I replayed Neverwinter Nights base campaigns again not too long ago. Replayability used to be the standard, and for $20. I’m not paying $60+ for a 30hr game that lacks the compulsion to turn around and start up another play through. Granted, D&D 3.5 character builds are compelling on their own, but I digress.
Replayability was largely replaced with “content”. A good modern contrast is God of War and Resident Evil. Resident Evil embraces their tradition of replayability, God of War has an insane amount of “content” on a checklist to make a playtrough be a dollar an hour.
Except with God of War you get collectibles only visible from a certain angle or “puzzles” where the puzzle is an unreasonably short time limit to execute something obvious or an inordinately tight set of jumps to bad time.
Meanwhile in Resident evil every corner actual still has a purpose, like it did before.
Content makes a game replayable. RE was always replayable. On PlayStation 1, and now, on Steam. Neverwinter Nights was unusual in that it was intended to keep going in perpetuity via player crafted modules/campaigns, like D&D tabletop, and is not comparable to anything else.
my midrange vr gaming pc from 2017 is still playing games today so i don’t know if i’ll ever feel the need to drop $1.2K on a console. like when my pc finally dies i might just spend that same money on new parts lol
Somehow, I never had that first feeling. The first console that there ever was at my house was a PS2 (my dad’s), and the only game he purchased was a SNES Station. So I kinda grew up playing only pixelated games. Turns out I got too used to it and play almost no realistic games.
My expectations were far lower, without me realising it, as a child.
I remember getting Mortal Kombat 4, on the N64, and thinking “holy shit, the graphics are so good!!! SO 3D!”
In most games I find no matter how good the static assets look, the animations immediately break the illusion of ‘realism’.
One recent exception to this were some of the cutscenes in Expedition 33, the facial mocap was very on-point and, even though the game isn’t anywhere close to photorealistic, it felt close to watching real actors perform a scene.
Might I suggest Doom Patrol? Umbrella Academy was inspired pretty much entirely by Doom Patrol and Gerard Way dropping the ball on his run at the series.
As a teenager, I warned people that at a certain point, we will reach the diminishing returns of investment on graphics. I was called a “Mario playing child” by my peers.
I started to feel validated since 2016. And the “DEI-jaw” chud gamers like to whine about is also likely created by the too much faith in how much current graphics can recreate realism accurately.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne