Was this generation a let down?

Yes, this generation was a great disappointment. There were some great games like Super Mario Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption, and Demon's Souls, no doubt. But the business end of things has really gotten sour. DLC, the barrage of music games a few years back, online passes, season passes, always-on DRM, motion controls, the decline of Japanese games, the casualization of numerous genres and even sequels within existing series, Nintendo of America's behavior, the severely flaky hardware in the beginning, the way they intend to drag along for nearly a decade with the same hardware now, the loss of so many developers, etc. etc. The way things have unfolded this generation have made me feel alienated from my hobby of 26 years and that honestly makes me sad.
 
This has easily been my favourite generation so far. Tons of great higher budget games, lots of fun bite size XBLA/PSN games, some interesting Wii and DS experiments, and in the past couple of years a shit ton of fantastic indie games that give me a taste of many of the games from my childhood, but with added hooks and the odd modern convenience that make them more fun to play.

There are some bad parts, sure (online passes, DRM, deluge of shooters, etc) but they haven't tarnished what has otherwise been some of the most fun games I've ever played.

And the weird part is that I feel this way despite being old, cranky, and jaded.
 
-The end of multiple genres
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simply not true. the return of the "indie developer" (or what we used to call Shareware) has bought with it both a return to older genres and the birth of several new ones.

-No real revolutionary improvements in gameplay /
-New technology didn't push new innovative games that couldn't of really been done before (with the exception of visuals)
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Minecraft gives us a revolutionary world size and con/destructability that wasn't really possible before. Not with that scale and visualisation. The Souls games use the internet for some really quite unusual gameplay devices outside of straight co-op/pvp. Wii bought pointer controls to the consoles (sure, some games jumped on the bandwagon and did it badly, it's still a great idea imo)

Pyrrhus said:
But the business end of things has really gotten sour. DLC, the barrage of music games a few years back, online passes, season passes, always-on DRM, motion controls, the decline of Japanese games, the casualization of numerous genres and even sequels within existing series, Nintendo of America's behavior, the severely flaky hardware in the beginning, the way they intend to drag along for nearly a decade with the same hardware now, the loss of so many developers, etc. etc. The way things have unfolded this generation have made me feel alienated from my hobby of 26 years and that honestly makes me sad.
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I understand and sympathise but i feel like you've forgotten things like the stupid code sheets that came with games to validate your copy, you know, stuff like the SSI games "please type the 3rd word of parage 5 on page 16 of the user manual to continue playing", or Sim Cities "please enter the four abstract symbols from square D5, which we printed in dark brown on dark red paper". the truly awful early 90's flood of platformers of which some yes are fondly remembered but there's 100's we'd be hard pressed to name. In the 80's it was text adventures by the hundreds. Ocean software's continual churning out of movie-licensed dreck. Bad games have always been around, bandwagons have always been jumped on and unfortunately good developers have often gone under. I'm just glad the small-guy scene is back, something XBLA and PSN have helped enable on consoles.

tbh i suppose i don't really think in terms of generations, just games.
 
Manmademan said:
this is just flat out wrong. play more games, man. There's no shortage of genres.

Completely false. again, play better games.
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Please list these games. My collection is quite vast. I have many games I put down after an hour because they feel like more of the same and never pick up again.

I'd appreciate it, if you could revive my spirit for this generations. :-)
 
Gamers and their treatment of other gamers is what let me down the most this gen. Essentially fanboyism is what makes me sometimes despise gaming in general.

Oh and the over-saturation of FPS and post-apocalyptic stuff too.
 
Steam is definitely amazing.

The Sin & Punishment 2 control scheme should have been copied for at least a few more games. Maybe a new Space Harrier or something.
 
The only bad thing that came out of this gen is pre-release DLCs and DRMs.

Great gen for Nintendo (Wii), terrible beginning but they had a lot of awesome titles in the long run.
 
Takao said:
Anyways, my opinion here: It's the worst console generation I've been alive to witness. Gaming became colder where only the big could survive at retail, and where everything and its mom used online modes to hide a weak single player.

Conversely it has been the best handheld generation I've been alive to see.
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GAF makes me feel so old at times.

I've seen them all...from Pong to today. This is my favorite gen so far. I can't think of one thing from the previous generations that we are missing out on...except maybe true custom soundtrack support.
 
Nay, not for me. I have more games for every genre and sub genre then ever before. A lot of different places to play them, some have become more niche, but all there.

Annoyances of patches, online only required paying, and a few others sure. Yet I'm still enjoying every game I get and it's easier now to play old games should I ever wish to pretend its the old days.

It's a good time to be a gamer in my mind, and it's always good to take a break from time to time from games so than it stays fresh.
 
Nah, I don't like JRPGs.

This generation brought me far more content with far less filler. I guess I'm just good at avoiding bland games. Also, games are way cheaper now if you're willing to wait a month.
 
This gen never really felt like it took off when Resident Evil 4 (over the shoulder shooting gallery set-up) and God of War (focus on scale and scenes with limited control) were two of the cornerstones.
 
Yes.

Most top Japanese franchises have been disjointed. Final Fantasy while good for me, hasn't been as good as it could have been. XIII had so much potential yet couldn't execute it as well. XIII-2 an improvement, but not quite there. Metal Gear Solid pretty much died and has dug itself into a creative rut. Same thing with Resident Evil, it seems to be creatively bankrupt and is trying to throw as many ideas to please everyone. You can see this in the RE6 trailer and even RE5's use of co-op. Other then that, some franchises just haven't appeared or have seen very lackluster western efforts. Either way the point is that pretty much for all these great franchisees, their last gen counterparts were better.

There's also been the heavy use of DLC. I feel like I'm penalized for buying a game day 1 and at my local chosen retailer. That sucks, I don't feel like I have the complete game anymore. It's a terrible feeling to feel kind of riped-off.

The PS3 has been a disappointing system. I bought it expecting at least the Japanese games of the PS2. No such thing. It's Japanese exclusives are creepy pedo games I don't want to touch and it's Western efforts are nothing to right home about. Graphically amazing games of quality sure, but not the personable games I'll remember for years.

At least Xbox in the beginning had the quirky Japanese games I like and a steady support of solid exclusives. it's died out though for kinect and that's something I have no interests in. So that's disappointing.

The Wii. The Wii at least had Xenoblade. It's not a system I get a lot of use out of, but it at least had a great game that I'll remember for a long time as a very satisfying reason I like video games.

A lot of older franchisees seem to have scaled down for whatever reason. Battlefield is a prime example. BF3 while fun, feels so dumbed down in every possible way from even the console Modern Combat game. It's quite sad.

Speaking on the mp side, I don't believe anything this gen on consoles has really done anything that unique. Chromehounds is about the only thing. Halo mp hardly seems that removed from past games and Battlefield is downgraded. I would have hoped that mp games really would have gotten bigger, with better map desgin and such. No such thing really happen. If anything it seems mp maps and ideas have gotten smaller. Blame CoD? No CoD is fine for what it does. Blame developers and Publishers for trying to ride it's waves.

The death of B-titles is also annoying. I liked off-beat quirky games. Japan doesn't seem to be making them as much and indie games dont do it for me. I also don't enjoy having to download them.

I don't know, its just been a disappointing gen for me. Not to say their hasn't been any good games though.
 
NZA36 said:
Steam is definitely amazing.

The Sin & Punishment 2 control scheme should have been copied for at least a few more games. Maybe a new Space Harrier or something.
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The Space Harrier sequel was amazing. Was that released on consoles and I missed it?

Looks like I'm going to have to try portable gaming. However my lifestyle isn't really suited for gaming on the go. I'm usually to busy with work, and when I'm home I want to play on the big screen. I'll give it a go and pick up a 3DS though. Is there a way to hook up my 3DS to my 3D tv and play it?

Thanks for the advice.
 
The only truly good thing to come out of this generation was Steam.

The rest of the "new" things this gen either failed outright or were good concepts marred by shitty execution and, above all, publisher exploitation. Case in point: digital content delivery. Great in theory and it had everyone pumped in 2005. Today not a game goes by without people secretly hoping that it won't be laden with shitty Online Passes and day one unlock-key DLC.
 
There have been disappointments along the way, but this generation is the best by far.

It's the only one that has delivered games that I've played for literally hundreds of hours. It's also the generation that got me to go on Xbox Live and experience social gaming in a way that I'd never experienced before. I made a bunch of new friends and have had amazing times just from playing Left 4 Dead alone. Then the game that is basically the closest thing to being the video game I've always wanted, Skyrim, comes out. I could gush about those two games forever and ever. The 360 is pretty much the center of my gaming universe at the moment. The PS3 & Wii are pretty disappointing however and are rarely if ever used, except for the occasional exclusive title.
 
This generation has been much better than 5th gen but not 6th.

we're talking consoles btw

6th was like a nice middle ground of tech where the games were still actually console games. 5th was the jump into 3d. many of them sucked and felt like a step back from the 4th which had the highest concentrate of greatest 2d games to date.
 
I wish there was a much bigger leap in the online space. Even though the services have evolved a great deal, the actual multiplayer game experiences we are getting this gen is very similar to last-gen (16 players etc).
 
SS/PSX/N64
+Greatly Improved Graphics

I stoped reading there. This just isn't true in my opinion. The crude 3d beginnings were atrocious for most games. Many of my top games from that era weren't in 3d to begin with.
 
Also, this

+Moderately Improved Graphics (sometimes PS2 games emulated with higher internal resolutions and filter effects looks as good)
-Game length decreased (Old rpgs had more interesting stories and more hours)
-The end of multiple genres
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Is a complete fabrication.
 
(._.) said:
This generation has been much better than 5th gen but not 6th.

we're talking consoles btw

6th was like a nice middle ground of tech where the games were still actually console games. 5th was the jump into 3d. many of them sucked and felt like a step back from the 4th which had the highest concentrate of greatest 2d games to date.
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Yeah, as bad as this generation might seem, the people saying this was the worst ever might want to recall the 5th generation. Filled to the brim with games that looked and played like absolute ass. For every Mario 64 with "woah dude! look at the draw distance and three dee!!" there were a hundred Earthworm Jim 3Ds and Bubsy 3Ds.
 
Mareg said:
SS/PSX/N64
+Greatly Improved Graphics

I stoped reading there. This just isn't true in my opinion. The crude 3d beginnings were atrocious for most games. Many of my top games from that era weren't in 3d to begin with.
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Huh?

Perfect arcade translation of Dungeons and Dragons Shadow of Mystaria and Xmen VS Street fighter, vs the shaddy ports of Street Fighter 2?

I guess it was huge to me.

3D wise Star Fox SNES to Star Fox 64 was a huge jump as well. Maybe it was just my being younger.
 
Started off really slow, first half was lame for the most part but the last half has been pretty damn good. Every genre is well represented, played more 2D platformers this gen than last, 2D fighters made a comeback. Lots of good stuff, started off really slow though.
 
The rise of the indie game community and digital distribution has honestly made this the best gen I think. There's just an insane variety of stuff out there. Now the AAA side, and in fact the establishment of that concept in itself, has been disappointing in some ways. Not that big a deal, I skip a few cinematic action games a year and lots of other cool stuff comes out in the meantime. Great time to be gaming.

Japan's been hurting for sure, but some of my favorite games of the last few years have been Japanese, because Platinum Games is in Japan. I love Final Fantasy back in the cartridge days, but I don't miss JRPGS a bit. My tolerance for anime-oriented characters and dialog is extremely low however.
 
Pyrrhus said:
Yes, this generation was a great disappointment. There were some great games like Super Mario Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption, and Demon's Souls, no doubt. But the business end of things has really gotten sour. DLC, the barrage of music games a few years back, online passes, season passes, always-on DRM, motion controls, the decline of Japanese games, the casualization of numerous genres and even sequels within existing series, Nintendo of America's behavior, the severely flaky hardware in the beginning, the way they intend to drag along for nearly a decade with the same hardware now, the loss of so many developers, etc. etc. The way things have unfolded this generation have made me feel alienated from my hobby of 26 years and that honestly makes me sad.
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Agree, except I don't dislike motion controls, as long as it's not the main focus, and not intrusive, some do a better job at that then others.
 
For me it was. Final Fantasy XIII and Metroid: Other M hurt me badly. Two of my favorite franchises had absolutely terrible new main entries.
 
I honestly feel this generation, taken as a whole, is the best one yet. Again... as a whole. When we look back, we do tend to cherry pick our favorite game or most special experiences.

But even with all the things folks gripe about this gen, like DLC, there's been too many good games. And I mean that literally - there are LITERALLY TOO MANY GOOD GAMES. Studios have gone out of business by overcrowding the AAA game market thanks to the near death of the mid-range budget title. Yet, ironically, that resulted in a glut of very high quality games even if the market couldn't support them all and allow publishers to make their money back.

I do feel this generation was hardest on most specialist gamers, because the trends shifted as they always do every gen. And genres that were densely packed with games in previous gens, like JRPGs, didn't get nearly as many in terms of number, this gen. It doesn't mean there were no good entries in those genres, just a lot less. I feel we are hard pressed to find a single, solitary genre that didn't get a high quality entry this generation. Though not necessarily the best in its genre historically. (Yet many best-of-history games did appear, like the Mario Galaxy games.)

It's been a generation you can sit and pick apart if you like because of all the chaos going on and the clash of ideas and warring demographics.
 
Not disappointed at all.

Lots of expansion has been seen this gen and most of it for the better. Music games were great before the market was flooded and drowned. Indie developers have found a way to get more of their games into peoples' hands. Online integration means I can play nearly any game with my friends who live thousands of miles away. Different methods of storytelling and hugely ambitious games like Heavy Rain have been developed further.

Really it's fantastic all around. I'm not looking forward to having to pay for SEN which I'm certain is inevitable, but I've been playing console games for over 20 years and there's nothing to stop me from thinking that this is the best gen ever.

I will say however that we don't have a FFT this gen. Nothing quite that brilliant.
 
Partly it's because I'm getting poorer as I get older (D'oh), but I owned a PS1, Saturn, and N64. Then next generation, I had a Dreamcast, PS2(x2) and an Xbox. This generation, I just have a 360, which I have probably turned on 5 times in the last 2 years (just to play Forza).

OTOH, the last handheld generation was great. The DS + PSP library had virtually everything you'd ever want, except I guess a lot of FPSes.

And I think PC gaming has made quite a comeback.
 
Yes. Not enough good JRPGs and Survival Horrors.
Where are games like Xenosaga, Shadow Hearts, SMT, DDS, Arc the Lad, Devil Summoner, Haunting Ground, Rule of Rose, Fatal Frame?
 
Not at all. Two of the nicest handhelds ever (DS & PSP) with one of them having arguably the greatest library of software a video game system has ever had.

The rise of digital distribution allowing a lot of small games to be released on the cheap. (XBLA/Wiiware/PSN/Steam/Etc.)

The combo of the Wii & DS bringing gaming to all new groups of people that never would ever thought of playing a video game.
 
I've been disappointed in some way by almost every RPG I've played this generation, so yeah, it's a let down for me.
 
This generation has been great for me! Steam sales made games so cheap and gog brought back my fav games for cheap! I could understand if your a fan of Japanese games, but you guys still have handheld's to play their games. So it isn't all bad.
 
GoofsterStud said:
The Space Harrier sequel was amazing. Was that released on consoles and I missed it?

Looks like I'm going to have to try portable gaming. However my lifestyle isn't really suited for gaming on the go. I'm usually to busy with work, and when I'm home I want to play on the big screen. I'll give it a go and pick up a 3DS though. Is there a way to hook up my 3DS to my 3D tv and play it?

Thanks for the advice.
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I don't think there has been a new Space Harrier in 10 years, and unfortunately, I don't think there is a way to hook a 3DS up to a TV.
 
I suppose the biggest caveat this gen is that you're not going to be happy if:

1. You mostly like Japanese games.

2. You don't like handheld games, which is where most of the good Japanese stuff was found this gen.
 
Pyrrhus said:
Yes, this generation was a great disappointment. There were some great games like Super Mario Galaxy, Red Dead Redemption, and Demon's Souls, no doubt. But the business end of things has really gotten sour. DLC, the barrage of music games a few years back, online passes, season passes, always-on DRM, motion controls, the decline of Japanese games, the casualization of numerous genres and even sequels within existing series, Nintendo of America's behavior, the severely flaky hardware in the beginning, the way they intend to drag along for nearly a decade with the same hardware now, the loss of so many developers, etc. etc. The way things have unfolded this generation have made me feel alienated from my hobby of 26 years and that honestly makes me sad.
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Pretty much how I feel exactly.
 
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