Gaming Tropes There Should Be More Of

[deanb]

I'd guess it's a side effect of making the game for PS4 Pro? I'd also point out that it's likely some games can't hit 60fps without significantly impeding the graphical quality of the game. I imagine that for 90% of people they'd favour nicer looking games over hitting a consistent 60fps.

[TheMightyEthan]

Also then you're getting away from the plug and play ease of console games. Although I suppose you could have a single option on each game to tell it whether you prefer graphics or performance, and the game could do all the specifics automagically.

[Mal]

It's a single option in games where I see it similar to graphical presets (Low, Med, High etc) on PC. It's just named differently on consoles.

 

In Nioh it's Action (60FPS, lower graphics), Movie (30 FPS, best graphics) and Variable (Somewhere in between).

For FF XV it's Lite (used to be stable 30 FPS but now uncapped at variable resolutions at lower graphics) or High (30 FPS at 1080p via checker boarding with best graphics). Due to frame pacing issues (on PS4/Pro) there might be a third option in the future, not unlike Nioh, since Lite is now like Variable in Nioh. There is now no mode where you can have a steady FPS and frame pacing. It is either accept higher FPS or 30 FPS lock where both has frame pacing issues. Strangely, this is not an issue on the Xbone but it is using different processing options there.

 

These options should exist since people have preferences. Some people can deal with 30 FPS, some need 60 FPS, some can deal with variable FPS and/or deal with frame pacing issues. Since it's on console, it's easier (in theory, see above) to get right and not alienate demographic(s).

Edit: Seems like Horizon: Zero Dawn on the PS4 Pro will have a Performance option patch in on a later date. It's up in the air on what it means. It could be 60 FPS or it could be variable.  I'm leaning on 60 FPS since Guerilla really nailed the performance at 30 FPS on both PS4 and PS4 Pro. It remains to be seen if they can pull off solid 60 FPS but if they can they might sell me on the PS4 Pro since it's a console exclusive and all.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Mal

[deanb]

More games being announced and launched within a 6 month or so period. Fallout 4 wasn't a great game but its marketing was pretty well done and not overly protracted. Especially in the face of Square (who are terrible of late at the "announce a game that's not due for another 10 years") and Last Guardian. Shadow of War looks to be going down a similar route, and I'd guess the new AC game too (which isn't announced yet, but likely due for launch in November...which atm is 7 months away). Though obviously don't do a Nintendo and have loads of info still due to come out *looks at watch* a few dozen hours before launch. There is a period that's too short

 

I guess it's getting easier now with more publishers not using E3 as a big announce event (which due to time you can't really announce anything that's due for the Oct/Nov release cycle as that is a bit short, so you'd have to announce more than 12 months ahead). Instead you've got likes of Bethesda with quakecon, Nintendo with their Directs. Square started doing "directs" too (though err..as noted they're pretty shit at this still love you square but srsly), and stuff like PAX and Gamescon also used as announce events, and PAX has (afaik) three events a year which helps spread things around.

[TheMightyEthan]

I think E3 to November is pretty good timing.  Long enough to hype it, but not so long that people forget about it/lose interest.

[deanb]

But you're also competing with everything else. Though I think the recent trend of Feb/March games is a good time with an E3 announce.

[Mister Jack]

It's going to be hard to go back to turn based RPGs where you can't push a button to auto-heal your party after battles.

[Mister Jack]

RPGs with real time combat where positioning is important need some kind of indicator to show which side of the enemy is the back.  Final Fantasy XIV is actually pretty good about this.

As you can see, there's an arrow on the front of the ring to show which way it's facing.  It's not essential for this coeurl, but there are plenty of enemies without faces or that are oddly shaped where it would be very difficult to tell which way they're looking without that arrow.  I'm trying to get through the rest of Xenoblade right now, and I'm running into the issue that I often can't tell which way certain enemies are facing because they don't have a ring like this, and that's a game where positioning is absolutely vital.  For example, look at this thing.

 

The only difference between the back and the front is that the back doesn't have a blue light.  Now that may seem easy to notice, but not only is it hard to tell at a distance, but when there's a big melee going on and this thing is spinning all over the place, it gets really easy to lose track of which direction it's facing in the heat of battle.  Fortunately it's not an especially powerful enemy so it hasn't cost me any team wipes yet, but it's still a pretty big annoyance that I wish I didn't have to deal with.

[Mister Jack]

I hate to triple post but this is just too good not to praise. Monster Hunter World is a loot based game, which means much of your time will be spent farming for drops. Generally it's not too hard to get what you need, but the rarest crafting parts in the game are gems. You can spend hours farming a monster for a single gem drop. Gems can be earned sometimes as gold quest rewards, but the quests that give these rewards out are a real son of a bitch.

 

HOWEVER, there is another way! Every few days (possibly a week?) Capcom puts up new limited bounties, which are basically rotating lists of three or four specific objectives or hunts. If you complete the whole list before it expires, you receive a voucher that you can trade in for ANY GEM YOU WANT. Imagine how much monotony this erases, and it doesn't even kill the game's longevity because you have incentive to keep playing for the next bounty list to get another gem. Frankly, I think every loot based online game should do something like this. You can still farm the old fashioned way if you're impatient or need multiple gems, but if grinding the same mission for hours is too dull, just do the limited bounties. It may take longer if you need more than one gem, but you're guaranteed to get what you want eventually. That relieves so much frustration for me.

[Mal]

Everything I've been hearing about MHW is that it just destroys all other loot based game. You don't feel nickle-and-dimed and you get these QoL improvements. PC release is still so far away...

[Mister Jack]

I beat Kingdom Hearts HD today and it unlocked a theme for my ps4. That's rad as hell and more games should give out more tangible rewards like that.

[TheMightyEthan]

Huh, yeah, I'd never really thought about it, but it is weird that more games don't do that.

[Mal]

Is it me or are games getting piss poor with implementing host migration nowadays? Being booted off a game is pretty shit if the host decides to rage quit so host migration got to be required.

[TheMightyEthan]

Epic ended the Siphon mechanic because even though it made the game better for top players, it made the game worse for the bottom 90%. With how often I see games catering to the top players in ways that make the game less fun for everyone else *cough*Destiny*cough*, I would love to see more developers taking this approach.

[deanb]

On 2/11/2019 at 1:57 AM, Mister Jack said:

I beat Kingdom Hearts HD today and it unlocked a theme for my ps4. That's rad as hell and more games should give out more tangible rewards like that.

 

Uplay, for all the ire it gets, does do this with pretty much all their games. Achievements get you coins which you can not only spend on discounts on the store, but also use to get DLC (usually skins and the like) in other games. And it's cross platform too, so you can get the coins playing AC on PS4 then spend the coins on Division on PC or what not. It's pretty neat. (and to be fair in the "discounts off games" the Steam trading card is kinda similar).

[Mister Jack]

I know it's becoming a cliche but I never get tired of that trope in open-world games when you're traveling a long way on your horse or vehicle and then mood music starts playing in the background. I think this started with Red Dead Redemption but I'm not 100% sure. I've seen it a handful of other times now and it always just feels really cool and atmospheric.

[TheMightyEthan]

I don't know if it invented it, but certainly the archetypal example of that is in RDR1 when you first get to Mexico and are riding across the desert.

 

Except when I was playing I died during that part and it spawned me at the town you're supposed to be riding too, so I completely missed the moment everyone was raving about...

[Mister Jack]

I just played a raid online, the point of which was to get rare weapons and materials to unlock bonus abilities on said weapons. That's pretty common, but what isn't common is that even if you do the raid and everything you unlock is trash, you can choose to give up that trash in exchange for an increased chance of higher level prizes on the next go. This is something that stacks in a system they call "potential," so I chose to give up enough drops to raise my potential to level 10 and then with my next roll I got a max rarity critical chance up ability. This is the sort of system I'd love to see in every online game, where no matter how much time you spend doing a raid you never feel like you're not accomplishing anything because you're always bettering your odds for the next go around. I did all of this in only three raids, too.

[TheMightyEthan]

That sounds like an amazing idea. Instead of rolling shit at the end and going "well that was pointless" you've actually made progress toward what you actually want.

[CorgiShinobi]

Yep, the Safi'jiiva Siege is amazing.

 

You're guaranteed a Safi weapon of the one you're using, and then it's a mix of other weapons. There aren't a vast variety of stats of the same weapon aside from the element/status and initial skill. The latter can be changed anyway, so it comes down to the former.

 

The Awakening process is where you will randomly acquire additional skills, and if none suit your need, you store the "potential" and you'll more likely get an upgraded skill or a more rare skill.

 

I personally need to find more time to get back into the siege because I need the whole armor set.

[Mister Jack]

Cheat codes. Honest to god cheat codes. Remember when those were a thing? Doom Eternal remembers. Granted, you can't just push some buttons or type in a password and cheat your way through the game. Cheat codes are collectible secrets and you can only use them when replaying missions, but they don't disable progression so you can have them on while going back to get all the secrets you missed. They're also a ton of fun. I'm not the type to cheat my way through a game the first time I play it, but they're a great way to have fun just dicking around once you've beaten it.

[TheMightyEthan]

Sounds similar to the skulls in Halo, which I also really like.

[TheMightyEthan]

Games in general, but especially games that release DLC months after their original release, really need a "how tf do I play this game again?" menu option.

[danielpholt]

23 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

Games in general, but especially games that release DLC months after their original release, really need a "how tf do I play this game again?" menu option.

 

In the opposite direction, I wish games would go away from the incessant hand-holding that they seem to offer to players nowadays. 

 

Give me an option to select a 'I've played a game before' option or something.

[TheMightyEthan]

Oh yeah, that too. I think Civilization does it perfectly, with "I am new to Civ", "I am new to this version of Civ" and "No Tutorials" options.