Cloned open worlds and €3,000 GPUs: gaming's creative crisis

Video games stall: cloned worlds and €3,000 GPUs

The unveiling of Nintendo's new console and the arrival of the latest Dynasty Warriors were set to be the events of the season. Hours later, the focus shifted to something more uncomfortable: the feeling that the industry releases more titles than ever yet hooks players less than ever. It's summed up by someone who just uninstalled Cyberpunk 2077: "all games are the same". It's not an isolated complaint.

Those who have been gaming for decades describe an identical pattern. They dive in, are dazzled by the setting, last twenty hours and start to see the seams. From there, the countdown begins. The question hanging over the sector is whether the problem lies with the industry or with the player who has seen it all.

Open-world fatigue

The most repeated diagnosis points to a design that copies itself. Someone who has played Cyberpunk 2077 describes it as an open world "empty, where you do the same thing over and over", and adds the detail that betrays the mechanism: you're aware of it from the first few hours. The same player extends the complaint to another title: all settlements are copy-paste and only the duels are worth it.

The case of Atlus's latest major turn-based RPG serves as a gauge. Metaphor: ReFantazio holds up until 30 hours, the point at which you decide whether to lower the difficulty to minimum or ditch it. Pogre becomes a toll, and the optional battles at the end deflate even the most stubborn. With the same frankness, Days Gone is dismissed —"fun, though it ends up being a bit tedious"— or the newly released Dynasty Warriors itself, which here is saved: some crown it as the best since the third installment.

How much does PC gaming cost today?

The other major front is the wallet. The price range is staggering: a mid-range card costs around €1,200, a high-end one shoots up, and the top-tier one hits €3,000. Building a powerful computer has become an act of faith, especially when a newly released title demands a latest-generation GPU to look as it should.

That's why many take refuge in mixed solutions. One player champions the desktop plus handheld combo: with that, "I lack nothing." There are also those who go for a gaming laptop —€1,100 for a four-year-old configuration, €1,300 for a two-year-old one— and accept its limits: high temperatures, soldered components and a complete change every so often, in exchange for being able to play anywhere "plugged in."

The disappointing remasters

If anything has heated up tempers, it's the new remaster of The Witcher 3. One review doesn't mince words: it looks "infinitely worse" than the version it's based on, the promised upscaling doesn't work and it drags graphical bugs. The paradox is double, because it's free and still generates rejection.

Some argue that the previous next-gen version remains the reference and recommend not touching the new one. The pattern repeats in other releases: more requirements, more hardware cost and a visual result that doesn't match.

The games that survive the burnout

Amid the general fatigue, there's also enthusiasm. The most celebrated is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, described as the Final Fantasy X of this decade for its turn-based combat with real-time defenses, and whose merit is underscored by coming from a studio of just 30 people.

The Metro trilogy, Chernobylite and STALKER are dissected in parallel: post-apocalyptic atmosphere, paranormal component and very different styles. For those seeking something linear, starting with Metro is recommended; for those who can handle free exploration, STALKER offers gunplay that, they say, makes each weapon feel unique. In the recovery chapter, Control surprises with its awe-inspiring architecture and Dante's Inferno is vindicated as a hack'n slash from another era that runs at 60 fps on Microsoft's console.

From subscription to rescued classics

The subscription formula also emerges. One player takes advantage of the new Game Pass tier to try Runescape: Dragonwilds, a survival game with skill-based pogre —running raises stamina, chopping wood raises woodcutting experience— and a building system that forces you to calculate foundations and structure weight. Others rescue classics: the original Total War, even though its graphics "make your eyes bleed," or the original Baldur's Gate trilogy, with the warning that they have little to do with the third.

Servers that shut down and games that are lost

The list of grievances is joined by the disappearance of online titles. The shutdown of a third-person shooter's servers leaves its players without access forever. An uncomfortable reminder that the digital library isn't owned: it's rented until the company decides to turn off the lights.

The underlying malaise

Beneath the recommendations, a broader critique emerges. Some outright declare that the big Western studios are finished, while others censure character design decisions in well-known sagas as ideological impositions. There are also reproaches that sarracena conditions the game: if you're given the option to kill an enemy, don't penalize you for not doing so.

The closing doesn't come. No one has resolved whether the weariness stems from an industry that repeats formulas until they're exhausted or from a player who has already lived through too many identical launches.