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[DEAD ORIGINAL]

PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, so the Halo trilogy, Uncharted 1 and 2, Pro Evolution soccer 5 & 6, WWE here comes the pain, Mgs 2,3,4, Gears of war GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA 4, Left for dead 1 & 2, Bioshock, Dead Rising, Oblivion, Resident Evil 4, God of War 1 & 2 this just a small amount of how good the 2000's was.

 

[Major Insano]

PS1 kinda made games less geeky. Wasn't just nerd stuff anymore.

Exactly, and that wasn't a good thing.
Sony taking gaming mainstream is one of the worst things to happen to the industry.

 

[EverydayBeast]

Gotta respect the 2000's in gaming, especially with all those Zelda games.

 

[Gp1]

2000 is a very competent decade even with just the "B" tier games. The ones usually neglected at these kind of list (and a very PC centric kind)

2000 Counter Strike, The Sims, NOLF, Perfect Dark, Shenmue, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
2001 Red Faction, Operation Flashpoint, NOLF 2, Return To Castle Wolfenstein, Max Payne, Golden Sun, Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader
2002 Mafia, Resident Evil Zero, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (and TFT)
2003 Need for Speed Underground (at the height of Fast and Furious popularity), POP, Freelancer, C&C Generals, Rise of Nations
2004 Far Cry, Ninja Gaiden, UT 04
2005 Civilization 4, Vampire, Warhammer Dawn of war, Swat 5
2006 Okami, Oblivion, Fight Night Round 3, Guitar Hero, Medieval II: Total War, Persona 3
2007 Assassins Creed, Forza Motorsport 2, The Orange Box
2008 Braid, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Dead Space
2009 Order of Ecclesia (the entire troup of GBA-DS Metroidvanias), Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age: Origins, Empire: Total War

 

[ToneyJ]

2000-2005 are like legendary both on the japanese console game side and PC gaming side. 2000s win on that alone imo.

Plus games came out much more frequently in the 2000s. Long dev cycles take hold in the 2010s.

 

[pixelation]

The PS2 era has no equal when it comes to variety and quality, there were a lot of weird quirky games and they were at least AA in budget. In the 2010's the weird and quirky games were made almost entirely by indies with miniscule budgets (and it showed).

 

[adamsapple]

The 2000's had RE4, MGS2/3, Silent Hill 2, Half Life 2, Doom 3, Mass Effect, Halo, Bioshock, Final Fantasy X, Dragon Quest 8, Persona 3/4 etc etc etc etc. Both the east and west were in their prime.

This is such a one sided slaughter.

 

[pixelation]

The older period always win these types of polls. Everything was always better before.

And the more time that goes by the better things are remembered. Human nature tends to focus more on the things you liked better about those times, while ignoring later improvements that are now expected, but we did not have in those times.


Exactly, what I'm talking about. If someone found gaming better in the 70s than any time this century, they are remembering enjoying life more then and attributing that to gaming.

Nah, there was way more diversity and off the wall games out there in the 2000's. The games were made by big developers with decent budgets. In the 2010's it was almost all shooters and GTA wannabes. Sure there were platformers and weird games... but with a miniscule budget and made by unknown/indie studios. Unless you really only like shooters and GTA clones then sure... the 2010's were awesome!

 

[Xaeroxcore666]

2000s all day!

6th and 7th gen are still the peak of gaming!!!
That decade brought:

- Evolution of 3D graphics with 6th gen and amazing HD graphics since 20 years ago. Both still look pretty good today.

- Massification of online gaming and services for consoles, but still free on Sony and Nintendo plattforms.

- Massification of motion controllers.

- The peak of portable consoles and games: GBA, DS, PSP...If we don´t put Switch within the ecuation.

- Beginnings of Smartphone era and therefore the firsts steps of the leviathan moble gaming industry has became.

- Historical games which made a permanent impact on industry until this day like The Sims, Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Marvel vs Capcom 2, NBA/NFL 2K, Metal Gear Solid 2, Ratchet and Clank, GT3, GTA 3, Devil May Cry, PES, God of War, World of Warcraft, Silent Hill 2, Resident Evil 4, Halo, Forza Motorsports, Burnout, Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, Gears of War, Uncharted, Killzone 2, Doom 3, Half Life 2, Far Cry, COD MW, Assassin´s Creed, Crysis, Demon´s Souls, Angry Birds, Minecraft (yes, those two were released on 2009) and probably i´m still missing lotta relevant games

 

[StreetsofBeige]

2000s. My fav games/series off the top of my head.

PC
Wasnt a big PC gamer back then except for HoMM3 Complete Edition and some Unreal GOTY Edition (red box). Both came out in 2000

PS2
GoW
GT
DMC
Ace Combat
Twisted Metal Black
NFL 2k
F1

360
Gears
COD 4, WaW, MW2
Mass Effect
Oblivion
Fallout
EA NHL
Forza
Geometry Wars

 

[Alan Wake]

I don't think anyone thought of GameCube still being A Thing in 2007.

Read again. I did write Dreamcast was dead by then but it still got new games so effectively we had four consoles. I played on all of them in 2002.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Easily mid 90s to ~2005.

 

[ahtlas7]

2000's!
Xbox, Game Magazines, E3, booth babes
(Same for anime)

 

[dgrdsv]

What even was there in 10s worth remembering? TLOU?

 

[crackajack]

Generally games, at least the proper good ones still get better each gen. So as a whole gen each recent one is imho better than the previous one.
But from the innovation "shock value" standpoint N64, so late 90s was golden. Nothing will ever recreate the sledgehamer that Mario 64 was back then. 3D was still kinda new entirely, but Nintendo hit the ground running with only Mode 7 and FX shit as their training grounds.
Add Zelda OoT and Wave Race to it, the library for N64 was hardly big, but it delivered. Especially Wave Race seems like a game no one even tried again after and I still would want a proper water physics racing game that isn't just a WR remaster. Jetskis, speedboats or even Pilotwings like stuff with sailboats or even surfing might work. The physics part should be so much better today. Even that kinda terrrible Kayak VR game was interesting just for being a racing like game in water.

 

[MrCunningham]

SEGA failing is sad but still doesn't mean Sony saved anything.

hard to say. Because the gaming industry in 1994 was going through some real turbulence with the aging 16-bit consoles and the failures of the early gen 5 consoles like the 3D), Jaguar, CDi, and even Virtual Boy. Sega's Saturn might have done well on its own, but the N64 was delayed until 1996. I think Sony added a lot of stability to the market between 1995-1999. At a time when things were really looking shaky at retail. Sony was really there at the right time with the right piece of hardware.

Wasily mid 90s to ~2005.

This was a wild multi-era for the gaming industry. You could not predict where things where going. The fall of Sega in the arcades and home consoles. The rise of Sony. So many attempts from other companies to break into the game industry. 3DO, Atari, Phillips, Nokia (Ngage), Apple (pipin), Bandai, and there was also SNK with the AES, CD, and Neo-Geo Pocket. Microsoft forced their way into the game market with money. The Nintendo Wii reveal was madness for the time. It was a huge 'WTF moment" old Gaming Age Forums were the center of that. It was a wild west time. But things 'normalized' between 6th 7th and 8th gen.

I feel like the game industry is going through some real turbulent and unpredictable times now. When you think about the supply constraint fuckery... you are seeing a shake up in hardware... Will the Xbox brand will be around in five years? The Nex Playground, coming out of nowhere and entering Walmart retail space. There are so many smaller hardware start-ups... like the Evercade, Playdate, Analogue, current Atari playing around with new pieces of hardware...Valve has been sort of in a loop of releasing hardware like the Steamdeck and Steam machine 2026... but they have issues with sourcing parts. ROG Ally. Etc. Current game industry is honestly anything but boring. The only constant is Nintendo. But everything else is in a state of flux.

 

[DEAD ORIGINAL]

Exactly, and that wasn't a good thing.
Sony taking gaming mainstream is one of the worst things to happen to the industry.

Best thing to happen, games went from Sonic the dork to Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid

 

[StereoVsn]

I mean it's not even a contest. Late 1990s through late 2000s were amazing times from gaming perspectives.

So many franchises launched, great games were being released seemingly monthly, hardware was racing ahead like crazy. It was quite a heady and fun experience to go through.

And 2010s were generally meh. Sure, there were some good games made but games took a lot longer to produce, MTX came in, loot boxes, and so on. There were also a ton of terrible PC ports during that era.

 

[Bigfroth]

The PS2 era was legit.

 

[cireza]

Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid

And how are Sony responsible for these games exactly ? Resident Evil was released on Saturn and Metal Gear existed already in the 80s. Third party games. These games would have existed just fine.

 

[RickMasters]

I'd say:
90s > 80s > 70s > 00s > 20s > 10s


The opposite, the first half of the 90s we got stuff like:

• Street Fighter II / Mortal Kombat / SNK fighters
• Sonic
• Streets of Rage
• Daytona USA
• Mario World
• Mario Kart
• Wolfenstein 3D + Doom
• Zelda A link to the past
• Super Metroid
• F-Zero
• Wipeout
• Ridge Racer
• Tekken
• Monkey Island + several classic top Lucas & Sierra point and click games
• Command & Conquer
• Warcraft
• FIFA / Madden
• Need for Speed
• Road Rash

90s+80s combined were the golden age of gaming. Most popular genres, IPs, mechanics and features come from there.

The 90s was the real dawn of 3D games. Arguably the most important era as devs moved to polygons and working in a three dimensional space. The 2000s are the perfection and refinement of that.


I consider the golden age to be 1986. (NES, master system and microcomputers) up to 2010. To be the golden age.


I'll always consider the 90s as the most special point. Specifically during that 1993- 1998 era where sega and Namco arcade games were a glimpse int the future. With the high frame rates and huge draw distances and better than anything at home visuals. PC gaming coming of age with the like of quake and unreal and half life.Mario 64 was a moment… Zelda:OOT was magical ….. playing the first gran turismo and reaping you had to respect car physics now. Capcom we're making god tier fighting games one after the other.



We got all of that in a span of just five years of that golden era. And everything that followed just raised the bar, halo, the first three god of war games, shadow of ico, GTA, metal gear……


Gaming is certainly lacking soul these days. Games look visually more impressive than ever yet somehow I just don't get the same excitement I one had when flicking through the pages of edge, or sega Saturn magazine or EGM anymore.

 

[Yoda]

Early to mid 2000s were quite special.

• Most of the major game makers were still laser focused on the core audience (Kinect with closer to the end of the decade)
• There was nearly no micro transactions or predatory consumer practices.
• Large variety from the big publishers
• Graphical leaps could still really wow you (OG Crysis came out in this era)
• No culture war or journalists who hate the player base
• Social media about gaming (to the extent it existed) was only about the games themselves. No micro analyzing sales or sentiment or other culture war adjacent crap.

Could go on, happy to have experienced some of it myself, wish I hadn't taken it for granted.

 

[nightfly]

Exactly, and that wasn't a good thing.
Sony taking gaming mainstream is one of the worst things to happen to the industry.

Preach it brother!!!

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

2000s

Idk what mental gymnastics you need to do yo say otherwise.

I mean just the fact that the current live service model was born and perfect in the 2010s is enough to justify it is not a good decade for gaming.