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Are We in Peak PS360 Nostalgia?

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


Look up reviews for Capcom's latest, Pragmata, and one comparison keeps coming up: it feels like an Xbox 360 game. But what does that actually mean, and are we really on the cusp of a seventh-generation revival?
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  • (00:01–01:49) The video argues that modern games like Capcom's Capcom Pragmata are being praised specifically because they "feel like Xbox 360 games." Reviewers compare it to classics such as Vanquish, Dead Space, Lost Planet, and Gears of War due to its frantic third-person combat, experimental mechanics, and linear cinematic storytelling.
  • (01:49–04:15) Several upcoming games are framed as "PS360 throwbacks," including 007 First Light and Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. The narrator says these titles revive the "mid-budget single-player action game" — focused, complete adventures that aren't trying to become endless live-service platforms.
  • (04:15–05:16) The video contrasts successful nostalgia-driven games with failures like MindsEye. Even poorly reviewed throwbacks still attract attention because players miss the design philosophy of the PS3/Xbox 360 era: compact campaigns, arcade-style mechanics, and experimentation over monetization.
  • (05:16–07:30) "Feeling like a 360 game" is explained as more than just visuals like "brown and bloom." The real nostalgia comes from the era's experimental momentum, where games such as Resident Evil 4, Mass Effect, and Uncharted constantly pushed new gameplay ideas into the AAA space.
  • (07:30–08:46) The narrator points out that nostalgia itself became mainstream during the PS3/Xbox 360 generation. Retro-inspired games like Mega Man 9 and Shovel Knight revived older styles, while gaming sites and early online communities helped romanticize previous generations.
  • (08:46–10:05) The video argues players are not nostalgic for the hardware itself, but for the era before live-service domination. Modern franchises such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel's Spider-Man, and God of War still descend from PS360-era design, but today these games feel rarer because publishers prioritize recurring revenue models like Fortnite and GTA Online.
  • (10:05–11:36) Capcom is presented as the company that most successfully resisted the live-service trend. Since Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, the studio has thrived by making polished, focused experiences like Devil May Cry 5 and Resident Evil 4, proving strong single-player design still has mass appeal.
  • (11:36–12:29) Nintendo is highlighted as taking a completely different path from Sony and Microsoft during the PS3 era. Instead of chasing graphical realism, Nintendo focused on gameplay experimentation with systems like the Wii and later the Switch, helping keep smaller and mid-sized games alive.
  • (12:29–14:02) The narrator explains that true PS360 nostalgia hasn't fully matured yet because the generation's aesthetic identity is still "too recent." Unlike PS1 low-poly visuals, the Xbox 360 style hasn't yet transformed into a fully embraced artistic language — but the process is beginning.
  • (14:02–15:17) Final conclusion: we are not yet at "peak PS3 nostalgia," but we are entering the early phase of it. The nostalgia is really for a lost design philosophy: complete single-player games with beginnings and endings, bold ideas, and fewer monetization systems like battle passes and seasonal roadmaps.
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Doggyred said:
How's this for nostalgia.


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RROD Xbox 360 is like:
200.gif
 
If Pragmata was a Xbox360 game it would have a multiplayer mode. Edit: You can't have nostalgia for that era without multiplayer. Pragmata is a modern singleplayer-only, narrative-focused game for people who don't want to shoot other players.

He mentions Capcom, but their games now are completely different from the PS3/X360 era. For starters, no Resident Evil game with coop.
 
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Sohurmk833 said:
What's there to be nostalgic about? PS4 was basically the same shit we have now just with worse graphics.
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So far it's just very tiny signs of nostalgia that gen. Bloodborne is the obvious one, but I've seen a little nostalgia in different spots for titles like Infamous Second Son, Ryse, PS4 Strider, Injustice, Old Warframe, and Killer Instinct (XBO).

Give it time and I think it will pop up more in the 2030s. It took a while for people to come around on PS360Wii with rose tinted glasses (especially Wii), so the same will eventually happen for PS4/XBO Gen.
 
I don't think it's nostalgic,
for some J-RPG lovers, that HD era is nightmare
Buuut I'm fine with that era, I mostly on PC, PSP, and NDS at the time though
 
It feels more like some publishers are turning their back on huge, bloated and live service games and returning to the classic form of gaming. There is nothing nostalgic about it. Pragmata is how most games always looked and should still look like.
 
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Console nostalgia usually follows the same pattern and has done for years. It's when there have been two later console generations that this starts. I think it's becuse people that were kids when those consoles were current get to an age where they have good jobs and disposable income and want to get all the games they loved again and all the games they could not afford back then.

360 is a good console to collect for, big catalog, plentiful and cheap. However I've noticed in the last couple of years that's steadily changing.
 
it was the weakest console generation for me, really didn't enjoy the direction that AAA games went.

There were standout titles like the Souls games sure, but for the most part, I would not pay over odds for pretty much any games from that era.
 
I have no nostalgia for that generation.

We had literally the same games as today, but with worse graphics and at unstable 30 fps.

It's like missing Tekken 1 when you have Tekken 3.
 
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My PS5 is collecting dust while in the meantime I replayed a lot of PS360 games on OG hardware like Gears of War 1 & 2, Resistance 2 & 3 and BF Hardline. That gen just had everything, 3 mayor Rockstar open world titles, 2 MGS games, a lot of straight forward shooters with actual fun campaigns, 3 Uncharted games, TLoU and some more cinematic 3rd person action adventures while series like CoD and Battlefield peaked. Also the PSP and DS as a worthy companions with actual dedicated games.

Gen 7 was pure gold.
 
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Parazels said:
I have no nostalgia for that generation.

We had literally the same games as today, but with worse graphics and at unstable 30 fps.

It's like missing Tekken 1 when you have Tekken 3.
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Yeah nothing really nostalgic is coming to mind from that generation for me.

I don't know if I agree about the graphics and framerate part, but a lot of games are definitely not pushing the bar.
 
I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the gen where games went down to sub-30 fps all of a sudden, japanese studios were struggling, the consoles were failing left and right, games looked all brown for no reason, that Sony hack in 2011 that had PSN offline for a month, etc...the rough transition to HD overall was a bit messy. And...the Wiii. Watching all middle aged housewifes buying one to lose weight with Wii Fit was...a weird time.

Yes there were some good moments, Sony suddenly waking up and having their internal western studios blasting great games left and right at the end of the gen but watching some of my favorite franchises struggling like Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Team ICO nowhere to be seen, etc was tough.

We just say "it was great" now because we were kids back then, life was easier and we weren't as demanding (and Digital Foundry didn't exist) but going from the previous gens it was a clear step down in most cases and not just Sony. Xbox 360 only looked good at first because Sony looked worse, but their RROD was terrible.

The pros? It was experimental in many ways. Playstation Home was something. Franchises like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, etc were starting as well. But to me it was a clear step down from PS1/N64 days or even PS2/Xbox/Gamecube days.
 
Kupfer said:
My PS5 is collecting dust while in the meantime I replayed a lot of PS360 games on OG hardware like Gears of War 1 & 2, Resistance 2 & 3 and BF Hardline. That gen just had everything, 3 mayor Rockstar open world titles, 2 MGS games, a lot of straight forward shooters with actual fun campaigns, 3 Uncharted games, TLoU and some more cinematic 3rd person action adventures while series like CoD and Battlefield peaked. Also the PSP and DS as a worthy companions with actual dedicated games.

Gen 7 was pure gold.
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We also got 3 Mass Effect games. A whole trilogy in just a gen! Nowadays we are lucky if we get one game and it doesn't suck ass. :lollipop_crying:
 
I traded in my entire Xbox 360 and PS3 collection this year.
Physical all gone. All the physical games, hardware, accessories, Camera's, Kinects, charging docks, batteries, controllers, chatpads, headphones, PC dongles, all gone.

The only thing I have of that generation are the digital games in my digital library. Lots of XB360 games during the Gold years. Some I even bought myself.

I kept the XB360 HD-DVD drive. I have 2 movies for it. King Kong and Transformers. I think I can still use this on a PC, maybe. (will it work on a series X? I need to plug it in an find out)

Did not get as much money as I was hoping for the trade in, but might be enough to get a Steam Frame and or a Steam Machine.
 
Pragmata does feel like a 360 game. All it's missing is the tacked on multiplayer.

COD is dying. Fortnite is dying. Destiny is dying. All these new liveshit games are landing like a wet fart. I think people are getting tired of being sold business models wrapped up in a game. That doesn't mean live games are going away or multiplayer games are going away, but people want to buy and play GAMES not battle passes and seasons. It feels like the MP games that will live on are the ones that are games first without this type of model, like CS2, DOTA2, etc.

Tiago Rodrigues said:
I don't have a lot of nostalgia for the gen where games went down to sub-30 fps all of a sudden, japanese studios were struggling, the consoles were failing left and right, games looked all brown for no reason, that Sony hack in 2011 that had PSN offline for a month, etc...the rough transition to HD overall was a bit messy. And...the Wiii. Watching all middle aged housewifes buying one to lose weight with Wii Fit was...a weird time.

Yes there were some good moments, Sony suddenly waking up and having their internal western studios blasting great games left and right at the end of the gen but watching some of my favorite franchises struggling like Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Team ICO nowhere to be seen, etc was tough.

We just say "it was great" now because we were kids back then, life was easier and we weren't as demanding (and Digital Foundry didn't exist) but going from the previous gens it was a clear step down in most cases and not just Sony. Xbox 360 only looked good at first because Sony looked worse, but their RROD was terrible.

The pros? It was experimental in many ways. Playstation Home was something. Franchises like Uncharted, The Last of Us, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War, etc were starting as well. But to me it was a clear step down from PS1/N64 days or even PS2/Xbox/Gamecube days.
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I agree with a lot of what you posted but I need to point out that DF started early in that gen to compare 360 and PS3 ports.
 
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Ye no doubt back then you could talk shit in Halo3/COD lobbies at each other and it was funny as hell, Now days no one doing that and that was before you needed to provide "Age verification" for the new social credit system.
 
I know I am

Been playing many games of that gen on my Odin 2

Dead Space games, Mass Effect, Mirror's Edge, Dishonored, Arkham games, The Darkness, Asura's Wrath, Dante's Inferno and so on

Usually perfectly paced, no bullshit, gameplay focused games

I miss those
 
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Wow, you know with the pacing like it is Pragmata does feel like an older game from my past. Maybe that's why I've loved it so much, lol.
 
Parazels said:
I have no nostalgia for that generation.

We had literally the same games as today, but with worse graphics and at unstable 30 fps.

It's like missing Tekken 1 when you have Tekken 3.
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Yep, nostalgia and 'rose tinted' go together like peas and carrots. There are plenty of games that play exactly like back then or even better.
 
No nostalgia for ps360, just we got "modern audience" games fatigue, aka games made by women(including decepticons) for women- which means by definition those games present much lower value for core audience- us, males since they are not targeted towards us- there is a reason no romantic comedy/drama movie(including most known ones like titanic and pretty woman) is in any guys top50 of movies(likely not even top100), but masterpieces like godfather, matrix, predator, terminator 1&2, goodfellas, alien, enter the dragon etc are on every guys list, we simply like what we like :)

Ps360 had tons of its own problems and failures, but big advantage that gen(and all other gens too) had vs ps5 and xbox series gen was mountain of topquality exclusives, both x360 and ps3, hell even og wii had tons of shortcomings but at least they offered high value to potential customers, unlike current gen consoles.

Literally if u got modern gaming pc and u are playstation game fanatic(not even sony as a company fan but games that were exclusive on their platform for so long) u look at ps5/pr0 and there is barely anything of value there that u cant play elswere (to me its astro and demons souls, even if we count in x-gen then gt7 on top so 3 fricken games and its 6th year of this generation, pitiful af).

Literally why didnt we get infamous 1&2 remaster/remake doublepack by now? (Think of similar treatment uncharted 1-3 got with its remasters on ps4, it was such a great idea). At the very least it should be launch title for ps6 if sony has tiny bit of brainpower left (which is questionable after how they are handling bungie and all of its "Gaas initiative").

No point to even talk about xbox, they are long gone and for them to be any kind of relevant(10m+ units of magnus sold) they would need to make crazy amount of pivoting and spining, basically copy early x360 aproach under peter moore and delete everything after that which realistically wont ever happen :)
 
20 years is about when things become vintage/retro, so you start to see things in a different way. You were a child, now you are a professional, you were a teenager, now you are parents, you were a worker, now you are a retired guy.
 
Parazels said:
I have no nostalgia for that generation.

We had literally the same games as today, but with worse graphics and at unstable 30 fps.

It's like missing Tekken 1 when you have Tekken 3.
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And yet we are still playing so many games from that gen, in remaster or remake form.

Like your profile pic is Virtua Fighter and Sega is still releasing the fucking Virtua Fighter it released that gen.

Maybe you don't have nostalgia because you're still playing those games, literally?
 
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