Are we in the second video game golden age?

The Game Room
1

Or maybe the first?

I’m 32 and have been gaming heavily my whole life and I can’t remember a time period where there has been a constant stream of blockbuster games that has consistently met or exceeded expectations as there has been in the last 2 years or so. I’m not going to list them all but it seems like there is a new major release every month or two that is almost unanimously heralded as a stellar game. Sure there are some people who don’t like every game, but I’ve never seen so many AAA coming out so steadily AND meeting expectations as the last 2 years. The closest I can remember was SNES era. I remember alot of good games coming out on that.

I know, there is alot of shovelware out there right now, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are HUGE titles coming out all the time nowadays that aren’t just graphics. They have satisfying gameplay and great production values. It seems there is a new franchise successfully being launched every quarter.

What do you think?

(I know there are alot of crappy games right now, I’m not here to talk about those. I’m talking about the high number of huge great games in the last 2 years or so)

2

I dunno if it’s a golden age per se, but things are certainly pretty great right now. There’s definitely a consistent stream of very high quality, well polished games coming out. If not for the lack of good western RPGs in the last few years (there have been a few high profile ones like Mass Effect, but on the whole it’s been weak) I would be much more willing to agree. That has a lot to do with the general weakness of the PC market, I suspect.

However, we are undoubtedly in a golden age when it comes to indie games. It seems like there’s at least one game that makes it big every month, and they’re usually wildly different from anything that’s come before. Cave Story, World of Goo, Braid, and Dwarf Fortress are the superstars, but if you hunt around there are countless other high quality games out there and more coming out all the time.

3

I can get behind this sentiment. There’s just a lot of great stuff coming out for everything.

Although where would you peg the first golden age? Personally, I’d start it with the release of Super Mario Bros. 3 through the end of 1994 (basically the last gasp of the SNES/Genesis). That also nicely envelops Doom on the PC side of things.

4

If I was going to peg the first one your time frame is where I would put it. I don’t know if I agree that it was actually a golden age though. There wasn’t a steady stream of huge high quality hits like there are now and there was TONS of shitware pumped out non-stop. There were many great games though.

5

I was happier both through most of the SNES era and the height of the PS1 era than I am now, but that’s probably because of the kind of games I like.

If you think about it though from 91 to 95 or so, you have Square basically not missing for the entire life of the SNES, and you also have a couple of the very best Mario games (World and Yoshi’s Island), one of the best Zelda games in Link to the Past, the Lufia games, the Fire Emblem games if you had a way to get them, heck even the Genesis chipping in with Phantasy Star 4 and the Working Designs games. Then you have World of Xeen and Ultima VII on the PC, among others. It was pretty much a five year period of nonstop all-time classic games that were right up my alley (not to mention I had the time to play them all!).

Then after a couple of year lull for everyone to get comfortable with the next generation of tech, we come out with a murderer’s row of FF7, Symphony of the Night, FF Tactics, Xenogears, Suikoden 2, and Chrono Cross. In the same time period on the PC, two excellent Might and Magic games, two excellent Baldur’s Gate games, Fallout 2, Deus Ex, HOMM 3, Starcraft, Diablo II, and of course EverQuest. All of this is just stuff off the top of my head from mid 97 to mid 2000 or so.

There have been some games that have come out that I have loved over the past few years… but given that my two favorite genres are RPGs and strategy, I’m not sure there have been that many games that would fit in favorably with either of the lists above. P3: FES, probably. Mass Effect, definitely. I really liked the Wii Fire Emblem. Civ 4 was a few years ago, but it’s an all-timer. I don’t really find WoW that much fun but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.

I guess my question from that would be, which games from the last 2-3 years will I be pulling out to play again in ten years when I have the free time? Civ 4 is really about it. Whereas in ten years I am pretty sure I will be spending even more money on the latest remake of Chrono Trigger and on making sure I still have a system that will let me play through Symphony of the Night when I get the craving. There’s a ton of good, even great games coming out now, but not nearly as many that are making me fall in love. :slight_smile:

6

No, nothing has touched the 1998 - 1999 period. 2007 - 2008 has been great, but that’s keep some perspective here. The most played games today are now 10 years old.

Starcraft + Counterstrike >> *

7

just as a nitpick, Counterstrike Source is not the same as Counterstrike, so it’s not 10 years old :wink:

That said I’d have to disagree, there have definitely been some stellar titles that have been as good as some of the games from 10 years ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if I boot up Fallout 3 every now and again 10 years from now, load in some new mods and give her another play through, just as I do with Fallout 2 and, on ocassion, Escape Velocity. JRPGs have definitely been lacking with the fall of Squaresoft, the merger of Squeenix ruined both companies, but especially it destroyed Square, and I have to say even the Mistwalker games (Mistwalker Studios is Hironobu Sakaguchi’s studio, the father of Final Fantasy) aren’t phenominal, nothing like FFVI was, and to a lesser extent FFVII and FFIV. I also have very high hopes for the new Prince of Persia game, I hear it’s excellent, I’ll be picking that up later this week. Plus Sins of a Solar Empire is one of my favorite strategy games of all time (I’m a huge turn-based fan, but I feel that the combat is slow enough in Sins that it makes of for it real-timeyness)

If you want to switch genres, though, FPSs have quite frankly never been better. Personally I’m not a Halo fan, but you throw out games like GRAW, COD, the upcoming Resistance 2, and (third person, but still) Gears of War 1/2 and you have a lot of absolutely fantastic games. There might not be a Deus Ex in there, but wouldn’t surprise me if we got a game fo that calibur soon. And while BioShock was no System Shock 2, it was still damn good.

just my two yen thrown into the mix. Definitely a great time to be a gamer

8

The first Golden Age is generally regarded as the NES era that saved the market from poofing altogether (aka the Great Video Game Crash), it’s often debated whether it lasts until the final withering hours of the Genesis/SNES war, or just a few years post NES. At least, that’s what I’ve seen discussed personally, YMMV.

Anyway, even though there’s a veritable stream of AAA titles, I wouldn’t count it so yet, they’re still pushing graphics… and we’re hitting a wall here. The way I see it they keep trying to push up that water to be just a LITTLE nicer, and oh look, another vertex shader that does… something! It’s getting to the point that so called graphical innovations are virtually indistinguishable from the LAST innovation. I mean, think about it, look at an Atari game vs an NES game, holy shit! NES vs SNES is better. SNES → 3D N64/Playstation is groundbreaking. N64 to Gamecube is a lot smoother, gamecube/360/PS2 → this gen, certainly nicer, but the steps are getting smaller… to the point where if a landscape is rendered well enough I may mistake it for reality at a quick glance (it’s obvious if I look at it of course). I figure once we hit the road block that people can’t see the climbing differences anymore, don’t care, or decide it’s not worth it they’ll be able to focus on gameplay more because there’s less R&D going on. I think this might happen in 5-10 years barring some major graphical innovation that shakes the foundations of the world, which I doubt will happen. Then we’ll have a “best of both worlds” scenario, graphics at a presumably cheaper cost (because the components will go down with less demand for extreme innovation) with innovative gameplay because they don’t have to focus so much on them.

Anyway, that’s just my random thoughts and musings.

9

No.

There’s a certain truth in that the golden age of gaming, much like science fiction, is thirteen. I can’t point to a time in the past thirty years where the situation was not the same as it is today. Even during the console collapse of the mid-80’s computer games were filling in the gap. Different platforms peak at different times and we’re seeing an XBox 360 peak but that doesn’t equate to a “golden age”.

10

OK, folks. I’ve been out of the game for a while. What are some of the really great new games for PC? I have a shiny new computer that’s just begging for some graphics-intensive applications. :smiley:

11

depends whatcha like, really. I’d go for Bioshock for a great story-driven FPS with some RPG elements. Fallout 3 for an RPG with FPS elements. Sins of a Solar Empire for a great tactical strategy game (taking over the solar system). Far Cry 2 is supposedly another great FPS though I’ve not played it. Mass Effect is a little older but a great BioWare RPG nontheless,a nd the PC version is better htan the console version. Also Dead Space I believe hit PCs, which is a cool sci-fi survival horror game in the vein of movies like Event Horizon and Aliens

Not sure if the new Prince of Persia is hitting PCs right away, but I’d definitely keep an eye on that one, it looks great, I’m picking it up this week for my x360.

12

A second golden age? Eh… I’d call it a silver age, instead. Bioshock was great, but wasn’t as great as System Shock 2. Fallout 3 is great, but not as great as Fallout 2. Knights of the Old Republic is great, but not as great as Planescape: Torment. Civ IV is great, but not as great as Alpha Centauri. Rainbow Six is great, but we’ve still never had a squad based tactical game that is as awesome as X-Com.

Sure, some series have gotten better, I’d argue. Dawn of War (and its first expansion) and Company of Heroes were far and away superior to, say, Starcraft.

Gaming now does offer a large number of truly excellent titles. But the gems of the 90’s have yet to be surpassed. IMO, of course.

13

No. Sorry.

I’m not a hardcore gamer anymore. The reason I play few games these days, aside from growing up some, is that I just don’t like Shooters (first persons especially, but third persons aren’t much better) and MMORPGs. If you don’t like those two types of games right now you are pretty much hosed. I’ve played a ton of Civ IV and plan on getting Colonization and I still like playing the Madden franchise, Tiger Woods Golf, Ace Combat 6 and the Lego series on XBOX but all in all the big budget games are just far too myopic for my liking.

Also, how can you seriously promote this as the Golden Age when almost all of those “blockbuster” games you are pimping are nothing but sequels. They might be excellent games if you like the genre, but they sure as hell aren’t revolutionary or innovative. I’m going to side with Yahtzee here by pointing out how all MMORPGs are grindfests and all FPSs seem to rely on the same time-shifting cliches, power suit wearing space marines and “unexpected” magical elements appearing 2/3rds of the way through.

14

And straight line, connected paintball arenas level design. Level design is what matters most to me in an FPS and quality there has become exceptionally rare.

15

Wha? No love for Super Mario Brothers in 1985? That was the ultimate in gaming to me. From NES though the SNES years. That was the only time in my life I would wake up extra early to do something before school (or work.) I would also play when I got home at night, every night, and renting a video game was the default thing to do when a friend came over. It probably had A LOT to do with my age, but when games went 3D, my interest level fell off a cliff, and I’ve tried really hard and mostly failed to regain it since then. They’re just too obsessed with graphics and (I hate to say it because I used to love this) storylines these days, and not concerned enough with being fun.

I have a Wii and I’ve played a lot of games for it. So far my favorites have been Super Mario Galaxy and Mega Man IX. A game that almost recaptures the feel of old school games and a game directly imitating them. Speaks for itself, to me.

What are the great games that are coming out that makes this a second golden age? (First that comes to mind for me is Guitar Hero - I suspect I’d be all over it if I was a kid - but I didn’t get the feeling that that’s what the OP had in mind.)

16

I don’t think so.

I think that with the costs of developing a game so high, designers are being constrained by publishers. Thus we get Fallout 3, a sequel that, while quite enjoyable, does not break any new ground. Granted, breaking new ground is not easy and can’t be done daily (or even yearly). That’s why we end up with Fallout 3, GTA IV, Farcry 2, etc. - games which take existing ground and do as much as possible with it. You get excellent games, but there’s always a feeling of “been here, done that”. Heck, while I really like the Neverwinter Night games, I feel those were a step backwards from what made the Baldurs Gate (especially the 2nd) great.

For me to call a golden age, I’d like to see more innovation in gameplay. There is still some, but publishers are far less willing to back innovative ideas than in the past (understandable, due to costs).

17

…And I stopped reading your post because with an attitude like that your opinion doesn’t matter.

Agreed. I bypass almost all of the “epic” games and go for the things that I think will look more fun. It’s probably why I’m currently neck deep (because I was decapitated) in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe.

18

You may be misinterpreting Omniscient, JB. I play fewer games and for less time because I also grew up some - and as a result, time that could be devoted to gaming is gone. Unlike my college-age son, I simply don’t have hours to sit down and master Guitar Hero, or to level my MMORPG characters up and get all the elite loot, etc. When I win the lottery, sure I can go back (note to self: first step to winning lottery - buy lottery ticket), but work and family responsiblities (and a greater need for sleep compared to 10-15 years ago) preclude me from putting in as many hours as someone twenty years my junior.

Omniscient did go on to detail what he does play and what he likes, so I feel you may be taking offense where none was intended.

19

The Golden Age ended with the Extra Play option.

Stylistically, 1984 games lost the friendly, warm feel of the early arcade hits with ever-sharper (but not sharp enough) graphics, but for true style of play changes you’d have to wait until 1985 with Gauntlet. That’s when the old school Golden Age of video games was over.

20

I agree. Justin has got a temper on him though :slight_smile:

And I do understand where that retort came from. A lot of people really think gaming is the pastime of either losers/kids/or the permanently immature. Never mind that they are forms of artistic expression, and often provide the audience with a more personal, more involved and more immersing experience than any Hollywood movie or painting.