Anyone else finding more enjoyment from XBLA/ Indie titles than retail lately?

[Tetlee]

I've been noticing a bit of a trend with me lately, that while I've been on the whole disappointed with most of the retail releases of the past 12 months or so, I've been more and more satified and impressed with XBLA titles and Indie games.

If I look back at my gaming highlights over the past 12 months, I would say that XBLA titles pretty much dominate my list, with the likes of Splosion Man, Trials HD, The Maw, Defence Grid, Shadow Complex, Worms 2 and more recently Vandal Hearts being the most noteworthy. Then there's Indie Games with the cracking little gems like Avatar Golf, Arkedo: Pixel etc.(I think Indie Games is really improving recently).

Ask me my retail highlights of the same timescale and I'd be pushing it to think of a handful to be honest. It's almost as if retail is becoming too bogged down with sequels and lacking in inspiration for anything particularly new and exciting, where as XBLA and Indie seems to be full of fresh ideas and fun gameplay.

Any of you lot finding the same thing?

 

[Rorifett]

Definitely, I think a big part of it as well for me is the issue of not having enough time to dedicate to learning new stories etc as well, I should potentially have time to play every night and for a few hours a time but realistically I'm lucky if I can get on the xbox two nights running these days. Too much housework, too little time Gonna have to hire me a cleaner... And remortgage the house to afford aforementioned cleaner... Maybe just get the gf trained a bit better

 

[Noggleboggleman]

Yes! I feel sorry for people who don't even consider looking at Arcade or Indie games as they are missing out on so much.

My fave games last year:

Retail: MW2, Fifa10, Borderlands (which I only started playing this year)
Arcade: Battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex, Trials HD, Monkey Island + others.