Have games spoiled you?

Hey guys, new to the forums but certainly not new to GiantBomb. Anyway, I was wondering, have advances in video games (whether it be from a technical, artistic, or storytelling standpoint) spoiled you? After playing through The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite this year (and thoroughly enjoying both) I decided to go hunt for some old games to play over the summer. I ended up playing through parts of FFVII, a game which I loved and respected for storytelling as a kid. Going through it now, I find myself cringing at the writing and plot and I find it crazy that I loved the game as much as I did. Now, I'm sure that some of this experience has to do with my maturation as a person, but I also find some of these feelings being translated into newer games as well. If a triple-A game isn't bringing the same level of polish or craft that something like a Last of Us brings to the table I find it hard to keep the same level of interest. I can of course respect games that try to do something new but are flawed, but games that simply rehash old concepts with a different coat of paint or a different spin just don't cut it for me anymore. I remember enjoying B-tier romps like Battlefield B-Company or Singularity, but these days I feel like I'm looking to play games that I know will be making top ten lists come the end of the year.

Anyone else have a similar experience(s)?

FF7 was not well written anyway. Something like Persona 2 continued to be well written (and, I think, has the best story of the games to date), even when I played them a year ago.

Not really. I can go back to most older games and enjoy them. It's all about perspective.

Comparing FF7, which is really silly for the most part, to The Last of Us is kind of silly too.

@animasta: Never played Persona 2, but I'm currently trying to get through Persona 3. I loved the P4 ER, and figured I would like Persona 3 as well. It certainly has its moments, but I find myself wishing for fully animated cutscenes and voice acting for the entire game...

I think becoming an adult while having an excess amount of income has spoiled me. People have mentioned it before but when you were little and your parents were spending 70-80 bucks on games you beat the game you had before they bought you another one. If they did buy you another one you either got it for good grades, a birthday or christmas and usually that was it. If they didn't buy you games you rented them, and at most you had a week to play the living shit out of that game before you had to return it. I just think the level in which we play games and the information given to us have improved, also alot of us are smarter and don't get sucked in to these gimmicky advertisements anymore. Now excuse me while I stare at this Assassins Creed Enzio statue bust I got for the collectors edition.

BTW welcome to the forums Party.

I am finding myself more drawn to system centric games like Dota 2 or Monster Hunter. Maybe that's due to my influx in reading recently and getting my good story fix there. But I also agree with the feeling of aging out of gaming, or at least gaming how I did back a decade or so. I still love games but I just don't have the passion to play one story driven game hard like I used to. Even this generation I played Eternal Sonata for days and did nothing else. At all. Now I need games that can be fun for 10 min or 8 hours depending on my mood. Probably why I've dove so hard into Dota and League.

@joeyoe31: Fair enough, but what about newer games? Do you find yourself drawing comparisons between games that are more or less trying to do the same thing, but one achieving it much better than the other? I just find it hard to think about playing another story based zombie apocalypse game that isn't on the same level as the Last of Us or The Walking Dead. Maybe I'm just in a gaming slump.

@i_stay_puft: Yeah, that was definitely me as a kid. I never got to play more than a couple games a year. Wait. No, that's still me. I'm a broke college student.

After playing a high-calibre game (Bioshock Infinite, TLoU, SMT4), I tend to fall into a rut for a while of feeling restless about games. I definitely attribute this to being spoiled by a particularly great storytelling experience.

That being said, I can still hop back into older games and enjoy them, as I am more spoiled by plot than graphical fidelity or polish.

Not really. I go back and play older games regularly, and most of my favorites hold up quite well. As time passes there are aspects of older games that do start to feel archaic, but it's rarely enough to change my opinion of the game. It's really a matter of learning to go into older games with the right perspective. You can't expect them to be directly comparable to modern games. (For better or worse.)

That being said, I tried playing Bioshock 1 right after Infinite and I couldn't really get into it at all. But I think that was more because I never had any real interest in that game.

FF7 didn't age well.

And that's the thing. Some games that we thought were great in the '90's haven't aged so well, and some games that are still good have problems that we didn't think were that bad way back when (people new to Half-Life 2 are often bugged by the mid-game vehicle section, for example). What I played of FF7 a year or two ago seemed fairly decent to me, but not terribly brilliant. You have to remember that at the time, good stories were nowhere near as commonplace as they are now, and decent translations from Japanese to English also weren't very commonplace. So FF7 was pretty mind-blowing, and killing off Aeris was something that didn't usually happen.

By the way, some games from that era did age very gracefully. Doom, Chrono Trigger, and Super Metroid are all very good games to this day. I honestly don't care about graphical fidelity. Sure, it's nice, but it doesn't really do all that much for me except when it's coupled with some really good aesthetics (Skyrim).

@party said:

That's a very grim look on video games if you think that games like the Last of Us and the Walking Dead are the pinnacles of gameplay/storytelling in video games or that they'll never be outclassed in someway. You're essentially setting yourself up to hate video games if you keep drawing drastic comparisons/conclusions like that. To answer your question, I guess? It's hard to not make comparison between games that are similar. It's another thing however to compare games that have nothing in common.

Hmmmm. Okay. Older games I get. Perhaps FFVII was a bad example. I do in fact enjoy VI more these days anyways.

But, what about games being released this year? You know, your B-tier middle-of-the-road-games. I'm looking at something like... Lost Planet 3. It will probably be a completely decent third person shooter with some interesting but not mind-blowing mechanics and an equally decent but ultimately unremarkable story (I know I'm slightly jumping the gun here, but just go with it). I used to love renting games like this, because I knew it would ensure a fun weekend, but wouldn't exactly give me anything super meaningful. These days, I just can't bring myself to play through games like this and it kinda sucks.

@joeyoe31: I'm sure they'll be outclassed, but there tends to be a level of hype that comes with a game like that. I pretty much knew from a couple of trailers, that The Last of Us was going to be something special. Reviews for games are also helpful. At the same time, I've played enough games to be able to tell when a game isn't... aiming as high? Not sure how to phrase it. Basically, a game that wasn't given the budget or time or talent of a Naughty Dog but doesn't aim to impress on that level either. I think drawing comparisons between The Last of Us and The Walking Dead (at least in terms of storytelling) is fair, though drawing a comparison between a Gears of War and a Last of Us is not. I enjoy Gears, but when I play another run-of-the-mill third person shooter that does everything Gears does, just not as well, I find it hard to ignore the obvious comparison. And then I find myself wondering I'm even playing the game when I could just be playing the superior version.

Can't wait till games are crap again so I can start playing more. (I kid)

This. Knowing I can now afford gaming on my own, I don't quite enjoy some games as much as I think I should. I don't know if it's maturing or what, but I don't get the same feeling when I buy a new game, unless it's one I've been expecting for some time. Besides, I almost never buy a game without consulting some gaming sites for reviews, so now I don't get any surprises from the game, knowing in advance what I might like or not. So I think that growing up (being more mature and conscious about what you're buying) and having an income has kind of spoiled gaming for me. Still, I see gaming as a fun and relaxing part of my life.

I find that Dark Souls has spoiled me with unrealistic expectations for every other video game.

Nope, still love my games.

It doesn't have to be perfect, all I ask is that I enjoy the experience like the Darkness 2 and Defiance.

Darkness 2- It was fun, but short as fuck. The combat was brutal and nasty, Co-op campaign was good, and the story was dark and gritty, just how I like it baby.

Defiance has a number of issues, but I still enjoy it. You can't go wrong for a game that's 10 bucks on psn.

Nope. Started Max Payne today on the original xbox. All the buildings are boxes. All the levels are tiny. I'm enjoying it even though it's 12 years old and it's my first time. I also soldered left and right bumpers onto a controller S which makes it sooooo much better because the black and white buttons on that thing are unusable. Why the hell aren't there any tutorials out there for doing it? Yes, maybe I should have done one.

It happens to me, but mostly in FPS.

And how did you manage to get the username "Party?" o_o

Games don't spoil me, I spoil games. The cake is a lie.

Nah

@party: PS1/N64 era games are very hard to go back to, for whatever reason they generally have not held up well. JRPGS aand the occasional FPS are about the genres from the late 90's that's halfway playable today.

I actually find going back even further into the 2d era (SNES, Genesis, NES) easier than early 3d.

I dont think so i mean i really do understand you i played the last of us and bioshock almost back to back and it made me look back and feel like i hadn't played games like this ever but i started playing more games and i still like them. Uncharted 1 i played it and it was great so was god of war i played recently.

What a coincidence. I enjoy games like Bioshock for what they are, and recognize the quality of the writing and the amount of money that was shat all over it. But a game like that will never top any of my lists. The B-tier romp is where the true creativity, style and insanity shows up. And that is where my heart belongs.

@tobbrobb: I would have absolutely 100% agreed with you 2 or 3 years ago.