- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is admittedly a bit of a “feel old yet” thread but yes, we are approaching almost two decades since the unveiling and launch of the Xbox 360, which preceded the PlayStation 3.
These were some pretty interesting and I dare say important years on the tech front. This was the advent of HD gaming. Gone were the pixels and jags, and made way for what felt like the future, the graphical shock factor of powerhouses like Motorstorm, Gears of War and later, the first Assassin’s Creed.
But it wasn’t all about pushing graphics, of course. This was also the advent of what I think is perhaps one of the most important happenings in gaming: the indie boom. Thanks to digital platforms like Xbox Live Arcade and games like Braid, Super Meat Boy and Limbo, it was being proven that you don’t have to be big and expensive to produce great games and critical darlings.
(It was also the age of trilogies. So many trilogies. Resistance 1-3, Uncharted 1-3, Mass Effect 1-3, Crysis 1-3 and so on)
While the generation wasn’t really the groundbreaking years of 1996-1999, or the hailed industry high points of 2015-2017, some really well-known and well-regarded games dropped on these two platforms during their prime. The generation kickstarted with the comparatively rather forgotten Perfect Dark Zero but ended with the in my opinion really impressive double-whammy of The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V.
And in between, on the bigger scale, you had the previous game in that series, Grand Theft Auto IV, the aforementioned Uncharted and Mass Effect trilogies, as well as Assassin’s Creed II, Bioshock, Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid 4 and of course Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, The Orange Box as well as Portal 2.
On the smaller end of the spectrum, aside from the aforementioned indie titles, you had Flower, Journey and Terraria as well as Fez, and towards the end of the cycle, the critically lauded The Walking Dead Season 1.
Then there were games that are lost to most memory, of course, both due to infamy (DmC and Too Human) and just forgetfulness. (Haze and Brink)
And aside from all of this, let’s not forget the PSP, who lived a simultaneous life aside the big ones. It had its own slew of cool curiosities like LocoRoco and Patapon.
Some of my PS360 favourites include Final Fantasy XIII, Mirror’s Edge, Bayonetta, LittleBigPlanet and an indie game called The Unfinished Swan.
I get why the PS360 attracts criticism, and I wholly agree. This was when games sort of tried to “grow up”, and the result was a lot of trends like the brown and grey shooters that became common. The character galleries were so homogenous that we laugh at them today, and boy’s club and “dudebro” behaviour was perhaps way more common back then, something that bled into online play as well.
It’s just that, on a personal note, I have a degree of fondness for the PS360 era from a pure gaming and hardware perspective, so I wanted to make this thread about a less talked about aspect of retro gaming. Aside from its shortcomings, there’s a lot of pearls and gems here. What do you think? Was this generation part of your formative gaming years? Was it good, or does it belong in the trash? Are there any games from this era you have good memories about? Any favourites?
These were some pretty interesting and I dare say important years on the tech front. This was the advent of HD gaming. Gone were the pixels and jags, and made way for what felt like the future, the graphical shock factor of powerhouses like Motorstorm, Gears of War and later, the first Assassin’s Creed.
But it wasn’t all about pushing graphics, of course. This was also the advent of what I think is perhaps one of the most important happenings in gaming: the indie boom. Thanks to digital platforms like Xbox Live Arcade and games like Braid, Super Meat Boy and Limbo, it was being proven that you don’t have to be big and expensive to produce great games and critical darlings.
(It was also the age of trilogies. So many trilogies. Resistance 1-3, Uncharted 1-3, Mass Effect 1-3, Crysis 1-3 and so on)
While the generation wasn’t really the groundbreaking years of 1996-1999, or the hailed industry high points of 2015-2017, some really well-known and well-regarded games dropped on these two platforms during their prime. The generation kickstarted with the comparatively rather forgotten Perfect Dark Zero but ended with the in my opinion really impressive double-whammy of The Last of Us and Grand Theft Auto V.
And in between, on the bigger scale, you had the previous game in that series, Grand Theft Auto IV, the aforementioned Uncharted and Mass Effect trilogies, as well as Assassin’s Creed II, Bioshock, Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid 4 and of course Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, The Orange Box as well as Portal 2.
On the smaller end of the spectrum, aside from the aforementioned indie titles, you had Flower, Journey and Terraria as well as Fez, and towards the end of the cycle, the critically lauded The Walking Dead Season 1.
Then there were games that are lost to most memory, of course, both due to infamy (DmC and Too Human) and just forgetfulness. (Haze and Brink)
And aside from all of this, let’s not forget the PSP, who lived a simultaneous life aside the big ones. It had its own slew of cool curiosities like LocoRoco and Patapon.
Some of my PS360 favourites include Final Fantasy XIII, Mirror’s Edge, Bayonetta, LittleBigPlanet and an indie game called The Unfinished Swan.
I get why the PS360 attracts criticism, and I wholly agree. This was when games sort of tried to “grow up”, and the result was a lot of trends like the brown and grey shooters that became common. The character galleries were so homogenous that we laugh at them today, and boy’s club and “dudebro” behaviour was perhaps way more common back then, something that bled into online play as well.
It’s just that, on a personal note, I have a degree of fondness for the PS360 era from a pure gaming and hardware perspective, so I wanted to make this thread about a less talked about aspect of retro gaming. Aside from its shortcomings, there’s a lot of pearls and gems here. What do you think? Was this generation part of your formative gaming years? Was it good, or does it belong in the trash? Are there any games from this era you have good memories about? Any favourites?