I don't feel like it. Care to persuade my opinion?

This times infinity.

Rockstar still makes highly enjoyable game. LA Noire? RDR? Yeahhh. They still make good games and I haven't really played much GTA of the newer game(s) but it looks better to me.

The old GTA's when I played I ran around shooting up [censored], so to me its all the same with no story.

I don't believe I said the graphics, storyline, dialogues have anything to do with console. I'm not that into "story" in the first place, so that's not the reason I think gaming overall is going "downhill" - since story is largely a heavy criticism aimed at RPG games, not the gaming industry as a whole. What I meant is that I don't want console-limited GUI's and interfaces because the companies don't want to make two versions of a game. The giant menu interfaces, the scroll-down for everything menus, etc. Gameplay wise, what I notice is the combat - controls that feel obviously designed originally for consoles, vs. keyboard/mouse. There are some things that do work better on console controllers, but plenty of things/options that are more interesting/complex-optioned when designed for a keyboard/mouse. I see less and less of the latter.

The kind of interface the old Might and Magic's had, or a lot of older RTS games, for example, can't be replicated on a console controller and thus gameplay for those genres can/does becomes affected, because the options and the way certain gameplay things are presented/options become .... less (interesting to me). Or, at the least, (big-name) games like those become almost non-existent because companies seem to be going in the "if it can't work on both consoles/PC's, then we'll just go with consoles." That's more what I meant.

Yes, there's that too.

But GTA IV has possibly the greatest vehicle damage in a game. Realistic gunfights, and no more of that dual wielding and posse thing from the previous game instead you can go bowling with Roman.

Games have been going downhill since Mario Bros. 3

Every five minutes.

Publishers are going to go for mass appeal, which usually comes at the expense of innovation and complexity as well as whole genres that don't translate well to consoles like RTS games. That's one of the reasons I'm fond of Kickstarter. We would probably never see Wasteland 2 or (hopefully) Planetary Annihilation if it were left up to the publishers.

Yeah I hope he was kidding about that...

I now bowl like an angel.

Yes.
I have high hopes for Kickstarter, as a means of consumers being able to show what they'd like to see in games, via their dollar support in actually getting it made.

Ok, I get what you mean but I don't agree. Interface and menus designed for console soesn't bother me. It takes 1 click to do. I don't even notice it. I was thinking more of the line of graphics, sound, story, gameplay etc.

What do you do if you're not happy?

Don't buy the game.

That's why I don't touch most EA sports titles.

However sometimes the "evil" companies can surprise you.

I was really put off what Activision were doing with the "Call Of Duty" franchise, as it looked like they were rinsing and repeating year after year.

Some stuff is definately going downhill but in some areas there is improvement.

Heck even EA is like an alcoholic unclue that everyone really likes who surprises you with good stuff like "Dead Space", "Alice: The Madness Returns", "Skate", "Mirror's Edge" and "Kindgoms Of Amalur" but then occaisionally falls off the wagon and goes on a binge stuffing a SHOP feature in every game and havng people pay money to max out their sports characters.

Vote with your wallet and always let the publisher or developer know when they do good or bad.

Az

(Edited for stuff having snuck in there that shouldn't have been there)

Oh absolutely, but we're not talking about good games; OP's discussing games that used to be good once, but aren't anymore. In my opinion, these games are not worth playing - yes, they belong to a beloved series and we thoroughly enjoyed their predecessors, but they don't have this something anymore, so why bother?

It's not necessarily the developers' fault. Everything has to end someday, we can't play 846 sequels to the same game, it's just boring! I don't know if FIFA is going downhill because the last time I played is was about 10 years ago, but honestly: football is football, how innovative can every new release be? There's only that many features you can put in before you hit the wall.

And while some game franchises are slowly deteriorating, others rise up and take their place. Strategy games have had some brilliant moments recently; new IPs, rare as they are, all look interesting: Dishonored, Sleeping Dogs, Watch Dogs come to mind.
Far Cry 3 looks good. The Witcher 3, whenever it comes, will probably be as good as its predecessors. The Elder Scrolls are being experimented with, so is Fallout (with mixed results). Dark Souls are incredible.

I see this disturbing trend, that's true, but I also see the last Steam sale and people buying a ton of indie games. I remember how I used to fight on the forum-that-shall-not-be-named when Dragon Age 2 was announced, and how I felt offended by Bioware's decisions, but it was no good - the only way to make them listen is to vote with my wallet.

We can blame the obsession with graphics or consoles or developers blinded by new technology and forgetting where they come from (vide Windows 8), or even mass-market. In the end it doesn't matter. There are still studios that make great games and instead of pondering the bad sides of industry we should focus on the good ones. Ultimately, we're the ones who make decisions - it's the developers' job to figure out our motivations and adjust.

The UI can bother me quite a bit, I easily consider the UI to be the main flaw of Skyrim. Too much scrolling and clicking is needed to do what you want to do with the inventory, and you have to do often. Don't like the skill UI at all either.

Look at a side by side visual reference of San Andreas vs GTA IV. If you dont think there were visual improvements, your lying to yourself.

As for gameplay, it's been majorly improved IMO, though this is arguable. It may not be as long as San Andreas, but they added a much better physics engine and made the game ultimately easier to play and get into. Some people don't like this. I do.

As for writing wise, the humor is still there. It's been there in all GTA games and if you can't see it, nostalgia is holding you back. The story is also much more realistic. Some don't like this, but I very much do. I was annoyed with San Andreas on how it had some very far out missions that were just way too over the top.

Only dumbed down thing worth missing, is the monsters and Easter eggs.

Now look at RDR. They advertised the best free roam game mode on the market was it? No. Compared to GTAs free roam, it was nothing. Multiplayer speaking free roam, not SP.

Aye, always drives me nuts when I'm playing on PC and the inventory (or looking at skills, or whatever) takes three times as long because it's not designed for KB/mouse.

There are other non-GUI things too sometimes, tho....but I can't think of a specific example at the moment. The general thing however, is when I'm playing a game and I'll think "hey, it would be cool if you could do this or this in the game" (a certain combat strategy perhaps) and then I realize it wouldn't be possible because the design of the game would make such a thing not accessible to controllers because they don't have enough "hotkeys" to support it.

I think it's all down to personal preference. It's not optimal but it's not bad. IMO.

There are visual improvements. Are they worth talking about? Hell no. Is it a big improvement? No. Does it still look shabby? Yes. Is it good graphics vs the price you pay? No.
Humor: Yes it's still there. Thank god.
Gameplay: I feel it's stagnated. Can I pleace customixe my character somewhat?
Story: Realistic? It's more realicstic, yes, but it's so far from reality that it doesn't make any difference.

It's definitely an issue of the casual gamer vs the hard core gamer/enthusiast. Lately, i'm seeing games that are taking steps in the right direction, yet several of the hardcoe gamers bash them down. These individuals are also the ones that believe anyone who believes the games are good aren't true gamers and infact are company boot lickers.

Encountered such a player on this forum concerning a game who bashed my opinion. I just had to let it go since there was no talking sense into him/her/it.


Yup, console gaming was separated from PC gaming. But that shattered, atleast imho, with the introduction of online gaming for the console. Soon people wanted the same treatment they got from PCs with online console gaming. This really got the developers to thinking about cross platforms and intertwining things. Feels way too similar to that debate concerning MMO gamers with hardcoe vs casual play.

I think the MMO market got hit the worst when WoW was released where you had people soloing more than 70% of the game's content. Players just get things handed to them lately and companies just aren't realizing what the problem is, or they chose to ignore it.

What may need to happen is a second video game crash for companies to realize "Hey this formula isn't working" and revamp their designs. Only companies that I even remotely trust now are Valve, Bethesda, and Capcom to a minor extent. With Capcom rebooting Devil May Cry, having that stupid emo Dante pansy, i'm really digusted.

As far as consoles vs PC, the only problem I have is that publishers are going after the consoles first and then taking it or equaling it out on PC. Look at the uncut fallout new Vegas mods for example. The top reason why so much stuff was gutted was because the memory on consoles could not handle it so they trimmed the fat on consoles, did they leave it for PC users? No, they were designing towards the consoles in mind first. If one system couldnt handle something, they gutted it for everyone.
Then look at doom 3, theres alot of levels and areas gutted from the console version but left in the PC version. Its fine things were cut in doom 3 because of hardware limitations and they did ot in a way u would have never noticed the difference unless u played it on PC.

That is where I think the problems lies. Not superior mentality, but the trimming the fat and goodies to make everyones experience the same when it used to be there was a difference. Games came out on PC first then got ported to consoles, now we have consoles first and then ported to PC and because of such the quality and amount of content gets chopped. They are sacrificing content to cater to the mass appeals.
Used to be qualoty first and at same time be able to rake in the cash over time, now they sacrifise content and quality to make the money now.

I think I have to agree with this, Indie developers and small studios tend to be more imaginative. In my opinion at least.

I think it depends on the platform. I've heard it's okay using an Xbox controller, but it's nasty on PCs, and has a number of bugs that don't exactly enhance the experience. The SkyUI project makes it less painful, but it still can't fix all its problems.

I honestly don't know how you can think this. GTA IV introduced dynamic lighting, realistic shine on cars and glass, and everything else when it rains, the textures are far higher resolution, the models are more detailed, the colour palette is far more refined, I could go on and on. There's no comparison, GTA IV is infinitely better looking.

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/sleeping-dogs-proves-that-an-unlikely-champion-of-modern-pc-games-is...-sq

Pushed by a Japanese publisher, surprisingly. They tend to be pretty console focused.