Pierre said:
I see 4chan have struck with a prank on Xbox One users :lol:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... soles-hack
I don't know if this is fabber than the iOS7 water proof thing or not :lol:
It kind of is, because it requires such huge steps to go through so it's a much cleverer "prank", but people believing a software upgrade will waterproof a phone? How gullible must you be :lol:
Pierre said:
Edit : Is there really a big demand for backwards compatibility? I'm not sure on sales figures but I bet Sony sold more PS1 classics than PS2 on the store last-gen. Is there going to be such a demand to play PS3 'classics' on PS4 (and Xbox360 on XboxOne).
It all stems down to Nostalgia for me - and I just don't get that feeling when playing PS2/PS3 games - maybe I'm just getting old and the younger people would feel nostalgiac playing PS3 games but that seems like all kinds of wrong :lol:
When I picked up my PS2, I also picked up a couple of good looking PS1 games (I'd not had a PS1 for many years). So it's a way of padding out your game collection on your new console while you wait for any other game to show up.
I hardly played them to be honest. They were just turds (even what are classed as great games) compared to the shiny new PS2 games I'd picked up. Over the years I'd go back and pick up a cheap game, like Tomb Raider or Wipeout and realise after 20 minutes, they may have been classics for the time, but so many years down the line they've aged really badly. Things like control methods have actually evolved massively over the years. Triangle for back through a menu? What devilry is that?
Likewise, I still played a few PS2 games on the PS3 when I first got it (I already had a large catalogue of games) and again, it just didn't really work. I'd played the games and moved on.
I did like the remakes of the PS2 games here and there. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are hundreds of times better than the originals - which are simply unplayable when you go back to the originals. Things really have moved on that much in terms of control, etc.
Pierre said:
The PS1 was such a massive step from any previous console whereas the PS2/PS3 have been a slow evolution of that step - you know that phrase "they don't make them like they used to" - well for me, they do in this case :lol: - This is why I still find myself downloading the Snes9x on occasion and playing some classic Snes games because in that case they definitely don't make them like they used to!
Was never one for backwards compatibility to be honest.
I think for the old 2D systems, they were the kind of end of an era, top of the range evolution of that range. People had been making similar games with essentially similar hardware capabilities (maybe more colours, more sprites per screen, better sound etc, but still within the base limits) for 10-15 years so they were top of the game.
Look at the difference between Manic Miner and Super Mario World on the SNES, or Sonic on the Mega Drive. That evolution and talent had reached a pinnacle at that point. Essentially, the games for those systems couldn't be bettered - fortunately, the 3D based systems were appearing and a new way of producing and playing games was arriving - but it also needed time to evolve and settle, just as the old games did.
However, it was a new and exciting time, so a lot of those early games are well remembered because they simply broke new ground, rather than being actually any good by today's standards (where other late period 2D based games do still stand the test as good games).
But, they DO still make 'em like they used to. Nintendo never stopped at any point. They may have put Mario in a 3D world, but it's still exactly the same mechanic. I mentioned it in my "review" of 3D world on the last page. They've always continued with the same basic game mechanics just tightened.
The problem is that people look and go "it's just the same thing again" and at the same time go "I used to love it back then"
Look at the latest Rayman game. It's stunning. It's what every 2D coder in the 90's would have killed to produce. True film animation quality graphics and animation in a tight, exciting and fun game. They don't make them like they used to, they just make the same things only better! People just don't realise.
This kind of leads in to what Marc is saying...
marc said:
Have tbh for me the ps3 etc actually made game worse.
Yes you get the wow it looks great factor but you lose the story and game play.
I disagree. I think that the games are much better. They're much more polished, much tighter, much more playable and there's much more to them. The games are better, the problem is that they have to constantly evolve - sometimes because people are saying "we don't like it that way any more, we want fresh and new", sometimes because they're simply mining a rich vein of gamers who are willnig to hand over cash for the same thing as last year, every year (like Uncharted, where I'm with you and think the sequels offer much less than the original).
marc said:
Finial fantasy on the ps1 blew me away as did the Star Wars game on the pc. Gt1 blew me away as well.
Yet I'll bet if you played them now, you'd really struggle. I've tried, and there are very few games which amazed me on release which have ever stood the test of time. They're ugly, clunky, immature, uncontrollable lumps of pixelated mess.
marc said:
All games do now days is look better.
I've had some incredible "OMFG WOW" moments over the last few years. They surpass the feeling of being chased by a dragon in Dungeon Master, or the delicious parallax scrolling of Shadow of the Beast, or getting smacked into Thargoid space in Elite, or the joy of taking part of the cinema experience in The Untouchables or even the unadulterated joy of finally managing to get to grips with the control mechanism on Kick Off 2 and being able to play real football for the first time - even Sensible Soccer never matched the skill required in the Kick Off series.
Getting swept up by the flying colossus on Shadow of the Colossus - OMFG WOW!
Having to chose between cutting off my virtual finger or not in Heavy Rain - OMFG WOW!
Losing Kai in Heavenly Sword - OMFG WOW!
Seeing a car flip over and over down the start/finish straight in Grid as I pass under it - OMFG WOW!
Most of Alan Wake - OMFG WOW!
All fo Telltale Games' Walking Dead series - OMFG WOW!
The first level of Puppeteer - OMFG WOW!
If you play the same games, then yes. However, outside the AAA aisle, there's a wealth of superb titles that are really doing things very differently, or telling great stories. It's just that people pass them over.
Look at the first new Batman game. Superb. Brilliant new combo mechanism with a brilliant story, massive replay value and complex, deep extras that could keep you going for ages. Second one, more of the same only bigger play area. Third - we're hitting yawn territory now. Yet there is a AAA game which does something significant - it sold well so now that rich vein is being mined.
If people stop buying (GT6 has sold less than a fifth the number of copies on release as GT5 did) - then publishers need to start taking note and making changes. Gran Turismo is the same game now as it's always been (cosmetics and a few modes aside). People don't want that any more. So they need to change it, but not the core mechanic, the way the game is presented though.
Codemasters must have hit something similar with the McRae games and TOCA. They moved from serious representations of the racing world to flashy, in your face "you're the star!" titles. Toca Race Driver was already heading there with tighter limits on how you could progress through the game based on swapping and changing between cars/classes. By the time you hit Grid and "Dirt", they've cemented this horrid attention deficit issue where you constantly need to switch between cars, classes and disciplines to advance.
Every time the game is released and makes money though, that's the way they head assuming - and they could be correct - that's what people want. So the games get farther from their roots and closer towards an arcade experience as we see with Grid 2, or the depressing Dirt Showdown.
Ironically, Forza and Gran Turismo, with their "gotta get 'em all" mantra mean that you'll be spending hours in the same car and same class in the same races grinding to earn in game cash. Why not offer that as a championship as the TOCA series used to? If you're forcing people to grind, make the grind worthwhile beyond simply gaining money.
But yeah, the games are worse because they either haven't evolved, or they've evolved in a way that isn't maybe the best (evolved through sales feedback rather than internal critical review). However, there are still superb new games out there being released. Games that are as "made like they used to be". Games that captivate and wow. Games with fantastic stories. You just need to look and find them though, because they're not going to be anywhere on a shelf in a top ten being pushed in your face.
Pick up Ni No Kuni or Beyond: Two Souls cheap Marc. I think you'll be surprised what "nothing but better graphics" can have to offer
marc said:
But yes FIFA got me hooked in Game but not played one in years lol.
And that is the result of many years of evolution to perfection
Mario 3D World is in exactly the same position.
I have a feeling I should have done the history and future of computer games for me degree thesis