The Video Game Critic

So I just posted my Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag review, and I'm wondering if decades of playing video games has left me hopelessly jaded.

Here's a game with an awesome subject matter, gorgeous graphics, and a whole world to explore.  You'd think I'd be stoked but I was bored out of my freaking mind.

I think the graphics bar has been set so high, it's almost become impossible to impress modern day gamers.  Sandbox games in particular are not nearly exciting as they once were.

And yet I'll play an Intellivision home brew and be like "wow, that looks pretty awesome".

It's because that homebrew has 4x the amount of imagination and creativity.

I've never seen what was so good about Assassin's Creed anyway, seems like pretty typical open world fare to me.

I know where your coming from I've been giving my Sinclair Spectrum and Sega 32x a lot of attention recently and not really touched my PS4.

It's strange I can't find anything bad to say about anything I've played on PS4 but games seem to be more like interactive journeys these days. I don't know if it's just because I grew up in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras and that is the reason I spend most time with those but they give me more 'wow' moments than current games.

Or maybe it's just that this generation hasn't done anything the previous generation couldn't do yet ? Sure it's bigger, better and shinier but not new and that goes for all 3 of them. It just doesn't feel like a new generation, more of an evolution or sequel to the last generation.

Or maybe we are just grumpy old gits set in our ways.

They 'AAA' market is burning out their franchises, imho. The pres of Ubisoft said that is their strategy - 3 or 4 big AAA franchises releasing  every year - this will backfire eventually :

• 4.1 Assassin's Creed - 2007
  
• 4.2 Assassin's Creed II
• 4.3 Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• 4.4 Assassin's Creed: Revelations
• 4.5 Assassin's Creed III
• 4.6 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
• 4.7 Assassin's Creed Unity - 2014
  

It does not help that the purpose of the series is to tell a very low brow scifi- fantasy 'historical'  epic about murdering scores of people for the sake of advancing freedom. Very light weight, lazy story telling. Starring that generic fanboy agitator :  Super Anti-Hero.

I've felt this way for a while now. As Sut eloquently put it, these "interactive journeys" are getting old. Throw in the FPS genre as well. I wasn't too active in the 7th gen besides sports games and the rare FPS I'd take a look at. But, admittedly from a layman's perspective, it seems like the PS3 and 360 were the ultimate FPS and "open world" systems. It seemed like those systems were the culmination of over 10 years of 3d, the hardware was finally capable of pulling off huge environments with pristine graphics and gameplay. But then, what's left for there to do? Heck, I felt like even sports games sort of maxed out with the PS3, I couldn't imagine anything more I'd want in a basketball game for instance than College Hoops 2k8, and the baseball games looked basically perfect on the PS3. The graphics crossed the final frontier basically. Not to mention, there's a large portion of the gaming audience that's ready to puke the next time a high profile FPS comes out and gets shoved down our throats. 

Game journalists have gotten me jaded on the future of video gaming due to their pushing of artsy, cinematic games and overemphasizing Nintendo's faults more than those of the other two competitors; the art of video games is in its gameplay and nice pacing, not some pretentious and slow as nails experiences that lack high replay value. A Nintendo-less and cinematic console generation would be rather boring due to emphasis on presentation than game content and pacing. Thankfully, there are still game companies and developers that still emphasize video games for what they are such as Ubisoft Montreal, Platinum Games, From Software, Sumo Digital, Inti Creates, Nintendo, and several underground indie developers. Given the praise I see for games like Shovel Knight and FTL: Faster Than Light, I think sites like KickStarter could be the future of video gaming; it's certainly brought more creativity in the PC scene.

Besides what I just said, I try not to jade myself and keep playing games with an open mind and see for myself if I enjoy certain games or not.

Another reason may be that modern games are time sinks and the controls are that diverse these days it's not easy to jump from game to game. You have to remember the story, where you are up to and relearn the controls. I can only play one game most of the time with modern consoles.

That's not to say they aren't good, but they don't have that instant gratification that older games have, what with tutorials and 'trainer' levels. I think now your expected to stay with a game longer what with trophies/achievements and online modes. Which doesn't really sit with the critics review style.

Also Jon makes a good point, did 3D technology plateau with the last generation ? Are we now only going to see incremental upgrades and slight evolution ?

Has anyone played anything on PS4, XBone, Wii U or a high end PC that couldn't be done on PS3 or 360 ?

[QUOTE=Sut] Has anyone played anything on PS4, XBone, Wii U or a high end PC that couldn't be done on PS3 or 360 ?[/QUOTE]

Strategy games. Stuff like Civilization and Starcraft 2.

Anyway, in response to the general sentiments of this thread: games are just as exciting, if not more exciting, for me today as they have ever been. It all starts with Demon's Souls. Many of you were turned away from this series due to the "Prepare to Die" marketing campaign, which made Dark Souls sound frustrating, but believe me when I say that I would not be gaming today were it not for Demon's Souls, a game that reminded me how good a game can be when it's fully embracing the fact that it's a game--not a boring experiment in interactive cinema. I urge you all, the Critic especially, to give this series your serious consideration. I quit gaming from 2005-2009, but this one game was enough to remind me what games are still capable of doing. Also, be aware that the infamous difficulty of Dark Souls was really just a marketing campaign by Namco Bandai (the publisher) and not intended by the developers (From Software).

[QUOTE=videogamecritic]So I just posted my Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag review, and I'm wondering if decades of playing video games has left me hopelessly jaded.

Here's a game with an awesome subject matter, gorgeous graphics, and a whole world to explore.  You'd think I'd be stoked but I was bored out of my freaking mind.

I think the graphics bar has been set so high, it's almost become impossible to impress modern day gamers.  Sandbox games in particular are not nearly exciting as they once were.

And yet I'll play an Intellivision home brew and be like "wow, that looks pretty awesome".[/QUOTE]You are experiencing the cognitive dissonance of great production values, poor game. You're not jaded. You prove it by still getting excited by an Intellivision game, in which case I assume both the game itself is fun, and the graphical presentation is impressive given the limitations of the platform, you respect the artistry and care that goes into making such "primitive" graphics look good. The modern search for photorealistic graphics produces a vapid, uninteresting game, where every rough edge of challenge or mechanical complexity has been polished away in the name of casual mass market appeal.

Come to think of it Dave, you sound like you're ready for Demon's Souls or Dark Souls. They are modern games with old school sensibilities, and have been embraced by those feeling jaded by the cinematic AAA casual "games." You're ready Dave, embrace the Souls games.