[pyrite]

I think the answer to this is both yes and no. I think games are made with as much dedication and passion as they were in the early days, and it is without a doubt reaching new levels as an artistic medium; to give modern gaming any less credit than that is to put nostalgia above reality IMO.

but as photorealism is more or less within reach on current gen systems, the real issue becomes stylizing games, which I believe is bringing gaming back to its roots (I'm speaking more about visuals than gameplay here of course).
Back in the 16 bit days, photorealism wasn't even close to being possible, so developers focussed on giving games visual character and generally making them look and feel as cool as they could with limited hardware, which can be totally lost in the modern pursuit of making things look 'real'.

I think a good illustration of this would be Gran Turismo 5 vs BioShock (NOT a PS3 vs 360 statement). When I first saw GT5 Prologue it was on a 52" 1080p Sony LCD in a store it absolutely blew my mind. Astounding detail, etc etc... When I see it now, I don't care. The novelty has worn off.

I personally think realism is a fairly boring goal to be reaching for, as we see it around us all the time - it's only really impressive from a technical standpoint. what I really want in a game is be captured by something other-worldly, something impossible, like the bizarre experience of playing through BioShock or Zelda OoT. those games have distinct style and mood. both visual and aural.

Games are about mood, and the games that are Immersive and stand the test of time are not generally the ones that try to look like real life. On that basis, I'd put Super Mario Galaxy above GT5, even if just to piss people off

Does Metroid Prime look like real life? No, but it's probably the best and most memorable shooter ever to grace a console. SMG? No, best 3D platformer ever. Zelda OoT? No, best adventure RPG ever... etc etc... (and no, I'm not a nintendo fanboy as it may seem - I don't even own a nintendo system atm)

Style is timeless. You can't boot up the original Gran Turismo and go 'wow this game looks great!' but you can certainly boot up something like donkey kong country and be surprised by its artistic appeal and bursting sense of character. Character is what has been missing in many recent videogames IMO.

Now....

In terms of GAMEPLAY, i'd say some things have been lost (to my taste at least):

1 - 2D platformers kick ass. I miss them. They have superb mechanics and can be artfully memorized, which is highly satisfying. speed runs of sonic 2 or super mario world were pure gaming gold. and super metroid - don't get me started.
2 - games today are too easy. more and more i find myself looking for games that DON'T give you unlimited chances to get it right and spoon-feed you every step of the way. I LOVE modern FPSs, but the Halo-esque 'automatic shield regeneration' we now see COD4 and every other shooter is starting to get old. On higher difficulty levels it's tolerable, but I think we should be punished more for being shot

The Game Over screens of old were cold and frequent, but the endings of such games were far more rewarding.


Other than that, I think the current state of gaming is great. If I could pull the strings, there'd be a lot more adventure games on 360 and PS3 (can't wait to see what the new systems can pull off in adventure worlds), I miss adventure and platform gaming (both 2D and 3D), but the entertainment value of modern games is off the charts, especially if you like to play online (co-op halo 3/Gears is my friend).

IMO, racing games are just getting better and better in general. For me, the peak for gameplay has been GT3 on PS2, and the peak for simulation has been Forza 2 on 360, no doubt. Looking forward to GT5, and interested in GRID (I just played the demo... I was talking about stylizing earlier - Codemasters apparently know how it's done!). This being said, I miss the ruthless arcade racing games of old. Sega Rally Revo is a very welcome game for me, it's about time someone released a purist arcade racer like this. IMO, a game doesn't need 54 tracks and 500+ cars to do what it does perfectly. Ignore the reviews (which basically say it's good, but too thin on features to be GREAT... what happened to quality over quantity?).


sorry, long post i know

[Jawbone54]

Games just aren't what they used to be. I got hooked on games when I was like 7, playing games like RBI Baseball for hours on end. The first sports games that had a full season with stat tracking completely blew my mind (Super Bowl, for instance). Everything seemed important.

Then SNES and the Genesis came around and I lived for NBA Live, Madden, and Road Rash.

These days, everything seems disappointing.

[ort888]

There are many factors in play here.

First, we are all older and jaded. 12 year olds are much more easily impressed then 25 year olds. We've seen and done it all...

Which brings me to number two... There was more innovation in the past because there was so much that used to be technologically impossible. As walls came down, innovation came out. We've experienced a bit of a flattening out of the bell curve. This generations titles are not as big of a leap as we have seen in the past. The jump from 8 to 16 bit was huge and the jump to 3D was monstrous. Now we are in a refinement stage, where we are just building layers on top of what we have already seen.

Third... games cost a lot to make these days, so publishers are less likely to take big risks. When games cost 10 million bucks to make, you had better be damn sure it's a hit. That's why we see so many sequels, space marine shooters and whatnot.

[G Barnett]

A couple weeks ago, I picked up a PS2 game that came out last August, but got a re-release with expansion in April. It's an RPG called "Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES" and it's been hogging all my non-WoW gaming time.

Here's a youtube of its opening video:

Persona 3

It's only like $30 even brand new, so well worth it for a nice storyline and good replayability.

[pyrite]

Originally Posted by ort888 

There are many factors in play here.

First, we are all older and jaded. 12 year olds are much more easily impressed then 25 year olds. We've seen and done it all...

Which brings me to number two... There was more innovation in the past because there was so much that used to be technologically impossible. As walls came down, innovation came out. We've experienced a bit of a flattening out of the bell curve. This generations titles are not as big of a leap as we have seen in the past. The jump from 8 to 16 bit was huge and the jump to 3D was monstrous. Now we are in a refinement stage, where we are just building layers on top of what we have already seen.

Third... games cost a lot to make these days, so publishers are less likely to take big risks. When games cost 10 million bucks to make, you had better be damn sure it's a hit. That's why we see so many sequels, space marine shooters and whatnot.

completely agree with all of these comments

[zaghahzag]

Originally Posted by starman 

My oldest just decided to randomly start playing Zelda:OoT again. This is maybe the 4th or 5th time I've been through this game (this time as a helper). Every time I play the game I'm still amazed at how great the game is. I don't replay FF games so much because they take SO long to finish, but I've been thinking about replaying VII and X lately.

And then it dawned on me that the game came out at a time when there seemed to be a ton of badass games. This is around 1997.

(in no particular order):

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Crash Bandicoot 2 (analog control really shined here)
Final Fantasy VII
Tomb Raider
Super Mario 64
Goldeneye
Rogue Squadron
Turok 2
Soul Calibur
...and on and on

Today, what is there? You get some pretty good titles, but nothing BADASS. No watershed titles. Sequels are weak (although FF VII: CC, FF XII, and SMG has been getting really good reviews). The only ones out there now that are even worth mentioning are GTA, CoD, and Halo. That's only three really badass titles in this generation.

I think about the times I'd spend glued to the TV playing games, either alone or as a family and the games don't seem to bring that out anymore. I got bored with Crash Bandicoot, there are no more Rogue Squadron games, Super Mario Galaxy was fun, but not great, I have to check out Turok, Zelda: TP was just OK, and Soul Calibur IV isn't out yet. I have to say, I really liked the latest Tomb Raider. I didn't finish it (I really need to do that) but I was very impressed with it.

Or maybe my tastes in games have changed? Yeah, I play WoW (duh), but I'll pick up games still. They just don't DO it for me anymore. Lost Odyssey is about as close to a fun game as I've played in a while (but at its heart, it's a FF clone). Portal was a boatload of fun. That's about as much F-U-N I had playing a game in a while.

EDIT: I have to mention GTA: VC and Dreamfall. Two completely different kinds of games. VC was an excellent game but that was years ago. Time will tell how the new game does. Dreamfall was a really good story, something very lacking in games today.

The only game I can say was truly revolutionary this generation is Guitar Hero/Rock Band. It gave people a different way of controlling the game, moreso IMO than the Wii conroller can.

By far the biggest advance in gaming in the last 10 years was the Wii. I haven't had so much fun with a gaming machine in a long long time and it opens up gaming to the other 90% of people who don't have any twitch skills.

[Luca Rescigno]

Originally Posted by zaghahzag 

By far the biggest advance in gaming in the last 10 years was the Wii. I haven't had so much fun with a gaming machine in a long long time and it opens up gaming to the other 90% of people who don't have any twitch skills.

I think the biggest advance in gaming in the past ten years has been the near-universal adoption of true 3D environments. I know these were around before 1998, but they weren't really widespread until around the time Quake II came out in late 1997. That, along with the consoles of the era (the N64 and PS1) each having scores of popular 3D games, has had a greater effect on the gaming industry than any other recent innovation.

We have yet to see whether the Wii will actually have a lasting effect. It's certainly popular now, but we don't know how long that will last. History will tell us whether the Wii was what brought Nintendo back to the top or if it was just a flash in the pan. It basically depends on whether the casual gamers who have been making the Wii so successful will keep buying gaming stuff or if they'll eventually move on to something else.