[Closed] Video games, they're not what they used to be

The Call of Duty series has been this way for some time. They seem to assume that ALL of their customer base only want to play online. The single player mode is nothing more than a token-gesture after-thought.

That's why i don't bother buying them.

Any game by Bethesda will give you hundreds of hours of gameplay, though (if that's what you're after!) I've recently played Fallout 3 and New Vegas, and now i've started on Skyrim...

It's not just the play time that has got worse, but I just find most newer games boring in terms of the gameplay. Seems like more effort goes into making things look and sound great than it does into making them fun to play.

Best game I've played recently is Limbo. It's pretty short but it's so fun and pretty scary considering how minimalist the graphics are. Got it for £1.50 in the steam sales.

+1 Skyrim, there must be 100's of hours worth of stuff in it.

I remember when this was all fields etc etc.

One of the best games of the last decade is Portal. You've no doubt played it. The only thing wrong with it is the lack of replayability. Once you've played it, there's not a lot of point playing it again. At least not until you've forgotten the maps.

Before that, the biggest impact a game has had on me personally, is Final Fantasy vii.

Red Dead Redemption is great, get that!

Best game I've played recently is Limbo.

Limbo is ace. It's on XBLA too.

See also, Braid.

Red Dead Redemption is great,

This.

Agreed on Portal, it was a great game. Portal 2 was a bit of a let down I think, perhaps because the original was so... original.

Nothing trumps Goldeneye on the N64.

Portal 2 was a bit of a let down I think,

I understand where you're coming from. You're wrong, though. Two games, single player and co-op, well worth playing both.

I don't understand the TV adverts that show 'Not actual game footage' - so why show it / why do the adverts appeal to people then?

What you need to do is source a mega drive and sonic and see how long the kids take to complete it.

I don't understand the TV adverts that show 'Not actual game footage' - so why show it / why do the adverts appeal to people then?

Have any adverts in the last couple of years actually had this, though? Back in the day cut scene graphics were always used as the pull to get peoples attention in adverts, but at the moment the in game graphics are probably on par with the, diminishing, cut scenes in games.

Skyrim is very good, really enjoying it.
Portal portal2 also.
Yep, single player MW games, not great although the OP is clearly better than me at them, not really my secen to be honest though.
Red Dead was ace, big game, lots of interest.

I'm looking forward to the the next Grand Theft game. GTA4 was an awesome game. It was a bit linear though compared to something like skyrim where you can wander off and do side missions a plenty for all you are worth. Or just go around making money/killing trolls/exploring.

Want hours of playtime?

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Best single player game I've ever played.

Assasins Creed advert amongst many others recently have had the 'not actual game footage' tagline.

I appreciate that every format will give different results, but essentially they're saying is 'this is what you could've had'.

Another +1 for Skyrim.

How many of you remember not having 'saves' available back in the day? Plus games like Jet Set Willy, Knightlore, etc taking weeks to complete?

I lost interest in both GTAV and San Andreas before completing them. Best GTA game IMHO was Vice City.

Though if you liked those, Red Dead Redemption is essentially Grand Theft Equine. Recommended.

I loved GTA:SA, maybe more than Vice City actually. The storylines on those games are great. I always dismissed gta til I decided to stop running around shooting people and actually followed the missions. Hours of fun. Me and my mate completed SA twice in our last year of uni.

Oh and isn't there a new Hitman game coming out soon? Blood Money was great.

+1 on San Andreas, easily the best single player game I've played.

Nothing trumps Goldeneye on the N64.

Played it recently?

Vice City was great because of the music. Spent hours flying the helicopter around.

One for the Vice City fans.....

Go make a cocktail, put your feet up and press play.

No game music can beat that of Goldeneye 64

I reckon The only real comparison of 'then and now' is playability - the original doom was groundbreaking and had me hooked for hours - mw3/2 has also had me hooked for hours(120for mw3 so far ). So compare the two (esp multiplayer) and I know which I would be/am playing now.

Skyrim also has me hooked - compare that to the hours playing original colossal cave and I know which one I'd be playing! You are in a maze of twisty passages all alike - bollocks to that!

What the OP is saying (as i read it) is that it didn't work for him - I've bought games that didn't work for me - trade it and move on but don't try to make out that today's games aren't as good as those of yesteryear, otherwise we would all have N64's playing rockfall.

Seriously,, if. You think old games are the best, get a copy of MAME and see how long you play each one!

jetset willy was released so full of bugs it couldnt be completed
sonic is available on ps3
goldeneye has just been re released for current consoles and compared to fps of today it's rubbish

I actually shat myself once when playing 'Aliens v Predators', when something nasty suddenly jumped out at me. 😳

The Daddy[img] [/img]

Re assassins creed ad - I think the reason for that was the main selling point was the story. If they'd shown game footage it might have shown how predictable and easy the game was. I was massively disappointed.

amie - Member

Have any adverts in the last couple of years actually had this, though?

Aye, at least one of the blockbuster shooty games did- think it was COD? Does seem a bit odd now that graphics can be so good.

+1 for the original Elite here - I managed to rank as "Deadly" but didn't make "Elite" until I got stuck into Frontier. The only modern games that have come close in epic scale are the Grand Theft series.

Try googling Pioneer Space Sim if you miss lurking outside Lave station ready pounce on some Vipers.

There is an add now for ps3 or Xbox with 4 new games. The bit in the advert for battlefield says Not game footage.

I take back everything I said above - Elite was awesome. Making it to galaxy 2 and getting the military grade shield generator was about as good as it gets!

I think I worded my original point badly....or just plain wrongly.

What I meant to write, through the miasma of a bottle of Baileys, is that back in the day the cut scenes were used to sell a game. This was a bit shady, as the in-game graphics could never hope to live up to what was represented. Now, however, I think they show custom built animations to advertise the story in a short advert length time span, rather than including footage from the game that by itself might not convey the story arc of the game. So it's less you are being shown something you cannot have, and more its just a promo tool to show what will be in the game, albeit not condensed in 30 concise seconds.

...or something.

Duck Hunt, Operation Wolf and Moon Patrol...ahh, them were the days.

It were all fields round here back then of course and Wagon Wheels were as big as dinner plates etc etc

😉

And what was that tank driving game? Pacific Islands? Awful graphics but you could hide in wait for hours just waiting for the enemies tanks to roll past a gap in the trees.

Aah the hours wasted, I could have been chatting up girls. Who's laughing now?

And don't get me started on Civilization. "Oh, is it 7 in the morning? I appear not to have slept...at all. Time for college/work."

I actually shat myself once when playing 'Aliens v Predators', when something nasty suddenly jumped out at me.

Try playing dead space 2. I flat out refuse to play that on my own. Terrifying.

Alone. On a spaceship filled with hideous aliens. In deep space. Everything is really dark. And you're going scatty and hallucinating about your dead wife or something.

or try this for a great psychological horror game

also if you want longevity in a game (after elder scrolls series e.t.c) try playing one of the zelda games (especially twilight princess/wind waker)/final fantasy VII (kicks the c*&p out of ocarina of time imho 😉 runs off before being hit by flaming bottles e.t.c 😀

Yesterday I picked up Undead Nightmare, the Red Dead Redemption add-on.

Cowboys+zombies = awesome.

That is all.

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🙁

(bonus points if you recognise the map on the left, by the way!)

Up to 77 hours now on Skyrim and still not finished the main quest.

the original doom was groundbreaking

EDIT - Wolfenstein was released in 1992, Doom in 1993.

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For me the one game that utterly and completely hooked me was Kula World - the game still goes for silly money (unfortunately I only had a hack copy) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KULA-WORLD-PLAYSTATION-1-PS1-PS2-ULTRA-RARE-COMPLETE-/360358948037?pt=UK_PC_Video_Games_Video_Games_JS&hash=item53e7112cc5#ht_1971wt_1180

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never heard of kula world!

It was a real stealth game - not many people had heard of it but a friend was a prolific games copier and he gave me it. We would sit for hours and hours into the early hours trying to solve fiendishly complex 3D mazes complete with gravity.

We even invented drinking games around it (complete a level and pass to the next player. If they don't complete the level they have a drinking forfeit and continue to have forfeits until they do complete - at which point they pass to the next player to play the next level - which obviously gets harder).

i've just seen on wiki that it's on ps3 store download. might get it later on!

RealMan - Member

Try playing dead space 2. I flat out refuse to play that on my own. Terrifying.

Resident Evil 2 made me scream so loud, the neighbours came round to see who'd been murdered. (the birds! aaaargh).