There was a time...

[prabs]

Not singing the Aerosmith Song Cryin' but literally crying looking at the modern day gaming scene.

There was a time when games that were released were complete.
There was a time when games that were released didn't need day one patches that were at times as big as the game itself.
There was a time when if a game succeeded they would make more content for it and either give them for free or sell them as expansion packs instead of cutting the content from the game and still charging full price for it and then selling the trimmed content as Paid DLCs.
There was a time when not every game felt like a clone of the most popular thing that sells.
There was a time when a game focused on the single campaign and the multiplayer was just an add on to continue playing it.
There was a time when co op meant racing the guy on the other side of the couch or beating the hell out of him and yelling at him to move to the right of screen because you memorized the moves list with the character on the left and now your friend is hogging the left side of the screen.

There really was a time...

 

[Darth Vader]

^ You're talking about a time where Game graphics were crap,Underutilized GPU,Internet (256kbps) was crap and multiplayer was just a dream. Most of all we're jobless & pirates.

Embrace the change !!

 

[booo]

^ You're talking about a time where Game graphics were crap,Underutilized GPU,Internet (256kbps) was crap and multiplayer was just a dream. Most of all we're jobless & pirates.

Embrace the change !!

you think today's games have awesome graphics? they are all made for consoles not for pcs.

 

[krugur]

If its the focus on awesome graphics that is taking away from gameplay, then we don't need graphics. Give me graphics from a 6 year old game, but not the gameplay (except if its dark souls, you can never have enough of that )

 

[Darth Vader]

you think today's games have awesome graphics? they are all made for consoles not for pcs.

It is still better and improved...compare to the time OP was referring to. Its not a sin to expect good graphics when you've spent 30-50k on a GPU.

If its the focus on awesome graphics that is taking away from gameplay, then we don't need graphics. Give me graphics from a 6 year old game, but not the gameplay (except if its dark souls, you can never have enough of that )

NO,Its the open-world madness that lead publishers to focus more on graphics and less on everything. Blame urself aka gamers !!

 

[prabs]

If its the focus on awesome graphics that is taking away from gameplay, then we don't need graphics. Give me graphics from a 6 year old game, but not the gameplay (except if its dark souls, you can never have enough of that )

I completely agree. Graphics is overrated in my opinion. Sure it is part of immersion but of late it has taken the central stage and things like Gameplay and plot have taken a back seat. And this quest for graphics is driving the cost for development of games northwards. Which increases the risk for studios should that game not make the money back resulting in them taking less chances and experimenting. Sure every once in a while we come across a gem.

The practices followed by game studios these days is absolutely horrible. Multiple versions of the same game and in some cases locking important parts behind paid dlc. Things will only get worse gradually.

 

[krugur]

If you look at 5 of the most played games currently ... (in no order) .... LoL, Dota, TF2, OW, CS ... none of these games are graphically intensive and can run on any average computer. Yet they are highly enjoyable. Even the some of the most played single player games ... Skyrim, DS3, Minecraft, ... don't need a high end system. In short, if developers focus more on gameplay than graphics the games should survive better (BF1 maybe an exception in this case. That graphics is just amazing).

 

[Jc36]

Not singing the Aerosmith Song Cryin' but literally crying looking at the modern day gaming scene.

There was a time when games that were released were complete.
There was a time when games that were released didn't need day one patches that were at times as big as the game itself.
There was a time when if a game succeeded they would make more content for it and either give them for free or sell them as expansion packs instead of cutting the content from the game and still charging full price for it and then selling the trimmed content as Paid DLCs.
There was a time when not every game felt like a clone of the most popular thing that sells.
There was a time when a game focused on the single campaign and the multiplayer was just an add on to continue playing it.
There was a time when co op meant racing the guy on the other side of the couch or beating the hell out of him and yelling at him to move to the right of screen because you memorized the moves list with the character on the left and now your friend is hogging the left side of the screen.

There really was a time...

Lol what triggered this I wonder.

 

[prabs]

Lol what triggered this I wonder.

I am not sure but the recent 2K sale on Steam probably was the trigger. I saw Mafia III for sale and was not sure whether I wanted it or not. Optimization issues plus the general consensus of the game made me back off from buying it.

You might think I am being Nostalgic and may be it is nostalgia that endears Mafia 1 to me considering the abysmal shooting mechanics which really amped up the difficulty way more than it should have been. What you can't deny is how charming and absorbing the game felt. The plot was great, the characters were great, the driving was great, the atmosphere and that opening. Some complain about the driving and the strict rules but that in my opinion made the game even better. Godfather made Jalopies go fast which felt awful. Mafia 2 toned down the strictness but didn't have the charm of the first game. Sure they fixed the shooting mechanics and added regenerating health which took away most of the tension of the first game.

Mafia 3 interested me because I was watching Dirty Harry Series and that 70s era the cars the music felt epic so I thought why not get Mafia 3 and just go around in circles. I knew the game was bad at launch so I asked on Steam forum and the answer provided can be concluded as - It is still an un-optimised game fixed to an extent and how it performs depends from rig to rig.

So I thought this is a no go and remembered the original Driver game which was fantastic. Then I remembered a youtube video about the Driver 3 scandal called Driv3rGate. Something that was mentioned in the video stood out. Ubisoft dropped the name Driver and Watch Dogs was born. Considering how different Watch Dogs is to Driver series I don't think we can call it a true successor. Nonetheless I decided to download Watch Dogs 2 considering I had bought Watch Dogs 2 in an earlier steam sale but didn't download it because of FUP constraints. The driving mechanics (-_-). It is so floaty and stiff that Driver 1 puts it to shame. If that video was right why didn't they use the Driver San Francisco like handling in the game is beyond me considering they own that series as well. What really annoyed me was since I had signed into UPlay and teamed up with a random guy for a mission he kept taking a mission and I kept teleporting to the location instead of jumping a scooter over a gap.

That online co op thing triggered even more recent horrible experiences viz., The always online of Need for speed and the co op focused The Divsion. I, @Aman27deep , @fleshfragger and @devesh38 were playing it. Aman uninstalled the game and Fleshfragger ran away leaving me and devesh stranded. We do have an option to play through matchmaking with strangers but seriously what did I pay for? A game I can't finish on my own with multiplayer being an add on.

Hmmm... I wonder what triggered me?

 

[fleshfragger]

Prabs be like

 

[prabs]

Prabs be like

Looks like you're still alive. What the hell happened to you. I bought that freaking game because of your nagging.

 

[fleshfragger]

Looks like you're still alive. What the hell happened to you. I bought that freaking game because of your nagging.

*gayab hoke sab dikhta hai*

 

[Jc36]

Haha lol, games are mainstream, more people buy games now, devs and publishers can get away with almost anything. Who cares if the game is broken at launch, patch it up in 6 months and everything will be forgiven. Waited a year to get Fallout 4 for 1/4th price, had a good time. Bought Andromeda on launch, o my lord the sheer amount of bugs!

However, I feel a Bobby Kotick (of all people) quote is very apt now. "Game prices have been $60 for a long time, inspite of inflation. If the customers don't want to pay more publishers will find a way to get more through microtransactions and DLCs". Which is what we are seeing today. Except publishers have discovered that keeping the price at $60 and then adding extra expenses like microtransactions, exclusive DLCs, premium passes are far more profitable than raising the price to $70. Now a Battlefield game costs $110 for all content and we don't even bat an eye. Loot crates in full priced games. DLC cosmetics and map packs. Character packs. Weapon packs. We are paying more than $60 and we don't even realize it.

 

[devesh38]

I am not sure but the recent 2K sale on Steam probably was the trigger. I saw Mafia III for sale and was not sure whether I wanted it or not. Optimization issues plus the general consensus of the game made me back off from buying it.

You might think I am being Nostalgic and may be it is nostalgia that endears Mafia 1 to me considering the abysmal shooting mechanics which really amped up the difficulty way more than it should have been. What you can't deny is how charming and absorbing the game felt. The plot was great, the characters were great, the driving was great, the atmosphere and that opening. Some complain about the driving and the strict rules but that in my opinion made the game even better. Godfather made Jalopies go fast which felt awful. Mafia 2 toned down the strictness but didn't have the charm of the first game. Sure they fixed the shooting mechanics and added regenerating health which took away most of the tension of the first game.

Mafia 3 interested me because I was watching Dirty Harry Series and that 70s era the cars the music felt epic so I thought why not get Mafia 3 and just go around in circles. I knew the game was bad at launch so I asked on Steam forum and the answer provided can be concluded as - It is still an un-optimised game fixed to an extent and how it performs depends from rig to rig.

So I thought this is a no go and remembered the original Driver game which was fantastic. Then I remembered a youtube video about the Driver 3 scandal called Driv3rGate. Something that was mentioned in the video stood out. Ubisoft dropped the name Driver and Watch Dogs was born. Considering how different Watch Dogs is to Driver series I don't think we can call it a true successor. Nonetheless I decided to download Watch Dogs 2 considering I had bought Watch Dogs 2 in an earlier steam sale but didn't download it because of FUP constraints. The driving mechanics (-_-). It is so floaty and stiff that Driver 1 puts it to shame. If that video was right why didn't they use the Driver San Francisco like handling in the game is beyond me considering they own that series as well. What really annoyed me was since I had signed into UPlay and teamed up with a random guy for a mission he kept taking a mission and I kept teleporting to the location instead of jumping a scooter over a gap.

That online co op thing triggered even more recent horrible experiences viz., The always online of Need for speed and the co op focused The Divsion. I, @Aman27deep , @fleshfragger and @devesh38 were playing it. Aman uninstalled the game and Fleshfragger ran away leaving me and devesh stranded. We do have an option to play through matchmaking with strangers but seriously what did I pay for? A game I can't finish on my own with multiplayer being an add on.

Hmmm... I wonder what triggered me?

True every word. Plus Indian condition for multiplayer. No Indian servers to play on. BFBC2 and BF3 had Indian servers were awesome to play on with less pings. BF1 is good game but after playing for 2-3 months on japan and singapore servers, i don't see anything good to come back to it playing it more. Games should cost less if they don't have multiplayer support in a region or at least start giving LAN server hosting. Gone are those days when used to host server locally and enjoy the games with friends.

Bought Division as i saw prabs and others playing and couldn't resist myself giving it a go. But didn't even play more than 10 hours. All money down the drain.

Still waiting to get hands on VR, maybe a big game launch might help like GTA6. Need new experiences in games.

 

[Arjun]

There was a time when i had time

 

[dottedindian]

Back in the day games were made by passionate gamers for gamers..now a days games are made by greedy corporates for mass games who haven't seen any creative games growing up..every game now a days is a rehash of old franchises and they just want to milk money out of avg customer...also as a 30 + gamer I'll take gameplay over graphics anyday!

 

[asingh]

I think Far Cry and then Crysis 1 started all this nonsense about graphics.

We kept updating our VGA cards, processors (even chipsets) and OC'ed the pants off our systems. I remember: I used to spend more time updating my Radeon Drivers for X-Fire (groan..yes I had that); rather than actually gaming. And that infernal FRAPs was always on, on my system. I feel so stupid now, rather than gaming, trying to get higher FPS and maxed out graphics. AA and particle physics...LOL. Yea, and getting BattleField the first day, and patching almost 1GB onto it again. Games come out incomplete now, it seems.

 

[prabs]

True every word. Plus Indian condition for multiplayer. No Indian servers to play on. BFBC2 and BF3 had Indian servers were awesome to play on with less pings. BF1 is good game but after playing for 2-3 months on japan and singapore servers, i don't see anything good to come back to it playing it more. Games should cost less if they don't have multiplayer support in a region or at least start giving LAN server hosting. Gone are those days when used to host server locally and enjoy the games with friends.

Bought Division as i saw prabs and others playing and couldn't resist myself giving it a go. But didn't even play more than 10 hours. All money down the drain.

Still waiting to get hands on VR, maybe a big game launch might help like GTA6. Need new experiences in games.

I haven't removed The Division yet but am thinking of Backing up the files and removing it. Let me know if you plan to play it so I will keep it around else move on.

There was a time when i had time

True to an extent but every time I came across a game that I really liked I found a way to make time for it. For example Spec Ops The Line was made free on PS+ and I found myself playing it any chance I got but sadly my PS3 conked off. After getting a new PS3 I didn't download it as I had plans to get a PC. In the recent steam sale I did pick it up again and started playing it. (I actually couldn't bring myself to play this game again on PS3 with the controller or the keyboard and mouse).

Back in the day games were made by passionate gamers for gamers..now a days games are made by greedy corporates for mass games who haven't seen any creative games growing up..every game now a days is a rehash of old franchises and they just want to milk money out of avg customer...also as a 30 + gamer I'll take gameplay over graphics anyday!

I used to not like indie games earlier but nowadays I prefer indie games to main stream games. On steam I bought - Redout, Distance, Grip, Sunless Sea etc and they are all great games.

Redout - Wipeout + F-Zero. The reason I mention this games is Wipeout. The studio behind Wipeout series is SCE Studio Liverpool and they are the ones who made the F1 games for Sony before Codemasters took over. Their game F1 Championship Edition covers the 2006 season but the game feels so much better than any F1 game that Codemaster made. The game makes you and keeps you nervous till the end. The handling of the cars is so much more realistic than Codemasters F1 game and the feedback I got when I connected a G27 to the PS3 for this game was fantastic - You felt every bump, kerb, the road and the way the wheel fought you when you tried to turn. I tried F1 2012 on PS3 with G27 and dear god the car handled like a boat. I didn't bother tweaking it cause the over all game felt -_-

So SCE Studio Liverpool despite Sony's funding was tiny compared to Codemasters who acquired the rights for F1 and churns out a game for Formula One just like EA does for FIFA or THQ now 2K does for WWE. Sure the annual releases have some improvements and games will always evolve.

Talking about F1 - A really irritating thing that I note about most sims these days is the lack of Telemetry. F1 Challenge '99-'02 had a fantastic telemetry that was so helpful when setting up cars. Now it is so simplified instead of becoming more complicated with ERS, MGU-K, ICE, Turbo intake etc to set up. I remember blowing up gearboxes in F1 '99-'02 experimenting with gear ratios and once tried to reduce drag by reducing radiator size causing engine failure. These days it is very simplified and you really can't see the effect on telemetry. Kudos to EA for making that game (a game where you can set up your car for brake failure ) and it is still my favorite game followed by F1:CE.

 

[thedeadghost]

Technology has certainly advanced but at the cost of expensive hardware. I was trying to run train sim 2017 on my core i6 8 gb and a dedicated graphic chip only to be waiting on the loading screen for more then 2 min !! I suddenly realised old days where we all tried running games on our low specs rig
and the game requirements would mention pentium 4 !

 

[prabs]

Technology has certainly advanced but at the cost of expensive hardware. I was trying to run train sim 2017 on my core i6 8 gb and a dedicated graphic chip only to be waiting on the loading screen for more then 2 min !! I suddenly realised old days where we all tried running games on our low specs rig
and the game requirements would mention pentium 4 !

i6

I remember my first PC a Pentium 4 1.9 GHz 128 MB Ram (later 256), Intel 845GV NDMx and a 40 GB HDD. I played and completed Halo on it. Then one fine day went to my friend's place and was shocked - Those enemies have different color?

That PC was not meant for gaming but I had a hell of a time with it. Max Payne 1 and 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, NFS Porsche, Superbike 2001, Soldier of Fortune 2...

I don't remember cribbing about graphics at all back then. I don't do that now either. I can play anything beyond Atari 2600. I draw the line there because Atari 2600 because those games are simplistic horrible loops.

@asingh - I blame Crysis and Doom not Far Cry 1. I remember Doom being touted as the next big step forward and the hype around 6800 GT. Crysis brought 8800 GT into picture and till 8800 GT came into picture PS3 was heralded as the next big thing.