Best Generation of Gaming

Whats the best/fav generation of gaming?

  • Gen 1

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gen 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gen 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Gen 4

    Votes: 6 35.3%
  • Gen 5

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Gen 6

    Votes: 7 41.2%
  • Gen 7

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Gen 8

    Votes: 1 5.9%
  • Gen 9

    Votes: 1 5.9%

  • Total voters
    17
The current gen followed by the last gen. Everything looks real now and I can get invested in story lines, characters and whatnot since everything is relatable. It's hard to touch any of the retro gens for me at this point, I dont even enjoy touching the Xbox 360/PS3 part of the retro era with exception to a few titles from the later part of that gen. 2017-ish through now is where it's at.
 
Yeesh, I'm having a lot more trouble with this than I expected. 6th Gen could take it for nostalgia alone as these are the consoles I grew up playing (especially the Dreamcast and Xbox). But at the same time, a majority of my all time favourite games are from the 7th and 8th gen.
 
Gen4 and Gen 5. They were the most innovative generations so far. Gen 4 showed us the full potential of 2d sprites graphics and the first baby steps in 3d. Gen 5 kickstarted the fully 3d games and gave birth to many new genres. it is a pity we do not see that pioneer mood today.
 
I'm going with last gen (8th). For almost three decades, Playstation has been my primary console and it's regularly delivered in great content (up until PS5 IMO -- hopefully that changes). The reason PS4 wins it for me is because it had great new IPs that looked incredible. Games like Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon ZD, A Plague Tale, and For Honor. Then it also had great continuations of existing IPs like Uncharted 4, AC Syndicate, Witcher 3, and Tomb Raider. Lastly, they ported a ton of favorites from previous generations to the one platform allowing me to consolidate almost all my favorites onto one box. Games like the Uncharted trilogy, Shenmue 1 & 2, Mass Effect trilogy, and even old Ninja Turtles games with the Cowabunga Collection.

If PS5 couldn't play PS4 games, it would be a dust collector and really close to irrelevant.

Runner up goes to the PS3 (7th) gen for the creation of Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Assassin's Creed among others. Third place is the PS1 gen (5th) for the creation of Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Dino Crisis, Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby, etc.
 
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If I were to answer immediately without overthinking it: 6 is my favorite in terms of nostalgia and subjective preferences-- I'll always laud the Dreamcast and original Xbox like a drunk uncle.

That said, I think the 7th was probably the best in terms of balance and more "objective" offerings:
-3D was finally coming together vs. the early clunky efforts (despite the charm of that)
-Generally good hardware (good controllers, even if we had Red Ring of Death)
-Perhaps the best of online and AAA experiences before companies tried to bleed us with passes and micro-transactions (I know the beginnings were there, but companies were less bald about it)
-A goodly amount of AA and indie content (8th-9th are better on that front, though) to keep a good mix of old and new content
 
@Telekill It is too early to write the ps5 generation off. It has not even started yet and won't start until 2023 or even 24 when the ps4 will be finally declared absolute. We can only judge the gen wenn finally games are going to be made for the consoles of the gen.

Funny thing to see that I am in minority as retro nerd. Never have been big fan of generation 8. For gen 9 it is too early to judge. But this has nothing to do with the tech. The 8gen tech und hopefully the 9th gen tech as well is very good.

It is just that game design is in decline. Most games play and feel the same.

And my favourite genres are dead too. That's the main reason why I am not the biggest fan of the gen 8. Everything must be open worldish today, all the classic action adventure/aventure game and survial horror games of the past are gone.

I also miss games that tried to be just good at one aspect. Games today try to be a jack of all trades. Where are the pure sneaking games and where are the pure action games?

We just have have mixed games today which I am not the greatest fan of.
 
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@Telekill It is too early to write the ps5 generation off. It has not even started yet and won't start until 2023 or even 24 when the ps4 will be finally declared absolute.
I agree that it's too early to write off the PS5 just yet, but I disagree with the latter. The gen starts when the system launches regardless of cross gen releases. It's always been up to the platform creators to make the hardware worth owning and Sony has essentially failed to do so. If that was by design due to Covid, who's to say, but the PS5 as it has been since it launched two years ago is essentially not a generational leap at all with a majority of the software also available on PS4. It essentially made the PS5 a PS4 Pro Pro.

Now, I agree with the rest of your post. I see PS5 as the end of modern gaming for me. The industry in general is focused on GaaS; microtransaction infested FTP trash. Games I listed above that really kept me engaged in this hobby are on a severe decline. Sure, there are games I'm looking forward too such as A Plague Tale 2 coming next month but the rest have no release date in sight... games like Instinction, Mass Effect 5, NextGen Tomb Raider, Witcher 4, etc.
 
I don’t think I can pick a specific gen. I know the Wii was one of my favorite consoles just for the sheer amount of backwards compatibility on top of a whole new way to play games. Beyond that, it’s hard to really fit these into neat boxes for me. For example I liked the ps4 to start but Sony has turned heel fast. That’s just one example of how things can change on a whim.
 
Tied between 4th and 6th gens being best for me, with 7th gen being the worst. I used to really hate the 5th gen as well, but I think that's largely because I grew up during that gen only having an N64. The more I explore the Saturn and PS1 libraries, the more I feel it was actually a pretty good gen overall.
 
I found the transition from third to fourth generation the most striking overall. The advent of mass 3D gaming in the fifth generation was also striking but in other ways it was like a major step backward in visual quality, from the fully mature pixel art of, for example, Metal Slug, to the angular, simplistic, and at times glitchy 3D visuals of a PS1 or Saturn game. So personally I selected 4th generation. However, having set up my Steam Deck and being able to play games from almost any generation on one single device, I would have to say the current gen is a golden age of its own.

Having said all that, these definitions of generations are definitely up for debate.
 
The best is always the current one just because it's the most fast, advanced one. The most fascinating is probably 5th gen, PS1, Saturn (not keen on N64) have so many great and quirky games, not to mention a huge number of hidden gems, it was the first 3D gen and the developers imagination ran wild in this.
 
I stick to my statement that the gen has not started yet. Compared to the effort devs put into multiplatform games real current gen titles are rare. Nobody wants to make them yet. And you cannot just blame Sony for that. It is the whole industry. The whole industry is not ready to go current gen. They do not want to make it work yet.

That's the same problem Sega had with Dreamcast back then. Despite the fact that the Dreamcast wiped the floor with the PS1 and N64 the publishers did not want this gen to end yet. So the DC just got ports of old games from a Third-party that just looked slightly better than the original version.

The reason back then and now is still the same. It is money. Too much old hardware still in circulation they do not want to leave behind because of $$$$

The whole industry is a mess. That is not Sony's fault. Their games cost way too much to release them on the ps5 because there are not enough ps5 consoles out there.
 
I stick to my statement that the gen has not started yet. Compared to the effort devs put into multiplatform games real current gen titles are rare. Nobody wants to make them yet. And you cannot just blame Sony for that. It is the whole industry. The whole industry is not ready to go current gen. They do not want to make it work yet.
I think the real reason is different. The current gen (PS5, Xbox Series) is the first one when both Microsoft and Sony consoles are fully 100% backwards compatible with the last one. Not to mention that it's because PS4/Xbox One are very similiarly built tech wise, it's no secret that they're basically just PC's in custom form factor, no custom chips built specifically for them like PS3 Cell Proccesor or all the other old consoles. The same applies to the PS5/Series, it's very easy to port games between them all. It's never been like that before. Not to mention many other factors in play here, like the insane development costs for new gen exclusive AAA games. I've always said that PS5/XSX released way too soon back in 2020, there wasn't a real demand for them, PS4 was still going more than strong with titles like Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima to name a few, which still look more than beautiful. There was lot of juice left in it. I remember when DriveClub released for PS4 back in 2014 i think and it looked insanely good, hell, it still looks great, that was a generational leap from PS3. On PS5 there's still nothing remotely mindblowing 2 years after release
 
Yes, the backward compatibility makes it easy to justify two versions to cash in but if they wanted to they could make real next-gen games. They just decide against it because of the money. It will take years until we can find out what the current gen really can do. So far all the current gen are just more polished ps4 games which is a shame.
 
It will take years until we can find out what the current gen really can do.
Agreed. I'd say that current gen have all the signs to become the longest one since the 1st. Not to mention Nintendo which didn't even enter the race yet. Switch is last gen.
 
I'm stuck between Gen 4 and Gen 6 but ultimately voted for Gen 4 for many of the same reasons @Zoyous mentioned.

It was a huge leap in 2d/pixel gaming and the games had a lot of polish compared to Gen 3. Many of the games are still extremely fun and playable today. It was also ultra competitive, with many different companies throwing their hat into the ring. RPGs started to have more refined stories and characters, licensed sports games were actually a pretty new idea and were more viable with the upgraded hardware, and really the improved hardware allowed for a variety of game genres to just simply increase in quality across the board.

Gen 5 followed and had the difficult task of bringing 3D gaming to consoles. There are still a lot of great games that you can play today, but I'd argue early Gen 5 games aged much worse than Gen 4 games. Also, many of the throwback Indie games usually use Gen 4 as a reference and there aren't too many 3D Gen 5 inspired Indie games.

Gen 6 is kind of equivalent to the leap from Gen 3 to 4 in my opinion. It was the crossover point where 3d and online gaming was still new and exciting with a bunch of experimental ideas, but still had a lot more refinement and polish over the previous generation.
 
Agreed. I'd say that current gen have all the signs to become the longest one since the 1st. Not to mention Nintendo which didn't even enter the race yet. Switch is last gen.

I think we we are about to see classic generations come to end. We are in era of product families now. Console are turning into smart phones. Buying new consoles won't be necessary anymore because you do the same stuff on old devices like you can do on new ones. The new ones do stuff just a little bit better.

The industry is just not ready to admit it.

The current gen is the most boring gen I have ever seen and I have seen many. There is no next gen vibe at all.

Teething problems are normal for new consoles and it is also normal that the new tech do not live up to the hype.

But in the past we also had a first glimpse after year 1 or 2 in which direction the games are going. But I have not seen a game yet that really screams next gen to me.

Maybe we are in the area of dimishing returns now and we won't say much improvements anymore. I do really do not know.

I am not saying that current games do not look good in fact they do. But I still miss the magic of next gen consoles which graphics we never have seen before.

The magic can still arrive though. I am firm believer that nobody tried yet to really max out then consoles.

I am still cautiously optimistic.
 
Gen 6 easily. So many amazing, unique and fun games. And every single system, despite their flaws, brought their absolute A game and killed it that generation. It's the only gen where I have owned all major home console platforms at one time or another (and the original Xbox is the only one I don't still have).

By the way, what generation is the Switch in? That really confuses me, as the Wii U was their 8th gen console.
 
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