Source = http://www.gamereactor.se/artiklar/55691/Trender+kommer+och+g%E5r.../
(It's written by Petter Hegevall, Chief Editor of GameReactor Sweden. I've made a rough translation using google translate, but its a good a read and it highlights basically that trends don't last forever and currently: Uncharted is what a lot of developers are glancing ..hence why this thread is made by me haha :D <3).
________________________________
Trends come and go. One day: Halo is the gaming world's hottest potato, the next day, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is. Right now it's cinematic games that are the hottest in the gaming world. Petter has looked closely at the current trends for this year's E3 ...
Trends come and go. One day thumb rings and baggy jeans are fashionably obvious. The next day the thumb ring is sentenced to death and is considered as perhaps the ugliest accessory of all time. The same is true ofcourse in the entertainment industry and not least in the world: The gaming industry. Trends come and go. New standards are set by some outstanding visionaries and the industry reacts to this. The players decide what they want most, and game publishers and developers are listening. Right now, after E3, there is as little to no doubt that the new trend is cinematic gaming that approaches Hollywood by leaps and bounds.
But this was not always the case.
A few years ago, Bungie's creative space adventure with a rigid cyber soldier was the hottest thing that could be bought for money. Gamers flocked to the store shelves to buy Halo 3 and almost every action game developers were inspired by Bungie's game series. Breed, Area 51, Pariah, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter ... the perfectly molded game that either reminded me a bit about Halo - or felt like pure plagiarism was influenced.
Ten years ago, Halo a new standard and started a trend in the action genre.
But as with everything else, the trend faded. Space began to feel like a less exciting place and while the genre had forever changed the gameplay details like weapon priority system and the self-healing lifemeter - began to make players yearn for something else. Something new. A new trend ...
Pariah, Kill Zone, Mace Griffin: Bounty Hunter and Breed were only four of all the games that were inspired by Bungie's space war.
After Halo, there was largely Far Cry that created a new trend in the action genre. Basing a game on the genre's traditional opposition proved to be a smart choice of the German game studio Crytek. Instead of the cramped basement corridors, purple space platforms and aliens: Crytek chose to mix a picture of postcard tropical island with tacticawl military action against human enemy soldiers. There was a whole series of games for Far Cry that tried to profit from the success that Cryteks first game had.
But before the South Sea war reached its climax, there was a different game, developed by a group of seasoned war nutters in San Diego, which linked a brutal hard stranglehold on the entire genre. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare was the first siding in the game series and a true and daring effort by the studio that has gone from unknown to seasoned action veterans with only two Call of Duty games. The story had been moved from the somewhat hackneyed World War II to a war-torn present, while the actual set-up was intact, particularly from Call of Duty 2.
After Halo, it was mainly Modern Warfare, which started the latest trend in the genre.
Modern Warfare came down like a nuclear bomb in an otherwise rather rash action climate. The game became a much bigger success than Activision and developer Infinity Ward could ever have imagined. Game fans flocked to stores and online servers were filled to the brim with trigger-happy gamers. Mixed hattig structure and flat-footed dynamics with a presentation that smelled of Chris Ryan-style military porn: It looked like a uncompromising war simulator but was pure fun through an arcade gameplay style.
And it was partly for that reason but also because of a terrible addictive and clever structured multiplayer mode of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare swallowed whole genres and spat it out in a new, tan garb. A new, strong, trend was born. It was now just a matter of time before every game developer would choose to hang out.
Today, it feels as if every action game worthy of the name gives in to the Modern Warfare-formula. It even went so far that the Battlefield series and Ghost Recon modified to mimic the game that they inspired. A cycle that irritated many gamers, while others saw it as a natural development.
Almost every action games released today have been given a touch of Modern Warfare-formula.
Everything from 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand for Splinter Cell: Blacklist contains clear sign that the developers of these games looked both once and twice on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. To say nothing about Operation Flashpoint: Red River, Crysis 2, the 2010 Medal of Honor re-boot, Modern Combat Sandstorm, Home Front and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.
A salute of words regarding today's action climate is "cinematic". Action games are measured almost no longer in how good they are, but instead by how cinematic it is. In Modern Warfare Infinity Ward manage to create a cinematic feel of a world war in its infancy. The feeling of infiltrating the enemy base and crack their radio communications became much more powerful than pushing the same tired kill a dog in the dark basement corridor that we have done in the last 20 years.
Modern Warfare was incredibly cinematic, fast, short and very easy to play ...
And it is precisely the cinematic portion of today's game that continues to rule when it comes to trends in the gaming world. During the e3 game show, there was an extraordinary number of upcoming action game that was described by the developers themselves as a "playable Hollywood movie". Uncharted has in many ways fueled this trend with three incredibly cinematic games that for long periods actually feels like controlling a reckless adventurer in a lavish Hollywood world. Rockstar's epic thriller L.A. Noire has obviously helped to create a desire among the players after the cinematic narrative. Rockstar and Team Bondi even went so far as to recruit well-known Hollywood actor, which they then mapped and recreated in the game with little short of photorealistic quality.
Heavy Rain is just one of many new games that are structured like a Hollywood movie and put storytelling first and game mechanics in the other room.
Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream showed up Beyond: Two Souls at E3. David Cage was clear to emphasize that the game was an interactive thriller with cinematic qualities. He had even hired the protagonist from the movie Juno, which portrays the adventure protagonist, including mapping of Ellen Page's face, mouth movements and body language. Cage in the past, like Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, talks about how he does not really like games, but has always striven to become a film director instead.
With LA Noire, Rockstar and Team Bondi took the trend to new heights thanks to a new technology that in a perfect manner could catch Hollywood actors' faces.
The trend is evident in several ways. Today, games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and 3 Uncharted: Drake's Deception offers experiences which builds bridges between Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg's turgid blockbusters and the once super-initiated gaming world.
Bioshock started a scythe mini trend that manifested itself in several other games. Singularity and future Dishonored both contain elements from Bioshock.
Personally, I'm not particularly fond of the current trends prevailing in the gaming industry. I understand that every game studio worth its name is impressed beyond anything when it comes to the sky-high production values of especially Uncharted 2 and its sequel. I also fully understand that every game publisher in the world want to try to find their own action-packed cash cow of the same caliber as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, today.
Gears of War, started a trend existing basic game mechanics. Context Sensitive became the third person genre's new motto and most games have stolen Epic's game mechanics, especially the upcoming Inversion that feels like a clean copy.
But rather than mimic, we would need more ideas, more original ones. Instead of tapping into existing trends, developers need to look ahead to try and create something innovative. Because even if Dishonored looks great, it feels like a fairly predictable mix of Half-Life 2 and Bioshock. And despite the fact that the Tomb Raider re-boot looks amazing, its very similar to Uncharted 2. The same applies to Naughty Dogs new IP The Last of Us that appears to have borrowed almost unhealthy amounts of the Uncharted series.
Naughty Dogs hero, Indiana Jones-copy has set a new standard for cinematic games.
My best gaming experiences in recent years have been the games that contained a little less cinematic moments rather than the games that topped the sales charts. It is of course positive that the game industry learns from Hollywood when it comes to narrative, theme and clever directing all existing cutscenes and various intro videos. That is something our beloved industry will only gain from.
________________________________
