which was the better decade for pc gaming? 90s or 00s?

this decade isn't quite over, but it's certainly drawing near to the end. so why not discuss it now? which was the better decade for pc gaming - the 90s or the 00s (thus far and, if you care to, in looking ahead to the next year and a half)?

and by 90s, i mean 1990-1999; by 00s, i mean 2000-2009.

edit: sorry, the poll is imperfect, but it'll have to do. i tried a more complex poll, but i think the simpler poll is more pleasing in the end. my apologies to those that already voted. whew, edited 10 times... a record, even for me.

1990's.. so many classics like C&C Red Alert, Star craft, Duke3D, Quake 2, Half Life etc etc.

The 90's was the decade original games. The 00's is the decade for sequels.

I'm sure for 90's you mean 1990-1999Di0nysus80

yeah, i fixed that. ;)

I've had to re-write this post about ten times now because I keep disagreeing with myself. I just don't know.

I think I have to say tie. In terms of the number of excellent games in each decade, it's pretty much a tie. Both decades have a huge number of excellent games.

What the 00s have more of is refined, evolved quality. Pure, consistent excellence.

What the 90s have more of is originality. Creativity. Unique games and way out-of-the-box ideas.

I love both decades, but one thing I have to say for the 90s is there are several games I still play today regularly or semi-regularly (Doom, System Shock 2, Fallout) while there haven't really been any games in the 00s that have that timeless, no-matter-how-old-they-get appeal.

Modern games seem to age faster. In part, I suppose, because of how refined and evolved everything is. Dawn of War will soon be replaced by its sequel, and Dawn of War 2 will probably be replaced by another sequel before it can scend to Godhood.

i personally would have said the 90s for sure before 2007. but seeing some of the great games released last year and looking at some of the titles coming out later in 2008 and 2009 and seeing so much potential there, i'm just not as sure as i was a year ago.

what i consider exceptional titles (of the ones i've played, of course) of the 90s are: king's quest 6, grim fandango, fps: football pro 95, fallout 1 & 2, master of magic, doom 1 & 2, red baron, x-com, ultima 7: bg & si, starcraft, half-life, sam & max hit the road, alone in the dark, diablo, quake 1 & 2, the beast within: a gabriel knight mystery, betrayal at krondor, tie fighter, ss2, links 386, nba live 95, planescape: torment, aces of the pacific, wing commander 3 (mark hamill, ftw!), and day of the tentacle.

of the 00s, there are significantly less exceptional titles: crysis, stalker, bg2, hl2, episode 2, ut and ut2k4, nolf 1 & 2, deus ex, portal, diablo 2, and jedi knight: outcast. maybe f.e.a.r. and coh and gtr2 as well.

but then again, i also played a lot less games this decade than i did in the 90s , so i missed a lot of good games and i'm still playing some games (like sins or dow series) that i feel could get on the list, but that's also true of games in the 90s cuz i haven't played many of the rts games back then.

and there's also the shift to multiplayer games that i don't get to play that often (except ut series), because they don't appeal to me as much as single player games, like tf2, cs:s, or wow.

and back then, in the 90s, there were more 'big games' produced per year than there are today, so it's inherently unfair, because developing games just takes longer and requires more manpower and resources these days than they did back then.

and then there's the nostalgia factor and having grown up with the games of the 90s. and then there's spore, starcraft 2, project origin, rage, stalker: cs, dragon age, and far cry 2 that are coming out of which i fully expect at least half to make that list.it's just a tough call and tougher even to be objective, but unless 2008 and 2009 are going to be tremendous years and the games listed right above deliver, i'm going to have to go with the 90s.

90's saw a lot of innovative game concepts, even if a bit of those were due to the introduction of 3d graphics capabilities.

00's mostly were just tweaks and improvements on those old concepts, which of course makes games that are better in an absolute sense, but relative to what games already existed, I'm going to have to go with the 90's for sure. There really aren't many 00's PC games that stand out in my mind as being particularly original, with the lone exceptions being The Sims and Diablo II (which incidentally both just barely missed being 90's games.) You may laugh at the idea of Diablo II being original, but it really did do a lot of things that hadn't been done before, or at least not done well.

Now obviously I am playing mostly newer games, but of course that will likely always be the case. That's just the way the technology progresses.

1990's.. so many classics like C&C Red Alert, Star craft, Duke3D, Quake 2, Half Life etc etc.

The 90's was the decade original games. The 00's is the decade for sequels.

Rattlesnake_8

Deus Ex came out in 2000.

90s by far.

For the most part, 00s has been nothing but the dumbing down of the far superior and deeper games from the 90s.

Just about every worthwhile genre seems to have been at its peak in the 90s. RPGs, shooters, strategy games, you name it.

1990's.. so many classics like C&C Red Alert, Star craft, Duke3D, Quake 2, Half Life etc etc.

The 90's was the decade original games. The 00's is the decade for sequels.

Rattlesnake_8

Yep, pretty much what he said. Besides in the 90's the still remembered what good gameplay ment.

90s by far.

For the most part, 00s has been nothing but the dumbing down of the far superior and deeper games from the 90s.

Just about every worthwhile genre seems to have been at its peak in the 90s. RPGs, shooters, strategy games, you name it.

_Memento_

strategy games have become far deeper and challenging than they were in the 90's. The same can be said for shooters, in the 90's you only had mindless corridor shooters (with System Shock 2 being the only exception) and only in the 00's did they evolve in something much more (STALKER, Deus Ex, Far Cry, Half Life 2, Crysis, Battefield, Counter Strike etc)

I would say the 90's was superior, because it had MORE than just great shooters and strategy games.

I just went through the games I enjoyed playing the most, and I was midly surprised that the 2000s actually have the edge in terms of quantity of great games. I suppose that was to be expected, considering the game industry has grown dramatically in the past decade, however I had always thought the late 1990s featured most of my favourite titles. That wasn't the case.

However, I do think there was some great creativity and innovation during the 1990s, and it was great to see new genres created (such as the FPS with Wolfenstein 3D back in 1992) and others evolve dramatically (such as RPGs going from the EOB style or birds eye view to real 3D in Ultima Underworld and Arena). If anything, I would say the 1990s saw the birth of real 3D and the FPS, and built a strong foundation for all the great games we have today. Five of my favourite FPS of all time (Jedi Knight, Half-Life, Unreal, System Shock 2 and Thief: The Dark Project) were created between 1997 and 1999, and some of those were really innovative for their time. The 1990s also saw the birth of the Tactical Shooter with Rainbow Six, and great RTS series like Age Of Empires.

So I'm going to have to call a draw. The 1990s were a huge melting pot of creativity that laid the foundation for what we have today, and the early 2000s built some truly great games on those foundations to push genres forward.