What would you like the "Next Gen" to offer games?

[Kongster]

One thing I do believe all next gen games should have though - REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE!!!1!1!11

Might as well throw GIANT ENEMY CRABS AND MASSIVE DAMAGE!!!1!1! into the mix too. :P

[MattyD]

I would have done but I'm not sure my humble 360 is up to the challenge. Looks like I'll have to work some more overtime

[Profit]

One thing I do believe all next gen games should have though - REAL TIME WEAPON CHANGE!!!1!1!11

Simple things like that are the 1st steps. RE4 is an obvious example. Devs need to minimise menus as much as possible.

[eastyy]

more freedom.....like for example in the darkness good game as it was i did get kindoff fed up coming across doors that you could not open

[SUMIRE]

I'd like to see more adventure games that have a more story driven outcome to my actions taken in game. I know some games are doing this already, but i'd like to see it expanded to a lot bigger scale. Something like I kill someone important in the game for example, and because of this, the whole game changes. Quests change, NPCs change their outlook on me and from this I can carve a unique unscripted adventure.

[EvilBoris]

Yeah same, imagine if you were playing an adventure game where a main character is talking to you about something really important and you just kill them for no reason on the spot and the entire story changes to take that into account.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

I'd like that same thing I've wanted for the last 3 or 4 generations.

More non-mainstream titles to be released in the west.

Seeing as the whole 50/60Hz issue doesn't really exist any more, it would be a lot simpler to make one batch of games for the US and UK, then just print different artwork/packaging.

I'm sure there are many nich games that people do want brought over.

One example? My mates & gf come over and see me playing one of my obscure Japanese titles and even from just watching it for a minute, they comment that if it was in English, they'd definitely consider buying it.

[eastyy]

branching plot lines

In deus ex there was potential for the story to go off into two different ways

personally for me colony wars i thought was how to do the branching story line........depending on how well you did in the missions it would branch off into different missions which would alter the story

[domsalvia]

On the subject of branching plot lines and Deus Ex, that game had a terrible flaw that ruined the whole thing for me. I saw my in game character as a crack, bought and paid for government agent (well, I was a lot younger at the time and still had fanciful ideas about characters like that being 'cool'). When I ran into my treacherous, scum bag of a brother in that airplane hanger, there was only one course of action to me and that was to take him down. I spent ages trying to finish him, with multiple attempt where I just ran out of ammo. In the end I just had to accept the either I was too crap or, as I suspected, plot unkillable. I tried playing on down the official plot line, but that section was so jarring in the way it just RIPPED me from the immersion I never really got back into it and it pretty much finished the game for me. I've never gone back to it.

Given the nature of it, not to mention the play it your way hype surrounding that game I was truly shocked that they didn't think "you know what, maybe people will want to kill that guy". I know it is an old game, but it should be seen as an example not just of what people want in freedom to play, but also the dangers of limiting that freedom. A game of choices needs to have a fall back plan for any time a player gets it in his head to off an important plot character. A few times you can strip players of guns in with the plot line to prevent this kind of choice (see Bioshock) if you are selling a free world in this generation of games you better bloody well be ready to make it free.

I'm still bitter about an excellent game being ruined for to this day!

[Profit]

Random generated enemy designs.

Why doesn't the game randomly select the color pallet and limb proportions everytime an enemy is generated. It'd add a lot of visual variety without affecting the mechanics.

A feature like that would be great especially in RPGs. Imagine FF where every enemy you encountered looked different.

Edit: Also:

Character orientated physics.

Dispite all the tricks in Bioshock, all the mechanics are very much object orientated. Your character still feels like a gun floating in mid-air, and that's just how the processing is calculating for.

Imagine GTA where you character has the agility and physics of the guy from Shadow of the Colossus or Prince of Persia!

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Random generated enemy designs.

Why doesn't the game randomly select the color pallet and limb proportions everytime an enemy is generated. It'd add a lot of visual variety without affecting the mechanics.

A feature like that would be great especially in RPGs. Imagine FF where every enemy you encountered looked different.

But then you could end up with something that looks like kernow on your screen

[Profit]

I just mean minor changes - like adding a few cms to their height or waist. Or skin color by a few degrees or different color clothing. Still a lot better than walking along and coming up against an identical enemy.

[MattyD]

A lot of the animation and phsyics related things people are mentioning are on their way in. Look on YouTube for some of the videos of Lucasart's forthcoming Indiana Jones games and see the wonders of procedural animation for yourself

[Yoshimax]

Physics.

We've got a lot more to see this gen as devs get to grips with the hardware - it's one of the things I'm most excited about PAIN on PSN for.

Next gen I'm hoping they're going to stick dedicated physics chips on their consoles allowing for everything in the world to have the right properties

[Shoju]

Much better AI
More interactive and destructible scenery
Better Physics
Branching storylines and real far reaching consequences for your actions.
Better animation

Examples of games that look like their going to do some of these things are Mass Effect, Crysis, Far Cry 2, Fable 2 and Dead Island.