Jeff writes: "Rarely does a game come around that is so enthralling, so engaging, so utterly awesome that an hour turns into a six-hour marathon. Many shared the experience this weekend as Bethesda's latest, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, came blistering through without reproach and wasted away Sunday. Some out there managed to squeeze 200+ hours of gameplay into three days, playing night-to-day or 72 hours straight. And judging by how immersed I was (time flew this weekend), I can say I agree. I'm almost 20 hours into my adventure, and I still possess the urge to explore this vast land."
Video games -- particularly AAA video games -- have become too expensive to make. The intel from every fly on the wall in every investor's room is there is an increasing level of caution about spending hundreds of millions just to release a single video game. And you can't blame them. Many AAA game budgets mean that you can print hundreds of millions in revenue, and not even turn a profit. If you are an investor, quite frankly, there are many easier ways to make a buck. AAA games have always been expensive to make though, but when did we go from expensive, to too expensive? A decade ago, AAA games were still expensive to make, but fears of "sustainability" didn't keep every CEO up at night. Consumer expectations and demands no doubt play a role in this, but more and more games are also revealing obvious signs of resource mismanagement, evident by development teams and budgets spiraling out of control with sometimes nothing substantial to show for it.
It’s a question that I’ve pondered myself too. How are these developers spending this much money? Also, like the article stated, I cannot tell where it’s even going. Perfect example was used with Starfield and Spiderman 2.
They claim they have to increase prices due to development costs exploding. Okay? Well, I’m finding myself spending less and less money on games than before due to the quality actually going down. With a few recent exceptions games are getting worse.
I thought these newer consoles and game engines are easier-therefore-cheaper to make games than previous ones. What has happened? Was it over hiring after the pandemic, like other tech companies?
I believe that it is due to this unsustainable rise in production costs that more and more companies are looking to AI tools to help ‘lower’ costs.
I genuinely believe it's mismanagement. Why are we seeing an influx of one person or games with a team no bigger than 10 create whole games with little to no budget? Unreal Engine 5 and I'm sure many other engines have plugins that have streamlined to many things you would have had to create and code back in the day.
For instance, before the cull, there were 3000 Devs working on COD alone. I'm a COD player but let's be real, there's been no innovation since 2019s MW. What exactly are those Devs doing? Even more so when so much of the new games are using recycled content
I've stated this in many other articles, but corporate greed, mismanagement and bloat and failing to understand the target audience and misaligned sales expectations as a result are the big reasons for these failures.
You'll see it in the way devs and publishers speak, every sequel needs to be "three times the size" of its predecessor, with hundreds of employees and over-indulgence. Wasted resources on the illusion of scale and scope. Misguided notions that if your budget balloons to three times that of the previous game you'll make three times the sales.
Compare the natural progression of games like Assassin's Creed 1 to 2 or Batman Arkham Asylum to City or Witcher 2 to Witcher 3 or God of War remake to Ragnarok and countless others. How is it that From Software continues to release successful games? Why don't we hear these excuses from Larian? These were games made by developers with a vision, passion and desire to improve their game in meaningful ways.
Then look at Suicide Squad Kill the Franchise and how it bloats well beyond its expected completion date and alienates its audience and middle fingers its purchasing power by wrapping a single player game in GAAS. Look at Starfield compared to Skyrim. Why couldn't Starfield have 5-10 carefully developed worlds with well written stories and focus? Why did it need all this bloat and excess that adds nothing to the quality of the game? How can No Man's Sky succeed where Starfield fails? Look at Mass Effect Andromeda compared to Mass Effect 3. Years of development and millions in cost to produce that mediocre fodder.
The narrative they want you to believe is that game budgets of triple A games are unsustainable, but it's typical corporate rubbish where they create the problem and then charge you more and dilute the quality of their games in favour of monetisation to solve it.
Greed from everyone involved including game reviewers, which are the greedy little goblins that help the lords screw over the gaming landscape.
Replaying Skyrim after 13 years is a reminder of the progress made in western RPGs over the last decade, but also what's been lost.
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
You put into words just how I feel. I work alot but all I wanna do is play this game. It is my favorite gaming experience since fallout 3 and bioshock and will most likely be my favorite game alongside ff7. I am 100 hours in and have easily more than half left. Unlike most games, my desire hasn't faded. I spent 2 hours last night creating and enchanting new armor for my follower and i simply because i wanted to. Then...an hour making potions for money. 3-4hours and i didn't quest at all. My one small gripe is that, unlike fallout 3, items in a chest aren't divided into categories which makes alot of time spent scrolling for my smithing equipment or alchemy equipment.
It's not THAT good, f*cking hell.
I didn't think it was that great either but that's just my opinion. I beat the game and did some exploring and haven't played since. I'm not saying the game wasn't good, but I don't think it's one of my favorite. I didn't really enjoy the combat that much to be honest. I wish it had more of a dark souls feeling to it but that's just my opinion. I'm glad people are enjoying it though.
I just dont like dragons and medievil settings or so i thought till i got into the slavic action of the witcher im really enjoying it i lasted till i got out of prison on oblivion and traded it so ill give skyrim a miss.
If you are not playing the game on Master difficulty, then I can see it being too easy and ultimately maybe boring. I'm level 36 (sword and board, heavy armor type of guy) and still get one shot by an Elder Dragon's fire sometimes....I'm loving it so far!