Does AAA gaming still excite you?

[Rman]

I don't know.  Call me an indie elitist, but I'm not excited by much of the marquee titles on the PS4/XBO.  It seems all the risk tasking and quirkiness has shifted to the indie arena.  Is shooting people the end all be all conceit of this industry?

[Joe Molotov]

Yes.

[Rman]

Yes.

What games specifically? I'm trying to justify my preorders.

[Stoney Mason]

Yes.

[MCD]

I'm tired of indies, actually.

[Rman]

Titanfall is the really only one that looks exciting to me, but that's still ways away.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm tired of indies, actually.

I think I like indies just fine relatively speaking. They just don't make up the meat or majority of my gameplay. I still look more forward to games like Battlefield, TitanFall, GTA, RDR, Borderlands, Fallout, Elder Scrolls, etc, etc, etc.

There are indies that are very good (I love State of Decay to pick one random example among many) and very influential. But for me they are nice side dishes. Not the main course.

[demi]

Yes...? AAA pushes the envelope. You can enjoy being wrapped in your "Unity" powered student wank.

You can enjoy quality indie like DKS Death Maze

[Eel O'Brian]

i liek gaems

[Eel O'Brian]

Seriously, though, as long as they keep pumping out Skyrims and Saint's Rows and Borderlands and Fallouts and Red Deads, I'm good.

[Great Rumbler]

I enjoy the occasional AAA game, sure, but for the past couple of years I've been leaning more and more towards being excited about indie/mid-range games more often than not.

[mjemirzian]

I'm excited when I can pick up last year's AAA games for $10-15 on Steam. $60? Forget about it.

[Rahxephon91]

Yes. I like playing most games.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Yes I am, but not by many. Maybe there is 2 titles a year that I really want but mostly:

I'm excited when I can pick up last year's AAA games for $10-15 on Steam. $60? Forget about it.

Mostly this

[magus]

Kind of bored with uber-safe AAA.  Also bored with Indies.  I want my old mid-tier back plz.

Join the board game revolution when talisman digital edition finaly get out in november!

[Stoney Mason]

I enjoy the occasional AAA game, sure, but for the past couple of years I've been leaning more and more towards being excited about indie/mid-range games more often than not.

My experience when I  generally try indie games is my hit or miss ratio is relatively speaking the exact same as big budget triple AAA titles. Or at least the big budget triple A titles that actually interest me.

I end up trying most of the bigger name indie stuff that people tend to rave over and without naming titles, I generally play them for a day or so and then go okay and move along to never play them again.  Like anything there are a few exceptions to that.

My biggest shift in gaming has been less about Triple A or indie or more about generally sinking more time into the lesser amount of titles that I play. I just play less stuff nowadays. For me there are far too many games that I want to play anyway versus how much time I actually have to play. So perhaps I'm unusual in that regard.

[Positive Touch]

as long as people can take a good game mechanic and design a large variety of scenarios that exploit that mechanic to the fullest than i will continue to enjoy video games

[brob]

I have seen titanfall.

AAA games feel like check lists to me, where they need to be at least X hours, need a story using certain narrative techniques that are popular at the time (half life 2 'not really a cut-scene' cut scenes; exposition written on the walls in blood or poop; choice & consequence;etc), needs to be balanced so that regardless of how you play you are more or less equally powerful and that you don't get locked out of stuff (or if you do, you get locked out of the red path in favor of the blue path), needs to have progression systems like leveling up/upgrading weapons/skills/stats, etc

So a lot of stuff ends up feeling very homogenous even if they feel like they should be different (shooting men in space vs. shooting men in not-iraq). It might also be that I've just grown tired of the stuff I have played before.

but titanfall looks great (srs)

[Rman]

Kind of bored with uber-safe AAA.  Also bored with Indies.  I want my old mid-tier back plz.

Sadly most midtier developers died trying to chase that AAA dollar.

[D3RANG3D]

Indies, Kickstarter, Eurojank future

[headwalk]

i like tens of millions of dollars to be spent making games exactly to my specification and my petulant inner child refuses to accept the realities which make it impossible.

[Steve Contra]

I want mediocre to decent JRPGs back on consoles.  Fuck looking at a goddamn tiny screen for 80 hours.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I want mediocre to decent JRPGs back on consoles.  Fuck looking at a goddamn tiny screen for 80 hours.

Soon, all games will come out on Android and you can simply stream using $35 Chromecast. BEWM.

(if you don't think Chromecast + BlueTooth controller is the future of consoles, you're not paying attention)

[Great Rumbler]

I enjoy the occasional AAA game, sure, but for the past couple of years I've been leaning more and more towards being excited about indie/mid-range games more often than not.

My experience when I  generally try indie games is my hit or miss ratio is relatively speaking the exact same as big budget triple AAA titles. Or at least the big budget triple A titles that actually interest me.

AAA gaming is becoming more and more about the roller coaster action shooter museum ride, which I do enjoy, but it comes at the abandonment of genres that I still really enjoy and which are being supported less and less in favor of sequels to said roller coaster action shooter museum rides. Indie offers me more diversity of genres and more niche appeal that wouldn't even see the light of day with $75 million budget [case in point: the upcoming Wasteland 2, which nearly every major publisher passed on] I'd still list Skyrim as my favorite game of the past few years, though, so it's not like I don't care at all about AAA.

[ToxicAdam]

Yes they do. As long as I can get them for less than 20 dollars.

[headwalk]

I enjoy the occasional AAA game, sure, but for the past couple of years I've been leaning more and more towards being excited about indie/mid-range games more often than not.

My experience when I  generally try indie games is my hit or miss ratio is relatively speaking the exact same as big budget triple AAA titles. Or at least the big budget triple A titles that actually interest me.

AAA gaming is becoming more and more about the roller coaster action shooter museum ride, which I do enjoy, but it comes at the abandonment of genres that I still really enjoy and which are being supported less and less in favor of sequels to said roller coaster action shooter museum rides. Indie offers me more diversity of genres and more niche appeal that wouldn't even see the light of day with $75 million budget [case in point: the upcoming Wasteland 2, which nearly every major publisher passed on] I'd still list Skyrim as my favorite game of the past few years, though, so it's not like I don't care at all about AAA.

i think this is why titanfall is resonating. it's like some mechanically driven kickstarter concept accidentally had the wealth of a small nation dumped on top of it.

[Steve Contra]

I enjoy the occasional AAA game, sure, but for the past couple of years I've been leaning more and more towards being excited about indie/mid-range games more often than not.

My experience when I  generally try indie games is my hit or miss ratio is relatively speaking the exact same as big budget triple AAA titles. Or at least the big budget triple A titles that actually interest me.

AAA gaming is becoming more and more about the roller coaster action shooter museum ride, which I do enjoy, but it comes at the abandonment of genres that I still really enjoy and which are being supported less and less in favor of sequels to said roller coaster action shooter museum rides. Indie offers me more diversity of genres and more niche appeal that wouldn't even see the light of day with $75 million budget [case in point: the upcoming Wasteland 2, which nearly every major publisher passed on] I'd still list Skyrim as my favorite game of the past few years, though, so it's not like I don't care at all about AAA.

i think this is why titanfall is resonating. it's like some mechanically driven kickstarter concept accidentally had the wealth of a small nation dumped on top of it.

Yeah I mean...wait

[Human Snorenado]

I like good games, period.  I could give a fuck if I'm playing Skyrim or Binding of Isaac.  Is it well done, does it hold my attention, is it fucking FUN?  I've had lots of fun with big, AAA releases the past few years- Skyrim, Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, etc.  I've had a different kind of fun with smaller games like Faster Than Light, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (not really "indie" but different than AAA imo) etc.  Quality games are still getting made and that's all I care about.  What I don't understand are you guys who buy and play fucking anything, aka "Sceneman Disease."  Just stahp.  Seriously, stahp.

[cool breeze]

I feel the same way about AAA and indie games.  I felt the same way about Dead Space 3 and Thomas Was Alone.

[etiolate]

I care that the title in question looks interesting. Many AAA titles feel tired to me. I do play more indie types, but that's because they cater to my tastes a bit more. (If you want a metroid experience these days, you have to go indie.) However, anything that looks interesting will have my attention.

Reall...  AAA means nothing as a term other than budget size. High production values aren't going to tell me if the game is going to be memorable or not.

[Eel O'Brian]

I want mediocre to decent JRPGs back on consoles.  Fuck looking at a goddamn tiny screen for 80 hours.

Soon, all games will come out on Android and you can simply stream using $35 Chromecast. BEWM.

(if you don't think Chromecast + BlueTooth controller is the future of consoles, you're not paying attention)

Yeah, between that and iOS 7 controller support, sad faces at the hardware houses incoming

[recursivelyenumerable]

It's just not enough a's for me anymore.

[Steve Contra]

It's just not enough a's for me anymore.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_amicale_des_amateurs_d'andouillette_authentique

[Sho Nuff]

Tomb Raider broke me. I hate everything....EVERYTHING

[tiesto]

I'm less sick of indie than AAA, but it depends on the indie... gameplay-driven indies, hell yeah! Artsy-fartsy nongame indies, fuck no.

[Steve Contra]

I'm down to about 3-4 games games per year I don't even bother finishing these days.  So I guess nothing really excites me.

[The Sceneman]

I like good games, period.  I could give a fuck if I'm playing Skyrim or Binding of Isaac.  Is it well done, does it hold my attention, is it fucking FUN?  I've had lots of fun with big, AAA releases the past few years- Skyrim, Diablo 3, Borderlands 2, etc.  I've had a different kind of fun with smaller games like Faster Than Light, Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon (not really "indie" but different than AAA imo) etc.  Quality games are still getting made and that's all I care about.  What I don't understand are you guys who buy and play fucking anything, aka "Sceneman Disease."  Just stahp.  Seriously, stahp.

IAWTP

Good games is good games.

Not sure where you're coming from with "Sceneman disease", I dare you to name some poopy shit that I've been pimping lately. I've been working REALLY HARD to call a spade a fucking spade lately.

In response to original question, AAA shit makes me groan more than anything these days. Perfect textbook example is Bioshock Infinite, the game basically includes every bullshit design decision that plagues AAA titles:

- "deep" storyline, with high school drama level script
- big arsenal, but with very little variation between weapons
- HUGE emphasis on "rollercoaster" type sequences designed to awe, as opposed to well balanced and satisfying mechanics and flow of play (see also: Tomb Raider)
- rooms with way too many lit candles because OMG atmosphere
- wafer thin RPG-lite elements which simulate "progression" but have virtually no impact on play. These features are designed for babbys and girls, thinking they're actually playing something elaborate, complex, and "geeky"

 

[Himu]

Depends. It can be, not always though. For the most part that answer is no, but there are exceptions.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I've been done with AAA games for half a decade.  B and C level games have appealed to me for the longest time.

[Himu]

One thing is that I do like the occasional AAA hollywood game in the context of titles like Uncharted and Tomb Raider. I'm warming up to multiplayer shooters too. It just really depends and I'm picky towards something appeals to me or not. I'm excited for Beyond for instance, which I admit is probably going against my better judgement.

[cool breeze]

thinking about it, I find the trends for next year genuinely exciting.  half the games from E3 were open world and online.

[Huff]

I think tomb raider was pretty baller. I dislike that there are less games coming out than in the past, but I don't dislike most games. I still think there are plenty of options to keep me happy for a long time. I'm also easy to please

[Stoney Mason]

Hey Stoney - any indie games you genuinely enjoyed? I am very curious.

Depends on what you define as "indie". I would say I definitely love some smaller budget titles but I'm overly a fan of a lot of 2 or 3 man PC indie games of the moment that seem to hit really big.

I love Trials HD and Trials Evolution. I wouldn't call that an indie title but its definitely a smaller budget title than Triple A stuff. I liked State of Decay. I like a lot of Ios games that are simple pleasure time wasters that are limited in scope. And I think that's the issue for me. Nobody over-rates ios games. They judge them generally appropriately relative to their scope and price. But nobody (or no real gamer) would say I'm only into ios games. Those big triple A games are crap.

I still by comparison love big stuff like Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead Redemption more. That's why you buy a 400 or 500 console. You buy it for big stuff. If you get smaller stuff that is awesome along the way then great but I'm not spending that kind of money to get the latest indie platformer that some gaming blog is raving over.

Is there a lack of diversity in big titles relative to years past? Probably although I think with the new payment models, the diversity in gaming at the moment is larger than it has been in the recent past at least. If there is a market for a certain type of game that the market isn't serving then I'm all for people figuring out a way for those markets to be served.

[archnemesis]

I don't play Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed, but I'm still excited about games like The Last of Us, Infamous and Destiny. It's possible to make great games on any budget.

[cool breeze]

"I'm personally suffocating from the lack of creativity and subtlety exhibited during the last few years in Western AAAs," Amaro said.

"A lot of them have become recipes, where a spreadsheet game design is bluntly applied to the environment with little consideration to the actual experience, removing any sense of discovery and magic," he added. "But hey, they sell millions right, so who's to blame?"

 

I read that after watching the new watch dogs gameplay video.  Box quote.

[Himu]

Amaro

[Mr. Gundam]

I like B-tier Japanese gaming.

[Tasty]

I've realized that outside of console warriorship it never really has. As I'm leaving that behind more and more, I've started paying attention to the AAA scene less and less. There's still interesting stuff out there but I don't really pay attention as much as I used to.

In fact I've been increasingly whittling the series I play to ones where I can buy a single game and just play that one for months at a time (MH, AC, Poke.) Combined with that is a desire to play more older games I missed out on. The future can wait while I catch up on the absurd amount of gems from the past.

[Himu]

In fact I've been increasingly whittling the series I play to ones where I can buy a single game and just play that one for months at a time (MH, AC, Poke.)

Where were you in the gta thread last weekend

[Tasty]

There was a GTA thread?

[Trent Dole]

I like B-tier Japanese gaming.

EDF 2025's my most anticipated game at the moment. Maybe they'll have fixesd its issues by the time the western version releases.

[huckleberry]

Give me an ipad and an ios7 bluetooth controller and you can keep all your aaa games....except borderlands.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Halgo where do you live?

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Kentucky I believe

[huckleberry]

Kentucky. Why?

[Cerveza mas fina]

Your avatar.

[huckleberry]

nice and colorful. like it?

[Cerveza mas fina]

Its still a thing here you know.

[bork]

Its still a thing here you know.

Aren't you from Poland?

[Mr. Gundam]

Its still a thing here you know.

Aren't you from Poland?

Lives in Ireland.