Either from the fact that the gaming industry is an ever changing beast, or a product of growing up, but lately I've felt really alienated towards most games in the last couple of years. Forgive me as I begin to sound like your grandpa.

Back in the day it just felt like you had a truck load of games to choose from between Nintendo, Sega and PlayStation. Atari was still around but I never had an Atari system sadly. Then there was the arcade that would have games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, Gauntlet Legends (does anyone remember Gauntlet Legends?), Mortal Kombat, etc. etc. Back then the genres that was really popular were platformers and RPGs. We also had a lot of good action, adventure, action-adventure, fighting and survivor horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. And stealth games like Metal Gear Solid and Tenchu. FPS games were more rare back then and most of the ones I played qualified more as rail shooters where you just went from point to point and shot things that appeared on the screen.

I'm not knocking current games. I was just blown away by Darksiders fairly recently and that qualifies as a current gen game. There just isn't a lot on the market that appeals to me anymore or leaps out at me like the next big thing. Exclusives don't stand out like they used to with the exception of Nintendo, but Nintendo has always had better known exclusives than the other platforms. And I couldn't care less about some of the recent stuff that are used in games now. Online? I don't play games to play online. I'm anti-social as all hell on the occasion I play an MMO. I'd rather play a traditional single-player or mulitplayer game. Thus the feeling of alienation. Has anyone else ever felt this way or am I on my own?

tl;dr: I'm old. Time to retire.

I have to agree with you there. Few games today actually expand on what's already been done before. Most of them want you to sit and stare at some fancy eye-candy graphics. I think it mainly has to do with appeasing the casual gamer, the one that doesn't want to put too much effort into it.

That could be a contributing factor. We're kind of spoiled when it comes to the technology side of things. No one is going to pay for an AAA game that has gone backwards on the graphics. That's more for indie games which I'm starting to develop quite a taste for.

My eye hasn't really been caught by an new games and I'm not entirely sure why. I've definitely stopped buying games for the heck of it, because I don't have the money. The technology is so expensive nowadays that I'll only buy a game if I'm certain I'll play it over and over again, which is fairly limiting nowadays. Often I'll pick up a game and just feel as if I've already done it before, because some games are too similar to previous games without offering some truly distinguishing factor.

Sailor Venus wrote:

 because some games are too similar to previous games without offering some truly distinguishing factor.

 crash bandicoot games made it (untill the newer junky ones came out. While the plot was the same and it was get 25 crystals, blah blah.. each one had something new to offer, besides the new 25 levels.

Man I have a lot to say on this matter seeing that i worked in gaming retail for over 5 years.

But yeah to tl;dr it...its kinda cause we are old. What appeals to younger kids and generation below many of us is way different than what we had as kids.

When we were the age of most kids playing modern games, we were playing stuff like Super mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and a plethora of other platformers and RPGS. Now most kids under 10 know and want to play games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Minecraft (minecraft being ever popular ithink mainly due to the creativity aspect of it and hte fact that its less violent, parents readily choose it over violent shooters). Part of this is also their parents play similar games and they want to play those.

I like to think we grew up in the Age of Platformers and RPGS (i mean look how many RPGS there were between years of the SNES up to the Playstation (original)) and while todays generation is growing up in the Age of the FPS and MMO gaming. (Also note MMO does not necessarily mean games RPG like WOW. I'm just strictly meaning Massive multiplayer online).

I could go on but i'm at work. :bunnynarroweye 

I've not been too interested in any of the big name games (Pokemon XY excluded). But Indie games are fabulous. There are a lot of fun and interesting games, and there's a ton of variety that its hard to not find *something* that appeals to you.

Trine, Limbo, Braid, Aquaria, Fez, Bastion, Dungeon Defenders, Avadon are just a few that pop into mind that are all great and innovative games <3 I love Indie games, you never know just what you might find in them :3 And I especially love when I can find some games where they have old SNES-like graphics (as that's my favorite console because I'm old xD haha)

I definitely recommend looking into some Indie games if you are feeling a lack of interest in more big-name games :3

I'm totally on you with that. I think with indie games since they aren't trying to cater to a larger demographic, they end up being really fun and some of them even feel timeless. Take games like Terraria for example. Its like a weird mix of a platformer and minecraft and incredibly fun!

Small Lady wrote:

Man I have a lot to say on this matter seeing that i worked in gaming retail for over 5 years.

But yeah to tl;dr it...its kinda cause we are old. What appeals to younger kids and generation below many of us is way different than what we had as kids.

When we were the age of most kids playing modern games, we were playing stuff like Super mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, and a plethora of other platformers and RPGS. Now most kids under 10 know and want to play games like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Minecraft (minecraft being ever popular ithink mainly due to the creativity aspect of it and hte fact that its less violent, parents readily choose it over violent shooters).  Part of this is also their parents play similar games and they want to play those.

I like to think we grew up in the Age of Platformers and RPGS (i mean look how many RPGS there were between years of the SNES up to the Playstation (original)) and while todays generation is growing up in the Age of the FPS and MMO gaming. (Also note MMO does not necessarily mean games RPG like WOW. I'm just strictly meaning Massive multiplayer online).

I could go on but i'm at work. :bunnynarroweye 

That still kills me. That the main players for AAA titles like Call of Duty and GTA with M ratings are just little kids. I mean, I was no better as a child but back then most of the M rated games had poor graphics and the violence looked so fake. Things are a bit more realistic in that area than it was in the 90's. I guess it's harmless, but the only way I would have gotten GTA in this house as a kid was over my mom's dead body. That was the one game of all the violent games I played that I was not allowed to have.

Sailor Pluto wrote:

I definitely recommend looking into some Indie games if you are feeling a lack of interest in more big-name games :3

Waaaay ahead of you.

I'm going to get my 2nd cousins hooked on Crash Bandicoot games XD   when they come over for X-mas i'll get them to play the game.