Gaming trends you miss

[Algonquin Assassin]

To tickle those nostalgia bones please list some trends about gaming that nowadays are on the downward spiral or just don't exist anymore.

 

For me..

 

-Local multiplayer. I miss being about to play a game with a friend in the same room. Nowadays of course with online multiplayer you might be lucky to get it with a sports game, but that's about it.

 

-Novel like game manuals. Might be a bit odd, but I loved as a kid flipping through the game manuals because not only did they contain technical mumbo jumbo, but some of them had little back ground stories/information about the characters. Now most games don't even have them (thanks to being digital) or they're just a piece of paper. The GTA games in particular always had great gaming manuals that i still have.

 

-Getting a full game. Oh yes DLC. Whilst I like how DLC extends the life of some games it's rare to get a game now that's complete at release. Back in the day when you paid for a game you got everything. Sure expansion packs were available, but most of them felt complimentary rather than necessary. Now it feels like we pay more for less up front when it's not even the full deal. If you get me.

[chronic lumbago]

- Cheat codes became almost nonexistent. What's stopping them from adding cheats into games? Oh right, you can always buy some orcs and gear in Shadow of War, a singleplayer game.

 

- Remember games like Halo, where your gear actually meant something? You could brag when you finally got that hayabusa armor and katana gear, the recon helmet, the flaming helmet and blue flame bungie helmet. Getting your hands on these ultra rare armor pieces in multiplayer was an actual achievement done by you, the player. Not your wallet.

[Mister Pink]

- Remember games like Halo, where your gear actually meant something? You could brag when you finally got that hayabusa armor and katana gear, the recon helmet, the flaming helmet and blue flame bungie helmet. Getting your hands on these ultra rare armor pieces in multiplayer was an actual achievement done by you, the player. Not your wallet.

 

QFT. That's what bugs me about GTAO. There's no bragging rights, you probably just paid real cash or cheated to get 'X. Y, Z.'

 

I miss local multiplayer too, except for games like FIFA which is perfect for two-player and not having a split screen etc.

[ProKiller93]

Fun

[The N. Bellic Man]

-Getting a full game. Oh yes DLC. Whilst I like how DLC extends the life of some games it's rare to get a game now that's complete at release. Back in the day when you paid for a game you got everything. Sure expansion packs were available, but most of them felt complimentary rather than necessary. Now it feels like we pay more for less up front when it's not even the full deal. If you get me.

Getting a full game seems to be rather rare nowadays. But if we accept that we are not getting a full game then I am actually starting to miss times when DLC was actually good. I mean times when R* released single player DLC like TLaD, TBoGT and Undead Nightmare. Those were really worth your money and I didn't feel like the main game was lacking at all.

 

Of course even then that kind of DLC was an exception. But there was a short period when single player DLC was the order of the day. And in my opinion that kind of DLC enhanced the main game rather made an incomplete game whole.

 

But at this point I don't know if it is ever going to be like that again. Here's what R*'s Imran Sarwar said in Game Informer's interview (even after mentioning that R* would love to do single player expansions in the future): "With both GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, we sold DLC and unfortunately both times, it fractured the audience and helped to kill the games much faster than they deserved. With GTA Online, if there’s content people don’t like or want, they can simply ignore it and do something else, while still being in the same core world as everyone else."

 

And if that is not enough, then this probably is: "With GTA V, the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one."

 

It's shocking if they even think that V was complete. Not to mention that it was like IV but three times more massive and complete. If that is what they think at R*, then it's no wonder at all that single player DLC wasn't released. But of course I think that it's just a lame excuse. They just realized that it was easier to make money with Shark Card rather than release a decent single player DLC.

Edited November 22, 2017 by The N. Bellic Man

[Kyoto]

-I miss getting a game, putting it in the console, and the game would start up immediately. Now I get a game and have to wait between 2-5 hours+ for it to install before I can play it.

 

-In racing games (mainly NFS), I miss crashing without some unskippable cutscene interrupting gameplay and allowing opponents to catch up. I get it. I screwed up. But don't waste my time because of it.

 

-More emphasis on the core gameplay rather than online, DLC, or micro-transactions.

[Algonquin Assassin]

-I miss getting a game, putting it in the console, and the game would start up immediately. Now I get a game and have to wait between 2-5 hours+ for it to install before I can play it.

 

 

Oh yeah that's another thing that annoys me. Not only the time it takes to install, but ridiculous sized updates. Sorry, but I don't have the time to wait around for a 30GB update thanks.

 

i suppose one benefit is the developers can patch the games a long the way if they need to which wasn't possible in the pre-online era. Then again most games were fairly solid at release back then anyway.

[DOUGL4S1]

I miss when games were made with the intent of being as fun as possible for as long as possible, not to turn as maximum profit as possible.

[Shaytan]

 

- Remember games like Halo, where your gear actually meant something? You could brag when you finally got that hayabusa armor and katana gear, the recon helmet, the flaming helmet and blue flame bungie helmet. Getting your hands on these ultra rare armor pieces in multiplayer was an actual achievement done by you, the player. Not your wallet.

 

QFT. That's what bugs me about GTAO. There's no bragging rights, you probably just paid real cash or cheated to get 'X. Y, Z.'

 

GTA O used not to be like that, namely regarding cars. Years ago you'd have to go super deep on spawning tricks to get an Obey Tailgater, the modern Buffalo and Trevor's truck.

 

Same with some other cars not possible to buy like the Sultan and the Voodoo, or some others with hard tricks required to trigger the spawn such as the Romero. You could fill a garage just with these that would truly give you a sense of reward and joy.

 

Nowadays that only stands perhaps for the Mariachi car and the Dubsta2 (which, sadly enough, most players won't even recognise or care about these days).

 

Even things such as getting a Lazer off the military base got progressively easy to the point now that you just need the cash for the access to be offered to you.

Edited November 24, 2017 by Shaytan

[GTA-Biker]

Singleplayer focus

Local multiplayer (just plugging in a second controller when your friend visits)

Buying a full game without the need for DLCs

Period pieces (however,that one seems to be coming back,at least in FPS games like Battlefield 1 and COD WW2)

[Dryspace]

I miss pre-2008, when there were AAA developers who conceived, designed, and coded games for the PC, as opposed to the modern AAA industry in which games are conceived, designed, and coded for console hardware and the sensibilities of the console market and then ported or toss-ported to the PC.

 

And it wasn't financial necessity at all. If you want an eye-opening case study on greed, look at the history of Crytek, whose PC games were both critically acclaimed and profitable. The PC-only release Crysis hit a million sales by 2 months, and at 30 months (May 2010) had sold over 3 million copies, plus 1.5 million copies of the expansion Warhead.

 

Cevat Yerli admitted that it exceeded expectations, but--and this is astonishing--when he learned that the game was one of the most pirated, he began whining about piracy and declared he would never make another PC game again. The console games Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 were, at very best, mediocre, and failed sales expectations rather than exceeded them as Crysis did. In short, his company became increasingly financially troubled after abandoning the PC market, and as of my latest information is making only free-to-play telephone games.

 

There are console games with acceptable-to-good ports that I enjoy (if it sometimes took me a few tries to become inured to the controls and/or mechanics), such as BioShock, Just Cause 2, Arkham City, and GTA V. But the loss of the AAA PC industry has had very real consequences on the quality and rate of innovation of both gameplay and technology.

[KilnerLUFC]

 

-Getting a full game. Oh yes DLC. Whilst I like how DLC extends the life of some games it's rare to get a game now that's complete at release. Back in the day when you paid for a game you got everything. Sure expansion packs were available, but most of them felt complimentary rather than necessary. Now it feels like we pay more for less up front when it's not even the full deal. If you get me.

Getting a full game seems to be rather rare nowadays. But if we accept that we are not getting a full game then I am actually starting to miss times when DLC was actually good. I mean times when R* released single player DLC like TLaD, TBoGT and Undead Nightmare. Those were really worth your money and I didn't feel like the main game was lacking at all.

 

Of course even then that kind of DLC was an exception. But there was a short period when single player DLC was the order of the day. And in my opinion that kind of DLC enhanced the main game rather made an incomplete game whole.

 

But at this point I don't know if it is ever going to be like that again. Here's what R*'s Imran Sarwar said in Game Informer's interview (even after mentioning that R* would love to do single player expansions in the future): "With both GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption, we sold DLC and unfortunately both times, it fractured the audience and helped to kill the games much faster than they deserved. With GTA Online, if there’s content people don’t like or want, they can simply ignore it and do something else, while still being in the same core world as everyone else."

 

And if that is not enough, then this probably is: "With GTA V, the single-player game was absolutely massive and very, very complete. It was three games in one."

 

It's shocking if they even think that V was complete. Not to mention that it was like IV but three times more massive and complete. If that is what they think at R*, then it's no wonder at all that single player DLC wasn't released. But of course I think that it's just a lame excuse. They just realized that it was easier to make money with Shark Card rather than release a decent single player DLC.

 

 

This is the biggest piece of BS I've read in a long time. How the hell did releasing 2 new single-player DLC games fracture the audience in any way whatsoever? If anything, the statement contradicts itself in the sense that GTAV also featured 3 protagonists that shared the same core universe and gameplay etc, exactly what we saw with GTAIV, apart from the fact that I preferred IV's way of doing it. It didn't feel like they were forcing 3 total opposite people upon each other in the same playthrough. Even though the 2 DLC games were pretty short in length and content, you knew what you were expecting for the price, and again I preferred this over V. V was an incomplete mess that just didn't resonate in any way possible, and the only reason there was no SP DLC was the fact that Online pockets them more cash.

 

Absolute BS and such a sad way to look at future releases.

 

 

I've only got the Switch from the current-gen consoles, so my list isn't that bad as I still retro game very often, so the nostalgia is always upon me. On the flip-side though, it's the current state of the gaming industry that has turned me off - Gaming used to be something fun that you spent £40-50 on and got a full and complete package, and at the end you felt like you'd achieved something, unlocking some special gear, or some cheat codes unlocking that made the next repeat playthrough a whole new experience.

 

I could pretty much sum up what I miss in just describing the experience of picking a game to getting it home and playing.

 

- Walking in to the local game shop blind, not knowing really what you wanted since the internet was still a scarce thing, so you're mind was only made up beforehand by gaming magazines or from word of mouth, and then you'd pick a game just by the pictures and text on the back of the box/case, taking your final choice to the counter and having the choice between renting the game or buying it - I was young and not making much money so would use my pocket money to rent the same game over and over until a birthday came or Xmas.

 

So with the game in your possession, you had the trip home to read the game manual - and some of them were pretty amazing to be honest. I actually still remember when I bought GTA3 and getting so hyped to play the game just by reading through the manual - the game felt so massive in both regards to the map and to the content within. You had the back ground story of characters, the back ground to the story, weapon/gear/vehicle stats were detailed out...It helped with the immersion in a way; instead of just blindly jumping in to a game, you felt a part of it already just from the manual. To this day, it still feels good when I randomly purchase an old game and find it has a manual with it, it's a thing that I truly miss these days. I hate buying random games these days because it feels like if you haven't played the one before it, or read/watched tons of content online, you're jumping in blindly and feel lost from the start. Even the NPC's feel less familiar these days just because of it.

 

You finally get home and head straight for the console, hyped to play the game. You put the disc/cart in and...well, that's it, the game instantly loaded and minus the odd loading screen, you were playing the game within 2/3 minutes. There was no having to wait for the game to update, usually down to them having to rush the game out to meet money demands and knowingly getting away with it by completing the game through daily/weekly updates that completely ruin a 'let's just have a quick game' time slot. If the game was terrible and incomplete, then it flopped and the company knew they'd suffer for it, so this was an era where companies seemed to strive more to deliver the full package every time - giving us a SP experience that was fun to actually play, full of content and took ages to complete. I remember the first time I loaded up Gran Turismo 4 on the PS3, and pretty much playing it for like 5/10 minutes due to the insane amount of updating it took just to get the game actually started, and then the ridiculous amount of loading within the game itself. No need for this sh*t at all, and totally drives me away from wanting to play the game ever again. I don't mind the odd update at all - but it just highlights the era of gaming we're in, where games can be rushed out and finished later, all just to meet money demands.

 

So then you've played through the SP game, and depending on how well you did, you were rewarded in various ways - all without having to spend an extra penny on a game you had already spent your money on. You actually felt proud on the stuff you had unlocked along the way. You wanted to drag your mates round just to show off your achievements. I always use Timesplitters 2 when this argument comes up - Take one look at the character roster and it shows how much the industry has changed. There's around 150 characters to unlock in the game, all done by various methods - Every time you unlocked one was an achievement to yourself. Fast forward to current-gen and you're lucky to even get 10 characters, 5 base maps, a couple of weapons, without having to buy some DLC. The content within games now is sh*t, simple as.

 

And what if you were sh*t at a game? Simple, load up a website and find some cheats to unlock what you wanted. Even when you felt you'd achieved everything in a game, there was so much more to keep you going - extra content for local multiplayer, new gear for your next playthrough. GTA V, what was there reallly left after you had done the campaign? Absolutely f*ck all. Hate them or not, but collectibles in games that reward you are what make a game more fun - Look at the earlier 3D GTA games that had you unlock weapons and vehicles by collecting stuff...Not anymore...

 

So with the campaign done, it was time to drag your mates round, break out the sh*t controllers and have some fun on the MP - an experience very rare these days. Nothing like having 4 people round a screen and fighting it out to the death for bragging rights. I still rate Goldeneye as probably the best MP experience ever - the base content was good enough anyway, but unlocking more characters added to it, and then whacking in the cheat codes made it a blast.

 

MP these days is full of hackers who have to cheat to make themselves feel good, or the kids running around with the top gear on because their mum let them use the credit card. It just doesn't feel as rewarding anymore, and takes away the fun from it all.

 

I'll probably add more to this later, but that for me pretty much sums it up, albeit in short and incoherent sentences due to rushing.

[The_B1u3_Jay]

• I dont know if this counts, but i missed when the main genre was simple, fun, and extremely replayable platformer games. Now it seems to be 25+ hour, massive story, overly complex sandbox games.

 

• I also liked to read the gaming booklets found in the cases. Sometimes, they had some extra backstory or some cool artwork. (I know this is gonna sound weird, but i allways liked to sniff the cases and booklets of newly opened video game cases. DONT JUDGE ME! )

 

• Cheat Codes. They've pretty much been done away with now .Now, they'll most likely be sold as DLC. (Saints Row: the Third and IV, and Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.)

Edited November 30, 2017 by Awesom-0

[feckyerlife]

i miss when i use to get the whole game for $60

[Rhoda]

Memory cards. There was something thrilling to me about taking your memory card to school because you were going over to a friend's house afterwards to play a game you both owned. You didn't need to take the disc with you, just your memory card, and the idea of being able to take a saved game out of my room and into somebody else's was brilliant. They could help you with a bit of the game you were stuck on, or you could show off your own progress. My brother-in-law is 13, and he couldn't believe that we had 8GB memory cards for the PS2 and a paltry 1MB for the PlayStation. It just wouldn't sink in that you could fit the save data for one game on there, let alone a dozen. I know you can go further back than that when it comes to storage capabilities and I know there's going to be people scoffing at my luxury of even being able to save my game but it just further shows the divide between generations.

[trip]

Large game boxes with tons of box art.

 

Game manuals. They were just as much part of the game as the game itself. In the days of Atari 2600 you needed the manual to help your imagination turn the square graphic representing your character into a full blown armor clad knight.

 

SA city guide is also a great example of a well produced game manual.

 

Not so much a trend...but more of a nostalgic thing; the smell of game cartridges.

 

 

 

 

Kinect and other motion gaming. Just kidding

Edited November 30, 2017 by trip

[Rhoda]

Oh, the smell! The smell of games in general. Even physical games now don't smell the same as they did when I was a kid. I still remember how GTA Vice City smelled when I first opened it.

[Sombra]

Having all your cheats wrote on a crumpled creased piece of paper, usually compiled from trawling IGN and sorting the real cheats from the fake ones.

[Nico]

Here in my city, every ciber-cafe -or whatever they were called in the US and UK- had a piece of paper with all the VC / SA cheats on it, and often the kids argued to have the paper.

[Rhoda]

I wrote mine down on a scrap of notebook paper and tucked into the little clasps that usually hold the manual in the box. I know some older games' manuals actually had a notes page in the back, which were probably intended for cheats and hints. I usually just drew dicks in mine.

 

Something else I forgot to mention was glitches. I don't know what it is, but glitches in older games feel a little more special. I know games now are rife with them, probably even more so because of the sheer stress but finding a glitch back then was equal parts exciting and terrifying. You could be playing anything and without warning, something would corrupt your character or the environment of the level. Sometimes it would even help you, and thus exploits were born. I remember learning some via a gaming magazine and being amazed when I could actually do them. I felt like I'd broken a rule or found something I shouldn't have.

[PaeganLoveSong]

One I know I'm in the super minority on, but digitized sprites. I mean like classic MK. Most games that used them were garbage (Pit Fighter, Narc, SF the Movie the Game, a slew of MK-knockoff games in the mid 90s), but I always thought the technique was just under utilized and with the retro style being in? Why the fxck not?

[Rhoda]

Oh yeah, that's definitely a nostalgia thing. Not saying they're bad, but you had to see them at the time they were popular for you to appreciate them. That style of sprite always reminded me of those early 90s arcade games like Outrun or some sh*tty SEGA knock-off where you drove a car for some reason. Slightly different style I know, but you know what I mean.

 

I remember visiting family a few cities over when I was a kid, and we'd always end up at this rancid takeaway food place where they had a Metal Slug arcade cabinet. I think I spent more money on that each visit than I did on my food. I haven't touched the game in years but the style does tug on my heart strings a little. I was never any good at it but I loved the style.

[Jason]

Memory cards.

 

I don't miss the prices!

 

One of the things I miss though is capture the flag. You still see it now and then, but it's always tacked on and doesn't play right. It was always such a fun mode in games like TimeSplitters back in the day.

[Leftist Bastard]

 

 

-Getting a full game. Oh yes DLC. Whilst I like how DLC extends the life of some games it's rare to get a game now that's complete at release. Back in the day when you paid for a game you got everything. Sure expansion packs were available, but most of them felt complimentary rather than necessary. Now it feels like we pay more for less up front when it's not even the full deal. If you get me.

I always found this complaint/trend remarkably bullsh*t because back then you wouldn't knowwhat you were missing, anyways. Or what was cut off and chopped up because of budget or time constraints.

[KilnerLUFC]

I wrote mine down on a scrap of notebook paper and tucked into the little clasps that usually hold the manual in the box. I know some older games' manuals actually had a notes page in the back, which were probably intended for cheats and hints. I usually just drew dicks in mine.

 

Something else I forgot to mention was glitches. I don't know what it is, but glitches in older games feel a little more special. I know games now are rife with them, probably even more so because of the sheer stress but finding a glitch back then was equal parts exciting and terrifying. You could be playing anything and without warning, something would corrupt your character or the environment of the level. Sometimes it would even help you, and thus exploits were born. I remember learning some via a gaming magazine and being amazed when I could actually do them. I felt like I'd broken a rule or found something I shouldn't have.

 

I think just about every one of my GTA games had a massive sheet of paper tucked behind the manual back in the day, usually done during an IT lesson at school because I had no internet at home. Nostalgia hits when I pick an old game up these days and find cheats tucked in with the manual.

 

Maybe it just shows how far gaming has come along, and that we view glitches/exploits differently these days? I know the main one that helped me on certain games was been able to twist the camera around so that it would pass through walls and allow you to see what was ahead. But yeah, doesn't seem the same these days, and glitches usually get patched when first noticed, so there's that too. Again, GTA titles were the best because they were some of the biggest sandbox titles around back then and usually filled with so many exploits and glitches...Mucho money was made doing stunts as part man/part bike in Vice City.

 

 

 

 

-Getting a full game. Oh yes DLC. Whilst I like how DLC extends the life of some games it's rare to get a game now that's complete at release. Back in the day when you paid for a game you got everything. Sure expansion packs were available, but most of them felt complimentary rather than necessary. Now it feels like we pay more for less up front when it's not even the full deal. If you get me.

I always found this complaint/trend remarkably bullsh*t because back then you wouldn't knowwhat you were missing, anyways. Or what was cut off and chopped up because of budget or time constraints.

 

 

Partly right, but back then you always felt the game was complete anyway, and anything extra that you felt missing was down to your imagination. It's an absolute piss take when a company announces DLC before the game has even released (NFS 2015, looking at you!). Any extra money spent on a game back then got you something cool usually, like some gift to put on a shelf, but now the extra money gets you sh*t in-game, like an extra gun or some BS like that. Why should some kid get a head start in an MP game over me, just because his mum is naive enough to spend a sh*t ton on the 'Super-Duper-Deluxe' version of the game? Back then the stuff unlocked in a game was down to skill and how much you put into the game, and you actually felt proud of what you had, rather than having it because you've paid some money...Not going to go on as there's a topic for this already, but this is a trend that has absolutely killed the gaming industry!

[Rhoda]

Forgot to mention the magic that was Gameshark, or anything similar. I remember when I had my PlayStation, my dad took it to work with him one day as somebody he knew could ''chip'' them. It was just a case of sticking a box in the back and a spring in the disc tray to trick the console into thinking there was a game running. This allowed you to swap a different disc in and read that instead. It's pretty rudimentary now but at the time it felt like sorcery. Suddenly my games were blown wide open and I felt like I had been inducted into this secret little club.

[Brian_O_Malley]

I miss buying Gaming magazines every week, When they were the main source of news and info 'Cause no one really knew about the internet back then

[Input]

-Big ass boxes, with lots of art and that book cover flap on the front that opened up and had screenshots, features, story info etc.

 

-Expansion packs. It should go without saying we used to get a whole second game on top of the base game at one point. Now you get a bonus hour of bullsh*t, for the same price.

 

-Editors. Games never seem to have editors/SDK's anymore.

 

- Dev. Consoles, used to be fun to use and abuse the engines of games. sh*t, with old Unreal Engine games you could change almost any aspect of the game from console commands.

[anus]

Rockstar not having sold out.

GTA V was the end of an era IMO. I'll get the next GTA to try it out, but I feel like they're headed in an EA/Activision like direction.

[KilnerLUFC]

I miss buying Gaming magazines every week, When they were the main source of news and info 'Cause no one really knew about the internet back then

 

GamesMaster, OPM and the Official Nintendo one were my regular ones. Damn I miss the days of collecting demo discs - most of my PS1 memories are just purely games I played on demos, and then I moved on to PS2 demo discs, but by this time I had the money to buy the games I actually enjoyed.