Re: Can Games Get Any Better (2024 Ed)

On 25/03/2024 21:52, Zaghadka wrote:

On Fri, 22 Mar 2024 12:54:54 -0400, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
What I like is that graphics have gotten good enough that games are now
choosing an art-style rather than reaching for ever more photorealism.
This affects gameplay as well as eye candy.
 The way it affects play is that sometimes the point of games is now to
look around and appreciate the aesthetic. The "walking simulator" could
never have been a thing back in 2013, and now it's really coming into its
own. Photo mode is justified in some games. This is because we've stopped
dashing for more photorealism, taken stock of what can actually be done,
and made worlds that are very much different from what we know.
 

Very much my view. I want the style of graphics to fit in with the game overall and I think Firewatch does this well. It captures that feeling of being in the 'great outdoors' by combining a sense of realism with a certain atheistic. Borderlands is another one when the cartoon style graphics fit with the over-the-top world.
For photorealism itself, to me all I want is graphics that look realistic enough I'm not constantly reminded that I'm play a computer game. As an aside, it one of the reasons I don't like horribly cluttered UI's withe quest markers and other information littering the screen.

On the downside of gameplay, most games are hybrid experiences now.
There's CRPG elements. There's crafting. There's minigames. In depth
story. In everything, no matter how much it doesn't fit. Even Mortal
Combat 10 has a "story" mode and a "campaign" mode. Once something is
deemed to be a feature, it never seems to go away. I imagine this
development strategy is meant to broaden appeal, but what it does for me
is make it hard to find a game that doesn't have *some* half-assed play
element that doesn't annoy me or seem out of place. It's hard to find a
game that does one thing really well, too. The diversity comes at an
expense, either in compromises to make it integrate, or just because
there is less time spent on each element.
 

And agreed, I very much in the camp of I want a game to do one thing and do it well and not try and cram in as many different elements as possible. FO:4 is one the springs to mind here - I'm supposed to be wandering the wasteland find stories to uncover and shooting things. Why have a base building aspect tacked on?

I don't see much more innovation coming in the future though, or I'm not
smart enough to see it. It seems we've made every kind of game there is.
Gaming is lively, but my imagination doesn't inform me of what it'll be
like in 2035.
 So gaming is good, but we've done everything we can with the classical
period, moved through the baroque, arrived at the romantic, and that's
just about where music imploded. I don't know what the gaming equivalent
of 12-tone, tone poems, and prepared piano will be, but I'll bet it feels
like a gimmick.
 But it won't be the doldrums. It will grow, flourish, and capture our
interest. It just won't be through play mechanics. I think we're done
there.
 How's that for a "640KB should be enough for anyone" statement?
 

Yes indeed, the thing about innovation is you never realised it's happened until it's already with us!

(I have notably left VR out of this, because I think the "year of VR" is
getting to be like the "year of the Linux desktop." Vendors keep trotting
it out, but no one really knows what to do with it so it goes back in the
box until someone thinks it should come out again. Maybe someone will
figure out how to use it. I could it making a major change by 2035. I
predict it will go back in the box again once, however.)
 

I don't see it ever happening until at least a few other things are in place. So maybe a killer app that becomes an almost must have. Other problems the price point really isn't at the impulse buy just to try it out level. The last, and probably the biggest for me, the headset are just too big and not they comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
As you say though it still comes across as a technology looking for a need and the current trend seems to be towards augmented reality and away from games. I did watch a couple of reviews of Apple VR and all I could think was it all looks very interesting but not £3,000 interesting.