31 replies to this topic

[ElectricTroy]

MegaManFan said:

I used to think so too, but now that we've approached live TV realism (playing Madden 2001 is almost as good as a real football game on TV, and that's two years old) I think the borderline to what the improvements can be will be so miniscule we won't even notice.  

You forgot about HDTV. That means consoles will have to boost their output from 640x480 to 1700x1024 resolution and push 5.5 times as many pixels.

Plus consoles need to create people that move realistically (like Shrek) instead of puppets on strings (like FF10).

So there's still room for growth.

chrisbid said:

ill have to go with Saturn/PSX/N64.  the "3D explosion" was butt ugly in my book.  The frame rates were too choppy, and the textures were often disgusting.  

Exactly! Well said. I supect you, like me, would rather see a beautifully-rendered sprite-based game like Final Fantasy 5/6 than a bad 3D game like FF7/8/Spyro. The programmers were pushing 3D polygons/textures but the technology was not up to the challenge. It just looked bad.

It was not until near the end of the 32-bit era that games finally looked decent (FF9/Perfect Dark/Masks of Majora).

liveinabin said:

 I can't remember seeing anything on the 16-bits that couldn't have been done on 8-bit (although with more lo-res graphics)..

For me the jump from 8-bit to 16-bit was like the jump from PS1 to PS2. Sure, the games are the same but they LOOK so much better. Anyway, given the choice between the original 8-bit Super Mario and the upgraded 16-bit Mario All-Stars, I choose the upgraded version. It looks better and sounds waaaay better.* The atmosphere of the game is vastly improved which makes it a more enjoyable experience.

*(When I listen to stereo Mario All-Stars on my surround sound system it sounds rich and vibrant. The original 8-bit version is monaural and flat.)

[ultravi0let]

i remember selling my SNES for a Jaguar; some of the games on it where great but i couldn't play 3 games forever realy, in gameplay terms i had lost out selling the SNES, but then again i was splolt a little with Super Mario World

[Gabriel]

Hmmmm. I don't think I've ever been unimpressed with an entire generation. However, I have been unimpressed with certain systems.

I know I was definitely unimpressed with the Nintendo 64. The only game that came close was when I watched Star Wars Episode 1 Racer in a demo. The N64 simply had lots of things going against it: bad games, bad controllers, limited storage, blurry graphics, etc.

Although, I must say that I've reacquired a N64. I finally found ONE killer app game, Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. But, most of this game could be done equally well on the PS1.

For the most part the Dreamcast failed to impress me. The only title that stood out on that system was Soul Calibur. Grandia II and Garou were also impressive, but nothing that any other system couldn't already do.

The X-Box is also failing to impress. The library is pretty dreary, packed with FPS types of games. Panzer Orta utterly failed to even live up to the expectation of being a good game, much less living up to the legacy of Zwei. This year will probably tell if the X-Box will ever wow and amaze or will simply limp along with Microsoft throwing money at it.

[shep]

Gabriel said:

...For the most part the Dreamcast failed to impress me...

AH MY EYES! I love the DC!

Gabriel said:

The X-Box is also failing to impress.  The library is pretty dreary, packed with FPS types of games.  Panzer Orta utterly failed to even live up to the expectation of being a good game, much less living up to the legacy of Zwei.  This year will probably tell if the X-Box will ever wow and amaze or will simply limp along with Microsoft throwing money at it.

Although I agree that the Xbox has failed to impress me overall, but somehow other people, I disagree that Panzer is a bad title.

[chrisbid]

well, i for one was floored with what the Sega Genesis could pump out in 89 when i played a perfect arcade port of Strider for the first time on the system. Even the Grand Master's laugh from the arcade was thrown in and it sounded great, and the game itself looked incredible, and had tight tight controls and gameplay. As for shovelware, i think its safe to say that roughly 90% of games from every generation are crap. When i say crap i mean that a game can be fun when it was new, but just doesn't have "IT". That something that makes a game as fun to play fifteen years after its release as it was the first day it was published. The number fluctuates a bit from system to system, but we all know that the more popular systems do get more shovelware than the systems that finished behind the leader. I always loved the 16-bit days becasue the competition between Sega and Nintendo was fierce, and both companies went all out to support their systems. It was the first time I personally sought to own both consoles on the market, and i eventually did own both while i was in high school.

this is one of the things that bugs me about this current console "war". Microsoft and Sony have very little to do with the content of their machines, and Nintendo is doing everything they possibly can to support their machine, and they are still losing. The same thing can be said about the Dreamcast, as Sega put their heart and soul into that glorious white box and came out a big loser in the end.

[Nintendo Penguin]

The N64 and PS1 Generation of game did NOT impress me. The 3-d Shooter thing was pretty cool at first, but I got tired of it. I loved Atari, NES, SNES... then for some reason I was only into PC games (as far as modern gaming goes) until the GameCube came out.

[Vic George 2K3]

liquid_sky said:

the n64 was a f---in waste

I didn't think it was a waste, except for the fact that it was the second home system Nintendo developed that they didn't make any use of the expansion port slot (except in Japan, where the Dynamic Drive adapter they've been dangling in our faces like a carrot was released).

As far as what generation of systems failed to impress me...I haven't come across that generation yet. Though it's most likely that what would follow the Playstation 2, the X-Box, and the Gamecube would be the generation of systems that could potentially fail to impress me.