When were video games at their best?

[Blackmist]

On the last occasion you had maximum time to play them.

For me that is probably the PS2 era. From that point on I'm playing fewer and fewer games, and they're getting bigger and bigger and no more interesting.

Holy fuckballs, how long is AC Odyssey? And I thought The Last of Us 2 was dragging a bit by the end. I'm starting to regret buying the full version.

[baskev]

In your opinion

I would say in the middle of the 2000s , world class.

No i kinda disagree with you. Maybe a bit earlier. think it is the period from 1996 to 2000
Think it started with the nintendo 64, who may not have 100 of games. But most if not 90%+ of the games where all classics. You also had the first playstation with many good games.

This was before the uber super greed of companys in the gaming industrie. But also a lot of great titles of many genre's. It was not just Battle royals and Openworld games.
You had shooters, tomb raiders, platformers, racing games, spy games, dungeon crawlers, rts, civ builders etc etc.

Hell in genre's alone you have many different games in sub genre's from space, to midevil. Take RTS by it self:
command and conquer ( several titles), warcraft , total annilihition, dungeon keeper, starcraft, age of empires, battlezone 2, star trek armada. All RTS games but all take a VERY different approach.

You also had quirky things, people trying new things. instead of human player character, you had a bear in banjo.
Instead of a spy shooting up the whole place. You have a solid snake etc etc.

I think the mid 2000's. So around 2004,5,6 where not that great. The start of copy and paste industrie, greed in companies was showing. More buggy titles, more ways of making money of us ( start of dlc era etc). Yes it had some great titles. Do not get me wrong. Also the start of lets make everything that we want to sell a game ( so movies etc).

[ZazuuPriest]

Games were the best before DLC was a thing when companies released full games on their own timeline without severe corporate interference.

Also the more popular video games became the more soulless they became. Mass appeal is the killer of creativity.

Thats not to say great games dont still come out, we are just oversaturated with crap.

[Utrrabbit]

Well you need a game to be at a good difficultly level or its too boring or too frustrating so I disagree. When you play games from the 90s you can normally beat them in a hour or two

You can disagree, but you will be wrong. It is as simlple as that.

[RobertoCarlos]

You can disagree, but you will be wrong. It is as simlple as that.

I'm wrong difficulty levels matter? OK rudy

[Mysterymask]

No i kinda disagree with you. Maybe a bit earlier. think it is the period from 1996 to 2000
Think it started with the nintendo 64, who may not have 100 of games. But most if not 90%+ of the games where all classics

...um what N64 didnt have a lot true but 90% of the library being classics is INCREDIBLY wrong
For every OoT, Smash and Mario 64 there were like 8 pieces of shovelware or the worst version of a ps1 game.

Not saying n64 was bad...but 90% being a classic is a HUGE stretch

[Dhrizzle]

This was before the uber super greed of companys in the gaming industrie. But also a lot of great titles of many genre's. It was not just Battle royals and Openworld games.

Oh my word no. Greedy companies have been churning out soulless shovelware since the early 8-bit days.

You had shooters, tomb raiders, platformers, racing games, spy games, dungeon crawlers, rts, civ builders etc etc.

Pretty sure all those genres still exist.

[AlmightyGerkin]

2000's as a whole was probably peak gaming. So many great games to name that are still played today, you had a lot of developers that were legit passionated about their games and didn't always prioritise maximising their profits. Not much of these microtransactions, cash shop, day one DLC. Instead we were getting proper expansions and sequels.

Couldn’t agree with this anymore. Back than companies knew that if you make the customer happy you make shareholders happy and create a great reputation. They saw their customers as customers not dollar signs. Now it seems to just try and make the shareholders happy then their customers.

[LemonDemonGirl]

1990 to 2010

Past that, games sort of feel stale and boring to me. Then again, I grew up overplaying some games, so maybe that's why?

[Mysterymask]

Oh my word no. Greedy companies have been churning out soulless shovelware since the early 8-bit days.

Early 8 bit? Shit a soulless shovelware game almost killed the industry...or does Atari count as 8 bit?

[Dhrizzle]

Early 8 bit? Shit a soulless shovelware game almost killed the industry...or does Atari count as 8 bit?

Pretty much all the earliest consoles were 8-bit, that's why 16-bit was seen as something to shout about.

[Mamut]

1990-2000 with the peak at Baldurs Gate releases.

[baskev]

...um what N64 didnt have a lot true but 90% of the library being classics is INCREDIBLY wrong
For every OoT, Smash and Mario 64 there were like 8 pieces of shovelware or the worst version of a ps1 game.

Not saying n64 was bad...but 90% being a classic is a HUGE stretch

euuhhh yeah, a bit overkill. But if you look at the list of games i would say atleast a dozen classics . ( hell rare alone made pretty much all the clasic games). And a good portion of good games. Yes you did have some bad ports.
But overal that console generation had a lot of cool stuff on it.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh my word no. Greedy companies have been churning out soulless shovelware since the early 8-bit days.



Pretty sure all those genres still exist.

Yes, but it became worse in the mid 20's. With horse armor in oblivion, full on commercials in sport games etc. Before that time you did have new content for games. But those where full on expansion packs. Not 10 bucks for a shiny horse armor. Playing a game that is stripped to the bone by EA to sell you its parts later on .


And yes and no. The genre's still exist. But back then AAA studios made all kinds of games. You did not have 1 or 2 type of focus games. Now its remake's or meh titles from meh studios.

You had several dungeon crawlers back then. Right now minecraft one, and diablo
RTS: dozens. Now? starcraft 2 ( a 10 year old game), iron harvest
Shooters also: a lot of single and multi player. Now its battle royal/multiplayer or nothing.
Tomb raiders/resident evils: yeah both of those titles exist. But thats it.
Platformers: nintendo makes them, and rachet and clank thats it.
Spy games: Nope

And yes they still make some of these titles. But most of the game focus if you look at any game show or read any game thing is: Multi player racing, Openworld games, battle royal.

[Utrrabbit]

I'm wrong difficulty levels matter? OK rudy

No. Your wrong that games werent at the best in the 90s. Plus no game is difficult. Not one, unless you are just bad.

[kaminaris]

You had several dungeon crawlers back then. Right now minecraft one, and diablo
RTS: dozens. Now? starcraft 2 ( a 10 year old game), iron harvest
Shooters also: a lot of single and multi player. Now its battle royal/multiplayer or nothing.
Tomb raiders/resident evils: yeah both of those titles exist. But thats it.
Platformers: nintendo makes them, and rachet and clank thats it.
Spy games: Nope.

You must have missed like a thousand games then.

As for tomb raiders, recent two beat the crap out of every previous one easily. Older TRs were boring AF.


Now even indie games are better than previous "AAA" titles. Sure, some suck but there so much to chose from you are bound to find something fun.
Seems like you never made past two lines on twitch in popular games.

[themortalgod]

The challenge is our expectations have risen faster than games have improved. If you take a modern mediocre game today, put it in a time machine and send it back to previous gens, people would love it. The flip side being that there were games in the past that we LOVED that if released today instead wouldn't even be noticed.

I feel as it stands, we are experiencing the greatest era of gaming right now. I think about the experience in games like Last of Us, Hellblade, TR3, HZD, etc and there isn't anything in the past that even comes close to that depth of storytelling coupled with such beautiful art.

I was far more captivated in the past just because of youthful wonder but objectively I think we are in such an amazing time right now. We constantly take it for granted and ruin it by acting like armchair game designers at every turn. I often wonder what it must be like today to be a teen experiencing AAA games for the first time. The immersion is breathtaking.

[schwarzkopf]

Then entertainment and/ or difficulty was the key, and not complexity.

[Gaidax]

The challenge is our expectations have risen faster than games have improved. If you take a modern mediocre game today, put it in a time machine and send it back to previous gens, people would love it. The flip side being that there were games in the past that we LOVED that if released today instead wouldn't even be noticed.

I feel as it stands, we are experiencing the greatest era of gaming right now. I think about the experience in games like Last of Us, Hellblade, TR3, HZD, etc and there isn't anything in the past that even comes close to that depth of storytelling coupled with such beautiful art.

I was far more captivated in the past just because of youthful wonder but objectively I think we are in such an amazing time right now. We constantly take it for granted and ruin it by acting like armchair game designers at every turn. I often wonder what it must be like today to be a teen experiencing AAA games for the first time. The immersion is breathtaking.

My thoughts exactly.

People simply don't appreciate the stunning games of the last decade because the whole market so saturated with genuinely great titles with so many genres and accessibility.

People are salty over DLCs and such, but that does not change the fact you have absolute stunners released right and left last years. Heck, you have Cyberpunk 2077 coming up - imagine something like that in the "golden" era of 90s people are pushing here. If people would see it back then - they'd think it was made by aliens.

[slime]

I'd say right around that SNES / Arcade games still a thing. But soon after the arcade began to die.

Im not trying to say SNES games are better than WoW and Overwatch and modern games, but there was something to that time and playing that I really enjoyed that I only barely feel for a short time when playing a new game like D4 or WoW SL... the feeling disappears quickly.

P.S. - runnerup N64 (goldeneye / Mario Cart, NBA jam) - this almost beat out the SNES. Days and days of multiplayer fun.

I am just now playing a game called Lagoon I never played before for SNES.. and it seemed so easy but fun to progress, very overhead Zelda-like.

And then I got to the first boss, lol - I must really need to grind levels out cause holy crap a quick reminder of how difficult old games can be.

[kageus]

Everyone's subjective answer: "Whenever I was in my formative years and experienced gaming that was fundamental to my understanding of how games work." I knew a sheltered girl that had only played Road Runner’s Death Valley Rally for SNES when she was in her late teens and to her that was the height of gaming.

Objectively? Likely right now.. Complexity and depth of gameplay, immersion, variety of genres have never been richer than they are today.