All about money. Instead of making good, solid, real games that don’t take up 999 wtfabytes in textures and other graphical bling with other gimmicky crap even further bloating it, we get style over substance crap that gives these rich-ass console makers more and more excuses to crank out yet another iteration of their “NEW! 0.00001% BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUS GENERATION!” dead-ass consoles that should have died long ago when PC gaming took over – not because PC graphics are better, but because PCs can do more and do EVERYTHING better.
Gaming is in a sad state right now and people don’t even realize it. I honestly think if people would force themselves to see what old (80s and very early 90s) gaming offers and understand the difference in good games and style over substance trash, they’d understand how much of a clusterfuck modern gaming is. Sure, there’s a small handful of good titles floating around these days, but nowhere near the amount and quality of gaming in, say, the NES days where there are more high quality games on that single console than there has been on every console in the last 15 or so years.
And I know modern gamers are going to cry about this post. Too bad. Has to be said.
Gaming is in a sad state right now and people don’t even realize it.
I haven’t noticed it because I’m watching the AAA gaming industry from afar instead of participating. BotW is about the only game from a major developer that I’ve given a shit about in the last 10 years, and only that because I’m a sucker for Zelda.
We’re in a golden age of indie titles, and they deserve your money a lot more than the Ubisofts and Activisions of the world.
Honestly, a profoundly weird experience that I had recently… was playing Dragonstrike (released in 1992 I think?) for DOS, for the first time.
Objectively this game is the very definition of ‘limited by the technology of its time’. It’s a flight sim made before a mouse was a standard computer accessory. I think the biggest in-game sprites are maybe 50 by 50 pixels. It’s outstandingly difficult to play.
And yet… compared to modern games, when I’m playing this, it really just hits me over and over again how they made every single decision correctly. The game has an excellent premise. The storytelling may be simple but it’s good. The core gameplay loop is fun, and your kit feels like it’s complete and well-made, and there’s no stupid gacha mechanics or grinding or oversexualized poster girl or daily quests to try and force you to play X amount of hours. It’s just for fun. And it IS fun, despite the most unbelievably dated graphics I’ve ever seen. If this game was made just a few years later, it would’ve been outstanding.
…but nowhere near the amount and quality of gaming in, say, the NES days where there are more high quality games on that single console than there has been on every console in the last 15 or so years.
Now lets not romanticize older systems. As someone who grew up playing the original NES, I agree the console had a MASSIVE library of games in its hayday, but I would say less than half of them were even worth a shit. But you’re right, current consoles are simply leaning hard on “Look at how pretty it is” rather than actual quality gameplay.
Right? I feel like AVGN has lasted so long simply because he can throw a dart at a list of non-first party NES titles and ht one of the worst fucking games of all time.
All about money. Instead of making good, solid, real games that don’t take up 999 wtfabytes in textures and other graphical bling with other gimmicky crap even further bloating it, we get style over substance crap that gives these rich-ass console makers more and more excuses to crank out yet another iteration of their “NEW! 0.00001% BETTER THAN THE PREVIOUS GENERATION!” dead-ass consoles that should have died long ago when PC gaming took over – not because PC graphics are better, but because PCs can do more and do EVERYTHING better.
Gaming is in a sad state right now and people don’t even realize it. I honestly think if people would force themselves to see what old (80s and very early 90s) gaming offers and understand the difference in good games and style over substance trash, they’d understand how much of a clusterfuck modern gaming is. Sure, there’s a small handful of good titles floating around these days, but nowhere near the amount and quality of gaming in, say, the NES days where there are more high quality games on that single console than there has been on every console in the last 15 or so years.
And I know modern gamers are going to cry about this post. Too bad. Has to be said.
I haven’t noticed it because I’m watching the AAA gaming industry from afar instead of participating. BotW is about the only game from a major developer that I’ve given a shit about in the last 10 years, and only that because I’m a sucker for Zelda.
We’re in a golden age of indie titles, and they deserve your money a lot more than the Ubisofts and Activisions of the world.
Honestly, a profoundly weird experience that I had recently… was playing Dragonstrike (released in 1992 I think?) for DOS, for the first time.
Objectively this game is the very definition of ‘limited by the technology of its time’. It’s a flight sim made before a mouse was a standard computer accessory. I think the biggest in-game sprites are maybe 50 by 50 pixels. It’s outstandingly difficult to play.
And yet… compared to modern games, when I’m playing this, it really just hits me over and over again how they made every single decision correctly. The game has an excellent premise. The storytelling may be simple but it’s good. The core gameplay loop is fun, and your kit feels like it’s complete and well-made, and there’s no stupid gacha mechanics or grinding or oversexualized poster girl or daily quests to try and force you to play X amount of hours. It’s just for fun. And it IS fun, despite the most unbelievably dated graphics I’ve ever seen. If this game was made just a few years later, it would’ve been outstanding.
Now lets not romanticize older systems. As someone who grew up playing the original NES, I agree the console had a MASSIVE library of games in its hayday, but I would say less than half of them were even worth a shit. But you’re right, current consoles are simply leaning hard on “Look at how pretty it is” rather than actual quality gameplay.
Right? I feel like AVGN has lasted so long simply because he can throw a dart at a list of non-first party NES titles and ht one of the worst fucking games of all time.