drahkon Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Now that the year is nearing its end and I've finished yet another run of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth I asked myself: "What games have you played this year, what games did you finish?" And I couldn't even answer that question. I've bought quite a lot, I've played quite a lot and I've finished quite a lot. But I cannot, for the love of God, remember most of them. That's not to say I didn't enjoy them (whichever they are). I do feel that this year has been great for my gaming needs. I've bought a PS4 and it has been shaping up to be the best choice I've made in videogaming ever. Now, after writing the last few paragraphs I've looked at my PS4 library: AC IV Awesomenauts CoD AW Child of Light Contrast Dead Nation Destiny (Alpha, Beta, full game) Diablo III Doki-Doki Universe Don't Starve: Console Edition Dragon Age: Inquisition Driveclub Dust: An Elysian Tail Entwined Escape Plan Far Cry 4 FEZ FIFA 15 Flower Flow Geometry Wars 3 GTA V Guacamelee Hohokum Hotline Miami inFAMOUS Second Son inFAMOUS First Light Injustice Killzone Shadow Fall Mercenary Kings MGS V: Ground Zeroes Shadow of Mordor Minecraft Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty OlliOlli Outlast P.T. Demo Pix the Cat Pixel Junk Shooter Ultimate Plants VS. Zombies Garden Warfare Pure Pool Rayman Legends Resogun Road Not taken Rogue Legacy Secret Ponchos Sound Shapes Spelunky Sportsfriends Steamworld Dig Stick it to the Man Strider Surgeon Simulator The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth The Tomorrow Children alpha Titan Attacks! TowerFall Ascension Transistor Trials Fusion Trine 2: Complete Story Velocity 2X War Thunder Warframe Watch Dogs Zen Pinball 2 Bolded are the ones that I've completed (I remember now). I've bought a Wii U recently just for Smash Bros and I played/completed many Wii U games with my mate (Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, Nintendo Land, Tropical Freeze, New Super Mario Bros U). I remember a lot of Nintendo (and Sony) games from my childhood. But cannot really remember anything from this year. And yet, I somehow know I've enjoyed most of the games I played. Now, is the fact that remembering games becomes harder a testament of degrading videogame quality? Do you think about this kind of stuff, too? Do you even understand my post as I'm still very tired and probably have never written a post this long For me, not remembering my gaming experiences in detail is basically because this year has been a hell of a ride for me. So much to do, so many new people, so many experiences. It feels like my biggest hobby is just something that distracts me from everthing else. It's there for the moment, not for a lifetime.
Fierce_LiNk Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 I consider gaming to be close to or on par with films and tv now. There's lots of reasons why and there is so much content out there now from lots of different teams which cover a wide variety of genres. There's tons of content to consume. For those of us who spend a great deal of time gaming, we'll jump from one game to the next. Some will take it slow and maybe they'll only get through a handful a year, some will power through them and get onto the next lot, some will play little bits of each game and skip back and forth. There's lots of ways to approach it. Does each game have to be memorable? In my opinion, yes, to some extent. You have to remember playing it. If somebody asked me do I remember watching Inception, or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Wars, I'd say yes. For each film I've seen, I may not remember the whole ins and outs of it, but I'll remember some basic plot points and whether or not I enjoyed it. (I loved all of the above) It's similar to games. Do I remember everything about A Link to the Past? No. Do I remember everything about Skyward Sword? No. But I do know that I much preferred the former to the latter. I remember the basic plot, I remember what you sorta had to do and I remember how I felt when playing them. Do I think it's harder to remember stuff because of the degrade in quality? No. I think it's harder because there's so much of it out there.
Fierce_LiNk Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 Holy crap you've got a lot of games. It's quite quick to build up a big collection as a lot of these appear on PlaystationPlus/PS+. I'd imagine that MS have something similar?
Tales Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 I play tons of games during the year, but I think I remember all of them if reminded. I do have problems voting on GoTY awards unless given a poll a though. I don't think me not remembering them without a reminder has anything to do with quality, but simply because like Flink said there's so many games to play in vide variety of consoles.
Dcubed Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 The worst type of games are not the ones that are terrible (be they broken, clunky or otherwise unfun), but rather are the ones that are completely unmemorable IMO. A game that is boring is worse than one that is broken. At least you can laugh at something like Sonic 06! Something like the new Medal of Honor games? What is really memorable about it that makes it stand out from other military shooters? Not a damn thing. The same thing also applies to games of the past that played follow the leader. Those beat em ups that just aped Final Fight and Streets of Rage, with nothing to call their own. So yes, a game needs to be memorable somehow. It needs something about it that makes it stand out in some way. Who needs a thousand Flappy Birds clones when Flappy Birds already exists?
drahkon Posted December 23, 2014 Author Posted December 23, 2014 The worst type of games are not the ones that are terrible (be they broken, clunky or otherwise unfun), but rather are the ones that are completely unmemorable IMO. A game that is boring is worse than one that is broken. [...] So yes, a game needs to be memorable somehow. It needs something about it that makes it stand out in some way. I agree. I agree with Flink a bit more, though :p There's just too much out there to remember it all. And with that it all comes down to personal taste: The games you enjoy the most will stick with you. When reminded I remember everything: The moment I saw my PS4 library I remembered the enjoyment of running around Seattle with superpowers in inFAMOUS, sneaking around the base in Ground Zeroes, blasting my way through pixelated enemies in Hotline Miami, being amazed by Rayman Legends' creativity. However, I also remember games I didn't enjoy, games I found boring. Max Payne 3, Super Mario 3D World, Skyward Sword... So, what exactly makes a game memorable? Is this a question you can answer objectively?
Hero-of-Time Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 More and more the social side of gaming is becoming more memorable than the actual game itself. Some of the online experiences I've had over the years have been fantastic and will remain with me for a long time. For me Destiny is a very average game but the laughs I had on it with the guys in here were fantastic. Funny Dcubed mentioned Medal of Honor as I had some great experiences on that when they reboot it. It played so differently to CoD and learning how to snipe was very satisfying and necessary if you wanted the kill streak achievement.
Jonnas Posted December 23, 2014 Posted December 23, 2014 If they want to be good, hell yeah, they should be memorable! I pretty much agree with Flinky, they should be as memorable as films, series, or books. The moment you look at a game, you should be able to know how you felt when playing. Also, if you can't immediately remember which games you've been playing recently, I think that might be only because you play so many When you power through so much, there's plenty that won't stick. Same thing if I asked you what sort of meals you ate this week, I'm sure. Furthermore, this video might be relevant to this thread:
Hogge Posted February 12, 2015 Posted February 12, 2015 I'd say that the degrading memorability of games comes mainly from games being less catered towards high replay value and more towards trailer-friendly linear paths leading to "set pieces". And of course, I don't find it strange that you can't remember any games, considering how many you've played. Probably, you didn't buy as many games when you were a kid and thus spent more time playing each. I myself can confess to replaying Ocarina of Time at least once a year until the Wii came out (or rather: until I was drafted into the military) and the same goes for the Shenmue games. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Pilotwings have taken hundreds, perhaps thousands of hours of my life each. Now, when I'm more busy, I've played through the Mass Effect trilogy only twice (after not knowing that you could build relationships with your squaddies outside missions on my first playthrough), despite loving those games to bits.
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