Okay /v/ let's have a videogame thread that isn't just marketing shills trying to hype up their newest release. Imho this has been one of the most mediocre E3's yet, to say that there are at least 3 decent looking games might be pushing it.
Mostly, I think this is to do with capitalising on the open world hype, where you can "go anywhere" and do "anything" where once first person corridor shooters were a cancer killing the market it has now moved to the extreme other end of the spectrum. Open world 3rd person games with "too much freedom" and not enough content. The time and effort that once went into crafting a player experience has given way to the even lazier "emergent gameplay" experience, emergent gameplay being the new buzzword for having absolutely nothing exciting in the game.
Fallout 4 might be one of the better examples of how toning back constructed narratives conflicts with the point of making an RPG in the first place, the move towards giving the player "more power" to create their own settlements actually massively backfires creating a sterile environment of laziness in which devs simply create glorified modkits and sell them to us, with the expectation of us to fill in the blanks.
Looking at a broader spectrum the amount of open world 3rd person shooters/action adventure games is ridiculous, Horizon zero dawn, ghost recon wildlands and the god of war reboot to name a few, in fact the god of war reboot is a good example of over-saturation as it's changed a franchise to a different genre entirely.
continued....
These generic hybrids of "shooters with light RPG elements and open world" are perhaps even more tiring than the host of modern war FPS created after the success of CoD4 and BF2 and has the same result in which most of these games are interchangable, and tiring. The scale of the empty open worlds also makes it a chore to play through whereas at least with focused experiences (Even FO3's mostly vacant world feels more alive than FO4) You at least had an experience that was somewhat entertaining and had character. Even the HUD design in these new games are sterile and boring. Cookie cutter designs assembled on photoshop by some failed graphic designer who'd rather be designing the next iOS update than working in videogames.
Think of it this way, think of any games made in the past 3 years that were FPS/TPS with crafting, light RPG elements and open world free roam. I think it's pretty shitty. When a south park videogame looks like a more well crafted experience than anything Bethesda, EA, Microsoft and SONY have planned.
Thoughts, opinions? Anyone agree with me hear or am i just being jaded.
TL;DR Open world games action games with light RPG elements are stagnating the market.
Hopeful bump for discussion before i let it die
board traffic is amazingly high
The problem with open world games is that they allow devs to pad out the content and claim "It's got 400 hours of gameplay!" when the main story is what, 10 hours with fast travel?
Obviously there's exceptions like Witcher 3 but the shit happens.
all open world games are cancer
>>341470045
Yes this is what i'm talking about, The Witcher 3 was one of the rare exceptions in which i felt that there was a point the open world and that it was alive and actually had all those hours of gameplay.
>Open world game are fucking trash
No shit?
>>341468974
God of War isn't open world. Barlog said there are many large areas, but it isn't open world.
I mostly agree. The best compromise is a hub based design like Dishonored 2 is doing (or Thief). And you can make these hubs fairly large but not having to interconnect all these hubs allows more focused design.
Emergent gameplay is a good thing but just like with open world in general devs are taking it to the extreme and aren't implementing it in an interesting way.
>blah blah blah open world games trigger me abloo abloo abloo
I don't think we've ever gone a single hour without one of these threads every fucking day.
People, do you not see lazy quest design is why open world games are bad?
If a world was filled with different people, with different goals and objectives, an open world game could be fun and unique. Instead we have copy and pasted quests with NPCs that give barely any experience.
>>341470563
A really good example is Kingdoms of Amalur. The devs claimed 200 hours of gameplay without mentioning "By the way, all these quests are here because the game was originally going to be an MMO so 175 of those hours will be spent fetching bear asses rather than doing the main quest".
>>341468974
this is just the new flavour of the gen, like shooters in the gen before. It will pass, like always.
>>341471564
The problem is the scope of a lot of these games don't allow for interesting design because you have to sit down and program all of it and populate the world. If you had an infinite amount of time and money you could do it well but nobody ever does.
>>341471564
I'm not saying that the core concepts of the above are bad.
What i'm saying is that the way they're being used currently is underwhelming, and simply bad, yes it'd probably solve the problem if they implemented better quests or objectives rather than relying on the gameplay which is usually pretty dull.
I hate to keep bringing up FO4 but it is just a good example of one step forward two steps back. You can barely do any quest in FO4 without it being "go to this building and retrieve this item/kill this legendary enemy. this isn't 400 hours of gameplay it's just the same one hour repeated 100 times
Is the natural evolution for the market, those rat childs are grown up and search more complex games, but NEW games because are so retarded for touch classic gems
It is annoying as hell and I agree with OP.The trend will pass in about 5 years or so and there will be something else that becomes old and tired.
>>341471928
I understand this, i know it'll just change when people are fed up but i just feel that the current "flavour" manages to be less entertaining than the previous one since there isn't actually much offered in the way of a crafted experience.
CoDMW2 feels like it has more heart in it than most of these open world games and it was a soulless activision checklist exercise to print money.
The real problem with open world games is that developers think just having an open world is enough to make a game good. A game needs engaging gameplay to complement the world. Honestly, I think the new Zelda game might be good, simply because Zelda games typically have actual things to be getting on with and the overworld is just one aspect of the game.
Just because a game has an open world doesn't mean that it's bad. It's like claiming that a game is bad because it's linear.
>>341472970
I'm not saying it's bad because of the open world, like i said before the concept of an open world isn't negative. I agree with you, i think the same thing is the thought process for the "deep crafting systems" or "RPG elements" that they put in every game now regardless of the context.
It simply isn't fun to go through constant collectathons just to make a mid-level item or to have fun.
Big business is just mostly bad for video games.
They have to take into account how they will make the most money. Most people that play games usually invest little more than a month playing them until they get bored or move on. These kind of people are the people who want instant gratification who only pick up and play for a few hours a week.
The people that they are marketing to are the people who would go into a murer mystery house, kill everyone before even talking to anyway because it's easy and funny, and then leave.
That's why free to play games are so popular now.
More subjective thoughts
>>341468974
>>341469106
Well, I totally agree. I'm so tired from this open world shit. Only few companies can make it right but others like Ubisoft just create massive empty boring locations and fill this empty world with pointless abstract grind. It's so boring to play such games. But normies fucking LOVE this open world meme for some reason even if by today's standards it's absolutely nothing special.
>>341474646
Definitely true. That's why e-sports and competitive gaming is big. It's easy to find something to play with your friends and even easier to pick up knowing you can play for a few minutes or several hours.
>>341468974
ehh I would say you are right that open world games are the new craze and they are
>"It's got 400 hours of gameplay!" when the main story is what, 10 hours with fast travel
yet i can honestly say i have never played an open world game i didnt like. can you mention other open world games that are bad
>>341475086
Video games pretty much ARE for normal fags now. Same as comic books due to the massive amounts of easily obtainable movies/tv shows.
>>341468974
Kojima really left a sour taste on open world games.
Look at how linear Ground Zeroes was, and that was a really good game. His best games have always been either linear or visual storytelling oriented which serve as the perfect blend for story and gameplay, because the story is the game. MGS4 failed in making looooong cutscenes littered throughout bleak gameplay.
>>341474646
See i agree with the reasoning of big business and grabbing money but the instant gratification is easier through the older model of FPS corridor shooters which is why i'm confused why the open world game is so popular when it requires a considerable time to actually have fun.
I feel like whenever i buy a game this gen i have to think whether i'll be able to finish it within the month. Could argue that this is just because i cant dedicate my time solely towards these type of games but then surely i'd be in the target audience of people with not a massive amount of free time who want to play a fun engaging game.
>>341475415
I disagree, much of these games have been in development alongside MGSV i don't think they're simply copying MGSV, i think V was just rushed out sooner, which is supported by the relatively unfinished game
