Your right. Only a handful of games are worth buying now days.

Remember those days you could go into a game store not knowing what you wanted. Pick something from looking at the back cover, go home and enjoy it?

Not anymore, atleast for me its not that way. When I go out to get a game I usually already know what I want soon as I hit the store.

Yep, I've become extremely disappointed with the gaming industry lately. It has become all about spectacle and not substance, and milking every dime out of people they can with DLC bullshit.

I miss when games were simple and fun and were more interested in entertaining you than trying to impress you. I mean the flashy graphics and cinematic presentation is great and all but... damn; the shit costs money and takes 10x longer to make and in the end the gameplay and content usually suffers for it.

Don't discount the effect that online PC games have, particularly the amount of people that play WoW, EQ, FFXI, etc. Those types of games consume enormous amounts of time, especially at higher levels, and people more or less drop the XBox controller in favor of a mouse and keyboard.

I'd do that any day, problem is that good PC games are even harder to find, heh. Most are just bad ports of their console counterparts.

This is very true. Typically though, when you do find a good one, it's a timesink and most of your gaming consists of playing that one game and nothing else.

You mean like half of the $15 million "gamers" who never touched a keyboard in anger until WoW came out?

yeah, those ones lol

Still playing DoW1, Still loving it. For the Emperor.

Recently I was told about Perfect World. Been messin around with it for about a week now and it's pretty good. Best of all it is free (for the most part). Some premium items you can choose to buy, but the download is free and no monthly charge like alot of the others.

two of the reasons why games suck now is cause its all about the "ps3 and xbox360" i mean think about it they spend years creating a game that is so georgous with ten hours of play on it. if that, and everyone complained about nintendo wanting to make games simple and fun again. the only problem wiht that is the only company doing so is nintendo. square hasnt made a fun game since they went to the playstation. ubisoft hasnt made a fun game since well in a long time. granted i have yet to try red steel 2. but even games like mortal kombat that used to be fun died cause not only did they take the fun out of it but they changed how you play the game and that kileld it anyways. capcom finally is starting to get it though with street fighter 4 but i think its too late. we need fun games again not games that are boring and annoying.

I think its more specifically a problem with trying too hard to impress someone; spectacle over substance, like I said before. That really started with the PC because PC tech was and pretty much still is heads and shoulders above console tech.

However, the console market is much broader and, arguably, more easy to please. Or at least less elitist and snobbish about their games BUT that means developers can get away with more. I mean lets be completely honest here. Halo is a decent game but if it had been a PC exclusive at launch do you really think it would be as popular as it is?

Nintendo shot themselves in the foot by using last-gen tech on a next-gen system. Even if you're not going to be making flashy to-the-tees cinematic games, most developers are still going to want to work on new hardware. Which doesn't prevent you from making "simple" games.

It's become too much of an industry, plain and simple. Catering to the lowest common denominator and going for shoe-ins rather than trying to make games interesting.

Maybe it has to do with the overkill of the online FPS crap. I mean it seems like all people care about now is the Modern Warfare 2 crap. I love GTA/Mario/Sonic/Street Fighter and classic fun stuff! The Wii straight up sucks outside of Mario imo. I cant believe The Wii outsells 360 and PS3 with the CRAP they produce.

Hey, don't blame the whole genre. You're right though that "on-line gaming" has become a major driving force behind releases. I mean it was pretty much the only excuse to make Halo: ODST or MW2, since the amount of single-player content in either one is rather questionable.

But people lap it up. Especially the ODST thing. While you had SOME critical backlash, the consumer public (and Halo fans) are all too happy to go throw their money at someone to get the latest fix.

It's all a matter of taste. I think part of what makes the Wii sell is the fact that it gets kids (and adults alike) up off their asses and moving around as they play games. Add to the fact that a majority of the games are family friendly and in general appeals to the masses. I've seen people that have hated video games in the past having a blast with the Wii. Seeing the grandparents playing Wii Tennis/Golf/Bowling, etc is something I thought I'd never see. Someone above mentioned "spectacle over substance"...the Wii for the most part is the opposite. Sure, the graphics suck, but alot of the games are fun as hell to play. I'd rather have that than an absolutely gorgeous looking stinker of a game that isn't any fun.

They're fun to play, yeah... but that doesn't really call to case "substance" The Wii has gotten off on the "casual gamer" market which, as evidenced by their (temporary) spike in sales, can be good for business. Ultimately it doesn't last, hence the term "casual", because the games exist and are made to be little more than a passing distraction.

Having that as your "core" audience isn't enough to keep you running with the big dogs. And again, you can still do "simple" with modern technology and "modern" doesn't have to mean 7 core processors and 4 gb of RAM. As I recall the Wii doesn't even support pixel shaders. THAT is a hurdle from the development side; if you've got development houses to make games on certain tech, they're not going to want to code in yesterday's. I guess Nintendo could get some cellphone app makers to code their stuff...

But yeah, Nintendo cornered a market but that market doesn't say much in the way of game design I mean come on... virtual bowling/tennis and other sports are neither new or particularly innovative from a design perspective.

Oh, it's no secret that Nintendo isn't exactly cutting edge when it comes to looking "pretty". Sure, there are only so many bowling or golf games you can do (unless you're EA) and not have it get redundant. I think Nintendo will be fine with their casual gamer base because well, alot of the games out for the Wii are fun to play and really, I think that is the bottom line as far as what keeps players coming back. It seems to be pretty rare to see a ton of hype turned to disappointment from a Wii game. Hell, I remember reading the old GamePro mags when I was a kid...and the only category ratings I looked at on their reviews were gameplay and fun factor. Sure, any game can have mind blowing graphics, but if it only lasts for 10-12 hours, the controls suck or just isn't any fun, then I see it as a waste of money. But then again, I still play some old school NES or SNES games, which I still think are some of the funnest games out there.

Well that's the thing... now that the novelty of it has worn off somewhat, the Wii isn't doing quite as well. Either way, it has nothing to do with the graphics, I'm talking from a purely technical side with the development. Ergo, its MUCH harder to port anything to the Wii and it pretty much has to be written just FOR the Wii, by a development house who likes using old code. Basically, think of it as there being companies around who still write software for... Windows 95 or something.

Personally I blame the main reason for games sucking is graphics whores. All I ever hear in public is people raving about graphics. Welcome to the year 2010 you renobs! EVERY game has good graphics, could we get past that and concentrate on play control? Maybe story lines and flawless game mechanics?

LOL... no... not until they're in 3d and controlled by synapse...