What would signify the arrival of the next games gen 4 you?

[Fuseball]

For me it's what koworld said, but I also want a proper sense of your choice of actions having an effect. Very few games these days allow for that.

I want to be able to do something in a game and genuinely fear what the consequences would be.

[koworld]

For me it's what koworld said, but I also want a proper sense of your choice of actions having an effect. Very few games these days allow for that.

I want to be able to do something in a game and genuinely fear what the consequences would be.

Ooh fucking yes. That's a terrific angle.

[Kemper_Boyd]

I think we will see more 'cinematic' games. I don't mean they'll
have lots of cut scenes. I'd hope to see more cinematic
camera movement, cutting from viewpoint to viewpoint, lighting
used to set tone and forward the narrative, careful use of slow
mo, picture in picture, moving the camera to reveal surprises/clues.
Overlays, fades, wipes etc. Dodge and burning elements in the scene,
using a colour palette for specific characters, sets and events.
The sorts of tricks we're used to seeing in films and barely notice.

It's the difference between filming a stage play and adapting it
for the movies, same story and characters but two very different
experiences.

[mightyzim]

Wasn't there that online site from EA about a secret esponiage agency or something. You had to put in your email address, telephone, fax and mobile numbers.
The idea was that as you progressed through the game you are contacted by different people (some friendly some not)
Anyway it all got pulled after sept 11th.

[t0ne]

I agree about the npc's effectively having their own "life" as it were and living it out and being affected by your actions. And the consequences thing is also hitting that nail on the head. On top of this, I want to be able to manipulate the environment fully. If I toss a grenade in a room, I want it to shred and burn the stuff in there. Fire a rocket into a building and I want to see walls explode and crumble. Pick a flower in a garden, or shuffle papers on a desk.
Go to a shop, buy whatever you want and use it however you want.

[Tmuk]

Go to a shop, buy whatever you want and use it however you want.

Oh yes. It used to piss me off so much that Guybrush wouldn't stab the chef with the knife in the kitchens when I was playing Monkey Island 2

[arron]

When every games company has gone bankrupt because they cannot evolve games anymore to be new and exciting, and the cost required to develop new products in both money and staff effort means that it is impossible to develop games anymore...then we will have tomorrow today.

Everything else is merely what we have at present

[flookster]

I know playing games can instill many feelings but I look forward to the day when a game can make me feel emotional and weepy the way Pay it Forward did or fill me with euphoria the way Gigantic by Pixies can.

[thalamus]

I personally think games have lost their direction. Is the only reason we want more realistic crowds because of the GTA influence? Is the reason we want to be able to do anything because of the things we currently can't?

I've always seen games - modern games, perhaps - like a novel; it's not the full picture, it's just a slice of the world. The story is written already, all you can do is play out that particular angle.

For me, the best games are those which impose a restriction on the character - the challenge is to solve a problem or make progress using only the things you have. This forces lateral thinking, and hence, makes things more challenging.

As for fear, well, I touched on this in my quote from the "50 Great Videogaming Moments" - the part in Crash Bandicoot where you know the boulder will follow you, and have no choice but to run.

There's also a point in Monkey Island where I thought Guybrush could die, and was genuinely scared to do anything (obviously, he then dies as a joke and the fear is removed).

Back to the present day, have innovations lost their impact because everything is so well publicised? There are no quantum leaps in videogqaming that come out of nowhere. We didn't suddenly wake up one day and find new machines on our doorsteps; there has been a traceable path, the element of surprise has been removed, and the number of WOW factors, as a result, lessened.

Ultimately, as a kid I remember standing in an arcade looking at the likes of Space Harrier and Starblade and wondering if I would ever be able to play something so spectacular at home. Now I can play them in the palm of my hands. I still find that amazing.

[arron]

I think that the scene is so big, with so much hype..it doesn't feel like you're touching the programmers anymore. Yak's games feel like they've been written by just him. They have quirks and odd graphical touches. They are Yak. After I finally got to meet Yak in person, then it surprising how you could see where both game and programmers are interrelated.

I think that as games are more commercial and predicatable product, there will be a need for quirky games with individual vision like Rez, Tempest et al..or it will all feel like homogenised synthetic crap.

As games develop on more capable, they will start to look like and feel like real life. And some people spend their time playing games to get away from real life..

[gravy]

For me I'd rather see realistic people. People who behave like real people behave. Not like in GTA where you shoot and they scream "OH MY GOD, HE'S GOT A GUN!" and then run a few metres and carry on like nothing ever happened. I'd like to stand in the middle of a throbbing city packed with people who are all GOING SOMEWHERE to DO SOMETHING. People with real attitudes. People who don't walk round in circles or repeat themselves over and over. I'd like to pull a gun out in the middle of that crowd and fire randomly and watch them scatter like a flock of birds, clambering over each other to get away... cars swerving and smashing into each other.

That for me would be realistic. The graphics already blow me away, they don't need to be any more photo-realistic. It's crowd dynamics and people behaviours that I want to see. To quote Pratchett:

"The collective IQ of a crowd is inversely proportional to the number of people in it."

That's it exactly

Yeah, the scene I keep siting is Deckard chasing Leon through the densely packed future city in Bladerunner. I want to be seeing / doing that

[arron]

Yeah, the scene I keep siting is Deckard chasing Leon through the densely packed future city in Bladerunner. I want to be seeing / doing that

Heh heh heh....

Have you got a surprise coming.. !

[Mayhem]

I think the same applies to any form of media in today's society. With the advent of better communications and the internet, many have been dissected and assessed before they are even released. Whereas before, the most you would find out about a film, or a TV program, or a new album before experiencing it for yourself would be reading a review, or happening to catch an article. A lot more mystery and hence a lot more potential enjoyment for not having the temptation to find out anything beforehand.

[thalamus]

...in fact... the only game I've played in the last 18 months which has made me stare in awe at the screen is Ico.

One of the most wonderfully beautiful games ever made. Period.

















Hehe. I said period.

[koworld]

Yeah, the scene I keep siting is Deckard chasing Leon through the densely packed future city in Bladerunner. I want to be seeing / doing that

Same one I had in mind. Maybe crossed with the scene in the Matrix when Neo and Morph (out of Take Hart, with Tony Hart) are walking against the flow of the walking commuters.