Mafia 3 announcement imminent? Take-Two registers several domains............
@schinderhannes.999 It's the Baldur's Gate prequel being made by the team who made the Enhanced Editions of 1 & 2. I don't have high hopes for it. I bought the Enhanced Edition of BG1 and thought it was overpriced. The dev team comprises former BioWare employees and a few well known modders. The patches took months to come out, which implies a small team.
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Yeah, I don't expect anything overly impressive from whatever this is either, IF it is, in fact the prequel/sequel/interjected adventure bridging the gap between BGI and BGII running on an updated version of the original Infinity Engine.
Last I heard was that Beamdog's also working on another project they're very tight-lipped about as well. Very unlikely, but they could eventually reveal this second project instead of the obviously Baldur's Gate-related one when that countdown ends? We'll see.
Last I heard was that Beamdog's also working on another project they're very tight-lipped about as well. Very unlikely, but they could eventually reveal this second project instead of the obviously Baldur's Gate-related one when that countdown ends? We'll see.
What other AAA cRPGs? The only major and recent games that fall within the computer RPG style are Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2, maybe Divinity OS. Those are hardly "AAA", from what I understand.
Mafia 3 announcement imminent? Take-Two registers several domains............
P-Please
Mafia 2 was the only shooter sandbox that had it right for me (on Harmode) It had the right number of enemies and it didn't give you bullshit impossible situations like GTA did, verisimilitude off the charts!
I think @Phinnway simply meant major recent cRPGs which are the same you mentioned ;D They are middle budget, and have quite high production values, even if they don't reach the budget of so called "AAA" studios.
@volsung Well.... There is Dragon Age Inquisition for one. Kidding, I'm kidding.
Like @Gilrond-i-Virdan said, I was referring to the three games you already mentioned. Which are all made by development studios that formerly would've been considered AAA, meaning their games were published by AAA publishers.
Like @Gilrond-i-Virdan said, I was referring to the three games you already mentioned. Which are all made by development studios that formerly would've been considered AAA, meaning their games were published by AAA publishers.
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I don't fully get or like the AAA naming convention, but I assumed "AAA" meant large budget regardless of production value. For present day standards the budget for most of those games was pretty low. Not like it matters as we know. I guess AAA is one of those corporate terms, like DLC or IP, that people somehow started using.
If someone's going to revive the Baldur's Gate series they better do it well. BG2 is still ahead of Pillars of Eternity in several ways, so BG3 or BG1.5 or BG0 would have to be spectacular. I somehow doubt they have the team to pull it off, from writers to environment designers. And technically speaking, how can there be BG without AD&D? Best thing would be to let BG rest and work on something new.
If someone's going to revive the Baldur's Gate series they better do it well. BG2 is still ahead of Pillars of Eternity in several ways, so BG3 or BG1.5 or BG0 would have to be spectacular. I somehow doubt they have the team to pull it off, from writers to environment designers. And technically speaking, how can there be BG without AD&D? Best thing would be to let BG rest and work on something new.
aaa means different things depending on context. used disparagingly, it means a game that is an utter failure despite having a large budget. indie devs sometimes use it to denote the level of quality they are aiming for.
I usually simply understand "AAA" as meaning big budget games (vs low / medium budget ones), and in some other contexts as games created with publisher model (vs created by independent studios). I don't like this term for its ambiguity and lack of expressiveness (independent studios can have big budget games too, such as TW3). It better suites batteries than games. For me it's surely not an indicator of any quality by default.
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Total BIscuit once did a video where he said the earliest source he could find for the definition of AAA was "a AAA game is a game that scores "A" in the areas of "critical success, financial success, and innovation," but according him even that defintion wasn't entirely accurate. By that defintion, the only AAA game to come out so far this year would be The Witcher 3 
Like Gilrond said, I usually mean AAA to mean big production games coming from large publishers. Namely EA, Activision, and Ubisoft, who are otherwise known as the "Unholy Trinity of Publishers: the Right Hand of the Devil, the Son of the Devil, and the Devil's Feces" (the Devil's Feces is Ubisoft, just in case you were wondering.) But in the case of medium sized, indie games (Age of Wonders 3, Pillars of Eternity, etc.) I might also call them AAA because I have no other way of distinguising them from teeny, tiny indie games. What're we supposed to call them.... BBB? I consder some of these games much better than titles from AAA publishers.
Like Gilrond said, I usually mean AAA to mean big production games coming from large publishers. Namely EA, Activision, and Ubisoft, who are otherwise known as the "Unholy Trinity of Publishers: the Right Hand of the Devil, the Son of the Devil, and the Devil's Feces" (the Devil's Feces is Ubisoft, just in case you were wondering.) But in the case of medium sized, indie games (Age of Wonders 3, Pillars of Eternity, etc.) I might also call them AAA because I have no other way of distinguising them from teeny, tiny indie games. What're we supposed to call them.... BBB? I consder some of these games much better than titles from AAA publishers.
Total BIscuit once did a video where he said the earliest source he could find for the definition of AAA was "a AAA game is a game that scores "A" in the areas of "critical success, financial success, and innovation," but according him even that defintion wasn't entirely accurate. By that defintion, the only AAA game to come out so far this year would be The Witcher 3
Like Gilrond said, I usually mean AAA to mean big production games coming from large publishers. Namely EA, Activision, and Ubisoft, who are otherwise known as the "Unholy Trinity of Publishers: the Right Hand of the Devil, the Son of the Devil, and the Devil's Feces" (the Devil's Feces is Ubisoft, just in case you were wondering.) But in the case of medium sized, indie games (Age of Wonders 3, Pillars of Eternity, etc.) I might also call them AAA because I have no other way of distinguising them from teeny, tiny indie games. What're we supposed to call them.... BBB? I consder some of these games much better than titles from AAA publishers.
AAA is indeed a classification term used for games with the highest development budgets and levels of promotion, AAA games are expected to be high quality games and to be among the year's bestsellers
Games not considered to be AAA have been referred to as "B titles",[SUP][/SUP] by analogy to B movies.
Expected by whom? Not by me at least. Most of games by big publishers these days are mass market mediocrity which I don't care about at all. Whether they are "bestsellers" or not isn't an indication of whether they are good games or not. Mass market consumes tons of trash as known. And no amount of marketing can produce true art. Sure, big budget gives more choices, but money in no way can guarantee a masterpiece.
Like @Phinnway said, many games by independent studios which wouldn't be usually called AAA because of their budget and the fact that they aren't funded by publishers, are way better. So let's stop using this nonsensical term as a measure of quality, or even better - don't use it at all, it doesn't serve any useful purpose.
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The last TR was one of the few cinematic heavy action games I could get into, and I like how the new one starts out:
Hopefully the Xbone exclusivity crap doesn't last too long.
Hopefully the Xbone exclusivity crap doesn't last too long.
Usually "AAA" is the game equivalent of the flashy Hollywood blockbuster in today's action cinema. You know, lots of explosions, lots of pandering, and so on. Pretty much a game/movie made to sell.
The truly interesting games don't need letters to tell them how good they are,
The truly interesting games don't need letters to tell them how good they are,
I didn't play these new Tomb Raiders, so I can't say how good they are, but cinematic action games can be interesting and fun. Not all of them are boring. One of the earliest games of that kind that I played is Cyberia. That flight through the infested tunnel was nightmarish hard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3kGq6RKYo&t=1h6m22s
And the space battle was very atmospheric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3kGq6RKYo&t=1h15m4s
Such kind of sequences weren't QTE-ish though, it's more of a heavy arcade / action style.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3kGq6RKYo&t=1h6m22s
And the space battle was very atmospheric:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3kGq6RKYo&t=1h15m4s
Such kind of sequences weren't QTE-ish though, it's more of a heavy arcade / action style.
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Too bad it seems like they still havent fixed the fucking atrocious camera shake/bob -.-
I did get to play the new Tomb Raider and it was fun, but disappointing as a game. Of the 12 or so hours it lasts, at least half of it involves going through predefined gauntlets which in the best of cases let you control when to jump or dodge. Others are more like "press a button to start animation". Cinematic is one thing, automatic is another. I just had the impression they think players are too stupid or clumsy to play the game well and get the "cinematic experience".