One of my favorite games is Egosoft's X3. Their next game, X: Reunion, has so many bugs that they almost cover up the abysmal design decisions underneath. Followed in turn by X4, which is mostly about proving true the concept that if you adjust expectations low enough, anything can seem like a success. There is no studio that is so fantastic that their next game can't be trash, even if all they're really doing is making the same game over and over.
AAA development turned to shit at roughly the same time that DIE became entrenched within the industry. Turns out that when you pay hundreds of useless people to contribute nothing to your product, it ends up being shit.
With all these highly praised studios turning out unpolished turds this year, it doesn't bode well for Bethesda and Starfield, among many others in the list.
The fact that a game can launch and be playable on release date is now applauded as a good thing. That used to be the bare minimum.
If anything, it's an especially bad omen for Starfield. Bethesda has been getting steadily worse for over twenty years now, with zero signs of even trying to improve how they make games. Starfield is guaranteed to be shit.
Yeah, if you stick to AAA and well-known studios you're going to have a bad time. A less bad time than looking through indie and other small developer games, but also a lot less to play. I haven't bought a AAA game since 2020, going by my steam library.
Do they actually play them on the regular after one playthrough? I doubt it.
I don't think most story-based RPGs have much replayability to them. It's like rereading a book immediately after finishing it. Maybe a good book might be fun to pick up on subtle hints the 2nd time, but we don't get RPGs with stories like that these days. Has there even been a good story-based RPG lately? I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Honestly the HP game specifically sounds absolutely horrible to play a first time, let alone a second. Maybe if you really enjoy exploration a lot it might be fine, but it's just copy-paste tasks over and over and over again. I imagine even the most hardcore HP enjoyers are going to get bored.
I don't think I've bought a re-release game in over a decade. They've gotten so incredibly lazy about it. Definitely always look for the original these days, and leave the re-release as a last resort for if a game is significantly improved or is otherwise nigh impossible to find. But I don't think you ore I are the target audience here. I think normies are the driving force of these kinds of games. They don't want to play some old game with "bad" graphics or have to hunt down some hardware / emulate, so companies can make a quick fortune selling to them with AI upscaled graphics or something that runs on their phone.
I think the entire game market is going to have to crash before there's any hope of it getting better.
And it's from a German Studio too, from fucking Daedalic - The guys behind Deponia.
Arkane Austin released Redfall after Prey and Daedalic like "Hold my Beer"
Hundreds of thousands in government funding went into this shit.
One of my favorite games is Egosoft's X3. Their next game, X: Reunion, has so many bugs that they almost cover up the abysmal design decisions underneath. Followed in turn by X4, which is mostly about proving true the concept that if you adjust expectations low enough, anything can seem like a success. There is no studio that is so fantastic that their next game can't be trash, even if all they're really doing is making the same game over and over.
An excellent game. But it's also 2D point-and-click adventure game, not whatever the fuck Gollum is
AAA development turned to shit at roughly the same time that DIE became entrenched within the industry. Turns out that when you pay hundreds of useless people to contribute nothing to your product, it ends up being shit.
With all these highly praised studios turning out unpolished turds this year, it doesn't bode well for Bethesda and Starfield, among many others in the list.
The fact that a game can launch and be playable on release date is now applauded as a good thing. That used to be the bare minimum.
If anything, it's an especially bad omen for Starfield. Bethesda has been getting steadily worse for over twenty years now, with zero signs of even trying to improve how they make games. Starfield is guaranteed to be shit.
IMO there's still decent games, but good god do you have to wade through an ocean of shit to find them.
Most of the games I play these days are 5+ years old.
There’s like, two maybe three AAA games released a year that even live up to expectations. It’s great for saving money though.
Yeah, if you stick to AAA and well-known studios you're going to have a bad time. A less bad time than looking through indie and other small developer games, but also a lot less to play. I haven't bought a AAA game since 2020, going by my steam library.
I don't think most story-based RPGs have much replayability to them. It's like rereading a book immediately after finishing it. Maybe a good book might be fun to pick up on subtle hints the 2nd time, but we don't get RPGs with stories like that these days. Has there even been a good story-based RPG lately? I can't think of any off the top of my head.
Honestly the HP game specifically sounds absolutely horrible to play a first time, let alone a second. Maybe if you really enjoy exploration a lot it might be fine, but it's just copy-paste tasks over and over and over again. I imagine even the most hardcore HP enjoyers are going to get bored.
I don't think I've bought a re-release game in over a decade. They've gotten so incredibly lazy about it. Definitely always look for the original these days, and leave the re-release as a last resort for if a game is significantly improved or is otherwise nigh impossible to find. But I don't think you ore I are the target audience here. I think normies are the driving force of these kinds of games. They don't want to play some old game with "bad" graphics or have to hunt down some hardware / emulate, so companies can make a quick fortune selling to them with AI upscaled graphics or something that runs on their phone.
I think the entire game market is going to have to crash before there's any hope of it getting better.