Shooting is boring. We're stuck in a rut.

[barkbat]

Yeah I love Grim Fandango. Still listen to the soundtrack regularly. Sad that genre just died on its arse while the world went potty over RTS games. People are shit.

Don't think Uncharted warrants the £300 odd expenditure to play it, but thanks for the tip off.

Edit: Ico was lovely too. But even then most of the drama was wrought by beating shadows with a stick. Same goes for most of the other ones you mention - all charming games that do more than most to broaden horizons, but still cling to the notion that when you press a button something must get closer to dying.

[Vemsie]

Don't think Uncharted warrants the £300 odd expenditure to play it, but thanks for the tip off.

It doesn't.

Good game though.

[Campfire_Burning]

What kind of bizarro 2009 are you living in?

Okay, I haven't seen any polls from this year, but I'm pretty sure Sonic came first in the last Game poll to find the most popular video game character.

Sonic, Mario, Link, Lara Croft, Master Chief - they all rate highly on those kinds of polls, and none of them is as well-developed as the main characters in Michael Bay's Transformers. Which is saying something.

[Vemsie]

Edit: Ico was lovely too. But even then most of the drama was wrought by beating shadows with a stick. Same goes for most of the other ones you mention - all charming games that do more than most to broaden horizons, but still cling to the notion that when you press a button something must get closer to dying.

Well, it's true that most games are centered around conflict. Which is why Flower really is breath of fresh air. Even though you could say it's about the conflict between men and nature, it's an incredibly peaceful experience.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the satire in GTA IV and its DLC, even though most of the mission were all about killing. Still, at least it has something to say and it's dialogue was better than most of the stuff Hollywood comes up with these days.

[Cthulhu Steev]

And then put it back and play Grim Fandango instead,

Yes! Even better, play them both!

ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Braid, Flower...

Of course, good call! (I've never played Braid though )

Don't think Uncharted warrants the £300 odd expenditure to play it, but thanks for the tip off.

It doesn't no, but if you do have a PS3 it's a fantastic Saturday afternoon/night matinee-like slice of fun.

[df0notfound]

too many FPS games with masked or bald protagonists

[SM47]

This thread is a load of stuff about nothing. Games from 30 years ago are shit. Games today are amazing. You do the maths.

[Beitel]

It seems that the time for indie games has really come, because many of the most interesting games in the last few months have been on Xbox Live (Braid, coming to PC at the end of this month!) and PSN (Flower, Nobi Nobi Boy). I also had much fun with a text adventure and a platformer. And let's not forget World of Goo. It's time to go indie, it seems.

[Beta]

Couldn't agree more with the OP. I got into gaming with stuff like Grim Fandango and Little Big Adventure 2, and spent my youth working through the LucasArts back catalogue and other similar titles. There are definitely games still being released that I still enjoy, but it's a shame that the target is marketed so heavily towards shooters and the like these days.

Case in point: Bioshock. The creators have go on record saying they started the game as an RPG, and only after early testing decided to make it a shooter. It's very disappointing that a game which has had so much effort put into its characters and setting only let's you interact with either by killing stuff. I'd have loved to have been able to talk to some of the important NPCs of the game, or had opportunities to interact with the environment that weren't done just to facilitate speedier killing.

I suppose my ideal game is something like Deus Ex, where combat is an option but by no means necessary, and there are plenty of other means to interact with your environment. The last game I can think of coming anywhere close to that was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (for the first two thirds of the game, at least).

[poppa_f]

I suppose my ideal game is something like Deus Ex, where combat is an option but by no means necessary, and there are plenty of other means to interact with your environment. The last game I can think of coming anywhere close to that was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (for the first two thirds of the game, at least).

Give Thief 2 a go, sprawling non-linear levels and direct confrontation generally a bad idea.

RIP Looking Glass

[DarhkFox]

Strangely, i have never really been into FPS/Shooting games until lately - so its not really bothering me at the mo!

But i do agree, there are far too many shooting games on the market. What happened to awesome platform games? (which ironically where the FPS genre of the 16 bit consoles)

[Sketch]

I noticed this after downloading about a dozen PS3 demos.

They are ALL the same fucking thing. Uncharted, MGS4, FEAR, kane and Lynch, and it kind of dawned on...

It's almost like they're all exactly the same game, albeit with a different plot and textures.

This is why I'm playing games like Kenzan, Aquaunauts, Hakuna Matata, Valkyria Chronicles and so on. All vastly different and fairly unique (ish).

[Majora]

This is why I find stuff like Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain so interesting. Fahrenheit was flawed in many ways but I applaud the ambition behind it to tell a meaningful story (at least initially) with gameplay that doesn't just say 'get past these enemies' or 'here's a contrived puzzle, now solve it.'

I was saying this in another thread but while I love my Fallout 3 and Half-Life 2, I'd love to see worlds and narratives with that attention to detail brought to life without the need to constantly shoot things in the face. Conflict doesn't have to be all about 'me vs them' but when you consider how well shooters sell at the moment it's no surprise it's the dominant genre.

[Robo_1]

Case in point: Bioshock. The creators have go on record saying they started the game as an RPG, and only after early testing decided to make it a shooter. It's very disappointing that a game which has had so much effort put into its characters and setting only let's you interact with either by killing stuff. I'd have loved to have been able to talk to some of the important NPCs of the game, or had opportunities to interact with the environment that weren't done just to facilitate speedier killing.

Never knew that, and what a shame they didn't stick to their guns (bad pun not intended).

I adore the atmosphere and setting of Bioshock, but I find the combat pure trudge. A Bioshock game where I could have uncovered the mystery by talking to NPC's and exploring the world would have been a thousand times preferable to the poor FPS the setting was so clumsily saddled to.

[Boozy The Clown]

[Elliott]

I was asking somebody what a good Live game was that wasn't Fifa 2009 or a shooting game. The best he could come up with was Fifa 2008.

[Stoikovich]

I was asking somebody what a good Live game was that wasn't Fifa 2009 or a shooting game. The best he could come up with was Fifa 2008.

Skate!

SFIV!

PGR4!

though admittedly street fighter is 'just hitting things' and PGR is 'just driving in circles', both of which have been done a fair bit through the years.

[Gabe]

I don't really understand some of the views held in this thread; saying all shooters are the same is like saying all revenge films are the same, as are all romantic comedies, etc. And to a degree, yeah, they *are* all the same - but each is different from the last, even if only slightly. For me it is almost about the stories games tell, and how I get from the start to the end - much in the same way that I'll watch a romantic comedy despite knowing what will happen at the end.

Books, films, games - they are all the same, really.

[Campfire_Burning]

I don't really understand some of the views held in this thread; saying all shooters are the same is like saying all revenge films are the same, as are all romantic comedies, etc. And to a degree, yeah, they *are* all the same - but each is different from the last, even if only slightly. For me it is almost about the stories games tell, and how I get from the start to the end - much in the same way that I'll watch a romantic comedy despite knowing what will happen at the end.

Books, films, games - they are all the same, really.

There is a much wider scope in the romantic comedy genre than there is in the first person shooter genre. Even if you take two games from extremes of the genre - Stranger's Wrath and Nerf Arena Blast, say - they're still very similar. Much moreso than something like Some Like It Hot and Being John Malkovich. Even if you add Space Invaders into the mix it's not massively different to Gears of War. You're still shooting aliens while hiding behind brick walls. And that's an absurd comparison, but it doesn't make it any less true.

I can appreciate that gaming is still in its infancy, but thirty years after the birth of cinema people weren't still saying "Let's watch another film about a train coming right towards us."

[Karzee]

Why can't we have games about characters and emotions and relationship? Why can't we have games about jealousy and love and family and remorse?

Rick: War! War! Bloody war! Why can't they have stories about love and peace?

Vyvyan: Because it's sissy, you girly!

Rick: I'm not being girly, Vyvyan. Longing for a peaceful world is not being girly.

Vyvyan: It is! It's being soppy and very very girly!

Rick: I AM NOT BEING G...Look, this entire discussion is completely sexist anyway and I don't intend to continue it! [pause] But, for your information, it is not soppy of me to long for a world where a man will love his brother.

Vyvyan: Poof!

Rick: For one man to love another, Vyvyan, is not poofy. It's actually very beautiful. It's only when they start touching each others bottoms that it gets poofy.

Vyvyan: I'm going to tell Mike and Neil that you said you love men. Hey, Mike...

Rick: Look, all I said was this comic is a reactionary militaristic pamphlet! All they ever do is fight all the time!

Vyvyan: And what's so wrong with that? I suppose you think we should all go around touching each others bottoms! 'Dan Dare touches The Mekon's bottom!' 'Exciting new story: Batman gooses the Joker's crack!'

[delb2k]

I just think shooting is the action film of gaming. Easy to produce, something everyone gets and rarely deviates from the norm. There are alternatives though, in fact plenty of them. Viva Pinata, Flower, Lego platformers, Tomb Raider, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Boom Blox, Zak and Wiki, any Mario title just about, any Sonic title (bar the awful shadow one), Braid, Marble Blast Ultra, PixelJunk Eden, Nobi Nobi Boy, just about any Racer, Fahernheit, the upcoming Heavy Rain, the old Jet Set Radio titles, Wario Ware, Cubello, World of Goo and tons more.

We have never had it so good variety wise and yes, not all of it is very good, not all of it is AAA but if you take the time to look around you`ll notice there is something different just about everywhere.