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[samoilaaa]

Yeah. Time to stop gaming buddy.

not while games like elden ring , path of exile , baldur's gate 3 , cyberpunk phantom liberty , kingdom come deliverance , talos principle still exist

 

[TheKratos]

Instant loading and 60fps + decent resolution alone has been huge improvement compared to last gen. The rest is subjective.

 

[Filben]

So many great games released this gen. How do you guys keep track of how many games and how good they were the past generations? I never keep track. Is it just a gut feeling?

In my memory every gen we had amazing games. Don't know if it was 30 games in PS3 days vs. 40 in PS4 or vice versa. I don't keep track of this. Just enjoying the games I get, which is waaaay more than I could possibly play in a lifetime.

 

[PendekarRajawali]

PS3/360 was way worse. Stop the

 

[SaturnSaturn]

Anything other than Nintendo, indies and AA and below are not inovating at all. Stick to those and emulating older games you will have a great time, gaming is just going to get worse with its chase of high fidelity. Higher dev budgets leads to longer dev cycles and safer dumbed down gameplay to appeal to a wider market to make a profit. The golden age is over unless we get a crash. (that could happen).

 

[IDKFA]

A major problem is the time it now takes to develop a game. Unless a studio has multiple teams, most of them will be lucky to launch one game this generation. That's a far cry from the PS3/360 days when a studio could launch 4+ games in a single generation.

Take Bioware as an example. For the PS3 and 360 they launched 3 Mass Effect games and 2 Dragon Age games.

For the PS4 and Xbox One, they released 1 Dragon age game, 1 Mass Effect game, Anthem and a Mass Effect trilogy remaster.

This generation they've released nothing yet and they'll be lucky to get the new Dragon Age out the door. I don't think we'll see the new Mass Effect until the next generation.

Fact is game development is taking longer than it used to. This is only going to get worse in the next generation unless developers start using AI tools to help them speed up development.

 

[DEAD ORIGINAL]

Have to say you're actually right it is crap ps360 was best

 

[Ozriel]

Nobody said there arent games. Point is the most talked about games are literaly cross-gen titles. For PS5 its Horizon FW, GOW Ragnarok, GT7, Spiderman 2.....Cyberpunk got a new life this gen but its a last gen title. Its like Im playing the same game but in 4K. For example from this list Id say 65% is average at best or worse. Point is we keep getting bloated open worlds, battle royales, safe sequels with minimum innovation and definately way less new IPs. In general a lot of the sequels are just bland and I think we are getting way more remasters/remakes than on the PS3 which says a lot about playing it safe.

You want more risky games made that aren’t ‘safe’, but at the same time you’re opposed to attempts to expand the playerbase to the previous gen consoles via Crossgen even when you know how expensive AAA games are these days.

There’s nobody in this thread who isn’t fully aware of the conversations in the past few years about how development costs are spiraling like crazy. And yet ‘safe’ games are sneered at, and even more demands for way more fidelity and way more features packed in are being made.

 

[Kiya's Guard]

The technology is fine. Cinematic narrative driven "experiences" for the netflix consumers killed any kind of creativity and risk the publishers were willing to gamble. Paired with the completely mental development costs and time, zero innovation

 

[BlackTron]

if you only play games to be "wowed" over and over again with new tech, i'm sorry but this was bound to happen sooner or later.

I think the key is that we are used to tech upgrades hitting us with a "wow factor" not only in how it looks, but also in the gameplay implications of these advancements.

Truthfully AI is the biggest step in gaming this generation. AI upscaling tech, AI being used to develop games, AI being used for NPCs. When people were using AI to speak to NPCs in the Unreal Engine 5 Matrix demo, that was an example of what the next generation of gaming could look like. Less about graphics and more about making game worlds more believable with AI trained NPCs. Devs could probably develop more realistic or complex animal behavior as well.

Yeah, could. IMO we naturally expect these advancements to come because we see that the tech is there and are used to rapid change. So, where is it? By and large, many aspects of game design/programming seemed more sophisticated during PS3/360 gen. IMO, this is a legitimate letdown and the reason remakes are booming now.

 

[d00msday]

I was just watching a comparison video of Topspin 4 Vs Topspin 2k25 and while 2k25 is 4K and looks crisper, the detail levels are less than Topspin 4. The individual, unique player movements, sliding along in clay, hair bouncing and just a general overall look.

Might be a bad example as I think 2K25 had a smaller budget, but it's not cool seeing games go backwards.

 

[nemiroff]

Please retract your noses slightly and realize that gaming has never been as diverse, seamless, and exciting as it is now. We have it all: from technically sophisticated simulations with stunning graphics and image quality to a broad range of classic retro and indie games. We've even seen new genres popping up. Perhaps OP should broaden his venture a bit.

And yes; I am an old school gamer (Home Pong, Vic20, Atari 2600, Amiga, etc, the whole gamut). /Credentials cringe

Anyway, just wanted to offer a bit of pushback..

 

[Guilty_AI]

I think the key is that we are used to tech upgrades hitting us with a "wow factor" not only in how it looks, but also in the gameplay implications of these advancements.

There'll naturally be attenuations to those as well. There are much more immediatly observable evolutions when transitioning from 2D enviroments to 3D, or from closed small levels to bigger populated open worlds than whatever we have today.

Before you talk about AI that already has been extensively used by games, even before it was "cool". With pathfiding, procedural generation, decision trees, dynamic music and so on, which are strong subjects in game dev.

More recent advancements in AI were also used in a multitude of games already, most people just don't realize because the end result isn't immediately obvious nor easily observable. Not to mention most expect very specific things of AI when there's a much wider array of applications, often far more useful than just throwing some chatGPT in random npcs, or making players compete with impossibly skilled opponents.

 

[Synless]

All these arguments about length of time to develop…

I just sat through FF7:Rebirth which added huge variety of things to do, was lengthy, superbly animated, phenomenal OST, great looking with incredibly varied locations. All of which happened in less than five years at the most.

The rest of these clowns are just being mismanaged.

 

[fred420170]

I agree that this generation has been meh... I went all in on PC last summer once starfield was announced to be 30fps, that was the breaking point... 30fps should be illegal... I can play everything on PC at higher fidelity / frame rates and with sony most likely speeding up their PC ports there really is no reason for any console going forward.

 

[MasterDerico]

I agree, worst gen ever.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

Have to say you're actually right it is crap ps360 was best

I think you mean Wii60 there, buddy.

 

[March Climber]

Yeah, could. IMO we naturally expect these advancements to come because we see that the tech is there and are used to rapid change. So, where is it?

Considering how extremely early we are in regards to AI implementation in video games, you won't be seeing these things fully realized until late this gen or next gen. These type of tech advancements are never a 'snap a finger and it's there' ordeal, it's usually done in gradual steps. Also, by the time it's implemented more and more, you won't be noticing it unless it's extremely apparent (like all NPCs capable of conversation).

This is the constant disconnect between the development side and consumer side. People expect these changes to instantly roll out like a new fast food menu item, but these are software developments, not hardware developments. I blame the 90s and stupid advertisements like 'Blast Processing' and '32 bit vs 64 bit vs 128 bit console'.

 

[JohnnyPhats]

Im 48 and like to yell at clouds too.

 

[Nydius]

I don’t agree that it’s “the worst” but, personally, it has been the most disappointing. I have spent a lot less — both time and money — this generation compared to the last couple generations. Very little outside of indie titles feel new, triple-A feels safe, predictable, no creative effort. As others have pointed out, my most memorable games, so far, have been largely cross-generational titles, with a very small exception for games like Stellar Blade.

As for hardware, I can’t shake the feeling that my current gen consoles are just SSD upgrades to the last gen ones because we’re still out here with 900p dynamic resolution scaling games without decent HDR and often running sub 60fps.

Maybe I’m just old and have reached the “been there, done that, where’s the beef?” ennui stage of my hobby. But I sure do miss the days when we’d get a full trilogy with DLC over a 7 year span (Mass Effect) while the same studio was able to develop a completely different massive RPG (Dragon Age) in between releases of the other. Now studios announce a game and 7 years later it MIGHT come out.

 

[Madserb2023]

When looking at innovation...yeah, sure this is the worst generation. It just feels like a continuation of the last. However, the PS3/Xbox 360 was much worse when looking at performance and stability. A solid 30fps/ 720p was the absolute best. It was jarring coming from the GameCube at the time where super stable and glitch free gaming at 60fps was the norm. Some of the best looking games on the GameCube also ran at 60 like Metroid Prime. We finally have got back to that more or less.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Anything other than Nintendo, indies and AA and below are not inovating at all. Stick to those and emulating older games you will have a great time, gaming is just going to get worse with its chase of high fidelity. Higher dev budgets leads to longer dev cycles and safer dumbed down gameplay to appeal to a wider market to make a profit. The golden age is over unless we get a crash. (that could happen).

There is no "getting worse" because there is always something for everyone and I'm curious as to what recent game from Nintendo was sincerely innovative or a departure from their safe space.

 

[FIREKNIGHT2029]

I hear this every gen and I’ve been gaming since the Master System/NES. You’re just getting old OP.

 

[Bulletzen72]

OP started gaming in the best gaming year of all time. It was only ever going downhill from there.

Nope! That was 1996!

 

[SaturnSaturn]

There is no "getting worse" because there is always something for everyone and I'm curious as to what recent game from Nintendo was sincerely innovative or a departure from their safe space.

I am saying the AAA industry is getting worse, you would have to be blind to not see that. You have a bunch of people that are hired based on gender and other factors, not based on passion or skill. These morons cant even solve a fizzbuzz. The whole thing will colapse on itself. You have more choice in indies now than u ever had before. Vampire Survivor is an amazing game for example. BOTW was a pretty solid departure this gen for what zelda used to be

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I am saying the AAA industry is getting worse, you would have to be blind to not see that. You have a bunch of people that are hired based on gender and other factors, not based on passion or skill. These morons cant even solve a fizzbuzz. The whole thing will colapse on itself. You have more choice in indies now than u ever had before. Vampire Survivor is an amazing game for example. BOTW was a pretty solid departure this gen for what zelda used to be

I think you're making something bigger than it is. BOTW was also a highly successful game and clear people want more of it. The only brand collapsing in any real capacity is Xbox and that is due to poor decisions that accumulated and they must massively adjust.

Edit: The empathy emote is ironic given you're the one in here complaining.

 

[CartesianMan]

This genaration will be remmebered as an "OK" console generations; I just expected more exciting games from first parties.
There is no reason to buy a PS5 three years after its launch. Don't even mention the Game Pass Machine. Nintendo is two generations behind anyway. The Switch 2 will bring all the "amazing" ports from the PS4 era.

 

[SaiyanRaoh]

If I didn't have a strong PC, I'd only be playing the Switch, emulation or tackling my backlog from older generations. The only games keeping this generation afloat to me are games like Cyberpunk (ALL console versions excluded. The PC is the ONLY way to play this one properly.) the indie scene and Demons Souls remake. Nintendo is a separate case for me altogether and seem to hold up their nose to this console arms race garbage. For the most part they only try to make fun games.

 

[Portugeezer]

I get it, I don't need a constant reminder that there are very few "true" next gen games.

Just enjoy the good games that come out.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

Just enjoy the good games that come out.

Seems that is hard for some to do, but yes, you are spot on. If not, there's always another option - find another hobby.

 

[Impotaku]

The worst gen was the one that spat out 3 of the shittiest systems ever. Jaguar, 3DO & CDI the gen that tried to say FMV media games were the future instead we got janky really ugly shit with grainy garbage FMV.

 

[Dr. Claus]

The worst gen was the one that spat out 3 of the shittiest systems ever. Jaguar, 3DO & CDI the gen that tried to say FMV media games were the future instead we got janky really ugly shit with grainy garbage FMV.

The same generation that gave us the PS1 and N64? That released games like Super Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7, Spyro, Syphon Filter, Banjo Kazooie, Mario Kart, Smash Bros, etc?

Really?

 

[Hudo]

OP started gaming in the best gaming year of all time. It was only ever going downhill from there.

1999 alone was a far better year:

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
Homeworld
Age of Empires II
Planescape: Torment
Pokemon Gold/Silver
Alpha Centauri
FreeSpace 2
Unreal Tournament
System Shock 2
Soul Reaver
Rayman 2
EverQuest
Wipeout 3
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Worms: Armageddon
Final Fantasy VIII
Silent Hill
Sim City 3000
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Dungeon Keeper 2
Jagged Alliance 2
Re-Volt
GTA 2
Pharaoh
Battlezone II

Disappointment of the Year: Ultima IX

 

[Dr. Claus]

1999 alone was a far better year:


Disappointment of the Year: Ultima IX

Why must you remind me of that gutter trash.

"What's a Paladin?"

Fucking shameful.

But yes, 1999 was amazing. So many top tier games that still haven't been matched. Planescape Torment is still the single best written game of all time and it isn't even close.

 

[Raven77]

Completely agree with the op. Absolutely horrendous generation so far but could be, likely, heavily influenced by the effects of the pandemic.

Their are hardly any exclusives worth owning, most games look like uprezed versions of last gen games with some obvious notable exceptions. Gameplay hasn't changed or taken any sort of next-gen leap in probably multiple console generations.

Couple that with the fact that everything is trying to go live service and it's a recipe for disaster.

The game industry is a cluster F right now. There's no innovation, there's little creativity, and all they're trying to do is milk the consumer for every dime possible.

Here are some of my most controversial opinions:

1. Absolutely none of the above applies to nintendo. They are a shining beacon amongst all of this mess. And this is coming from an Xbox fanboy.

2. Your average big studio video game should cost at least $90. Probably more like $100 to $120.

3. Coupled with the increase in game prices, studios should embrace AI in the cost savings and Time savings that it enables.

The above opinions would result in quicker, cheaper, more creative games. A lower cost of developing games means greater risk taking. Greater risk taking equals more creativity.

This is the only path forward unless gaming wants to continue to spiral down the toilet.

 

[lachesis]

Well, the concept of "generation" seems to be gone or very minimal to say the least.
However, the best of the "generational" games tend to come from the last 2 years of its life cycle - so I'm looking forward to 2026 for real defining moment of this generation.

 

[Yoda]

Game dev generally severely lags the hardware it's being run on. AAA games now have 5 year dev cycles, so the RTX 30xx line wasn't even available when most recent AAA games started dev. A similar paradigm exists for console hardware. While it's true the big studios get access to the dev kits a year or two early, generally all big budget games will be cross gen, which means the older harder IS the target, not the newer stuff.

Advantages like everyone being on a SSD won't really show up in force until next gen.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

I've been gaming since 1989 and I'm inclined to agree. There certainly isn't that much coming out that is exciting. Partially because I'm outside the target demo nowadays. My tastes don't matter and the current zeitgeist is kinda lame. But hey, at least there are plenty of old games to play.

 

[CrustyBritches]

Why console "fanboys" and not simply "console owners". That's a bit of a dick comment to make if i may say.

You may say. No worries.

What I was saying is that it's bad for console fanboys that games are multiplatform since they've lost ammunition for their war. Somebody might look back and think, "Wow this system was the best because it had all these exclusives!" Now the vast majority of those games are on every platform, but especially PC, so they can't be used to fuel their objectum sexual lust for their walled-garden PC gaming box.

Hope that clears things up. My post was specifically about console fanboys, not console owners.

 

[pepodmc_]

depends of which genre you like, and if you prefer east or west games.

Im a 90s guy, plus liking japánese games, so each new generation is worse than the previous.
It started in the ps3 era, liking it less than ps2 era, and so on and on.

For example, im a fan of capcom, and now , capcom is selling games like hotcakes.
But the real capcom for me was the 90 and 2000s capcom, and capcom from this era is very different than 90s and beginning of 2000 capcom. It mutated with the years. Capcom had a lot more style before, now it depends a lot of resident evil and monster hunter, which is understandable because they are the two best selling franchises, but , as a fan, is shitty.

And the west games i really liked like split second never had a sequel, black never had a sequel , need for speed series is bad since undercover, burnout is dead, motorstorm is dead ,ea sports big is dead, no new midnight club since a lot of years...
There are still good games from both sides , but with each generation they are less and less, a lot less.

 

[RCU005]

no destruction,no inovations in physics.

Agree 100% on this! Now, all objects are like marble statues.

 

[WhamBamThankYouMaam]

Been in gaming since, well, the start of the 80s. The problem kow comes from the combined weight of fomo, massive ingormation that filters some of the games etc.

But there are so, so many games. Step away from the herd, go with the ones that feel good.

 

[hinch7]

With Rockstar and Naughtydog largely MIA this gen it really has been a dud, personally. Luckily there's Capcom, SE and FromSoft carrying the generation.

 

[Del_X]

It’s only bad if you love mid-curve AAA games and don’t have a decent PC. There’s plenty of good shit that doesn’t have an ungodly budget.

 

[bobone]

Its definitely the worst. I don't see how you can argue otherwise.
There is almost zero innovation. Every game is designed from the ground up around microtransactions and player retention.

There are exceptions in the indie space, which is saving gaming at the moment.
But the "big" name companies are flailing around aimlessly.

With that said, every generation going forward will have diminishing returns graphically. That should be expected.
And we will never again have the shock and awe going from 16bit to 3D graphics that you may or may not have experienced.

 

[Hohenheim]

I don't really think about gaming in "generations", but as a whole (for me), gaming has been pretty much excellent since I started playing games around 1990. There's so many amazing games coming out every year, and that's obviously gonna continue.

Because the whole industry is gigantic now, some trends will obviously come and go in the mainstream part of the industry, but it's pretty easy to avoid the stuff you don't want to see/play.
For exsmple, i've yet to play a GAAS game, because that just ain't for me.
The industry had been full of that stuff for years, and still it's been very easy to find all kinds of other great stuff.

I haven't got time to play all the stuff I want, and that's my only big "problem" with this hobby.

 

[Efren is G.O.A.T.]

All these arguments about length of time to develop…

I just sat through FF7:Rebirth which added huge variety of things to do, was lengthy, superbly animated, phenomenal OST, great looking with incredibly varied locations. All of which happened in less than five years at the most.

The rest of these clowns are just being mismanaged.

 

[ArtHands]

You want more risky games made that aren’t ‘safe’, but at the same time you’re opposed to attempts to expand the playerbase to the previous gen consoles via Crossgen even when you know how expensive AAA games are these days.

There’s nobody in this thread who isn’t fully aware of the conversations in the past few years about how development costs are spiraling like crazy. And yet ‘safe’ games are sneered at, and even more demands for way more fidelity and way more features packed in are being made.

They can always charge more for PS5 games or PS+. $100 game is long overdue

 

[Bernardougf]

This gen has been the worst of all time. The absolute worst. When I see people saying 'it's been GREAT for me', all I can think of is what the fuck are you smoking and how much is it.

Sony has had fuck all outside of a handful of titles. They jacked up the prices of literally everything, their mainline prices are now prohibitively expensive ($125AUD for Stellar Blade? Fuck off.). Everything is built for the zoomer Fortnite broccoli haired fuckwit player, with microtransactions and battle passes. Horrible San Francisco progressive politics lathered across everything as developers climb over one another to 'be on the right side of history'. Microsoft absolutely shat the bed, to the point that the Xbox brand may be retired so that they can pursue their failed ambitions as the 'Netflix of games', something barely anyone wants. And, Nintendo were SO successful with Switch that they decided to sit this one out and just coast on fumes, releasing stuff like 'Tears Of The Kingdom', which would have been annihilated as a low effort remake of 'Breath Of The Wild' if it had been anything other than a Zelda game by the blue haired fart huffers in what remains of the shambling corpse of the 'gaming media'.

It's just endless miles of trash. Being excited about contemporary gaming at this point is a fool's errand. The hardware sucks, the software is non-existent, and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

Thank fuck for Steam and PC gaming - just need to find a way to exile the streamers, zoomers, and retards who flocked to the platform in an attempt to appear 'hardcore' and we're good to go.

This is by far the best post I've seen on gaf about the current state of gaming. Somebody should pin it in the front page.. its just perfect.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

PS3/360 was way worse. Stop the

Equally as worse as current gen