Long ass read I'm bored
Asking just thinking about it cuz of my ffx remake thread.

The tech has come an extremely long way. Graphics, physics, ai, gargantuan open worlds and motion capture have made games look and feel better than ever. I'm not trying to sound like a disgruntled boomer here or anything. I definitely appreciate the games of today and will continue to invest in the new stuff (the ones I find desirable)

But just something about those games from that ps3/ps2/PS1 era just can't be replicated. Idk what it is. Probably just the memories I have with those games because the times were so different and life felt more simpler/more enjoyable.

Online existed, especially during the 360 era (never my thing personally, and still not) but it didn't feel like how now feels. People still enjoyed their single player games and those felt the most important. You played multiplayer with friends in the house. Or enjoyed single player games by yourself or even with friends over. Nothing like those all night runs with a friend or 2 with pizza while all taking turns beating or trying to beat great single player games from those early eras.

Demo discs
Game magazines
Midnight releases
Borrowing and lending games with friends
Not getting new games spoiled off the Internet by some lame YouTubers or whatever

Lots of cool times and things about gaming

Rambling lol but just noticing how I had a backed up catalog of games that I bought but never beat on my ps5 before I sold (don't worry I'll definitely have a new one for GTA VI by the time that drops)it. With some exceptions, my excitement tends to die down faster for these games for some reason. Idk. Could be age, or maybe its the games don't tend to have that charm and spark anymore. There are many exceptions of course like I said. Times change. Audiences change and age, along with the budgets and tech. I get it. I feel like it's been a trade off of a sort.

I guess what I'm asking is how do some of y'all feel about these new gens compared to the games of yesteryear?

I’m going to go with the era where you weren’t completely exploited and companies were still forced to put out a complete game at launch

I agree. Crazy to think but yeah when something like San Andreas dropped back then, that s*** was complete lol. Not patch bs or none of that. You got a complete, finished and polished product.

Obviously games are way bigger now and more complicated but still nice know they had to ship a polished product out the gate back then

gens 3-6 are golden age, I wouldn’t overthink it.

A game that had less financial pressure and more hands on creation is just going to be a more fun/holistic experience than current gen 9 slop

I do recognize that the era was not all glamorous (red ring of death was WOAT) but there were many things that I enjoyed about it. I will say that up until relatively recently games (at least the base game) were inflation-proof and the tech has tangibly improved. Overall though I think it’s also a bit of a bias for me because those previous generations I had a lot more time and less responsibilities so I could enjoy them more

Oooh the red ring of death. I had like 2 or 3 360s at different points back then and miraculously from what I remember none of them had that s*** but I definitely knew about it

Ps4 has one of the best libraries of games ever and that's coming from someone with a game collection (well I'm in the middle of selling so I guess this is past tense now) of SNES to now with every system minus the Sega saturn

ps4 is definitely a heater gen, brought back the feeling.

but idk if it tops the others. more just meets quality in a few interesting areas

Probably because the jump from like n64 and playstation 1 to PS2 and even the jump to 360 felt massive.

Were older and have played alot more games now. And we can that we arent really making leaps anymore. Graphically new games are about as good as you can imagine.

Overall im happy with most of the games now. Let ne get that GTA 6 first though

got bored of my series x and modded every other console in my house, more enjoyable overall. it's cheap nowadays to experience any old catalog you missed

Id mod my consoles but I dont wanna get banned online.

Yeah man I remember seeing madden 2001 on ps2s on the tvs playing at Best buy back in the day and was shocked asf like the leap was crazy man coming from PS1. I didn't even care about Madden but that s*** looked impressive especially as a kid. The leaps back then were crazy. The graphics have probably plateaued for the most part now like you alluded. Now I want faster loading, better ai, better physics and draw distances, better more realistic sound etc.

I’ve been playing my ps3 a lot lately ngl

I think it has less iconic culture wise games compared to ps3/360 - but overall I prefer ps4 era over Xbox 360/ps3, I actually think that era is really overrated and only got good halfway thru its lofe cycle on average. There are gems as well too tho that era but most of the ish ppl hype up is really average and a dime a dozen, like all the cod fondness of the era etc. The classic of that era is of course classic tho.

N64/PS1/Saturn era is actually my fav overall. But yeah I wouldn't put ps4 era above it nor the PS2/og xbox/dreamcast/gamecube

Snes/Genesis era although I don't have as much a personal attachment to it, it of course is auto up there just off of its dozens and dozens of icon titles and innovations and their libraries is deep as an ocean it's insane how ppl STILL find unconverted crazy gems of that era

oh don't get me wrong i think xbox 360/ps3 is way worse, a lot of s***ty practices got put into play that gen, and most of the games are fine-good few "greats"

PS4 is perfect because the console is so cheap you can just run it as a separate console for PS1/PS2/PS4 offline games with no account. I found one that already had Goldhen installed for $100 on Mercari

Wii is the same as PS4 and dumb cheap and covers most generations of Nintendo, but that depends on if you like those kind of games.

PS360 era is the same era they tried to force people to pay a $10 fee to play used games online

Personal connection w PS2 era is too big

Nothing will ever top that s***, gaming all day

Now can't even play 10 min w/o getting bored

games weren't hard in Arcades for the fun of it

they were fleecing gamers then too

On some level we kinda lost something by being able to game so easily at home tho

I remember one time (PS3 era) one of my parents asked if I wanted to go to the arcade we used to go to & then I thought about it and then said 'we'll probably spend like 30/40 bucks, I could just use that to buy a whole game to play at home'

It sounds logical and more convenient but since then I realise it removed that aspect of making it a fun social activity where you leave the house, one I'd share with my parents, friends, random people etc etc

PS4 was nice too though

As a kid in Ps2 era without internet access it was wild. I was buying games just by looking at the back and front cover.
I was replaying games I had until there was a part where I got stuck again cause I wasn’t looking at walkthroughs online. I didn’t even know what new games will come out they were just there in stores