So the first post is a bit of a weird one to come up with, I toyed with the idea of doing some technical guide thing, pretty niche though but useful at the same time. I didn’t want to kick it off with a mental health related one as that’s pretty heavy for the first proper post.
Now I’ve mentioned in several places, I’m a gamer, not as much as I used to but that’s growing up for you, but when I get chance, I do. I frequent story driven games more than anything, but at the same time anything with a good hook that helps my semi-addictave personality is good – I spent a long…long time on World of Warcraft before giving it in, so any good MMO with a good hook gets me going too.
This isn’t about any of that really though. This is more about the state of game in general. I’ve been around long enough to see the gaming landscape change dramatically through the years, going from the old school Atari’s, through the Nintendo dominated NES/N64 landscape to more “modern” systems like PlayStation, XBOX and ultimately to PC gaming which is where I am now.
The Good old Days
Now, I talk about the old school systems but the truth is, I was under 10 when I used them, so the experience I’ll be using is the time of PlayStation, the first one, my first “true” console that I had all to myself.
Now the console itself wasn’t cheap back then, I think it worked out about £250, not much nowadays but it was a lot. Games run you around £20-30 depending on the quality. Again, compared to now, not terrible.
Now, the big difference here is – the console worked, the games worked (mostly), the times of patching wasn’t upon us in gaming, the game you got on the CD, was the game you played, bugs and all – and honestly there wasn’t many that were too problematic. Same with the console, generally, it just worked.
Some might say “But technology is more complex now!” and I get it, truly. The difference in every aspect compared to back then is mind boggling when you think about it, and with that comes complexity…but, I’ll get to that.
The Now…
So we get to now. I’m not a console gamer anymore, got friends who are, but I’m a PC gamer now so my experience would be ever so slightly different, but every console is basically a PC in disguise now. So deep down, we’re all PC gamers…sorry, don’t shun me, please keep reading…
Most (every) AAA game in recent memory seem to follow the same pattern now…
- Game is announced a few years prior (sometimes more) to release
- Hype train established
- Nay sayers fight the hype train enjoyers
- Game goes quiet short of some dev videos, trailers etc.
- Game gets delayed (Not always a bad thing)
- Game gets a release date that sticks
- Game gets a day one patch
- Game gets multiple patches following this
Now, I’ll sound old and decrepit as I expand on some of these…sorry. The patching thing, now I get completely the added complexity of everything, more complex game engines, AI, processes, systems to run them on and so much more. But these companies are big, most of the time anyhow, how do we get to a point where you spend X amount of years in development, then on literally day one, you need a patch, sometimes equaling several GB in size? Only to find out the game is still buggy on launch…I don’t understand it sometimes.
I can live with a lot of problems of modern games, the (un)expected delays, the long time to develop. As I’ve said, games are complex beasts now. They take a while (but why are they buggy?), I get it truly. But in the same breath, I’ve can list a few games recently that ultimately went through the route of
- Hey guys, we’re releasing on X date!
- Sorry guys, we’re delaying, but it’ll be out on this date!
- Sorry…it’s been delayed again…super cereal, it’ll be out on this date!
- THE GAME IS OUT!
- It’s a buggy mess
Now, this ties in with the patching side of things I guess, how can big AAA game developers which have dedicated QA teams, have more bugs than some indie projects?
The Now…Part 2
This is turning into a bit of a “grinds my gears” post. I guess it was supposed to. But if you’ve got this far, good job!
The other gripe I have with modern gaming, is the ridiculous cost of games – specifically AAA games, let me list some examples.
- Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) – This was £59.99 on release for PC, £69.99 for consoles…
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2025) – Again, £59.99 at release on PC, £69.99 for consoles
- Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (2025) – £49.99 at release £59.99 for consoles
That’s just a few, I could go on. There’s a pattern you’ll notice, PC is generally £10 cheaper (or your equivalent) than console, this has always been a bit of an unwritten rule as the majority of the time, to get a good gaming rig, it costs a good chunk of change more than a console, you get the benefit of cheaper games.
Now I’ll never knock the amount of work going into these games, despite the bugs, but I remember way back when where AAA games were £20-£30.
Again, an age thing here – let me take you back to 2007 – I was in my teenage years, late teenage years and this game called “The Witcher” came out of nowhere, by an unknown developer called CD Projekt Red, now these guys ultimately turned into one of the best developers of modern RPG’s in recent time, but back then, they were a small studio and was wanting to turn this relatively unknown book series, into a video game.
I bought it, at around £30 back then and played the crap out of it. I sank so many hours into it, the world, the story, it just enticed me in so many ways, like nothing I’d played before. But this isn’t a review of that game just yet.
Move forward to 2011, or thereabouts, The Witcher 2 was announced, I was beyond hyped and it was a must buy at that point, even better, they had a collectors edition, game with a bust of the magnificent Geralt, some dice and some playing cards, as well as associated gubbins, books and the like. Back then this ran me back about £80-100 if I remember rightly.
Now, I won’t go into economics and inflation etc. but how have we got to a point where a base level game is nearly that much money? For, and lets face it, a key to put into Steam or a console storefront? You don’t even actually own a physical game, no manuals, random printed maps, nothing. You get a license for a game and that’s it.
I won’t even get started on the fact that of recent years/months. Indie games costing me £10-20 each are some of my highest play count of the year…it’s just wild.
Closing Thoughts
“Finally!” I hear you shout from the back…
I guess I’m mainly just showing my age, but when there’s talks of new AAA games such as GTA6, Borderlands 4 costing upwards of £80 for the BASE FECKING GAME. It confuses me…