Do you ever feel that gaming has passed you by?

[HEX1GON]

32-bit era for me, I grew up with the Nintendo 64 and the PSX.. Was the only kid in my group of friends that actually owned a N64. The word SATURN seemed so much like a secret or rumor going around school, but all others ever talked about is a Playstation.

What I loved about the 32-bit era is the textures and the way the models looked.. Now everything looks so realistic that I might as well plug a controller into my window and look outside.

The term Arcade gameplay just doesn't get mentioned anymore or if it does.. it's very rare.

I have a Xbox-360 and a Nintendo Wii and I love the Wii, however my arms to end up getting tired holding the remote up so it won't disconnect or actually aim straight, 360 is most likely the closest you can really get as a arcade type system, but even the PS3 fails in that part.. They are so similar there is no competition as like the 16-bit wars against SEGA and Nintendo.. I've always wondered what the 16-bit era would of been like as a teenager, hearing about the updated graphics and which system to own etc, much like what we have today with the Wii, 360 and PS3. I just don't think it's the same.

[veganx]

Now day games are so easy...

Just compare doom and homefront, you don't have a life bar, how this is possible ?
You get hurt, you hide and your life is full again...

Metal Gear Solid 1 vs Metal Gear Solid 4: the first is really hard with lots of game play. The last has 11 hours o CG movies.. and 4-5 hours of real gamming on your hands.

They improved the graphics and forgot about game play.

[Andrew23]

I can agree with most here. I only really got into retro gaming recently. I had the wii and GC and a beatup PS2. Soon after getting my dreamcast, I wanted a Genesis, after emulating for a bit. When I got my genesis, I thought: "Holy carps, what was I missing?". I think that gaming before the current generation is much more special than the realistic stuff of today..

[MottZilla]

Are you sure you guys are actually looking through ALL the games that come out? Maybe you just perceive that games these days suck because you see the stuff they push and advertise and assume that is all there is to play. There are good games to play for the modern systems. There are good games for the retro systems. But you still have to make the effort to find them. It's easier on the retro systems since you already know many games that are gems and it's easier to find praise for them.

I too prefer to play ALOT of retro games ( NES, GB, all the way up through 32bit generation and to the previous generation ) but there are next generation games that are fun to play. i did enjoy playing Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto 4, Gears of War, Star Wars The Force Unleashed, Assassin's Creed, Full Auto, Mortal Kombat, Fallout, etc. Don't assume every game is Call of Duty or a cloen of it. While they push ALOT of those games there are others to play.

[7Force]

Starting a game these days seems to feel like I'm making a commitment, that I'm undertaking some massive task that I have to see through until the end.

Yep. And the fact that you have to wade through boring tutorial levels in most games today. Seriously, I learned how to play a game just fine when I was just dropped into the action and had to figure it out myself, I don't need a "Press A to jump" dialog. Even worse is when games actually disable features before you've gotten to the part where they teach you how to use them.

Still, I've found a lot of great games this generation. The problem is probably more about not having as much time for games anymore, plus games just don't seem as awesome (in the non-colloquial sense) as they did when I was a little kid.

[HCK]

I don't think it's nostalgia, because the games I'm playing now are not the same games that I played when I was younger (with very few exceptions).

But part of what attracted me to games in the past was the music and graphics. I prefer hand drawn, pixel graphics to polygon; so getting into stuff like MSX and FM Towns, I love the way things look on RGB monitors. So crystal clear and vibrant!

[Cyantist]

Honestly? I went with gaming, wasted alot of time on it to be honest. Sometimes I wish I was a child again, carefree.

[Harp00nX]

The problem with todays gaming for me is every game you can buy in a shop is a first or third person shooter, sports title with a new number on the end or a driving game. Games are made so realistically that it costs a billion pound to make them so no big publisher will ever push the boat out again and take a chance on a quirky idea.

The days when bedroom programmers were one man game making teams and then a publisher picked them up is where innovation came from. Budget price games should make a comeback and fuel a 2D revivial imo, just like in the Amiga days.

8bit 16bit and some 32bit is where the games that i enjoy playing come from. The only exception is the Guitar Hero series and various scrolling shooters on the PS2.

[HCK]

I think a great example of a older, quirky game is Vib-Ribbon. What a trip that is!

But even most of the indie games now days don't do it for me. I couldn't stand Braid. Can't put my finger on it, but didn't like it.

And even the more modern upgrades of classics... like the GBA releases of the 8-bit Mario titles. Love the games, but I hate that Nintendo made Mario talk about everything :flamethrower::mario:

That makes me a complainer about modern-retro, I think.

[7Force]

That's because most indie games are so damn pretentious, they feel like they've been made for the hipsters that wear 1-Up mushroom shirts rather than people who actually enjoy retro games.

But part of what attracted me to games in the past was the music and graphics. I prefer hand drawn, pixel graphics to polygon; so getting into stuff like MSX and FM Towns, I love the way things look on RGB monitors. So crystal clear and vibrant!

Yeah, I prefer that kind of stuff to the realistic approach, which often just becomes boring, too. Games just don't look vibrant enough anymore with their abundance of grays and browns.

Honestly, I'm sick of everything having to be "realistic" nowadays. Just look at movies as another example, everything from Batman to James Bond is getting a "gritty reboot" these days, and they all have the same generic action soundtrack and jumping & shaking cameras.

[HCK]

Honestly, I'm sick of everything having to be "realistic" nowadays. Just look at movies as another example, everything from Batman to James Bond is getting a "gritty reboot" these days, and they all have the same generic action soundtrack and jumping & shaking cameras.

Well, speaking as someone who works in the film industry, I'd have to agree. I think you can chart a general downward creative trend in almost all media, worldwide. Part of it stems from inflating budgets. The more money you throw at a project, be it a video game or a film, the less likely you are to take chances. Another problem is that both games and films now target demographic groups. Many things are decided by committee.

Focusing on gaming, though... is it possible that we can trace ballooning budgets and style over substance back to a little game called Final Fantasy 7? Is it possible that it's that game that planted the seed?

[7Force]

Well...no, you can't really blame FFVII. IMO the whole thing started when CD-based consoles made it possible to have cutscenes in the form of FMV or pre-rendered stuff. Remember Digital Pictures, the Sega studio that was supposed to makes video games like movies — in the form of FMV games on the Sega CD? (Of course, the whole thing ended in the studio going bust after a few years) Then there was also stuff like the third and fourth games in the Wing Commander series, which also had extensive cutscenes and were some of the most expensive games ever made at the time.

[HCK]

Yeah, but I don't recall the Sega CD FMV games making much of a splash. I worked at a game store back then (an independent, so I wasn't part of the problem... we were expected to be experts in everything. We got hired on our game knowledge) and no one gave 2 flying flips about the FMV games. It was the sprite based games with voice and animation that sold (like the Lunar series).

But when FF7 hit on the PS1 (I worked at the electronics department at Sears at that time), it was BIG. People who didn't play games took notice. And because it made such a huge impact, companies who made games took notice. That was a system seller, as much to gamers as it was to people who didn't play games. From FF7 we saw the rise in popularity of pre-rendered backgrounds. Long computer generated cutscenes became a mark of distinction in games... how shiny and realistic could they get things to look? And even though the loooong summoning sequences became a joke, other companies copied this style.

I'm not saying it's FFVII's fault in whole, but I think I can point the finger and say, economically for game companies, it had a large impact that's still effecting the market today. As did Grand Theft Auto III and the rise of the sandbox game.

[IcarusNick]

Like in all creative industry's it takes time for things to evolve, sometimes all it takes is a game doing somthing different, or a new piece of hardware. The problem in recent year's the games that have done this, haven't sold. "Don't blame the games industry, blame the lack of imagination the mainstream gamer has for trying something new".

[Vosse]

This conversation comes up every few months and everyone has a good moan about how crap gaming is today. I don't understand it. Each to their own, but if you're saying that retro-like games don't get made today, that's just factually incorrect. If you're a bedroom programmer there has literally never been a better time to be making games, the development environments are fantastic and there are a range of opportunities to get your stuff played by millions. If you like weird little games instead of blockbuster epics, instead of sitting around here moaning, go check out the indie scene - it's thriving.

^
This

[HCK]

OK, name some modern indie games that stack up against the classics of the 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit eras.

I have an open mind.

[Aaron]

The problem with todays gaming for me is every game you can buy in a shop is a first or third person shooter, sports title with a new number on the end or a driving game. Games are made so realistically that it costs a billion pound to make them so no big publisher will ever push the boat out again and take a chance on a quirky idea.

The days when bedroom programmers were one man game making teams and then a publisher picked them up is where innovation came from. Budget price games should make a comeback and fuel a 2D revivial imo, just like in the Amiga days.

8bit 16bit and some 32bit is where the games that i enjoy playing come from. The only exception is the Guitar Hero series and various scrolling shooters on the PS2.

Katamari. Yea Yea yea, same as it was on the PS2, whatevs, its on current gen, glorious as ever, not a shooter, not a sports game, not a driving game. Very quirky, very simple, very playable, very nice soundtrack, and most importantly, very fun.

I kow you will say "One out of how many?" but the same could be said back then as well. Go play every NES game ever made. Emulate them if needed. Then objectively tell me how many are actually GOOD games, then tell me how may were so-so, ad how many were bad. nostalgia aside, it will be VERY lopsided towards bad/so-so games, just like today. People miss the nostalgia, thats it. In 20 years, people will long for the days of the Xbox360 or PS3, just like they do toay for the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc

[ASSEMbler]

No, I just have less time to play games.

That rules out any rpgs or mmo.

[Harp00nX]

People miss the nostalgia, thats it. In 20 years, people will long for the days of the Xbox360 or PS3, just like they do toay for the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc

I have to disagree here, as in 20 years time what will have changed? they will still be knocking out the same fps games (cod 29 anyone?) and fifa '31. I agree in the past not all games were good (nes especially), but there was more variety and even average games of that era are better and more fun to me than most of todays flash graphics and rag doll physics games. It can't be denied that a good modern game is still a good game (Metroid Prime series for example) but generally speaking I never really made the transition from 2D to 3D gaming. This combined with the memories attached to the 16 bit era is probably what holds me in this gaming time.

[Vosse]

Katamari. Yea Yea yea, same as it was on the PS2, whatevs, its on current gen, glorious as ever, not a shooter, not a sports game, not a driving game. Very quirky, very simple, very playable, very nice soundtrack, and most importantly, very fun.

I kow you will say "One out of how many?" but the same could be said back then as well. Go play every NES game ever made. Emulate them if needed. Then objectively tell me how many are actually GOOD games, then tell me how may were so-so, ad how many were bad. nostalgia aside, it will be VERY lopsided towards bad/so-so games, just like today. People miss the nostalgia, thats it. In 20 years, people will long for the days of the Xbox360 or PS3, just like they do toay for the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc

Couldn't agree more.
I can't fathom how many terrible NES/SNES/Sega Genesis Games i've played.
And there are some games that people label as "Classics" that I never played back when it was out , that i've played years and years later and think "This hasn't aged well at all, it's clunky and ugly"(or something along those lines)

And there are games that I love that aren't the best games due to nostalgia. Like TMNT1 for the NES.
Widely recognized for being a bad game. But I loved playing it as a kid and feel the same when I play it now.