Recent developments in PC gaming have been filled with legal issues and disappointing releases.
Recent developments in PC gaming have been filled with legal issues and disappointing releases.
Just search for the best games. Like everything, there are positive and negative experiences throughout history (trends do exist and "golden periods" occur).
Here are a few standout games that aren’t old:
The Witcher 3 (classic), Divinity Original Sin 2 (incredibly good), Fallout 4 (some people dislike it for valid reasons, but I really like it), Dark Souls 3 (not everyone enjoys it, but it remains very popular), Nioh (soulslike with Japanese flair and challenging gameplay), Life is Strange (short but beautiful), Bioshock Infinite (enjoying it now).
These are just a few examples. People with different preferences will mention other titles or maybe disagree, but that’s fine. It’s a large industry, so there’s plenty of quality and not much to be disheartened.
Some say the same about books, music, or movies—just pick an art form or entertainment type and this conversation will keep going.
Yeah, those are decent games, but most of them are quite old—over a year or even two! I'm referring to the latest ones.
Well, the examples you gave weren't that old. But Vampyr is quite recent and it's really good. Thronebreaker is also very recent and impressive, with many people saying AC Odyssey is great too, plus Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War... there are plenty more examples.
I'm still going to say false. Many NES titles were not particularly challenging to develop, and companies aiming to establish a brand had to create unique characters and aesthetics.
A significant number of NES games are disappointing today, and most didn't improve much during that era.
What's the issue here?
Titles like Doom (1993) have far fewer assets than a plant pot in contemporary games. Your argument seems flawed; I've highlighted it.
Rockstar invested $256 million in GTA? That's still just a small portion of the $256 million. In fact, about 99% is still a fraction of the total.
Additionally, those Atari games released in weeks were extremely poor quality. They were often just cheap attempts to cash in because they required minimal development effort. It's similar to the asset flip games we see now.
The Witcher 3 is essentially crafted by an indie developer.
Divinity is also the work of an indie team.
Fallout 4 was generally average at best.
DS3 is older and produced by a smaller Japanese studio known for that series and Armored Core, which operates on a modest scale.
Nioh is developed by the Dead or Alive team, who focus mainly on Nioh.
Life Strange is another indie project that falls short.
Bioshock Infinite faced criticism for misleading marketing and a disappointing conclusion.
I believe the main concern was the larger, more established developers, not indie studios.