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[samoilaaa]

I had a debate with some friends about the quality of gaming these days , we are all 30+ so we have been gaming for over 20 years , ive played games like the old 2d prince of persia , carmageddon , fallout , dangerous dave stuff like that , and we just couldnt decide if gaming was better back then than it is now

i think that nostalgia can play a huge factor , its like that 1st girlfriend that you had in highschool and go on your separate ways once you go to college , you might hook up with better looking women in your 20's or 30's but you will always remember that 1st one , lets take resident evil for example , resident evil 4 is one of my fav of the series but if resident evil 7 released in that same year and someone would ask me which is the better one ofc i would choose resident evil 7 because of the immersion , i cant decide if the story is better but graphics and the way the world is designed helps alot

i think that the technology helps in creating games that are much better than the ones we had , sure the dev might not use it properly and instead feed us microtransactions and dlcs but still there are alot of good games releasing , if i had to count i think i finish more games that released in 1 year since the launch of ps4-xbox one gen than i was in the 90's - 00's

the only thing that changed in me is that i put way more focus on story now , when i was 15 i didnt care about the story at all , finishing the game made me happy and as long as the gameplay was fun i was fine with it

what do you think ?

 

[Gambit2483]

The different numbers of genres, higher instances of innovation and the (relatively) larger leaps in technology were definitely better....

But in terms of graphical showcase, storytelling and multi-player possibilities it's much...much better now.

 

[Kuranghi]

I'm 35, started with Amiga 500 (and older home computers and consoles at friends) and I like both times equally, I apreciate the grand artistry of modern games a lot but the simplicity and tightness of old games can't be touched.

I used to be all about gameplay but now I look at world building, scenario, overall coherence and characters a lot more, some of my favourite stuff from the last 10 years exemplifies that stuff, on top of having engaging pure fun gameplay.

One thing I wish for is for open world games to be smaller and more dense, got burnt out on Ghost of Tsushima and had to put it down for a year, then same has happened with Horizon FW too.

MGS 5 is the worst offender, the story is pure trash but the scenarios and gameplay are near perfect imo. The thing is though... I'm at 250 hours played and I haven't even passed mission 21, it's just insane how much content there is and the way research works wasn't well thought out, its partly tied to MP I have interest in and is made to be a never ending grind.

I went back to it with mods that basically allow nrw gear after every mission and unlimited money and its still kind of a grind... I'll finish it one day.

 

[TGO]

Just my personal opinion but RE2 Remake >>>>>RE7.
Take any game and remake it for today properly like Capcom did and it'll probably stand out and outshine almost anything.
The games were better and nostalgia actually does them a disservice

 

[Operations66]

All forms of art and entertainment are better when they are being created by passionate and creative people. When the big money and big corporations take over, the spirit of the art or entertainment form gets slowly destroyed. It happened to rock music; it happened to movies; and now it's happening to video games.

 

[p_xavier]

There's just too many fetch quests and padding in today's games. I mean beloved games were around 5h (Mario World, ALTTP, Super Metroid etc.) I don't feel that games respect my times anymore except some few exceptions (Uncharted being one).

 

[Holammer]

Games from bigger developers have stagnated as a source of innovation in gameplay mechanics (indies cover that shit today, play more indies!), so games from older eras feel more inventive and capable of taking risks than modern games.
Now it's just a bunch of third person games where advances in cloth physics, more realistic IK and THE MESSAGE are the main selling points.

 

[TrueLegend]

Gaming was about fun, designed for fun, not political inclusion and gender issues which is why remakes sale like choco lava cake. It's all projected bias. No matter how much fun a game is undisguised political pandering in your source of entertainment will always affect your enjoyment. The Last of Us 2 is a prime example of this. The game is beautiful and flawed but for all the political drama it created because of the political belief of the director and his idea to group all the valid criticism of the game under transphobia did took a lot away from the experience. You should not prime your games with issues of political nature in your country and sell it in other countries for mass consumption for a lot of money where that issue doesn't exist and then say stupid dumb shit if people didn't like your game. I played Guardians of the Galaxy which came out last year and it was an awesome amazing criminally underrated experience which made me realize where we could have been today without planting political notions everywhere without putting effort into it. I do think we have a lot of great games made today too. But originality in making games have taken a big hit.

 

[TheGecko]

Gaming was about fun, designed for fun, not political inclusion and gender issues which is why remakes sale like choco lava cake. It's all projected bias. No matter how much fun a game is undisguised political pandering in your source of entertainment will always affect your enjoyment. The Last of Us 2 is a prime example of this. The game is beautiful and flawed but for all the political drama it created because of the political belief of the director and his idea to group all the valid criticism of the game under transphobia did took a lot away from the experience. You should not prime your games with issues of political nature in your country and sell it in other countries for mass consumption for a lot of money where that issue doesn't exist and then say stupid dumb shit if people didn't like your game. I played Guardians of the Galaxy which came out last year and it was an awesome amazing criminally underrated experience which made me realize where we could have been today without planting political notions everywhere without putting effort into it. I do think we have a lot of great games made today too. But originality in making games have taken a big hit.

Everything now has to include “The Message”

 

[TrueLegend]

Everything now has to include “The Message”

I got the reference.

 

[Thabass]

That depends on the game honestly. A lot of games back in the day were designed awfully. Today games are more documented and have better design philosophies. But games today also have a habit of not being "finished" or having a complete experience without having DLC attached to them.

There have been some great games that have come out in the last 10 years that have been absolute bangers (Breath of the Wild comes to mind here), but then you have games like Diablo: Immortal, which gameplay wise, is quite good, but its progression system is highly toxic with the use of its microtransaction system.

Games back in the day were designed and completed when the dev cycle is complete; meaning no DLC or anything like that. Not all games were winners though. So, it really depends on the amount of time the devs spent on QA and designing the game. That hasn't really changed much.

 

[KuraiShidosha]

Consider a single year in the 90s. You can pick nearly any year you like, and you'll have multiple incredible games pushing their genres forward, with amazing gameplay, wonderful soundtracks, interesting characters and stories etc. Now compare any of those years to 2022 so far and what's expected to come. Which is better? How about 2021? 2020? Gaming is dead.

 

[Captain Toad]

Overall? Nostalgia.

But, we tend to only remember the best of the best from a decade and compare that to what released over the last six months.

 

[MagnesD3]

Alot of the older games definitely are better, bigger doesn't mean better.

 

[nkarafo]

Gameplay wise, older games were better. Nowadays i can hardly find something that's interesting enough gameplay wise. Most mainstream stuff now is about sightseeing and button mashing while moving in one direction for the next sight or cutscene.

Graphics are obviously better now. Open world games are also better because only now you can have big, realistic cities and 3D environments to explore.

Someone mentioned how storytelling is better now. I highly disagree. I much prefer the older methods of delivering the story. I prefer text boxes or subtle hints VS shitty/cringe educing voice acting. Not to mention voice acting also limits the amount of dialog because it has to be voiced. I also don't like how games try to look more "cinematic" the further we get. Obviously there are some exceptions. Starfox 64 is better with voice acting, same as Portal since the comedy comes from the delivering and it just happens that the delivery was good.

There were many more genres to play with back then.

Music was also much better. You had many more memorable tunes VS stock movie choirs that sound the same in every game or movie. I also dislike it when games are completely silent with only some "action" music playing. It's boring and predictable.

So, generally, yes. Older games were better. Has nothing to do with nostalgia either, since i tend to enjoy older games more, even those that i never played at the time (System Shock 2, Red Alert 3, Powerslave remastered, etc).

And let's not even mention the shoved politics and agenda pushing of the last 6-7 years or so. Or the predatory microtransactions and how they ruin the game's balance to make them more and more essential to buy. Or the gambling mechanics. Or the Pay To Win mechanics. Or the endless shovelware in the mobile gaming industry where you can hardly find 3 games that aren't being based on microtrasnactions. Dreadful.

 

[PaddyOCanager]

Yes. The industry is creatively bankrupt and everything is reiterative. The industry is "dead"; it's just a machine printing money now.

There are good games still coming out, we've just played them all before. No one is doing anything interesting with A.I., environmental interaction and physics. We still have dialogue trees, and "choosing your path" in games is still contrived.

Every gamer has a mic now, yet the last game I played with voice interaction was SOCOM on PS2. I have a PS Camera, but it has zero gameplay relevance for 99% of games.

Ask most gamers what AAA games they are most looking forward to and you'll probably hear stuff like God of War, Starfield, MW2, Hogwarts Legacy. None of these bring anything new to the industry - they are old games with new skins.

 

[samoilaaa]

Consider a single year in the 90s. You can pick nearly any year you like, and you'll have multiple incredible games pushing their genres forward, with amazing gameplay, wonderful soundtracks, interesting characters and stories etc. Now compare any of those years to 2022 so far and what's expected to come. Which is better? How about 2021? 2020? Gaming is dead.

i will compare 1999 vs 2015

1999 - Silent hill ( i didnt play it but alot of people liked it ) , final fantasy 8 , syphon filter , heroes of might and magic 3 , super smash bros , driver , system shock 2 , legacy of kain soul reaver , the longest journey , unreal tournament

2015 - bloodborne , the witcher 3 + heartstone dlc , ori and the blind forest , rise of the tomb raider , soma , undertale , pillars of eternity , batman arkham knight , divinity original sin , shovel knight , life is strange , devil may cry , brothers a tale of two sons , the vanishing of ethan carter , until dawn

2015 is the winner for me but the list might be different for someone else

2021 has a high chance of winning too , disco elysium final cut , hades , psychonauts 2 , it takes two , deaths door , monster hunter rise , hitman 3 , wildermyth , the forgotten city , returnal , resident evil village , little nightmares 2 , judgement , pathfinder wrath of the righteous ,

 

[PaddyOCanager]

i will compare 1999 vs 2015

1999 - Silent hill ( i didnt play it but alot of people liked it ) , final fantasy 8 , syphon filter , heroes of might and magic 3 , super smash bros , driver , system shock 2 , legacy of kain soul reaver , the longest journey , unreal tournament

2015 - bloodborne , the witcher 3 + heartstone dlc , ori and the blind forest , rise of the tomb raider , soma , undertale , pillars of eternity , batman arkham knight , divinity original sin , shovel knight , life is strange , devil may cry , brothers a tale of two sons , the vanishing of ethan carter , until dawn

2015 is the winner for me but the list might be different for someone else

2021 has a high chance of winning too , disco elysium final cut , hades , psychonauts 2 , it takes two , deaths door , monster hunter rise , hitman 3 , wildermyth , the forgotten city , returnal , resident evil village , little nightmares 2 , judgement , pathfinder wrath of the righteous ,

This is not a good comparison. In 1999 those games were cutting edge and giving us things we've never had before. They pushed the industry forward.

Now evaluate 2015 and 2021 again - you could switch the years and not even tell the difference between the two.

 

[lifa-cobex]

It's a mixed bag.

Tomb Raider was lauded as the most amazing game here in the UK.
The setting and design was fine for it's time. That being limited by the hardware.
However the combat was fucking terrible. Best to just stand in a spot and tank damage with many enemies.
Finding switches was difficult too. In the later levels the switches would blend in with the environment textures.

MediEvil was a long standing favorite of mine as a kid.
I loved the environments, characters and occasional British humor. Great music too.
However I played the OG not too long back. The first few levels still hold up really well but it sort of meanders around towards the end.
Terrible camera for a plat-former.
Combat was very basic too. Swing and hope you don't get hit back.

Soul Reaver was a fantastic game.
Music, Dialog, environment, characters etc etc. All really well done.
I remember really enjoying the puzzles. That being flipping blocks and putting them in certain places. But the slow build up in difficulty was well done.
Also the unlocks and exploration was fantastic.
Again the combat was very basic like the others. But it was better than most. Having a dodge and using the environment.

I think RPG's was where it was really at back then.
You could get around clunky combat by having a decent fighting system. You could push story telling, puzzles and exploration too.
Music was generally always amazing in RPG's too. I guess they had to push it to create the feeling that represented the setting or situation.


Personally i'd say that gaming was betting in many respects back when. It felt like devs really had a passion to push what they were doing without a corporate overlord.
But in other respects, gaming has really opened up with the advancement of tech. Not talking about the looks of a game but more the possibility's of what you can do in a game.
It's rare I buy a AAA game these days. I tend to look for the diamonds in the rough.

This War Of Mine
Frost Punk
Kenshi
Subnautica
Beat Saber

 

[Krathoon]

There are still good games. People are just jaded. So jaded.

 

[samoilaaa]

This is not a good comparison. In 1999 those games were cutting edge and giving us things we've never had before. They pushed the industry forward.

Now evaluate 2015 and 2021 again - you could switch the years and not even tell the difference between the two.

i understand what you are saying but im not talking about pushing the industry forward only if the game is fun or not , and even if not 1 game from 2015 pushed the industry forward i had fun with them , we had good games from all genres , platformer , rpg , puzzle , action adventure , story driven

 

[PaddyOCanager]

i understand what you are saying but im not talking about pushing the industry forward only if the game is fun or not , and even if not 1 game from 2015 pushed the industry forward i had fun with them , we had good games from all genres , platformer , rpg , puzzle , action adventure , story driven

Yeah, I'm just frustrated. We're closing in on a decade of no meaningful difference in the games. We used to have games that literally shook the industry when they came out and changed everything. I still believe that is possible, but no one is pursuing it. And why should they? There is no incentive anymore.

 

[Kabelly]

Yeah, I'm just frustrated. We're closing in on a decade of no meaningful difference in the games. We used to have games that literally shook the industry when they came out and changed everything. I still believe that is possible, but no one is pursuing it. And why should they? There is no incentive anymore.

maybe you should get into VR.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Elden Ring says nani?!

 

[PaddyOCanager]

maybe you should get into VR.

I did! Then my PSVR broke............

Edit: I loved VR, and am genuinely interested in PSVR 2 I'm hoping it's reasonably priced and I'll probably make the leap to PS5 once it comes out.

 

[SEGA_2012]

Yes, they were better. The X360/PSTriple/Wii/PSP/DS was the last great generation of games.

 

[SupremeHoodie]

The late 2000s multiplayer scene was definitely better imo (Halo 3, Cod 4, Gears). Xbox live changed multiplayer gaming forever.

Everyone was on mics in game chat, it was fun, lots of friendships were made, lots of trash talking was said, every Xbox came with a mic so everyone talked and this was before they implemented party chat and discord being a thing.

 

[Beer Baelly]

Yes, they were better. The X360/PSTriple/Wii/PSP/DS was the last great generation of games.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I can't think of a single game from the 90s or early 00s that could compete in todays market.

Alternatively, I can't think of a single highly regarded modern game that wouldn't decimate the competition if you dropped it on the 90s or early 00s market using a time machine.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

One thing I wish for is for open world games to be smaller and more dense, got burnt out on Ghost of Tsushima and had to put it down for a year, then same has happened with Horizon FW too.

So much this, make a giant world for an MMO type deal where you'll charge a monthly fee (or whatever they do now). Then you'll need the space to add stuff over the years.

A game with a campaign needs to be more focused, build a couple of large areas that leave some creativity for the player to approach things differently and have place for ample exploration or limit the size of the map so that you don't need a GPS in ancient times to navigate it.

Also, actually hide the damn "secrets" and side quests, you can put markers for the main quest stuff... But the rest, optional stuff, should be actual discovery on the part of the player and some of it should be meaningful enough (not just artefacts, coins, etc.).

 

[MiguelItUp]

I think it's a little bit of both TBH. There's a lot of variables. But I think that era showed us a lot more unique and creative "AAA" titles. Also more games that had more content, more replayability, and more staying power. Passion felt a lot more existent, and it felt stronger than the need for money and success. Nowadays it feels like it's more about money and success, instead of passion. Thank goodness for "AA" titles and indie games that still give us some fresh and neat ideas from time to time. But then the "AAA" market just tries to take those ideas and use them too, lmao.

 

[R6Rider]

Mostly nostalgia and rose tinted glasses.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Just off the top of my head:
Outrun 2, F-Zero GX, FF Tactics, Vagrant Story, Street Fighter 3, Mario 64, Ace Combat 4, Super Metroid...
dump on your favorite games of today.
Not even remotely close.

 

[Laptop1991]

Yes, as the focus was on gameplay and enjoyment to sell copies, not mtx or lootboxes and stores.

 

[TheGecko]

I can't think of a single game from the 90s or early 00s that could compete in todays market.

Alternatively, I can't think of a single highly regarded modern game that wouldn't decimate the competition if you dropped it on the 90s or early 00s market using a time machine.

So wrong... Modern games you basically just do what you're told on screen. Like a Monkey pressing a button for a reward.

 

[Doom85]

Mostly nostalgia and rose tinted glasses.

I do distinctly remember an article that was summed up as “I consider Ocarina of Time to the greatest video game ever made…because I specifically choose to never replay it as I know it will no longer hold that rank if I do.”

 

[cireza]

It was very different, which is enough to justify that people can prefer either. I personally prefer 90s games.

 

[stn]

It is hard to compare because, obviously, current games will look and sound much much better. That said, I do think the older games are better when you consider things like depth and originality. Then again, there are many games out there made in the modern day that are genuinely great.

As an example, WWF No Mercy was released in 1999. Since then, I don't think there has been a better wrestling game released. There were some good ones along the way but it is still unmatched.

 

[Krathoon]

I love old PlayStation 1 games. I will always will. There were some really weird ideas back then.

 

[Raven77]

There was more variety in AAA games, that is for dang sure. Just look at the N64's small library. More variety in that tiny library than the full retail released library of games for the PS4 and Xbox 1 combined.

 

[Krathoon]

It is hard to compare because, obviously, current games will look and sound much much better. That said, I do think the older games are better when you consider things like depth and originality. Then again, there are many games out there made in the modern day that are genuinely great.

As an example, WWF No Mercy was released in 1999. Since then, I don't think there has been a better wrestling game released. There were some good ones along the way but it is still unmatched.

There was that one wrestling game on the 360 were it had the old wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. I forgot the name. I bought it last year. I will have to find it.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

As a product? As a marketable piece of media that can affect seventeen people seventeen different ways, with better hardware, fully orchestrated music, and budget and space to make games you can get lost within for hundreds of hours? Yeah. Definitely better. Gaming is a monster now, promoted at sport events, commercials, online ads. Every celebrity endorses so and so and talks about all the free hours they played X or y. It's gotten saturated to the point where people only expect the best.

But from an innovative or creative standpoint, I think it suffers. Back then gaming was on the rise, but it was before virtue signaling hijacked things, it was before political statements in a cutscene bore more relevance to the craft than actual gameplay. It was before 20 dollar dlc for the true ending or horse armor.

Bit of a tangent, but I was just thinking about this the other day. What made the older Final Fantasy games feel so much more lived in and authentic than the newer titles, despite being on far lesser tech? I think the answer is related to this OP's line of thinking. Back then, each game had it's own identity, beyond genres and single/multi-player. In an older FF game, you could go into a random dude's house, steal his shit out of the cupboard, then go talk to his grandson upstairs about how great chocobos are or whatever. In a new FF, you'd go up to the house, and wouldn't be able to enter it. There'd be the same old dude out front sweeping or some shit, but when you would approach him, he'd automatically say some flavor text like "I sure hope the empire doesn't come back!" and then ten feet away there would be the same NPC model with the same voice actor talking about inane bullshit.

The point I'm making is, back then, games felt like movies. Or novels. Or visual novels. Now they feel like Theme parks and greatest hits.

 

[AJUMP23]

Games are a reflection of their time. And you probably enjoyed the games you played as a child more than what you play as an adult. I love the gems from my youth the 80s and 90s. And they were great from their time, to me they are better than some of the games I play today, but objectively they were also not capable of things modern games do. But Metroid and Zelda and Mario are still incredible then and now. But they are all different. Contra was amazing, but compared to Call of Duty it seems quaint. But I had more fun with Contra than CoD.

 

[RJMacready73]

Near 50 here so started on Space Invaders on the Atari, as a kid the games didn't have the tech but relied on your imagination to fill the gaps, games like Eye of the Beholder look simple in comparison to the likes of modern day RPGs but all that meant nothing to a couple of nerds sat around an Amiga imagining the endless possibilities of what was in store for us as we explored the dark dungeons, the wonder is gone, everything looks amazing and nothing is truly original so gone are the days of huge leaps in gameplay and technology when we went from 8bit to 16bit to PS1

 

[SeraphJan]

The reason is simple, every year there were tons of good games, but even more shitty games

When you recall games from your childhood you only recall the good one, the shitty games your brain omitted them subconsciously. But for games in current years you still remember those shit games, the recent it is, the warmer the shit felts. In the end your impression of old games as a whole were all the classics, however your impression of newer games as a whole are a mixed of good and the shits, thus why people felt old games were better.

If you look at statistic, doesn't matter which year it is, the market were always filled with tons of shitty games.

My favorite console used to be SNES, but if you just skip all the classics and purely look at all the garbage on that system, you would be amazed how many trash there were

Don't even get me started on 32 bit generation, systems like Atari Jaguar and Amiga CD were the epitome of garbage

Like when you recall PS1, Metal Gear Solid might comes to your mind, but not Pepsiman

 

[BlackTron]

90's gaming will never be beaten. I remember being excited thinking that through natural course of events, we'd get games similar to what we had, just iteratively better, and that was enough for me. Man was I wrong, most of my fav IP took a massive hit, 2000s was when everything started to get bad. There was still progress yes but it also marked the beginning of the end.

I didn't think they could really improve on Smash Melee. Like, at all. So all I expected from Brawl was Melee ver2 with bumped gfx and online mode. The gfx were muddy, the online didn't work, and the mechanics were tweaked to make it more of a sloppy Mario Party/Kart type game than a real fighter. All my fav games started going down this path of being a "mass market product" instead of just a game. Horrible.

Today, we have a wide variety of games that are more accessible and affordable than ever. It's not a complete shitshow. But it seems whenever they manage to do something right, all they've done is carefully bottle and sell a piece of fun that was flowing freely in the past.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

So wrong... Modern games you basically just do what you're told on screen. Like a Monkey pressing a button for a reward.

Give me an example of a modern, highly successful game, that wouldn't wreck the competition if we dropped it on 1997.

 

[TheGecko]

Give me an example of a modern, highly successful game, that wouldn't wreck the competition if we dropped it on 1997.

Graphically sure, but they would have soulless gameplay compared to the golden era.

 

[Fbh]

A bit of both I guess. There's some nostalgia to it but I can definitely see how people would have preferred some of the variety and innovation we had back then. And I still think some genres like JRPG's were arguably better back then.
There's still a lot of variety but now you have to go look at indies to find it while back then budgets were still low enough that even more niche products could have competitive production values compared to the more popular AAA stuff

 

[Davesky]

Gaming has lost it’s ambiguity hence no more imagination is involved when playing a game. Final Fantasy used to feel like a deep personal story, even up until the PS2 era playing something like a FIFA or Tony Hawks game felt like a fun indoor replacement for the real thing. Now games have too much realism and detail and it’s ruined the ‘pretend’ part of play.