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[StreetsofBeige]

Another good point about 7th gen are downloadable indie games. Downloadable and cheap. Might be common for PC gaming forever, but for consoles it was the first gen where $10-20 indie games became available. Before that, most console games were full priced discs. But now we get tons of selection for indies like PC. These arent the types of games people go out of their way to buy on disc, but I think every console gamer has had their share of fun with lower budget games.

 

[Harlock]

PS3/360. When the devs were almost all men working in every night and weekend. Good times. For us.

 

[MacReady13]

100% agree. Pure gaming lost it after that generation ended, and I say this as a big 360 fan (1st half of it's life).

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Not going to argue, it as an amazing time. One of my personal favorites.

Spoiler

 

[March Climber]

100% agree. Pure gaming lost it after that generation ended, and I say this as a big 360 fan (1st half of it's life).

Considering how 360’s exclusive content quickly dried up after that first half, when the other two consoles picked up more steam at the same time, I can see why you’d feel that way.

MS should have spaced out their exclusives better in that second half.

 

[Bakkus]

I agree. Also, GBA and Dreamcast were also a part of this generation.

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

You're entitled to your opinion OP. My opinion is that gaming is always evolving, sometimes in unsatisfactory ways like with GaaS for example. However when gaming evovles in positive ways the brilliance is not to be ignored but embraced! :]

 

[Neff]

Even though the 16bit era was overall my favourite, it's hard to deny that the 32bit era is the king. So much innovation and so many good games.

 

[Pegasus Actual]

Gaming as a whole peaked ~1996 on PC. Scientific fact. Certain genres peaked maybe a little before and a little after, but taken as a whole? 1996. Fo shizzle.

Console gaming peaked with the release of A Link to the Past so 1992 to those of us in the west.

Arguably consoles hit a second and final peak with the Xbox 360 generation w/ COD4, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live... where it had a lot of stuff that used to be PC only, hijacked PC franchises as opposed to getting the lesser scaled down versions it used to in previous generations, and had a nice streamlined overall package along with the new HDTVs that got it out of the resolution stone age.

 

[Shenmuefan2000]

6th gen was amazing. 1999-2007 was fun times during that gens lifespan.

 

[fart town usa]

I agree for the most part even though 5th Gen is my favorite.

7th Gen is up there too. 8 & 9 are meh for me outside of VR/From/Capcom.

 

[kvltus lvlzvs]

6th was the peak that we will likely never hit again, at least until a massive market crash transpires that hopefully takes down the extremely large scale investment firms.

Sadly, thats not how it works and those selfsame large scale investment firms just solidify their grasp when market crashes happen.

 

[Shenmuefan2000]

What made the 6th gen magical was that it had something for everyone, during its lifespan from 99-07 (or even 08 just because my favourite JRPG ever came out then. Persona 4)

If you weren't into JRPGs, you had fighting games, if you weren't into fighting games, you had shooters, if you weren't into that action adventure games, survivor horror etc

 

[SiahWester]

Yeah I agree with you. You don't even need to argue it. AAA gaming is so bland these days. They are so afraid to take risks because the stakes are so large. The only redeeming factor in gaming today is the indie scene. We get fresh IPs out of that, but the rest of the industry is just been there and done that.

 

[Magic Carpet]

It peaked with whatever Generation the PS4, Xbone is called.
This current generation has been mostly just a continuation of that.

 

[SaiyanRaoh]

I agree so much that I have an emulation shrine devoted to the 6th Gen. And since Sony decided to arbitrarily increase the price of PS plus I’m even prouder of having the entire USA PS2 .iso set.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

i think pswii60 was peak for the industry

 

[Azelover]

I like the Wii era. I could play with my family, and it was fascinating to witness the disruption.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I don’t want to change your mind, believe what you want

 

[Fbh]

When it peaked for you will mostly depend on your taste.

But in a more impartial way I'd argue it peaked during the Ps3/360 era, as that's what we've been stuck with for the last 15 years. After that gen most of the industry switched over to refinement rather than innovation.
There's been improvements, a few new ideas and everything looks much nicer, runs smoother, loads faster and is more seamless now, but the core game design even in most current gen games is still mostly unchanged

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

PS3/X360 is way more impressive IMHO.
Things we get on the 74th gen, and now we take for granted.

• Wireless controllers as default;
• Unified Online Services and Storefronts;
• Indies on consoles;
• Achievements/Trophies;
• HD Graphics (rudimentary and low fps in most cases, but still light years off anything we had on the 6th gen);
• Digital Purchases;
• It also was the one of the most balanced gens, PS3 and 360 fighting toe to toe, great exclusives from both sides.

 

[Drizzlehell]

PS3/X360 is way more impressive IMHO.
Things we get on the 74th gen, and now we take for granted.

• Wireless controllers as default;
• Unified Online Services and Storefronts;
• Indies on consoles;
• Achievements/Trophies;
• HD Graphics (rudimentary and low fps in most cases, but still light years off anything we had on the 6th gen);
• Digital Purchases;
• It also was the one of the most balanced gens, PS3 and 360 fighting toe to toe, great exclusives from both sides.

All of these are valid but I still think that this was the generation where things started getting a little stale with game design and there wasn't a lot of innovation when everyone and their dog started copying CoD and Gears. Great generation if shooters are your main thing, though.

It was also the generation where many of the industry's bad/greedy practices started taking hold.

 

[Amory]

I'd argue it was 7th gen with HD consoles. You still had a lot of the variety, the adoption of digital marketplaces which allowed indie games to flourish on console, and the games libraries themselves were excellent

 

[NeverYouMind]

Wired basic controllers, mandatory external memory cards, long loading times, lack of checkpoints, flat blurry textures, basic bump maps, primitive shadows, low polygons, low resolution FMVs, inconsistent frame rates, and short draw distance. Great content but remasters and emulation can make it even better.

Look at something like Elden Ring and realise how impossible it would be to have it on these systems.

 

[zeldaring]

8th gen for me. Never before did i get so many games that fit my taste, and the hardware made massive difference these games are much thanks to hardware advancements.

Sekiro
Evil within 1 and 2
Elden ring
Nioh
Resident evil 4 remake
Bloodborne
Ghosts of Tsushima
GOW 2018
GT sport
spider man
witcher 3
street fighter 6
Sekiro
gtav
Arkham knight
RDR2
MGS5
BOTW
Donkey kong returns

 

[Destruction-1002]

I'd argue it was 7th gen with HD consoles. You still had a lot of the variety, the adoption of digital marketplaces which allowed indie games to flourish on console, and the games libraries themselves were excellent

It was the generation that almost killed franchises/genres that weren't shooters, almost killed the Japanese gaming industry
It was the peak of Western xenophobia in gaming

Clearly you must been joking

 

[majorgamer10]

This must be true considering the re-releases of 6th gen are designed to milk your money based on your childhood dreams.

 

[KXVXII9X]

Interactive MOVIES is whats killing gaming today.

Interactive gaming was a big thing since the 90's. I played a lot of point and click computer games and I also remember a TON of story driven games with cutscenes since the GameCube. The Nintendo DS had a lot too. It isn't a new thing. Most games right now have cut massively on cutscenes and do more in game story beats and tell story through the environment or through mostly dialogue and exposition. We don't get many games like Yakuza/Like a Dragon or Uncharted these days. Especially, with live service and multiplayer taking over.

 

[Destruction-1002]

in my eyes, the 6th gen was nintendo's true fall from grace and led them to becoming a different company.

the n64 stumbled (5th gen), and the cartridge format damaged 3rd party relations... but the n64 still got knock out titles, was innovative (analog stick, rumble), had good 3rd party support, and retained decent market share.
nintendo, at that time, still high off the success of the nes and snes, was a juggernaut and "the one to beat".

but the gamecube is where they truly tarded out and damaged themselves:
#1 - purple
#2 - a controller that clearly wont work with a number of genres
#3 - late to market AGAIN
#4 - no mario game at launch
#5 - miyamoto thought the gamecube would ABSOLUTELY CRUSH the ps2 in sales, and everyone who bought a ps2 would also buy his purple little dingleberry console too
#6 - proprietary disc that only held 1.5gb of data vs ps2's max. of 8.5gb (dual layer)... esp. a crazy decision when they lost so much 3rd party support with the n64 due to storage limitations (did you learn nothing, nintendo??!) (ps i know they did it primarily due to piracy concerns)

after the ps2 absolutely bitch slapped the gamecube in sales and coolness, nintendo basically abandoned trying to be the biggest and baddest, and retreated into a corner where they'd release budget hardware and largely focus on 1st party games.

of course, the wii was a huge success commercially, but it was also the most popular among old people and filthy causals, moving nintendo further away from that "biggest and baddest" image it cultivated from the nes-gcn era.

old nintendo is dead (maybe hibernating). wonder if we'll ever get it back.

The Nintendo 64 had cartridge format because Mario 64 wouldn't been possible on a slow CD drive from mid-1990s

Miyamoto said back then that Mario 64 was only possible on a Cartridge based consoles
Besides Nintendo didn't even had good relations with third party devs before 5th gen

 

[Codes 208]

I’d agree, but 2007 was 7th gen so no

 

[Dorfdad]

Gaming hasn't or will ever peak. We gamers however will and have. It's all perspective as new gamers are wide open to gaming and all the changes and features as if it was norm. Older gamers enjoyed "THIER" nostalgia eras.

 

[Shenmuefan2000]

I’d agree, but 2007 was 7th gen so no

Tbf, 2007 was pretty much the final year for the 6th then, especially since PS2 and GameCube released their last classic games that were pretty big too

 

[Phase]

Gaming hasn't or will ever peak. We gamers however will and have. It's all perspective as new gamers are wide open to gaming and all the changes and features as if it was norm. Older gamers enjoyed "THIER" nostalgia eras.

I'd say gaming as a whole is better when gamers and game makers are on the same wavelength or close (with respect to what they want in a game). Back in mid-late 90's and 00's we were about as close as we could ever get. We're so far from that today.

 

[EverydayBeast]

PlayStation fu*king 2 went very well for Sony and the key to that success was the games, strength from dvd sales it was an onslaught

 

[cartman414]

Not if you care about interactive storytelling. The technology wasn't there during the 16 bit era to be able to engage the player with something more nuanced than text boxes and 2D sprites in terms of storytelling.

I care more about games being games. Game stories still pale big time in comparison to other media.

 

[cartman414]

We haven’t moved the needle much from 7th Gen. These games were all the peak gaming with mostly derivative sequels since.

CoD: MW2/Black Ops
Halo 3/ODST/Reach - personal favs
Far Cry 3 - still the best iteration
GTA 4-5
The Elder Scrolls 4/5
Portal Collection
Fallout 3/New Vegas
Dragon Age: Origins
Super Mario Galaxy
TLOZ: Twilight Princess
Xenoblade Chronicles
Borderlands 2
Mass Effect Trilogy
The Walking Dead/The Wolf Among Us
Gears of War 1-3
Prey
Dead Space
Minecraft
Dark Souls/Demon’s Souls
Killzone 2
The Last of Us
Burnout Paradise
Mortal Kombat (2011)
LittleBigPlanet
Persona 4
Batman Arkam Trilogy
LA Noire
Uncharted 2-3
God of War 3
Red Dead Redemption
BioShock Trilogy
Max Payne 3
NBA 2K11

I'd like to introduce you to Baldur's Gate and System Shock.

 

[cartman414]

Gaming as a whole peaked ~1996 on PC. Scientific fact. Certain genres peaked maybe a little before and a little after, but taken as a whole? 1996. Fo shizzle.

Console gaming peaked with the release of A Link to the Past so 1992 to those of us in the west.

Arguably consoles hit a second and final peak with the Xbox 360 generation w/ COD4, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live... where it had a lot of stuff that used to be PC only, hijacked PC franchises as opposed to getting the lesser scaled down versions it used to in previous generations, and had a nice streamlined overall package along with the new HDTVs that got it out of the resolution stone age.

LttP is a little overrated IMO. Super Metroid was more untouchable in my book.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

The Nintendo 64 had cartridge format because Mario 64 wouldn't been possible on a slow CD drive from mid-1990s

Miyamoto said back then that Mario 64 was only possible on a Cartridge based consoles

nintendo talked a lot of crap about CDs back then.
didnt mean it was necessarily true.

 

[Destruction-1002]

nintendo talked a lot of crap about CDs back then.
didnt mean it was necessarily true.

A 2x CD drive has transfer speed of 300KB/s
While N64 cartridges has transfer speed of 5-50 MiB/s

If you know how streaming tech works on games, you would understand why Mario 64 isn't possible on a slow CD drive
Like comparing a 4-64MBs SSD with 700MBs HDD

 

[KuraiShidosha]

I would say 6th gen was the last good generation, but 5th is the actual peak especially if you look at PC exclusive titles around that time and lump them in with that gen.

 

[MarkMe2525]

Idk... TotK wasn't around then.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Call of Duty 4 alone is better than any game during the 6th gen.

Even if someone doesn’t like that game, playing MP with friends and randoms also makes the 360/PS3 gen better.

 

[Brigandier]

100% Agree, 6th gen will always be my favourite.

I liked every console and their libraries.

DC with online play and games like Soul Calibur, Shenmue 1 and 2, SoA, Sonic Adventure, PSO, Grandia 2 so many more.

PS2 with sooooo many fucking games lol don't wanna list them all but MGS2/3 FF10, 11, 12 and Tekken Tag were my standouts.

Xbox changed the console scene with Xbox live and it's FPS games online which were some of the best times I had playing games... Halo 2, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six 3, Wolfenstein and Splinter Cell were so much fun, Loved the quick save button on the pad too.

I suppose nostalgia affects our memories enormously and as we get older we also look back at these times when we were younger and life was so much simpler and no worries for many of us... It probably does affect my decisions to mention a favourite era but man 6th gen was special.

 

[Shenmuefan2000]

Here's my top 10 games from the 6th gen

1. Shenmue 1
2. Shadow Of The Colossus
3. GTA San Andreas
4. Prince Of Persia Sands Of The Time
5. Persona 4 (the goat JRPG ever)
6. GOW 2
7. RE Remake
8. Legend Of Zelda: Wind Waker
9. Sonic Adventure 1
10. GTA Vice City

 

[Inanilmaz]

I agree but 7th gen ps360 era was amazing too! The last time i truly had fun with games.

 

[NanaMiku]

Yes

*not my pic

 

[GamesDontSuck]

Don't know if I personally would use the word peaked - as it may be taken as we'll never have another golden era - but yes the best time for video games was ps2, xbox and gc so far. Totally agree.


Just something about that era.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

OP is largely correct in terms of single player. The industry has been coasting on formulas created during the 6th gen. There's been very little progress since.

In terms of multiplayer though?

The golden age of multiplayer game design has just dawned. I expect the next 3 - 5 years to be insane in that regard. And realistically the medium is a multiplayer medium, so overall, OP is wrong.

 

[Majormaxxx]

Ps3 gen with ps4 resolution would have been the peak

 

[German Hops]

Also remember that gen6 coincided with the peak of GameStop.
That is why gen6 can never be topped.