AAA Gaming Has Moved Beyond Me.

[Eric the Orange]

For preface I am one of many of those who grew up in the US in the 80s playing video games. Often refereed to as Generation NES. In many ways I was the target audience for high profile games back then.

But strangely enough games have "grown up" as well, there target audience being teenagers and young adults these days. but despite that 99% of AAA games these days just don't interest me.

These days I almost exclusively play Indie retro RPGs and Platformers (and non-indie but big companies rarely put out games in these genres). This is probably due to nostalgia, but I just don't find First person 3D games that fun.

Which on a side note I guess means I won't much care if the AAA gaming market crashes.

 

[Windcaler]

You arent alone. I grew up in the same era and most of the AAA games that come out dont interest me all that much or have stunningly bad flaws. Other AAA games seem far to simple and worse a lot of games are just bland copies of game I played years ago. There are still a few AAA titles I enjoy, like Im really into the Battlefield series and I can appreciate a really deep RPG but we havnt had one of those in years

Like you Ive been looking at the indie market more and more and been finding lots of gems in the last 2-3 years. Last year there wasnt one AAA title on my games of the year list but they were all indie titles. It seems to me that the AAA market wants to move to the college student demographic instead of keeping with those of us in our 30s with lots of disposable income and who are starting to have kids of our own.

 

[Vylox]

Folks of our generation are more critical towards games, and have a set of I deals that we expect from games, large corporations like EA and Activisiin don't care about our money, they care about re-selling you the games you bought last year, just like Nintendo.

 

[piinyouri]

I grew up on the NES (actually first started twiddling my baby thumbs on an atari trackball controller) and I find plenty to play from the AAA games of today that interests me.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The whole Hollywood blockbuster attitude triple-A games have had for the past couple of years is getting a bit to me. Games all dead set on showing you awesome stuff, instead of actually letting you play around with the mechanics at your own leisure. With most of these games it's like you're forced to walk across a designated line, and if you stray one foot from it it's an instant game over.

 

[Zetatrain]

While I didn't quite start gaming as early as you (started in the early 90s) I still manage to find at least 3 new AAA releases each year that I thought were worth the money I spent. For me this year is off to a good start with Metal Gear Rising and Bioshock Infinte. I also recently picked up Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (though technically its not a new release)and have enjoyed it very much so far. Also really looking forward to Tales of Xilla and I would say the same for Shin Megami Tensei IV if I had a 3DS.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Everyone has their tastes, no one is suggesting that gamers *have* to buy into the AAA titles.

Indie 2D platformers bore the shit out of me (with the sole exception of Limbo), but I'm not about to imply that they're inherently superior or inferior, because those are my tastes.

 

[Eric the Orange]

Folks of our generation are more critical towards games, and have a set of I deals that we expect from games, large corporations like EA and Activisiin don't care about our money, they care about re-selling you the games you bought last year, just like Nintendo.

Folks of our generation are often blinded by nostalgia and say things about old games that are just not true, which has then infected a sector of younger, hipster-like retro-hardcore nerds with the same fallacies.

These include how games are shorter now (not true, NES games were rarely longer than two or three hours), more expensive (not true, even not adjusted to inflation, SNES and N64 games were more expensive, and NES ones just as much), less hand-holdy (not true, but the tutorials were often printed in the manual instead due to a lack of memory) or somehow more complete (although expansions and microtransactions were a big part of PC and arcade gaming and even Nintendo would charge you for cheats).

But hey, fair enough, if it's a matter of taste, especially in the way the OP presents it, I have no quarrel with it. From that perspective, it's the best time for gaming ever. If you wanted a 2D platformer throughout the PSOne and PS2 generations you were shit out of luck. Now? Even ignoring the likes of Super Meat Boy, Fez, Limbo and all the retro-inspired indies, even Capcom made two NES-like Megaman games (three, if you count SF x MM). On the PC you can go play Legend of Grimrock for retro-RPG kicks, but you don't have to, because people are putting out the likes of Etrian Oddyssey even on the 3DS. Point and click adventures are back, both in classic formats and as big blockbusters like Beyond or The Walking Dead.

Yeah, retro gamers are definitely in the best environment they've ever been.

Well to be fair it's not just retro games. Some of the more (relatively) recent large games I bought were Civ 5 and the new X-com cause I lake strategy. And Niche JRPGs which may be put out by larger companies in japan but here could not be considered AAA unless they have Final Fantasy in the name.

But I have no illusions about how good old games were. Probably about the same good/crap ratio as today but kids have terrible quality senses. But some still do hold up game play wise even if there difficulty is way way to hard (Castlevainia and Contra for example).

But I was just thinking about how many of the major releases of the last 5 years I've actually played. I mean I think the last AAA game I bought was Portal 2.

The only real reason I can think of is I don't like 3D unless it's from a far out perspective like "2/3ds" down thing Games like Diablo do.

And sense most AAA games are either 1st person or over the shoulder 3rd person 3D I just can't get into them.

(yes I acknowledge that Portal 2 is first person 3D. It's puzzles and writing managed to out weigh the problems I had with it's perspective.)

 

[BreakfastMan]

I don't really understand your feelings about the matter. I mean, I keep finding stuff to like in the AAA scene and the indie scene (which really doesn't get enough criticism) alike. It might be because I love and play all sorts of games from all over the place, across a broad range of time or because I was a child of the 90's and early 00's, not the 80's. Or it might even be because I didn't really grow up with games as much as you, but I just don't get your opinions. :\

 

[Nazulu]

Yeah, triple AAA games bore the hell out of me just by looking at them. There isn't many catering to me, and those that do are kinda flat or suffer from big flaws. The way they design games is different now, that's for sure.

 

[P.Tsunami]

I dunno, man. I grew up with video games in the 80's like you, but I'm not sure I agree. I think it might be a case of confirmation bias. For a while,I was tempted to say I agree. It does seem like today's AAA-games is a bunch of trash. Then I started thinking about it, and realized there are at least a couple of AAA-titles per year I enjoy.

Remember Sturgeon's Law: 95% of everything is crap. This applies here, too.

I can appreciate a really deep RPG but we havnt had one of those in years

Depending on your definition of "deep", you may quite possibly get that in Project Eternity and/or Torment: Tides of Numenera.

 

[Adon Cabre]

[HEADING=1]too much $ = too much ambition[/HEADING]
Games Like Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed and Final Fantasy have a tendency to feel overstuffed with mechanics, art design and a plethora of ideas that are never really honed or refined; and this is because they're too afraid of not reaching high enough that they don't scale back to more realistic expectations.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnLLpR_fBII]​

[HEADING=2]Shadow of the Colossus[/HEADING]
This is probably the best example I could give. Fumito originally had planned 48 colossi, but the console's limitations drastically the number down. Furthermore, they narrowed down the choices when some colossi seemed to fight like each other or when certain enemies and terrains could not be honed to perfection. Not to mention the grace in movements of some of these colossi, and how they traverse about in the air, in water, or on land.

[HEADING=2]Perfecting a Mechanic[/HEADING]

Riding Agro is one of the best examples of making a simple mechanic epic. Rockstar treated Red Dead Redemption's horses like cars: go from A to B -- but Fumito and Co. went through a lot of effort making the gallop of Agro, the speeds that he uses, and the steering of his movements utterly poetic.

Triple A games today get tons of money and so their creative director feels inclined to throw tons of "new" and "original" mechanics all at once, and they get away with it by calling these tactics RPG elements. But most of them are pretty much busy work.

[HEADING=2]Always Exceptions: Bioshock[/HEADING]

I haven't played Bioshock Infinite, but people complained that there wasn't enough customization of weapons or weapons period; but there is a cost for where Ken Levine and Co. can spend their time -- vivifying the world of Columbia, or expanding your arsenal. An average creative director would do both, and both would suffer; but good directors know what to sacrifice and what to focus on.

Just know your limits.​

 

[Vylox]

x

A good chunk of what people are calling AAA titles, are basically re-hashes of previous games. Let's take the sports games you mention. One of the top selling sports games last year was Madden NFL... thing is, its the same game for the past several years. MLB baseball, basically the same game. The top shooters... sure do play and are (aside from story/plot) copies of the previous iteration. The Pokemon game... don't even get me started (hey I love Pokemon, but IT IT the SAME DAMN game with more bells and whistles or differing plot points)

I'm not looking at this through nostalgia-colored glasses, I expect new games to sort of well.. be new. Not the same game as last years model with a new coat of paint. As for Pokemon, since I breed and battle competitively I don't have much of a choice but to buy a new version every other release.

I won't go into other points, but that's because there are usually exceptions to the rules ;>

Granted there are some gems out there, but not all of the games on the top 10 lists are AAA style productions.

 

[Reaper195]

When the last quarter of the year rolled around, I used to get excited about five or so years ago. Last year, the only games I was interested (AAA games, of course) in were Halo 4, Far Cry 3 and Ass Creed 3. And Ass Creed 3 brutally anal raped the entire AC series. 4 will have to be pretty damn fantastic and actually good for me to like. And also have more/decent stuff set in the present/future.

This year, even as a whole, the only games I'm looking forward to are GTA V and the South Park game. Nothing else has yet to seem distinct enough to grab my attention.

 

[floppylobster]

Can I just say that AAA is one of the stupidest terms I've seen from any industry in quite some time (even though it's been around for a while and Blockbuster is also no longer relevant).

I remember when it came about - game publishers where constantly trying to push more and more crap on to distributors and they would send sale sheets with the games listed as A titles, B titles and C titles. When they realized people stopped stocking C titles they shifted to A titles, AA titles, AA+ and AAA. It became like a parody of Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo X phase. Anyway, the term is ridiculous.

So tell me triple A game makers, what's the difference between you and a AA game maker? Is it that you spent more money making yours? That should not warrant the moniker AAA. If you're going that route then we should just rate games as $, $$, or $$$. Then we know how much money you threw at marketing your piece of crap.

 

[Frankster]

Im from a slightly later gaming generation (super nintendo/megadrive with the "golden age of gaming" for me being the playstation era) but feel that way about most modern games tbh xD

This is due to my tastes, ive always been strategy/simulation oriented with a dash of rpg and haven't enjoyed how fps and shooters have become so dominant this generation or in particular amongst AAA games, or at least i get the impression it is.