How are you feeling about AAA gaming?

[Legend]

Games keep getting bigger and bigger and I'm enjoying them less and less. Even ones I really like like Starfield are so mediocre compared to what I hoped for.

Can't say I'm excited for any AAA game. Horizon 3 could be great if they take it in the right direction but I'm somewhat pessimistic about that right now. Will Guerilla make it deeper and make it really dynamic both in its story and gameplay, or will they just double the "content" and steer the story off a cliff?

[the-pi-guy]

I've written some pretty big posts about it at this point.

I'm excited for whatever the next Naughty Dog, Guerilla Games, Santa Monica, Team Asobi, Bluepoint, From Software, Bethesda, World's Edge games.
I'm interested to see what the next 343, Coalition, Sucker Punch, etc games will be like.
I might not love the next Horizon, but I'm sure it'll be good. I might not have a lot of faith in it being great, but I'm sure it'll be good at least.

But I'm very concerned about the direction that things are heading in.
There's so many practices in the industry that just can't be sustainable long term.

And I think very frustratingly, is that these processes frequently make worse games. Some games frequently feel bloated, and feel like they would have been more enjoyable if they were a little shorter.

[kitler53]

I recently finished tinykin and thought,.. I miss this.  

[nnodley]

Yeah i'm getting very sick of the AAA space thinking that games need to be these monstrosities with 100 hours of content.  And that in itself is lowering  the quality bar because everyone is trying to do the same old open world crud. Give me $50 - $60 singleplayer games that are fairly linear with minimal to no side content and that would be awesome.

I think ND struck a good balance with TLOU part 2 with giving a bit more freedom, but the entire story still bing a very strict linear story.

I don't know if I would consider Banishers a AAA game, but it felt like it got trapped in the need to have more open worlds and a lot of unnecessary content. It made it a real slog to get through. Even though you could just run through the story a lot of the side stuff felt necessary to get the full experience.

[the-pi-guy]

I don't know if I would consider Banishers a AAA game, but it felt like it got trapped in the need to have more open worlds and a lot of unnecessary content. It made it a real slog to get through. Even though you could just run through the story a lot of the side stuff felt necessary to get the full experience.

People on Era were giving Banishers as an example of AA.

I feel like this is a big part of my issue. I feel like a lot of AA games are just less polished AAA games. A lot of them aren't pushing an Uncharted 2 in 2024.

There's so many older experiences like Batman AA, Skyrim, Uncharted that were made by smaller teams by today's standards that are still well regarded. Some of them are being played by more people than the newer games. Starfield is being outplayed by Skyrim.

Why does it feel like there aren't many AA studios trying to make games like those?

[nnodley]

People on Era were giving Banishers as an example of AA.

I feel like this is a big part of my issue. I feel like a lot of AA games are just less polished AAA games. A lot of them aren't pushing an Uncharted 2 in 2024.

There's so many older experiences like Batman AA, Skyrim, Uncharted that were made by smaller teams by today's standards that are still well regarded. Some of them are being played by more people than the newer games. Starfield is being outplayed by Skyrim.

Why does it feel like there aren't many AA studios trying to make games like those?

Yeah its most likely AA in terms of budget, but it tried to feel like a AAA game with how many of those type of games are built now with the focus on content, content, content.

That space of games being similar to the uncharted's, GoW original trilogy, etc. is a void that is just ripe for the taking.  Its obvious those types of games are still very viable to do esepecially if you price them decent compared to new AAA games.  It's a void I desperately would like to fill or help fill.

[Legend]

It's a void I desperately would like to fill or help fill.

Yup that's what I'm doing with Hapax. It's a massive open world but unlike these AAA slogfests, there's nothing to do in it! Game is 10 hours long because that's how long it takes to run to the ship's exit  

[Horizon]

Yeah i'm getting very sick of the AAA space thinking that games need to be these monstrosities with 100 hours of content.  And that in itself is lowering  the quality bar because everyone is trying to do the same old open world crud. Give me $50 - $60 singleplayer games that are fairly linear with minimal to no side content and that would be awesome.

I think ND struck a good balance with TLOU part 2 with giving a bit more freedom, but the entire story still bing a very strict linear story.

I don't know if I would consider Banishers a AAA game, but it felt like it got trapped in the need to have more open worlds and a lot of unnecessary content. It made it a real slog to get through. Even though you could just run through the story a lot of the side stuff felt necessary to get the full experience.

100% agree about Banishers. I thought I would be done by 25 hours but I have 35 hours of content but not finished. The combat and world doesn't have enough depth to be this big. I would much rather a tighter and shorter experience. Surely it would shorten the development time and reduce the cost and improve quality. Pubs fixation on length is becoming grating but I get it as people want their money worth £70.