Ask yourself in 1998...

[Slitzkin]

I probably thought I would have finally gotten my hands on an N64 or "Intendow Ixty Or" as I used to call it. I wasn't very old in '98 but I was old enough to play my families SNES, so in those days my gaming was dominated by Super Mario All Stars, Donkey Kong and Super Mario Kart.

I even remember having arguments with my friends over what 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc meant in Super Mario Kart. I said it meant "It's what you're coming" and my mate said "It's how fast you're going" the argument quickly escaleted to pugilism.

 

[StBishop]

Pokemon
Command and Conquer
Baldur's Gate (Can't remember if I'd seen it in 98, I think I first encountered in in 99)
Crash Bandicoot
Tekken

I still play Pokemon and Baldur's Gate but I don't really do fighting games any more, and the Crash Games stopped being good after CTR.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

I had a GameBoy that I had owned since I was three (and it still works last time I checked). The games I owned for it was a golf game, a Bamse game, a Hugo game and Tetris (which was the first video game I played).

My main expectation of the future at the time was that I would eventually be able games on a handheld IN COLOURZ!

Yeah, I didn't know about 3D games at the time (nor did my family have a PC)...

 

[DanteLives]

1998: I'd probably have said Sonic the Hedgehog or any driving games, as i was just 3 back then.

2012: Sonic's dire nowadays, but the driving games out nowadays are great. Currently playing the F1 games and Gran Turismo 5.

 

[Maxtro]

Final Fantasy VII came out in September 1997 in the US.

I expected that in 10+ years time I'd be playing RPG's that have in-game graphics that were as good as the FMV cut-scenes and load times were gone.

The graphics thing is almost there since FF XIII looks pretty damn good, but load (and save) times are still here. Also not many RPG's have FMV quality in-game graphics.

I also expected a full adventure Pokemon game on a non-portable system. Still waiting on that one...

 

[go-10]

in 98?
I was finally finishing Final Fantasy VII and simultaneously playing Brave Fencer Musashi and Zelda Ocarina of Time...

so yeah back then I would've thought I'd be playing lots of JRPG's and Action-RPG's, turns out I don't play either of those genres much at all anymore

 

[Ryotknife]

halflife 7
Final Fantasy 18
Deus ex 7

 

[TelHybrid]

Hmm...

I hoped to be playing more Sonic. I had years of disappointment but loved Generations.

I hoped to be playing more Crash. Shame Crash games stopped being made after CTR. (Do not correct me!!)

 

[loc978]

I honestly thought I'd be playing a cross-genre action/RTS/FPS/flight sim persistent world online game by now. Oh how these years have been wasted.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

'98 me: Rare is fucking awesome! I'll be playing all of their games until I die.

2012 me: Rare..

 

[HellbirdIV]

StarCraft? I think I owned that by 1998. Oh and Star Wars games around the time Episode 1 came out were great.

I don't think I ever thought as far ahead as the friggin' 2000's (I was 8!) so I think I lived more in the moment. Still, I would have expected to play games like that, if you asked me.

... What am I playing today?

StarCraft II.

Star Wars The Old Republic.

 

[Judgment90]

Nothing would be different, as I wasn't into gaming around 1998.

 

[Pharsalus]

The new FF game... Half Life 4. An X-Com sequal, TIE Fighter 2.

Thought I might be making games by this time but alas, too lazy.

 

[ResonanceGames]

I definitely thought simulation would have come a lot further than it has. It's been really neglected as a game design philosophy in favor of simpler, clearer, cleaner things like QTEs.

So in answer to the question, I figured games would be like a non-broken version of Trespasser with Crytek 3 graphics.

 

[Kopikatsu]

X-Wing vs Tie Fighter 14.

I miss that game so much.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

If you had asked me in 1998 what I'd be playing in 2012?

Well, probably Virtua Fighter (whatever) and Shenmue chapter (whatever) on Sega's newest console.... yeaaaah. Oh well.

Oh, also plenty of quality Star Wars games... yeaaah...

 

[drednoahl]

What would you be playing in 2012?

For those old enough to remember gaming in the 90s what would you have predicted gaming would be like in the present day? I'd likely imagine some super virtual reality almost real life looking game...but I'm actually playing a PS1 game that came out in 1999 and enjoying it just as much as a new current gen game.

Back in '98 there were so many great games coming out that the future looked bright, and I was optimistic and satisfied how things were going. Back then game I wanted to play back then was something like if you crossed EVE online with X3 Terran Conflict; that's still not really possible to make now for many reasons, and probably impossible on consoles period.

The reality of gaming in 2012 is not what I expected or wanted - I totally ignore games from some publishers due to their business practices, I've given up on consoles because I find them less convenient than PC (and I used to hate PCs,) and I could go on, but all I want to do is play the games I've paid for without all the anti-consumer crap being pushed on gamers currently getting in the way of my gaming. The optimism I had for the future in '98 is polarised now so badly that I'm going backwards playing retro games :/

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

This is pretty much it. I mean we went from cartoonie to awww look isn't that cute they are trying to make the games look real. So I believed that by this time we would have ultra realistic graphics.

We still are not quite there, the programs are capable of creating perfect realism, but our computers are not up to it. Give it another 15 years.