Evolution of Video Games

Mag Massive Action Game

Video Games have been here for years, and between each generation of video game consoles, there has been a large leap in the technological gap and improvements within the games. Comparing the Atari to the Playstation 3 is almost laughable now, at the sheer difference between the graphical achievements and the Artificial Intelligence. There was a pretty big jump in technology between the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 as well. Physics improved, Graphics Improved, Artificial Intelligence improved, The scope of the games increased as well. But how much can we improve now? In 5 to 10 years, how will our games look? Lets take a little dip into creativity and imagine for a sec what games can achieve within that timespan, shall we?

Graphically, there is no doubt that it’ll improve. But I’ve heard many question if the graphical leap will be visible enough to be able to tell the difference between the next generation and the current generation. The answer to that one is pretty obvious, though. With each generation, more polys are added to the video game models. What does that mean? Simply, the characters will be less jagged and be more animateable, actually. The next generation will probably be most noteable in the graphical aspects. Games are rapidly approaching Photo realism, just take a look at Crysis. Could a console achieve photo realistic rendering? Probably, but the chances of making a console that powerful isn’t likely. The costs would be too much, people complain about the Playstation 3′s price tag, imagine adding $200 or so to that. It would be in deep trouble, unless it had something very worthful to offer to the consumers.

What I’m most excited about, though, is the improvement in Artificial Intelligence. Having amazing random and intelligence NPC’s (non-playable-characters) in video games is pretty fun I think. It adds a sense of enjoyment to the Single Player campaign, if one is included. There will always be someone without internet access on their console, so being able to play with smart npc’s would be the next best thing to playing with your friends or playing others over the internet. Having an enemy in the game that actually “learns” as humans do, that would be an interesting thing to see. I think it’s been done before, but I don’t happen to remember the game sadly.

Online Modes will now be breathtaking I think. Most games right now are 16 players or rarely 32 players online. With the added power in a new console, online gaming might reach up to 64 players. Or even 128 players. Who knows? The upcoming M.A.G game on the Playstation 3 is going to have an amazing amount of players in one match, over 100 players. Nothing says chaos and mayhem like 100 players on one map gunning after eachother in squads or maybe solo. If this can be achieved in the next generation, without lagging or disconnecting users, I’m sure MANY game companies would start making games of this scope. No one would be able to resist hopping on that bandwagon. Which also brings the next improvement, larger maps. That’s self explanatory, that would just be an enjoyable addon.

Of course, other things would be improved upon too. Gameplay? Music? Physics? What would you like to see improved on the most, in the next generation of consoles?