26 replies to this topic

[Nintendoga]

Well since we have the 3DS and Vita (both technically 8th Generation) along with the coming of the Wii-U



Just like the topic title, this is a topic to where we discuss the 7th generation. Alot of shit has happened this generation, long time devs have ceased to exist, major companies have merged, amazing games have come out, shovelware, DLC, Online Multiplayer has embraced us, Gamers have gotten bitchier, Motion Controls have taken over, cellular phones and ipods, and of course, the "Hardcore vs. Casual" debate.

Talk about this generation mainly. What gaming companies have disappointed you? Biggest shocks? What was the high peak of this generation? I ask these questions because yes, we have complained or praised about other generations before, but for some reason this on seems to be getting the most flak.

Why could that be, FPS overload? Companies like Microsoft and Nintendo (not being a fanboy) getting worse in terms of decisions? DLC? Companies caring less about the fans and a bit more towards the money? Share you thoughts on this generation, with what you hope they get rid of, or maybe improve upon, next generation.

For me, this generation has been okay. Having a Wii only till 2008, really made me miss a ton of great games. While Microsoft and Sony made that jump to HD, Nintendo stayed behind. Since I didn't care much for HD games at the time, I was happy with my Wii. But when I got a 360, I realized what a dissapointment Nintendo and the Wii overall was to me. Lack of HD, good online, DLC, patches, no 3rd party games, all these made me love the 360 more and more. but recently both of these consoles have given me dissapointment. The way the companies treat these consoles is just disgusting to me.

But of course, there's the greed. DLC is almost common nowadays, and while before you had to shell out $50-60 for the game, developers would now (optionally) make you pay for more content, or pay to use an online server and what not.

Not only that, but Call of Duty has definitely revolutionized the gaming industry. And I don't mean for the better. There's so many god damn FPS games nowadays, along with shovelware that I now only trust 1st party titles or companies like Ubisoft or Atlus to make good games. It means I miss alot of good third party games, or most titles get lost in a sea of shit.

And boy, those Motion Controls, I hate them. The idea of them is cool, and I accepted it back in 2008. But now it is such an overly used and dumb gimmick to me. The Kinect is shit, The Move, let's be honest, it's the Wii-mote with a ball on top. But the Wii, oh yes the Wii.....

Let me ask you, why must I buy a Wii-motion plus in order to play Skyward Sword? Did Nintendo just fucking admit, that they were not able to accurately do the SOLE FUNCTION of their console, so they needed an add-on (one that nobody bought, so they forced you to use it with Skyward Sword) to make it "better"? And let me say, if you could control say Skyward Sword with the classic controller or GC controller, there would not be a god damn difference in gameplay, because the motion gimmick is useless.

The fact that other companies now focus more on Motion controls then games (Microsoft) is shameful in my eyes. Wii would like to play huh? Well you better Move out of the way before I Kinect my foot with your Apple devices.

There's just something about the games this generation... I like them and all, but I haven't found myself replaying them all that much. Back with the Gamecube or PS2, I could always play a title for hours on end, with full on entertainment before switching to the next one ( I still do that). But with these games, I can barely play one that I own for more then 20 minutes before getting bored with it. Just something I have to mention

But yeah, that's all I can say for now about me. You?

And you only mentioned the consoles, are the handhelds included in this too? Because the DS was pretty great.

Yep, DS, PSP, even ios too

Edited by Nintendoga, 23 May 2012 - 12:52 AM.

[Ekaje]

I only had a Wii the entire gen, and I was actually pretty okay with it. Sure there are loads of games on the PS3/360 that I'd like to have played/play at some point in the future, but I was pretty satisfied. Though this has more to do with me being slow playing games and procrastinating even with things I enjoy (I still have GC games lying around I haven't seriously played yet, even).

And motion controls, eh. There's potential for them to be actually used well, but most of the time it's just gimmicky/uncessary shit (see: most Wii/Kinect/Move games). I can only think of a few titles that used it well on the Wii off the top of my head: WarioWare, Skyward Sword, and Red Steel 2. Though honeslty since the WiiU supports Wiimotes still, I have a little hope that there will be a few more games that will use the MotionPlus well (though I know there's a much bigger chance of it just being even more shovelware).

Edited by Ekaje, 23 May 2012 - 12:52 AM.

[shimapun]

This generation made me realize how much I wish that the words 'hardcore', 'casual', and 'gamer' would be removed from the English language.

I am lucky enough to have access to all three major consoles, but like Ekaje, I still spend the majority of my time replaying or discovering games from previous generations. When I do actually feel like playing a modern console, It's usually the Wii, because I'm a stupid Nintendo fanboy and all that. There are definitely some appealing titles among the masses of zombie FPS stuffs on the 360 and PS3, but I've just found something slightly... off-putting with those two consoles, I guess? I definitely don't claim that Nintendo is superior (they made some real shit choices this gen), but I tend to lose interest in the more powerful, bigger budget HD titles rather quickly. It's hard for me to explain.

As for handhelds, I'm going to make a bold statement and say that the DS might just be the greatest handheld gaming device ever. I've spent so many hours of my life playing that machine. There's practically a game for everybody.

Edited by gunthər, 23 May 2012 - 01:49 AM.

[Eternal Xtreme]

I own and 360 and Wii and I swear the only thing I really play on my wii is SSBB. I mean there are still a few good games (mostly 1st party) that were released but nothing that really caught my attention. As for my 360, I have loved it since day one. And the minute I put it on an HD tv....I cried rainbows. It was spectacular. But now after the 5 or 6 years it's been out, I'm honestly ready for a jump. Yes I still have a few games on radar for my 360 but I'm ready to see what the next generation has for us.

I'd like to add that I've really wanted a PS3 since 09. There are sooo many games I want to try. The Uncharted series, Killzone and a few others.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

Well I might as well put in my two cents on how this generation fared before it closes out. In regards to gaming companies that have dissapointed me I'd have to say it would have to be EA for a couple of reasons such as DLC already on the disk and purchasing an unlock code to use said content and alienating fanbases in regards to the Mass Effect saga's endings. The lowest point in this generation would have to be the release of Duke Nukem Forever because of the sheer number of problems the game came with on release date ranging from visibility issues in certain areas to game breaking bugs that lock the systems up. The biggest shocks for me in this generation were the release of Portal 1 & 2 which surprised me in that there was no other game like it out there with such an array of puzzles that could be solved in different ways most of the time and L. A. Noire in that there wasn't any other game that allowed for old school detective work with an overarching story that ties into each case. Overall I'd have to say this generation wasn't as good as the previous ones because it seemed most companies focused too hard on making pretty graphics without solid gameplay content to back them up with a few exceptions plus it seems that the industry has suffered a case of sequalitis for the most part.

[The future]

Like the DLC patches and DL games. What I didn't like is how companies abused this feature for a few more dollars in their pockets. Too many first person shooters and not enough imagination in games. Far too fee new franchses that WOW me.

[JezMM]

Well let's see.

The Wii I am satisfied with. Great console but did age very quickly. Every little attempt to catch up to the big boys was either clunky or half-arsed. Still, the quality of the software was pretty great (excluding the plethora of shovelware games, natch).

The Xbox 360 I grew constantly fatigued of them changing the interface not once but three times, and each time plastering more and more advertisements on it. Also the Kinect is shit and the only good that's come of it is all the homebrew experimental stuff.

The PS3 I can't really comment on. I own one but have never used it heavily.

[Kaze_Senshi]

I liked his generation, there are a lot of great games and the multiplayer gaming become stronger with this consoles. The only problem that this generation has is that sometimes the companies abused of using DLC. Anyway does this generation have X-bits like for example, SNES and mega-drive are 16-bits, DreamCast are 128 and etc?

[Shade Vortex]

Oddly enough, the console I am most satisfied with in this current generation is the Wii. Yeah, it had a lot of shovelware, and yeah the motion controls were mostly used in in stupidly gimmicky, forced ways, but still, there were a lot of quality first and third party offerings on top of that. The online did suck and friendcodes are BS and all that, but I still have more games for the Wii that I actually like than I own for the other consoles. I'd be pretty likely to get a Wii U, but my decision on that rests upon the launch line-up, the post launch, the price and the specs. Most of this will be decided on by E3, of course (except price and specs).

Meanwhile, second place goes to Microsoft, if you ask me. Their online is robust and functional, though of course it costs money. Though I will say that the constantly changing interface and the increase of product placement for a paid feature, whereas the free online the other systems have little to no advertisements, is bullshit. And the Kinect is the worst thing to disgrace the name of "gaming" since the Virtualboy. Both are also headache inducing, for decidedly different reasons. I do not think I'd be all too likely to get a "Xbox 720" unless Microsoft gets to be more like they used to be early on with the 360 and less of the corporate sellouts they have become.

And coming in dead last for me was the PS3. I'm sorry, I had no interest in all your gritty shooters, beat em ups, or any of your animu rpgs (such as Hyperdimension Neptunia) or the like. There are very few games I ever got for the PS3- Metal Gear Solid 4, Folklore, Resistence and Sonic 4: Episode I are some of the only games I got for it, and I found the only reason for me to keep a PS3 was as a comparitvelt cheap Blu-Ray player (when the PS3 came out, Blu-Ray players were more expensive than the PS3 itself). I will -not- be getting a "PS4" unless a signicifant amount of worthwhile games were somehow to appeal to me.

Edited by Shade Vortex, 23 May 2012 - 01:37 PM.

[SuperLink]

Things got a bit flipped around for me on many aspects. I also wish there wasn't this industry fascination with the terms 'hardcore' and 'casual', because demographics and audiences cannot just be split into two groups like that, it's a shame public relations even had to result to using those terms as umbrella terms for what kind of game was for what kind of person, eh..

But I think everyone's learnt a bunch of things, especially Nintendo who honestly were not that successful or wellknown last gen.
The Wii is a great little console who yes lacks on the power and online side of things but boasts a wonderful range of games from almost every genre, it has a lot of great little original title and a wealth of strong Nintendo franchises, 2 Kirby games, a Donkey Kong game, 2 Metroid games, 3 Mario games and a Mario RPG, 2 Zelda games, the list goes on and pretty much all of these are very strong titles.

The Wii's problem is that it planted a seed or a stigma early on in the gen that if you didn't like swinging a controller around and pretend to play tennis, the console would never be for you and nothing on it would be worth investing in, which is of course complete shit and it's a shame that so many 'gamers' to date still think the Wii has nothing worth playing or nothing worth calling a real game on it. It's almost a shame that Nintendo had to come out and say "we made the WiiU for core gamers", because they KNOW that by saying that it very well may not achieve the mainstream success of the Wii, they're doing so much for their ~loyal~ fans to stay loyal when there's always enough to make them happy on the DS and Wii, third party support perhaps outstanding.

So bless u Nintendo for purposefully taking a potentially huge business risk for the sake of keeping whiny brats on the internet happy.

I have a lot of feels about Nintendo ngl I still have a slight bias and overall fascination for them despite the fact I play, enjoy and am hyped by releases across all platforms.
So I don't have as much to say about the others only that 360 and PS3 totally switched expectations in my eyes, where I expected PS3 to fail it has triumphed, and where I expected 360 to triumph it has failed. I love both consoles but 360 doesn't have the exclusives to keep me interested, and PS3 does.

Lately the only games I've bought on 360 are multiplatform games that aren't online and use the analogue stick because I prefer the 360's analogue and the PS3's d-pad.
I've been buying a lot of fighting games and platformers lately, all on PS3 because superior D-Pad.
also free online is handy for fighting games because I don't play them that much?? And I don't want to pay £money a year for online stuff I won't even use very much, free online does me well.

Still even if the Kinect is frankly embarassing lineup wise and the PSM doesn't have the support Wiimote does (I believe it's because it's not mandatory/console standard controller honestly) I expect MS and Sony to really up their game with innovative shit for 8th Gen.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Nextbox integrates motion sensor- or maybe it'll ditch it completely? (I doubt it) But if it does I'm sure it'll be really clever and impressive and show that Kinect was really only the test run for their big thing.

And Sony are gonna keep being Sony and sewing peoples knees. (jk I love Sony) I think Sony will make the PS4 a little weaker than most people would expect of a powerhouse simply because they made SO MANY LOSSES this gen, they could do with selling every console at a profit for a little while like Nintendo has enjoyed recently, so I'm sure they'll be smart with it.

Good game folks see you all next round.

[goku262002]

One thing that bothered me with the Xbox 360, its fucking messaging feature. We have had 3-4 OS updates now and still they don't even bother adding a "message all" button when you need to contact your entire contact list. I'm sure you PS3 guys have that kind of feature.

I'm sure I'll think of more compliants about all 3 as I go.

[Chooch]

The main thing I can really say is that I'm glad I stuck with the PlayStation brand when moving on from the PlayStation 2. It hasn't disappointed me in the slightest and I still have a considerable amount of games for the PlayStation 3 still left to pick up in the future.

[Eternal Xtreme]

Now that I think about it, the one thing I hated most about this generation was how First person shooters became extremely mainstream. Since the launch of the 360 there has been a COD game every year til now. Halo is pushing it's 4th current gen game, and many other companies have made FPS mainstream. It's like with this generation FPS is like reality shows. Both are extremely overrated. And because of that, many games like Rayman origins, Batman AC/AA and SSX along with Mirrors Edge and a few others are not in the spotlight. I mean sure Both Batman games were GOTY worthy and would have gotten it. But the point is, FPS has really taken over this generation and gaming itself.

I seriously hope next generation we go back to Platformers/action adventure games or fighters.

[Exploder]

Batman AC/AA

Considering the huge amount of accolades those two have won, I am going to have to call bullshit on this one.

Seriously, attention given to shooters does not mean attention taken away from everything else. I hear people complain about that all the time, but I never see any proof of it.

[Tornado]

Both are extremely overrated.

I mean sure Both Batman games were GOTY worthy and would have gotten it.

You mean the games that in no uncertain terms did win several game of the year awards?



Come on people. "B'aawww I don't like shooters" does not mean that FPS have drowned out all other genres and games, it does not mean that they are a "problem" that needs to be "corrected," and it does not that they are some kind of cancer that is killing all of the innovation in the industry. Think about this just a little objectively, okay?

Edited by Tornado, 23 May 2012 - 04:50 PM.

[VisionaryBlur]

I've enjoyed this generation to a certain extent. My Wii has brought me a lot of joy over the years. I managed to get at least 4 years of fun out of that white box, and I'm proud of it. The games were varied whenever there was no shovelware, and the VC allowed me to play the classics again, while rediscovering old treats.

However, I have changed lately. My money, and patience with consoles has thinned, so I have decided to jump on the newest train: The PC market. To think, I used to believe the PC market long dead, but now it's slowly back on the rise what with the rise of Steam and all. The games are incredible varied, and the indie scene is magnificent. The best part of it, is that it's very cost effective. So, I've pretty much become a PC gamer during the last third of this generation, but I haven't given up on consoles just yet.

[Azure Yakuzu]

I don't have a lot to say considering up until a few months back, I technically didn't own a 7th Gen. console. But, I will say out of all of them, the PS3 has a special place in my heart, even if I've only had it for a short time, I felt it was better than the short stint I had a 360 for. Plus the playstation controller is the one I'm most familiar with.

[Nix]

I don't see how FPS's in general are overrated when some of the best games from this generation are FPS's (pretty much everything Valve has created and more). I can understand that complaint when it's applied to certain franchises (I for one don't like the praise CoD franchise keeps getting from my friends at school), but not the FPS genre in general.

As for this Generation, I think it was pretty cool. Certainly the first time I've ever taken an interest in PC gaming. I'm not quite a PC gamer yet on the count of my PC being terrible for the most part, but I do enjoy what I can play (Team Fortress 2 and Portal). I stuck to console gaming mostly though. The Wii and X-Box were my two main consoles. I loved most of what Nintendo had to offer with the Wii; the Mario Galaxy games were fantastic, and Skyward Sword is quite possibly my favorite Zelda game. The Wii also had Okami on it, so that's a plus. I still find it incredibly stupid that it took them a few years to give us the thing that the Wii was supposed to do in the first fucking place with Wii Motion +.

The X-Box 360 was the console I played on the most, just because I love the controller. I don't mind paying a fee for online (I buy a 13 month card every 1&1/12 year), I'd prefer not to, sure, but my friends are mostly 360 gamers so I get a lot out of it. I got a Kinect for Christmas and admittedly it's the stupidest fucking thing ever, but sometimes stupid is just plain fun.

The PS3 was fun whenever I played it, however, I will never get used to the controller... I just don't like it. The only games I really enjoyed on the PS3 was the Uncharted series, and I would honestly give Uncharted 3 GoTY for 2011 no questions asked. I had that much fun with it.

I have to say though, Ubisoft really surprised me this Generation. It's like they came out of fucking nowhere, because I've never heard of them before I got interested in the Assassin's Creed series. Then they got me interested in Rayman, because Rayman: Origins was practically flawless. The developers who won my heart this Generation though, is Platinum Games. Goddamn their games are like sex in video game form, I actually have to work incredibly hard and be really really nit-picky if I want to find something I dislike about their games.

So yeah, pretty cool. I'm excited for the next generation.

[Generations (Chaos Warp)]

My main problem with this gen is that there were not enough colourful, cartoony games. I know there was still quite a few before you cry foul but they were outnumbered by realistic and dark and gritty games, and were often outclassed in sales by them. Again, hopefully cartoony and colourful is not automatically dismissed as childish crap in the next gen, although that might take a miracle....

Not saying realistic and dark and gritty are automatically bad, just that it over-dominated too much.

Other then that, awesome gen! Had lots of good games from both next-gen consoles AND Wii!

[Meow]

Pretty much all of this is opinion/how I saw this gen. If it is factually incorrect for whatever reason I'm not claiming to be correct in the first place. Just savin' myself from the get go here because vidyagaems can be serious shit.

My problem with this gen is that the whole business practice of treating your userbase as a moneyfarm and then withholding content back (as well as other shitty business practices) have been inflicted upon gamers. The sad part is that for the most part people STILL buy into it, only furthering this sort of treatment. I am tired of it really. I remember the time that when we had been delivered a game all content available on that disc/cartridge/whatever was all available to be unlocked from the start. Now you buy the game and its getting to the point that just to enjoy a full game you almost have to pay another half of what you bought it for just to access all the stuff already on the disc. That's insane. I don't care about what reasoning companies give for this because I find it all backwards.

Not only that but DRM has become a bigger pain in the ass than it ever has before. Requiring internet connections to be on at all time just to enjoy single player games? Really? I am not going to deny that piracy can be a big issue but there are better ways to combat it than to treat legitimate customers like shit too. Game companies have been showing to me that the industry is beginning to focus more than ever on the $$$ than the games they are producing, as well as showing a lack of care for the people that built them up to become such huge corporate entities.

I've found myself slowly becoming a bit of an indie gamer more than anything now. I pay more attention to the games where people are obviously pouring their hearts into, and with digital distribution becoming a bigger thing now, they can easily distribute their games...on their own. I'd rather pour the money into the hands of creators making something genuine and with love than to put my money into a company that is going to treat the customer like crap.

That's not to say that I don't find any high points in this generation. It's far from my favourite but I do love how big online gaming has become. I don't live near any of my friends and the fact that I can hop on and enjoy games with many of them has been a wonderful experience. Sure Xbox Live and the like were around last gen too, but I would say that playing online with others has never been so big. Then again when gaming also invades all your social media sites too, it is almost hard NOT to be connected via games in some sort. As much as I have a certain dislike for these social media, nickle and diming you type games, I still think exposing people to videogames and nurturing people who otherwise would never play a videogame into the medium is a great thing.

I also, like I touched upon before, am really digging digital distribution...when done right. I still love having physical copies of my games, but I can understand smaller studios who don't have (or in some cases even WANT) some middle-man publisher funding them, they don't have the money to spare on physical releases. I also think the fact that you can even gift other people some games on some services is a great idea. I used to be kinda against digital distribution systems for gaming but over the last few years I've really come to love it.

I've avoided talking about the big 3 so far just for the fact that they all have their things that really piss me off, and things I like about each, so really it's not worth it for me to explain. I think my post above anyway would indicate that for me this gen was less about the names and more about the changes in business practices for the most part. I actually find that much more interesting than bickering over NINTENDO IS BETTER/SONY IS BETTER/MICROSOFT IS BETTER.

Biggest disappointment this gen though...
WHERE THE BALLS IS A MISCHIEF MAKERS XBLA/PSN/WIIWARE/3DS WHATEVER/ VITA/STEAM/ I DON'T CARE WHERE THE HELL IT IS REALLY PORT. And mml3plz.