What makes a game great in today's world? As you can clearly see with the poll I've forced you into the same little box that the modern game developers have. My question is as follows... WTF HAPPENED TO A GOOD STORY, or original game play????

Even the games today that are hailed for their "brilliant and compelling" story telling SUCK!!!! I'm sorry guys, I loved half life 2 with a passion, it's one of my favorite games, but the story is absolute crap. What happened to the days of Grim Fandango, The Last Express and The Dig? The Dig is a perfect example of how you can adapt a brilliant story from a fantastic book to a video game without having to boil it down or lose anything because it's a game.

I for one miss the days when they spent time on a story and artistic design rather than just how grimy you can make the "coffee filter" esc graphics. Yes, I understand there is something to be said about good graphic, I am a hard core gamer too, I started drooling when I saw COD MW2. But ask this, why can't we have both? You don't even have to work at it... there are plenty of brilliant stories out there, just adapt one to a game, one that isn't Aliens or Saving Private Ryan.

Ok, here's my suggestion, take this for free! Make a point and click adventure based off of an Edgar Allen Poe book. Or this, make an FPS where you use a bow and sword and follow Attila the Hun, or Genghis Khan through their attacks on Rome and China, respectively. Or how about an RPG where you play as a normal guy during the Revolutionary war, you could let the player make choices like help the British or the Rebels. All of these offer options for great games with a fresh story we haven't heard before.

I just beg of you all... PLEASE BRING BACK FRESH STORIES!!! If I have to kill another terrorist or alien or zombie I think I'm going to be sick.... Why can't I gun down some redcoats or bow down some Romans for a while?

But alas it seems all the developers see is that games with paper thin stories and great graphics like COD and Halo sell better than the rest.

does anyone agree with me?

What you need here is an insider in the game industry to break down the operating budget for different departments in game development. Any game will have a set development budget. As the demands for high end graphics and physic engines grow (and have been for the last 10 years), you have to wonder if they aren't slashing the budgets in other areas to compensate.

No. Go away.

RandV80:
What you need here is an insider in the game industry to break down the operating budget for different departments in game development. Any game will have a set development budget. As the demands for high end graphics and physic engines grow (and have been for the last 10 years), you have to wonder if they aren't slashing the budgets in other areas to compensate.

I agree but on the other hand does it really take an amazingly funded writing team to merely do something NEW??? I mean at this point I'd settle for an original idea no matter how poorly written it was. Even if there were spelling errors and it felt like a toddler wrote it I'd buy a game with a new idea.

Also I guess what I'm saying is they don't really even need to work at it, cuz as it stands right now most games just keep ripping off the movie Aliens. They do a pretty good job at that, so why can't they just rip off something else for a while?

Try playing something that doesn't involve shooting things from a first person perspective.

Nils:
Try playing something that doesn't involve shooting things from a first person perspective.

Any recomendations?

It took me three tries to get an ending to Dragon Age that I could live with...in a manner of speaking ... and it was the only one that actually moved me to tears...
The setting/plot may be standard in DA ... but the characters and consequences are anything but...

TheMasterGL16:

Nils:
Try playing something that doesn't involve shooting things from a first person perspective.

Any recomendations?

I don't know you or what you've played, so it's hard for me to make a solid vouch for anything if you're going to say it looks too kiddie or you don't enjoy a certain genre. But what I would recommend is checking out the backlog of platformer games from the last generation of consoles, as I found a lot of the single player games from then more fulfilling than this current generation. It seems these days most major releases more or less revolve around multiplayer than a fleshed out and innovative single player mode.

Assassin's Creed 2 has a pretty good story so far, im not finished the story yet though.

Agree that a lot of games don't really put much effort into story development though

<--- Right there, I've yet to play a game that could match BioShock's story, and the sequel comes out in February 2010. :D

TheMasterGL16:
does anyone agree with me?

Yes and no. Yes in the sense of CoD and the other slam bang action games like it(Don't get me wrong, I fucking love CoD).

However, in some cases(Halo being this example) if you really work for the story by reading the books, if there are any, watching any bonus video's about it and playing through the single player a few more times while REALLY keeping your eyes and ears open, the story's can be amazing.

For instance, the Halo trilogies by it's self seems an average if maybe above average shooter with not much characterization and a broken and sometimes confusing story. But, if you read the Halo books, you learn a lot more about everyone in the game, they all become real characters, and the story basically turns into a sci-fi epic.

I still agree with you for the most part though. What the developers SHOULD do is make the story's like that already and then allow them to be improved upon with books.

bagodix:

HG131:
I expect to be flamed, but try Halo. Buy all the games AND THE BOOKS. I can not stress that last part enough. Go to Halopedia. Look through the story. It is quite deep if you have learned how to read.

That doesn't mean any of it is well-written or interesting.

Ummmmmm........ Maybe not in some cases but when it comes to Halo, yes. Yes it does.

TheMasterGL16:
does anyone agree with me?

Ha!

No.

Your poll is very self-righteous and arrogant. In protest, I refuse to read your post.

Half life: Source and the spin offs had a very good and ... different story

TheMasterGL16:
Even the games today that are hailed for their "brilliant and compelling" story telling SUCK!!!! I'm sorry guys, I loved half life 2 with a passion, it's one of my favorite games, but the story is absolute crap.

Why do people care if a FPS has a pretty stringy story? It's a first-person shooter. By definition their stories aren't that spectacular (Not really, but it's been a running theme since they were made). Take Wolfenstein for example, the father of the FPS genre, I don't even think it had a story, not one that engaged the player at least.

I honestly thought the whole idea behind FPS was to just kill baddies and make it fun. Story was secondary.

Why compare FPS games to RPGs in terms of story? Of course you'll be disappointed.

There are still games with good stories, it's just you need to did deeper through the mainstream stuff.

Also, you forgot to turn off your nostalgia filter. That may have an effect on your viewpoint.

You need to do more research into how a game is developed, and what it takes in different areas.

I agree, that yes, stories in games are much worse than they could, and should be, and focus is too much on graphics, but the way things work today getting a good story into a game, and not losing millions in the process is a very hard thing to do.

I could go on a rant and detail why, both from a marketing perspective, and a development perspective, and then go into more detail about WHY it's so expensive, and difficult, but honestly, I've done it in at least five threads on this forum already, and several other people have done it numerous times as well. This has been discussed to death, literally hundreds of times. You're not bringing anything new to the discussion, and you won't. Please, just, don't make threads stating things everyone already knows, and that's been discussed already. It's common courtesy, and frankly, common sense, as well.