You know what type pf game I want to see from next-gen that would blow my mind?

[Cuddly Knife]

A 2-D game that uses 3-D in-game cut scenes. Kind of like Viewtiful Joe, but not really. It would be totally 3-D, with action elements like DMC3, almost fully interactive backgrounds and all the other eye candy that I can handle. In the vein of Castlevania-ish.

Do you guys think there will be even less 2-D games next gen than the ten or so that we've had this gen?

[Mochan]

Oh goody, I was about to make a "Changes you want in how games are done today" thread but this one fits the bill.

Personally yes, I think we'll be seeing even less 2D games. Do games like Disgaea and La PUcelle count as 2D for the purposes of our discussion? They are sprite-based 2D graphics games but there are "3D" tactical maps.

I don't quite get what you mean though by 2D-game using 3D in-game cuts. Since I haven't played Viewtiful Joe yet, I can't quite relate.

Are you saying it's a 3D engine with 3D graphics, but the game is actually a 2D scroller? Like Contra Shattered Soldier or something. And when cuts come in it can use the 3D engine to do the cut scenes in 3D?


Personally I wouldn't mind this kind of game, actually I would welcome it. Like I said, I consider games like Super Mario 3 as superior to any 3D platformer since the PS1. There's just something about 2D gaming which is lost in 3D.

In 3D games, level design is basically crap. Size of the room, distances, etc. don't really mean much, basically you have a room and you hack people up in it. But in 2D games level design is so important, they are what make the game actually. Look at Super Mario 3 for example. The height of that brick, the tunnels that go here and there, the distance it takes for you to jump on a koopa, these are all integral to the game design and changing them up with expert precision makes a stage either really easy or really hard.

In 3D games this is all lost, basically level 1 is the same as level 10 except there are more or different kinds of enemies. Well, in some 3D games there is more of a difference but in general they do not reach the complexity of the old 2D games. Ironic, isn't it that adding an extra dimension actually ended up making the level designs (and in some cases, gameplay) more simplistic rather than more complex from a gameplay standpoint. I guess it's because it's harder for humans to process the extra dimension as easily, so the game design suffers in order to facilitate this for humans.

This difference I sorely miss and we need to take it back. Gradius V was a big step in the right direction and I definitely want more "old school" games like this.

[Mochan]

By the way, the game I would like to see:

A console FPS using a lightgun! Come on, lightguns are like console's best kept secret. Or maybe its skeleton in the closet. The lightgun genre is all but dead but frankly with the rise of FPS popularity on consoles, I think it's only logical and natural that the lightgun start being incorporated into this genre.

It would certainly be a big improvement over the analogue stick for aiming IMO. The rest of the control details still need to be worked out, though. Maybe we can couple an Eyetoy-like device for looking to compensate for the loss of the r-stick for look control, so what we need left is a way to capture movement properly.

[joquito]

By the way, the game I would like to see:

A console FPS using a lightgun! Come on, lightguns are like console's best kept secret. Or maybe its skeleton in the closet. The lightgun genre is all but dead but frankly with the rise of FPS popularity on consoles, I think it's only logical and natural that the lightgun start being incorporated into this genre.

It would certainly be a big improvement over the analogue stick for aiming IMO. The rest of the control details still need to be worked out, though. Maybe we can couple an Eyetoy-like device for looking to compensate for the loss of the r-stick for look control, so what we need left is a way to capture movement properly.

I agree about the light gun. Unfortunately most light guns don't register progressive scan images like 480p or 720p. It can and has been done, so I say they should do it. People are using Larger screen TVs and this only shows the need for it more.