Is it much harder for games to get AAA scores now?

Games like Fallout 4, Tomb Raider, Halo 5, etc. They are all fantastic games in my opinion, but they are all sub AAA on metacritic. A few years ago, these games probably would have been scored higher. Now that gamers are expecting much, much, more in their next gen games, what exactly does an AAA game look like now? I have a feeling that games like Uncharted 4 and Zelda may not even hit AAA because they aren't going to have the next gen leap that we all hoped for.

The criteria has changed, through gradual conditioning the expectations are different.

In 1998 you wanted a game with lots of content and depth. In 2015 a 5 hour movie game will do.

Overall, gaming is doomed.

That's interesting that you bring that up. I didn't realise that those games were less than 90.

I'm guessing that it's just fatigue. PS3 and 360 had a lot of blockbuster style games which received great scores. The immediate sequels were even better. Toward the end of the generation, a lot of games started to suffer from sequelitis. Going into current gen, developers are following the same formula, which doesn't feel fresh to us anymore.

Just my guess anyway. It also doesn't help that games are a little buggier these days. I'm guessing it's because devs are struggling to keep up with the demand of technology (next gen graphics, online features, etc. is harder to code).

3 things:

1. Storytelling
2. Solid gameplay
3. No broken game on launch day

Those are my best guesses but games like Witcher 3, that's a good example. It had story, solid gameplay, and barely any bugs that I encounter and that right there, is what I called a AAA game.

It really depends on the game and how well it performs to get AAA score.

It seems like it. It is also generally harder for games to get over 90 on Metacritic, it seems like, which is the way it should be.

Higher scores should have some meaning, they shouldn't be trivialized.

Yes TC you are right. It's a lot more difficult now. There are many reasons, and one of them is, the number of sites reviewing games these days.

People are also getting tired of 7th gen formulas and have started to realize that how shallow that formula really is. Games following famous trends could easily get a 9 last gen.

Triple A on meta? Sure, but not because of some increase in standards (lol **** no) but because there are just so many websites.

It's a positive, and it has resulted in a 75 or above actually being a respectable score on MC, frankly that average still needs to drop a bit, but baby steps.

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2, Zelda Winder Waker, Super Smash Wii U got it, like a boss. I think Super Mario should be up there also, it Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Pikmin 3 are close.

Zelda Twilight Princess will be joining them soon, Wii U is a beast. Im still playing Xenoblade Chronicles on my Wii U and its amazing how awesome it still is.

Its partially because you have more sites now and not just ones sponsored by the hardware manufacturers

Developers have less freedom, and take less risks. They are fine with being less than AAA as long as they sell. The goal has moved from making good games, to exploiting and sometimes downright plagiarizing games that made the big bucks. Bungie is a heavy offender in this case.

Even games within the same franchise plagiarize themselves, and have become derivative of themselves. Quality control has become less and less relevant with the inception of online gameplay. Developers have started to show a rather disgusting behavior of release a broken game and then pretend they care by apologizing later, instead of getting it right the first time.

Don't worry.

A beast is coming.

Exactly. Let games that deserve it get lower scores. It should be hard to break that 90 mark in gaming in general.

I couldn't agree more.

8 is supposed to be good. But nowadays people call that a flop for some reason. 7 is decent...but to them it means it's trash.

They've completely out-scaled the scoring these games get.

Trivialised it, as you said.

TR Rise is a 3A product.

I disagree, most games that are coming out now just aren't that good.

The fact that I can still go back to Demon's Souls now and be entranced by it's gameplay, atmosphere and charm then turn right around and play a current gen game and be disappointed in virtually all areas speaks to the fact that most games now just aren't AAA status.

Games are supposed to get better not worse. a TURE AAA game will always be an AAA game. FFXII still feels like an AAA game after all these years, If I can't get that same or similar feel from a game that comes out *now* then it deserves to be rated lower than those games I played many years ago.

Yes, and thankfully so, last gen got ridiculous with some of those AAA games!

@charizard1605: It's also due to the fact that those games probably don't deserve AAA status. Fallout under Bethesda has never deserved over a 90, Halo 5 suffers from 343's crippling inability to tell a story. Tomb Raider might deserve it, but having not played it yet, I can't say. My girlfriend loves it, though.