When do you feel gaming hit its apex?

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I don't think it hit its apex yet. Command Ops 2 is supposed to be more realistic than Command Ops 1. Judging by what kinds of simulations came out in 2000s, I think the genre is still developing too.

 

[Telengard]

FTFY

When would you say this thread hit it's nadir?

I thought it was the original post, with the comparison of Xbawks era with PC, but people keep surprising. Maybe the true nadir has not yet even been reached.

I never said that the performance was even close. The only thing I'm saying is.... What has been the most used argument for owning a console over a PC?

"I can just play the game. No need to look at system requrements, no waiting for the game to install, games don't need patching, no errors because of the different hardware and/or software. Just put in the cartridge/CD and you're ready to go. Simple and fast."

Starting with the PS3 and Xbox 360 that advantage has been gradually lost. Consoles these days are just dumbed down PCs that inherited a lot of disadvantages of the PCs, but a very, very small amount of advantages.

2nd most important is the fact that consoles were a closed system. ie, no internet. As long as parents studied the games, they could then leave the kids with the console and games and know that no content they would think objectionable would occur. 3rd, consoles were made durable (relatively), which, together with #2 above, made them ideal introductions to the world of computers for kids. Gets them comfortable with the format without being as delicate and expensive as a good PC.

PSX pissed all over that by marketing to post teens with "incredible graphics", and paved the way on the long dark road that led to the inevitable Xbox "revolution".

TLDR: Consoles were at their best when they were true to their selves and were kiddie machines.

When do you feel gaming hit its apex?

Just before the crash in 2008, which saw the most games released of all time.

Oh, you don't mean monetarily, but creatively. Well, that would be the period after the console crash. when PC gaming was still in its infancy, so very few barriers between concept and final game, and with a whole bunch of freed up talent with nowhere to go but their own garage-based games on the PC.

 

[Astral Rag]

PC's were rolling with Voodoo 2 and Riva TNT cards when the PS2 came out with its mighty 320x240 display. There was never any contest.

Agree with your point but Voodoo 2 was old junk in 2000, PS2 also has a higher resolution than 320x240.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Agree with your point but Voodoo 2 was old junk in 2000, PS2 also has a higher resolution than 320x240.

400x300? Still shit compared to pcs of the day that ran 1024X768, with better textures, lighting, bump mapping etc.

 

[St. Toxic]

When Modern Warfare 2 came out.

 

[Astral Rag]

Agree with your point but Voodoo 2 was old junk in 2000, PS2 also has a higher resolution than 320x240.

400x300? Still shit compared to pcs of the day that ran 1024X768, with better textures, lighting, bump mapping etc.

Of course it was crappy compared to gaming PCs of the day, I for one had a 650MHz Athlon with 256MB ram and a Geforce 256, I believe I could play games like UT and Q3 in 1280x1024 on my 21 inch monitor

PS2 res

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

I certainly had my personal "fun apex" in 1998, although '99 and 2000 were still mightily good years too. 2001 (Xbox launch) was like the 9/11 of gaming... the whole industry kinda went full retard from there on.

Sure, I still enjoy playing games today (duh), but not with such wondrous curiosity and astonishment as in the 90s. Not that I'm expecting it, or that it's a bad thing.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Propably '93-'99, especially for PC gaming.

 

[Zarniwoop]

The 9/11 of gaming? But, just the other day we had the Citizen Kane of gaming. Remember that brilliant game, that work of genius that will stand throughout the decades as an example of the finest of the art?


What game was that again?

 

[codexian reject]

The late 90s were the apex of classic gaming, with 2001 marking the end of the period.
Most of 2000s represent the black hole of barbaroum period, after the colapse of ancient civilizations under the blows of console savages.
In the late 2000s civilisation started to recover from the darkness and we are currently living in the interim period between Dark Ages and Renaissance.

Beware though, Renaissance doesn't happened yet, many advancements of the Ancients are still waiting to be rediscovered, while counter reformation efforts of the Decline forces are stronger then ever.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

The Renaissance is a fallacy, as I only can get myself excited by (mostly niche) projects created by the veterans and oldfags that made my favorite games in the 90s in the first place. I have a hard time enjoying modern games made by snobby kidz in their 20s. That's the sad truth.

 

[Phage]

2015


Grimwah
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut
Path of Exile fully patched
Bloodborne
Torment: Tides of Nomunera
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Spoiler

new star fox game

2015 the next 1998.

 

[murloc_gypsy]

2015


Grimwah
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut
Path of Exile fully patched
Bloodborne
Torment: Tides of Nomunera
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Spoiler

new star fox game

2015 the next 1998.

I have no arm but I must brofist

 

[Kane]

1999

Tribes, Quake3, C&C, Starcraft, anticipating the release of Diablo 2, Ultima Online

Path of Exile fully patched

bullshit, the game is still essentially unplayable thanks to desyncs being proportional to clusterfuckery

 

[Whiran]

The early to mid 2000s Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast era was the golden age of consoles. Back then console gaming was truly competitive with PC. You had multiple platforms with so many great titles and actual exclusives so you had to buy them all to play. PC gaming was also maintaining a healthy segregation from consoles so nothing was watered down the way it is now. Games from that era still hold up well and some look better than games produced in the last couple years.

I don't think consoles have reached a golden age yet. I think many people enjoy the warm gentle haze of youthful nostalgia. Much like people who claim the 50s were a golden era of American values.

I remember the early to mid 2000s and I remember some great games but I also remember some really bad bad bad games.

I don't think gaming has reached its apex yet. Each year there are amazing games that are released. Gaming technologies continue to improve. User Interfaces have continually gotten better as a whole.

 

[taxalot]

2015
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut

What

 

[Jick Magger]

2004/5 Were the final apex in creative/technological quality, in my view. Resident Evil 4, MGS3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, GTA: San Andreas, Half Life 2, F.E.A.R, etc. Remember the years following it being a quagmire of everyone trying to be the next Halo Killer or another GTA clone, and as a whole everyone kinda suffered for it. Don't think I've ever seen a period as good as those two years since.

I think this was also the period where I started to wake up on how artificial the console wars really were. I was admittedly pretty young at the time, but when shit like San Andreas got ported onto the Xbox almost as an afterthought, it started cluing me in on how small the differences between the two consoles really were (besides the Xbox being big enough to kill a man).

 

[DalekFlay]

My favorite era by far would be when Fallout and Lucasarts games were coming out. I also loved the very early 2000's though, with Deus Ex and Morrowind and such.

 

[Gregz]

Courtesy of felipepepe

What the hell does the y-axis on that chart represent?

"Finally, here's a cool graph of all the 223 games voted, displaying the INCLINE throughout the years. Here you can see the number of games released, their total points and the average of points per year since 1979!"

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/rpg-codexs-top-50-crpgs-results-and-reviews.89680/

 

[toroid]

Just before Microsoft warped the market with its huge xbox cock.

a chart

Courtesy of felipepepe

What the hell does the y-axis on that chart represent?

 

[Gerrard]

Deus Ex

It's all downhill from there.

 

[Marquis de Lirium]

ITT: People telling us when they reached their early 20's.

Spoiler

Also: Late 90's because fuck you.

Spoiler

And I'm not even that old.

 

[Phage]

2015
Wasteland 2 Directors Cut

What

Are you seriously implying it isn't going to come?

It may not be specifically called "director's cut" but WL2 will be a very different game in 2015. It was already confirmed there will be a team that creates additional content for the title, coupled with numerous bug fix patches and inevitable balance changes.

 

[felipepepe]

newfag kiddies.

1991-1993. R.I.P.

Yeah, I'd say 1992-1994.

Just look at the stuff that came out: Dune II, DOOM, Mortal Kombat, ADOM, Realms of Arkania: Star Trail, The Elder Scrolls I: Arena, Street Fighter, Civilization, Megamen X, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, King's Quest VI, Mario Kart, X-COM, Jagged Alliance, Alone in the Dark, Super Mario World, Sonic, Eye of the Beholder, Day of the Tentacle, Ultima VII, World of Xeen, Wizardry VII, Darklands and Betrayal at Krondor, just to name a few. A fantastic creative boom, no doubt.

However, I do agree that the concept and ideas introduced in the early 90's matured around 1998-2001. After that a kind of pasteurization of gaming began, with many recycled ideas and few amazing innovations.

 

[msxyz]

in terms of creativity, I think between 90 and 92. Afterwards, the technology race made developers concentrate more on the 'wow!' factor and less on creativity.

True, there have been a few exceptions, between 1998 and 2002 of, videogames that took advantage of the more powerful and versatile hardware available to offer new ways of gaming not possible before, but they were more the exception than the rule. By then, the market was already swamped with dozens of clones of first person something, FMV shit and old stuff with a new coat of shiny paint.