This year, i've purchased and thoroughly enjoyed Mass Effect 2, God of War 3 and Super Mario Galaxy 2 amongst several other big name titles. I'm looking forward to Halo Reach and Gran Turismo 5 and i'm keeping a keen eye on the progress of Killzone 3. All of these games have something in common, in that had they been released two generations ago they'd have been landmark, smash-hit masterpieces (ignoring the graphical advancement, obviously).

Today, they represent just one in a steady stream of the much-hyped, big-budget 'AAA' releases which hardcore gaming appears to have become attached to. Whereas in previous years we would purchase a wider variety of games, many of which would offer their own quirks and ups and downs to consider, today we are firmly rooted in buying only the 9.0+ games with the expensive marketing campaigns and the unanimous reviews re-affirming their inherent quality and worthiness.

While many of us enjoy these games and immediately add their inevitable sequels to our must-have list, the industry's shift towards maximum budget, 'media phenomenon' releases has created a number of problems for the budding games developer. For one, the smaller development studio working with the more modest budget struggles to compete not only for sales but for mind share and basic interest in their projects in a release schedule crammed with yearly iterations of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, and regular media frenzies over the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, or the latest Halo. Halo of course, being the most poignant of examples in so far as many could point to it as the harbinger of the big-budget, AAA hype-culture in which we currently thrive.

Halo 2 proved that a popular game coupled with a big budget and an aggressive advertising campaign can yield incredible results. Its release date was anticipated to a greater extent than most six year olds await Christmas morning, its sales were unbelievable, its reviews unanimously positive. The boost the game received by the hype surrounding it really cannot be pinned down in words alone. You had to be there. To witness the madness.

And therein lies the second problem. When other publishers followed up on Microsoft's incredible success story, gamers quickly found themselves with a Halo-like release multiple times a year. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 launched to similar fanfare, with an advertising assault and rabid first-day sales. God of War 3 saw limited edition sodas baring its name, and Coca-Cola bottles are braced to advertise Sony's 3D wares in the coming year. It would appear that for the average gamer, every other month brings a game heralding itself as the next big thing.

And it works. Time and time again we rush out to buy these games on a tidal wave of hype which precious few seem sensible enough to take shelter from until the excitement has died down. Only then do we really examine the truth of the matter. The single player was short. The multiplayer was buggy. It's not that different from the last one. All of these acknowledgments seem utterly invisible to the eyes of the average reviewer tasked with penning an accurate description of a game which seems to have asserted itself as one of the greatest of all time before we've even picked up our controllers. Such is the power of hype.

Worryingly this may produce three decidedly negative results. One, we may find ourselves trapped in a dull cycle of yearly iterations in these recognized 'AAA' franchises, each one demanding more of our money while doing precious little to truly push the envelope of creativity and innovation in an industry once built on those two concepts. Second, the indie developer may die out entirely, relegated to the world of iPhone apps and online mini-games should our every day gaming awareness continue to ignore them. Finally, developers may find their work compromised by the pursuit of hype; the need to push their game into that AAA category, to check all the right boxes. Games need mass appeal. They need big-budget graphics. They need online multiplayer, collectible action figures and the promise of downloadable map packs. They need celebrity endorsement.

So important are AAA games to the mindset of the average gamer today that a console's quality is typically derived merely by adding up the number of supposedly AAA titles in its library. Anything else is an afterthought. As such, developers will inevitably find their vision, their ideas, and their creativity stifled by the need to keep checking the boxes and pushing all the right buttons to hit that magic 9.0 and achieve the ineffable status of a AAA release.

Such is the power of hype.