AAA Games from Yesterday - The Lost 2000s Era 

Use code ERUPTION60 to get 60% off your first Factor box at bit.ly/3CLJyfa! HOWDY. This here's a pilot to see if the concept is something y'all are into. I haven't really gone into modern or at this point "Retro" AAA games yet, and you know this channels old and crusty now so I wanna see what works! Lemme know if you want to see me do more deep dives into bigger AAA games and also any specific ones you think I should highlight. Also try Bionic Commando. It's like 2 dollars on steam during sales, it's better than you've been told! A perfect 6.5. Just like Sonic Frontiers.

This kind of video is EXACTLY my kind of jam. I love seeing retrospectives on niche games from my teenage years. The 360/ps3/wii generation is such a fascinatingly awkward transition generation. It’s long lifecycle saw such a drastic shift in game design from the previous generation to what is now essentially a universal blueprint for gameplay. I think you should absolutely do more like this!

binary domain was SICK, i lowkey loved that if you badmouthed your ai teammates, they could ACTUALLY hear you, understand you, remember it, and hold a grudge, i even had the robot throw my own words back at me once.....ive never played a game like it since, BUT I WANT TO! maybe combine it with the "nemisis system" and iunno, actually allow you to talk to the npc's at critical story junctures, instead of just picking from a dialog tree, that would make for one hell of an immersive RPG!

There was a lot of massive “hype” titles in the early 00s. GTA 3, Zelda the wind Waker, Metroid, Resident Evil 4, the original Halo. Truly was an awesome time for gaming,

you could make an hour long video on the history of drying paint and id still watch it. yes pls keep this series going 🙏

Always fascinating to know what triple A games were like back then compared to now .

I’m glad to see Binary Domain get a mention. It was one of my favorite games from the 360, and I still play through it every year. It has a great pace, awesome shooting and the destruction was satisfying, such an underrated gem.

I always remember Jade Empire as that game where if you save scummed while gambling it would kill the npc you were gambling against

Binary domain and Bionic Commando went under the radar so hard man. Some of the best bargain bin purchases I’ve ever made.

always love when austin makes wrestling references. the "hollowed out ricky starks" with 2 seconds of his theme playing gave me a good laugh

I love these deep dives into the 2004 to 2014ish games, there is a lot of forgotten gold there

Ha! I just bought a Shenmue 1&2 bundle a few days ago. It was on sale for like $8 in the MS store. Shenmue was definitely a triple A game that I couldn't wait to show my family and friends way back when.

I LOVED this vid! Made me very nostalgic for the years when I was young and would see all these games on the shelves of our local rental store. Great to see what they were all about having never played a lot of them, and would love to see more!

Yesterday’s $60 blockbuster is tomorrow’s bargain bin fodder

I would 100% be interested in you doing a dedicated episode for Gun. To this day, it's still my favorite Western/Cowboy game

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a great example of this. Love this idea as a series

The concept of Triple A came into being during the 7th generation that is very true. I think the idea behind Triple A was when the video games industry tried to be just like the movie industry. A trend had developed that wanted to expand and increase marketing reach so they wanted to emulate the movie type of marketing. Instead of a term blockbuster the term triple AAA became the popular term. Before the 7th generation sure marketing was important to video games but the only difference is by the 7th generation it wanted to emulate the movie industry that's why this term was useful.

Hell yeah, you mentioned the wife arm! That’s the only thing I know about Bionic Commando and I love it.

One of my favorite trends of this era was "we hired a band!" Korn's theme for Haze... and Jon Davis's for one of the Silent Hill games, for example

This video was wonderful. It went in directions and mentioned games I totally didn't expect. I love how he can talk about games I have already played and still shine an entirely new light on it.

So glad Boston Erection's videos seem to only increase in quality. You have earned one like and one comment.

I actually really liked Black! Glad to see it get some love. I'm not really a huge fan of FPS games, but this one kinda stood out.

I appreciate the look back into the PS1 - PS3 generation of Games.

Really - the idea of you sharing your experiences with these types of titles with epic levels of details would be cool - hope it happens. Great video :)

I’d love to see more videos like this, these are my favorite of yours. Seeing this pilot turn into a series of videos would be awesome

You talked about it in passing, but I would really want you to cover Dark Void. It has a lot in common with Bionic Commando and Binary Domain (fun gameplay gimmick + bonkers ideas thrown around for the story) but with this one you can really feel how the budget money shrinks as the game progresses. It just ends as the third act of the story is supposed to start, it's baffling.

I really liked this! Hope you do more, there were a lot of weird AAA and AA games back in the day.

I played the FF7 demo from the magazine at least 20 times. Super Maria 64 was a groundbreaking experience. I don't think I even imagined games could be 3d until that point.

I'd just like to see more people talk about Panzer Dragoon Saga, it even kinda fits under this topic (big money project, sold really poorly)

Would definitely enjoy seeing more of this. Lots of games I’m surprised I’ve never heard of.

I liked the overview, you should do the deep dives or focus on singles on the ones you want, but I also enjoyed the grab bag approach & you could absolutely make that work as a semi-slack series if you grouped some into themes or trends, whether they died out or evolved into a current form. Like “AAAs & Product Placement” or “AAAs with Wrestlers but not about Wrestling” or “AAAs All Went Crazy For Bullet Time For 4 Long Years” or “AAAs Where You Play Sick For A Level” or “AAAs With Legit Soundtracks” etc etc. I really liked all the moments of remembering a game existed in this & I think it’s cool for you to leave yourself room to do both single dives & surveys in batches kinda stuff.

This is probably my favourite video of yours. Definitely want to see more of it

A great watch indeed and yeah Austin Eruption this little experiment was worth it, looking forward to whatever you make next dude. 👍

Playing Jade Empire after the KoTOR games, is like eating a stale cashew nut after eating a fruit and nut chocolate bar.

Love your content bro lowkey been binging this weekend, learn something each video

you are the king Austin thank you for rocking and rolling these videos

Nice! Keep up with that quality content :) really enjoying it

Did not expect a mention of Binary Domain, let alone a brief mention of "Absolute" Ricky Starks! Good to know Austin is All Elite Knowing too.

Really like this video, hope you make additional videos with deep dives into some of these.

Great video Austin! I also appreciate the inclusion of that Tekken 4 beach song, and I have a similar thing that happened to your Shenmue story but I think it was from playing Heavy Rain when my mom got weirdly invested in a game which was very much unlike her, the only other time was when she had so much fun playing Wii Sports at a clients house, we got one to play with her lol

1:50 yes Austin, I want this deep dive format so much

I feel bad for Prince of Persia 2008, I don't think I've ever seen someone mentioning it on youtube in the past 10 years or something lol. Great video!

Great video mate, had a blast watching it !

Love this concept for videos please do many more of these. I'll watch every single one.

This has been a fun video to take a look back at some games I haven't thought of in years.

1:34 I come home after school and check your channel every day. I love you bro

The 2000s, AAA games were really special way back then, back then the games didn’t require you to pay for a Season Pass for the game to feel like a complete experience.

Always excited when you upload dude!

Love the format. And I agree that some deeper dives would be really nice. Lost Odyssey is the best final fantasy and it really needs to be said more lol

Great pilot!!! I'm down with this series bro

You weren't kidding, AAA games are a huge time capsule. Some of these games were big guilty pleasures of mine. Bionic commando included

I remember almost every game discussed here. Definitely worth expanding on them in future videos.

The amount of sound bites from Phantasy star online Ep 1 and 2 you use make me soooooooooooo happy

Party Game proposal: take a shot every time Austin says “we’ll talk about this game some other day” and try not to pass out. All jokes aside I loved this video! Keep up the great work!

Nice format! Keep going!

The PS3 and Xbox 360 Era has a TON of great games that are still worth playing today. (With all the games out for PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, and Xbox One, I don't feel any need to upgrade)

definitely keep this series going my brotha

I'm super interested in seeing all the bad or weird "AAA" games i'm here for it all 😂

Amazing video as always. Great research!

I miss these days of wacky games. Devs used to take so many more risks, this is why games feel so stale nowadays.

Love the video, love the format, love the inclusion of Lost Odyssey. Speaking of Odysseys, remember Enslaved: Odyssey to the West? That was AAA right? Always held out hope Andy Serkis would give us more of that.

Seeing someone recognize Binary Domain makes me so happy that game is so cool and legitimately deep for a game that feels like an arcade shooter

That was a trip 😂 great fun look forward to the next one!

Please keep going, I love some of these old AAAs

I am waiting with bated breath for the Neverdead video. This was great, keep it up Austin!

Yeah man! Do more of this kinds of videos, I dig it.

I rarely comment but I really love your videos, thanks for your hardwork Austin, greetings from Belgium in Europe. Now I watching your video. EDIT: thanks for the FFIX soundtracks in the video ^^

Unique topic, loved the video

Love the subject....keep them coming!

10:29 I love that this was included.

I am absolutely excited for the new format!!!

Always such great content.

Like the deeper look at games, please do more.

I am not sure if you did more of these, but this was a great watch and I hope you do or did more. The ending, with Bionic Commando reminds me why seventh generation is my favorite. They tried new, and often wild things. You mentioned the season passes taking off and micro transactions. How about those online passes? That was.. something. Use a code with a new game to play online, or pay a fee, per game to play it online.

Great video as always man

Yeah man! Keep it coming, that's some good shit right there. I wanna see ya doing Too Human. That sounds like a fun time eheh!

Hell yeah, Binary Domain! It was one of those games I found in a bargain bin at the video store in their final days of operation, and I was completely shocked by just how much I loved it. Going in I didn't even realize the game had different endings based on your crew's social links, and it damn near killed me inside when I got some of the worst outcomes due to how I'd spent the whole game calling my team useless over the headset for funnies. I bought the game on Steam again a few years ago, and it's one of those games I just keep going back to even now knowing all its secrets and the min/max best ways to play (Farming in the waste disposal, anyone?) My one regret is that I never got to play the wave defense co-op mode with people because let's be honest, who's gonna shell out the cash for Binary Domain when Halo's all the rage and firefight exists?

Would love to see more of these vids!

22:43 missed opportunity to say “you can walk through walls, disappear, and fly”

This was a cool idea, and it'd be cool to see you dive into some of the ones that interest you

I'd love to see more of this for sure, please for the love of god talk more about Twin Snakes, that damn game deserves so much more then the shit it gets thrown at it

Yes keep making these types of videos please ! ❤

I've got to give you props for very consistently coming out with fresh and unique video ideas, its quite refreshing as someone who's been watching gaming/retro related content on youtube for over a decade

Zombies Revenge is such a good arcade style game.

i've watched a few of your videos, but as soon as you mentioned ricky starks i had to subscribe

I always like your content and this one was great I'd like to see more like it keep up the good work

The first game that ever truly made me feel like I was experiencing something considered triple A was the brilliant Soul Reaver on PS1

Austin, you're bumping UN Squadron music in this?! So many fantastic memories with that one

It's uncanny howany of these fall in to the category of games I was super interested in pre-release and then completely forgot about as soon as no one talked about them post-release. And then I'd go investigate them like a year later and be like "oh, it's crappy"

Man... I kinda miss this era

I forgot all about Lost Odyssey. I don't think I ever made it to the second disc, but really had a good time with it. The active ring thing during battles was super unique.

My breath is fine😤 Great video btw. I'm glad there's less AAA games nowadays tbh

YES to this series also maybe do under rated gems series?

Austin, I can tell you exactly why people hated Bionic Commando (but also I love this as a series idea, please go on) A LOT and I mean A LOT of these AAA titles that were multi-plat had a barely functioning, or super unstable PS3 version. You said the swinging on Bionic Commando was great, so I went back and tried it... No, it does not feel great. So I tried a friends 360 version. That game feels WAY better! I noticed this with other titles too, like Enslaved- Odyssey to the West, Brutal Legend, and El Shaddai to name a few more games. Most of the time, multi-plats just kinda struggled on the PS3

7:20 And then Obsidian came in and pinpointed very single problem with Bioware's writing that would one day kill them.

So many games you’ve missed this video needs a part 2

22:10 Is the best sort of random anime reference, and earns my like

MGS on PSX is my fav game of all time... When I played it in 1999, it was the most mind blowing thing.

I've been gaming for over 40 years at this point. I've seen the graphics go from blocky, single pixels to its fully rendered, capture motioned glory. That line at the start about how FFVII looked AMAZING when it was released explains part of my long term fascination with the hobby. Going back further, I remember Christmas Day 1984 when I got Ghostbusters for the Commodore 64. Decent game, I played it again recently, but it's big thing was it used a few speech samples, which was rare for a home system in those days. Now we're up to VR and I'm wondering what's next?

I liked this, it can help keep the hype for new stuff in check