[The Final Dakar]

With the gen coming to a close, I'm curious what trends people saw with games this gen.

My example: Assassin's Creed Eagle Vision. I don't know if Ubisoft pioneered it, but I then saw it repeated in Batman (Detective Mode) and Far Cry 3.

Also, we've seen some late games adopt the hunting/skinning aspect from Red Dead Redemption (ACIII, FC3)

Anyone else?

[Leonard]

How about the good ol' Killcam.

I too noticed the use of Eagle Vision in Far Cry 3. By this I assume you're referring to the review of the surrounding area from a high point and the revealing of the map when on a high perch (in Far Cry it was the radio towers, In AC it was church steeples or other towers). In AC, Eagle Vision also included the ability to see writing, symbols and target enemies marked by color, not seen by the naked eye.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Leonard 

By this I assume you're referring to the review of the surrounding area from a high point and the revealing of the map when on a high perch (in Far Cry it was the radio towers, In AC it was church steeples or other towers).

No. Unless I hallucinated it, there was a similar dark vision where predators and enemies glow red.

[P]

I think the most obvious trend is using RPG elements in other genres. It seems like all games have to have skill levels and spending "points" to buy abilities thee days.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

I think the most obvious trend is using RPG elements in other genres. It seems like all games have to have skill levels and spending "points" to buy abilities thee days.

BioShock and FC3 come to mind.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

No. Unless I hallucinated it, there was a similar dark vision where predators and enemies glow red.

Hmmm... are we talking about the hunter's instinct syringe which makes animals glow gold in Far Cry 3. There's that and tagging them with the camera in Far Cry 3 (tagging puts a paw or teeth symbol above them). If it's not that, then I didn't use it. I know I had a hell of a time finding this rare Shark and I use hunter's instinct to find it.

[Mike Wuerthele]

Bullet time and regenerating "shields" in shooters.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by EstaNightshift 

Bullet time and regenerating "shields" in shooters.

DIdn't Max Payne and Halo do that last gen?

[ibook_steve]

How about "magical healing", i.e. you don't need to pick up health packs (because they no longer exist in games), but if you can avoid being shot, you'll magically heal? I'm playing Uncharted 3 now (was sitting on top of my pile of shame) and as much as I like the Uncharted games and other shooters, magical healing just makes no sense.

Steve

Edit: is this what you meant by "regenerating shields"?

[P]

Those are part of the same thing. It started with Halo in the last generation (although strictly Halo only had regenerating shields, the health under those shields wore normally) but CoD 2 copied that mechanic and every other shooter copied CoD. The idea is certainly older than this generation, but you have a point that it is much more pervasive now.

[P]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

BioShock and FC3 come to mind.

Modern Warfare is probably the game that all the other shooters are aping, though it appeared in many games at roughly the same time (Bioshock, Modern Warfare - and Mass Effect, although that arguably was an RPG with shooter elements added). Likely they had all seen WoW explode in the marketplace and looked for elements to copy. Strategy games made this transition a little earlier, with Civ IV adding XP back in 2005.

[lpkmckenna]

When did the Quick Time Event come about? That seems like a current-gen trend, and by trend I mean plague. My Q key is still recovering from The Walking Dead.

And how about crafting? That seems pretty recent, but I could be wrong.

Vending machines and mini-games seem pretty common too, though I guess that started previous-gen. I wonder if Bioshock Infinite will continue with the vending machine thing. "Welcome to the Circus of Values!!"

Minimalist UI seems this-gen, but I guess that's not really a game mechanic.

Originally Posted by P

I think the most obvious trend is using RPG elements in other genres. It seems like all games have to have skill levels and spending "points" to buy abilities these days.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar

BioShock and FC3 come to mind.

I think Bioshock inherited that from System Shock 2. But yeah, seems really common now, even id software was sorta doing it.

Besides, I'm pretty sure Deus Ex was the game that really inspired the FPS/RPG hybrids, and that was pre-XBox, so we're looking at 3 generations ago.

Originally Posted by EstaNightshift

Bullet time and regenerating "shields" in shooters.

Is bullet-time still around? I can't recall any game doing recently, but I'm not a console gamer so I might have missed something.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

Those are part of the same thing. It started with Halo in the last generation (although strictly Halo only had regenerating shields, the health under those shields wore normally)

Exactly.

Originally Posted by P 

but CoD 2 copied that mechanic and every other shooter copied CoD. The idea is certainly older than this generation, but you have a point that it is much more pervasive now.

Yeah there's a subset of people who don't like it, though I'm not really sure why.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Is bullet-time still around? I can't recall any game doing recently, but I'm not a console gamer so I might have missed something.

Red Dead Redemption had Dead Eye which definitely was a variant.

[P]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

When did the Quick Time Event come about? That seems like a current-gen trend, and by trend I mean plague. My Q key is still recovering from The Walking Dead.

Well God of War has it (in boss fights at least), but it does seem persistent.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

And how about crafting? That seems pretty recent, but I could be wrong.

The Elder Scrolls games have always had it to some extent, and then WoW spreads it.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Besides, I'm pretty sure Deus Ex was the game that really inspired the FPS/RPG hybrids, and that was pre-XBox, so we're looking at 3 generations ago.

Deus Ex was 2000, so it was long ago, but my point wasn't really the FPS/RPG hybrid - it was the prevalence of XP in shooters, in RTS, in 4X, in every game under the sun it seems.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Is bullet-time still around? I can't recall any game doing recently, but I'm not a console gamer so I might have missed something.

Max Payne 3.

[The Final Dakar]

QTE events? Isn't that Shenmue's domain?

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Is bullet-time still around? I can't recall any game doing recently, but I'm not a console gamer so I might have missed something.

Is bullet-time, slow-motion when shooting? Sleeping Dogs has slow-motion shooting when shooting from cars and maybe in a few other instances.

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna

Vending machines and mini-games seem pretty common too

Yeah, I was thinking of mini-games too. Especially in the open world games.

Open world games or sandbox games, is probably another trend of this generation. Allowing you to go where you want to and doing what you want to.

[The Final Dakar]

Vending machines, hmmm...

BioShock, Far Cry 3, GTA IV (kinda)

[lpkmckenna]

There are vending machines in FC3? On an isolated tropical island? What can you buy from them, mangos?

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

There are vending machines in FC3? On an isolated tropical island? What can you buy from them, mangos?

Weapons.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

There are vending machines in FC3? On an isolated tropical island? What can you buy from them, mangos?

There are (automated?) gun stores in FC3. You buy or receive free (if you unlocked it) various guns, ammo, health, and other weapons. No mangos.

There's alot of towns and people on that "isolated" bunch of islands. I wouldn't really call it an isolated island.

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by Leonard 

No mangos.

Oh well.

Originally Posted by Leonard 

There's alot of towns and people on that "isolated" bunch of islands. I wouldn't really call it an isolated island.

Oh, I didn't know that. From the promo stuff I've see, I didn't see towns, just camps.

[The Final Dakar]

Oh here's another – spotting. It may have previously existed on PC, but Homefront, MW3, BF3, and Far Cry 3 all have it in some form.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Is bullet-time still around? I can't recall any game doing recently, but I'm not a console gamer so I might have missed something.

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

Red Dead Redemption had Dead Eye which definitely was a variant.

Originally Posted by Leonard 

Is bullet-time, slow-motion when shooting? Sleeping Dogs has slow-motion shooting when shooting from cars and maybe in a few other instances.

How about every freaking COD game. "They got hostages locked up behind this door! We're going to blow it with C4 and kill every bad guy in slow motion!"

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

When did the Quick Time Event come about? That seems like a current-gen trend, and by trend I mean plague. My Q key is still recovering from The Walking Dead.

Does the Q key allow you to skip through the Quick Time Events? I wish the xbox had that for games like Halo 3 (Cortana's distress signals) and Gears of War (let's put our fingers to our headsets and walk really slow while we wait for the next section of the game to load.)

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

How about every freaking COD game. "They got hostages locked up behind this door! We're going to blow it with C4 and kill every bad guy in slow motion!"

The only CoD game I've played is the first MW, and I only played it once, so I don't recall whether this happened or not.

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Does the Q key allow you to skip through the Quick Time Events?

In The Walking Dead, the Q key was the button you mashed to struggle with zombies when they grab you or you're trying to keep them from getting thru a door. It was a really tedious mechanic.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

How about every freaking COD game. "They got hostages locked up behind this door! We're going to blow it with C4 and kill every bad guy in slow motion!"

I forgot about the single player. For obvious reasons.

[Leonard]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

How about every freaking COD game. "They got hostages locked up behind this door! We're going to blow it with C4 and kill every bad guy in slow motion!"

Yeah, I forgot about Modern Warfare 2 & 3. I don't know how, I had a lot of fun with those 2 games.

Originally Posted by Dakar

I forgot about the single player. For obvious reasons.

Single player and Spec Ops.

[subego]

Touch.

[Leonard]

Your getting all touchy feely??

[subego]

Hell no! Get off my lawn!

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by subego 

Touch.

Nah, that stands on its own. Waggle and shit would be a good call though.

[The Final Dakar]

I think I missed an obvious one: ADS

When did that come about? CoD4 was my introduction.

[mattyb]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I think I missed an obvious one: ADS

When did that come about? CoD4 was my introduction.

CoD:UO and CoD2 had aiming on the PC. Pretty sure that I've seen vids of bolt actions being used while aiming in CoD2 on Xbox.

[The Final Dakar]

Well, that's still this gen, so I'm going to go ahead and add it to the list.

[The Final Dakar]

Eagle Vision
Killcams
Regenerating Health
Vending Machines
RPG Elements in FPS
ADS
Spotting

Not surprisingly most of it applies to shooters.

(Far Cry 3 hits every one. It really is the culmination of this gen)

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by The Final Dakar 

I think I missed an obvious one: ADS

Um, what's ADS?

[The Final Dakar]

Aiming down sights.

[lpkmckenna]

Ah.

[subego]

Halo 1 didn't have ADS?

[sek929]

Nope, it had two scoped weapons, but everything else was more or less "hip fire"

[exca1ibur]

You are referring to what was called "iron sights", back then. Quake 3 mods pioneered that a while back. I remember True Combat, Urban Terror, Red Orchestra, and a host of other mods doing that in the early 2000's.

[mattyb]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

You are referring to what was called "iron sights", back then. Quake 3 mods pioneered that a while back. I remember True Combat, Urban Terror, Red Orchestra, and a host of other mods doing that in the early 2000's.

What does that have to do with this generation of consoles though?

[exca1ibur]

It doesn't. That was my point.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur 

You are referring to what was called "iron sights", back then. Quake 3 mods pioneered that a while back. I remember True Combat, Urban Terror, Red Orchestra, and a host of other mods doing that in the early 2000's.

I wouldn't consider mods an established mechanic, so I think I'm in the clear.

[mattyb]

Is 'crouching' this gen? I can remember it in the early CoDs on the PC. And then I suppose you could add in the lying prone position.

[The Final Dakar]

God no. I did that in GoldenEye. It looked ridiculous in multiplayer because you skated around on your knee.

Edit: You may be onto something with prone, however. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if it was in SP games prior

[P]

You could crouch in frigging Super Mario Bros., and even if you focus only on the FPSes, you could do so in Quake 2 in -97.

There is some sort of meta-point here, though. We now have more contextual controls - instead of just jumping with one button, running with another, grabbing with a third etc, we now have thing like "hold this button to run and you will jump and grab as appropriate". Look at a game like Batman:AA, for instance - trying to do all those moves with an older control scheme would be incredible frustrating. It's not exactly new - Tomb Raider did it back on the PSX - but it is much more prevalent.

[The Final Dakar]

Originally Posted by P 

You could crouch in frigging Super Mario Bros.,

It's a good point. With how FPS have taken over the industry, you can suffer from some tunnel vision when cataloging features.