A Diskussion about "regenerative health" in horror games.

[the dark side]

@kreekaron, the "hand" icon in amnesia is something i actually really like, thats actually the way i want prompts, you see i dont mind the "prompts", i mean, after all, nolf 2 has "open" on things you can open, its just the "Press- to-" that winds me up, i wouldn't be so angry if you could turn them off and jsut have "the prompt" without the "controll hint", look, im mildly dyselxic, so i take some pride in the fact i can actually read the manual myself, and being told i dont have to read the manual kind of spits on that acheivement, and that sends me wild! i dont mind the prompts, its the fact it shows you what key to press, every, single, time, that is what winds me up! i know what key to press, i dont need telling every, 4, seconds.

you see not having prompts, in my opinion, can be as bad as having too many, as then the game goes from challenging, to frustrating, thats as bad as being too easy, i want some prompts, yes, but i dont want to be told the controll for the action after the tutorial level, and even in the tutorial i only want to be shown the controll key Once, instead of "Press Space to Open" all i want is "Open". thats not too much to ask, surely.

my standards arnt all that strict, i just want a game that isnt a clone of cod. i mean, ok, this year hasnt been bad with at least 3 games that meet my standards, Serious sam 3, Hard Reset and Max Payne 3 coming out, wich were actually challenging and fun to play (you can actually die if you play like an idiot), ok Mp3 had its issues, such as the gun limit (but at least you could turn the dynamic scaling and controll hints "OFF" its why i want that in more games, if that one can do it, why not the others) and the overdose of cutscenes, but it was proper fun!. its just 90% of games coming out are just clones of cod. and its been quite a few years between this years heaven sent crop of proper games and the last crop (wich came out in 2008!)

@kman. i think people have got the wrong idea,. im not that good at explaining things, a challenging game to me is something that requires the player to do things for themself and were the player can fail, something like PD64, im not asking for everything to be like Arma, the industry would fail then,and it would deserve to, for being too elitist, just as surely as its going to fail due to the overdose of cod clone games, look, sales of AAA games are plummeting, companies are posting Minus fiqures in terms of profits, we are heading for a much needed games crash.

i am interested in the indie scene kman, can you give me the titles and sites for a few of the games you think i might be interested in (just remember, if theres non optional dynamic scaling, Aim down sites or health regen, its a no go, ADS because i cant cope with them, they "set my autism off", scaling because it forces ADS, and regen cause it bores me) as i really am looking for some good new games, my old games, well, are getting old, and im worried about the disks wearing out because they are getting very hard to source!

i am taking into account what people want, like i said, im not calling for everthing to be ARMA, that would be Insanity! im just calling for a return to the PD-64 days, and seeing as the HD relaunch of that game has been a smash hit on XBLA you cannot tell me a game like that wouldnt sell now, (also, Serious sam 3 has done very well on steam, outselling several cod clones so please dont tell me there is no room for "old school", not with DOOM 3 (and doom 1 and 2 getting a HD makeover) getting relaunched in HD soon) yes, i am very narrow minded, ill admit to it, im autistic, things to me are a case of "its x or y. if its not x, it is y, and y is rubbish" thats the way my brain is wired and there is nothing i can do about it, i really have to remind people to kindly keep that in mind. i just dont see what is so wrong with "old school", why it appears to be a crime now to want or make a game that doesnt have Regen health, gun limits, ADS, dynamic scaling, and all that patronizing "hint" stuff, i honestly dont. all i want is an explanation in plain, simple english, that doesnt read to me like "fobb off fobb off, we are too lazy to make a decent game so we just aim at the lowest common denominator" (hello e3 hosts) thats not too much to ask is it? an explanation as to why so many companies keep making "cod clones" despite the fact more old school games wich have old style gameplay, allow the player to fail and allow the player to do things for themself! such as serious sam 3, max payne 3, etc, are finally and thankfully prooving to be More popular than cod clones again, at least on PC anyway!

@ darkley,. i am feeling an IDIOT! sorry, Hard Reset and Painkiller are 2 of my favourite games, and are the sort of game i want to see being made more often, i mean, they were both very popular games, sales in the 4 million mark, each...so its beyond me why games like them are so rare now...i mean, they proove games like that can be made today and sell in Large numbers,...so why do companies still insist on cloning cod when you can make a game like painkiller, hard reset, serious sam, et al, and still make a big profit?

I dont think i explained myself properly, im not too good at explaining things. a "Hard game" isn't what i really want, i want a challenging game, a game where it is possible to fail, and makes you think, and do things for yourself, let me put it like this, "PD64=challenging, ARMA=hard" does that help explain what i mean and what i am after a little bit better?

@ all i really want to know what on earth is going on in the games industry in a way i can understand, because, ive got my own IP, its very old fashioned, i have developer interest, but, i've hit a sticky wicket, a kickstarter budget won't cover it (i got an accountant uncle to do the sums, they dont add up) so i need a AA budget at least, and the publishers just say "it wont sell in america on consoles because its too out of date and isnt like call of duty!" (genuine excuse) and its Really starting to wind me up! i dont care about america! i just care about making a good game!