Is it consoles lackluster marketing? Or is the lack of AAA games from major devs?

[dobwal]

Given the pandemic this launch season seems less exciting than previous launches.

Most seems to the lack of actual events like E3 or missteps by Sony or MS marketing their products.

But is it?

Or does it seem like there are a lack of exciting AAA titles on the horizon?

No disrespect to CP2077, Spider-Man, Horizon, Halo or AC:V. But The Division, Watch Dogs, Witcher 3, Destiny, Star Wars Battlefront, Titan Fall, MGS V, Infamous, KZ and others representEd a ton of AAA games to look forward to going into the new gen. While this gen it seem like the bulk of marketing is driven by smaller devs and games.

 

[BRiT]

I don't know. For what it's worth, for the past few years I've been finding I get far more enjoyment out of the smaller titles than I do the huge mega-corp AAA titles. So many hidden gems discovered only because of exposure to them via Game Pass. I do not miss AAA titles because of that.

 

[eastmen]

as a big fan of wrpgs i was really happy with MS's event. So i dunno where the negativity is coming from. I'm not big into most of sonys games so i can't comment much but demon souls could be amazing

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I don't know. For what it's worth, for the past few years I've been finding I get far more enjoyment out of the smaller titles than I do the huge mega-corp AAA titles. So many hidden gems discovered only because of exposure to them via Game Pass. I do not miss AAA titles because of that.

Welcome to the fold, brother.

I've been a huge proponent of smaller indie and AA games for quite a few years now. It's one of the big reasons that Game Pass so excited me. Not just that I'd get to try more indie and AA than I normally budget for, but more importantly that potentially millions of gamers would get introduced to some great indie/AA games that they never would have considering dropping a dime on previously.

----------------------------

As to the topic. With the rising costs (especially in terms of time) of AAA game development, especially if you want to be at or near the forefront of taking graphical advantage of technology advances, we're seeing fewer and fewer AAA games each generation...heck, each year even.

So, that combined with the disappearance of the years most important game showcase event has led to a rather lackluster lead up to the next generation.

I couldn't be bothered to watch each little game showcase/event this summer and so overall it's felt incredibly lackluster compared to previous years.

Regards,
SB

 

[function]

New hardware used to enable radically different experiences. Now it mostly just enables improvements in presentation.

And sometimes a focus on presentation can take away from gameplay (e.g. timing versus realistic animation, micro cutscenes for well animated action vs an ongoing simulation you're constantly making decisions within every few frames).

I have a feeling that smaller games are more tightly focused on the gameplay or making you 'think' (in whatever way they want to), and less on trying to be interactive movies or avenues for a lead developer to hold their own personal sermon on the mount. And Indies can't afford focus groups overseen by corporate. And they can't afford to hire professional "humor consultants".

Tighter gameplay, more personality, and more honesty (or at least less patronising) with whatever they're trying to say.

IMO of course. I don't even play games any more. I look a benchmarks and talk about games on B3D instead.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

just enables improvements in presentation.

And sometimes a focus on presentation can take away from gameplay (e.g. timing versus realistic animation, micro cutscenes for well animated action vs an ongoing simulation you're constantly making decisions within every few frames).

Which is why we need VR

 

[function]

Which is why we need VR

Hey, if any VR system can handle my blind-as-fuck eyes and glasses, I'm in.

Nothing has delivered yet, apart from the Nintendo Virtual Boy, and even that glorious abortion punished everyone with eyes.

I mean, it sent you to stereoscopic hell...

 

[Nisaaru]

I blame the silly notion of not fueling the platform wars. It just feels lacking without emotions spilling over.

Like football without hardcore fans....

Or like the pussified NBA.

 

[eastmen]

Hey, if any VR system can handle my blind-as-fuck eyes and glasses, I'm in.

Nothing has delivered yet, apart from the Nintendo Virtual Boy, and even that glorious abortion punished everyone with eyes.

I mean, it sent you to stereoscopic hell...

why not just do vr lenses ?
https://vr-lens-lab.com/

 

[cheapchips]

The Division, Watch Dogs, Witcher 3, Destiny, Star Wars Battlefront, Titan Fall, MGS V, Infamous, KZ and others representEd a ton of AAA games to look forward to going into the new gen

Have to say that out of those, only The Division and Watch Dogs looked like they could step beyond the interactivity of PS360 environments. They both turned out to have cities with the same old exterior facades and a few special interior bits. Surely PS5XSX|S where we finally have the IO to stream 'real' buildings at last.

 

[Bickle2]

Have to say that out of those, only The Division and Watch Dogs looked like they could step beyond the interactivity of PS360 environments. They both turned out to have cities with the same old exterior facades and a few special interior bits. Surely PS5XSX|S where we finally have the IO to stream 'real' buildings at last.

Call me crazy, but I had zero issue with building variety in either game. The real issue is the time and money it takes to make every building have an interior. One of the biggest laments of FPS campaign designers is that people run past months of work in seconds and never notice. I’ve played both Divisions and can assure you the same thing happens there.

 

[Nisaaru]

Division1 even had more buildings you can explore than Division2 in the normal open world environment. Added a lot to the bleak atmosphere of D1 visiting these apartments.

 

[cheapchips]

Call me crazy, but I had zero issue with building variety in either game. The real issue is the time and money it takes to make every building have an interior. One of the biggest laments of FPS campaign designers is that people run past months of work in seconds and never notice. I’ve played both Divisions and can assure you the same thing happens there.

I might have revisit it, but my overriding impression of The Division was, here's a street, I can go in this building a bit but not any of the others. The rest might as well be the town at the end of Blazing Saddles.

The cost of interiors can be reduced significantly by procedural generation, baked or live. The new consoles have enough CPU to be generating building interiors and enough IO to grabbing a smorgasbord of assets to populate them or load pregenerated rooms.

As you say, bit of a waste for traditional FPS campaigns. Design does need step up make used of all that detail, rather than it just being different layouts of cover.

 

[PSman1700]

I couldn't be bothered to watch each little game showcase/event this summer and so overall it's felt incredibly lackluster compared to previous years.

Agree i think previous console graphics leap was much more intresting. Il never forget MGS2 showcase, people didn't believe it!

 

[dobwal]

I might have revisit it, but my overriding impression of The Division was, here's a street, I can go in this building a bit but not any of the others. The rest might as well be the town at the end of Blazing Saddles.

The cost of interiors can be reduced significantly by procedural generation, baked or live. The new consoles have enough CPU to be generating building interiors and enough IO to grabbing a smorgasbord of assets to populate them or load pregenerated rooms.

As you say, bit of a waste for traditional FPS campaigns. Design does need step up make used of all that detail, rather than it just being different layouts of cover.

They could do this. State of Decay is for the most part like this as I can only recall only one building where you can't enter. But what would it offer? For SOD it made sense because collecting materials was a major part of the game.

But TD looting was driven by NPCs and mostly limited to weapons and armor. SOD looting was driven by the environment as you wouldn't expect mindless zombies commonly rocking ARs, armored knee pads, gloves, holster and chest pieces. LOL

Plus didn't MGSV offer interior on most buildings. Given that SOD and MGSV are from the 360/PS3 era, I don't think its a technical performance issue but rather time and cost issue.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Agree i think previous console graphics leap was much more intresting. Il never forget MGS2 showcase, people didn't believe it!

That's because it wasn't really true. It was a custscene, low res, low framerate, super low color range. Now everyone expects 4K 60 with HDR in gameplay.

 

[cheapchips]

They could do this. State of Decay is for the most part like this as I can only recall only one building where you can't enter. But what would it offer? For SOD it made sense because collecting materials was a major part of the game.

But TD looting was driven by NPCs and mostly limited to weapons and armor. SOD looting was driven by the environment as you wouldn't expect mindless zombies commonly rocking ARs, armored knee pads, gloves, holster and chest pieces. LOL

Plus didn't MGSV offer interior on most buildings. Given that SOD and MGSV are from the 360/PS3 era, I don't think its a technical performance issue but rather time and cost issue.

The games you've mentioned have a very limited variety of buildings and interiors compared to a city. There's really just a few building scattered about. It either helps with streaming or having them in memory.

Cost is an issue but it shouldn't stop the idea of a 'real' city in it's tracks. Paris in AC:Unity has procedurally generated streets. Only a few have interiors but that is an IO constraint. An evolution of that work would lead what I'm asking of city based games. Fast steaming means assets can be mixed up much more, providing more variety for the same production cost.

If I was imagining a Division 3, missions would be proper incursions into a fallen city. Genuine exploration, tracking objectives down through derelict and occupied buildings. Battles spilling in and out of buildings. Extractions like, er, Extraction's extraction.

I'm not knocking the existing games btw. Just picking on them as examples of what city based AAA spaces could offer next gen. If it's just a bit more gloss over the same levels of interaction it's not very exciting.

 

[seahorsesaw]

why not just do vr lenses ?
https://vr-lens-lab.com/

Or better yet, just jack directly into the nervous system/brain with Musk's Neuralink tech. What could go wrong?

 

[eastmen]

Or better yet, just jack directly into the nervous system/brain with Musk's Neuralink tech. What could go wrong?

um they are just the same type of lenses you use in glasses except they are design to fit over the vr lenses ?

 

[seahorsesaw]

I meant the ultimate in virtual escapism will come one day from Matrix style artificial reality, whether that's through man-made or AI-made technology.