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Video Games losing the Element of Surprise

STRYKIE

Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
Well the Toasty Boost remained a secret in MK9 for a year or longer. But with internet its far easier to access information, so hiding things becomes a little harder.
See I wonder if anyone would've figured out how to trigger the secret Smoke battle without a tip-off.

And I'm still not convinced that the "Motaro Transformation" scribe in MK9 was just a nostalgic gag, every other Kombat Kode in that category has had some truth to it.
 

STRYKIE

Are ya' ready for MK11 kids?!
This will ALWAYS be a world of sequels.
I would argue that the 6th generation wave of consoles (PS2, Gamecube, original Xbox, Dreamcast sort of) was pretty sequel heavy if this is supposed to be a dig at the lack of new IPs/originality.
 
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Johnny San

Shazzy's Biggest Fan
Naw dude. Games are the best they've ever been right now.
I strongly disagree.
I believe the "HD Gaming" fad along with "The Cinematic Experience" have made games significantly worse by sacrificing what makes games fun: gameplay and exploration. And I'm not Grandpa Nostalgia. I still can't legally drink.

But that's a discussion for another thread.
 

KIllaByte

PSN: playakid700. Local name: BFGC MonkeyBizness
I strongly disagree.
I believe the "HD Gaming" fad along with "The Cinematic Experience" have made games significantly worse by sacrificing what makes games fun: gameplay and exploration. And I'm not Grandpa Nostalgia. I still can't legally drink.

But that's a discussion for another thread.
HD gaming is not a fad.
It allows things to simply be better han they were before, and allows for entirely new modes of play to be created.
Gameplay and exploration are the defining elements of many of hte HD games I listed in a previous post.
Cinematic experience is popular now, because its new now, because it was impossible in all previous generations, due to actual hardware and graphics limitations. There's games about lighting and shadow engines now, that require the near perfect detail that couldn't be done before. Games about reading faces, coloring worlds..
 
Great post.

I have to agree with the dude saying that games are on their best moment right now.
I'm almost 30 y.o and a casual gamer, but I'm getting hardcore when it's about MK. I really can feel the nostalgia, but when i truly compare the master system and gameboy days with today's games like mk9, GTA 5, MGS 5 etc, i'm really happy to see what much of better experience the young kids enjoy these days. Games are deeper, require more thinking and sharpen minds. Also can be extremely educational…Finally, kids don't waste their money on shit like we did back then.

To get back on topic, yes, the access to all intel minimizes the hype now. Everything is known from day 1, instructional videos and walkthroughs flood on youtube, and indeed is nearly impossible for myths to be created, spread out and last for a good amount of time.

Like MK… Can we have an Ermac/Lady in red( Skarlet)/ Red Robin/Terrafaux/ Hornbuckle these days? No. The classic childish WTF backstories like "Scorpion and Subzero are brothers" ( The 90's were all about everyone being a brother to anyone in pop culture) Of course no. Indeed the mystery died off.
 

CrimsonShadow

Administrator and Community Engineer
Administrator
I strongly disagree.
I believe the "HD Gaming" fad along with "The Cinematic Experience" have made games significantly worse by sacrificing what makes games fun: gameplay and exploration. And I'm not Grandpa Nostalgia. I still can't legally drink.

But that's a discussion for another thread.
I think this is on the rebound right now. While there will always be the AAA "cinematic 5-hour titles", there's a definite bump right now in other types of gameplay.. Sandbox games, open-world stuff, etc.

From GTAIV and V to stuff like Star Citizen (which is being developed for pure gameplay first) to other indie projects that are breaking into major-league status due to Kickstarter funding, I think the actual art of game development is going through a renaissance now, and it'll have lasting effects.

It's just that, the development process itself is so different these days, that you really have to try hard to preserve the surprises and discoveries for yourself.
 

TheSpore

Nurgle Chaos God of Death and Disease
The answer is always Dark Souls

and indie games
Yep the Souls games were literally the first time in years when I was surprised and never saw most of what gonna happen coming. When it comes to buying a new game today you have ignore the internet for the most part and forget and try not to spoil it yourself. WHen MK9 was coming I watched a trailer and maybe one match before its release just to see how it was coming along. I refused to watch any finishers or anything at all until I experienced it, the only thing I care about with MK10 coming is will Mileena be in the game other than that I don't wanna know a damn thing about it. WIth most games I read a review or two to see how I may like it and mostly I skip over the details and just pay attention to how they scored the game and if the reviewer liked it or not. I don't watch playthroughs until I finish the game myself nor do I even watch or read the reviewsuntil after I played the game. This is why I have been enjoying Kill Zone SF and 2nd Son, I didn't read any reviews nor did I watch anything on them, therfore I waited to see how I would enjoy the game. You have to have resolve now to be surprised, everyone is spoiling the new Godzilla movie and the new X-Men has revealed so much I nearly feel like I could just watch the film without seeing it, but I just don't pay attention to those things until I see or play it myself.
 

Gesture Required Ahead

Get on that hook
Well that's only if you look at big games, big franchises made by big studios supported by big companies.

Indie games and lesser known studios also make great games too, you know.
 

trufenix

bye felicia
Don't let the 10 super nostalgic games you define your gaming life by blind you to just how much rubbish there has always been. Nothings actually changed there's just more money involved.
 

skahwt

Noob
I strongly disagree.
I believe the "HD Gaming" fad along with "The Cinematic Experience" have made games significantly worse by sacrificing what makes games fun: gameplay and exploration. And I'm not Grandpa Nostalgia. I still can't legally drink.

But that's a discussion for another thread.
I agree. I hate how cinematic games have become, I just want to play. With the latest Tomb Raider I played for an hour before I got 5 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay. I liked how the first two Dead Spaces were designed. There was a story it just happened as you were playing with very few cutscenes or qt events to break up the gameplay. When you did get a cutscene it felt like a treat.
 
The indie boom that started in 2007 is still going extremely strong.

Most complaints about games today are just the people not looking hard enough.

Of course if you only play CoD and big name yearly titles you are going to want to get all nostalgic.

But if you take indies into account, games are easily the best they've ever been.
 

fr stack

Noob's saibot or noob saibot's?
This. I feel the exact same way.

When I was a kid I remember tearing up when I beat pokemon sapphire. then I found out there were end game quests. It took me months to complete.

Same w the old final fantasy games, i used to think they never ended. I still have yet to beat 8 or 9 all the way.

I think developers spend too much making games as beautiful as they can w a crazy pyhsics engine that it takes away from the long term playability. even the main story on skyrim felt short af. I wish we could get these ignorantly long titles back :( i miss the old Final Fantasy games. I think 10 and 12 were awesome but not 10-2 and 13+ sucked assssss.
to be fair to skyrim that game is huge if you do it right
 

TheSpore

Nurgle Chaos God of Death and Disease
Well that's only if you look at big games, big franchises made by big studios supported by big companies.

Indie games and lesser known studios also make great games too, you know.
I always make an exception to finding information about indie games, Steam tends to get loads of crap through there system and typically the indie games released on the consoles aren't too bad and typically there is a demo of it on the consoles, but from what I've seen thus far Steam has a huge quality control problem. I have played some good indie titles and quite enjoy many of them, those games its really can be a big hit or miss.
 

vegeta

Saiyan Prince
Realized I'm old when there was a 12 year old kid running around the shopping mall screaming Black Ops Black Ops Black Ops. I wanted to smack the parents for letting a 12 year old play COD

*Edit
Then I remembered that it's usually 12 year olds on the microphones of said game. So no surprises there.
I was younger than that when MK1 came out and I played it and the rest of the series since then, back when it was not commonplace to see that much violence in a game and when my parents were essentially skeptical of letting me play it due to that fact and the huge controversy/uproar surrounding the series back then. COD and 12 year olds playing it I'm completely desensitized to.
 

Juggs

Lose without excuses
Lead Moderator
Premium Supporter
The answer is always Dark Souls

and indie games
I agree. I hate how cinematic games have become, I just want to play. With the latest Tomb Raider I played for an hour before I got 5 minutes of uninterrupted gameplay. I liked how the first two Dead Spaces were designed. There was a story it just happened as you were playing with very few cutscenes or qt events to break up the gameplay. When you did get a cutscene it felt like a treat.
See LEGENDS post.

A lot of the issues people are expressing in this thread can be remedied by simply playing Dark Souls.
 

TheSpore

Nurgle Chaos God of Death and Disease
See LEGENDS post.

A lot of the issues people are expressing in this thread can be remedied by simply playing Dark Souls.
That's true, DS made me actually throw controllers across the room and to this day when I run into a boss in a game that gives me issues the wife just looks at me and says "So, is this one gonna take 2 to 3 weeks like the Gargoyles did".
 

ruff321

Noob
I don't get it. If you still want the element of surprise just stay off the internet. Times have changed and so does technology and back then we didn't use the internet nearly as much as today.
 

TotteryManx

cr. HP Master
I think I'm just getting older. I go in and out of gaming phases at this point. I can go a year without playing a game and then all of a sudden play everyday for months lol. I'm also over putting in a lot of time into a video game. I don't want to rack my brain over puzzle anymore. I just want to have mindless fun at this point, which is why I still play Left 4 Dead on occasion. The only games I'm looking forward to are MK10, and Evolve. I still find myself getting competitive over fighting games, but that's normal lol.