Any one else disappointed?
polycounter lvl 18
I have been going back and playing a few games that I never finished and realized why I never finished some of them. Although good at first some things just start bothering me pretty quickly.
For example, Deus Ex: HR, and its portable version that was redone for steam release, the fall. First i got myself worked up again, i watched the old trailer and also thought to myself some scenes were different in the actual game, but that didn't bother me to much. Was any one else disappointed in the game visually? It had some pretty well done graphics, and cinematic movie scenes. But for the time the game came out, i expected a little more from them. Like the collar on his coat, or the turtleneck Pritchard wears plus his ponytail. Why does the collar of his coat move with his head?! When its not even being touched? Or Pritchards pony tail so stiff and barely any movement, or his collar of his shirt looks so off putting. The other thing im disappointed in is the conversations between people, every ones facial expressions seem so empty and plain. I feel that i would be so much more drawn into the story if it was better animated and displayed. Or even the skin textures during the game feel so shiny, plasticy, fake.
I also feel like scenes are a little to out of place. For instance, at the beginning, the pilot just sits there standing outside waiting for you while your boss is sitting inside. I just feel like it should of been a little bit the other way around.
I'm not saying I'm a person who needs superb graphics and looks so really. I actually like simpler graphics but better animated so to speak. I also prefer in-game cinematic scenes compared to pre-rendered ones. Kind of more like a rant i guess.
For example, Deus Ex: HR, and its portable version that was redone for steam release, the fall. First i got myself worked up again, i watched the old trailer and also thought to myself some scenes were different in the actual game, but that didn't bother me to much. Was any one else disappointed in the game visually? It had some pretty well done graphics, and cinematic movie scenes. But for the time the game came out, i expected a little more from them. Like the collar on his coat, or the turtleneck Pritchard wears plus his ponytail. Why does the collar of his coat move with his head?! When its not even being touched? Or Pritchards pony tail so stiff and barely any movement, or his collar of his shirt looks so off putting. The other thing im disappointed in is the conversations between people, every ones facial expressions seem so empty and plain. I feel that i would be so much more drawn into the story if it was better animated and displayed. Or even the skin textures during the game feel so shiny, plasticy, fake.
I also feel like scenes are a little to out of place. For instance, at the beginning, the pilot just sits there standing outside waiting for you while your boss is sitting inside. I just feel like it should of been a little bit the other way around.
I'm not saying I'm a person who needs superb graphics and looks so really. I actually like simpler graphics but better animated so to speak. I also prefer in-game cinematic scenes compared to pre-rendered ones. Kind of more like a rant i guess.
Replies
Though i suppose it does seem like i am attacking just this one game, but i don't mean to "attack" anything. More so just trying to state my disappointment in games these days. I get all hyped up to play a game, and then the end product isn't quit what i thought it would be built up. And visualy some games i feel shouldn't have some minor blemish's for the time and day they were released.
DXHR wasn't build from scratch, its engine was never cutting edge even when the game was in development. In light of that context, I was actually impressed that the art direction and visual design made for such a memorable looking game in spite of the aging rendering tech.
It's true that I don't get as impressed with most games I play these days, compared to when I was younger and "OH MY GOD THIS BARREL MOVES WHEN I SHOOT IT HOLY CRAP LOOK MY SHADOW IS NOT JUST A CIRCLE UNDERNEATH MY CHARACTER SELF SHADOWING WHAT THE BALLS", but I think that's just a combination of visuals reaching a point where they don't need huge advancements to be enjoyable, and my own understanding of what's actually going on causing me not to be as impressed. Personally, I kinda like it, because I wind up playing a lot of games that look great because of an awesome style, whereas in the past I might've avoided them because they didn't "impress" me visually.
Maybe it will help the general discussion if i better rephrase my original question. Is any one else disappointed at some of the more recent games being released today(or for the time that they were released), and that could be anything such as gameplay mechanics, story, or visually.
My main reason for posting this is a few things have been nagging me and i felt like it could be a good discussion.
I do know that usually the assets for games are made long before the engine is mature, the pipeline is properly developed, and the technical limitations are quantified.
This is often at the behest at the executives who want to see what the visual direction will be, the marketing team to understand how to market it, the pre-rendered cinematics team, to know what to push, and the rest of the production team to understand the tone and mood that might assist design, and story decisions.
As a result what often tends to happen is when those limitations aren't known, a very aggressive optimization occurs to get the frame-rate to a playable. Things like, dropping facial animation bones, dropping coat-collar bones, highly compressing animations to fit into memory, and re-sizing of all textures so they are a fraction of what they were when they were approved by the Art Director.
(To recount, I did NOT work on the first game, just a bit of conjecture on my part).
I've worked in games for 15 years, and this is just how it's always been. Of course everyone should know better, and in a perfect world, it sometimes is, but most often, this has always been the case for most games I've worked on.
Truth be told, as someone currently working with these people, there were some AMAZING character artists that worked on that first game, and the reason the visuals might not have been up to par in some cases weren't related to talent, or experience but a few of the usual pitfalls that occur during production.
As Two Listen mentioned, it is probably that i am getting older and used to what we have now a days that games coming out now i don't look for super amazing graphics that they push but i look at the little things and minor details to see how much attention and detail they put into the game, but i feel like the lower end should be a bit more refined. Again not just a graphical sense but an overall feel.
Another game for example i was disappointed in at the time was prince of persia warrior within port to the psp. The textures were horribly downsized to fight the system and not cleaned up, and the audio was out of sync the entire time. I couldn't believe that they would have released such a poorly rushed port but they did.
To be honest watch dogs felt closer to Deus Ex than Human Revolution did, in terms of visuals.
I mean look at the lightning alone. Search for the Sun in Deus Ex, the game plays only at night. Nearly every aspect in Deus Ex has a touch of darkness. Watch Dogs is not oppressive enough and let you arise whenever you need a break.
But yes the yellow/gold touch was the cheap way because the general art was rather boring. My main concern was the poor shaderwork and plastic look for everything.
Technology is more futuristic in HR but it's quite possible that it would look more real without yellows and browns everywhere.
I recall reading in some interview that "Girl with a Pearl Earring" film was an inspiration for the team since almost every scene in it looks very painterly and uses carefully designed colors.
It's probably impossible to be so precise when making a game environment but putting a yellowish tint on everything seems like the exact opposite from what the movie was aiming for.
Deal with it.
Also the things that excite or bore me about a game is the story, art direction and mainly the gameplay. I would never be like "oh this game doesn't support tessellation and the main character has 10000 triangles (or whatever) less than what I would like to, I am not playing it anymore".
I'm confused, I've only heard good things about The Fall, is there a far superior mobile shooter out there?
Has a 90 on Metacritic, is universally applauded, the Black and Gold was an iconic art direction choice that now is synonymous with the brand.
If the lack of collar movement is the reason you find the game utterly unplayable, I suppose to each their own?
:S
100% agree. I actually played through DX:HR for the first time a few months ago, and I couldn't tear myself away from it. That game was fucking amazing, visuals included.
unit187 and WarrenM: Both very good points as well. The more i learn how to make digital graphics or program things or create a level, the higher appreciation i have for these artists and designers work, but then i notice a few things that i feel in my opinion would of been something to fix or implement right away.
One thing that makes me get bored of some games quickly is i can be sort of a perfectionist while playing at times. Using Deus Ex HR as an example again, i want to get the most experience out of my play through as possible. Sadly to do that you must hack everything, and use silent and non-lethal weapons/take downs which leads to me quick saving and loading frequently.
Now i also understand that sometimes things are done a specific way to help the story line move forward or things flow, but at the same time i feel like it could have been done differently.
I don't look forward to many games now a days but one i am looking forward to for sure at the moment is The Witcher 3.
I suppose another topic to bring up that i am disappointed in is the game industries huge and continueing use of DLC. Mostly a problem for consoles. I loved the days where you bought a game and you could mod it and make models and textures and maps yourself or download others. Like half life, There were thousands of player made maps you could get for free!
Hell games back then came out with more than 4-6 multiplayer maps to play on, and sometimes a patch would come out adding a few more. Now the standard seems to be 4 mp maps or so, and all others are purchased as DLC for about 15 bucks or more for an additional 2-4 maps. As a customer, im starting to feel ripped off. But from a business standpoint i can see the reason and profit considering the amount of piracy that also plagues them.
haha oh man, so true.. and this too:
[ame]
+1
I constantly drop games because they become too repetitive and/or just boring
I usually get excited about things like that, +art direction like Bioshock Infinite, the environments and sound design of Alien: Isolation, and the dreams of the Witcher 3 being the best thing since sliced bread.
Games still now and then impress me with features and gameplay (chello portal and Kerbal Space Program)
I am becoming a bit disappointed with some of my favorite series compared to past games, ie missing the amount of freedom and control in Battlefield 1942, 2142, and 2 compared to the recent titles. For example, 2142's Titan mode, where you can move the entire freakin' floating fortress with everyone on it versus Battlefield 4's capture the point in a static model.
but eh I'm optimistic
Looking at Spell casting by mages i see always one Animation with different particle effects. Why not different animations. Runewords in the Air which can a user really read. Long mighty casts with animations showing the hard work to control the spell. A Ego perpective for Caster with a "real" Magebook drag and drop the spell directly from the book with a hand and no silly Quickbars. Another spell? Browse the book.
Look at the boring perk system in GW2. 5 skillpoints in this tree, you have a 20% chance for one stack might blabla. Every choice is nearly invisible. Look at Final Fantasy ARR, silly particle effects everywhere.
Thats my personal problem with the games today. They are rather boring from gameplay most of the times.
A good example is Death space, no Health bar. The health bar is in your suit everytime visible but good integrated, the same with the scifi hud overlay. Hell thats the solutions i need.
this tread seemed to go to games general sooooo :
Personally 2014 was a disappointment all around when it came to AAA games, I'v only picked up 2 new releases in a whole year and neither of them where impressive. Not from a gameplay stand, and hardly from the eastetic if we leave out Sims 4. Tastes differ tho.
Got my eyes set on a few indies, No Mans Sky looks promising. And I'm well aboard the Heart of Thorns expansion pack for GW2 hypetrain , choochoo !
I feel might and magic dark messiah was a far better first person view and controls that skyrim and oblivion SHOULD have had to begin with. One thing that really irratated my in oblivion and skyrim was trying to assassinate some one in their sleep i charge my attack and use the dagger given to do so and the attack fails to kill them?! Dark messiah at least had a special animation to assassinate people with daggers from behind.
Most of the games i enjoyed this year, were games that were made to be pretty simple... Hopefully this ear turns a few more good ones out.
I liked how if you were hidden and had your sneak skill high enough, you could pelt them with arrows and they wouldn't be able to find you. They'd just walk around with an arrow sticking out of their head saying "Huh, must be my imagination"
"hmmm must have been the wind"
after all his companions died and his head was feathered, classic
but i also loved how you could steal anything from them while they talk to you. i had whiterun stripped naked besides the yarl and the kids.
Ha, I remember grinding up my Sneaking by hiding behind someones bed, pointing the camera at the wall and pressing the Q button to constantly go forward. Couple that with Jumping like a madman and making potions every 5 seconds and you had a level upping machine.
As for Deus Ex, I think my major disappointment was how out of sync the original trailer was with the final game. It's a pet peeve of mine, but I really don't like when trailers show aspects of the story/game that never happen in the final product. It's silly, after all cinematics like these are made in parallel to the game and yet I can't help but be a bit annoyed when things end up being different than what I had imagined.
Bioshock Infinite was probably the biggest offender in recent years; having watched the original E3 demos, my impression of the story was completely different than what ended up in the game. It's not even that the content they showed was better (because I don't really know if it was) but it left me with a feeling of "what could have been".
Oh man, I really want to play Fallout 3 again but the animations are leagues worse than Skyrim I just can't bring myself too it :C
This indeed is a big thing that annoys me in the TES and Fallout (by Beth) IP I know the games are huge but ... can we has some better and more grounded in realty animations plz ? But yes agreed on everything, Skryim could have done with some ingame cinematics like Kingdom Come is doing.
Silly question, who else is deeply disappointed by Skyrim hairs ? I'll admit I had little hope, I had hope after Oblivion, I lost that after Fallout and I got exactly what I was expecting with Skyrim. Its like they advance in a lot of sectors (body types and quality, facials became lots better compared to F3 and Oblivion) but their hair department remained stuck in Oblivion era.
Eh, the animations aren't even the worst part for me, these are the sort of things that pulled me right of immersion with New Vegas:
My eyes are lying to me O_O
But with the metal gear solid bit, its a little annoying that they are making shorter games and charging a lot for them.
I remember back in the day you bought a game, and it had a lot of content, and free updates, and those updates didnt just include bug fixes, but extra content. Like half life mods like counter strike or day of defeat. The updates would include more maps, models weapons etc...
But now even those games have gone the other way. They released newer versions of the game on a new engine like source. The original game say released with lets say 10 maps and 6 classes and added more, and updates would add more... the source version released with lets say 4 maps... less classes (which i can see as a game play mechanic change).. And now a days games like call of duty only give you additional maps and weapons for lets say 15 bucks for 1 new weapon and 4 maps...
do you realize how much more work goes into games now than 15 years ago when counter strike released?
Yeah, the more I work in both games and software dev, the harder I find it to whine about stuff. I very rarely sit down and get annoyed that something isn't perfect, I find it a lot more interesting to try to think of why things were done a certain way, imagine what sort of restrictions the team was under and the like.
I think this comes down to a basic lack of empathy from the gamer crowd, usually because they have no idea what it takes to actually develop a product. Thats fine and and it's unreasonable to expect every critic to be an expert (if they were, they would probably make stuff rather than complain about it) but most devs know better, so its always odd to see the bitchy-gamer threads on Polycount, seeing as we've got so many people with industry experience.
Jim Sterling is pretty good at understanding this kind of things, and he is totally aware that he wouldn't be able to make games himself even though he has genuine love for the medium. I think that's a great attitude.
On the original topic : the only way to be disappointed is to have unrealistic expectations. Pointless hype almost always comes from marketing anyways, so it's actually fairly easy to ignore. I personally just wish there was more game demos on Steam, in order to be able to see things for oneself. I end up not buying many games simply because there is no way for me to try them out first.
Games that use branching systems to tell stories by 'player choice' are the worst, and I cannot wait for this gimmicky design element to die out. The branching trees only give you the thinnest, thinnest veil of 'choice', and yet the system itself devoids the story of any sort of character development, at all.
Games like The Last of Us kinda do things really well, but those kind are so few and far between.