New Games...Old Ideas?

[Che]

Anyone feel like all the new games that have been coming out for the past 4-5 years are just redone old games. "Blah blah blah 6, same game, new graphics!!!!!!!!!!"

I don't really feel like people are coming up with creative ideas for new games and delivering anymore. There are a few exceptions, like Little Big Planet, but not very many amongst the amount of games being released. Anyone care to share thoughts on this?

[Unknown Entity]

Newer games tend to be crapper anyway. I remember the good old days when a game would last me a good few weeks or months. Now... a weekend at best. -__-;;

There is the odd game which really stands out (MGS4, Uncharted, etc...), but the rest are just a bunch of recycled ideas. Tomb Raider Underworld? I was really looking forward to that game, but it didn't feel any different to that of the previous Tomb Raider games. Then GTAIV - everything is too similar to that of the previous GTA games with the missions and whatnot.

To be honest, I don't care much for the graphics - I want length and depth to a game. Something new. Something... perfect.

Can't wait for Heavy Rain... that'll be good.

[SOLDIER #819]

That's a tough one. To be honest, I think the status quo is due in no small part to the consumer base. Companies want to make us happy so that we will buy their products. They will develop what is tried and true first and foremost because it works. We say we want something new, but when something genuinely creative does come out we do not budge.

But once they see that something is lucrative, they will swarm it. Like the Wii. I think Microsoft and Sony have both taken shots at the Wii, but they know that the console sells. And now we have two other motion sensor devices that claim to be the most innovative thing ever. Consumers paved the way for this sort of thing. I think it's a little silly to blame companies for stagnation when we indirectly decide what developers put down on the table.

Maybe it's just a part of the "gaming culture" to not see the big picture. I know a couple of people who are heavily into FPSs. Every time I ask why this iteration of Call of Duty is different from the last, or whatever, they usually give examples which I find pretty trivial. If I played both of them back to back, I probably wouldn't be able to grasp the differences all that much. But my friends could probably get a distinctive joy out of either.

And it's really the same with RPGs on this end. One of those same friends just told me that FFXII and FFXIII looked the same. I remember saying something like, "My God man, they have completely different settings. They're nothing alike!" But looking back on it now in retrospect, maybe he's closer to the truth than I realized. They're more or less the same damn games. We've just trained ourselves to see the minute differences.

My friends visit Kotaku and the like daily. Their talk is just a rollercoaster of highs and lows. There's always some great new game that will bring something new to the table. But when they buy it they play it for a couple weeks and it is then shelved, perhaps dusted off once when they are bored. During this playtime they are already hyping the next game and its set of "brand new" features, even though progression as I see it is at a crawl. It just continues and continues. It never ends. Man.

Newer games tend to be crapper anyway. I remember the good old days when a game would last me a good few weeks or months. Now... a weekend at best. -__-;;

I remember playing games like Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario 64, and GoldenEye 007 for tens and tens of hours each 10+ years ago. I don't think the games haven't gotten any worse... I think my willingness to invest time into the same thing has just lessened. And then there's nostalgia. It all just makes the games back then seem that much more amazing.

[KeybladerXIII]

A prime example would be The Legend of Zelda series. The next game is always the same plot line (Country hick is a "chosen one" and must save the princess), just prettier. Simply giving the ability to sail around the ocean or turn into a wolf doesn't make it "revolutionary" or "unique", just minutely different. Sure it's fun, but why not change it up a bit. Why not make Link the bad guy who wants to capture the princess for himself. Hey, it's not like the Zelda timeline can get anymore screwed up....

[Darkwave]

I would have to agree, the first 6 are basically the same. I like the later versions

[Che]

I think the difference in those games are the experiences you get from them. For me by saying I like Final Fantasy series or Legend of Zelda series its because I like the plot. It's always the same, that's not what I look for. Chocobos are always in Final Fantasy - it's fun to see how they put them in and what role they play. It's like Back to the Future, when they go to the past or future, it's the same cast, but they're all differently implemented. That's the fun in things like that. I do enjoy series, but it's because they don't come out but once per 2-3 years. It's fun to revisit a nostalgic series like that (sometimes). I didn't like Super Mario Galaxy which has led me to believe I've grown out of the series or something. I still love the 64 Mario.

However, looking at the big picture, games seem to be in the same format these days. There isn't the creative new game that comes out. I guess games are becoming more mainstream and the developers need to broaden their range of playerbase(dumb down things) and appeal to everyone. I play World of Warcraft and this is what's happening there. They saw the market was there to appeal to everyone, so they went in the direction of making things a lot more casual. How do you get new players to compete with people who have played the game for 4-5 years? Simple. You make it easy enough for everyone to catch on quickly.

Is the idea that videogames are becoming more mainstream going to be the death of creative and or competitive games?

[Xanatos]

I must agree with you Kilo.Its like the developers lost their will to make the games great and original.They care only about the money.Well not every company is like that,there are still few developers that make great and original games.But in some way this was expected.I mean there are so many new games every year and its hard to make some revolutionary game.To me every FPS game is similar.I mean there is no difference between Quake 2 and some new shooter game(only in graphics).And KeybladerXIII is absolutely right.I love Zelda games very much but you must face it every game in series is almost the same,even the story in all of them is similar.There are only few new games every year that I buy and play.But most of the time I chose some good old games and play.

[Sean]

One of the more recent games I've picked up that stood out from any other was Mirror's Edge, and I was saddened by how short it was.

Other than that... over the past few years I've just felt video games as a whole are played out. It's such an old form of entertainment now it's practically impossible to do something that hasn't already been done, and the ideas just aren't prevalent enough to create new and exciting styles of video gaming.

RPGs are about the only genre I still play where games differ from game to game. At the core they're still the same, control a character, move through the world, the same style of save-the-world storyline, etc... but the characters, backing plot, and fighting systems always vary, and that's what makes them fun and interesting.

To me every first-person shooter feels the same as the last.

I'm honestly at a point where I hardly even call myself a gamer anymore, because I simply don't game.... WoW had been a major source of my video game time until I finally quit, and every game I've picked up and played since just wasn't very entertaining to me, and I lost interest and shipped it back to gamefly, finding myself in a never ending cycle of disinterest and boredom.

[Darkwave]

I would have agree with him. Games seem to be a coming to much the same as the old or they are dragging it out.

[Kilala]

The thread title grabbed me immediately. I was sucked in, and now I feel obliged to reply! ~^ So here goes.

I wouldn't say they're remaking past games into new ones. But perhaps some of the concepts. Okay I think I contradicted myself there.. but what I mean is, of course some games will have a similar plot. There will be a hero/heroine and they have to accomplish their task to save the world/or someone.

Lately I've been impressed by some games. For example, Uncharted, Prince of Persia, Heavenly Sword etc.
I would say however that many game plots have been weak, and the length of the games are decreasing. However, I'm optimistic for future releases.

Although one thing I can't stand is when they try to remake a classic and fail. Or try to continue the story in a poor game. An example of that would be Sonic. Give it a rest, Sonic made his mark now let him rest with his immortality <3

[DragonHeart]

I noticed this recently when I decided to look for new DS games. I've been wanting to expand that library for awhile now (I only have half a dozen games for it), but when I started browsing through all the games I noticed something. Nothing is really appealing to me. Not a single damn game jumped out and said "buy me!". Why? Because many of them are either ports or remakes of older games. Even when I look at the few games I do have, 4 of them are ports or remakes. Hell, when I went looking for recommendations, all the games I found being listed were...ports and remakes. I don't want to keep buying the same games over and over again, I want to play new ones.

It's to the point where I don't play games much either. I started playing a couple games again cause I'm on vacation from work and don't really have anything better to do. Games I've played many times before because I can't find anything new that appeals to me at all.

I'm sure it applies to more than just the DS, that's just the experience I've been having with it lately. I'm quite disappointed as I rarely buy games anymore but I was hoping to find more than what I did. I'm not impressed with the way the industry's been going lately. I am looking forward to upcoming games, don't get me wrong, but the problem is that most of the games I'll be buying in the fairly near future are sequels. I'll enjoy them well enough I'm sure but I wouldn't mind seeing more innovation and entirely new games.

~DragonHeart~