I enjoyed the last couple of NFS games despite the horrible Alldrive system in Rivals & the awkward live action cutscenes that never actually resulted in any drama in the last one. This looks like a pass though. Why are there cards in my car?
@esqueejy: Nier: Automata is absolutely my GOTY. The way it blends mechanics & narrative is truly revolutionary. Many of these games you've mentioned are all good games but they just iterate, they don't really do anything new. Nier is bold in it's vision & hasn't been watered down by some publisher that wants to make it more mainstream. I can definitely recommend you check it out.
That said, Horizon: Zero Dawn looks great. I'm going to have to get my hands on a PS4 at some point. Persona 5 is another one I need a PS4 to play, people are saying that's a GOTY contender too.
@AndreJr7: There are still a lot of indies creating more linear experiences but every AAA publisher seems to feel the need to pad games out to "add value". I love single player games & I like to play a fairly wide variety but I'll be more likely to give a game a try if I know it's only going to be a 5-10 hour investment if my time. For example, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice wasn't super polished & the combat could have been better but it wasn't a massive negative because it was only around 9 hours to beat. AC: Origins is a great game but the combat is janky & after 30+ hours, it's starting to really bring the experience down.
Good to see consoles are getting more powerful. I mean, it's still not as good as my PC with last gen graphics cards but the rising tide raises all ships, right? Hopefully we'll start seeing some higher fidelity models in future games.
If I was in the market for a console, PS4 still has some amazing exclusives so that would be hard to ignore. If the XboneX encouraged devs to really focus on improved performance instead of fake 4K, that might be more tempting.
Good to finally hear from some devs on this. They all primarily work on F2P games which I think is different from pay up front titles but it's still interesting to hear their opinions. We've all heard Youtubers & gaming site personalities' opinions & thousands of comments but it's rare to get opinions straight from the horse's mouth.
I take it all with a grain of salt of course, but good to hear nonetheless.
@USDevilDog: Older arcade games were hard because they were designed to get you to put in more quarters, not necessarily because it was the best design. That said, I don't think modern games provide the best design either.
I don't completely disagree with you but allow me to present an alternate view. Death makes no sense in modern video games. Death is immersion breaking. Unless it's a game like Dark Souls where death is built into the lore of the world, it breaks the narrative of the game.
In an arcade game that might take 30 minutes to beat, if you die it's game over. The hero died, that's it, start again. Do better next time. In a 30+ hour open world game, the story tells us the hero never really died, just forget that, it didn't happen. Try again from a few minutes back.
It's interesting if you look at David Cage games like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls & the upcoming Detroit Become Human; there is no death, there is no explicit failure. If you "fail", the game carries on & takes note of those outcomes. I don't necessarily think every game should be like that but it gives more meaning to the player's actions, it doesn't allow you to just pretend that death never happened.
What do you think? Should games just let you die & punish the player more harshly for failing? Should every game have a hardcore mode where one life is all you get?
There's something great bout David Cage games that you just don't see in other titles. They're usually flawed gems but always a refreshing change from the thousands of games where killing things is the main goal.
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