The valuable genre.

[Trivun]

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

So... Halo again, then?

Seriously, Halo does have a great story. One of the best I've seen in the genre for a long time. It's just a shame people can't see that because they look at the series without playing them and think "huh, space marines shooting aliens again...". Not saying you're one of those people, I'm just mentioning it...

Anyway, as far as a new 'golden age' goes, I want to see a return to the awesome RTS games and point-and-click adventures of the late Ninties/early Noughties. At least I have the reminder that hopefully Dreamfall Chapters will be on its way soon, after the release of The Secret World. Come on Funcom, don't let me down...

I decided to bold that. "In the genre." Well FPS' don't really have much competition story-wise. It has a decent story at best. Compared to other FPS games it's a great story, but as far as stories in general go it is mediocre. It's nothing against Halo, I enjoy the game, but I hear enough of the "amazing story" from my friend who loves it. I think one of my issues is that Chief is so infallible. He's basically god in human form.

Hmmm, alright, I'll give you that. You make a fair point, and regarding our opinions of the story we can agree to disagree . However, I do have to take umbrage with one point, that is the one about the Master Chief being 'infallible'. I admit that impression is given in the first game, but with events in the second and third games as other characters come into focus and get more development the Chief ends up becoming more of an observer to their story while dealing with the action side of things as the supersoldier he was raised as from childhood. The third game does hint at his past, and although you'll probably say something along the lines of it being a bad thing to need to see the expanded universe material to flesh out the game character, it is genuinely worth reading at least some of the books from the Halo series. Particularly 'The Fall Of Reach', since that gives the entire backstory of the Master Chief, and shows he's far from perfect, though certainly a very tragic character manipulated his whole life by the military. Plus, I would also argue that the non-Chief games (i.e. Halo Wars, Reach, and ODST) all have pretty good stories that expand the game universe and yet have no sign of the Chief in them. Just a minor comment, but one I felt was orth making anyway .

 

[Total LOLige]

I think there could be a few Skyrim clones on the way. But what I'd like to see is more adventure games like the Uncharted series, with maybe a little more puzzles and platforming as well.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I think Age of the Sandbox comes next. Hell, I reckon we've already been in it at least a couple of years. Pretty much everything that isn't first person (and quite a few of the things that are) is set in an open world with lots of random shit to do these days.

 

[juyunseen]

Is amazing how true that is.

I booted up CSS for some lols tonight, haven't played in years (used to play competitively). Compared to CSS, any recent shooter is an absolute cakewalk. Makes me really look forward to CSGO.

Its really strange to be honest. Recent shooters actually reward a player for losing. Not to turn this into a rant about those damn noobs, but IMO FPS were much better when bad players actually got demolished without being handed XP, killstreaks or other rewards regardless of how bad they were.

I guess thats the reason shooters like COD are so popular though. Ah well, at least we will have at least some games that are difficult in multiplayer, yet very rewarding when one does get good.

It's far from perfectly emulating that old school feel of skill only shooter, but tribes ascend is quite skill focused. Unless you practice you're gonna die, a lot.
Admittedly you get a few Xp points when you die, but it's a trivial amount seeing as how slowly you accrue xp in that game.

 

[pure.Wasted]

It seems that every five years or so, a specific genre becomes the valuable type of game to make. In the late nineties, 3d platformers or PC shooters were the thing. Early 00s? Games trying to be halo. Post COD:MW? MW clones.
Well, it's been five years. What genre do you people think/want to be the next big one?

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

thats really hard to pull off since violence is the most simple answer in the short run.

no matter how complex you would create your story line it would be just you shoting things in the face. and it would end up on the pile of dull games.

Just wanted to say thanks for posting the vid. I checked out the guy's blog and it's not half bad. He loved Bastion, so that immediately puts him in my good book.

For the forseeable future? FPS.

I don't think the word is "valuable." I think the more accurate word is "easy." Platformers were easy to make in the 2D era, that is why there were so many. It was a formula that was both easy to make and was safe and familiar to the masses. Anyone could pick one up and know exactly what sort of game they were dealing with.

And nowadays the same goes for FPS's. With engines like Unreal all preloaded and ready to make a FPS they are easy to make, and they know people are familiar with FPS's and buy them.

^nailed it. They're just easy to mass produce. As long as you're a AAA studio at the head of the pack, you're taking precisely zero risks by throwing even more money at the graphics and physics than anyone has before. Like the Errant Signal guy says, the most highly valued trait in our video games is how polished they are.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I decided to bold that. "In the genre." Well FPS' don't really have much competition story-wise. It has a decent story at best. Compared to other FPS games it's a great story, but as far as stories in general go it is mediocre. It's nothing against Halo, I enjoy the game, but I hear enough of the "amazing story" from my friend who loves it. I think one of my issues is that Chief is so infallible. He's basically god in human form.

Hmmm, alright, I'll give you that. You make a fair point, and regarding our opinions of the story we can agree to disagree . However, I do have to take umbrage with one point, that is the one about the Master Chief being 'infallible'. I admit that impression is given in the first game, but with events in the second and third games as other characters come into focus and get more development the Chief ends up becoming more of an observer to their story while dealing with the action side of things as the supersoldier he was raised as from childhood. The third game does hint at his past, and although you'll probably say something along the lines of it being a bad thing to need to see the expanded universe material to flesh out the game character, it is genuinely worth reading at least some of the books from the Halo series. Particularly 'The Fall Of Reach', since that gives the entire backstory of the Master Chief, and shows he's far from perfect, though certainly a very tragic character manipulated his whole life by the military. Plus, I would also argue that the non-Chief games (i.e. Halo Wars, Reach, and ODST) all have pretty good stories that expand the game universe and yet have no sign of the Chief in them. Just a minor comment, but one I felt was orth making anyway .

Personally, I think most of the reason Halo's story is considered good is due to 2 factors.
Firstly, The Halo universe is grounded in interesting sci-fi lore (Starship Troopers & ringworld type stuff). Unlike too many shooters these days, Halo has a colorful and relatively fresh universe with a cast of diverse, if a little one-dimensional, characters.
Secondly, Halo has a sizeable chuck of it's time devoted to character interaction and development and most importantly, has a non-silent protagonist who is not just a vessel to carry weapons. We learn about MC through his interactions with Cortana, which makes him an actual character and protagonist, unlike so many shooter heroes these days (CoD, I'm looking at you. Black Ops' speaking protagonist was one of the best things that happened to the series.)

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

It's WRPGs, I don't want it to be but it is. Mass Effect and Skyrim has proven the genre popular enough to be made often and now it's gonna get ridiculous and our market will be oversaturated with cheap, cheesy LOTR rip offs.

Joys!

 

[NightHawk21]

While not exactly a genre, I think the next big thing we'll see a massive surgance of is smaller games in the form of indie and mobile games. The tools to actually make really steller indie games are out there right now, and the distribution model is there. As for phones, well its getting rarer and rarer to find someone without a phone.

 

[MammothBlade]

It seems that every five years or so, a specific genre becomes the valuable type of game to make. In the late nineties, 3d platformers or PC shooters were the thing. Early 00s? Games trying to be halo. Post COD:MW? MW clones.
Well, it's been five years. What genre do you people think/want to be the next big one?

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

I don't think that's quite right. Lest we forget the influence of Grand Theft Auto too. Crime Sandbox Adventure, whatever you want to call it, is still quite big. I don't know what to think after GTA IV was such a disappointment, but it broke all sales figures at the time. Or are GTA clones mid-00s fayre?

Very hard to tell without making a bunch of bollocks assumptions. From the variety of games today, you simply can't say that it's the age of military shooters. I'd say it's more about trends. There's a trend towards customisation and RPG elements. CoD's dominance is specific to the FPS genre. To be fair, it's not without good reason that it became so successful. Multiplayer customisation was central to its popularity in a genre which was already popular. There are other reasons for its success as well, especially the addictive instant gratification provided by killstreaks and autoaim. There has never been a CoD clone which has been nearly as successful as Call of Duty. It's only that valuable to Activision, and maybe EA - Medal of Honour 2010 was an obvious CoD copycat.

I think The Witcher, Deus Ex: HR, and Dragon Effect should set the trend for the next generation. They give the player a lot of freedom, customisation, and choices which extend to the direction of the storyline. I used to love choose your own adventure-style books. That's what games should try to be, except massively augmented.

 

[juyunseen]

Is amazing how true that is.

I booted up CSS for some lols tonight, haven't played in years (used to play competitively). Compared to CSS, any recent shooter is an absolute cakewalk. Makes me really look forward to CSGO.

Its really strange to be honest. Recent shooters actually reward a player for losing. Not to turn this into a rant about those damn noobs, but IMO FPS were much better when bad players actually got demolished without being handed XP, killstreaks or other rewards regardless of how bad they were.

I guess thats the reason shooters like COD are so popular though. Ah well, at least we will have at least some games that are difficult in multiplayer, yet very rewarding when one does get good.

It's far from perfectly emulating that old school feel of skill only shooter, but tribes ascend is quite skill focused. Unless you practice you're gonna die, a lot.
Admittedly you get a few Xp points when you die, but it's a trivial amount seeing as how slowly you accrue xp in that game.

Well, even in Tribes: Ascend theres this "noob" rewarding. Take a look at the technician. Dont get me wrong, it has its place, but it takes zero skill to play. Absolutely fucking zero. And thats while near enough every other weapon and class takes practice to master.

So you end up with people who suck at the game but dont feel the need to get better, because hey, why do that when you can just spam turrets in a gen room without helping the team? The turrets seem to annoy a lot of people but I dont really mind them (too easy to destroy with anything but a light class, and if you are playing a light class, why the fuck are you anywhere near a turret for longer than 2 seconds?). Its more the attitude it breeds that harms the game in the long run.

But yeah, compared to other games Ascend has a really high skill cap and a really low skill floor, which is why I love it.

True, but remember that you need to unlock technician.
And I play pathfinder, but turrets are still a breeze. It's the base turrets that piss me off

 

[Netrigan]

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

So... Halo again, then?

Seriously, Halo does have a great story. One of the best I've seen in the genre for a long time. It's just a shame people can't see that because they look at the series without playing them and think "huh, space marines shooting aliens again...". Not saying you're one of those people, I'm just mentioning it...

If we're talking just the games, then the story is pretty much space marines shooting aliens. Seriously, it's not that deep. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; it's a shooter, it doesn't need an overly complicated plot to effectively get the job done and simpler is usually better when it comes to action plots.

But I don't think we'll be seeing Halo (or any other existing property) becoming the next big thing. It's kind of tough to keep a franchise alive for very long, especially if it's built upon fighting the same enemies every time. No matter how cool the Empire is, sooner or later you have to put them down... and then what?

 

[Trivun]

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

So... Halo again, then?

Seriously, Halo does have a great story. One of the best I've seen in the genre for a long time. It's just a shame people can't see that because they look at the series without playing them and think "huh, space marines shooting aliens again...". Not saying you're one of those people, I'm just mentioning it...

If we're talking just the games, then the story is pretty much space marines shooting aliens. Seriously, it's not that deep. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; it's a shooter, it doesn't need an overly complicated plot to effectively get the job done and simpler is usually better when it comes to action plots.

But I don't think we'll be seeing Halo (or any other existing property) becoming the next big thing. It's kind of tough to keep a franchise alive for very long, especially if it's built upon fighting the same enemies every time. No matter how cool the Empire is, sooner or later you have to put them down... and then what?

As before, good points made and I defer to your comment. But there is, as there was for the last person to quote me, one issue I do have. In this case, the whole 'repeat enemies' thing. True, every game has had you fight the Covenant and the Flood over and over again. But then, Halo 2 did shake things up a little by introducing a Covenant civil war, and it was interesting to be able to play as a Covenant soldier rather than a Spartan (something I wish tey'd kept for the main story rather than just co-op in Halo 3). And the new trilogy, currently known so far as the 'Reclaimer' trilogy, is hinting that there'll be worse enemies to fight, particularly Forerunners and possibly Precursors too (at least, according to the books which are being released to build up to the new games). Again, a case of having to read the lore to understand the games, but still, another point I feel worth making .

 

[Netrigan]

I personally think its time for a golden age of story based shooters, or maybe a resurgence of platformers.

So... Halo again, then?

Seriously, Halo does have a great story. One of the best I've seen in the genre for a long time. It's just a shame people can't see that because they look at the series without playing them and think "huh, space marines shooting aliens again...". Not saying you're one of those people, I'm just mentioning it...

If we're talking just the games, then the story is pretty much space marines shooting aliens. Seriously, it's not that deep. I'm not saying this is a bad thing; it's a shooter, it doesn't need an overly complicated plot to effectively get the job done and simpler is usually better when it comes to action plots.

But I don't think we'll be seeing Halo (or any other existing property) becoming the next big thing. It's kind of tough to keep a franchise alive for very long, especially if it's built upon fighting the same enemies every time. No matter how cool the Empire is, sooner or later you have to put them down... and then what?

As before, good points made and I defer to your comment. But there is, as there was for the last person to quote me, one issue I do have. In this case, the whole 'repeat enemies' thing. True, every game has had you fight the Covenant and the Flood over and over again. But then, Halo 2 did shake things up a little by introducing a Covenant civil war, and it was interesting to be able to play as a Covenant soldier rather than a Spartan (something I wish tey'd kept for the main story rather than just co-op in Halo 3). And the new trilogy, currently known so far as the 'Reclaimer' trilogy, is hinting that there'll be worse enemies to fight, particularly Forerunners and possibly Precursors too (at least, according to the books which are being released to build up to the new games). Again, a case of having to read the lore to understand the games, but still, another point I feel worth making .

For Halo (or any other firmly established property) to break out again would, I think, require them to make the game something pretty different to reach beyond their current fanbase. Call Of Duty went from being a fairly popular WWII shooter to THE shooter by going the Modern Warfare route, so there's a precedent. But that was a fairly minor shift that opened up story possibilities. It's still very much Call Of Duty under the hood.

Halo's success would probably prevent them from trying to change things up too much. The Halo franchise needs to release games that are very recognizably Halo and a large part of that is fighting the Covenant. This is what fans want, said fans are willing to buy millions of copies of the Halo formula, so I don't see anyone shaking up the formula too much because it's risky. A new Halo game is going to be 75% established formula, 25% let's see if the fans like this. Same deal with Assassin's Creed or any other popular franchise. I doubt anyone will be knocking the Elites off the top of the Halo enemy hierarchy any time soon.