Jump to content

Which of the previous two console generations had better games?

crispy4000

By crispy4000
in The Spawn Point

 Share

Which generation had better games?  

29 members have voted

  1. 1. Which generation had better games?

    • PS3/360/Wii
      16
    • PS4/XBO/Wii U/Switch
      13

Recommended Posts

crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
Posted

I took the top 5 GOTY-awarded games each year for these generations to build this.  Took my best guess on 2020 games, to make it equal entries for each.

 

Quote

PS3/360/Wii
Assassin's Creed II
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Batman: Arkham City
Bioshock
Bioshock Infinite
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Dishonored

Dead Rising
Dragon Age: Origins
Fallout 3
Far Cry 3
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
God of War III
Gone Home

Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto V
Heavy Rain

Halo 3
Journey
Little Big Planet
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 3
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Portal
Portal 2
Red Dead Redemption
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
The Last of Us
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Walking Dead: The Game
Tomb Raider
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
Wii Sports

 

Quote

PS4/XBO/Wii U/Switch

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Battlefield 1
Bloodborne
Celeste
Control
Cyberpunk 2020 (unreleased)
DOOM

DOOM Eternal
Death Stranding
Disco Elysium
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Fallout 4
Far Cry 4

Final Fantasy VII Remake
Ghosts of Tsushima
God of War

Hades

Half-Life: Alyx (PC only)
Horizon Zero Dawn
Life Is Strange
Mario Kart 8
Marvel's Spider-Man
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
NieR: Automata
Overwatch

Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Persona 5
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
Red Dead Redemption 2
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Return of the Obra Dinn
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Odyssey
Super Smash Bros Wii U
The Last Guardian
The Last of Us Part II
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End


This is just a snapshot of critic 'consensus' at the time.  A few games that are oddly absent gained greater recognition after their debut.  (Dark Souls, Fortnite, Hollow Knight, etc)

Which generation's games do you prefer?  Would any unlisted games tilt the balance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
The def star

The def star

Posted
Posted

It would be kind of unfair to decide since I think I played way more games during the 360/PS3 generation than the One/PS4 generation. A lot of that is due to me being younger and having more time to play games and also last generation there were way more games as a service such as Apex, Overwatch, PUBG and Siege for example so I spent more time playing the same games longer than in the 360 generation. I think during the 360 generation I earned over 100k in gamer points and last generation only about 30k. I'm picking the 360/PS4 generation as it had more games that I played but last generation also had plenty of games of excellent caliber.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bacon

Bacon

Posted
Posted

WiiS360 for sure. 

 

OSwitch4U feels like it had nothing. Bloodborne, DOOM Eternal, God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2, Sekiro, and The Witcher 3 were the only standout games for me from that list. I think the only missing game from there is like DS3.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Spork3245

Spork3245

Posted
Posted

Witcher 3, Ghosts of Tsushima, God of War(4), TLOU2, Spider-Man PS4, FF7:R, etc - too many of my favorite games in over a decade existed this gen for me to choose last gen. That’s not to say last-gen wasn’t great as well, however, but the games of this generation just feel better refined, and a lot of that had to do with the superior hardware which allowed it, IMO. Looking forward to what the next gen brings

Link to comment
Share on other sites
XxEvil AshxX

XxEvil AshxX

Posted
Posted

Games have evolved since the PS360 days. AA, B-tier games have been replaced by faux-retro pixel art indie games and the AAA stuff has been more focused on monetization than offering better balanced games.

 

Gone are traditional deathmatch multiplayer games, replaced with a multitude of battle royales.

 

It really depends on who you ask. I am a weirdo that actually liked traditional DM and team DM, so the rise of the BR and the hero shooters have all but killed multiplayer for me.

 

The Ghost Recon of the 360 era is not the Ghost Recon of today. The same can be said of Rainbow Six. Those were my favorite co-op games back then.

 

Games were better this gen. But there were fewer "firsts" and a lot of the gaming magic i enjoyed back on the 360 was absent. The large party chats, the long nights playing Battlefield Bad Company 2, being stupid on the Xbox Vision Cam playing Burnout Paradise, none of that has been even slightly matched by anything this gen.

 

Just my two cents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Keyser_Soze

Keyser_Soze

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Games have evolved since the PS360 days. AA, B-tier games have been replaced by faux-retro pixel art indie games and the AAA stuff has been more focused on monetization than offering better balanced games.

 

Gone are traditional deathmatch multiplayer games, replaced with a multitude of battle royales.

 

It really depends on who you ask. I am a weirdo that actually liked traditional DM and team DM, so the rise of the BR and the hero shooters have all but killed multiplayer for me.

 

The Ghost Recon of the 360 era is not the Ghost Recon of today. The same can be said of Rainbow Six. Those were my favorite co-op games back then.

 

Games were better this gen. But there were fewer "firsts" and a lot of the gaming magic i enjoyed back on the 360 was absent. The large party chats, the long nights playing Battlefield Bad Company 2, being stupid on the Xbox Vision Cam playing Burnout Paradise, none of that has been even slightly matched by anything this gen.

 

Just my two cents.

 

get off my lawn angry old man GIF

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SaysWho?

SaysWho?

Posted
Posted
39 minutes ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Games have evolved since the PS360 days. AA, B-tier games have been replaced by faux-retro pixel art indie games and the AAA stuff has been more focused on monetization than offering better balanced games.

 

I've seen the opposite happen: after the scare people had earlier in the gen, many AAA games are contained experiences (like the recent Star Wars games the past two years, also getting away from just Battlefront games). Sony's games stayed true to that, with Cory Barlog posting this mid-gen:

 

 

And indie games aren't really replacing AA games; it's just that more people with very small studios can actually break into the industry now. And stuff like Dead Cells is the bee's knees.

 

I feel like I've been seeing more AA tbh. It amazes me that a AA can be something indie like The Witness, or as content-filled as Nier: Automata or Persona 5.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crispy4000

crispy4000

Posted
  • Author
Posted
8 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Games have evolved since the PS360 days. AA, B-tier games have been replaced by faux-retro pixel art indie games and the AAA stuff has been more focused on monetization than offering better balanced games.


My disagreements with this are why I prefer the PS4/XBO/WiiU/Switch.

If you look at its list, very few of the most critically acclaimed games doubled down on monetization.  You never had to resort to paying into the schemes to have fun this gen.  You might even have more fun avoiding the games that went there.

This was also the generation that indie games stopped feeling so small and constrained, IMO.  I'm sure budgets were still tight, but I no longer went into them expecting significant compromises.  Games like Edith Finch, Life is Strange, Hat in Time, Hollow Knight, Inside, Hellblade, Rime, Ori ... there's nothing absent there.  They're just great, and honestly, better than AA/B-tier games at their prime (in the PS2 era).  There's still tons of high-budget/high-effort looking ones I haven't played yet.

 

Sure, I'll agree that there's too many pixel art indies.  But the cream of the crop ended up being fantastic (Undertale, Celeste, Dead Cells, Stardew Valley, Into the Breach, etc).  Also, backburner genres like 3D platformers, arcade racers, survival horror and platform fighters made a comeback, thanks to how the indie space has grown.

 

I could go on about how 3rd party Japanese developers started to get their groove back too, whereas the PS3/360/Wii was a low point.  Can't stop thinking about how good DQXI turned out, for example.  HD towns, lol.

The only caveat I have is that there's a ton of open world glut and over-reliance on skill trees.  Those things became trendy in the same way the 3rd person cover mechanics did.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Moa

Moa

Posted
Posted

The 360/PS3 era redefined gaming and represented a monumental leap from the previous generation. The PS4/XB1 era refined things but at least within the AAA sphere there was no Halo 3 sized leap forward.

 

That said indie gaming really came into its own in the last generation and the vast majority of my favorite games of the last decade have been indies, so I probably should have voted for PS4/XB1.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ShreddieMercury

ShreddieMercury

Posted
Posted

I voted PS3/360/Wii.  Even though this generation has several games that I would call all-time greats, overall it was more of a refinement of game mechanics and visuals from previous generations, with some added quality of life improvements and easier access.  Lots of games from the previous generation still feel so good to play that they could be mistaken for current-gen games were it not for the reduced visual quality, which says a lot I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Spawn_of_Apathy

Spawn_of_Apathy

Posted
Posted

WiiS360 era for sure. For me anyways. 
 

Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3

Halo 3, ODST, and Reach. 
Call of Duty 4, MW2, and Black Ops 2
Forza 3 and 4

Fable 2 and 3

Elder Scrolls IV and V

Borderlands 2

Batman Arkham Asylum. 

Diablo 3

 

I didn’t play as much on the Wii and PS3, but the only games I put as much or more time in this past gen as I did each one of the above titles would be Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls, Destiny, Destiny 2, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.   I did like Mass Effect Andromeda, but when the DLC plans got canceled I lost motivation to finish my second and “perfect” play through. So play time clocks in faaaar below the above titles. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
silentbob

silentbob

Posted
Posted

Yeah the 360/PS3/Wii marked the beginning f so many franchises which continue even into today. I have more fond memories of gaming back then with friends too. I found this latest gen really divided my core of close gaming friends and found most moved onto PC for gaming needs. I didn’t join them until Covid hit and kept me home for a couple weeks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
skillzdadirecta

skillzdadirecta

Posted
Posted

The 360/PS3?Wii era introduced so many concepts and franchises that the PS4/XboxOne perfected. I think overall that the Xbox One and PS4 have better games than the 360 and PS3 but man...Games get better with each gen because the tech alows devs to fully realize what they are envisioning with less and less limitations. That's a good thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
legend

legend

Posted
Posted

My gut reaction is this last gen was better by a healthy margin. Most of the great games from the 360/PS3 gen have very close analogs in this last gen that were generally more polished and often just plain better at what they did.

 

There were perhaps a few exceptions that were not replicated. Those include:

  • Portal 1/2
  • Halo 3/Reach (because 343 just hasn't replicated/improved the formula)
  • Bioshock Infinite
  • KOTOR

 

But then from this gen we have some true stand outs on top of the set that just improves on what we had in the 360/PS3 gen, including:

  • The Witcher Fucking 3
  • Persona 5
  • Breath of the Wild
  • Unique 2D Metroidvanias
    • Hollow Knight
    • Ori 1/2
  • FF7 Remake
  • DOOM/Eternal revive
  • The Return of CRPGs (also on consoles though)
    • Divinity Original Sin 1/2
    • Pillars of Eternity 1/2
    • Wasteland 2/3
    • Disco Elysium
  • Mortal Kombat X/XI Revive
  • God of War
  • Spiderman

 

And then a bunch of other very high quality games that I might not have put into that list, but were otherwise new. (I'm also hoping I will find myself forced to add Cyberpunk to this list)

 

So yeah. This last gen wins easily for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...