By Dimorphic
It has been two years coming, but finally the next generation of consoles are delivering the next generation games. The recent releases of Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and Fable 2 have shown off the next generation really should be.
The answer is freedom. Pretty graphics are all well and good, but true freedom and advanced gameplay is what this generation of consoles should be all about. The freedom to shape the game world you are playing in, the power to tackle a situation through means that you want too, and the ability to be immersed in a story that you help shape. These things are what I consider truly “next generation”.
Lets look at Far Cry 2 to start with. You are thrown into a fictitious country in war-torn Africa and told to go and find the Jackal. That’s your objective, and how you go about it is your choice. The missions you undertake, factions you align yourself with and ways you approach the mission objectives is all down to you.
To illustrate my point, I decided to scope out this big rebel base, surrounded by long grass. I hiked it from a fair way aways because I wanted to be all sneaky like and after I set up with my perfect position I decided to start picking people off. No sooner do I start shooting do I realise that the occupation of this camp is much, much larger than I thought and I begin to get overrun.
I switch to my MAC-10 and start pumping the guards that coming running at me, while I see others down near the garages run to their jeeps. I decided to bail and pull out my flamethrower. Now I decided to set up my escape route before I attacked the base and had my car ready to go a little bit down the other side of the ravine (away from the base), so I light a HUGE bush fire with my flamethrower so the other guards can’t chase me down (the ravine funnled into a narrow pathway so the fire engulfed everything on the other side.
After watching my handiwork for a bit from the top of the ravine I drove back to Pala and undertook some faction missions, and having experienced that previous attack my mind was working, figuring out all the different ways I could attack the scripted mission objectives.
I think that just illustrates the freedom you are given these days, you are god within the world and your actions decide the scope of the game.
Fable 2 is similar, you can choose to give a guard the warrents he lost or sell them to the criminals, both offer obvious immediate reactions (money for selling the writs, presitge for giving them to the guard), but come back to that part of town years later and depending on your choice the area will be a well kept, growing and vibrant city, or a hive of scum and villany.
Fable 2 has a fully working in game economy for gods sake! If I want to build up a nice little real estate buisness but don’t have the money to start it I can just run down the town that I want to buy out. Steal things, smash up shops etc, and that lowers their real world value. After that value has been lowered I can buy the stores and houses, rent them out and set the prices of the stores, as well as refurnish the houses and start to build the town back up, making it economically viable and earn myself a nice profit.
I think two years in we are starting to see the possibilities with the new technology these new consoles are offering to developers. And if the recent releases are anything to go by, we’re in for a fun ride!
I dunno dude. I dont think freedom in a game is the only measuring stick to gauge the level of ‘next gen’-ness of a particular game. Theres been games that give us all the freedom in the world for years now. The GTA series, the Elder Scroll series etc.
I guess its true though that we now have the power to experience these free roaming games with graphics that are comparable less ambitious games. For me, the next gen was hitting pretty hard last year with games like COD4, Halo 3 and Bioshock and Mass Effect.
It sure is the golden age of gaming.
I agree that open world’s arn’t the be all and end all defining feature of a truly next-generation game, but I think combining open worlds with open ending choices and a robust gameplay system brings us pretty close.
Games like COD4 and Halo 3 too me arn’t “next-generation”. And Halo 3 is my most favourite game in the world (as a lot of you know
), yet I don’t find it “next-gen”.
1. Far Cry 2 is in the top 3 of worst games I have ever played & I don’t consider it a step forward in gaming @ all
2. You’re an idiot.
3. Halo 3 is indeed worthy of the term “next-gen”
You seriously should have replaced Far Cry 2 with Saints Row 2 seeing as it’s actually a good game.
Games have had the things you mention for a long a time. Old games exist that have full blown economies and/or have open ended worlds to explore. Going back to elder scrolls, Dagerfall is like 40 times bigger then Oblivion.
What makes a game “Next-Gen”? What did you think a Next-Gen game was before the original xbox came out?
I think what makes a game Next-Gen is expanding on the already existing benchmarks set in place by previous games. This might create new aspects in gaming or just “upgrade” the previous standard(s). But as games are getting more “real”, the jumps between next generation consoles will lessen because there are less and less things to add to a game. Look at the difference of graphics between the Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64, thats a big jump. Now the Nintendo 64 to a Game Cube, its a big jump but not as big. Now the Game Cube to a Wii, yet another smaller jump in graphics. So when the next Xbox comes out it will be very similar to the xbox 360 in terms of graphics etc. Unless Microsoft release some holographic game system.
So therefore, the gap between benchmarks will get smaller and smaller until they can’t make any game more superior to another. So hence, how better a game is compare to another will depend, as it always has, on gameplay, story, music etc. Which these things dont really depend on which generation a console is any more.
Anyway, all of what I just said probably wont make any sense and/or is wrong. So saying that, I hope someone can find anything out of it useful. If not, please discuss.