The 'golden age' of video games was not 20 years ago, it's now

Are video games now better than before?

[Flawlessmic]

My first console was a sega megadrive and i have owned every console and handheld since then outside of the nintendo 64, original xbox, nintendo wii u.

I enjoyed every gen i dont think u say any era is the golden era. the games may look and play better now but at the time of release they all looked and played better and my enjoyment of them was the same so id say u cant really pick a golden era.

If u wanna nail down a particular golden console then id easily say it has to be ps2, the amount of quality games we got was insane and sequals didnt take 5 years to make either.

3 gta games
3 dmc games
2 gran turismo games
3 final fantasy games
Both need for speed undergrounds
2 kindom hearts games
2 metal gear solid
Ico
Shadow of the colusses
2 god of wars
3 jak and daxters
Racket and clanks

Could keep going all day lol

Ok im wrong, you can pick a golden era ps2 era was the golden era 😂😂

[MaximusPrime_]

My first console was MSX. My next console that really got me into gaming was Sega Mega Drive.

[Ninver]

My first console was a megadrive. Ps1 came after that. Been owning a playstation since

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I also started with a Mega Drive, then went on to own the PS1/SNES/Saturn/ect... Strangely, I never owned a Dream Cast, don't ever remember seeing them on the shelves in Australia.

[RedDevils]

PS1 also need to talk with you.

[PapaBop]

Yeah I'd agree with the PS1 era, the lower development costs in comparison to future generations meant we got a lot of little gems of games. For every AAA game I can think of in that generation, there was something like Hogs of War or Bishi Bashi Special which largely flew under the radar but offered great experiences.

[Smitty2020]

What I like about older games is that u didn’t need to update them every month or pay for dlc the full experience was in the cartridge, even bk them when I played gouls and ghosts I was like wow in terms of graphics lol

[Gamer79]

My first console was the Sega master system and owned nearly every console and handheld since. Currently own ps4 Pro, xbox-one, 3ds psp and wii.

Ps2, og xbox was my golden era, so many great game on both consoles.

[Army_of_Darkness]

As awesome as the ps2 ear was, I'd still pick ps1! It was jrpg heaven and the console that established a lot of franchises you see till this day...
Final Fantasy 7,8,9
Xenogears
chrono cross
Metal gear solid
Resident evil 1,2,3
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Silent hill
Crash bandicoot
Gran turismo
Vagrant story
Final Fantasy tactics
Legend of Dragoon
PARASITE eve
Mortal kombat trilogy
Tomb raider
DMC
Omnimusha
And so so many more! This was not the golden era, this was the platinum era! 👍👌😎

[TheLigX]

I’d say the same about ps3/360 gen. 2 gtas, 3 uncharteds, 3 mass effects, 4 gears of wars, 3 halos, 3 ratchet and clanks, 3 bio shocks, the last of us, 2 infamous, 2 killzones, 3 resistances… and on and on.

[Fonsecap]

Agree, this is the dlc-micro-transacrions-nft' ;s era, and the buggy launch games era, and the remasters era, definitely not the golden era, at least not for gamers, now when it comes to publishers that's another story, this one is definitely the golden era for them.

[Popsicle]

My for system was the NES baby. “Now your playing with Power!” I can remember being a kid and there was rarely a more exciting feeling than tearing the shrink wrap off of a new game and sticking the cartridge in the console for the first time to start a new adventure. Well usually it took two or three times because of the need to blow in the cartridge and then shift it around while pressing the reset button to get the game aligned just right.

I have to say though, once I take the nostalgia glasses off I notice that not only has the quantity of games increased, but as a whole the quality is considerably better. Back then and as a child you mostly picked out a game by looking at the box art and the screenshots on the back. You had no idea what the gameplay was going to be like until you got home. Back then it seemed that for every truly awesome NES game there were 2 truly terrible games. But when you found the right game it was a bliss.

[Master-Tonberry]

Absolutely! it was also a time when console gaming was everything in Japan, there was a huge amount of creativity coming out of the Japanese studios in those days.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Idk, PS2 was great, but the SNES and PS1 eras where fantastic too, lots of good memories there.

[Ozzy2407]

I agree had every console since the atari 2600 and theres not really a golden era its just as technology has progress the games have to. But if at the time say when the atari 2600 launched you didn't know any better so that was the golden era of gaming .Then another console launches and the cycle repeats

[DarXyde]

Which, ironically, is 20 years ago. Not sure why Sonic 1 is used in the thumbnail.

I completely agree with you. On top of that, we got the entire Onimusha series, a ton of JRPGs (including 2 phenomenal Persona games), and so much more.

I'm pretty stuck in the past since I have always loved offline multiplayer, and I still haven't taken to online gameplay very much. Very few exceptions (Warkhawk, Metal Gear Online for MGS4, and Resident Evil Outbreak are pretty much it).

For sure, Gen 6 was grand. No MTs, games were complete with great QC, EA and Konami actually gave a damn, AA games still existed, developers could afford to get weird and experimental, there was better balance between western and Japanese games, budget-to-retail price was reasonable, dev teams weren't too big, on and on and on.

Only issue I have with G6—which wasn't a problem at the time—was the limitation of technology. A game like The Last of Us would really be hurt by the tech at the time, and God of War would really lack the grand scale it has now.

That said, I have phenomenal memories of G6, particularly PS2 and GameCube (Xbox to the extent that Ninja Gaiden really blew me away at the time). My PS2 is still hooked up and I do revisit games all the time (and still buy some oldies periodically). I think I'll revisit Shinobi and Nightshade next month. Last game I replayed on the PS2 was Siren (back in Oct/Nov).

Games now aren't bad, but definitely not my favorite eras. Not by a mile.

Long winded way of saying, "I totally agree". 🙂

[jznrpg]

I started with Atari 2600 and Intellivision I forget what I got first and then NES all the way to PS5 . I didn’t get a few consoles over the years before this gen , Atari Jaguar , Xb1 , 3DO is all that I can remember besides the super obscure stuff I owned them all. PS2 had so many good games I missed playing all of the great ones just too many

[ravens52]

Started with sega, snes, game gear, gameboy, sega saturn, ps1, n64, ps2, ps3, vita, ps4, switch, ps5. I want to get my first Xbox.
Didn't have the atari, dream cast, game cube, x360, but my family did. Been gaming since I hopped out my mom, controller in hand.

[KingofBandits]

First console was a Sega Master System, had an NES too, then Genesis. Though gaming did not really hit home for me until the original PlayStation (Saturn too), just seemed to have the exact mix of games, style and design in line with my interests. There is no doubt though that the PS2 era was the true peak of that climb started the gen before.

[MrGameAndWatch]

It was. 20 years ago we had finished games on day one, without a shitty timed exclusive or dlc strategy. We got dreamcast, ps2, gamecube and xbox with awesome games.

[Si-Fly]

There were also bugs back then that completely broke games or save games, it wasn’t like everything was perfect and there was no way to patch those!

[Ratty]

There were but that was excessively rare. It might have been more common with shitty games looking to make a quick buck off a movie license but that's it.

I'm not saying you're completely wrong. It's a good thing to be able to patch games post launch to avoid those issues. However instead of using patches to fix post launch issues, devs nowadays use them as a means to release a broken mess ASAP and MAYBE just MAYBE fix these issues eventually. I popped Skyrim last year and it still had most of the issues from 2011 yet they had the means, money and manpower to fix it but didn't.

We need an inbetween. Devs need to release an actually finished product and use patches for their intended purpose.

[gold_drake]

on really really rare occasions.

[Angyobangyo]

How many games from back then do you remember that were utterly broken to how games many games in the last year?

They actually had game testers to make sure games that were released weren’t broken unless it was a LJN game, as opposed to games today’s with minimal quality testing, releasing it broken regardless, make an apology with a roadmap to fix something they sold, then decide it isn’t worth the effort to fix their game. Rinse and repeat.

[ChubbyBlade]

You clearly weren’t around then.

[MrBaskerville]

It was bad on pc, I've bought so many broken/unfinished games back in the day. Most Bethesda games were generally unfinished and pretty damn buggy, especially Daggerfall and Terminator Skynet. Did enjoy Daggerfall a lot despite everything, main story was broken without the patch and I don't think I've ever exited the game voluntariely.

Also bought lot games published by Gametek, they rarely worked. Being an adventureous pc gamer in the 90s was rough, but a lot of the great games were among the best.

This topic reveals who grew up with consoles who grew up with pc.

I'd also say that a lot of the pc ports on ps1 were borderline unplayable, like Xcom: Terror from the deep with its 10 minute long loadtimes and CIV 2 where the ai's turns got longer and longer as the game progressed. There's a lot of ports that probably never should have been released. But the console space has a better track record.

[thorstein]

Even the journalism was golden. Now it's just brown.

[gamer7804]

And devs made game show they wanted without pressure from games media to make them how they want. Which is a huge bonus since games journalism has gone down the drain.

[MrBaskerville]

They still do.

[Ristul]

Long live the Mega Drive, love that console and still play some of the goldies today. Its my pick for golden era as both Mega Drive and SNES were amazing and still are.

But everyone will have their own golden era for sure.

[Magog]

Very true. Old games are objectively garbage, lol

[phoenixwing]

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but Chrono trigger is goat and it came out on the snes

Until square enix does a proper remake that's just the facts

[Flawlessmic]

Just like your opinion is objectively garbage

[Einhander1971]

Most new games are garbage!!

[MrBaskerville]

That's as untrue as the other guys statement. Games were great then and they ate great now, unless you choose to play shit.

[WillyC009]

This opinion is objectively garbage. Thanks for sharing lol.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

How old are you?

[Magog]

Old enough to have played games in the early 90s when they were new. I just refuse to wear the rose colored glasses that people who obsess over those old games do. The graphics, controls, and overall quality were junk compared to the games we get today. There was some decent music and stories but that's all I will give you.

[WillyC009]

Wait, SNES games were garbage? What in the world….the sprite graphics still look fantastic today. That system also had the greatest lineup of rpgs and platformers of all time IMO.

This take is honestly hot garbage Magog.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

@Magog,

I strongly doubt you played games in the 90's, between the 80s/90s, that was the golden era of pop culture, I still enjoy alot of games and media from that era. sprite/pixel graphics still look good, the controls I can give up on as some game's controls certainly don't hold up, music and stories were fantastic for alot of games. Today, we have alot of games that are pretty garbage, broken at release or never finished, full of DLC/Micro-transactions, loot crates/gacha, today's games also have alot of issues, moreso than the older games.

[annoyedgamer]

Yes old Playstation 1 games are objectively garbage. Right?????????

[Profchaos]

If they were garbage why are there so many remakes and remasters from the SNES, NES Sega Genesis, mega drive, PS1, ps2 and Ps3 generations still regularly releasing

[Gamer75]

You should be grateful for those old games as they lead the way for some of the ones that are available now

[Einhander1971]

Bullshit !!! Most of today's games are unfurnished, dlc, open world rubbish. The 16bit era was the best always will be, pure gaming, pure fun, addictive, high replay value. Games I'm still playing to this day!!

[Fntastic]

I would agree, my only issue with 8 and 16 bit games was that a lot of them were quite short and could be beaten in an hour or less, but I didn't discover that until later, and of course some made up for the short length by being more challenging.

[Syphos]

No... your missing the mark, the only games that were short were ones specifically targeted at arcades and stuff... the 8-bit and 16-bit Era had JRPGs, lengthy action games, platformers what not some of which are longer then what comes out today, also because it was easier to develop things with less graphical fidelity which led to more fleshed out RPGs for example, instead of the main focus being graphics..

[MrBaskerville]

That's not even close to being true. You should probably broaden your horison a bit. There's so much stuff out there that one would have to be extremely picky not to find a ton worth playing. Get out of your AAA bubble.

And if you want 16-bit games, you are in for a wonderful surprise! You could start with The Messenger and take it from there, the rabbit hole goes deep. And it's not just a pc thing, psn and Switch is packed with excellent singleplayer games with plenty of replayability in almost any genre you could imagine.

[Aussiesummer]

battlefield 2049
cyberpunk 2077
halo infinite
millions of call of duty doodys
remake after remake after remake.

yep, sure is the golden age.

[MrBaskerville]

Axiom Verge 2, Mundaun, Hades, Returnal, Northern Journey, Arthurian Legends 2, Cruelty Squad, Disco Elysium and the list goes on and on almost forever.

[Zhipp]

It's like the people who say modern music sucks. They're just looking in the wrong places.

[-Hermit-]

Depends how you look at it.

When it comes to options and sheer volume of games to play, today is better than ever. But 20 years ago, the games industry wasn't as corrupt as it is now, games weren't getting released in a ridiculous mess, and even games journalism was better back then.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I also dislike how today, there's so much, but so many games are shovel ware, unless you know specifically what you're after, there's alot of junk to wade through.

[victorMaje]

I commend every gamer here praising older games & gens. As someone who’s been playing since the Atari days, I salute you.

[CrimsonWing69]

SNES - PS2 were the golden ages.

[XXXL]

SNES vs Genesis. Console wars were the best

[Popsicle]

I was convinced that the SNES was better in every way and no kid in my school could convince me otherwise. We showed off screenshots in magazines and battled often. Back in those days I knew nothing of frame rate drops, but I did know that the NES could display more colors at once when compared to the Genesis. Therefore, it had the best graphics and was the best console. Lol!

The Neo Geo was a pipe dream during that era. I only knew one kid who had one and man was I jealous. Arcade games at home? Insane!

[mch2011uk]

Games 20 years ago worked out of the box, didn't need tons of dlc and had not microtransactions. You paid your £40 and you got a complete fully working game. Thats the golden age.

[sourOG]

Games do play better but creativity has taken a giant dump. The “think outside the box” design is gone. People are trapped in their bubbles. Modern sensibilities have a deemed a good story offensive and you can’t soak your consumers with MTX and seasonal content with stand alone stories.

There are no FPS stories like condemned, prey, the darkness, fear. That was the golden age. There are only cookie cutter stories and old code now because the people that made those games were replaced with a new generation that has no sense of creativity or business. The modern developers coming out of college sound useless and entitled. They are activists not creatives. If you are calling the big tech of today the golden age then I have to assume you don’t know how it used to be.

[Syphos]

This, but it's what happens in every massive entertainment business unfortunately, at some point popularity and trends > creativity and innovation.

We are already at a point where being innovative is a 'risk' to investors etc. also games like Death Stranding for example get shunned for trying something new, it's just sad really.

[sourOG]

I think it’s just hunger. When the old games were being made they didn’t go get game design degrees. I don’t even think it existed lol. They were winging it and started their own companies from scratch.

Developers go get a degree now, infiltrate some company and then bitch about how it’s run. The devs coming out of college could have never built the industry from scratch like the pioneers did. Maybe I’m just basing my opinions on the losers like the activision walkers but everything i read says big tech has collapsed on its own incompetence. HEAVILY political. That’s the death nail.

[MrBaskerville]

It's fairly obvious that you don't know what you are talking about. You really should dive deeper into the current wave of fps indie games, you'll be pleasently surprised. Perhaps Hrot is a decent way to start or look into Gloomwood or Core Decay maybe Dusk could satisfy some of that mix of horror and shooter? And if not, I'm sure there's games inspired by Condemned and Fear, either out now or in development.

[sourOG]

I don’t play on PC. You shouldn’t have to. The fact that you need to excavate steam to find anything worthwhile in terms of creativity only reinforces my point and the obviousness of me knowing what I’m talking about.

[MrBaskerville]

Well, I don't really either, there's a lot of good stuff on consoles as well. More pc gamed are ported over than ever, especially on Switch. There's a brilliant port of Dusk on Switch, and I think both Core Decay and Gloomwood will find their way to consoles. There's something like Ion Fury or Project Warlock, which also has good ports. And there's Chernobylite and Metro exodus as well.

If you want to be negative and hate gamng, go ahead, but there's so much good stuff if you dig a little, even console. The last couple of years have been some of the best in terms of quality and variety. I don't see the point in being negative and ignoring good games just to be salty.

If you want some help finding stuff, just tell me what you would like and I could help you find some recommendations on your platform of choice. Especially if you enjoy horror games, but I know a lot about the indie space, so anything goes.

[sourOG]

If I hated gaming I wouldn’t be here. I’m not being negative I’m being realistic. My point is you didn’t have to dig into steam indies to find creative games. Indie devs and 5 man teams having more creativity than anyone in the AA+ space only proves my point even further.

You see my factual statement as salty but it’s a factual statement regardless. You being optimistic doesn’t make the situation and direction of the industry suck any less.

[MrBaskerville]

But you choose to focus on a dissapointing battlefield 2042, while you could play Halo Infinite or Hell let Loose. I dunno, I just don't see it.

And if we look past shooters there's acclaimed AA+ stuff like Deathloop, Kena, Psychonauts 2, Metroid Dread and Forza Horizon released around the same time. And soon Elden Ring, Horizon, GT7, Kirby and so on. Just seems like there's a lot more well regarded games releasing than Anthem tier disasters even disregarding a stellar selection of indies. Obbviously there's also some bad trends, but it's so easy to just steer clear of it, it's mostly a matter of ignoring EA and Activision.

[sourOG]

I’m focused on the topic at hand. I’m focused on the negative because we are discussing the “golden age”.. I feel it is not and listed reasons. I’m not just saying shit to irritate you lol.

You misunderstand. I’m not talking about the financial flops like anthem. I’m saying the best games of today lack that “outside of the box” thinking and storytelling.

Sure there are exceptions to the rule. God of war is fantastic, I can’t wait for ragnarok. Deathloop is okay but it’s the worst arkane game easily lol. Arkane is an exception to the rule. As much as I love their version of prey, the storytelling is subtle and optional. Arkane isn’t big on narrative stories though, they make sandboxes (which I love). I miss stuff like the old prey though. It doesn’t exist in the AA+ budget space anymore. I don’t sift through stinkers on steam to find gold.

You just rattled off random AAA games and none of them are outside the box. GT7? Horizon? We’re not talking about a handful of sequels or studios you like, we’re talking about “the golden age”.

Hey man, If you want to look at it glass half full that’s your business, I’m not hating on you. I wouldn’t reply to your opinion calling you ignorant for refusing to see the shit on the wall lol. Take it easy.

[MrBaskerville]

Sorry if I sound agitated, I don't intend to so might be a second language thing. I'll try and phrase myself differently.

I might have misinterpreted your argument. And I do see that perhaps the AA space is somewhat missing somewhat. In the end its all down to taste, personally the worst era of gaming was ps3/360 era to me, a time where all the types of stuff I liked was deemed archaic and there was an emphasis on story while the stories kinda sucked so it didn't really do much for me.

One of the reasons while I would say that recent times could be called a golden age is that almost all the genres i love have returned and delivered some of the best entries. I love 90s shooters like Quake and I think games like Dusk, Amid Evil and Project Warlock are among the classics, while Quake, Blood, Duke3D and Doom are recieving new content that surpases a lot of the old stuff in some ways.

And I love imsims, which are seeing a huge reusurgence recently, soon there'll be a lot more to play than Deus Ex, Thief and System Shock 2. And a game like Cruelty Squad even adds a lot of new stuff to the genre.

I also love metroidvania games, where I'd say Hollow Knight, Axiom Verge and Bloodstained might be some of the best in the genre.

Finally I'm big on horror games and this genre is really taking off. I love thr classics like Silent Hill 1-2 and Resident Evil Remake, but I think newer games like Yomawari, Amnesia Rebirth, Darkwood and especially Mundaun brings the horror back in new and interesting ways.

Then there's stuff like Hypnospace Outlaw and Obra Dinn doing innovative storytelling in coll ways. To me it hasn't felt like I've had to wade through shit to find cool stuff, I feel like I just have to reach out and then i find a new favourite game. To me it's been easier to find cool stuff than ever before. Perhaps because we now got the tools to create more ambitious stuff without a huge team, so there's more room for creativity than ever before.

And to top it off, playing the games from 20 years ago, have become easier than ever. We got access to so much legacy stuff, even when only playing on consoles. And we shouldnt forget that the past also had a lot of overhyped garbage, like Too Human for instance and Duke Nukem Forever. But I did love the 90s and early 00s, that's a strong candidate for a golden age. But I think that now is better, because I can play most of the old stuff while also playing new stuff, which is what I do. Started playing System shock 2 and it really is one of a kind.

[agent4532]

I agree disagree. Today there's more games that's true, and the visuals look almost life-like. Is a lot better than the PS3 generation which was 95% shooters and brown what is really missing is the next generation gameplay. We still have not seen the true function of ragdoll physics and game developers have not taken advantage of hair physics. Our characters still have wooden movement, and facial expressions.......

[Crows90]

Video games now are different than before and in many many ways much much worse.

[ArmorOfGod]

This is quite the hot take. Let’s see about this “golden age”:
- Season Passes
- Skins
- NFTs
- Remakes
- Remasters
- Early Access
- Day 1 Patches
- Full games not on disc
- Wokeness
- $70

Yep. The article is correct. This is the Golden Age.

[RedDevils]

The golden age of unfinished product.

[gamer7804]

Surprised more aren’t mentioning wokeness where either devs or journalists thinks the game has to mirror their politics. See the dumpster fire that is g4tv

[agent4532]

Early Access is my biggest peeve for to pay to test and market a game project that may or may not release feels wrong

[rgraf77]

All these boring and bloated open world games today. Nah, it's not the golden age right now. I had way more fun gaming back then.

[Goozex]

I've had all systems from nes to ps5 except ms products. Ps2, I believe was the best time period of gaming for me. Best handheld would be psp.

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

Yes...and also no. There’s plenty I love about modern gaming, but there are things I miss about eras past. On top of that, each gen has a unique feel to it. Things like graphics, sound, physics, etc. are constantly improving, but there’s something about how a Genesis or PS1 game feels and plays that modern games can’t quite replicate.

Also, while I love the conveniences of digital storefronts, I miss Christmas mornings growing up when I could unwrap a game, open it up, put it in my system, and have it work immediately. That’s something today’s kids will never know.

[Father__Merrin]

Dunno I think it was the ps360wii era. It's the gen that laid the foundation for the AAA gamea we all look forward to today

[MrBeatdown]

I dont know why you're getting so many disagrees.

Call of Duty 4, Battlefield 3, GTA4, Uncharted, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Red Dead Redemption, The Orange Box, Fallout 3, Gears of War, Killzone, Assassin's Creed, Crackdown, etc

Consoles realized their full potential... great online services, high definition, hard drives, controllers... Stuff like Call of Duty was still fresh. Most of what we have today took off around that time.

[PapaBop]

At a guess, the disagrees are because that generation also laid the foundations for all the negative stuff in gaming today too like Season Passes, MTs etc.

[RedDevils]

an era where loot box come into picture.

[Hofstaderman]

Twenty years ago we did not have DLC, games were released in a complete state and influencers did not exist to be paid off to to whore off a particular console.

[JackBNimble]

Yes there was , they were called expansion pack's on pc, I even bought dlc for socom2 on the ps2. No you couldn't download off the internet for ps2 , new maps were available on disc . I think it was playstation magazine that you had to buy to get the map pack.

Also not all games were delivered complete with out bugs ,that's just wrong.
At least now if a dev team releases trash , there's a chance they can fix it.
Back then you were stuck with what you got.

[TheLigX]

I agree. We’re seeing things in games now that are absolutely mind blowing.

[KingOfArcadia]

the 'golden age of videogames' is a roughly 5 year period after you first discover them, so it's going to be different for everyone. those first few games you play will become your nostalgia trip. I'd pick the early-to-mid 80's arcade explosion as my personal 'golden age'.

[arkard]

With microtransactions rampant, unfinished games being delivered and NFT's on the horizon? No the golden age of games is behind us.

[ARESWARLORD]

Nes Genesis Snes TG16 Neo Geo and GameBoy is the golden years

[aaronaton]

I've literally just purchased a decent Panasonic CRT 27"tv, with the idea of playing PS2 games on a BC PS3 via SCART rgb. Modern gaming is in a shocking state, and this is coming from someone with a PS5.
BF2042 was the nail in the coffin for me, i just long for the member-berries now...

[henbayward]

Maybe for technical aspects like graphics, sound, and other stuff that, while impressive, doesn't necessarily make a game good, sure, I guess...
But story, writing, and originality? Nah.

[ikarodemon]

The 8bits and 16bits Era are the Best!

[Profchaos]

Isn't this a question of perspective? It's typically based on where you are in life you can ask 5 people of various ages and you'll get 5 different answers.

I started gaming around the tail end of the NES when I was young and I'm still fond of that generation. But I've had multiple consoles pretty much every generation since then. I think my golden era was probably the PS2 era the games meant more to me I had the time to play them and getting any new game was an experience nowadays I'm inundated with games that I often don't play but in the early 2000s every game was an event even older games there was a wider range of genres and developers could afford to take risks games weren't as cookie cutter.

PS3 was where many games matured for me but development cycles were extremely long and we saw less creativity with more trend chasing. For example we saw Devs abandon original ideas in order to chase trends like cod 4 multiplayer and grinding and Devs trying to make gamers gold onto games as long as possible to eliminate the used market. The PS3 generation did have some great games don't get me wrong but even these good games had performance issues with many games running as low as 25 fps.

And I can't answer the question of when was the golden age but I certainly don't feel the answer is right now due to company practices trying to squeeze as much money out of gamers as possible and an overwhelming focus in multiplayer doesn't cut it for me.

However for many others it's perfect and the kids these days who may have started gaming during the 360 generation or the X1 gen may never know a world of offline gaming same as I'll never know the world of Atari.

[hiawa23]

I have been gaming since 79 and have never stopped. My favorite era was the 16-32 bit era. Love 2-D sprites.

[Profchaos]

The summary of the article is basically because their is now more places to game than before and games are better graphically it's the golden era if you disregard the crappy business practices.

This is a terrible viewpoint. Because in 10 years time we will have better looking games again and they even mobile chipsets will have advanced.

Also just because there's games on more systems and there are more ways to play title X it's not always a good thing this can lead to a lack of direction or stifling of the game because it has to function on the lowest speced system be it mobile, switch or Xbox one s the xsx,ps5 and high spec PC will suffer as a result

EG the GTA trilogy will be coming to mobile shortly it's based off of a mobile port with all the relevant nips and tucks made to the game to allow it to function on the iPhone 4 but the same game came to ps5 which could handle a significantly better looking game without compromise. Instead we got a significant downgrade of the systems capabilities because cross platform all the way down to mobile targets

[kyzer1978]

Hmm... I got to go with the PS3/360/Wii era. The competition in the industry was fierce and there was so much diversity between the systems that you absolutely had to own all three.

[AuraAbjure]

If we can transition from pandemic to endemic by looking at both the Japan miracle and the India miracle, and how IVM played a central role in those "miracles", yes modern day can and should be the "golden age" of video games.

[Inverno]

Mtx, nfts, false advertising, completely broken products with no way of fixing unless connected to the internet, nothing but third person action adventure shooters, oh yeah the golden age. Creativity is dead, the obsession with pretty graphics is still strong and continues to be a huge distraction to what otherwise are actually just boring games. There's no care put into more than half of what releases these days. We have remakes that are less than the originals, remasters that are nothing but uprez's, sequels with barely any actual evolution.
It's the golden age of generic

[plmkoh]

I wouldn't say there was a particular generation but definitely the strongest was between the PS2 and the PS3. That was the point we got the Nintendo DS and the PSP and you only realize how strong the games catalog is now that everything is cheap and you can get anything.

[UltimateOwnage]

I’m going with 20 years ago, thank you very much.

I largely continue to enjoy the play length, accessibility, challenge and art style of games from 20 years ago (or older, back into the late 80’s and through the 90’s). Modern games are full of bugs, are sold as incomplete products requiring big day one downloads, are full of dlc and mt’s and are largely throw away or social focused to the extent that they can’t function without servers to host a main part of the game experience.

In my opinion the watering down of gaming is only going to get worse with GamePass deincentivizing consumer investment in ownership and making it more likely games will never be finished by users. 8 years of dev time? Who cares, it only cost $7 for GamePass, so whatever if it’s not if it’s not perfect the first 10 minutes it costs nothing to throw the game away except a few hours of time to download the “next” throwaway experience.

The instant gratification, cheap consumer has only made gaming more fickle, less original, more afraid of taking risks the modern hyper sensitive crowd doesn’t like. After all, abusing developers has become a norm these days as well. Gaming is largely on downward spiral, and NFT’s are the next gimmick that will continue to make it less worth spending money and time on.

[Chocoburger]

This is a case where the username is absolutely accurate. The writer of this article has gone bonkers.
Since 2017 I've been focusing more on retro gaming, not because of nostalgia, but because gaming back then was freakin' fantastic, and still is to this day. Also my disillusionment of current industry practices, driving me away from almost all third party publishers at this point.

I'm more interested in playing classic games, such as arcade games that never got ported via Retroarch, light gun shooters on my CRT (a dead genre now), WWF No Mercy (no WWE game in the past 15 years has been worth a damn), and so much more.

The current era of gaming, is certainly not the "golden era", its more like the "gross era". Gross business practices, gross executives sexually harassing their employees, gross games releasing broken, or packed with micro-trash-actions, and now NFTs, a completely pointless 'digital thing' that uses up a lot of electricity for no damn reason other than because humans like stupid things.

[GrmpyolGamer]

All a matter of opinion I guess

[isarai]

I feel like it was before everything was shipped broken, unfinished, incomplete and frustrated to play unless you cough up cash for more complete and satisfying experience in hopes that the money will be put towards fixing how broken it is. Back when you got a complete package day 1 and it just friggin worked.

Also when games were often made on the basis of being a cool idea, now it's nothing but trend chasing and formulaic rehashed vomit

[gold_drake]

im not sure about the golden ages of videogames, but i sure miss the time when we bought a game, and it was finished.

no day one patches, no updates etc.

sure, you missed out on dlc, but it was nice to have a finished , to 99% bug free game when purchased.

[Flawlessmic]

Not mention half of what is considered dlc now were actual unlockables for playing the game.

Perfect example are fighting games, man i used to love playing tekken with all the fighters to unlock more.

Nows that another 50 bucks i need to spend in todays gaming

[Angyobangyo]

So the golden age is now? Many AAA games released in bug ridden states, countless micro transactions (sorry I mean time-savers), on top of mtx they also have season passes. Let’s not forget the current trend of pushing NFTs scams into gaming. It’s the golden age of meh.

[Bobertt]

No the golden age definitely is not now. Just because we have more technologically advanced games does not mean they are overall better. Developers used to prioritize making games fun and close to their vision now they prioritize how to make the most money in the shortest amount of time. They don't even care if the game is fun or finished.

[Brueske]

You're right, it wasn't 20 years ago. It was 25.

[lonewolf10]

30 - 40 years ago

[Acecalibur]

Pretty sure it was 20 years ago.

[lonewolf10]

Pretty sure it was 30.

[PapaBop]

I think every gaming era has it's charms and should be enjoyed for what it was, the gaming industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years so it's hard to really compare. The easy negatives of today's era are that many of the big publisher/developers have stopped innovating and instead chasing trends. Battlefield comes immediately to mind. On the other hand though, we live in an era where indie studios can flourish and we are seeing some amazing smaller games. Chivalry 2 being a great example.

We also have so many options in where we can play games, sure we had some great handhelds back in the day but alongside traditional consoles, we have a huge rise in mobile games, while most are dumpster trash, there are some golden ones, I'm guilty of doing a bit of resource farming on Punishing Grey Raven while on the toilet. We can also step into VR worlds now too, playing the Star Wars game on the Oculus store and having Darth Vader walk up to me completely blew my mind. We also have the Switch which feels like the perfect blend of home console and handheld. Online infrastructure is as good as it's ever been, for better or worse depending on your viewpoint. Then we have the rise of streaming and content creating which opens up many paths to average gamers using their passion for gaming as the perfect platform.

Well I've finished ranting, way too much doom and gloom here and while the negative points raised are sadly truth, I can think of just as many good things to say about gaming today, the experiences are there but you have to look harder for them.

[Flawlessmic]

I think gaming is just that little bit harder to enjoy now because it doesnt feel as pure.

We as consumers can clearly see how some of these new practices are designed to bleed us dry with very little efoort on there part to provide the content to match.

Back in the day it was you bought a game and enjoyed it, where as now there are all this little things that are in your game that remind you of the devs greed which saps away some of that enjoyment.

[waverider]

Played so many hours on my Megadrive. Sonic! was so happy after when i got my Neo Geo and stop spending so much money on arcades. It was diferent times. The main diference today is that studios try to get more money from gamers every way they can. The fake free to play, GAAS games, DLC. Launching games without features that were normal, broken games, milking franchises beyong belief and still getting away with it...

[dolfa]

For me the golden age was around when Dragon age Origins came out.

[Michiel1989]

I somewhat disagree. Ofc this is with my nostalgia goggles on so im probably biased. Games used to be about making the best/most enjoyable experience for the player, thats how you made the most money.

Nowadays through artificial methods companies will make the most money. Dlc, gachas and boosters incentivize companies to focus less on the games quality and more on what ways they can implement these things to make more money.

There is still the all time greats like sony/ ninty first party games which still makes games with the old philosophy. But it aint an even playing field anymore. Where it was purely about makimg the best game you can and let the sales speak for itself. Games like fifa/cod make huge amounts of cash even though for the last 8 years every sequel felt almost the same. Imagine how good those games could be if they actually tried to innovate.

[Hawk198666]

Is this a joke? Its the worst gaming has ever been. We are in the release unfinished game era. We are lucky to get a handful of good games a year.

[glenn1979]

It was waaay better 20 years ago, games where so simple and fun, don't get me wrong I love technology and the grapghics and online gaming BUT the thing like creedy corporation are killing the fun in gaming,microtransaction to play to win,lootboxes (aka surprise mechanics🤦‍♂️) give a fucking break now its NFT what the hell, not only that the corporation now this day they want there atm money printing machine ala "Fortnite" or GTA online or Fifa ultimate team ,yes I know its a buisiness also but good lord dont be that creedy, people need to complain or threat them so the can listing and make some changes, and now they release half ass game and patch it in the future and the charge full price look at the garbage of battlefield fiasco or cyberpunk naaahhhh, 20years ago was and still is the golden years period thats for ME atleast
I had sega genesies ,nintendo, and sega megadrive ,super nintendo,sega saturn, xbox, playstation 1+2, xbox 360 but now I'm mostly on PC

[KingofBandits]

Heavily disagree with this. While gaming is great right now for the most part and technology has never been better, I do not think as a whole gaming has surpassed the 90's/early 00's in many ways. Story, content, originality and variety in my opinion are all lower then they were. Games cost so much to make now that few devs take the risk on experimental gameplay. practically everything is a play it safe version of popular control mechanics and tropes, mixed in with some trash politics and PC/censorship BS when its at its worst. I remember when practically each game had its own unique control mechanics, every RPG its own battle system and risks were easier to take. Yes the indie space has a lot of that charm but not often with the polish and refinement that older AAA games had. I also think that the old devs had more of a drive/passion for games then modern devs do, older games have smaller yet dense worlds packed with content and secrets (some still being found to this day), modern games often are barren open worlds where the only secret you find is a bug/game crash.

[BlaqMagiq1]

Golden age of nickel and diming is now. Games 20 years ago are nothing like they are now. Day 1 DLC, releasing broken and unfinished and fixing later, microtransactions galore, and now NFTs. I enjoy gaming today, but it's nowhere near as great as it was 20 years ago.

[agent4532]

Personally for me the golden age of gaming was the PS2 era when gameplay truly evolved from not just moving in 3D but able to have destructible environments, free unlockables, close to quarter combat, etc. I understand what the author of this article is trying to say that today there is an infinite amount of good games in every genre but what this generation lacks is innovati

[agent4532]

innovative gameplay. The visuals are as photogenic as it can get. What's missing is a new way to play games. The gameplay needs to evolve

[agent4532]

Is what got me into pc gaming, the cheap game pricesplus able to relieve my gaming çhildhood with indie games from platformers to horror games. What is really missing is innovative gameplay. During the PS2 era we saw the evolution of 3D platformers becoming more open world with actual storylines that continue onto the sequels like Jak and Daxter. The evolution of stealth games now able to hide bodies or use gadgets to bypass the enemy. That's what is missing in today's games.

[got_dam]

I don't know about golden age, but I will say that the bigger publishers were not so risk averse. Square put out a lot of stuff in the late 90s that there is just no way we would see today.