On significance of platform transition: PS1/PS2/PS3/PS4

[dsheinem]

[IrishNinja]

i know it's cheating, but nothing's come close to the jump from 16 to 32 bit (PSX0 for me, just watching old stuff like mario and metal gear transition was magical in a way that part of me thinks only VR currently has a chance of eclipsing, for some genres

[Exhuminator]

i know it's cheating, but nothing's come close to the jump from 16 to 32 bit (PSX0 for me, just watching old stuff like mario and metal gear transition was magical in a way that part of me thinks only VR currently has a chance of eclipsing, for some genres

I agree that the transition from 4th to 5th gen was even more of a leap than 5th to 6th. I was playing Jumping Flash! earlier today, and the whole time thinking how much that game must have blown players' minds back in 1995. It certainly would have impressed the hell outta me.

[o.pwuaioc]

i know it's cheating, but nothing's come close to the jump from 16 to 32 bit (PSX0 for me, just watching old stuff like mario and metal gear transition was magical in a way that part of me thinks only VR currently has a chance of eclipsing, for some genres

I'll second that, too. I voted PS1 to PS2, but really the gen before was the bigger leap. Even if one preferred 2D, the new 3D worlds were amazing.

[Sarge]

I think the 4th -> 5th transition was the ultimate "you had to be there" generation. From a technical perspective, it was amazing, seeing 3D rendering and whatnot after years of 2D gaming, but from a gameplay perspective almost everything took a significant step back. That, and artistic design as well. There are precious few PSX/N64 games that have aged well in that department.

Of course, you could also argue that those growing pains are what made that generation special, a sort of NES generation all over again. For all the misses, you'd still get games that knocked it out of the park.

(And then, of course, you get the best 32-bit game of all, Symphony of the Night, which was purely 2D.)

[o.pwuaioc]

I think the 4th -> 5th transition was the ultimate "you had to be there" generation. From a technical perspective, it was amazing, seeing 3D rendering and whatnot after years of 2D gaming, but from a gameplay perspective almost everything took a significant step back. That, and artistic design as well. There are precious few PSX/N64 games that have aged well in that department.

Of course, you could also argue that those growing pains are what made that generation special, a sort of NES generation all over again. For all the misses, you'd still get games that knocked it out of the park.

(And then, of course, you get the best 32-bit game of all, Symphony of the Night, which was purely 2D.)

I'd take the NES over 5th gen 3D any day. But beyond Symphony, you had several impressive 2D shooters, like DoPachi, Strikers, Shienryu. You had the Mega Man X4-6 games and Street Alpha/3 updates. You had the rise of Darkstalkers and Marvel vs. Capcom. You had Metal Slug and Rayman and Klonoa, and a bunch of polished RPGs, some of which barely utilized 3D.

It was a good gen for 2D. I still think it pales in comparison to the 2 gens prior, but I wouldn't give it up.

[Sarge]

Oh yeah, definitely. The best games of that era were actually the ones that continued the legacy of the SNES and Genesis. And there were definitely fantastic RPGs, even the ones that used 3D. I've enjoyed pretty much everything you listed.

Still, you could really tell that the PS2 generation really gave the devs more muscle to achieve their vision for 3D gaming. The average PS2 game is far better than the average PS1 game. And the same is often true for the PS3 vs. PS2 as well... except for, strangely, in RPGs, where the PS2 was rife with fantastic ones and the PS3/360 saw a significant decline in great JRPGs. But they also saw the rise of WRPGs in the console space as well!

[Exhuminator]

but from a gameplay perspective almost everything took a significant step back

I think some genres evolved purposefully during the 5th gen, but I'll at least agree that 5th gen third person camera games aged bad in general. 5th gen was where developers had to start learning to create useful and intelligent cameras that follow the player around, no easy or simple task as we remember. Thankfully a lot of the 5th gen first person stuff still plays well though, mainly due to not needing the external camera angle.

[Sarge]

Yeah, a few genres really made strides. Racing games, in particular, really started coming into their own, and actually, a lot of sports games probably did, too. And you started getting some of your FPSs as well. There are just some genres that the move to 3D really helped.

[Jmustang1968]

Yeah, a few genres really made strides. Racing games, in particular, really started coming into their own, and actually, a lot of sports games probably did, too. And you started getting some of your FPSs as well. There are just some genres that the move to 3D really helped.

PS1 was huge for sports. Madden 99 I think was the year, first for franchise mode. Changed sports games from then on.