New Trend In Video Games

[Dav657]

Well I dont know if anyone else has noticed this but the latest series of games is geared more for the casual gamer. Leaving people that actually want a challenge are out in the dust. Its all video games not just specific ones. I will give you a couple examples

H1 to H2
Auto-Aim
More reliance on team work than self work

Melee to Brawl
l-cancel
making the game easier as whole

CS 1.6 to CSS
Less gun recoil
Auto buying ammo

I could go on and on about this but I will leave it here. Has anyone else noticed this trend with the gaming developers? Its literally making me go back and playing my old NES and SNES games to have a fun challenge.

 

[derek.haines]

Games are getting easier overall, period. To appeal to a wider audience (not necessarily a "casual" one, just a wider one) they need make it so that games are ultimately beatable. Besides, if you're a developer and are making these awesome endings for games, wouldn't you want people to be able to see them?

It's not a bad thing, it's just a...thing.

 

[SuperRacoon]

Yeah, games are way easier and it sux. Basically, we can expect to see this trend in every commercialized game, because big CEOs of wealthy corporations only care about getting more money for themselves.

If you want an original challenge you have to find freeware games like "I Wanna Be The Guy"
http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/downloads.php

You can also get a challenge out of a hack or a mod.,

 

[Sporkman]

You don't cite the best examples, auto buying ammo isn't exactly making the game easier, just less annoying. Also there is no auto-aim on PC because the mouse is such a great control mechanism that one isn't needed.

The best example is regenerative health. Halo in my opinion did this perfectly, I don't know what it was in Halo 2, but in Halo 3 it went to ****. The shield plus the small health bar was perfect, and one of the finest life systems I've seen, especially given the Elites had the same system and therefore you couldn't just hide, shoot, repeat untill it was time to move on (as you can in Halo 3). Sci-fi games I may let get away with this crime, as a simple line about nanobots or some **** generally covers it, but for a game like CoD4 is almost inexcuseable although it's worth noting that in CoD4 you can turn the option off.

Disclaimer: I decided to go off hunting for a particular Zero Punctuation review half way through writing this post which may cause some discrepancies with the quality of it.

 

[XACE-K]

Games have been getting easier for a while now. It isn't a new trend.

 

[Bowser King]

Well I dont know if anyone else has noticed this but the latest series of games is geared more for the casual gamer.

I think you should look around the LH more.


-Bowser King

 

[Black Waltz]

welcome to when the wii came out.

 

[GreenKirby]

welcome to when the N64/Playstation came out.

Fix'd

10corrections

 

[Dav657]

You don't cite the best examples, auto buying ammo isn't exactly making the game easier, just less annoying. Also there is no auto-aim on PC because the mouse is such a great control mechanism that one isn't needed.

The best example is regenerative health. Halo in my opinion did this perfectly, I don't know what it was in Halo 2, but in Halo 3 it went to ****. The shield plus the small health bar was perfect, and one of the finest life systems I've seen, especially given the Elites had the same system and therefore you couldn't just hide, shoot, repeat until it was time to move on (as you can in Halo 3). Sci-fi games I may let get away with this crime, as a simple line about nanobots or some **** generally covers it, but for a game like CoD4 is almost inexcusable although it's worth noting that in CoD4 you can turn the option off.

Disclaimer: I decided to go off hunting for a particular Zero Punctuation review half way through writing this post which may cause some discrepancies with the quality of it.

Heres how the halo series goes in terms of competitiveness
H1>H3>>>>>>H2
H2's regen system was absolutely horrible. That tweaked it a little better in H3. But H1 is still the best.

Also ps2 did have a game that was so hard it had to be re-released. Devil May Cry. Forget which one.

Am complaining about games being to easy now. I liked it how most games were easy at the beginning getting harder at the end. And let people that want to get really good at it become really good at it. So you cant just have some average joe come in and beat your high score in one run while it took you hours to get that. But I dont want games that are way to easy then one level is like ridiculously hard. Its just no fun that way

 

[notftomearth7]

They're making games easier because the world is getting dumber.

 

[Dash_Fox]

We are in the generation of NOOBS. Long gone are the days of TRIBES, UT, and Quake. Now we have COD, Halo, and other **** shooters.

I dare anybody who's a "pro" at Halo to try to compete with the Quake or UT players online. Or any "pro team" from COD or Halo to even SCRATCH any of the Tribes players.

I just used the FPS examples because its easier for me since I play a lot of FPS games on my PC. Brawl is a fine example of what game developers are aiming for today. Game developers want YOU to play the game how THEY see fit, so the game ultimately ends up with no depth or not enough depth to develop any type of technical skill. Whether it be the lack of character movement or speed, it limits you on purpose.

Gone with the Bat**** speed of UT, in with the grandma speed of Halo.

 

[Darkslash]

Thankfully the Conduit is some thing i haven't seen in a long time..

A Sci-fi shooter that doesn't have a regenerating heath gauge.
If I ever become a Game Dev i aim to make the old good FPS of Life bars. Running like a total idiot spraying your gun looking for a Health pack...those where the days.

 

[Crimson King]

The Conduit isn't out. There is no indication it'll be nothing more than a continuation of these trends.

Regardless, Tribes IS the best online FPS, hands down. Cashed mentioned it, and I agree, it's THE reason why vehicles are in Halo - because Bungie loved it so much in Tribes.

 

[Red Exodus]

I prefer a balance of difficulty. Games aren't fun if it's impossible to get pass the first level. I've seen some ridiculous mods [Mario World] where the only way to beat it is to constantly save state because the odds of screwing up are so high and even then and if take too long then you have to do the whole thing over.

I'm not a fan of regenerative health and auto aim and that kind of thing but I'm not a fan of ZOMG IMPOSSIBLE TO AIM games either. Take Killzone for example, it TOTALLY overdid recoil and spread to the point where you can't hit anything without unloading 2 clips at an enemy, not to mention the reload time was completely horrendous further compounding the problem. There's a difference between a good easy to use mechanic and a ****ty one that only persistent people can use.

 

[Pas]

Personally I like that games are getting more accesable. I guess I play for different reasons though, serious competetive gaming usually just ruins games for me.

I'm surprised noone's mentioned Megaman 9 in this thread; that's a return to the days of NES games being controller shatteringly hard. I almost put my wiimote through the tv screen >.>.

It was Devil May Cry 3 which was criticised for being far too hard. I played it, it was indeed hard.

 

[Mr.Victory07]

It's a mixture of games getting easier and you getting older and better at them

 

[Red Exodus]

DMC3 didn't seem that hard to me, probably because I had the special edition, I'd try it again but I lent it out.

 

[Darkslash]

To be honest if you ever Played Vanguard, that last level is ridiculously hard. i was kinda thank full for the regenerating life bar..Almost. To be honest 2 shots your dead on that.

Ohh CK the Conduit does have a Health Bar. Videos of the first level have 1st Aid kits every 4 corridors. But not sure about the difficulty level though that may be its weak point.

 

[OmegaXXII]

videogames have definetly gotten easier because I believe programmers want to give us players a break from struggling in-game.

btw The conduit is the best all around game i've played in a while.

 

[Minato]

DMC3 didn't seem that hard to me, probably because I had the special edition, I'd try it again but I lent it out.

Yeah, you're actually right. DMC3 normal mode became DMC3: SE hard mode.

I wish games weren't too forgiving nowadays. Then again, I don't want them to be hard like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZuidKexBQ&feature=related

This makes Ikaruga look easy.

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

If you want an original challenge you have to find freeware games like "I Wanna Be The Guy"
http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/downloads.php

My brother knows the guy who made that game.

Am I the only one who feels offended by Nintendo today? I've been playing them since I was less than five, and literally, some of my earliest memories are Super Mario Bros. 3 and getting the Super Nintendo when it was new, but it's like Nintendo is trying to turn me away or something. That, or it has something to do with the fact that I now hate most of the franchises they are hyping (to this day I still defend my opinion that there has only been one good Metroid game and there has never been a good Fire Emblem).

This whole thing just blows.

 

[crescentia]

The age/experience factor is huge. Like in Zelda where they feed you the same block-pushing switch-hitting puzzles over and over again through each installment, you just kind of get better at them. Of course, people with absolutely no experience with this will still find it rough - example: my sister who doesn't play console games took 3-4 times as long as I took to finish Twilight Princess.

 

[MasterToshima]

They're making games easier because the world is getting dumber.

true. They also think the ppl don't want to play hard games anymore, and consider there's a lot more chirldren playing games now, so automaticly they have to make the games easier. It's common knowledge. Also Nintendo made a huge mistake making Wii childish so much!

 

[Deception]

true. They also think the ppl don't want to play hard games anymore, and consider there's a lot more chirldren playing games now, so automaticly they have to make the games easier. It's common knowledge. Also Nintendo made a huge mistake making Wii childish so much!

Lol, and their other consoles weren't childish? Nintendo has always been family oriented, so to call them childish now is too late. You're just older and more mature now.

I think another reason games are easier is the technology. We have more buttons so we don't need ridiculous button combos, the controls are more responsive, and the controllers are more comfortable.

 

[Red Exodus]

Yeah, you're actually right. DMC3 normal mode became DMC3: SE hard mode.

I wish games weren't too forgiving nowadays. Then again, I don't want them to be hard like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQZuidKexBQ&feature=related

This makes Ikaruga look easy.

Really? When I get it back I'll try a clean start on hard to see how it is.

 

[Eggm]

Well I dont know if anyone else has noticed this but the latest series of games is geared more for the casual gamer. Leaving people that actually want a challenge are out in the dust. Its all video games not just specific ones. I will give you a couple examples

H1 to H2
Auto-Aim
More reliance on team work than self work

Melee to Brawl
l-cancel
making the game easier as whole

CS 1.6 to CSS
Less gun recoil
Auto buying ammo

I could go on and on about this but I will leave it here. Has anyone else noticed this trend with the gaming developers? Its literally making me go back and playing my old NES and SNES games to have a fun challenge.

I've been noticing this too. Another one for your list Starcraft to Warcraft 3. Auto cast, less econ management. I could go on and on, but anyways i've been saying this for like awhile now. Glad some one else thinks like me. SNES was my favorite console of all time.

 

[Pas]

Hope I don't get flamed for this...

I'm personally going to chalk the 'declining difficulty in games' down to advances in game design rather than gamers today being a pack of whiney, uncoordinated kids playing happily in the shadow of their grumpy, disapproving veteran gamer peers. Seems like a lot of the higher level technical skills that went into mastering older games, especially first person shooters, are being automated into the game's design or cancelled out to make the game a more level playing field.

With older games, a lot of what made a skilled player is working around and with the cracks and holes in the game's design to win, usually using stuff that's beyond the scope of a casual gamer. Professional Smash Bros Mellee play revolves around this. Strafe Jumping in Q3, working with the recoil in CS, dolphin diving in Battlefield 2 are others.

Also, in the next installation of a game the designers may find a way of making the game more streamlined so they can emphasize new features or uncomplicate the game. Buying ammo, autocast, they see things like this as removing things that complicate and obscure the overall experience. People who've mastered working around these things will eventually find their way into a thread just like this one to voice their complaints. Like 'hey, it made things needlessly complex but we prefered that'.

There's a link between iterative design over the length of a series (or even a genre) and the ease with which a game is played and completed, but if your game is hard BECAUSE of it's more primitive design then fsck that, I'll take the newer one thanks.


Nintendo's an entirely differnt beast, however. The wii seems pretty much geared at casual gamers. What we need is another spirit crushingly hard F Zero...

 

[GreenKirby]

I'm still trying to figure out how people think that this is a new trend.

GCN games were easier than N64 games
N64 games were easier than SNES games
SNES games were easier than NES games

PS3 to PS1, Dreamcast to Genesis, 360 to original, all of them followed the same formula of making games easier for decades.

Are people just stupid or do they just now say this because Wii bashing is the 'hip' thing to do?

My brother knows the guy who made that game.

Am I the only one who feels offended by Nintendo today? I've been playing them since I was less than five, and literally, some of my earliest memories are Super Mario Bros. 3 and getting the Super Nintendo when it was new, but it's like Nintendo is trying to turn me away or something. That, or it has something to do with the fact that I now hate most of the franchises they are hyping (to this day I still defend my opinion that there has only been one good Metroid game and there has never been a good Fire Emblem).

This whole thing just blows.

LOL, Nintendo don't hype games nearly as much compared to other companies.

 

[Minato]

That, or it has something to do with the fact that I now hate most of the franchises they are hyping (to this day I still defend my opinion that there has only been one good Metroid game and there has never been a good Fire Emblem).

This whole thing just blows.

You didn't like FE 4 for the SNES?

 

[Thrillhouse-vh.]

You didn't like FE 4 for the SNES?

I've played all the ones released over here in the U.S.. I heard the older ones are better, though hearing FE IV called the "FF VII for Fire Emblem" gives me bad vibes already.

LOL, Nintendo don't hype games nearly as much compared to other companies.

I know. The God of Wars (To be fair, I haven't played the first one. GoW II was mediocre and I absolutely hate the PSP one), the Halos, Final Fantasy VII, Call of Duty 4, the Resident Evils, the Sonic Adventures, the Phoenix Wrights, I've played them all. Thank god the Orange Box and Spore were as good as we made them out to be.

I do have to congratulate you for posting that video games have ALWAYS BEEN GETTING EASIER WITH EACH GENERATION, but it's not "lol wiis to e-z" is my complaint. I'm not hating because it makes me look cool and against the crowd, I'm hating it because Nintendo has done absolutely nothing to garner much attention in their games. The Wii has good ideas outside of Nintendo's games, such as the Virtual Console and WiiWare. C'mon, Megaman IX for crying out loud.

 

[Minato]

I've played all the ones released over here in the U.S.. I heard the older ones are better, though hearing FE IV called the "FF VII for Fire Emblem" gives me bad vibes already.

I wouldn't describe it as such, but it's pretty good. Much harder than the American ones for sure. Going back on topic, I thought it was stupid how Ike gets 4 weapons at the start of the US version.

 

[Bowser King]

btw The conduit is the best all around game i've played in a while.

You played it? It's not even out yet...

-Bowser King

 

[Darkslash]

You played it? It's not even out yet...

-Bowser King

I think he mentioned that he went to PAX, and Nintendo was show casing the game there.

 

[bceagles]

I haven't read most other posts, but Zelda anyone?
Ha, I didn't know LoZ would stoop so low to make it so you could get through TP without losing more than 1 life, or that you could get through PH in 5 hours. I loved LoZ... Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, good times. Even Mario, a little less so, but yeah. I had to babysit a baby girl once, and her mom was like "I'm going to buy Wii, Wii Sports and Wii Play for my daughter (who is 12) soon. I go, "if you only buy those games, don't bother. It's a waste of money. You don't deserve one. Bye."
I haven't been called back to babysit <_<