Yes.Is this the alltime most wrong OP?
Yes.Is this the alltime most wrong OP?
Yeah man this was one of the highlights of that period for me. I'm not saying it was completely devoid of quality JRPGs, but the frequency of great JRPGs suffered a MASSIVE decrease in this period, and most of the established players proved that their best days were behind them.How can you say that when we got one of the greatest JRPG's of all time?
Wow...I thought those were some of the golden ages of gaming.
This is kooky for me not in that I find your opinion wrong or anything, but I started reading game magazines back in '98 and the GC era was my jam. I know people had problems with both eras but this reverse parallel is weirding me out!
And yet, that's fascinating to me; I'd actually love to see this elaborated.
Dark ages is too harsh, but I agree that was the most iterative generation (well outside of the one we are in now I guess). There were some standout titles, but overall a very boring few years. We had the Atari days, the crash, the rebirth, the 16 bit era where gaming came unto its own, the shift to 3D, then iteration in the time you describe, then physically active gaming, and now we're in some generally boring intermediate space again. Wonder what's going to come next. On demand or hybrid gaming.
It could be an age thing (I turn 35 this year).
Around that time the screenshots in the back covers went more and more in the direction of showing images of cutscenes or some effect shots without actually much showing what the actual gameplay would look like. I remember looking at the Final Fantasy VIII box and thinking what's the point in showing these pictures if they are not showing the actual GAME parts of the game. There were just some cutscene screenshots and a couple of summon monsters.
Now, that game actually blew me away with its animations on the cutscenes, so I guess they tried to milk on that. But that was also the last time I've been blown away by graphics.
I remember lending that game to a friend of mine. He laughed that the game sucks and the only reason to play that game was to see the cutscenes and it was perfectly valid reason for him to want to endure the whole game. Even though I thought the cutscenes looked amazing I couldn't understand that point of view at all. I thought what's the point of playing the game at all if that's all one can get out of it. I wouldn't bother playing the game if that was all there was for me. But little did I know, games and gamers were going in that direction where graphics were often sealed the deal.
Now, surely they have focused on graphics before even in the 8 bit era, but I feel that then we were still able to see from any screenshot what the game was supposed to be like. And it was quite impossible to show a screenshot that showed something else than what the game was all about because that is what most, if not all, of the games' content was in those older games.
Let's get back to 1999 when Final Fantasy VIII came. The pictures in video game magazines were starting to show more and more images that didn't show the actual gameplay. And whenever gameplay pictures were shown, they either looked the same than before but more polished or I couldn't understand what was happening in those pictures. It was easier to see what the point of the game was when looking at 2D games or early 3D games where the screens couldn't yet be filled with tons of stuff.
I held out hope for Final Fantasy X. I had liked VIII and IX even though I felt the quality wasn't where it was in earlier games in the series. I had lost almost all hope for new games, but I still hoped FFX would be something amazing. When I got to see the game in around 2003 I got disappointed so bad. It was then when I made my final decision to drop out from modern gaming completely and I just continued playing my C64, NES and PS1 games.
I occasionally played some games from that era though. My neighbour loaned me their Gamecube and I thought Resident Evil Remake was really good and I loved playing the Target minigame on Smash Melee - I was greatly disappointed in Mario Sunshine though. On N64 Mario 64 had been amazing and Ocarina of Time horribly disappointing (I learned to like that game in around 2008 when I bought my own N64 from a flea market), so even the Nintendo flagship titles couldn't get me hooked in anymore. Then Metroid was announced to be a First Person game. I didn't even bother to try it because I generally disliked First Person games (Duke 3D was the last FPS I liked and even that I enjoyed more when putting just the map on and imagining it was a top down shooter )
Still when I look for some "retro" gaming magazines on flea markets I always notice how the general interest to them gets smaller at around the magazines from 98 or 99. I still tolerate reading them but even when compared with magazines from 96 or 97 there is a clear difference in their content to me. And anything after 2000 is mostly a waste of time for me.
As I said, maybe it's just an age thing. Nostalgia and all. I don't know. All I know is that while still continuing to play with the systems I already owned I had zero interest to get any console on that era.
And then the next machines seemed to be just an HD upgrade on the same old things. I tried some Xbox 360 games at some store around 2006 and just thought yeah I'm done, this does nothing for me. I had no interest to jump back in the modern gaming wagon, but Wii Sports eventually took me back
How can you say that when we got one of the greatest JRPG's of all time?
What year did Elite Beat Agents come out?
Yeah, you need to try more games.=p I played lots of games in those years so I know that I found a lot to like. Also, as for age thing, I'm going to be 30 next year and I find Gen 6 to be one of the best gens IMO.It could be an age thing (I turn 35 this year).
Around that time the screenshots in the back covers went more and more in the direction of showing images of cutscenes or some effect shots without actually much showing what the actual gameplay would look like. I remember looking at the Final Fantasy VIII box and thinking what's the point in showing these pictures if they are not showing the actual GAME parts of the game. There were just some cutscene screenshots and a couple of summon monsters.
Now, that game actually blew me away with its animations on the cutscenes, so I guess they tried to milk on that. But that was also the last time I've been blown away by graphics.
I remember lending that game to a friend of mine. He laughed that the game sucks and the only reason to play that game was to see the cutscenes and it was perfectly valid reason for him to want to endure the whole game. Even though I thought the cutscenes looked amazing I couldn't understand that point of view at all. I thought what's the point of playing the game at all if that's all one can get out of it. I wouldn't bother playing the game if that was all there was for me. But little did I know, games and gamers were going in that direction where graphics were often sealed the deal.
Now, surely they have focused on graphics before even in the 8 bit era, but I feel that then we were still able to see from any screenshot what the game was supposed to be like. And it was quite impossible to show a screenshot that showed something else than what the game was all about because that is what most, if not all, of the games' content was in those older games.
Let's get back to 1999 when Final Fantasy VIII came. The pictures in video game magazines were starting to show more and more images that didn't show the actual gameplay. And whenever gameplay pictures were shown, they either looked the same than before but more polished or I couldn't understand what was happening in those pictures. It was easier to see what the point of the game was when looking at 2D games or early 3D games where the screens couldn't yet be filled with tons of stuff.
I held out hope for Final Fantasy X. I had liked VIII and IX even though I felt the quality wasn't where it was in earlier games in the series. I had lost almost all hope for new games, but I still hoped FFX would be something amazing. When I got to see the game in around 2003 I got disappointed so bad. It was then when I made my final decision to drop out from modern gaming completely and I just continued playing my C64, NES and PS1 games.
I occasionally played some games from that era though. My neighbour loaned me their Gamecube and I thought Resident Evil Remake was really good and I loved playing the Target minigame on Smash Melee - I was greatly disappointed in Mario Sunshine though. On N64 Mario 64 had been amazing and Ocarina of Time horribly disappointing (I learned to like that game in around 2008 when I bought my own N64 from a flea market), so even the Nintendo flagship titles couldn't get me hooked in anymore. Then Metroid was announced to be a First Person game. I didn't even bother to try it because I generally disliked First Person games (Duke 3D was the last FPS I liked and even that I enjoyed more when putting just the map on and imagining it was a top down shooter )
Still when I look for some "retro" gaming magazines on flea markets I always notice how the general interest to them gets smaller at around the magazines from 98 or 99. I still tolerate reading them but even when compared with magazines from 96 or 97 there is a clear difference in their content to me. And anything after 2000 is mostly a waste of time for me.
As I said, maybe it's just an age thing. Nostalgia and all. I don't know. All I know is that while still continuing to play with the systems I already owned I had zero interest to get any console on that era.
And then the next machines seemed to be just an HD upgrade on the same old things. I tried some Xbox 360 games at some store around 2006 and just thought yeah I'm done, this does nothing for me. I had no interest to jump back in the modern gaming wagon, but Wii Sports eventually took me back
Those were the years to go PC and enjoy all the goodness before everyone else realized.
I am probably biased on personal experience, but I remember 2004 to 2009 to be pretty dull in terms of games, not bad games per say just lacking in innovation.
The games people are listing are proving the OPs point
It was a serious step down from 1998-2002
Plus arcades dead...SEGA dead? a few classics but it wasn't a great time
This sounds like you decided that you were "done" with that generation of gaming without actually playing any of the games- relying on magazine screenshots of random games and some in store demos.
That's not even Nostalgia, that's just straight up being a luddite- and I'm saying this as a gamer that's a good bit older than you are.
The PS3/360 era had some balls to the wall OUTSTANDING games. edit: hell you dropped out after FFX which was 2001. You missed virtually all of the PS2 which is just...what? what the hell
2006
Yeah, you need to try more games.=p I played lots of games in those years so I know that I found a lot to like. Also, as for age thing, I'm going to be 30 next year and I find Gen 6 to be one of the best gens IMO.
Maybe at some point I will. But seeing as I still haven't started to enjoy FPS games (Fallouts are great though) and most 3rd person action games I've tried also are something I'm not able to enjoy, I don't quite see how I would like earlier versions of the same type of games more now.
I have to clarify though that it's not as if I suddenly started to like modern games after that generation. No, I still dislike or have general disinterest in most(?) modern games. I have currently have over 500 games on Steam and while most of them probably are cheap crappy bundle games there are also some "newer" AAA games in my steam library. Batman games, Dead Space, Mass Effect... I tried them all and didn't like them. I got an Assassin's Creed game on my Wii U to try it out. Didn't like it.
So if I still can't get myself to enjoy modern games, I can't see how I would enjoy modern games from an era where 3D stuff wasn't new and innovative anymore and more or less was a bit flashier stuff than what had already existed, and at the same time is probably clunkier than the next generation games I also don't like even after trying.
Personally maybe 5-10 of my favourite games ever released from 2003-2009 (slighty extending the OPs period by a few years. I played none of them on release and didnt play any them until 2013 at the earliest. I cant speak to your tastes but id wager you would find a great many games from that Era that you would probably like.
Games like Super Mario Galaxy, KotOR, Mass Effect 1, Mirrors Edge (its a first person platformer so it might not be what you are looking for) Vanquish, prince of persia sands of time ect.
2004 - 2007 had Super Mario Galaxy, Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Persona 3, World of Warcraft, San Andreas, God of War 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Katamari Damacy, Mario Kart DS, Devil May Cry 3, Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile 2, Okami, Odin Sphere, Metroid Prime 2 and 3, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and numerous more I can't even think of right now.
You call that dull??
Looking at FPSs alone in 2007:
That's one genre, in one year.
How can you say that when we got one of the greatest JRPG's of all time?