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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - The problem with modern video games summed up in one review

freebs2 on 18 June 2011

Agree 100%. Add also a auto-regenerating life and savepoints on every conrner, so you are basically forgiven of any error you made. As a result you have games becoming less and less about playing and more and more about watching.



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DKHustlin on 18 June 2011
gumby_trucker said

There are many times, especially in adult life, when you don't want to spend all this energy racking your brain over what needs to be done in a game. Often you can't afford yourself that privilege as an adult. I can certainly tell you from my own experience that more often than not I need my brain-cells to focus on school work or challenges at the work-place. During these times I am more likely to play games in order to be instantly entertained and in order to unwind. This need more often lends itself better to mindless, reflex based games, like racing or scrolling shooters or even highly linear FPS/TPS games than to point and click adventures or Zelda/Pikmin games or turn-based strategy games.

That's not to say I don't need deeper, more thought provoking and challenging experiences to balance out my diet too, but I find myself getting into them more easily when my mind is already relatively at ease, such as on weekends, vacations and so on.

I have no problem with either type of experience as long as the games are honest about what they are trying to deliver. Nothing wrong with some Serious Sam as a side dish to your Morrowind. Nothing wrong with having it the other way around either, in my opinion.

The other thing to remember here is that the more experience you have as a gamer, ie: the more years of gaming you have behind you and the more games you've already completed and mastered, the more new experiences are likely to seem 'simple' or even 'casual' to you. After all, we aren't exactly rewriting the book on gaming with every consecutive console release... Most of the fundamentals are pretty much the same as they were 15-20 years ago.

The same goes for less experienced gamers, who are less likely to have a thorough basic grasp of what a Zelda game or a Metroid game is, since they haven't experienced most of them yet. For them, completing their first or second game of this type probably still constitutes a 'challenge', and as such is probably not their ideal activity for relaxing and unwinding.

The author of this review is obviously not this type of gamer, so the criticism against him is legitimate. But I still think the issue stands as an important one. Regardless of how a game presents itself to the player as being 'casual' or 'hard-core', the subjectivity of these concepts should be taken into account as well.

[/rant]

good post, you make a lot of good points. the only thing that bugs me, and i assume the op, is the majority of games now are less about figuring stuff out and discovering what to do on your own and more about just guiding you through an interactive movie. in a game like zelda, there should be some vagueness as what to do, its the point of the whole game. there are so many games out there that are mindless, fun, reflex games or cinematic experiences, so now it seems like it is accepted that games explicitly should tell you what to do.

even the reviewer says that in this day and age, games should always be leading you and that is expected. thats ridiculous, i think there should be more games that allow the player to discover things on their own, games with vague clues that encourage exploration, and so forth.



Everyday I'm hustlin'.

 

Wii and DS owner.

zuvuyeay on 18 June 2011

buying the strategy guide,shall i have a sneaky peak now or in a bit,good days before the interwebz answered every question instantly



                                                                                                                                        Above & Beyond

   

DeadEye on 18 June 2011

I think Ocarina of Time does a pretty excellent job of helping you along. I like that it doesn't essentially hold your hand.



PullusPardus on 18 June 2011

You are just playing the wrong games, not all games are linear and full of tutorials



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SvennoJ on 18 June 2011

If you like exploration, discovery, and finding things out, get Terraria!

Only $10 on Steam. It's a bit like a 2D version of Minecraft with a huge (randomized) map. It has a bigger emphasis on exploration and figuring out how to get strong enough to defeat the bosses (if you can figure out how to find them first)

I wish more games would give you so much freedom to alter the world. My project to drain the ocean into the lava layer is coming along nicely.



Mr.Y on 18 June 2011

Can't wait for this guys Dwarf Fortress review.



manuel on 18 June 2011

I wonder if the reviewer ever played the original NES Zelda. Where you didn't have ANY freaking hints at what to do next...



Need something off Play-Asia? http://www.play-asia.com/

Conegamer on 18 June 2011

Agreed to the max. Games today are too easy, too short, and too linear.

Ocarina Of Time remains one of the greatest games even now because of its difficulty. It gives you an open world, and that's what you get. It's up to you where you want to go, mostly. Sure, it gives you a clue and eventually you're forced down one path, but it never felt linear. More games should be like this. Not like COD clones (FFXIII...)



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

d21lewis on 18 June 2011

Game design is becoming a lost art. I think that most game developers don't even know how to make a game that actually offers good exploration, hints, etc. Their "puzzles" hit you with the subtlety of a kick to the nuts.
One popular series even gave me the answer to a puzzle when I was thinking about how to figure it out. It went like this:

Me: Okay, now we're getting somewhere. Now let me figure this out. First I'm going to.....
Game: Climb here, hit the switch, follow the cable. Press X.
Me: WTF, game!? I could have figured that out if you gave me five more seconds
Game: You're welcome, bro. Don't think. Just marvel at my graphics and be happy. I'm trying to tell a story here.

I like a cinematic game as much as the next guy but I also like the feeling of satisfaction that comes from being challenged by a puzzle and figuring it out. That feeling is becoming harder and harder to come by these days.