I Miss the PS2 Days/7th generation (WITH DISCUSSION VALUE)

Cyncial_Huggy

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Does anyone else miss the old days, the days when you had to get up and buy your games? The days when J-RPGs were thriving and weren't dying? When FPSs were smart and intelligent and required you to think? Remember Dark Cloud? I miss those days. And I was wondering, do you do too? Do you miss the TRUE RPGs? I do. Do you, too? Is this enough for discussion value?
 

Xeros

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I try not to dwell on the past too much. In the end, it's not like we can go back. That said, while I enjoyed my time in those days and though I don't have as much time for it anymore, I'm greatly enjoying seeing the modern progression of gaming. Sure, a lot of the ancient ways are being phased out for more conventional methods, but there're still some decent homages to the "good ol' days" about.
 

Ambient_Malice

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The PS2 is 6th generation, though. I know this because I'm an N64 fanboi who spent many sleepless nights when 4chan decided the Dreamcast could be discussed on /vr/, the retro board.
 

NoPants2win

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The PS2 was a hell of a console. Any great obscure RPGs that you'd recommend?

I didn't like Dark Cloud much. It was super grindy and I didn't care for the water and poison mechanics. It seemed like their only function was to pad out the gameplay. The building mechanic was interesting. I wonder if the designers owned Soul Blazer when they were growing up.
 

Black Dream

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The best part is that all (at least the vast majority) of those games still exist, so there's nothing to miss!
And even nowadays there are still plenty of great 'smart' and 'intelligent' games being made. You just need to look for them! (I know that's far too much effort for some people though..)
And as for missing 'TRUE RPGs' well... I have no idea what you mean by that. Care to elaborate on what makes a 'true' RPG?
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Jun 21, 2009
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Black Dream said:
And as for missing 'TRUE RPGs' well... I have no idea what you mean by that. Care to elaborate on what makes a 'true' RPG?
He means old school CRPGs like Planescape Torment, Baldur's Gate, the first two Fallouts and such. Maybe the Ultima series too. Which is rather funny, since he lists his birth year as '98 in his profile, so he wasn't really around back in those particular old days, unless he was already playing that stuff in the crib and kindergarten.

Judging from another thread the OP has made, he has a rather narrow definition of what makes a 'true' RPG. He's of course wrong, since the only true RPGs are good ol' pen & paper ones. The scope and possibilities, both in terms of story-telling and mechanics, of a campaign run by a good DM make every rpg videogame ever made seem like laughably shallow and incredibly limited experiences by comparison.

Ah, I like being a narrowminded elitist. Should do it more often.

But back on topic.

Like a few people have already said. All that stuff never went away and is still available, so yeah, nothing to miss.

Also, since when has the FPS genre ever been "smart and intelligent and required you to think"? With the exception of some outliers like System Shock, Deus Ex and the like, the FPS genre on the whole has never been bursting with brainteasers.
 

Souplex

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Jul 29, 2008
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Cyncial_Huggy said:
Does anyone else miss the old days, the days when you had to get up and buy your games?
These days are still those days.
The days when J-RPGs were thriving and weren't dying?
Gamecube/PS2 JRPGs were 90+ hour grindfests with mind-numbing stories. I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did.
When FPSs were smart and intelligent and required you to think?
I can't help but laugh at that statement.
Remember Dark Cloud?
I remember Dark Cloud 2. It was fun, but it also embodied a lot of the problems with JRPGs.
I miss those days. And I was wondering, do you do too?
The Gamecube/PS2 generation was a major low-point for anyone who didn't like JRPGs. I'm glad they're gone.
Do you miss the TRUE RPGs? I do. Do you, too?
What do you mean by that?
Is this enough for discussion value?
Yes.
The thing I really miss from that generation which you neglected to mention, was local multiplayer.
 

Canadamus Prime

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Jun 17, 2009
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Well it did seem like gaming had more of a "soul" back then, but that's probably just my warped perception of things.
 

RaikuFA

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Man, a lot of people piling on one guy for liking a genre...

Then again, this is the Escapist, where liking said genre is garunteed to make you a pariah.

Yes, I miss the PS2 days, where not only JRPG's had more than a handful of releases a year, but survival horror was at perfection, sandbox games were a dime a dozen with my two fav's were Simpsons Hit and Run and Destroy all humans. We didn't have to online play as much and dlc wasn't a thing.
 

Erttheking

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People have a tendency to romanticize the past. To filter out the shit parts of it. There was shit back in the day too. For all the good games on PS2, how many shit games were there? Quite a few I'd imagine. You're viewing the past through rose tinted glasses.

And I'm quite content to buy a game while I'm sitting on my ass. And JRPGs are still around, despite Final Fantasy's attempts to fuck everything up, Shin Megami Tensei is still around and Persona 5 will get here EVENTUALLY!

And if games like classic Fallout are "real" RPGS, then real RPGs are boring.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Sep 8, 2011
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Games are actually better today. And even if they weren't I still can and do play the old classics.

I just miss the fact that buying games was easy. You go out, you buy it and you play it. No bullshit. No DLC, no pre-order bonuses, no unfinished products. Just a finished game. Like buying a DVD of your favorite movie. MGS V will be like that. Did you see it? It is glorious. All the pre-order bonuses are so tiny and worthless they only exist because it's become almost mandatory for games to have them. But it's a complete game just like in the old days. No skins, levels, characters, weapons or vehicles to pre-order. Isn't it weird that having no pre-order bonuses worth having is the reason I pre-ordered MGS V? I just want to play it as soon as it is out. I can hardly believe that in this day and age a AAA release of one of the most famous brands in the industry will let me have an entire experience the moment it is released. It excites me. I pre-ordered The Witcher 3 for the exact reason.

On the opposite side we have Hitman, and Square-Enix's latest strategy of releasing a literally unfinished game for $60 with a promise that they'll release the rest of it in the coming months. Guess who's not buying that.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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Adam Jensen said:
I just miss the fact that buying games was easy. You go out, you buy it and you play it. No bullshit. No DLC, no pre-order bonuses, no unfinished products. Just a finished game. Like buying a DVD of your favorite movie. MGS V will be like that. Did you see it? It is glorious. All the pre-order bonuses are so tiny and worthless they only exist because it's become almost mandatory for games to have them. But it's a complete game just like in the old days. No skins, levels, characters, weapons or vehicles to pre-order. Isn't it weird that having no pre-order bonuses worth having is the reason I pre-ordered MGS V? I just want to play it as soon as it is out. I can hardly believe that in this day and age a AAA release of one of the most famous brands in the industry will let me have an entire experience the moment it is released. It excites me. I pre-ordered The Witcher 3 for the exact reason.

On the opposite side we have Hitman, and Square-Enix's latest strategy of releasing a literally unfinished game for $60 with a promise that they'll release the rest of it in the coming months. Guess who's not buying that.
Amen to that mate, you bought a game and it bloody worked. None of these false advertising, releasing literally broken games to the point that I don't bother buying day one anymore as it's proven that you get a better product if you wait and buy it cheap. That says alot and it's not good.

Hell I'm finding myself looking at other hobbies recently, the gaming industry is becoming depressing.
 

Hairless Mammoth

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Yeah, I miss the PS2 and its era. That system alone had one of the best libraries of all time, and the entire generation produced some real gems[footnote]Being a Genesis/PS1 guy, the Gamecube/GBA revived and introduced me to Metroid[/footnote]. I really hope my PS2 doesn't give out when I finally go to power it up

Co-op meant your bro/sis/friend/cousin/SO plugged in their controller, not bought another system, copy of the game, and subscription to play online, even in the same house/apartment. Halo had actual LAN support. JRPGs weren't trying to become WRPGs (and mostly failing). WRPGs weren't trying to blend in design trends from other genres. FPS were fewer in number and had variety to them (compared to today's market). Mascot platformers had just found their footing with 3D and were thriving. Nintendo's home console wasn't devoid of good third party titles, and scalpers weren't selling their hard to find products on eBay for 300% markup. Voice acting wasn't as cheesy as the PS1 era, but studios weren't stupid enough to blow a quarter of the budget on a-list movie stars reading about 15 minutes of dialog per actor.

The current gen and this past one have been mostly lackluster. Most AAA games aren't worth their price until they're in the bargain bin (or a GOTY super delux edition with the DLC is released). Almost every major game publisher plays it way too safe, relying on milking proven franchises and genres while nickeling and diming us with DLC and microtransactions. Games aren't finished before you handed over your money. The good news is a worthy AAA does pop up every so often, and the indie scene has the thought provoking (in both puzzle solving and artistic appreciation) games.
 

Poetic Nova

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Can't miss what I still own.
People who sell previous gen consoles when they get a current gen one are frankly going to miss out on the classics. Not every game gets a re-release after all.
 

Nazulu

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Jun 5, 2008
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Yeah, I miss the days when there was real quality gaming and everyone could find something for them in almost every genre. It's been ages since I've actually been excited for something coming out.

Nintendo don't do it for me anymore and I'm over their gimmicks. There are no MMO's at all like Lineage 2, not even Lineage 2 is itself after NC Soft tried to turn it into fucking WoW. The RTS scene is still dried up. And almost everything that comes out now looks like it's been done before, though the The Witcher 3 is good.

I believe gaming hasn't reached it's full potential though. It's still a young medium that hasn't had any real powerful moments yet. Not like I've seen in movies and heard in music.

It will come, I can sense it. I can still find some good looking interesting projects with artists just doing their own thing in a different way.
 

OhNoYouDidnt

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Oct 22, 2013
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I, too, frequently feel nostalgic about the PS2 days, but I do remember that it's just that: Nostalgia. For all the problems the industry might have today, it's nonsensical to suggest that everything was rosy in those days, that bad and/or broken games didn't exist back then. Shovelware wasn't invented in 2006, you know.

JRPGs might be in decline on home consoles right now, but I'd say they're still thriving on handhelds. My 3DS in particular is basically JRPG heaven for me, with the likes of Shin Megami Tensei IV, Devil Survivor: Overclocked, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Soul Hackers, Bravely Default, Tales of the Abyss, Inazuma Eleven Go, Persona Q and many, many, maaany more. But the wording of your post suggests to me that you'd write these gems off with a line like "they aren't TRUE RPGs", which is your loss entirely.

Also, can you name a few of these super smart PS2-era FPS games that required you to think? I struggle to think of any.
 

Atmos Duality

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I see a bit of a dogpile in progress, with the leading charge of "Nostalgia! Rose-tinted glasses! It don't matter because gaming is better now!". Might as well address that first.

Yes, that reasoning is true to a point, because gaming AS A WHOLE can only improve with time,assuming we dismiss all the garbage that comes with every generation of games.
It's improvement on technicality, but it's quite true all the same.

However, the whole (history) of gaming doesn't accurately describe CURRENT trends, which are far more relevant (we can only realistically impact the present and the future...and the latter is kind of a crapshoot at best).

Gaming may be better as a whole, but that doesn't mean EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW is better. In fact, there many things that are just flat out worse than even 10 years ago.

So pardon me if I don't find the tired "nostalgia rebuttal" to be of any real use when comparing trends of now vs then.
Which isn't to say that everything was better on PS2; just that not everything is better today.

RicoADF said:
Adam Jensen said:
I just miss the fact that buying games was easy. You go out, you buy it and you play it. No bullshit. No DLC, no pre-order bonuses, no unfinished products. Just a finished game. Like buying a DVD of your favorite movie. MGS V will be like that. Did you see it? It is glorious. All the pre-order bonuses are so tiny and worthless they only exist because it's become almost mandatory for games to have them. But it's a complete game just like in the old days. No skins, levels, characters, weapons or vehicles to pre-order. Isn't it weird that having no pre-order bonuses worth having is the reason I pre-ordered MGS V? I just want to play it as soon as it is out. I can hardly believe that in this day and age a AAA release of one of the most famous brands in the industry will let me have an entire experience the moment it is released. It excites me. I pre-ordered The Witcher 3 for the exact reason.

On the opposite side we have Hitman, and Square-Enix's latest strategy of releasing a literally unfinished game for $60 with a promise that they'll release the rest of it in the coming months. Guess who's not buying that.
Amen to that mate, you bought a game and it bloody worked. None of these false advertising, releasing literally broken games to the point that I don't bother buying day one anymore as it's proven that you get a better product if you wait and buy it cheap. That says alot and it's not good.

Hell I'm finding myself looking at other hobbies recently, the gaming industry is becoming depressing.
^So much that. Games are rarely sold as complete-packages anymore.
Part of that has to do with the rising cost of production, but I think more of it still just comes from the fact that gamers have lowered their standards for the sake of expediency. Otherwise, why else would companies feel so bold now as to release games in increasingly buggy, unfinished states?

The bolded part is an especially potent indictment of the industry; gamer and developer/publisher alike.

It's not because I'm some whiny "entitled" (*rolls eyes*) brat that wants everything done exactly as I like it; I feel for game producers because I know production is an unpleasant balancing act of creating player expectations, juggling the workload, and actually MEETING expectations.

Each of those steps has its own critical sub-steps, and the process is only getting harder because the market is moving faster.

With the roaring success of the previous console generation and advent of widespread digital content distribution...I think things have become TOO fast and "convenient". Today, it's a cycle of overhype and rush jobs, and it's feeding back into itself.

There's just so much competition for our attention, that producers are routinely all but outright lying to acquire it; and once they do have it, they're exploiting it for all its worth.

Coming from the other direction, it's why consumers GROSSLY underestimate the collective amount of market pressure they create by buying into crap like microtransactions, pay-to-win, always-online systems, and pre-ordering rushed productions; Producers are pushing the envelope harder than ever, going well past what is reasonable.

The pre-180 Xbone and Steam's Paid-Mod program are two terrifyingly close bullets we dodged, and that's just in the past two years.

And the scary part? In both cases there were still passionate, vocal supporters for those horrible offerings from the consumer side of things. Thankfully, such supporters were such a fringe minority that they weren't viable offerings, but it blows my mind whenever I see someone who would gladly ruin everything for the rest of us just for the sake of a bit convenience or blind faith in business logic.

In that, I really do miss the PS2 era. Yes, gaming had its baggage then as well, but it was more manageable and certainly less political. The biggest producers were still willing to take more risks on average, provide more middling production offerings and not lean so heavily on post-release content that twists the player's arm.

While there's some truly great games made since that time, I'm finding them increasingly rare both by proportion (relative occurrence) and by gross-numbers (absolute occurrence). And that's in SPITE of gaming's greatly increased production base (there are more developers than ever).