This Console Gen Is The Worst One

[Big G]

I think it's been considerably better than the last generation. Especially as a fan of Japanese games. Last-gen was a huge bummer outside of Nintendo, FromSoft and Platinum.

And many of the franchises that had been disappointing to me bounced back nicely (Resident Evil, Hitman, Zelda, Metal Gear...at least for one game...).

 

[Aaron D.]

Been hardcore gaming since 2600 and I legit think every gen has been better than the last.

Just when I think it can't get any better. It somehow does.

 

[Roy]

I'd like to discuss the main reasons why I think this console generation is the worst one.

1. New IP's

This generation's new IP's simply don't compare to the new IP's of previous generations in my opinion, and that disappointing. There are exceptions. Bloodborne, Overwatch, and PUBG are among my favorite games of the generation. But there have been a lot of disappointments. Many of the best games this generation are continuations of IP established last generation. I hope that next gen will bring us exciting new series from all the major publishers.

2. GAAS/Live Service/Microtransactions/Other Nickel & Diming bullshit/AAA Single Player Games Dying

I'm not saying that GAAS is inherently bad. My problem is that it seems like every publisher is after that cash cow. And why wouldn't they? We see thread after thread of *insert publisher here* posting record profits thanks to GAAS titles and Microtransactions. We see several gaming executives announce that they'll shift company focus to pursue this style of game. My problem is that we've reached a point of over saturation, especially in AAA. What does it say about this gen that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order being single player only with no microtransactions makes headlines? It's a problem that I now have to question how whichever game from major publisher is gonna nickel and dime me. Meanwhile, us fans of Single Player titles are left with Japanese publishers, Bethesda, and Some Sony first party devs to pick up the slack.

3. Paid Online

Simple, it's a total ripoff and all the platform holders do it now.


And there you have it. That's my opinionated take on this generation. I hope that next gen will be better for us. I'd also like to point out that even though I think this is the worst gen, I don't think it was god awful. There are plenty of great and amazing games released this go around, but thanks to the reasons above, I feel like I've become less engaged with gaming and that sucks.

Click to shrink...

PC has free online multiplayer but hackers and cheaters are an issue. I'll gladly pay to avoid this

 

[Hawkster]

I think it's a great one personally, we've seen a resurgence of SP games. The looter-shooters genre is a major issue for me though, instant turn off, I can identify cheap tactics being used, engineered to exploit people's insatiable need for positive reinforcement. Hope gamers wake up to its meaningless sense of progress.

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Geez, do most of you hate looter shooters that much that you willingly gonna rob people who love them from playing them?

Why can't you all just live and let live and let me play looter shooters in peace?

In any case, I vehemently disagree with the OP. This gen is the best one and no amount of hate boner this forum has against GAAS and looter shooters will convince me otherwise

 

[Dogo Mojo]

As someone who has been playing games since the Atari I would disagree. There are absolutely valid issues to be had with some choices in the industry within the current gen but I still think that gaming as a whole has only gotten better.

The expanding worlds, more engaging narratives, slow (sadly) but still growing inclusion of many diverse characters and cultures especially when you take indies into account. The only system related aspect I feel that you could argue is that gameplay hasn't always seen the same quality but that has more to do with the specific developers than it does the industry.

 

[Alex840]

Couldn't disagree more.

- Countless high quality indie titles spread over a wide variety of genres.
- Incredible big budget single player games like God of War, Witcher 3, Horizon, Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, From Software games, etc.
- The birth of mainstream VR.
- Mighty returns to form for franchises like Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, etc.

The water's great over here, OP. Come join us!

 

[Lant_War]

PC has free online multiplayer but hackers and cheaters are an issue. I'll gladly pay to avoid this

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Hackers on PC are not nearly as rampant as you think.

 

[pswii60]

My favourite genres have seen some great games this gen.

For example we've had some of the best Metroidvanias of all time with the likes of Axiom Verge, Ori and Hollow Knight.

If all you play is single player AAA games though then you'll have had a rough ride - during the first few years of the generation especially. But I'd suggest you broaden your horizons.

IMHO there's never been so many incredible games to play in such a wide variety of genres. My problem is not enough time, not a lack of games.

 

[northnorth]

I'm 32 and I haven't gamed this much since the late 90's. There's so many great games and I'm realizing time is mainly the problem. To each their own though.

 

[Deleted member 25606]

Must be getting close to the end, every gen some people start declaring it as "the worst ever".

Hard disagree, I think this has been one of my favorites and my console of choice this gen is one of my all time favorites. In fact I think PS4 will join SNES and original X-Box to make my perfect trinity of all time game machines.

As for worst it's hands down the PS1/Saturn/N64 gen. Some great ideas and the beginning of some good franchises, but the absolute classics were few and the transition to full 3D and figuring how to work the tech was bad enough at the time and aged like milk. In fact my nostalgia for the games I did like is extra strong because that gen almost killed my interest in gaming completely so those titles managed to keep me barely interested until the next gen when the industry figured out the tech, course corrected, and though the Dreamcast killed Sega hardware the other three major players were all in the positive to me when it came to games and it gave us OG X-Box.

 

[BuBBeRX]

If you are talking about Xbox only then yeah, it's pretty bad. If you are talking about all consoles, then you are Very wrong.

 

[The Adder]

For me, PS3/360/Wii/WiiU was the worst gen.

Click to shrink...

The Wii U is gen 8, not 7.

 

[SageShinigami]

Last gen saw all the worthwhile J-RPGs go to portable systems while everything was brown and grey in the AAA space.

I haven't gamed this much since I was a kid.

The Wii U is gen 8, not 7.

Click to shrink...

Nah. He had it right.

 

[TheBrokenMan]

The only thing I agree on is paid online. I pay $60 of ps+ a year just for rainbow six. Ever since getting the service in the end of 2016, I have only downloaded 2 games from the monthly offering of ps+ games that don't remotely interest me.

 

[Stinkinmushroom]

I'd like to discuss the main reasons why I think this console generation is the worst one.

1. New IP's

This generation's new IP's simply don't compare to the new IP's of previous generations in my opinion, and that disappointing. There are exceptions. Bloodborne, Overwatch, and PUBG are among my favorite games of the generation. But there have been a lot of disappointments. Many of the best games this generation are continuations of IP established last generation. I hope that next gen will bring us exciting new series from all the major publishers.

2. GAAS/Live Service/Microtransactions/Other Nickel & Diming bullshit/AAA Single Player Games Dying

I'm not saying that GAAS is inherently bad. My problem is that it seems like every publisher is after that cash cow. And why wouldn't they? We see thread after thread of *insert publisher here* posting record profits thanks to GAAS titles and Microtransactions. We see several gaming executives announce that they'll shift company focus to pursue this style of game. My problem is that we've reached a point of over saturation, especially in AAA. What does it say about this gen that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order being single player only with no microtransactions makes headlines? It's a problem that I now have to question how whichever game from major publisher is gonna nickel and dime me. Meanwhile, us fans of Single Player titles are left with Japanese publishers, Bethesda, and Some Sony first party devs to pick up the slack.

3. Paid Online

Simple, it's a total ripoff and all the platform holders do it now.


And there you have it. That's my opinionated take on this generation. I hope that next gen will be better for us. I'd also like to point out that even though I think this is the worst gen, I don't think it was god awful. There are plenty of great and amazing games released this go around, but thanks to the reasons above, I feel like I've become less engaged with gaming and that sucks.

Click to shrink...

1/ For Playstation it was way worse last gen tbh. This gen has been amazing for new IP's: GoW, Spiderman, BloodBorne, Dreams, Days Gone, soon Ghost of Tsushima & Death Dtranding

2/ GaaS is a disease that comes from mobile mainly. Micro transactions etc was already last gen.

3/ Paid online: Another disease introduced last gen.

Honestly most bad stuff started last gen. Only this gen are reviewers and people finally screaming NO the shitty microtransactions. It even becomes a marketing trick to say 'no microtransactions' now.

 

[Shodan14]

I agree. Best time to be a PC boi.

 

[PeskyToaster]

I don't know how you can't find a million games in your exact niche at this time. Granted, I love multiplayer shooters (not looter-shooters) so I've been blessed with battle royale and Rainbow Six Siege along with some really strong CoD and Battlefield entries this gen. Plus Sony exclusives have been on an insane hot streak and then the Total War series is better and more popular than ever. I also finally got into From Software games which just keep getting better.

The only thing I need to complete this gen is a really strong Star Wars game (which at the core we've gotten but they've been mired by the things surrounding the games) and The Last of Us 2.

 

[Tetra-Grammaton-Cleric]

In regards to paying for online, I'd argue both Sony and MS have done a good job with adding plenty of incentives and perks for what they charge, specifically a plethora of free software, most of it quite good.

 

[8bit]

This Console Take Is The Worst One

 

[Lucifonz]

It's certainly picked up, but I'd have to agree with you OP. Not sure if it's my nostalgic tinted goggles or what. It feels like the gen took years to even get remotely started after companies were concerned mobile was going to kill console gaming (remember that?). The past 3 years or so have been solid but it feels like this next year or so is going to be a pretty slow one to finish things off. Don't get me wrong there's been some great games but man...remember 2007?

There was a lot of safe bets on IPs and less risks being taken overall. Microtransactions became more and more prominent in not only their presence but how they impact the overall design of many titles. We're now in peak GAAS - who knows what the next cycle will be.

 

[mute]

Gen 7 is for me.

 

[BrandoBoySP]

Er... 2 out of your 3 complaints didn't even begin with this gen.

Every gen has had bad original IPs. We don't hear about them nowadays because they were, well, bad/unmemorable. I'd bet that you're mixing up nostalgia with what makes an IP good. For every Mario (NES), Persona (PS1), or Dark Souls (PS3), there's a Power Piggs (SNES), Evil Zone (PS1), The Bouncer (PS2), or even 1080 Snowboarding (developed by Nintendo itself). If we look back at the best-selling games of PS2, the top 10 are all established franchises (Grand Theft Auto, Tekken, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, and the original Kingdom Hearts. Though KH was technically an original IP, it used Final Fantasy and Disney as a selling point.); the same goes for the Gamecube (with the exception of Animal Crossing) and the SNES. PS1 fared slightly better, with Gran Turismo and Crash Bandicoot being new IPs, and the PS3 had The Last of Us and Uncharted 2 and 3 (which I'm counting as new IP given that Uncharted started on PS3). I'd wager that most memorable IPs don't end up actually being memorable or the biggest sellers until after their first game has come out.

As for paying for online, Xbox Live has been doing it since, what, 2005? I'm pretty sure the Dreamcast required you to pay for a subscription, too--it's nothing new.

You're right that Games As A Service can definitely be an issue, but a game offering microtransactions doesn't inherently mean it's nickel-and-diming you. There's plenty of discussion to be had about that, but we have to keep in mind, too, that game dev costs are rising like crazy without the actual consumer costs going up to match 'em, which is part of why this issue is happening at all. I also find it a little weird that you're dismissing all the Japanese devs as one whole "oh it's only Japanese devs and a few Western ones that give us single-player games"; there are tons of Japanese-made games that are well-respected (you even mention Bloodborne as one of your favorites!), and though AAA GAAS is a legitimate issue, Rockstar, Rocksteady, Insomniac, CD Projekt Red, Ubisoft, Arkane Studios, Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Respawn (with their upcoming Star Wars game) are all third-party Western studios that make single-player-focused games. Microsoft even has plenty of first-party Xbox One-exclusive (save for Windows PC) single-player games.

Like, it's totally fine to have your nostalgia or prefer older generations/have a soft spot for releases that came before, but when you're trying to have A Take that the facts completely contradict... :/ y'know? I don't mean to jump on you, and you're more than welcome to prefer older gens, but most of your reasoning isn't quite valid.

 

[Inuhanyou]

IMO, PS4 and Switch by default prove the OP wrong.

Sony this gen on the software side is far better in terms of quality than Sony last gen. And Nintendo as well...although i never liked Wii and Wii U was the first system i ever sold

 

[Ghost Slayer]

Cant say for Xbox but as a PS4 and Switch owner this gen is amazing.

 

[JaxJag]

Honestly, this generation has been far more diverse than last-gen. After 2007, almost everything was trying to be Call of Duty. The indie scene hadn't quite hit it's stride. This time around, there's more variety.... especially if you play games outside of the triple A space. I will say if you only play triple A games, then maybe this gen hasn't been great. But even then, there has been less "triple A games" but I feel they've been more consistently good.

 

[Rosebud]

99% of what I play is single player and this is my favorite gen.

The only thing I miss are small/AA japanese games we had on DS, but now we have tons of indies.

 

[dancingphlower]

I've had more fun this gen than any other gen tbh

 

[inner-G]

I agree OP, it's pretty sad.

The lack of any support for PS1/2/3 games on PS4 prompted me to exit the console space, and I haven't missed it.

I can still get all my Final Fantasies, Dragon Quests, Yakuzas and Japanese games though, as well as more traditional PC series like ANNO, while still playing the third party stuff like CoD, Forza Horizon, GTA, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2, etc. all at high settings and frame rates and without worrying if my library of games will still work on the console I get next year.

 

[Moist_Owlet]

This gen gave us bloodborne can't be all bad.

 

[Deleted member 56449]

Paid online was introduced last gen so I don't know what you're talking about

Yes there's shitty practices this gen but calling the whole gen the worst? Nah that's too much

 

[Eumi]

I couldn't care less about the generation.

All I care about is that fun games continue to release, which they do. The raw numbers on new ip's or how many games have micros transactions now compared to last gen don't matter when I'm still drowning in great games to play.

I'm not sure I've once in the last few years been sitting around feeling like I have nothing good to play.

 

[Silky]

Sunset Overdrive is still the best game of the generation for me and not a single game after it has really surpassed it

 

[Soap]

I don't know. Less FPS games and a resurgent Japanese industry are huge positives for me. I agree the GaaS stuff is worse than ever though.

 

[MattHeus]

There was some good shit, and some bad shit... Just like every other Gen.

 

[Shambala]

Speak for yourself. This gen is the best for me I terms of games.

 

[Host Samurai]

Last gen was a dark age imo. Brown shooter games, shoe horned MP modes that nobody asked for in SP games, lack of variety, westernization of Japanese titles etc.

 

[butman]

Last gen was the born of HD and every game fps was pure crap.

 

[Rndom Grenadez]

I'd like to discuss the main reasons why I think this console generation is the worst one.

1. New IP's

This generation's new IP's simply don't compare to the new IP's of previous generations in my opinion, and that disappointing. There are exceptions. Bloodborne, Overwatch, and PUBG are among my favorite games of the generation. But there have been a lot of disappointments. Many of the best games this generation are continuations of IP established last generation. I hope that next gen will bring us exciting new series from all the major publishers.

2. GAAS/Live Service/Microtransactions/Other Nickel & Diming bullshit/AAA Single Player Games Dying

I'm not saying that GAAS is inherently bad. My problem is that it seems like every publisher is after that cash cow. And why wouldn't they? We see thread after thread of *insert publisher here* posting record profits thanks to GAAS titles and Microtransactions. We see several gaming executives announce that they'll shift company focus to pursue this style of game. My problem is that we've reached a point of over saturation, especially in AAA. What does it say about this gen that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order being single player only with no microtransactions makes headlines? It's a problem that I now have to question how whichever game from major publisher is gonna nickel and dime me. Meanwhile, us fans of Single Player titles are left with Japanese publishers, Bethesda, and Some Sony first party devs to pick up the slack.

3. Paid Online

Simple, it's a total ripoff and all the platform holders do it now.


And there you have it. That's my opinionated take on this generation. I hope that next gen will be better for us. I'd also like to point out that even though I think this is the worst gen, I don't think it was god awful. There are plenty of great and amazing games released this go around, but thanks to the reasons above, I feel like I've become less engaged with gaming and that sucks.

Click to shrink...

Wholeheartedly disagree with this. Many of the best games this gen are either new IP (The ones you mentioned plus Hollow Knight, Celeste (at least in terms of mainstream popularity), Horizon, Inside, Undertale etc.) or completely rejuvenated their respective franchises (BotW, Odyssey and God of War.).

Given my previous point, every game mentioned also was a single player experience that wasn't a GAAS apart from Overwatch.

 

[Vertpin]

This gen has been incredible.

 

[Dr. Lucien Sanchez]

Can't really agree there at all. PS4 & Switch have been killing it and some of my favorite gaming experiences have been this gen.

Like some posters have said in this thread though, if you're primarily an xbox/microsoft consumer, then yeah, I guess it's not been a great ride compared to the 360 and og xbox.

 

[dtamago]

I agree with some of your points, but I don't really consider it to be so bad, then again if you compare it to past ones, I kinda see where you're coming from.

 

[Deleted member 364]

If you like Japanese games and Sony 1st Party, this gen is better than last gen hands down.

Western AAA dropped the fucking ball though.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Madness.

This gen = best gen

There are more people, and more talented people, making games than ever in history. We have an embarrassment of riches.

 

[Kyrios]

I've had more fun this gen than any other gen tbh

Click to shrink...

This. Between PS4 and Switch I've been having a blast this gen.

 

[Clefargle]

For someone who likes Japanese games, comparing this to last gen? Night and day.

Click to shrink...

Thisssssss

 

[entremet]

I avoid all those GAAS games and still have tons of fun. I don't get how GAAS existing somehow takes away from your enjoyment in other genres.

All these GAAS companies were making MP shooters last gen. Same stuff basically. They're just chasing the same money.

 

[Lukemia SL]

Can't agree, not even a little. This has been the best gen for me. I'm playing so many great games.

 

['V']

I feel almost the same. This gen has been very boring for me for the most part because the franchises I used to love have lost what made them special and a lot of them have become yearly rehash franchises so their publishers can make maximum profits, such as Assassins Creed. Hell, even the games which were already yearly rinse and repeat games like FIFA and CoD were still better last gen than they are now. Games like CoD 4 and Modern Warfare 2 were almost masterpiece Call of Duty games and it felt like the devs had a passion to make the best game they can whereas now I feel they're being restrained and are releasing the same game year after year with minimal improvements because their publishers know it'll sell millions regardless.

 

[Code Artisan]

GaaS is a disease that comes from mobile mainly

Click to shrink...

It came from PC with such games as ultima online, Asheron call, World of warcraft then boomed with League of legends, rocket league, gta5 online, pubg, fortnite, ...

 

[JCX]

Noting will beat the nadir that was PS360Wii, but again depends on your tastes. Beyond just games though, I love how much cheaper games are now, the online games that come with ps+/XBL gold have gotten me to try games I'd never try on my own, and indies finally have matured into a place where they stand up against big AAA games (not that this is new, but indies are not as much corralled into an "indie" genre)