Tons and tons of awesome indie games coming out every day man. Put your money where your mouth is and go buy some!
That was my earlier point. In the AAA space there really isn't any I can think of beyond the last of us which was five years ago now.
Wolfenstein for example is the brain deadiest of brain dead shooters. Now that isn't necessarily a problem in itself because there is a small group of gamers who want an experience just like that.
But did they buy it for the story? I doubt it, if they did I bet the gameplay was dead boring. Did they buy it for the gameplay? If so the story isn't all that relevant, more of an added bonus and not something to spend 50 million on. Nostalgia? That works, but only once.
Personally I'd play it for the story hoping to tolerate the gameplay just enough to get through it (see neir automata which is 100% a linear game btw as there is only ever one thing worth doing). This kind of works but doesn't have me lining up for a sequel.
Tons and tons of awesome indie games coming out every day man. Put your money where your mouth is and go buy some!
Wolfenstein 2 launched at the end of October. Base game is €60 on Steam (around €50 on retail) and the season pass is €25.
One month later I got the Digital Deluxe version for €30 which has the game and the season pass. No DLC was even released yet at that time.
Publishers are actively making it not worth buying their games at launch, so there will be more people waiting for sales.
It's less a violence thing and more I don't enjoy "IMMERSIVE CAMERA MOVEMENT" and mute or near-mute protagonists. The camera constantly moving around to "simulate" a character's head movement makes me nauseous, and all of Bethesda's first person games love to do that. I never feel like I'm playing a character, I feel like I'm just being jostled around and the discomfort always outweighs the entertainment factor.
Guns also bore me, which is the other half of the equation. "Aim for weak spot, hit kill button" just doesn't really do anything for me.
my man!In the last 30 days alone I've bought Pyre, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Evil Within 2 and Yakuza 0. Make that last 60 days and I can list even more single player titles.
Believe me I'm doing my part. I just don't like corporate mouthpieces telling us what we do or don't want.
I suppose that's a pitfall of trends: since "immersive sims / shock-likes" are more prevalent in the SP sphere, those who can't stand them get left out until trends change again.
So what I'm getting from this is that you don't like video games.
immersive sims are dead on AAA scale
Dishonered 2, Death of the Outsider, DX Mankind Divided, and Prey all failed
In the last 30 days alone I've bought Pyre, Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Evil Within 2 and Yakuza 0. Make that last 60 days and I can list even more single player titles.
Believe me I'm doing my part. I just don't like corporate mouthpieces telling us what we do or don't want.
I wouldn't give up hope completely. There's quite a few immersive sims and IS-likes out or coming out in the indie scene. Consortium and its sequel, Underworld Ascendant, System Shock Remake + SS3, Gone Home, Firewatch, Magic Circle, Tacoma, and there was this art deco immersive sim posted on here a few months back that I can't seem to remember the name of.Yeah, I'm getting that feeling. At least that most of the last batch were great for those who like them. I'll just wait another 15 years or so till they're back in vogue again.
I cited Andromeda because it had a comparable budget to The Witcher 3 and he was referring to EA. LITERALLY all I am saying is money alone doesn't always work out. That is a statement of fact regardless of whether it's a game with circumstances like Andromeda or any other huge title that would up disappointing either critically or commercially, like say, Mankind Divided. You're too focused on Andromeda being the example chosen, rather than the message of "money isn't the only thing that matters". I don't understand where you're going with what you're saying and at this point I'm convinced we're talking about slightly different things, so I'm just going to drop this thread here. Sorry.
I wouldn't give up hope completely. There's quite a few immersive sims and IS-likes out or coming out in the indie scene. Consortium and its sequel, Underworld Ascendant, System Shock Remake + SS3, Gone Home, Firewatch, Magic Circle, Tacoma, and there was this art deco immersive sim posted on here a few months back that I can't seem to remember the name of.
They're still popular and they'll still get made. They just can't sell 15 million copies so AAA has decided they aren't worth making.
This is the horrible future I feared for AAA. I personally look for single player experiences, my last being Assassin's Creed Origins which is great. I don't want every developer diverting resources to a multiplayer experience that might not be fit for the actual game and/or gameplay.
Story based games will have to offer meaningful interaction to stay competitive in this market. That means choice, not replicating popcorn movies with light interactive scripting.
Uncharted 4 I think sold around thatWhat was the last blockbuster 7-10 million seller linear SP game?
The two AAA single player games you listed aren't linear. Amy is specifically referring to stuff like Uncharted - heavily scripted linear games around 10 hours in length.
... which includes service based multiplayer component and mtx...
Magic Circle is flat out amazing. Made by a small team compiled by Jordan Thomas (The Cradle Thief DS, Fort Frolic BS1, Director BS2, Lead Designer Bio Infinite) and is centered around the player as a game tester stuck in a brokedick, devhell game and trying his damnedest to get it finished. The combat is awesome. You hack into enemies and possess them, and via a coding interface can change variables on them to do lots of insane and inventive stuff (removing legs and deagroing enmies just to watch them flail never gets old), and you also can steal abilities from creatures and add them to your variable list to apply /at will/ to other creatures you catpure via setting them to /follow. By mid game you have a small army of firebreathing floating skeletons and dogs with guns for a face wielding lightsabers to do battle with. The level design is really rad too. It features tons of little sequence breaks you can force via "breaking" the game as a tester via various hacks. It's really cool too because often when you do it the "developers" of the "game" you're trying to fix will fly over and ask what the fuck you're doing xDSure but a lot of those are a bit lacking in the gameplay department. I like a walking-sim as much as anyone but most of the draw of the IS genre is gameplay freedom and flexibility in addition to environmental storytelling. A bit hard to do all that on a budget. I'll be sure to check those out though so thanks.
... which includes service based multiplayer component and mtx...
I know you are being flippant but this isn't far from the truth. Games like dishonoured have nothing memorable in terms of character, story or gameplay. Who is the main character of the dishonoured games? Exactly, nobody cares.
No I don't like those games so I don't buy them. Make good ones and I will. This is how we used to do things.
Horizon? I mean we can go around in circles but single player games can and do sell well under the right conditions. God of War seems like it has potential to do quite well. its like saying some multiplayer and MTX games failing to gain traction somehow means the whole system is faulty.
Saying "game doesnt sell X amount of millions so there's no point" just doesn't feel right to me, it feels like its publishers attempting to push that narrative just so they can control purchases better in other venues.
Oh, I agree, I bought some games because streamer shown those off. I saw it was cool at the start, then promptly sopped watching so that I can go experience it by myself.I doubt I'm the majority but it's also made me buy games I had no desire to before because the game looked really cool.
Same but at least for me those are games I would have never bought anyhow if streaming didn't exist.Oh, I agree, I bought some games because streamer shown those off. I saw it was cool at the start, then promptly sopped watching so that I can go experience it by myself.
But I also did the reverse, watched entire playthroughs of game because it just wasn't making me go over the edge to buy it, but yet it was just engaging enough to watch.
I buy them. My problem with videogame stories is that usually they are written by some wanna be producer turned writer and are terrible. The industry needs to start hiring writers with nothing but literature background. True some have good stories. Kojima wrote interesting stories. But most stories and character drama are terrible in games though so I understand why they don't take off.
So it's a conspiracy?
The facts are that linear, single player games sell less, on average, today than they did 5 years ago, and much less than they did 10 years ago.
Many possible reasons for this which can be debated ad naseum. Doesn't change the facts.
Horizon? I mean we can go around in circles but single player games can and do sell well under the right conditions. God of War seems like it has potential to do quite well. its like saying some multiplayer and MTX games failing to gain traction somehow means the whole system is faulty.
Saying "game doesnt sell X amount of millions so there's no point" just doesn't feel right to me, it feels like its publishers attempting to push that narrative just so they can control purchases better in other venues.
Corvo and Emily? Corvo, who in Dishonored 2 is voiced by the same actor as Garrett from Thief 1-3? Next thing you'll be arguing that nobody cares about JC Denton from Deus Ex. And you seriously think there is nothing memorable about Dishonored's gameplay?I know you are being flippant but this isn't far from the truth. Games like dishonoured have nothing memorable in terms of character, story or gameplay. Who is the main character of the dishonoured games? Exactly, nobody cares.
No I don't like those games so I don't buy them. Make good ones and I will. This is how we used to do things.
I wouldn't give up hope completely. There's quite a few immersive sims and IS-likes out or coming out in the indie scene. Consortium and its sequel, Underworld Ascendant, System Shock Remake + SS3, Gone Home, Firewatch, Magic Circle, Tacoma, and there was this art deco immersive sim posted on here a few months back that I can't seem to remember the name of.
They're still popular and they'll still get made. They just can't sell 15 million copies so AAA has decided they aren't worth making.
IM-like
There is nothing about Firewatch or or Gone Home that I would describe as an immersive sim. The gameplay elements that make up that genre are non-existent in these games. Call them walking sims, interactive narrative adventures, or what have you, but you can't call them immersive sims.IM-like
The devs have said they incorporated IM style design philosophies to tell the story and make the game they did. Same with Gone Home and Tacoma, both of which feature straight up Shock level design and storytelling just without combat.
IM-likes are mostly the result of budget constraints. As much as I think Gaynor would have loved to make a game as complete as Minerva's Den, I don't think it was even remotely possible on the budget GH and Tacoma had.
... which includes service based multiplayer component and mtx...
I struggle to think you've played Gone Home then. Gone Home is literally a shock game without combat. The level design and storytelling tropes are straight out of what Gaynor did with Bio2 in Pauper's Drop and in Minerva's Den. Statistics do not an immersive sim make. There's a clear fork in where IMs went, and it started with System Shock 2. System Shock and Thief both argued that the Simulation is what mattered whereas SS2 argued that rig building was more important. Games like STALKER, Far Cry 2, and Gone Home all put their money in the simulation camp. There was quite the fan uproar over System Shock Remake containing statistics for this very reason, afterall.
I struggle to think you've played Gone Home then. Gone Home is literally a shock game without combat. The level design and storytelling tropes are straight out of what Gaynor did with Bio2 in Pauper's Drop and in Minerva's Den. Statistics do not an immersive sim make. There's a clear fork in where IMs went, and it started with System Shock 2. System Shock and Thief both argued that the Simulation is what mattered whereas SS2 argued that rig building was more important. Games like STALKER, Far Cry 2, and Gone Home all put their money in the simulation camp. There was quite the fan uproar over System Shock Remake containing statistics for this very reason, afterall.