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[mango drank]

Which console gen transition, and the first year or two of that new generation, had you most excited about the potential of that gen, once you got your hands on a new console? Which console gen transition blew you away the most, in terms of the difference in capability between the previous gen and the new one? Which console gen made it so you couldn't wait to see what your favorite series and devs from the previous gen would do with all that new power?

Basically, which console gen had your favorite "new car smell," before you got used to it? (Doesn't matter how that gen actually turned out after all was said and done. Focus on the early days.)


--My answer--
Gen 6. Specifically for me, the transition from PSX to PS2. It felt like a gigantic leap. The change in resolution and poly-count and scene complexity felt yuge, textures were more detailed, everything looked eye-searingly crisp, etc. This all resulted in game worlds that began to feel living and breathing, relative to the previous gen's games. Where the previous gen had felt like toys, this new gen felt like impossibly powerful machines sent from the future to pull us into the new millennium, harbingers of a sleek and shiny techno-utopia. Everything I played felt dazzling, even the crappiest of demos. All this power had me super excited for the PS2's future, wondering how my favorite franchises from the PSX would stretch their legs in glorious 640x480 going forward.

 

[Bankai]

8bit to 16bit, without a doubt. I was used to seeing Mario on NES and Giana Sisters on commodore64 on my little colorTV, as a kid.

Then... I suddenly say Ecco the Dolphin running on a (slightly bigger) colorTV in my local toy store. I was struck with awe... Them graphics... them animations...

Then I knew, I had to have the Megadrive.

 

[Scotty W]

Man, what a niche question. 16 yo 32 bit- but I really hated leaving 16 bit behind. If they had another 2 years with it, just imagine what they could have made.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Gotta be the 5th Gen. When looking upon those launch titles for PSX, Saturn etc like Wipeout you weren't thinking about the future - you were experiencing it

 

[ZywyPL]

Gen 7 - Power of the Cell™ was a real hype generator, plus build-in hard drives and online connection were IMO the biggest change consoles have ever seen.

 

[-Arcadia-]

3D can’t be matched. The possibilities were blown wide-open, and the potential for the future was mind-blowing. Moreover, the gen stayed exciting — more and more games delved further and further into this new space, resulting in masterpieces like Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid.

The gen after that was still early enough to feel like a huge leap too. I adored my first games on Dreamcast, and likewise, seeing PS2 with Gran Turismo 3, and the GameCube’s lineup, and Xbox with Halo, blew me away all over again.

Special mention to the Wii. I don’t know if as much came of it as I expected (the library skews far more towards traditional controls, or a bit of motion on top of them), but the feeling of playing the Wii was pretty close to 3D there for a while, and OTT exciting and hyped. Today, motion controls are nbd; back then, it was like some kind of tech miracle, and the games that did put the Wii to good use were so much fun.

 

[Zero7]

I don't think any console launch will surpass the hype of the Dreamcast and PS2. Ever!

 

[mango drank]

Man, what a niche question. 16 yo 32 bit- but I really hated leaving 16 bit behind. If they had another 2 years with it, just imagine what they could have made.

Yeah this thread is fairly hipster-grade in terms of focus. Re: 16 to 32 bit, a lot of games going into 32-bit were still 16-bit style pixel-art 2D side-scrollers, just with a richer feel, so the 16-bit aesthetic lived on for a good while before it became niche. And on the flip side, some 16-bit games played around with trying to make their games "feel" 32-bit / 3D, by using 3D renders flattened to 2D sprites (e.g., DKC, and I thought Vectorman did the same thing, but looking at screenshots now, it doesn't look like flattened 3D; can't remember any other examples).

 

[GamesAreFun]

The Wii. An entire new way to play games, and it more than delivered on its promise.

 

[GamerEDM]

none of the above . GEN 9

 

[synchronicity]

It's close between gen 5 and 6, but if push comes to shove, I pick the transition to gen 6.

PS2 just carried a different sort of electricity to its imminent arrival and throughout its launch and life. For me, and judging by sales - many others, it has always been the perfect storm. Right hardware, right software, right time. Just an absolute crescendo in this medium we all love.

 

[Birdo]

Gen 5.

I remember seeing screenshots of Ridge Racer in EDGE magazine and having my mind blown. I was still playing SNES and Master System games at the time. It was a GIANT leap.

 

[Amory]

PS2 blew my mind. I remember seeing commercials for Madden running on PS2 and thinking it looked exactly like real life. I couldn't believe it.

I was in like 8th grade when PS2 came out, so I was the right age for schoolyard hype

 

[turtlepowa]

NES to SNES was great. Loved Super Mario World so much.

 

[makaveli60]

Gen 7, although I missed the previous ones as I was too young / a PC gamer. Gen 7 was so magical, the leap was unbelievable to me, I know it's not true objectively but subjectively the difference between Gen 6 and Gen 7 seems the biggest to me. Playing Oblivion, Prey, The Darkness, BioShock, Saints Row (GTA-like game with ragdoll physics!), Mass Effect. I was expecting the same with Gen 8 but for some reason I never felt it besides some moments. I don't know why, maybe I'm too old now too feel that certain magic.

 

[V4skunk]

GC, PS2 and Xbox was the best start to a new gen overall. It was the biggest graphical jump IMO and by the time GC and xbox were out it was awesome.

 

[EightBit Man]

The fifth generation because 3D gaming became the norm. Not only that, it was amazing games galore! Great game after great game on most platforms, every single week of the month - for years.

 

[deriks]

I stay with the Dreamcast/PS2/Game Cube/Xbox because while past gen was the inovation of real time 3d gaming, it was in baby steps and there's a lot of those games that aged poorly, but since the Dreamcast we have a lot of masterpieces who can be remastered and play as good when it was launched

 

[StormCell]

You can only experience the arrival of 3D once, and when it arrived it threw open a lot of opportunities for new play experiences. I'll never forget Mario 64, those first hours playing Tomb Raider, and so much more. Many all-nighters working on Gran Turismo licenses.

On a side note, I feel like death slowly began to creep over the gaming industry during Gen 7. Just about everything about Gen 7 and Gen 8 pisses me off. They are literally the GT of gaming generations.

 

[Jtibh]

Ps1 to ps2
When i saw the tech demos coming out i was jizzing buckets.

 

[Arkam]

From my angle Gen6. Lots of checks getting written (in the form of BS CG videos) by Sony/Nintendo/MS about their upcoming boxes and games. Seemed like too much to be real..... but then there was teh DC which was already something we could play and it was DAMNED impressive. So maybe those other GEN6 consoles would hit these visual peaks. The Hype I remember being immense. Everyone knew they were coming and going to be amazing and blow the doors of the weakass DC.

* Of course they really never lived up to the hype and were all just "super" Dreamcasts. Hell they all even scavenged its corpse for games.

 

[mango drank]

PS2 just carried a different sort of electricity to its imminent arrival and throughout its launch and life. For me, and judging by sales - many others, it has always been the perfect storm. Right hardware, right software, right time. Just an absolute crescendo in this medium we all love.

Judging by the votes so far, Gen 6 sits smack dab in the middle of the 3 biggest subjective generational leaps. Gen 5 had early 3D experiments and showed the way forward, but Gen 6 gave devs the tools to turn video games from toys into ... something else. And one of the outcomes of this was the birth of a bunch of the AAA franchises we know today. Which could be seen as either a good or bad thing, lol.

Gen 7 was so magical, the leap was unbelievable to me, I know it's not true objectively but subjectively the difference between Gen 6 and Gen 7 seems the biggest to me. Playing Oblivion, Prey, The Darkness, BioShock, Saints Row (GTA-like game with ragdoll physics!), Mass Effect. I was expecting the same with Gen 8 but for some reason I never felt it besides some moments. I don't know why, maybe I'm too old now too feel that certain magic.

I don't think it's an age thing, or being jaded. Generational leaps are subjectively going to feel smaller from now on, and going by the votes above, seems like most people thought the leaps in gens 5-7 were the biggest. Objectively, the leaps to gen 8 (and the upcoming gen 9 and beyond) are huge, but subjectively, people are starting to notice them less. Unless some radical new technology comes along in gen 10+, looks like gens 5-7 will be seen as the kings of old.

 

[TLZ]

PS1 definitely.

That jump from 2D SNES to 3D PS1 was massive. Back then I thought we jumped from cartoon world to real world. It looked so real I couldn't believe it. Games like Xtreme, Destruction Derby, Twisted Metal. Crazy!

 

[_Ex_]

Nothing beats when we went from 2D to 3D (gen 4 to gen 5). If you disagree you weren't there to live through it.

 

[TwiztidElf]

Tough choice between gen 5 and gen 6.
As much as I loved gen 4, all the 2d platformers and shooters were getting stale towards the end of the gen. Gen 5 brought playstation, cd storage, and 3D polygon environments. Seeing Ridge Racer and Tekken on a home console in '94/'95 was a hell of a thing.
Gen 6 brought internal HDD as standard, and online to consoles.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Most impact was gen 5 going from 2d to 3d blew my tiny little mind. I spent more time chucking lara off of high cliffs, because I could, rather than playing the game.

The favourite transition was six. The dream cast and then the xbox in one gen, we will never see anything like it again. The experimental, weird and wonderful games on those two consoles was perfection. For those brief years, the developers, publishers and gamers were all in lock-step with one another.

Then came the money, the popularity and the politics and washed it all away like tears in rain.

 

[Romulus]

I went from PS1 to PS2 and thought holy shit. That's huge. But what really shocked me was seeing another leap inside that same generation going from PS2 to Xbox, I couldn't fucking believe that was even possible. I remember going over and walking in on my friends playing coop Halo and a bigscreen. Wow, fucking wow, huge sprawling levels, vehicles, AI everywhere, bump mapping. That machine continued to blow my mind throughout.

 

[Codes 208]

The n64 came out when i was 6 or 7, i remember playing a lot of snes/genesis games and the jump to 3d was massive and completely blew my mind as a kid

 

[kunonabi]

6th gen.

Going from the n64 and ps to the dreamcast was a revelation and it really felt like the sky was the limit.

I had some early hype for 7th gen due to the Wii and Dead Rising but the HD twins never really kept that momentum going. I was also on the verge of quitting video games until Super Mario Galaxy so I wasnt super invested in the transition to begin with.

 

[Kenpachii]

Probably n64, it looked incredible finally 3D worlds that made sense.

After that PC took over so hard that consoles just felt like left behind outdated boxes.

 

[D.Final]

Gen 5 and 6

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3

MotorStorm, Warhawk and Uncharted were pretty exciting games to play. Even some lesser-known games like Folklore, Eternal Sonata and Siren: Blood Curse made me think of PS2 experiences made new again.

The jump from PlayStation to Dreamcast was also pretty exciting, going from playing a JRPG like Final Fantasy IX to Skies of Arcadia and of course the graphics and attention to detail in Shenmue were mindblowing.

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Going from NES to 16-bits (Sega Genesis + TG-16)

I mean ninjas like this:

To this master piece:

And cut scenes like:

To cut scenes like (not even on CD):

This is without even mentioning the sound and music, and how crazy things got when the CD add-ons came into play (and the SNES with the extra colors, sampled sound, and mode 7).

I had some early hype for 7th gen due to the Wii and Dead Rising but the HD twins never really kept that momentum going. I was also on the verge of quitting video games until Super Mario Galaxy so I wasnt super invested in the transition to begin with.

Yup, the PS360 gen was a huge disappointment for me too, maybe because I had been mostly playing on PC for a while... The first in store demos of the 360 I saw were that king-kong game, I don't know if this is my memory, but the frame rate seemed extremely low... However, down the line games like Gears of War, Wipeout HD, God of War, Uncharted 2, etc... They blew me away, even if my PC was beefier (who am I kidding, I had not really upgraded the gaming components of my for for a while at this point, I only had a PS3 that I got at first for its media playback capabilities + I love Wipeout, so I got that too, I never got a 360, I saw why it appealed to some people, but I never felt interested in a CoD box).

 

[LemmingWithaParachute]

Gen 6/PC...

Been pretty underwhelming since that end of the gen for me.

 

[dottme]

The N64 and PS1. The discovery of 3D and all the new kind of gameplay. That was crazy.

 

[celsowmbr]

this:

to this:

and zero hype for the next generation aka PS5 and XSX

 

[Dee_Dee]

Gen 6. The jump in graphics was huge. That entire generation was the Golden Age in gaming for me.

 

[mango drank]

I'm wondering if these results are skewed ... because according to the "age" thread in OT, we're all old farts. And so maybe if lots more <25 year olds were taking this poll, there would be higher turnout for Gens 7 and 8. Or maybe everyone legitamately is perceiving less (subjective) improvement gen to gen lately, and it's not just a bias among our age group.

 

[GreatnessRD]

Gen 6 easily

So sad to see what each gen after it had became.

 

[Rickyiez]

I beg to differ because it's latest gen for me . Finally seeing almost non-existent of aliasing is the holy grail for me

 

[TheGreatYosh]

PS2 gen easily. When I saw Devil May Cry, and Metal Gear Solid 2 I was so hyped at the future possibilities.

 

[Radical_3d]

Gotta be the 5th Gen. When looking upon those launch titles for PSX, Saturn etc like Wipeout you weren't thinking about the future - you were experiencing it

This. And the PS3 one since it was the first I jumped in the online hype train.

 

[Trimesh]

I've got to say the 6th gen, despite personally being a huge PS1 fan. In the 5th gen, all the machines were significantly compromised in one way or another. The 6th gen represented the transition to the point where the primary constraint of the sort of game you could make went from being the hardware to your imagination. The PS3 and 360 - despite being good machines in their own right - always seemed to me to show the onset of diminishing returns, and the current generation even more so.

 

[Ceallach]

Gen 5. I remember a friend's older brother had an imported PSX and Toh Shin Den, Ridge Racer, Kileak, they blew me away.

 

[Radical_3d]

I beg to differ because it's latest gen for me . Finally seeing almost non-existent of aliasing is the holy grail for me

Man, this looks bananas. I wish I wouldn't hate open world games.

 

[recma12]

I doubt the difference has ever been as crazy as going from a PS1 to PS2.
I will use Madden to make my point because that game has been around forever and is an important benchmark for mass market gamers.

This is Madden 2001....

on PS1

on PS2

Now let's check out the 360/PS3 vs PS4/Xbox One comparison of Madden 25:

Not saying "it looks the same" but the difference is clearly in the detail. You need to zoom in a good bit to even see it.

 

[D.Final]

I doubt the difference has ever been as crazy as going from a PS1 to PS2.
I will use Madden to make my point because that game has been around forever and is an important benchmark for mass market gamers.

This is Madden 2001....

on PS1

on PS2

Now let's check out the 360/PS3 vs PS4/Xbox One comparison of Madden 25:

Not saying "it looks the same" but the difference is clearly in the detail. You need to zoom in a good bit to even see it.

The PS1 to PS2 jump graphics is really incredible

 

[Yoshi]

Clearly gen 5, opening up all kinds of new gameplay opportunities. Gen 6 was the major graphical leap after that and was impressive, but gen 5 was the most exciting. I am amazed there are people voting gen 8.

 

[recma12]

Clearly gen 5, opening up all kinds of new gameplay opportunities. Gen 6 was the major graphical leap after that and was impressive, but gen 5 was the most exciting. I am amazed there are people voting gen 8.

For me the jump form SNES/MD to N64/Saturn was very impressive from a technical POV.

I voted for 6th gen but it's obvious that the jump from Mario titles on SNES to Mario 64 is bigger than anything that happened from 5th to 6th gen.

That said, it's still apples and oranges for me to compare 2D to 3D games. Not fair either way.

I did not vote for 5th gen because I look at the whole catalog of availabe games and the average quality.
4th Gen has the absolute pinnacle of 2D gaming, developers had 100% mastered the hardware.
There were a shitton of great games, all time classics. Some of them, like Donkey Kong Country still hold up extremely well.
5th Gen was more like a trial and error period. For every Mario 64, Metal Gear, Ocarina of Time or Gran Turismo you got 10 shitty games where you clearly noticed that the devs had no experience with 3D and polygons.

There's a reason most indie games these days try to mimmick the 4th Gen 2D titles and ignore early PSX/N64 titles.

 

[Wolfgang Jr]

the jump from 480p to 720p was the nuttiest.