Have games stagnated on the last 10 years?
93% positive reviews on steam, with 125.000 people voting
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It's a souless,middling,cookie cutter video game but people clap like seals over their nostalgia for HP. Not to mention the stupid people who got manipulated into thinking that buying and praising this cynical product is a grand political statement for their hatred and ignorance they so love. Once self reflection and hype-free sobriety kicks in people will regret those 70$ dumped on yet another mind numbing AAA theme park ride. A year or two from now nobody will even defend it.
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That's just like, your opinion man. And shared by about 7% that actually played this game
The other 93% that actually played this game liked/loved it.
But anyway, thanks for your opinion. I love to listen to the opinion about games from people that didn't actually play that game.
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I'm not really a Harry Potter person but the game does look solid in terms of quality. It looks and feels, just from gameplay videos at least, that the game was made with care and well conceived and executed.
It's still kinda hard to separate fangirling (or fanboying, no bias) from beloved IPs from actual positive reviewing so reviews are not necessarily a sure factor with games belonging to worlds that are so massively adored but in this case it seems pretty objectively quality gaming.
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I'm not defending or criticizing the game, but a 6/10 is still technically a positive score. If 93% of reviews are 8/10 or below that doesnt make it a masterpiece.
I'm exaggerating the numbers but I think you get my point
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i've done every achievement in HL and i felt it was a rather generic Collect-a-Thon type game where most quests didn't even have a proper story. Go there fetch x amount of this item, hey there are 30 of these things would you mind collecting them for me at night, oh would you mind jumping from rock to rock without touching the ground for the next 3hours? great!
the reason i can't review it negatively is that it still is a pretty decent game. it achieves at giving a level of detail to a fictional location that you didnt have until now.
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Innovation,real creativity and buckets of personality exist in [good] indies. AAA games have been about graphics and self serious shitty cinema envy for a long long LONG time now.
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As the industry has become more defined, I think you definitely see a clearer division between big studio games and independent efforts. In a lot of ways, it has been codified much like Hollywood. Projects at the top of the budget spectrum look and feel more similar than they do different.
On the other side of the coin: yes you're older, more tired, and less likely to wade through the smaller titles to unearth gems. And due to the success of the industry overall, that wading pool is much deeper than it used to be.
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Well, i don't think that there was REALLY something "new" the last 20 years, so, yeah you're getting old ( and i had that same feeling 10 years ago, that you have now :P ).
But on a serious note, something "new" is easier to find, the less experience you have.
The older you get, the more you have seen "everything" and its harder to find something really "new" and "fascinating" like when you were young.
Its funny, there is a quest about exact that same thing in Planescape Torment (an old guy who has seen everything and wants something to forget everything so he can experience everything for the first time ^^), a game which i really love!
But to your question, first of all, its highly subjective. A game which has blown someone else away could be something you're not interested in (or even: already know because its the same as the games you already played).
So for me who plays computer games for nearly 35 years, the last game which was REALLY special to me was Disco Elysium ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/ ).
The first game since Planescape Torment ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/466300/Planescape_Torment_Enhanced_Edition/ ) which was crazy, new and had REALLY great writing.
Otherwise i think you already mentioned everything, although some indie games could be interesting for you (most of them better then mentioned AAA titels BUT of course, again, highly subjective! ^^).
Also depends what stories you want to play.
Another game which had a REALLY great story (at least for me) was Yakuza 0 ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/638970/Yakuza_0/ ).
Again, nothing completly new, but a good game with a really touching story (i love goro majima :D).
And if you like Yakuza 0, there are also Yakuza 1-6 , Yakuza Like a Dragon (more Jrpg, Yakuza 0-6 are Action Adventures) AND the 2 Judgment Titles (which are spin offs, but also Action Adventures).
so, there were some Indie titles, some "major" release, which you missed, but all in all it depends what your taste is, what you like to play AND how open you are to different approaches to games. ;)
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Wow, thanks - the "you've seen a lot, so little is new" perspective is something I did not think of.
And maybe that's a way out of my situation. Not to seek "the same, but new" but search for "old, but new to me".
E.g. I haven't played any Final Fantasy, ever, and got bored and burned by a lot of old-Bioware style RPGs back in the day (I tried Baldur's Gate, Arcanum, Tyranny).
All three games you mentioned are somewhere on my wishlist/pile of shame, I may need to reshuffle the order a bit.
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Yeah, when i played Planescape Torment (back then i was WAY younger) this quest gave me that perspective.
So when it happend to me 10 (or better 10-15 years ago, was a slow process ^^) that i didn't see something new THAT often,
i remembered this quest (AND replayed this wonderful game ^^) and said: "Well, where is the nameless one to help me" :D
But be warned, at least for Planescape Torment, it is a LOT of text.
the text is REALLY great, and crazy, and perhaps even new to you, BUt you have to read a lot, to get all of this.
My "new" Planescape Torment Disco Elysium (totally different story and world but the feeling i had when playing it was the
same) is fully voiced since the Final Cut, so keep that in mind, some of the older games have lots of text, great texts (well not all but some ^^),
but you have to read it to get it. ;)
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Oh, and another game, which i remember now, with which i had MUCH fun:
Everspace 2 ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128920/EVERSPACE_2/ )
First game after 20 years which gave me Freelancer Vibes ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game) ).
Its still in Early access (but i have already played over 100 hours in it over different patches the last years), but it will
have its full release early April this year.
So if you know Freelancer and liked that game, Everspace 2 could be something you're interested in! :)
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+1
The older you get, the more you have seen "everything" and its harder to find something really "new" and "fascinating" like when you were young.
Thats why I don`t like: "good old time" think. For me is like saying: "Poor old me!"
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I think the problem lies in the sheer amount of games being released, back then, there were less games overall, so, each had their time to shine, but now, there's so many platforms, developers, projects, etc. That most fly under the radar, and the ones having their time to shine, just aren't as appealing due to the technology nearing a peak and the obsession publishers have with life services.
Even if they show us more of those types of games, the industry is still developing great games, but, they do not get the spotlight like AAA games do. If it were for only AAA games, I'd have to agree on it being stagnant, but, indie developers changed that.
To follow your example, some must play games released in the last 10 years would be:
RPG: The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel, Bravely Default, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Persona 5, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Nier: Automata, Yakuza 0, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Red Dead Redemption 2, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, Octopath Traveler, The Outer Worlds, CrossCode, Disco Elysium, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, Tales of Arise, Shin Megami Tensei V, Elden Ring, Chained Echoes, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Hogwarts Legacy
FPS: BioShock: Infinite, Overwatch, Titanfall 2, Deep Rock Galactic
RTS: Pillars of Eternity, Frostpunk
Action adventure: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Bloodborne, Nioh, God of War, Monster Hunter World, Subnautica, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Outer Wilds, Control, Ghost of Tsushima, Death's Door, It Takes Two, Resident Evil Village, Tunic, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Hack&Slash: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Devil May Cry 5
Others: Rayman Legends, Fez, Shovel Knight, Journey, Undertale, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, INSIDE, Stardew Valley, Kentucky Route Zero, VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action, Darkest Dungeon, Hyper Light Drifter, Hollow Knight, Cuphead, Sonic Mania, Night in the Woods, West of Loathing, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Celeste, Dead Cells, GRIS, Slay The Spire, Risk of Rain 2, Katana Zero, Baba Is You, Hades, Inscryption, Florence, Omori, Metroid Dread, ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights, Neon White, Pentiment, Cult of the Lamb.
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Good, so it's not only me, phew 😀
And by the way, I do not limit myself to AAA, some of my recent favourites were Frostpunk, Hades, Obra Dinn.
It just sometimes, and currently, I miss the bombrast of something like Mass Effect, Starcraft 2 or Wild Hunt
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I have to agree on AAA games flopping nowadays, because they're trying to make money printers before making games, some recent examples would be:
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i just spent the last 2 days loading up game after game trying to loose myself but its all same shit new pile.
i cant be too critical of the game stagnation as every day i rack my brain trying to create a new style game but end up falling into the major cliche.
i just wish when some1 leaves a review you could see how old that person is, whats new, good , innovative to younger gamers is played out mechanics with updated graphics to older players.
i liked, not loved https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151640/Horizon_Zero_Dawn_Complete_Edition/
same old open world rpg cliche, but the weapon/combat is slightly original, and story is fun.
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I try to rely on seasoned critics to get something similar to what you mean by seeing how old the reviewer is.
the trouble is, nowadays even the critics are hard to find.
Total Biscuit is dead, unfortunately, James Stephanie Sterling is more interested in politics than reviews (which I respect), and Extra Credits sadly stopped the "games You may not have tried" years ago.
That leaves me with basically only Zero Punctuation, Mark Brown from GMTK, and Errant Signal
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Yeah, it's sad... there's just no one left that reviews mostly everything and does it with integrity like TB did. The three last ones you mentioned all do great work, but they also do it very sporadically and essentially only specific types of games.
Then there's people like SkillUp and Angry Joe that tries to do the more broad thing that TB was going for, but they lack that analytical approach (or the good taste in games imho). ACG and Gameranx are sort of the closest I've found anyone to that old review style - but they don't have anywhere close to the charm that TB did. I wouldn't ever watch a video of theirs just for the entertainment, it would be because I'm already interested in the game itself.
I really miss TB, is what I'm trying to say basically... ;(
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Indies have kept the industry from becoming creatively stagnant, while AAA studios have focused on known successful properties and chasing gaming trends.
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Games like No Man's Sky and Satisfactory have been the "wow" games for me in recent years. I don't recall much like them.
When I was younger Wolfenstein and Doom were truly "wow" games at the time, and alot of stuff still reminds me of that, so definitely alot of repetition in that regard, but still the games have advanced so much. As I aged my interest in games has changed alot though and I don't play fps hardly at all anymore - so you could just be developing different tastes.
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God of War 4 and it's sequel moved interactive storytelling forward, maybe not as much as the Witcher 3, but still.
Dishonored 2 and other systemic sims like Prey,or Pathologic 2 crafted their own genre.
Doom Eternal redefined strategic fps games by including a combat puzzle in its encounters.
Deathloop and Returnal introduced the timeloop-roguelike mechanic to AAA.
No Man's Sky is out there and apparently it's good too.
Elden Ring successfully introduced the soulslike genre to open world.
I think there are plenty of innovative new games out there.
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look a the release dates though:
God of War 2018
Dishonored 2 - 2016
Prey 2017
Doom Eternal in 2020, but is there any significant difference there from Doom 2016? (I played both, I loved both, well loved Eternal up until the final DLC boss, he was against all of the game's mechanics)
Elden Ring, after 100 hrs played or so, the open world doesn't add that much IMO
I may agree on Deathloop and Returnal, I haven't tried those yet.
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Doom Eternal is very different from Doom, especially if you play on the harder difficulties, it's far more strategic and requires a lot more decisions than Doom, where you just rocketlaunchered everyone. After playing Doom Eternal most other shooters seem overly simple for me, but that's just my feeling.
Here are few more recent ones:
Apex Legends: great blend of BR and hero shooter formula with ongoing support
Sable: adventure game with a unique art style and setting
Destiny 2 ongoing looter shooter campaign
Hades: well crafted story with serviceable combat
Disco Elysium: probably the biggest leap in visual novels in the last few years.
Control: not for everyone, but if stylist action, scps and david lynch is your thing, it's great
RE7: nice walking sim/horror
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Sable's artstyle looks fresh, onto the list it goes.
I agree on Hades, and I'm excited Hades 2, Supergiant are one of the most innovative indie devs IMO, I'm curious what they will do with their first sequel.
Control is kind of my AAA hail mary - it's big budget, I heard it recommended a lot, and it from a studio with well established style. Style I only begin to experience as I booted up Alan Wake just yesterday.
I fee completely different about doom eternal though - with all the recovery mechanics I actually felt more constrained in my decisions. i.e. I'm low on armor, so now I HAVE to use the flamethrower, the shotgun ammo ran out, so now I HAVE to find a low level monster to chainsaw. For me the focus was too heavy on resource management, and not enough on shooting.
I got similar feels about New Order/Colossus vs. Youngblood - in former I could choose my style, in the latter, I had to match the weapons used to the enemies.
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Youngblood was terrible, that shield mechanic was so badly implemented. The devs did the bare minimum there....
I loved that Doom Eternal was about resource management, to me that felt like a natural challenge that elevated the combat from all the other boomer shooters. For me using any weapon to kill any monster felt really boring. To each their own.
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In what way does God Of War advance anything with interactive storytelling? Though I could be controversial and say the same of Witcher 3. Immersive sims existed before Dishonored/Prey/Pathologic. System shock came out in the 90's.
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I think God of War storytelling and character dynamic is what makes it stand out. Witcher 3 mastered the side quests and made them part of the story in a way other RPGs couldn't. There were very few "find x items" quests.
Immersive sims existed sure, but besides Bioshock they were quite niche, imo. There are a lot more of them now, although they are still on the niche end of the spectrum. You right, this is probably my weakest argument here.
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you hate to say it ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEDSiTCw3kI
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Totally agree. I guess AAA have been sliding down the slippery slope of generic gameplay and concept, much like big Hollywood type movies.
Whereas smaller studios still have to stand out and tend to make games that are more labors of love. Not always successfully but they are trying harder to come up with original concepts and gameplay, and more immersive stories.
Of course there are exceptions (Horizon Zero Dawn is an excellent example) but then The Last of Us, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Assassin's Creed... were also pretty much exceptions at the time they were realeased.
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Partly both? AAA games tend to keep to the known winning formulas, becomes more of a... how well they integrated suck formulas.
Indies still have plenty of stuff but there's also a lot of crappy ones.
Maybe you... "got old" but more like lost the patience to be looking thru hundreds of games.
I do miss the good ole AA PS2 era games where you could find more in the middle.
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Its probabbly you, because you had experience multiple things as a gamer, so new releases jsut feel like stuff you had already seen/played.
Remember the running gag of the olders "back in my days things were better", we are at a point we can relate since we consider one of our previous experiences to be much better than the new games.
There had been big releases after the games you list meant to compete or be improvements oer them, but most were big flops; Fallout76, NoManSky, Cyberpunk. Thats also why you have the feeling nothing really significant had come out as of late. It also does not help the industry is now into the "remaster" phase, only FF7 and Resident Evil Remakes had feel like actual remakes, even if is the same story, it have enough changes to make the experience feel new and still appeal to what you remember from the originals.
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trends are trends. we had mmo's flooding the market before.
now its live service and open world.
New games do get made but they will alway take a while.
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Yakuza, Judgment, Hi Fi Rush, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Dragon Quest etc.
I used to feel like that too but then I realized that it was me who was gatekeeping myself from all of the cool games because I preferred one genre or I didn't like sigle player games. Honestly there are so many good old and new games that there isn't enough time. Of course there are still bad ones, but not like there weren't bad games before.
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It might be a combination of both. Once you go into adult phase of your life you tend to start seeing things more down to earth and from a critical angle. For example i could not see Elden Ring as anything else but a copycat Dark Souls 3. Which still wasn't better than DS2.
Industry in general seems to go in the direction of games-as-a-service, which is largely dominated by one of the most boring genres, battle royales. With ensuing microtransactions and the like to keep milking the playerbase over time. Skins, DLCs instead of expansions, that sort of thing. Quality and small interactive things in worlds just stopped being a thing that devs do. Simply cause it doesn't make extra cash as much.
Shame.
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Holy heck a rare person online who doesn't go with the "DS2 is the worst souls game" circlejerk. Respect. All DS3 has going for it is played up DS1 nostalgia.
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Just because they are not AAA/front page/newsworthy doesn't "nothing good" came out in the last 5 years.
There are a bunch of cool farming sims and VN's that are new that I love and it sounds like you need to branch out to different genres. Looking at your mostly played games above 25 hours, it seems like you have a type -so I can see how it looks repetitive- and may need to find more things to enjoy.
Things you might wanna try even if you don't think you will like:
I've played all these and highly recommend.
NieR:Automataâ„¢ - you own this
Hollow Knight - you own this
Horizon Zero Dawn
Stardew Vally
Stray
Spyroâ„¢ Reignited Trilogy - you own this
Lost Ember
Journey
Some of these might be older than 5 years but if you haven't played them, it's still a new experience for you!
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I know there are good, great games coming out in by indie devs, I played, and loved some them (eg. Obra Dinn, Hades, Frostpunk, and Journey to include some of your mentions)
It just sometimes, and that's currently, I miss the bombast of something like Mass Effect, Starcraft 2 or Wild Hunt.
A game that is an event, thanks pushes the whole industry forward - Cyberpunk was I think the closest one in the recent years, but we all know how it ended.
Other than that I guess Horizon, God of War and Elden Ring came close. Sadly, as a PC gamer, I was cut off from the hype of the first two (I know they are ported now)
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The past five years includes:
Deltarune
Disco Elysium
Hades
Vampire Survivors
Elden Ring
Slay the Spire
Dead Cells
TUNIC
Library Of Ruina
Crystal Project
Horizon's Gate
Some of these are exceptionally good examples of an existing genre, and others managed to basically create entirely new genres, to breathe life back into an older genre, or to significantly change how their genre is seen and designed. There's been a massive flood of good games. It's possible you just haven't been looking in the right places, or have been looking for something extremely specific.
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I don't think "getting old" factors into it as much as, well, time available to spend on gaming probably is shorter so you are more demanding in terms of what deserves your time.
I have played some excellent games made in the last 10 years but it comes down to personal tastes.
In general I have been more impressed by small indies that have surprised me than by massive AAA games but then again, I haven't played everything and you are listing massively legendary classics there. Even at the time these were in their own league compared to other games
In terms of "big games" and AAA, I guess we have been feeling a bit of a slump since 2020 because the pandemic really delayed a lot of projects and by extensions the games that would have been worked on after them. So there's been fewer games released. Also true for movies and tv sadly.
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Not a simple answer, but in short yes and no. Its a matter of perspective. I understand where you are coming from, however if I was in your place I would explore more, especially the indie scene. At this point there's a lot of amazing releases out there, especially on the last decade, that literally trump everything in terms of pure gameplay and awe. Its incredible what few devs can accomplish given the right resources with today's technology. This is of course even more true if we are talking about single player games. Try some new stuff, watch streamers that talk about indies see what you've been potentially missing. They are releasing stuff so fast that the normal thing is that we can't keep up with the speed. We need extra lives/clones....
Its indies time to shine, for sure. Heck if vampire survivors can do it without any graphics it really puts things into perspective.
For example and this is just an example I cannot overstate how amazing these following games were and how they can literally fulfill you completely as a gamer as overall experiences.
Hades, Slay the spire, Hollow knight, Inscryption, Rogue legacy (both), Ori games (both).
Literally insanely good games. I know not all games are for everyone, however a few games just happen to hit that perfection in everything and are at least worth trying. And these are just a few examples. You did mention strategy as well so might wanna check out the recent Against the Storm too. Also diablo 4 is apparently afoot.
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I have recently got a bit more time to spend gaming, but I struggle to find any recent game that pulls me in.
I play single-player only (allowing for some drop-in MP like in Dark Souls) and every time I spin up something new, it turns out it's not new at all.
It's hard for me to pinpoint the exact date, but I feel that around ten years ago, things just stopped, at least as far AAA single-player games are concerned.
I definitely cannot find anything hype-worthy in the last 5 years
I also have to admit, that it was around this time I started a new job, my own place, basically started "adulting" more, so maybe it's me.
But please tell me, is the anything I'm missing?
Was there any major release in respective genres after the games below. Some game truly new, some must-play, not just a sequel/spin-off/remaster/remake:
RPG: Skyrim, Witcher 3, Mass Effect 3, DA: Inquisition
FPS: Wolf: New Order, Borderlands, DOOM, annual CoD and BF?
RTS: Starcraft 2
Action adventure: Last of Us, Tomb Raider, annual Assassins' Creed, GTA V, Shadow of Mordor
Hack&Slash: Diablo 3
Did I sleep over some major releases? I try to follow the news, but I admit, with less and less excitement.
Every game I'm excited to play seems to be either 5+ years old (I have a large backlog) or years in the future (e.g. Starfield, new Mass Effect, new Witcher, some new Wolfenstein or Doom, Armored Core 6, Banishers, Hades 2, Immortals of Aveum, Avowed, Star Wars Eclipse, Judas, Hellblade 2)
EDIT 23/03/12:
(I should have blocked the first comment for this, but well)
Thanks for all responses, the consensus seems to be that, yeah, there is a bit of a slump in the AAA sphere, but... or rather several but's:
but 1 - there are awesome games released by indie devs
but 2 - it's not the age, it's experience - since I've been gaming for 25+ years, I have seen and experienced a lot, so it's more difficult for me to see something new
but 3 - it's just easier to get hyped, about any thing, whether game, book or crush, when you're young.
but 4 - there is plenty of "old, but not yet experienced" - genres I haven't tried, franchises I heard of, but never played
Special thanks to Wintermute101, Vincer and MSKOTOR for sharing their perspective in really extensive and thought-out responses.
Oh, and here are titles that were most recommended for me to try:
2020 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/870780/Control_Ultimate_Edition/
2020 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1151640/Horizon_Zero_Dawn_Complete_Edition/
2019 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/
2022 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1462040/FINAL_FANTASY_VII_REMAKE_INTERGRADE/
2019 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/834530/Yakuza_Kiwami/
2017 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/524220/NieRAutomata/
Release dates based on steam, so they may be a bit off due to timed exclusivity or me checking the "complete" editions
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