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[OrtizTwelve]

I feel like 15 years ago there was a lot more variety, more innovation, and games were a lot more focused and well paced, without needles content just for the sake of it

Looking back at 2010, i got GoW 3, Bayonetta, Red Dead Redemption, Darksiders, Heavy Rain, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Enslaved, Dante's Inferno, Castlevania LoS, Limbo, etc

Now everything has to be bigger and bigger, or a live service, or a huge and forgettable open-world, or another souls-like

Games like those back in that era (and the PS2 for that matter) are fewer and far between, and that's honestly sad.

I agree 100%. Games back then actually felt like games.

Now, despite having significantly better tech and power with current consoles, games are just marketing vehicles for endless monetization and bloated trash. We're lucky if we get an actual polished and finished game upon release.

 

[intbal]

I agree 100%. Games back then actually felt like games.

Now, despite having significantly better tech and power with current consoles, games are just marketing vehicles for endless monetization and bloated trash. We're lucky if we get an actual polished and finished game upon release.

Don't forget being platforms for social and political preaching. That's also an important part of modern games.

 

[Harlock]

And the women were beautiful.

 

[Griffon]

I'd take the PS2 or PS4 eras any day of the week over it.

The WiiPS360 gen was just trash, the Wii was awful, the PS3/360 were only good if you liked dumb cinematic console shooters and low framerates. It was the gen that pushed me towards PC and handheld gaming, and I never came back.

 

[stn]

It was amazing, for sure. As amazing as it was, I have found awesome gaming in every gen, basically. That said, Dragon Age: Origins, the FGC era (USF4, SFxT, etc...), Mass Effect, and other games were all amazing and I still play them to this day. Then you have hidden gems, like The Darkness, and Alpha Protocol, and it was an awesome time in general.

 

[rubik's dude]

It was an awkward era in my experience, but a good one, and I probably branched out of my comfort zone the most during this time.

I really only played traditional JRPGs beforehand, but the traditional JRPG scene was garbage on the PS3. So I tried a bunch of new stuff and played games like Oblivion/FO3, MGS4, Yakuza 3/4/5, the Souls games, Saints Row 2/GTA4, etc. Really helped expand my horizons.

 

[Sybrix]

The jump from PS2 to PS3/360 was something we will never see again.

I remember playing the 360 for the first time after my PS2 and being completely blown away. The jump from standard definition to high definition was so huge it was completely game changing, literally

Post 360, the generational jumps are so much smaller and will continue to be so forever, its 4k to 8k to 60 fps to 120 fps and so on, these leaps are not as big as SD to HD.

This is part of the reason why the 360 generation felt so good, not only the games being epic but the huge technological leap.

Something never to be repetated again.

 

[TMLT]

It was the last generation of the golden age.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Gaming was flat out better back then. Not saying it’s bad now, but back then…

- Way more releases
- Way more genres supported
- New consoles weren’t living on cross gen
- Unlockables were in the game, not set aside to sell to players separately
- Western developers weren’t afraid to put beautiful women and tough men into games
- PC crowd wasn’t being bent over by component makers

Maybe it’s just age, but I’m starting to lose some interest. I’m just going through the motions, doing the same things and don’t see the point of spending a lot of money on hardware or games.

 

[nush]

Not saying it’s bad now,

I will.

 

[WhamBamThankYouMaam]

Don't miss the frame rate, which bothered me in many games even then, but I do miss the online communities for what they were, and I do miss the bolder game development.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

It was the gen that made you want to upgrade to a HDTV.

Not really. 360 and PS3 games were like 560p or 720p upscaled at best. And they ran like shit. This whole obsession with achieving 60 fps really wasn’t a thing til this past generation started and we got the Pro consoles.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

The last generation when I had that feeling of magic, and so many new franchises! Assassin's Creed. Mass Effect. BioShock. Gears of War. And Halo 4 looked incredible, the Uncharted games were amazing at the time. The Last of Us. So many experiences. But I had tons of fun last gen too. This current gen feels slow.

It feels slow cuz it is slow. For real.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Came here for this. Gaf delivers.

'T was the gen of the Poo filter. And I hated EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GAME that used it.
And it was more of an in between Gen graphics wise.

Some games looked like previous Gen, others were OK.

No its the Gen that holds the least of fond memories for me. A forgettable era.

Except the Wii. Endless nights of playing bowling with friends and LOTS of weed. We literally converted my living room into a makeshift bowling alley for immersion.

I loved Mario Galaxy. And Lost Odyssey. I’m honestly a little pressed to think of another amazing gem from that gen.

In my memory it was super slow and there were huge droughts between games I was interested in.

Japanese developers in particular were going through this really rough transition, too. They didn't start to come out of it til the PS4/ Xbox One generation. But PS3 and 360 games were... yeah, developers were in this odd place where they weren't sure what people wanted so they just brought out all these odd games, and many of them were failures.

 

[nush]

Not really. 360 and PS3 games were like 560p or 720p upscaled at best. And they ran like shit. This whole obsession with achieving 60 fps really wasn’t a thing til this past generation started and we got the Pro consoles.

Not at all. Literally went a year or two between a game I wanted across Wii, 360, PS3. Awful droughts

Your opinions are trash, you owned 3 consoles and nothing was good enough for you that you blamed "droughts". A drought isn't because you don't like what's on offer, that's you being picky.

 

[EviLore]

I don’t miss all the screen tearing.

 

[Dr. Wilkinson]

Your opinions are trash, you owned 3 consoles and nothing was good enough for you that you blamed "droughts". A drought isn't because you don't like what's on offer, that's you being picky.

If it doesn't appeal to me, it's a drought. . I don't buy games that don't appeal to me. A drought to me is a drought to me.

 

[Chuck Berry]

The jump from PS2 to PS3/360 was something we will never see again.

I remember playing the 360 for the first time after my PS2 and being completely blown away. The jump from standard definition to high definition was so huge it was completely game changing, literally

At the time I remember thinking Oblivion was damn near photo realistic

 

[thief183]

I miss the bromances and the bald protagonist, all those new pussies are just not my cup of tea.

 

[XXL]

I don’t miss all the screen tearing.

This and games taking forever to load.

 

[Clear]

Man nostalgia really is a thing huh...

That gen sucked overall. Nintendo went all in on the Wii. The others decided to try and follow the motion controls fad. Xbox went all in so much with Kinect that ruined them the following generation. (and never recovered)

3rd parties were releasing games even LESS optimized than nowadays for consoles, with many games failing to hit even 30fps (when we were playing a lot of 60fps the previous gen). Japan were nowhere to be found during those days with many of their IPs hitting their lowest ever. Their worst gen by far. Square-Enix went from releasing games like FFX and XII to that XIII trilogy. Capcom was failing at everything mostly. Resident Evil had the worst entries of the franchise that gen (V and VI). Konami's decline started to get worse as well . Xbox 360 hardware was failing left and right, PS3 released at 600€/$. All games looked grey / brown as fuck. Sony decided to release remastered trilogies left and right of games from PS2 gen when they realized they were profitable, something they still do. Xbox brought paid online multiplayer to consoles as well.

When i saw PS4 announced and no motion controls in sight, that Killzone Shadowfall presentation and finally games with a stable framerate (at least above 30fps lmao) and a console that costed 400€ i was relieved.

Yeah there were ups of course like how games were releasing much faster...but now we know a lot of those studios were burning out. We simply didn't know back then, with studios like Naughty Dog bleeding talent since like Uncharted 2 days.

HUGE step down from the PS2 / Xbox / Gamecube eras.

Truth. It was overlong and although it started and ended strong the long stretch in the middle was pretty much dominated by motion controls. Monetization was pretty bad too, as they were trying a lot of ways to avoid cannibalization from resellers.

 

[proandrad]

We never left that era, we have just been getting more refine versions of ps3/360 games.

 

[Borowski_1]

I agree 100%. Games back then actually felt like games.

Now, despite having significantly better tech and power with current consoles, games are just marketing vehicles for endless monetization and bloated trash. We're lucky if we get an actual polished and finished game upon release.

Passion projects like Hi-Fi Rush feel like an event these days

 

[Leonidas]

That was the generation I upgraded to PC due to the abysmal performance/resolution on consoles in many games...

 

[Danjin44]

Passion projects like Hi-Fi Rush feel like an event these days

I guess you miss the game like Unicorn Overlord this year which it was pure passion project.

Same Stellar Blade thats coming out soon.

 

[sono]

memories.

There were some great games its true

The PS3 loads and patches went on for ages before you could play

HDMI was a new thing for gaming

Big flat screen tvs coming out

Latency

YLOD

The hype on GAF about some of the PS3 titles was as entertaining as playing them

Cell

E3

PS3 does 1080p 60fps (doesnt it?)

Bluray

Filmic 25fps

 

[m14]

Could anyone please tell me what game the top left screenshot in from?

 

[intbal]

Could anyone please tell me what game the top left screenshot in from?

Bodycount
The fake sequel to Black.

Don't bother. It's not very good. It has some good ideas, but is disappointing overall.
Very colorful, though.

 

[Hemingwayoffbase]

Phil Spencer

 

[Solarstrike]

360 is still a beautiful machine. Had an OG XBox when it first released but sold it towards a PS3 years ago. Still have my 360 and the XB1X however. Many, many quality games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic I & II. The Thing was way ahead of it's time in terms of gameplay. Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is still incredible graphically, to this day. The thing I love about XBox systems is the whole backwards compatiblility thing. It add decades of replayability for physical games. A few favorites from my collection:

 

[m14]

Bodycount
The fake sequel to Black.

Don't bother. It's not very good. It has some good ideas, but is disappointing overall.
Very colorful, though.

Thanks. That screenshot made me curious.

 

[FoxMcChief]

I am. I’ll keep saying it, Killzone 2/3 are the best Sony first party games ever made, imo.

Fuck GG making boring ass Horizon games. Go back to Killzone!!!!

The current gen is easily the worst.

 

[Danjin44]

I would say if you are mostly fan of western games 360/PS3 was better generation compare to current gen.

 

[Borowski_1]

I would say if you are mostly fan of western games 360/PS3 was better generation compare to current gen.

i would agree, yes

Western devs are less risk taking and less creative

 

[Lagspike_exe]

I miss much shorted dev lifecycle. Also that gen had some insane games.

I don’t miss 25 FPS sub-720p games and terrible loading times.

 

[Hypereides]

It was my favorite Gen.

Demons Souls
Dark Souls 1 and 2
Gears of War 1-3
Halo 3
Oblivion
Skyrim
Mass Effect trilogy
Assassin’s Creed 1-Brotherhood
Resistance
Lost Planet
Dead Space 1-3
MGR revengence
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2
The Golden Era of COD
Bayonetta
Nier
Bioshock


Just a fraction of what we got.

Man, I really want to see Insomniac make a Resistance 4. Its a travesty the Insomniac ransomware leak confirmed they had cancelled it. Absolute bummer. The series took a nosedive with R2, but managed to recover gameplay-wise in R3. The series would've been overall super solid had they stayed consistent throughout by following the gameplay foundation they introduced and established with the first entry.

I miss the bromances and the bald protagonist, all those new pussies are just not my cup of tea.

There's definitely some lacking visibility for testosterone- and adrenaline-pumping action games in the current market.

 

[WoJ]

I would say if you are mostly fan of western games 360/PS3 was better generation compare to current gen.

Western games weren't trash in the PS360 era like they are today.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

Me. Along with the PS2/cube gen.

 

[Danjin44]

Western games weren't trash in the PS360 era like they are today.

I won’t argue with that, 360/PS3 era I would still play good amount of western games but this gen that number severely lowered, this year I didn’t buy any western games.

 

[Fbh]

It was great.
That gen sort of set the blueprint for gaming moving forward so you still got a lot of the elements I like about modern gaming.
But it was before budgets exploded and when people were still ok with shorter experiences so we got a ton of new IP's and ideas. It's the gen of Assassins Creed, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Bayonetta, Dark Souls, Uncharted, TLOU, Gears, Bioshock, Lost Odyssey, etc, etc

 

[Guilty_AI]

Not much. People complain about GAAS today but back then everyone wanted to be COD, Halo and Gears putting focus on their multiplayer modes, which was also rather annoying. Many games abandoned proper game design rules in favor of being cinematic spetacles, and for all the complaints about handholding today, that era was much worse in that sense.

The only aspects i miss is that developers back then still gave a crap about making arcade racing and GTA-like games. These genres are on life-support today.

 

[El Muerto]

Had to pack up most of my games in the house and move them to the garage to make room since my wife is pregnant. Definitely had some bangers in the collection. Got rid of most of my collection during that gen and this is what i have left. Fuck i miss Socom. Got rid of my 360 games when i got the RRoD.

 

[Trunx81]

It was a golden age, due to its color saturation.

And my first PlayStation ever

 

[_Ex_]

Meanwhile, in Japan ....

This game was made by GRIN, a Swedish developer. It was only published by Capcom.

 

[rapid32.5]

I miss 1UP Yours crew podcasts, E3 and forum meltdowns back then.

 

[HofT]

2000s AND 2010s was peak gaming. It's really just this generation that sucks. 2020s has been awful for majority of time. There's gems out there but too far in-between.

 

[SiahWester]

The PS3 was the last great console. After I built a PC in 2011 and got a Steam account it was all over. Consoles were irrelevant and have been since. The exclusives weren't/aren't there anymore and eventually all come to PC anyways.

Throughout the years I had an N64, PS2, GameCube, Wii, and PS3. Also handhelds like Gameboy, DS, and 3DS. That was it. I look fondly on all generations though. I fully agree that the PS3 era was amazing. I just miss the gaming community back then. Forums like these were the norm and events like E3 and TGS were like freaking holidays. That kind of stuff needs to come back.

 

[SakkanartSilentJealousy]

So many good games but FF, RE, DMC was just okay. While PS4/PS5 more like generation of remade/remaster.

 

[kunonabi]

I don’t miss all the screen tearing.

Man, I remember buying Bayonetta and thinking my disc was defective.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

I never really liked the graphics in the PS3/360 era. Too much brown and piss filter. I even liked PS2 and XBox and GC graphics better. Today the graphics look like the PS2 again but with better fidelity of course.

That's strange because I always felt like the PlayStation 2 had a lot of games with dull graphics and filters. The PlayStation 3 games were more colorful it seemed.

Doll I probably love the PlayStation 2 era the most. But I admit that the PlayStation 3 and Xbox you're awesome.