Tschumi
Member
We're heading towards the release of the next round of major gaming consoles. Soon the PS5 and XSX/S will dominate discussion, bringing us new games at new levels of graphical fidelity and gamer experience.
Let's take a moment to have a think about what the previous generation has meant to us, and leave some thoughts for it - and hopes for the next generation.
Note: For the record, I'm not really including the Switch - a generation-spanning, hybrid device - in these considerations. This is really focused on the PS4/xBox One paradigm. If you wanna say nice things about the switch, go for it. <3
---
For mine, in addition to natural gameplay development, this console generation witnessed a few ingenious engines really breaking open the way games will look, now and forever more. Looking at a PS3/360 game against a game made with id Tech 7, later day frostbite, cryengine, unreal 4, redengine, it's night and day. The jumps between PS2 and PS3 were not as incredible - purely because of where our theory on computer game graphics stood at that time. In fact, I think graphics this generation got to such a fever pitch that we won't see obviously next-gen games strutting their stuff for another year or two (with a few exceptions perhaps)
In terms of game quality, I think that's harder to pin down in relative terms. For sure I believe the great games of the past generation are some of the best, and best looking, games ever made - Bloodborne, God of War, RDR2, Jedi Fallen Knight (vs the Jedi Knight series), many more - but how good they are in the context of the wider industry is perhaps another matter. The bar is being raised really high - back in the day, Half Life cracked open the First Person Shooter universe, Half Life 3 (hypothetical) will have to rely on more than that to achieve a similar gap over the competition.
I also think that game designers have now had 2 decades to work with fully 3D games, and it just follows that a ton of lessons have been learned, and new gameplay quirks created. We're seeing the fruits of that, we mostly saw that happen in this generation.
I'm grateful to the last generation because this was the generation in which games really started to look, and play, in extremely effective, expressive ways. We're really feeling what the developers want us to feel.
As for the next generation, it's harder to predict. One of the two major console brands seems to be resisting the concept of generations, so I'm not sure what we'll see coming from that corner - it could be fantastic, who knows? But I am excited for the continued development of these graphics engines, and the continued expansion of expressive freedom for these increasingly experienced and savvy developers.
Let's take a moment to have a think about what the previous generation has meant to us, and leave some thoughts for it - and hopes for the next generation.
Note: For the record, I'm not really including the Switch - a generation-spanning, hybrid device - in these considerations. This is really focused on the PS4/xBox One paradigm. If you wanna say nice things about the switch, go for it. <3
---
For mine, in addition to natural gameplay development, this console generation witnessed a few ingenious engines really breaking open the way games will look, now and forever more. Looking at a PS3/360 game against a game made with id Tech 7, later day frostbite, cryengine, unreal 4, redengine, it's night and day. The jumps between PS2 and PS3 were not as incredible - purely because of where our theory on computer game graphics stood at that time. In fact, I think graphics this generation got to such a fever pitch that we won't see obviously next-gen games strutting their stuff for another year or two (with a few exceptions perhaps)
In terms of game quality, I think that's harder to pin down in relative terms. For sure I believe the great games of the past generation are some of the best, and best looking, games ever made - Bloodborne, God of War, RDR2, Jedi Fallen Knight (vs the Jedi Knight series), many more - but how good they are in the context of the wider industry is perhaps another matter. The bar is being raised really high - back in the day, Half Life cracked open the First Person Shooter universe, Half Life 3 (hypothetical) will have to rely on more than that to achieve a similar gap over the competition.
I also think that game designers have now had 2 decades to work with fully 3D games, and it just follows that a ton of lessons have been learned, and new gameplay quirks created. We're seeing the fruits of that, we mostly saw that happen in this generation.
I'm grateful to the last generation because this was the generation in which games really started to look, and play, in extremely effective, expressive ways. We're really feeling what the developers want us to feel.
As for the next generation, it's harder to predict. One of the two major console brands seems to be resisting the concept of generations, so I'm not sure what we'll see coming from that corner - it could be fantastic, who knows? But I am excited for the continued development of these graphics engines, and the continued expansion of expressive freedom for these increasingly experienced and savvy developers.
Last edited by a moderator:
