Tell me system wars, what is this 'next gen gameplay'?

Seems to have been brought up a lot recently, especially with events that have just passed. What is this concept of next gen gameplay that everyone is expecting that apparently no next gen game provides thus far?

For example, game is announced: "Graphics awesome! Gameplay, very last gen, generic. Just another X genre game". Like are people seriously expecting genres to be instantly reinvented or something? Like the next battlefield or COD will be...yet another first person shooter...I saw no comments about how that type of gameplay is considered 'last gen' or 'generic'.

My question is...what are people expecting devs to do this gen, like specifically? I see people complaining but no-one really gives any examples of what they actually want. Do gamers even know what they want?

Would like less comments about what you don't like and more what you actually DO think is next gen gameplay.

Ryse: Son of Rome

Brings new levels of comedy to gameplay.

People are not expecting developers to do anything relating to gameplay as no one cares for gameplay anymore, the only thing that people care about in games nowadays is the story, I hate to say it but it's true.

to be honest? I expect more:

- Blending of genres, with a bigger scope and room for player choice. this will likely NOT come to happen, it will be so utterly expensive and long to make that you might see one or two games that gen from a dev that tries that.

- Higher focus of ai created and influenced elements. This might happen, and will likely be what most of us are looking for, ai more flexible further reaching then standing there having a small amoung of options. and alot of rutinely procedually generated content (as in having the game decide Things that might happen, depenging on how you solve problems, and how you act, making reaction more belivable).

- Ironically splinter some of the mainstream appeal out to more specialiced gameplay types, making them deeper and more complex, this would ofcourse NOT be "NeXT gen" like people would claim, but a return to previous gens in terms of gameplay.

- Likely vr implementation, but can not really say if that would happen or, not, be a gimmick only or be something that may hold ground. Will depend on how well Devs implement it, how much the average consumer embraces it.

- Sadly more focus on "cinematic storytelling" which so far always damaged gameplay with near no exceptions. Maybe they will find a way this gen?

-Atleast stop treating the average consumer as a drooling idiot.

Some nice suggestions here, thanks. I agree on AI, definitely. I still think VR is a long way out yet like 2017/8 then it's whether or not it's affordable. As for the bold, I guess that's down to taste as I like the story focused games, gives the game much more of a purpose in my eyes. But again,it's this mind set of expecting a genre of game to suddenly deliver something unconventional to what the genre was created to provide in the first place.

'next gen gameplay' is a misnomer.

which i think might be your point, tc?

Much much better AI comes to mind.

Multiple genres in one game. Example. First Person Shooter with RPG elements, etc etc.

Something fresh. Every genre had it's own fresh thingy.

Didn't Borderlands do that last gen? So technically that's 'last gen gameplay'.

See where this is going? I don't get how people are getting disappointed with being presented with more of the the same as if it wasn't inevitable.

certainly nothing available now. Destiny may achieve something 'new' tho

ability to access every houses and building in an open world games like gta, but i doubt it will happen this gen

that honestly sounds like next gen gameplay to you? what would be the point and how would it make the game better for you?(serious question)

With great processing power comes great resp….

Seriously, processing power means more chance of blending and mixing features together.

Third person shooters need to add more depth to melee combat, make it more like a beat em up when it goes hand to hand combat, I don't want something like Uncharted 3, I need to see something more, something like Sleeping Dogs or Batman Arkham Asylum when we go hand to hand, I want that fight to be brutal and challenging and I want the environment to be completely interactive.

For example if I threw the enemy on the table, when that table is broken I could take the legs of that table or any broken piece of it and hit that fucker with it, plus I don't want a cursor telling me where to interact with the environment like Uncharted 3 or Sleeping Dogs, I want that club shootout completely open to my imagination of how to fight be it shooting or when it comes hand to hand.

But it doesn't mean a one on one goes for a straight 8 minutes fight making the game boring every time you encounter some foe, I just need to see there are no limits to gameplay anymore.

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Another aspect of next-gen is new ideas, how about putting you on the shoes of a UFC fighter or a running back that is targeted by some mobs or secret organization and you have to discover why they are after you and the game mechanics is designed by your athlete's style of sport you choose to start the game with, yes modern RPG classes.

Oh and the element of surprise is big because you start the game and you are playing a football game with all the mechanics of NFL present for you like the first 30 minutes of the game and you choose what to do in those first 30 minutes, do you wanna play the match? do you wanna fool around in the locker room or go do some sexy time with the girlfriend? do you want to start a fist fight in the middle of the game with the teammates or the opponents ? whatever you decide to do the whole stadium is open to explore.

And while you are messing around the assassination starts depending on your location or what you were doing at the time.

Ofcourse I don't know how to hide the fact that this is a third person action game but you get the idea, The player doesn't know what kind of game he's playing for the first 30 minutes.

- AI improvements
- Blending of Genre's
- Cinematics are fine as long as they are not to the point of being on rails which most console exclusives are
- Something like Evolve
- Environment that reacts to you (not just physics also in gameplay) say dynamic destruction but with different approaches like completely destring the path that comes to you or to gain access to another area/house/room a tactically usage of environment
- More CQC combat ala Sleeping Dogs style mixed with shooting mechanics
- There are many things I feel can be done, I just can't find words to express them

Sadly none of this will happen.

Great things have been done with Nintendo's touchscreen. Too bad nobody is buying it.

What else can we do in gameplay tho, we have pretty much full movement of the characters we play in the best games, the only thing which can really change is the character animations.

AI needs to be made a lot more human in games, that's probably the next big step,

• Some good quality facial animations should be the standard this gen.
• Better AI and great interaction.
• Less linearity hopefully. It should be a design choice now and not due to console hardware limitations.
• Hopefully a better focus on some nice sound assets.
• More consistent environments in open world games especially. Things might occur when you're not around or remain once you leave an area so the world's are more dynamic.
• Greater destruction/interaction with environments when it makes sense.
• Better, more creative uses of online features, e.g. user generated content, AI etc.

Some of those might not be gameplay as such but i value them as a part of the experience.

The days of revolutionary core gameplay mechanics are kind of gone for the big genres. What we should be pushing for is more spins on the old formula or pushing boundaries in other areas like story and how you can interact with characters and influence events.

So for me next-gen gameplay really doesn't exist as it's just twists on the old gameplay but there are definitely next-gen experiences as the new tech is more liberating in other areas of a game.

1, Creativity

2, Reiterating on an already great genre to near perfection.

something new...anything new. just slapping pretty graphics on the same generic gameplay was getting old at the end of last gen. so of course gamers are tired of seeing it this gen already.

Quantum Break is trying something new...Titanfall seems fresh and new feeling to people...just something new. too much of the same ole shii going on with games recently.

I honestly don't believe the term exists. There are exciting, atmospheric, amazing games from every gen, and outside of graphics its either a good game or its not. Who here would say Halo 2 isnt a better game than Killzone SF? But Killzone is next gen, right? What about is Super Mario Galaxy better than Ryse? Isn't Ryse next gen? Titanfall and Infamous and DriveClub and Forza... Next gen can offer better graphics and more players for multiplayer games. That's enhanced from last gen. Better graphics and more characters on screen don't scream next gen to me. Whatever it is that does I haven't played it yet. The key here is played it, as better graphics are just enhanced from last gen. IMHO.

Examples, please.

Quantum Break has a new take on things with intermingling live action video that adapts to how you played the actual game, thats new. plus the gameplay in the actual game seems interesting with the time and space manipulating. no other game has done this before intermingling a show with gameplay to that extent. its new...it'll be interesting...its next gen.

Titanfall is basically COD with mechs, yes. but just in theory. the gameplay of the pilots alone changes the dynamics of first person shooters on consoles to a extreme extent. add the mechs along with it and things jump another level. how the game has garnered instant love shows that it does feel new and different to people. i havent seen as many people calling a game amazing and awesome, gamers just hyped up...since Halo Combat Evolved. even though essentially its still just running, jumping, and shooting. they found a formula that people seem to be going ecstatic for and enjoy.

also another game thats seeming like a winner for a new take on the same old is Evolve. that game is a new take on the same old multiplayer game. seems really interesting n unique with the 4 against 1 aspect of the game.

thats what people want from next gen imo...new, different, fresh...not just pretty graphics while you do the same thing you've been doing fore the past 8 years. who wants to do the same ole shii for a decade plus. it doesnt matter if its prettier...its boring.

Nah, this is what I wanted. Nice post.

Quantum Break is one of the very few games for the Xbox One that I'm looking forward to learning more about if I'm honest because I love me some third person action, that's why I'm so stoked for The Order, no matter how much it's getting shit on on here. I'm hoping it shines through and actually convinces me that I need an Xbox One sooner than I anticipated. But QB is more of a theory at the moment, the premise is nic, the graphics look nice(although reserving total judgement until we know that's not officially a cutscene), but we've technically not seen much in depth into the gameplay at all yet for me to really judge. And at the end of the day it could just be another third person shooter when you're not doing the time stop thing.

Titanfall I would say, for me, is 'last gen gameplay' by definition of this thread because all it is is a first person shooter, the same way all FPSs are. Sure you can bounce off walls and double jump in speedy mode but all it reminds me of is like oldskool UrealT or Quake arena so strikes me as already been done. It looks like it delivers your standard FPS fix, I'm not saying it doesn't look fun. The mechs are what make it to be honest. I wish the game would have been purely Titan based without the human component. Could have been like a grounded West take on a Zone Of The Enders type game or a contemporary mech warrior game.

But respecting your opinions I get what you're saying, basically you want a mix of certain things on top of the original established base of a genre.

better graphics, new gameplay mechanics, maybe a new genre or another genre takes the reigns cuz i am really getting tired of fps

inb4 less linear *rollseyes*

I personally prefer linear games 99% of the time since open world games are nearly ALWAYS filled with nonsense fetch/kill missions, incredibly poor pacing in their plots, having to traverse barren environments to start missions has become very tedious etc. List goes on. Give me a linear/semi open game any day of the week. Halo, TLOU, UC, 3D platformers, Half Life, Portal, Batman Arkham Asylum, Demons Souls... Sure you have games like Xenoblade older FF games and Dark Souls that do open world gameplay in a unique way (wow Japanese devs kill it at the open world genre) BUT..... GTA, Saints Row, Elder Scrolls, new Fallout games, all fall into the same traps that open world games have that I absolutely DESPISE.

@misterpmedia: really depends on what the developer will add inside a building, like for example a secret mission or random npcs that you can interact etc

Example...

Yes Borderlands and many other games did this. Now it was shit. Deus ex was the only game that did that good.

Well why do you think people hate COD? It's always the same thing over and over again. People like fresh things.

next gen gameplay would be closer to the later games of last gen such as tlou. despite it's a.i. flaws, it had great gameplay.

I think you're misinterpreting here, because there are games that have a melee system that interacts with the environment around'em and those games came out before The Last Of Us.

What made The Last Of Us's melee system so great is that it feels tangible, every punch every hit feels real, and it's done through excellent contextual animation and sound.

We haven't seen it yet. Last gen, it wasn't until Gears of War that we got the now-annoyingly ordinary third person cover shooter. But when it came out, everybody was blown away. I'd imagine we'll start seeing some new gameplay types by the end of the year.

thanks, but yea, if there is any game i'm interested in seeing how it turns out its Quantum Break. it has some interesting ideas. but like you said...how they balance them will be key.

I don't think there will be anything that goes very far beyond what we had with last gen to be honest. Even the difference between last gen and the one that came before it was rather minimal and with presentation giving gameplay a free pass more and more, I fear gaming may feel stagnated overall.

There are new ideas everywhere, a single mind could change everything we know about gameplay again. See Fumito Ueda for example, his two games are very original and unique.

I for one on a matter of fact have some ideas of my own but Im not sharing them lol because I prefer either to die and bury them with me or share them with the world by making those experiences and I am planning on the latter.

It's a myth. Next gen gameplay doesn't exist. Every genre and gameplay element has been done to death. Only thing devs can do is add better AI, more destructibility, and shinier graphics and animations.

Hopefully more creativity on the mainstream front but I highly doubt it

Gimme dat Oculus Rift (uhhhhhhh)

Primarily what I demand from a game is that it buy into its own premise. Also, steep challenges and solid mechanics are a must.

Stuff I hope to be surprised by is cloud-integration and the integration of MP into what would traditionally be a narrative SP experience (ala Demon's/Dark Souls, Journey).

What irritates me is how AI is the one thing that never seems to improve.

Half Life 1 still has significantly better AI than most modern games, WTF Is that?

Console gaming will stagnate. Not all of gaming.

Integrating online components in single player or combining single player with multiplayer is this gen's theme.
Motion controls and the entire Oculus Rift experience is next gen (looking down for map, etc.).
What Everquest Next is doing with Landmark (side-game and letting player created content affect a game) is next gen.
The Witcher 3 has shown impressive ways your actions influence the world.

What I'd like to see is more emergent AI and AI learning from players/replacing players, and more player created stuff.
I want sound to become 3D, binaural. Sound morphing by bouncing off of stuff. A shootout around the streetcorner should sound different from one you're in. (Ironically this has been done by a 15 year old game once and even though it wasn't perfect it was better than all sound morphing we heard since then.)
And I want way better hair, lighting, shadows and rain, which is slowly happening.
No more load times. SSD's are helping. My PC this gen will have SSD's to cut load times in half.

The generation after this I hope we will dive into tactile feedback. Mice with tactile feedback exist, the handle with amazing tactile feedback they showed some time ago seems to be perfectly on track to create an amazing wiimote-esque controller for the generation here after.

I think presentation is being addressed more because there's probably not a lot else they can address with gameplay other than what is already being achieved. Why fix what's not broken? etc. for example V

Waggle and snapping.

Muh next gen innovashun

Nothing that has been shown this gen has next gen gameplay. The most "next gen" feeling gameplay that has been seen in years was Demon's Souls on PS3 last gen with world and soul tendencies intergrated with online and offline gameplay. that was truely mind blowingly next gen type gameplay.

Everyone else has been trying to copy that magic since but nothing has been shown that surpasses that level of innovative gameplay. Someone said titanfall, lol insert killzone 2/3, Planet Side 2, Hawken and Vanquish. There is nothing next gen about Titanfall gameplay. we have all seen mechs in shooters before the gameplay is the same its just is getting more hype because MS is treating it like a exclusive

The same person said Quantam Break, lmao NO how is watching movies = next gen GAMEPLAY?? That's right its not, Beyond 2 souls would be more next gen than that, intergrating movies with gameplay would fall back to dungons and dragons released on arcades during the nes and genesis generation and a time freeze machanic isn't anything new or original either so that is a total fail for "next gen" gameplay with those games.

What you wrote is stupid.

basically, "I have fun with it so it's next gen, if you disagree you are jealous". What kind of argument is that? An argument from a dumbass that's what it is.

Your argument seems to revolve around your fanboyism talking about cows and being jealous of a MUTIPLATFORM game. Did I say the game couldn't be "fun"? No you dumb lem I said it wasn't anything "next gen" and it's not.

Look at how you try to down play a playstation exclusive saying the order is just gears of war in higher res, I never said anything about it so I don't know why you are bringing it up like a dumb fanboy. Re-read my post, I said nothing is showing "next gen" gameplay so far, period. And you should know that Titanfall is just cod with mechs and the res isn't even that much higher.

That logic would be true if the following wasn't reality:

1) Titanfall is the biggest game of the year... and is being received incredibly well.

2) MMOs and MOBA's were not the most popular genres in gaming at the moment.

only the media and these so called "game critics" and awards make you think its all about cinematics and story..... people who mix games up with movies....

Why do people here think that games in order to have a good story need to be "cinematic"? Thats outright false. Cinematic gameplay is bad because it inolves clunky, repetitive and incredibly shallow gameplay and of course very linear maps. I dont know if I should laugh or cry when I see all these "cinematic shooters" have much more simplistic maps than the doom 2, a game thats ancient. So yeah I think The Order and Quantum Break look like garbage.

Let me simply point out the hypocracy to your whole rant. You say titanfall has a next gen feel in your opinion, regardless of my opinion how can you say The order is just gears with higher res if you haven't played it (like you have titanfall)...to "feel" how it plays?

that's your argument and words, now let me skip to mine.

Look at the argument presented in this thread and what is being discussed. Saying you disagree is all fine and dandy but you aren't presenting any arguments to counter my points nor saying anything worthwhile to support your opinion other than, "it's fun". That is not the point of this thread and since it's not your objection to my original post is meaningless.

............

But feel free to list the things that make Titanfall gameplay so next gen, I am sure it is doing things that no game has ever done before for you to feel so stongly.