Why don't I like new video games? Is it just me?

Cafe Society
1

So, I used to like a lot of games when I was younger. I realize as you get older, you grow up, and have different interests and such. But I’ve recently downloaded the Orange Box and I simply can’t bring myeslf to get interested in it. What do I like to do? I like to replay old games that I’ve played in the past! But maybe I’m not the only one, maybe I’m not the only one in the minority.

Let’s talk about 2D scrollers. I was never a big fan of Mario, but I played Super Metroid when I was a kid when it first came out. WOW. What a great game! That might be one of the best games I have ever played. Now, when they shifted it to 3D I didn’t like it. I don’t know what it was, but I couldn’t get into it.

Now when they came out with Zero Mission. I loved it! But then I didn’t like fusion. I don’t like the way they forced you and held your hand through the game. It was a little like that in ZM, but still it was bearable.
Lets move on to other games. I was never totally interested in 3D shooters to an extreme degree, but I seemed to remember thinking that Unreal was a unique experience. The game just oozed cool atmosphere and the music worked well. Remember the part where you just emerged from the ship into that open area with the huge waterfall? I loved it.

I’m all about atmospherics, I must say. Atmospherics go a long way for me in games, I must say. I remember specific levels more than anything.

I really enjoyed the first Tomb Raider for this very reason. I seriously started to dislike it when Tomb Raider 2 came out and I found I was fighting humans all the time. I liked the idea that I was alone.

A very important game for me has always been Fallout. That game oozed atmospherics too and the story was AMAZING! It wasn’t very high-tech but I still loved it. It’s a dying shame that Van Buren was never released, and that it’s taken so long to produce a sequel…

But lets look at games like Half-Life. I am bored by it. The acting seems wooden. I fully realize that this is because so much stuff that was left to the imagination beforehand is being explicitly displayed. The game runs on rails.

In the early days, 3D shooters were cool simply because they were revolutionary in and of themselves. Doom is a great example. Then Duke Nukem came along and upped the ante. It has to be cool too. Better and better graphics have been developed, but it seems that all new games are the same to me. Almost every single FPS I see seems to be either A) Set in some kind of alien environment (Like Unreal) B) Set in world-war II or C) Set in the future. I’m tired of those things. They aren’t compelling at all.

I loved Deus Ex too. It was just interesting. It did have a limited choice aspect, but on the other hand the individual levels had multiple solutions and you could customize your character.

So at the end of this, I have to ask for examples of great games. I want a cool game to pay that is compelling. I have a few problems with very popular genres though. In the RPG area, I hate fantasy. I am not interested in Ogres or Wizards or whatever in the least bit. I like my RPGs to be either set in the future, or at least have some sort of connection to reality. Things set in the past are great. Things that are set in the future, or alternate futures are also great. Just as long as it’s realistic. I don’t care for things that are so futuristic that they are practically fantasy.

So can anyone recommend me a good game to get into? I’d really love to find something new, yet I just can’t find a whole lot…

2

So, you like FPS and RPG games but only if they ooze atmosphere right?

Try Bioshock. In fact it has a very Fallout feel to it.

Personally I thought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was quite good too.

Going Old School System Shock 2.

If you like RTS games definitely give World in Conflict a go. Actually I generally HATE playing these kinds of games online in PvP mode but this one is actually GREAT that way. Single player is fun too.

3

If you don’t like HL2 and its Episodes or Portal then I don’t know what to say.

4

I’m right there with you. I loved the games of my childhood (the 90s). Today’s games, generally not so much. I’m convinced that the SNES had the greatest overall game library in history, and will hold that title for a long time. I still have a lot of my great SNES games, but unfortunately my SNES died in a horrible act of violence perpetrated upon it by my father. Oh well…

Anyway, these days my gaming time is divided between NetHack, BaboViolent 2, and BZFlag.

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I adored S.T.A.L.K.E.R. at the beginning, but as the game got towards the end the story seemed to slowly wither away, and the open-ended maps did nothing to help the player stay on track. I got frustrated and took a break when

I seemingly broke the main storyline by doing the scientist escort mission too early.

I still enjoy it, but I haven’t been motivated enough to start a brand new game and trudge through the crappy weapon section again.

On a more relevant note, I would give a hearty recommendation to Thief 2 and Thief 3. As first-person sneakers both games are rife with ambiance.

6

I’m finding myself going the same way - I’m rapidly losing interest in gaming for my PC. I used to love strategy games and adventure/RPG games, but now there doesn’t seem anything worth playing. I don’t like MMORPGs as they just feel like cyber-treadmills to me, and I’m not a great fan of shooters either so that seems to eliminate the majority of games produced for the PC. It’s quite depressing now going for a browse in a games shop and seeing absolutely nothing I would be interested in buying.

7

I’m there with you. There’s so few games that can hold my interest these days. So far the following titles have kept me in the game long enough so I’d finish it:

Splinter Cell II
Resident Evil IV
Silent Hill II
Super Paper Mario
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Guitar Hero II & III
any of a number of car racing games

That’s about it so far. Although, I have to say, Portal looks absolutely amazing.

Personally, I only think it’s partly to do with the video games themselves. I just think that I’ve outgrown a lot of video games, or they’re just not the same addictive dopamine kick that they used to be. I remember playing Ultima IV, Dragon Warrior, SMB3, Maniac Mansion, etc., and all those games obsessively as a kid, for 8 to 10 hours a day. Now, I’m lucky if a game could hold my interest for more than 15 minutes.

8

I have a similar experience. I still keep a few old consoles and emulators around for the games of years past. Its harder for me to get into the new stuff, and I’m not quite sure why.

I think part of it may be the sheer time committment that some games take. Now that I have a full time job and family, its almost impossible to find enough time to get really sucked into any given game. And the market is just saturated with games, some good, most mediocre, some bad. Its almost hard to get into any one game with so many choices. I’m tired of 3D FPS though. I know there a lot of good ones out there, but the genre is starting to get old, IMHO.

I still play…I made the switch from PC to console several years ago, only b/c its easier to fire something up and get comfortable on the couch. Plus I was getting tired of the hardware arms race - it was getting too expense to keep upgrading to play something new.

My current favs:

Resident Evil 4 (I’m about 3 years behind :slight_smile:
Ratchet and Clank (anything in the series - the new one on the PS3 awesome)

9

You’re just old. That’s all. :stuck_out_tongue:

Tragically, so am I. :frowning:

To be honest, I stopped liking many games when they became PvP - I have a hard enough time beating some stupid algorithm, getting the time to develop the madd skillz needed to beat a 12 year-old who has other people paying for his life is way beyond what I want to devote my non-mortgage earning time.

(In other words: Old.) :wink:

Now… get off my lawn!

10

That’s a very good point - online does not appeal to me much either, for the same reasons. And that’s what a lot of the A-ticket games are focused on now.

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Merkwurdigliebe: I agree with you completely. I can’t get into the majority of new games either, but I’m also with marshmallow … if you can’t get into The Orange Box then I really have to wonder whether there’s something wrong with you. I don’t think it’s scored below the 90th percentile in any review, anywhere. I don’t stay interested in most games, even most FPS games, but the quality and polish of every Valve product is unsurpassed. The reason it’s “on rails” is because most people want to be led on a story, and the reason I get fed up with a lot of games is exactly the opposite: they aren’t on rails and I don’t know what the right “next thing to do” is. That’s why I didn’t like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. That and the engine was a bit dated. Valve knows all this, and they relentlessly playtest their games because they know players will quickly find a scenario tiresome if it’s too obscure to figure out. The fact that you cite a lack of atmosphere in Valve titles boggles my mind. How much more atmosphere could they possibly cram into it? I hope you didn’t buy The Orange Box with the expectation that it was a cyberpunk RPG.

It’s interesting that you’re into open-ended roleplaying, but not open-ended, linear storytelling. I think it would be hard to not get sucked into the intrigue of the HL universe. You seem like you’re into games where you have to figure things out on your own, so normally I’d say to come back here when you’ve finished all the Portal Advanced Chambers and half of the challenges and tell me again about gaming on rails, but I guess it doesn’t have enough atmosphere for you. I have to wonder why so many people love its lack of atmosphere then …

12

A agree. Playing against kiddies hopped up on Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs and a liter of Coca-Cola with the reaction time of a cat on speed is not my idea of fun. My 12-year old nephew can pull off 10-move combos in fighting games with ease…I am pleased if I can do three. Remembering, Up, Down, A, A, Left, D, Right Trigger, Left, Right, A+C all done in the span of 1 second blows my mind (not to mention remembering similar combos for each of 15 characters).

In RTS it is the folks who have a build order memorized and zerg you with 1,000 units 2 minutes into the game when you think you are doing well to have just finished building your first building.

In FPS cheating is rampant with aimbots and such. I was playing Counterstrike and a guy ran out right in front of me with his back to me. From “3 feet” away I laid into him…he snapped around and shot me dead and kept going barely breaking stride. Not fun.

That said some online games can be fun. I mentioned World in Conflict before…no zerg crap there and you can really get things done and it is a blast. Hard to think of an FPS that is not ruined but Unreal Tournament was fun and back in the day I really liked Tribes.

As for MMOs…well…tough call. Yes there is a grinding aspect but for me I play EVE Online which has an amazing player community and is much more adult in nature (not raunchy adult…just adults play it…average player age is 27). While some of the grind stinks it is remarkable how you can make friends with people you’ve never actually met (and yes I have a life and real friends). I know people from that game all over the world and if I ever visit Sweden or Denmark or Germany or Australia or a number of other countries I know these people would be there to buy me a drink. They really can be worthwhile…just avoid Hello Kitty Online.

13

Games are also just a lot different than they used to be. And not just in terms of graphics, etc. either, but really fundamentally different in the kinds of skills you need and the ways in which they reward you.

The huge popularity of first person shooters has rendered a big percentage of “hot” game releases irrelevant to me, because I just don’t really like that genre and probably never will. Ditto most RPGs and most sports games.

My tastes generally run toward the arcade-type twitch games that are more marginalized now, so while I couldn’t care less about Bioshock or Madden, I can’t stop playing Elite Beat Agents, I’m downloading tons of stuff from Nintendo’s Virtual Console, and I just picked up Dracula X Chronicles over the weekend.

Most big modern games involve a huge time commitment that I just can’t make now that I’m at work all day.

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I’ll answer this thread in a minute, as soon as I finish off the Babylonians.

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I like the atmoshpere of the Grand Theft Auto games. GTA3 was set in Liberty City (New York). GTA Vice City is set in Miami. GTA San Andreas is set in Los Angelos. You can freely wander large areas in these games too, although there are new parts of the cities you can get to through completing missions. The cities are all very detailed, with traffic lights, traffic, pedestrians, stores, parks, etc. Just drive around, create mayhem, do the game missions, whatever you want.

Another vote for World in Conflict, it’s a real-time strategy, but you don’t have to worry about building things or collecting resources. It also isn’t dependent on quick clicking like many RTS games. The scenery is gorgeous, one part has you in a moonlit snowy town at Christmas time, with the free camera control you can zoom around through the town streets and see all the Christmas lights and decorations. Of course during the mission most of that gets blown up. World in Conflict has a decent story too, it’s sort of like the movie Red Dawn, the Russians invade the USA in 1989.

I know you don’t like fantasy, but if you have a beefy computer, play Oblivion. You can wander wherever you want in the vast world. The scenery is gorgeous. If you can see it, you can go there, there is no fake background scenery, it’s all real.

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Okay everyone, thanks for your help!

Now, maybe i’ve been a bit harsh on the Orange Box. I really did appreciate HL2. I thought that was pretty amazing, but I’m on Episode 1 now and I’m kind of not too interested…Not too crazy.

Now, lets look at some thing I’m not interested in that are HUGE! I’m not THAT old (25) so I ought to be part of the target market still.

Halo 3. Now Halo has always been a big deal, right? Again, for me it’s just another FPS that essentially brings nothing new to the table. I could barely tell the difference between Halo 1 and 2 in terms of actual game mechanics. I am not sure about Halo 3 but unless it has something compelling, I’m not playing it. Why should I? It’s just some game about some alien world which I don’t give a shit about. Not relatable at all.

Now, I’m downloading a demo of World in Conflict. I suppose that will do well.

But back to HL2. The acting in that seems so fake that it’s jarring. Every single time they try to tug on your heartstrings I get nauseous. It’s got cliched dialogue all through the whole damn thing. If you’re going to put emphasis in that area, at least make it good dialogue. The big bad boss guy was cool, but the whole relationship between Gordon and Alex was irritating.

I might give Portal a try this afternoon. It’s meant to be clever.

But okay, what games have I played in the past? SimCity (2,3 and 4) very religiously. But they really don’t respect that series very much these days. I played 4 a lot because there’s so much to it, but then in the end you realize that you get enough money that you start to make all of your cities in a cookie-cutter like fashion.

Another one is Bridge Construction Set!. I freaking loved that game. What do you do? Build Bridges! Really dorky, yes, but still quite cool.

Another game that I’ve played in the MMORPG setting have been Neocron. That was quite cool and my most in-depth experience with MMORPG.

Another one that I loved was Star Wars Galaxies (before they completely screwed it up) That was quite neat as it was a very sand-box oriented game.

I’ve played loads of Civ III and a bit of Civ IV too, but Civ IV is a bit boring. Learn new gameplay mechanics for what exactly? What are the benefits it brings?

When it comes to FPS I’m not against the idea. I just need there to be some sort of X factor. Now BioShock may be interesting, and I should probably give it a harder look, but I’m not certain.

I’m really looking forward to seeing Fallout 3. I CAN’T WAIT. Unfortunately I will have to wait a very long time.

I loved a lot of original games, it just seems like they’re making less and less of them. If I want an RPG, i’ll have to wade through 90 percent fantasy RPGs. How about turn-based stuff? I like turn-based things a lot. I suppose I might play Fallout again if this keeps up…

17

Merkwurdigliebe, I thought of one you might like along the lines of Bridge Construction Set. Armadillo Run. It’s like a modern interpretation of The Incredible Machine, except with Physics®™! :smiley:

Like shy guy, I love casual independent games like this too. Trouble is, they’re hard to find. It’s not like they get reviewed on any gaming sites. :rolleyes:

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If you don’t think that Half-Life 2 oozes atmosphere like a leaky colostomy bag, I just don’t know what to tell you. It’s absolutely the most immersive game world I’ve ever experienced.

19

I still like Donkey Kong.

20

I heard Ep.1 was ok. Not great but not bad either. From what I have been told Ep.2 is much better (both for story and gameplay improvements). Just what I have been told though.

Zero Punctuation Review: Halo 3. Nuff said (by and large he is in agreement)

Definitely give multiplayer a go with that. I hate multiplayer usually but this is really good. Be sure to play the tutorial at least though before jumping in a game or other players will get pissy.

Zero Punctuation: Orange Box Review. At timestamp 3:30 he deals with Portal. Again dead on. Again nuff said.

There are MANY SWG refugees in the MMO I play called EVE Online. You might give it a try. They have a 15 day free trial I think. If you do let me know and I’ll show you around. EVE is due for a MAJOR overhaul in a few weeks with new graphics and so on (they never charge for updates…all part of the subscription) so you might wait 2 weeks before giving it a go if you decide to. Most SWG refugees are vocal about loving SWG and hating what SOE did to it but in the end they all agree they are happy to be in EVE.

Bioshock Demo