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We are living in the lamest of times, a look at the completely insane videogame evolution of older days

Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Game-design hasn't evolved since the Xbox 360 was released. Everything is pretty much the same as it was back then. Pretty disappointing indeed.
I think it has evolved, just not in the ways that many people - myself included - would have preferred it to.

It's evolved around the economic interests of publishers. It has not evolved out of a passion for the medium. So much of what constitutes 'game design' now is actually an adaption of legacy mechanics and tropes in service of monetisation, extending user engagement, and brand extension/consolidation. You can see it everywhere.

We are in a weird state of affairs where some of the most critically acclaimed games are those which seem uncomfortable with their status as games - stuff like The Last Of Us 2, which has aspirations towards being the gaming equivalent of 'great art', but demonstrates little interest in that pesky game stuff. The evolution in that space has largely been in service of revenue generation on one hand, and addressing the inferiority complexes of wannabe filmmakers like Neil Druckmann on the other.
 
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Pallas

Member
I don’t know if I’d agree, I will say games, building them have become a lot more expensive and complex, but we live in a age where there’s RDR2, Forza Horizon 4, Ghost of Tsushima, Resident Evil 8, etc.

Games just take longer, honestly I’m glad there’s such a robust indie scene in video games, to help bridge the gap between those impressive, mind blowing games.
 

TonyK

Member
Nes>Snes>N64

I don’t think there will ever be another jump like those three.
The good old times, when generations meant change and evolution, not like now that it means upgrade.

I think what it changed everything was the annual smartphone iterations. Until that, a new iteration implied a real change. But people accepted constant and small iterations in smartphones paid full price.
 

Romulus

Member
Game-design hasn't evolved since the Xbox 360 was released. Everything is pretty much the same as it was back then. Pretty disappointing indeed.

My thoughts exactly. Everything today is basically a 360 game with higher resolution/better framerate.
People in their gaming youth now don't even know what a true leap in gaming is.
 

Akuji

Member
Lot of saur people in here.
Maybe quit playing games if u hate it so much? PS4 was a great generation and this one will probably get only better.
Bloodborne
Witcher 3
Pubg
Fall guys
Among us
Hades
God of war
Resogun
Nex machina
Spiderman
Forza horizon
Ori
Cuphead
Breath of the wild
Odyssey
Fortnite
Dead cells
Horizon
Etc etc etc if u don’t like any games that come out, it’s on you. Look for a new hobby maybe
 

Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
Lot of saur people in here.
Maybe quit playing games if u hate it so much? PS4 was a great generation and this one will probably get only better.
Bloodborne
Witcher 3
Pubg
Fall guys
Among us
Hades
God of war
Resogun
Nex machina
Spiderman
Forza horizon
Ori
Cuphead
Breath of the wild
Odyssey
Fortnite
Dead cells
Horizon
Etc etc etc if u don’t like any games that come out, it’s on you. Look for a new hobby maybe
Nobody is claiming that there are no games at all being released that are worth playing. You are misreading the point of the thread.
 

Akuji

Member
Nobody is claiming that there are no games at all being released that are worth playing. You are misreading the point of the thread.
You are one angry little dude if I had to judge you from this thread alone.

i hope you find something that makes u happy soon. My post shows that we have awesome games and Thats enough to debunk this thread.
U can choose to not believe it. But your just plain wrong then.
 

nkarafo

Member
My thoughts exactly. Everything today is basically a 360 game with higher resolution/better framerate.
People in their gaming youth now don't even know what a true leap in gaming is.
True.

I'm not that old but i do know of people commenting on how much of a jump it was for them when games had advanced enough graphics to actually define whatever they are supposed to represent.

The jump from 2D gaming to 3D gaming was a huge one for me. The third dimension added a lot and changed gaming completely. It even spawned new genres.

Then you went from low-poly, rough 3D to CGI-like, perfectly defined 3D.

Someone growing up in the late 00's/early 10's take these things for granted. The only evolution for them is resolution jumps and new techniques like Ray Tracing.

But there is hope. If VR becomes the standard it will become another leap, though a slow one.
 
First game I owned:

maxresdefault.jpg
So you started with Flight Simulator 2020 :messenger_weary::messenger_ok:
Animated GIF
 
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nkarafo

Member
Game-design hasn't evolved since the Xbox 360 was released. Everything is pretty much the same as it was back then. Pretty disappointing indeed.
I would argue that games during the XBOX360 era didn't evolve that much from the PS2/GC/XBOX era as well.

Though some genres like open world games did benefit a lot from the extra horse power. But other than that, it felt pretty similar to me.
 

Xeaker

Member
Gaming became soooooo boring these last years, almost no game anymore I look forward to.
For months I am replaying all my PS1 and PS2 games waiting for a new good game on the market...
 

ZywyPL

Banned
Games take longer and longer to make, hence we don't see such packed years anymore. And since AAA/AA games are also so expensive to make nowadays they're taking the safest possible path, if you're looking for fresh experiences indie games is where all the creativity is nowadays.
 
they aren't? there are more indies than ever before and less and less AAA by the day... and these all look repetitive AF, like RE...
Well, yeah. That's kinda my point. As AAA development gets increasingly more expensive, the number of games being released is going to drop, and developers and publishers will gravitate towards sticking with what worked before rather than risk losing hundreds of millions trying something new.

Innovation does mostly happen in the indie sector these days, but aside from a small number of exceptions, these games don't get much mainstream attention, and their influence on the industry as a whole is limited. Look at how roguelikes and -lites have been booming for nearly a decade, yet it wasn't until this year that one of the big publishers came out with a AAA release in that genre.
 
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rofif

Can’t Git Gud
First game I've ever seen was Another World.
My first game was Mario
Then in 1997 I got a windows 95 pc. Duke Nukem3d, blood, hexen. Later Unreal :O
 

FunkMiller

Member
As others have said, the next leap is into VR. Anything else is just going to be higher fidelity versions of the same stuff. The standard video games interface of joypad and keyboard/mouse has pretty much reached the fullest extent of its capabilities. There won’t be much more evolution in gameplay or game design in the pancake realm.

However, VR is still in its infancy. It will become the dominant form of video games entertainment. It’s just a matter of time.
 

Haggard

Banned
Nostalgia sure plays a lot of tricks on the memory....

There simply aren`t jumps in tech as big as at the beginning of the digital age anymore, that`s all there is to it.
But games have never been better than they are now.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I hate to break it to you guys, but when so much territory has been carved out, the stuff left to explore tends to be the smaller nooks and crannies.

Sorry, but If you're bored of modern games, its because you've got jaded and boring. Not the games.

Having been gaming since the 70's I can tell you, hand on heart, that we would have killed back then for games as complex and varied as they are today. The plain fact is that in any given year it was always a handful of progressive ideas in a sea of copyists. Change generally coming out of new technology making stuff that was prohibitively difficult due to resourcing possible.

Nowadays, pretty much anything is possible. Being able to look up and down in a 3d space is an expectation not a novelty, building huge explorable environments is a logistical not a technological challenge, and pretty much every style and genre has been fully explored.
 

UnNamed

Banned
Video game companies take much less risks.

For example, on PS1 you had plenty of different racing games:
arcade
simulation
open world
F1
truck
monster truck
fantasy
rally
hovering
flying
by feet
athletic run
futuristic
boats
ski
sled
Motorcicle
Crossbike
jetski
semi rpg
stylized
RC

and a mix of them.
Now we have 2 semi simulation, 2 Sim, 2/3 rally, some Wipeout game, some new idea from indies. The only new genre is the mud race.
 
I think the Xbox Series X is the best console I've owned in years. We're not even in the 1st year of this generation and people here are already writing it off (many did the same last gen too).
Loving the games and the 120FPS support
 

luffie

Member
I remember also when rpg evolved from BG1 to then super epic Baldur's Gate 2. Now we regress to stupid pillars of eternity, and still people find it hard to surpass BG2.

diablo 1 then to diablo 2. Diablo 3 then brought it to the ground.

Then they brought Star Wars Kotor & Mass effect. Dropped bombs with FF7 & FF8, and shoot rockets with Marvel vs Capcoms fighting games. Most importantly, you don't feel nickel and dimed for them, you don't feel the developers were taking out parts of the game and sell it back as a dlc. Secrets and skins were bonus rewards, not dlc.

Plus we don't have toxic socmed harassing people and politicising games. 90's were humanity's peak.
 

Birdo

Banned
2001: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2002: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2003: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2004: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2005: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2006: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2007: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2008: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2009: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2010: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2011: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2012: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2013: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2014: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2015: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2016: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2017: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2018: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2019: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2020: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2021: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
 

CeeJay

Member
In the pre PS360 era games cost significantly less to make so you saw more risks and more innovation. It's no coincidence that as the cost of AAA games have risen steeply we have also seen a similar decline in innovation. The big games today are just too expensive to take risks with and why we see very little innovation, the developers have to achieve a certain level of success with every game or they risk becoming insolvent. This means that they will go with a tried and trusted meta or create a big budget clone of the latest indie darling.

If you want innovation then it's the small indie studios that are paving the way with genuinely new and inventive games. The problem is that these tend to be either small scale or janky as fuck if they go for something ambitious. So, you can either choose polished, high production value vanilla games or innovative, fresh games that have technical issues. Rarely these days can you have both.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
I have a different view. Except some fluctuations from "suits testing their audience's limits" or "Among Us" trends and fads, progress is mostly accumulated forward and is available. Not much is lost except what is thought to be lost due to nostalgia. Thus in the end the reality is that right now I'd much rather play "RE Village" than any of the games listed in the op. Sometimes I can't believe I'm finally able to play games like Forza Horizon 4 which is something I wasn't even able to comprehend back in Nostalgia-land.

TLDR; Despite the power of rose tinted memories, I like today better than yesterday.
 
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01011001

Banned
3D platforming games in a 4-year span.

1996 - Super Mario 64
1996 - Crash Bandicoot
1997 - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
1998 - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
1998 - Banjo-Kazooie
1998 - Spyro The Dragon
1999 - Donkey Kong 64
1999 - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
1999 - Rayman 2: The Great Escape
2000 - Spyro: Year of the Dragon
2000 - Banjo-Tooie

You can look at virtually every genre around that time and see an explosion of evolution as new tech became available. It changed as much in 2 years as we see in 15 years because of the smaller and cheaper development times and less corporate pressure. Best of times.


I get the idea, but that 3D Platformer example doesn't work for me as Mario 64 is better than any game you listed after it and I don't see the evolution there as most of them do the same but worse or simply slightly different... there's not necessarily any evolution going on from Mario 64 to something drastically more advanced.

especially Crash... the Crash games could literally work in 2D, they're barely even 3D platformers to begin with.

maybe Spyro could be seen as more advanced since it was one of the first games to heavily rely on constant LOD swaps and it pushed the PS1 hard in terms of graphics, but that's about it
 
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Of course the evolution isn't as staggering as during the 90s. It doesn't need to be.

Sure there are things the industry coud do better, but there are still great games coming out on a consistent basis. My kid self would've had his mind blown if he could glimpse into the future and see some games of today.

Just give me 2-3 new games and 1-2 remasters/remakes every year and I'm good.
 

cireza

Banned
If you feel that way, why aren't you trying vr yet?
This is a valid point. There is probably a great experience there for us to try, however, it is not for everybody. The fact that I it disconnects me from the real world, where things can happen (my wife or one of my kids might need me for whatever reason etc...), has made me avoid VR for now.
 
2001: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2002: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2003: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2004: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2005: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2006: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2007: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2008: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2009: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2010: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2011: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2012: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2013: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2014: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2015: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2016: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2017: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2018: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2019: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2020: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
2021: "Don't worry, VR will change everything!"
It already has for those of us that have tried it.
 

Haggard

Banned
It already has for those of us that have tried it.
VR, the new "wiggle-waggle".

Fun for an hour then the novelty wears off and you want a normal controller and FOV back, as well as the options to reach for your drink or talk to someone.....

Unless the next console gen comes bundled with an Omni treadmill and a "ready-player-one"-esque suit VR will stay niche in the gaming sector.
 
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luffie

Member
In the pre PS360 era games cost significantly less to make so you saw more risks and more innovation. It's no coincidence that as the cost of AAA games have risen steeply we have also seen a similar decline in innovation. The big games today are just too expensive to take risks with and why we see very little innovation, the developers have to achieve a certain level of success with every game or they risk becoming insolvent. This means that they will go with a tried and trusted meta or create a big budget clone of the latest indie darling.

If you want innovation then it's the small indie studios that are paving the way with genuinely new and inventive games. The problem is that these tend to be either small scale or janky as fuck if they go for something ambitious. So, you can either choose polished, high production value vanilla games or innovative, fresh games that have technical issues. Rarely these days can you have both.
Development costs aren't the same for all games. When they say cost rise significantly that is a bullshit used to justify selling for higher price and mtx. They rise because they have put in more money in marketing than development, because they brought in celebrity talents to hype up a game, they rise because they pay to keep licenses exclusive. Not everything is AAA budget. CP2077 spent more on marketing than development, and certainly all FIFA games.

In fact you could also argue development has never been easier with way CHEAPER & robust tools available, as well as different ways to market and raise funds from Kickstarter.
Larian didn't develop Divinity 2 with AAA budget, Hollow Knight is by 3 people.

The ones that keep saying rising development cost are like Star Citizen, a game that keeps on raking money, selling $4kusd ships while still not shipping after a decade.

Let me tell you, the game CEO's aren't walking away with less money.
 
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VR, the new "wiggle-waggle".

Fun for an hour then the novelty wears off and you want a normal controller and FOV back, as well as the options to reach for your drink or talk to someone.....

Unless the next console gen comes bundled with an Omni treadmill and a "ready-player-one"-esque suit VR will stay niche in the gaming sector.
FOV of what, your monitor and your basement? So that in your periphery you're constantly reminded that you are sitting alone in a room hammering on an 'a' button or left clicking a mouse.
 
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Iced Arcade

Member
Been gaming since the NES. What your picture doesn't paint is the fact that the amount of games that came out in previous gens.

I think games became more "big" back then because there wasn't a large pool of competition constantly being released so gamers spent a lot of time with each game. (Also the same reason games cost more back then imo.)
 
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Haggard

Banned
FOV of what, your monitor and your basement? So that in your periphery you're constantly reminded that you are sitting alone in a room hammering on an 'a' button or left clicking a mouse.
Sounds like you need much less "VR" and more "social" in your life if those are your alternatives :messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy::messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
VR, the new "wiggle-waggle".

Fun for an hour then the novelty wears off and you want a normal controller and FOV back, as well as the options to reach for your drink or talk to someone.....

Unless the next console gen comes bundled with an Omni treadmill and a "ready-player-one"-esque suit VR will stay niche in the gaming sector.

Nah

Every first person game I play now since Half Life Alyx and Boneworks I always think at least once that I wish I could use HTC Vive controls with it

They're all medicore experiences with a controller
 
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supernova8

Banned
If the whole shabam about SSDs changing game design forever is really true, then we will probably need more than the standard 7-year cycle to make full use of it.

We will definitely get a big leap eventually. Just look at how much more powerful these systems are compared to PS4 and then look at the absolute stunners that managed to run on PS4 (like RDR2).

I'm still a little skeptical, but hopefully this generation will be the first massive leap for a while.
 

vpance

Member
Not that I have any interest in BR or Minecraft games, but it's hard to deny their impact.

Maybe with machine learning we can finally get some very realistic AI and NPCs within this decade.
 

evanft

Member
Yes, technology advancement, at least when it comes to graphics, is going to slow down over time. Once you start approaching photorealism, you're no longer limited by the hardware, but the time/money available to create the resources required to meet the quality expectations of the consumer.
 

sainraja

Member
You think that's crazy, look what released in 1998 alone:

Resident Evil 2
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Xenogears
Tekken 3
StarCraft
Unreal
Banjo-Kazooie
F-Zero X
Metal Gear Solid
Grim Fandango
Half-Life
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Baldur's Gate
Street Fighter Alpha 3

Some of the greatest games ever made released in one year.
Very likely that the gamers of the time probably did not see it that way (I realize a lot of us were gaming at that time.) We have the benefit of looking back and say "Wow, those were some great IPs!." Perhaps zoom in on 2005, 2006, and 2007 as well and see how those years look.
 

01011001

Banned
They need to treat more games like games and less like movies. Doom's reincarnation is a testament to that.

it's sadly the save route nowadays to have movie like games that try really hard to feel like Hollywood productions instead of actual focusing on the interactive bit
 

_Ex_

Member
Graphics have always been about chasing diminishing returns. There is still plenty of evolution left for game design itself. But the market is largely driven by simple minds wanting simple things.
 

ManaByte

Member
Very likely that the gamers of the time probably did not see it that way (I realize a lot of us were gaming at that time.) We have the benefit of looking back and say "Wow, those were some great IPs!." Perhaps zoom in on 2005, 2006, and 2007 as well and see how those years look.

No, at the time 1998 was amazing. I remember it vividly. The year kicked off with things like RE2 and StarCraft and ended with Half-Life and Ocarina of Time. I still remember loading Unreal on my PC for the first time.

Something I forgot to include there was that the Beta for EverQuest began that fall as well and I remember how amazing that was too.
 
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sainraja

Member
No, at the time 1998 was amazing. I remember it vividly. The year kicked off with things like RE2 and StarCraft and ended with Half-Life and Ocarina of Time. I still remember loading Unreal on my PC for the first time.

Something I forgot to include there was that the Beta for EverQuest began that fall as well and I remember how amazing that was too.
Ah, perhaps just me. Personally, when I look back at 98' and in a way this is the year I really started gaming, the only games that come to my mind are: Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Tenchu 1/2, Driver etc. Those were my main games or series that I stuck with. I didn't bother with anything else. I realize some of the games I mentioned may not have come out in 1998.
 
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iQuasarLV

Member
Modern Warfare 2 and Assassin's Creed II was released in 2009, 11 years ago, Bioshock and Mass Effect released 13 years ago. 10 years ain't that much these days in terms of evolution.

In contrast, look at this complete mind-blowing iteration of first-person shooters. In 10 years the industry went from Doom II to Half-Life 2.

1994 - Doom II
1995 - HeXen
1996 - Quake
1997 - Quake II
1997 - Goldeneye 007
1997 - Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
1998 - Half-Life
1998 - Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
1998 - Unreal
1999 - Quake III Arena
1999 - Unreal Tournament
2000 - Counter-Strike
2000 - Perfect Dark
2001 - Halo: Combat Evolved
2003 - Call of Duty
2004 - Halo 2
2004 - Half-Life 2

Plenty of other genres also exploded. For example real-time strategy games. From WarCraft II to Rise of Nations in 8 years.

1995 - WarCraft II: Tides of Darkness
1998 - StarCraft
1999 - Age of Empires II
1999 - Homeworld
2000 - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
2002 - WarCraft III: Reign of Chaos
2003 - Command & Conquer: Generals
2003 - Homeworld 2
2003 - Rise of Nations

3D platforming games in a 4-year span.

1996 - Super Mario 64
1996 - Crash Bandicoot
1997 - Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
1998 - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
1998 - Banjo-Kazooie
1998 - Spyro The Dragon
1999 - Donkey Kong 64
1999 - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
1999 - Rayman 2: The Great Escape
2000 - Spyro: Year of the Dragon
2000 - Banjo-Tooie

You can look at virtually every genre around that time and see an explosion of evolution as new tech became available. It changed as much in 2 years as we see in 15 years because of the smaller and cheaper development times and less corporate pressure. Best of times.
Sadly, most people gaming on the internet these days were either, A: still shitting their diapers during this period, or B: not even born yet. They probably will never know how good it was before it got incorporated.
 
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