The Advancement of Computer Games

[BlabyFox]

I was thinking about this the other day - how much have games moved on in almost every way? Graphically, story-wise and just basically in every way they can. Take a look at these videos - from two of the most hyped franchise games of all time, and see how they've moved on.

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Metal Gear Solid - released - Septemer 3rd 1998.

Intro to MGS4, released June 12th 2008, 9 years and 9 months later.

Resident Evil gameplay clip, released 1996.

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Resident Evil 5, released in March.

Look how things have moved on. Its ridiculous. How far will games have come in another 10 years time?

Discuss.

The past ten years has seen a huge improvement but there isn't much more room for improvemnet nowadays in games like killzone 2 and resident evil 5 is there?

[act smiley]

It's looking very promising so far. People that tried the short demo at the last BlizzCon were stunned at the vintage atmospheric setting in Tristram. I'm hoping that will carry on for the rest of the game. But people are still nervous about whether the atmosphere can be sustained for large parts of the game (colour contrversy etc), especially in outdoor settings. I'm crossing my fingers that we will see another classic game by Blizzard this time next year

The 'colour controversy' thing was ridiculous. I loved the response of the rainbow pony t-shirt, though!

Diablo 3 will be a very good game, but it will be more of the same - as a sequel to something that big, it has to be.

My main problem, I guess, is that while there's been so much progress technically, so little of it goes on actually doing things differently. I mean, some of the games mentioned most often in terms of player choice and depth of world and character etc are all getting on a bit now - - I mean, some of the heavily mentioned games in this area are getting on for a decade old (eg, Deus Ex, Planescape Torment, etc) - and so far the most popular thing recently was Bioshock, which was a knockoff of one of their previous games from '99.

The differences that can be done technically by hardware shaders, rendering etc. and all the fancy stuff that comes as standard these days, is impressive, but its just the same thing... but prettier.

[shen]

The 'colour controversy' thing was ridiculous. I loved the response of the rainbow pony t-shirt, though!

Diablo 3 will be a very good game, but it will be more of the same - as a sequel to something that big, it has to be.

My main problem, I guess, is that while there's been so much progress technically, so little of it goes on actually doing things differently. I mean, some of the games mentioned most often in terms of player choice and depth of world and character etc are all getting on a bit now - - I mean, some of the heavily mentioned games in this area are getting on for a decade old (eg, Deus Ex, Planescape Torment, etc) - and so far the most popular thing recently was Bioshock, which was a knockoff of one of their previous games from '99.

The differences that can be done technically by hardware shaders, rendering etc. and all the fancy stuff that comes as standard these days, is impressive, but its just the same thing... but prettier.

To be honest though, the darker, less colourful rendering of the screenshots and videos done by fans looks better. It would add to the whole atmosphere which IMO is alpha and omega with a game like Diablo.

I see where you're coming from re: games are the same, just prettier, but it's not just that. Some games have, in fact, tried to add much more complexity to the games which effectively kills them in my view. Many new games give the player too much freedom and responsibility that it becomes quite a chore to play, because you have to spend a long time getting accustomed to the way that particular game plays. For example, the new strategy games that now operate in full 3D removes the simplicity you had with a simple 2D overview. It gave you more control, and you wouldn't have to deal with desorientation.

Same thing applies to simulation games, e.g. FIFA. I've been used to play Fifa on my keyboard for over a decade, but now dribbling functions, dummies, curling effects, passes into space, runs, keeper charging, pushing up, more acurate timing, deadball situations all add to the complexity of a game (which is fine at first sight), but the many new extra keys/buttons assigned with these new functions makes it much more difficult to coordinate and thus control what you're doing on the pitch. That in my view, kills the whole idea of being able to play a game at any time and be able to control it well enough without hours or days or weeks of practice. Likewise, the time games take now (like WoW or even FM) obviously adds to longevity, but it is just as frustrating that you can't play the game 'properly' without investing frankly TOO MUCH time into it.

So in addition to your view, that games aren't innovative enough as such (e.g. Wolfenstein 3D and Left 4 dead are basically the same thing, the latter just fancier), I think that too many games get caught up in this idea of making a huge game that ensures longevity and ability to make add-ons (and thus £££).

[potter3]

e.g. FIFA. I've been used to play Fifa on my keyboard for over a decade, but now dribbling functions, dummies, curling effects, passes into space, runs, keeper charging, pushing up, more acurate timing, deadball situations all add to the complexity of a game (which is fine at first sight), but the many new extra keys/buttons assigned with these new functions makes it much more difficult to coordinate and thus control what you're doing on the pitch.

To be fair though, football simulation games have always been better suited to console controls, rather than a keyboard. And all these functions you mention work fine on a control with 8 buttons only for 'non-movement' actions