Lunchtime Discussion: Quality
Golden age?
Published: 12:00, 13/07/2010 by Kris [Halbpro].
44Now on rare occasions here at TheSixthAxis we have been accused of being a bit old fashioned, some of us in particular. So maybe modern games are just lacklustre clones of each other, but it seems that Metacritic disagrees with our humble opinion. Apparently they’ve crunched the numbers for the first half of this year, which show that 2010′s games are beating out 2009 so far. That’s right, screw last year, 2010 is where it’s at. Not only is the average score up, but the top tier games are performing marginally better as well.
Now I’ll be the first to say that Metacritic is a very useful tool for getting the overall feel of how a game is performing, but I don’t know if I’d really say that games are really getting better. Yes we have higher definition graphics and more immersive experiences, pushing gaming into a multi-billion dollar industry but are things actually better than they were?
I’ve talked about the glow that youth brings to memories before, the way that Creme Eggs seem smaller than they were when we were kids, the fact that pink lemonade may not have actually been any better than normal lemonade. Is gaming any different? Of course because games don’t expire, unlike Creme Eggs and lemonade sadly do, we can go back and check if they’re any good.
Simple fact of the matter is that games from our youth are still awesome. I’ll happily contest that the 2D GTAs are better than their modern equivalents, the first Super Mario Bros. is still an incredible amount of fun, and of course the modern Sonic games are easily trumped by their classic equivalents. This isn’t to say that all modern games are trash, there are obviously a huge wealth of stand out titles coming to the market today. I think the big difference is with more money in the market increasing the number of games being made, there are more games that can absolutely bomb.
What’s your feeling on this? Is Metacritic right, and we’re heading into years of games that continue to top each other year after year? Have games got worse? My personal opinion on the whole thing is that whilst there are more good games available, the percentage of top rank games has stayed about the same.
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13/07/2010 at 12:06
Member since: Aug 2008
If you were to take a mean, then yes, games are improving. Are the best games of today better than the best games of old? Maybe not.
I think the huge budgets and top quality of titles like Uncharted 2 mean that the film tie-in guff that used to be shat out for consoles like the NES are no longer able to get away with making sales based on the name so developers tend not to bother unless than can make a game that is at least passable. There are notable exceptions of course, particularly with the Wii.
13/07/2010 at 12:09
Member since: Forever
There’s been some monster releases in 2010 (particularly Q4 09/10) when some pretty monster games were released as they were running scared of the MW2-factor
So I can see how the Metascore would improve, but they are just year on year results.
We all know that there hasn’t been any games released as good as those in the mid&late ninties on the Megadrive & SNES! True fact!
13/07/2010 at 12:19
Member since: Aug 2008
dont see that as a fact… I had as much fun playing streets of rage, sonic, road rash as i have playing GOW, Uncharted and Burnout
13/07/2010 at 12:43
Member since: Jan 2010
The games of old were new and novel, and maybe thats why we enjoyed them more than todays titles.
Thats not to say that todays games aren’t as good, I think it’s just that we have a different perspective, especially us older gamers.
I spend as much time playing BFBC1&2 as I did spend playing CBM64 elite. Damn them thargoids were hard.
But back in the halcion days, every game was new and different, and there were’nt that many either, so you played them to death.
13/07/2010 at 12:48
Member since: Jun 2009
Fact? No. Opinion? Yes.
13/07/2010 at 12:57
Member since: Forever
Obviously its my opinion, I wrote it.
:p
13/07/2010 at 16:20
Member since: Mar 2010
This is the internet. Opinion is fact on the internet.
13/07/2010 at 12:12
Member since: Jul 2009
I agree that many of the classic games are still good. At the same time, a lot of games that I remember as fun are total and utter shite when revisited.
I would never agree that GTA 2d is better than GTAIV.
Newer games [often] have more ambience, more lighting effects, more texture and detail, which all helps create a sence of realism, which helps the immersion process.
I’ve finished a lot of games the last two years on the PS3, something I normally couldn’t be bothered with before.
Of course, “stunning visuals” can’t disguise a poor game foundation, but I remember a lot of classic games that was equally bad to play as to look at.
The only thing I’ve found missing from the games industry today is point’n'clickers, which now is being somewhat remedied by the relaunch of Monkey Island, hopefully Syberia 3 at some point, and then maybe some more in the same vein.
Games have definately not gotten worse imho.
13/07/2010 at 13:37
Member since: Dec 2008
I always keep hoping for a Broken Sword 5…
13/07/2010 at 13:40
Member since: Oct 2008
Agreed, I think games have just changed from being simplistic to needing deep plots to survive the wrath of the critics.
Plus the games industry itself has learned (to a certain extent) from it’s previous errors, with things like getting rid invisible walls, sensible save points and recharging energy bars being more commonplace to address things that used to rile about older games.
That said, with it has come less of a challeng, it has been discussed at great length here on TSA before but I don’t think anyone can be in any doubt that games simly used to be a lot harder.
This talk is making me want to jump on a Flash Repton emulator.
13/07/2010 at 12:15
Member since: Nov 2008
Im not one to look at metacritic, ive only visited the site a couple of times. Therfore I dont really take much notice of what the world thinks of a game. People I trust on the other hand (some reviewers on this site and friends) I will listen to.
Having said that a game is only good if it interests you, as a person. My personal preferences are RPGs and anything else that is story driven. Its sad to say but stories in most of the games 10 years ago were pretty naff. Nowadays they are about as close to interactive movies as you can possibly make them. So yes games are getting better for me because the stories and voice acting integration is getting better, immersing me more in the experience, uncovering the characters…er… characteristics.
They are also getting harder,more challenging,more brain taxing than before which also floats my boat somewhat.
There is a flip side to all of this though. Games are often met with sequels, and sequels on top of those sequels making the game and the characters become boring with not much new IP floating about.
New IP is a huge thing in gaming for me, I am massively interested in the new ways of making a game, new control systems etc but I think Heavy Rain went too far by sacrificing most of what makes a game a game and overloaded it with story. I never thought that was possible!
13/07/2010 at 12:28
Member since: Forever
I agree with all your points, although I don’t always play a game for the story.
Games in the past had stories which consisted of ‘save the princess’ and variations of it like save the country/planet from invasion. Nowadays the end goal of the story is still usually just to save something but your path is fleshed out much better than it used to be.
I play a game for a various reasons
- For the story (like Uncharted 2 which fleshed out basically a game which mostly consisted of shooting thousands of people, with a real tangible story)
- For the experience (like Flower)
- For the shear craic of it
- Just to entertain my brain and enjoy something for a few hours
Although I was really interested in what happened next in Uncharted 2 (just like other people may be in MGS or FF games) I don’t think it immersed me any more than saving a Princess back in the day, or racking up a high score does now.
13/07/2010 at 12:40
Member since: Nov 2008
Im not entirely sure if this is what you meant but i will repeat: There is no ‘next’ with FF. They are individual stories/characters that dont get sequels. ( There is one exception I believe with a follow up of of XII on the DS)
Sequels in general though are good to a point, they can simply destroy what made you like the games in the first place by its 3rd or 4th iteration. I sometimes wish people would learn to quit while they are ahead in terms of using the same characters over and over.
13/07/2010 at 12:55
Member since: Forever
I didn’t say they were, I don’t know what you’re talking about
13/07/2010 at 13:13
Member since: Nov 2008
“I was really interested in what happened next in Uncharted 2 (just like other people may be in MGS or FF games)”
<<< That
13/07/2010 at 13:40
Member since: Dec 2008
I think he meant what happened later in the same game, Roynaldo
13/07/2010 at 17:30
Member since: Forever
Yes I did, as in “next in Uncharted 2″
not in uncharted 3 or whatever
13/07/2010 at 12:16
Member since: Aug 2008
I think games are always as fun as the 1st time you play them as long as the game;
1) Has good controls/gameplay
2) Has a good path through from start to finish (more MGS style, and less MW2, as the story is cack, so all that happens is you run and gun for 6 hours). The story dosen’t need to be complicated, Mario and Sonic games have simple story’s, but they work superb in the world that you are playing.
3) Is generally fun and interesting.
Games like Sonic, streets of rage, MGS, Uncharted, Tomb rader, Assins creed, ICO, will last a life time as you can go back to them as they will tick the 3 points above.
Games like MW2, Killzone, Rainbow6, will most likely only get one or two plays through on the single player modes. Games geared towards MP will never stand the test of time IMO, and wont work once the servers are shut off is another point to make
13/07/2010 at 13:43
Member since: Oct 2008
I’ve even got affection for some dreadful games, Robocop on the NES springs immediately to mind.
13/07/2010 at 12:20
Member since: Apr 2010
This comment is hidden.
13/07/2010 at 12:27
Member since: Apr 2010
This comment is hidden.
13/07/2010 at 12:31
Member since: Forever
I know what you mean, I’d play Revenge Of Shinobi, hellfire, Gynoug, Sonic or anything again & again but I tried to replay even something like Uncharted 2 and got bored about 4 chapters in
I don’t know if our attention spans are shorter these days because we’re older or because of something to do with the games
13/07/2010 at 12:47
Member since: Apr 2010
This comment is hidden.
13/07/2010 at 12:30
Member since: May 2009
I completely and utterly disagree. It’s not that the releases have been of higher quality, it’s that everyone fled the holiday 2009 period because of Modern Warfare 2 and landed in the first half of 2010.
Heavy Rain, FF13, God of War 3, MAG, BFBC2…. All of them would, pre-CoD4, have been released at the end of a year, but release schedules have shifted.
So whilst 2010 might end up being a bumper crop, this is because it’s half of 2009′s games that have been misplaced. Things will start to balance out again come winter, where things will be dominated by CoD again.
The only thing that can be certain is that all the consoles are now into or past their 3rd year. The hardware is well known and the limitations found and worked around (to some extent). So yes, the games are getting better, but 2010 is currently an anomaly rather than the rule.
13/07/2010 at 12:38
Member since: Jun 2009
Rose tinted glasses are a dangerous thing
13/07/2010 at 12:44
Member since: Jul 2009
Rose-tinted spectacles are healthy. Psychologically, most of us ditch the bad moments in life (from serious tragedy all the way up to bits that pissed us off in games of old). It’s in our nature and prevents us from feeling depressed. However, we can temper that with being objective and realising that the games back then were potentially great but only in its own context. FPS has moved on, hardware enables us to have incredible environments. Gameplay, itself, is probably the most stagnant and tangible category in gaming but it still evolves. Just slower than things like sound, graphics, etc.
Interestingly, as each category improves, it often highlights and contrasts against gameplay where it feels “just like the version on the PS2″ for example.
I think what’s wonderful is the advent of Xbox Live Arcade and the PSN Store. It’s opened up lots of lovely little games we’ve been missing out on for years. The perfect sized game for when we don’t have the emotion or time to commit to a bigger, more serious disc-based affair.
Anyone truly stuck in the past is usually so biased that there’s no convincing them. They will be found playing plenty of “old games” and turn into a miserable, bitter, old sod. Hahahaha! Sorry… nearly said that last bit with a straight face.
13/07/2010 at 16:57
Member since: Aug 2008
Bang on. My mates and I were in the pub recently talking about the ‘good old’ days at school and every single story was a lunchtime, break or after school. You just forget all the boring shite you did in lessons and think school was a great time (of course it was a lot less stressful than life as an adult but hey ho)
13/07/2010 at 13:19
Member since: Jul 2009
I have to say I think games have got better.
However I think it’s the sheer quantity of games there are today means you are spoilt for choice. There are so many good games produced these days, that it’s harder for any one game to stand out as being truely great or novel.
Back in the early nineties, I would get home from school and spend all evening playing whatever game I’d saved up my pocket money for, or got for birthday/xmas. I had fewer games, and therefore each one got played within in an inch of its life. Now I’m in my late 20′s and can buy whatever game I want, and have a few on the go at anyone point in time, even my favourite games don’t have a long shelf life before I sell them and move onto something else.
Does all this mean the ones I played for months on end as a kid were better, no, I think we just expect so much more from a game these days and so many achieve this target.
Try going back and playing the older games, you realise quite quickly that often their main quality was their addictive nature (trying to complete quite repetitive tasks perfectly) rather than the actual gameplay or concept itself, and it was the addictiveness (as well as lack of alternatives) that meant you stayed with the same game and now look back with fondness.
Whilst I love my PS3 today almost as much as I loved my low spec PC and megadrive as a kid, the games today are just so much better. I get very bored/infuriated very quickly when going back to my old games. I think this also applies to relatively recent games, I much prefer the games I play now on the PS3 to those I used to play on the PS2. The added benefit of having this opinion is that I’m always excited about new games as I truely believe they will be better than the ones I’ve just finished (barring the odd exception)!