"Bad" AAA games in recent years

So Redfall came out, and while the consensus seems to be it's not a very good game, I've heard some people say "Oh it's just a bad game, those come out all the time" and others point out it's a bad game, crucially, in a very bad time for Microsoft, as none of their bigger games except Forza Horizon seem to be hitting lately, etc etc..

Anyway, in the midst of all this I listened to friend-of-the-site John Warren's "The Sunday Scroll" podcast (latest episode has one Jeff Gerstmann guesting, so that was why I started), and he said there have been way worse AAA games coming out in the past few years. And I honestly can't really think of any?

I feel like the "big" games coming out these days are at least usually pretty competent, and it's been a while since a game with a really bug budget came out and immediately smashed it's face into a wall or something, technical issues not-withstanding?

So what are some "bad" or critically reviled AAA games in recent years, say 2020 and forward?

I can think of Gotham Knights, which also seemed to hit that level of mediocre and bland.

Balan Wonderworld is considered a total disaster, I suppose.

Anything else?

I think when talking about "bad" AAA games we actually mean mediocre, often times the problems with some of these games are things that you feel shouldn't be happening in games with such large budgets and price points elevating them to "bad" in terms of expectation, but they aren't irredeemable.

You can enjoy Gotham Knights, Forspoken, Anthem, Redfall, going back a bit Mass Effect Andromeda, they're not the worst games.

By in large AAA titles tend to be at least decent in quality, we don't see many below 60 Metacritic scored AAA games.

You could say with UE5 and the shift to DX12 we've seen more bad PC ports with stuttering and sharder compilation problems, even then Jedi Survivor's for example would be front loaded towards console and the default 30fps mode is mostly fine.

We only ever see talk in the extremes the narrative is often really bad or the best thing ever, Redfall just falls into the wider scope of Xbox is not delivering big games.

It depends on how you define all your terms. What is meant by AAA games? Do games like Saints Row and Forspoken count? What do you mean by "last couple of years." As you get older longer periods of time seem short so that could mean anything from literally 2021 through now to as far back as 2013 when the 8th gen launched depending on the speaker. What do you mean by came out? Are we looking at their state at launch or after all the patches and updates? Marvel's Avengers had a lot of technical and other problems that have been somewhat fixed (even though I wouldn't say that has become a good game.)

Is Babylon's Fall AAA? I think so and I think it qualifies. Is Anthem last couple of years? Arguably better than Redfall but also arguably more disappointing. Something like Crossfire X may not count as AAA strictly but is at least in the conversation.

My point is just that it's a defensible position depending on how your terms are defined. You can look at Crossfire X and Babylon's Fall and say "Those are way worse than Redfall" and that's probably fair. And if you are counting games that weren't inherently bad but were a technical mess that needed a lot of patching there are even more to add in.

I completely forgot about Forspoken LOL. But yeah, these games are usually at least fine, I feel like it's been forever since something came out with a giant budget and was just utter dog-doody. Maybe Fallout 76 at launch, but that's still a maybe?

Babylon's Fall probably should count, I guess and CrossFire X? I don't know, was that ever like a full-price retail thing? Does that even matter when games like Fortnite and Apex Legends are expensive as hell and available for free?

I do think the technical messes are a separate issue, asusming they get fixed. Like, a working Jedi Survivor is supposedly pretty great, but a working Redfall or Saint's Row (forgot about that one too...) are kinda just mediocre either way.

I almost miss the days of Trespasser now, at least that game was just really bad in interesting ways!

The main problem with AAA games these days is lack of creativity and the pressure of putting the games out in a timely manner to meet the expectations of the publishers who only care about the bottom line. This is why many AAA games lately have been bad, mediocre, and often filled with bugs and bad optimization. Take Redfall for example. Arkane is not known for looter shooters, but they were pressured into making one because of how much money those games can make, and we see the results. Mass Effect Andromada is another example. Bioware wasn't given the time to make the full game they wanted and was rushed to put it out by EA, and we saw the results (and I overall still liked it). I could keep going, like with situation with Marvel's Avengers, but you get the point. This is why I keep saying, if not for the Indie genre, the video game industry today would be dead. Or at least Nintendo would be the last ones standing because of their first party exclusives.

@av_gamer: The main problem with AAA games these days is lack of creativity and the pressure of putting the games out in a timely manner to meet the expectations of the publishers who only care about the bottom line.

This is only a forum problem, nearly all the publishers and platform holders are posting record profit/sales. FIFA & COD are stronger than ever Ragnarok & Jedi Survivor are doing much better than their predecessors, Hogwarts is a new IP outpacing Elden Ring.

@thepanzini: @cikame: Exactly. These are things people like us talk about. People like us, who use internet forums, need to always be reminded that we experience this discourse in a bubble.

Outriders should be on here, right? Like, it was so obviously on this list that no one even remembered it!

As the others said, a lot of "bad" AAA games are fine, but by standards just disappointing/full of issues that should exist. But it turns out that an "Unlimited" budget and time can do wonders for games.

@bladeofcreation: Outriders kicks ass.

The problem with Redfall is that it's a bad first-party game. EA or Square-Enix can put out bad games and it won't really hurt them too much. But Microsoft is selling more than a game, they're selling a platform and they can't have a reputation for putting out bad games and not expect people to stop using their platform. Especially when than reputation is already questionable to begin with.

Nintendo on the other hand has put out bad platforms but even then you at least know that the Mario and Zelda games are going to be good on them.

@thepanzini: obviously not the point, but Jedi Survivor is running on Unreal Engine 4, not 5.

I'm typing this on my phone on a commuter train so my thoughts might be scattered BUT: It's hard for me to talk about "Bad" games, since I have found enjoyment in most games I played. I don't think Redfall is a bad game, and I saw people bringing up Outriders and I unironically love that game (which might be why Redfall is fine for me, because they are a little similar in their shortcomings).

That being said, I think a lot of AAA games have been trying to "play it safe" recently and just kinda cater towards the hits. God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West both just played incredibly similar to their predecessors and most people looked past that and loved those games. But when a new IP is created that caters to a previously established gameplay model, some people on the internet say it feels like something from ten years ago (negatively) or is "stuck in old ways." It's like a lot of people expect a new IP to also advance the medium forward, while not expecting an established IP to do much to make it feel new.

@csl316: I literally spent extra time in that game just to get all 43 out of 43 achievements...on Steam, the platform where achievements matter the least. It exists in the same headspace as Redfall for me. Fun game with some issues, made a lot more fun when you play with people. Side note, one of the legendary guns I got in Redfall looks almost exactly like a legendary I got in Outriders.

Now if we wanna talk about another big-name came that came out around the same time that was broken and not even fun to play, there's the Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance game that was even worth the time spent on Game Pass.

@bladeofcreation: All i know about Outriders is that Jeff really liked it and when i played the demo, as a fan of third person shooters, the only thing i didn't really like was that cutscenes ran at 30fps :P.

Some other names to throw into the mix, someone else mentioned it but i think it's pretty funny we've already forgotten about Babylon's Fall, people were very lukewarm about Watch Dogs Legion which also had technical issues, almost everything Blizzard has done recently, Overwatch 2 was a choice, Diablo Immortal was a disaster, the remasters of Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2, people love to claim Modern Warfare 2 (2022) failed, Battlefield 2042 launched in a horrific state, the Resident Evil 3 remake, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet.

Most of these games probably did very well, in some cases extremely well, i bet Diablo Immortal has made more money than any other Diablo game, but for people like us who are looking for experiences that touch our souls the technical issues and flawed design of most of these games leaves us wanting.

Babylon's Fall is a good pick, but it is worth noting that while Artifact went away from the public consciousness in record time, Valve paid for Richard Garfield's time to make that game and they were repping it so hard until its release that you might as well call it a AAA game failure.

I would add Cyberpunk to the list of "it's ok," but I'm surprised no one has nominated it as a "bad game" yet. I will say the modding community has really revitalized that game to where I'm interested to see how the new DLC lands.

@anchorsahoy: Because its not a bad game. It's a game that was released way too soon to once again meet a deadline and as a result, it was a disaster at launch. But overall most people either like the game or claim its average. But hardly anyone claims the game is outright bad besides those performance issues that have now mostly been dealt with. And the game was still a sells hit for CPR, even after it was well known about performance issues. People like that Cyberpunk world.

So hey, Lord of the Rings: Gollum is full-price and using a beloved license, so I think it counts, and it's apparently teeerrible! It's also trying some things, I guess, so it's maybe an interesting high-profile train-wreck instead of just bland. Stealth and herding mechanics!

@cozmicaztaway: I don't now if this counts as AAA. I guess I haven't played it or seen enough footage but it does not strike me as super high budget. There are lots of licensed games that are well under AAA. There's an Ice Age platformer for example.

This is coming out at $60, but so did that Werewolf game and that was decidedly not AAA.

I guess it's in the eye of the beholder but I'm not 100% sure this counts IMO.

@bigsocrates: Yeah, it's maybe more of a "mid" or "AA" or whatever game, but it's more high-profile than just Steam shovelware, so I figured it gets to be in the conversation

Something i keep wondering about these licensed games is whether the IP holders care about low quality products giving the franchise a bad image, like Disney not requesting more time to have the bugs fixed in Jedi Survivor, but then i remembered LOTR was Embraced, hopefully that's not a sign of the quality we can expect from Embracer games.

@cikame: Some do and some don't. But LOTR is somewhat bullet proof as an IP, especially with the big new TV series getting a lot more attention than the games, and it's not like there haven't been bad games in the past. The same with Star Wars to some degree. But licenseholders have taken licenses away from companies for poor quality in the past. I think EA lost the Star Wars exclusivity because of the bad reaction to Battlefront II and some other stuff, even though EA has improved things of late.

I would agree, but as others have said, it's not so much that they are bad just extremely mediocre. And I can't always put my fingers on it, but there's a certain sense for me of a lot of AAA games just threading water creatively compared to how it used to be. It seems a lot of AAA game development has stagnated, creatively or otherwise. I can't even off the top of my head name an upcoming AAA game I'm excited about, let alone remember exists. And it isn't helped by a lot of AAA games lately coming out completely broken or, as said, extremely mediocre. Even the titles I have liked, has all of them felt like there was room for more ideas that was never realized.

Watch Dogs Legion tried a thing with it's "you can play any character" schtick, which was like the "unique selling point" of that game.. and *shrugs* I agree with you, it seems they're mostly polishing what works in a way. Judas might be going for a big game feel, although it was supposed to be smaller in scope originally (the story is Ken Levine doesn't know what "small in scope" is after Bioshock...), and that has the "narrative Lego" angle, I think, but I don't know how much that is actually gonna pan out in the long run either.

I still play games on my PS3 and Xbox 360, and they feel like they mostly hold up, because it feels like games haven't really moved on that much from back then (plus the same IPs get trotted out again and again..).