Whatever.

For me personally, as an oft-accused AAA-GFX whore, I think games in the last few years such as Metro LL, Tomb Raider, Thief 4, Evil Within, (FC4 presumably) have got to such a great stage with graphics (and the use of those in terms of art direction etc) that I really don't have a lot of desire for improvement, and where I do it's mostly just fixing glitches and harmonising graphical quality throughout a scene.

It feels like things have got to the stage where it's a fairly level playing field with graphics, many games are "awesome enough" graphically, and what games actually do with that is becoming more important. Of course a Deus Ex that continues and improves DX1/HR gameplay and immersion would fit that bill. 

If you directly fuse Dead Island, Far Cry 3/4 and Mirror's Edge...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOSgulJ8Fso

...is what you get.

Lots of drama, lots of "wait and see what the actual game is like". 

I'm sure everybody here's probably played this by now but it's really really good. Fantastic art, fantastic characters, well written dialogue, tons of exploration. It's basically everything you could want if you're a fan of sci-fi and a fan of RPGs. 

Haven't played the third, but I felt the second improved on the first in most ways. It left behind some of the more nitty gritty rpg stats but also removed the more boring driving around looking for random crap on boring terrain genned worlds. 

1000% improvement! :D 

hehe yeah, i was able to buy most of what i needed before it started to get boring. 

Buggy game play. I tried the third, and if I'd had the collateral to invest maybe I'd have been happy after some time.

But then, other things happened. 

ENEMIES EVERYWHERE 

My free time has become so limited, outside of titles I am reviewing, I only really play Quake or Doom now.

...and I'm usually happier for it. This community puts out better experiences than most studios, and does so in an almost casual manner. Most new games have been so lackluster, that it feels like if I am to play a game other than my favorites, it should probably be "Timeless Classics" that I never did get around to playing: Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock 2, Planescape Torment. Granted, most of the praise I hear about these concerns the story, and I am very much a mechanics/systems and immersion person, and am likely to get more out of the latest map jam or DoomWorld's top picks. 

Deux Ex and Thief are definitely gameplay games. Deus Ex just happens to also have a great story. No idea about Thief, I never got far in it. System Shock 2 has somewhat clunkier gameplay but I still really enjoyed it. It is more story though I guess. I should really restart it, last winter(?) I lost interest near the end I think. 

Thief 1 (and 2) has some of the tightest gameplay around, and the immersion is still unmatched even if games like STALKER or more recently Alien: Isolation come close. There's a reason why it is regarded as one of the best games of all time (and it's also my favorite game. Yes, before Quake).

Also if you want to play System Shock 2, try the first one beforehand. It's old and stuff but that game was way ahead of its time, and its predecessors Ultima Underworld 1 and 2 are still some of the best CRPGs out there with outstanding atmosphere. 

Thief 1's story is basic but the way it is presented is really great. The background is huge as well, with tons of optional flavor texts scattered in the levels. Thief 2's is a bit too grand for its own good and falls flat near the end, sadly. It's still very well written though. 

I thought ME1 had too many issues across the board that needed fine tuning, but ME2 was an awesome game. Must be one of the best releases in the last decade. What made it so good for me was the character and story immersion. Doing all the missions to get your allies (gotta have the dlcs too), and then figuring out how to keep them alive in the end sequences. Felt more like a movie and I was part of it.

I haven't played ME3 yet.

Yeah if I were to go back I'd play all the rpgs that I missed, I never really got into them much back then. ie System Shock 1/2. 

Deux Ex and Thief are definitely gameplay games. Deus Ex just happens to also have typical generic generation x-files conspiracy WOTEVER story.

FTFY etc x

I'm as big a fan of Quake and it's peers as anyone, but there are still a lot of great games in recent years - including for mechanics/systems and immersion. HL2, Bioshock / Infinite, Far Cry, Crysis / Warhead, Dishonoured, Left4Dead / 2 all spring to mind. 

Point me at one game with a story you could not describe as generic if you tried hard.

I meant the branching and depth though. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxyadCHxUng 

(description from the website)
a thoughtful, exploration focused survival simulation set in the Northern wilderness in the aftermath of a global disaster. Brave the elements and other survivors, hunt for supplies, explore the world, uncover the mystery, answer the question: How far will you go to survive?

It's not officially out yet, so I'm playing the early-access sandbox feature. There's no story, you wake up in the Northern Canadian wilderness and need to survive the cold, not starve, and NOT get eaten by a wolf for as long as possible.

Attempt 1
I wake up in an icy valley. The wind is blowing hard. I wander aimlessly around before realising I'm getting dangerously cold. Trying to find shelter somewhere.

I find a spot where the rock wall shelters me from the wind, and try to start my campfire. Only problem is I have no wood. I forage for an hour or two, and return with some nice cedar. By this point my condition is deteriorating, but I'm ready to start my fire.

It lights! It's burning nicely. Unfortunately I started the fire at my feet and now I'm on fire. I'm burning to death. I'm dead.

Attempt 2
I wake up and can immediately hear a wolf howling. I go to investigate. I am eaten by a wolf.

Attempt 3
I wake up and wander around. I can see what looks like a dam in the distance. I get closer and yes, it's a disused hydro-plant. I hear a wolf howl. I run towards the entrance to the plant, having now learned of the high mortality rate when being eaten by a wolf.

Inside! A little warmer too. It's dark in here so I light a flare. Creepy. I look through filing cabinets and boxes. I find some light medical gear, some chocolate bars, a can of pork and beans, a hatchet, and random odds and ends. Excitingly I find a nice kerosene lamp and a big barrel of kerosene to refill it.

I put out my flare and light the lamp. I start to explore the plant, ending up in a big room where all the serious hydro-machinery thingy majigs are. There's a dead frozen body. I go through his pockets and steal his granola bar and a bottle of water. Feel a little weird eating this. I eat it.

I head out into the cold, and find a half eaten frozen elk in the woods nearby. I chop off some frozen flesh with the hatchet and head back inside.
I find some warm boots and put them on, and put down my bedroll by a fire barrel in the big machinery room. I guess I'm staying the night, it must be 9pm now. I light the fire-barrel, and cook my frozen elk on it. I wash it down with a refreshing can of summit soda and go to sleep on my bedroll.

Wake up in the morning and I'm thirsty. Time to drink some dead-guy water. I think it's time to go exploring! I head out into the wild, where anything can happen, and man and nature live as one. I am eaten by a wolf.

Attempt 4
Attempt 4 and I'll skip the detail, but I woke near a frozen lake, investigated the cabins and found some sweet gear: a peacoat, a rifle, some military rations. Kept on round the lake and found a camp hut, I guess where the park rangers would have hung out.

This is an actual awesome home, with camp stoves, beds, all sorts. I found a proper winter parka too. Then I explored further and found a derailed train, and a trappers hut. Lots of good hunting gear in there.

Looking forward to continuing this adventure, while adhering to rule one of survival: do NOT be eaten by a wolf. 

LOL :D

Spirit I didn't need to try hard with DX. Truly great game though. 

 

http://www.doomworld.com/21years/index.php 

So last night I replayed Doom's e1m1 on up through e1m5, stopping at 6 when I realized the time. Ultraviolence of course.

The action is obviously so much easier on keyboard + mouse, since it was balanced for keyboard only, but it is still very fun. It seems every fight just about has some form of mini-objective to it, be it an item in the midst of the monsters, or an explosive barrel a few monsters into the pack, tempting you to concentrate your fire on specific individuals to reach the barrel. It managed to give me a lot of grinning moments, where things just Worked Out and made me feel like a badass without giving me too much power. Granted, finding almost all of the secrets resulted in a pretty continual stream of health, armor, and ammo.

I really liked how each level had at least one "unnecessary" area. There was always more to the level than reaching the exit, and it changed up the level in one form or another. E1M1, finding the blue armor early dropped down the walls in the level, exposing you to long range gunfights. E1M2 had the side maze which got darker and strobier as you went into it, terminating in two different secret areas, one of which allowed you to snipe the penultimate battle. E1M3 opens with that great view of the slime pit which just screams "Surely they did something wit that", and they did, but it isn't part of the golden path. E1M3 also has a yellow keycard inside of a secret, and a yellow door inside of another secret... I love that, I love that the game world is more than "Show the player things, make sure they see all the things."

I just really enjoyed how everything connected, one battle would guide you into another, items encouraged you along a path, investigating a side area or peering out a window would give you a new goal. The game isn't just finding the exit necessarily.

Also, that AI. It is such a nice amount of minimal, I actually got startled by a pinky. I knew one was still alive, I caught a glimpse earlier because of how they roam about, not always bee-lining. So I pursued into the area, killed it, and turned around to one staring me in the face just about to bite. Turns out two were still alive, but I never saw them at the same time.

Makes me want to play more of it tonight, honestly. And that was all extremely rambling. 

This just in: Doom is a good game.

No but seriously, Doom is still awesome and everyone should play it like once a year.

Plus some of the new Doom mods/engines are pretty damn amazing as well. 

I keep meaning to look at what the Doom community has been up to.

Interesting about the extra areas.

Big business games don't do normally side routes or secret levels because they're not cost effective.

Terms like cost effective don't have any place in game design, yet, there they are. 

To play the other side of that, time not spent creating areas that 99% of players won't see is more time spent polishing areas that they will.

As levels moved beyond drawing a few line segments and assigning a texture, it got more and more expensive to add extra areas. 

Even id was hit by this ... Quake doesn't have a ton of nonsense areas. Most of the real estate exists for a reason.