heywood on 5/9/2011 at 22:25
One difference though. DX:HR will never be considered the classic that DX is because it's the 3rd title in the series and doesn't bring anything new to the table. We're in an era defined by franchise games now, and many of the biggest franchises began with classic titles from years ago: Halo, GTA, The Sims, Splinter Cell, Fallout, TES, DX, CoD, MoH, Super Mario, * Shock, HL, Street Fighter, C&C, Doom/Quake, UT, NFS, Tomb Raider - to name a few.
june gloom on 5/9/2011 at 22:44
I think you're sort of wrong there, but it varies on a case by case basis. Keep in mind that people have short memories, especially these days. I guarantee you, 90% of the people who've played and enjoyed Deus Ex Human Revolution have never heard of Deus Ex- the series, not the first game- until recently. They may not even be aware there is an original Deus Ex- I've certainly met my fair share of people who truly honestly believed that Fallout 3 was the first Fallout game. (They promptly got educated, mind. I don't care if you never play Classic Fallout ever, just... what, you think the next game will be Fallout 3-2? Get out.)
Many of the big PC franchises (or hell, even PS1-era franchises like Tomb Raider!) from 10, 15 years ago that are still having new entries, or spiritual sequels- those original entries are all ancient history for most gamers these days, because the pool was much smaller in those days. We have more people who call themselves "gamers" with pride or at least with no shame, but they've only stepped in the last few years. It's okay for them to not know about Obscure VGA Shooter From 1995. It's somewhat less excusable for people who've been in the culture for a long time, who really should know better or at least do their fucking research.
I'm getting off track here- which happens a lot when I'm at work, I'm noticing. My main point is, DXHR is going to be for a lot of people what DX1 was to us. Why? Because the last DX was, what, 2003? A mere 3-4 years after DX1. Okay, granted, that's still a long time, but we were getting previews as early as around 2002. The franchise went dormant for a full 8 years following IW's colossal fuckup. Similar issue with Fallout; Fallout 3 (2008) was the first new Fallout game since the early 2000s, it was the first Fallout to be released on console (aside from Brotherhood of Steel, but honestly that doesn't count- it was very obviously Herve Caen's last gasp at squeezing as much money from the franchise as possible) and it was very heavily hyped. More to the point, it's easier to get into, seeing as it's made for modern consoles and PCs and runs on the Oblivion model, as opposed to the isometic top-down thing that was endemic to cRPGs back in the day. I don't doubt that some people who played FO3 first went back and discovered the classics- that's sort of what happened to me with Thief, though I made a point of playing them in order- but there's just as many people, if not more, who either couldn't get into the older games for whatever reason or just can't be bothered to play them at all, but FO3 will retain fond memories for them. They'll remember leaving Vault 101 the same way we remember finding the Water Chip. It's a generational thing, and that's okay.
[ps] Oh, also, regarding "this should be in GenGaming" - this thread's meant for articles of all stripes, not just gaming ones. I just picked the one I did 'cuz that's the one that inspired me to start this thread. Someone post an article on a different subject and justify my decision!
dexterward on 6/9/2011 at 00:35
Correction: I was stuck in the Polish (un)reality back in the 80-90`s and so got my 1st Spectrum circa 1989. Hence Golden Age (hate this term already) being 90`s for me includes ZX, C64, Amiga and eventually PC. Prior to that spent few years doing things like avoid being mugged in arcades and mentally masturbating to a map of Knight Lore torn out some shitty games mag.
Perhaps it is for the better I missed out on the Fall of the House of Ultimate (sob)
There`s a difference between a whiner and someone who just points out flaws (I can do that and still like the game in question). No fan of the former, nearly drove me mad (and here) on a die hard RPG forum, where trying to reason that Oblivion is not perhaps the Spawn of Satan fell on a wall of "nooo medium arrrrmor hurrr".
As for this decade, sure it`s full of top drawer games (true open worlds my fave) but also some worrying trends like suits trying to run the show, over-streamlining (hi Bioware!) or sequels that are really expansion packs.
Anyway. Looking forward to Dead Island, Skyrim, Dishonored, DE:HR amongst others. I`m not worried about my beloved "dead" genre (turn based RPG) because indies & Japan will take care of that.
tl,dr; whiners, Golden Age & (not so) dead genre (
http://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/988994399-00.jpg) in one image .
UnrelatedComa on 6/9/2011 at 02:10
on the subject of golden ages i was reticent to chime in but i suppose i will before the topic changes to a new article.
its been said, and i agree with this, that the golden age of gaming is the 90s due to the sheer amount of creativity. new levels of gameplay were being created then. remember when SS came out and people were having trouble describing it? or Thief because the S in FPS stood for "shooter" and thats not what thief is? not to mention games working inside the box to change the mold. BLOOD had not only the first flamethrower in a FPS but also a damn voodoo doll.
its because of innovations like that theres no clear genre lines anymore. thats what made the golden age of gaming in my mind. shortly after graphics technology started advancing too fast to keep up with and every game started sacrificing gameplay and storyline to get out the next NEWEST BEST SHINIEST COOLEST LOOKING graphics whore game out and that killed the golden age dead in its tracks.
not saying there will never be a new golden age, or that the 90s golden age wont be renamed the bronze age, but for now thats the era of creativity. a dormant trait in the current age of multiplayer shooters with a 4 hour story tacked on. :erg:
Briareos H on 6/9/2011 at 07:10
I dunno about Golden Age but Golden Axe surely was a long time ago. Still cool though. Love the dragons & scantily clad woman warriors & ending sequence. Raaaarrrrr!
dexterward on 6/9/2011 at 12:17
Yeah, hi UnrelatedC, and I just hope that wherever you`re at is nuclear-proof :/
Golden Ax ahhh...these goddamn gnomes at night! Brawlers, another supposedly "dead" genre that in fact is alive & well. Yakuza, anyone?
Zapman on 6/9/2011 at 16:03
I still compare the look and feel of any new FPS sort of game to the original Quake. We're living in a golden age of gaming right now? Technically perhaps but not creatively. I remember my first reaction to playing a true 3D game after the semi 3D in game like Duke Nukem 3D which had 2D enemies. That's a golden age, an era when fundamentally new things were being done, made and played. These days we're just adding content, the underlying concepts have been the same for a while, to me at least.
Then again I may be old and bitter. Dunno. Everything was better in the past after all.
henke on 6/9/2011 at 17:28
Quote Posted by UnrelatedComa
its because of innovations like that theres no clear genre lines anymore.
No.
The 90's didn't break the first person genre out of the FPS mold. It
created the FPS mold. More specifically Wolfenstein 3D and Doom put a very clear idea in people's heads about what to expect from a first person game, and when something like Thief came along and didn't conform to people's expectations, a lot of people were turned off by that. They didn't see a first person game that was doing something new, they saw a first person shooter that didn't work as it should.
UnrelatedComa on 7/9/2011 at 08:53
Quote Posted by henke
No.
The 90's didn't break the first person genre out of the FPS mold. It
created the FPS mold. More specifically Wolfenstein 3D and Doom put a very clear idea in people's heads about what to expect from a first person game, and when something like Thief came along and didn't conform to people's expectations, a lot of people were turned off by that. They didn't see a first person game that was doing something new, they saw a first person shooter that didn't work as it should.
what a pleasant surprise to have Mr. Hugh Darrow on the forums here.
you sort of shot your statement in the foot after stabbing it in the back in one fell swoop there. the FPS genre was created in the 90s. it also evolved in the 90s. now games dont strictly fall under 3 rigid categories of genres.... you know what dont worry about it.
june gloom on 7/9/2011 at 09:31
Quote Posted by UnrelatedComa
what a pleasant surprise to have Mr. Hugh Darrow on the forums here.
hahaha i like you
