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[PsyberianHusky]

Games I have found good in the last decade: (by major publishing companies)
Time Splitters 2 & 3
Saints Row 2
Company of Heros
Anything by valve except the Left 4 Dead series
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Bethesdas games.
Red Alert 2 and 3.

My point is the bulk majority of anything is gonna suck but there is still gonna be some good stuff in that.
On a side note I think what ruins the most things is a lack of polish from devs pushing things out to early. Imagine how good a game would be if ya just kept adding and adding to it

 

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Games are definitely getting better. Honestly. If you were to browse through the catalog of the SNES the whole thing, the amount of good games would be quite low. Compared to the catalog of say, the Xbox 360. There are more Good and okay games, less GREAT titles, but there are much less total shit games.

I'm a firm believer that the average game today is much better than the average game of yesteryear.

Even when people give me examples of amazing older games, (Like the OP.) those were standout titles. I can list a bunch of great modern games.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying review standards aren't slipping. All I'm saying is games are getting better.

Sure... name a few modern games that are as good as the gems of the nineties.

Umm, how about pretty much anything Valve has released since the Source engine (which pretty much only removes the original Half Life and Team Fortress). Deus Ex was released in 2000, so it counts. If you like third person shooters, the Ratchet and Clank series is incredible. I have over 100 hours played on Borderlands, which is a great game if you're like me and love to play around with different weapons. Pretty much anything Firaxis makes is going to cause orgasms among the strategy crowd. The original WoW (the expansions have gone downhill imo) was a masterpiece for the MMO crowd. Before that, Warcraft 3 (released 2002) was one of the best, most balanced, and most moddable RTS titles ever made. Then we have FFX (they never made a sequel, FFX-2 was a bad dream caused by Al Gore and bad chili) which had an awesome story and pretty good gameplay.

The list goes on. Great games are made every year. The average quality has improved significantly. I remember games from the 90's, and while there were gems (god I wish I could find an emulator to play 16 bit windows games, I miss CotW) there were also games that... well, let's not open that can of worms. Overall, however, games are better now than they used to be.

Well first of all we've moved on from that.  Secondly I said modern games.  Not any game made after 1999.  I was referring to the modern generation of consoles, but as I've already said, I've changed my opinion on the subject.  Modern console games are better than older ones.  It's PC games that have gotten worse due to them not really being made anymore except by indies and small European developers.  The so called PC games made by the big name companies these days are almost exclusively console ports.

I don't get how people can stand Borderlands.  It's just so damn boring.

[Pathos]

Fewer PC games are, as a general thing, being made. Now, go wade through Newground's or Kongregate's games and you'll find where all those game developers have dissapeared to.

Saying that the average quality of PC games has improved is like saying that, because you've slaughtered all your sickly cows, the average quality of your cows has improved. It might be true, but it doesn't mean your healthy cows are any better off. The only reason the "quality" of games has improved is because they're made by companies focusing on putting out cheap rip offs with marginally better graphics year by year. Essentially, nothing new is being made (not truly, anyway) only the old is being recycled.

There are no small developers left, really, and the big ones have become clone factories. I can put up with bugs etc if there's a good game underneath it all. I think Dungeon Keeper was rated from like 70% to 90%, and Dungeon Keeper 2 similarly, but they were excellent games looking back. And that was for control troubles etc, which I think any real gamer could put up with to get to the game underneath. Look at, in contrast, Dragon Age Origins. That game left me yawning about two hours in, as I could already tell how everything was going to happen in it and there was very little pulling me in. Yet, that got scores in the 9/10s and high 90s. Why?! It'd been done before, the graphics weren't particularly amazing, the story wasn't anything new, the controls could be quite awkward, the gameplay wasn't balanced etc etc. Why did it get such high scores?!

The same with Mass Effect, except that game's controls were even worse.

[Servant Corps]

Apparently, the average IQ of a human being have been increasing since the creation of the IQ Test. What does that mean? Does it mean the IQ Test is flawed? That people are actually get smarter?

Same dilemma here. However, reading the article, I feel rather disappointed that the article doesn't  actually mention the average of all 'new' games and compare that score to the average of all 'old' games. Until then, there is no way to tell if games are indeed getting better.

EDIT: Okay it does do a breakdown, but on the second and third pages of the linked article.

XBOX360:
Avg. Metascore    70.6
vs. 2009 Avg. *    67.7

PS3:
Avg. Metascore    72.9
vs. 2009 Avg. *    69.4

Wii:
Avg. Metascore    70.8
vs. 2009 Avg. *    67.0

Uh...guys...Metacritic giving mainstream games a C is something to scream at...

[fenrif]

General intelligence improves with each generation isn't such a completely unbelievable concept. Education techniques and tools improve all the time, and people spend more time learning with each passing year.

[GlyphGryph]

Uhm... the average IQ is always 100. It can't go up or down, because thats not how IQ works on account of IQ representing deviance from average. It even mentions that - but I'm not entirely sure of the methodology they used to wrangle out their statement.

Anyways, because of the way these tests are designed, it is very hard to make concrete assertions regarding increasing intelligence, but its perfectly possible that it would be the case.

[KaelGotDwarves]

Pathos: I just don't see how you can say that small (and indie) developers are gone while posting on a gaming site built around Dwarf Fortress. It's like there's a cognitive dissonance there.

Great games and developers and fresh/new ideas are thriving. Thanks to the internet they are more numerous, searchable, and profitable than ever. You just have to look outside the mainstream.

[olemars]

Regarding good games, I just noticed the Monkey Island 2 remake was released today.

[fenrif]

Uhm... the average IQ is always 100. It can't go up or down, because thats not how IQ works on account of IQ representing deviance from average. It even mentions that - but I'm not entirely sure of the methodology they used to wrangle out their statement.

Anyways, because of the way these tests are designed, it is very hard to make concrete assertions regarding increasing intelligence, but its perfectly possible that it would be the case.

I thought it was the assumed average IQ, which means scores can increase on average, since they're only increasing in relation to an arbitrary number?

By definition, the average is set to 100. Someone who scores 20% more than the average would therefore get an IQ of 120. But if that person's score would be compared with the average for the corresponding group, tested one generation earlier, the final score would be about 130.

So it's increasing in relation to previous years average results. Makese sense.

Personally I think IQ tests are a waste of time though.

[G-Flex]

Pathos: I just don't see how you can say that small (and indie) developers are gone while posting on a gaming site built around Dwarf Fortress. It's like there's a cognitive dissonance there.

Great games and developers and fresh/new ideas are thriving. Thanks to the internet they are more numerous, searchable, and profitable than ever. You just have to look outside the mainstream.

I'd say that small mainstream commercial developers have been decreasing in number and viability for a very long time now, but as far as interesting lower-budget things are considered, you're very right. Most of the interesting or unique things I've seen done with gaming have been in the freeware indie scene, which is doing well for itself in its own way.

[Pathos]

Pathos: I just don't see how you can say that small (and indie) developers are gone while posting on a gaming site built around Dwarf Fortress. It's like there's a cognitive dissonance there.

Great games and developers and fresh/new ideas are thriving. Thanks to the internet they are more numerous, searchable, and profitable than ever. You just have to look outside the mainstream.

Small companies are gone, then, most are merged into the large stupid companies.

Anyway, this site is non-profit, so it doesn't really count.

[HideousBeing]

Uhm... the average IQ is always 100. It can't go up or down, because thats not how IQ works on account of IQ representing deviance from average. It even mentions that - but I'm not entirely sure of the methodology they used to wrangle out their statement.

Anyways, because of the way these tests are designed, it is very hard to make concrete assertions regarding increasing intelligence, but its perfectly possible that it would be the case.

Maybe they are constantly having to adjust IQ tests upwards? Although saying that our IQ is increasing is definitely impossible considering that IQ is relative.

Also, nobody really has a good idea what the IQ test actually measures, so it may not say much about intelligence.

EDIT:
I think games in general are better quality (polished) even if I like them less. Even so, that doesn't mean that metacritic is a good judge of anything.

[Christes]

the best games were made when you were ten - some wise guy

I can prove him wrong. I like games that where made before i was born. warcraft 2.

I suddenly feel old.

[HideousBeing]

the best games were made when you were ten - some wise guy

I can prove him wrong. I like games that where made before i was born. warcraft 2.

I suddenly feel old.

me too... and I'm 19...

EDIT: VV WHY WEREN'T YOU BORN EARLIER!?

[ibot66]

Sorry...