[mireaux7]

does anyone else out there sometimes get the perception that a lot of games being released today are nothing more than upgraded, updated, rehashes of games weve all played before?

let me explain.

i pretty much grew up with video games, and all throughout my life i remember them being exciting as hell, the next best thing to sex and rock and roll.

i had the atari 2600 with pacman, pitfall, etc...and i thought,.wow,.cool...no more quarters,.i can play whenever i want.

then 1985 rolled around..and BAM!..nintendo unveiled Super Mario Bros. Then I was like,.HO-LEE-SHIIEET!,.this is friggin awesome, and this game is soo addictive. Not to mention all the other exciting titles that came out for the NES, along with the power pad, power glove, the zapper...this system rocked.

Then we entered into the 16-bit era,.which IMHO was one of the best eras of video games,..Sega Genesis & Super Nintendo!!..just when i thought Super Mario 1, 2, & 3 were the shit,.I was blown away by Super Mario World, and Sonic the Hedgehog,.and just about every other 16-bit game for the Genesis and SNES that came out.

Then the next wave comes: Playstation and N64..both are cool to me. Im very impressed by the sharp visuals of both systems, the more intuitive gameplay,.more indepth,..RPGs rock,..games like Resident Evil, Final Fantasy VII & VIII, Medal of Honor, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark....games are really smokin..this era was badass.

Soon after that we get: PS2, Dreamcast, XBOX and Gamecube. wow,..for the first time..the graphics quality on the games are all disc-based,.and look almost similiar in quality to the naked eye. the graphics are improved, the processor speed, games are now a lot more in depth than ever before,..full blown adventures that can take hours upon hours,.even weeks to complete. saving gameplay at this point becomes a necessity in most games. Im very impressed by it.

then and now,.we have the current wave of systems: Wii, PS3, and XBOX 360. The only one that really somewhat impresses me is the Wii,.with its unique gameplay mechanics using the Wiimote and the nunchuks.

I guess that, with me, with each new era of home consoles that comes out I look for big advances over the former era of machines. ...not only the horsepower of the machine..but also in the actual games themselve.

Maybe its me, but so far, I havent seen any real compelling reason to upgrade to the 7th generation of consoles. I have a huge collection of PS2 games, and from what I can see, almost every 7th generation game thats been released, can be played on with my 6th gen ps2. the graphics processor, speed,..my ps2 can handle it,..sure it wont be as fast or the visuals wont be as sharp,.but it can still be done...a ps2 version of pretty much every game thats out on the market can be made.

so, what im saying in essence is that,.thus far..there really doesnt seem to be any strong compelling reason to fork out loads of cash to upgrade to the next gen of systems.

remember how much more advanced the Nintendo Entertainment System was over the Atari 2600..ok,.that was a no-brainer,..time to upgrade to play some kickass games.

..and how much more powerful SNES & Genesis was over the NES,..same situation..time to upgrade.

I mean, with every wave of systems that comes out,.there seemed to be a point blank evident reason to upgrade,.the games were so much better,..the graphics..etc.

but now, it seems like im seeing a lot of games that are getting the rehash treatment. crap weve already played,.change of characters, change of locations..maybe a few tweaks to the gaming engine,.and viola,..a new game to market to gamers.

its like,.back in the hey-day..games sold on the own merit..because they were fun to play in the arcade, and then the home conversion came out..which was never quite the same as the arcade,.but still enjoyable.

now, its like, very few improvements are made from one game to the next. games that are part of a series are the worst offenders of said crimes. "Oh,.this is Grand Theft Auto-San Andreas,..you need to buy this game..cause it has a much larger city in it than Vice City did,.and now you can fly the helicopters,.and do all this other stuff that you couldnt do it Vice City"

So, what...the game engines are pretty much the same...the gameplay feels the same...but since games are marketed more like movies are..in which they make it seem like you must always buy the next installment in the series,.just because theyve written up a gripping story for the protagonist, that must be followed by fans of the series,..they know their game will sell.

if a game comes out,.and it sells like mad crazy..you can bet on a sequel every time...but not only that,.you can bet that the game manufacturer will always devise some gripping story to make the fans of the game always buy the next installment...regardless if barely any changes have been made to the game's engine,.characters,.gameplay,.etc.

Final Fantasy VII was a HUGE leap over FF VI (or FF III..ha ha) ,..FF VIII had even nicer visuals than VII,.then IX came out,..then FF X,..but since X came out, i havent seen very much change in the graphics of the games. X, X-2, XI, XII..the graphics pretty much look the same to me. did square-enix just decide to stop upgrading the visual quality of the ff series when they got to installment number 10,.and just focus on changing the storyline from there on out?

There are a host of other games that are just as guilty of this: Halo, Medal of Honor, Castlevania, Silent Hill, Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell,...too many to name...that dont do much improvements over the games,.besides swap out locations and enemies,.then decide to call it a "new" game, and throw it back out on the store shelf...as a rehash.

This post has been edited by mireaux7: 23 August 2007 - 11:48 AM

[SimeSublime]

I think the biggest offender in this case is sports games. What's so different between FIFA9X and FIFA9X+1. Same gameplay, basically the same graphics, only difference is a few different character names. New versions of sports games are always a waste of time. Which is why EA makes so much money off of them

[David-kyo]

Heyheyhey, don't you be putting down San Andreas, that was the only GTA game so far I actually enjoyed playing. Ok, the graphics didn't look like they did in Oblivion. So what, I could get it running on my computer! However, not only was the gameplay improved (skill system, customizing the character, etc.) and were you able to do a lot of shit you couldn't do in its previous parts, such as being able to do almost anything you can think of doing in real life (I dunno 'bout you, but these are basically what I expect from a sequel), but it had a far better screenplay, plot, characters which you could grow fond of, and of course, character development. That counts a lot in my book. In every prequel, the main character was just a plain asshole who didn't have a proper job because he was just too fucking lazy to do it, and I didn't really enjoy helping them on their mission.

[princesskadee]

I think the biggest offender in this case is sports games. What's so different between FIFA9X and FIFA9X+1. Same gameplay, basically the same graphics, only difference is a few different character names. New versions of sports games are always a waste of time. Which is why EA makes so much money off of them

you nailed that one on the head,.and its the same reason why gamestop sells pretty much any sports game for around $1.99 in their bargain bin.