2014: the year AAA failed

[PCGamesN]

[url]http://www.pcgamesn.com/2014-the-year-aaa-failed[/url]

[Lucien1337]

Spot on article. "Next-Gen" should never mean better graphics, that extra power should be used for new and innovative gameplay systems. Shadow of Mordor is a great example because it uses all that extra ram to store the information required for the nemesis system, and it's unfortunate that it is the only memorable example of next-gen innovation this year.

Besides, art-style trumps graphical technology any day. Arkham Asylum and City both run on a modified Unreal Engine 3 and will always look better than Watch dogs, and it's because the Arkham games are an extremely stylistic portrayal of their universes, where-as Watch dogs is just a poor emulation of real life, one that will no doubt be graphically obsolete in a year.

EDIT: If PCGamesN uses that image for all future Assassin's Creed and buggy/Ubisoft game related news then I will die happy.

EDIT 2: Not VRAM for the love of god, RAM! Just plain old system RAM. If I was talking about VRAM I would've said VRAM, and I wouldn't even be talking about the nemesis system if I were! Also the nemesis system clearly uses more than just a "couple of kb/s" to have been cut out of the 512mb ram xbox360 and PS3, as loading each map clearly took up all available memory in those consoles.

[RocketRacer]

I like how 3 out of 4 pictures in article are Ubisoft games and the last one is Battlefield Hardline which was delayed until next year to make sure it's more polished.

[pr00ch]

2014: The year Ubisoft fucked up

[Genericenemy]

I don't think its been a bad year for games, its just been average. I imagine because developers of games are still learning how to best utilize the new technology and horsepower that they can now use free of the restrictions of aged hardware.

I still think that games have been pushing their weight above films in terms of quality, where the average Hollywood film has been content with a shitty and average 63/100 score on Metacritic for quite a few years now. Its just that we've had a spell where all these fantastic, raved about games have come out and its come to end and it feels disappointing in comparison.

Also, I'm sick of this "AAA game" buzzword bollocks.

[Rossy167]

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;46797349]

Also, I'm sick of this "AAA game" buzzword bollocks.[/QUOTE]

But AAA is legitimate term that actually means something, a AAA game is very simply a game with a marketing budget in the multimillions and above. Clearly you're misunderstanding what a buzzword is - AAA isn't intended to envoke a reaction from a crowd at a seminar it's just simply the term we use to talk about huge budget games.

[junker154]

Dark Souls 2 was my most played game and I was really looking forward to it.

I also like Destiny though, it really appeals to me due to its flaws but I can see why people deem it a failure.

[Shotz]

The only game that was hoped to save this year was GTA V (For PC at least) but that got delayed until next year, so really 2014 has been a crap year for games as a whole.

[Genericenemy]

[QUOTE=Rossy167;46797368]But AAA is legitimate term that actually means something, a AAA game is very simply a game with a marketing budget in the multimillions and above. Clearly you're misunderstanding what a buzzword is - AAA isn't intended to envoke a reaction from a crowd at a seminar it's just simply the term we use to talk about huge budget games.[/QUOTE]

Just call it large budget game development then, people know what your talking about instantly then. The term "AAA games" is one of those things that can confuse people if they are not in the know.

[Rocâ„¢]

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;46797349]
Also, I'm sick of this "AAA game" buzzword bollocks.[/QUOTE]

Not this again...

[Rossy167]

[QUOTE=Genericenemy;46797406]Just call it large budget game development then, people know what your talking about instantly then. The term "AAA games" is one of those things that can confuse people if they are not in the know.[/QUOTE]

I'm not going to bring myself down to your level of thinking, which judging by your thoughts on new hardware and RAM and of course how gamed are 'pushing' above their weight, is pretty low.

All I will say is: why don't we just call water blue stuff?

[can man]

Alien:Isolation was/is fucking brilliant though

[the tee]

Just because few games were bad it doesn't mean that the whole year was bad. There were a lot of good games this year.

[Ray-The-Sun]

2014 in video games, a faithful tribute to 2013 in video games.

Let's not make it three years running, chaps.

[normal boy]

[QUOTE=the tee;46797529]Just because few games were bad it doesn't mean that the whole year was bad. There were a lot of good games this year.[/QUOTE]

For example?

[Brochacho]

2014 was such an uninteresting year for games, so many flops and forgettable garbage

[the tee]

[QUOTE=riki2cool;46797584]For example?[/QUOTE]
Titanfall, Wolfenstein, Divinity, Dark Souls II. That's what I've played.

[Viewer]

Err...Dragon Age Inquisition isn't bad for one (Which is a surprise).

[JenzAmaka]

I don't think I bought any AAA game this year other than friend gifting me Wolfenstein as a bday gift. I hope 2015 will be great as 2012 was.

[Griff]

[QUOTE=riki2cool;46797584]For example?[/QUOTE]

The Grand Theft Auto Five re-release, Persona Q, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Super Smash Bros. and everything the tee listed.

[gk99]

[img]http://puu.sh/dK5HL/846107ca0c.png[/img]

Uh, no? After the announcement that jumps were entirely contextual warning sirens started wailing in my, and a lot of others, head(s). Like "if they're going to remove that shit, what else would they fuck up?"

[editline]26th December 2014[/editline]

[QUOTE=Griffster26;46797790]The Grand Theft Auto Five re-release, Persona Q, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Super Smash Bros. and everything the tee listed.[/QUOTE]

One of those is a re-release and one of them got a lot of shit for being short and overpriced.

But everything else yeah I totally agree with.

[Impact1986]

Elite Dangerous isnt bad either

[Bokito]

Pokemon Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire, while remakes, were really good (Pokemon) games as well.

[Zillamaster55]

[QUOTE=the tee;46797608]Titanfall, Wolfenstein, Divinity, Dark Souls II. That's what I've played.[/QUOTE]

Titanfall died pretty fast, though

But I agree. Wolfenstein and Dark Souls II were really good (haven't played Divinity)

[willtheoct]

[QUOTE=Lucien1337;46797308] that extra power should be used for new and innovative gameplay systems. Shadow of Mordor is a great example because it uses all that extra ram to store the information required for the nemesis system[/QUOTE]

lol what

a pentium could calculate practically anything a game needs. GPUs are generally the gaming bottleneck, and as they improve(with each new generation), we can improve the graphics. Gameplay can always be calculated with no problem.
That nemesis system probably doesn't take up more than a few KB in RAM, either.

Also, some art styles require highly capable GPUs. It still falls under graphics and needs hardware to work hard, in certain circumstances.

edit:
To all the dumbs: You can read the explanation on the third page of this thread.

[skoinks]

[QUOTE=willtheoct;46797875]lol what

[B]a pentium could calculate practically anything a game needs.[/B] GPUs are generally the gaming bottleneck, and as they improve(with each new generation), we can improve the graphics. Gameplay can always be calculated with no problem.
That nemesis system probably doesn't take up more than a few KB in RAM, either.

Also, some art styles require highly capable GPUs. It still falls under graphics and needs hardware to work hard, in certain circumstances.[/QUOTE]

Um, no.

There's a plethora of things that rely on the CPU for the game to run properly.

[KILLTHIS]

Ubisoft really messed up this year. But aside from that I had a lot of fun with Dragon Age Inquisition, as well as Payday 2. Maybe those studios and publishers should just invest a bit more time and release solid games instead of always trying to fry the gpus of the next-gen consoles.

[Morbo!!!]

[QUOTE=can man;46797471]Alien:Isolation was/is fucking brilliant though[/QUOTE]

Personally I found it rather boring, but that's because I found it relatively easy, albeit tedious, to evade the alien and games haven't scared me since System Shock 2. The environments and art direction were fucking top notch though.

[Memobot]

Graphics lovers fall into 2 main categories: you either want things looking more realistic (why? Surely that's why I'm playing certain games. Escapism) or people that only need things to look as good as they need to be.
I'm definitely in the latter. Just Cause 3 could look just as pretty as 2, because it still looks beautiful. I just want a bigger map.

[Splarg!]

[QUOTE=Lucien1337;46797308]Shadow of Mordor is a great example because it uses all that extra ram to store the information required for the nemesis system, and it's unfortunate that it is the only memorable example of next-gen innovation this year.[/QUOTE]

It's funny that you mention the nemesis system when talking about extra ram because the vram requirement on the PC port seems to suggest it went somewhere else.