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[KXVXII9X]

I don't think I can give an absolute answer. A lot of my favorite games span across generations. I really enjoyed the focus and variety of games in the past. I felt like there was something for almost everyone. I'm not a multiplayer gamer or someone to like Live service games, so I really miss when the majority of games were straightforward adventure or RPG games. I would say this generation is my least favorite by a lot. Aside from the various reasons affecting production, I think this generation carried a lot of practices I didn't like in the previous generation (Live service, online dominated, open world obsession, bloat, and excessive trend hopping). I can still find gems that bring me a lot of satisfaction, but it isn't as frequent as before. It is mostly me not liking the current trends.

I also think VR has made it clear how stagnant gameplay has become in a lot of games. It made gaming feel fresh and exciting. I hope it still continues to grow and improve. I've always liked what people call gimmicks and I'm saddened that we have been stuck with the same control layouts and kinds of gameplay for so long. Even things like haptic triggers and gyro aim can really enhance and freshen the experience.

I think gamers miss the abstract nature of older games. There is something to be said about filling the missing information with our imagination. I think games now can be so much more enjoyable than ones in the past though and I have gone back to older games and was disappointed. Some games haven't held up very well. I just miss the very focused nature and variety of a lot of older games.

 

[nominedomine]

Depends on the type of games RPGs and MMOs were definitely better.

You also used to have a crazy amount of new IPs, new genres, etc, things that just don't happen as easily anymore.

Games that lean more into presentation/production value tend to be better now, we have crazy good graphics, animation, very relatable characters, etc.

 

[Wohc]

Yes, most games were focused on gameplay and had less Walk+Talk+Cutscenes+Videos and all that broing stuff than nowadays.

 

[Crayon]

I'm going to say today games are better because Miyamoto wrote the bible three times and people really try to follow it. There's also the variety of subgenres and general selection that did not exist back then.

Aside from that though, I don't think indies have really replaced the old games that had shorter development and lower budgets, but absolute top talent and still more resources than indie studios. Years ago, it was a popular sentiment that freedom planet was "the best sonic game". Freedom planet is trash next to any sonic game. I do think top indies have gotten better in general, tho. There are just more of them and thankfully the best ones do tend to get noticed.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

To me, a great game is like music or a movie, it ages like a fine wine.

Overall games are improving in quality over the years, every new gen brings better games than the generation before, that's a fact.

BUT,

Truly great games are timeless and much better overall than the average game from today's market.

Take games like Super Metroid, Megaman X, Castlevania SotN and ask yourself, what games currently in the market are as great as those, and I'm not talking about the historical value, I mean, pound to pound direct comparison.

Before someone made the point that 2D games age better, I invite you to try:

OG Doom, Quake II, Half Life 2, Duke Nukem 3D, Warcraft III, Diablo I and II and many more...

Technically yeah, of course they are all aged, but gameplay-wise, art-wise, sound... They are amazing.

A lot of gamers that weren't born in the 90's and 2000's are now discovering those gems.

 

[Feel Like I'm On 42]

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

Witcher 3 pushed open world games forward with the quality of its side quests.

 

[GametimeUK]

Some games are still absolutely incredible from that era and can stand the test of time. Some games have absolutely timeless game design and are so mechanically sound that they can be enjoyed for generations. It helps if the games have art styles that are super stylized too.

Games like Viewtiful Joe spring to mind. If that game had released today we'd be saying how amazing it is.

 

[TheBROgamer]

I'm going to say today games are better because Miyamoto wrote the bible three times and people really try to follow it. There's also the variety of subgenres and general selection that did not exist back then.

Aside from that though, I don't think indies have really replaced the old games that had shorter development and lower budgets, but absolute top talent and still more resources than indie studios. Years ago, it was a popular sentiment that freedom planet was "the best sonic game". Freedom planet is trash next to any sonic game. I do think top indies have gotten better in general, tho. There are just more of them and thankfully the best ones do tend to get noticed.

Agreed, indies are definitely not a replacement for what AA used to be overall.

 

[TheBROgamer]

Some games are still absolutely incredible from that era and can stand the test of time. Some games have absolutely timeless game design and are so mechanically sound that they can be enjoyed for generations. It helps if the games have art styles that are super stylized too.

Games like Viewtiful Joe spring to mind. If that game had released today we'd be saying how amazing it is.

Thumbs up, Viewtiful Joe is a top tier game even in today's gaming world.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

Games like Viewtiful Joe spring to mind. If that game had released today we'd be saying how amazing it is.

bought it and tried it for first time a few years ago... and thought it was so boring.

 

[GametimeUK]

Thumbs up, Viewtiful Joe is a top tier game even in today's gaming world.

bought it and tried it for first time a few years ago... and thought it was so boring.

 

[veterangamerUK]

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

Dragon’s Lair with polygons

 

[veterangamerUK]

AAA in this eravis fine if you like endless crafting and telling what to press when

 

[Ladioss]

The medium has evolved so much that comparing today's gaming with the 90/00s doesn't really make much sense.

Well, indie 2D platformers games excepted, of course

 

[Halo2redvsblue]

In the 90's there were Amazing games and there was horrible games. Today there are Amazing games, Mediocre games and Horrible games but Mediocre games outweigh both the Amazing and Horrible.

 

[lachesis]

Nostalgia is one factor, but also it had the benefit of being "fresh". I do think the games now a days are much better ones - but it just doesn't "feel" that way nor shakes me to the core like they used to back in the 80-90s. Perhaps that's because I'm an old geezer as well.. but doesn't that mean the good section of the market became jaded and old like me?

Now a lot of games are often a remake of rehashed ideas. 80s and 90s had same issues (like side scrolling beat em ups or shooters, then moved onto fighting games etc), but the entire concept of videogame itself was fresh enough, with rapid progression in terms of graphic and sound from primitive level... it has been a fascinating experience, at least for me - to experience from Pong to PS5/XSX and ongoing.

 

[Larxia]

I think it depends on your tastes, on the genres.

For example, my favorite genre of video games is arcade extreme sports, like SSX and Tony Hawk, therefore, the early 2000s really were the best years for me.
This genre has completely disappeared now, which makes me super sad. I really don't think it's a matter of nostalgia, because everytime I find a game in this genre that I didn't play before, I'm having the time of my life.

Games changed a lot, and in my case, as someone who really like pure raw gameplay, arcade / scoring based games etc, it was mostly better before.

There are still great new stuff and thankfully I still find things I like every now and then, I just wish some genres didn't completely die.

 

[Guerilla Munch]

well can you really blame the developers ? lets be honest here , a huge company like square enix isnt gonna make games just to please a couple of people they need to make profit , most gamers prefer open world games with action combat , the sales numbers dont lie , put yourself in their shoes , what would you do ? make a game that will only please a certain category of gamers and lose money or make the type that pleases most people and make profit ?
the top 5 most sold games of all time are action open world except tetris

i bet that if ff7 remake would have been turn based and corridor type world it wouldnt have sold as much as it did , developers only give what the majority wants and i know that most people here dont like generic open world games ( myself included ) but we represent maybe 1% of the gaming community ?

Nah if FF7 got a 1:1 remake with high resolution backgrounds and remade character models and FMVs I think most people who are nostalgic of the original would have preferred that. The remake we got feels like an Unreal Engine fan project that lacks all the soul of the original.

 

[SSfox]

Some were better for sure without the doubt.

 

[poppabk]

Games back then were developed by small teams of even individuals who were also often the very best gaming talent out there and were extremely passionate about what they were doing. Modern games require large teams of people and so you lose that auteur feel from the games unless you have a very involved person as the overall lead of the project which is rare.

 

[anthraticus]

What happened was gaming did not survive the generational replacement. It was thoroughly colonized by special interest groups. The worst years of gaming started with the release of the PS3/360. The overall quality in games declined steeply as the larger focus from big name developers shifted to grafx with an army of artists.

Mindless cinematic shit became the norm, achievements and micro transactions were introduced (horse armor), the rebooting of franchises in barebones form began, budgets shifted over to prioritizing the marketing and art departments heavily, and everyone was riding the sellout bandwagon hard. No beloved game series survived the rape....complete degeneracy. You'd walk down a corridor, some scripted shit would happen, you'd press an awesome button, fireworks go off, pop a few moles, rinse and repeat.

But they realized they couldn't keep doing that utterly braindead shit and keep popamolers impressed forever. So instead, as one example, devs seem to lean on sandbox skinner box collectathon with 100 handholding features type design. It's shallow as hell and sucks too, but still more involving and complex than the late 2000s games that were barely even games. Still weak and unengaging as fuck though.

The soul of gaming was gone because it became a huge business and back in the day a lot of great companies went to shit because they took risks in order to do what they love. The only people doing that now are a handful of indie developers.

Couple that with the tsunami of identity politics and other horseshit they cram into games and they've now also become digital propaganda or, at the very least, a virtue signaling circle jerk.

The thing that confused me was hardly anyone seemed to notice or care. I didn't understand at the time that dedicated or "hardcore" gamers were actually very few in number. quickly realized and it made it all the more devastating.

 

[SmokedMeat]

The industry was better.

The games weren’t, although there’s naturally going to be examples of some games that were better.

 

[akimbo009]

They were more fun, and even more fun in the 80s. Arcades and engaging gameplay are superior to "play by number cinematic" stuff we get nowadays. It was also geared towards kids and making sure people had fun.

Nowadays it's more for the HBO "let's make it real, and dark, and depressing 18-24 young males" vibe.

 

[tygertrip]

Nah if FF7 got a 1:1 remake with high resolution backgrounds and remade character models and FMVs I think most people who are nostalgic of the original would have preferred that. The remake we got feels like an Unreal Engine fan project that lacks all the soul of the original.

You should check out FF9 with the Moguri mod. Incredible.

 

[samoilaaa]

What happened was gaming did not survive the generational replacement. It was thoroughly colonized by special interest groups. The worst years of gaming started with the release of the PS3/360. The overall quality in games declined steeply as the larger focus from big name developers shifted to grafx with an army of artists.

Mindless cinematic shit became the norm, achievements and micro transactions were introduced (horse armor), the rebooting of franchises in barebones form began, budgets shifted over to prioritizing the marketing and art departments heavily, and everyone was riding the sellout bandwagon hard. No beloved game series survived the rape....complete degeneracy. You'd walk down a corridor, some scripted shit would happen, you'd press an awesome button, fireworks go off, pop a few moles, rinse and repeat.

But they realized they couldn't keep doing that utterly braindead shit and keep popamolers impressed forever. So instead, as one example, devs seem to lean on sandbox skinner box collectathon with 100 handholding features type design. It's shallow as hell and sucks too, but still more involving and complex than the late 2000s games that were barely even games. Still weak and unengaging as fuck though.

The soul of gaming was gone because it became a huge business and back in the day a lot of great companies went to shit because they took risks in order to do what they love. The only people doing that now are a handful of indie developers.

Couple that with the tsunami of identity politics and other horseshit they cram into games and they've now also become digital propaganda or, at the very least, a virtue signaling circle jerk.

The thing that confused me was hardly anyone seemed to notice or care. I didn't understand at the time that dedicated or "hardcore" gamers were actually very few in number. quickly realized and it made it all the more devastating.

i think that things are starting to get better , especially now because of unreal engine 5 , indie devs will be able to make a game the way they want to make and not to please as many categories of people like AAA devs do , UE5 has alot of tools that make the cost of development significantly lower so it wont be such a big problem for indie devs and i agree that the focus on cinematic games has been a part of gaming decline , dont get me wrong i enjoy a good story ( to be honest its one of the most important features that a game must have in my opinion ) but not if that means sacrifices like the world will be less interactive , the AI will be braindead , the level design will be shit etc

i hate how in most games these days ( especially 3rd person ) the control is taken so often from the player , they force you to walk slowly while they continue the dialog , just let me walk or run when i want , i only blame the players for this situation because they allowed this to happen by buying these type of games , its like they slowly lowered their standards without even noticing

companies do what the market wants , so lets say 100 people on neogaf complain that the games are too easy , too grindy , filled with microtransactions and all that stuff , thats nothing compared to all the other millions of gamers that are buying the product , we are the minority , the companies dont care about us , its not like they will wake up one day and make the game the 100 people want and lose money , if the game sold millions of copies then ofc their next game will be the same thing

all my friends love the last 3 ac games , horizon zero dawn games and i really dont understand why they all follow the same formula , except the graphics these games have nothing special , the story is bland , the dialog is like its made by 12 year olds , the gameplay is made as simple as posible to make the players have fun because the moment you have to struggle a little its bad , using ur brain is a bad thing these days

 

[Filldo]

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.

I disagree. Many of us have been arguing for years that games are another form of art. Art is meant to provoke, reflect and challenge its audience. Last of us 2 has done that more than any other game as far as I can tell. Art can also polarized and offend, sometimes that it’s Job. Art is also about self expression and while you clearly hate a certain director for shoving his opinions down your throat you don’t ever consider that there were hundreds of people involved who all wanted to tell this story. On top of being NDs most compelling story is also got the best gameplay out of their games.

I try to understand why people don’t like it but I can’t and the only thing I can think is that I’m just not political, I don’t think there is an agenda. Unless the agenda is being more diverse with its characters but it’s not like Lev is worshipped. It’s not like Ellie is made to be some holy lesbian that’s better than all the straight characters. She is cruel and violent and crosses moral lines repeatedly in her quest for revenge.

If anything that game gives Joel redemption from his past. In one Of those weirdos who thinks that everyone is both good and evil and it’s the choices we make each day that define us. Bad people are capable of goodness and god people are capable of committing atrocities.

To answer the overall question though, I think games are better today than ever but I have simple tastes. I don’t miss older games one bit. Did I enjoy them? 100% I wouldn’t be a 44 year old gamer if I had not enjoyed the journey.

But if someone wants to tell me that ninja gaiden on the NES was better than the Xbox version I would assume they are trolling. Story wise games are definitely better. Game play wise? You have things like Returnal that still dig into that pure game play. Demon souls, bloodborne, nothing from the old days touches those games in my opinion. Graphics, obvious upgrade. In the near 20 years I have been lurking on gaf I have never seen so much cynicism and frankly narcissism from gamers.

It’s crazy how much people here seem to hate games. Things were better in the past only in the attitude that people had towards games. They were new and exciting, now everyone just makes up their mind about what a game should be before they play it and are crushed by the disappointment of their own unrealistic expectations. And what do they do in response? They lash out at devs sending death threats and all sorts of other toxic horrible behavior. It’s fucking gross.

 

[samoilaaa]

I disagree. Many of us have been arguing for years that games are another form of art. Art is meant to provoke, reflect and challenge its audience. Last of us 2 has done that more than any other game as far as I can tell. Art can also polarized and offend, sometimes that it’s Job. Art is also about self expression and while you clearly hate a certain director for shoving his opinions down your throat you don’t ever consider that there were hundreds of people involved who all wanted to tell this story. On top of being NDs most compelling story is also got the best gameplay out of their games.

I try to understand why people don’t like it but I can’t and the only thing I can think is that I’m just not political, I don’t think there is an agenda. Unless the agenda is being more diverse with its characters but it’s not like Lev is worshipped. It’s not like Ellie is made to be some holy lesbian that’s better than all the straight characters. She is cruel and violent and crosses moral lines repeatedly in her quest for revenge.

If anything that game gives Joel redemption from his past. In one Of those weirdos who thinks that everyone is both good and evil and it’s the choices we make each day that define us. Bad people are capable of goodness and god people are capable of committing atrocities.

To answer the overall question though, I think games are better today than ever but I have simple tastes. I don’t miss older games one bit. Did I enjoy them? 100% I wouldn’t be a 44 year old gamer if I had not enjoyed the journey.

But if someone wants to tell me that ninja gaiden on the NES was better than the Xbox version I would assume they are trolling. Story wise games are definitely better. Game play wise? You have things like Returnal that still dig into that pure game play. Demon souls, bloodborne, nothing from the old days touches those games in my opinion. Graphics, obvious upgrade. In the near 20 years I have been lurking on gaf I have never seen so much cynicism and frankly narcissism from gamers.

It’s crazy how much people here seem to hate games. Things were better in the past only in the attitude that people had towards games. They were new and exciting, now everyone just makes up their mind about what a game should be before they play it and are crushed by the disappointment of their own unrealistic expectations. And what do they do in response? They lash out at devs sending death threats and all sorts of other toxic horrible behavior. It’s fucking gross.

you people should stop trying to convince other gamers that the last of us part 2 is some deep form of art that we simple people dont get , its a revenge story nothing more , you want a real provoking story that its about meaning of life and death , that goes beyond materialistic world ? go play the witness , the talos principle , outer wilds , planescape torment , soma but these games dont have shiny graphics , unnecesary dramatic emotional moments and hours of cutscenes so i guess that they dont have a good story and arnt thought provoking

 

[deriks]

Not really a fair comparison

In the 90's we have games with easy mechanics, and gameplay in first place, but the limitations were heavy as fuck

Now we have games larger than life, with a lot going on and real life looks, but a lot of developers focus on the shining part instead of the gameplay

 

[TintoConCasera]

Most modern games are wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle. That didn't happen so often with older games, as devs were more able to take risks and make games for a specific audience.

Today, all games (AAA) are made for everyone, as they try to sell the most units they can. That, imo, results in soulless and uninspired games that risk nothing while also surprising nobody. Also, lots of sequels instead of new IPs, and don't even ask me about remake/remasters.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

It was the era of nerds playing single player games. Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate, Homeworld, Final fantasy.


Not much interested in annoying kids on energy drinks shouting in my ear but multiplayer GaaS is arguably a million times more profitable.

 

[64bitmodels]

Aside from that though, I don't think indies have really replaced the old games that had shorter development and lower budgets, but absolute top talent and still more resources than indie studios. Years ago, it was a popular sentiment that freedom planet was "the best sonic game". Freedom planet is trash next to any sonic game.

.....WHAT?!?! Freedom planet isn't perfect but I'd say it's better than many of the games after the classics (hell it's better than sonic 2 if I'm being honest). And I can think of many other indies like that too. Hollow knight smashes SOTN and any igavania that came after, Cave Story stands toe to toe with Contra Hard Corps if not surpasses it, and Yume Nikki is what LSD dream emulator wished it could be. Undertale has more memorable characters and music than the majority of JRPGS out there, Ori gives any 2d Mario a run for it's money, same for A Hat in Time with 3d Mario (besides Mario 64 ofc)
Even in the future we have Pizza Tower and Antonblast which are looking to be a better Wario Land, and Scratchin Melodii which seeks to replicate and improve on the rapping gameplay of Parappa. indies are more than a great replacement, they're a successor

 

[TrueLegend]

you people should stop trying to convince other gamers that the last of us part 2 is some deep form of art that we simple people dont get , its a revenge story nothing more , you want a real provoking story that its about meaning of life and death , that goes beyond materialistic world ? go play the witness , the talos principle , outer wilds , planescape torment , soma but these games dont have shiny graphics , unnecesary dramatic emotional moments and hours of cutscenes so i guess that they dont have a good story and arnt thought provoking

Couldn't have said better myself. Just to elaborate on the last of us 2 part..

1. Last of us 2 had a nice idea not great idea but a nice idea that had been done before where they wanted to show both side of the coin. However because TLOU was set before this idea the developers had to butcher some of it and did lopsided writing for Ellie compared to Abbey and the new team and the more you move forward in game the message starts to outrun the narrative. You can have a political message in a game I am not against it but you have to earn it not impose it in vague terms through off game drama.

2. This off-game drama of taking some minority comments of a fanbase with millions in it and projecting it as transphobia and then lumping all other criticism with it was the worst offence. Most people disliked the game itself not that Abbey was trans. Niel just couldn't understand that even trans people are human beings n they are dislikeable just like any other one. Everything in the game was stellar but the main story was half ass executed mess so in my eyes it is a 7/10 game, I have seen better stuff from Indie Dev's in terms of depth.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Games like Viewtiful Joe spring to mind. If that game had released today we'd be saying how amazing it is.

If Viewtiful Joe was released today you’d have sooo many people calling it anime shit, and ADHD “journalists” scoring it 4 out of 10 because they can‘t beat the first stage.

Not really a fair comparison

In the 90's we have games with easy mechanics, and gameplay in first place, but the limitations were heavy as fuck

Now we have games larger than life, with a lot going on and real life looks, but a lot of developers focus on the shining part instead of the gameplay

Real-life looks are the primary reason games today need indicators, signs and handholding. The main elements of gameplay get drowned in the scenery because every damned thing has to look as real as possible. The designers of Resident Evil understood this as early as 1996, making pickups shine when they were placed among the scenery in prerendered backgrounds, otherwise you’d have to blindly press X on everything to find stuff. The simple low-poly graphics of FF7 served the same purpose. Today it’s impossible to play Assassin’s Creed without pointers, because absolutely nothing stands out from the scenery and you can’t tell what’s a gameplay element and what’s just pretty rendered stuff at a glance. Mechanics like “detective vision” were also introduced mainly to make up for essential stuff being lost in the midst of all the nicely modeled junk. Many games would be reduced to point-and-click mechanics without obvious pointers, and that’s all because everything just has to look “real”.

 

[bender]

I think the overall quality of games is better currently but the old days had higher highs and to be fair, lower lows. Games today benefit a lot from standardizations in controls, cameras, etc. On the flip side, games are so expensive to make these days that developers and publishers play it much safer these days. I also think that games are hurt slightly by being made for every platform so specific hardware never really gets taken advantage of.

 

[Trazyn the Infinite]

We like to only look at the games we loved and grew up with in the old days. We ignore the thousands of trash games.

However, gaming today has gotten very… disposable. Bewteen the various subscription services that offer thousands of games, cookie cutter AAA releases that barely play differently, MTX, etc. Its kinda gross. But we also have like 5 times the games releasing each month versus what we used to have. So there is always something to play and you have to actively look for those games instead of just having a more limited option that you had as a kid. You were limited to blockbuster, Walmart, etc. Whatever stores you had. Now you can basically buy whatever game whenever you want.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I think the overall quality of games is better currently but the old days had higher highs and to be fair, lower lows. Games today benefit a lot from standardizations in controls, cameras, etc.

You also have the internet telling you what games are truly bad, so you can avoid them. Magazines had only so much space to dedicate to reviews, and most of the space was gobbled up by the big games. There was almost nobody to tell you about those games that really sucked, or were flat-out broken. Not in today’s sense too, when people say a Paper Mario game is a 1/10. Back then we had actual 1/10s, stuff that just wouldn’t play correctly or was bugged beyond saving, and you wouldn’t know from those awesome airbrushed covers.

Today you can almost always find some dork who’s made his life’s mission to make videos about terrible games.
But it’s true, the lower lows of today almost never get as low as in the early 90s.

 

[WoJ]

Most modern games are wide as an ocean, but deep as a puddle. That didn't happen so often with older games, as devs were more able to take risks and make games for a specific audience.

Today, all games (AAA) are made for everyone, as they try to sell the most units they can. That, imo, results in soulless and uninspired games that risk nothing while also surprising nobody. Also, lots of sequels instead of new IPs, and don't even ask me about remake/remasters.

This post largely sums up my thoughts.

But I truly do love cinematic games, i.e. the Sony 3rd person single player game special. With modern visuals and the way games have put more emphasis on story, modern games are capable of creating an immersive experience I only dreamed of as a kid. When modern games are hitting on all cylinders they are great.

But we also have all the lows. Broken releases,remaster after remaster, GaaS BS, shallow mechanics in a lot of cases. There is trash there too. And as others have said fewer risks.

Someone posted in a thread somewhere about how Final Fantasy V essentially laid two world maps on each other and because of that created this fantastical experience that couldn't be done today.

Final Fantasy IV and VI kind of did the same with the whole Underground/going to the moon in FFIV and the World of Ruin in FFVI. That scope is immense and I feel even top tier new games don't consistently replicate that. There are exceptions obviously - Breath of the Wild is magical- but so many games that try to create these amazing immersive worlds just check boxes and bloat things.

So while there is good....there is still bad, and it feels like a lot of the bad is winning the war so to speak.

 

[64bitmodels]

samoilaaa please let this be the last thread you make on this topic, you already made 2 T_T

 

[Filldo]

you people should stop trying to convince other gamers that the last of us part 2 is some deep form of art that we simple people dont get , its a revenge story nothing more , you want a real provoking story that its about meaning of life and death , that goes beyond materialistic world ? go play the witness , the talos principle , outer wilds , planescape torment , soma but these games dont have shiny graphics , unnecesary dramatic emotional moments and hours of cutscenes so i guess that they dont have a good story and arnt thought provoking

I didn't say the people who didn't like it didn't get it. I said art can be polarizing. I don't think its bad that people hate it, I just said that I don't understand the hate and based on most of the things I've read it seems mostly based on people's political views.

I loved the Witness. Talos principle on the other hand I thought was boring. The puzzles were not that great and it was basically, solve a room of puzzles to unlock another room of puzzles. And I gave it a good shot, I went through at least 40 puzzles before I got bored, once you go up some elevator to discover just dozens more puzzles I tapped out. The fact of the matter is the story was not good enough to compel me to keep playing.

Outer Wilds had similar problems for me. Just getting from the start up to the spaceship was painfully slow. Then you get in the ship and have to fight the controls. I told myself I'd try it again one day but not right now. I love good graphics but I'll play anything if its good. Thomas was alone is a great example, loved that game and its nothing but squares and cubes. Hotline Miami, fantastic story, fantastic gameplay, graphics not so much (though it could be argued they were great for pixel based graphics). Still loved it.

Guardians of the Galaxy was one that was promoted for having a great story and graphics but I found it pretty boring. I liked the story a lot but the gameplay just didn't do it for me. It felt very much like been there done that to the point that I just couldn't keep going with it. And that sucks cause it is beautiful and funny but the shooting was monotonous for me.

Soma was on my radar and I'm pretty sure I even purchased it, I just never got around to it so maybe I'll check it out. I don't think planetscape is on Playstation and thats all I can afford these days with a wife and kid so there you go. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, I'm just defending what I think games can be and what I love about them when everyone gets all negative and tries to say that gaming was better in the past I call bullshit on that.

 

[MacReady13]

The games weren’t

Yes they were. You will never have games as good as Mario 3, Mario World, Mega Man 3, Mega Man X, Mario 64, Resi 4, Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3, Sonic 1, 2 and 3 etc... NEVER.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

Nostalgia. PS4 had the best games ever made. Both indies and AAA. I’m still in my 20s so maybe I’m to young to appreciate the 90s but the quality of games now as well as the ability to show the directors vision is unmatched. There’s no games that will match the quality of TLOU2 or Inside from the 90s 2000s.

 

[pramod]

Like someone said it depends what genres u are talking about. Rpgs and FPS have definitely gotten better.

Some genres though are dying or are extinct. Like 2d shmups. I doubt we will ever replicate the golden age of 2d shmups and 2d games in general.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I’m still in my 20s so maybe I’m to young to appreciate the 90s

 

[SmokedMeat]

Yes they were. You will never have games as good as Mario 3, Mario World, Mega Man 3, Mega Man X, Mario 64, Resi 4, Super Metroid, Symphony of the Night, Silent Hill 1, 2 and 3, Sonic 1, 2 and 3 etc... NEVER.

Something like Symphony of the Night has been done ten times over, and we just got a very strong Metroid game. Mario 3 is timeless for sure.

The rest I couldn’t be bothered with in 2022.

I’d gladly take games like Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, Half Life Alyx, etc these days.

 

[cortadew]

After inmersing myself in the retro gaming community (getting a crt, getting old consoles, rgb mods, etc etc) I can say they were more revolutionary for their time specially the 4th, 5th and 6th gen games but newer games have more complex mechanics and way more ambitious and bigger scope so in a way I think they are great and were great when they came out but there is a lot of nostalgia attached to them.

 

[akimbo009]

Nostalgia. PS4 had the best games ever made. Both indies and AAA. I’m still in my 20s so maybe I’m to young to appreciate the 90s but the quality of games now as well as the ability to show the directors vision is unmatched. There’s no games that will match the quality of TLOU2 or Inside from the 90s 2000s.

Match, no, exceed? Yes.

 

[MacReady13]

Something like Symphony of the Night has been done ten times over, and we just got a very strong Metroid game. Mario 3 is timeless for sure.

The rest I couldn’t be bothered with in 2022.

I’d gladly take games like Elden Ring, Red Dead Redemption 2, Half Life Alyx, etc these days.

I'm not saying gaming is all bad today. I'm saying gaming was far better in the old days when it was 1st and foremost about gaming. I love playing games, not viewing them like a film. We are a different medium. We are about gameplay and having fun. Why is that a hard concept for devs to understand we want FUN!

 

[Business]

I feel there's too much grinding and busywork these days just to put a tick on a list of tasks or make a (mosf often bad) story advance. More than having actual fun what you get is gratification that comes after the game makes you work. Last week I got Prodeus and the fun I've had with this "boomer" shooter has been like I didn't have often in recent years. The moment to moment is fun, I don't care who my character is or what the hell is happening to this universe, if on top of the core mechanics there's a cool lore all the better, but that's a skin you put on the gameplay, it can't be the core of your game. These days for me it's Nintendo and a handful of developers that still get it.

 

[Jormatar]

100% nostalgia.

 

[cortadew]

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 would take fromsoftware games and breath of the wild over any game from the 90s