I mostly play older games so I mostly haven't noticed the "games as a service" problem because it was mostly happening in games that I didn't play, and being implemented by studios I mostly avoided. It's becoming harder for me to ignore these days though, Grand Theft Auto 6 is right around the corner and it looks like the games publisher, Rockstar, has decided to gate off sections of the map unless you pay $20 to access them. It would be bad enough if the gated content was something "worthwhile" like bonus missions or playable characters, but they gated content will be shops and car dealerships that you normally would have had access to in the base game.
Speaking of which, the base game already costs $80 so this is pretty egregious.
Meanwhile I fired up Street Fighter 6 the other day, the latest iteration of the franchise and was greeted by the now familiar tiled menu layout that's mostly storefront with some gameplay options strewn about. After customizing my avatar I was dropped into a virtual shopping mall, a bit too on the nose for me so I backed out to try to find the "Arcade" option. I found it buried in a submenu somewhere, clearly no longer the default way you were supposed to experience the game.
The good news is that it seems like we're about to leave the darkness behind because HD-2D games are seeing quite a resurgence, alongside a wealth of cozy-games and a few big budget standouts like Baldur's Gate III and other games from Larian studios that are following the old simple formula, selling a game as a game, not as a loss leader for years worth of DLC.
Side scrolling brawlers have long been a favorite genre of mine and there are three really great ones that I've been playing lately
There have also been some great RPGs and remasters, like Final Fantasy Tactics the Ivalice Chronicles, the Dragon Quest HD-2D remakes which deserve a lot of credit for being early and sticking to it.
More recently we've seen the releases of games like Hades II and The Adventures of Elliot, so I'm spoiled for choice right now and hoping that this turns out to be a strengthening continuation of a trend where high quality games are released at lower price points.
Unfortunately for me this means I have to put my money where my mouth is and turn my back on GTA, which has been to this point one of the defining franchises of my life. I remember the originals which were top down 2D games, almost a glorified pac man with guns, nothing like the amazing cinematic open worlds of the later games.
I was really looking forward to the next one, but I think having areas of the map walled off unless you pay is too immersion breaking in a game where immersion is kind of the whole game.