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

1 year ago*

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Have games stagnated on the last 10 years?

View Results
Yes
No, there's plenty new stuff, you just got old

Horizon Zero Dawn is a must-play Action-adventure.

1 year ago
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Metro Exodus is the worst Metro game. Going open world is nowhere near as tense as previous claustrophobic entries. Wack pacing and generic plot beats if you're even remotely familiar with post apocalypse genre. I still like it and think it has enough merit for a serious FPS/horror fan but I'd recommend 2033/Last Light above it.

1 year ago
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99% of the industry just trend-chases because their hiring practices prioritiezed certain check-marks over actual talent and skills. This also led to way too much bloat, much like we've seen in the rest of the tech industry.

1 year ago
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annual Assassins' Creed

Sorry, did you seriously just list that as an example of NOT stagnant? I beat Assassins' Creed 2, "the best one," before 4 was released, and even back then, I thought the game was extremely dull. For the parkour segments, you just hold forward and the A button, and you'll make every jump successfully. For the combat, you just tap the X button, and you'll win every battle--even against the final boss. The game stagnates within itself, and it doesn't take long to do so. The only bit of variety was when you have to use a smoke bomb to steal something from a guy in a crowd without being noticed, and that five-second-segment was the only time you had to use any item ever.

Go back and replay some of those games you listed--or at least emulate some of the popular games in their genres that came before them--and you'll see the AAA game industry has been this stagnant far longer than you've realized. It's not that you're too old now, but that you were too young then.

1 year ago
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Yep, just started to play AC Syndicate and besides the impeccable world building there's really not much to enjoy. To me every game in the Ubi style is just a re-skin of the same template.

Leaves me wondering what could be achieved when all these talented people had the freedom to explore new concepts. But fresh ideas are deemed to risky compared to the re-hashes obviously.

1 year ago
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Nah I didn't, but I get it may not have been clear.
The Ezio's AC releases felt a something new for me at the time (and I got the there late, probably around the time IV or Unity was brand new) but I did mean that the yearly releases are one and the same since then.

So I see AC as part of the "big and newsworthy new thing... 12 years ago", and since Origins, I guess they shifted a bit, but into a generic Skyrim/Witcher lite-RPG area.

and yeah, both the parkour and combat where simplistic, but I don't remember other games doing something alike at the time

1 year ago
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I've actually probably played more in the last few years (2016+), and I've tried lots of games.
I've noticed the more I play, the less games (and (sub)genres) I actually like.
A lot of the big genres people like, I hate. The big genres that seem to pump out lots of clones.
I'm quite content working on my backlog so much, that the age of release of a game really doesn't factor in.
Yep, I still play recent games, but AAA games are only as good as the indie games they try to keep up with.

1 year ago
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Both. The industry have certainly fall into formulas and AAA studios are avoiding all risks and trying to tick all boxes of the biggest sellers in the past, leading to samey stuff, rushed stuff etc... and despite the huge amounts of money made the biggest blame is on mobile gaming.
Given how we live in a capitalist status quo, where all big companies work under open capital, the majority of decisions stay on the shoulders of investors- the same ones that jump ship as soon as stock value decreases....
...and in that world justifying a multi-million 3+ years behemoth project that may still bomb, while in the mobile world a half-assed cash grab made in 6months-1year and profit the same or more... it created a crysis

So the big companies fight said crysis in multiple ways- from cuting corners, to cutting risks, to rushing, over working their devs... So its samey stuff that releases with bugs, cut content, anti-consumer practices, etc, etc

Go indie.

THAT SAID...
THE BIGGEST CAUSE IS YOU(US)- AGE.
And im pretty sure on that. Real life have its toll, and it fits right in with what many said of 'been there done that'.
Novelty is certainly a huge factor, and the novelty factor only dimmishes with time.
...but... id say not only that either. I mean, its harder to find but fresh novelty can still be found- and ive still seen me and others my age or older not getting as hyped up/moved by true novelty.

My counclusion is a bit of the opposite...
...its the youth.
The youth that is overly impressionable, overly hypeapable. Not only have they experimented less so everything is fresh and newer, it have something to do with stage of development or less burden (from life)- everything (besides gaming) can and do feel MORE the younger we are.
More everything- more new, more magical... but also bigger and more important, both the good things and the bad ones.
A breakup? Is bigger. World issues are bigger. Bad comments or offenses from peers are bigger.

Everything is larger, everything takes a lot more space in ones mind both in scale, time and significance the younger they are, and this span to ALL things.
For example i havent seen that only with games. From parties to books(ive always been a bookworm) - i mean, BOOKS for gods sake, where theres no gaming crisis or 'triple A', where its impossible to have read everything good or unique that existed prior... if no new books were released a single human couldnt read in his lifetime all the great, unique books acumulated so far, and being unique they would all be fresh, be it from this century or centuries past...
...and i feel the same dimmishment in return too

I hope that dont let anyone down... the same sort of feeling from the past can be achieved, by varying degrees, and heck doesn even need to feel that novel- its more of a 'everything clicked so well for me, right now' effect- that at least for me is unpredictable. I cant tell if a game, film, book or what have you will click specially with me and spark peak joy. Now its trial and error, happenstance

One BIG tip to improve your chances: GO OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONES.
In terms of gaming, start trying/playing some games of genres you never tried, heck even some you hated.
Of course many will stay hit you the wrong way- but theres far, far more chances of finding that novelty and renewed interest there because of the uncharted waters left in a niche

Oh, and (im very biased saying this but) try tabletop rpgs if you havent. Seeing you like rpgs... its the only thing from my youth that, even if it lost some small bit of its novelty, it never stoped being wonderfull. Besides the huge amounts of variety and novelty in the genre, each campaing being a different story, different gms and such things can be never dull. I say it have 5 layers or variables that prevent that- ruleset, setting, story-premise, gm and player- if someone played games for years in the same setup and starts feeling dull changing just 1 of the variables make everything fresh again. If you get into groups on different games/gms each time... EVERYTHING feels novel and different, all the freaking time- and the stories can go better and more involved then any AAA game

1 year ago
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Was thinking similar.

On one end, AAA devs and publishers are chasing trends for the past 10 years or so. Season pass, life service, MMOs, loot boxes, battle royale bandwagons. Games that were previously focused on my experience in single player, now must have some degree of multiplayer bullshit. So that I may see that my friend have pink unicorn gun. And it may push me into throwing some cash, to have it as well.

The other thing is getting older. I remember when I realized how to use momentum in Portal, so many years ago. I felt like my mind blown and that I'm so smart. Nowadays game with this mechanic are like "Oh ok, momentum here". There is no novelty the older you get. Game characters get predictable and "surprise moments" make me yawn, as I saw this "betrayal theme" so many times I was suspecting it for half of the game already. There are some exceptions in the indie scene, but big publishers just play it safe.

Remember when I played Valkyria Chronicles 8 years ago. I saw one character and I said to myself "oh look, they just added a sweet character that will be made squad mascot, and they will kill them to try and force player into emotional state >_>". I was not wrong, I just rolled my eyes on this "emotional scene" when it happened, and moved on.

But why AAA publishers "get away with it"? Like you said - young people. They have more time, they have their parents money for games, they feel more and they have no experience. So EA can pump out the same copy-paste over and over again, and there will always be someone "young enough" to pick up this brand new 70 EUR game and be amazed. They will not go to play game that is older than they are (which is weird to think we're nearly quarter a century past 2000...) to see what they just experienced is not innovative in any shape or form. Just with worse graphic and in FHD.

I always find it weird to see reviews that mention that this mechanic was so fresh and innovative, when I saw it in so many games already. But then I think "oh ye, they must be 15 or 20 y/o and did not play long enough, to realize it's old and well established mechanic for at least a decade".

1 year ago*
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Remember when I played Valkyria Chronicles 8 years ago. I saw one character and I said to myself "oh look, they just added a sweet character that will be made squad mascot, and they will kill them to try and force player into emotional state >_>". I was not wrong, I just rolled my eyes on this "emotional scene" when it happened, and moved on.

Had a same moment in The Witcher 1. It's a game from 2007, 16 years ago.

But why AAA publishers "get away with it"? Like you said - young people. They have more time, they have their parents money for games, they feel more and they have no experience.

We're old farts :D

In general I think it's the look, the style and mood that can best sell a game, and a coherent, interesting world with background lore and active events (likely the quests you do), while I don't really expect the gameplay itself to fundamentally change.

1 year ago
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I have some hope the market will mature a bit better on the long run (but probably in a sea of bad releases and practices too) - because end of the day theres a HUGE market of older players (at one point the average age of gamers was or still is around 30)- and the games that can tap on both young and older really well sell more. Plus the trend for every country is to eventually get older rather then younger (the more developed a country is the fruther it is on this trend, but every country will catch up) - much to do with how much time the market demand of workers + rising costs of raising each child... point is, the tendency is for older customers to become increasingly more relevant in opposition to the younger crowd.

Big companies dont think in those terms, but naturally new patterns will emerge- and ive seen examples recently, like the dark souls/elden ring and jedi fallen order. A good title came up, gathered a following, started a franchise with eye opening hype and sales (the souls series)- then only after that and some bombed failed launchs one of the worst offenders, EA, just up and do a good and proper single player game with no cash grabs and good gameplay. Sure, they didnt 'inovate' (but kinda did, unlike all devs that tried to copy darksouls theyve applied some of the same design patterns in a much different way)... but they course corrected against the monetization trend - and heck, theyre about to release a sequel for that one.

There is where my hope lies. Monetization efforts and bad trends will keep cropping up, current and new ones- many will fade away (ex: crypto/ntfs), others will take new forms, this kind of pressure in the big budget AAA companies wont ever go away- but overtime other sorts of patterns/formulas and trends, better ones, will also come up, be taped on hopefully increase over time.

I also have hopes for better tech- costs and time rose up on the later years but so did engines made the development easier... eventually engines will be much better at cutting on development time and or costs, and then we have AI croping up- for coding, already being experimented on helping create assets...

Only question is- how long wiil it take? Will i still be around or gaming? Or will i be more busy keeping track of my 2 dozen pills timetable and reminding the good old times with my neighbours at our retirement home?

1 year ago
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One BIG tip to improve your chances: GO OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONES.
In terms of gaming, start trying/playing some games of genres you never tried, heck even some you hated.
Of course many will stay hit you the wrong way- but theres far, far more chances of finding that novelty and renewed interest there because of the uncharted waters left in a niche

I ended up super enjoying the very cliché Far Cry Primal because I enjoyed the forest, the vistas, and the arrow-spear combat tremendously.
Then played Hogwarts Legacy to basically completion.
I do not like open world games and been years? since I played one.
Turns out that with a proper environment and theme, it can be extremely relaxing.
Sometimes it's really good to switch up the usual genres and dip your toe in another pond.

1 year ago
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There is stagnation amongst AAA publishers because they are too focused on trying to make the game that will generate them ALL the money, but with so many failures recently I think we might be nearing the end of the live service era. But if you aren't ignoring the rest of the industry then no, you're just getting old.

1 year ago
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I think it's the same problem with movies. Copy and paste is very safe and rarely fails. Starting a brand new IP is risky.

1 year ago
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Dunno, found some rather unique gameplay-wise in these of the last years at least, don't think there are many "alike" them at least.

Hardspace shipbreaker
Talos Principle
Satisfactory (and factorio)
Ultimate Admiral Dreadnoughts
Kingdom Come deliverance
Slay the spire (-> this set roguelike deckbuilders back in the spotlight 4y ago)

I'm just glad a lot of console ports finally make it to pc, like monster hunter series and so on

1 year ago
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The AAA game IS stagnated. But you can still find really good AAA games like others have mentioned.
Indie games however are lots of fun, if you're willing to explore you can do it yourself.

That being said, there's one title that you must absolutely need to check. And it's an indie title: Disco Elysium.

1 year ago
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One of the reasons in my opinion is that there's been more "evolution" when It comes to online games where communication is key. I still feel the online multiplayer changed the way games can be perceived and there's still alot to exploit there.

For example G.T.F.O. takes the level of sound you make "in game" to create an atmosphere but the time will come where the A.I. will react to the level of decibels you create and to the stress of your voice when It comes to online co-op. And that will be dope.

1 year ago*
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