110°

The Future is Social (And That's Not A Bad Thing)

"Back in 2011, veteran game designer Mark Cerny made the bold prediction that “the traditional single player experience will be gone in three years”. At the time I scoffed. And justifiably. Although multiplayer was booming and social features were beginning to ingratiate themselves into campaigns, we were only months away from some of the best purely single player oriented games ever released – Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, Skrim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Batman: Arkham City to name just a few. At the time, there seemed to be a bright and healthy future for games of that ilk, but we are now a year and a half on from these comments and it has become increasingly clear in that time that Cerny was right. The future is social, and that’s not a bad thing." (Damien Lawardorn, OnlySP.com)

fermcr4043d ago (Edited 4043d ago )

If the future is something similar to Diablo 3 and Simcity and all it's social crap, then it's not a bad thing... it's a horrible thing for gaming.

saladthieves4043d ago

Anytime a game starts to incorporate microtransactions and social features, it just stinks.

MysticStrummer4043d ago

It's not horrible as long as it's entirely optional.

matrixman924043d ago

i hate everybody...so it sucks

DragonKnight4043d ago

You know what will destroy all this "always connected" social B.S. that developers are trying to push down everyone's throat? A failed network connection. Single player games are essential, and the option to play without all of this social stuff is essential too. There is no such thing as a 100% consistently stable connection. And if gaming moves into something where the Single Player is the most watered down, tacked on experience while the multiplayer and social aspects receive all the attention, then count me out. I'll stick to playing the classic games that still to this day are of greater quality experiences than the Present (and looks to be Future) games.

JeepGamer4043d ago

They're trying to tap in to that Facebook market so bad.

DeadlyFire4043d ago

They will eventually. One day even a blind man learns about sex.

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70°

Dark Souls: Archthrones Reaffirms Modding Is The Best Thing To Happen To Games

"Dark Souls: Archthrones is like playing a brand new FromSoftware game, and that speaks volumes about just how much good modding can do," says Hanzala from eXputer.

80°

The prevalence of parrying: Why is it so popular?

Parrying has been creeping into more games, with almost every high-profile title of the last few years featuring it in some way.  Why?

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gamespew.com
phoenixwing35d ago (Edited 35d ago )

i understand the authors frustration i'm not the best at parrying in games. not that i can't complete a game that requires it but it is a definite harder thing for me than other kinds of techniques in games. which might be the main reason it's so heavily added in games nowadays. want to make your game challenging without having to do a lot of work? just add a parry boss. (what i mean by parry boss is a boss you have to beat by parrying such that their attacks will kill you otherwise)

Dudeson35d ago (Edited 35d ago )

I always think it's fine as long as such games also have the roll/dodge panic button. But I understand the will to parry, it seems so cinematic in a fight when you pull it off.

320°

Most Offensive Video Games That Would Never Cut It Today

Times are changing, and these games would have never been made in today's climate.

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wealthofgeeks.com
thorstein39d ago (Edited 39d ago )

Every single time someone uses this phrase whether it's music, movies, books, comics, video games, etc it's always the same claim.

The ubiquitous "they" won't allow it to be made. And every decade these claims are made the claimant completely ignores all the "offensive" material that is published when the claim is made.

In ten years, you can write a new article about how you can't make games like Helldivers 2, Resident Evil VIII, Mortal Kombat I, Dragon's Dogma 2, Alan Wake 2 etc etc etc any more.

MrBaskerville38d ago

Yeah, people wouldn't be constantly outraged if there weren't games that people found enraging. The whole SBI discourse shit wouldn't be a thing if all games were inoffensive. A game like Starfield can make a guy froth at his mouth, so there will always be room for a list like this.

0hMyGandhi37d ago

Normally, I'd be inclined to agree with you, but there are massive caveats.
TV shows like Venture Bros, Ren and Stimpy, and Aqua Team wouldn't/couldn't be made today. Hell, Ren and Stimpy was a *children's* show, same thing with Rocko's Modern Life.

It's not for some arbitrary reason, either. It's branding and IP alignment. Companies are far more risk-averse than they were when I was kid in the 90's. Of course, you have companies coming out of the woodwork to hell spur on similar content, but remember: Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon and some incredibly provocative material.

And for movies? it's pretty obvious. American Pie/Wedding Crashers/Eurotrip among many other "raunch coms" have fallen out of style, and are absolutely outside what the modern day film industry is willing to stand by.
Ace Ventura 1 and 2, Dumb and Dumber, Freddy Got Fingered, Rat Race, Harold and Kumar, and Van Wilder follow suit.

Remember: I am not explicitly talking about films put onto streamers. I am talking wide-releases in actual theaters. Same thing goes for games: Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Manhunt, Six Days In Fallujah (with their original concept), Hatred, and so on and so forth. Of course, I'd be inclined to mention most tactical shooters like Rainbow Six and Joint Ops as well, due to cultural sensitivity regarding *who* you are shooting and why.

And not all of it is bad (obviously). Tastes change, and perspectives change to fit the demographic.
I should add that I'm a lefty, living in L.A. Working in film.

thorstein37d ago

The Boys, Invincible, Jojo Rabbit, Deadpool, Gen V, Last of Us, Banshee... There are plenty of media being made today that people will claim "can't be made today".

Profchaos37d ago

Yeah but if you consider manhunt which was basically a snuff film could you seriously make that game with high than PS2 era graphics.

thorstein37d ago

The Outlast Trials just came out.

But the storyline of Manhunt was that you were executed. But then lived. And if you didn't do as you were told, you'd die. And the people you killed were not innocents.

It was all filmed by a psychopath.

As we speak GTA VI is being finished up for a release. You get to play a Bonnie and Clyde type of protagonist who run up against the law.

Bodycam looks so real.

People are making those games. Articles like this will always exist no matter how incorrect they are, no matter how many times they blame "them" for whatever it is "they" do to prevent "those" games from being made.

Number1TailzFan38d ago

The UK is the biggest junk country pandering to that nonsense as well, with laws against free speech and expression to match. It got so bad even Rowan Atkinson made a video on free speech about it.

Now the UK raises the age rating on harmless films like Mary Poppins, it's just a load of pansy weak ass nonsense.

MrDead37d ago (Edited 37d ago )

The right wing Tories have been in power in the UK for the 14 years you know the ones that are "anti-woke", blame them for your perceptions.

Killer2020UK37d ago (Edited 37d ago )

Are these snowflakes in the room with us now?

This is more faux outrage designed to get hits. The consequences are unfortunately creating hysteria amongst those willing to buy into it and blame "them" or "the left" or "liberals" meanwhile the left are kicking off about genocide, actual real world abhorrent acts. Nobody is campaigning to censor this shit.

Huey_My_D_Long37d ago

Not too mention the fact that some of these game are controversial for you know, underage porn and encouraging rape.

So either the guy just came in to comment snowflakes without reading anything, or he is calling people snowflakes for having a problem with said titles. Crazy how much brain rot someone can have.

banger8838d ago

Dead Island: "The early PC version of the zombie game swapped the playable character Purna’s Gender Wars skill with a prototype name, which shouldn’t be mentioned directly. The skill name made fun of both Purna as a character and feminists."

"Feminist Whore" lmao

gold_drake38d ago

ill add one more to the list.
drakengard 1.

its ridiculous tho, especially since they'd still be able to find their place in alot of places in the world. except america of course ha. and maybe Australia.

ppl are so sensitive these days. ha. but it is what it is.

Barlos38d ago (Edited 38d ago )

They're not offensive.

And we need another Fat Princess. Fantastic little game!

Some people just have no sense of humour if this sort of thing offends them. They need to lighten up and stop taking themselves so seriously.

Deeeeznuuuts38d ago

Would love a new fat princess game 🤟

CantThinkOfAUsername38d ago

Games literally about sexual assault, mass genocide, bombing civilians, and school shooting. None of which is satirical.

isarai38d ago

Actually it's about fat princesses

Huey_My_D_Long37d ago (Edited 37d ago )

Its crazy that people are fixated on Fat princess when clearly the list is going over controversies, and not all of them are equal. Like way worse examples but pretend the entire list is like that.

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