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The Future of Game Design
IGN has the beginnings of an interesting series up entitled The Future of Game Design. The first part of this series covers game design elements that we've seen in the past that the author would like to see show up more often in future games. From the article: "We need better art direction in our games. Not just more polygons or slicker textures, but games with a better sense of visual style. Off the top of my head, one of the first games that really showed a distinct sense of art direction and style in this generation of games was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. That game oozed with style, and even though it was simple and quick, it became one of my favorites because the main character, Sly, had real character." As we start to get into Uncanny Valley territory I hope more artists take the approach that Sly and WoW have.
I'd say that Doom 3 attempted to create an atmosphere similar to what you are describing. Unfortunately it was a bit too repepitive so you no longer got scared when the lights went out in a room and the monsters appeared around every corner. Half-Life 2 really startled me at times, when you'd round a corner and there would be some baddies right in your face. It also created a great claustrophobic atmosphere in the city levels for a more urban warlike feel.
I think one of the problems is that in order for something to really get your heart pounding there has to be some risk involved. If you can save your game at any point, this takes away risk as you can run in, attack the baddie and if you die just load your saved game.
The author mentions the desire for cutscenes to be less static and more interactive, citing Metal Gear Solid 3's zoom feature. Looking at Eva's boobs was the only thing I saw anyone ever use it for. Does anyone remember Shenmue's interactive cutscenes? You would sometimes run into situations that would require you to push buttons at the right time a la Parappa the Rapper. Say you were being hassled by some punks, get the sequence right and you lay the smack down, mess up and you get layed out. A lot more interactive than MGS cutscenes. What do you think about a system based on this for cutscenes? Too simplistic? Not appropriate for most types of games?
Sleep is futile.
There were just as many bad games Back in the Day (tm) as there are now. You've simply forgotten about them. In 5-10 years, you'll forget about the bad games taking up shelf space today and only remember the stand-out titles, and make the same complaint.
This doesn't just apply to games, either. It applies to almost everything. The "Good Old Days" were not necessarily any better than today, but the effects of time have made you forget the bad and remember the good. That's why people want a return to the "values" from the 1950s, or complain that Hollywood is just churning out mindless blockbuster action flick after mindless blockbuster action flick, or complain that the airwaves are overrun by Britney Spears wannabes. Do you really think that there wasn't divorce, death, rape, abortion, violent crime, or any of the other ills of today's society back in the 50s? Do you really believe that back in the day Hollywood only released one or two films a year, or even went years without releasing antyhing because nothing was good enough? Do you really think that there were entire stretches of years where no artist released any music at all? Of course not. The collective consciousness has just swept all of the bad behavior, bad movies, bad music, etc under the rug and idolized what came before.
Tuck this thought away in the back of your mind, and drag it out in 10 years when you find yourself lamenting that the current crop of video games pale in comparison to the gameplay found in the "classic" Half-Life 2.
Grim Fandango - Dang that was a clever plot, voice acting over the top excellent, and artwork that was spot on. If you trimmed a few scenes it would be a great Tim Burton movie. The final scene about killed me...
I've played through HL2 and DooM3 now. I think the gameplay in HL2 is better, but not as good as it was in HL. DooM3 did get repetitive but the atmosphere, while different, was conveyed better than HL2. In HL2, so many things were just... not right. For starters, there were many areas, like security towers with guards, that had no ladders! How did the guards get up there? Also, HL2 had the same problem that the HL2 advocates were laughing at DooM3 for... monsters "appearing" out of nowhere behind you all the time. Not as often in HL2, but it did happen. At least in DooM3, there was a flimsy excuse for it, they were teleported in from Hell. HL2 just had monsters stuck in places for no real reason than to "make you fight". Everything in the original Half Life was there for a good reason, it all made sense! In HL2, they lost that message.
While we're talking atmosphere, HL2 just didn't cut it. I've played Devastation and similar games, and HL2 doesn't come up with anything more novel than that, we've all seen trashed up old city environments before. DooM3... well the parts in Hell made my skin crawl. Genuinely creepy.
Let's talk graphics. Half Life 2 had some awful lighting effects... sometimes I'd shine a torch in a room and it would shed no light whatsoever, othertimes it would be blinding. It's pretty obvious the graphics are a bit cludged. DooM3 had incredibly realistic lighting, you could see shadows in all the right places, and some of the effects were very dramatic and inspiring. Sure, DooM3 needed more grunt for the superior graphics engine, but what price should we expect to pay for progress? I'm looking forward to Quake 4, Raven has made some brilliant games in the past and that coupled with the DooM3 engine will be unstoppable.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
Storyline is really important! But it depends on the game. The FF series probably has a great storyline, but the gameplay has always bugged me as a serious PC RPG player. NFS2U has no story whatsoever, but it's a lot of fun to play because the graphics are okay and the racing is a lot of fun.
System Shock and SS2 had pretty average graphics and gameplay, even for their time... but the storyline and atmosphere is amazing.
Some games don't need a storyline. Some games don't need great graphics. Some games don't necessarily need great gameplay (if the story and graphics make up for that). Some games don't need graphics, storyline, gameplay or even taste to be fun! (For an hour or so)(Postal 2 anyone?)
But certainly, the point seems to be being missed more often than hit lately.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.