Is it just me, or are gaming series getting worse each year?

There's been talk among the folk around online, in 8wr, & in public too much about (any or all) gaming series. Most of the talk is all negative it seems, & it tells me that games aren't going well in the up coming future. I know that every game will always have a hater in it, but for it to be highly common to hear from alot of other ppl as usual, gets to me.

Imho: I think game designers are faltering fairly good. Game series like Halo, CoD, SCV, Elder Scrolls, Borderlands, SSBB, Final Fantasy, DOA, etc. etc. are showing remarkingly strange differences. Differences that make you possibly go "fuck this game...." & loads of bad rumor spreading. Like I said before, this is gone wild. & it doesn't look pretty to me.

What does 8wr think about the gaming series in the up coming future years?
Do you think its actually getting better?
or
Do you think its actually getting worse?

Edit: (Or is it complicated for you to choose a side?)

I feel like spoiled kids that have feelings of entitlement after always getting what they want is another issue :/

I just wish they weren't running around complaining about it and trying to force their self-absorbed opinions on everyone :/

There are probably several reasons for why many might feel this way. Some could be very simple explanations others could be rather complex. Long post incoming.

Perhaps the simplest explanation is that players are hyping themselves up to levels to expectations that are simple unreachable. Once they finally play the game and it fails to meet to up to such lofty expectations, they may feel disappointed that the game didn't quite satisfy them, even if the game is actually pretty good.

Another, more complex answer might be due to the amount of content, or the quality of content provided in the game. These days, with ballooning budgets and heavy focus on art and graphics, the amount of content provided by a game is shrinking, despite the fact that the number of hours in a game may be increasing. Or the content inside the game itself is lacking in quality or failing to appeal to players. Could one say the extra side quests available in the original Dragon Age from the various wanted posters/chests in towns has the same sort of depth or complexity found in the side quests of those in Baldur's Gate? I wouldn't say so. Due the fact that developments costs have risen, and the time it takes to develop the main game, many developers opt to create additional content in often quickest way possible with very little afforded development given to them. This is why we often get games with extra content with little more than showing off the battle engine that took several months to polish and balance. Or simple quests fetch and kill quests that are utterly devoid of depth or strategy (see AC3's Assassin Contracts as compared to those from AC2 or ACBro). And even more often, these sorts of extra content that were developed are given in extreme amounts and usually are the only content available (The huge amount of Cieth/Boss kill quests in FF13). This sort of content is appealing to many players, but the sheer number of them, and little else is really the result of a lack of development time to create a good variety of content such that everyone can find something else to do. Instead, these days many developers turn to trophies and gamer scores as a method of adding content, when it really just s shallow attempt to extend the play time of the game. Or they add multi-player to help curb the rate at which games are traded in.

The Dead or Alive series of games have often been seen as games lacking in content. Dead or Alive 2 had all its costumes unlocked at the start while Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore added a few extra costumes and locked away all the old ones. Yet Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive 4 release the lack of content between them and its prior games shows. Dead or Alive 5 is perhaps the most content-rich Dead or Alive game yet. With half a dozen difficulties for each of three main modes, plus tag teams, a more robust story mode, hidden characters to unlock and 500 titles to collect. Yet its not really all that fun to unlock all those titles, and not every player is going to want to tackle the hardest difficulties of the game, or even attempt to play all the modes. With the Soul Calibur series, more recent games like SC4 and SC5 are lacking in content to the older iterations, despite new modes like a character creator with more than a hundred different pieces of equipment to find and/or collect.

And even if said games had access to a large amount, and a large variety of content, its not likely every player will be able to access them. Many games (in particular the more recent Final Fantasies) often have huge barriers of entry before one is able to tackle that content. One example is Final Fantasy 10's and Final Fantasy 12's extra bosses. These guys are incredibly difficult to beat, and even getting up to them can be considered a chore. For some players, its not very fun, but for others it can be appealing. Final Fantasy 13-2's extra content (and even main quest) have a few barriers of entry that make it difficult to access, a there's quite a bit that may not be all that appealing either way.

Finally, there's also the possibility that in the end, the game just doesn't satisfy you. You play it, you take on some of the extra content, you beat the game, and yet... you don't feel very satisfied about it. It could be because the game itself is fairly mediocre, or it has a terrible ending. Or simply, you're using it much in the same way as food; feeding a habit, but not a craving. There's a possibility that you'll go through several games in the same way, some you may just not beat because you end up too bored with it that you can't be bothered to finish it, even after putting dozens of hours into it. You can't think back upon the games you've played over the past few months (or years) except for perhaps a few. And those that you've felt truly satisfying are the ones you can remember. Some of it may be nostalgia, but if you try thinking back to more recent memories, it probably isn't some that easy to explain. In essence, you're yearning for an experience that you really enjoyed from a past game, and hope to feel that same kind of experience again in a future game. But nothing you've yet played, has given you that same sort of feeling. This isn't the same sort of feeling like an addiction, mind you. Rather, its more akin to yearning for a good book or scratching an itch that finally goes away. Its the same sort of feeling that other people in other hobbies have when they are unable to satisfy that craving. Like a fisher who once caught a large fish and seeks to do it again, or aim for something bigger, but has yet to grab it. That's the sort of feeling you or other players may be experiencing, and they have yet to find an answer for it.

And it could be none of the above. Or it could be all of them. Still, its important to look at the games objectively and critically. What you think about them should matter first and foremost, before what others think about them. Some people tend to get caught up in both the hype and the negativity that might surround a particular game and it may seize upon your thoughts and cluster yourself into a hive mind mentality. Peer pressure is pretty powerful, and even affect your opinion on things that you might find enjoyable. Best to block out others opinions and rely on your own until you complete the game, before you rely on others to tell you what to think. Just make sure you think critically about the game before you go buying it. You don't wanna waste 60 bucks on a game you might not enjoy. Even if you can trade it in.

I am suffering from DEEP nostalgia. I agree'd with alot of your post, except the part where I highlighted in bold. For me personally, its not too different, but I always hope for the version to be better then what it was before.

As for my Nostalgia problem, I've tasted the goodiness of other games potential like SC3 Chronicle of The Sword, PSO mmorpg epic battle mode (on console), Oblivion gameplay (balanced more then Skyrim), etc. & now I can't taste it anymore on the future games. Everythings gone bitter; the only game that made me feel right at home the most (not including the past games) was SCV. Due to CAS & Astaroth & Tira. Even though SC series kinda derped after SC3 (Miss Seung Mina: More nostalgia). This may seem like I'm wanting the same taste, but really if they were to give the consumer the usual, atleast make it better then before & not keep it exactly the same.

In the future of gaming, I can't even find an mmorpg anymore (for console), I can't even play my most beloved modes in SC anymore, I can't even pick up a game easily & feel proud about it. It's kinda heart breaking in a way.

Gears 3 totally relies on teamwork, and in Gears 1 you could still sweep a team on your own, especially since they had to track down the last guy within a certain time or risk a tie.

Uh.... shouldn't the pride come from something that was hard earned?

Soul Calibur V and Dead Or Alive 5 are possibly the most competitive iterations of those series.

DOA5 especially is likely the high point of the series, up there with 3.1 and a long way from the clusterfuck that was DOA4.

It's not really that hard earned when money isn't an issue. Also, I would be damned if I feel like it was a waste.

About Gears: Sure, it takes somewhat teamwork, just not as much as gears 2 did. I personally think they balanced it out between teamwork & solo carnage. All because of that double barrel shotgun. When your coming at me, I'm just waiting for you to get closer, then I blast you & your friends with one shot. That isn't really team wise, also you get to start out with it if you wanted to. If you have the Gnasher, then your chances of killing everybody is a little bit slim. If you have the skills to wall bounce like a pro, you can take them all on, but Idk about out. Takin them all out depends on your skill of how well you are able to shoot accurately & wall bounce the shit out of everything all pro like. However, you must consider that its not easy. The risk is a little higher then it was since gears 1, but not stupidly risky as it was in gears 2.

That's why I said the game is pretty balanced between them both in gears 3.

WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD

As a general rule, I would say that games are getting better, but some series REALLY took a nose dive.

As much as I liked Skyrim at first, and as much as I used to think it was an improvement over Oblivion, (I can't believe I'm saying this), the reality hit me pretty hard when I realized that Skyrim is THE most unbalanced and broken elder scrolls to date. Every Elder Scrolls game had some exploitable thing in it, but Skyrim's BS takes the cake. It should NOT be possible to deliver trillions of damage with any weapon, using nothing more than what the game offered as mechanics. No cheats, no mods are necessary.

Then there's Diablo. Oh boy, where do I start? Diablo 1 came out in 1995, which at the time was hands down THE best hack' n slash RPG. Online gaming wasn't really a big thing yet, and this game delivered quality multiplayer gameplay, especially for it's time.

Then Diablo 2 came out, along with all the expansions years later. They changed the mechanics around quite a bit, but they didn't take away any depth from the first game, in fact diablo 2 was much much deeper and more complex than the first game. The equipment system alone was mindbogglingly deep, along with the awesome options for character build customization. This game was an improvement in EVERY way imaginable to the first game. I had literally played diablo 2 for 10 years until I finally got bored with it. Farming and trading was addictive on Battle.net. I consider this game to be one of the best video games of all time.

In diablo 2, even if you pick the same character twice, there were always multiple possible builds that were completely distinct from one another within the same class. I could go for a bone necro, then when I got bored, eat a respec token and change it to a summon necro if I wanted. I did this all the time. And if you're into dueling with other people, there were even more "viable" builds that worked best in PVP mode. there were 7 classes to chose from, and each class had at least 2 different viable ways to build them, some with 4 even. The end result was about 20 different character builds to chose from. This game had TONS of options.

Then there's diablo 3, a huge step backward. All that depth and character customization options went out the window. There are now only 5 classes, you don't get to customize how they level up, you level up, you get a new skill, end of story. No thinking involved. Now, if 2 people play the same class, they will always end up being virtually identical, with only minor differences in equipment. Diablo 3 is also online only, which was a HUGE mistake. Single player mode in d2 was always more balanced because you didn't have unlimited access to the best gear that people duped, botted, or otherwise cheated to get. towards the end of my days playing d2, I stopped trading with people and only used what I found myself because there was no way of knowing if that ZOD rune was duped or not. Only using what you found made the game challenging and balanced again.

I guess they decided that the next generation of gamers were too stupid to handle all the depth that d2 offered, so they completely and utterly dumbed this game down. "dumbing the game down" is not something I use lightly, but in this case it's just plain obvious. If you don't believe me, then listen to the majority of hardcore Diablo fans giving horrible reviews for d3. Just Google Diablo 3 and at least 70% of the shit that comes up is negative.

There is another genre of games that I feel took a nose dive. First person shooters. I blame COD for the downfall of it all. Back in the day, the majority of FPS didn't have regenerating health, and instead you were given a percent of life left, and the only way to heal was to pick of health packets of some kind. Every shot you took left permanent damage (unless you find health), whereas now in most FPS, all you need to do is duck and cover and your health goes magically back up. This means that I can enter a room guns blazing, and as long as I duck and cover in time, there is no penalty for being shot. This is fucking stupid. COD started this path to scrubbiness, and now almost ALL of the FPS have regenerating health. Wolfenstein, a once great series known for it's classic FPS (ID software), now adopted this regenerating health, and all this other supernatural nonsense that is really only a superficial layer of strategy. If I wanted "veil powers" to be in my game, I would play an RPG. Every FPS is trying to be a COD clone, and it's sickening.

Truth is, every series must necessarily reach its pinnacle at some point, and then it falls downward. I suppose it's only natural. The thing is, when game developers see a series going downhill, they should just discontinue it. Make way for a new series to make it's mark I say. These days, I feel like they are trying to continue dead series too much and not enough brand new games. The same could be said for movies I would say.

FG's seem to be making a comeback, so this is good. BTW DEX I disagree completely about Chronicles of the sword being a good mode. The horrible AI killed it for me. That mode would have been 10X better if the AI was actually somewhat decent like in sc5. The only reason I did this mode at all was to unlock all the bonus styles.

Sc5 may have shortcutted us on SP modes, but with what little resources they had and little development time, they truly focused on the things that really matter in a FG: Gameplay and Balance. Sure, it's not perfectly balanced, but I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised with how well they achieved this. The only character that truly needs fixing is Viola. Even if the SP modes are lacking, they are still 10X more fun than any previous game simply because the AI is much more realistic. Truth be told, I don't think PS could have done much better with what they had to work with. It's a damn shame that SC doesn't get the love and attention that Tekken does, because if it did image how much more awesome it could have been.

Most of this I'm sure, is nostalgia. I often revisit old games just to see if this is true. Half of the time, it ends up being MUCH worse than I remember it, the other half, I'm thinking "where did they go wrong, this older game was so much better".

But don't worry man, there are plenty of series out there that are always improving and innovating, just gotta find the right ones. Be extremely picky about what games you play, I am.

horrible as in "unbelievably good" or "Damn they suck so bad"? I'm over here thinking the AI in Chronicle was stupidly tough to beat, especially the purple health bar queers. The thing about Chronicle that made me love it on sight was its gameplay. It was like a chess game that was unending. The maps on Chronicle were all different in all 20 chapters, the strategy thinking was crazy & exciting, the decisive battle brought out the best in a fighting perspective mixed in with chess perspective gameplay. It blew my mind n.n I love it & miss it really badly. Remember when you got your ass whooped you'd have to respawn at main base? I had to do that a few times before because my health was low & I was too reckless in my aggressive persuit of berserking. I didn't bother staying at a base to heal, which was stupid, but I loved charging straight into enemy ranks alone.

I sometimes imagine what Chronicle would be like if it was online. 4 vs 4, 6 vs 6, or maybe 10 vs 10 & everyone controlled their positioning. Any player that locked onto decisive battle with another player would fight it out as other players would focus on their part. If another player joined in the fray with a decisive battle, they would have one of those boxes next to their life bar of the opponet to let them know you have more then 1 enemy to deal with. But its just a dream....

Every franchise has to flop soon or later
and most of the time A LOT of sequels make the game very boring and repetitive, like in the case of CoD and Halo, or even SC

When you start to think that, exactly what do you look for or hoped for (in terms of something new) when times like those start to kick in?

it depends on the game

I think we're all just getting older.

It's probably mostly the fact that gaming developers are running out of ideas. Take COD for example, the best they could do to make it "innovative" is by changing the prestige level in every COD, changing a few guns although now most of them are replicates from previous COD games. I started off on Black Ops 2 and was loving it. I got to prestige 2 and then I suddenly did not want to play anymore. I found it boring, because I guess grinding like you did in previous CODs has finally bored me that much.

As for Soulcalibur I think they will soon run out of ideas for new fighting styles. I myself can't think of many new styles that could work in Soulcalibur VI. But hey, I guess they kinda made Viola work, which she IS well designed although the actual gameplay details may be a bit broken. But other than that, I think it's just developers running out of ideas.

Both. Sometimes they would just read your inputs, duck all grabs and highs, and proceed with the BS. Other times, they just sat there barely even blocking anything, let alone attacking. It seemed like it was either balls-to-the-walls hard, or braindead easy.

And besides, even the "tougher" opponents would eat the same move over and over because for some reason the AI wasn't programmed to deal with every move.

Try this out: Pick Hualin (or a CAS that uses the same style). Then, use 33b. The AI will eat this move OVER AND OVER. There are many anti-AI specific moves in that game, that one is just one of them.

This is why the AI was horrible. It was just plain lazy programming. Try playing tournament mode, and once you get past tournament 5 or 6, the AI literally starts ducking all your grabs. And if for some miraculous reason the AI didn't duck it, they would break it anyway. How can you not remember how BS this was?

At the same time, the AI didn't punish for shit. You could use unsafe moves all day long and it hardly mattered.

What you said about an online COTS mode, that actually sounds really fucking awesome. That I would totally try out in future installment if they ever decided to do something like this (unlikely).

The Sawed off Shotgun actually takes more teamwork to use effectively because it leaves you so vulnerable after each shot. It's only worth much if you meet somebody on their own, whereas the gnasher can win 1v4 battles if you are good. The sawed off only seems good because it works wonders for people who can't aim, it's a hand holding gun to get more players into the game. If you aren't satisfied with killing one guy and going down(assuming you don't get baited, which you would against players with a brain) your going to want to learn to 1 shot with gnasher.