Perhaps, I don't think we've seen a Crysis powered porno, that would be popular with the kids :-)
I think though that you've may have conflated cause and effect. This sort of engine isn't really useful in a poker game. Do you remember the beautifully rendered ChessMaster games on the Amiga? I remember people talking about a 'waste of the graphics' to render chess pieces like that.
I don't think anyone has done a good Myst replacement, this might be good for that too. An archeology game? possibly. Remember that the 'engine' and the 'game' are two different things. Perhaps the 'safest' thing to imagine is an FPS, known audience, known play etc etc. Licensing isn't cheap, so if you're paying for it you don't want to risk that capital on a hyper realistic 'angry birds' now do you?
Some other thoughts on uses for an engine that does good visuals:
1 Mechanical puzzles - build machines to solve puzzles.
2 Life/City/Population simulators - more fun to watch.
3 Sex games - mentioned above.
4 Sports games - haven't had a decent FP kayaking game
5 Where's Waldo type
Wait, "Where's Waldo" but in 3d, from first person perspective?
6 Paparazzi - Start with a lousy camera, have to take
photos which are graded for score. Get better lenses
and access to better hiding places as level ups.
(This is like a FPS, but with no guns, and with
the enemy on a pre-determined route and with strict
time limits for each level)
7 Tree in the Field - you start in a field.
There's a tree. You wander around. You can
climb the tree. You can run. As you do certain
things (start running, for example) a timer
starts with a recommendation ("Hey! How fast
can you run round the field? / Climb the tree?
/ etc". You find a magnifying glass. You can
look at bugs. You can look at stones (and the
fossils). You can look at flowers. The weather
changes. The day turns into night. You find
a box. When you find the box another prompt
pops up "Hey! This looks like a good place to
keep your fossils!". There is a rich and
diverse eco-system, with hooks into information
about everything ("This is a 'Cowslip' (*Primula
veris*)" - but then more links if wanted. Right
down to high level biology concepts.) You can
race bugs against each other. You find some
seeds, and a trowel, and some rickety rackety
implements.
7a Tree in the Field DLC - A Toolshed for the
equipment / A mini greenhouse / etc etc.
> 6 Paparazzi - Start with a lousy camera, have to take
photos which are graded for score. Get better lenses
and access to better hiding places as level ups.
(This is like a FPS, but with no guns, and with
the enemy on a pre-determined route and with strict
time limits for each level)
This game came out of a game hackfest called the molyjam where each team had to pick a game idea from a Peter Molyneux's faker's twiter stream: https://twitter.com/petermolydeux
Oh no, my point isn't about cause and effect. I believe that when they set out to do a great graphics engine, they don't have derivate, tasteless games in mind. They're actually doing innovative, great things well worth their time.
The problem is the other half of their studio, which creates games based on those engines. This is where all the problems lie. No taste.
And it's not just Far Cry and Crysis. Check out their recently released iOS game "Fibble". It's tasteless horse radish.
I think though that you've may have conflated cause and effect. This sort of engine isn't really useful in a poker game. Do you remember the beautifully rendered ChessMaster games on the Amiga? I remember people talking about a 'waste of the graphics' to render chess pieces like that.
I don't think anyone has done a good Myst replacement, this might be good for that too. An archeology game? possibly. Remember that the 'engine' and the 'game' are two different things. Perhaps the 'safest' thing to imagine is an FPS, known audience, known play etc etc. Licensing isn't cheap, so if you're paying for it you don't want to risk that capital on a hyper realistic 'angry birds' now do you?
Some other thoughts on uses for an engine that does good visuals:
I'm sure there are others.