Anyone else disillusioned with gaming now?

There has definitely been a dry spell in gaming, just as in the last year of relatively awful cinema out there.

There is hope, however. This summer looks to be chock-full of great flicks, and this coming year looks to be quite impressive from a gaming standpoint. We have a whole new crop of consoles coming out that will bring unprecedented graphics, sound, and gameplay(hopefully) and the stiff competition will only make each system strive to be more impressive than the next. So as gamers, we win no matter which system we prefer. They will all be amazing and have some great games available for them in no time. Right now, we have the mighty GTA:SA and HL2(along with DM and CS) to keep us busy for a good long while and some amazing PC games on the horizon like Oblivion, AoE3, Star Wars: Empire at War, and probably the highest evolution(pun-intended) of video games, Spore, slated for next year.

Everything in life ebbs and flows and gaming is no different. There will always be great stuff to occupy us until the next big jaw-dropping thing comes around. I mean, you can always go back and play Druid on your C64 or my personal fav, Crackdown, on your Amiga. Good times....
 
jonbob said:
How was Halo 2 repetitive? The chapters were fairly short and none of the sections were repeated.
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It was just the same action over and over again. For Master Chief it was always about 8 grunts and 1 Elite for every single battle. Not to mention going back to another Halo and going to the Library again. It just felt way too samey. It just felt that all of the battles were taken directly from the original game, with the exception of that really cool Battle Tank sequence.
 
It was the battle tank sections that I found to be rather dull in Halo 2. Just one long chore, with little room for improvising.

What I love about Halo/Halo 2 is that on Legendary it does require you to be bloody good. It takes a great deal of skill (far more than any other single player fps around) I'm not talking about taking an age in each room, slowly taking out the elites one by one - but being good enough to charge in and take the battle to them. Once you can finish an entire level on Legendary without dying, running through it with complete confidence, you'll see how (at least in terms of combat) it is streets ahead of titles like Far Cry, HL2 and Doom3 (which are very simple and easy in comparison).

Unloading a weapon on the run, throwing it to the ground as you pick up another and duck behind combat. Leap out, guns blazing, melee a near by Elite in the back, notice a pile of nades on the ground and send another in to cause a massive chain reaction. The only other place you'll find a fps that requires as much practise, skill, and quick thinking, is an online pc fps. No other single player title even begins to compare in this respect.

........... which is why the occasions where level deisgn is repeated don't get boring. Take your favourite MP map (be it De_Dust2, Beach ... whatever) Think how many times you've played it without getting tired. It's the same with Halo.

//end fanboy mode.
 
Warbie said:
//end fanboy mode.
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That pretty much wrecks your whole argument right there.
And my favourite MP map is the Facility from GoldenEye :D Good times using Remote Mines.

Besides not everyone enjoys a game Normal difficultly. So how would they enjoy playing it on an extremely hard difficulty? Besides the main reason the Halo games are hard is because of the controller. On PC, Halo is a breeze on any difficulty.
 
I'm talking about playing on Normal difficulty. I don't see the need to raise or lower the difficulties in games.
 
Sparta said:
TBesides not everyone enjoys a game Normal difficultly. So how would they enjoy playing it on an extremely hard difficulty?
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That's true.

The first time I played Halo was on normal - completed it in a few days and thought it was 'ok'. It was co-op that got me to up the difficulty to make it a challenge for 2 ppl. Only then was it that I started playing it on Legendary in single player (and 2 years of my life vanished it what can only be described as 'Halo addiction')

Compare that to Far Cry - which lasted a week on 'realistic', required next to no thought or practise and little skill. Don't start me on HL2 (which is excellent in every way except combat)
 
Warbie said:
Compare that to Far Cry - which lasted a week on 'realistic', required next to no thought or practise and little skill. Don't start me on HL2 (which is excellent in every way except combat)
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Which is only your opinion and not true, because if the combat were actually bad then the game wouldn't receive nearly as much praise as it did/does.

And Far Cry on Realistic is just as hard as Halo on Legendary on the Xbox. Mainly (as i mentioned earlier) because of the controller on the Xbox and also because Far Cry's A.I has the ability to hear and spot you a mile away. The only reason Halo is so hard on Legendary in the first place is the because the A.I can kill you in 3 shots from a plasma rifle, which is fired at a much higher rate then on the normal difficulty. If you were to do the same adjustments to Half-Life 2 the game would be just as hard because you get killed in a few shots.

What you're saying is Halo is awesome because you had the time to spend practicing your skills on Legendary. Its like me saying Ninja Gaiden is the easiest game ever after you've figured out the combo's. This kind of thing is only that of the hardcore fans (I'm a hardcore fan of Ninja Gaiden, and you're a hardcore fan of Halo) and not the regular player who will simply choose not to play the game if they don't like it on normal the first time.

I still think that if you play Halo 1 and 2 as well as games like Far Cry, Half-Life 2 etc on Normal, you'll find that Far Cry and Half-Life 2 are much more challenging, fun and diverse to the average player then Halo is.
 
Don't start me on HL2 (which is excellent in every way except combat)
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That's like saying "Half Life 2 had excellent acting, brilliant backgrounds and amazing scenery, but the combat - which is basically 90% of the game - sucks". Though my personal favourite challenging game is Ground Control 2, when you gather a mate, you can spend hours co-oping against six other players, with city cover, bridge assaults, back attacks and more coming into it - especially if the other players are excellent.
 
Sparta said:
And Far Cry on Realistic is just as hard as Halo on Legendary on the Xbox. Mainly (as i mentioned earlier) because of the controller on the Xbox and also because Far Cry's A.I has the ability to hear and spot you a mile away. The only reason Halo is so hard on Legendary in the first place is the because the A.I can kill you in 3 shots from a plasma rifle, which is fired at a much higher rate then on the normal difficulty. If you were to do the same adjustments to Half-Life 2 the game would be just as hard because you get killed in a few shots.
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I disagree. It's not just about a game being difficult, it's just as important for it to be rewarding and satisfying too. If they made HL2 harder in the same way I very much doubt the result would be anything but frustrating.

There are many games that are tough, the trick is to get the balance so that skill and practise are rewarded, and not hindsight and the need to use quick save every 2 mins.

I still also feel that the comabt in Halo is so much deeper and more involved than in a title like Far Cry. Each time I play it something new and exciting happens. You're right, it is possible to die in 3 shots. But you never die because the game is cheap or unfair (which is the case in so many other titles) On the other hand, going through HL2 and FC left me with a sense of deja vu - every encounter was very similar, with little/no room to experiment.



Sparta said:
What you're saying is Halo is awesome because you had the time to spend practicing your skills on Legendary. Its like me saying Ninja Gaiden is the easiest game ever after you've figured out the combo's. This kind of thing is only that of the hardcore fans (I'm a hardcore fan of Ninja Gaiden, and you're a hardcore fan of Halo) and not the regular player who will simply choose not to play the game if they don't like it on normal the first time.
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True :) One thing these two games have in common, though, is that time put in really reaps rewards. That alone says alot about a game. Take Doom 3 - the more you play it the more it becomes apparent how shallow it really is. There's no real substace, nothing to learn or try and improve upon. Then you have Ninja Gaiden - which, on just a few visits, can feel like a highly polished but generic 3rd person beat em up. Put in a little effort and you realise that isn't the case. It's the same with Viewtiful Joe.

Every great game has a depth of some kind, and most often you don't see it imediately. It just takes a little longer to find it in some games, in many others it doesn't exist in the first place.

(which is what is great about Halo and Ninja Gaiden ... and Civ, and StarCraft, and Golden Eye etc etc. The depth is there, there's enough solid gameplay to keep you entertained for months/years)


Neo_Kuja said:
That's like saying "Half Life 2 had excellent acting, brilliant backgrounds and amazing scenery, but the combat - which is basically 90% of the game - sucks".
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Pretty much. It wasn't terrible, but didn't keep me that engaged for long.

I don't think the combat was '90% of the game' either. What makes HL2 great is the atmosphere - just being there is an amazing experience (especially in the first two chapters) But it is easy, and the fighting is as generic as it comes. (take away the shotgun and manipulator and you're left with a very lackluster and weak feeling arsenal too)
 
I never bothered with the manipulator myself, it got boring really quickly. As for Halo combat though, I've not played a game since that has pulled the melee attack off better: there's nothing more satisfying than the sound you get from caving a grunts head in or that noise that jackels make when their shields go.
 
Posted by Warbie: "What makes HL2 great is the atmosphere - just being there is an amazing experience"

HL2 does have a seriously great atmosphere, but I am also very partial to Far Cry's tropical setting. Say what you will about the game itself and the AI and combat and voice-acting, etc, but in the end, I LOVE immersing myself in the tropical setting, especially when I can design my own paradise with the sdk. A virtual vacation! I often find myself just walking/driving/boating around the island(s) and taking in the sights and sounds.
 
I find most games are pointless. Just tried and true formulas that get bland after 2 or so games, and the only difference is the graphics engine capabilities and a different shallow storyline.

The only games I got soon after release in 04/05 were HL2 and Chaos Theory. Granted, HL2 was great, SP was well written, on the other hand, though I love Splinter Cell, I sorta regret buying it quite early from release seeing as UbiSoft only has 3 useless patches for it. SP was fun, I'm hoping Ubi gets off it's ass to release patches that fix real things, so maybe I can play co-op during the summer.

Seeing as that is so, I'm more accustomed to buying games after their shelf life is close to expiry or are on sale. I don't buy games over 30$ unless it's a well made game like RPGs (Bioware, etc), or I truly think the game will actually be good (HL2, in that case).

I've bought Call of Duty, UT2k4, WarCraft III (and Frozen Throne) long after their "OMG" hype is gone. Brings the price down. I definitely can wait. I still haven't even played Max Payne 2 yet. I saw it for 10$ CAD though.
 
Warbie said:
I still also feel that the comabt in Halo is so much deeper and more involved than in a title like Far Cry. Each time I play it something new and exciting happens. You're right, it is possible to die in 3 shots. But you never die because the game is cheap or unfair (which is the case in so many other titles) On the other hand, going through HL2 and FC left me with a sense of deja vu - every encounter was very similar, with little/no room to experiment.
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If you replace everything you said about Halo with Half-Life 2 you have pretty much nailed my feelings about the Halo series :p

And the melee Chronicles of Riddick is easily way cooler then the melee combat in Halo 1 and 2
 
The gunfights in CoR were the weakest aspect of the game IMO. Hand to hand, stealth, and shoving a shiv into some dude's neck felt far more polished, effective, and rewarding.
 
Sparta said:
And the melee Chronicles of Riddick is easily way cooler then the melee combat in Halo 1 and 2
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No way :) (CoR was cool though)

As for the combat in HL2 - it couldn't really be any simpler, and hasn't moved on much since the original Doom. There's no real tactical choice of weapons, or need to cope with any situation in a new way. Basically, I get bored fighting in HL2 (there's just nothing which taxes your brain), where as in Halo (on Legendary) my mind is racing too fast for it to ever become dull.
 
Funny, because I thought HL2 had more variety in its combat than Halo or Halo 2 ever had, regardless of difficulty setting.

Different strokes for different folks. Meh.
 
hl2: variety = guns + gravity gun and hand-to-hand combat wasn't much fun.
halo2: variety = guns + fun melee.
 
depends what you mean by variety, I felt that some of the guns in Halo rewarded skill more than the ones in HL2, which had weapons that just seemed dull. Each to his own I suppose.
 
Agreed, it doesn't really matter which guns you use in HL2 - it's simple enough to take down the enemy with any of them. It's just point and click.
 
Halo 2 bored me to no end ...I think it was just too polished if that's at all possible ...I think while ultimately well executed it just lacked any innovation in terms of overall experience ..while bits and pieces were extremely well crafted it just didnt offer me anything new ..maybe it's just me but linear fps just dont cut it for me anymore (Hl2 was an exception cuz they threw in so many different types of gameplay plus the story was engrossing)

I too have grown a little bored with gaming ..but I just switched the types of games I purchase, I tried different genres: mmorpgs, rpgs, sandbox etc. Boiling point (despite all it's huge problems) is still one of the most enjoyable games I've played this year. I also picked up GTA:SA recently and will pick up BF2 (need a good mp game to tie me over till ET2)
 
Gaming is definitely not doing it for me anymore. I have to be so incredibly bored to even think about booting up my PC. Since I'm not usually bored that means my time spent gaming has plummeted. I was bored to death with the BF2 demo in about 1 hour of playtime. Haven't played it since. I hope I can move my preorder money over to something else I'll get bored of in an hour. I'm still pissed I decided to pre order that game before I played the demo. I bought GTA:SA. I may have played that for a total of about five hours since it's release and probably will take it of the hard drive soon.

I have no idea what game I bought prior to GTA. It was a long time ago though I know that. I just can't stand the thought of sitting inside in front of a computer during the summer. It's sacralige especially when you're forced to sit in front of one for 9 hours at work. Maybe I'll get AOE3 since the weather will start to turn around that time and being outside isn't practical. I'm sure that game will bore me in no time. My video card is about to melt too, and there isn't a chance in hell I'll be buying a new one any time soon.

When we get closer to Spore's release I'll decide on what to do about that one after I've read reviews and hopefully played a demo.
 
Would people quit complaing like this "OMG BF2 has Bugs it's teh crap"

It's called patches people.
 
Kyo, that's just silly. I buy a desk, I don't expect missing drawers, or bent nails. I expect a full product that will work as specified. If it doesn't I expect it replaced immediately. I don't expect to buy a desk, accept the missing drawers and wait until new ones arrive in the mail, because they knew there were missing drawers when they manufactured them.
 
Kyo said:
Would people quit complaing like this "OMG BF2 has Bugs it's teh crap"

It's called patches people.
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And until then my gaming experience is marred considerably.

Not that I was too impressed with BF2 any way.
 
Kangy said:
Kyo, that's just silly. I buy a desk, I don't expect missing drawers, or bent nails. I expect a full product that will work as specified. If it doesn't I expect it replaced immediately. I don't expect to buy a desk, accept the missing drawers and wait until new ones arrive in the mail, because they knew there were missing drawers when they manufactured them.
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hehe I bought a couch 6 months ago that was delivered with the wrong legs ...still waiting for the rights ones to be delivered

hmmm I wonder if they'll deliver it incrementally till I finally get what I was promised :)
 
Kangy said:
Kyo, that's just silly. I buy a desk, I don't expect missing drawers, or bent nails. I expect a full product that will work as specified. If it doesn't I expect it replaced immediately. I don't expect to buy a desk, accept the missing drawers and wait until new ones arrive in the mail, because they knew there were missing drawers when they manufactured them.
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Except you tried out the desk in the store, and knew what was missing and it was such an incredible desk that you just had to get it. And the few missing pieces didn't really affect you at all anyways.
 
Foxtrot said:
Except you tried out the desk in the store, and knew what was missing and it was such an incredible desk that you just had to get it. And the few missing pieces didn't really affect you at all anyways.
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No, the desk in the store was obviously completely different to the one you actually got, because they don't want to show you the full desk because they're trying to rope you into a purchase that gives you the full desk anyway. It seemed like a good desk, but obviously it wasn't the full picture. The few missing pieces are intergral to the game, too.

(fyi, my server browser on BF2 is a buggy piece of crap that crashes a lot)
 
All will hopefully be fixed in due course. There have been many arguments about releasing bug free software. It simply can't be done with the millions of possible computer configurations.
 
Yes, but there should be a standard.

BF2, going from the demo, has enough bugs that are big enough to render the game unenjoyable for a lot of people. Especially alongside the ridiculous load times. Shit, I thought I saw the motherload of load screens when I played BF1942. But now? They actually have a load screen for merely popping up the menu! That's nuts.
 
Absinthe said:
Yes, but there should be a standard.

BF2, going from the demo, has enough bugs that are big enough to render the game unenjoyable for a lot of people. Especially alongside the ridiculous load times. Shit, I thought I saw the motherload of load screens when I played BF1942. But now? They actually have a load screen for merely popping up the menu! That's nuts.
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I don't know what you're talking about. I have an average comp, high standards back in 2003... but the game runs good. And I don't really notice any super gamestopping bugs when I play the full version, at least not yet!
 
BF2 is fun.. though, I find it fun to just pick a game and play it with friends to get a good laugh. Halo 2 is a good LAN game IMO, just wish I could do things like that more. Yes, gaming is getting very boring, we need original stuff, though, I am excited and hyped for B&W2, B&W was godly, I even got it earlier then the game release, the creature system helped me keep on playing it.
 
Raziaar said:
I don't know what you're talking about. I have an average comp, high standards back in 2003... but the game runs good. And I don't really notice any super gamestopping bugs when I play the full version, at least not yet!
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Really? Because I have a decent machine as well. I have to run the game on all the lowest settings, wait two minutes for the demo to start up, wait five minutes to actually enter a game, and ten seconds for the main menu to load up whenever I press the Esc key. This is even after clearing a few 20 GB off my hard-drive and defragging it.

And while I have yet to come across a singular show-stopping bug, I have experienced screwed up collision detection, immense frustration at trying to configure my controls, graphical anomalies, and stutters. It's enough to sour the mood.
 
Absinthe said:
Really? Because I have a decent machine as well. I have to run the game on all the lowest settings, wait two minutes for the demo to start up, wait five minutes to actually enter a game, and ten seconds for the main menu to load up whenever I press the Esc key. This is even after clearing a few 20 GB off my hard-drive and defragging it.

And while I have yet to come across a singular show-stopping bug, I have experienced screwed up collision detection, immense frustration at trying to configure my controls, graphical anomalies, and stutters. It's enough to sour the mood.
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Yeah i just went back and played the game for another hour and my gaming experience was exactly like yours. I turned down settings and the game started to run alot better. But i'm not playing the god-like game that everyone else is love with. All i'm playing is another Battlefield. I'm gonna return it tomorrow and get my money back, or another game.
 
Sparta said:
Yeah i just went back and played the game for another hour and my gaming experience was exactly like yours. I turned down settings and the game started to run alot better. But i'm not playing the god-like game that everyone else is love with. All i'm playing is another Battlefield. I'm gonna return it tomorrow and get my money back, or another game.
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it sucks to hear you guys having problems.
I mean it really does, it irritates me to know that people are missing out on so much fun.. when I say I think it's the best game ever I don't exaggerate, you just haven't had the experience with the game that I have had... squads may seem trivial, and it's something small to mention (oh it just has squads) but you have no idea how personal the game becomes, how much fun it can be when you play well together.

I can't even begin to describe how cool it is, and even if I could you guys wouldn't believe me because you have only had bad experiences with the game thus far.

on a lighter note, just came out of like a 5 hour play session with some European Hl2.netters... man we tore those fools up... so much fun.
 
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