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AAA Games- Looking Ahead


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You've gamed for decades now and seen it all come and go. So like myself, I guess most have had this convo with friends to determine kinda where we've been with the industry and modding and where we're headed. The general consensus so far seems to be that both are diminished and heading downhill fast.

 

I'll hit some key positive points here in no particular order;

 

The pros of new AAA games

-- Newer games look better/have sharper graphics

-- Newer games generally play better/have better control schemes

-- Newer games generally have a lot more content and/or cover bigger areas

-- Newer games generally are offered across multiple platforms

 

So with all this going for new games, what is it that's missing in your opinion? What do you like/dislike about newer games compared to those of ten or twenty years ago?

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11 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Você joga há décadas e já viu tudo ir e vir. Então, como eu, acho que a maioria teve essa conversa com amigos para determinar onde estamos com a indústria e mods e para onde estamos indo. O consenso geral até agora parece ser que ambos estão diminuindo e descendo rapidamente.

 

Vou abordar alguns pontos positivos importantes aqui em nenhuma ordem específica;

 

Os prós dos novos jogos AAA

-- Jogos mais novos parecem melhores/têm gráficos mais nítidos

-- Jogos mais novos geralmente jogam melhor/têm melhores esquemas de controle

-- Jogos mais novos geralmente têm muito mais conteúdo e/ou cobrem áreas maiores

-- Jogos mais novos geralmente são oferecidos em várias plataformas

 

Então, com tudo isso acontecendo para novos jogos, o que está faltando na sua opinião? O que você gosta/não gosta nos jogos mais novos em comparação com os de dez ou vinte anos atrás?

Eu particularmente, acho os jogos mas antigos , melhores, eles normalmente possuem mas personalidade , são melhores em enredo e visualmente menos poluídos uma vez que os atuais por muitas vezes exageram  em efeitos e elementos que acabam por poluir o visual além de alimenta muito o peso. Acho que certos jogos de tão bom que são poderiam ser infinitos com a ajuda dos molds , serem atualizados , ter novos conteúdos etc.., mas e legal que surjam novos jogos também , acho que a espaço para todos  .

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12 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Newer games look better/have sharper graphics

I take that as a given and not something that is a selling point.

 

13 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Newer games generally play better/have better control schemes

Granted that's it's not always the case but it should be.

 

15 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Newer games generally are offered across multiple platforms

How many platforms does an individual user need?

 

17 minutes ago, KoolHndLuke said:

Newer games generally have a lot more content and/or cover bigger areas

Okay but that depends on the content - more does not necessarily equate to better and bigger areas aren't much use if they are empty. Though usually they aren't empty as such just full of repetitive filler.

Recent example would be Elden Ring which had a huge world but was essentially the same thing - move around fighting everything, take on the boss and move to next area. No plot or story worth the name; no NPCs with any great backstory or sub-quest worth mentioning; no settlements or sense of a culture/civilisation. Nioh 2 was similar in many respects.

 

Most RPGs have been dumbed down to hell for years now. No decent RTS for years.

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Developers afraid to take risks - everything's a homogenous goo these days. Its a rare thing for a AAA game to actually stand out.

 

Thank fuck for indie devs.

 

Oh and games are business models disguised as games rather than focusing on being an actual game first and foremost. Design/fun suffers immensely as a result. 

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Starfield and ES6 are going to be Xbox exclusives? Now I'm wondering what that'll mean for modding. An article about Microsoft's somewhat recent acquisitions;

 

"It's the clearest sign yet that we're in the video game industry's era of consolidation."https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-xbox-activision-blizzard-consolidation-exclusives-222028443.html#:~:text=By February 2019%2C Microsoft had,banner of Xbox Game Studios.&text=And then in September 2020,Arkane Studios and Tango Gameworks.

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I disagree entirely. Most new games (post-2018) have horrible graphics, with color filters washed with purple, yellow or a combination of both, giving it a disgusting appearance. They also have low contrast, that can't be fixed with Reshade presets.

This is happening both with AAA and indie games. And I'm on a TN monitor, with good contrast ratio. In IPS monitors it is even worse (due to the white glow they emit) and you can barely see what the game is trying to represent. Graphics have become literally soap. Even 2d pixelated games from the 90s are looking better. 

 

The only exceptions (post-2018) were Chaosbane, Necromunda and Transport Fever 2, niche games that can't be properly called AAA, but more like AA. Also, the AA market was destroyed in recent years, and there are few games in this range. It is either big corporate studio or small indie developer with few resources. 

Then you have woke agendas being forced down the throat of players, sometimes in games that don't depict the modern world. People play games to escape reality, not the other way around. 

 

Hysterical cat and/or boomercopter freaking out right below this post. 

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My favorite genres are strategy games, open world rpgs and shooters. Hopefully all mixed with some adult elements too. 

Especially in strategy games unfortunately the AI doesn't seem to evolve much.

I think in this field only a moderate improvement would yield the most feeling of progress currently. I might misremember, but i'd say there is not much difference between the AI of an old classic like Master of Orion II or Civilization 1 vs. Civilization 6 or Hearts of Iron IV/Europa Universalis IV. You soon find extremely stupid AI behaviour and have to find a working houserules set for yourself/your group to enjoy the game after your first few hours. Even in MP this consensus is very important for many of these type of games since large parts of the world are inhabited by AIs. You could play Civilization only with human players, but if you play either EU4 or Total War Warhammer 3 in MP in the early and midgame 80% or more of the map are AIs. So if there is no consensus which AI exploits are forbidden playing such a game in MP is troublesome too.

 

Imho it is like with other forms of Art/Entertainment:

 

There are always some classics for each era which are held in high regard. Only problem with games is that the tech is still advancing fast, so they age faster than comparable movies/books/boardgames. But if a proper remake is made every ~20 years only bringing the classic to better tech then they are still as attractive imho. Like i would buy a modern true remake of Master of Orion II instantly.

 

Unfortunately most often those remakes are mainly done as cheap moneygrabs from companies though or they try to stay in the spirit of the classic but "improve" it in a bad way.

 

So my opinion is that overall games still get slightly better thanks to better technical progress but it is a very slow way. And unfortunately games also seem to get bigger and more complex so especially AAA titles seem to end up somewhat unfished unfortunately. Especially creative indy games fortunately often bring new brilliant games too, even influencing AAA games then.

 

I'm still very looking forward to further progress in the game industry, i've played PC games since 1996. The amount of pearls i have found is overall constant i think with about 1-2 games a year which i really love(d). But it can sometimes happen that there is no game that i really like for 2-3 years and then there are like 5 in a single year.

 

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Maybe I'm beating a dead horse here but I feel like monetization needs to be mentioned >.>
We've been seeing the rise of games as a service in the last decade or so, and unfortunately sort of for a good reason. Games that are free to play with microtransactions tend to be more popular and definitely more profitable than those who aren't. I kinda don't see that going away any time soon...  ._.
Then again Elden Ring became immensely popular despite that, perhaps some games studios will wish to try and copy their success?
But mostly my hopes lie with indie games, i'm very skeptical of any new AAA game

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I'll just say that more stuff in games to pick up and carry around is not always better. My obsessive-compulsive disorder compels me to pick it all up regardless if I'll ever use if for a damn thing! And yeah... I'm looking at you Beth. :classic_tongue:

Edited by KoolHndLuke
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19 hours ago, KoolHndLuke said:

You've gamed for decades now and seen it all come and go. So like myself, I guess most have had this convo with friends to determine kinda where we've been with the industry and modding and where we're headed. The general consensus so far seems to be that both are diminished and heading downhill fast.

 

I'll hit some key positive points here in no particular order;

 

The pros of new AAA games

-- Newer games look better/have sharper graphics

-- Newer games generally play better/have better control schemes

-- Newer games generally have a lot more content and/or cover bigger areas

-- Newer games generally are offered across multiple platforms

 

So with all this going for new games, what is it that's missing in your opinion? What do you like/dislike about newer games compared to those of ten or twenty years ago?

analyzing the games of now is a difficult task, because the games reflect the company they are made of. For example, the old EA games ( medal of honor, battlefield, star wars... ) compared to the current ones, in my view, they show the trajectory of the fall of EA, compare the old battlefields with the current ones, in the past we had bots to who doesn't want to play multiplayer and today we don't have bots, as if that wasn't enough in the new battlefield there was no campaign (2142 and bf 5 campaign was bad compared to bf 1). But this fall is in all companies, reasons? policies, lack of creativity, too much greed. Currently, the only famous companies that I say they deliver with ''quality'' are Santa Monica with God Of War, Bethesda with their games (mainly The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchise) and some indie companies like Crate Entertainment (with its grimdawn game) and Eleventh Hour Games (with its Eleventh Hour Games game). So to finish, there was a drop in quality in most companies like EA, Capcom, Ubisoft, Rockstar but there are companies that, even with small mistakes, are still worth their games like Bethesda and we have many indie companies growing like the ones that I mentioned above, the first being a game that was successful and being considered the definitive successor to diablo 2 and the second company presenting a game with high expectations.

 

so what I like about the new games these days:

 

- graphics (I like it but I don't care, I have a high-end pc but it's because I want to have a guarantee that I'll run all current games).
- gameplay (generally they are improved in the following games, although it costs the attention of the developers in other areas that I consider more important as the story).
- bigger maps (they are usually ).
- more content.

 

what I don't like about the new games these days:

 

- microtransaction and I don't need to explain why, do I?, anyone with a single neuron will be against it.
- plot of new games are generally weak.
- unnecessary focus on multiplayer and with that forgets to invest in the campaign.
- big maps but in some games with few things to explore or interesting.
- focus on '' remake '' and remaster but deliver horrible things like resident evil 3 remake and gta trilogy.

 

19 hours ago, HellenaMacedo said:

Eu particularmente, acho os jogos mas antigos , melhores, eles normalmente possuem mas personalidade , são melhores em enredo e visualmente menos poluídos uma vez que os atuais por muitas vezes exageram  em efeitos e elementos que acabam por poluir o visual além de alimenta muito o peso. Acho que certos jogos de tão bom que são poderiam ser infinitos com a ajuda dos molds , serem atualizados , ter novos conteúdos etc.., mas e legal que surjam novos jogos também , acho que a espaço para todos  .

Concordo plenamente, algumas empresas indies fazem jogos incríveis como empresa Red Barrels Studio que lançou outlast, ela era indie e hoje se tornou um nome a ser respeitado no gênero de terror. Skyrim basicamente é um dos jogos infinitos que você mencionou, mods como beyond skyrim são extremamente ambiciosos que até a própria Bethesda compartilhou o trabalho desses caras, de tão foda que está ficando. Enfim, fico feliz em ver um br por aqui, não é atoa que todo mundo diz que os br algum dia vão dominar o mundo xD.

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9 minutes ago, Vampire Hunter said:

in the new battlefield there was no campaign

 

Battlefield was never intended to be played singleplayer.

1942 had a "campaign" where you just play a series of MP battles with bots, Vietnam and BF2 had nothing. 

The first "real" campaign was in bad company ( or bad company 2? ) as far as i remember.

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3 minutes ago, Vader666 said:

 

Battlefield was never intended to be played singleplayer.

1942 had a "campaign" where you just play a series of MP battles with bots, Vietnam and BF2 had nothing. 

The first "real" campaign was in bad company ( or bad company 2? ) as far as i remember.

first: battlefield 1942, vietnam and battlefield 2 all had bots and their number and difficulty could be configured via game or game files.
second: bad company's campaign at the time it launched was praised because EA, so much so that they said that although it's not on the same level as cod at the time, they were doing their best to get it. Battlefield with Campaign are from Bad Company 1 to Battlefield 5.

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24 minutes ago, Vampire Hunter said:

first: battlefield 1942, vietnam and battlefield 2 all had bots and their number and difficulty could be configured via game or game files.

 

Which still isn't a campaign, or is it ?

 

It's just, out of all the bad things EA did/does, emphasising on "the new Battlefield doesn't have a campaign" seems kinda odd to me.

 

 

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1 hour ago, HellenaMacedo said:

sou amante de rpg medieval mas parece que estamos em falta de criadores que saibam da vida em games  desse estilo

bem, se não jogou ainda, eu recomendaria os antigos the elder scrolls, principalmente  o oblivion pois ele tem uma pegada bastante medieval e a triologia the witcher, maioria das pessoas que eu converso apenas jogou o terceiro jogo mas o primeiro e o segundo são muito bons.

 

1 hour ago, Vader666 said:

 

Which still isn't a campaign, or is it ?

 

It's just, out of all the bad things EA did/does, emphasising on "the new Battlefield doesn't have a campaign" seems kinda odd to me.

 

 

actually 1942 have indeed a campaign (although it is mediocre) but when you beat the game with the allies or the axis, a text appears at the end, the vietnam i don't remember if have text or don't but it have campaign / single-player with bots, battlefield 2 every map has summary or justification for that battle is happening and the game it self has a justification why there is war going on and have singleplayer with bots. About the fact that I only mentioned this from EA, it's because I gave as an example of EA their battlefield game because if I were to give my complete opinion of EA the text would be much longer, although I said that I don't like microtransactions and the EA basically is a synonym for microtransaction, casino, lootbox, spreading fakenews as one of ea members said singleplayer is dying. That is, I only gave the example of the battlefield but talking about current EA vs old EA would be a text just about that.

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19 hours ago, Wolfstorm321 said:

I disagree entirely. Most new games (post-2018) have horrible graphics, with color filters washed with purple, yellow or a combination of both, giving it a disgusting appearance. They also have low contrast, that can't be fixed with Reshade presets.

Don't forget the fact that quite a good deal of games these days have adopted TAA as their go to anti-aliasing solution. If you're playing on a 1080p monitor and turn on TAA then it's as if your screen has been covered in vaseline. It's not as bad on 1440p and 4k, but you still lose quite a bit of detail with it on.

Another annoying feature in your average mainstream games these days is the inclusion of Chromatic Aberration as a graphical option. It's not that big of a deal since you can turn it off in just about every game it's in, but still, just the fact that it exists in games tells you quite a bit about the state they're in.

And, of course, you have tons of games where the developers are hellbent on making almost every character disgusting to look at. What are they even thinking?

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43 minutes ago, John of Doe said:

Don't forget the fact that quite a good deal of games these days have adopted TAA as their go to anti-aliasing solution. If you're playing on a 1080p monitor and turn on TAA then it's as if your screen has been covered in vaseline. It's not as bad on 1440p and 4k, but you still lose quite a bit of detail with it on.

Another annoying feature in your average mainstream games these days is the inclusion of Chromatic Aberration as a graphical option. It's not that big of a deal since you can turn it off in just about every game it's in, but still, just the fact that it exists in games tells you quite a bit about the state they're in.

And, of course, you have tons of games where the developers are hellbent on making almost every character disgusting to look at. What are they even thinking?

 

 

You can't anymore. I tested some of these new games and they don't have this option. Now you can only push post-processing to "low" and that's it. This decreases CA, but don't remove it. And it also decreases all the other post-processing stuff.
Some games allowed to turn it off through configuration files, but I don't know if this is possible today. And then, there is this problem with anti-aliasing you described, where the textures looks like soap. 
And the purple filter, well, that's a part of CA. People think it is only the blurred lines, but watch "War and Peace" in YouTube. That movie have natural CA (it is from 1965) and you can notice the purple vignette in many scenes, together with the blurred lines. Not a problem with old movies (they could not avoid it, back then), but with games you are in constant movement, and I get dizzy fast. 

Edited by Wolfstorm321
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2 hours ago, John of Doe said:

you have tons of games where the developers are hellbent on making almost every character disgusting to look at. What are they even thinking?

Or just the pc and every other character looks fine. I can think of a couple of modern games like that.

 

 

Edited by KoolHndLuke
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2 hours ago, Wolfstorm321 said:

 

 

You can't anymore. I tested some of these new games and they don't have this option. Now you can only push post-processing to "low" and that's it. This decreases CA, but don't remove it. And it also decreases all the other post-processing stuff.
Some games allowed to turn it off through configuration files, but I don't know if this is possible today. And then, there is this problem with anti-aliasing you described, where the textures looks like soap. 
And the purple filter, well, that's a part of CA. People think it is only the blurred lines, but watch "War and Peace" in YouTube. That movie have natural CA (it is from 1965) and you can notice the purple vignette in many scenes, together with the blurred lines. Not a problem with old movies (they could not avoid it, back then), but with games you are in constant movement, and I get dizzy fast. 

Can't you tailor settings through your graphics card to override game settings? I've done this for several of my games and have made improvements. I can even adjust color/hue/saturation.

 

 

Edited by KoolHndLuke
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Cons To Modern Gaming

  • Censorship and far left politics ruined gaming
  • Everything is a live service
  • Everything is more expensive
  • NFTs
  • Remakes remasters and reimaginings galore that are usually worse than the original
  • Lack of innovation even from the innovators of the industry
  • False advertisements
  • Half baked broken releases that take years (if even) to be fixed and finished
  • Delays delays and more delays yet the games suck at release anyways
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On 11/09/2022 at 16:41, Vampire Hunter said:

bem, se não jogou ainda, eu recomendaria os antigos the elder scrolls, o oblivion pois ele tem uma pegada bastante medieval e a triologia the witcher, a maioria das pessoas que eu converso apenas jogou o terceiro jogo mas o primeiro e o segundo são muito bons.

 

na verdade 1942 tem sim uma campanha (apesar de ser medíocre) mas quando você vence o jogo com os aliados ou o eixo aparece um texto no final, o vietnam não lembro se tem texto ou não mas tem campanha / single-player com bots, battlefield 2 todo mapa tem resumo ou justificativa para que a batalha está acontecendo e o jogo em si tem uma justificativa para que haja guerra acontecendo e tem singleplayer com bots. Sobre o fato de eu só ter mencionado isso da EA, é porque eu dei como exemplo da EA seu jogo de campo de batalha porque se eu fosse dar minha opinião completa da EA o texto seria muito mais longo, embora eu disse que não gosto microtransações e a EA basicamente é sinônimo de microtransação, cassino, lootbox, espalhando fakenews como um dos membros da ea disse que o singleplayer está morrendo. Aquilo é,

obrigada pela dica, eu realmente não joguei os primeiros , vou experimentar .

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I've played the last AAA game almost a year ago and have ever since not spent a single dime buying into the shitshow that is the modern AAA videogame industry.

The only next big game I look forward to is Baldurs Gate 3 and besides that, I mainly play indie games (only those without big publishers behind them) and old games. I recently bought an old Nintendo 3DS and enjoy the hell out of it.

 

And if I ever feel the need to play an AAA game again, I'll just pirate it. With all the horrible things they do to our society (especially but not limited to get children into gambling addictions), I think it's morally O.K. to pirate everything these assholes produce, especially when the legally obtained versions get taken down or get replaced by inferior versions / bad remakes (Warcraft 3 Reforged comes to mind).

 

Final thought: I hope I'm not breaking a site rule here, it's generally not allowed to discuss pirating on this site, but please forgive me once, I had to made a point here.

Edited by King-Crimson
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On 9/11/2022 at 11:35 PM, KoolHndLuke said:

Can't you tailor settings through your graphics card to override game settings?

Not if you want to make dramatic statements.

 

4 hours ago, King-Crimson said:

With all the horrible things they do to our society (especially but not limited to get children into gambling addictions), I think it's morally O.K. to pirate everything these assholes produce,

Post facto justification. What you are actually doing is operating on exactly the same ethical level that you criticise others for. Two wrongs don't make a right.

Edited by Grey Cloud
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