Quite often I feel like the internet is over-critical of AAA. Yes, on many occasions they put out manufactured slop, and it’s important to consider reviews from multiple sources for that reason.

Even Ubisoft games, when you ignore their little MTX menu, have some flashes of writing brilliance or interesting historical attention to detail. Other times, people manufacture their own forms of annoyance, like “Visiting every single icon on the map is boring!!” Yeah, no shit, that’s why they desperately try to stop you from doing that. FC5 even sleep-darts you to forcefully pull you into story missions, though that idea was derided.

I know the hivemind around here has some pretty strong opinions about Nintendo, but I do appreciate that their games still feel normal when nearly every other AAA has pretty thoroughly enshittified.

AAA makes great games all the time …

If you haven't played a AAA game in over 14 years, then you might be surprised to find out that it happens all the time. Marvel 3 did upset its fans with its business model though. They put out "Ultimate" Marvel vs. Capcom 3 a year later, for like $40, and it pissed a lot of people off. So the cash shop wasn't in the game, but it still had that sour taste for a lot of folks. The reality is that making a fighting game is not going to result in the best version of that game on the first try, meaning that they need to do more work on it after the point of sale, meaning they need to raise more money to justify that work. It used to be buying separate versions of the same game (Super, Turbo, Championship Edition, etc.), and now it's buying DLC characters in the same version of the game. That $0.25 arcade machine had a high chance of being far more expensive than what you paid for the home version, and that's why they did it; arcades were a plenty nefarious business model in their own right.

If you're looking for other Capcom fighting games that won't bug you about buying addons, the Marvel vs. Capcom Collection has Marvel vs Capcom 2, as well as the older MvC games. And Capcom Fighting Collection 2 has Capcom vs. SNK 2.

The Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection has SF3, although I think people were disappointed with that one and I forget why.

But yeah, I get what you're saying. I dug up my Dreamcast recently, and it's so refreshing how every game is just... the entire game. Like, the whole thing is there, on the disc. If you have it, you have all of it.

Aside from it being split into 3 games, this is how I feel about the FF7 remakes.

They are so very full of love and obvious developer passion. The gameplay systems are internally consistent, the charachters are adorable, the world is beatiful. Once you own the game, it doesn't ask again. You can just step into the world and live there until the credits roll.

I was worried, and I'm still worried, that some squenix exec will ruin it. But it hasn't happened.

Remake and Rebirth are simply good games. Anything bad you could say about them is subjective. I know the gameplay and charachters don't jell with everyone but I love it.

Same goes for the modern Resident Evil games, Armored Core 6, Horizon and GoW.

There are still good AAA games. But they for sure aren't the rule anymore, but the exceptions.

They can't avoid employing artists, and every now and then they fail to stop them from making something good.