This game generation is actually pretty good!

[remnant_phoenix]

So I'm looking in the "Hot Threads" menu and I see a thread entitled, "This game generation kind of sucks." First thought when I saw this title, "Oh, not this again..."

Yes, this generation has had some serious hardware problems, but I am the only one who seems to remember blowing on NES cartridges and wiggling them around in the console slot so that I'd actually get into the game rather than a flashing screen? Am I the only one who remembers their friend who had a PS1 that he had to turn UPSIDE-DOWN so that it would read disks?!

Yes, this generation has a ton of shovelware, but am I the only one who remembers the stacks and stacks of shitty games for the PS2, just ONE generation ago?! Have we so quickly forgotten the legendary E.T. debacle of the 80's that resulted in thousands of Atari 2600 cartridges being literally SHOVELED into a landfill?

(Side note: Is this where we get the term "shovelware" from?)

My point is that, yes, this generation has its problems, but EVERY generation has had those same problems in varying amounts.

So here's a counter-thread to all those Negative Nancys. Let's list the amazing game experiences that this generation has given us. Let's avoid indie games or ports and post the names of games that you love that couldn't have been possible in the previous generation. And/Or, post games that could have been possible, but without today's technology, they wouldn't have been as satisfying.

Here's my contribution:

-Assassin's Creed (series)
-Bioshock
-Red Dead Redemption
-Portal
-Portal 2
-Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
-Dragon Age: Origins

 

[scorptatious]

Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Metal Gear Solid 4 and the PSP MGS games.
Final Fantasy XIII
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
Mass Effect 1 and 2.

And I definetely agree about people being too negative about this sort of thing. Gaming has always had it's fair share of problems no matter the generation. And we have also came really far. I have just recently played through the original Metal Gear Solid, and while I did thought it was a great game, compared to the later games such as MGS3, (the first MGS game I've played) the enemies are pretty dumb.

EDIT: Crap! I forgot about Oblivion and Bayonetta!

 

[krazykidd]

Redring of death , playstation network crash , wii ( nuff said ) . These problems are bigger than the past problems , yes there are some good games out there , but everything is so generic and stale . But i think this low point is necessary to reach a high point in the near futur.

 

[CleverNickname]

2 years ago we got an amazing Batman game, and in 2 months we get another one.

How can a generation with 2 great games where you are BATMAN suck? Kids these days

I know there are other great ones (AssCreed, Portal, Minecraft, BLands, etc etc) but Batman trumps every argument

 

[ShikyoTenshi]

The bottom line is there are a lot of crap games, there are a lot of games that look wonderful but end up sucking and then there are the few, proud that are truly wonderful.

 

[DarkSlaanesh]

wii ( nuff said )

See, this confuses me. Everyone always says 'nuff said' about the Wii. I've never seen anyone say anything genuinely bad about it, except, and I quote my friend, 'I'm too lazy for motion controls.'

 

[krazykidd]

wii ( nuff said )

See, this confuses me. Everyone always says 'nuff said' about the Wii. I've never seen anyone say anything genuinely bad about it, except, and I quote my friend, 'I'm too lazy for motion controls.'

The wii is a gimmick . " motion controles way of the futur!" . The motion controles are shotty at best ( gimmick failed ) , the graphics are worst than the last gen ( im not a graphics person but it seems we are supposed to go foward not backwards . Wii has like 5 decent franchises/games (anything mario , anything zelda , MH3 ,metroid ... ... I guess theres only 4 ). Nintendo milks their past success . Wii wifi sucks , the friendcode system is a pain . The whole console is terrible UNLESS you a casual 2-5 hour a week gamer , or if you play it for parties . Really i thought all this was implied in " nuff said ".

 

[DarkSlaanesh]

wii ( nuff said )

See, this confuses me. Everyone always says 'nuff said' about the Wii. I've never seen anyone say anything genuinely bad about it, except, and I quote my friend, 'I'm too lazy for motion controls.'

The wii is a gimmick . " motion controles way of the futur!" . The motion controles are shotty at best ( gimmick failed ) , the graphics are worst than the last gen ( im not a graphics person but it seems we are supposed to go foward not backwards . Wii has like 5 decent franchises/games (anything mario , anything zelda , MH3 ,metroid ... ... I guess theres only 4 ). Nintendo milks their past success . Wii wifi sucks , the friendcode system is a pain . The whole console is terrible UNLESS you a casual 2-5 hour a week gamer , or if you play it for parties . Really i thought all this was implied in " nuff said ".

You sure? I've never had a problem with the Wi-fi, ever, but eh. The Friend code is definitely annoying, I'll give you that, but still. I can genuinely say I've had more fun on my Wii than I've ever had on a 360, as I've never liked the controller for the 360, and the only people I -can- play with on my Wii are friends, so it's quite fun, but to each their own. And the Wii graphics definitely aren't bad, as Okami is a beautiful game, and plays perfectly and practically on my Wii, at least.

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

Three of my top 5 favourite games are from this generation in Flower, Portal and Uncharted 2. New franchises like inFamous, Resistance and Gears of War are a lot of fun. Then there's MGS4, which might not be up there with Snake Eater and MGS1 but I love it, and Peace Walker, Portal, and Heavy Rain, and still so much coming out to look forward to. Despite a few problems like the PS3s early years, RROD/YLOD, I have to say I'm loving this generation.

 

[]DustArma[]

Redring of death , playstation network crash , wii ( nuff said ) . These problems are bigger than the past problems , yes there are some good games out there , but everything is so generic and stale . But i think this low point is necessary to reach a high point in the near futur.

Atari Jaguar and it's CD addon that 90% of the time didn't work, Virtual Boy with its wooping 22 games, Sega 32X and Sega CD that sometimes were incompatible one with the other with older Genesis/Mega Drive models, all the other bad consoles that got killed between the 4th and 6th gen wars.


Also, everything being generic and stale? Have we already forgotten about the sea of generic platformers, Shumps and beat 'em ups from the 4th gen? Or the sea of generic 3D mascot platformers from the 5th gen? (Bubsy 3D anyone) And the furthest away we stay from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation's shit the better, for all of us.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

but everything is so generic and stale.

Generic and Stale? Games have more complexity, better graphics, and more detail than ever before! Genres are being blended, mixed up, improved and created. There are some amazing original and inventive games coming out. Look at Minecraft, with it's great blocky aesthetic and freedom to mod whatever you want. Or Kirby's Epic Yarn, an incredibly colourful and playful platformer, that builds on the game mechanics we have been developing since Super Mario 1984. Heck, Portal redefined how a 3-D First Person puzzle platformer should work.
Assassins Creed and Deus Ex: HR are continuing on the stealth genre well, with a new Hitman to be released next year.
The Western RPG market is moving from strength to strength, with the Fallout franchise beginning the bold step of integrating RPG gameplay with a first-person view, Mass Effect continuing to expand and improve it, and Skyrim being here for fans of the old way of doing it.
Even the much maligned FPS market has a massive difference between it's gritty cover based shooters (Gears Of War) or more colourful silly shoot-em-ups (Bulletstorm)
RTS games have been given some loving with Shogun 2 TW, an excellent addition to the Total War franchise.
Amnesia Proved to be a downright terrifying game for many people, creating a real horror classic, and hopefully putting developers on the right track when they go to make more horror games.
And there have been new genres opening up, Heavy Rain and LA Noire show a new type of detective-y genre, that doesn't rely on the old "Here's a picture filled with stuff, find the 4 items of evidence on the page to continue." style.

And lets not forget our newest friend Motion Control changing everything up, the Kinect has many uses not just in gaming, but it's a new gimmick, and although good for simple party games and casual minigames, no ones really sure how to integrate it into more mainstream genres, but they will probably find a way, and it will probably be awesome.

Yes, the future is bright for gaming, but so is the present, you just have to remember that not everything that is released today has to be a masterpiece for the gaming industry to be doing well, there are still plenty of varied, colourful and fun to play games released every year.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Portal, Portal 2, Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy (yes, the Wii is a 7th-gen console), Hot Pursuit 3, Civilisation 5, Sonic Colours (Wii edition), Super Meat Boy (technically), Deus Ex Human Revolution, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, Twilight Princess, and Modern Warfare 1. Play all of those and then say that this generation was all bad, all the time with a straight face.

 

[Phlakes]

I know, right? People always talk about how much gaming is declining, but take a look at "bad" games from this generation and from a while back.

Like Bodycount. I don't know if you've seen the reviews, but it's shit, like we all expected, but a lot of it still works. Some reviews have even written about the gunplay being fairly solid. Then take a look at something like Daikatana, which is almost unplayable. This also has to do with the four point scale- it's not that bad games are being rated higher, it's that they're better than bad games from ten years ago. The worthless Wii shovelware still gets 1s-3s, but games that people consider bad actually work now. Some of them even have redeeming qualities from working with licensed technology. Bubsy 3D or Superman 64 were just fucking broken, same with lots of movie licensed games, but now those play off well-developed formulas to make something at least average.

And just as bad games are becoming average, average games are getting better.

But anyway, this generation is awesome. Mass Effect, Bioshock, CoD 2 and up (4 was a great game, don't let the hate blind you to that, and the rest are still fun), all the Source games, RDR, Mario Galaxy, the new Donkey Kong Country, Halo Reach, Oblivion, etc.

And I know that someone will think one of these games isn't good, and please, it's not worth it to argue about that. Really.

 

[krazykidd]

This is a discussion thread so let's discuss , i guess i put some life into this thread .

wii ( nuff said )

See, this confuses me. Everyone always says 'nuff said' about the Wii. I've never seen anyone say anything genuinely bad about it, except, and I quote my friend, 'I'm too lazy for motion controls.'

The wii is a gimmick . " motion controles way of the futur!" . The motion controles are shotty at best ( gimmick failed ) , the graphics are worst than the last gen ( im not a graphics person but it seems we are supposed to go foward not backwards . Wii has like 5 decent franchises/games (anything mario , anything zelda , MH3 ,metroid ... ... I guess theres only 4 ). Nintendo milks their past success . Wii wifi sucks , the friendcode system is a pain . The whole console is terrible UNLESS you a casual 2-5 hour a week gamer , or if you play it for parties . Really i thought all this was implied in " nuff said ".

You sure? I've never had a problem with the Wi-fi, ever, but eh. The Friend code is definitely annoying, I'll give you that, but still. I can genuinely say I've had more fun on my Wii than I've ever had on a 360, as I've never liked the controller for the 360, and the only people I -can- play with on my Wii are friends, so it's quite fun, but to each their own. And the Wii graphics definitely aren't bad, as Okami is a beautiful game, and plays perfectly and practically on my Wii, at least.

Okay , well first off , Okami was first made on the PS2 , and was later ported to the wii, which technically makes it a last gen game. Also for the fact that you had more fun on the wii than your xbox360 , to each his own i guess, i also have a wii that i don't play but i love my xbox 360 to death, but this thread is about the current generation (wii and xbox 360 is in the same generation ) .Also i find myself playing ps2 games more often than this gen games. Okami is a beautiful game yes, i won't disagree, but it was just as beautiful as it was on the ps2. I'll give you an example, shadow of the colossus and ico are coming to the PS3 , but in HD . It's gonna be the same game but remastered, Okami is the same game just with motion controls ( which arguably makes it better because of the game mechanics but still ).

DustArma[]

Redring of death , playstation network crash , wii ( nuff said ) . These problems are bigger than the past problems , yes there are some good games out there , but everything is so generic and stale . But i think this low point is necessary to reach a high point in the near futur.

Atari Jaguar and it's CD addon that 90% of the time didn't work, Virtual Boy with its wooping 22 games, Sega 32X and Sega CD that sometimes were incompatible one with the other with older Genesis/Mega Drive models, all the other bad consoles that got killed between the 4th and 6th gen wars.


Also, everything being generic and stale? Have we already forgotten about the sea of generic platformers, Shumps and beat 'em ups from the 4th gen? Or the sea of generic 3D mascot platformers from the 5th gen? (Bubsy 3D anyone) And the furthest away we stay from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation's shit the better, for all of us.

What you say is true , but you are purposely taking examples from the worsts consoles ever, all of which have failed, i personally don't think those should even count for anything , they technically are part of past generations, but they didn't gain enough popularity to contribute to anything.

I indeed said everything was stale and generic , i will admit i used the wrong word , MOST of the games are generic and stale, i did say before that that there are some good games this generation , don't get me wrong. There are some amazing games, i would give my left nut to get skyrim right now , but a lot of the games are generic. You point out that in past generations there was a sea of generic games, and this is very true , but shouldn't that stop being the case since the gaming industry is suppose to be going foward? Yes a lot of improvements have been made in video games. But other than shiny graphics we aren't exactly moving foward in a significant way .

but everything is so generic and stale.

Generic and Stale? Games have more complexity, better graphics, and more detail than ever before! Genres are being blended, mixed up, improved and created. There are some amazing original and inventive games coming out. Look at Minecraft, with it's great blocky aesthetic and freedom to mod whatever you want. Or Kirby's Epic Yarn, an incredibly colourful and playful platformer, that builds on the game mechanics we have been developing since Super Mario 1984. Heck, Portal redefined how a 3-D First Person puzzle platformer should work.
Assassins Creed and Deus Ex: HR are continuing on the stealth genre well, with a new Hitman to be released next year.
The Western RPG market is moving from strength to strength, with the Fallout franchise beginning the bold step of integrating RPG gameplay with a first-person view, Mass Effect continuing to expand and improve it, and Skyrim being here for fans of the old way of doing it.
Even the much maligned FPS market has a massive difference between it's gritty cover based shooters (Gears Of War) or more colourful silly shoot-em-ups (Bulletstorm)
RTS games have been given some loving with Shogun 2 TW, an excellent addition to the Total War franchise.
Amnesia Proved to be a downright terrifying game for many people, creating a real horror classic, and hopefully putting developers on the right track when they go to make more horror games.
And there have been new genres opening up, Heavy Rain and LA Noire show a new type of detective-y genre, that doesn't rely on the old "Here's a picture filled with stuff, find the 4 items of evidence on the page to continue." style.

And lets not forget our newest friend Motion Control changing everything up, the Kinect has many uses not just in gaming, but it's a new gimmick, and although good for simple party games and casual minigames, no ones really sure how to integrate it into more mainstream genres, but they will probably find a way, and it will probably be awesome.

Yes, the future is bright for gaming, but so is the present, you just have to remember that not everything that is released today has to be a masterpiece for the gaming industry to be doing well, there are still plenty of varied, colourful and fun to play games released every year.

Like i said above, i did say generic and stale , but i also said there are a lot of really good games this generation, i won't and can't deny that, you are very right. Even you missed a few games such as Catherine and Batman arkham asylum , i mean when was the last generation to make a good batman game , that alone is noteworthy. Improvements have been made , and developers pour their blood sweat and tears into these games, but they also pour all of that into generic games. This is the problem , we are spending more and more time developping games, but we aren't really moving foward , yes a few gems here and there show us how far we have came and could go , but a lot of time and effort is wasted and generic and stale games. I feel that we are in the Dark ages of gaming at the moment, and there are gems that give us glimpses of hope , like all the games you have listed , the futur is bright for gaming , but right now it's at a all time low , not consumer wise but quality wise , ( this is all in my opinion by the way , if you don't believe so feel free to explain yourself).

I personally hate motion control, but once it is properly mastered, i am sure it will be a great asset to gaming, but until then, i feel it is just a gimmick to make money. Nothing starts at the top , but expect to get displeased customers , until the technology has reached a high enough level , to do it well.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

Well, for me, the highlights of this generation have been:

Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
Elite Beat Agents
The World Ends With You
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Paper Mario
Pokemon White Version
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Borderlands
Left 4 Dead 2
No More Heroes

I'd say that's a decent list. I'm hoping The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword find a place on that list. Heck, I still haven't played a lot of this generations games like the BioShock and Assassin's Creed games.

 

[dave1004]

Minecraft. Dwarf Fortress. Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Warcraft 3.

I'm so retro, it's sexy.

Captcha: iltainq threshold. By the way, the iltaing was upside down...With a wiggly strike in the middle of it.

 

[jacobythehedgehog]

Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings
Metroid Prime 3: Curruption
Vanquish
Persona 3 Portable(Now I can play it while I dump)
Uncharted
Little Big Planet
LA Noire

SOO SOOO SOO MUCH MORE

Some many good titles, it is just alot of titles are really bad too.... *cough* Duke Nukem Forever

 

[SammiYin]

Some of my favourite games have come out in this generation, Bulletstorm, Crysis 2, Dead Space 2, Amnesia, Halo Reach. All of these are fantastic, and trump the stuff from 10, 20 years ago that wasn't a Nintendo game.

People who think things are stale are fools who need to tear their eyes away from the shooter section if brown offends them so much.