Do most Western AAA third party kinda suck these days?

GigaBowser

GigaBowser

Banned
It's like we get less games all the time, and the ones we do get are either GaaS, rehashes or broken. Usually broken rehashes.

The best games are actually remasters because gaming used to be better.


EA - self explanatory, barely release anything but yearly sports rehashes and broken Battlefield games

Ubisoft - Samey, stale

Rockstar - Releases a good game every 7 years, all of their talent left

I can't really even think of anyone else. That's how bad it's gotten. Remember all those bangers in the PS360 days?

Give me numerous examples to change my mind my fellow Gafstons.
 
GigaBowser said:
It's like we get less games all the time, and the ones we do get are either GaaS, rehashes or broken. Usually broken rehashes.

The best games are actually remasters because gaming used to be better.


EA - self explanatory, barely release anything but yearly sports rehashes and broken Battlefield games

Ubisoft - Samey, stale

Rockstar - Releases a good game every 7 years, all of their talent left

I can't really even think of anyone else. That's how bad it's gotten. Remember all those bangers in the PS360 days?

Give me numerous examples to change my mind my fellow Gafstons.
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All "aaa" sucks these days.
 
such a click bait thread.

More relevant, do most Japanese games kinda suck these days?

Yes. yes they do.

Even the Japanese think so.


See how that works?
 
V4skunk said:
All "aaa" sucks these days.
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IMO AAA games like Death Stranding, TLOU2, uc4, God of war, Bloodborne, Elden ring etc are the best there is in gaming.
Indie games can be fantastic but are getting harder to find ones that are not about grief...
And AA is dead
 
I personally completely lost interest in them.

98% of games I play are Japanese games both first party and third party.

My biggest reason is, it seems there is huge conflict in interest on what I want out of my games and what western devs like to make. Majority of western devs doing everything they can make their games less "gamey" and more realistic for sake of immersion but I don't play games for realism and I want my games to feel gamey and that's where my conflict with them comes from.
 
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"do things I don't like suck?"

You don't like GaaS games - even though they're immensely popular - so they must suck

You don't like sports games, so they suck

Etc etc

Imagine shoehorning Rockstar into your narrative when their games don't suck. Plus the weird claim that they've lost all their talent
 
rofif said:
IMO AAA games like Death Stranding, TLOU2, uc4, God of war, Bloodborne, Elden ring etc are the best there is in gaming.
Indie games can be fantastic but are getting harder to find ones that are not about grief...
And AA is dead
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Is just a coincidence all except ER are Sony funding games.

You can find good games if you play games out of your conform zone and tailored experience. You just need to be more open minded and explore different games, not to judge them by first hour.
 
Ozriel said:
"do things I don't like suck?"

You don't like GaaS games - even though they're immensely popular - so they must suck

You don't like sports games, so they suck

Etc etc

Imagine shoehorning Rockstar into your narrative when their games don't suck. Plus the weird claim that they've lost all their talent
Click to expand...
The Houser Brothers (creators of GTA) both left.

They make games once every half decade or so.

Both things I said were true.

Name me all the great western third party AAA franchises going at the moment if you disagree.
 
sure-ok.gif
 
EA and Ubisoft are sequel factories, but most of their games that I've played are good enough. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo productions are better than they've ever been so no, I don't agree.
 
I don't think that they suck necessarily, but I do think they lack originality and are too corporatized.
They're treated as product first and everything else second.
They're designed by committee and the power of the actual creative talent is limited.


It's the same with most movies you see, Red Notice is a very recent and good example of this and the sad truth is they make a fuck ton off money.
AAA games are the equivelant of that.
 
When were they good? Things like Dark Souls they are retroactively classified as AAA. All the self-described "experts" would have called from a AA house at best before their games started to consistently shift units now they backdate their opinions of them as AAA.
 
GigaBowser said:
Thread needs less cheeky disagreement gifs and edge lord comments and more names of all the great western third party games I'm missing out on.

xM3NH4F.gif
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I'm sure that you don't need a list of what people consider good western games, you probably already know them and you opened the topic anyway so no amount of list from anyone is gonna convince you otherwise.

A lot of japanese games sucks ass aswell, this is a tired argument dude.
 
pqueue said:
such a click bait thread.

More relevant, do most Japanese games kinda suck these days?

Yes. yes they do.

Even the Japanese think so.


See how that works?
Click to expand...
To be honest it's all down to preference however I will say AAA western games in particular do feel pretty stale at the moment especially when talking about open world games.

Also I think it's important to give credit where it's due Japanese games in the 360/PS3 generation because it was a multiplayer dominated generation fell of a cliff, naturally JP devs were trying to cater to a western audience often resulting in games that didn't really do well nor fun, the only my example I can think of where this is inconsistent is the Dark souls series but there are probably more.

Franchises like final fantasy and resident evil were completely lost and bogus during that generation as they forgot what made them great to begin with while trying to lure more western gamers to there IP.

Fast forward to the present and Japanese devs have by this point done a complete 180 on there philosophy and are back to making quality games all the while AAA western games are making bigger and emptier open world games and making no real progress in innovating in the FPS and sports genre.

TL;DR The last generation was dominated by quality Japanese titles and lacklustre overhyped AAA western flops.
 
Can't think of the last AAA exclusive from a third party that really did it for me. Its all GAAS

Maybe RDR2, even that had disappointing gameplay
 
GymWolf said:
I'm sure that you don't need a list of what people consider good western games, you probably already know them and you opened the topic anyway so no amount of list from anyone is gonna convince you otherwise.

A lot of japanese games sucks ass aswell, this is a tired argument dude.
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Or B) There is no list because it would look incredibly sad.

Which was my point in the OP
 
GigaBowser said:
It's like we get less games all the time, and the ones we do get are either GaaS, rehashes or broken. Usually broken rehashes.

The best games are actually remasters because gaming used to be better.


EA - self explanatory, barely release anything but yearly sports rehashes and broken Battlefield games

Ubisoft - Samey, stale

Rockstar - Releases a good game every 7 years, all of their talent left

I can't really even think of anyone else. That's how bad it's gotten. Remember all those bangers in the PS360 days?

Give me numerous examples to change my mind my fellow Gafstons.
Click to expand...
Wow you must be the first person ever to have thought this. How original.

The answer is no. You're just getting old and cynical and either ignoring the good games or ignoring the good parts of the games that come out.
 
The whole videogame market is gravitating towards Service games. It's just a matter of fact. If you do not like those then yeah, it's shit. And it's not really going to get better. I fully expect even MS and Sony slowly but steadily going down that road in the future. We can bitch about it all we want, but the fact remains that the companies are making an obscene amount of money this way - a lot more money than they do with non Service games.

We're still going to see AAA non Service games in the coming future but I think they are going to get more rare as time goes on.
 
Spaceman292 said:
Wow you must be the first person ever to have thought this. How original.

The answer is no. You're just getting old and cynical and either ignoring the good games or ignoring the good parts of the games that come out.
Click to expand...
Okay, I tried.

I'll just leave the thread to people who seem sensitive about this subject yet refuse to list games.
Bo_Hazem said:
Western AAA studios made the likes of Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and TLOU2. So no.
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They were first party though. I have no problem with Sony's high quality first party games.

The subject here is third parties.
 
Yes, outside of Sony western devs, Rockstar (that release one game each 10 years but) and few others. Most sucks.
 
For me the only third party companies that makes good AAA is square enix ,capcom ,fromsoft.

I know the above are not western, because the only AAA western games that i care about are sony games.

I like story driven games.
 
While quality can often be subjective, I think it's undeniable that the number of AAA titles from western 3rd parties has decreased significantly during the last decade, especially games that aren't some kind of shooter. For example, what was the last great AAA WRPG? Witcher 3, a game from seven years ago? Or Fallout 4, which came out around the same time? Compare that to the PS360 era, where we got two Elder Scrolls games, two Fallout games, the whole Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age 1-3, the return of Deus Ex etc. Though to be fair, a lot of this can probably be blamed on the ballooning costs of AAA game development.

I really hope Starfield will be good, because it looks like we're going to have to wait for TES 6 for a long, long time.
 
Danjin44 said:
I personally completely lost interest in them.

98% of games I play are Japanese games both first party and third party.

My biggest reason is, it seems there is huge conflict in interest on what I want out of my games and what western devs like to make. Majority of western devs doing everything they can make their games less "gamey" and more realistic for sake of immersion but I don't play games for realism and I want my games to feel gamey and that's where my conflict with them comes from.
Click to expand...
My thoughts exactly. Art direction is another factor in my preference for JPN games.
 
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Elysion said:
While quality can often be subjective, I think it's undeniable that the number of AAA titles from western 3rd parties has decreased significantly during the last decade, especially games that aren't some kind of shooter. For example, what was the last great AAA WRPG? Witcher 3, a game from seven years ago? Or Fallout 4, which came out around the same time? Compare that to the PS360 era, where we got two Elder Scrolls games, two Fallout games, the whole Mass Effect trilogy, Dragon Age 1-3, the return of Deus Ex etc. Though to be fair, a lot of this can probably be blamed on the ballooning costs of AAA game development.

I really hope Starfield will be good, because it looks like we're going to have to wait for TES 6 for a long, long time.
Click to expand...

You forgot Dead Space Bioshock and Gears of war, even mirror's edge was awesome even tho it felt a bit rushed, western studios were really on their peak during ps360 era now thinking about it.
 
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This forum seems to rip on western developers and elevates Japanese games like no tomorrow.

I'll take the bait. A lot of japanese games are trash and have mechanics and animations that are from early 2000. Many characters seem to be able to turn on the spot without moving their feet. There are some great Japanese games because your ignoring the rest.

Whilst some Western games are trash and full of Microtransactions, at least the production values, and animation seem to be there. I think Western games can be great... But like any, you need to sort through the trash.
 
Nope they don't suck , a lot of modern days mechanics annoy me though that they have been watered down or are placed in games needlessly, like stealth for example is a complete joke in games now , lets all hide in long grass or skill trees appearing every where.

However id say that because of games costing so much to make, no one really takes game play chances , so it all feels very samey.
 
That's the reality of AAA games - huge costs and long development times, when at the end of the day those games have to make money, huge money, hence the frequent releases of the same old proven formulas, GaaS, or close to decade dev time to release something really big and new, like RDR2 or CP2077.
 
Not really, you just need to play more games.

In 2021 we saw:
  • Riders Republic. Not my cup of tea, butt a terrific game nonetheless.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy. A sleeper hit that surprised most who played it.
  • Age of Empires 4. A revisit to the AOEII formula, but a terrific game. Best single player in the series' history.
  • Hitman III. A terrific finale to the trilogy.
  • Forza Horizon 5. The best open world racer ever made, and a technical showpiece of what's possible on Xbox.
In 2020 we saw:
  • Doom Eternal. The worst opening hours of any AAA shooter I've played, but stick with it - it gets really good.
  • Animal Crossing New Horizons. A fucking sales juggernaut that conquered the world.
  • Half-Life Alyx. The best VR game ever made, and the best Valve's been since Portal 2.
  • Ghosts of Tsushima. By all accounts of the best new IPs of its generation.
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps. A terrific sequel to a terrific game.
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator. The return of the king.
  • Cyberpunk 2077. My GOTY (at least on PC). A hell of a ride.
And heck, those are the just games off the top of my head that I personally know about.

AAA gaming has never been better. What you're running into is likely the pretty steep homogenisation that's happened to many games and genres over the past few years. Something about the games on my list: they're pretty unique, or, at the very least, do something different to other games in its genre. I got pretty tired of the endless glut of third person cinematic action adventure games with open world RPG elements. Unfortunately, that's virtually every Sony first party title, and pretty most of Ubisofts. So, I just play other games from other developers.

If you'd like some recommendations, I'm sure folks would be only too happy to offer up some suggestions.

Edit: removes RE Village and MHR.
 
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ZehDon said:
  • Monster Hunter Rise. More Monster Hunter, polished to perfection.
  • Resident Evil Village. A terrific sequel by all accounts.
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These two are Japanese games last time I checked and this thread is about AAA western games.
 
ZehDon said:
Not really, you just need to play more games.

In 2021 we saw:
  • Riders Republic. Not my cup of tea, butt a terrific game nonetheless.
  • Guardians of the Galaxy. A sleeper hit that surprised most who played it.
  • Age of Empires 4. A revisit to the AOEII formula, but a terrific game. Best single player in the series' history.
  • Hitman III. A terrific finale to the trilogy.
  • Monster Hunter Rise. More Monster Hunter, polished to perfection.
  • Resident Evil Village. A terrific sequel by all accounts.
  • Forza Horizon 5. The best open world racer ever made, and a technical showpiece of what's possible on Xbox.
In 2020 we saw:
  • Doom Eternal. The worst opening hours of any AAA shooter I've played, but stick with it - it gets really good.
  • Animal Crossing New Horizons. A fucking sales juggernaut that conquered the world.
  • Half-Life Alyx. The best VR game ever made, and the best Valve's been since Portal 2.
  • Ghosts of Tsushima. By all accounts of the best new IPs of its generation.
  • Ori and the Will of the Wisps. A terrific sequel to a terrific game.
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator. The return of the king.
  • Cyberpunk 2077. My GOTY (at least on PC). A hell of a ride.
And heck, those are the just games off the top of my head that I personally know about.

AAA gaming has never been better. What you're running into is likely the pretty steep homogenisation that's happened to many games and genres over the past few years. Something about the games on my list: they're pretty unique, or, at the very least, do something different to other games in its genre. I got pretty tired of the endless glut of third person cinematic action adventure games with open world RPG elements. Unfortunately, that's virtually every Sony first party title, and pretty most of Ubisofts. So, I just play other games from other developers.

If you'd like some recommendations, I'm sure folks would be only too happy to offer up some suggestions.
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Okay, I appreciate that you took the time to make a list.

But I had to cross out all the games that were not AAA, Western or third party.

IMO, over the course of two years, the only great games on that list that qualify are Doom Eternal (no longer a third party franchise), Hitman 3 and Half Life Alyx.
 
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Well I was always interested in Bethesda game's but now they have gone 1st party that leave's

Jedi Fallen Order
Titanfall 2
Red Dead 2
Crash 4
Crash Trilogy Remaster
Spyro Trilogy Remaster

Out of the above Crash 4 was excellent,
Jedi Fallen was solid
Titanfall 2 and Red Dead were average but good enough for me to finish.

I'am not sure counting the remaster's is fair so I won't. So yeah pretty weak generation from western 3rd party's especially the big 3.

I do really enjoy western game's but most of them now seem to be under 1st party's now.
 
What do we even have left for western 3rd parties? Ubisoft, EA, the western part of SE, Rockstar, CDPR? Some of these only produce 1 game every 7 years or so. I mean yeah a lot of the recent AAA games do kinda suck, but some were good. I think Ubisoft releasing so many games that are filled with bloated samey bullshit and failed Gaas games like the latest BF and Avengers game overshadow the good ones.
 
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