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Post by magic89 on Dec 5, 2015 17:30:06 GMT -5
1.health regeneration Why all playable heroes of thier games are turned into Wolverine wannabe?
2.Pointless DLC stuff I dont had nothing to DLC, but some DLC are pointless, heck! they sale that DLC instead give up for FREE. Examples
Horse Armor TES IV Oblivion Dog outfit Fable 3 Sir Hammerlock vs. the Son of Crawmerax Borderlands 2
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Post by GamerL on Dec 5, 2015 21:28:10 GMT -5
1.health regeneration Why all playable heroes of thier games are turned into Wolverine wannabe? I've always wondered why more games have not borrowed the way it actually worked in Halo, where the trend started. In Halo you had a "shield" that would recharge, but also a health bar that would not unless you found health packs. that made it a lot more challenging than simple "recharging health"
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Post by Snarboo on Dec 5, 2015 22:23:16 GMT -5
The modern recharging health mechanic doesn't come from Halo, it comes from Halo 2, which did away with the health bar entirely. I'd argue Call of Duty 2 was the real catalyst, but Halo 2 did it first IIRC.
Edit: I think the real reason it's so popular is that it makes level design a cinch, especially if the player is constantly moving forward and can't backtrack.
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Post by GamerL on Dec 5, 2015 22:27:28 GMT -5
The modern recharging health mechanic doesn't come from Halo, it comes from Halo 2, which did away with the health bar entirely. I'd argue Call of Duty 2 was the real catalyst, but Halo 2 did it first IIRC. Halo was still the first time I remember anything "recharging" in an FPS.
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Post by Snarboo on Dec 5, 2015 22:40:03 GMT -5
IIRC, Halo wasn't the first FPS with some form of recharging health or shield, it was just the first to popularize or codify it. Even then, it was still split between a shield and a regular health bar, as you noted. Halo 2 was the first with a unified, recharging health system, unless I'm forgetting an obscure FPS that came before, which is likely. :p
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Post by hudakj on Dec 5, 2015 23:16:14 GMT -5
This isn't a knock on the genre, but it seems that the "open world RPG/sandbox" is fast becoming the go-to generic genre. We've got
-The watch-towers. Almost every game with a big map is using the whole watch-tower "map unveiling" mechanic. While novel at first this is fast becoming a pointless annoyance. Busywork for the sake of busywork. Furthermore, the Assassin's Creed games and others offer no logical reason why the main character doesn't already know the entire layout of the city or the world.
-Main protagonists devoid of character. This sometimes works when the character is almost completely devoid of a backstory or any origin/motivation whatsoever but most of the time he or she is actually a prescripted and defined character that is just stripped of all character or interesting motivation for the sake of "player immersion." Again, it doesn't work if there is already a prescripted narrative and character baggage breaking that illusion that you are playing yourself. Rockstar wisely ditched this concept after GTAIII, which are fairly heavy in the story department, but other companies still go the easy way of making the player control the equivalent of a cardboard cut-out with a happy or frowny face drawn on it.
-Resource grinding. While this makes sense in some genres such as MMORPGs or city management games, so many other games get themselves stuck with this bloat simply because collecting crap to craft things one should otherwise simply be able to obtain is the "in" thing to do and since it apparently worked in one franchise, why not others? The problem is that often it is simply a mind-numbing bore that gets in the way of the game and another is that it it often becomes an excuse to use microtransactions to obtain "rare materials" once the gamer is convinced that getting 100% is important.
-Microtransaction RNG pulling. While microtractions becoming a norm in the industry thanks to the pointless necessity to require the game to become "online" at all times is bad enough, I'm starting to see and even more mercentile trend in adding gambling RNG mechanics to it. It isn't enough that I paid for the game, or even bought tokens to get a rare item though a separete online store, I must now activate a lotto mechanic that MIGHT give me the item I want. I still can't believe they are getting away with this shit. It makes sense for a freemium phone game that is otherwise completely free (essentially internet gambling), but a AAA game selling for top dollar? What is this shit.
-Licensed music vs original tracks. A pet peeve of mine, but I'm seeing a certain Hollywood trend stifling gaming creativity. A heavy dependence on pre-existing licensed music over any original compositions. And if there is anything original, it's the most generic background noise imaginable. This can also be applied to the use of celebrities for the sake of celebrity brand value over a lesser known that would otherwise be a better fit.
-General dumbing down gameplay. Be it regenerating health or infinite healing abilities (even Phantom Pain goes this easy route), Dialogue trees being pared down to the complexity of a traffic light, or lack of fail-states it seems the industry is sort of making the survival element or complexity in many games into a triviality. Either to ensure even someone with the most inept motor skills can see the "masterpiece" story unfold or in a desperate attempt to garner the broadest demographic possible (catering to casuals?). It is a very prevalent trend that just keeps growing across multiple genres and franchises. It's not just the older me talking, even the past year has seen a growth to this trend.
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Post by GamerL on Dec 5, 2015 23:45:52 GMT -5
-Licensed music vs original tracks. A pet peeve of mine, but I'm seeing a certain Hollywood trend stifling gaming creativity. A heavy dependence on pre-existing licensed music over any original compositions. And if there is anything original, it's the most generic background noise imaginable. This can also be applied to the use of celebrities for the sake of celebrity brand value over a lesser known that would otherwise be a better fit. I've noticed this myself, that the quality of original music for video games has gone way down, just the other day I was listening to the Mass Effect soundtrack when I realized that you don't hear music quite like that anymore, with distinct "themes" for each area of the game and that was not the case as recently as 2007. I think part of is the fact that games used to have rely on music a lot for their atmosphere due to graphics limitations, think back to Jesper Kyd's work on the Hitman games and how much that added to the experience, but today they rely on graphics for the atmosphere.
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Post by moran on Dec 6, 2015 0:43:44 GMT -5
IIRC, Halo wasn't the first FPS with some form of recharging health or shield, it was just the first to popularize or codify it. Even then, it was still split between a shield and a regular health bar, as you noted. Halo 2 was the first with a unified, recharging health system, unless I'm forgetting an obscure FPS that came before, which is likely. Out of curiosity, who was? Halo was my first exposure to a recharging shield/health bar. It was completely new to me at the time.
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Post by Snarboo on Dec 6, 2015 0:47:56 GMT -5
If this article is to be believed, one of the earliest games with regenerating health was Punch-Out, and the first FPS with regenerating health was Faceball 2000. I know Deus Ex had it as an aug you could find later in the game. Edit:I believe a few traditional RPGs and roguelikes had health regeneration, too? The exact history of this mechanic seems pretty vague. Edit 2:Another article cites Hydlide and Ys as being the earliest, and also mentions Faceball 2000. I wonder if this topic is worthy of its own thread?
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Post by Maciej Miszczyk on Dec 6, 2015 4:36:13 GMT -5
roguelikes did have regenerating health, starting with Rogue - but they also had a hunger mechanic as a countermeasure so that you couldn't just camp somewhere until you're at full health
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Post by mrnash on Dec 6, 2015 6:30:44 GMT -5
My favorite publishers growing up announcing something new in a series I like only for it to turn out to be a half-baked mobile game or pachinko machine. That's one trend I'd like to see go away. T_T Yeah, a lot of people probably have no idea how disappointing it was to hear Electronic Arts announce some years back "We're reviving the Ultima series - stay tuned!", see the trademark filings, and ultimately wind up getting...Ultima, the Facebook game. Yup, that one really sucked. Another, more recent, heart breaker for me was Breath of Fire turning into a mobile game. Can through the SaGa series in there as well.
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Post by Magma MK-II on Dec 6, 2015 12:41:16 GMT -5
Yeah, a lot of people probably have no idea how disappointing it was to hear Electronic Arts announce some years back "We're reviving the Ultima series - stay tuned!", see the trademark filings, and ultimately wind up getting...Ultima, the Facebook game. Yup, that one really sucked. Another, more recent, heart breaker for me was Breath of Fire turning into a mobile game. Can through the SaGa series in there as well. AT least SaGa is getting a new game that isn't mobile/browser dreck.
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Post by mrnash on Dec 6, 2015 15:58:31 GMT -5
Yup, that one really sucked. Another, more recent, heart breaker for me was Breath of Fire turning into a mobile game. Can through the SaGa series in there as well. AT least SaGa is getting a new game that isn't mobile/browser dreck. Yup. Quite pleased about that. So long as it doesn't turn out like Unlimited. Wasn't a fan of that one. =S
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Post by qishmish on Dec 6, 2015 16:19:37 GMT -5
Unlimited has awesome music, though. Wonderful mix of electronica and symphony.
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Post by mrnash on Dec 7, 2015 5:46:30 GMT -5
Unlimited has awesome music, though. Wonderful mix of electronica and symphony. I will give it that. I'm quite partial to the electronic parts of the soundtrack. =)
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