most newer series of games suck?

[nikfrozty]

Anyone noticed this? When I was a child I played Legend of Legaia, Arc the Lad, Musashi, Suikoden etc. but the older ones are better than the newer ones. I really do not know the reason why..

[The Seer of Shadows]

Game producers want to make each game somehow different to the last, but they are also running out of creativity.

Like FFXIII.  It's battle system is like an update of the FFXII battle system, only tweaked a bit so that it feels more turn based.  However, I don't feel that it was much better than the FFXII battle system.  (Then again, a purely turn-based or ATB battle system would just look awkward with those graphics...)

[DLPB_]

LOst Odyssey didn't have any issues.

What it boils down to is they know they can get away with crap games now.  FF has a huge fanbase and it will sell millions just because of its brand.  Same with that crap MGS4.

Graphics + brand = wey hey.

Resident evil
Command and Conquer
Final Fantasy
Metal Gear Solid

4 of the ones I think have gone way down hill.  They all share 1 recent common fault: Graphics over substance and dumbed down gameplay.

[Covarr]

LOst Odyssey didn't have any issues.

What it boils down to is they know they can get away with crap games now.  FF has a huge fanbase and it will sell millions just because of its brand.  Same with that crap MGS4.

Graphics + brand = wey hey.

Resident evil
Command and Conquer
Final Fantasy
Metal Gear Solid

4 of the ones I think have gone way down hill.  They all share 1 recent common fault: Graphics over substance and dumbed down gameplay.

What the hell? Resident Evil 4 was WAY better than the first three. The tank controls were just awful, and the acting was horrible. And I personally prefer ALL of the new MGS games to the 2D Metal Gear games of old.

Besides, what about Mario? SMG2 was, in many people's opinions (my own included), the best 3D Mario game, and one of the best overall.

But I think one of the big things is that back when a lot of these games were great, they were still new, not yet franchises. Nowadays, the best games tend to be the ones that aren't just another entry in a stale franchise. That's really what it's about; look at newer things like Portal and Left 4 Dead, where the developers aren't trying to imitate something that's already been done, where the goal is to set standards rather than live up to them, and you'll see all sorts of incredible.

[Miseru]

 Answer is simple:
 If you're a fanboy waiting day and nights for next part of game you love, eating up every screenshot and info about it, you'll always expect more than you get, and most of the time you'll see half of the game before it's even released.

 How to fix that? Stop being a fanboy:P.

 I'm not and I like new games same as old. I would even say that about Suikoden, 2 part was better than 1. And generally old games like Command and Conquer feels nice if you have it as memory from childhood, play it again and you'll turn it off after an hour. They're just mean to be left as memory if you wanna say they're better. And I don't talk only about graphic and sounds. Interface, controls, playability, it's all stoneage quality now. New FF are also nice, it's just a maniac of a game will never see it. Same stuff with people who still live with FF6 they say it was best blindly not seeing that most of the time they played US version which was crappy censored and badly translated, not even mentioning that if you play it now without already being a maniac of it, you'll not even like it as it's just sooo small and limited... on my last reply of 6 part of FF I felt that even many non rpg games had better plot, example homeworld. Pff strategy and a space one that's an afront, but if you stop looking at game through memory of childhood, through maniacal love that's a fact.
 Also a fact only thing that doesn't get much old in FF series = Nobuo Uematsu music <3 I would play any game again and again if I wouldn't have his music available outside of the game. >.>

[Mirenheart]

I think one of the few game series that's still good, if not even better than it used to be, is Valve's Half Life. But then, they weren't trying to redo what was once great. Valve is one of those rare companies who aren't doing it just to make money. They are thinking more about the fans than anything, I believe.

Bethesda's Fallout 3 is most definitely one of those "trying to hard" games. it wasn't as good as the first 2 Fallouts.
The Resident Evil series is pretty good. Resident Evil 4 was a pretty good game, it just didn't have the suspense and fear the first three had. But it was still fun to play.
Final Fantasy is going down hill, too. The games stopped being good at 10. I haven't even beaten 12 yet, mostly due to all the grinding I have to do to get any levels. I usually don't mind grinding, but that was ridiculous.

[Shankifer]

I second Miseru on this one haha.

but at the same time, It's hard not to be a fanboy sometimes.

For example, I enjoyed Mass Effect very much, watched all these videos that talked about *proposed* additions and such, the game came out, and, though I still loved it, they didn't follow through almost half of the proposals.

As for Graphics over substance, I belive it's a 50/50 thing. Some games, yes, graphics took over the gameplay. Going back to the most common issue on here, FF13, I'm on the third disc with 30hrs into the game (I'm not a "beat this game ASAP" kind of person) and I feel like I spend more time watching cinematics or cut scenes than playing the game. That made me kind of disappointed.

Another great example of great games-turned-sour is The elder scrolls. Morrowind and Oblivion were great. but Morrowind, had flexibility, modding the game to your own liking was easy as you could imagine it on the PC. Oblivion was geared toward consoles and lost a lot of it's edge, in fact, if you buy Oblivion for the PC and have a decent Graphics card, the picture will look better than a PS3 or 360. So overall point here : Making changes from one console to the next is a guaranteed way to upset some fans.

Well thanks for giving me a reason to complain about my gaming experiences

[nikfrozty]

I do agree on the part that Graphics have improved but gameplay fun lessened.
Miseru-Well I partly agree with you with reading reviews about a game and it spoils my game but when I was playing it I didn't feel the need to finish it because I didn't enjoy playing it much. Anyways I'm with you with Suikoden 2 being better than the first. I miss the old days..

[DLPB_]

I have to disagree Covarr, RE4 and 5 et al are just "shoot kill"  the originals, especially RE2 had decent puzzles and atmosphere.  That is what made me like it in first place..

MGS4 was just a shooter, and stealth was thrown out the window.  The story was a pitiful joke and gameplay dumbed down, same way gameplay was dumbed down in FF 13.

MGS1 and 2 had a good balance and although MGS2 had a crazy story it wasnt as bad as MGS4.  At least it had good gameplay and a proper utilisation of stealth and weapons.  MGS4 is just a graphic fest shooter.  If i want that I play shooters. 

There is a definite dumbing down of games imho from clever design into "graphics, guns and fanbase will see us through" and for the most part, that philosophy is working.  ALl of the examples above are better demonstrated by how bad the storytelling and writing has become.

[Covarr]

I have to disagree Covarr, RE4 and 5 et al are just "shoot kill"  the originals, especially RE2 had decent puzzles and atmosphere.  That is what made me like it in first place

RE4 was certainly DIFFERENT from the originals, but the first three games, IMO, reeked. Bad controls, unfair camera angles leading to cheap deaths, etc. When I play something as immersive as a survival horror game, I want to be scared and startled at the same time as my character would. The thing is, there is no way my character would be startled to find a zombie four feet in front of him that he couldn't see because the camera was in the wrong place, there's nothing immersive about not being able to walk and turn at the same time, etc. RE4 may not have been nearly as scary as the first three, but at least it was playable. And it didn't have that terrible acting that the first one did.

MGS4 was just a shooter, and stealth was thrown out the window.  The story was a pitiful joke and gameplay dumbed down, same way gameplay was dumbed down in FF 13.

MGS4 was fun if you go in not expecting a stealth game. Even as a straightforward shooter, it's got a lot more variety to it than most of the rest of the genre, such as Halo, Call of Duty, etc. The controls are extremely fluid, and as I said in the MGS4 thread, it is very possible to play it as a stealth game. Hell, it even rewards you for not playing it like a typical shooter.

The thing about RE4 and MGS4 is not that they're bad games. They're just different. They may not be survival-horror or stealth anymore, but they're not trying to be. They're trying to be third person shooters, and they genuinely succeed at it, far better than most third person shooters, such as Gears of War.

[Jaitsu]

Bethesda's Fallout 3 is most definitely one of those "trying to hard" games. it wasn't as good as the first 2 Fallouts.

take dat back *holds up gun*

seriousely though, i love fallout 3, i absolutely have to play it pretty dang often too

[jeffdamann]

No game has met my expectations since PSone.... I have been gaming since my first ever NES and have had nearly every system and memorable game out there. The market truly excited me with the advancements being made in gameplay and graphics, and this continued for a very long time.

When they went to the next-gen consoles, I could certainly tell that all the wonder I had experienced in the last few years of gaming was slowly fading, dulling if you will. I figured it was just a slump, and wed be over the hump in a few years.

It seems that hump was quite larger than expected..Im still waiting to get over it. I remember when getting a MEDIOCRE game held all kind of joy and amazement for you, because most likely something that truly interests you is inside. When trying to think of next-gen games that set the bar for me, I can think of NONE, not a single one,while I can name MORE THAN ENOUGH for every system preceeding them....

[DLPB_]

Well it seems a bit silly to me to expect me to like MGS4 if it isn't trying to be the very thing that got me interested in the MGS series in the first place.  If I want halo I play Halo, if Halo decided to suddenly become a 2D platformer or a MGS2 based stealth game Halo fans wouldn't be very happy.

Different is fine when it isn't changing the gameplay from the genre it is based upon and that is just 1 criticism of many I have with these games.  Oh well   I just won't buy them anymore.

[Tekkie.X]

With the exception of New Super Mario Bros on the DS and Wii, there hasn't been a single Mario game worth thinking twice about since the days of the N64, Sunshine and Galaxy 1/2 are just generic platform ideas ideas Nintendo had and threw Mario in because it wouldn't sell well otherwise, same goes for the Sonic franchise.

[Armorvil]

It's the logical evolution for video-games, actually... Games with new mechanics and ideas will be rarer and rarer, since developpers concentrate on what sells best, given the development times & costs (hurrah for the HD). That means more FPSs, fighting games and MMOs, to name a few.

I, for one, am still waiting for a good next-gen Tactical RPG, like FFT, Dragon Force, or Brigandine... ...I'm replaying Vandal Hearts these days, and I'm having a blast (didn't play it for what -- 10 years ?).

I think the only title I'm looking forward to right now is The Last Guardian, from Team ICO.

[Covarr]

Galaxy 1/2 are just generic platform ideas ideas Nintendo had and threw Mario in because it wouldn't sell well otherwise

Generic, except for the powerups (a staple of the Mario series), ABSOLUTELY PERFECT PHYSICS, brilliant level design, and generally being really good games.

[pyrozen]

only one game series consistently lived up to my expectations every single time. Problem is folks loath the Gran Turismo series, most prefer the arcade-y fun for the need for speed series, which IMHO has run its course and needs to be put to sleep. Back in the 90s, NFS was the ugly step child that no one liked and suddenly today its really the only option for street racing. Weird.

[Covarr]

There has one thing that the Need For Speed series has done a few times, that they've gotten consistently right: the Hot Pursuit subseries. NFS3:HP was incredible (still my favorite non-Mario-Kart racing game), NFS:HP2 was pretty good, and I fully expect the upcoming NFS:HP to be really good as well.

[Tekkie.X]

only one game series consistently lived up to my expectations every single time. Problem is folks loath the Gran Turismo series, most prefer the arcade-y fun for the need for speed series, which IMHO has run its course and needs to be put to sleep. Back in the 90s, NFS was the ugly step child that no one liked and suddenly today its really the only option for street racing. Weird.

I'm in the Gran Turismo = bleh camp, I enjoyed 1 and 2 (been playing 2 again recently) but 3 and 4 are basically the same game and Prologue had a couple of really bad tracks in it. they pretty much peaked at 3 and have been making the same game ever since with minimal innovation, whereas the NFS series has been switching the formula up every couple of games to keep things somewhat fresh (not always for the better though, Carbon and Undercover were terrible, haven't played Prostreet or Shift)

Some companies realise you can't keep making the same old shit, Epic are done with the Gears franchise once the third game comes out, Halo: Reach will the last proper Halo game since Bungie are off to do a project for Activision.


The problem is that if you stray too far from the beaten path, things start to lose their charm, thus my Mario comment, I'm not exactly keen on owning a Wii so I haven't played the two Galaxy games and probably won't for quite some time, but Sunshine really didn't feel like a Mario game, Nintendo have long passed the point of whoring out Mario for sales and have basically ruined the franchise for a lot of people, I used to love Ninty, but all the handheld market saturation(do we really need 5 version of the DS?) and they way they've changed the formulas of much loved franchises a bit too much has made me become a bit wary of pretty much anything Nintendo related.

[yoshi314]

Anyone noticed this? When I was a child I played Legend of Legaia, Arc the Lad, Musashi, Suikoden etc. but the older ones are better than the newer ones. I really do not know the reason why..

too much time is spent nowadays with wrestling with the graphics to appeal to the spoiled dumb gamer. because dumb gamer only thinks about the graphics. that's why we have those ps3 vs xbox360 wars atm about which has better graphics, which i find pointless.

also serious game development takes a lot of money nowadays (that excludes casual games). so it's financially safer to stick to proven ideas for game studios that already have established game franchises running.

smart gamers, that actually care for a good storyline replay value and so called playability are in decline. so they usually don't matter.