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[Huge Succeeded]

Post them, otherwise keep the dramatic teen responses to yourself. Show me all of these creative and innovative local multiplayer games of this gen compared to previous ones. And to reiterate, I'm not into sports/fighting games or shooters.

Now go.

Undercooked
Rocket League
Jackbox Party Pack
Jackbox Party Pack 2
Jackbox Party Pack 3
Gang Beasts
Starwhal
Death Squared
Monaco
Snipperclips
Sportsfriends
SpeedRunners
Mount Your Friends
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Battleblock Theatre
Samurai Gunn
Divinity: Original Sin
Crawl
Enter the Gungeon
Terraria
Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time
Dangerous Golf
Niddhogg
Lethal League
Salt & Sanctuary
Screencheat
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Tumblestone
Videoball
Towerfall Ascension
Factorio
Risk of Rain
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Portal Knights
Spelunkey
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Westerado
Hive Jump
How To Survive/2
Duck Game
Never Alone
Don't Starve Together
PacMan 256
Awesomenauts
Neurovoider
7 Days

I could absolutely name more for you, if that's not enough. As well as some very fresh and/or innovative titles on the horizon, like State of Decay 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Honestly, though, as a PC gamer who has people over almost every day to hang and game, a lot of these games are more visible to me, so I get not being as aware of them. I just balked at your seemingly confident suggestion that this generation doesn't cut the mustard re: local multiplayer games, when in truth, this generation is easily the best generation there's ever been for that kind of game, and from where I sit that's hard to debate! I mean, that list speaks for itself. You're not gonna find any home platform in the history of games with a library of local multiplayer games that beats that list, and I didn't even include shooters, sports games, fighting games, or in fact any of the many solid local multiplayer games this generation that I wouldn't so readily describe as fresh or innovative. And so now it's time to

Play
The
Games.

ESPECIALLY Duck Game

 

[Council Pop]

Annapurna Interactive being one those, albeit they're American; https://www.giantbomb.com/annapurna-interactive/3010-13747/published/

Yes, nice shout!! Great article in Edge about them the other month.

 

[Melchiah]

Yes, nice shout!! Great article in Edge about them the other month.

Looks like I have to read that issue.

 

[Javier23]

*LIST*

I could absolutely name more for you, if that's not enough. Honestly, though, as a PC gamer who has people over almost every day to hang and game, a lot of these games are more visible to me, so I get not being as aware of them. I just balked at the very suggestion that this generation isn't the best generation for genuinely fresh local multiplayer experiences ever, because it totally is! You just gotta know about the games.

This. An immense amount of really cool local MP games are coming out these days.

 

[LotusHD]

Clearly we need a Gravity Rush 3.

Spoiler

Jokes aside, I wish open world games would go crazier in terms of traversal options...

 

[LordRaptor]

This has been the most diverse gaming era of all fucking time. I mean they brought back some 3D platforming mascot games for fuck's sake. Name a genre at you just about have the pinnacle of their genre released during this gen.

Not true, there are more than a few genres that are completely absent this gen, let alone those with notably weak entries.
If you don't care for the genres that are absent that probably colours your perception that "everythings better than ever!" but you have to at least concede that people that do enjoy dead genres are going to have the opposite view.

list

The large number of titles in that list that came out 'last gen' here somewhat undermines 'this gen' as being particulaly good

 

[Huge Succeeded]

The large number of titles in that list that came out 'last gen' here somewhat undermines 'this gen' as being particulaly good

Which of the games on that list released 'last gen'? It's certainly not a large number of the games on that list, and at any rate, very, very few of those games are actually available to play on last-gen platforms.

 

[MazeHaze]

OP reads like it's written by someone who hasn't experience high end VR.

It took less than 10 minutes of Robo Recall before I though, "welp, holy shit, this is it. Games are crazy as fuck now."

 

[SapientWolf]

I agree from a local multiplayer standpoint.

Not a lot of good collaboration games or creative competitive games outside of fighters/sports.

Post it, mofo!

Off the top of my head:

Spy Party* - Try to blend in with AI while completing various missions, while another player is surveiling the crowd from behind a sniper scope, trying to guess who the spy is.

Invisigun Heroes - It's a top down competitive shooter where you are only visible when you fire. Sometimes it pays to be the second shooter.

Mount Your Friends- Create slightly homoerotic towers with your friends, and try to come out on top. Features realistic dong physics.

Fat Mask - Competitive puzzle game where everyone has access to the same blocks. You attempt to complete combos before the other player steals them.

Overcooked - Cooperate with up to three of your friends to complete food orders at a break neck pace.

Battlesloths- Top down shooter where each fallen foe drops a pizza. But you only score if you can get the pizzas safely back to your spawn.

Death Squared - Tough as nails cooperative puzzle game, where you try to escape the death grid with up to three other people.

Clairvoyance* - Asynchronous robot battle strategy game where the turns play out simultaneously. You have to try to predict where the other player will be and bomb/laser them to death.

Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - Cooperative operative simulator, where one player has a bomb to defuse and the other players have the manual. Players communicate back and forth to solve the logic riddles before the bomb goes off.

Crawl - It's a miniboss based dungeon crawl, where each miniboss is controlled by another player.

Chariot - Two gladiators one chariot. Try to coordinate and navigate your chariot through the platforming challenges.

N++ - Balls hard cooperative/competitive platformer where every death is somehow hilarious.

Genital Jousting- You're a dick with a butt and you try to put your dick in other butts, and you score when you "score," except you get more points if your dick is in another butt, and both dicks squirt loudly when one of them is in a butt. It is the crowning achievement of human civilization.

*You have to buy two copies, but it's worth it.

 

[SMOK3Y]

I'm playing it right now and it's your standard open world game with standard open world game design.

It's beautiful and well made, but it doesn't do anything new or even better than other games in the genre.

Come on now, talk about a bland, homogeneous derivative game (hell, I even kinda like the game...in a way). You can't seriously think Horizon brings anything new to the table unless you're young and haven't played too many games. Sorry if that sounds disdainful, I don't mean to attack you or anything, but Horizon is a poster-boy for the kind of games the OP means. It's relatively well done for the most part, but I dont think I can think of one element I haven't already seen (done better) in other games.

Spose I consider it great as tbh its the first open world game ive enjoyed as I'm more of a linear game player

 

[LordRaptor]

Which of the games on that list released 'last gen'?

Monaco
Mount Your Friends
Battleblock Theatre
Terraria
Niddhogg
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Towerfall Ascension
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Spelunkey
Don't Starve Together
Awesomenauts

are all PS360 games (or in one example Ouya).

 

[Keihart]

I feel this generation has been the best since PS2 days on diversity of games, last generation was way more stagnant if we compare.

 

[Par Score]

Outside of indies, lets not act like sequels and remakes arent way more prevalent now than they were in the PS2 era and earlier and that the earlier eras didnt have a lot more new IP's than we see today.

This is straight up revisionist history.

The PS2 era was lousy with sequels. Sequels and shitty licensed games:

The videogame industry has a lot in common with the movie business in that both industries bank heavily on special effects, big releases and even glamour. And increasingly, the game industry shares something else with Hollywood: a heavy reliance on sequels. In the six-month period ending in June, only two of the 10 best-selling video games were based on original ideas, according to the NPD Group, a research firm. Most were spinoffs from other best-selling games or were licensed from pro sports; a few were based on blockbuster movies and books. The only original title in the top five is Halo, a first-person shooter game from Microsoft. The rest -- MVP Baseball 2004, NFL Street, Pokémon Colosseum and Fight Night 2004 -- are all sequels or sports spinoffs.

In some ways, the lack of originality reflects the game industry's growing maturity. Because of the technological complexity of the current generation of console game devices, development costs have sharply risen. A top-shelf video game now typically costs $5 million to $15 million to create. As a result, game publishers who produce titles for consoles like Microsoft's Xbox, the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube (which account for 80 percent of all game revenue) have been increasingly unwilling to place bets on original, unproved material and, like Hollywood, rely on new versions of previous hits.​

-The New York Times, 2004

By year's end, Electronic Arts plans to release 26 new games, all but one of them a sequel, including the 16th version of N.H.L. Hockey, the 11th of the racing game Need for Speed and the 13th of the P.G.A. Tour golf game. The company also relies heavily on creating games based on movies like the James Bond and Lord of the Rings series, rather than developing original brands.

To be fair, sequels are a stock-in-trade of the industry; 9 of last year's 10 top-selling games were follow-ons. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the No. 1 title from Take-Two Interactive Software, for example, is the fifth version of that game. Reliance on tried-and-true sequels makes it possible to have a steady revenue stream in an unpredictable business.​

-The New York Times, 2005

If you think there’s not enough, I don’t think you’ve been looking too hard at all. There’s new games almost every other week, maybe they aren’t too successful or get rave reviews but this is the time where people get to experiment a ton, so creativity wise not shallow at all.

My dude.

This year so far there have been 2841 games released on Steam alone. We are on day 204.

Yes, that's 14 games a day. Just on Steam.

Let's throw in the various Console Exclusives and we can get up to 15 a day, probably.

Now how about... itch.io? Oh, that's another 10,000 games released this year, nbd. That's another 50 games a day.

There are so many games. Too many games. If someone genuinely cared about the health of creativity in the medium, they would only need look.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Don't Starve Together isn't a PS3/360 game.
Towerfall having been on OUYA first (and then every next gen platform under the sun) was a non-consideration to me.

The rest are resolutely last-gen games, it appears, but they're also a relatively small portion of an otherwise impressive list. Remove them from the list and you still have a lineup of local multiplayer games that most generations can't claim to match, especially as soon as two and a half years in.

 

[Htown]

The other generations were at least as full of generic garbage as this one is. Probably more so.

You just don't remember all those shitty games because they were shitty and forgettable.

 

[MTC100]

High scores ? Lol

Reviewers were still too lenient with them, the only score I agree with is the one of The Order, the other titles could use a drop of 10-20% on MC though.

 

[NintendosBooger]

Undercooked - This was good.
Rocket League - Not into sports games
Jackbox Party Pack - Nothing innovative or creative about trivia games
Jackbox Party Pack 2 - See Above
Jackbox Party Pack 3 - See Above
Gang Beasts - Hate fighting games. There's nothing creative about this one, either
Starwhal - Haven't played it, will try it out. Thanks.
Death Squared - Played it on the Switch, not impressed
Monaco - Last gen
Snipperclips - Uninspiring, IMO.
Sportsfriends - Like Gang Beasts, another uninspired beat-em-up
SpeedRunners - This was fun
Mount Your Friends - Never played it, but I thought it came out last gen?
Ultimate Chicken Horse - Never played, but will check it out.
Battleblock Theatre - Last gen
Samurai Gunn - Last gen
Divinity: Original Sin - What's novel about this? A co-op RPG?
Crawl - Played it briefly. These roguelike games are getting a bit tired.
Enter the Gungeon - Haven't played it but heard some good things.
Terraria - Last gen
Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time - This ones on my queue, actually
Dangerous Golf - Not into sports
Niddhogg - Not into fighting games
Lethal League - See above
Salt & Sanctuary - I like this
Screencheat - Saw it, wasn't impressed.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes - This is great
Cook, Serve, Delicious! - I don't play on PCs, but I've been looking forward to this one
Tumblestone - Meh
Videoball - Looks interesting
Towerfall Ascension - Remember playing it on the Vita. Maybe it was the lack of other players to play again but I wasn't impressed.
Factorio - This shit is older than I am, man.
Risk of Rain - Loved it. Glad you mentioned this.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet - Last gen
Portal Knights - Never tried it, will look into it.
Spelunkey - Not current gen
Crypt of the Necrodancer - This has local multiplayer?
Westerado - Never heard of it, but okay.
Hive Jump - How old is this? Never heard of it
How To Survive/2 - Never played it but it looked awful and uninspired.
Duck Game - Haven't played this yet since I own only consoles.
Never Alone - Been meaning to check this one out.
Don't Starve Together - I played this one Wii U, wasn't aware it had multiplayer...
PacMan 256 - It's Pacman. Innovative?
Awesomenauts - Last gen
Neurovoider - Don't even know what this game is
7 Days - Not my idea of local multiplayer since it's LAN-dependent, but all right.

So from that list:
Good: 5
Iffy: 8
Last Gen: 9
Never played it: 9
Sports/Fighting games: 8

OKAY list, my friend. Wasn't bad.

Now give me time to prepare a list of my own from the previous generation that puts this one to shame.

 

[ChouGoku]

LOL! Talking about creative output and mention a game that wasn't even finished.

And yet it is still on of the best games of all time

 

[Huge Succeeded]

So from that list:
Good: 5
Iffy: 8
Last Gen: 9
Never played it: 9
Sports/Fighting games: 8

OKAY list, my friend. Wasn't bad.

Now give me time to prepare a list of my own from the previous generation that puts this one to shame.

Your appraisals of several of those games lead me to believe you're just trying to pare down my list for argument's sake. You describe games that aren't sports games as 'sports games'. You describe games that aren't fighting games as 'fighting games'. You tell me that games that clearly don't have peers or like experiences to point to aren't innovative or fresh. What the hell, man? It feels like you're not here to have a good faith discussion at all.

For example: PacMan 256 isn't just 'Pac Man', you'd know that if you'd look into the game. There are countless examples just like that present in your appraisals of these games. I mean, for shits sake. You called Dangerous Golf a sports game, because it's got Golf in the name I guess? (Hmm, is Burnout Crash a 'racing' game or a 'sports' game in your world? I'd be interested to know lmao) You dismissed Lethal League as a 'fighter', as though it's anything like any 'fighter' you've ever played or seen. You declared that ALL THREE JACKBOX PACKS, each which come with several games, are 'just trivia games'. You called Gang Beasts an 'uninspired beat-em-up'. You dismiss games that bring genuine innovations into the fold as not doing so because you're simply not interested in them. I know you haven't played those games, but those quotes lead me to believe you haven't even seen them, and I'm only scratching the surface.

Anyway, enjoy being contrarian, I'm not gonna stick around to check out your list, and if I do, I'm going to tear it down as disingenuously as you tore down mine.

 

[SlimySnake]

My problem with indie games is that they don't cover my favorite genres. I don't expect indie devs to be able to make uncharted, gears, killzone, halo and dark souls calibur games but there are very few fps and third person action adventure indie games. I think a big reason why PUBG became so huge was because it was the first true large scale indie fps multiplayer title. We need more of that.

There are a lot of starved socom and mag fans out there who want a return to the glory days of those franchises. But there is just nothing out there and indie devs are not stepping up.

There were several popular action adventure indie games but they are mostly 2d. The 3d games like Ethan Carter and gone home leave out the action part of action adventure. I'm glad they are still successful but if indie devs want to me to play their games they need to make games i want to play.

It's perfectly fine if they don't. But unless they start branching out to the most popular genres of today, rpg, action adventure and fps fans will continue to feel that there hasn't been enough innovation this gen.

 

[Maximo]

The last gen and this gen have given me some of the most memorable experiences ever in gaming.

 

[Astral Dog]

Metal Gear Solid V 😂

 

[NintendosBooger]

Your appraisals of several of those games lead me to believe you're just trying to pare down my list for argument's sake. You describe games that aren't sports games as 'sports games'. You describe games that aren't fighting games as 'fighting games'. You tell me that games that clearly don't have peers or like experiences to point to aren't innovative or fresh. What the hell, man? It feels like you're not here to have a good faith discussion at all.

For example: PacMan 256 isn't just 'Pac Man', you'd know that if you'd look into the game. There are countless examples just like that present in your appraisals of these games. I mean, for shits sake. You called Dangerous Golf a sports game. You declared that ALL THREE JACKBOX PACKS, each which come with several games, are 'just trivia games'. You called Gang Beasts an 'uninspired beat-em-up'. I know you haven't played those games, but those quotes lead me to believe you haven't even seen them, and I'm only scratching the surface.

Wtf.

I have played all the Jackbox games (even double dipped on the Switch version) and they're nothing but drunk party games and trivia for the most part. And I've probably played more iterations of Pacman than you have, and I can't call a single one creative outside of the original and Ms. Pacman except for maybe Vs. Speaking of disingenuous, I'm not the one padding my list with games from previous gen so perhaps you're not doing this in good faith?

 

[NervousXtian]

Not true, there are more than a few genres that are completely absent this gen, let alone those with notably weak entries.
If you don't care for the genres that are absent that probably colours your perception that "everythings better than ever!" but you have to at least concede that people that do enjoy dead genres are going to have the opposite view.

What genre are we missing? I'm curious.

Your appraisals of several of those games lead me to believe you're just trying to pare down my list for argument's sake. You describe games that aren't sports games as 'sports games'. You describe games that aren't fighting games as 'fighting games'. You tell me that games that clearly don't have peers or like experiences to point to aren't innovative or fresh. What the hell, man? It feels like you're not here to have a good faith discussion at all.

For example: PacMan 256 isn't just 'Pac Man', you'd know that if you'd look into the game. There are countless examples just like that present in your appraisals of these games. I mean, for shits sake. You called Dangerous Golf a sports game, because it's got Golf in the name I guess? You dismissed Lethal League as a 'fighter', as though it's anything like any 'fighter' you've ever played or seen. You declared that ALL THREE JACKBOX PACKS, each which come with several games, are 'just trivia games'. You called Gang Beasts an 'uninspired beat-em-up'. You dismiss games that bring genuine innovations into the fold as not doing so because you're simply not interested in them. I know you haven't played those games, but those quotes lead me to believe you haven't even seen them, and I'm only scratching the surface.

Anyway, enjoy being contrarian, I'm not gonna stick around to check out your list, and if I do, I'm going to tear it down as disingenuously as you tore down mine. Don't waste your time.

He Sportsfriends and uninspired beat-em-up.

There's more diversity on that list of co-op or MP games than we've EVER had any time ever.

..and yes this gen and last gen blended quite a bit at the start/end.

 

[NervousXtian]

Wtf.

I have played all the Jackbox games (even double dipped on the Switch version) and they're nothing but drunk party games and trivia for the most part. And I've probably played more iterations of Pacman than you have, and I can't call a single one creative outside of the original and Ms. Pacman except for maybe Vs. Speaking of disingenuous, I'm not the one padding my list with games from previous gen so perhaps you're not doing this in good faith?

Your hot take on Pac-Man 256 shows how biased as fuck you are to make your point.

256 is the most creative use of an old arcade license in as long as I can remember.

 

[Huge Succeeded]

Wtf.

I have played all the Jackbox games (even double dipped on the Switch version) and they're nothing but drunk party games and trivia for the most part.

You dismissed three packs of five or more games each (many of which have no equivalent in video gaming) as all being rote trivia games just to get three titles 'off the list'. If you've played the Jackbox games then you were just being disingenuous.

And I've probably played more iterations of Pacman than you have, and I can't call a single one creative outside of the original and Ms. Pacman except for maybe Vs

Then you obviously haven't played or seen 256. Which was my point. You dismissed it because it had Pac Man in the name.

Speaking of disingenuous, I'm not the one padding my list with games from previous gen so perhaps you're not doing this in good faith?

The only reason I included last-gen games was because I played them on PC this gen and wasn't aware of their origins. I'm not deliberately trying to mis-classify games I don't know about like a certain somebody.

Your hot take on Pac-Man 256 shows how biased as fuck you are to make your point.

Yeah. It doesn't help that like half of the other hot takes in that post are equivalent misappraisals.

Dude seriously asked what's novel about Divinity: Original Sin. "A Co-Op CRPG?"
Well, yeah. That is what's novel about it. You got a list of those to break out?
A story-focused RPG campaign where my brother and I can create two very different characters, where the game facilitates us operating as our own characters? Where a unique take on dialogue trees facilitate my ability to literally have ingame arguments and disagreements with my other lead party member over the things that are happening to us, which fleshes out our characters stats and personalities appropriately?

Like, what, lol. Every time I go down that list I'm stunned by another hot take that doesn't quite align with my time with those games.

 

[Wagram]

I don't think it's been all bad, but compared to Xbox 360, the Xbox One library is awful for my taste.

 

[Rathorial]

This generation has been very disappointing for me because there are very few new AAA or ip's that actually push the hardware. This gen has been beyond freaking fantastic from a undy/small developer position but I didn't buy a ps4 to play a more expensive and lesser port of the same retro 8/16 bit games I can (and do) play on my 6 yr old laptop. At this point I could have skipped this gen and missed very, very few subjectivity important console titles than at the same point in the previous generation.
It has just been very disappointing -for me- and a major reason why in the future I will be primarily gaming on my PC, only to pick up a console for exclusives many years into it's life.

I can get behind the disappointment in buying new hardware, and the games regularly trying out new ideas don't need it. The new hardware is largely just to push graphics forward, evidenced by the PS4/Xbone prioritizing GPU over CPU. At least the Switch is a finally a handheld with fidelity decent enough not to have super aliased hard to see visuals like the 3ds, and proper controls.

I have gotten fairly little use out of my consoles this gen, because the amount of exclusives has objectively shrunk, and enough of them are sequels. My PC on the other hand has taken over more time, because it gets more games in diverse genres, and often enough get indie games first before a console port.

Big games at this point I just expect to be more iterative, so I just buy into the games with particular formulas I really like/want more of. I'm ready for that Dishonored 2 expansion because the toolbox and level design are regularly great, I'll buy the Mario + Rabbids game because it's portable cutesy XCOM, and the next Wolfenstein looks like they're going even more bananas with their alt-history world.

 

[LordRaptor]

What genre are we missing? I'm curious.

THPS style games used to sell a ton. Think the latest THPS represents the pinnacle of the genre?
Arcade racers, huge genre. Wheres Burnout / Ridge Racer / Outrun / Test Drive gone? Wheres the rally racers? The F1 titles? NFS or Forza is your choice. GT later down the line sometime.
JRPGs are on life support. Theres really not much arguing that.
Bemanis dead. Even pseudo Bemani. Theres VOEZ on the Switch, and Thumper on the indie side of things, presumably a Rhythm Heaven from Nintendo at some point. Guitar Hero / Rock Band / SingStar / Lips? Adios.
How about Stealth games? MGS became an open world sandbox. there's sort of nods towards stealth in things like DE:MD or Dishonoured 2, but as an actual genre?
Puzzle games left for mobile a long time ago. Remember when Hexic was a bundled 360 launch title? Theres Puyo v Tetris hanging around to little respect and fewer sales.
God games & city builders? PC and Mobile. The sims used to be a mega franchise, even on console, EA don't care. Same with Sim City, sabotaged and abandoned for indies to pick up the slack as best they can.
Used to be a time when if you just watched a film you enjoyed, or had a favorite TV show you could pick up a complementary console title to extend the experience. Today? If you're a Rick & Morty fan, you're playing Pocket Mortys on your phone.

I mean, I honestly could go on, but if you're honest you'll admit that if you're a console gamer, its golden times if your favorite games include one or more of the following words:
Shooter, First Person, Third Person, Open world, Sandbox, Cinematic, Multiplayer, GaaS, Hero, Team Based, RPG elements

 

[Haly]

On Neogaf:

JRPGs are on life support. Theres really not much arguing that.

Also on Neogaf:

Are we in the middle of a 3rd JRPG renaissance?

For the others, I don't want to get into an exhaustive list but some of those genres kill themselves off through mismanagement/oversaturation, others are alive and well. The Witness for puzzles, Cities: Skylines/Civ6/Stellaris/Endless for simulators and builders, stealth is now a rudimentary component of many games (even when these elements don't fit). It's true, some genres have faded as interest shifted away from them but previously niche genres like CRPGs, Point-and-Click, roguelikes and 4X/Grand Strategy are in a resurgence. Digital board games and card games are another one I don't see anyone mentioning in these kinds of threads.

Times change and tastes change, this is natural and to be expected.

Oh and fighters, although that's more momentum from "last gen" or whatever the fuck.

 

[LordRaptor]

For the others, I don't want to get into an exhaustive list but some of those genres kill themselves off through mismanagement/oversaturation, others are alive and well.

That JRPG topic is full of people immediately saying "uh, no" as responses.
My list was talking about consoles, because the PC (and mobile) do not have "generations", they are a continuum, so phrasing things as "This generation" inherently frames the topic around consoles.

Many genres that were previously viable on consoles simply now aren't.
People that enjoyed those genres aren't buying consoles - they went to where those genres can still survive.

 

[NervousXtian]

THPS style games used to sell a ton. Think the latest THPS represents the pinnacle of the genre?
Arcade racers, huge genre. Wheres Burnout / Ridge Racer / Outrun / Test Drive gone? Wheres the rally racers? The F1 titles? NFS or Forza is your choice. GT later down the line sometime.
JRPGs are on life support. Theres really not much arguing that.
Bemanis dead. Even pseudo Bemani. Theres VOEZ on the Switch, and Thumper on the indie side of things, presumably a Rhythm Heaven from Nintendo at some point. Guitar Hero / Rock Band / SingStar / Lips? Adios.
How about Stealth games? MGS became an open world sandbox. there's sort of nods towards stealth in things like DE:MD or Dishonoured 2, but as an actual genre?
Puzzle games left for mobile a long time ago. Remember when Hexic was a bundled 360 launch title? Theres Puyo v Tetris hanging around to little respect and fewer sales.
God games & city builders? PC and Mobile. The sims used to be a mega franchise, even on console, EA don't care. Same with Sim City, sabotaged and abandoned for indies to pick up the slack as best they can.
Used to be a time when if you just watched a film you enjoyed, or had a favorite TV show you could pick up a complementary console title to extend the experience. Today? If you're a Rick & Morty fan, you're playing Pocket Mortys on your phone.

I mean, I honestly could go on, but if you're honest you'll admit that if you're a console gamer, its golden times if your favorite games include one or more of the following words:
Shooter, First Person, Third Person, Open world, Sandbox, Cinematic, Multiplayer, GaaS, Hero, Team Based, RPG elements

THPS is a genre?? It's a series. I'll admit we need a new Skate game worth a shit, never played the new THPS.. bet you didn't either.

We just got a new Dirt game this year, and the excellent Dirty Rally 2 years ago, you also ignore the Crew, Forza Horizon, Driveclub and the F1 games... but I mean.. OK. Forza Horizon or the Crew shit all over old arcade racers as is. We even got a quality Wipeout game this gen.

JRPGS are coming out in droves... you just aren't looking if you say that... we are bombarded with them all the time.

There's new rhythm games if you cared to look.. but bemani is niche as can be here in the States.. so much so it's a strange thing to even mention. Arguably, yeah there's a drop here.

Stealth games.. how many fucking stealth games we ever get with a generation. Seriously, answer this.

God games and puzzles games are played more than ever.. but feel free to discount mobile entirely.

Sandbox and city builders? We have excellent ones.. I mean fuck we go 2 killer theme park games in the last year alone.

Sims 4 is still fucking huge, it's just not on Steam.

I mean, you're naming franchises not even genres on some of these.

 

[Dr. Black Jack]

This just makes me think you don't play indie games.

.

 

[entremet]

Highly entertaining thread.

 

[yurinka]

I remember to read back in the 8 bits age a journalist complaining about lack of creativity an innovation in games. xDD

 

[Gen X]

we're already talking about PS5 and Xbox 3...

Lol, wut? 😂

 

[Angel_DvA]

Undercooked
Rocket League
Jackbox Party Pack
Jackbox Party Pack 2
Jackbox Party Pack 3
Gang Beasts
Starwhal
Death Squared
Monaco
Snipperclips
Sportsfriends
SpeedRunners
Mount Your Friends
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Battleblock Theatre
Samurai Gunn
Divinity: Original Sin
Crawl
Enter the Gungeon
Terraria
Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time
Dangerous Golf
Niddhogg
Lethal League
Salt & Sanctuary
Screencheat
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Tumblestone
Videoball
Towerfall Ascension
Factorio
Risk of Rain
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Portal Knights
Spelunkey
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Westerado
Hive Jump
How To Survive/2
Duck Game
Never Alone
Don't Starve Together
PacMan 256
Awesomenauts
Neurovoider
7 Days

I could absolutely name more for you, if that's not enough. As well as some very fresh and/or innovative titles on the horizon, like State of Decay 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Honestly, though, as a PC gamer who has people over almost every day to hang and game, a lot of these games are more visible to me, so I get not being as aware of them. I just balked at your seemingly confident suggestion that this generation doesn't cut the mustard re: local multiplayer games, when in truth, this generation is easily the best generation there's ever been for that kind of game, and from where I sit that's hard to debate! I mean, that list speaks for itself. You're not gonna find any home platform in the history of games with a library of local multiplayer games that beats that list, and I didn't even include shooters, sports games, fighting games, or in fact any of the many solid local multiplayer games this generation that I wouldn't so readily describe as fresh or innovative. And so now it's time to

Play
The
Games.

ESPECIALLY Duck Game

I'll try some of them, thanks for the list.

 

[Chronospherics]

Like, the entire history of art cinema begs to differ. Films aren't becoming more homogeneous at all. But with film, you have a lot of state funding which subsidises risk taking projects.

I mean, just to take British film as an example, last year you had American Honey, which was funded by the British Film Institute and Film4, both publicly owned, and earlier this year Lady Macbeth, which was funded by the BBC and Creative England.

British developers like The Chinese Room have received funding similar to this, but certainly not to the tune of $3.5million (the budget of American Honey).

That's why the big budget, ambitious games tend to come from Nintendo and Sony's in-house studios.

Developers just don't have the funding options open to them, because the games industry isn't appropriately structured to support creative works, even if it wants to. I expect that future funding and publishing for ambitious games in Europe will come increasingly from the film sector. The UK's leading film school already has a game design course, and of course we have gaming BAFTAs now.

A film on a £3.4m budget is not, a risky project. There are plenty of films and games that do make an effort to break out, but the very fact that they have to be subsidised by government funding to help mitigate that risk goes to show that this is an issue. Large publishers are risk adverse, the games that people are playing, the most popular games, movies, and music, are increasingly homogenous between one another.

Maybe it's just a difference in our perceptions, but the way I see it, big box office films have absolutely become more homogenous over time.

Undercooked
Rocket League
Jackbox Party Pack
Jackbox Party Pack 2
Jackbox Party Pack 3
Gang Beasts
Starwhal
Death Squared
Monaco
Snipperclips
Sportsfriends
SpeedRunners
Mount Your Friends
Ultimate Chicken Horse
Battleblock Theatre
Samurai Gunn
Divinity: Original Sin
Crawl
Enter the Gungeon
Terraria
Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time
Dangerous Golf
Niddhogg
Lethal League
Salt & Sanctuary
Screencheat
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Tumblestone
Videoball
Towerfall Ascension
Factorio
Risk of Rain
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Portal Knights
Spelunkey
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Westerado
Hive Jump
How To Survive/2
Duck Game
Never Alone
Don't Starve Together
PacMan 256
Awesomenauts
Neurovoider
7 Days

I could absolutely name more for you, if that's not enough. As well as some very fresh and/or innovative titles on the horizon, like State of Decay 2 and Divinity: Original Sin 2. Honestly, though, as a PC gamer who has people over almost every day to hang and game, a lot of these games are more visible to me, so I get not being as aware of them. I just balked at your seemingly confident suggestion that this generation doesn't cut the mustard re: local multiplayer games, when in truth, this generation is easily the best generation there's ever been for that kind of game, and from where I sit that's hard to debate! I mean, that list speaks for itself. You're not gonna find any home platform in the history of games with a library of local multiplayer games that beats that list, and I didn't even include shooters, sports games, fighting games, or in fact any of the many solid local multiplayer games this generation that I wouldn't so readily describe as fresh or innovative. And so now it's time to

Play
The
Games.

ESPECIALLY Duck Game

As good as these games are, we are only seeing innovation in this indy space, where the development costs are low. You could add the sales of all of those titles together and they wouldn't match many triple As. Plenty of genres that have inherently higher development costs do not see similar innovation, the genres that happen to be most popular, like FPS, and cinematic experiences, have a huge financial barrier to entry and as a result you could argue that this generation has poor creative diversity - because the genres that are most popular are seeing very very slow iteration.

I would never deny that good, creative experiences still exist, but they're no longer at the forfront of our medium. Back in the 90s, where developers were still experimenting with what consumers liked, they would spend millions on incredibly creative games like Comix Zone, or Echo the Dolphin. This creativity has shifted away from the mainstream, to the independent titles and while it still exists, that locks creative innovation away from a lot of genres and experiences that require, inherently larger budgets to produce.

 

[LordRaptor]

THPS is a genre?? It's a series. I'll admit we need a new Skate game worth a shit, never played the new THPS.. bet you didn't either.

THPS style games are (were) a protogenre that never got an actual label; Dave Mirras BMX, Shaun White Snowboarding, Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, SSX, Trickstyle, JSR, etc. Thats a genre. No I haven't played the latest THPS. Its apparently a very low budget and bad game.
Thats literally my counterpoint to your claim that there isn't a single genre that isn't the best its ever been this gen.

Stealth games.. how many fucking stealth games we ever get with a generation. Seriously, answer this.

Last gen? Thi4f, Splinter Cell, Mark of the Ninja, Stealth Bastard, Saboteur, TenchuZ, Velvet Assassin, even excluding titles with heavy stealth elements like Hitman.

but feel free to discount mobile entirely.

How am I excluding mobile when I explicitly mention mobile as where a lot of those genres (and their player bases) have gone?
If the OP is saying "Damn, this console generation sucks for game diversity" its not exctly a strong rebuttal to reply with "PC and mobile have loads of genre diversity", is it?

I mean, you're naming franchises not even genres on some of these.

No, I grouped everything by genre. Rock Band / Guitar Hero are still at heart Bemani games.

 

[Council Pop]

A film on a £3.4m budget is not, a risky project. There are plenty of films and games that do make an effort to break out, but the very fact that they have to be subsidised by government funding to help mitigate that risk goes to show that this is an issue. Large publishers are risk adverse, the games that people are playing, the most popular games, movies, and music, are increasingly homogenous between one another.

Maybe it's just a difference in our perceptions, but the way I see it, big box office films have absolutely become more homogenous over time.

This thread is about creativity full stop, not 'creativity but only when something is incredibly commercially successful'.

I never said $3.5 million was a 'risky budget', but it's not a small one (random examples- a larger budget than Whiplash, a similar budget to Moonlight), and a film like American Honey (which made $1.8million at the box office) would have never been able to raise that via private investors. My point is that if we want to lift creatively ambitious games out of the no-budget indie sector, public bodies have to be investing in them.

I don't care about what's popular, and no-one should base their analysis of culture around commercial success. I mean, I studied experimental music at uni- we'd have been fucked if we'd based our expectations of the art form around whether or not it was selling well.

Also, culture shouldn't be subsidised by public bodies because it 'has to be' as some sort of last resort, but because it should be the responsibility of the state to invest in the arts, providing freedom to create without commercial pressures, and prioritising creative work that is risky, boundary pushing, aesthetically, formally and thematically challenging and provocative.

 

[Chronospherics]

This thread is about creativity full stop, not 'creativity but only when something is incredibly commercially successful'.

I never said $3.5 million was a 'risky budget', but it's not a small one (random examples- a larger budget than Whiplash, a similar budget to Moonlight), and a film like American Honey (which made $1.8million at the box office) would have never been able to raise that via private investors. My point is that if we want to lift creatively ambitious games out of the no-budget indie sector, public bodies have to be investing in them.

I don't care about what's popular, and no-one should base their analysis of culture around commercial success. I mean, I studied experimental music at uni- we'd have been fucked if we'd based our expectations of the art form around whether or not it was selling well.

Also, culture shouldn't be subsidised by public bodies because it 'has to be' as some sort of last resort, but because it should be the responsibility of the state to invest in the arts, providing freedom to create without commercial pressures, and prioritising creative work that is risky, boundary pushing, aesthetically, formally and thematically challenging and provocative.

If the industry is only innovating in certain spaces where it was before, then it's less creative. If the creative games are the ones having less influence on the industry (because they are less played) then creativity is stifled broadly, because it doesn't lead to iteration and innovation.

It used to be the case that the creative push was expanding the industry in all directions, but I would argue that's less true today, than it were in the 90s or even 2,000s.

 

[Gxgear]

Just gotta know where to look, even if you only play AAA games. But you can't blame companies to also stick with their established franchises.

 

[Nocturno999]

Play Inside and Pony Island (PC) if you want to get Kojima'ed OP.

 

[DeathbyCheerios]

Could creativity seem to be down because there is so much good?

Before we would have a lot of crap and then we would have a game like Halo come out and solidify the console shooter. Or Ocarina of Time blow up and show everyone what a 3d game could do.

I feel like a lot of the real innovations in gaming have been done and now its all about refinement. Like technology. We went from shit cell phones to powerful smart phones really fast now its just slight improvements.

Hell I look at previous generations and see a handful of games that are must plays, now there are so many I feel overwhelmed.

 

[Bioshocker]

It's the indie scene that's saving this generation for me so far. Firewatch, Inside, and Little NIghtmares are great examples of what's out there. I particularly like short and intense games like these because I don't have the time for 40 hour experiences anymore.

On top of that AAA experiences like Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 3, Witcher 3 (although too big for me) and Resident Evil 7 are great stuff, as well as Dreamfall Chapters, Tearaway Unfolded and Sunset Overdrive.

But yes, so far I think the last generation with so many new and amazing franchises (BioShock, The Last of Us and Uncharted just to name three) is far ahead. There's still time, though.

 

[almostjuliuscaesar]

basically

 

[TheBoss1]

LOL! Talking about creative output and mention a game that wasn't even finished.

When a game that isn't finished is better than 99% of games that are finished, it speaks volume.

I was gonna say this but thank you for doing it for me.