What the hell happened to video games?!

I'm serious, what the hell has happened to good video games?

When all the video games are now AAA titles, then they begin to really suck.

What's happened to gaming in the past few years? Seriously, what the hell has happened to video games? It seems like almost every game coming out right now is AAA or scoring very high on review sites.

Take for example on IGN's new review for Assassins Creed Odyssey. They gave the game 9.2/10, and that used to mean something. Now it doesn't really seem to bring much to the table like it used to. I love the assassins creed games, and I would play them as a kid. But I played them because of their stealth, history, and skill involved in taking down your target. I didn't want it for an open world experience. If I wanted open world I would play Skyrim.
I'm sick of these bland choices. I guess this post is going to turn into somewhat of a rant, even though I didn't initially want it to.
I like open world, it's fun and creative... except when it's not. It seems like every game out there right now is open world, and gives you the choice to make your own story. It's a cool idea, but when everyone starts doing it, then it loses its uniqueness. I cite again, Assassins Creed Odyssey. I like the hero's journey story line, and it can be fun to play. For example lets take the game, The Last of Us . It's a fun game, with an interesting story and memorable characters, but did you notice something about it? It's not open world. Let's take another example the UNCHARTED games. They have their own self contained story that is not open world, and they're fun. I'm noticing a trend here, which is that Naughty Dog is one of the few companies doing it right.
It's been a while since I've seen a game that genuinely looks interesting. If my ramblings so far haven't caught your attention, then I ask you, how many big name titles are you still playing? I haven't bought a game in months, and the only reason I did was so my friends and I would have something to do different once and a while. The game I bought was Injustice: Gods Among Us , and for a fighting game, it's pretty fun when your friends are around.
I have a playstation 4, and I barely use the thing, except for DVD's when I'm not streaming. I was never much of an xbox fan, but I did like handhelds when I was a kid. I used to love video games, but they have just gotten so bland, I can barely take it anymore.
Most of them don't have anything going for them, and then you have all the micro transactions. I mean seriously?! I just popped $60 on your game, and you want me to spend more money on it for non-DLC content?! What the hell dude! It's expensive enough as it is, and most people are just saving up to play the vanilla game, but if they want more content your going to charge them an additional $4.99? What's wrong with you?!
I will give these games one thing that I do see as an advantage, and that's their music. Many of these games do have beautiful soundtracks, and I sometimes buy some of their songs. But honestly, I think it's the best thing they have going for them right now.
And another thing, if your older than 10 you might remember when you bought a game it would come with a little booklet. You know, it would be the manual but it would also have so background about the game and it would talk about the characters in it. What happened to those? I loved flipping through them and learning a bit more about the game I was playing, but all of a sudden they just vanish? Ugh.
Even some of the older games like Pokemon: FireRed Version have gone back up in price. Remember that game? I sure as heck do! It was one of the most popular games in school when I was young. Don't get me wrong, the Pokemon games are still going strong (as far as I know), but compare that to a game that came out a few years ago, like Halo 5: Guardians. Who the heck is playing Halo 5? Well IGN gave it a 9/10, so that means it must be good! Right? Like I said, I don't have an xbox, but the friends of mine that do play xbox, none of them are talking about Halo 5. Yet once and a while we'll get nostalgic and remember when we were running around with our gameboys and playing Pokemon with each other.
This brings me back to my original point, with all the games today being rated so highly, have we lost quality? Yes. Because if we don't up our standards, complete and utter crap will be marketed to us as the new hot thing, and just because they says it's gold, does not mean it glitters.
Skyrim came out back in 2011, and it still has a strong player base. I started playing the game in 2013, and I loved it. I went on adventures and got to play as the hero of the story I had chosen. Sure there was fluff and I did rant above about how open world games have kinda sucked recently, but that trend seems to have started after Skyrim came out. All the other companies watched the success of Bethesda, and wanted to copy it with their own knockoffs.
One of my favorite Assassins Creed games is Assassin's Creed III, and I know it gets a lot of hate, and it's not that popular, but I think it will be far better than Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Hear me out, AC3 is not the best story, and yes the voice acting is kinda bad, but the gameplay is by far one of my favorite. You get to run around during the American Revolution (one of my favorite historical periods) and be involved in one of the coolest parts of history. You still may be thinking I don't know what I'm talking about, but how was the gameplay? I loved the rope dart and it made for some pretty cool assassinations. Hunting was actually pretty fun in the game, and the homestead missions (for the most part) were actually well put together. It was so fun going through the forts, and also recruiting some npc's to help you out with your assassinations. I loved to set elaborate traps of my own design just to see if I could get away with it undetected. Even after I beat the game, it was still fun to go back and create challenges for myself. Yes, the main story and voice acting were flat, but I'll bet the gameplay of AC3 is better than AC Odyssey.
Another thing, remember a time when there actually was a tv channel for video games? If not it was called G4, I didn't watch it a ton, but once and a while they had something interesting. I remember that's where people used to get there video game news from, and learn about all the cool upcoming games, but that channel shut down years ago. Now we get everything from online. Which isn't a bad thing, it just means things have changed.
Then there's the gaming steamers, I think most of them have moved to twitch now, but I could be wrong. Most of them just played the top games that came out, but some would delve deep into the indie market. One youtuber that actually can give some decent content once and a while is the Rad Brad. I haven't watched him for a while, but he's energetic and fun with his vids.
Oh, and the marketing of these AAA title games. That's the real killer. Don't believe me? Remember a little game called, No Man's Sky? That was probably the biggest blunder in video game marketing history! The game promised adventure, but all we got was boredom. I've heard that some people say the game has improved but I'm not dropping my money on the thing! It's just not worth it!
Yet the market keeps changing and peoples tastes change too. I'm not saying every game that is out today is utter trash, but it sure seems like most of it is. With the budgets that these companies keep pumping out, it's almost a wonder how they can keep doing the same thing over and over. Oh wait, it's not, because it's cheaper and faster just to do a copy and paste from what they already have! Just give people the same game with the same layout, and keep making them pay for micro transactions, because if they want to beat their friends, it's almost impossible to do without dropping a crap load of cash than you have already dropped on the game. Something has to change, and I have no idea when that will happen, but I'm pretty sure that it will.
I don't game much anymore, and I believe I stated earlier, I really only game with my friends. We don't game online when I play with them, my buddies and I are sitting on the couch and enjoying the competition next to each other.
I know there's a bunch of other stuff we can do, and we mostly do other things than game, but when we game, it's nice to know it will be a fun experience that we are able to share in the company of one another and have many laughs while doing it.
So major companies, keep on dropping your flashy new AAA games, and keep suckering people into your micro transactions. You may make some cash in the short term, but your going to alienate your customer base eventually, because it does get expensive and people will eventually rather spend the money on something else rather than your carbon copy of a game you put on every year for the past few years. When I game, I'm going to enjoy my seven year old adventure game, or have some fun on the couch with my buds, like we did back in 2005. In the end, most of your games will be forgotten, but the memories my friends and I built will be forever.