Are most mainstream games not very good? or we are all hipsters?

[Weasel Biggs]

There's a point where you're tempted to open an argument with "I don't wanna be that guy", only to realize that five or six other people in this same thread have already been said guy...

Saying you've noticed that an arbitrary selection of games has been shit only tells me that your preferences aren't being catered to. That's it. But hey, at least you've got GOG and DOSBox, and I can share some of the underlying sentiment seeing as I'm a diehard LucasArts fans who puts Sam and Max Hit the Road on his yearly rotation and who's stuck waiting on Cyan Worlds' Firmament to maybe get a decent Adventure game out of it.

The short of it is if Mainstream Fatigue is an issue, go play some indies for a while. There's probably one or two high-profile AAA releases left that still garner some interest, and the world'll keep turning even if you don't play the other ones.

 

[Chimpzy]

The short of it is if Mainstream Fatigue is an issue, go play some indies for a while.

While I'd normally say this is good advice, I'm afraid it may fall on deaf ears with the OP, since I don't think I've ever seen him talk about an indie game in a positive sense. Even tho he probably should check indies out, because if you love (first person) shooters with an old school vibe, that's where you'll find them.

I mean, just off the top of my head: Ultrakill, Trepang02, Amid Evil, Hedon, Dusk, Ion Fury, HROT, Hellbound, Project Downfall, Prodeus, Get To The Orange Door and Gloomwood.

 

[Dalisclock]

While I'd normally say this is good advice, I'm afraid it may fall on deaf ears with the OP, since I don't think I've ever seen him talk about an indie game in a positive sense. Even tho he probably should check indies out, because if you love (first person) shooters with an old school vibe, that's where you'll find them.

I mean, just off the top of my head: Ultrakill, Trepang02, Amid Evil, Hedon, Dusk, Ion Fury, HROT, Hellbound, Project Downfall, Prodeus, Get To The Orange Door and Gloomwood.

Does Serious Sam and Painkiller count or is he already into those?

 

[Chimpzy]

Does Serious Sam and Painkiller count or is he already into those?

Not sure. Don't think he's mentioned them. But yeh, toss em onto the pile.

 

[Dalisclock]

Not sure. Don't think he's mentioned them. But yeh, toss em onto the pile.

They sounded like games B-Cell might like but I don't have the patience to go look through his posts to see if he's mentioned them.

 

[Weasel Biggs]

While I'd normally say this is good advice, I'm afraid it may fall on deaf ears with the OP, since I don't think I've ever seen him talk about an indie game in a positive sense.

I can't say I'm surprised; I'm a returning member in a new coat of paint (board wouldn't let me log back in with my old credentials as IamLEAM1983, for some reason) and I do remember a few similar opinions of B-Cell's.

That said, though, your list of suggestions is spot-on. I'd love Get to the Orange Door if I were good at it, which I'm not, and the only thing Amid Evil is missing to really scratch that old 3D Realms itch is chunkier pixel art.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

At least in the US, hip-hop/rap is the most popular music genre. I brought it up because I'm pretty certain most people don't indeed like rap music (so fringe to a degree), but it is the most successful genre.

Really isn’t much difference to me. The thing is most if not all pop music is formulaic by design, and it’s increasingly the case as time goes on and airwaves are oversaturated with it. i hate listening to our local “rock” station for example because they just play the same couple dozen angsty songs on loop for years at a time. It’s like no one’s home and they don’t have a pulse. Finally got a station that seemed to notice and started offering more unconventional stuff, but still kinda pop-focused.

I get the feeling most people don’t really “listen” to music anymore either; it’s just something that’s on as a distraction so they don’t have to think.


Satellite radio helps mix things up a bit though.

Good music should still have the power to surprise. I wonder if for example back in the day ordinary people were as surprised as I was to find out these guys were actually white -

 

[Dreiko]

I guess it depends on what you consider mainstream. I play some super niche stuff where selling just 50k copies often counts as a success because they make sufficient profit to keep making more games, so for me mainstream stuff is like God of War 4 or Doom Eternal or LoL games which no, I think definitely don't suck.


But if your mainstream notion is stuff like candy crush, fortnite, minecraft and CoD, then yeah, sure. Though even in that category I'd say pokemon fits in and that also definitely doesn't suck.



Too often, the issue with mainstream stuff is less them sucking and more them being completely overrated which causes people to go in with unrealistic expectations and feel disappointed.



Oh and outside of a couple of gems, I completely don't care about indie games and think most of them are crap just as much as the mainstream stuff, I see them as chasing that sort of thing that the mainstream games do, only with a minuscule budget and talent pool.

No, I think where the real creative gems reside is in that AA realm, where you have seasoned industry veterans trying to make games to a niche that they are experts in while still keeping alive that free creative spirit that is good about indie games. They neither try to make a bland thing that everyone and their grandmother would tolerate nor are they pretentious and overly deferential to mediocre gaming culture stuff.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Really isn’t much difference to me. The thing is most if not all pop music is formulaic by design, and it’s increasingly the case as time goes on and airwaves are oversaturated with it. i hate listening to our local “rock” station for example because they just play the same couple dozen angsty songs on loop for years at a time. It’s like no one’s home and they don’t have a pulse. Finally got a station that seemed to notice and started offering more unconventional stuff, but still kinda pop-focused.

I get the feeling most people don’t really “listen” to music anymore either; it’s just something that’s on as a distraction so they don’t have to think.


Satellite radio helps mix things up a bit though.

Good music should still have the power to surprise. I wonder if for example back in the day ordinary people were as surprised as I was to find out these guys were actually white -

That's why I don't listen to the radio outside of classic rock stations when I occasionally do for whatever reason as I play music on my phone when I drive anywhere. I mainly listen to Japanese rock now because their rock scene is by far the best right now; Tokyo Incidents (just got back together this year), Wagakki Band, and Polkadot Stingray are all great.At least the 4-chord song, most people generally like and probably would say it's good. The top songs, which are rap/hip-hop songs, probably not much for the average person.

 

[CriticalGaming]

That's why I don't listen to the radio outside of classic rock stations when I occasionally do for whatever reason as I play music on my phone when I drive anywhere. I mainly listen to Japanese rock now because their rock scene is by far the best right now; Tokyo Incidents (just got back together this year), Wagakki Band, and Polkadot Stingray are all great.At least the 4-chord song, most people generally like and probably would say it's good. The top songs, which are rap/hip-hop songs, probably not much for the average person.

I love me some Babymetal and Band-Maid.

 

[DJShaddycat]

Indie titles made by one to ten-ish people > AAA titles made by huge studios any day. I've enjoyed AAA titles before, but they've never left any lasting effect on me like the small indies have.

Hell, best selling game of all time was started by some Swedish dude and took off when it was still a small studio of acquaintances. Granted it's owned by the big M$ but despite what other people think, I don't think the game is that good anymore anyway.

 

[Iron]

You're getting old, mate. It happens