The Importance of New Ideas 50
Next Generation has up the first in a two-part article talking in-depth with members of the gaming industry about the importance of fresh ideas. Also discussed are the challenges of next-gen development costs and the impact of Hollywood/Intellectual Property on future titles. From the article: "Q: What role will original game concepts play in next generation development? A: (Todd Hollenshead) Technology is a gating factor to the experience of playing games. Whether it's visual quality or character interactions, you have to have the processing power to make more sophisticated and interesting entertainment. Certainly the next generation of consoles in the Xbox 360 and PS3 are far more powerful than their predecessors and that gives game developers broad options to do things we haven't been able to do before and provide experiences for players they haven't had before. For example, for our next generation Wolfenstein game, which uses the Xbox 360 as it's primary development platform, we are developing technology that will change the way people play First Person games by doing away with the whole concept of 'levels', which has been the primary progression mechanic every first person game has used."
Hollywood & Gaming (Score:3, Insightful)
Not exactly a huge change (Score:5, Insightful)
No reason they couldn't do this on current hardware- just noone has chosen to. Not a big change.
New Ideas (Score:2, Insightful)
Seen this before? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
Guess they have never played Metroid Prime or Metroid Prime: Echos. This is not a new idea and has been around for many years.
which has been the primary progression mechanic every first person game has used.
Maybe this is true for every first person that they have played, but certainly not every first person game in existance (see example above).
What really matters (Score:2, Insightful)
Sure, this will increase immersion at the cost of robbing the player of the sense of accomplishment and reward he/she feels at the completion of a level.
But there is something Hollenshead doesn't mention in the admittedly small space he is given to talk about the admittedly sensitive topic of forthcoming features in his company's future product.
Is it going to be one long linear roller-coaster ride to the end of the game, or is the Wolfenstein world going to feature multiple paths to victory, increase replay value, show signs of innovative thought, and possibly broaden this well-worn genre?
Return to Castle Wolfenstein was great, but Quake 3, Doom 3, Quake 4? Hollenshead may be right: he's going to change the way I play First Person games. At the current rate.. I'm not going to play them anymore.
Re:Technology vs. Gameplay (Score:1, Insightful)
and
AI that reacts depending on the situation
and
We may get to decide how the story goes (like a choose-your-path book), and the game can go in different directions according to our choices.
You mean like Deus Ex?
Re:Processing power (Score:4, Insightful)
Though I agree that the 360 is pretty mediochre, I think your statement is a little misleading. Yes, it has more doodads for throwing polygons and texels on the screen, but it also has a lot more number crunching power needed to have more sophisticated AI. One of the buzzwords being thrown around a lot with the next generation of games is use of the Havoc physics system so stuff falls realistically. I've also read developer statements saying they have more complex AI governing NPCs and such. In simpler terms, I would expect the next-gen GTA game to be considerably more diverse in terms of what the character can do. There's even some hints of that in the games coming up down the road.
All that said, those idiots at Sony and Microsoft seriously dropped the ball by making their controllers virtually identical to their previous generation systems. Thanks a lump, guys. San Andreas was fun so long as I didn't actually have to aim my gun. Now you want me to play WWII games with the same hinderance. But at least it's prettier! Maybe the added AI will make my team-mates fight the battles for me.
Just copy FEAR. That is all the innovation I want (Score:5, Insightful)
So from now on every single player FPS game will have the following:
FEAR was short and the story not exactly original BUT it was beautifully executed. It simply incoorperated a lot of good design decission. The only baddie I found was that you still were alone and badly equipped. I would at least to have liked to see a couple of mission starts and ends with some real backup and not just story plot cannon-fodder. I could also have done with a better supply of ammo so I would not have to loot every damn corpse. Oh and the "hidden" health/slow-mo boosts were lame as well. Can you make it any more obvious I am playing a game then having power-ups lying around in sewers?
I find it amazing to see wolfenstein and the word innovation linked however. Sure they were the first but the last wolfenstein to me was an extreme case of mediocore FPS design. Oh well, the punters loved it so who am I to critize.
Wow, Way to NOT answer the question... (Score:3, Insightful)
Geez. They're not even trying to be subtle about it anymore.