The phrase "next gen" gets tossed around so much but what does it actually mean? Well obviously it applies to games that are playable on the current generation of consoles, but what makes a game 'next gen'? What makes it better than games from two years ago? Well seeing as how artifical intelligence, physics, and human emotion havn't evolved much in the last few years, I'd have to say that 'Next Gen' simply means better graphics. Nothing more, nothing less.
Is this all we have to look forward to in the future? Will we get a new batch of consoles every five years offering better graphics and higher resolutions, while details like unrealistic physics, stiff animation, and expressionless human emotion remain unevolved? Will we be playing photorealistic games in the future, starring main characters that animate non-seamlessly while clipping through walls, with facial emotions that can best be described as a robot trying to pass as a human being? When will we play a Tom Clancy first person shooter where shooting a terrorist with a silenced pistol actually alerts his buddy standing just 5 feet away? And where's the originality in today's video games? Are we doomed to play sequel after unoriginal sequel?
When are we going to see more than just graphical improvements? Because until we do, all we're doing is playing last generation games with better graphics. Having better graphics doesn't make for a new experience, it just makes for a prettier one.
Facial expressions in video games are more human-like than ever, (see Uncharted, Mass Effect, etc.) but still seem eerily detached from any sort of genuine human emotion. I've yet to look at a character in a video game and think for a second that it resembles a realistic portrait of emotions. It's like looking at one of those old child's dolls. The face resembles a human, but it's devoid of any expression. I know it's possible to emulate human expression. I've seen some amazing human expressions in Pixar films. What about Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy films? Amazing. Do today's consoles just lack the raw power needed to emulate realistic human emotion?
Artificial intelligence in today's video games is STILL horrible. I'm utterly disappointed in what appears to just be game developer apathy toward developing good AI. If you develop a game with multiple difficulty levels, and I start a game on the hardest difficulty, I want to go up against enemies who are smarter, more aware of their environments, and more reactive, NOT enemies who can kill me with less bullets while being able to absorb more themselves. You can be the dumbest fool on earth, or the smartest of the smart. Either way you're going to die if you get shot once in the head. Game developers, if this sounds like you, and this is how you scale your artificial "intelligence" then, for the sake of not making yourselves look dumb, don't give the user the option to select difficulties. OR, instead of calling the option "difficulty" call it "cheapness" and have the user select a numerical value: 1 being slightly cheap and 5 being ridiculously cheap (aka the actual intelligence of the enemies in the game is the exact same as cheapness value1, but you have to take on five times as many guys and they have 500% more health, but you can only take 10% damage compared to what you could on value 1). Developers have been doing this same BS for years. Do they really think we haven't caught on?
On to physics. Admittedly there have been some improvements in physics since the ragdoll days, but there is still a long way to go. And I believe that the best way to improve video game physics is to start with the basics. Ignore the explosions for now. We're good to go when it comes to explosions and debris flying every which way.
So what are the basics? Well here's a crazy idea! If I'm making a character run down some steps, how about making it so his feet actually touch each step instead of basically using the same animation as if my character were running down a completely flat grade?! Also, and I've never actually been shot to verify this, but I'm pretty sure when you take a bullet to your shoulder or arm, or any extremity really, said extremity will actually jerk and twist in the same direction the bullet was traveling before it struck you! Imagine that! Bullets travel hundreds if not thousands of feet per second. When that momentum meets meat, the meat moves. Remember punching your buddy in the shoulder in high school, and how his upper body and shoulder jerked back and twisted slightly with the force of the punch? Same thing with bullets, only magnified. Also, as bullets travel at such a tremendous rate of speed, they sometimes will go completely through a human body. What they don't do is take the body with them for a 15 foot trip through the air. And I'm pretty sure that when a human body crumples lifelessly, the limbs don't clip into eachother as if they are made of air, and crumple in ways that would twist and break bones. Is it impossible to program joints to only move in certain ways? No.
And would it hurt to exercise a bit of originality, game developers? I'll give you a freebie. Take an action platforming game like, say, a Tomb Raider type game. One that has you shimmying up on surfaces and climbing up ledges, etc. Now, along with your health meter, how about a heart rate meter? Your character just ran 150 yards through a humid jungle, and fought off 10 enemies in hand-to-hand combat with skyrocketing adrenline. Hey guess what? You can't climb that slick granite surface to reach the treasure chest because your heart rate is way up, you've been sweating profusely, and your arms and palms are slick with sweat. You'll have to find another way or wait until you're calm and dry. Or you could try to climb it but you risk falling and possibly twisting your ankle or knee. Now you have to hobble through the rest of the level. Nice going, captain sweaty. The heart rate meter could also be applied to driving scenarios. A particularly stressful scenario in which you're trying to outrun the cops (think GTA here) has your character's hands sweaty and his grip on the steering wheel isn't as good as it would be with dry hands, making it harder for the player to steer the on-screen vehicle. Maybe there could be a little button pressing mini game, just like in God of War, where you have to quickly and frantically wipe your hands off on your shirt or pants to dry them, while still having to drive the car. Obviously it would have to use buttons that aren't normally mapped to driving controls. Okay, so that's probably not the most groundbreaking idea in the world, but it took me all of 20 seconds to come up with just now.
Until the above things are improved, I guess we'll just have to enjoy the ever improving graphics while continuing to put up with half-assed artificial intellingence and stale game play ideas. At least the Wii figured this out and went with creativity and interaction over making just another console with raw graphics processing power. Which brings me to another point. Do gamers care only about graphics? Is it our fault that the standard for AI, physics, and innovation hasn't been raised beyond where it is now?
