The studios behind those games are already more numerous than the ones you're mentioning, so I don't see how they're exceptions. Seems to me there are just shit big studios and there are good ones, as it goes with most things. It's just that the biggest ones are churning out mediocre games at a ridiculous pace, but that doesn't make them representative of the wider AAA gaming industry.
Gaming Is the Gaming Industry in a Rut?
- Thread starter mariachi-19
- Start date
no they aren’t, they all fall under the umbrella of a parent company like Sony for example. EA doesn’t make games, they have numerous studios that make their games. You’re only seeing what you want to see.
I'm just going to wait for the day somebody decides to make another SSX/Tony Hawks. If they did it right I'm sure they'd be a hit. Sad to think SSX just got dropped like that.
I instantly looked on youtube when I read this comment, full of hope. I'm going to sound picky now but it's not quite what I was hoping for. Probably loads of fun but it's almost like a 'side scroller' like Sonic, if that's the right terminology. The old games the gamera used to be behind the rider with more of a 3d game. Probably sounds picky but thanks for the recommendation anyway mate.
I once had a pc built for gaming but it's long gone. I could imagine PC having a lot more variety these days compared to consoles.
Another great thing about early PlayStation were those magazines you could buy with the demos stuck to the front. I'd play the demos for hours 
One favourite was Future Cop: LAPD where you were basically robots that hunted eachother and fought. Random but fun.
One favourite was Future Cop: LAPD where you were basically robots that hunted eachother and fought. Random but fun.
Have a look at Steep.
Sadly games like SSX, Tony Hawks and even tennis games are very limited. Back in the day games were cheaper to produce and rights were a lot less. So you’d get a lot of gems.
Publishers don’t just think about how many sales they get from games. They wanna know how long they can milk it for in terms of content. That’s probably why SSX and Skate are dead.
Even wrestling games back in the day were amazing. Now the games are shit.
I agree with OP.
I have an Xbox one Switch. Been flicking through the e-shop & store and also in the pre-owned sections of any game store and the games just don't stand out like they used too.
A big problem I find is the prices. I'm in France and even the pre-owned games go for about 45€.
The fact that remastered games like Crash and Crash team racing are so popular, kind of shows the level of games that are available.
I never got in BoTW (i actually found it rubbish & repetitive) & Mario Oddesey was a bit of fun but not special. I recently purchased Syberia 1 & 2 as they were on offer and it starts off interesting but became very stale very quick.
Other than this, I feel games are now just aimed at teens, with a P2W so I can brag at school mentality.
Also, Gaming should NOT be a profession!
I have an Xbox one Switch. Been flicking through the e-shop & store and also in the pre-owned sections of any game store and the games just don't stand out like they used too.
A big problem I find is the prices. I'm in France and even the pre-owned games go for about 45€.
The fact that remastered games like Crash and Crash team racing are so popular, kind of shows the level of games that are available.
I never got in BoTW (i actually found it rubbish & repetitive) & Mario Oddesey was a bit of fun but not special. I recently purchased Syberia 1 & 2 as they were on offer and it starts off interesting but became very stale very quick.
Other than this, I feel games are now just aimed at teens, with a P2W so I can brag at school mentality.
Also, Gaming should NOT be a profession!
Very enjoyable, and impressive scenery. Could be absolutely incredible.
Nah. Top Spin also was great.Virtua Tennis
Can you still buy that?
Steep is a good recommendation too
But tennis games have a problem unlike FIFA where you have to buy the rights of players individually. So probably why Sega and take two haven’t invested much. It’s the same with boxing games. Hence why EA have moved on to UFC games. If you buy UFC games you get all the fighters because UFC basically own all the fighters.
It's all about preferences, no problem mate. This is a modernised version of an old school franchise so that's why I though you might like it. The game always was using that sort of camera and gameplay, that was the main idea and I remember how when I was a kid, they used to make very primitive copies of it even for the first more sophisticated phones, like the Sony Ericsson ones.
The soundtrack is also very nice, you get crazy scenery, a lot of mods and custom made maps but like I said, it's all about what a person prefers in a game. Steep is a great recommendation already made by other posters and there is a skater game called Session that should be coming out later this year, though I'm not sure how successful it would be compared to Tony Hawk.
What type of genre did you use to enjoy the most, sports-related games maybe? Or was it about the gameplay mostly and how the game felt to you, regardless of the topic it covered? I kind of get what you mean by most of your posts, but I feel like the mainstream that is being pushed is clouding your judgement, though I could be wrong. Personally, the only thing that has really pissed me off in recent years is Fortnite - I think that game changed the scenery a lot and not in a good way, giving the chance, money and resources for Epic Games to introduce some very shitty practices so they can exploit the market more for their benefit, whilst lining the pockets of certain publishers even more.
That's a very unfair and even condescending opinion to have. It can be classed as e-sport or part of the entertainment industry, you have no right to judge people who have found a niche and do something that they love for a living. If we talk about competing pros in most modern games, it takes incredible amount of skill, talent, dedication and discipline to reach that level.
It's like saying being a chess player or a poker player should not be a profession. Or snooker, darts. I can go on and on, it's a ridiculous statement.
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Thanks mate, I'll keep an eye out for Session and check the reviews. Has there been any gameplay footage yet?
To be honest, like I said in my original post, I'm going back to when I was a kid really. I still think the same games would get a lot of mileage with me though. But for some reason the extreme sports stuff I've mentioned was a lot of fun, even though I've never been into skateboarding etc, then theres FIFA and Pro Evo, WWF games as they were. The more i think about it, most of the games were pick up and play, arcade type games. Gaming for me has always been something to do with mates now and then. I lost interest for a few years when it all became online, but in the last couple of years I've started playing fifa again.
I've enjoyed games from all different types of genre over the years, GTA, the games I've mentioned above, Fallout, COD etc. I think my original point was that developers only seem to cater to half of what i like to play these days, it just doesn't feel like anybody pushes the niche sports and local co-op games as much.
He said without a hint of irony on a website dedicated to following a group of people who kick a ball as a profession.
Local co op is a bit dead alright. Think theres an element of the big gap in production values kind of putting people off to an extent too. On the PS1 or PS2 (or earlier) there wasn't that much of a variance in production quality. There wasn't many developers using pixel art for instance. While today it varies a lot more with the really high production games with fancy graphics being largely pretty safe and a bit unimaginative. The more interesting, indie stuff doesn't always look that pretty and probably isn't as easy a sell. It doesn't get the wall to wall coverage that Call of Duty 12 or GTA 7 gets either. You probably need to be a bit more engaged to notice them than someone with a casual interest, as they just get crowded out by the yearly updates to the usual suspects.
I remember this conversation from 2005.
FIFA does change though.
The gameplay always differs.
Now, career mode and clubs barely change. If your argument is that, then fair enough.
The gameplay always differs.
Now, career mode and clubs barely change. If your argument is that, then fair enough.
More like none of the best games ever. But I guess it's subjective after all.
I think gaming is a good place to be honest. The last few years has given me The Witcher 3, God of War and Nier Automata, all games that make my top 10 of all time (and in the upper echelons of that too). Then there's the Soulsborne which has been magnificent over the last decade, and a whole lot more in recent times.
Each year there are at least 5-6 great AAA games beside several indie games with loads of potential. If you end the year having about 8-10 great games it's a pretty good ratio and is enough to call it a great year for gaming industry. Of course there will be loads of generic crap. The online shooters and sports games sell, so they will keep producing them.
I don't think you are supposed to have +20 great AAA games a year all honestly.
I don't think you are supposed to have +20 great AAA games a year all honestly.
Of the 10 games I mentioned, 3 were done by Sony studios, 2 by Capcom and 5 by unrelated studios. They don't all fall under parent companies, not even nearly. Good games outside of indie studios aren't the exceptions you claim them to be. You could fill each year playing only good games from non-indie studios and still don't have time to play all of them. Is there a lot of unsinspired and money grabbing crap out there by big studios? Absolutely, but even if you ignore all of those, there's so many great games left each year.
To be fair 2017 and 2018 had some cracking games. Probably the best gaming years since 2007 and 2008 in terms of AAA games.
This year it feels like we in a rut. There’s not really much to look forward to compared to the last few years. Next year could be a decent year.
This year it feels like we in a rut. There’s not really much to look forward to compared to the last few years. Next year could be a decent year.
It really depends what genres you are into, in my opinion. I'm personally dying in wait for two games that are coming out in the next few months and there are always other less significant releases that can be exciting.
And then we met the other issue of personal taste. Whats "good" to you, may not be to others.
The best games I played in the last two years
Spider-Man
Yakuza zero and 6
Nier Automata
God of War
Red Dead Redemption
Horizon
Zelda Botw
Mario Odyssey
Hitman
Mario and the Rabbids
Tetris Effect
Some of these aren’t revolutionary, but they were pretty decent to play. Better than Uncharted and Heavy rain for sure.
Spider-Man
Yakuza zero and 6
Nier Automata
God of War
Red Dead Redemption
Horizon
Zelda Botw
Mario Odyssey
Hitman
Mario and the Rabbids
Tetris Effect
Some of these aren’t revolutionary, but they were pretty decent to play. Better than Uncharted and Heavy rain for sure.
Which games are those?
The new God of War is just incredible.
I wish they did PC releases though, I simply can't afford to get a PS4 and a good enough TV that will do justice to the graphics of these games, on top of having to buy a good enough laptop that supports modern games.Oh well, hopefully my financial situation changes by the time the new one comes out so I can fully experience it.
Doom Eternal and Borderlands 3. Huge fan of both franchises for many years. I'm also looking forward to the remastered version of Warcraft 3 coming out and the Spyro one, as the PC release was delayed.
That speaks for itself, but I don't think that's what we were talking about. It was more about which companies are almost exclusively driven by corporate greed and formulaic, by-the-numbers games to maximise their output, and which companies aren't. You can still appreciate that a game was made in the right way without necessarily enjoying it.
Oh shit, yes! We played that in multiplayer for hours and hours and hours. I had completely forgotten about that one. Good times..Another great thing about early PlayStation were those magazines you could buy with the demos stuck to the front. I'd play the demos for hours
One favourite was Future Cop: LAPD where you were basically robots that hunted eachother and fought. Random but fun.
As an avid pc master race gamer. I just spent 40 quid on mobile games....
The new Fire Emblem game is amazing by the way. If you ignore the annoying dating sim aspects. Well, or not, if you like them of course.
I am not judging and good for anyone and everyone doing it and making money.
My issue is that the fact gaming is a proffesionn has ruined games. EA get a lot of stick and rightly so from casual gamers like myself, who just want to enjoy a Football simulation game, which before UT and e-sports was a great game. Now they ignore all aspects of the game and just focus on UT & it's strong P2W mentality. Good on the pro's for being just that but it is a football game on a console.
The thought of making it pro has also bought about a gaming addiction that really is not healthy (recognised now as a mental condition) because of the grinding requirments of the big games like FIFA or Fortnight.
The online community is also a shitshow now, with abusive messages being received for a winning a game (started back in the COD days and just continued) because this meaans missing a weekly reward or ranking etc.
Comparing FIFA to Pool/Snooker or Darts is not fair on those who are proffesional in those listed.
We have all gone through a weekend league, coming away with a headache for staring at the screen, questionable mental health and a poor thumb (years of goalkeeping has left me with fecked ligaments in both thumbs) but play 13 frames of good level Snooker or Darts comp, plus the training, it is not comparable.
Chess and Poker is different in terms of the lack of physcal requirments and are more comparable with gaming in terms of the mental aspect but there is no luck in Chess compared to that of FIFA or some pre-teen fortnight rage quit.
Come on mate, you can't really be comparing the 2?He said without a hint of irony on a website dedicated to following a group of people who kick a ball as a profession.
I understand pro gamers are more skilled than casual gamers (although watching some pro game highlites, they score the same sweaty goals you would call your mate a knobhead for) but ultimatley it is a games console and nothing more.
This is just my opinion, an opinion shared by some and not others.
People complain about the pay of football players but 13m prize pot for a game console tournament is fine?
So many of my favourites on that list. All it needs is Persona 5.
Why are you talking only about FIFA, when it is easily the worst out of all e-sports out there? I also heavily dislike Fortnite but there is no luck involved in it so the talented players deserve the plaudits they get at the end of the day.
You should broaden your horizon a lot and not just focus on one aspect of this industry, FIFA is literally the worst possible example you could have given. Yes, FIFA is shit now but that is on EA, not on the emergence of e-sports which happened long before this particular football simulator started to take advantage of its' shitty platform.
These are the best e-sports games out there, you can clearly see FIFA is no where near the top and rightfully so. It's also very obvious that it is a multi-million dollar industry, soon to probably be a billion-dollar one, and it provides a livelihood for tens of thousands of people, not just the pros but people who work making the venues, events, reporters on this topic, analysers, commentators, casters and so on.
I don't think pro gamers can be blamed for EA's focus on FUT in Fifa. That's all on the people who continue to pour money into it and we all know EA will always follow the money. Unfortunately, it seems there are plenty of consumers out there who are all too happy to support the utterly fecked up economy of artificial grinds and microtransactions. I personally don't understand it, never will. My first reaction to such a game isn't just to ignore the microtransactions but to never touch the game altogether. The only way to get rid of this shit is if more people would do the same.
The problem is that everything said against e sports was already said about actual sports. I cant tell you the amount of times I watched a teacher crush the dreams of my class mates because sport wasnt a valid choice of career. Some kid spent 6 months in his room just playing games, came down stairs one day and told his parents he had just been signed up to a e sports contract and was now making 40 grand a year. the thing is, I think esports are dumb as well. I dont see the point in watching someone else play a game, Id rather be playing it myself. But, my opinion on that is not shared, as evidenced by the mountains of competitions, youtube personalities and god knows what else. How I view esports today, is no doubt how my teachers and their generation viewed sports way back when. Times change, what was just a pass time is now a multi billion pound industry. So if someone is good enough, I dont see why it shouldnt be pursued as a career seeing as there is money to be made.
So yes, I am comparing the two. Both started life as a passtime, something to be played for fun. Now they arent just that anymore
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Fortnight is number 1 for a reason.
Imagine being 8 years old and growing up with fortnight.
15-20 years ago Closest I can think of is Halo CE.
- Free
- multiplayer online
- shooter
- Team play or solo.
Actually I loved Halo CE so I guess it isn't that much better to live today than 20 years ago
I don't really play games, but this one game called Inside, really captured my imagination. Breathtaking art and sound design, intuitive controls and a great story-line.
Yeah it's number 1 for 8 year olds.
Which is a key demographic for video games.
Was bored waiting for FF8 and Borderlands 3 to come out on the PS4 so I bought A Plague Tale for 25 pounds. Got to be honest, it seems slim pickings in the PS4 section these days.
I think a large part of the problem is that they have business development execs on par with Herbert Hoover. New game prices have remained stagnant at $60US across generations (probably for years longer than they should have), but they react to falling profits by enacting pay-to-win micro-transactions.
They lost touch with the fluid paradigm of gaming.
They lost touch with the fluid paradigm of gaming.
Haven't they crept up from $50 to $60 fairly recently though?
I'm noticing the creep up in prices here. Stuff that might have been £30 before is now £40 and most new games are £50 or £60, especially digitally. Xbox Live sales have been a joke this year, some games discounted still cost more than they would have cost at full price last year or the year before. Then you have the special editions with purely digital content that cost between £70 and £95. They have driven the prices up, either by DLC, microtransactions, premium editions or just plain raising the price of the base game. Some of them try to combine all of the above.
Some of the pricing models are just scary as a consumer. Destiny for example deserves a hell of a lot more flack than it actually got for that pricing model compared to the content it delivered. We're at a bit of a crossroads for pricing I feel.