyways today also some developers bring out good games but they are less in number.
After tomb raider reboot I had lost hope in square enix & was a bit angry at them too but with the rise of the tomb raider they completely changed my perspective. Resident evil 7 is again a wonderful game by capcom after a long time!
Now games like Need for speed is a different story I had interest in it thus I subscribed to origin access for it...but left it in the middle as it was honestly somewhat boring...but that is the only modern racing game which looks better than the most. The moral is you cannot expect all the games in xyz series to be good. For co-op wildlands is far better than the division. Thus it is better to read reviews before buying any games these days but many people do pre-order as they fall for the the discount lollypop.

 

[dottedindian]

Lol..I still play contra and mario , spartan,ninja gaiden, turtles and megaman games on by original 8 bit little master > I also bought sega mega drive to play my faves..bare Knuckle, golden axe, SFT 2 turbos MK2,UMK3 anyone?...Graphics enhance the game but game play wins over graphics for me..Now a days games are glorified tech demos! I don't feel the urge to complete newer games..forget replay ..I can give an analogy here to explain this...its like growing up watching Terminator 2 and then cringing after seeing Terminator Genesys...intellectually games are going the Hollywood way

 

[prabs]

Lol..I still play contra and mario , spartan,ninja gaiden, turtles and megaman games on by original 8 bit little master > I also bought sega mega drive to play my faves..bare Knuckle, golden axe, SFT 2 turbos MK2,UMK3 anyone?...Graphics enhance the game but game play wins over graphics for me..Now a days games are glorified tech demos! I don't feel the urge to complete newer games..forget replay ..I can give an analogy here to explain this...its like growing up watching Terminator 2 and then cringing after seeing Terminator Genesys...intellectually games are going the Hollywood way

I play the classics too but not 2600. I am actually thinking of making a retro pi for it.

 

[fleshfragger]

No one has mentioned games/ series like UC series, TLOU series, GOW reboot, Death Stranding, Hitman, Tomb Raider Reboot (mentioned), Doom (2016), The Witcher series etc. Few developers have perfected the art of storytelling with cutting edge graphics, finally. IMO, this is the best age of/for gaming. Games are now much more engaging and captivating. They are complex, and rightly so, thus requiring more efforts and time to enjoy it fully. Leaving few crappy OL targeted titles, I am pretty happy/ satisfied with new releases. I had a blast with Doom, and now I am playing Tomb Raider 2, absolute gem of a title.


I guess some of you have matured. Games are as enjoyable as they were in late 2000s, if not more. I am eagerly waiting for the next HL game though.

 

[Jc36]

Haha, this thread is a hyperbole fest. Some of the smaller recent games have been absolute visual treats. Ori, Abzu, Hollow Knight, Firewatch, Vanishing of Ethan Carter all are such joy to play on a 4k screen in full details. None of them skimp on the gameplay aspect. We now have the technology to render complex and striking scenes with mind blowing details, it would be foolish to discount graphics for the success of a title.

 

[quan chi]

If you are expecting that title xyz 1 was good so xyz 2,3,4 should also be good then I think you are expecting too much. But if thats not the issue then like I had mentioned before there are still some good games out there. Yes quality has degraded over time but not all are bad. Try some indie titles like Hotline miami, Oxenfree,To the moon if you are bored of the AAA ones. If possible avoid EA, Ubisoft & Activision unless they brings out something different. Capcom came back to the business with resident evil 7 but still they are greedy & selling overpriced dlcs.
Speaking of dlcs yes many dlcs are overpriced thus I skip them mostly unless they are appropriately priced.

 

[dottedindian]

Of course I don't think all games now are bad..My larger point was what was majority earlier is now minority..look at all AAA developers..there are very few which have creativity and fresh ideas and not many publishers are ready to take risks...Witcher is one exception( they are not AAA anyways)...Also look at Bioware games with the latest example Andromeda...I cant believe this was the same developer that made baldur's gate and dragon age origins! I have no issues if graphics are spectacular but that cannot be your only selling point..That's shallow and sadly it is acceptable these days by many gamers unlike us oldies.. replay ability these days is really bad and they have DLC bs and microtransactions and jukware(cosmetic stuff) inserted in all games to make the feel "bigger" !

 

[Jc36]

Let's just say that modern graphics is a baseline expectation nowadays. It is the bread. You can put good gameplay, story, writing, dialogues, characters, art, music on it and make it a Texas Double Whopper, or you can just add lettuce and mediocre gameplay and make a bland cheeseburger. Undertale and Stardew Valley are the exceptions to this, of course.

Interestingly, shallow games still push big sales numbers. Look at Ghost Recon Wildlands. UK chart topper for 2-3 weeks.

 

[fleshfragger]

Let's just say that modern graphics is a baseline expectation nowadays. It is the bread. You can put good gameplay, story, writing, dialogues, characters, art, music on it and make it a Texas Double Whopper, or you can just add lettuce and mediocre gameplay and make a bland cheeseburger. Undertale and Stardew Valley are the exceptions to this, of course.

Interestingly, shallow games still push big sales numbers. Look at Ghost Recon Wildlands. UK chart topper for 2-3 weeks.

Looks like Britons have awful taste(s)

 

[Jc36]

Haha no no. UK is one of the few markets that publishes the numbers for physical sales. EA never releases digital sales numbers and the rest is upto Steamspy.

 

[thedeadghost]

i remember playing a lot of games right from a very young age. It use to be really dangerous for eyes since those nintando games had short length wired controls and one would have to sit close to the box tv set and ruin the eyes.

I wonder what age should I introduce xbox or play station to my kid. Games in tab would never give the trill of ps or xbox but I dont want him to become a game addict !

 

[saumilsingh]

Games are much better now, that's for sure. Put aside the nostalgia goggles and the classic 8/16/32-bit games were mostly just as mediocre for what was the norm back then.

Of course there are exceptions, stuff like Chrono Trigger and Doom holds up even today.
Seriously it's uncanny how much fun just basic classic Doom still is (even without Brutal Doom hijinx).



The only thing I miss is the death of dedicated servers. There's no feel of a closely knit community in modern games like Overwatch.
I guess the answer is to always que with friends, but that's not possible all the time.

Back when TF2 was at its peak, there used to be multiple full Starhub servers and you could hop onto one anytime and find regulars playing.
It really instilled a sense of comfort and belonging (feel free to roll your eyes but it's true).

Nowadays in the matchmaking ecosystem, it's like walking onto a playground and finding complete strangers each and every time .

 

[dottedindian]

"Games are much better now, that's for sure."..totally disagree..but each his own I guess..
I don't deny there is nostalgia factor for 8/16 bit games but for PC gaming it has gone down hill from the late 2000's

 

[Jc36]

Hmm let's take a look at the last few years

2016

• Overwatch
• Battlefield 1
• Doom
• Dark Souls III
• Stardew Valley
• Inside
• Firewatch
• Oxenfree
• Rise of Tomb Raider

2015

• GTA V
• Witcher 3 Wild Hunt
• Undertale
• MGS Phantom Pain
• Pillars of Eternity
• Ori and the Blind Forest
• Cities Skylines
• Rocket League

2014 a weak year

• Wolfenstein TNO
• Dark Souls II
• Hearthstone
• Dragon Age Inquisition
• Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor
• Alien Isolation
• Far Cry 4

2013

• Bioshock Infinite
• Dota 2
• Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag
• Battlefield 4
• The Wolf Among Us
• etc etc

Good to great games are coming out more frequently than ever. In early 2000s we had to wait years for games like Half Life 2, Halo, GTA III to come out. So many new techs have emerged, 4k, 144hz, Gsync/Freesync, 21:9, VR, Roomscale. Pascal packs huge power, Vega is just around the corner. 6-8 core processors are becoming mainstream, with games evolving to use them. Great time to be a PC gamer, after being held back by PS3/360 for 10 years.

 

[dottedindian]

Sorry but if you think alien isolation...Farcry4 pillars of eternity and inquisition ds2.. Wildenstein tbo are improvements over earlier games then I have no argument with you...Lol...Most of these are rehashed or money grabs that's what I meant by now creativity..

 

[uber]

Hmm let's take a look at the last few years

Dark Souls III
GTA V
Alien Isolation
Far Cry 4

Dota 2
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag
Battlefield 4
Good to great games are coming out more frequently than ever. In early 2000s we had to wait years for games like Half Life 2, Halo, GTA III to come out. So many new techs have emerged, 4k, 144hz, Gsync/Freesync, 21:9, VR, Roomscale. Pascal packs huge power, Vega is just around the corner. 6-8 core processors are becoming mainstream, with games evolving to use them. Great time to be a PC gamer, after being held back by PS3/360 for 10 years.

1. DS 3 had many issues when it was released & if I am correct It still have issues. It was poorly optimized.

2.Games like GTA V, GTA IV were good no doubt but are very bad when compared to GTA 3 , SA & Vice city & Its a FACT coming from a Long time GTA fan who have played every GTA title till Date starting from GTA 1.

3. If you consider alien isolation,Far Cry 4,Battlefield 4 as great games Then no point in further discussion.. For me they are just average. With Far cry 4 the series hit its lowest low. Also dota 2 & overwatch are multiplayer games not everyone plays them. Also I wonder then what will you call games like Journey, the last of us, uncharted, Halo3 for ps3/xbox360 which was holding them off for so much time?

4. Today also we have to wait for YEARS to get at least a DECENT game. Good games are still rare. But these days even after waiting for years we get an average title...duke nukem...the last guardian (average compared to ico), uncharted 4...etc. At least then the quality was good eg half life series.

5. I really don't understand what you want to say that "So many new techs have emerged"?. Do you think tech at those time were stagnant? NO it was ever changing. Also you are giving example of ps3/360 helding them off?
dude now we also have consoles... so if you say that then yes we are still being held back. Also 4k,144HZ etc has nothing to do with this. Also 4k is a bit overrated at the moment. They are not for everybody 144hz may be very good for competitive but that's not something which is essential. 6-8 core processors are there from 2011..and they are generally good for multitasking or workstations....but now they can multitask better.I don't what are you trying to say from this.. because core is something completely different topic I can also say ps3 also had 8 core at that time.. Please don't give such examples they are doing business and they will go on advertising & force public to buy their products. I am saying all these thing by experience...and actually using many of these products.
An average person or a person with will never buy new consoles or hardware in few months.

Now let me say another example ps2 back in its day had lot of awesome titles also it was backward compatible by default. ps3 was okay compared to it but has some good exclusives too. But ps4 has mostly remasters of those exclusives only few ps4 exclusives interests me.
The point is mostly they are doing visual improvement. Only few games in current years have shown excellence in every department...
Also If i am not mistaken then this thread is about the overall quality of all games irrespective of the platforms.

 

[TheGreatOne]

1. DS 3 had many issues when it was released & if I am correct It still have issues. It was poorly optimized.

Im sure you have not even played ds3
I have been playing it since release date and im still playing it since new dlc came last week.
It is better optimized than any ubisoft game in the last 5 years.

Games like GTA V, GTA IV were good no doubt but are very bad when compared to GTA 3 , SA & Vice city & Its a FACT coming from a Long time GTA fan who have played every GTA title till Date starting from GTA 1.

That is your opinion. Vice city is still my favorite gta but 4 and 5 were still amazing.

You want to talk about optimization then gta:sa had really bad optimization although i really doubt you played it before 2006.

If you consider Battlefield 4 as great games Then no point in further discussion.. For me they are just average.
Also dota 2 & overwatch are multiplayer games not everyone plays them.

And you think that battlefield is a single player game ?
Most people don't even touch single player of battlefield after bfbc2. It is a multiplayer game. Buy it, play it then judge it.

Also 4k is a bit overrated at the moment

Kek

And if anyone here thinks that consoles are holding back pc then you are right but do you know that consoles(xbox+ps) make up for more than 80% revenue for the video game industry.
They will obviously make games for consoles and will throw a half ass optimizated crap on pc.

Buy games if you want better games.

 

[Jc36]

Its a FACT coming from a Long time GTA fan who have played every GTA title till Date starting from GTA 1.

Nope, not a "FACT". Your subjective opinion. GTA V sold 75 million copies, one of the best selling games ever.

I did not bring console titles since this is a PC gaming discussions. I also said "good to great" games. I consider GTA V, Witcher 3 to be great games and Battlefield 4 and Far Cry 4 to be good games. Not everyone plays Dota and Overwatch and that matters how?

There are many, many cases when devs have come out and admitted they had to cut features from games because the consoles could not handle it. Eg, Borderlands inventory, visuals in Crysis 2 and 3, visuals in Battlefield games, fps cap on PC ports.

 

[goDofWar_skr]

Nope, not a "FACT". Your subjective opinion. GTA V sold 75 million copies, one of the best selling games ever.

I too wanted to write the exact same FACT
but then again I couldn't comprehend what that guy had wrote or wanted to express, it felt like he posted something random just for the sake of posting something..

 

[uber]

Kek.

I did not understand the meaning of this post. Thus no further comment.

Im sure you have not even played ds3

I have been playing it since release date and im still playing it since new dlc came last week.
It is better optimized than any ubisoft game in the last 5 years. .

Yes correct I haven't. That was based on many consumer negative reviews which I read online. Thus No more comment on this too.

That is your opinion. Vice city is still my favorite gta but 4 and 5 were still amazing.
You want to talk about optimization then gta:sa had really bad optimization although i really doubt you played it before 2006..

I take it you have not played GTA 1,2 or maybe 3 too. You have right to give your opinion here but for this game that does not really matter to me. We who loves GTA from the start didn't like 4 & 5. Like I said they were okay for me but they completely lack the feel of vice city & san andreas.
Btw I played & completed SA most probably during 2006-2007 with an onboard vga.

And you think that battlefield is a single player game ?
Most people don't even touch single player of battlefield after bfbc2. It is a multiplayer game. ..

Many people who are not much into multiplayer like me does play this game for its single player & there are lots of people like me. I played bf4 on ps4 when it was on sale for cheap.

And if anyone here thinks that consoles are holding back pc then you are right but do you know that consoles(xbox+ps) make up for more than 80% revenue for the video game industry.
They will obviously make games for consoles and will throw a half ass optimizated crap on pc...

I will NOT requote & reply again..since I have repeated this many times please read complete post & try to understand first.

Also If i am not mistaken then this thread is about the overall quality of all games irrespective of the platforms.

Buy it, play it then judge it
Buy games if you want better games...

I am still not sure from where you became so confident that I don't buy games? Do you think you are the ONLY 1 to buy games in this forum? Do you think any person who is not much active in this forum do not buy games? Do you even know how much pre-orders some of AAA games get?

Nope, not a "FACT". Your subjective opinion. GTA V sold 75 million copies, one of the best selling games ever.

Dhoom 3, Ready, dabaang 2..etc are also very good movies then since they earned more than 100 crores.
People who just played few games in this series may find it good. But search the net or forums many hardcore GTA fans like us only find them okay. GTA V btw was better than GTA IV.Just incase if you want to know by subjective opinion.