Free-running Games Becoming Popular

[Da-Master-of-Puppets]

I don't know if you've noticed but all the games with free-running mechanics released in the past 2 years are all very popular games. Mirrors Edge, Assassin's Creed 2, Prototype, Uncharted 2, all are very popular games with all one thing in common, they all share a free-running gameplay mechanic. My guess is that game developers are starting to pick up on this and now making more free-run games.

I know this sounds crazy but do you think parkour style games could replace FPS games??

[Raab]

Lets not forget Prince of Persia.

[Skulsta]

Actually come to think of it every Free-Running/Parkour game I can think of has a really high score on IGN/Gamespot and I also love. It's not gonna be long before just about every game developer picks up on that and starts making more Parkour games. So yeah I'm pretty damn sure they could replace FPS games, except the most popular ones like Call of Duty and Halo and Killzone. (I hate Halo but there's still millions of 12 year old fan boys out there who love it...)

[Obvious-M]

I'd say most of the games that are out, use parkour, rather than freerunning.

It's a good and a bad thing, it promotes parkour however developers like to exaggerate the movements in the sports a bit, so you see characters in these games doing impossible things, and people see this and try to recreate this in the real world, leading to poor training or injury.

And it's not like people don't try to reinact it, I've had people come training in Manchester BECAUSE they've played Mirrors Edge or Assassins Creed or whatever, and you get copycat behaviour.

Suppose I'm half and half with them.

[RollLip]

Mirror's Edge was a huge success among critics. Other companies will try to leech the shit out of free-running. Its natural.

[Tribes78]

Yeah. From a prespective of a free runner (ahem, me) I see that the sport itself is becoming alot more poular. I don't think it's a bad thing, I would love to see some more free runners out there but not because they did a wallrun in Mirror's Edge over a gap between buildings. There was a kid who broke his leg right infront of me because he had played Mirror's Edge and thought it was easy. I told him that hitting the right bumper to automatically jump and run on a wall isn't like doing it in real life, but he told me he had a PS3 and told me that I was saying the wrong buttons. Right after sed conversation he went for it and wrecked himself. I told him to check yourself soon after and called 911.

Anyway, I do think alot of popularity is going to come to free running but not in a good way. It might actually run into some legal issues like skate boarding did. Free running may not scratch rails and chip cement like skate boarding did but people can get hurt on people's property, and get sued for it.

To wrap it up, developers are beginning to suck off of free running or parkour but it's going to lose it's pizzazz at some point.

BTW, here's a freerunning animation I posted a while ago :D

Extreme Running

I know it's called free running. I got bored.

[Raiespio]

At 11/30/09 08:38 AM, XxRobJohnsonxX wrote: Lets not forget Prince of Persia.

Damn it, damn it! I was about to say this.

Anyways, freerunning games wouldn't ever replace good old platformers.

[Jerkapotamus]

A lot of the games with free-running in them are open-world. Open-world games have really taken off this generation thanks to the upgraded tech. Unless there's a quick-travel system, there needs to be some way of traversing the massive environment quickly. An exaggerated free-running system is a natural choice.

[Lost-Chances]

Personally, I don't see the problem. Free-running allows you to have more freedom of your mode of transport which only increases the enjoyability of the game.

[Fluffington]

You've forgot inFAMOUS too.

Ah well, the only thing I hate about these games is the motha fucking "looking-for-hidden-items-though-out-the -entire-sandbox-world-only-to-find-out-t hat-you've-missed-one-while-doing-it" feature in the game promising trophies/achievements if you've collected the last one to shamelessly increase the gameplay time.

[ThePretenders]

Yes, I love free-running games because of the flexibility the player is given. I wonder would GTA would be like if they combined it with Assassin's Creed?

[Lost-Chances]

At 12/1/09 07:06 AM, ThePretenders wrote: Yes, I love free-running games because of the flexibility the player is given. I wonder would GTA would be like if they combined it with Assassin's Creed?

Considering they were trying to go with an ounce of realism (something that went out of the window pretty fast), I think it would send that out the window. If that's a good or bad thing, I actually can't tell.

[coure]

well if you look at it more closely they all have something else to them that would make them popular among gamers and non-gamers alike.
Mirrors Edge- The unique FP Free-runner aspect provides a new twist on your classic Prince of Persia style games
Uncharted 2- An incredible story and unlimited gameplay provide a great experience every time you play
Assassins Creed 2- incredible graphics and story with extremely fun gameplay (also the fact that it was a sequel to pretty good game would induce quite a few sales)
Prototype-well i never bought this game but from what i played the reason someone would buy this is all the gore,violence, and unique powers.

[Im-A-Pirate]

They're not fun because they have freerun, they're fun because they're fun. Having free-running just makes it more fun.

[CapnRyan]

At 11/30/09 08:26 AM, Da-Master-of-Puppets wrote: I know this sounds crazy but do you think parkour style games could replace FPS games??

No, they will never.