Hoo boy it's been a while since I've posted here. Hey US.de regulars. Might as well ease back into posting more regularly, starting off with an off-topic thread about the very reason why we're all here in the first place.

With Black Ops 2 and Halo 4 released and new gamers and newer consoles coming around in the next couple of years, would you consider yourself pleased with where the games industry is going? Is your favourite game series floating, or do you think it's sinking, or has already sunk, and why? Are you happy with your gaming platform? Or are you finding that the quality of everything is sub-par due to rose-tinted glasses or otherwise?

Personally I'd be displeased with where 343i and Microsoft went with Halo 4. I guess it's alright, but it is certainly lacking a lot of features (bug-free forging from Halo Reach) and as such is an incomplete experience in my mind.

Got gripes with a games series? Studios pushing back release dates grinding your gears? I'd like to hear your opinion on these things.

Everything is going downhill

I think both. Some games really get worse and worse, others get better or stay good. An example is Anno. I've always been a fan of the series and even the new Anno (2070) is very good in my opinion. Perhaps a little bit more casual than Anno 1602, but still a very good and enjoyable game.
Dungeon Defenders - rather new, but awesome game!
Other games just get worse. I loved to play Age of Empires 1, but I think that both AoE2 and AoE3 weren't that good.
GuildWars 1 was great, the perhaps best MMO I've ever played, GuildWars 2 was a bit disappointing.

Additionally, there's the increasing amount of indie developers. Nowadays many of the big game producers go the wrong way (example: ubisofts game launcher, EAs Origin...) but indie developers produce really, really good games and don't use DRM that much. I really like this and love to give them my money for their good games. I even prefer buying games from indie developers than from big companies nowadays.

Call of Duty series are just getting worse and worse. I liked part 1 and 2, World War ones.

Indie developers are just better at most things than friggen triple A companies like EA or Activision.

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CoD 1 and 2....... were released in 2003.

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It's scientifically proven that people find changes a bad thing. It's why people from 1990 tought 2005's TV programme's were terrible and a disaster to children from 2000. Nothing is going downhill; things change.

@ Alistaire:
I meant, the world war themes. Not HALO stuff like in Black Ops 2.

That's right, it's getting worse and worse. Where are those cool times, when players wanted consistent atmosphere and fancy gameplay... Not like today, you got hi-res textures and high polygon counts, but playability isn't that good.

Loved to play old Stronghold, new one sucks.

I think that indie developers are bringing back quality to games in the storyline, or just the playability and fun of the game, a lot of indie's seem to focus more on the game itself instead of the engines driving it. Minecraft would be an example, but Mojang is basically among the ranks of Valve and Bethesda these days in a way.

Although most big shot games are just rinse/repeat cycles in a dishwasher with a clogged filter, I don't see the entire gaming scene crashing. The PC platform is good, and if the new games suck, then we just stay with our old ones. I still play CoD:WaW Co-op Zombies at everyone of our clan's LANs, some classics never take a fall.

Regarding gaming here in ZA, local (competitive) gaming has taken a big plus with Battlefield 3, it's quite an intense thing to watch, 5 players on each team pwning eachother during rAge for the ultimate title.

That's just my extremely-long-winded two cents.

Well, I don't play games much, but I would say that game series that I like aren't going downwill. If I have free time, then I'm allowing myself to play brother's PSP. My favourite series are Patapon and Star Ocean, their stories are getting better each time.

I wouldn't say the same thing about the GTA series, my favourite GTA is san andreas, they got the best story in my opinion.

Depends on the games.
If you want a series me and millions of others are highly discontent with and is definitely going downhill is Need for Speed.
Up until Most Wanted, it kept going better and better, and I got to say Underground 2 was and is the best illegal street racing and tuning game ever made.
Carbon was also nice, but it went straight downhill with that.
Undercover kept the nice police from MW but no street tuning, so it was average.
Now NFS Shift (more like NFS Shit) and The Run are totally NOT Need for Speed. The first looks more like EA's attempt to copy Gran Turismo (ye, if you want LEGAL street racing video games you play that) and The Run looks like a simple car game that someone decided to vomit GTA on.
The new Most Wanted is a total disrespect to the original MW.
First of all, they don't name it Most Wanted 2 or something else, no, they keep the same name as if they're trying to erase all the epicness from the first MW.
Second, "what the fuck did I just play?" is the first thing that comes to my mind with it. It's more Burnout than anything else. Trust me, I love Burnout, but when I start a NFS game I want NFS not a Burnout look-a-like.

People have been asking for years and years Need for Speed: Underground 3, why the fuck is EA being so stubborn?! They would make LOADS of cash since lots of fans would rush at the stores to buy that.
Bring the police from MW, keep the tuning from U1/U2 and add even more. Continue the Bayview storyline,, put it in HD. You know EA, a goddamn Need for Speed game that's unique and doesn't try to be something else other than Need for Speed.

I would like games to be playable even on older systems like Windows XP as todays game industry typically aims their games for newer platforms such as Windows 7, 8 and they always make sure it has stunning graphics that older systems can't handle and that typically forces you to buy a new computer just to play those games and in order to make Microsoft more money, I believe that's one of the reasons why they've released Windows 8 OS and they're possibly even gonna do a Windows 9 after that. I just feel it's a bit wrong, they need to focus more on being user-friendly and actually test the games on older systems before publishing the games as otherwise it will lead to disappointment. If they just filled that criteria lots of people would be satisfied and that includes me aswell. The game industry does a good job anyhow, so I cannot complain more than this just look at ArmA 3. Even though some of their developers got arrested for espionage which made me laugh, they were only taking pictures in Greece like any tourist would. I still hope ArmA 3 gets finished, I'll buy it when it get released along with a new PC hopefully.

games are going downhill, but indie game developers are better every year. Indie game developers focus on the story and gameplay, instead of graphics.

@ KimKat: i agree but windows xp cant support directX10 thats why i supose the newer games dont support it

Yeah That's true.They are concentrating in the graphics but the story or gameplay is worse.So we get bored playing those.I can't play some games for even 1or2 hours.

This may have less to do with games as it has to do with a short attention span.

some games with 15+ has nude "bitches" in it..This is what I've got to say.

Is this a good or a bad thing?

The value F of [F]ucks given is equal if not lower to zero.

I think most developers should spend more time on a better atmosphere. Many games look quite nice but they have a boring story or no atmosphere. Such games like Amnesia are interesting

I'm honestly not sure if I like where the industry is going. I'm playing a lot more of my older games (6 or so years old) and (Source, GoldSource) mods lately.