kraspkibble
Permabanned.
nah the good old days are gone.
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I miss these days. Will they ever come back?
- Thread starter OrtizTwelve
- Start date
The fact is that these good old days were good because most likely you were a student with fuck all to do besides play video games with your friends. Maybe you were a young adult with fuck all to do besides go to college classes get blasted and maybe show up at some bull shit college job.
I imagine if you were in a similar situation now you would find lots of games to play and enjoy the same way.
Me personally I am an adult with responsibilities that are nearly impossible to escape from for more than an evening at a time or so, so I will never experience that thrill of just being able to relax, hang with my friends and play video games.
I imagine if you were in a similar situation now you would find lots of games to play and enjoy the same way.
Me personally I am an adult with responsibilities that are nearly impossible to escape from for more than an evening at a time or so, so I will never experience that thrill of just being able to relax, hang with my friends and play video games.
AV
We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
That image comes up a lot, and sure, it was an incredible slate, but you also have to remember it was 2001. 3D GTA didn't exist, DMC didn't exist, Metal Gear Solid was one game, Naughty Dog were "the Crash Bandicoot guys", etc. You're never going to get that level of innovation from 2001 in 2021, it just won't happen. Leaps like 2D GTA to 3D GTA are never, ever going to be replicated again, it's just impossible to achieve, sorry. The only way you pull that kind of thing off is VR, and look how many people on this board shrug VR off as a dead gimmick (even though they've probably never touched a good VR headset in their life).
ShadowNate
Member
To be fair, 1997 was an amazing year for pretty much everything in the games industry.
It's not easy to repeat that.
SenkiDala
Member
1998.
At that time everything was new, now yeah sure we have dozens great games each years, but nothing feels like this, and it's not just nostalgia. It's just that everything at that time that was new and brought to a game was to make the games better, more immersive, prettier, new experiences, new gameplay, nowadays everything that's new is just about how to capture / share games (twitch, youtube, etc) and business models (GamePass, PS Now, PS+, etc)... That's not so exciting, imo, in fact it's not exciting at all to me.
Hypereides
Member
I really am starting to think that the 360, PS3, and Wii U were probably the last legitimately good consoles. Graphics peaked right there and then. Not to mention free online on PS3 and Wii U. I hope that those platforms each respectively will cultivate their own amateur gamedev scenes. It would be awesome to see some community made or indie games still get consistently released for them.
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Ellery
Member
There is a small chance and I agree that 1998 and 2001 were absolute bangers and hold many many of my all time favorite games.
Though we are at the very beginning of a new generation and were hit by a global pandemic that led to many delays and dry periods (exactly the one were are in right now and will be for another year or two. Sorry folks, but yes it is going to be extremely dry for the foreseeable future in terms of big games).
However there are chances for 2023 and 2024 to be excellent years depending on whether you are able to look past nostalgia. We don't know what games will release when and which games are in early development now that will be big surprise to us in the future.
We know Diablo 4 and God of War Ragnarok will come some point in the future. We can speculate about GTA VI being a real game and obviously Naughty Dog is working on the next GOTY as we speak.
So maybe if all stars align and we get a burst of releases in a few years there is a chance that some future years (2022-2025) will be extremely packed and I know that I can't rewind time and make us younger to a time of less worry, but there is no need to ignore modern games unfairly and putting old games on thrones for eternity.
Though we are at the very beginning of a new generation and were hit by a global pandemic that led to many delays and dry periods (exactly the one were are in right now and will be for another year or two. Sorry folks, but yes it is going to be extremely dry for the foreseeable future in terms of big games).
However there are chances for 2023 and 2024 to be excellent years depending on whether you are able to look past nostalgia. We don't know what games will release when and which games are in early development now that will be big surprise to us in the future.
We know Diablo 4 and God of War Ragnarok will come some point in the future. We can speculate about GTA VI being a real game and obviously Naughty Dog is working on the next GOTY as we speak.
So maybe if all stars align and we get a burst of releases in a few years there is a chance that some future years (2022-2025) will be extremely packed and I know that I can't rewind time and make us younger to a time of less worry, but there is no need to ignore modern games unfairly and putting old games on thrones for eternity.
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
Allow me to be “that guy”.
Believe it or not, a good half of this “legendary” lineup almost had me quit gaming.
GTA3 and MGS2 were hyped to hell and back. I fell for the hype. I hated both. Never touched either IP since. To me, these two games are single-handedly responsible for what mainstream gaming became once western devs took over Japan in the 7th gen. And while there may be merits to GTA as a whole, Kojima lost me there and then.
Jak & Daxter was hailed as Sony’s answer to Rare’s collectathons. It wishes it was half as good, let alone one tenth as charming.
Ico is one of the most overrated games of its time. Style over substance, big time.
FFX was the beginning of the end of my infatuation with FF and JRPGs in general. The slowness of the game and the voice acting did a lot to make me actively hate it. It was a good decade before I finally finished the game.
Silent Hill 2 isn’t as good as 1 to me. Baldur’s Gate DA was much better on PC, people tell me. And Ace Combat was never the game to make a console’s fortunes.
Truth be told, I wasn’t happy with the GameCube’s lineup until Metroid Prime came out, so what probably happened there is that in the fall of 2001, after the incredible 5th gen sizzled out, I was quite jaded, and probably more than a little fed up with video games. But the point still stands - none of those 10 games rekindled the spark in me, rather made my interest for the future of gaming drop like a stone.
Sorry for the interruption, you can now go back to your nostalgia party.
existensmaximum
Member
Will any past days ever come back? Even if they would come back, you won't feel the same way as you did back then.
Humdinger
Member
Yup. I think a lot of this is rooted in nostalgia for the time itself, rather than the games themselves. A time when we had abundant free time, few or no adult responsibilities, and friends were made easily. When you grow into adulthood, all those things get harder. The game experience was part of a life experience that has gone. It's not that the game industry has changed, so much as you have changed, your life has changed.
Here's a video I saw yesterday that made the same point. I don't play MMOs, but the point carries to any type of game and nostalgia for yesteryear.
"The single biggest factor in your enjoyment of an MMO is the lifestyle you have outside of the game."
Little Chicken
Member
One day you will miss these days so make the most of them 
ZywyPL
Banned
True, nowadays it's hard/impossible to impress the older audience as everything has been done already, new games are not entirely "new", they're just different interpretations of what's already been done multiple times before. Even the graphics alone aren't progressing that much anymore to make a jaw drop, the last huge technical breakthrough was arguably Crysis in 2007, from there on there hasn't been a game that's as universally praised and admired for its visuals. The only innovation I can recall in the past two decades are Battle Royale mode, cover system from Gears, and class customization from CoD4, that's the only "fresh air" I can call out that really had an impact on entire industry.
Jeeves
Member
These days big games cost so much to make and take so much time and manpower. Plus expectation are inflated, from shareholders considering a million sales to not be a big deal anymore (and also pushing greed via microtransactions, hope you already said bye to fun cheat codes and unlockables), to fans demanding games in 4k at 60+fps whereas no one gave a shit about frames back in the good days.
The AAA space is now about big wins and big flops with little in between. No one wants to take risks, and practically everything is now designed by committee or even automated, and no longer made with a strong vision.
Plus there's nothing new under the sun. Most new games feel like they've been done before, not to mention everyone wants to sell you remakes/remasters to help you relive those memories instead of making new memories.
Basically, money and time have created a cynical industry.
The AAA space is now about big wins and big flops with little in between. No one wants to take risks, and practically everything is now designed by committee or even automated, and no longer made with a strong vision.
Plus there's nothing new under the sun. Most new games feel like they've been done before, not to mention everyone wants to sell you remakes/remasters to help you relive those memories instead of making new memories.
Basically, money and time have created a cynical industry.
TKOFromTokyo
Member
This is so true. In five years, I’ve gotten married and have three kids. I barely have time to game anymore. I’ve become a collector more than a gamer now. The last two games I beat were SMB on the G&W and River City Girls. I can’t play open world games, let alone keep up with all of the releases. My only hope is to play these games down the road when my kids get bigger as my collection is basically like being at a store from the NES era on.
Exactly. We lived through a revolution in the industry, and were extremely fortunate to do so. Every year games with entirely new design paradigms and huge quality of life increases were coming out - every year was mindblowing. We won't see that again. It started with Mario 64. 1998 was probably the peak. But revolutions don't last forever. GTA III was probably where it started to end - after that designs for future games had been almost fully realised.
1998.
At that time everything was new, now yeah sure we have dozens great games each years, but nothing feels like this, and it's not just nostalgia. It's just that everything at that time that was new and brought to a game was to make the games better, more immersive, prettier, new experiences, new gameplay, nowadays everything that's new is just about how to capture / share games (twitch, youtube, etc) and business models (GamePass, PS Now, PS+, etc)... That's not so exciting, imo, in fact it's not exciting at all to me.
I remember that for both the PS3 and PS4 generations people would be like "Where is the new next-gen only gameplay? Where are the innovations?" When it was clear that designers discovered what you could and couldn't do with interactive 3d graphics between 1996 and 2001, and everything since then has just built on those core designs. That's why innovation shifted to online multiplayer and business models. Innovation in the core elements of 3d game design was essentially finished.
I will say that following the development of VR from about 2012-2015 was kind of a similar feeling - certainly the closest we've come to the 3d revolution. But since it didn't capture or replace the mainstream gaming industry it doesn't feel the same.
_Ex_
Member
I was using the "we" in a euphemistic manner. I personally don't give a shit about shiny graphics. Last night I was playing a 1996 release, despite the low resolution, crude polygons, and complete lack of ray tracing, somehow I managed to enjoy myself.
Soodanim
Gold Member
I think there’s something to be said for the shift in how games get made now compared to back then, even after accounting for nostalgia. Games have to be bigger and bolder and have perfect graphics to impress, and the move to higher resolutions has companies spending more money on bigger teams to make bigger games.
Rockstar is the extreme example of how it’s changed, and while it’s undeniable that those of us who liked the PS2 GTAs are biased and people clearly like GTA5/Online because it’s made billions, the result is less games in favour of big business profit reaping and so there’s less contribution to the yearly line-ups people so fondly refer to so often.
On the other end of it you have Ubisoft who pump out Assassin’a Creed games as often as possible to bleed that franchise dry, and they don’t seem to be setting the world on fire like they used to. Capcom fell victim to scale and had to win some favour back after RE6, and Nintendo switching up Zelda after mixed reviews was big news because it broke the cycle of what people perceived as chasing OoT.
To look at it from another angle, there’s a hell of a lot of games from the PS1/2 era that have gotten remakes, remasters and sometimes just straight re-releases and that’s no coincidence.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Just about every year these days has a larger volume of great games, but no, those days (as in those feels) will never come back.
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
This gen is frozen and most of the AAA titles are coming in the next three years.
namekuseijin
Banned
you all cranky old men should take a break from the very old routine of sitting in front of a tv pushing buttons and come to VR. you need to experience games from inside the game world - to brandish a sword art a human sized foe in front of you before your muscles stop working... to witness the true scale of game worlds...
Humdinger
Member
For what it's worth, you do recapture some of that on the other end of life. I'm 59 and retired, and I'm enjoying videogames again for the first time in many years. Retirement, at least for me, has meant recapturing a lot of what made adolescence great -- the abundant free time, the ability to do whatever you want to do, and the sense of experimentation. Plus now you've got money and no parental oversight, studies, or anything like that you "have to" do. The easy friendships of childhood don't come back, unfortunately, nor does the willingness to spend long nights gaming (which is a good thing), but other parts of that adolescent lifestyle do return, and so does the freedom and leisure that make games memorable and enjoyable.
MayauMiao
Member
Those days are gone. Game nowadays focus too much on battle royales, micro transactions, episodes, the horrible GaaS, and most of all broken from day 1.
Good thing we still have good amount of great games of the past that many of us have yet play. I even start restoring the OG Xbox to make it playable again (remove batt caps, upgrade hdd).
Good thing we still have good amount of great games of the past that many of us have yet play. I even start restoring the OG Xbox to make it playable again (remove batt caps, upgrade hdd).
MR ARCADE FOREVER
Member
That's called nostalgia. Youngsters from this gen will think the same about the ps 5 when's they get older
kingkaiser
Member
Nothing will beat 2007 for me
well, maybe 2008, though...
well, maybe 2008, though...
EDMIX
Member
Fall / Holiday 2001 after the PS2 had been out over a year or so in NA.
Do you think we will ever see a repeat like this for Fall / Holiday 2021? 2022?
I know this image has been around the internet for ages, but it's striking even after all these years.
Imagine, 10 fantastic must have, instant classic titles all released within the same few months for one console.
I haven't seen something like this in years and with the current state of "AAA" gaming, it seems we never will.
I think with all the luck that went into none of those major games getting delayed and releasing around the same window is simply an event that would be really difficult to replicate. Even for the PS2 generation, its not like we ever had that same set up happen again or something.
So do i see GTAVI, ICO4, Jak 4, Metal Gear Solid VI, Gran Turismo 7, Devil May Cry 6, Silent Hills (what ever the fuck they call it) all releasing around the same window? Unlikely. Remember around that time Smash Brothers and Halo also came out.
A repeat like this couldn't even be replicated WITHIN THE SAME GENERATION it was done in.
sainraja
Member
The funny thing is, when the PS2 released, I heard the same arguments being made online that people try to make now.......it was that the PS2 had no games! It was just a fancy DVD player!Fall / Holiday 2001 after the PS2 had been out over a year or so in NA.
Do you think we will ever see a repeat like this for Fall / Holiday 2021? 2022?
I know this image has been around the internet for ages, but it's striking even after all these years.
Imagine, 10 fantastic must have, instant classic titles all released within the same few months for one console.
I haven't seen something like this in years and with the current state of "AAA" gaming, it seems we never will.
Barakov
Gold Member
That's kinda crazy in retrospect.2017 was pretty lit.
But no, 1998, 2001, and 2004 remain unbeaten. Notice that a Metal Gear Solid game came out in each of those years.
Reptars Revenge
Member
2022 book it
BlackTron
Member
This is an interesting observation. Back then, I would be more into the "fantasy/weeb/child/weird" shit. I still kind of am, but my tastes changed, for example my patience for anime crap is near zero now. It's been hard for me to tell how much of that is a drop in quality and how much of it is my change in tastes/being older (I do think it's both).
I confronted this the other day when I FINALLLLLY tried out PSO2 (PSO is one of my favorite games of all time). It was hard for me to look past the wacky anime character designs -even though I'm older, it's also true that they're even more crazy and silly than in 1999, and this is coming from someone whose very first character back then was the FOnewman who looked like a court jester.
On topic, I do think we can have great years for games, but I don't think it will ever again be so consolidated as exclusives on a single platform. Which isn't really a problem in my opinion, unless you're a console warrior.
I also think there was a sense of advancement in games, the production values possible, and a special charm/identity that could only be infused into a game with a small team, which is something we've lost from the strength of the 90's/early 2000's, which is not coming back in AAA games.
MeteorVII
Member
Kingdom Hearts, Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy X... all within one year of launch.
Good times, man...
I remember the PS2 hype was unlike anything else and it still managed to deliver and blow my mind. By the time Kingdom Hearts came out, I basically played every game I wanted and I was already fully satisfied with the console.
Good times, man...
I remember the PS2 hype was unlike anything else and it still managed to deliver and blow my mind. By the time Kingdom Hearts came out, I basically played every game I wanted and I was already fully satisfied with the console.
nemiroff
Gold Member
Even as an older gamer with plenty of nostalgia onboard I very much have those days RIGHT NOW. I'm playing games, having fun, speak to friends about games. Enjoying following the shit around the game, enjoy Game Pass AND streaming. Pure fun. I don't know what some of you people are doing to yourselves and why, sounds miserable forcing yourselves doing crap you don't want to do.
nush
Member
1998.
At that time everything was new, now yeah sure we have dozens great games each years, but nothing feels like this, and it's not just nostalgia. It's just that everything at that time that was new and brought to a game was to make the games better, more immersive, prettier, new experiences, new gameplay, nowadays everything that's new is just about how to capture / share games (twitch, youtube, etc) and business models (GamePass, PS Now, PS+, etc)... That's not so exciting, imo, in fact it's not exciting at all to me.
I had a job this year and I had access to all of these games to play for free, all the systems and I could even play them at work "Testing".
Even then with everything weighted in my favor I simply didn't have enough time to play all of them. You've just got to learn to let stuff go.
BbMajor7th
Member
Honestly, I'd be down for games scaling back on visuals, rolling back development costs and just using all the new hardware power to improve performance, resolution and the like. Put more money into art direction and less into technical direction. Put more money into writing than into facial motion capture. It's amazing that Ubisoft can build worlds of the staggering size they do, but I can't remember the last time I explored more than half of one.
I'm kind of over huge disposable game worlds. I don't remember anything about any of those spaces - they're big and impressive, but ultimately forgettable. RE's Spencer Mansion or Dark Souls Undead Burg will live in my brain forever. It's like a great guitar hook vs. a face-melting shred guitar solo. One is 64 bars of unimpeachable technical prowess, with multiple key changes, blistering arpeggios and an outro that only one in every thousand guitarists can play, and other is a four-bar five note lick that most new players will have down in the first month. I know which is technically better, but I also know which one I'll be humming in the shower.
I'm kind of over huge disposable game worlds. I don't remember anything about any of those spaces - they're big and impressive, but ultimately forgettable. RE's Spencer Mansion or Dark Souls Undead Burg will live in my brain forever. It's like a great guitar hook vs. a face-melting shred guitar solo. One is 64 bars of unimpeachable technical prowess, with multiple key changes, blistering arpeggios and an outro that only one in every thousand guitarists can play, and other is a four-bar five note lick that most new players will have down in the first month. I know which is technically better, but I also know which one I'll be humming in the shower.
MacReady13
Member
OK and that's fine! I still enjoy gaming today but I feel like the days of the 8, 16, 32/64 bit days were FAR better. There wasn't any politicizing of games or gamers. Devs weren't out changing games to please "the woke". We had games that were released when they were done and we weren't treated as beta testers. We didn't have to wait for fucking loading times to fix games. And games were just better then. The only thing capturing the feel of gaming back in those days for me is VR gaming. It's something new and fresh and exciting. I don't need to play my game when I'm out at the shops on my phone, or in a train on my phone. I play my games sitting on my fat ass at home in front of the big TV. And I certainly don't need a library on hand of 200+ games that are mostly filler to satisfy my urges. I have plenty of games to play without that clutter. I never needed it in the past and I don't need it now! You do and that's fine. But i'd rather not have to subscribe to play games for the rest of my life.