Doomers unite. What's your opinion on Modern Gaming?

I think gaming is really damn good these days myself. Find tons of great AAA games to play and enjoy, more then I have time for really. Nintendo, Capcom, SquareEnix, FromSoftware, Bandai-Namco, etc. still crank out fantastic games.

In my eyes it's definitely awful, but I haven't bought a new game in 5 years, so I'm not sure how much weight my opinion has. But it's not like I'm pirating or using a subscription... I just don't play. So I do get a little miffed when people say "WE" aren't standing against this, when it should be "I'M".

You guys nailed many of the reasons why this is, and someone could've mentioned this already, but I think the volume of content is a problem that's frequently overlooked. I personally don't think there are that many great ideas out there. So when you've already tapped most of the truly unique people out there to produce a constant stream of content, your only option is to get subpar talent that lowers the standards. We objectively have more new entertainment now than ever before, but how much of it truly matters to you? The average is higher, but the peaks have been sawn off.

Then they pump it out faster than the fools can lap it up. Do you want to drink from the garden hose or a firehose?

We need half the output, and double the quality.

It is has been obvious for along time that entertainment is too far extended beyond what it's capable of sustaining. Games are too big, graphics are too expensive, micro transactions are too predatory, and all of it is expected to be free. It's not feasible.

I guessing you wasn't around during nes and snes.

I'm not over the hill yet speak for yourself lol.

the video game music is top notch in modern gaming

I still love gaming it's one of my favorite hobbies but yes there are major concerns .

The " for modern audience wokesters" are a cancer. Sorry I don't want my sci-fi and fantasy worlds to look like modern America.

The push for GAAS sucks especially as the bubble is about to burst. For every successful game there are dozens of failures and then the studios are left for dead after the games fail.

The possibility of gaming turning into a bunch of subscription services is concerning and will lead to lower quality games.

With that said 2023 has been a stellar year for games and one of the best years in gaming history. However I do worry about it's future.

Or just get VA's instead of overpaid Hollywood Actors.

I am not the one complaining.😂

Why do people act like you can't have both? High quality visuals are getting harder to find honestly as it takes massive production budgets most studios don't have.

Some game budgets these days are getting insane. Not even going to comment about quality, but this seems unsustainable on a commercial level.

@Maroxad: No, did you miss the part where I said it's still MARIO in the game, a character that hasn't evolved in 40yrs.

You can put lipstick on a pig, but in the end it's still Mario 🤣

It's part of late-stage capitalism; infinite growth in a finite world.

It's going to keep happening until something breaks or we say "no more".

Not trying to turn this into a big political statement lol, it's just the simple truth. If COD made 5 billion this year, next installment needs to make >5 billion.

Back in my day, floppy disks were actually FLOPPY! *holds out hand and waves it around floppily*

And we used them to make BOOT DISKS! Because sometimes the game wouldn't run on it's own.

Oh golly gee, don't get me started on the world wide web in the 90's...

The whole video is cool, but I think 9:07 to about 11:40 should be mandatory information for any person engaging in a creative endeavor... especially students.

@mrbojangles25: I pass around floppy disks like ancient artifacts in school.😂

Thanks for sharing that. Always a pleasure listening to professionals talk about their profession in an intimate environment. It's why I always enjoyed Inside The Actor's Studio series so much, for example.

@mrbojangles25: Glad you liked it 😊 I particularly love listening to Stephen King give talks. I haven't been to an auditorium or library in years, and I miss the smell.

On what Todd and Stan said, I think it's imperative that we show them how to be imaginative and unique, rather than breeding a culture of followers.

People complaining about all the problems of AAA titles, when we have a huge diversity of indie and AA titles addressing those complains.

People love to complain...

@Pedro: Yeah, despite the disappointing state of the AAA industry, I would argue gaming is better than ever. This year alone is one of the best in gaming.

I love my indies, AA games and Nintendo. Which is why I am a shermit. Primarily a PC gamer, but I love the occational Nintendo game. And why? Because Nintendo games, just like the indie games I play, are made with love.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/09/super-mario-bros-wonder-had-no-deadline-during-its-prototype-phase

If slower releasing games, means more games like Wonder and less games like New Super Mario Bros, sign me up! Nintendo games have been really good as of late. And people speculate that this is why.

This does not excuse NOA's treatment of contract workers however.

I can't listen to this guys voice for 30 minutes, I'm only 3 minutes in.

What's the too long didn't watch version of this?

@Maroxad: The only thing I find annoying is that nearly every big AAA game is released like 3/4 finished. And developers think it's acceptable to charge £70 for a game in these conditions.

I'll only play most games like 6 months after release, because they usually need heavy fixing and/or added content and features and I know I'll get the best experience and that's what I want from my first time playing a game.

Yes, but advanced engines such as Unreal Engine 5 can reduce budgets, simply down to its built in features

• Nanite: Nanite is a new technology that allows for the creation of high-detail assets without the need for high-polygon counts. This can save artists a lot of time and effort, as they no longer need to worry about creating low-poly versions of their assets for performance reasons.
• Lumen: Lumen is a new dynamic lighting system that eliminates the need for baked lighting. This can also save artists a lot of time, as they no longer need to create and bake lighting maps.
• Megascans: Megascans is a library of high-quality 3D assets that can be used in Unreal Engine 5. This can save artists a lot of time and money, as they no longer need to create their own assets from scratch.
• OpenXR: OpenXR is a new cross-platform API for accessing virtual reality and augmented reality devices. This can make it easier and cheaper for developers to create VR and AR games.

@Bond007uk: hopefully UE5 delivers, though we saw it shown off 3 years ago and we're now just finally seeing more third party titles drop using it. Hopefully more to come, and hopefully as more and more devs get familiar with it the industry output and quality improves.

For me I am hating open world games and I wish we could go back to linear games

Plenty of excellent games with fantastic artistry still exist in the indie scene and with Nintendo. Capcom has also made a resurgence, although I want some more classic-style, 2D shooter-platformer Mega Man titles.

However, we have moved past postmodernism with its unusual mixture of juxtapositions. We now have a hodgepodge of cultural references and styles from multiple decades being thrown into games that have very basic gameplay elements.

Someone already posted about the Nicki Minaj-COD mashup. This sort of thing isn’t even postmodernism in my opinion. It’s whatever we are in right now in the Western World. I think, like @mrbojangles25 said, it’s connected to Capitalism. We’re in some sort of hybrid of postmodernism and boundless Capitalism where a mishmash of whatever will bring the biggest profit is what we now get as “art” and “entertainment.” It’s happening across all industries, and it’s sad to see.

Yeah I'm really excited about one of my favorite games, Satisfactory, making the move to UE5. It's still in early access and was UE4, really looking forward to when they move to UE5 and the better visuals and performance.

It's not the most amazing looking game, but it looks pretty good and I'm more interested in the performance and optimization the engine upgrade might bring since there are TONS of things on screen in late-game with these factories you make.

Well we have Factorio, so it's pretty great.

Factorio is working on an expansion. Cities: Skylines 2 is about to drop. Sea of Stars just came out. Blasphemous 2. Larian with BG3. Silksong sometime in the future. Buncha other good stuff. Pretty cool.

So many good games you can just ignore all the shite.

Are you referring to Zelda without naming the title?

Nothing says fun like flying paper fetch quests...except maybe massive amounts of resource collection to make arrows, etc.

@hardwenzen: I am referring to all open world games Zelda included. A lot of devs feel inclined to release open world games to justify putting a 70 dollars price tag and it they tend to make the experience a long tedious one while doing so. I just feel that we have too many games like this now and I don't like it.

@HalcyonScarlet: This is one of the many reasons I like the idea of having smaller games. Devs just end up biting more than they can chew, and you end up with mountains of uninspired and unfinished content. So many games fill themselves with pointless fetch quests. Generic Outposts, asset flip dungeons and so on.

@Life-is-a-Game: I remember feeling this way when Watch Dogs 1 came out. There was no reason that game should have been open world, it betrayed its premise.

You guys need to stop being pessimistic. I'm no kid, I've been playing videogames since Tekken 3 in 1998. That's 25 years of gaming and I'd actually argue that gaming in 2023 is better than it has ever been.

• Obviously graphics and technology is better than any year or era prior to this one
• Obviously quality of life and simplicity/connectivity/user friendliness etc is easier now than ever.
• Do you think 90s had the best games? 00s? 10s? Guess what! You can play every single 1990-2019 game today. If we move back to the 90s you can only play 90s games. Personally I don't like playing 30 year old games. So completely moot for me.

Those points aside, I have no idea why everyone is so damn fixated on micro transactions. I just ignore them and/or don't play shitty games that have them.

Let's look at the last 10 years of gaming or so:

2023: Baldur's Gate 3, probably the best RPG of all time, Zelda:TOTK

2022: Elden Ring (top 3 best game of all time IMO), God of War Ragnarok (top 20 best game of all time)

2020: The Last of Us 2 (top 7 best game of all time)

2019: Sekiro (top 20 best game of all time)

2018: God of War (top 15 best game of all time), Red Dead Redemption II (top 15 best game of all time)

2017: Zelda BOTW not exactly my cup of tea, but along with TLOU1 this is often considered the greatest game of all time

2016: Dark Souls 3 (top 20 best game of all time)

2015: Metal Gear Solid 5 (top 7 best game of all time), Bloodborne (top 20 best game of all time), The Witcher 3 I think its a bit overrated but many consider it the best RPG ever.

2013: The Last of Us (de facto best game ever), Grand Theft Auto V (top 20 best game of all time)

The last 10 years has produced bang after banger. I've not included remakes like Resident Evil 4 remake, Last of Us Part I, Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy 7 etc.

some honourable mentions that aren't quite at the level of the games listed: Ghost of Tsushima, Hades, Spiderman, Arkham Knight, Death Stranding, Devil May cry 5, Disco Elysium, It Takes Two, Uncharted 4, Mario Odyssey, Divinity 2... So many excellent games.

2013-2023 has been just as good as 2003-2013, and I'd argue better than 93-03. The 80s was trash no point in mentioning 83-93.

@Mozelleple112: Bruh, the 80's was peak innovation era for gaming. No idea why you would call that era trash.

probably because he wasn't born then

Stopped buying AAA games altogether pretty much.

Prob change down the line but for now it's apathy.

@Mozelleple112: Do you have to share your stupid top games every single time you post? You make Ghost sound captivating.

@kathaariancode: You're just butthurt your games are trash and my favourite games are consensus winners.

My point stands that the last 10 years has produced some of the best games of all time in every genre. And the standard of quality is only going up for each year.

I like GTA: Vice City more than GTA V. But can you imagine if GTA V or god forbid GTA VI delivered Vice City's quality in 2013 or 2024+ ? It would get slaughtered beyond belief.

Oblivion and Fallout 3 were praised as absolutely ground breaking (which I agree with) while Starfield is getting slaughtered by all of the non-fanboys, even though it is technically (not just graphically) superior to Oblivion and FO3 in almost every way. I tried booting up Oblivion a couple of months ago and jesus christ I should have left my beloved game as a fond memory.

We demand so much more from games in the 10s and 20s than we did from the 90s and 00s and still they (mostly) deliver.

@Maroxad:

Gaming in the 80s was like 1/100 of what gaming is today. We all know the real era of gaming started circa. 1996

Popularity doesnt indicate quality. The 80's practically gave birth to almost every genre still relevant today, including the game that would be the forefarther to the MOBA genre. The FPS was invented with Maze War back in the 70's. But the 80's laid the ground work for the industry even as it is today.

It's good I don't get the feeling I had in the 90's but that's because games these days are so much more accessible.

People that don't find anything worthwhile these days are also (usually) the ones that got into gaming in the 80's. Y'all are too old for this shit. Its not gaming that sucks these days, its you who've lost interest. This is especially true in 2023, a year with a bunch of the good stuff, and many of which aren't even released yet.

I think it's great!

@hardwenzen: If you are referring to my post, I didn't play video games in the 80's. But I did go back and retroactively play some of its best stuff. It is quite clear that gaming was far more ambitious and innovative back then, compared to now.

In the 80s, in 3 years you go from Pitfall to Super Mario Bros, another 3 years and you are playing Super Mario Bros 3. All 3 are significant step ups from one another, and all GOAT material.

Speaking of Larian, Larian has been making the same Fromsofting game for the last decade now. D:OS1, 2 and BG3 are all basically the same game. Compare this to something like Ultima 4 to 5 to 6. Not to mention Ultima Underworld or Worlds of Ultima.

I wasn't referring to your post, but its pretty clear to me that you've outgrown gaming.

Why would I have outgrown gaming if I am still having fun. AAA industry may not do much for me anymore but smaller and indie games still do.

Before being a PC gamer (or sheep as you accuse me of being), I first and foremost believe in sustainable game development. The AAA industry is by and large not sustainable, it is too big, too complex, too bloated. Which results in all the ailments we have seen people across this entire thread complain about.

Gaming got too popular.

Modern gaming is beyond terrible. I thought the 360/PS3 and Xone/PS4 era were average compared to the NES-PS2 era but at least those gens gave us something.

Almost 3 years into this generation and XSeries/PS5 have both failed to produce a worthy next gen title.