The Death of Immersive Sims?

[Luckmann]

Where once I flocked urgently to even the faintest promise of what was once called an immersive sim or a cRPG...

Stopped reading right there. This jackass obviously has no clue.

I stopped reading at "This golden age ...".

I have no idea what this guy is on, but it just can't be anything healthy.

The guy is 90% laughably wrong & 10% partially correct. The Dark Ages are over and 2015 seemed to be the turning point in gaming history but the recovery is fragile.

PC gaming has never been better from a consumer perspective with digital online retailers, great modding communities, etc but is that an actual golden age? No just no.

I'm going to assume that your choice of name isn't ironic or tongue-in-cheek, because I refuse to believe that anything other than a blue-blooded communist would be this retarded.

The future for popamole games is multiplayer, for he same price of a single player game, you can milk cows fow way longer with microtransactions generating an stable revenue stream instead of trusting 100% on sales.

Let's not forget the whole "Gaming as a lifestyle" bullshit that's going on, trying to tie you up with shit that you have to participate in or lose out. Like in the latest Hitman, an always-online singleplayer game that sports episodical content pushed out according to a schedule, and special "elusive targets" that you only have 48 real-life hours on you to take out (again, in your single-player game), or you'll lose out on the full game and all content.

It's fucking insane. Despite the game being otherwise great, all they did was make sure I'll never ever get it. Online lockouts for no reason and gated content based on participation with no regard for the realities of life is fucking cancer.

 

[pippin]

Being a pc consumer it's great in the sense that you can play old games and have console games ported to pcs. It's mostly a thing about more choices, which is always good. The quality of the products is another matter entirely.

 

[Luckmann]

Infinitron, what are you doing in the comments section? You're just going to lose some IQ points posting in that dark place.

Speaking of which:

Mostly agree with this, except I boycotted the latest Deus Ex due to its inclusion of micro transactions in a full priced game, nothing to do with politics.

Congratulations, you played yourself. Now there is not going to be any new Deus Ex game. And the microtransactions were only for the extra, optional breach mode that nobody played, the actual game itself was not affected by them in the slightest.

Damn that Marclev, killing the Deus Ex franchise over microtransactions! He should've the ultimate collector's edition (game not included) instead. For the love of AAA gaming.

I personally love it when these retards go "Support it or it'll go away!" and "Now there won't be one, because you didn't support it!".

Like, bitch, yes, I know. I voted with my wallet. I'll get it when the developers don't try to buttfuck me. Why would I even want another another Deus Ex game when I clearly do not care enough to get the present one under the current circumstances? Why would I be swayed by you pointing out that now they won't make another game I wouldn't buy for the exact same reasons?

Being a pc consumer it's great in the sense that you can play old games and have console games ported to pcs. It's mostly a thing about more choices, which is always good. The quality of the products is another matter entirely.

It is also the age of you routinely having no control over your purchase, third-party accounts for virtually everything, mass amounts of gated content, piecemeal DLC:s, pre-order bonuses, exclusive content that is rabidly enforced even though there was no way for you to attend stream #371 in a time-zone 12 hours away, microtransactions and online integration and third-party monitoring of single-player games.

The fact that 90% of shit being creamed out is shit is actually pretty irrelevant. It's a bigger issue that even if big parts of the market protests, the games employing these tactics will still be successful, because while production costs have risen, the market have exploded. The margins are much wider, and while the consumer base has always been retarded, a much lower percentage of them actually have to participate (purchase) in order for profitability to be guaranteed, ensuring that these practices aren't going anywhere and that appeals to the lowest common denominators work perfectly.

Gaming has never been more anti-consumerist.

This is not a golden age. This is an age of digitized cancer.

 

[octavius]

Being a pc consumer it's great in the sense that you can play old games and have console games ported to pcs. It's mostly a thing about more choices, which is always good. The quality of the products is another matter entirely.

Also, games are dirt cheap these days.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Being a consumer has never been greater. Too bad there's nothing worth consuming.

 

[Vorark]

Why is the author bellyaching about Mass Effect Andromeda, of all things? Game was garbage and got the trashing it deserved.

 

[decaf]

Gaming has never been more anti-consumerist.

This is not a golden age. This is an age of digitized cancer.

Being a consumer has never been greater. Too bad there's nothing worth consuming.

 

[Makabb]

Being a pc consumer it's great in the sense that you can play old games and have console games ported to pcs. It's mostly a thing about more choices, which is always good. The quality of the products is another matter entirely.

Yea but when new games will die, how many times can you replay old games over and over again ?

 

[Hines]

I guess outside of Dishonored (2012), console players don't like immersive-sims, as starting next week, you'll be able to buy Prey at Target for just $39.99! It's already £30 in the U.K. I think this might the biggest AAA flop of 2017.

https://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/362899-target-ad-528-63/

 

[Mynon]

A lot of these games had problems outside the gameplay.

Hitman: episodic DLC-type drip-drip content? Go fuck yourself.

Deux Ex: DLC out the ass. Go fakk urself. Also a sequel.

Dishonoured 2: Gltiches on release. G'fkurslf. Also a sequel.

Some post mentioned Mirror's Edge 2: sequel. Not even a full-priced level of game to begin with unless you're really into doing timed runs or something. Which if you are, gfy.

Sequels are dangerous material, whether for indies or AAA's.


Anyway, Prey is fucking amazing. Best FPS I've played in many years.

I think his problem is that it seems like when people "GFY" one of these games that causes them to fail, whereas say, Fallout 4 has enough of an audience that it can sustain a GFY and still sell twenty zillion copies. It's not fair!

It must be pointed out that even journalists themselves were less than enamored with Mirrors Edge 2... Game just wasn't very good from anyone's POV, it was EA's attempt to emulate Ubisoft's pavlovian open world design.
It failed because it wasn't very good, not because it was different from the norm (which it was not). Let us not pretend that it was somehow too unique or different for average customer.

 

[Kuattro]

Being a pc consumer it's great in the sense that you can play old games and have console games ported to pcs. It's mostly a thing about more choices, which is always good. The quality of the products is another matter entirely.

Yea but when new games will die, how many times can you replay old games over and over again ?

Ad Infinitum.

That's how most of them were made.

 

[Makabb]

 

[Gepeu]

That's why you have to keep your old rigs. Just in case. We all know that the future of PC gaming lies in Steam Link. Your games will be stored in a cloud, and just streamed through Steam Link onto your TV.

 

[Volrath]

Gamers are the ones to blame, as they have voted with their wallets. Latest Deus Ex sold poorly, Dishonored 2 did poorly, latest Hitman didn't do too well and it looks like Prey will be no exception. Industry is reacting to market, and market obviously isn't interested in systemic SP games. Multiplayer and co-op games are selling (not to mention that they are cheaper to make and that it is easier to milk them with new content), Pavlovian open worlds are selling, cinematic shoters/adventures are selling. Customers had their chance to change that, had a bunch of them after Dishonored and Human Revolution actually, and each of them was wasted.

But... all those games are shit? So shouldn't we be glad?

 

[Mynon]

Not even on this forum are they viewed as "shit", quite the opposite.

 

[Mynon]

Moron that was offended by my comment can freely join the discussion in the Prey thread, if he thinks me dishonest.

 

[Nahel]

That is always funny. Dumbed down and shit games don't sell so that is the proof that the consumers don't want that genre anymore. Or maybe instead of fucking trying to attract the casuals you could have made good games for those who supported you and bought the first game. I remember when I was 14, It was thinking of how wonderful the video games would be in 10-15 years. Yep, they sure showed us. I barely buy games anymore except indie things or GOG games. Did not even redeem my code for New torment. Die with your casuals and SJW "games journalists" you made your bed a long time ago.

 

[Mynon]

Dumbed down and shit games

You would be advised to actually try one of these games.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Is this happening with every Bethesduh release or what? I remember a similar thing for Fallout 3 with some guy posting stuff like this to the point that I'm thinking this is edited to say Fallout 4 instead of 3.

You're probably just misremembering. Bethesda didn't have the budget to hire Calvin Harris to perform or the clout to invite a bunch of Hollywood celebs to one of their events until after Skyrim's massive success.

Edit: Apparently I'm wrong?

https://www.engadget.com/2008/10/11/the-incredibly-strange-and-delightful-fallout-3-launch-party/

Bethesda is throwing a radiation-hot launch party for Fallout 3 next Saturday in Los Angeles, complete with even more Vault Boy retro graphics. The party features headline music by the Foo Fighters, and it's hosted by Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Odette Yustman, Ben Harper, and it's being co-hosted by the Bethesda / Zenimax board of directors, which includes bigwig producer Jerry Bruckheimer, bigwig CBS president Les Moonves, bigwig MGM president Harry Sloan and and bigwig baseballer Cal Ripken, Jr.

Guess they're not learning animals. Hope they enjoy getting bullied by chads and stacies again next time around.

I could be wrong, I have been known to have fake memories, and I thought what I was remembering was older, but then I saw F4 is already almost two years old... so who knows.

 

[Commissar Draco]

That is always funny. Dumbed down and shit games don't sell so that is the proof that the consumers don't want that genre anymore. Or maybe instead of fucking trying to attract the casuals you could have made good games for those who supported you and bought the first game. I remember when I was 14, It was thinking of how wonderful the video games would be in 10-15 years. Yep, they sure showed us. I barely buy games anymore except indie things or GOG games. Did not even redeem my code for New torment. Die with your casuals and SJW "games journalists" you made your bed a long time ago.

 

[Somberlain]

Yeah, what's this "AAA tried to be hardcore with nu-DX and Prey, you didn't buy them and therefore you are responsible for further dumbing down of video games" shit? Nu-DX might have been less shit than and less popamole than Cawadooty or Ass Creed but it's still too shit and too popamole for monocled tastes. Is someone suggesting that if these diluted "hardcore" AAA games sell millions and millions, the next installments will somehow be actually hardcore and old-school?

 

[Roguey]

I thought Hitman episodes and Prey were pretty well-received here. They're no Absolution or Bioshock.

That's why you have to keep your old rigs. Just in case. We all know that the future of PC gaming lies in Steam Link. Your games will be stored in a cloud, and just streamed through Steam Link onto your TV.

You can still buy floppy disk drives.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Please let this golden age of games end. Please!!?

 

[Infinitron]

I thought Hitman episodes and Prey were pretty well-received here. They're no Absolution or Bioshock.

The Prey thread is like a bizarro universe right now. All sorts of edgelords including at least one literal neo-nazi debating whether System Shock 2 is actually inferior to Prey

 

[Burning Bridges]

Yeah, what's this "AAA tried to be hardcore with nu-DX and Prey, you didn't buy them and therefore you are responsible for further dumbing down of video games" shit? Nu-DX might have been less shit than and less popamole than Cawadooty or Ass Creed but it's still too shit and too popamole for monocled tastes. Is someone suggesting that if these diluted "hardcore" AAA games sell millions and millions, the next installments will somehow be actually hardcore and old-school?

We all have this nagging feeling since we was 2 years old and tried to taste our own shit for the first and last time. Sure the shit tasted acrid and revolting. But what if some other turd is perfectly nutricious or even delicious?
You can never fully get over this uncertainty.