作者：Douglass C. Perry

32位至128位系统的跨越给我们带来新的可能空间。我们获得更逼真的运动游戏。我们收获广阔的游戏空间。我们能够在更具互动性的游戏空间中体验内容。但从很多方面来看，我们都颇为失望。互动故事叙述模式的跨越，AI的升级及真实感的欠缺仍旧颇令人失望。我觉得鲜有人会想到《侠盗猎车手》之类的开放式游戏、《Battlefield 1942》之类的沙盒游戏及《骇客任务》类型的创新自定义游戏竟会对未来游戏的设计产生重大影响。

我们将向何处发展？此最具创意的理念会给如饥似渴的用户带来什么？我深入思考这些问题，并同其他人探讨未来游戏将呈现的态势，下面是我们的几点看法。文章内容不涉及硬件、技术标准、几何原理，或者是否应运用蓝光技术，而是关乎游戏理念，主要是我们对于电子游戏发展的看法，及我们希望行业朝何处发展。

显而易见的内容

杰出的AI

这代游戏最令人失望的是AI缺乏创新性。这些游戏鲜有突破：现今平台游戏的敌人AI通常会离开自己的小范围防御空间，在游戏世界中追逐玩家；AI能够识别各种危险；AI团伙聚集起来消灭玩家。这片领域有很多细微的进展，当同时依然存在很多不足。每当在游戏回合中获胜后，我们总是会抱怨为什么AI不能够表现更突出。

例如在赛车游戏中，开发者应参考《Burnout: Takedown》，分析为什么极具侵略性的AI能够真正富有趣味，促使玩家进行冒险，完善自己的技能水平。在第一人称射击游戏中，开发者应以《半条命 2》和《光晕 2》为鉴，探究如何完善AI动态的独立行为。AI应能够巧妙基于玩家做出反应。它要能够发现你的火箭炮对准它的脑袋，然后蹲下躲避。它应懂得召唤同伴，寻求援助，通过团队协作侧面攻击和压制你。AI应能够促使你进行思考，懂得设圈套，将你打败，迫使玩家思考游戏设计、结构和空间。它要能够进行人类在游戏中的操作，这样当我们体验下代游戏时，我们就会觉得自己在同聪明的人类较量，而非略为完善的机器人。AI应能够在当前位置对炮击做出反应：身体的各部分应能够就真正物理原理做出反应，会流血；AI被击中时，应该痛苦地退缩，应抓住身体的某些部分。早前的《VR战警》就已做到这点。AI应以具有可信度的方式做出反应，运用一定的技巧性。

期望：真正的情感引擎

这非常令人失望。是的，在我玩过的游戏中，有些能够带给我恐惧、紧张、愤怒和兴奋之类的情感。但这些游戏不是很多。《荣誉勋章: 前线》的有些关卡会在首次体验中呈现惊奇、略微的混乱及第二次世界大战的破坏性感觉。《Ico》深入挖掘此元素。《寂静岭》系列给我全新的恐惧及虚拟不安感觉。据称《最终幻想》和《KOTOR》将呈现能够让玩家投以关注的内容，但多数时候，这些游戏都属于例外情况。我想说的是，想要在游戏中呈现真实情感，你就需要创建玩家在乎的角色，撰写处理真实世界情感的故事，角色应该传递类似于《半条命 2》中的情感。下面我将探讨这些观点。

美术设计

转变方向只是一小点，我们需要改善游戏中的美术设计。不只是融入更多几何图形或纹理，还包括更杰出的视觉风格。当前，在这代游戏中，真正呈现美术设计和风格的有《狡狐大冒险》和《Thievius Raccoonus》。《狡狐大冒险》展现自己的风格，虽然其内容有些简单，节奏很快，但依然是我的最爱，因为主角Sly有自己的特色。他不是那么有尖耳朵和特定姿势的模糊人物。他是个精明的小偷，和浣熊不相上下。这款游戏最终颇受大众欢迎显然不足为怪。

《狡狐大冒险》、《Ico》、《合金装备 2&3》、《Tron 2.0: Killer App》、《光晕 2》及各《侠盗猎车手》系列都呈现突出风格，所有这些作品都非常独特。前Naughty Dog总裁Jason Ruben曾表示，屏幕呈现的几何图形数量不再重要，玩家基于这些内容所进行的操作才是关键。他的看法鲜少出错，关于这点更是完全正确。

更优质的故事

虽然Hideo Kojima非常着迷于枪支及旋转枪支的古怪角色，但他至少有尝试让游戏作品更吻合其搭载媒介的特点。他的《合金装备》清楚说明哪些元素行得通，哪些则不尽人意，但有一点非常明确——无论好坏，你都会记住他的游戏和风格。原版《波斯王子：时之刃》、原版《超越善恶》及两款“英雄本色”游戏（游戏邦注：即《英雄本色》和《英雄本色2：马克思佩恩的堕落》）之类的作品都呈现独立故事叙述风格，这是电子游戏的特色所在。我们不希望电子游戏模拟电影。我们希望以电影的表达方式叙述游戏故事，但针对游戏媒介进行调整。更优质的创作水平、更多的故事分支、更独特的角色及更少琐碎谈话都是我们对于下代游戏的期许。

呈现艺术

呈现方式

HUD在这代游戏中得到显著完善，但依然还有提升空间。《合金装备：自由之子》、《车游天下》、《Escape from Butcher Bay》、《佣兵密令》及其他作品中的HUD表现情况令我们知晓如何使玩家相信他们完全沉浸于其他世界中。《银河战士》之类的游戏在展现杰出视觉效果方面是先驱者，而《光晕 2》中的界面则日益复杂。但我们还能做些什么？《光晕 2》之类的游戏向我们呈现操作便捷的在线菜单及其他元素，开发者付出众多努力，让复杂的内容变得更简单。开发者应该参考Bungie的在线策略，及其网站的建议——微软应该向所有用户呈现这些工具，这样其他第一方和第三方Xbox 2开发者就能够修改、调整和完善这些杰出设计，让它们变得更突出。

AI语音识别技术

若你可以和游戏交流，那不是很棒？是的，《Lifeline》让我们看到此类游戏的可能和局限。例如，你能够在游戏中同里面的机器人交流，它们会给予相应回应，更重要的是，它们能够直接同你沟通。还有就是能否让玩家通过平民提问各种问题达到正确位置或进入战争中？开发者在语音辨识方面投入的精力很少，但事实证明此领域非常有趣而有前景。

作品系列的连续性

上世纪90年代初，PC游戏习惯以系列模式发行。这让玩家能够将自己的游戏角色从一款游戏带入下款游戏。此理念令游戏玩家受益颇多，能够鼓励他们购买续集。此做法非常简单，促使下个系列的游戏不再是处理陈旧问题的作品。EA的《EA Bios》就是基于类似理念，他们通过额外角色、数值和惊喜奖励体验各款EA游戏的玩家。不过EA在自己的运动游戏中取消了此模式。

但玩家若是能够将《Fable》、《KOTOR》或者甚至是《瑞奇与叮当3》的角色带入这些开发者的下款作品中，是否会很棒？下代游戏作品应该有统一标准。

更逼真的效果

体育游戏的新构思过去3年发展很快，Visual Concepts和EA争相角逐主导地位。事情总会向更好的方向发展。例如，在《NBA Live》中，当新手同教练交谈时，他会进行相应操作，然后查看其他团队成员的反应。或者，例如玩家应该可以从保持真正足球或篮球程序的玩法功能中获益。Visual Concepts和EA都极力让自己的游戏变得更逼真，但下步要进行的显然是通过更具视觉互动效果的方式呈现它们。

真正的发展

《骇客任务》

为什么没有人从这款革命性的游戏中获得灵感，创造全新作品呢？后来确有出现《杀出重围：隐形战争》，但这它并没有很好地起到承前启后的作用。这款游戏是进化版《网络奇兵》，《骇客任务》让玩家置身充满各种选择的巧妙世界，让玩家得以通过至少3种方式体验游戏：骇客、隐形破坏者或有趣持枪暴徒。无论哪种方式，游戏的表现都很突出，玩家能够通过不同方式进行体验。就RPG和第一人称射击游戏角度来看，这款游戏还打破原有题材的界限。关于如何进行归类，媒体工作者依然存有争议。有3款作品给这代游戏带来很大影响——《侠盗猎车手 III》、《Battlefront 1942》和《骇客任务》，显然很多开发者都试图模仿前两款作品。为什么业内没有出现更英明的开发者，创造出比Warren Specter《骇客任务》更胜一筹的游戏内容呢？我们期待此情况的出现。

过场动画的互动

游戏几乎都以这种方式设计内容：玩家根据过场动画营造故事背景，体验游戏回合，然后观看过场动画结束游戏内容。观看，体验，观看：重复得令人倒胃口。这种游戏模式已出现多久？Mr. Kojima在自己的作品《合金装备 3：食蛇》中开始此趋势，游戏让R1迅速锁定敌人的操作，但这应该只是开始。

想想《光晕 2》：在游戏的最初内容中，Master Chief需要找到Covenant Bomb的位置，停止其运作，最终将其去除。当他消灭守卫炸弹的敌人时，过场动画就会呈现好笑而夸张的超级英雄，咆哮称要进行较量。将炸弹引到敌人的船只，然后自己走开，尽享其中满足感，而非只是静静观看，这是否会更好？难道不是所有游戏都这样？

游戏不是电视节目，它们也不是电影，它们就是游戏。开发者们，请将游戏媒介变得更具互动性，从而使其表现更突出、更彻底。下代游戏应该融入更多互动过场动画，这样你就会觉得自己真正控制内容进展，而非只是静静观看。观看画面主要服务于那些不理解内容的年长者。游戏未来将占据重要位置，玩家应该参与其中。

角色发展

Peter Molyneux在《Fable》中的表现非常突出，他给予玩家特定角色，让它们能够形象地在游戏中持续发展，部分通过它们的操作，部分通过手动自定义。《旧共和国武士》和《侠盗猎车手：圣安德列斯》也采用相同策略。《瑞奇与叮当3》的武器运作也体现此特点，此外，任天堂的《银河战士》也通过华丽画面呈现Samus的进展。你能否想象所有游戏未来都呈此发展趋势？但若有更多RPG，更确切的说是更多动作和探险游戏赋予玩家这类控制形式，那不是很棒？玩家希望在角色中享有更多控制权，鉴于自定义模式在这代游戏中非常风靡，此开发模式有望在下代游戏中繁荣发展。

多种路径

没有什么比买到包含多种故事脉络、情节和结局的游戏更令人满足了。但开发者要制作出不同故事发展路线绝非易事，需要把握许多变量，其中存在很多问题。但你能否想象未来游戏依然保持现状？没有发展路线的刻板线性事件？显然各类RPG游戏都有一定的空间，但我们希望看到发展。RPG开发者应重温早期的PC游戏，重返《龙与地下城》之类的角色扮演游戏，寻找途径制作具有各种选择路线的RPG游戏。

《KOTOR II》给予玩家各种不同选择，不同层次的灰度画面，以及各种结局。《寂静岭》系列也采用相同策略，动作游戏《真实犯罪：洛杉矶喋血街头》也这么做。体验PC RPG游戏的玩家坚称，美国开发商Bioware，还有曾经名声大噪的黑岛工作室及Bethesda始终坚持制作真正的角色扮演电子游戏，而且成绩斐然，它们让玩家能够以自己觉得合适的方式玩游戏。是否想变成邪恶的破坏者？没问题。是否想要成为好好先生？没问题。是否想要兼容二者？这是你的选择。

无缝隙衔接

《侠盗猎车手》系列最突出的特点在于其衔接毫无缝隙。玩家完成某任务，听到祝贺音乐，他们不会来回往返于随机的指挥部，而是愉快地继续前进。很多杰出作品都缺少此元素，但直到《真实犯罪：洛杉矶喋血街头》问世，大家才痛苦地发现这方面的重要性。动视的游戏通过系列加载画面切断各游戏任务，破坏内容的连贯性，而这则在《侠盗猎车手》中表现得非常巧妙和突出。

更进一步来看，游戏应该具有连贯性，这样你就无需在街上同角色交流，从而获悉下个操作任务。任务不会以这样的方式呈现：“MISSION 47: Beat Up Little Joey”，而是完全融入游戏发展情节中（游戏邦注：而不是切割成独立的章节和板块）。游戏应更多基于经验元素，游戏中玩家会下意识地连续操作任务，而不是被告知如何操作。

互动环境

游戏应具备更多互动空间。这点显而易见。但话说回来，为什么很多游戏没有这么做？只要你玩过《机甲先锋》、《机甲先锋2:孤独之狼》和《佣兵密令》，在这些游戏中玩家能够让整个城市灰飞烟灭，就非常清楚。未来作品应该融入互动空间，将内容带入全新水平。树被射中时应该分裂开，建筑被轰炸时应该倒塌，墙面应留有众多痕迹。在动作游戏中，玩家应该能够在墙上打洞。玩家应该能够撬开路面，潜入下水道中，在市区中纵火，通过控制水管淹没敌军——而非在过场动画中体验这些内容。游戏空间应该具有互动性，使整个体验变得富有挑战性，自成一体。

现实主义

玩家不仅要置身完全互动的世界，其中的反应还要非常逼真。当你躲在木屋，有敌人朝你射击时，子弹应穿过木头。当你躲在墙壁角落，而敌人扔出手榴弹时，墙面应该被击得粉碎。炸开的砖块和泥团应该给你造成一定影响。《半条命 2》角色的外观和情感应该只是下代作品情绪反应的冰山一角。下代作品应该通过更多角色、情感和真实感优化角色。

第一人称射击游戏的多人模式

我们希望能够以合作和在线形式体验《光晕 2》中的故事内容。我们有什么理由阻止开发者在下代内容中融入此元素？为什么不让3-4个玩家结伴体验第一人称射击游戏中的故事内容？

题材成熟化

新RPG内容

我个人并不喜欢RPG游戏，尤其是因为多数内容都是基于回合模式。这类内容有些拖沓和乏味，我通常没多久就会因颇感枯燥而选择退出。但我喜欢优质故事内容，我喜欢探险游戏，我希望体验《旧共和武士》这样的RPG游戏。为什么现在没有这样的游戏？

在《翡翠帝国》和《王国之心》这些游戏中，玩家即时战斗，能够升级技能，以及基于操作做出调整。为什么没有角色扮演游戏能够无缝隙地将动作和角色扮演元素结合起来？下代游戏应该让RPG内容变得更为触手可及。

高明的电影游戏

Vivendi Universal和Starbreeze在此表现突出。他们基于既有空间创建游戏，但刻意不按照电影制作他们的游戏《超世纪战警:逃离屠场》。游戏比电影杰出很多，更重要的是，游戏还强化和扩充内容。这令基于电影制作游戏模式变成可行选择，但切记不要完全照搬电影内容制作游戏（游戏邦注：发挥你的想象，制作新的内容，向我们呈现新故事，基于现实世界制作游戏，但不要直接参照电影或电视节目）。

就连《X档案：反抗或顺从》这款技术存在缺陷的游戏都很好把握这点。游戏是系列作品的中间插曲，融入各款作品中的角色和细节内容，然后创造出全新情节。若你必须依照电影或电视节目，那么就不要指望我们会购买这些劣质内容。

游戏邦注：原文发布于2005年1月13日，文章叙述以当时为背景。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The Future of Game Design, Pt. 1

Not too long ago most of us were playing our PlayStations, N64s, and Saturns, and as the looming generation of systems came our way, we wondered how games would look. What were those systems going to bring us? Better graphics? Obviously. Better AI? Well, we hoped. Bigger worlds, faster load times, more realism? Certainly. But what else? With rosy eyes we wondered what we would happen. And what happened was very different than what most of us expected.

The jump from 32-bit systems to 128-bit systems did usher in a great new realm of possibilities. We did get more realistic sports games. We did get great big environments. We did play in more interactive worlds. But in many ways, we were disappointed. The jump in interactive storytelling, the upgrade to AI, and the lack of realism, among other things, were still letdowns. On a side note, I don’t think anyone would have predicted that open-design games such as Grand Theft Auto, sandbox games such as Battlefield 1942, and innovative customizable games such as Deus Ex would be such huge influences on the future of game design.

So, here we are on the cusp of the next generation of systems. What’s going to happen? Where will we go? What will the best and most creative minds bring the always hungry, always surprising gaming public? I’ve thought about it and spoken with other editors at IGN about what we’d like to see in the next generation of games and these are a few of our ideas. This list isn’t about hardware, tech specs, polygons, or whether we should use Blu-Ray or not. It’s about game ideas. It’s about how we’d like to see videogames evolve and where we’d like them to go.

The Obvious Stuff

Intelligent Artificial Intelligence

The biggest disappointment in this generation of games has to be the lack of innovation in artificial intelligence. There have been little breakthroughs: Platformers now feature enemy AI leaving their little cone of defense and chasing you around an environment; AI recognizes various levels of danger (just watch the enemies in MGS3); and AI gangs congregate to slaughter you (Manhunt). There are hundreds more little improvements, but also hundreds more complaints. And after every game we beat, we wonder why the AI wasn’t better.

In driving games, for instance, developers should look to Burnout: Takedown to see why super aggressive AI is actually fun and teaches you to take chances and improve your skill level. In first-person shooters, developers should look to Half-Life 2 and Halo 2 for ideas on how to improve fluid, independent AI behavior. AI should react intelligently to you. It should recognize that you have a bazooka aimed at its head and duck and cover. It should call out to allies and call for back up, use team-behavior to flank, suppress, and attack you. AI should make you think, trap you and set you up for failure, forcing players to think about the game design, patterns, and environment. It should do the things humans are doing now in games, so that when we play next-generation games, we should feel like we’re playing against smart humans. Not slightly improved bots. AI should react locally to gun shots: Individual body parts should react with real physics (if shot by a shotgun, a limb should blow apart; if shot by a small handgun, it should bleed but not as severely as when hit by a sniper rifle or a shotgun), and blood and gibs; AI should wince in pain when shot, and it grab particular body parts. Even Virtua Cop did this back in the day. AI should react in a way that’s believable, with some sort of intelligence.

Wanted: A Real Emotion Engine

Ugh, the Emotion Engine. What a disappointment. Sure, I’ve played games in which I felt intense emotions besides fear, anxiety, rage, and excitement. But not that many. There were a few levels in Medal of Honor: Frontline that opened up that emotional box of wonder amazement, and perhaps a glimmer of the chaos and destruction of World War II was like. Ico did a superb job of digging down internally. The Silent Hill games injected a whole new level of fear and surreal uneasy feelings in me. I’ve been told that Final Fantasy and KOTOR delivered on giving gamers something to care about and feel for, but for the most part, those games are exceptions to the rule. The only thing is, in order to create real emotion in games you have to create characters people care about, write stories that deal with real world emotions (or even science fiction story scenarios that deal with the nature of life and death), and show characters show can convey that emotion like those in Half-Life 2. I’ll approach those ideas below.

Art Direction

Shifting direction just a little bit, we need better art direction in our games. Not just more polygons or slicker textures, but games with a better sense of visual style. Off the top of my head, one of the first games that really showed a distinct sense of art direction and style in this generation of games was Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. That game oozed with style, and even though it was simple and quick, it became one of my favorites because the main character, Sly, had real character. He wasn’t some fuzzy-ass thing with pointed ears and an attitude. He was a smart, slick thief, and a raccoon no less. Not so strangely it worked.

Sly CooperIco, Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Tron 2.0: Killer App, Halo 2, and all of the Grand Theft Auto games delivered great styles, all of which were different and unique to their properties. Former Naughty Dog President Jason Ruben once said that the amount of polygons you have on screen doesn’t matter anymore, it’s what’s you do with them. He is often right, and on this point, he is dead on.

Better Stories

While Hideo Kojima might have a fetish for guns and weird-ass characters that love to spin their guns, he is at least trying to direct his games in the medium he’s using. His Metal Gear Solid series has shown what can be done extremely well and conversely, not so well, but one thing is for sure — you will remember his games and his style for better or worse. Games such as the original Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the wonderful and original Beyond Good and Evil, and the two Max Payne games Max Payne, and Max Payne: The Fall of Max Payne all provided distinct styles of storytelling that were also distinctly unique to videogames. We don’t just want videogames to emulate movies. We want stories to be told like movies, but specialized for the medium of games. Better writing, more story-branching, more distinct characters, and less potty talk are all high on our wish-list of next-generation games.

The Art of Persuasion

Presentation

The HUD, or Heads-Up Display, for instance, has actually evolved well in this generation of games. But there is room for improvement. The HUDs in games such as Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty, The Getaway, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Mercenaries and a few others have shown how to persuade gamers they are fully immersed in other worlds. When it gets down to it, hundreds of little things could improve our interactions with games. Games such as Metroid Prime have pioneered the cool visor look, while lobbies for Internet games in Halo 2 have grown more sophisticated. But what else can be done? With games like Halo 2 giving us easy to use online menus, lobbies and the like, a great amount of work has been done to make very difficult things look quite easy. Developers should take tips from Bungie’s online methods, and their Website support — and Microsoft should make these tools available to everyone — so that other first-party and all third-party Xbox 2 developers can modify, tweak and evolve these brilliant designs to make them even better.

Voice Recognition with AI

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could talk to a game? Sure, Lifeline showed us the possibilities and the limitations of such a game. But, say for instance, you were in a game and you could talk to the bots around you and they responded to what you said. What’s more, they talked smack to you while doing it. What about a game where you posing different questions to any of the civilians could bring you to the right place or get you into a fight? There is a little work being done with Voice Recognition, but this area could prove to be more than just interesting.

Continuity in Series

In the early 1990s, PC games used to ship in series. They used to enable players to take their built-up character from one game and use it in the next. The idea rewards players who have played the game and encourages them to buy the sequel. It’s pretty easy to do, and it forces the next game in the series to be more than just a game that fixes all the old problems. EA’s “EA Bios” were based on a similar set of ideas, although theirs rewarded gamers playing a variety of EA games with bonus character, stats, and surprises. EA cancelled this feature in its sports titles.

But how cool would it be to take your character from Fable, KOTOR or even Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and bring it into the next set of games fully built up? It should a standard in most games in the next generation.

Outside World Influences

New ideas in sports games have really accelerated in the last three years as Visual Concepts and EA have fiercely fought for market dominance. But things could always be better. For instance, in the latest NBA Live, when a new rookie talks to a coach, you should see him doing it and see the reaction of the team players. Or, for instance, players should reap the benefits of maintaining a clean football or basketball program with real gameplay features. Additionally, both Visual Concepts and EA are working to make their games more realistic, but presenting them with more visual and visually interactive means is clearly the next step. We could easily write another 10 pages on how sports games could be better, but let’s just say now that some of the on-field presentation has been taken care of, let’s focus on the off the field experiences.

Real Evolution

Deus Ex

Why hasn’t anyone taken a clue from this revolutionary game and made a newer better one? Sure, there was Deus Ex: Invisible War, but that didn’t take that next step. An evolution from System Shock and System Shock 2, Deus Ex set you up in an intelligent world with options enabling you to play the game in at least three distinct ways: as a hacker, a stealthy bastard, or a fun-and-gun brute. In each way, the game played decisively well, and in each way, it gave you the chance to play it differently. An RPG and first-person shooter, this game really broke genre boundaries as well. Journalists still have arguments about exactly how to categorize it. There are three games that have had the most influence on this generation — Grand Theft Auto III, Battlefront 1942, and Deus Ex — and we’ve seen lots of attempts to copy the first two. Why isn’t there some smart developer out there making a better, smarter, faster version of Warren Specter’s Deus Ex? Developers! We want you to make it happen!

Cutscene Interaction

Games are almost always designed in this fashion: Players get a cutscene to set up a story, they play the mission, and they then watch a cutscene to complete it. Watch, play, watch: repeat ad nauseam. How long has this been the way we play games? Seems like 10 years or more. Why can’t we play the cutscenes? Why can’t we interact with the cutscenes? Mr. Kojima has started the trend in his opus Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater by pressing R1 to take sneak peaks at Eva’s boobs or zoom into an enemy’s activities, but that should be just the beginning.

Think about this part of Halo 2: In the early part of the game, Master Chief must locate the Covenant Bomb, stop it, and get rid of it. When he clears out the enemies guarding it, a cutscene shows this ridiculous, over-the-top super-hero stunt that screamed out for interaction. Wouldn’t it have been cool to launch and direct that bomb onto the enemy ship, then launch off yourself and feel the satisfaction of having done it, instead of just watching it? Isn’t that what games are all about anyway?

Games are not TV shows, and they’re definitely not movies. They’re games. Developers: Make the medium more distinct, more radical, by making them more interactive. Games in the next generation should feature more interactive cutscenes so you feel like you’re actually controlling the events. Not just watching them. Watching is for old folks who don’t get it. Games are the future, and they are meant to be played.

Character Evolution

Peter Molyneux did something spectacular with Fable — he gave gamers an RPG character that visually evolved throughout the course of the game, partially by means of their actions, and partially through manual customization. Knights of the Old Republic and the most recent Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas do it too. Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando did this a little bit with weapons (you saw them visually upgrade), and Nintendo’s Metroid Prime presented Samus’ evolution with superb presentation. Can you imagine if all games featured this type of growth in the future? Wow. But wouldn’t it be superb if more RPGs, but more specifically more action and adventure games, gave you this kind of control? Gamers want more control over their characters, and with developers seeing that customization is popular in this generation, this path of development looks bright in the next.

Multiple Paths

There is nothing more satisfying than buying a game with different story paths, branches, and endings. You get your money’s worth through pure replay value and you’re likely to fall in love with the series and play every single game by that developer. But it’s hard for developers to make different paths. There are all sorts of variables to figure out. Problems galore. But can you imagine in the future games being exactly as they are now? Strict linear affairs with no paths? RPGs that play just like movies? Certainly, there is a room for all sorts of RPGs, but we want evolution. RPG makers should go back to the early PC games, back to role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons and find new ways to make RPGs with multiple paths.

KOTOR IIKOTOR gives you different choices, different shades of gray, and it also offers different endings. The Silent Hill series has always done it, and the action game True Crime: Streets of LA did it too (among other games). People who play PC RPGs swear that American developers Bioware, the once great Black Isle, and Bethesda did, and are, continuing to do superb jobs at creating the only true role-playing videogames. Ones that permit you to play the game the way you see fit. Want to be an evil bastard? Fine. Be a nice guy? Fine. Do a little of both? Your choice.

Seamlessness

Among the many segments of brilliance in the Grand Theft Auto series is its seamlessness. You’d finish a mission, hear that congratulatory music and without zapping back and forth to some random headquarters, you’d continue on your merry way. This aspect was easily lost among all the other excellent ones, but it was made painfully clear just how good it was when True Crime: Streets of LA came out. Activision’s game chopped up the missions with tons of load screens and ruined the seamlessness of continuity that was so subtle and so damn cool in GTA.

Taking the idea even further, games should be seamless so that you need to speak with characters in the street to find your next mission. The missions won’t be presented with “MISSION 47: Beat Up Little Joey”, they’ll ebb and flow with the game, rather than splitting it into distinct chapters and pieces. Games should be more experiential, where you unconsciously enter into mission after mission without it being hammered into your skull.

Interactive Environments

Games should have more interactive environments. This is an obvious one. But then again, why haven’t more games done it? Once you play games such as MechAssault, MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf and Mercenaries, where you can render entire cities to dust, there is no going back. Future games should feature totally interactive environments that take things to a new, unexplored level. Trees should splinter when shot, buildings should collapse when bombed, and walls should be graffitied. You should be able to punch and make a hole in a wall, or break through it while in an action game (somewhat like what’s happened in fighting games). You should be able to bust open a street and drop down into the sewers, set fire to a city, or flood an enemy compound by controlling the water pipes — and not in cutscenes either. The environment should become so interactive that playing with it is a challenge and a game all on its own.

Realism

And you should not only encounter totally interactive environments, but they should react with more realism. When an enemy shoots at you while you’re hiding in a wooden house, the bullets should pierce through the wood. Grenades thrown from the enemy while you’re hiding behind the corner of a brick wall should blow it to pieces — the chunks of exploding bricks and mortar should affect you. The look and emotion of the characters in Half-Life 2 should be the tip of the iceberg in terms of human emotional reactions in the next generation. Next gen games should better Valve’s superb characters with more character, emotion, and realism.

Multiple Players in First-Person Shooters

So, we all craved the ability to play cooperatively and online through the story mode in Halo 2. What’s stopping developers from doing this on next generation systems? Why not enable say three or four players to play through the story-mode of a first-person shooter as a team or clan?

Genre Maturity

The New RPG

I personally don’t like RPGs, particularly because most are turn-based. They’re slow, plodding and I usually quit before too long because of boredom. But I love good stories, and I love adventure games. And I crave playing an RPG like Knights of the Old Republic in full action. Why isn’t there a game like that now? Is Jade Empire what I am looking for? Is Kingdom Hearts? They may very well be.

In these games, you fight in realtime, upgrade abilities, and change based on your actions. Why aren’t there role-playing games that seamlessly blend action and role-playing? The next-generation of games should make RPGs even more accessible.

Smart Movie Games

Vivendi Universal and Starbreeze had it right. They created a game based on an existing universe but purposely did NOT make their game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay on the movie. And THANK GOD. The game was way better than the film, and what’s more the game enhanced and expanded the property. Making movie-based games isn’t a bad idea all of the time, but for God’s sakes, please stop making games that are strictly based on movies. Use your imaginations, build something new, tell us a new story, and create games in the universe but not directly on a particular movie or TV Show.

Even a technically flawed game like The X-Files: Resist or Serve had it right. It took place “in between” episodes in the series, and used the likeness of the characters, tons of cool details from the series, and created a whole new episode. If you must use a movie or TV property, don’t assume we’re stupid or willing to buy crap. You’ll eat it, if you do.

In short, there are dozens of ideas we assuredly share when we think of improving games. These dozen or so just scratch the surface. We all know that better graphics, more control, and better AI should be on the drawing board of every developer. But what else can be done? What kinds of things do you imagine could really make games incrementally better than they are now? Let us know what you think by emailing us xbox.ign.com/email.html. If we haven’t heard the idea before we’ll publish it in our mailbag section soon thereafter.（Source：pc.ign）