My problem with next-gen games...
 

Well, as much as I love these graphics and the opportunites for new technology... well, coming from animation and direction (now, thanks to a new job) I'm starting to find myself underwhelmed by next-gen games.

Why?

a) Game creators still don't understand about visual narrative and how to tell a story. That people PLAYTEST their interactive direction even in first person and hone it from the ground up this way, rather than have someone on board that already knows the tricks in how to make a flat, 2D surface work for you, and thus waste hours and possibly more money, amazes me. But there ya go.

b) and this is a BIG B)... animation.

I see a lot of eye candy hanging off of overused mocap and poor animation routines with absolutely NO subtlety. I love Oblivion, truly I do... I WANT to play it... but the animation lacks any kind of interest for me. The ideas are great, but the execution? Sure, I understand it's not possible to run through Pixar routines, but the truth is, this kind of thing is a deal breaker in believing in a world. You could with Morrowind, for example, because fundamentally we're asked to step over an imaginative threshold into the world because it's presentation wasn't lifelike. Now, as characters reach a point where it's becoming uncanny, having the same stiff routines as games over 5 years old doesn't cut the mustard and can break effect.

Truth is, until games actually suit their overall sheen from very fundemental levels, I'm always going to feel a little out of the picture.

Anyone else feel the same way?

I've felt overwhelmed since last generation. The market has become so oversaturated and there is way too much to choose from.

Can't wait until the market crashes, like twenty years ago.

the game market crashed 20 years ago?

In arcades, yes. Noob.

Dont have to be so mean about it :frown:
*sniff*

There are a few gripes I have with next-gen. First of all, like the developer of ICO said, he is afraid that with better graphics, all the games will start looking the same. The guy from the Behemoth had a very nice analogy. He said would you rather go to a museum and watch real photos, or would you rather see paintings? That's the drawback of having animations that look like real life. All the games are starting to look similar.

If you look at a game like Okami on the other hand, you can't help but fall in love with the art style. I wish developers really give their own touch to the art and animation of the games, and not fall into the "make it as real as possible" thinking.

And yes, like SamNMax said, there is far too much choice, and I'm not sure if the demand is going to scale to that level. I expect a lot more publishers and developers to be eaten up by EA or to just cease to exist.

EDIT: Like this for example :frusty:

I still don't understand the argument that better technology takes away a developer's ability to be artistic (and there's more to an art style than just "realistic or cartoony"... Call of Duty and Project Gotham Racing both attempt to look realistic but they still have very different aesthetics, for obvious reasons). There's no reason for advanced hardware to limit a developer's artistic possibilities.

As for animation and such, I agree that there's still a lack of polish thus far. However, we need to remember that the "next generation" is still quite new, and we're currently seeing products rushed to make release.

Hehe, funny thing Squarejaw, I've been bitching about animation for a loooong time. Of course there's a bias since I'm an animator in the industry, but really, its seemingly the last frontier of quality. The crap that gets passed as animation is rather remarkable. Top tier games, with high quality models and overall production quality, seem to only make it as far as 'technically sound animation', but with no soul. Any reasonable animator can make a walk cycle or death anim(worst offenders btw!), but does it have character or emotion?(of course many game anims don't/won't have emotion, but at least character no?! :D ) Oh and mocap...well thats just a non-issue. Sure even I have had to do cleanup(which isn't bad btw...its kind of relaxing), but it just isn't "animation" on any level so...but yea, the verisimilitude has increased exponentially in models and textures, but animation hasn't ever really 'evolved', as its almost entirely technology independent, so we have the lack of talent to blame. When you look at games like ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, Jak and Daxter, Mark of Kri, Sly Cooper and so on, there really is just no excuse.

Ultimately though, on topic, this has been rampant for some time, so I dont see it as having anything to do specifically with next gen. There's no reason those animators that spew forth the crap working on last gen are going to get any better for next. Working on an Unreal3 project, I have some great peeks into what Epic is offering for 'next gen' animation toolsets, but it means little if the talent isn't there.

Hell, overall, the size of the modeling/texturing workforce that can compete with overachieving next gen talent has shrunk significantly. We're going to see an influx of hyper normals mapped junk(there's no such thing as hyper normals mapping...I meant the volume we'll see :9 ) simply because shaders can mask poor artwork. The people that are talented now are only going to perform even better with near limitless technological options, while the less talented, that were able to 'get away with' lesser quality as the technology wasn't as demanding nor expectations as high, are going to drown. Actually this isn't true, as SOMEONE has to do the work, and there's more work than truly qualified people to do it, so I guess they're in luck. :frusty:

So my disappointment(though minor as it is) lies with the extreme power of these beautiful machines, and very few developers to truly exploit it.


Cheers

From what I've heard having state of the art graphics is already making games more expensive and hard to develop, so making them less "soulless" does seem like a bit too much to ask for...

For now that is...

Well I think the problem is that it is way too expensive to build games for these platforms, so developers have to fall onto third party middleware like the Unreal Engine. When every game is being developed using the same engine, they would tend to look alike.

Another point is what Tanukitsune just said. The push for graphics as a seller, puts more emphasis on looking realistic than it does on being artistic.

I guess I just don't see realism and artistry as being seperate concepts. I mean, Final Fantasy X looks "realistic" (as in, it looks convincing), but there's no way the actual locations and outfits exist in the real world.

This is why ninty is working on a revolution.;)

I don't know what to say... But yes, the market will crash eventually, every kind of market does eventually. Eventually people WILL get sick of the many Doom 3 clones with extra polygones. And eventually there will be a lack of original ideas and people will probably bring back some older concepts. Like the new james bond game.

If games are going to end up being like EA's Bond games then, frankly, I'm not interested ;).

It was an example. I never said it was a good one. ;)

The market isn't going to crash like it did back in the mid 80s (and even then, it was only a partial crash that mostly affected the console and arcade markets, as PC games were still doing pretty well). It might hit a slump (like the movie industry), but I see absolutely nothing to indicate an upcoming crash.

Just like people here got sick of the many King's Quest clones with extra colors, right? ;) Though if you could name some of the "many" Doom 3 clones I'd be quite interested.

Well you cant really compare the gaming world in the 80s to todays gaming market. People now-a-days have loads of money for the budget and if they dont have something unique it wont do well, we know have much better technology and so many engines of different styles. Meanwhile back then you either had 16 colour or black & white. Get my point?


Lets see, Quake 4 and Doom 3 are terribly alike, just a few improvements, Painkiller was also clonish, and thos eare the only really new ones I can think of, but like I said before, think about the different time settings. ;)

Exactly. Today it's a multi-billion dollar industry with gigantic, established companies as the biggest players. There's not going to be a crash because a few hardcore people are bored, no matter how much they secretly want one.

And I'm sorry, listing three similar games (hell, let's toss FEAR in there too) doesn't really impress me. :P You say that "people" are sick of them, but... most of them aren't. I mean, they sell well, and certainly represent a step up from previous generation action-oriented FPS (especially in presentation). And if people don't feel like playing one of the four horror-themed FPS to come out in the past couple years, there are many, many other games for them to choose from, spread out over many genres. The PS2 alone has over 2,000 titles available.

I agree that games are going a little crazy and I miss the basic great games of past.

The originality in games like Doom 3 or F.E.A.R. is... Well there's no originality in them. The graphics are plastic, the whole interface is boring and I honestly cannot find any plot in those games. I concider games to be art, something that tells you a story and in ideal situation the game is unique and makes you ponder. I've discussed this subject with my friend who plays alot of FPS-games yet he enjoys adventure too. His opinion was that games are just games. Nothing to do with art nor originality and their main purpose is to entertain. I disagree strongly with this but I accept the fact that not everyone wants to spend their time wondering what they should do with the current puzzle etc.