Anyone else feel like AAA games aren't really living up to their potential?
The most recent AAA game was TLOU2, which spent $100M to be a hallway stealth game where you take on 2-3 enemies at a time, what part of it warranted the processing and budget that couldn't be done on the PS1?
Games are more expensive to make now with growing demands for better graphics and more realism. A 2D RPG from 1996 has more features than a RPG made in the current year
tlou2 is the best tps since vanquish though
Well TLOU2 has incredible level design, really amazing graphics. Sound is also good same with atmosphere. Only thing it didn‘t nail was the story and characters. Otherwise AAA games are living up their potential, but tlou2 is too long.
this is such a bulshit excuse
video games are also making more money than they ever did
Level design isn't really hardware bound or budget dependent, and most of what I've seen of it looks like a basic Tomb Raider type of layout. Are devs really spending 100x more on games just to make prettier graphics?
this reminds me that DIshonored 2 was probably the last game that impressed me with its graphics and visual design
>Level design isn't really hardware bound or budget dependent
it definitely is since they had to settle with mostly corridors in tlou1. AI as well.
>most of what I've seen
so you havent played it then
Modern vidya AAA companies are literally the:
>Have you tries spending less on X?
>"no"
But they damn well know what they're doing and won't settle for less because they're still convinced infinite growth is possible.
I hate hearing people repeat the "games are more expensive to make excuse" you see tons of indie games that are able to make great fucking experiences off a budget of nothing. the issue isnt the price, its a game design issue. its the fact that nobody in charge of the big projects gives a shit about making a good game. AAA games arnt shit because they arnt being given enough money, theyre shit because the people making them want the most money possible for the least effort possible.
This is Dishonored 2? Dishonored 1 was team fortress 2 graphics that's a serious upgrade dang
I agree partially with you, all Nintendo AAA games have been colossal failures unlike TLOU2
You could literally remake the entirety of TLOU2 for the PS1 if you lowered the graphics enough
Currently trying to get through Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. This shit is horrible, nothing like the past games.
Metro Exodus felt like an AAA game though it had probably the 10% of the budget of most AAA games and was fucking killed by the publisher.
Half Life Alyx chads win again
Embrace the future poorfags
you could make the entirety of any game on the atari 2600 if you lowered the graphics enough, whats your point?
Yeah, it also has mediocre gameplay and story while blowing three times the budget of some games just in mocap, graphics and specially marketing.
Is it really necessary? Can't we have properly divided budget and focus on the actual game?
AAAs have been a joke for years now. Only indies are actually innovative in mechanical gameplay. AAAs are compromised at heart by being designed for selling to the lowest common denominator.
if a AAA company spent a large budget on a new game but LIMITED the graphics to that of a late ps2 games there would be such an amazingly big world full with unique assets.
300 npc battles? no problem. Extremely complex mechanics? no problem
if you disagree you are a graphics fag and are ruining games
imagine if cyber punk was amazingly detailed (good textures and lots of unique props) in a hyper crammed city, with modern game play and it just looked like a great ps2 game.
they had to get the entire video game voice actor ensemble and directing them to mumble all their lines took a lot of effort and time
no you couldnt dumb ass, lous2 is 3d and uses 3d spaces.
OP's pic makes me think a game with that exact artstyle down to the smallest detail would look p'cool.
>little timmy sees primitive graphics and doesn't buy gaem
>company tanks
AAA/big budget carries more risk that's why they tend to be safe
you guys realize 50% of the budget is embezzled either by a good con-director/Lead devs, or lazy ass artists who make one polygon a day. Just look at textures in pokemon that are easily replaced by a fan texture or that final fantasy 15 clone made by one guy (Lost Soul Aside). They are NOT living up to potential.
>pokemon
>AAA
lol
I understand why :) I just want to point the idea into the ether.
It would solve every problem with game development, and gamings awful stagnation (focusing on graphics instead of creating more breadth in game play)
A game that costs that much needs to be a guaanteed return on ivestment, so it will always be played safe.
For actual new ideas and style you need AA and indie.
Youndon't even nees to go that low.
AC games were good at putting lots of NOCs on screen, the serious engine can handle thousands.
Just don't try to have the console at max all the time. Lightning, VFX and animation will carry your game way further that graphics ever will. And no, just using mocap isn't a good way to animate.
That level design is not hardware dependent? Did you read the reply chain?
Apparently I forgot how to type.
its not
what game? looks cute
DOESNT TAKE FROM THE FACT THAT THE POKEMON COMPANY PAID ALOT FOR A FUCKING LOW QUALITY GAME
if AAA devs set out to make a game using Vanquish as its goal in graphic fidelity it could be a massive open world crammed with details, unique npcs (way easier to model) with 200 different combat moves
instead we need to put graphics on max non stop
it's not, it just has similar vibes
but yeah, Dishonored 2 looks amazing imo
sorry i'm not on my desktop so i can't post screens
suffice to say it was the last game that made me obsessively grab screenshots simply because it looks nice
80% of that budget went into marketing and actors.
dont blame triple A companies blame the fags that continue to buy the shit and give money for mirco-transactions on top off that
theyre just wanting to max profits and retards are letting them get away with it
I assumed it was concept art
I think level design is graphic dependend and that's why it's getting sacrifies for realism, i recently replayed deus ex and i was like "man those maps are awesome but if they were realistic they would be weird af", back then you just had plain textures to differentiate wall A from wall B, now if you are to make something like that you have to put a shitton of details to make it plausible, if someone remade reus ex 1:1 with photo realistic graphic everything would look out of place
Anyone tried the new genesis overhaul mod? People say it's like Kenshi 1.5.
Also are there any mods that add new landmass? Is it even possible to do in the editor?
I'm a 3d character artist in the industry and the issue is that genuinely speaking the process is too difficult to manage for any development studio unless they are willing to change a lot, which they aren't. Executives and marketing are used to pretty big cuts specifically because it is believed that with a project this expensive the chances of success must be maximized through ways that can be controlled much easier than the actual quality of the game, that is how we get marketing budgets this big.
There is also another issue, making art that is as detailed as art in TLOU2 takes a shit ton of time, a single zombie from concept to zsculpt to texturing to final mesh can take more than a week realistically speaking considering all of the revisions, this process already involves at least three people. Because of this you get a bizarre situation where a single frame of the game, as in all of the assets you see in a scene can cost around 50 THOUSAND USD. There are only two solutions, to this, either we automate through photogrammetry and procedural assets or we decrease the demand in realism.
The biggest issue is that these two solutions are only benefital for the artist because they make their life bearable without having to do insane crunches, but they still don't solve the issue for consumers since most development studios would not decrease their budgets even if they managed to cut the costs.
AAA gaming is a literal hell.
Tbh I doubt graphics even takes up that big a portion of budgets.
It's mostly shit that doesn't really benefit the game's overall quality, like marketing, celebrity voice actors, support, social media, DRM and maintaining online functionalities. The most expensive games to make are consistently multiplayer games.