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Will games continue to get better over time?

Physiocrat

Member
It seems clear that the best games of today are better than the best games of the 16 bit era and also the 32 bit era. In terms of depth, variety and complexity they are much better. I suspect this is mostly due to the improved hardware which allowed a more varied and deep game rather than having better creators per se.

It seems clear that graphics will continue to improve but will the hardware improvements significantly improve the tool kit of developers? I mean whilst Kingdom Come Deliverance has some gameplay improvements over the Witcher 2 they are somewhat marginal and both great IMO. Those games have like a 7 year time gap between them. The gap between games from 1999 and 2006 would be much greater (can't think of any good examples so at the moment)

This is not to say that better games will continue to be made but that barring graphics, games will no longer become that much better as a general truth. It will be more like the film industry since the 1940s. Some are better than others but there is no general trend of improvement (there can always be purple patches)

So am I right or will the improvement in gaming from 2001 to 2021 be as big as 2021 to 2041?
 
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Rikkori

Member
I mean whilst Kingdom Come Deliverance has some gameplay improvements over the Witcher 2 they are somewhat marginal
Had to stop here, this is a totally dumb take. WTF! KCD's NPC subroutines alone are more complex than everything in TW2 put together, I don't know how to even start deconstructing this. So as far as the question you pose, if that's how you judge things then probably nothing short of a RL Matrix assimilation is going to show those leaps for you. Mind you, that's without even touching on the revolutionary aspects of VR or some more radical (universe-sim) MMOs in development (like Star Citizen etc).

Ryan Reynolds Wtf GIF
 

KAL2006

Banned
I still don't think we reached a point where games are at its peak.

For example Final Fantasy 7 back in PS1 days were huge with so many environments/locations. But that was possible as budget allowed it and everything was pre rendered backgrounds. We don't get that many full 3D RPGs with that many locations and are that expansive. Yes the RPGs have huge open worlds but I feel like the open worlds are just more of the same location with big forests etc or whatever the theme of the game is.
 

jaysius

Banned
Nope, as business gets bigger it'll become more risk averse, we'll see more of the same with microtransactions out the wazoo. There's a homogenization in the industry, that's not a mistake, lazy devs have learned what sells and what they don't need to spend money on. It'll take some kind of massive crash to change things back, it'll never happen either, companies have been testing how little they need to output for maximum profits like Nintendo in the past few years, a few titles with F2P trash in mobile to make up the difference.

TL;DR: The industry is fucked.
 

Physiocrat

Member
Had to stop here, this is a totally dumb take. WTF! KCD's NPC subroutines alone are more complex than everything in TW2 put together, I don't know how to even start deconstructing this. So as far as the question you pose, if that's how you judge things then probably nothing short of a RL Matrix assimilation is going to show those leaps for you. Mind you, that's without even touching on the revolutionary aspects of VR or some more radical (universe-sim) MMOs in development (like Star Citizen etc).

Ryan Reynolds Wtf GIF

That's possibly true with respect to NPCs but unless they are part of a quest I essentially ignore them so I didn't notice. Overall though I didn't think there was that much difference I quality but KCD is the better game but it isn't huge, well at least as huge as between 1999-2006. I will keep an eye out on NPC routines in the future.
 

Fredrik

Member
It seems clear that the best games of today are better than the best games of the 16 bit era and also the 32 bit era.
No GIF


Might be true for some genres and the story telling and animations are certainly better now, but if I would list the best metroidvanias then I wouldn’t start with Ori and the Will of the Wisps, even though I love the game.
 

RAIDEN1

Member
HELL NO! ....Look at the recent news that Pro Evo Soccer is dead, with this "e-football" coming in instead, and so far it has left a lot to be desired that in the end there is NO competition for FIFA...if you want soccer/Football then that is all you have..where have the tennis games gone? Why is it that Top Spin 4 TO THIS DAY remains the definitive Tennis game? Metal Gear 5 was nowhere near as good as the ones that came out the previous generations....what happened to the arcade racers....how come NFS Hot Pursuit from Criterion remains the best NFS game in the past 10 years, and in that time all the entries that have come in are nowhere near as good? It took a Mass Effect Legendary Edition to put Mass Effect on the map, after the debacle that was Andromeda...
 

Sybrix

Member
I think we will get more games as a service, games like Fortnite, COD Warzone, Assassins Creed are offered as as service.

More and more games will do this, i can see Grand Theft Auto type service in the next few years
 

MrS

Banned
No FPS has surpassed Quake
No sports management sim has surpassed Champ Man 01/02
No open world game has surpassed GTA 3
No horror game has surpassed RE2 (98)
No action game has surpassed MGS 3

So no.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Considering there's undetectable aim correction cheats in FPS, every game is slowly switching over to a live service, single player campaigns are getting shorter and more expensive and everything is going to be streamed and devs are going to get paid on the time played instead of the copies sold, nope, we're fucked. Blow into that Super Nintendo and grab you a CRT.
 

kingfey

Banned
If the the last of 2, red dead2, flight simulator, an indication, yes. Games have become better.

We are at a point, where a single person can make a game by himself.

Bright Memory is a lightning-fast fusion of the FPS and action genres, created by one-man development studio FYQD using Unreal Engine.Jul 8, 2021

As technology advances, people will get a sense of how to utilize game assets to make better games.
 

MrS

Banned
ArtemisClydeFrog ArtemisClydeFrog

MGS 5 is not better than 3 in story, gameplay, boss fights, legacy, any metric you want.
LOL Quake walked so that Halo could run. Quake still a better game with a greater legacy. Gameplay holds up better too.
Could concede that San Andreas is on par with GTA 3 but RDR,RDR2 and the fallout games don't hold a candle to it.
 
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ArtemisClydeFrog ArtemisClydeFrog

MGS 5 is not better than 3 in story, gameplay, boss fights, legacy, any metric you want.
LOL Quake walked so that Halo could run. Quake still a better game with a greater legacy. Gameplay holds up better too.
Could concede that San Andreas is on par with GTA 3 but RDR,RDR2 and the fallout games don't hold a candle to it.

GTA 3 was amazing for it's time and I've had some great memories trying to see how long I could fly the Dodo but GTA 5 is better in pretty much every possible way, and the Fallout games have way better exploration/worlds.

I gotta replay MGS 3, I fucking loved that game but only went through it once. So maybe my judgment is off there but MGS5 fuckin slaps.

Quake was always overrated and the gameplay doesn't hold up as well IMO. real Gs played Unreal Tournament anyway
 
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Con-Z-epT

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
There will always be a developer who is trying to push the envelope of what is possible in modern gaming. So yes!

Sadly this is not the rule and with what AAA games cost these days publishers will take less and less risks.
The biggest innovations will come from independent developers with smaller budgets that may get adopted by the bigger ones.
Not every developer is trying to reinvent the wheel and many just try to refine a given formula that proved to be successful wich makes the overall progression come of as slow or even stagnant.

I suspect this is mostly due to the improved hardware which allowed a more varied and deep game rather than having better creators per se.
Altough it seems to be easier to have more varied or deeper gameplay today i think it has more to do with the skill of a developer to pull that of insteadt of the tools.
This is not to say that better games will continue to be made but that barring graphics, games will no longer become that much better as a general truth. It will be more like the film industry since the 1940s. Some are better than others but there is no general trend of improvement (there can always be purple patches)
You can do so much more with a game than you ever could with a movie. I can see why you compared them and sadly, i think you are right.
 

Bkdk

Member
on theory, they should be, I wish there are more AAA titles with robust open world with non linear story, improved destructible physics and reactive ai that will react to players' action in a more dynamic way. Also I really hope more AAA devs will be including sexy and attractive female chars for their character customization. Finally I wish they include mod tools even if they have to be released after a year or two and have to be paid, still better than not having any or little mod capabilities. AR and neurolink gaming also give me hope.
 
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6502

Member
No they wont.

Classics like SMW, SMB3, OoT have not been surpassed. If you were not there then fair enough but the quality of design and being cutting edge (again at the time) has been done and dusted.

Personally no rally game beat Sega Rally. No arcade football game has surpassed iss98. No wrestling game beat wwf wrestlemania (64). No puzzle game bested Tetris.

If you want to have prettier but also shittier games in 4k! then crack on. I have wasted thousands trying to buy better versions of games.

Devs often remove features of previous end gen games to give false progression through next generations too. It sucks but it is the truth. Yes we will get new games to amaze but as this industry matures we reach the point there is nothing new under the sun.

You may as well say Terminator movies can only ever get better.
 
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Monotox

Neo Member
Probably just where my head is at as I get older, but I'm barely enjoying new games anymore so I don't see how they will get better outside of technical aspects like graphics.
 

Corgi1985

Banned
Once the industry is done with team hero shooter and f2p garbage then maybe but the last 5 years have been utter dogshit. Compare 2007 to any year after 2012, or fuck 2013-2021 combined and weep.
 

LectureMaster

Gold Member
Yeah, I am still waiting for a game with a true metropolis setting where you can enter as much as interiors as you can in reality.
 
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