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[Magic Carpet]

Consoles that plug into Tv's have hit a wall over a decade ago.
I have been enjoying my new Quest, Steamdeck, and iPhone 15 Pro.
Portable is still gaining.

 

[Humdinger]

Seems like responses are split about 50/50. I'm in the "yes, gaming is in decline" camp myself, but I understand those who think modern gaming is peachy, good as its ever been, etc., especially in a robust year like this. I think they're missing the bigger picture, but that's just my perspective. There aren't any objective answers here; it's just a matter of subjective opinion, based on what you personally enjoy in gaming.

 

[Hudo]

Have you checked the indie scene?
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a number of good modern rts there.
I prefer turn based games myself so I can't give you examples but I am sure you can find some RTS indie gems.

Unfortunately, no. There aren't a lot of indie RTS games. And those that do indeed exist are mid at best. Maybe Tempest Rising will be good but I already had some qualms about the demo. But we'll see.

The only 2 shining beacons of light are Age of Mythology: Retold (Microsoft is really good at handling the Age of Empires games, I have to say) and Homeworld 3.

 

[SHA]

I think this comment really hit the nail on the head. It's like my ability to enjoy video games hasn't changed at all, I can go back to older games that interest me and enjoy them as much as ever, even if I never played them before. What changed is the industry and the way games are being made, hence me making this thread. With your comment I think that touches on a very real problem, how gaming used to be developer driven, where it was a tight-knit group of passionate creatives producing their own ideas. Now a days developers more or less seem to be treated like wage slaves, just people working in an office, doing a job as directed. All the ideas come from the top, driven by executives pointing to graphs and investors wanting to cash-in on trends. It has become so big and expensive that anything ambitious falls prey to that. Heck I see that effecting indie devs all the time now, where they will come out with a good creative concept, then they will grow, expand, become acquired by a big publisher or get some investors, and their follow-up product will fail to be nearly as appealing as what came before it. It's like everyone gets sucked into this financial black hole these days devoid of any real passion or creativity.

This makes acquisitions look bad, seriously.

 

[indigoSociety]

i get the wierdest feeling that most people who complain about games on the internet dont actually play them

 

[SHA]

Op is not saying the games are bad. He is saying he played those games and they are not exploring new concepts.

Street Fighter 6? Counless sequels. It's just a fighting game... well at least now you can walk around
Lies of P? Souls clone
Jedi Survivor? The usual action adventure game
Hogwarts? Open world
Octopath Traverler? Just another rpg immitating ff 1-6
Diablo 4? diablo

These are all good games... hell, Hogwarts is my goty. But we have more/less played all of this before... right?
We are never again getting Mass Effec1, uncharte1, Gears1, Kotor1, morrowind and so on. These ideas have all been explored.

Of course gaming now is Better than ever before. Hell, AC6, Elden Ring, hogwarts, Ff16. This year got some of BEST GAMES EVER MADE.
So agian - it's not about that games are bad.

From the last games I've beaten, hellblade is the only one that tried something new, it's pretty rare to see stuff like that, this makes me forget modern aaa games with zero creativity and look back to older games, there's nothing wrong with them.

 

[Hypereides]

EDIT: comment withdrawn

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

SP, yes...though there are some signs of life there. Indie game design has to bleed into AAA fast.

MP, **** no...multiplayer has been better than ever and the next 2 - 10 years are brimming with excitement.

 

[SHA]

EDIT: comment withdrawn

I'm a %110 sure these guys don't genuinely care about the future of gaming, console and pc gaming specifically, as for creators, being aware of this to secure the future of gaming isn't w.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Game design has plateaued, not fidelity or scope. It's telling that the most fun games I played this year: Hi-Fi Rush and Armored Core 6, feel like remastered PS2/PS3 games.

 

[semiconscious]

Seems like responses are split about 50/50. I'm in the "yes, gaming is in decline" camp myself, but I understand those who think modern gaming is peachy, good as its ever been, etc., especially in a robust year like this. I think they're missing the bigger picture, but that's just my perspective. There aren't any objective answers here; it's just a matter of subjective opinion, based on what you personally enjoy in gaming.

agreed. i'd say its also strongly based on just how long you've been gaming. you can't be experiencing deja vu while playing a particular game if you've never played the older, similar game triggering the deja vu, or seen something once too often if you haven't seen it often enough. gaming today is only as fresh/innovative as your own personal gaming experience determines it to be...

tl/dr: the newer you are to gaming, the more exciting/amazing it all is. how could it not be?...

 

[MacReady13]

Definitely on the decline, no matter the amount of supposed quality has come out this year. I turn to Nintendo for innovation and they delivered in this years best game, Zelda. But on the whole, pretty much everything being done today was done during the PS3/360 generation. Innovation in graphics doesn't mean that gameplay has improved. And it hasn't.
Only innovation is in the form of VR, and that seems to be going nowhere fast as well sadly as no one is really taking to it.

 

[Shadowstar39]

People get so amazed with 2023 but look at 2007, 2011 or any of those years.
We had this many huge releases each month as we have through this whole year.
Dev is taking way too long. Games are needlessly long and so they have to be safe.

Yep, they are also plagued with shit writing, and lack of direction. Forget graphics. I am playing Gothic 1 on switch right now and that game has some of the most amazing atmosphere for a 2001 release, one of the first open world rpgs.

We won't get games like uncharted again, because NG is woke trash that hates the character (so many more adventures could of been had there).
We won't get a new Castlevania, We never really had a legit 3d metroidvania game, the ps2 games were the close but the formula was way off.
We won't ever get a new metal gear, no kojima.
We won't get a new mega man legends because capcom hates it and greed.

Games that were original ideas like dead space, lost planet, dantes inferno, American mcgee's alice, undying , black and white, sims, fear, deus ex, thief, nolf, heavenly sword, legacy of kain, brave fencer musashi, bushido blade, vagrant story, etc.... All came out we don't get becasue devs won't risk the chance.

They are also afraid of upsetting the woke resetera types. So no masculinity, stories about exploration, adventure, love, conquering fears, etc...

Just repeat cod # 23 insert woke minaj and fortnight influencer skin#210.

Its a race to the bottom. Look at phone gaming to see where we are headed.
There is shit on phones. Rememeber infity blade, and countless cool phone games. All gone can't even play them anymore. Replaced with shit microtransactions and free to play garbage. Subscriptions where the quality is shit.

Outside of a few gems, we aren't getting much. Those gems are great, don't get me wrong, but the quantity is not where it was. The new factor isnt there as no one is taking many risks.

 

[rofif]

Yep, they are also plagued with shit writing, and lack of direction. Forget graphics. I am playing Gothic 1 on switch right now and that game has some of the most amazing atmosphere for a 2001 release, one of the first open world rpgs.

We won't get games like uncharted again, because NG is woke trash that hates the character (so many more adventures could of been had there).
We won't get a new Castlevania, We never really had a legit 3d metroidvania game, the ps2 games were the close but the formula was way off.
We won't ever get a new metal gear, no kojima.
We won't get a new mega man legends because capcom hates it and greed.

Games that were original ideas like dead space, lost planet, dantes inferno, American mcgee's alice, undying , black and white, sims, fear, deus ex, thief, nolf, heavenly sword, legacy of kain, brave fencer musashi, bushido blade, vagrant story, etc.... All came out we don't get becasue devs won't risk the chance.

They are also afraid of upsetting the woke resetera types. So no masculinity, stories about exploration, adventure, love, conquering fears, etc...

Just repeat cod # 23 insert woke minaj and fortnight influencer skin#210.

Its a race to the bottom. Look at phone gaming to see where we are headed.
There is shit on phones. Rememeber infity blade, and countless cool phone games. All gone can't even play them anymore. Replaced with shit microtransactions and free to play garbage. Subscriptions where the quality is shit.

Outside of a few gems, we aren't getting much. Those gems are great, don't get me wrong, but the quantity is not where it was. The new factor isnt there as no one is taking many risks.

Perfectly said. If Uncharted 1 came out today, it would fail miserable and we would never get amazing sequels and my fav uc4.
most of these games are short and amazing and all would fail today because people are accustomed to taking gaas pee in their mouths I guess

 

[MasterDerico]

Not for me even this gen I continued highly enjoy games, this year alone we got crazy amount of games and still not fucking done yet and next year Feb is stupidly packed......so I cant complain.

But one thing I would say with each generation I start lose more interest in western games and I see myself buying less and less of them with each year.

I just feel western games going more further away from what I personally enjoy out of video games.

After decades, finally people are realizing!

 

[Shadowstar39]

If we don't get a single "woah that looks amazing" title even revealed next year (on any of the platforms) then I think we're doomed to being stuck in last gen for the whole of this gen. If even first party developers don't push the envelope even after they have dropped last gen machines, there's no hope because a lot of the visual bangers have always come from first parties.

Problem is tech isn't there. TV resolution was pushed too far too fast. Consoles are not there yet. People want 60fps+ at 4k, well we are nowhere close to that if you want to push visuals. We can run ps4 ps4.5 era visuals at that rate but pushing further no. Remember last gen we were struggling to hit 1080p 60 and had to drop to 30 for many titles on ps4/xbone. The ps5/xsx is similar to my ryzen and 3060ti card (actually the 3060ti is probably a bit better). That card is not a 4k pushing card, it is 1080p/1440p 60+ 4k is 30fps if you are lucky with newer titles. For 4k 60 you need a 3080-4080+ card. those cards are a grand or more (rip off greedy companies they are).

People actually think a 500 all in one device is going to power visuals like that? They won't. People that want better wow bang visuals need to get their expectations in check. If you want those pop bang gfx you need to lower the max fps to 30fps. Its the only way to do it on this hardware. "but but i want 60 -120fps wahh muh frame pacing , muh .0001 sec advantage in gaas shooter #21 waah..." it aint happening. people like that need to stop. For games like that tone the graphics down and get those frames. For single player games that wow you, 30fps or make the resolution 1440p. Problem is people expect 4k as they bought those tvs. Personally I knew this was an issue and didn't upgrade my tv or monitor yet. My 3060ti is the max I would spend on a gpu and even that was too much. I am fine with 1080p. Ps5 games still look amazing on 1080p with rock solid 60fps, I just wish there was an option to download lower res textures so the install size was smaller.

When a 4k 60fps graphics card is in the $300-400 price range, and we get new consoles based on those cards, then we can get those 4k 60 visuals with the same pop as we expect for a new gen. The current tech isn't there, its better than last gen, but tv resolution got pushed way to far. 4k is 4x the number of pixels of 1080p. That is a ton to expect going up one generation.