26 April 2015
I completely agree with Ryan McCaffrey on IGN's Podcast Unlocked episode 192. The bar seems to have been lowered for triple-A shooters for the amount of content shipped with the game at launch. The games themselves are excellent, riding the hype train right from initial trailer to the first few weeks after release. The gameplay and mechanics of the games are top class and so they review well and sell loads. However the issue here is the amount of great content that comes with the game. This seems to be drastically lower than we've come to expect. There are 4 games at different stages that have, and could potentially fall into this category.
Titanfall, which I never played, but had so much hype as one of the best games from E3 2013. This was supposed to be the game to topple Call of Duty's dominance but due to the lack of content, and maybe more so the fact that it was an Xbox exclusive, this never happened.
Destiny, which reviewed poorly mainly due to a waffling story, but is an excellent shooter with gorgeous visuals and great multiplayer, both co-op and competitive. But for a triple-A game I've never played so much recycled content just to get to the level where you unlock cool gear and weapons. The DLC that has added new content still isn't enough and definitely not worth its price tag.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is similar to Titanfall in that this was the game everyone was talking about after E3 2014. We've now seen alpha gameplay and the hype has toned down a little. The strategic combat and game mechanics are still awesome fun but there appears to be a lack of content. With no single player and a limited number of small compact maps the longevity of the game does seem to be a big question.
Finally, the game that has promoted this discussion is the newly announced Star Wars Battlefront. After seeing a beautiful gameplay engine trailer (engine is the key word there) this game could follow in the footsteps of Destiny however with no single player story. It's already been confirmed there will be no spaceship battles and many DLC instalments to come. This seems almost inevitably to be a great shooter mechanically and visually (developed by DICE - behind the Battlefield series) but will have far less actual content than we expect at launch. I'm not a big Star Wars fan but I'm hoping this game does not fit the trend.