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[Crash Station]

I feel that western devs aren't catering to me with the exception of a few. Of course that's perfectly fine since I have more than enough Japanese games in my backlog which is growing every month. Only annoying thing about that is the public perception of Japanese games these days, but I don't really give a shit since I'm having fun.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

I'm catered to just fine in general, but not through localizations. There are so goddamn many amazing Japanese games that I will never, ever get to play because nobody wants to to fucking translate them!

 

[kamspy]

I'm too special for video games too.

 

[Chairman Yang]

While I actually agree with you, I do note you list Final Fantasy Tactics, which is actually guilty of your charge - it was a massively dumbed down version of Tactics Ogre. (Which ironically is getting a remake, or enhanced port anyway, which is a bit dumbed down over the original, but still superior to FFT in every way imaginable).

I'm definitely getting the TO remake, but the original game isn't really superior to FFT in every way. It had lots of tedium (training), arbitrariness, and didn't have FFT's level of character customization.

 

[astroturfing]

Right now I wish devs would cater to a class of gamers that don't want any handholding. You get to a certain point as a gamer and the couple of hours of tutorial really get to you.

Where's my old skool Zelda, where you start off like Zelda I with a sword and "fuck you" for directions?

Where's my 2d exploration, no narrative, alien and difficult Metroid Dread game?

Will The Last Guardian be the only game this generation that spares you from overly tedious plot explanation?

i'm with you man, i'm so with you.

number 1 reason why i just loved Demon's Souls, it let me figure things out for myself.

 

[60_gig_PS3]

more exploration and discovery would certainly be better

funny thing I was on PSN Home today in one of the rooms there were like 15 people huddled in a corner all trying to walk through a "glitch" in the wall. Even the girls were trying to "get up in the wall"

it's weird how so many people find that kind of thing to be fun.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

OP, what systems do you have? On one hand you mention playing Bioshock, but then the only systems you specifically 'assess' are the DS and Wii and the only other games you mention by name are all by Nintendo. You go on about how you love handhelds and like playing RPGs on them, but have nothing to say about PSP, which has a superb library and has been killing it as far as RPGs in particular are concerned?

I may be off-base, but the impression I get is that you're not giving other companies and consoles much of a fair shake, you're writing them off as "not for me" without actually wriggling your toes in them.

DS, GBA, PS3, Wii and PC (PS2 and GCN are still hooked up to the TV as well). I didn't assess the others because they provided more-or-less the same types of games as were popular in generations past when I didn't play games.

I had a PSP earlier in the gen but I sold it in early 2008 because I seriously needed to cut down on my backlog and things seemed pretty dire at the time in terms of new releases. I've been tempted to pick one up again, but it's not like there's a dearth of RPGs on the DS either.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Go and mess about on Gamersgate, lots of obscure games for offbeat and equally obscure tastes.

 

[Captain Pants]

For the most part there are a fuckton of games that I like across a bunch of genres, but I feel very left out when it comes to stealth. Assassin's Creed is fun, but it isn't Tenchu. MGS4 was fun, but it was so long ago, and the new Spinter Cell didn't look like a stealth game to me. Or at least it didn't look like it was anywhere near as awesome as Chaos Theory was on the Xbox.

 

[tiff]

I feel that western devs aren't catering to me with the exception of a few. Of course that's perfectly fine since I have more than enough Japanese games in my backlog which is growing every month. Only annoying thing about that is the perception Japanese games have these days, but I don't really give a shit since I'm having fun.

Yeah, I think part of the problem is that I've always been into Japanese games, but as someone who's never really played handhelds, and only owned a Wii and a 360 until recently, I've been kinda SOL this gen.

Not that I have anything against Western games, but they've been following some trends that I just can't get behind.

 

[Margalis]

I believe industry(mostly) still targeting for typical audience and not aging with me. I am 30 this year and i start to lose interest to a game after an hour even if it is the mega super uber AAA title had been in development for zillion years.

"Even" if it is the mega super uber AAA title or "especially"?

Personally I think that many of the big AAA titles are about production value and delivering a "cinematic experience" or "roller coaster ride" rather than core gameplay mechanics. For the most part I prefer games that are games - not experiences - things with mechanics and rules and interesting interactions.

In addition most of the AAA games that try to give you an exciting experience give you the same experience - action blockbuster. The experiential games I like tend to be more thoughtful, horrific or strange.

I think it's interesting to compare something like Borderlands to COD. COD has a bunch of scripting, set pieces and a "thrill ride" delivery whereas Borderlands has a bunch of different weapons and gameplay systems. To me Borderlands is more of a game in the classic sense and COD is more of an interactive movie, something I'm not particularly keen on.

Demon's Souls is high on my list of games I haven't played yet but want to, in part because it sounds very gamey in that there are a lot of things to discover, systems to learn and interact with, etc. It sounds like the polar opposite of the increasingly common "sit back and enjoy the show" approach to gaming.

Maybe it's because I'm old - when I started gaming (Colecovision, Atari ST and Apple Computer) every game was a traditional game with rules and interactions. There was no presentation or set pieces to hide behind, whether or not a game was good was almost solely a function of core mechanics.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I'd have to say it sounds like you've defined yourself into a corner. It seems like you turn up your nose at whole swathes of games because of a simple thing. Not all open world games are the same. Not all driving games are the same. Not all shooting games are the same.

For example, I would argue that if you love platformers so much, there will be at least a few arcade racers that you enjoy. They are such similar genres, and to paint them all with the same brush of "looping around a track" is ridiculous and a little bit ignorant. You should give Trackmania DS a shot to see what I mean.


Edit: Leave it to Rez to beat me and say it better than I did.

I know it sounds weird to you guys since you've probably been on the 3D bandwagon since you started gaming, but I do really find it disorientating and frustrating every single time I get into a shooting match with something in a game.

In 2D, I always felt like I was in control. I could see in front of and behind my character and if something was coming for me, I could respond before it got me. If I died, it was always my fault. Contrast that to a 3D game where I could be getting hit and it'll take me five or ten seconds to manouver the camera to try to figure out where the shooting is coming from so I could respond (by which time I might be dead - this was certainly my experience with Uncharted).

I've played enough games now that I can get by in a gunfight. I'll strafe, jump, dodge and duck and generally get through. I'll also randomly fall into a pit I didn't see while I was busy strafing or get killed by some enemy I never even saw. I've gotten to the point where 3D games are playable, but the combat, I think, will always be my least favourite part of the experience.

Most rpgs I've played in the past few years don't have this problem. FF13 has tons of saves, as did FF12 (just to compare games within the series).

Can you quicksave right in the middle of a boss battle? This is the level of freedom that console RPGs are missing.

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

We are taught in game design class that you can't cater to everyone, so you shouldn't even try.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

I'd certainly love more story-based games. Could care less about FPS, cars and soccer shit but that's what the mass wants and I'm not complaining, this is businness baby

 

[The Technomancer]

I'd certainly love more story-based games. Could care less about FPS, cars and soccer shit but that's what the mass wants and I'm not complaining, this is businness baby

Like I was saying, I'd love some games that had good stories period. Highlight of this generation for me on that front is The World Ends With You because of how it played with preconceptions and undermined your assumptions, how it managed to make characters sympathetic by slowly revealing their weaknesses and pasts, and threw you genuine curveballs (not "oh noes, your support figure betrayed you!") Hotel Dusk was also good, and I'm seriously looking at 999 but I just am not feeling the storytelling this gen.

 

[-Winnie-]

The Assassin's Creed series of games are perfect for me. There's a beautiful mix of open-world freedom, stealth, flashy combat and a complete mindfuck of a story. I just love it.

 

[AkuMifune]

Bethesda makes games just for me. Some other people just happen to buy them as well. Good for you.

 

[Anasui Kishibe]

Like I was saying, I'd love some games that had good stories period. Highlight of this generation for me on that front is The World Ends With You because of how it played with preconceptions and undermined your assumptions, how it managed to make characters sympathetic by slowly revealing their weaknesses and pasts, and threw you genuine curveballs (not "oh noes, your support figure betrayed you!") Hotel Dusk was also good, and I'm seriously looking at 999 but I just am not feeling the storytelling this gen.

I share the exact same feelings. TWEWY is probably my definitive DS game, with some of the most experienced writing I've seen on the medium. I deeply love the PW games, and I greatly enjoyed Hotel Dusk (about to buy Last Window). Storytelling this gen has been really hit and miss

 

[BobsRevenge]

My ideal game hasn't been made, but there are plenty of games I do enjoy.

Then again, I like racing around tracks and shooting shit in 3D... so... I've got my bases covered I guess. I just wish more developers cared about breadth of player expression and influence in their games. Too many want you to go along on a ride where they dictate everything to you.

edit: Crysis is actually pretty close to being my ideal shooter, for what that's worth. Sooooo good.

 

[Chatin]

The Assassin's Creed series of games are perfect for me. There's a beautiful mix of open-world freedom, stealth, flashy combat and a complete mindfuck of a story. I just love it.

Open-world freedom, stealth, and flashy combat are three things I tend to dislike in games. :lol

 

[Fredescu]

I know it sounds weird to you guys since you've probably been on the 3D bandwagon since you started gaming, but I do really find it disorientating and frustrating every single time I get into a shooting match with something in a game.

Unless Scarab of Ra counts, I'd been playing games for more than ten years before I played my first major 3D game, Doom 2. It certainly took some time to get used to back then, but in the end I found it quite rewarding. There is a learning curve, but navigating in a 3D space is such a fundamental gaming skill that if you're genuinely interested in refining your video game tastes, you should find a few games that look interesting, stick it on easy, and blast on through. I could list a whole bunch here, but none of them on handheld.

Perhaps limiting yourself to handhelds for the most part means that you don't get to experience too many 3D games yet. Certainly not refined ones anyway. I think that will all change come the next generation of handhelds, so perhaps now is a good time to get used to it.

By the way, you can try Trackmania for free on PC if you'd like to try it before jumping in on the DS. It's available for download here: http://www.trackmania.com/index.php?rub=downloads

 

[Zoc]

So many games these days are violent power fantasies that I sometimes feel ashamed to call myself a gamer, but I always seem to wind up finding something great, anyway, and my faith is restored.

The DS and PSN/XBLA are great places to find inventive, fun games that don't involve doing things that would give you PTSD if you did them in real life. The Pixeljunk series are a great favourite of mine, and Doublefine's DD games are shaping up to be the best thing they've ever done.

 

[Yeef]

As long as you're platform agnostic there's tons and tons and tons of games that cater to even extremely obscure tastes. They're not all going to find you, unfortunately. Sometimes you have to put in the effort to find them.

 

[flyinpiranha]

It's just age man, I pretty much don't call myself a gamer these days, life is creepin on up slowly.

I disagree, I'm 34 and my gaming interests keep going up. Maybe because I can afford them all now and not scraping by on a budget like in college years ago :lol

 

[Chairman Yang]

As long as you're platform agnostic there's tons and tons and tons of games that cater to even extremely obscure tastes. They're not all going to find you, unfortunately. Sometimes you have to put in the effort to find them.

Unfortunately this isn't exactly accurate. If you just want a specific type of game, sure, you can find anything. If you want a specific type of game with a certain level of quality, things get harder or impossible.

The problem is that to offer serious competition to the games I listed in my earlier post, there's a certain level of talent, budget, and publisher support required. As much as I like some of the stuff coming out of, say, Eastern Europe, I've seen little evidence of these things.

 

[Tobor]

Every year I'm not playing a new Star Control game is a year I haven't been catered to.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Sorta.

I mean, I don't react well to relentless positive reinforcement (well, few do, but I'm one of the few who recognizes it in myself).

Granted, I wouldn't want catering to me either, just not concious avoiding of my likes.

 

[Coolio McAwesome]

During the 16-bit era, JRPGs were one of my favorite genres. The genre has been in decline ever since and has been a huge disappointment this generation. Xenoblade and the Last Story have both piqued my interest, however. It's just unforuntae that I'll probably have to brush up on my Japanese to play them.

 

[Skilletor]

During the 16-bit era, JRPGs were one of my favorite genres. The genre has been in decline ever since and has been a huge disappointment this generation. Xenoblade and the Last Story have both piqued my interest, however. It's just unforuntae that I'll probably have to brush up on my Japanese to play them.

Xenoblade looks so damn amazing and it sucks that I'll probably never get to play it.

Can you quicksave right in the middle of a boss battle? This is the level of freedom that console RPGs are missing.

The only game I can think of is Ys 7, which allows you to save anywhere at any time. But, yeah, that's portable, so I guess the answer is no. :lol

 

[Epiphyte]

I just want some PC-ass fucking PC games

Shit with 59 hotkeys and a spiral bound manual

FPS that are as fast as Quake used to be

Sweet, sweet isometric RPGs

It is dark days indeed when even Operation Flashpoint is being pimped out in some misguided attempt to appeal to the mongoloids.

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

I don't really get that feeling... maybe I'm too mainstream? :lol

Though, it hasn't really been until this generation that I've found the games that most interest me based on my interests from when I was younger. Games like Uncharted, Dead Space, and Alan Wake? I became interested in them solely because I love the works that influenced them from when I was younger (Indiana Jones, Alien, Stephen King novels). Though my taste in crime fiction developed as a result from my love of the Max Payne series.

But I feel like the games industry does cater to what I really like... so take that for whatever it's worth. I like trippy sci-fi stories, so there's Assassin's Creed. I like space epic horror, so there's Dead Space. I love awesome adventure stories, so I got Uncharted. I love spooky stories, so there's Alan Wake. And finally, I like dark crime fiction, so I got Max Payne.

I'm still waiting on a game that's based on works like Leverage or Burn Notice. That would be awesome.

 

[adamsapple]

If a game is not to my liking I just don't play it, it's not like someone is forcing me to at gunpoint.

 

[Perfect Blue]

I just want more JRPGs on consoles. :'(

 

[Wazzim]

Stop gaming if nothing suits you.

 

[KamenSenshi]

Yes, I feel that western games never appeal to me. The Japanese games tend to appeal to me much more.

With th OP. Haven't found a good trick other than just get as much fun out of the few games that do appeal as possible. I hate almost all FPSs other than a few on pc and then there's the dudebro games. None of those appeal to me which is what it seems, most of the western game designers make.

 

[luka]

There's a reason I'm still hunting down and buying tons of old ps2/saturn/PC Engine games and my current ps3 library is only like 5 or 6 strong. They mostly stopped making the kind of games I like years ago.

 

[Stoney Mason]

Stop gaming if nothing suits you.

This.

Or perhaps stop expecting one hobby to fill all are your entertainment needs. Gaming has been going on since the 70's. I'm sure lots of people have stopped as games have changed and evolved. There is nothing saying the market has to cater to any one individual or any one taste forever.

 

[Wallach]

Not in my case, no. I don't really feel like the number of games that are getting released that really hits what I'm looking for is much different than it was when I was a kid.

 

[gdt]

I've never felt so fulfilled with gaming.

 

[SolarPowered]

I've bought more games on steam since last year than I did back in the GC/Xbox/PS2 generation. My tastes have moved far away from where they started in this gen, but the Wii and PC are supplying more than enough to make up for the dudebro and safe games that are in constant demand.

 

[Night_Trekker]

As I've said before, I'll take something truly original and interesting without "Triple-A" polish any day of the week. Blockbuster games are fine, but if there weren't developers like Grasshopper out there, making generally wonky but always inventive games, I would care far less about gaming than I do. (And now I worry Grasshopper is getting too big to continue giving me what I want...)

So no, gaming is never going to be something I "grow out of," I don't think, but my tastes have changed over the years and I am very tired of the same old stuff to which everyone else seems to respond well. (The genre tropes, the juvenile obsession with realism and graphical horsepower, the incredibly low standards developers and players have for writing quality, and on and on.) I do go through periods sometime in which I wonder if I just don't care anymore about where the industry seems determined to go, but I usually find something to interest me, even if it's older and overlooked.

 

[Dead Man]

Sounds like you just don't have time for console/PC gaming, so you need handhelds to take that place. Unfortunately not all genres work on handhelds, or are seen as not being marketable. Limitations of the medium.

 

[Dragon]

As other people have said, besides the big franchises there simply isn't the demand for quality RPGs and platformers. And part of that is the failure of the Japanese side of things, I assume you're talking about jRPGs. I'm playing Resonance of Fate and I like it, but people say this game is different than the emofest than can normally saturate a good jRPG and I don't see it. There simply haven't been many interesting console jRPGs since the PS2 and I don't see when or if this is ever going to change.

Part of this might be a nostalgia factor, you play games as a kid and you don't analyze them quite as much as GAF does now. It can ruin something when you realize your favorite game is universally derided because it drops to 25 fps on certain levels.

I think you just want to be a kid again just like I'd love to read my favorite book for the first time. Hopefully the 3DS will have enough of both genres to appeal to you.

Sounds like you just don't have time for console/PC gaming, so you need handhelds to take that place. Unfortunately not all genres work on handhelds, or are seen as not being marketable. Limitations of the medium.

jRPGs and platformers aren't really prevalent on current gen consoles. The DS and the PSP are the way to go.

 

[LCfiner]

At first, I thought this thread was going to be about the glut of FPS games but it seems like the OP is pretty much indifferent to anything that's not a platformer or a game that can be consumed in bite sized chunks...

I'm not sure if it can be reasonably expected for game publishers to cater to his tastes more than they already are, to be honest. they're rather restrictive requirements. there might be a few titles here and there but, really, there's a whole lot of variety out there that doesn't seem to match the OP's preferences/ tastes.

 

[Chao]

Generally I feel the same, but then I started playing Donkey Kong Country Returns and it felt so good. You can always find a game that nails it, in this generation I would say Dead Rising, DKCR, Super Mario Galaxy or Uncharted.

 

[Nirolak]

Sounds like you just don't have time for console/PC gaming, so you need handhelds to take that place. Unfortunately not all genres work on handhelds, or are seen as not being marketable. Limitations of the medium.

Yeah, just about every niche genre on earth has someone developing for it, but you need to be willing to play on the platform they're putting it on.

 

[Stumpokapow]

You like platformers.

You like adventure games.

You like rhythm games but probably want something different out of the genre.

http://store.steampowered.com/

 

[RustyO]

I am 30 this year and i start to lose interest to a game after an hour even if it is the mega super uber AAA title had been in development for zillion years.

I have plenty of time for gaming lately cuz i freelance and sit at home whole day and sometimes i got nothing to do for 3-4 days. But todays games are so SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!

I tried to play AS2...It takes like 1-2 hours to pass the stupid introduction scenes and then game starts to get to a normal place but its fucking slow for me. Why it cant start right in the middle of something. I am sick of games where it teaches you how to play for hours and hours even tho it plays same as another game released few months ago....

I seriously feel this vibe as well. (Apart from the whole lots of spare time thing )

 

[Sotha Sil]

I felt that way until I actually took the time to browse online stores (Steam, GOG) for oldies and indie gems. I still feel like developers care more and more about graphics and less and less about content, but there are still games for all tastes out there. You just have to go look for them.

 

[Dr. Light]

I was going to say yes, until I actually read your post. You are ultra-casual. I'm surprised you're even posting on this forum, honestly. Why not try another hobby that suits you more?