Decline of Gaming Quality

[vladic]

Hi All, so as the title suggests I have recently began to look at the decline of Gaming Quality (GQ), and whilst I will agree that there have been some excellent games in the last 3 years, Skyrim, SC2, World of Warcraft Expansions, Borderlands 1 & 2, Portal 2 etc to name a small niche few there are also a wide number of games, that are released, that just seem to lack the punch of these previous games or even older games.

A Prime PC example of this would be C&C 4: Tiberium Twilight, now whilst this game is now several years old at the time it came out I pulled the "I'm a Child act" and had my girlfriend of the time drive me to a Gamestore where I sat patiently to await its launch one evening (whilst buying back her affection with a burito and a few beers the next day), as anyone who plays C&C knows the main gaming core of C&C games (aside from renegade) is Base building, this means farming for resources makeing defences and units and manufacturing one big ass army.

C&C4 did away with all that employing a new system that revolved around Mobile bases and unit construction only with resources aquired at a steady rate from capture points, whilst I understand that EA were attempting to manufacture a new game play style for the RTS world it is a system that would have been better implemented on a stand alone C&C game or even a free EA game via Steam to see how the system took off.

For the 360/PS3 there are a number of games that have arose and failed to impress, an example would be Lost Planet 2, whilst the first had a single player story line that was full of twists and turns (such as Wayne being frozen for years) the second did away with that resorting to a squad based "kill Everything" type of mission with no interesting story or background given.

For anyone wondering why I have not mentioned Nintendo based consoles such as the Wii, this is primarily due to my lack of use of the systems and also the lack of bad reviews for games I have found, being centred around family orientated fun such as bowling, whacking rabbids etc, wii games are primarily produced for the family and achieve this goal 9 times out of ten, although some games do seem to be carbon clones, such as Wii Sports and Wii Olympic's 2012 etc.

one main contributing factor I believe is rushing on the part of developing companies, an example of this would be the original Xbox Game "Star Wars: Knight's of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords", whilst developed at the behest of Lucas Arts, the game was released ahead of schedule with large content pieces missing, partially rebuilt as a PC mod by some independent modder's in the Telos restoration project, this was placed down to the development company rushing, albeit to appease Lucas Art's cracking of the whip for a release date.

whilst I know I have not covered every little base and have selected only a few games as examples I believe I have given the gist of what I have seen, so the question is now, do you believe gaming quality is declining? and why?

[kregoron]

Tiberium twilligt wasnt made with the singleplayer as its focus, but merely a attempt to gain some momentum in the multiplayer world.
i guess your just looking at the wrong titles..
 
Red alert 3 is probably a bit more what your looking for.
Starcraft 2
Company of heroes (brilliant series!)
Civilization 5 + expansions
Farcry 3
Battlefield 3
Skyrim
Assassins creed 3
Hitman absolution
Natural selection 2
Mass effect 3
Torchlight 2
Diablo 3
Dark souls
World of warcraft expansions
Eve online

90% of the star wars games have been rubbish made, only reason ive played em is because of the SW universe is nice

The list is only limited on some of what ive been playing in 2013

Gaming quality is fine, tho focus has shifted a bit more towards multiplayer content because thats what people are screaming for, myself love a good singleplayer session, and still find a massive amount of good titles out there.

[vladic]

you can agree though that they removed the core content in Tiberium Twilight that makes C&C games what they are, the base buildings etc, ive got RA3 and many of the others, and I wouldnt say 90% starwars are terrible, some have been excellent additions such as battlefront 2, sadly BF3 was scrapped by lucas arts, I just believe developers (not all such as bathisda and 343) are spitting some games out faster and faster and it not only hurts there proffits (40 mil develeopment and game terrible so hardly any profit made) but gaming as a whole as it can only take one terrible game to put some folks off an entire brand/game series

[smilodon]

There's certainly a move buy certain big Publishers to produce games fast and to try to milk as much profit from the franchises they own as possible. Attempts to force players to pay for multiplayer gaming and additional content, perks etc via micro transactions seems to becoming the norm now. At the same time they don't seem interested in doing much that's new or original. They play it safe and recycle the same game formats and reiterate the same franchises.

There are developers who clearly love their craft and make new and interesting games as mentioned above. They probably spend a lot more time and money developing their games and see less profit as a result of not squeezing as much money from their player base as possible.  I guess gaming is becoming more like the film industry. Masses of dumb Michael Bay like action movies with a few excellent films appearing now and then. I just hope the gaming dross doesn't overwhelm the quality.

[vladic]

Aye I can agree with the perception that games are being spat out and only a few are shining through, console games especially some have been terrible considering the development time and cost that went in, dark void and Too human being prime examples, worst thing is that too human had the potential to be an excellent game had it been up to par.

some company's milking franchise's are going about it correctly however, skyrim for example and Borderlands 2 both have addition DLC that was not an extra for the game but in themselves are miniature expansion packs and are priced as such (7.99 or 800 MS points respectivly) these are the developers to keep our eye's on as they deliver 9 out of ten times a solid product, i for one am looking forward to elders scrolls online, although I am not liking there server set up.

[Tutonic]

If you're disillusioned with the big 'AAA' titles (and who would blame you), I would recommend looking further afield at what the smaller/indie developers are up to.

There were some superb games released by smaller studios last year, not all of which got the credit they deserve.

Hotline Miami
XCOM
Wargame: European Escalation
Orcs Must Die 2
Sins Of A Solar Empire
Legend Of Grimrock

These are just a few that spring to mind. The best thing about being a PC gamer, is the sheer variety that is available to you. As with movies, sometimes it's worth just trying to expand your horizons a little to see what else is out there.....

[vladic]

we should really create a list of recommended PC games here on the forums, as like you said some are made by less known Indie companies that may slip through the net, I have been debating Sins of a solar empire for some time, which version however would I purchase as there are 4/5 version of the bloomin thing

I am suprised you missed Planet side 2 off your list as I recently downloaded and started playing this, although I will say it has alot of customisation and a large LARGE learning curve and can be especially difficult without a joy stick or controller to air you

[Blunt]

we should really create a list of recommended PC games here on the forums, as like you said some are made by less known Indie companies that may slip through the net,

What a good idea!  

[vladic]

Indeed, if we all contribute to it, then I could get a form mod to merge them all into one sticky post to prevent removal it would give PC gamers something to view and get an idea of.

[TommyGuner]

Witcher 2 (initially it was a PC-exclusive) springs to mind as one of the freshest, not-your-average-from-the-crowd-game, it blew me away in terms of graphics and the way it was made and designed, loved it and would definitely recommend anyone who has a good enough PC to max it to play it - also, CDProjekt Red is by far one of the best devs out there right now in terms of really listening and appreciating their fans.

E.g. When bugs (only a few) were found on the inital realse of the Witcher 2, Red listened and fixed them within a matter of days - not only that but they threw in 3 free 'DLC' type extra content in their patch.
They kept up fixing any potential bugs and whatnot.

Also when the Xbox 360 'enhanced edition' came out for the console, this added roughly 10 or so extra hours into the game + 10-15 gigs of extra content for the xbox version, however, unlike most developers who would have the PC-gamers who bought W2 initially to buy it separately (or charge them some stupid amount of money to upgrade to this game) they upgraded anyone who already had a PC copy of the game for FREE through a large patch.
And they are also planning to release a kind of 'Creation' (mod) kit for the PC version too.
Very good company and a very excellent game.


Dishonored is not bad but we'll see how sequels of that game will turn out.
Dark Souls is a good game that stuck to its roots and improved and has great challenge and a sense of accomplishment as you progress that hasn't been seen in many recent games.
Borderlands 2 is nearly twice the game than its predecessor was, with nearly everything improved.
Rayman: Origins was another fantastic game which made me very nostalgic
Total War: Shogun is another well designed and beautiful-looking game

However, I do disagree with Hitman: Absolution, it just isn't as good as Blood Money.

[vladic]

Okay here is a small list of games that I personally recommend for gamers, not all are from indie companies or even extremely popular but at the time they were revolutionary in there fields/genre.

Red Alert - RTS Game from Westwood, different from modern games due to its age and can be quite challenging on some levels, definatly worth a play.

Red Alert 2 - Sequel to the above, relatively cheap now and with its expansion allows for alot of fun be it the campaign or even just AI multiplayer.

Red Alert 3- Another sequel, though not as popular as the above and with some changed mechanic's allows for co-op campaign or multiplayer VS People or AI.

C&C Generals - an RTS set with modern technology with some experimental technoloy built in, if you are one for RTS games definatly a recommended, can be picked up in Deluxe edition with its Expansion Zero Hour.

C&C Tiberium Sun - One of the last RTS games and the most popular produced by Westwood studio's, old by our standards but at the time possessing cutting edge graphics, again a challenging RTS depending on difficulty with an interesting story line and hours of fun.

C&C Tiberium Sun: Firestorm - expansion to the above requireing both to play, add's two additional campaign's for the factions which can be extremely difficult at stages requiring you to think outside of the box, also features some of the best sound track's in games I have ever come across.

Sins Of a Solar Empire - RTS game as mentioned in previous posts, ordered my copy last night, with 4 expansions and a total of 9 factions (6 added in later with all 3 current one's being divided into two sub groups), whilst slightly old by game age still an RTS worth having.


Dawn Of War
Dawn Of War: Winter Assault
Dawn Of War: Dark Crusade
Dawn of War: Soulstorm (Optional) - all of the above are excellent RTS games that take inspiration from the warhammer 40k table top game, with familair units and faces coming into play from the books/lore, an excellent choice for any warhammer fan, soulstorm is current as optional due to the gameplay becoming somewhat lack luster compared to its previous installments.

Dawn Of War 2
Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising
Dawn of War 2: Retribution - the highly anticipated sequels to the original Dawn of War games, these games removed the base building campaign to replace the system with a squad based system, with RPG and MMO elements added in such as gear changing and leveling the squads how you want, an excellent choice pure strategy gamers, as rushing in head first (except on the recruit difficulty) will get your slaughtered, the game also demonstrates the idea of how the space marines were ment to be, one marine a "Super Soldier" being able to take out horde's of enemies, where as the previos games did at times make them out to be flimsy and easily killed.




World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
World of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
World of Warcraft: Mist's Of Pandaria - the current MMORPG champion and most popular (paid) game, depending on your free time this game can be many things, it can be a social game to just pop on several hours to level and craft and kill each day, or if you have an abundance of time it can lead to high end content such as raids, PVP arena's (with official e-tournaments) or just simply achievment running, there is so much i cant even list it all plus the original games are now only £4.99 to £6.99 each up to cataclysm

Perimeter - a revolutionary RTS created by Codemasters, and unfortunatly follwed by a particularly bad sequel hence no mention, this game features several RTS elements not found often in RTS games today such as Terraforming, and the game's name sake, perimeter, a tactical shield that can perform a number of actions from defence to vaporising enemies but at a cost, with 3 factions with diverse story lines and goals, and now being exceptionally cheap, i highly recommend this.

Borderlands
Borderlands 2 -Borderlands, and its current 2012 sequel Borderlands 2, are RPG games featuring 4 (5 in borderlands 2 with DLC) classes with large levels of customisation and adaptability my writing wouldnt do them justice, but on decent gaming rig the graphics are stunning and the game offers hours of enjoyability with missions, mindless slaughter and a number of insane supporting characters voiced by well known voice actors, two games I definatly recommend to any PC, Xbox or PS3 gamer.


Planetside 2 - a relatively new steam release, planetside 2 is a massive online shooter MMORPG, with literally so much customisation I cant talk about it all, all i can say is this, its free, it has alot of guns and tanks and planes and so much explosions that its worth it just to download and try it out, bear in mind it will take several hours to get your barings due to the steep learning curve.

C&C 3: Tiberium Wars
C&C 3: Kanes Wrath - the sequel's to the above mentioned Tiberium Sun and firestorm games, these two continue the story several years on with two distinct campaign's (bar Kane's wrath set entirely for one faction but an excellent game) with updated graphic's, usability and additional Lore information for us Lore junkie's, I highly recommend both games

Warcraft 3
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne
Starcraft
Starcraft: Broodwar
Starcraft 2 - all of the above, RTS games produced by Blizzard entertainment, all of which have influenced the RTS genre extensivly becoming the most played RTS games of all time in some cases, having dedicated E Sports around the world, with excellent campaign's and multiplayer VS AI and PVP systems, these games are not to be missed be it for LAN or online play or even just alone

The Witcher 2: Assasin of King's - mentioned by many this game is one of the best game's I have ever played, with RPG elements through out and solid story telling, crafting, combat, romance and not to mention a fair bit of nudity this game is an excellent addition to any PC gamer's collection.

and thats all for now please contribute folks

[T-Bag]

I have to say that the witcher 2 was one of the best games I've played in a long time.

Alan Wake (Original not sequel - decent story with unique gameplay, winning combination)
Borderlands (Both versions - Check out Greenmangaming for the DLC season pass at a sensible price)
Deponia Series (Reminiscent of Monkey Island before it tried to go 3D - worth playing if you like point and click.)
Crysis Series (They are visually stunning, and although unlikely to fall through the net accidentally, I'd call them a must play)
Defence Grid (The amount of free content they've give on top of a stunning polished initial product is mind blowing, plus reasonably priced DLC - Check it out)
DiRT Showdown (This game is a must play for split screen PC gaming - it includes only what you need and will keep you playing for hours)
Mark of the Ninja (I love the art style, and the game play is fun and unique)
Mafia II (Linear story line, but the story is good. Worth checking out)
On the rain slick precipice of darkness (Penny arcarde games, each on play tribute to a different old school game, has some funny dialogue too)
Shank (Similar to mark of the ninja, nice art work coupled with fun gameplay)
Torchlight (although I didn't complete it, this is a thoroughly good game well worth trying out)


These are the top 10 (technically 11, couldn't cut it down...12 if you include the witcher 2) from my steam games that I think deserve a mention. All these have an element of uniqueness that makes them stand out in my eyes. I'd suggest at least watching the trailers from them. I've tried to explain why I love them, but you'll really have to see for yourselves.

[Padding]

Witcher 2 was pretty good actually, but made even more sense with the Enhanced Edition. Some things where left unanswered in the original. On the whole i would agree that more games are coming out that does not meet a good-game standard, but sometimes you get surprised by some of the cheap indie games which can be really good and very low cost like Journey.

[vladic]

aye enhanced edition has left it neatly open for a 3rd game as well, as we now know most of the back story if not all of it about the witcher, yennefer etc I could see a choice coming in the 3rd, Yennefer or your current romantic interest the red haired witch, if you didnt kill him id also be interested in meeting up with the other 3 witchers again.