Does this generation feel different to you?

Maybe it's my age, but this gem feels different from the past, especially compared to the PS2/GCN/Xbox generation. It feels like this gen hasn't hit its stride, hasn't peaked, and isn't prducing the excitement for me of last gens. For me there hasn't been a killer game, a system seller, like Halo, Zelda, or a new franchise that blows my mind. Games feel incomplete. I'm not saying they're bad this gen, just not mind blowing to me. Before this gen has even come into its own we are already getting updated consoles, which feels wrong. I haven't been hyped by any game, haven't spent time researching, feeling anticipation, or discussing an upcoming title. There hasn't been a game that I can use to convince my friends to buy a new console.

My friend, that is because we no longer have generations. PC never had generations, PS4 and Xbox are both getting those awful upgrades (and most of their games are on PC anyways), and Nintendo is in lala land.

The term generation is meaningless now.

This generation lacks variety.

This gen is meh.

This gen has been great. The fan culture has gotten much worse and DLC scams have gotten worse but the games are as good as ever. There have always been terrible games. This gen has them too but it also has games we could not have experienced in the past and many unique indie games have been made but most wont allow themselves to experience them for some idiotic reason. In a world where only graphics and performance matters to the average system warrior and indies are a thing to shun and fanboying is a priority and limits games you are allowed to play, I would hate this gen too. I'm glad I don't live in that world.

I pretty much agree with Mark.

People have become bigger assholes and DLC has gotten out of control but there are still great games coming.

I'm actually enjoying the remasters because I can get my favorite games from the PS2/3 days on PS4 and keep them on the one system.

AAA gaming has taken a massive hit with the increased budgets and development time. Indie games have saved gaming. It's a shame the majority ignore them. I truly feel sorry for AAA only gamers (not really).

People might change their minds when AAA gaming collapses under it's own weight because of the massive budgets and development times (which will only continue to increase as gamers need bigger worlds with better graphics) which very few publishers can sustain.

PS2 era was the peak of gaming. Consoles have been going downhill ever since and with next to no exclusives anymore you can get most everything on PC.

That's not to say there aren't great games. Just they are much more few and far between now. Less variety and so much season pass and DLC bullshit its crazy.

Yes, to me this gen has been very lackluster. Most of these games just don't interest me anymore.

Pretty much summed it up.

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This Gen has been amazing. I can watch tv while playing Xbox, I can play nintendo games on the game pad while my wife has the TV. It's been the Gen of the multitasker/family person and I'm glad.

I like this gen personally, The only thing I miss is the lack of AA games (recore and until dawn are the only 2 i can think of) and the overabundance of indie crap. Other then that, it's been as good as any other gen. People just have the "nostalgia" effect where they remember things as being better then they were

It could be your age. I would definitely say that I get less hyped generally about new games than I did before, but I don't think it's because the new games are any worse. I'm just older, I'm busier, I don't have the same enthusiasm (at least, for the most part...there are exceptions). :-)

This generation has played host to some of the greatest games I've ever played though, honestly. Bloodborne was a revelation for me - it introduced me to the Souls series, and it has been, without doubt, my #1 game of this generation so far. It feels like a breath of fresh air to me; something that is not only innovative, but that is also incredibly immersive in ways I didn't expect.

I also really loved the refreshing experience of games like Metal Gear Solid V and Splatoon - they aren't without their faults (what game is?) - but they are clever and interesting and new. Then there are the huge, deep experiences like The Witcher III or the wonderful left-of-field surprises like Doom. And so much more besides.

I think this generation has been fantastic. I'm still really enthusiastic about games and I very much think we're lucky to be living in this time, where there are so many great-quality games out there.

I've been a life long video game fanatic. I started around 1978 or so when I was three or four years old and still am obsessed and addicted to video games and it will clearly be a life long obsession with me. However I did go through a period in my early thirties where I was busy with a lot of different things and video games did not attract me like they used to. This was during part of last gen. I did feel like games had lost their appeal a little but it wasn't the games it was me. I think on forums like this we always have people experiencing this part of life who previously loved games but are feeling disillusioned at the moment. This is natural and a reflection of the person more than it is a reflection of the industry. Games themselves actually get better as a whole. The over all trend is good but it's hard to see sometimes. That's just my take on this phenomenon anyway. I have followed games for a long time and it always seems like someone is saying things were better before. They even said that in the 80's.

@-Red-Cell-: Yeah, there really hasn't been anything that's breaking new ground. Every gen has had something that really moves the medium forward, but we haven't had that this gen, yet.

Well said. I'm still having fun playing video games. Sucks to be a high maintenance person I guess.

"Indie crap"

You deserve a slap for that disrespect. AA games still exist, you just aren't looking. No Man's Sky, Ori, Divinity OS, Alienation, Dragon Quest Builders, Pillars of Eternity, SOMA, Tearaway Unfolded, XCOM 2, Wasteland 2, Transformers Devastation, Disgaea 5, Outlast, etc are all examples.

You should really take a look at more Japanese games and PC games if you're looking for AA.

I find this gen to be underwhelming and I find myself playing less and less games. At least UC4 delivered this year.

I guess it depends on your preferences. I love both solo campaigns and competitive/PVE/Casual play online, but I would say I have a bit of a preference for the online stuff in terms of the amount of time I spend playing. There is more emphasis this gen on the online stuff I would say, and I can understand some people feeling a bit left behind by that.

However, if you look more carefully you should still be able to find just as much good stuff as before. A lot of it has to do with marketing imo. I don't think that much has changed honestly. One thing I can suggest is revisiting past releases. Sometimes I miss out on games when I'm too busy and when I backtrack and play that game I missed out on a few months ago I'm like "wow how did I pass this up!"

Style over substance.

It's everything wrong with today's entertainment industry.

All people argue about nowadays is resolutions and frame rates, a topic which is so horribly monotonous.

In my opinion we didn't even need another generation. The graphical leap from 360 to xbone and ps3 to ps4 was very subtle. And now Sony and Microsoft are already coming out with new hardware, like freakin' why? Game graphics already look just like real life, why do we need more powerful hardware? Resolutions and frame rates? Only sissies care about that crap. Why not just play the stinkin game instead of obsessing over superficial stuff?

So many AAA companies have just gone down the crapper. This is because AAA development has become so expensive that companies just simply can't take as many risks as they did back in the day. They look at the billions of dollars that swiping games for phones make and they think to themselves, hey I want a piece of that!

But the worst part about everything is this dang feeling of entitlement that so many people have.

This generation stands out as a true return to form for gaming with a much bigger variety of games with much higher levels of quality than we've seen since the Playstation 1 days.

However, this is only true for PC gaming.

Yeah, it pretty much sucks, I skipped over almost the entire 7th generation and coming off of the Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube in comparison, this shit is a total dumpster fire.

Resolution and frame rate are hugely, hugely important. Console frame rates nearly across the board are just embarrassing.

However as a PC gamer I don't typically have to worry about that, my PC crushes most games. So I'm already getting great frame rates and I get the incredibly creative PC gaming bonanza.

Hell at this point I almost put mobile gaming over consoles. Consoles are just crappy PCs with extremely limited and archaic control methods.

100% agree. Well said.

The killer games have been lacking for sure. Aside from The Witcher 3, there haven't been any super amazing games IMO. There have been good games, but the quality bar seems to be lower this gen. Less risks being taken. Even established franchises are coming out with weaker iterations this gen.

In terms of big budget killer apps, this gen has had nearly zero.

There are plenty of good, smaller games, but nothing worth camping outside a store with your bros for. That side of gaming is dead.

I agree the gen just feels lackluster as a result even if there are lots of good indies and mid-tier games.

I find it feels different cause the PS3 and xbox360 didn't fade it yet... seems like it's takeing longer to loose last gen

It's the third year of gen 8. Gen 7 didn't hit its stride until, what I argue to be, the last quarter of 2008, 3 years after the gen started with the release of the Xbox 360 in 2005. PS3 was generally lagging in multiplat support, either because of lacking port performance or delayed ports, and by then I feel that the holiday line-up showed developers were in shape to deliver equal multiplatform support between both systems, with better ability to narrow the parity gap and increased familiarity with the systems they were developing for. It really helped in the first half of 2008 too that big releases like MGS4 (as much as I thought it was awful) push PS3 sales higher, and GTA IV really picked up console sales all around.

Major difference though too is that gen 7 got several years of support to follow its pick-up. Question is, how much longer can get 8 last? They're already doing mid-gen upgrades with PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio. I'm curious too, with Sony lacking on power side there but being up among the market share is whether they'll feel it's necessary to make a proper generation jump to a new system, or if we'll get another mid-gen upgrade from them, or if they'll feel content with their share of the market and make do. But, that ultimately is determined by consumer habits.

On the AAA games side of things, I feel that gen 7 kind of burned out the industry in that regard. Making AAA games these days is more costly than most developers can afford to produce, we saw many studios and publishers go out of business last gen laying all their chips on the table only for gamers to dismiss them for petty reasons; heck, we're still seeing it. Then they lack the capital to stay open and dissolve. The games cost more and more to produce, more and more to market. Used game market certainly crippled their revenue streams as well. There's game politics to contend with from the journalistic side. It's a very precarious enterprise, and it seems only the biggest developers backed by the bigger publishers really have the ability to make the bigger investments.

That being said. I don't feel this gen is any disappointment compared to last gen. I still find lots of quality fun games to play I can't even keep up with them all, and I play a lot of games, probably too many. Yet, I'm not having any problem finding one great addictive game to play after another.

Another thing, largely ignored, is where the economy plays into all this. There's been a greater economic constraints placed on middle class disposable income. More money people need to pay higher housing costs, higher costs of transportation, higher health insurance costs, less money they have to do things like spend money on games. People have some money to spend, but I feel they play it safer and safer, going for big franchises that have already established themselves. Developers are the same way, playing it safe, making the games that people buy instead of taking creative risks and trying to innovate. It's very difficult, for studios, publishers, franchises, genres, to gain footing in a market that doesn't show much interest to change.

I fully believe gamers, in general, have become more anal.

I'm having as much fun as I did during the SNES days which is what I consider my gaming highlight.

I can't really go through why I think this gen is doing just fine....I mean I can but I'm on my phone so I'm not, but I've never heard so much complaining and I've been there since the beginning.

It has a lot more to do with middle tier games being either being poorly marketed at the same prices as AAA games and being completely shit on by consumers, expectations spiraling out of control, companies that don't know how to budget, companies also expecting to much out of sales, and the older generation isn't used to "iteration", as nes -> snes -> n64 -> GCN were generally massive leaps in tech and gameplay.

I remember camping out for Donkey Kong COuntry on christmas and playing turtles in time in funcoland

I remember seeing Mario 64 at best buy and being awe and playing it for hours.

This gen is horrid its absolutely horrible.

There is no mario 64 there is no turltes in time or good games rolling its all garbage its all trash.

People here know this gen isn't as good they know it in their heart they just pretend oh your nostalgia is just making that look better no idiot no idiot

go sit down and play turtles in time and tell me that game is just nostalgic, no idiot the game is still good its just flat out good like an arcade game its never gonna get bad u liars stop lying to yourselves stop it.

its nostalgia the games were just better then and thats just how it is.

This gen has been meh for me.

I hated being an early adopter this gen and wished more that I waited down the line for the new consoles. Most the games I'm looking forward to are mostly sequels and in terms of new IPs, I feel like I tried more crap than actually gems. Gamers in general have changed for the worst imo and I feel developers are just putting stuff out there without any thought.

Donkey Kong Country was a ridiculously generic game with obnoxious secret design. Compared to Sonic or Mario, it sucked.

Mario 64 was alright for the time but suffers from boring level design and abominable controls.

Turtles in Time was never impressive, side scrolling beat em ups are one of the worst genres ever devised, thankfully they died and don't exist anymore because they blew.

Weird how you didn't even mention great games like Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, and Sonic 2.

So far, it feels like an extension to last one but we'll see what the NX brings to the table since it feels like Nintendo has been out of the competition this entire gen console wise.

The biggest problem with this generation is the almost complete lack of innovation. You're not getting new experiences, but just the same old experiences from last gen sold to you in a new package. That's probably the biggest reason why this generation feels so underwhelming, like we've already experienced it all before, with hardly anything new to offer.

This gen is more about delays than releasing the actual games

Yeah, this gen is pretty much crap. I agree that most games feel lazy/incomplete. Let's hope for a better future.

I dislike japanese games for the most part. with that said your list is terrible

NMS is an indie game but charged at AAA price for some dumb reason. plus it's a terrible game and pretty much the worst example of this generation with the lies and issues.

Ori is indie

tearaway is indie

Xcom 2 is AAA not AA

Wasteland 2 is kinda AA but again don't like the turn based RPG style games

Transformers is a good example. I got it free on PSN+ yesterday. I'm gonna try it out. I love platinum games, the only japanese dev I like

Outlast is indie

Alienation is indie

dragon quest is indie

well I think you get the point. None of those games interest me personally outside of transformers. And i own Ori, my son has tearaway unfolded and it's just terrible. IDK how adults can play games like that but i guess it's cool for kids.

The only examples of AA games I can think of this gen so far is transformers and recore.

I completely understand where you are coming from, and have asked myself many of the same questions. I truly feel the biggest thing this gen that has screwed things up is the fact the middle man is all but gone. These days all you get are huge AAA games (usually generic and overhyped to all hell), and cheap indie games and cash grabs. We need the middle man back.

This gen has been fantastic (awesome graphics, huge games, better performance than before, indie massification brough more diversity, the ability to easily broadcast, upload vids and pics, etc, etc...).

My only problem with it is lack of time to play the games i would love to.

@ProtossRushX: "it's all garbage it's all trash"are you exaggerating?

This gen is good,Many great games like dark souls 3,bloodborne,TW3,uncharted 4 and more,but it sadly has many flops,cash grabs and disappointments,DLC taking over the world cause of shitty companies like EA and those terrible mid-gen upgrades.I have to admit that PS2 and PS3 days are better.Lets wait till the end of the gen to decide,by then horizon zero dawn,the last of us 2(you know it's coming),halo 6,forza horizon 4,the legend of Zelda,ME:andromeda and many other amazing games will have come.

i think there are still plenty of great games coming out on most platforms (the wiiu has had it).

but there is a sense that the gen, despite its age, still hasnt really started yet. there hasnt been that game that really sets this gen apart from the last. there is no GTA3, wii sports or gears of war.

i think this has happened because AAA development has, to all intents and purposes, stalled. its either sequals, reboots or a new skin on an existing idea (useless new IP basically).

the closest is probably the witcher 3.

The PS2 era was the last superb era and it's not even close.

Like that famous quote Kurt Kobain is quoted for that quote is full of s*it. its not a lie, its the truth at the time, its what the user perceived it as and it had that effect on the user. If the modern games can't re-create that, or at least equal that, its not the user's fault, it shows stagnation. Which is EXACTLY whats happened over the last decade... less risks, rehash rehash now remasters, or franchises living far beyond their due by date.

@mark1974 said:

This gen has been great. The fan culture has gotten much worse and DLC scams have gotten worse but the games are as good as ever. There have always been terrible games. This gen has them too but it also has games we could not have experienced in the past and many unique indie games have been made but most wont allow themselves to experience them for some idiotic reason. In a world where only graphics and performance matters to the average system warrior and indies are a thing to shun and fanboying is a priority and limits games you are allowed to play, I would hate this gen too. I'm glad I don't live in that world.

Pretty much summed it up.

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Pretty much. It's not that the older games were better, but that they felt fresh when they came out. Newer games today don't feel fresh, but feel like rehashes of older games. There's been an almost complete lack of creativity or innovation this gen.