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1. • CommentAuthorJames Cunningham
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.1)
   AAA is a wasteland right now, but that's fine by me because there's just so much other good stuff out there that it can sit there being background clutter and I'm still spoiled for choice. I picked upRhythm Heaven the other week, still haven't had time to play Dear Esther due to moving to a new apartment, and March is going to be severely overloaded. A new Trials game, SSX (ok, that one's AAA), Journey, the Minecraft 1.2 update, etc. I've also got a review copy of Asura's Wrath being held by UPS, and another review for Pineapple Smash Crew waiting for me to have a PC to write it on set back up.
   
   AAA can go be boring and conservative by itself. I've got a ton of crazy-mad creative games to play without it.
2. •  
     CommentAuthorJay Kay
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.2)
   Okay, probably a stupid question--but what's a AAA? It sounds like one of the huge, blockbuster type games, but I don't get what that's short for.
3. • CommentAuthorJames Cunningham
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.3)
   It's all huge, blockbuster-type games. If the budget is a billionty and you can't escape the ads to save your life and every gaming site on the planet has it plastered on the front page, it's AAA.
4. •  
     CommentAuthorD.J.
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.4)
   It's not really short for anything, it just means triple A. And yeah, it's basically just a game with high production values like Gears or Halo or what-have-you.
5. •  
     CommentAuthoroldhat
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.5)
   So, on playing Mass Effect...really loving it. Not that far in to it (my character just became a Spectre), but I'm loving the main story so far and I'm finding that, to a point, I don't mind doing the side quests so much.
   
   Methinks I'll be playing a lot of this game...
6. •  
     CommentAuthorMorac
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.6)
   Another convert... excellent
   
   
   #AAA:
   For all I know, they stole the naming system from steak. Though I'm not entirely sure I would want to try "indie" steak...
7. •  
     CommentAuthorjoe.distort
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.7)
   its from an animal youve probably never heard of
8. • CommentAuthorandycon
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.8)
   That tastes bad once your mom tries it and asks you about it
9. • CommentAuthorJames Cunningham
   • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

    (10421.9)
   I'd show my mom The Love Letter. You people need better moms.
10. •  
      CommentAuthorcjkoger
    • CommentTimeFeb 26th 2012

     (10421.10)
    Ok, totally just stayed up playing love letter when i should have been sleeping. Thanks James, haha.
    
    I am really looking forward to ME3, though I have been disappointed by a lot of games lately, I have enjoyed that series. @Oldhat Do you have a Kinect? I am interested in how well the voice command works with ME3. I saw it reviewed really well at one place.
    
    Decided to pull out Force Unleashed on Wii - don't judge - and give it one last go. And surprisingly, have a ton of fun right now. It never really clicked for me before, but for some reason it is suddenly super enjoyable.
11. • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.11)
    AAA is a marketing term and is to do with how much marketing spend is going to be used. It has no actual relevance to how much was spent making the actual *game*. You can spend very little on the game but still be AAA (example: Saint's Row), you can be an awful game but still be AAA (example: Homefront), and you can be a truly fantastic game that cost a fair bit and NOT be AAA (example, ICO).
    
    But yeah, most people just use it as shorthand for 'anything that gets adverts in the magazines and on TV'.
12. •  
      CommentAuthorBen Klumaster
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.12)
    There also is (or was?) a publisher named "AAA Game", who inexplicably put out games produced very cheaply with little to no marketing.
13. •  
      CommentAuthorCorey Waits
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.13)
    @Vorn - Singularity was a much more obvious Bioshock clone than a HL one. Apart from the female sidekick, all the other elements were taken wholesale from Bioshock. Gun in right hand, science magic in left hand? Check. Audio diaries littered about the place to explain what happened when it was still lived in by regular people? Check. Make decisions that affect the ending you receive? Check.
    
    I also thought Singularity was quite brilliant... But when most shooters are completely uninspired modern military gunporn and/or multiplayer-focused, I was just happy to have a sci-fi shooter with an ambitious storyline, so perhaps take 'brilliant' with a grain of salt. But if you look into it and think it sounds interesting definitely check it out on the cheap.
14. •  
      CommentAuthorVornaskotti
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012 edited

     (10421.14)
    Corey:
    
    Well, YMMV, I thought they completely wasted the setting by making a world's most run of the mill evil scifi dude bent on world domination storyline. And yeah, the Bioshock ripoff was pretty blatant too, although audio logs are such a commonplace thing nowadays that they've moved from being a System Shock ripoff to being tropes, I'd say. And really, for me the game just felt utterly silly. They have Cold War era time traveling Soviets in their toolbox, so why the hell am I shooting these damn stupid mutants and headcrab clones and clones of every futuristic soldier in every other scifi game. Gahh.
    
    Yeah, as shooters go, it was a nice diversion, I guess. I just get annoyed out of all proportion about how - from my point of view - they totally squandered the potential of the setting by copy-paste scriptwriting.
15. • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.15)
    @Vornaskotti - yup. Trope.
16. •  
      CommentAuthorPaul Duffield
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.16)
    If I could click my fingers and get anything I wanted, it would be to produce a high budget RPG in which your character learns all his skills (and thus your gameplay options) without entering true combat once. Sparring with party members, target practice, wood-craft, eventually hunting for food - all learnt slowly throughout the game and given story significance. So on the few occasions when REAL combat kicks off, it makes a lasting impact on you and stands out as a pivotal game event. Maybe even have a character that has to *shock* struggle with the guilt of having killed someone (If they even do - very easy to make non-fatal combat options that you have to remember to use and give players the choice).
    I've got the whole thing in my head, all I need is a games company and a couplea million XD
    
    This all sparked by the one moment in Heavy Rain

    when I reflexively shot the religious nut who attacks your partner. It genuinely surprised me that I chose to do that and I felt devastated when I found out it wasn't a knife he was holding but a cross. I've literally never been so absorbed or moved by an in game choice in my life.

    
    
    Anyways, it's true that there's lots of alternatives to the "AAA" games, and I'm happy to be playing them, and looking forward to them. Especially Journey:
    
    Journey Trailer
17. • CommentAuthorFlabyo
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.17)
    Ah, if only I got to work on them... I could always leave here and go indie I guess...
18. •  
      CommentAuthorVornaskotti
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.18)
    Flabyo:
    
    I've actually done a whole lot of soul-searching on the subject of working in games during the last couple of years. I was one guy away from working on the production side of Alan Wake, and I've been - frankly - half-heartedly applying to work on mobile game outfits to get some experience on my CV (the most common distinction between the first and second place in getting a game business job here is that the other guy has some experience on the mobile side). The thing is, I don't so much want to work in game business as I want to make games, which is not really the same thing at all. Well, make no mistake, if I got another chance to get to work in some as awesomely storycentric studio as Remedy, I'd pounce on it like a motherfucker, but spending a few years producing mobile games or browser games to get experience... uh, not so much. So, I basically decided that what I want is a dayjob that pays the bills, dive into my longest love in game niches which is interactive fiction, and keep some feelers out for buddy projects who need a producer, writer or something similar. You know, outfit small enough that I might get in some actual creative input and the concept can be a bit risky. A month and a change into this it feels like the correct solution to me. I'm currently working through something like a slight stage fright with game coding, seeing as I started dabbling in 2005 and all I have to show for it is half a dozen of started projects, but I have a good feeling about this year.
19. •  
      CommentAuthoroscillateur
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.19)
    Working in the games industry is not always fun. It can be very nice, but it's not always the case. Just like any other job, basically.
    If you're really interested in working on games, the only thing to do is indeed to get some real world experience. Because that's what gets you hired (really, that's the first - and sometimes only - thing people will look at in your resume)...
20. •  
      CommentAuthorD.J.
    • CommentTimeFeb 27th 2012

     (10421.20)
    @Paul
    Try Kickstarter! I'll chip in.