You know one thing I noticed with the newer games compared to the older ones is that they lack that "atmosphere" that makes it easy to immerse yourself in the world.
An example I can point is Pathfinder: Kingmaker and BG1 and 2.
I'm actually one of the few people here who stumbled on Pathfinder before BG1 and BG2 games, and whilst I like all 3 games, one thing I noticed was that Pathfinder lacked the 'feel' or 'atmosphere' that I felt in BG1 and BG2.
And now that I think about, most of the games I have from 1999-2008 (Diablo 1, D2, Divine Divinity, Gothic etc) era all have this 'feel' that the newer games lack, and I quite frankly do not know what it is.
B....bros, is this what the memers meant when they were talking about "Soul"?
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It's because modern game devs, in order to appeal to the troonyWoke crowd, intentionally file off the fangs on their world building that might imply people have preferences or natural inclinations towards race or culture. That's why in BG1 & 2, you find mostly human settlements with some spread out Elvish only settlements, and non-human races are pretty rare. Meanwhile, you open up a typical Pathfinder or 5e adventure made past 2016, and the population for SOME reason are completely equal distributions of Tiefling, Dragonborn, Dark Elves, Half-orcs, Gnomes, and all the other super rare races, despite the fact that the adventure is primarily taking place in a human-only settlement.
Not everything is about your gay Black person troony race culture politics you fricking normalgay. What OP is talking about is that CRPGs are just not as creative or good as they used to be.
Older RPGs were made to tell a story. Newer RPGs are made to show off gameplay mechanics and graphics.
This is just a symptom of the main problem, which is that devs barely give a shit about lore anymore.
You have that reversed. The wokeness is the problem. The gameplay mechanics are the symptoms. They tie everything into pure gameplay because numbers can't be racists, only ablest, which is also why they keep the numbers low and simple. So invalids and women can add them.
>They tie everything into pure gameplay because numbers can't be racists, only ablest, which is also why they keep the numbers low and simple.
Seriously, get help.
Meds, now
This is taking rent free to new levels, damn.
The wokeness is a symptom, the disease is ever more money coming into gaming, which means developers get more risk-averse (meaning less creative) and try to target bigger audiences (meaning less difficulty and complexity).
>numbers can't be racists
Mathgate.
Well truth to be told, it really did feel more "in your face" than the older games that is for sure. If I had to discribe it, it would be like "Try, but make it seem like we do not try" feel.....if that makes any sense.
I think this might be it. BG1 and BG2 stories made me feel a lot more engaged with the plot than the Pathfinder game, and It really seems baffling since that game has no shortage of cool elements : Ancient Demi-god Cyclop Lich, Curses, Troll Invasions, Kingdom wars. But it felt like it was scrapped together in a hurry, like that one homework you hastedly did a day before it was supposed to be delivered.
I think BG1 and BG2 lacked style too, but their limitations well put to good use. I found Irenicus's battle against Thiefs then Wizards to be quite well presented for a game that was made 21 years ago. Similarly BG1, which came even earlier made Gorion's fight against Sarevok seem epic.
Ignore the schizoid above, the feeling older games have atmosphere and newer ones don't is generally a budget and technical issue. When you have less money to graphically flesh things out, you tend to 'mask' this by making it up in other ways. Art style, for example, or visual effects (Silent Hill's infamous fog came from the developers trying to hide the abysmal FOV the PSone had.)
That isn't to say you can't intentionally put atmosphere in your games, and some modern games still do this, but it was usually a way to cover up something else that was lacking. It works in it's favour in the long term; Think about the early 3D games that were praised for their graphics but look like shit now. If you go the realistic route, you stand to get burnt in the long term.
Developers will always, without question, try to make their games as realistic and fleshed out as humanly possible unless a conscious decision is made early in the development. What they don't realise is that having that mystery in your game makes them 10x more appealing in the long run.
I was referring to this poltard, of course
Based, and actual reality pilled
Cringe, culture war and ultimately (Liberal) pilled.
This, a game being more "atmospheric" is a result of limitations, not a deliberate artistic decision.
>Developers will always, without question, try to make their games as realistic and fleshed out as humanly possible unless a conscious decision is made early in the development
Or it's an anime game and then the realism goes out the window.
>the feeling older games have atmosphere and newer ones don't is generally a budget and technical issue.
lol the frick if it is. There's literally no money spent on someone going "You know I think it would be cool if minotaurs were responsible for most of the farming and agriculture" and then putting that in the game. It gets taken out because they're worried it might offend whatever culture they base that shit on.
Well yeah Kingmaker managers to accomplish the amazing feat of both having basically zero style and shit graphics.
Watch anytime the game tries to have a "cutscene" and this becomes immediately obvious. Dramatic NPC dies? Oh no...he T-posed before he died.
Wow I'm so emotionally invested.
It's direction, dictatorship is absolutely necessary when you're making a piece of art. It needs to have a singular vision developed entirely by one man. But now, games are made by teams of well over 500 people with various compartmentalized managers and feedback testers.
Disco Elysium has god-tier atmosphere
I think modern games are so focused on pacing that they just have too much going on for a proper atmosphere to form. In Baldur's Gate there is a lot of time spent just roaming empty forests with sparse encounters. Pathfinder rarely has open spaces where nothing of interest happens. I think those moments of nothing between the action are where you really feel atmosphere like in STALKER and Silent Hill
This is a pretty gay thread. Kingmaker has a very cool atmosphere.
Have you not played Octopath Traveler? Pretty much destroys your statement completely.
How much per hour to shill two games at once?
I can't even imagine saying something as stupid as "1999-2008 all have this 'feel' that newer games lack" as if soulless garbage like NWN 2 has any personality or atmosphere at all.
>BG1 and 2
shit atmosphere. opinion discarded.
Bigger teams and higher budgets kill creativity, and most smaller team/budget games try to copy something that already exists rather than do their own thing.
I honestly think that its because technology doesnt allow it anymore. More restricted means meant that they had to use evocative technique in order to describe the world, which each player would complete in their mind trough their imagination.
Modern games are descriptive and do not let the player use his imagination, aand we all have been so used to it that we wouldnt anyway.
Owlcat have terrible artists, simple as.