The 7th console generation has aged quite poorly overall

[logash]

Yes, it seems framerate was a low priority that generation since most games run sub 30 FPS. I tried to play Red Dead Redemption on my PS3 a couple of years ago and it was damn near unplayable.

This gen also over used some effects like bloom and what ever you call the effect that make things shiny. Don't get me started on the limited color pallet a lot of devs decided to use during the gen. The end result was a lot of characters and environments look like they were ceramic.

 

[I Like Ginger Cats:3]

Sometimes when I go back to my PS3 I think 'How did I ever play on this?'. From how loud the hardware is to how clunky the controller is to play with to how lousy everything OS wise is.

Combined with how bad the IQ was on some of those games it makes things worse. Some experiences on that console really do not hold up which is a shame.

And other times I think 'How was this even possible on PS3?'. I played God of War Ascension early last year and aside from framerate, you really are sort of amazed still.

I think the gen just lasted for a bit long. Probably not in duration overall (PS4/Xbox One era is still going on as well, sort of) but considering the release (right before / between HD got 'popular' / affordable) hindered these consoles and probably soured the memory of that Gen. It's not a console vs PC thing but some games really were just way more acceptable to play on the PC platform, also due to SSD's becoming a thing.

So I look back at it still positive on the games side but the gen definately has issues going back to it nowadays and stuff like Season Passes, bad DLC and the likes does not help me remember it all that well either.

 

[Ferrs]

I wonder if my 360 was a different one than the rest of the 360 consoles, one where there were great japanese games and more colors than brown.

 

[Josh5890]

This. Some well known DS games now cost a small fortune online.

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A bunch of PSP JRPGs as well.

 

[The Iron Banana]

I mean I can see where you're coming from but I'm gonna disagree. I didn't have any issue with the hardware. Games were great and hardware was good enough. Only issue you could really take was the rise of the microtransaction but it was bound to happen eventually so I don't blame the systems just the times we were (and continue) to be in.

 

[inner-G]

They looked way better on a 32" 720p/1080i TV than the big 65" 4K ones we have now

 

[Oscarzx n]

I've been playing old Xbox og/360 games on my Series X all week and I couldn't disagree more. Especially with the great BC on there.

Ninja Gaiden Black is still a great fucking action game.

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Black is an OG Xbox game and with the BC on Series X you are playing the games enhanced, which is what I said is the best option, so you are not rally saying that I'm wrong

 

[Magic Mushroom]

I love indies, but in the AAA space we got way more new IP in the 7th gen

Both 8th and 7th gen were fantastic, I'm not tearing the 8th gen down, it was probably on the whole, better, but the 7th gen isn't nearly as bad as people are making out

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We got more AAA games yes, but that's mainly because technological advancements mean longer development time. I didn't hate the 7th gen myself, but overall I prefer the 8th.

 

[KalBalboa]

I certainly don't agree with the OP. I recently bought a backup PS3 for this very reason. I agree that things like the 8th gen OSs and controllers made quality-of-life much higher, but that didn't make me retroactively dislike my time with Dead Space, Driver San Francisco, Max Payne 3, Motorstorm PR, etc.

The indie scene alone makes that generation a lot of fun to revisit.

While things like the DualShock 3 definitely should have evolved more than they did from the 5th generation, I still prefer that controller to a handful of other controllers from the past (the Genesis pad, the N64 controller, etc).

 

[Mass Effect]

I think it depends. Obviously the visual side suffered greatly because of questionable design choices -- brown palettes, excessive bloom, a general lack of color everywhere outside of Nintendo. And performance for quite a few games (AAA games no less) was quite poor on average.

I feel like many games still hold up well on the gameplay side though. It doesn't really feel like too much changed between 7th and 8th gen games from that perspective; games mostly feel the same, but prettier and more refined.

Someone mentioned how 7th gen reminded them of 5th gen and I can kind of agree with that. It very much felt like a transitional period with developers trying to figure out HD gaming.

 

[ZeroNoir_]

The design was great but the tech wasn't

I just finished Dark Souls Remastered and man, one of my favorite game experiences in a while

 

[KalBalboa]

I think some of the "brown" comments re: the 7th gen on Xbox 360/PS3 are all predicated on the 2005-2007 time frame.

I think folks forget the likes of LittleBigPlanet (there were, what, FOUR of those games on PS3?) the Uncharted series, God of War 3 + A, inFamous 2, the Motorstorm games, the places Halo went...

Nintendo wasn't some oasis of color for :checks watch: 8 years.

 

[Oscarzx n]

I like to look at gens in pairs. 16 bit perfected the ideas introduced during the 8 bit era. Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox and Cube perfected the ideas introduced in the first 3D games.

In the case of the 7th gen, it introduced HD and lots of online implementations that were perfected in the PS4 and One gen.

I think it's true that some games are hard to go back to, but many aged amazingly such as Halo 3, Bioshock, Crackdown, Uncharted 2, Project Gotham 4 or Gears 3 and Judgement. I think it's the same with games released during the PS2 era; most are hard to play nowadays but there are some great exceptions. For instance, almost no fps from that gen is playable nowadays whereas most 360 era shooters play just fine.

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I don't think the games of that generation have aged badly at all even when playing on original hardware outside of a few action games, mostly third person shooters or open world games. At most there are a few games that are way better on Gamecube and especially Xbox than on PS2
Honestly if you play a game from that era and doesn't play well, is very likely it was never good to begin with and didn't even get good reviews at the time, lke the first Killzone

 

[Loud Wrong]

It doesn't get much better than the 360 library. Especially all of the gems on XBLA. Couldn't be happier that the XSX supports so much of that library still. Toss in a good number of PS3 games, and I'd happily live in that generation.

 

[sbenji]

I completely disagree. Discounting graphical additions games are essentially unchanged. Also I think as I have gotten older graphics have less of an impact on me. I can easily go back to ps3 games and still be impressed. About 2 years ago I played the wntirety of mass effect on pa3 and aside from some extra aliasing and elevators it was just as modern as most ps4 games.

that said my favorite games are turn based rpgs so I'm not necessarily impacted heavily when the game is not pushing graphical boundaries. Persona 5 looks as good as anything elsein gaming from my perspective.

also remember the ps3 and 360 ran the best s long game of this generation perfectly fine in 2013.

 

[KalBalboa]

If someone takes issue with the 360/PS3 gen for frame rate, frame pacing, resolution, and screen tearing, I never, ever want to see them talk-up a N64 game.

 

[sbenji]

The only system I cannot go back to is ps1. It is just too primitive to appreciate the game with a few exceptions like devil dice, also bubble bobble featuring adventure island is one of the greatest releases in history.

 

[daninthemix]

I much prefer 7th gen to the 8th because I feel that genres splintered into many more directions during the 8th gen, which is good for diversity but also means that a much larger proportion of games released are of no interest to me.

It felt like the 7th gen hung largely around a few keystone genres, all of which I liked, and it was the first gen with standardised dual analog controls which we still use today.

 

[Deleted member 59109]

For PS3/360 yeah. I think some Wii games still are really good though

 

[Deleted member 887]

Never forget MGS4 is chained to the PS3. A true damn shame

 

[Deleted member 17210]

Stop trying to make this a thing.

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Which part, saying that generation aged poorly or arrogantly numbering console generations and assuming everyone else does it the same way? Either way, I agree with you.

 

[KAMI-SAMA]

I'm really surprised at some of the comments about the 7th gen consoles. This gen had some of the best new and still continuing franchises released. It was also the first foray into HD gaming and online gaming being more structured on consoles.

 

[DaCocoBrova]

I totally disagree. The variety and volume of content, as well as the up-res emulation options on offer have given me a new appreciation for that generation.

 

[Mindfreak191]

Assassin's Creed,Bioshock,Oblivion, Skyrim, Uncharted 1-3, CoD 4, Mass Effect 1-3...naaah, it was a God tier generation. Still replay most of these games here and there, there's a reason a bunch of these receive/ed remasters and it's not just because of technical reasons.

 

[yrcmlived]

The 7th generations had a lot very good games but the problem is that most of them was remastered for the 8th generation
For me the 8th generation is a lot better than the 7th, but there are some very good games that will be lost without a remastered o a porting

 

[andresmoros]

Easily, the worst gen. Holy shit, I hated so much. No nostalgia at all for many of its games. Fuck the wii, also.

 

[60fps]

I think performance is one of the - if not the - most important aspects to determine if a game ages well or not. Play Metroid Prime or Haunting Ground today. Both running at 60fps, they have aged fabulously. Now pick and play non-60fps games from the same time periods.

 

[KhandoleezzaRice]

There was the death of many beloved companies during the move to HD that contributed to the feeling of homogenization but I still think it's a fantastic generation.

 

[Adrifi]

I can only accept describing a game as "brown" if we are talking about Gears of War 3 or Forza Horizon 1, but apart from that? Nah.

The PSP, the Wii and the 360 were all GOAT consoles.

 

[iceblade]

I disagree.

Games like FFXIII trilogy and Sony first party games still looks and plays nicely.

Also 7th generation had so many great new IPs that most of them turned into amazing brilliant franchises.

So 7th generation isn't as bad as people trying to make sound like... it was a good generation with MANY MANY good games.

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This. And there's a really good variety of titles too. You can find stuff for most genres, whereas this past gen isn't always the case. There are very few 10> hour FPSes for example, and franchises like Call of Duty shipped some games without a campaign.

It gets a lot of flak but people forget just what it brought to the table. Just look how many games in the 8th gen were remasters or remakes of 7th gen games. And I'm mainly talking about the home consoles here - not even about the successes of the DS and PSP.

 

[oni-link]

I think performance is one of the - if not the - most important aspects to determine if a game ages well or not. Play Metroid Prime or Haunting Ground today. Both running at 60fps, they have aged fabulously. Now pick and play non-60fps games from the same time periods.

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A lot of gen 7 games have been ported/remastered to the 8th gen or PC, where they can be played at much better or more stable framerates

And on the whole, they still hold up as great games

 

[WyLD iNk]

Hard disagree. That generation was fucking incredible. Really brought me out of the funk the PS2/Xbox/GC generation left me in.

 

[Atolm]

Meh, play most of them on a potato PC at 4k144fps.

 

[boi]

The last two years of that generation had some games that were very refined, both gameplay and graphics wise. I would say early and mid parts of that generation is very very rough.

Games like Halo 4, GTA5, TLOU, Forza Horizon 2/3 are very replayable even today.

 

[Muitnorts]

Probably my favourite gen. It's definitely aged when it comes to performance and iq but I think it's only really that noticeable over gens past because we haven't evolved gameplay or design very much since.
It was the proper beginning of the modern era.
But it had so many brilliant new series that I'll always love it. I hope (in vain) that Sony sorts out PS3 backwards compatibility so Infamous and others can live on.

 

[monx]

I might be the minority but I prefer the 7th gen to the 8th gen in terms of games.

 

[daegan]

There are so many PS3 and Wii games I want to go back to but the respective hardware is just awful to use, especially my *80gb* PS3. :/

 

[Deleted member 35478]

I really enjoyed the 7th gen, and if I had to pick a favorite console from any generation it would be the Xbox 360. That console did a lot for gaming, Xbox Live was incredible and Xbox Live Arcade was a stand out for me across any generation of systems. If I was stuck with one console, I'd have no issues being stuck with a 360.

 

[pleaseinsertdisctwo]

The only 7th gen games I care about are Resonance of Fate and Final Fantasy XIII

and Drakengard 3, Infinite Undiscovery, and Lost Odyssey I kind of care about

and as for the Wii, Sonic Colors and Skyward Sword are okay, I love The Last Story and that's about it

 

[MrFox]

Perfect for me, I aged poorly at the same pace.

 

[NDA-Man]

Maybe its nostalgia, my 360 was the first console that I bought myself with my own high school/college job paycheck. It was my first experience with online gaming and a digital storefront. I had it through college and grad school, because that gen did last forever.

It honestly has some of my favorite gaming memories/wow factor. Just the whole XBLA/downloading demos was amazing for late teen me. Left 4 Dead ate my 2008. Like a lot of my love for that gen stems from it occurring through very specific parts of my life, and even the stuff that was old hat for others was totally new to me.

An earlier poster mentioned how the later gens adhered to the 7ths template very closely, which makes it seem like that gen was just a worse version of current gen, and arguably thats true. But it also means diving back in to that gen is incredibly easy for me, because so much has remained the same. Playing older games is much more difficult, IMO, especially 5th gen stuff.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

I mean...it's hard to imagine this now but wasn't the Xbox 360 released without a HDD at first?

And both the Xbox 360 and PS3 didn't even have an HDMI cable right?

Framerate was all over the place, many games were sub-30 fps.

But they were simpler times and we didn't care. We just had a good time.

That was before internet and social media ruined us

 

[Brinbe]

considering i still have my 360 hooked up to play a bunch of stuff that isn't backwards compatible (and probably won't ever be) nah it's still good. graphics obviously aren't amazing, but the gameplay still holds up.




😎

 

[peppersky]

I took out my PS3 like half a year ago and besides the Skate games and Demon Souls there is literally nothing on that thing that I'd still want to play nowadays and even those games are pretty damn rough.

 

[LetsEatSnacks]

There are a lot of games in that era (2006-2013), both on handheld and home console, that will be lost forever if nobody ports them to newer consoles and that's a real shame. I s'pose we'll always be able to emulate them on PC but that just isn't the same.

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POKER SMASH! :(

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

Like, I could happily play the 360 Forza Horizon or Uncharted 2 or The Last of Us or Gears of War 3 or Black Ops 2 or Bioshock or whatever and not bat an eyelid. GTA5? Minecraft? Still the biggest games in the world. And totally fine on 360/PS3.

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From Bioshock to Mass Effect to Portal to Dead Space to Alan Wake to Mirrors Edge.

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Gotta disagree OP. I'd happily take the games above over anything from 8th gen. If you told me today that I could only ever play one console again, it's Xbox 360 and not even a difficult choice.

 

[Cheesebu]

7th gen was a terrible generation imo.

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This. There were a few standout games but it was a disaster for the most part.

For me personally, the Wii was the true standout, along with the Souls games.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I still go back and play my 360 in the office once in a while. And I play BC games all the time on my One X, which probably warps my memory of how a lot of these games used to look and run. BC and ports have definitely helped that gen age better than most, aside from a handful of games you can own/play most everything worth playing now with better performance.

 

[UltimateHigh]

could be worse. (5th gen).

 

[KalBalboa]

I mean...it's hard to imagine this now but wasn't the Xbox 360 released without a HDD at first?

And both the Xbox 360 and PS3 didn't even have an HDMI cable right?

Framerate was all over the place, many games were sub-30 fps.

But they were simpler times and we didn't care. We just had a good time.

That was before internet and social media ruined us

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PS3 always had HDMI + a hard drive, but some early 360s had neither.