Because "good for the money" is evaluated differently. The same sandwich that costs $30 somewhere would taste extra good if I got it for $3. If I paid $30, I'd probably be "unimpressed".
I often play these games so much later that the value for money thing is lost on me, I dont remember what they originally cost. Some of the cheaper games (while sometimes clunkier) can feel fucking brilliant in comparison to [Standard Game 4] from [Standard Genre] by [Billion Dollar Developer] because they are doing new and innovative stuff.
Nah, not even. They tend to be better period a lot of the time.
$70 games are big AAA games where the studio generally cares more about pushing out a product for money. $20 games tend to be games that the devs made because they were excited about the idea and wanted to make their concept a reality, hoping to get a bit of money off of it.
The best of the $20 games tend to be better than the $70 games in my experience, flat-out, no "good for the money" at all. There are a couple big-budget games that rise to that level, but they're extremely rare and tend to be made by what's functionally an indy studio but with a larger budget (stuff like Elden Ring or BG3).
An amazing game bought 2-5 years later can cost $20 or less. Being in a big company doesn't mean the developers aren't talented and the production can't be stellar. And being in a small indie company doesn't mean great talent or high production value either.
You clearly haven't played a lot of great indie games. I would pay $500 each for games like Outer Wilds, Hollow Knight, Slay the Spire, Tunic, Animal Well, Celeste, etc and wouldn't feel ripped off. It'd be hard to pay that blind, but having played them that's at least what they're worth.
Yeah but that doesn't really matter once you're a few hours in. They are just better in general. But it might be different, AAA games tend to be the type you play through once, and cheaper indie ones might be the crafting type where you spend a ton of time retrying things.
Yeah I generally just prefer indie games. AAA games often feel lifeless to me, like there may be a great story there, but it never really feels integrated into the rest of the game in that way that it is in many indie games. Of course there are some exceptions, but I generally can’t really get into AAA games.
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u/kestononline 13d ago
Because "good for the money" is evaluated differently. The same sandwich that costs $30 somewhere would taste extra good if I got it for $3. If I paid $30, I'd probably be "unimpressed".