# Are AAA games overrated?



## Juub (Jun 25, 2014)

*Are lesser known games underrated?*

Played Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning recently. A fairly fun game. Nothing amazing but it has some good gameplay and tons of replay value. I realized it wasn't any worse than your huge AAA RPG like Mass Effect. This lead me to wonder, are AAA games overrated?

GTA IV for example was lauded by the critics at launch but for the most part was a step backwards from San Andreas. Horrible character models, smaller maps, repetitive missions(chase and kill that guy) and overall little variety.

GTA V again is a great game but is it really significantly better than say Sleeping Dogs? Does it really deserves the 96% all and the rave reviews? This game scores 10/10 in 80% of its reviews but is it this close to be perfect?

Uncharted 2 I find is somewhat a decent game with amazing production value, Hollywood-level acting and beautiful graphics but in terms of gameplay it is rather mediocre. Subpar AI, easy puzzles, lazy level design and overall lackluster gunplay.

I could go on for hours and hours but you get my point. For those who play more of the lesser-known games. Do you find them any worse than the big budget titles out there? Darksiders, Kingdoms of Amalur, Sleeping Dogs, Risen, Metro series and a lot of others are just as good as the big names like Halo, ME or GTA.

Agree? Disagree?

Also, I'm not talking about indie games or low budget games nobody heard about. I'm talking about games that have a decent budget and marketing campaign that just aren't that popular.


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## Platinum (Jun 25, 2014)

Amalur was designed to be a Triple A game just so you know .


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## Juub (Jun 25, 2014)

Platinum said:


> Amalur was designed to be a Triple A game just so you know .



I guess AAA games isn't the term I should have used but it's the closest term I found to give out the feeling of my post.

Amalur certainly had a big budget but its gameplay, graphics and overall feel don't scream AAA to me. Sure, they had Todd McFarlane and R.A. Salvatore but the gameplay felt too polished and complex for your run-off-the-mill big budget title which are usually far more simple.

I digress. Would the terms hyped big-budget or established big budget make sense? My point is mostly that I don't find the big sellers any better than the lesser-known games who fail to break the million mark or achieve a flagship status.


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## Zaru (Jun 25, 2014)

A strong visual scope (not raw graphical effects), which requires lots of 2d and 3d artists to do lots of work, is usually confined to AAA games with their huge budgets.
Gameplay-wise, you don't need to go AAA to be enjoyable. It can actually be confining because certain visual expectations are set that require cuts in other areas.


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## Furious George (Jun 25, 2014)

*Are AAA games overrated?*

A very general question for an industry that is fucking huge and frothing out the mouth with different opinions and different standards. 

Some AAA games I feel are overrated and others I feel deserve every ounce of the praise and money they generate. 

When does something become "overrated"? Who decides that? Is something overrated the moment someone says its great when you think its only okay? Or is it more objective than that?

I dunno, where the fuck is this thread supposed to go other than a slow shit-throwing fest?


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## Juub (Jun 25, 2014)

Furious George said:


> *Are AAA games overrated?*
> 
> A very general question for an industry that is fucking huge and frothing out the mouth with different opinions and different standards.
> 
> ...


The question wasn't really formulated properly. The topic isn't really about AAA games so much as it is about lesser known games.


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## Furious George (Jun 25, 2014)

Juub said:


> The question wasn't really formulated properly. The topic isn't really about AAA games so much as it is about lesser known games.



Even still, your questions are too general and rigid (are lesser known games worse or better than AAA games?) for an industry that is so full of different preferences and so vast a pool of variables. 

My answer would be similar...* there are times low-budget games are a better value than AAA, and there are times when that isn't the case at all.
*
I don't see how anyone can give an answer different to this one if they are being honest with themselves (i.e., not hating super popular things because they're super popular) and/or have played many different type of games on both ends of the spectrum... but knowing this section they probably will, hence my foreseeing this turning into a mess.


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jun 25, 2014)

Uncharted to me has always been a game with little soul. Always felt like focus tested Indiana Jones with amusing characters. The gameplay is stale and the driving force behind the game is rollercoaster style set pieces that string together a B-grade movie plot.

And the franchise is now tired and beleaguered like Drake is in Uncharted 4 haha ( and Indiana Jones 4!!)

I think this is a very good example of the difference between older games and the games of now 

What games lack these days is a sense of refinement and craftsmanship you get from a group of people who put their heart and soul into the product. Like how Megaman was first made


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## St. YatōKiri_Kilgharrah (Jun 25, 2014)

Development processes have changed greatly in the industry. These days there is less actual game design going on and more of people just following set templates and diverging very little from it because you have over 2600 people working on one game thats supposed to check off 100 different box ticks to get a metacritic higher than 80

Rather than flawed and personal titles from the likes of crazy people like Phil Fish and HIronobu Sakaguchi


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## Krory (Jun 25, 2014)

>Kingdom's of Amalur
>Complex gameplay

da fuk am i reedin


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## Naruto (Jun 25, 2014)

Juub said:


> it wasn't any worse than Mass Effect





Okay.


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## Millefeuille (Jun 25, 2014)

I could list you numerous non AAA games that surpass AAA games.


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## Krory (Jun 25, 2014)

I think the fact that so many people think it's uncool to like AAA games makes me like some of them even more.


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## Aldric (Jun 25, 2014)

I tend to detest the tone, esthetics and gameplay elements that dominate the current TRIPLE A market as it's quite clearly tailored for american tastes first and foremost and let's face it you guys are subhumans

I'm joking

or am I


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## Violent by Design (Jun 25, 2014)

By nature they are going to be overrated, as they garner the most media attraction, which by association gets most of the gaming community talking about them. 

Kinda like asking if pop music or blockbuster movies are overrated.


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## Buskuv (Jun 25, 2014)

Depends.

There's a lot of inherent backlash to just about every AAA release in recent months.  Check the metacritic scores for games like GTA IV or Watch Dogs or any recent Bioware release.  I don't know who's overrating it if every other person is lamenting and lambasting the AAA gaming market.


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## Canute87 (Jun 25, 2014)

Generally no they aren't overrated.

But some of these developers are seriously misguided with it comes to AAA development because it doesn't give the core element of any game any precedence and that is gameplay.

When you are people who care more about story and graphics than gameplay something is wrong.


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## Sasaki Kojirō (Jun 25, 2014)

Overrated according to what? A game can be completely underrated and overrated at the same time by the general public.  Every Mario game for example.  

If we're going purely off metacritic then I can point to many games that don't deserve half the praise they get.  Like Little Big Planet is one of the highest rated games of the last generation.  I could pick any platformer I've played in my life at random and it would have better mechanics than that game.  On the other side of the coin there are games in the 70s in metacritic that have been some of my all time favorites.  

I will say the usual AAA title puts far too much emphasis on cutscenes and graphics and not enough on compelling gameplay.

PS- Amalur as good as Mass Effect, nice joke.


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## Inuhanyou (Jun 25, 2014)

your question is much too general, vague and broad to be answered with any semblance of seriousness OP.

I'm just not sure what it is your asking


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## Halcyon (Jun 26, 2014)

I rented KoA. I thought it was mediocre at best, returned it that same week.


Naruto said:


> Okay.


Indeed.

As for the subject, it's not about how much money is put behind the title. I've seen overrated indies just like I've seen overrated AAAs.


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## Bubyrd Ratcatcher (Jun 27, 2014)

Furious George said:


> Some AAA games I feel are overrated and others I feel deserve every ounce of the praise and money they generate.



^ This.
It is based on personal taste.
Some i loved and other i hated for their shallow game play.



Zaru said:


> A strong visual scope (not raw graphical effects), which requires lots of 2d and 3d artists to do lots of work, is usually confined to AAA games with their huge budgets.Gameplay-wise, you don't need to go AAA to be enjoyable. It can actually be confining because certain visual expectations are set that require cuts in other areas.



This should be a problem. The confining to visual expectations.
The_ market idea_ that AAA game = the very best of the gaming company.

Companies are spendind huge amounts of money because they are trying to make an AAA game. Not just a good game anymore, they are trying to be the next blockbuster by the sheer force of graphical impact. And somewhat are forced to do that.
Imo videogame works shouldn't be rated just like a Standard & Poor's stock.

I fear the slow process of disinformation. A future with a rising segregation of the low-budget games in terms of exposure, it would be unjust to be treated in the market just like some B-movies.
Nobody will ever deny the quality of a low budget game, but will the people be able to recognize such games? 

Most probably, i'm just paranoid. After all the indie games are making such a great show of themselves.


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## Muk (Jun 27, 2014)

Naruto said:


> Okay.


if he's comparing it to mass effect 1, sure i'd be on with it. mass effect 2 and onward have a quality that KoA doesn't have ;p


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## Naruto (Jun 27, 2014)

Muk said:


> if he's comparing it to mass effect 1, sure i'd be on with it. mass effect 2 and onward have a quality that KoA doesn't have ;p



Mass Effect 1 is still my favorite Mass Effect


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## Gunners (Jun 27, 2014)

I don't think they are overrated, but I think companies believe too much in their importance. The number one reason to play a game should be its enjoyability; now there are games from the 16 bit era I enjoy far more, than the games of this era, which should tell company's they don't have to swing big with every hit.


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## Zaru (Jun 27, 2014)

Bubyrd Ratcatcher said:


> Most probably, i'm just paranoid. After all the indie games are making such a great show of themselves.



It's kind of fitting that indie games had an immense rise in variety and popularity at the same time as AAA games became more and more expensive. It's like a direct reaction.

What I find most interesting is that the big shift to digital games is what allowed indie games to thrive. Because you could hardly be indie if you wanted to sell retail copies. Publishers controlled that market and technically still do.
Nowadays everyone can self-publish AND reach a wide audience.


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## Buskuv (Jun 27, 2014)

Indie games have their own set of problems, namely a lot of them are mostly poor imitations hoping to cash in on quick buck success of .99 cent games and apps.

And, how many indie games are platformers?

The indie circuit has just as many blithering trend hoppers in it as AAA gaming, but more of a quantity since the games are far more simple.  

Don't get me wrong, as I'm feeling a lot more positive energy towards the indie gaming circuit than anything else right now; however, it's not some bastion of creativity because it's mostly faux-8 bit novelty knock-offs of better games or simply trend cashing budget titles.  Also, fuck 'indie' pixel art games that are no where near as creative or fleshed out as actual 8 and 16 bit games.


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## Deathbringerpt (Jun 27, 2014)

Dr. Biscuit Kardashian said:


> Indie games have their own set of problems, namely a lot of them are mostly poor imitations hoping to cash in on quick buck success of .99 cent games and apps.
> 
> And, how many indie games are platformers?
> 
> ...



Thank God someone finally said it. I didn't feel like being the usual dick in these threads.

The Indie scene is just as filled with overhype, lack of originality and saturation as the Triple A industry and generalizing the bad side of one and the good side of the other is pretty fucking pointless.


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## Zaru (Jun 27, 2014)

Of course the indie scene has a lot of shit going on, but I prefer that to 10+ years ago when the indie scene basically did not exist, at least as far as public awareness and quality went. We had what, Icy Tower? Blip&Blop?

Why the hell did nobody bring out a remake of Blip&Blop, I'd buy that shit. Aside from the blatant copyright issues I mean.


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## Enclave (Jun 27, 2014)

What I would like?  To see Squenix make games that even look as good as their late PS1 and PS2 games but on modern consoles.

Budget would be totally under control, they could handle giving us world maps and the like once again.  Also fucking turn based motherfuckers!  TURN BASED!


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## Shogun439 (Jul 5, 2014)

They are, exceptions prove the rule


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