4 ms·

It's not an age-based bias. These games couldn't expand on graphics, so they expanded on the logic of the game. That made them interesting. Very few games do t

• Semaphor 3y ago
  > Very few games do that today I’d say quite a few. Just not AAA publisher shovelware.
• clhodapp 3y ago
  > ... These games couldn't expand on graphics, so they expanded on the logic of the game. That made them interesting. > > Very few games do that today ... The big new Zelda that just came out does exactly this. They took the shell of the last game and spent six years just making things to flesh out the game much further.
  • jeffbee 3y ago
    They spent 6 years making a game that is exactly the same at a high level with only slight changes to the details.
• mattmanser 3y ago
  High content, big budget, games still exist, e.g. Elden Ring + Zelda (as someone mentioned) are two recent releases. There's also plenty of sim games in the indie market, Factorio, Banished, Frostpunk. Then things that are close to the market like They Are Billions, Kenshi, etc. to name a few I've personally had time to play. Kenshi is a bit rough around the edges, but absolutely brilliant in terms of sandbox play. There's also the Endless series from Amplitutde studios, Endless Legend, Endless Space 1 + 2, that are of a vein of Civ games, plus they've recently brought out Humandkind (though to mixed reviews unfortunately). The popular sim genre in recent times has been more 3rd person building mixed with exploration, there was the wave of multiplayer ones like Minecraft, Rust, Arc Evolved, etc. And then single player ones like Subnautica, etc. So there's stuff out there if you want it, it's just not a very popular genre at the moment.
  • VadimPR 3y ago
    just mentioning that Humankind got fixed up and it's a fantastic and innovative take on Civ. The reviews don't do it justice.
  • WastingMyTime89 3y ago
    Let’s not forget all the Paradox games: City Skylines, Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron. Very much content over graphics.
    • Sargos 3y ago
      The others help your point but Cities Skylines is memed because it's graphics over substance as it's basically a city painting game with shallow mechanics that most people use to make little city dioramas which is still fun but not deep gameplay.
      • WastingMyTime89 3y ago
        People mostly complain that it’s not SimCity but the gameplay is fine. It’s in no way shallow. Just different.
        • cptcobalt 3y ago
          It has deeper micromanagement than, say, Planet Coaster, but it is not on the level of gameplay loop micromanagement as the like of SimCity or Roller Coaster Tycoon
      • massysett 3y ago
        The transportation mechanics in Skylines are quite complex and fun. The player can trace individual trips, and some of them matter quite a lot: the businesses need to get and ship their raw materials and finished goods, and the shops need customers. The budget mechanics are a joke, before long the player has practically endless money.
        • 3y ago
• jhbadger 3y ago
  But everything is relative. I started gaming in the early 1980s and so those 1990s/early 2000s games had incredible graphics compared to what I was used to. And I'm sure people who grew up earlier on things like 1970s Pong would think my 1980s games had amazing graphics. The argument "Games back then cared about gameplay rather than graphics" ignores that every era has tried to make graphics as good as possible; I'm sure the future will look at our nearly-photorealistic graphics of current games and find them quaint compared to their holographic graphics or whatever.
  • boredhedgehog 3y ago
    What amazes the audience might be relative, but there are objective components to different styles of graphics. Take clarity in communication. Pong is maximally clear: the background is black, an interactive object is white. Every white object is integral to the game. The further you move away from this ideal towards photorealism, the less clear this distinction becomes. You must add more UI elements on top to compensate for the loss of clarity, creating mounting tension between the functional and the ornate.
    • fendy3002 3y ago
      Playing witcher 3, I don't think it'll be enjoyable for me without the witcher senses. It really emphasis the interact-able things over the environment.
      • mrguyorama 3y ago
        It's why "just make everything have a billion polygons" is actually terrible game development. Scenes are so goddamn noisy nowadays that it's really hard to parse them.
        • Arrath 3y ago
          Sure does suck to find that camouflage is actually effective in shooters. When a bush has the gall to shoot you.
• pizza234 3y ago
  > but the trend now is to confuse the user with graphics while giving really little in term of content. You'll be surprised, but gaming magazines used to say the same thing(s) even in the 80s. It's a platitude. Fun thing: A famous game developer of that time, but can't remember which one, once said that "the name of game companies aren't creative enough". /shrug