Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

With the reviews coming in, it's astounding that Ubisoft spent 11 years to make a strictly worse version of Black Flag, with more than half the features missing, and then turn around, declare their game a Quadruple A game, and charge 70$ for it.

I guess if Skull and Bones is AAAA Black Flag must've been Quintuple A?

No, the number of A's is just the length of the screaming the devs do in their heads when having to work on the game.

This is how AAAA sounds like:

Quadruple A would be accurate if it's only referring to the amount of time and money sunk into this project.

Though that's more a condemnation of Ubisoft's gross mismanagement.

If I were to define "AAAA", I'd probably define it as referring to 1st-party content. So games made by companies like Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and probably Valve.

Though this is less about budget of the games in question or even the size of the companies, and more about their position in the industry that I think in a sense puts them in a tier above "AAA".

It being in-house says nothing about quality or time and money spent on the game.

If Nintendo started making the classic Mr. Game and Watch handhelds again, would you call those AAAA?

Edited by M84 on Feb 17th 2024 at 8:10:33 PM

Is they went back into the love hotel business, would those be AAAA?

Are Nintendo's Hanafuda cards — yes they still make those — AAAA?

If Nintendo officially released the two Super Hornio Brothers movies (which they bought the rights to in order to legally halt their distribution), would that be AAAA?

Edited by TrashJack on Feb 17th 2024 at 7:20:59 AM

If Microsoft released a special edition of DONKEY.BAS again, would that be AAAA?

If Sony made their new game on a Walkman, would that be AAAA?

Edited by LoneCourier0 on Feb 17th 2024 at 1:41:07 PM

I heard that Nintendo running love hotels was more of an urban legend as apparently there isn’t any actual evidence confirming it.

But if they did start running love hotels, you’d certainly hear a lot of AAAAs.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Feb 17th 2024 at 7:58:07 AM

Most ‘Love Hotel’ do not fit the stereotype. They are like Motel 6s that you can rent for a couple of hours if you need a shower, nap or w/e and while that does include sex it’s not it only purpose.

I do believe Nintendo bought a company that did have a few of those hotels but iirc it wasn’t long till they got rid of em.

Edited by Memers on Feb 18th 2024 at 2:16:03 AM

That didn't happen either.

The fact of the matter is that Nintendo never had anything remotely to do with love hotels, ever, in any way shape or form. That claim comes from one book, and nobody else has been able to verify it, or even find any sort of document which even suggests some form of corroboration.

Konami's released a trailer about the Silent Hill 2 remake, and it looks to be quite shit... However, the team in charge of making the game, Bloober Team, insists that Konami, the people who hired them to make the game, have done an incredibly poor job at making the trailer and it completely misrepresents the game. James Stephanie analyzes the situation.

The game is probably shit but Konami makes it look even more shit with that trailer.

I'm reminded of that meme concerning low expectations and still being disappointed.

A new Crazy Taxi game (or a remake, I can't be arsed to double-check) is being developed, and it's being advertised as having AAA scope. Naturally, with the term being as meaningless as it is, James Stephanie comments on the matter and takes some time to advertise a game that they've actually been enjoying called Pacific Drive.

There is something kind of funny about studios trying to use terms like AAA or AAAA as indication of quality. I still remember when triple A just referred to the size of the studio. And before that people used terms like first party, second party, and third party developers. So to me, it's kind of like bragging that your furniture is made in the biggest factory you can find. It tells me nothing and sounds awkward.

What do ya mean? AAA is an indication of quality.

Absurd Budget

An overreliance on visuals to get the graphics sluts buzzing.

Absent gameplay

AAA

Edited by CryoJNik on Feb 26th 2024 at 2:09:18 PM

That's good. What's the fourth A stand for for AAAA game (singular because Skull and Bones is the only one of those yet)?

Edited by Resileafs on Feb 26th 2024 at 3:47:56 PM

Arrogance?

All-a y'all pay me an extra $10.

(Ubisoft did say that the $70 price point is what qualifies a game as AAAA.)

Nothing. 'AAAA' is the sound that individual developers make with their mouths (while clutching the sides of their heads with both hands) when the ultra-toxic work environment finally drives them to go streaking through the building, burst into the boss's office, and take a steaming crap right on his desk, gibbering nonsense the whole way. Ubisoft just left off the 17 other "A"s and the 12 exclamation points that are also supposed to be there, probably because the full thing wouldn't fit on an IGN headline. The extra $10 goes to paying for properly sanitizing the desk.

Edited by TrashJack on Feb 26th 2024 at 4:16:40 AM

Might as well drop this that Im here. Persona 3 Reload came out as 70 bucks. Then a week or two later, I saw the price drop down on amazon to 60 (plus tax and shipping). The game has not done terribly at all, so the only conclusion I can come up with is to get first buyers to pay 10 extra more.

What Sony started just encourages selectivity. A lot of companies want to rely on people just diving in but if consumers are buying more? Theyll research if what they get is worth that extra money since its been hardwired that 60 bucks was the accepted standard ago even now. I think 70 buck games being successes is in spite of the price

Edited by M1gamiTensei on Feb 26th 2024 at 2:25:03 AM

On the eve of another live service game, Crash Team Rumble, dying an ignonimous death, Stephanie Sterling ponders if live service games are made with the intent that they'll die sooner or later.<

Also included: A tangent about the word squib.

Edited by Resileafs on Mar 4th 2024 at 9:52:14 AM