Don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything. Sure, the games are prettier, but most of them are designed and written more poorly than 99% of indie titles…
It’s funny, because often they aren’t prettier. Well optimized and well made games from 5 or even 10 years ago often look on par better than the majority of AAA slop pushed out now (obviously with exceptions of some really good looking games like space marine and some others) and the disk size is still 10x what it was. They are just unrefined and unoptimized and try to use computationally expensive filters, lighting, sharpening, and antialiasing to make up for the mediocre quality.
I stopped maintaining a AAA-capable rig in 2016. I’ve been playing indies since and haven’t felt left out whatsoever.
Don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything. Sure, the games are prettier, but most of them are designed and written more poorly than 99% of indie titles…
The majority sure, but there are some gems though.
Baldurs Gate 3, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Doom Eternal, Elden Ring, God Of War, … for example
You can always wait for a couple of years before playing them, but saying they didn’t miss anything is a gross understatement.
It’s funny, because often they aren’t prettier. Well optimized and well made games from 5 or even 10 years ago often look on par better than the majority of AAA slop pushed out now (obviously with exceptions of some really good looking games like space marine and some others) and the disk size is still 10x what it was. They are just unrefined and unoptimized and try to use computationally expensive filters, lighting, sharpening, and antialiasing to make up for the mediocre quality.