Salsa_Shark: i agree the current gen seems to be lacking any really good games other than ME and the orange box.

Salsa_Shark: i agree the current gen seems to be lacking any really good games other than ME and the orange box.

klaymen: BUT U HAEV SHINY EPIC GRAPHIXXX!!!1 GAMEPLAY IS 4 NUBZ!1
Or at least that's how I see most of the new games.

Fenixp: How comes? Well, besides DRM and DLC madness... There were quite a few good games released lately.

Salsa_Shark: Unfortunately i dont see things changing in the near future other than prettier graphics. I think gameplay is starting to become less important as devs spend more time making there game look pretty.

Cambrey: The more blockbusters suck, the more we get conceptual (or not) indie games. Something good can come out of something bad.

Salsa_Shark: That's true. I've been getting into indie games lately and I've really enjoyed them. much more than i have alot of AAA titles.

Cambrey: 2009 was very prolific. Let's cross our fingers for 2010. :)

Arteveld: True, but that's how it's always been. I remember watching a great interview with Richard Garriott in which he described how games are made for specific hardware, where at first you make a game, later, someelse makes a better game, because of the hardware restrictions, then, new hardware comes out, and the cycle resets, companies make games that look better than the competition. Garriott also points out on how the hardware market develops. And frankly, i have to agree with him, we get a new GFX every year or so, and that's where everybody tries to focus their product.
Since i grew up on a C64, i was blessed with being able to see the cycle in slow motion [the c64 lived well for almost 10 years without any changes to the hardware]. I've seen the early games, then came graphics, and they got better and better, the music got better, but what was amazing, the gameplay didn't go to the bin. A good example are the Last Ninja series, which were kind of a landmark in the technological progress of the C54 [with LN3 failing on the gameplay aspect a bit].
I just feel a need to explain my "blaah"ing on the ME and Orange box, the first one didn't really impress me on any matter, just another action game with rpg aspects from Bioware. Hardly amusing if someone played BaK or Ultimas, and is hardly satisfied.;P
As for the Orange Box, well, that was a ripoff, i've already owned HL2 GOTY and EP1 when it came out, and it was a bit of a joke, no refund for the games one has already owned, and You paid a lot of money, for well, TF2, a ridiculously short episode of HL and a great, but short remake of a collage project game.
Indie games could be a good solution here, but they still focus on a "one idea stretched for the whole game" which seems more like a weekend project. Like VVVVVV, a nice retro game, but really tiresome afrer a while, and the price is funny too.. ;)
Can't wait for indie dev's to focus on variety.

Cedr: Everything is dumbed down for masses of casual gamers. I don't blame developers, I actually perfectly understand them. They need to make money. If it sells, they are making great job. Some of these game are not bad actually, but sometimes you want play something more mature, something more complex... and then what? Then you go back to good old games :) (and for the record I don't think that's the nostalgia googles talking, many of previous gen games I've discovered years later and still enjoyed them much more than i.e. Dragons Age)

Salsa_Shark: Im a bioware fanboy what can i say. The orange box is on my list for one reason and thats tf2. ive never had as much fun playing a game. I like half life 2 but the episodes might as well be another level in half life 2.

Arteveld: Well, i don't diss "fanboys" as long as they are lucid, i have a friend who is also all over anything Bioware releases [and he's quite protective there] but he agrees on the fact that ME was mostly a shooter, and ME2 is well, just a shooter. I somehow never saw anything special in them, i still have to finish their D&D rpgs [which is something i despise] juist for the same of finishing them. ;P
I agree with the episodes for HL2, i was very disappointed in them. But the price of OB was very high at it's time [especially that there only 2 titles that would interest me]. It's pretty cheap now, but somehow, i don't like rebuying something i already have. That's also something i have to add to the hatelist:
Forcing players to buy something they already have.