Am I Getting Old? - Page 9

Cosmonaut_Roger · 05-02-2007, 04:33 PM

I've already stated what I think about this topic (old games = better games) but something else occurred to me recently. People are complaining more and more about the death of PC games due to consoles, and I have to say that while I don't think PC gaming will die, it IS changing. But I think this is a good thing, a very very good thing. In my opinion, PC gaming was at its height in the late 80s up until the mid to late 90s, culminating in 1998. The sharpest decline has coincided with the birth of the ultra powerful consoles like the PS2 and Xbox and later now the PS3 and 360. These had many impacts on PC gaming, one of which is money. There is so much more money involved in developing and producing games now than there was comparitively in the 90s. Because of this, as we all know, its hard for developers to be willing to take chances, and its easier to develop games for the consoles where sales far outpace PC games. So what will happen? Will developers stop making PC games and the platform will die? That seems to be what some people are saying, but I disagree. I believe that we will see a new rebirth of PC gaming that will harken back the days of the 80s and 90s. All the big name developers and publishers will move away from PC gaming and into the console market full time. The only time they will delve into PC gaming will be for cheap ports of console games. In their place, tiny publishers and developers will spring up. We will see small, unique, and creative games again, like we did in the 80s and 90s. With the money aspect less of a cloud hanging over these smaller developers heads, they will be able to focus on core gameplay and fun. Granted, we won't see the huge graphical jumps and tech increases we are seeing today as much, but they will still be there. Most people will jump ship on the PC when the graphics issue starts making itself apparent, but a large enough following will remain to sustain the economy of small publishers and independent developers making games. So we could see that creativity present in the last decade resurface as the big business gets out of PC gaming.

I know this is optimistic, but I can hope right?

k:

jg007 · 08-02-2007, 09:10 PM

an area that has really seemed to die is shareware games & adventure games, there were some really great games at one point and the companies, apogee, epic etc went on to become reaslly big but no new comanies seem to have taken their place . I know they wern't on a par with the graphics but I think the gameplay especially the platformer games would still have a major appeal if released today

some of my favourites ( not all shareware ) -

Countdown :wallbash: , took me ages to get to the end

Day of the tentacle
Sam n max
kings quest series
Keen
duke nukem
major stryker
bio menace
electro man
Thor, god of thunder (great little game

I still play some of these today when I wan't a quick game and would be only to willing to pay if similar games were being released today.

I won't pay above £35 for a game so the companies putting so much money into games are just loosing my cash as I ALWAYS wait until they come down in price. surely if something like day of the tentacle was released now it could be done for a much cheaper price and maybe some of the people who don't spend on games like myself might be willing to buy them

humorguy · 08-02-2007, 09:32 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cremz @ Feb 5 2007, 04:46 AM) [snapback]278031[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

The only new game that I'm interested in buying right now for the PC is Jade Empire SE from Bioware. That company makes superb RPG titles. I will definitely buy it when its hot having waited for 2 years since the xbox version was released. I enjoyed KoToR I immensely. To be honest, there are the only developers where I bought the game and keep it with the box in a nice drawer. Temple of Elemental evil is the other game that I keep too. For the others, I will be glad to eBay it as soon as its completed.

As for Oblivion, that definitely made the history books. Not only is it boring, the game doesn't scales with experience. Which is kind of sad considering I had high expectations from it, no thanks to Morrowind. I even upgraded my video card to a 7900GT solely for playing it. Right now, I'm happily playing Betrayal of Krondor and Ultima VI, which is pretty overkill for the card that I have. LOL
[/b]

Are you sure you want Jade Empire SE? Because I thought I did until I found out is had that dreaded 'console conversion problem' - what is that, you ask yourself? That is movement by camera as opposed to movement by character. What do I mean? Well, movement by camera means that if your character is facing you then the WASD system would actually be S to walk toward you, D to turn to his left, A to turn to his right and W to turn around so his back is to you. But now his back is toward you, W will now move him 'into' the screen, A will turn him to face to the left, D will face him to turn to the right and S will turn him around to face you.

Now take that system and add 5 bad guy ninja's fighting you and running around all over the place - imagine how the above control system will work for you?

So unless you are an expert joypad user, you're done for, as the often quoted WASD and mouse system that Bioware spouts on about is nothing like it, they're trying to pull the wool over PC gamers eyes... Otherwise , why would they keep mentioning the WASD and mouse system for the game?!

silz · 09-02-2007, 04:43 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Feb 8 2007, 10:32 PM) [snapback]278527[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

Are you sure you want Jade Empire SE? Because I thought I did until I found out is had that dreaded 'console conversion problem' - what is that, you ask yourself? That is movement by camera as opposed to movement by character. What do I mean? Well, movement by camera means that if your character is facing you then the WASD system would actually be S to walk toward you, D to turn to his left, A to turn to his right and W to turn around so his back is to you. But now his back is toward you, W will now move him 'into' the screen, A will turn him to face to the left, D will face him to turn to the right and S will turn him around to face you.

Now take that system and add 5 bad guy ninja's fighting you and running around all over the place - imagine how the above control system will work for you?

So unless you are an expert joypad user, you're done for, as the often quoted WASD and mouse system that Bioware spouts on about is nothing like it, they're trying to pull the wool over PC gamers eyes... Otherwise , why would they keep mentioning the WASD and mouse system for the game?!
[/b]

Yeah, I get what you mean. It was a pain in the behind to get use to, especially during combat when I first played Knights of the Old Republic. I completely lost all my sense of direction and still true to this day. It has caused me to wipe a lot of times especially when I'm surrounded, no thanks to running to the wrong places. Still, I'm glad to play Jade Empire on the PC since it was intended to be a XBOX exclusive. I'll probably enjoy Dragon Age better but it will be a looong wait for that.

herrloffel · 16-02-2007, 01:19 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jg007 @ Feb 8 2007, 08:10 PM) [snapback]278525[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

some of my favourites ( not all shareware ) -
Countdown :wallbash: , took me ages to get to the end

Day of the tentacle
Sam n max
kings quest series
Keen
duke nukem
major stryker
bio menace
electro man
Thor, god of thunder (great little game

[/b]

I put in that list the games of Indiana Jones: Last crusade and Fate of Atlantis
also The Dig but many of players didn´t like the game... I mean... back here in Brazil. The argument is that the game is too much linear.

humorguy · 16-02-2007, 02:38 PM

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(cremz @ Feb 9 2007, 05:43 PM) [snapback]278645[/snapback]</div>

Quote:

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(humorguy @ Feb 8 2007, 10:32 PM) [snapback]278527[/snapback]

Quote:

Are you sure you want Jade Empire SE? Because I thought I did until I found out is had that dreaded 'console conversion problem' - what is that, you ask yourself? That is movement by camera as opposed to movement by character. What do I mean? Well, movement by camera means that if your character is facing you then the WASD system would actually be S to walk toward you, D to turn to his left, A to turn to his right and W to turn around so his back is to you. But now his back is toward you, W will now move him 'into' the screen, A will turn him to face to the left, D will face him to turn to the right and S will turn him around to face you.

Now take that system and add 5 bad guy ninja's fighting you and running around all over the place - imagine how the above control system will work for you?

So unless you are an expert joypad user, you're done for, as the often quoted WASD and mouse system that Bioware spouts on about is nothing like it, they're trying to pull the wool over PC gamers eyes... Otherwise , why would they keep mentioning the WASD and mouse system for the game?!
[/b]

Yeah, I get what you mean. It was a pain in the behind to get use to, especially during combat when I first played Knights of the Old Republic. I completely lost all my sense of direction and still true to this day. It has caused me to wipe a lot of times especially when I'm surrounded, no thanks to running to the wrong places. Still, I'm glad to play Jade Empire on the PC since it was intended to be a XBOX exclusive. I'll probably enjoy Dragon Age better but it will be a looong wait for that.
[/b][/quote]

I am sort of in the same boat as you - I like non-fantasy, non AD&D RPG's and games like KOTOR and Jade Empire are two of the very very very few non fantasy RPGs, so you try and put up with crappy control or whatever! But what I find worry, is Bioware going on about having the 'PC WASD and mouse system' and the media letting them get away with it! That is worrying, that a publisher can fib like that and the media can conspire with them!

JJXB · 17-02-2007, 10:50 AM

Jade Empire was awesome on xbox

that is one RPG i can say is pretty good. and i'd expect the control system on pc to be a pain since the xbox pad handled the game pretty well.

dolphan · 20-02-2007, 02:29 PM

I dunno, I like oldies, but there's still plenty of excellent stuff coming out. Not that I can run most of it anymore.

ado · 10-03-2007, 05:39 PM

well i don't think my say to the discussion will really matter; i just wanted to say i miss the old times.

sure, it's all very natural, with how mainstream video games start to be and it's starting to be a very profitable business. well, maybe i can't be all too objective because i haven't experienced the 80s gaming firsthand (i'm only 18), but it was something different in the 90s; i was a kid all excited about every new game i could play. it's not that way now, i hardly play games anymore. sometimes i just pop in some oldie to get all nostalgic - which feels nice - but i rarely play a brand new game. and if so, it's mostly games that have originally been made for the consoles, like, say, the silent hill or resident evil series. it's funny really.
not to say that the new games are really 'bad' for most part, of course. for me, they don't suck; i just got a bit out of it all and the new releases are not that much fun for me as they were 10 years ago. i still prefer the first resident evil over the last one, for instance.
sure, the gaming industry's changed a lot over the past few years, but maybe that's the case with others too?
and if not, i guess this post didn't really matter, as said earlier..

humorguy · 11-03-2007, 10:34 AM

10-15 years ago you wouldn't say, like you do now, that an FPS is mostly going to be Sci-Fi, a 'real' RPG will more likely be fantasy based and all strategy games are pretty much RTS games that are getting faster and faster gameplay elements and becoming 45 degree shooters more than strategy!

We don't really get adventures any more, we don't get wargames, we get many fewer 'simulations' of the sub, plane, train variety, and anything that does not fit a rigid cookie cutter template doesn't even see the day unless it's by Sid Meier!

It's not difficult to see why we like the more retro orientated games, it's the only place to go for so mny genres and styles of game that you can no longer get in today's gaming market!