Too much polish on games?

[jowo96]

In earlier games there were a series of bugs and oversights that were not game breaking.
The first example that comes to my mind is the GTA 3D series, specifically the jump from the GTA 3 series to GTA 4, now GTA 4 is a good game, its use of euphoria (the animation engine) makes for awesome reactions by the npcs but is this this polished look worth the sacrifices in gameplay?

In GTA san andreas you could jump on the top of a car and shoot it and then with some skill you could go car surfing which was really quite fun and ludicrous in GTA 4 if you jump on a car and shoot it you just fall straight off, which isnt quite as fun, is there any examples that you can think of where games have taken part of the fun away in games in the name of progress?

EDIT: I realise that I haven't explained the question very well, the sum of the question is do you think that designers are spoiling games by firstly doing too much to influence where the player can go and what they can do and are designers sparkly new toys taking away anything from gaming experience?

 

[Cherry Cola]

Look, bugs are unreliable things that can make your experience worse. I can get that a sequel taking away a fun game-element is something to complain about, but the lesser amount of bugs in a game, the better

 

[SamFancyPants252]

There are too many Polish in England, in my opinion Polish makes the games more realistic, which in the end is what they want.

 

[CroMagnon]

Well, making games more realistic is good, but you need a ballance. GTA SA was possibly the best balance, i think. You coud do most of the things you wanted to do, no matter how unrealistic.

I havent placed GTA 4 though, so i dont know.

 

[Loves2spooge]

Say what you will, they're bloody good builders...

 

[Saul B]

Bugs are generally bad, so its a good thing that devs are doing more to iron out the creases in games.

 

[aPod]

I think GTA4 was really trying to be a different game than San andreas...

too much polish? I dont want to sound rude... but really? You would rather games came out with less quality?

I think you're mistaking "Polish" with "Realism."

 

[TheNamlessGuy]

DELETED

 

[More Fun To Compute]

One man's bug can be another man's emergent gameplay. I think that a lot of times where games become more balanced for certain experiences or realistic they lose whatever it is about them that made them enjoyable in the first place. Yeah, I think that games can be over engineered and over produced. I don't need to look for examples as the shelves of game stores are stuffed with games like these and it is more fun to find counter examples.

 

[FactualSquirrel]

Polish =/= realism. To cite an example (it's the only one I can think of): halo 3. Noone could call that realistic, but it's polished.

 

[Private Custard]

Oblivion definately lost a lot of the fun due to the havok physics engine. I did this in Morrowind

Spoiler

To have a property that was totally customisable was a huge part of the games immersion. To feel like you're actually returning home after sometimes days of exploring was what really cemented the game in my heart.

The addition of a psychotic physics engine in Oblivion was a huge problem for me. When you can make items explode in all different directions merely by walking past them, it makes decorating your home and putting your mark on it almost impossible.

Sure the physics were fun out in the wild, rolling dead animals down mountains never got boring. But the cost in immersion (or lack of) was too much.

I thought about it for ages and have come up with a great solution, but as has been proven time and time again, our ideas and opinions don't really matter.

 

[rabidmidget]

Must...not...make...WW2 joke

 

[oppp7]

I don't think bugs should be in games but I don't see a reason for graphics to be better than what they were in Half-Life 2.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

There are too many Polish in England, in my opinion.

Say what you will, they're bloody good builders...

Doubly ninjad on the pun! Although I was going to say there's not enough Polish speaking characters in games.