disagree, the menus were always confusing especially if you tried to mess with anything in your custom match, it hasn't improved but it's certainly not become worse, it's the damn same
No@@jorgealbertohernandezgutie7696 when I play black ops 2 I know which stuff I want, in the new call of duty, everything is all over the place with all new modern warfares and black ops 6 all shoved in one game.
@jorgealbertohernandezgutie7696 Just played BO 3 recently, and it was a simple menu. No pop-ups just to see something that should be on the main menu. It was simple and elegant. The new menu is some HULU bullshite
"Gaming went mainstream, it's the biggest entertainment industry in the world thanks to the golden age of 2001-2010. What did it cost you guys?" "Everything."
Co-op WaW was some of the most fun that series ever had too. The bullshit veteran difficulty even got a chance to be a fun challenge with multiple players, to the point I’d assume that’s how they designed it were it not for the like two levels you could only play in single player.
Back in the day, we discussed weather or not a map pack was worth $10 Now we pay $20 extra to play the game a few days early. The paypig future is bleak.
@@ididntaskverified3663 I mark 2014 as the year the golden age ended. But for me personally, we peaked in 2010 but that could be because I left home that year and didn't really game much again until 2014 when I saw how shit everything was already going
Even getting the game early is too generous. People spend $20 on a single skin. Not armor/clothing to make a unique appearance with, but a premade copy paste skin. $10 for a map pack seems like a god send now.
@torvasdh In my opinion, Space Marine 2 has a very fair system in comparison to many other mainstream games. I mean, a season pass for about 20 bucks extra, and you get literal packs of skins and cosmetics for all classes. Comparing that to nowadays, I fully believe that it's a steal.
…or we can start asking for graphics in games like CoD to be lowered, so they can have more time to think of story/sidemodes and not just multiplayer?? 🙏😭🙏
how woke are the woke elements, is it enough to make you want to b**ch slap the girl boss self insert or you can just ignore it without pissing you off to much
what i hate about modern AAA games is that they spend so much effort on making games LOOK REALISTIC rather than be fun to play. the menu’s are horrific messes of stacked menus, no longer any unique game specific art or themes to start up or chase after, no little treats that rewards gamers (trophies and battle-pass/purchasable skins do not count), and worst of all no community bc everyone would rather have no contact than risk having some. no wonder people use games to throw their shit into, bc the games are no longer a fun escape or pass time and just add another money siphon to an already overcrowded life. (edit) not all AAA games or companies are falling off, just that this trend has spread so wide in a short amount of time. it’s sad to see what was once a potentially profitable and entertaining industry become bland, predatory, uncreative, lonely, and draining due to corporate and stockholder greed. we all know there are so many talented people who want and can make interesting games, but no longer are there as many opportunities for such risks to innovate new IPs or constructively expand on IPs. COD has almost become the “Apple” of the gaming world, and saddest of all is Rockstar killing RDR2 for GTAV. Naughty Dog cancelling a multiplayer game due to fear of risk taking was also a sad blow for both sides i’m sure. Case for Naughty Dog was to stay true to the story telling aspect of the company’s brand, but it was obvious we TLOU fans were all ready to give our money for a more fleshed out IP of the online mode from the original extra Factions mode. Helldivers 2 really had us in the first half, but somewhere along the way they just seemingly feel out of touch from what most gamers wanted out of that gameplay. rant over, great video Nikos 🫡
This is what I like about helldivers 2. There IS in game currency that you can buy, but it is really easy to get while still having fun and playing the game normally and the stuff you can get with is actual content not just skins
I noticed as the 2010s and early 2020s came these “side modes” were still there, however, they arrived somewhat later around launch or a year afterwards. COD’s Zombie mode has been so influential that every non-Treyarch after WaW tried to implement its own PVE like Ghost’s Extinction, AW’s Exo Zombies, etc. Halo on the other hand has a few ups and downs with FF/Spartan Ops like gameplay. It wasn’t until Warzone came into the MP for 5 and some might like the philosophy of PVPVE, others wanted that PVE only atmosphere. Warzone Firefight came later and it was the first official game mode where 8 players could work together to fight the mini-bosses of Halo. Then Infinite implemented the KOTH style which is fine, however, there are some that want the simple objective of just surviving. CGB has been popular these past years in MCC & Infinite, the FORGE has been greatly ambitious and even more complex than other! It’s amazing and mind blowing. I hope it can be more scripted and sandbox like GMOD someday! Good video by the way.
Side modes are how you make a well rounded full price game if you ask me. Things like TLoU PvP, Gears horde & PvP, Halo forge & firefight, and MW2/MW3 spec ops kept me coming back!
The thing is that most games tried those, but they eventually failed or wasn't popular enough. Off the top of my head, only COD Zombies is remaining which has any semblance of actual care and thought or budget put into(regardless if you like the new formula or not). MWII 2022 had too much "third modes" like Raid, Spec ops and even DMZ if you consider ON top of Warzone. The resources were spread too thin between each mode so much that yeah MWII was complete package or more in only name. It lacked any focus or such. Then MWIII 2023 just added Warzone zombies.
@MGrey-qb5xz depends on the main experience, but 9 times out of 10, what really keeps people coming back are side modes. As an example, I mainly played Gwent in Witcher 3, and I know plenty of people who did the same.
@CoolManCoolMan123 all I got from this comment is that you need to play more than just CoD. Many games have longer lives because of their side modes. Last of Us (for example) still has many people just playing the side PvP mode, Gears 5 was saved because of Horde, Halo Infinite is only really surviving because of Forge & custom creations, and should I bring up Gwent in Witcher 3? Hell even PvP in Souls games is essentially a side mode and that attracts major communities. In general, your side content is really how you round out your product, keep more people playing, and even attract more people to the game.
I remember in the months leading up to the release of Halo Infinite, Hiddenxperia made a video speculating about what Infinite's "third mode" could be. And thought to myself "Watch it just not even have one. That'd be crazy, right?" Oh man.
I miss the era of every game having a side mode even if it made no sense. There were great co-op and MP modes in so many games back then. It feels like AAA games just don't try anymore with side modes or goofy MP modes. The closest thing we've gotten is the surprisingly well designed Raid mode for MW2(2022) but I really can't think of anything else. Even Zombies has fallen from being the king of the side mode to whatever the heck it wants to be now. At least Gears 5 Horde was still really good, but horde modes desperately need a comeback.
I remember battlefield was gonna get a dinosaurs mode would of been sick. Since the series has many prehistoric funa references. I hope the dinosaurs in my halo mods can fill that gap in
Anyone who beat the world at war campaign and seen the nacht der untoten intro and was thrown into zombies for the first time what was that like? I didn’t start zombies until after everyone knew how zombies in world at war
Great video. Small correction on DOA in black ops. You unlock it either by inputting the code on the terminal or beating the Game on veteran. I found this out when I beat the game on veteran shortly after release
RIP Some of the greatest side modes that made us feel like 60 bucks was a steal back in the day... COD Zombies and Spec Ops Halo's Firefight and even Spartan Ops Gears' Horde mode Saints Row's parody of that Hell Saints Row 2 had a secret Zombie mode you could discover by finding a random arcade game. Post your favorite side modes here. I know I'm missing a lot.
sidemodes are my favorite things and it's why I love Doom 2016's multiplayer and Eternal's Battlemode... They're only there for the people who might like them and are not having millions of dollars wasted making them because just like with 360 titles you really didn't need to.
Nikos always happens to post when I'm doing something, in this case it was shooting machineguns so I found it to be neat background noise while reloading magazines. Thanks Nikos.
I still remember the look on my friends face after we beat the WaW campaign. The credits roll and then, the real game began. That moment is burned in my brain for eternity
I think one of the biggest issues is that there’s no more “competing” between games. At least not to the extent that it was That’s why a bunch of the biggest games can get away with being absolutely terrible. Theres no such thing as a “cod killer” or “halo killer” because they’re such big names and therefor don’t have to improve anything. They could release a pile of crap and people would buy it because there’s no other game on the market like it or atleast not one as big. Because of this no games are fighting to out do their opponents. Back in the day Call of duty and halo were competing to have more content but now that they’re so huge and have a steadfast fan base there’s no need to outdo their competition
When you really think about it, Halo content is an achievement that no game has come close to. Campaign, multi-player, forge (though marathon and other boomer shooters had something similar), theatre, custom games, firefight. Damn.
And all of that on console, to boot. Many games of the era that had custom map editors were PC titles and/or PC ports of console games. While Forge was really just intended as an object editor, the players’ inventiveness to effectively make custom map geometry out of physics props and Bungie’s willingness to lean into that aspect of the tool once those map-making exploits were discovered really served to make full-on map editors possible on console. Nowadays, look at DOOM 2016’s SnapMap feature. It really looks and operates a lot like a fully fledged game development tool, and it’s usable on console. It’s a shame we’re losing this stuff now. Publishers don’t want games with tons of features. They want games with one feature so they don’t overlap with other offerings in their catalogue.
The answer: Most of the player base doesn't play the third mode. And even smaller amounts care about it. If corners are going to be cut, Guess. Which mode is getting the axe?
I remember the first time I unlocked zombies in WaW. I was maybe 9 and I was struggling through the campaign before dinner (dining room was right next to the living room), I beat it, started eating during the credits, and then the zombie trailer popped up a few minutes later. I was terrified.
The biggest symptom of the Death of the Side Mode, or maybe it's the other way around, is the tightening of control over creative decisions by the bean counters in publishing companies. The devs in the big name game companies are no longer allowed to take time out of their schedule to just create whatever they want with the tools (and IP) at their disposal, everything needs to be cleared with the bean counters first, who often say no to anything "risky", otherwise known as creative.
i remember playing mw2 wave defenses on the box tv with my buddy through split screen, halo reach and odst firefight was some of the best times of my life.
I think one of my biggest examples is League of Legends. It used to have multiple maps, reskin its main map every holiday, try to come up with a new timed event mode every couple months or so with some icon rewards or so for it. Changing the ARAM map into Bilgewater was considered one of the coolest events they’ve ever done. Ever since a few years ago though, the side stuff has either been turned into mobile games or removed entirely. Domination, Twisted Treeline, Doom Bots, Nexus Blitz, Black Market Brawlers, all these kind of modes were removed for the sake of making more skins and pushing more competitive. No one talks about this issue because everyone sees that it’s never going to happen again. The only long lasting event mode is URF but they made that a random pick one because everyone would metamance on it otherwise with characters that were definitely not designed for it. There has been a couple cool modes like Arena, a 2v2v2v2 unique take, but Riot is clearly not putting nearly as many resources as they used to into making charming little modes anymore. Or they tie them into battle pass grinding.
I remember when Halo Infinite released and a very minor part of the fan base was saying shit like “why can’t you just play the game for the sake of it and have fun?” in regards to how bad stuff like progression was, and my reply was always “alright, I’ll just go play split screen campaign or forge… OH WAIT.” Forge is there now but I haven’t touched the game in well over 2 and a half years. Too little too late, shame it wasn’t there when the game released like games from 2007, 2010, and 2012. Those side modes like forge and theater were a huge part of the success of Halo 3, ODST, and Reach, Hell even 4 to a lesser degree. Signature playlists in the series often started from side modes, like custom games settings are the reason we have game modes like Infection or Grifball (which also used Forge for the maps). People vastly underestimate how important the fun offshoot stuff is in games. Zombies was huge, as was Spec Ops in CoD, and for a while it was just assumed they’d be there. Now you don’t even get campaigns sometimes. There was a Transformers game on 360/PS3 called Fall of Cybertron that had its own Nazi Zombies style mode, Escalation, and it was by far the most fun thing in the game outside the story mode. We really didn’t know how good we had it back then. It’s such a waste there’s barely any big games today that have a fraction of this stuff. Everything being sold is just overpriced skins, and side modes, when they appear on the rare chance, barely function. It’s just a shame.
"You remember the iPod Touch? Yeah I'm that old" Same "I've never even heard of this game (Project Gotham Racing)" You can't do this to me I remember on Project Gotham Racing on the OG Xbox I'd use the Demo Mode to play various other games, but mainly Fusion Frenzy.
10:13 Infinity Ward had nothing to do with that. In fact, MWIII was the only “Modern Warfare” game to not be developed by them. The Warzone map itself was developed by Raven Software, the game MWIII was developed by Sledgehammer Games and initially intended to be DLC for MWII, and the Warzone/DMZ “Zombies” mode in MWIII was actually developed by Treyarch, as it had been in Vanguard. The blame lies squarely on Activision, however practically every developer aside from Infinity Ward was involved in that disaster…and they get the blame because of the name.
The moment you brought up Geometry Wars I got some heavy nostalgia of booting up Project Gotham Racing, going to the back of the showroom, and spending hours playing that arcade game.
The sad thing about this is that this isn't happening exclusively to games either. The film industry has this problem of making slop films with star wars and superhero movie. Were at an age that people stopped caring about quality
It's like playing the latest Alien Hominid, older Behemoth games would have loads of little modes and mini-games to play, fun little vs game modes. The latest game is just the rogue-lite stuff, its a fun game, but yeah miss this stuff.
When I want to play authentic zombies I just go back to WaW. I don't mind MWZ, but I really don't look at it as anything remotely related to real Zombies modes.
I totally feel you, WaW zombies was creepy, I loved the vibes in it. BO3 has quite a few faithful and fun remakes and original maps that feel like WaW's zombies
It’s almost like games used to made with passion and fun in mind, now they are made to see how much money they can make from the players and how fast they can release it.
Firefight should've become a staple of the franchise. Instead, they swapped it out for Spartan Ops in Halo 4, and since then we haven't gotten a proper rendition of the classic Firefight mode from Reach and ODST. Not even in Halo: Infinite.
That part about BO3 custom zombies is 1000% true. I’ll take unlimited community made content any day over $70 for a game that’ll become obsolete in 1 year’s time
I still think it’s absolute insanity that Halo Infinite released without Forge and that it took a so long to be included. It’s literally free content to keep your community engaged longer.
I love playing Halo Infinite's firefight, but it and other entries lack what I liked about ODST firefight. I remember bragging to friends and comparing high scores . I loved the thrill of seeing how long we could last. Infinite does not have an endless playlist like cod zombies. Or a measure of high score. Even in the MCC there isn't a endless mode in matchmaking. You can do it in custom games sure, but that's not the same because of the custom nature of it and lack of a high score record.
.... I miss the halo forge days Playing with friends and inviting randoms to fun party game modes like speed halo, jenga, trash compacter, fat kid, Halo 3 and reach was the best time to be alive in gaming and if you was a teenager you know sometimes it was hell But most of the time it would be the funniest stuff going Still remember on reach me jumping on a friend's vehicle hitting it And it suddenly being slingshot across the map or goes light speed into a wall
Some side modes you didn't mention but were absolute bangers: Gears of War Horde mode (i think it started on Gears 3). Just a horde mode, but so much fun og MW3's survival: twas many waves of ever more dangerous enemies. Regular mercs, then exploding guys, dogs, juggernauts, helicopters, elite squads, etc. There were shops for weapons, equipment/armor, and perks. And you could play this on ALL multiplayer maps, so mastering it all took A WHILE. Mass Effect 3's coop: You and up to 3 other people team up to fight many waves of enemies from the factions seen in the franchise. But there were many characters to unlock, many weapons, boosters, all in a nice dogshit lootbox system. But still, without paying you could unlock it all. Great side mode
I believe some of the contributors as to why things like side modes as well as other aspects of gaming aren't so much so a thing anymore is the sheer scale of video games in terms of production and developement time. 2000s to early 2010s had teams in max 100- 200 developers in major studios where you can expect them to release a new game around every 2-3 years. Now the teams are twice as big and if a studio makes a hit game, you can expect to wait 4 to 7 years for a sequel to come out. Maybe they had a second game in the works somewhere and release that within 2 years but that's not as likely to expect. Timothy Cain on youtube is a developer that worked on the original Fallout games and he spoke about how bureucracy steals so much time for developers to fix simple bugs or add things because there's so much back and forth talking between various leaders and managers. So a bug fix that would have taken 1 hour to fix up ended up taking like 2 weeks if he didn't decide to do it himself. Its worth mentioning because stuff like CoD Zombies was some last minute weekend crunch side project that just barely made it into the game and that was simply because some devs made something that was so good that the entire studio was playing that mode during the last few months before release. This wasn't planned or in the schedule and 1 fella made it work. I don't think modern era company structures enables things like that as easily. Its not impossible to have these things around now but they usually will come as a post release patch.
Even Nintendo is guilty of this, as there were plenty of side modes in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U/Nintendo 3DS, but most of them got shafted on Ultimate, those being Masterpieces, Target Test, Target Blast, Trophy Rush, Master Orders, Crazy Orders, Event Match, Smash Run, Smash Tour, and All-Star Mode. Mob Smash has fewer types in each succeeding game, which were 6 in Melee, 5 in Brawl, 4 in Wii U, and 3 in Ultimate. Stage Builder has improved, but that mode and Home Run Contest were added in updates. Mario Kart 8 has a Battle Mode cobbled up at the last minute, consisting only of Balloon Battle on race tracks. Deluxe fixes this by adding more battle types and proper Battle Arenas, but it was again neglected for the Booster Course Pass with no new arenas added. Mario Tennis Ultra Smash was notorious for having only 2 modes, Standard and Ultra, with Ultra adding Mega Mushrooms and nothing else. No Tournament, no Story Mode, and no side modes like Ring Shot, Sudden Death, and Bowser Court. Mario Tennis Aces sorta fixes this with more than 3 courts, and the Ultra Tennis mode got replaced with a more interesting mode, but all the previous side modes got hobbled together into the story mode, which isn't even an RPG anymore. Just those modes presented as stages on a map.
I have times I wonder, “Am I just getting old?Is being adult rather than a child ruining my gaming experience?” But then a gem comes out that was made with passion. I then realize that’s it’s not me it’s the corporate greed. Games used to have a fun, simple, immersive menus and everything else. Now it’s just a clustered mess that doesn’t pull you in and you end up turning it off. I feel bad for the new generation with these new transactions. I feel like they’re gonna be a mess when they grow up. Impulse spending is gonna be second nature to them.
Zombies was a mode they snuck into the game that they worked on privately. I think games have become so corporatized that there's no room for anything that isn't planned and no room to change those plans, which is why concord spent 8 years in development and came out as a game people might have wanted back in 2016 when hero shooters were fresh, and marvel was popular. Edit: Oh and gaming isn't failing because experienced devs leaving, it's unexperienced devs having no room to grow and experiment. Portal was made by completely inexperienced people, not veterans, and they made something crazy good.
I miss the Old Cod Zombies. I was able to enjoy cold war (NOT MW2/3. never gonna buy it) but it feels so different. This was really nice to see mementos of what feels like an era long passed. Also. just for a funny, when you said Gamerslop Effect (tm) I just said to myself out loud "Was he talking about Mass Effect: Andromeda?" lol
I remember playing madagascar the videogame on the ps2 and that game has so many different side modes. A shitty license movie game from the 2000s has more content than modern AAA games. That game has mini golf, shuffle board, and tons of unique and functioning arcade games to play along side the main game which plays like a typical early '00s 3d platformer
It’s an unfortunate loss, but as people want less crunch and more things in their games now they don’t understand that wanting both isn’t conducive to either
Side modes were still going pretty strong into the late 2010s. Doom 2016 had an awesome campaign, an ok multiplayer, and SnapMap, which was a pretty cool level editor that some madlads made some awesome stuff in. Titanfall 2 also had a great campaign but on top of that had an amazing multiplayer filled with gamemodes that were all wildly different from each other, and it added a pretty good horde mode post-release. Contrast that to Overwatch (Game of the Year btw) which only had multiplayer and the game mode was determined by the map. Maybe if players gravitated towards games that provided more, the industry would not have been able to con so many with a lack of content.
I recently bought a psp and I noticed the lack of arcadey games especially from big publishers. Either as a standalone or as its own separate mode. They’re still around but few and far between
This is the thing about the gaming industry, some AAA titles are abosolute monstrosities, yet I've seen free to play roblox games that out do them... (At least in my eyes)
I was not expecting halo tinder XD. On another note this video really shows how much developers cared in the Xbox 360 days, its a shame that the 2 main games mentioned in this video (halo and COD) are shadows of their former selves the side modes are just not the same as you pointed out.
Remember, Call of Duty was cool before Zombies and didn't really advertise it when it was a thing. The campaign and multiplayer were the focus or marketing and what not. Now? Zombies is a the highlight of their marketing and everything else is sorta just an afterthought and they still can't get Zombies or anything as good as it once was. Forge in Halo was the same way too.
After Black Ops 2, Call of Duty saw a decline across all aspects-campaign, multiplayer, and zombies. Similarly, Halo's golden era ended with Halo 3. While Halo: Reach introduced changes, features like armor abilities, loadouts, and unbalanced maps began to erode the core experience, leading to the loss of iconic weapons and gameplay elements.
