Modern Game Features You Can Live Without

i believe you only got to be online for the first check with steam... afterwards you can run the program without internet.

edIT: i can live without photo realistic graphics.

They still force you to go online, even if it is only the once.

I'm not gonna go into my hatred of Steam here.

All-In-One Consoles- This is my biggest beef with gaming today. I could care less if my new console can play DVDs, save MP3s, and store photos. All I really want is for the thing to be able to play games. Unfortunately, all these added features are making the price go up, and gaming is already expensive enough as it is.

"Mud" Filters- For some reason, a lot of developers think that monochrome = realism. Too many games coming out seem to have really dull graphics. Gears of War and The Darkness are examples of games with the "Mud Filter." While I haven't played GoW, I did like The Darkness, and the near-monochrome color style did fit the game.

Hand-Holding- It's sad how many new games do this (Zelda). Quite frequently, a game will practically tell you where to go throughout the whole game, and point out the most obvious of things such as "Look at that treasure chest! Did you know you can open it?" or "Your shields are down. Take cover" like the flashing red lights and the beeping noise didn't tip me off. I kinda miss the SNES days of A Link to the Past and Super Metroid. They didn't tell you exactly where to go, but at least they tipped you off.

This is funny, cuz the reason I created my thread was cuz I feel most new features of modern games are unnecessary, so I wanted to discuss the few that I think actually made a difference IMO as opposed to the many that don't.

Anyway, I could do without photorealism, I feel it is a poor substitue for good art direction. Plus the time/CPU resources spent on detailing could've been spent on making bigger, longer levels, more enemies, etc.

BTW, typing on the Wii is a pain in the ass (would use PC but sister's using it).

More than one payment. You may have such a great time playing a game you spent the money you were going to retire on, but then one day later, it says that you no longer have an account because you didn't pay enough, now you're bored and homeless.

Sorry rock_nog, didn't mean to take away attention from your thread!

- Episodic Gaming. Let's make sure every game developer out there hears this. Episodic gaming doesn't work with action titles. It takes far too long to produce any kind of decent gameplay as it is without you trying to release stuff every six months or so. It's just not realistic. Are you listening Valve?

- Online Noobs. If I try to play online (rare as that may be), it's generally with someone I know, because otherwise you get stuck with irritating people who can't spell, 13-year old kids who won't stop whining, sore losers who always claim you cheated if you beat them and people who are just plain insulting.

- Old Games not working in Windows XP. I'm having this problem with Discworld II ATM - I've got it running in DosBox quite nicely, but unfortunately DW2 is a 2-disc game, so I'm gonna have trouble when it comes to that second disc. Bah!

rock_nog wrote:
BTW, typing on the Wii is a pain in the ass (would use PC but sister's using it).

Impregnate your Wii with a USB Keyboard, does a world of wonders.

Probably the most annoying thing I think thats killing games, are when they load 'em full of mini-games. It seems to me lately that they're putting too much emphasis on giving the player more to do, when they should just lengthen the story/game.

Sure its fun to go fishing when you should be worrying about the world's impending doom, but when you HAVE to do that in order to get the best stuff...hmmmm [it works sometimes, but its just overused]

Yoshiman wrote:
"Mud" Filters- For some reason, a lot of developers think that monochrome = realism. Too many games coming out seem to have really dull graphics. Gears of War and The Darkness are examples of games with the "Mud Filter." While I haven't played GoW, I did like The Darkness, and the near-monochrome color style did fit the game.

Gears of War isn't Monochrome. And Gears of War is one of the best looking games so far. They are spectacular and worth every bit.

We could do without DRM. That's what we really need to kill.

MottZilla wrote:Gears of War isn't Monochrome. And Gears of War is one of the best looking games so far. They are spectacular and worth every bit.

MasterSwordUltima wrote:Impregnate your Wii with a USB Keyboard, does a world of wonders.

Oh man, you can't diss online noobs. Sometimes, I have to confess, I find watching their antics to be more entertaining than the game itself. I'll just kick back, grab a bag of popcorn, and watch as the chaos unfolds. Especially in Couterstrike, because so many people take that game so seriously, it's just a hoot.

Ooooh, I would like to add in-depth storylines. What, am I crazy? No, see, my feeling is that if the game is too much about the story, it detracts from replay value. I mean, I love Zelda games, but it's so difficult to go back and start over again, because the story is so integral to the game. I prefer titles like Mario, where the only story is that you rescue the princess at the end, and then you just start over, and safely ignore the story and just squish goombas.

Honestly I feel like the gaming industry has turned a circle and is right back towards too-linear gameplay. This is the flaw with almost every game I've played lately, and except for the couple of cases where linear gameplay is an element of the experience, I'm severely disappointed by how the industry is treating us.

Take the difference between LoZ and Twilight Princess. There were very few tasks in LoZ that had to be completed in order, and in fact several of the "barrier" items were purchasable in stores. One of the first things I would do as a kid is get bombs and hightail it to level 8, so I could get a Magic Key and speed up my run through the game. You don't need a sword until the battle with Ganon, when it's the first logical item you should collect. This ability to do things out of order made the game very approachable to someone who wanted to replay it, because there's plenty of challenge to the game.

The games got progressively more linear as time passed, but from time to time there were still challenges. I remember my jaw hitting the ground when I saw how early a friend got Biggoron's Sword in OoT, and it was interesting how he was able to attack the dungeons out of order.

Twilight Princess, on the other hand, has one single path unless there are some glitches to skip areas. Don't want to pick up that item? Too bad, the rocks blocking your way won't be cleared by that Goron until you pick it up. Want to enter that dungeon early? Whoops, the entryway is blocked by something you need the item from the previous dungeon to clear. This is a sure-fire way to ensure that the game will be played once, then placed back upon the shelf.

Linear gameplay has a place in some games; FPS games can benefit from it but some of them are more fun when nonlinear. Disgaea is nothing but a power-leveling extravaganza and therefore there is one way through the game. But when one of the key parts of your game's mechanic is exploration, linear gameplay is a complete bonerkill. I'm looking at you, Metroid Prime 3, being able to go back to previously visited areas to get items is not nonlinear play.

AtmaWeapon wrote:Twilight Princess, on the other hand, has one single path unless there are some glitches to skip areas. Don't want to pick up that item? Too bad, the rocks blocking your way won't be cleared by that Goron until you pick it up. Want to enter that dungeon early? Whoops, the entryway is blocked by something you need the item from the previous dungeon to clear. This is a sure-fire way to ensure that the game will be played once, then placed back upon the shelf.

Linear gameplay has a place in some games; FPS games can benefit from it but some of them are more fun when nonlinear. Disgaea is nothing but a power-leveling extravaganza and therefore there is one way through the game. But when one of the key parts of your game's mechanic is exploration, linear gameplay is a complete bonerkill. I'm looking at you, Metroid Prime 3, being able to go back to previously visited areas to get items is not nonlinear play.

This, in my opinion, is due to the increasing importance of the story. It wouldn't seem very logical for you to go to the Mirror Chamber at the top of the Arbiter's Grounds directly after the Forest Temple. I personally would prefer one way to beat a game, since it adds (IMO) to the logical progression of the story. An exception is OoT, like how you can do the Gerudo Fortress before you enter the Forest Temple (though the Gerudo Fortress is important to the story, so I suppose I'm contradicting myself).

In LttP, I rather dislike the non-linearity of the progression of the dark world dungeons. I want to go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, boom. Done. But you can go in any of the following orders and likely even more:

1,2,3,4,6,5,7
1,2,4,5,6,7,3
1,2,4,5,6,3,7
1,2,4,3,5,6,7
1,2,4,3,6,5,7
1,4,2,3,5,6,7
1,4,2,3,6,5,7
1,2,4,6,5,3,7

Argh, too many for me.

i prefer multiple choices of paths.. why would you want to play a game if you HAVE to play it in order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7? if you played it again you surely would think, geez i've done this before, why cant i go over here and do that? oh thats right, i need the item from the first dungeon *grumble grumble*... and then in the dungeon you probably gotta also follow the same set path and require items to progress but also make it obvious where the dungeon items meant to be used.

i prefer multiple paths in a dungeon, no or very little story line, multiple paths in the overworld, and logical restrictions that aren't placed in certain places just for the sake of it. like dont just block off the boss rooms in every dungeon till you beat the previous dungeon oO, try something new like just make a random room impassable in each dungeon instead and dont make it obvious you need the item from the last dungeon...

Oh, I have a couple. 😊

Mandatory Story Elements
Zelda is good at this one. I'm playing through MM again, and I'd like to skip some of the videos I've seen before. As far as I can tell (I've mashed every button combo I can think of) some of the videos are required. Lame.

Console Patches
Patches lead to lazy developers and frustrated customers.

yea, i like the Sly Raccoon games on the ps2 but every single sotry line part MUST be listened to and CAN'T be skipped.

Easy fucking games. I haven't been challenged by anything in a long time. Sometimes it's neat to just blast through a cute game, but every goddamn game that comes out just hands itself to you.

Steam. Ect.

Half life 2 episodes. What the fuck, this is more annoying than golden sun fucking was. I'D RATHER WAIT A YEAR AND GET IT ALL AT ONCE. Maybe I will.

Crazy graphics with no lower options. Know what sucks? My PC was tits to the wall like 2 years ago when I got it, so you'd think it would still be moderately gaming capable 2 years later. I always kinda thought it was 4ish years to obsoleteness. Well I can just barely touch fucking bioshock, and those graphics look stupid anyhow. Seriously, I can play HL2 with pretty high graphical settings, and it looks better than bioshock hands down.

Shitty FPS's. Halo fucking sucks. I don't understand the draw at all. It just sucks.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Easy fucking games. I haven't been challenged by anything in a long time. Sometimes it's neat to just blast through a cute game, but every goddamn game that comes out just hands itself to you.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Crazy graphics with no lower options. Know what sucks? My PC was tits to the wall like 2 years ago when I got it, so you'd think it would still be moderately gaming capable 2 years later. I always kinda thought it was 4ish years to obsoleteness. Well I can just barely touch fucking bioshock, and those graphics look stupid anyhow. Seriously, I can play HL2 with pretty high graphical settings, and it looks better than bioshock hands down.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Shitty FPS's. Halo fucking sucks. I don't understand the draw at all. It just sucks.

- Cease-and-Desists. This doesn't seem to happen a lot, but it's when big companies (I'm looking at you, Lucasarts) decide to shut down fan-games or mods by claiming illegal use of copyrighted characters. And it sucks.

- Pointless Sequels. If a game does well, it'll get a sequel. Whether it deserves one or not is irrelevant. For exmple, Red Faction sold faily well, despite it being woefully average, and got an equally 'meh' sequel, which we really could have done without.

Collecting things that are long and boring that drive completionists like me crazy - some examples include Tales of Symphonia's cooking system (learning all the recipes isn't bad, but maxing out everyone's skills for each is), and the trophies/statue/weapon/item lists. All the cooking systems in the Paper Mario games, and the treasure map and card collecting in Super Paper Mario are some more. These are a few of the ones I haven't done because they are long a boring. If collecting is fun though, I'll do it.

The Source engine runs decently on my PC, which couldn't even begin to handle most modern games (looking at you, Doom 3), and I really appreciate that. I think Valve should win some sort of freaking medal for designing a game engine that's easy on system requirements, and yet can still deliver absolutely gorgeous graphics if the system supports it. Furthermore, I think more developers could stand to learn from Valve's example.

Oh, and Darth Marsden, I'm not sure I'm following. Why should games be easier on the PS2 just because the PS2 has less power? I mean, lower detail shouldn't lead to an easier game, right? So confused.

Steam has nothing to do with the game. AFAIK, it's just a frontend for checking your legitimacy, updating games quickly, and pissing me off.

vegeta1215 wrote:Collecting things that are long and boring that drive completionists like me crazy - some examples include Tales of Symphonia's cooking system (learning all the recipes isn't bad, but maxing out everyone's skills for each is), and the trophies/statue/weapon/item lists. All the cooking systems in the Paper Mario games, and the treasure map and card collecting in Super Paper Mario are some more. These are a few of the ones I haven't done because they are long a boring. If collecting is fun though, I'll do it.

I couldn't take any Final Fantasy after VI because they started turning into some kind of sadistic version of Mario Party; by FFIX the minigames had taken over so much that I honestly believe I spent more time pecking at the ground on a chocobo than it took me to complete disc 2.

Wind Waker is a heinous offender as well. The game would be about 2 hours shorter if it wasn't for mandatory item collection quests that aren't even fun.

Drakengard is probably the absolute worst offender of this rule. Seriously, just do yourself a favor and never. Play. Drakengard.

Oh my god don't even get me started on fucking windwaker.

I'm having fun, just a bit irritated about the stupid sailing, and then...

GO SAIL THE FUCK ALL OVER THE GOD FORSAKEN OCEAN AND SEARCH FOR THE GODDAMN TRIFORCE. SO I HEARD YOU DONT LIKE TO USE GUIDES YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH A GAME, EH? WELL HERES 6 HOURS OF DICK AROUND FOR YOU, FAGGOT

its not hard to find them tho. and moor's law is 2 years, not 4. every 2 years computer technology doubles or something like that.

Yoshiman wrote:I didn't say it was literally monochrome, nor that it had bad graphics. The human models look great and have a ton of detail. However, real life has more color saturation than Gears does. 😛

Well I think what you are describing is what makes it look dark and otherworldly. I think it's nice. 😛

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Oh my god don't even get me started on fucking windwaker.

I'm having fun, just a bit irritated about the stupid sailing, and then...

GO SAIL THE FUCK ALL OVER THE GOD FORSAKEN OCEAN AND SEARCH FOR THE GODDAMN TRIFORCE. SO I HEARD YOU DONT LIKE TO USE GUIDES YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH A GAME, EH? WELL HERES 6 HOURS OF DICK AROUND FOR YOU, FAGGOT

I didn't really think it was all that bad. In fact it took me much longer to go hunt down all the heart pieces I missed near the end of the game, cause there were just so many of them (and several on the outer edges of the map which you don't go to during the main game)

At least Windwaker allowed for a little wandering off the beaten path. Twilight Princess was so disappointing for me... When it dawned on me just how completely linear the game was, that was just the worst thing ever. In TP, there pretty much wasn't anything but beaten path. Nothing really to explore, no alternate routes, nothing except a couple of caves, but even those weren't terribly interesting.

I liked Twilight Princess, don't get me wrong, but it seriously has to be the biggest letdown in the Zelda series. Come on, some of the Mario games were less linear than Twilight Princess.

rock_nog wrote:Oh, and Darth Marsden, I'm not sure I'm following. Why should games be easier on the PS2 just because the PS2 has less power? I mean, lower detail shouldn't lead to an easier game, right? So confused.

punkonjunk1024 wrote:Oh my god don't even get me started on fucking windwaker.

I'm having fun, just a bit irritated about the stupid sailing, and then...

GO SAIL THE FUCK ALL OVER THE GOD FORSAKEN OCEAN AND SEARCH FOR THE GODDAMN TRIFORCE. SO I HEARD YOU DONT LIKE TO USE GUIDES YOUR FIRST TIME THROUGH A GAME, EH? WELL HERES 6 HOURS OF DICK AROUND FOR YOU, FAGGOT

I'd like to see RPGs go back to the days when they were played and not watched. Story development can be entertaining and all, but it should be a small piece of the entire game, like maybe 10% of it. Not 70-90% like it is nowadays. I play games to play them, if I want to watch something, I got my DVD sets for that.