With the next generation consoles nearing closer, I thought it'd be fun to get opinions on what creative themes, aesthetically or conceptually, you'd like to see emerge next gen? This past gen has seen a strong focus towards more war oriented themes and designs fueled by titles such as Call of Duty, Battlefield and Metal Gear Solid . In addition, Sci-Fi and post apocalyptic themes have been a big part of this gen fueled by titles such as Mass Effect, Halo, Fallout, Resident Evil and Star Wars to name some.

Are there any creative art styles/themes that jumped out to you this gen that you'd like to see expanded on next generation? Just to clarify I'm" not speaking directly of graphics technically but more so the art style, mood, environment and story content with respect to the overall package of the game.

Crazy abstract stuff like Child of Eden (or that virus part in Cyberia).

I'd honestly like to see the new systems move away from photorealism. El Shaddai had some gorgeous artwork, and it wasn't even made by some tech powerhouse like Naughty Dog. That futuristic level looked absolutely amazing because it was completely implausible. Since there aren't real world counterparts, these are the sorts of things I'd like to see. Just expand the gameplay more with the added horsepower. Bring creativity to the forefront again.

Military shooters are done, I can't see any improvement to what they already have that will make me interested at all.

Maybe if they made it almost like Mass Effect except the Normandy is a navy ship. I'd play that.

Mostly It may sound dumb but I'd like to see EA push forward in the slight introduction of story modes in their sports games. Fight Night was an admirable first try but it ultimately fell short. If they could some how mix it with the career option they have in Fifa that would be awesome. It could almost become a football RPG.

Although it's not an art style what I really want to see is what a next gen Trials Evolution or LittleBigPlanet is. People already create crazy shit in those games I'd love to see what they could create with better tools.

Multiple choices with none being the good or bad choice, but just being a choice, like in Fallout New Vegas (as opposed to inFamous, although I do love that game). No more black and white morality systems, lets make it all grey moving forward.

Thanks for the great responses

@csl316 I agree I would love for games next generation to step away from the enticing confines of photorealism and attempt to try styles that are outside the box, but visually appealing at the same time and in their own unique fashion. Very cool that you mentioned El Shaddai, you don't hear a lot about that game.

@tallTuck94 I think as the next generation progresses we're going to see more user generated games and interactivity that will foster a creative niche of games. I think that for example the PSVita version of LBP, in concept, may lay the groundwork of sorts leading into the next generation of consoles with its creative suite. (IGN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKuVLcplLyQ)

@DarthOrange I think that many developers are working towards this goal, though admittedly not in the exact fashion you describe. I think we'll get there eventually, however I'd say that black and white morality still has it's uses/advantages depending on the context of the game itself. You don't want a game where there is just the decision itself, but that decision doesn't have any moralistic implications within the environment around the player thus making the decision irrelevant, I fear that some developers would fall into this trap.

As opposed to post-apocalypse, it'd be really cool if there games that just played out the apocalypse scenarios themselves. Straight-up anarchy where at every and any moment places are getting looted, people are getting shot up and shooting each other up, everything is blowing up, and people are struggling to not survive against the elements but each other. I feel like the massive amounts of people and events involved in an apocalypse scenario would make it a technically complicated game to pull off but it'd be pretty satisfying to survive a complete apocalypse scenario.

@EquitasInvictus That'd be a really good scenario but as you said I think it would be very hard to pull off due to how anarchic(?) developers would have to create the world. For some weird reason, Independence Day (the movie) popped into my head when reading that lol. No doubt though that the execution would make for a very incredible and immerse world if successfully pulled off. I'm" trying to think of games that had this because I remember some having that type of setting/world.

Hard to predict that kind of stuff. One interesting thing with the next generation is that the GPUs will become fully programmable, so there is the possibility for a lot more experimentation with new kinds of 3D engines, be it path tracing or things like unlimited detail or voxel graphics. I would also expect to see features similar to what Euphoria can do be used in much more games then this generation, there is essentially still tons of unused potential when it comes to improving animations in games. As for settings and style of games, all the new technology will allow some more experimentation, but I wouldn't expect to much of a radical change. Hyper-realistic characters and settings seem to be really popular at the moment and I don't expect that trend to be replace with a return to the cartoon characters anytime soon. More graphical abstract games will of course happen, but I expect them to be limited to mostly just indie games. One interesting thing that might happen is full movies rendered in real time, with the next generation of technology one can get really close to cinematic quality, so maybe some company will actually try that and not do a game, but actually a real movie with real time rendering, which could allow interesting new ways to interaction. There is of course also the whole motion gaming shebang, if Microsoft continues to focus on Kinect and drastically improve latency and detail, there is still a lot of untapped potential in that, MMORPG characters that mimic your motion and facial expression and stuff like that. VR might also have it's final return with the Oculus Rift , so there could be a whole new wave of VR games that could drastically change the way we game, especially when combined with motion controls.
 
But at the end of the day, I really have no idea. Market trends are hard to predict and just because an idea is really cool and actually possible now, does not mean somebody will invest the money to actually build it.

@EquitasInvictus said:

As opposed to post-apocalypse, it'd be really cool if there games that just played out the apocalypse scenarios themselves. Straight-up anarchy where at every and any moment places are getting looted, people are getting shot up and shooting each other up, everything is blowing up, and people are struggling to not survive against the elements but each other. I feel like the massive amounts of people and events involved in an apocalypse scenario would make it a technically complicated game to pull off but it'd be pretty satisfying to survive a complete apocalypse scenario.

I'd like to see this concept play out.

Also, I just read the newest Extra Punctuation on the Escapist and I want to see a well-written, comedy-oriented, Mass Effect-style action RPG, only with oversized swords and cartoony graphics put into a Star Trek-ish space-adventuring world. And turn the lens flare off.

On that note, I'd like to see a greater interest in producing less "realistic-looking" games, meaning games that do not try to be as close to realism as possible. I'd like to see more games that go for a slightly cartoony look like Bulletstorm or Borderlands did. And I'd like to see developers better figure out how to implement stories in games.

Finally, better JRPG stories. This isn't going to happen, I know, but I'd rather them focus more on good characters than psychobabble bullshit. In short, I want to see more Balthier and, on that subject, I should play more Final Fantasy XII.

Don't expect people to suddenly not like lowest common denominator programming. Everyone who is saying modern military is void of creativity said that about World War 2 (and you know what, I'm almost ready to go liberate Paris again) and about Space before that and about Hell before that. Before that it was UGH all these platformers and before that it was top down space shooters. But the secret is, you'll hate whatever 'saves' the industry from modern military within a year of the switch. And right now, the two likely plays are either Cyberpunk, or Open World Zombie Survival.

I wonder if in the 70s they were like "bumpers? bumpers are so over, dude, it's all about rails now!"

As opposed to post-apocalypse, it'd be really cool if there games that just played out the apocalypse scenarios themselves. Straight-up anarchy where at every and any moment places are getting looted, people are getting shot up and shooting each other up, everything is blowing up, and people are struggling to not survive against the elements but each other. I feel like the massive amounts of people and events involved in an apocalypse scenario would make it a technically complicated game to pull off but it'd be pretty satisfying to survive a complete apocalypse scenario.

@MikeGosot said:

I hope that the next-gen focus more on horror games. I suspect that gore horror would be more popular... But i think that what is going to prevail in gaming in the future are games that are more like this:

@EquitasInvictus said:

As opposed to post-apocalypse, it'd be really cool if there games that just played out the apocalypse scenarios themselves. Straight-up anarchy where at every and any moment places are getting looted, people are getting shot up and shooting each other up, everything is blowing up, and people are struggling to not survive against the elements but each other. I feel like the massive amounts of people and events involved in an apocalypse scenario would make it a technically complicated game to pull off but it'd be pretty satisfying to survive a complete apocalypse scenario.

Games that focus in chaos and human relationships. Then maybe we will get a Battle Royale game. Also, i think it's funny that you mention the satisfaction of surviving an apocalyptic scenario. I would think that the history of dealing with our own death would be way more interesting. Choosing with who you're going to spend your last minutes would be crushing.

An exceptionally-executed Battle Royale type survival horror would be amazing. Also, games in which the protagonist's death is actually inevitable would probably be among the more cerebral experiences of next generation if they became a thing.

This thread is now making me excited for The Last of Us, since it can potentially set precedents for even larger scale and more psychologically thrilling experiences in future games of similar nature.

Going to be the same stuff with minor changes due to hardware spec increases.  This won't be the massive overhaul like this gen was.

@MikeGosot: You're definitely right with that -- being able to establish relationships with other characters you end up having to kill or be killed by regardless of your choices would be an incredible dynamic for a new video game, especially if it was multiplayer. That being said, it'd probably be very difficult to execute on that kind of multiplayer game. I'd definitely settle for a well-written single player game of that nature, though.

The Dark Brotherhood quest line in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion exemplified the potential for great, dark experiences in a video game. There was one particular quest involving a locked mansion I'll never forget since it accomplished being so cerebral when I didn't expect Oblivion to go there (I was new to The Elder Scrolls back then). It'd be nice to see something like that applied on the scale of an entire game.

I'd like to see some real open world/player choice stuff. Not just the player can affect the outcome of the end, based on if they chose choice A or B, but really organic completely different games based on choices the player made without even thinking about it, they just did what was 'logical' to them, and weren't obviously presented with a choice.

Also, open world apocalypse game fuck yeah.

@EquitasInvictus said:

As opposed to post-apocalypse, it'd be really cool if there games that just played out the apocalypse scenarios themselves. Straight-up anarchy where at every and any moment places are getting looted, people are getting shot up and shooting each other up, everything is blowing up, and people are struggling to not survive against the elements but each other. I feel like the massive amounts of people and events involved in an apocalypse scenario would make it a technically complicated game to pull off but it'd be pretty satisfying to survive a complete apocalypse scenario.

This would be such an amazing experience and also maybe some training :). I always thought that this was what the original concept for I am Alive was supposed to be going for, too bad Ubisoft couldn't pull it off.