I remember growing up playing Nintendo games up and other AAA games until I started watching YT. Particular TB and adjacent YouTubers.
Now-a-days, especially watching most of Summer Games Fest, I feel like I really am not excited about AAA games as I used to be and generally prefer indie games
Think it’s a combination of time, DLC, gamba bs, same game released 7 thousand times and broken games at launch that have mostly turned me away from AAA games. Nintendo, Ubisoft, Blizzard, SquareEnix and others, have further tainted the appreciation I once had for these companies with the level of abuse to their fanbases and even their own employees.
How you all feel about AAA vs Indie games? Which do you prefer, and has this changed for you over time?
A lot of indies quite frankly aren’t polished or fleshed out lol. They’re really hit/miss. They’re budget, they’re diy, they’re often experimental, they’re niche, and that’s great. But only a rare few have that professional level of polish.
I agree with your assessment of modern AAA games though. obvious graphics-pushing and clones of the same mass-appeal shallow gameplay design.
AA-tier games used to be the best of both. They had the AAA-style polish and professionalism, but the indie-style experimenting and niche genres/design. They were allowed to take risks, but also didn’t feel like a DIY project about to fall apart lol or “game dev student’s first game” lol. A lot of the games I end up buying are in this AA range, even though they’re remarkably rare these days. I think some are pushing to be like AAA games and it just ends up hurting them.
Where’s my okami, ddr, katamari, and chibi robo? why do we have to choose between highly experimental low budget no-name indie that looks like minecraft vs blockbusterAAAgame #230123 that’s just a shooter/arpg in open world?