How video games have evolved

[Leon]

This is something I wanted to post. Sure, video games have gone a long way. But exactly how far have they gone over the last 20 years or so? I'd like to make a comparison.

This is an 8-bit boss theme from Super Mario Bros. 3

Super Mario Bros. 3

And this is the boss theme from Final Fantasy XII, using actual instruments.

FFXII Boss Battle

They've come a long way, don't ya think?

[SuperSabin]

You should already know game companies have gone REALLY far, i mean, look at what developers are incorporating into the current gen games, 3D popping visuals. All of them have gone the motion control route (referring to Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo). Games are more expansive, we can take games online and chat with others while playing, creating a brand new game is like developing movies nowadays. The developers tend to have throwbacks to old school style games by putting out downloadables that have retro style play.

However there is an issue with the games of today, the way they're developed. Iwata (nintendo's president) stated in a GDC event that game developers don't go over games as carefully as they used to, like, to polish what needs to be polished, and touch up some areas that could use some improvement. Even though i was only stating just 1 game president, it is true otherwise.

Other than that, games have been coming a long way, and alot of them are pretty impressive to play. There is one thing alot of developers need to work on though, replay value, it seems like the newer a game becomes, the less people want to replay it. Replay value should be an important aspect for every game, it shouldn't be one of those games you play once and then leave it to sit on the shelf otherwise it could affect the sales and value of that game. Well theres my perspective.

[Unknown Entity]

Every game is perfect for its time. Well, most of them. Think back to 2008 when Oblivion came out - every gamer I knew was was hyping over it, calling it the best game ever and that it couldn't get better than that (besides a few aesthetics, like clothing and weapons that were present in previous ES games, etc). Now Skyrim is coming out this year, and is set to be ****ing amazing. It's doing a million and one things games now do not do, and when you think that in a further three or four years, games will have new features, new markets, new media, etc.

I can't see video games ever stop evolving. Technology will always improve on itself, and with faster computers/consoles with faster processors, more will become possible. In the last year, there's been a couple of 3D releases and the Kinect. Maybe in another twenty years, you'll be able to physically be put into a video game world and experience it all for yourself (maybe not the pain part... I hope). To think it was only a little over a decade ago when if you had a SNES or N64, you were the coolest kid in the world.

What we think will be the perfect video game tomorrow will be old news in a few years when we're thinking about the perfect game then. That's not to say that older games don't work or aren't impressive, but in terms of progression they're very low on the scale.

[Angel of Iniquity]

I can't wait to see the graphical and audio power of the next gen systems.
I think we have seen what the systems can show honestly, and if we haven't seen the max, it can't get much better, I mean FF13 is a visual masterpiece and FF versus seems the same way. However, I want to see games with Cgi quality gameplay. That would be CRAZY!!!