I've been having some thoughts lately that I would have believed crazy just a few years ago. I'm starting to think it might be time to move on from my PS5 and triple A gaming as a whole. I've had a PlayStation from the PS2 all the way to the latest generation of consoles. I remember fondly time spent roaming the lands of Fallout 4 or getting lost in the great Naughty Dog games Uncharted and the Last of Us. I was giddy beyond belief when Uncharted 4 came out in 2016 and after a recent replay it still holds up. I'm noticing as I'm getting older that gaming isn't providing me that same excitement like it used to, and I can't remember the last time I got lost in a game after Last of Us 2 came out.
I'm wondering if it's time to pawn the PS5 and move on.
I think the main motivation that is killing my drive is the direction the gaming industry is heading. I was a big Madden fan for alot of years, but now EA has effectively killed that franchise with their unwillingness to invest or inovate. Other games now feel like they are becoming like that and selling out to just get you locked into a subscription model with their game (gta online with their recent subscription comes to mind).
Recently I've been cutting out subscriptions in my life as I feel it is better to own rather than effectively rent media. Netflix and Spotify are now raising their prices and looking back, I could have just bought the movies I liked and found another way to stream tv. It's clear these companies just want to take the power away from you and keep you paying forever for the same content.
I look at my PlayStation and I just see a big subscription box. The games don't even do it for me much anymore. I've been finding the games that do excite me are the small indies like Firewatch in the past and Dredge which I have heard great things about. If I want to play indies, a PS5 feels like a bit of overkill for that. I could get my on my Switch and a laptop. Maybe even a steam deck would be a worthy trade in.
Anyway, I wanted to get others thoughts as it sort of depresses me to think about moving on from a system that I've had since childhood, but it also feel like it's time for a change.
I have a beefy PC because it plays nearly everything. I have a Steam Deck because it plays most of that stuff when I'm on a train. My favorite games of the past few years run the gamut when it comes to system requirements, and since about 2017 especially, I have largely not been impressed by AAA games, with some exceptions. There are some genres that see more love than others, but chances are whatever type of game you enjoy most is out there and just not getting the most marketing. I've found some of my favorite games ever by just checking boxes for features that were important to me in Steam's advanced search. You have no commitment to buy the biggest games just because they've got the most hype.
I think that is something I have been experiencing too. Recent AAA games have failed to impress me. I am someone who likes story, so I'll always appreciate clever dialogue or a well thought out story over flashy graphics or an open world.
I would be interested to know some of the gem games you found using the steam advanced search
Vagante is the one I remember most clearly for that example. I really loved Streets of Rogue, and I wanted another 4-player, online and local multiplayer, action roguelike.
Dead Cells was billed as a metroidvania roguelike, but it's more like a Castlevania roguelike; pre-Symphony of the Night. So I searched for metroidvania roguelikes and came across A Robot Named Fight. You get a new version of Super Metroid every time you play. It's phenomenal.
I got really into Fantasy Strike one summer and finally understood what made fighting games tick. I looked for other fighting games that worked on Linux. Today, the only fighting game I know that doesn't work on Linux is Dragon Ball FighterZ, but at the time, there was literally only one other fighting game that worked on Linux short of emulation, and that was Skullgirls. Skullgirls is now my favorite game ever.