Microtransactions and streamers ruined modern gaming

I will still play a game if it's 30fps.

Why? It's a good hill, but go deeper.

I agree tbh

Dark Souls 3 is not nearly as good as Dark Souls 1. The bosses are supposed to be the selling point of DS3, but at least half of them are trash.

Agreed. I honestly can't tell most of the time if something is 30fps or 60fps.

Anthem was good.

I'm currently playing on 15-20 fps eheh, can't afford a new pc right now.

I hate deck based video games

All games have been basically the same since the 7th Gen systems, namely the 360. How many FPS's and 3rd person adventure games can somebody play before they get bored? It's all the same crap with different skins.

battle passes are a good monetization system for free multiplayer games

But why?

Not agreeing or disagreeing, but I want to go deeper and understand why that's your hill

Marketing running companies is the death of creativity and gaming in general.

The focus on "cinematic" games is a step in the wrong direction

I really like fromsoft games, but I do find it odd when From gets praised for things that people rip into other devs about. Broken multiplayer, unfinished quests, poor optimization,bloated copy pasted content. The lack of critical analysis will eventually deteriorate everything the fans like about these games

To put it short fromsoft praise above all else approaches hurting the games.

Witcher 3 is not a great game. The combat is sluggish, the music is annoying, the Witcher sense sequences are extremely tedious and the main story feels too disconnected from the rest of the experience (playing Gwent for weeks instead of looking for your daughter). The only aspect where the game truly shines are the encapsulated side stories.

Can you name some recent cases where this was an issue?

OP asked for controversial opinions

I can generally agree with this. Although, the boss quality gets better the longer the game goes which is contrary to Dark Souls 1.

Forspoken it takes the control off you way too often,god of War is debatable in that regard as well.

I can at least somewhat agree with this. Some games seem like the creators would have done better to just make a movie instead

I agree. But half the bosses in ds1 are trash as well

I offer myself as sacrifice… Final fantasy 8 was the best final fantasy.

Streaming service like gamepass suck.

games with any kind of in-game purchases should all be 18+

Not sure I can agree it's the best, but it's top three for me. Poured a lot of hours into it.

Why?

At base different types of games are also fine the thing is, it is the current fad and everyone sticks their fingers into it.

Is there more place on your hill? I'd like to join you up there

I also would agree with the fact it arguably had the worst gameplay haha. But that storyline and characters. Perfection.

I’ll climb up the opposite hill then, I absolutely love the remakes/remasters of some games and I think they breathe some new life into ideas that were previously held back by hardware constraints and expectations.

Resident Evil 1 being a prime example. The remaster of that game is absolutely the pinnacle of how a remaster should be done.

Updated the graphics but not in a George Lucas OTT and obnoxious way.

Added new things to the story that add lore, rather than take away.

Understood the “complexities” of the dialogue, and gave them a twist that paid homage to the original but made them sound less stupid.

Original - “That was too close. You were almost a Jill sandwich!”

Remake- “That was a close one. A second late, you’d have fit nicely into a sandwich!”

Yes, the sentiment is still silly (like a lot of RE, which is kind of its charm), but it just feels updated and less cringey.

Some remakes/remasters are dreadful and if you’re aren’t going to do it right, then I agree, that is pointless.

Silent Hill 2/3 remaster. BAD. Resident Evil 2 remake. GOOD. XIII remaster. BAD. Spyro/Crash remakes. GOOD.

It’s doable to make a great game that introduces new players to the franchise, as well as brings a nostalgic charm to the original players who might not have the systems/old games at hand anymore.

That Chrono Trigger remains the greatest game of all times.

Agreed. DS1 also has a bunch of booty bosses...but DS1 does a lot better than DS3 overall imo.

Imo in the basegames both had just maybe 2 good bosses the really good ones were all put in dlc's

I like to own my games so paying for a subscription fee really seems like a big downside for me. And it might give other companies to make worse subscription services in the future. (Like paying online features for consoles) just doesn't set right with me

First off I wanna point out that not everyone has a original Playstation nor the tools to emulate one so remakes/remasters are very good for gaming as they let new people discover and experience the game for the first time just as you did

As for me I think that having practical items that help you out in game can be good if done well. Take warframe for instance You can get everything (aside from certain cosmetics) for free if your willing to put up with the grind. Or you can skip the grind and buy it. However you do actually need to play the Jame as if your mastery rank for a weapon isn't high enough you cant even use it. Mastery rank you can't buy out too

Not to mention weapons and frames aren't what make or break the game anyways. It's mods which you have to play the game to get. Iirc you can't buy mods so practical items in microtransactions can be good it just needs to be done right

I would ALMOST agree but the katamari damacy remake got like all of my friends to play my favorite game so I can't be too upset..

FromSoftware's games are good, but not masterpieces.

RE 6 was still an awesome game

Could say that with any game genre though. How many platforms van you play anyway. It's all Mario in a new skin

Please there are so many unique games out there you just gotta look

Fortnite did it the best, by far

The story in Ni no Kuni 2 is terrible.

Because it’s single player and most didn’t replay it. People did complain at the time while they were playing it. But the vast majority of people completed the game and stopped playing once done

This is it right here. I get the appeal, but for me, I play games because they're games. If I want to watch a movie I'll go do that. I don't need a hyper-realistic 10-hour game on rails to give me more cutscenes than game play.

QTE games are the one exception to that for me, I think. They're still not for me though.

Imho its because good parts of FromSoft games heavily outweighs the bad parts. Other games are criticized for the same things because they are not doing anything special in other areas, so people focus only on negatives. But thats just my theory...

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For AAA games, yes. Luckily we still have creative indie developers, even if you have to wade through a sea of shovelware to find them

All games? Sounds like you haven't played Power Wash Simulator or Sex with Hitler 2

I'm not sure, really. But I also don't like deck-based games like MTG with physical cards. I like playing card games with people.

I think it's more of a category, like FPS games. And deck-based games are almost all turn-based as well, which is my second-most unfavored category. So deck-based games are just outside my bounds.

Don't get me wrong, they aren't bad, I just don't like them.

At last! Someone who actually thinks the same thing about it as me 😂. Took me a while to get used to the split screen (my wife and I play) but once your eye is it with it then it’s fine

Say what you will, DS3 was the worst of the franchise. Not just for the bosses like you’ve stated, but also the game was just too damn linear. My little theorycrafting heart was broken being forced to replay the exact same content repeatedly when making new characters. At least in the others I could decide to sequence break (and don’t tell me doing the dancer boss early is sequence breaking.)

I believe game engines like Unity and Unreal being accessible to more people is NOT an inherently good thing.

Whilst there have been some absolute bangers created because of the much lower level of accessibility, the gaming market as a whole has been flooded with low effort/technically unimpressive/poorly optimised games from less or none experienced developers.

By making the ability to develop games less accessible, you inherently require developers to have a much better technical understanding. In theory, this would mean new devs would have to be far more dedicated to their project (cuts out low effort shovelware) and better optimise their games

FromSoft souls games should not be rated as highly as they are. I'm not a fan of soulsborne gameplay and how it's proliferated the hack and slash genre especially since other studios are generally unable to replicate quality that FromSoft is able to create.

The games themselves are technically subpar, visually behind it's competition and lack of overt narrative in favor of environmental storytelling is a mark against it. All the great lore and backstories should serve to enhance the central plot and not be the sole offering in the narrative department.

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RPG games should always have a voiced protagonist as an option.

Emphasis on option. I'm all for a toggle where people who prefer non-voiced can remove the protagonist's vocals.

How did streamers contribute? I am with on the microtransactions though!

People who didn’t like weapon degradation in BotW just didn’t get it.

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Disagree with you on the first two points, I thought the combat had a nice flow and while it certainly gets repetitive I loved the music. But I love the idea of Yennefer bursting into a tavern to find Geralt playing cards. "Ciri can take care of herself a little while longer, I need to finish this deck!"

absolutely

Cyberpunk 2077 is a good game now

I played it at launch on a PS4 and I still had fun despite the constant game crashes!

But now that it’s been fixed it won’t crash like it used too, I wish people would quit hating and “blah blah CD project bad” and just try it because it’s a really immersive story.

Especially if they have random loot boxes = gambling.

I get that it’s not gambling for money, but I argue it gives children a similar high.

It’s becoming a mountain

ngl you gotta work on your own "controversial opinion" because it's pretty flawed, I think I get what your going for but what you've written is just flat out wrong

what direction?

I think you mean corporate greed and ego

I mean that's just wrong but ok

The two god of war games.

Kingdom hearts

It takes two story is really not that good and no one talks about it. Just the gameplay. Which is amazing

whats a "marketing running company" and how did they kill creativity and gaming in general?

but can't you like..... just buy those games anyways? isn't the whole point of the pass for people who don't want to buy full games?

I assume the genshin impact type streams maybe? Propping up micro transaction games and gambling streams I speculate.

the amount of ignorance on you is astounding. at least let's hope it's ignorance and not the the other thing

that has more to do with game platform services and not the engines though.

How can you say that if your monitor is actually using the frames? They're is a very noticeable difference and anyone saying otherwise is lying. True 30fps is very sluggish.

Following on - anything purchased/gambled for in multiplayer, and any skills that carry on game to game, should make it easier or less tedious to play, or be for fun. Larger inventory, more ammo held, shorter respawn time, skins, scopes or voices - not more powerful, more health.etc.

Pay to win should stay in single player

sounds like you just don't like the games, that doesn't mean they're "wrong"

That these games become too prevalent in itself it isn't bad to have differing games but too many developers involve themselves into it,similar to how everyone made BR for a time.That trendchasing is the bigger problem and well if a game devolves into half cutscenes half gameplay is it actually still a game?

lol, that's cute

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I can tell below thirty, but seriously, the difference from 30 and up is so miniscule to me I don't even notice.

I'm honestly kind of glad, because people who CAN tell the difference almost chase frames like a high and get actively angry/frustrated when you can't tell the difference.

I agree.
people are wayyyyy too use to having "forever" weapons and don't get the whole point of salvaging and utilizing weapons, not to mention the game is fckin easy to gather decent weapons

60 FPS is the bare minimum for modern games. Anything lower and I’m out.

Baldurs Gate 3 is not a real Baldurs Gate. It doesn’t feel like it, it’s made by another company, the atmosphere and vibes I get from it don’t feel like BG at all. The combat system is completely different and for me BG2 is so much better in every aspect.

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Games aren't the same anymore. There is no imagination and wonder to them. Gamers arent in charge of games anymore. Playing a game from today is all about pushing hard and grinding, loot boxes and season passes. Old games you didnt care. You buy it, you got it. All of it. They were offline, no scoreboards or leader charts, no seasons. Here's a world to explore, have fun.

Games today make you feel like you're at work. Am I accomplishing anything? Old games you didn't care, you just like playing them. There was no sense of fomo built in.

I played Abe's Oddysee so much a mate of mine didn't believe I never used a walkthrough. I found the hidden rooms by myself because I loved playing it. And replaying it. Trying to free all 99 slaves.

Games aren't the same anymore. Blizzard is a perfect example of gamers making games and then having co-operations taking over. Warcraft 1,2,3. Diablo 1&2. World of warcraft. Amazing games until profits started steering game direction.

Sekiro is a masterpiece tho.

I like them fine. Enough to buy them day 1 and finish them. I just don't agree that they're these 9-10/10 masterpieces that every publication and influencer likes to rate them. Especially since they seem to overlook almost all the shortcomings that would otherwise earn any other game flack seemingly just because it's the next banger from Fromsoft.

FromSoft needs to add a fucking pause button to Souls games.

and how many is too many?

trendchasing isn't the worst thing in the world, competition is great cuz we get to weed out the shitty games and end up with some gems and new IP. not sure what "cinematic" games you're talking about since I don't think we actually get many of em, the only ones I can think of are the sub-par Dark Anthology games

Think of it like opportunity cost rather. It's the same as renting a game from the video store just it's digital and you don't gotta call to ask if they have Mario rpg there. I don't think streaming services from TV is bad and in fact they seem pretty competitive so I don't suspect companies wil make some terrible streaming service personally. If you only play 1-3 games at a time then the service def isn't for that person.

Elden Ring isn't fun to play at all. I love the hell out of Darksouls 1-3, demons Souls and Bloodbourne.

But this just isn't true tho. Hades, slay the spire, portal 2, rocket league, hate it or love it Fortnite was very unique, hollow knight etc. There's def a lot of unique stuff.

With generations, consumers will migrate and like different games. You don't necessarily need kids to experience the things you've experienced because everyone is wired differently.

Not every game that's a classic should be remade/remastered or re-released for a 3rd or 4th time. I might enjoy playing the classic Max Payne games (and I thing both games hold up pretty well 20 years after they got released) and I'm being nostalgic because I wanna see how Remedy is Remaking MP-1&2, but in my opinion they didn't actually need to do that because they are great the way they are (minus the outdated graphics).

I game that would definitely need a remaster version is GTA IV, which I would love to play on a next gen console, but probably won't ever get because of the architecture mess that was PS3.

The Last of US Part 1 definitely didn't need to be overhauled from the ground up since the PS4 remastered was holding up on current gen consoles, but probably was a fresh breath of income for Naughty Dog before releasing Factions (which I'm hoping releases this year).

When marketing has the decision making and has a bigger budget for advertising and marketing campaigns than the development of the game itself. It happens often now

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What's there to get! There's stuff that is and isn't fun. Having to use just bombs for so long wasn't very fun. They just needed to tweek the numbers mainly. Have stuff last longer or make stuff easier to find etc. By the middle I had way too many but could've really used it earlier.

I think you misinterpreted cinematic games in this case,I meant games that become overly linear and handholdy which take you out of the game for cutscenes once too often.

Competition might help to improve quality but if the majority of games get made to fit this in AAA gaming it means other type of games make a step back.

And it just the feeling that gameplay becomes secondary which is kind of iffy when you talk about games

Oh I can get on that hill if that's the case.

I cannot get into the combat at all. The timing is way off from my inputs. Struggled and struggled but I can't play the game as is.

30 FPS is perfectly fine

Ocarina of Time is mediorce at best but people just have rose tinted glasses

Dishonored has the best gameplay in any game ever

Best games were old crpgs like might and magic. Ultima. Wizardry. Bards tale. Dungeon master/chaos strikes back.

Best resident evil is for the japanese Sega Saturn.

Best castlevania game ever is Dracula X on turboduo.

If you can't win smash or tekken or street fighter but especially soulcaliber with just one hand you suck- my 50 year old husband still schools kids at my work.

Stalker series is like delicious junk food, but the original eurojank was a game called martyr, and it ate pentiums for lunch. You'll probably never get to play it but the last wolfenstein games plot is martyr. And the company that made it, well a lot of them probably don't want to be associated with it now, but you've heard of them.

Csgo, call of doody, sports games need a dedicated console so their filth doesn't pollute pc or good consoles. Maybe move them all to ps5 as proprietary software.

GOW Ragnarok has around 7 hours of cutscenes. When I platinumed it I had almost 60 hours of playtime. That’s 50 hours of gameplay, side quests, challenges etc. compared to 7 of cutscenes. Ragnarok is definitely a gameplay heavy game

Just because a game has a lot of cutscenes doesn’t mean it’s an interactive movie

No, it's not "wrong" it's an opinion.

Opinions are neither wrong or right. It's just a point of view, and I stand by mine.

The money, effort and talent that goes into remaking games that already exist is a waste that could go toward creating something new.

How many hours were the sidecontent,collectathon? Those are normally always separate in games and have maybe a cutscene at the end.

Going for platinum is something that not everyone wants to do and if the mainstory ends maybe 10-15 hours before that then the 7 hours out of 40-35 which would be a third of the game

It’s like jamming cute things in Star Wars to sell toys.

For real, it’s like they want working adults to give up on gaming.

Yeah I’m thinking it’s a creative issue. More of it looks the same so it must be the same.

Dota is better than LOL

That every open world game should be half the size it is. Give me quality over quantity.

There should be no end game content. All content should be integrated as part of the main game.

BotW is a terrible Zelda game

Just because you don't like a game, doesnt mean the game is objectively bad. In contrast, if you enjoy a game you can still be critical of its flaws/shortcomings/disappointing bits.

The pompous superior characters, like Revali and H.B., are some of the best characters ever.

Also, Revali is the best champion. I will fight you on this

The last of us part 2 has a terrible story that undermines the first game, despite its incredible gameplay

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I'd honestly rather just have my trusty sword. The breaking thing didn't bother me or stop me from playing but as soon as I got the master sword I never switched from it

I personally feel like the way weapon degradation makes you swap between weapons and creates mini “quests” on the fly never got old. I hate it in 99% of games, but in BotW it worked perfectly for me.

I didn't even think this was a hot take. BotW is a good and fun game but it's a bad Zelda game. If that makes sense

opinions like this one never seem to go away.

Super Mario 64 is crunchy, borderline-unplayable, polygonal garbage. Don't believe me? Go play Sunshine, Galaxy 1 and 2, 3D World, and Odyssey... then go play that. It was a prototype they went ahead and sold.

Resident Evil 2 is a Metroidvania.

Definitely the best story.

But it's literally the one that set the foundation for all the ones you named. Without 64, none of the others would exist.

Yeah it doesn't hold up great now, 27 years after it's release. But at the time it was revolutionary and set the standard for 3D platforming.

I had just graduated high school when it came out. It was garbage then too. Games like that are why games like Symphony of the Night were so popular at the time: 2D was still waaaaaay better.

Breath of the Wild is a legit 3/10 that did next to nothing well, it wasn't innovative at all, had no influence on the genre and was a poor game from both a Zelda standpoint and an open world standpoint.

It was only reviewed well due to not having a mainline Zelda game for so long and the fun experience of it being a launch title on a revolutionary portable home console.

Ubisoft would have been ripped to shreds for making BOTW

Regarding the Remakes/Remasters, I think it depends on how the developers do it. Dead Space, Shadow of the Colossus, Demon's Souls and (IMO) Final Fantasy 7 are excellent. As much as I love The Last of Us, the Part 1 remake wasn't worth the full price. There's probably more examples that I can't think of right now but that's just my two cents.

Wow, I disagree with you So Hard, FF8 was an awful time for me. But that's the whole point of this hill-to-die-on thread, so you win. Good job picking what I consider the most controversial opinion here.

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Bioshock 2 is the best Bioshock game.

Social media is turning communities into complete hive minds with opinions going one way or the other, with little to no in between. Everything has become so binary. When a game is released it either has to be an amazing masterpiece or a complete dumpster fire. Nothing can just be okay anymore. Forspoken has had mixed reviews and I’ve genuinely seen so many comments across Reddit and Twitter saying they’ve never seen something like that before. Seriously?!?

Unfortunately this isn’t just gaming, it’s pretty much everything. I always felt like 10% of life was black/white and the other 90% is lived in the grey area. The last couple of years has felt the complete opposite, which is sad.

Does that bleed into something like Slay the Spire or Midnight Suns?

Yeah would not try either of those. I think I have Slay the Spire from epic, but haven't ever installed it.

I completely agree with this. I honestly wish we would have got a remake of FF8 instead of FF7.

I like how Sea of Thieves does their’s. Majority of the stuff is free, and then they have a few premium items.

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It holds up for me.

Somewhat disagree on remake/remaster. As long as they're TRUE TO THE ORIGINAL, I think they're really good. It gives people who missed the original an opportunity to experience it. And people who experienced it sufficiently long ago to revisit it without hassles, and taking advantage of modern tech. These are also not mutually exclusive with new games, we can have both.

My personal hot button is people taking liberties with the "MMO" tag. Whenever someone says something stupid like "Destiny is an MMO", "The Division is an MMO", "Diablo 3 is an MMO", etc., it really gets my goat. EVE Online is an MMO. Fallout 76 is not. EVE has battles with 2,000+ players, Fallout 76 server holds a max of 24 players (iirc). If Battlefield 3, with its 128 players per server, is not being called an MMO, then there's no way in holy hell that Anthem is an MMO. Learn the difference.

Another one is that paid games should have no cash shops, at all, of any kind, including cosmetics. DLCs are OK to be sold separately, but they must only contain SIDE content, not continue the main story of a core game (i.e. not "ending sold separately"). If you want to sell that stuff, that's fine, but the game must be free. You can't have your cake and eat it too. This is mostly because when a game is made with cash shop in mind, its mechanics usually suffer. It is intentionally made painful to get you to spend money to skip the pain. So paying for that, on top of paying to skip, is double-dipping that I refuse to support.

Nobody cares if you beat a 'hard' game nor how you beat it. Most 'hard' games out there are not really THAT hard and are often more tedious or have poor design choices masking as 'hard'. A lot of the challenge is self-imposed anyway and a waste of time.

They're just video games in the end and turning them into an obnoxious identity to lord over people is just pathetic.

There's quite a few games/companies that seem to almost exclusively cater to the demands of popular streamers. I don't know if I'd say it's always bad, but I think they have a greater influence on the development or success of some games than they should

8 and 9 are my absolute favorites but 8s junction system was indeed doggy doo doo and I'll admit that.

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Norse of war at the end of the day has worse story pacing, less intricate gameplay, dumbed down puzzle design, and infinite amounts of self indulgent slog compared to the Greek classics.

Sony, Norse of war developers, and general fans need to stop dismissing the Greek originals story and gameplay, and for the love of God Sony can we get the classic Greek series on playstation 4 and 5? All we have is GOW 3 and shitty online stream play only options.

Which has been a thing since 1977… Star Wars was always about toy sales 😂😂

Damn this sure is a hot take. It definitely isn’t one of the highest rated ones, at all. 😂

So cinematic game is just “any game you don’t like”?

Either lying or just straight up one of the dumbest people on earth. I choose to believe the former because I truly don’t wish for someone to be just that stupid.

Nostalgia is a hard thing to get past. FF8 was my first FF game and even I can accept that it’s not a good game, nor does it have a good story.

He said, in one of the most well known hive minds.

Tell me you don’t have any emotional maturity without saying it directly

LELELE LELELELELE LE LE LE LE

I mean, it’s pretty demonstrably false.

“It’s not great it’s just amazing”

🙄

Hahahahaha

Saying tlou2 has a terrible story means I have no emotional maturity?

Na naaaaa, nanana nana na naaaa, na Katamari Damacyyyy

Ahhh that makes sense. You were at your dumbest and edgiest phase.

I enjoyed the hell out of Anthem and also thought it had great potential that just wasn’t capitalized on.

No, just past the age where nostalgia gets in the way of a critical eye. Like I said, 90s kids would be enthralled by a 3D Mario. 80s kids just want Super Mario World back.

Super Mario RPG is not the best of that genre starring the italian plumber

That's why I don't use it? If you want to use it than go ahead. I think is a dumb service

Are you saying you can't tell the diff between a 30 fps game and 60 fps game is that correct? I mean the only stupid person here is the guy saying he can't tell the diff tbh.

You can’t get a credit card until your 18 so it kinda already is

Turn based games need to die

Pay to win is shitty, but who's paying to win against AI? Also it's got to be online to see who's got the deepest pockets

except there are many other ways to pay with no age verification behind them.

I used to use paysafecards all the time when I was a kid, wasted all my allowance on metin2 and shakes and fidget without my parents even knowing.

Most don’t see a noticeable difference as long as the frame rate is stable

That’s on you, it’s called free will.

why do you think it's a dumb service? it offers people access to all those games for a fraction of the price.

huh? what creative issue?

?
toy sales have been a main part of star wars since it's creation.