Super hero movies aren't considered the peak of cinema by anyone and don't get awarded constantly.
The best of the game industry has always been represented by the highest end AAA games.
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I’m mainly interested in AAA games, am I in the minority on ERA?
- Thread starter Mack
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Super hero movies aren't considered the peak of cinema by anyone and don't get awarded constantly.
The best of the game industry has always been represented by the highest end AAA games.
I play all sorts of (modern) games and the average AAA game, Era´s 2019 darling REmake 2 is one, isn´t more or less artistic than the average indie game. Production values are just that. Even someone is giant as Ubi can do small niche things even if those got put on hold for now. EA Originals exist too, i guess.
You haven't spoken with some MCU fans then. Ask them about Scorcese sometime.
Don't you think it's odd that the awards for games come from either the industry itself, which is paid for by the big players, or the periodicals and websites that get paid in advertising by these companies? What incentive is there to award something that isn't a big AAA game nowadays?
I do not have a preference, but I find myself primarily playing AAA games for one reason and one reason only: Limited Time.
I do not have a whole lot of time to dedicate to playing games these days so I tend to go with the "bigger" experiences, but honestly I will play whatever. If I had unlimited time, I would play whatever. Since I do not, it is primarily AAA games with the occasional indie game on the Switch.
I do not have a whole lot of time to dedicate to playing games these days so I tend to go with the "bigger" experiences, but honestly I will play whatever. If I had unlimited time, I would play whatever. Since I do not, it is primarily AAA games with the occasional indie game on the Switch.
I mainly play AAA games and multiplayer shooters. I have to take up sports games to get more mainstream
A lot of my favorite games fall in that weird "2.5 A" (stuff like Souls games, Prey, Control, DMC5) or "Triple Indie"(anything from Outer Wilds to Life is Strange to Kingdom Come) area.
But I feel like I play a healthy mix of everything.
Nothing beats Rockstar in the AAA space, but they're in a position where they don't have to 'play it safe' like a lot of Triple A devs, so you get things as remarkably ambitious as RDR2.
But I feel like I play a healthy mix of everything.
Nothing beats Rockstar in the AAA space, but they're in a position where they don't have to 'play it safe' like a lot of Triple A devs, so you get things as remarkably ambitious as RDR2.
I definitely don't think they're the best the industry has to offer. To me they're usually very safe and bland.
And I think the reason that less smaller games get awards has more to do with the fact that far less people play them, including game critics.
I've seen sites like Giant Bomb decide GOTY and while smaller games may have one person in the group championing them, the rest of the office hasn't touched them at all. So it's very hard for one person out of a group of ten to convince everyone else that a game none of them has played is worthy of GOTY. The games that end up winning are the ones that everyone has played and everyone considers to be decent. They might let a smaller game get an award in a different category provided the person pushing it is passionate enough, but they sure as hell won't vote for it as GOTY.
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I'd say it's about 50/50 at this point. I used to be way more of a AAA primarily kind of guy, but the Switch has made me get into more indie stuff lately.
I see so many people say the bolded but personally I think we are swimming in stuff that isn't like that.
I play mostly AAA games, but don't discriminate against a good indie game or smaller budget game.
The Witness, Inside, The Talos Principle, Into the Breach, SOMA, Pillars of Eternity 2, Divinity OS2, and Disco Elysium are among the best games released this gen.
The Witness, Inside, The Talos Principle, Into the Breach, SOMA, Pillars of Eternity 2, Divinity OS2, and Disco Elysium are among the best games released this gen.
AAA games are good if I don't play too many one after the other. I think it's because they're all the same and none of them take the kind of risks that make me enjoy them in a way where I can't stop thinking about them while I'm not playing.That's just for me by the way, I know some people obsess over the slightest details in whatever games they do, but I don't. I get really into the games that a AAA studio would'nt/couldn't try in a million years (until it gets proven as a success, then they copy the mechanic/idea until it is polished to something that doesn't even resemble the original idea).
I think AA makes a pretty happy in between for that as well. Games like Prey, or early Demon's Souls, etc still take those risks, but maybe without the completely left field mechanic that an indie would have. So you really get a best of both worlds master of neither with AA.
So I picked indie. Because in the end, I'm more of a "unique" mechanics/ideas person and that's what indie usually offers in spades.
I think AA makes a pretty happy in between for that as well. Games like Prey, or early Demon's Souls, etc still take those risks, but maybe without the completely left field mechanic that an indie would have. So you really get a best of both worlds master of neither with AA.
So I picked indie. Because in the end, I'm more of a "unique" mechanics/ideas person and that's what indie usually offers in spades.
I've never been interested in triple A games and that dawned on me when I had my Xbox 360 and had the chance to try out a fair amount of them. All of my top games of the years usually just end up being something AA or Indie.
AA, easily for me. I haven't been into AAA games for 12 or 13 years at this point. As for indie titles, I'll play a few here or there.
Mostly indie... I like games with polish (think: Celeste, Hollow Knight, Fantasy Strike), and which get straight to the point.
AAA games can have polish, but I can't stand how they mesh genres and don't exceed in any of them. And I often wonder if my life would have been better if I had just skipped all those cut scenes... and why don't I start doing that today? : P
Currently playing Uncharted 4 because I want to make sure I'm not missing anything fantastic. Now at chapter 19. My brain is hurting from how nonsensical it is!!
AAA games can have polish, but I can't stand how they mesh genres and don't exceed in any of them. And I often wonder if my life would have been better if I had just skipped all those cut scenes... and why don't I start doing that today? : P
Currently playing Uncharted 4 because I want to make sure I'm not missing anything fantastic. Now at chapter 19. My brain is hurting from how nonsensical it is!!
Well AAA games are mostly what's my taste. I like some indies now and then, I remember really enjoying that music plataformer and Thomas was alone for example, but the thing I hate with indies is that you really can only play them once or twice (to me at least), and then it just doesn't do it anymore and you need to find another game and I REALLY can't afford to keep buying games in a short span of time.
To give a better idea of what I mostly play, I've been doing a lot of Far Cry 4, MGSV, DIshonored 2, Spiderman, Doom, Batman Arkham Knight, DMC5 and Nier Automata(this one probably being the most different in the bunch, but I do have some more games). So mostly games you can keep coming back to and focus a lot on great combat/shooting/stealth where you can really choose your own way to approach the gameplay and so offer tons of replay value.
To give a better idea of what I mostly play, I've been doing a lot of Far Cry 4, MGSV, DIshonored 2, Spiderman, Doom, Batman Arkham Knight, DMC5 and Nier Automata(this one probably being the most different in the bunch, but I do have some more games). So mostly games you can keep coming back to and focus a lot on great combat/shooting/stealth where you can really choose your own way to approach the gameplay and so offer tons of replay value.
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Era obviously likes AAA games with all the hype around Death Stranding, Cyberpunk, The Last of Us 2 and FF7Remake. A lot more than indie games too most likely. The OT of the big AAA games usually have a lot more posts than those of indies. There's more threads about those games too. How many Final Fantasy 7 threads have we had now? We have threads when someone developing FF7 says about anything about it. We barely have that with any indies whatsoever. And that's mostly because indies don't really have the marketing or hype behind it that AAA does and as a result is carried mostly by word of mouth.
AAA all the way.
Then AA and Indies. Good thing is I would play absolutely any game in any genre.
Then AA and Indies. Good thing is I would play absolutely any game in any genre.
I think that comparing games and movies in this sense falls a bit flat because in movies a lot of people have to consider the whole "going to the cinema" part of it. Personally, these days I only go to the cinema for movies like super-hero stuff and action movies that feel similar in spectacle. Back at home in my notebook? That's where I'll watch all the other experimental or different stuff.
I don't think there's anything wrong with AAA per se, but they tend to be too stale and samey for my liking nowadays. Some of the best ideas and stories this gen have come out of smaller games (indie or AA).
Yeah I mostly play AAA games. Funds and time limit me from getting many games so mostly get AAA high quality games. Occasionally I can get the highly reviewed indie or AA game
Me too. last indie game I got into was Dead Cells and before that I can't even remember, Tricky Towers maybe.
Nintendo, Sony and MS first party are all AAA and those games are among the most talked about on ERA.
You shouldn't care what is popular but also don't confuse noise for popularity. When the internet gets angry or excited it can get extremely excited and it can mislead you to as to how big of a deal it is if you are only getting feedback from the internet (by the way, never ever do this).
You shouldn't care what is popular but also don't confuse noise for popularity. When the internet gets angry or excited it can get extremely excited and it can mislead you to as to how big of a deal it is if you are only getting feedback from the internet (by the way, never ever do this).
I play basically every type of game from AAA to indie games. When it comes to indie games though, I must admit that I only play the best reviewed ones and the ones that seem to get the most praise( Celeste, Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, Cuphead, Axiom Verge etc.) The indie marketplace is flooded with so much shovelware garbage that It's basically a necessity to weed out the trash by focusing on the games with the most love and praise.
Basically all my favorite games are AAA. I am sad there are so few these days or that then went GaaS...
Right now I am only looking at those tbf. I love experiencing titles of all kinds, but, I have very limited time. And games keep getting massive. I'm still playing BOTW on a regular basis.
Sometimes I can't tell if a game is supposed to be "AAA" or just "AA" with really good art direction. What makes a game AAA or not really just comes down to the budget in the end though doesn't it?
In the typical sense, I don't really care for most "AAA" games. They usually end up looking very nice, but just don't have gameplay that's compelling enough for me to care. Meanwhile, many of the games I do actually enjoy seem to have "pretty good" to serviceable graphics with engaging gameplay, and can actually have aethetics/atmosphere that trumps any downsides to the actual graphics. Now if only I could have my cake and eat it too...
As far as Indie games go though, they aren't my saviour at all. Sometimes I get lucky, but usually I can't stand them. Primarily because I've already played many of these "new" games already decades ago.
In the typical sense, I don't really care for most "AAA" games. They usually end up looking very nice, but just don't have gameplay that's compelling enough for me to care. Meanwhile, many of the games I do actually enjoy seem to have "pretty good" to serviceable graphics with engaging gameplay, and can actually have aethetics/atmosphere that trumps any downsides to the actual graphics. Now if only I could have my cake and eat it too...
As far as Indie games go though, they aren't my saviour at all. Sometimes I get lucky, but usually I can't stand them. Primarily because I've already played many of these "new" games already decades ago.
I tend to see AAA games as products designed to appeal to the mainstream. Nothing wrong with that but I find myself drawn to weird games or titles that explore a particular game mechanic in more depth. Back in 2011 I noticed I was playing more AA and indie games like Bastion, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Terraria, etc.
I mostly play AAA games too but I have lost complete interest with most western AAA publisher/devs like Ubisoft, Activison, Blizzard, Rockstar, EA; I played games from these people last gen very consistently but this gen from the AAA western stuff its just Sony first party and Bethesda sometimes, so I have lost a ton of places from where I get my AAA games due to the direction they have gone. Id say im 60% AAA, 35% AA and 5% indie.
Typically it's things like the overall size/scale, quality of animations, quality of voice acting, quality of cutscene cinematography, density of unique assets etc. These are the first things that are usually gimped when a developers have more limited time/money.
Again it's genre dependent too, not all types of games have money and resources out into the same thing.
AAA games are 9 out of 10 times also open world games and open world games are way too long for me most of the time. A couple years back I probably would've said AAA games are my focus but I've spent most of my time this year playing games that are easy to get into and fighting games.
AAA gaming has strayed so far away from what I want in video games that I mainly play indie and AA or mid-tier games. The very occasional AAA game does take my interest, but I refuse to give any money to most AAA public nowadays because of the business practices they have adopted.
Part of the reason I love the Switch is because it's great for the type of games I want to play the most today.
Part of the reason I love the Switch is because it's great for the type of games I want to play the most today.
I don't think AAA games have always been like that. You only need to go back 10 years and the amount of variety in AAA gaming was much greater than it is today. Most AAA games released now are released with lootboxes and micro transactions in mind, which is why they are very grindy and that has lead to them being derivative.
But compare AAA gaming today to what it was in the past. It's mainly open world games, first person shooters and driving games, with the occasional RPG here and there. And that's it. Gone are the days where genres like horror, strategy and platforming were represented in the AAA space.