Are you tired of the older generation of gamers feeling superior?

[Mnementh]

I have thought about it. The thread is talking about difficulty a lot, but I think this is missing the point. Old games aren't per se more difficult than current ones, there are always difficult games and easy games. Was Tetris difficult? It started easy and got more and more difficult. Maybe it is the most difficult game ever, because no one finished it. Monkey Island made jokes, that you could die in other games, because in LucasArts games you didn't die. Zen Pinball today isn't easier than the Pinball games from DICE were.

No, it is something else. It is that today a lot of games are getting taken away the gameplay. I recently played Tomb Raider (as an old one I know, that games make as much fun after a year than they do on first day, so don't bother me why I start playing the game so late). In some sequences the only thing you have to press is forward on the left stick. I tried it out to press anything else - the game is only accepting forward. Anything else has no effect. In other sequences the only thing you can do is steer left and right. It reminded me of these old LCD-games with a car that has to avoid obstacles and only two buttons to steer left and right. Shooting is the only real gameplay-part, that even that feels cheap. In the beginning I can avoid bigger fights, by taking out the enemies silently. But later the enemies spot me scripted and I have go through the fight, so that scripted the exit from that level is available. If I play cautious or run into a fight guns blazing isn't of importance, I don't play the game it plays itself.

And here is my point. A game like Tomb Raider has a story even Michael Bay would be ashamed of (look, do you know any decent movie based on a game). It has graphics that are far far worse than you can see in movies. It only has a small bit more gameplay than a movie. But still I have to pay multiple times as much money as if I want to watch a movie in the cinema or buy it on DVD/Bluray.

The problem I have with a lot of modern games is: they are a ripoff. And no one tells me that I can't complain about a ripoff, because I'm only nostalgic or are angry because gaming changed or because I can't play modern games. I have every right to complain about ripoffs, and that is in no way arrogant.

That said: clearly not all modern games are ripoffs. There are still many good games with great value. Some recent examples are Demon's Souls, Monster Hunter Tri, Etrian Odyssey or Deus Ex: Human Revolution.