BioShock Infinite, Tomb Raider and Crysis 3 have one thing in common: they are trying to tell a narrative and are forgetting to be a game. What happened to the arcade mode in games? I hear how bad the mentioned games are because they’re shooting gallaries, well back in the arcade days, that’s all there was: Arcades. Arcade probably made more money per machine than a copy of a $60. It would suck the money out of gamers pockets. They had no real story, no emotional pull trying to convince why I should fight these 500 baddys, just me, a gun and some targets to unleash my daily frustrations on. I would like the above games more if they did add a mode like that. I played BioShock, beat it, then uninstalled because I didn’t like the Legacy of Kain like ending(I hate time travel arcs), but I did like the action in the game, and would’ve liked if I could play only that mode in the game!!
There still are them games… Plenty of em. A ‘recent’ few I can name are:
The Binding of Isaac (does have story but isn’t focused on it)
Super crate box
Then there are also non-story games which don’t involve killing enemies
Super Hexagon
Temple Run
I’m not really sure where you have found your logic? And there is nothing wrong with story driven games, Its all about personal preference. If you don’t like story driven games don’t buy them, its as simple as that.
Well, a lot of AAA shooters now have “horde mode” or “firefight” mode.
I think the issue is that more people are demanding games to become a more serious medium. They have the power to tell great drama, so they have the obligation.
But, there are still some out there that are just for fun. (SimCity)
But why play the AAA games if the indie games are of comparable quality? AAA games wouldn’t be able to sell at 60$ a pop if it was just an arcade shooter. Even then there are still a lot of AAA games that do have shooter modes. for exmaple, Zombies on CoD
Being bothered whether something is AAA or indie is like buying Nike or Ralph Lauren clothing.
Story in games is fine and can be fun, well as long as it isn’t trying to be a movie, which is usually the case. I agree with the original post, it’s been years since I bought a AAA game, I might buy Skyrim once I get my Rift and see how that fares in VR.
I hardly play any AAA games for that reason, you look at the preview movies of the gameplay before they come out and it’s like holy SHIT I can do all that? Then the actual game comes out and it’s the same tired formula, usually massively scripted with gameplay mechanics from last decade.
The question is: what are you expecting and where?
There are mindless FPS shooters out there that are heavily dished on gameplay. Heck, I think all are, as long as you stick to the multiplayer mode.
All fighting games are 99% gameplay, with story just there to spice things up.
RPGs… well, we expect those to be extremely heavy on story.
There is a market for games that focus mainly on the story and the game play is there as a tool or means of immersion (despite a movie being more realistic, you may feel you are more involved with a game than a movie, because it is “you” on the screen.)
Then there are sandbox games that use the story more like a reward or a carrot in a stick to get you to explore the world. GTA series, Saint Row, even Batman Arkam City and Skyrim fall there.
So I think this is a bit overreaction to a couple hyped games released recently (Tomb Rider and Bioshock Infinite), both excellent games in their own right but only a couple games among plenty others that focus more heavily on the gameplay aspect.
What I personally dislike (and its a growing trend but still not taking over) are quicktime event based games like Heavy Rain (I wanted to punch some one with that one.)
I think people have already said this, but it is because AAA games are the only games that can tell story in this fashion. Anybody, weather indie, small companies or AAA can make an arcade shooter, but only AAA developers can make epic narratives with fully rendered cinematics. Indies can theoretically do this as well, but not without seriously sacrificing quality, while an arcade game made by a AAA company will feel almost the same as an arcade game by an indie.
Don’t really see a problem with this dichotomy. If you want epic narratives and tried and true gameplay, play a AAA game. If you want arcade games or experimental games, play an indie game. No reason why one should try to be the other.
I got a better one. CoD 4 arcade mode. You played all the levels, but with a timer, lives and score. That was the best part of that game… that and the level “Heat.”
wrong, bro. Almost all of those games listed have an arcade-ish component tacked on. In Batman, you get life from your score after beating the crap out of all the baddies in the area.
IMO, one came from the other, and is now trying to distance itself from it and be something it’s not… and sometimes, failing at it.
The games I mentioned try to have a deep narrative, yet murder is the name of the game. Take Tomb Raider, having some deep narrative about some crap. She even was shaken for killing a person for the first time, but then not a minute later, she’s on a unstoppable bloodlust. I mean come on, it would make more sense if she stealthed the entire game over becoming a killer.
At least, Uncharted didn’t take itself seriously, so when you realize this fortune hunter is a socio-pathic killer, you’re more like, “hmm”
GTA definitely falls in that category. The only reason I ever played part of the story in GTA was to unlock new portions of the city. Otherwise it was all about running/driving around and blowing things up.
Its not up there with some of the crazy stuff indie people come up with, but I still think the Zelda series is somewhat imaginative. Obviously its still a series, so each game is a sequel I guess (definitely playing it safe) but they mix it up a bit. The controls in the last one were pretty different and cool. And you know the focus is on gameplay rather than story and graphics which is always refreshing to see in the AAA land.
The games I think have the best amount of both great gameplay and great story are the Portal games. Narrative is usually a good thing in a AAA game. The gameplay is also very important, though.
