Which generation/aesthetic do you miss?

I miss the 32-bit beginning days. The 3D0/PS 1 days and all their low-rent charm. The low poly models that managed to express so much with so little, the blotchy textures that complimented them, the "we only have one digital RO Mpler keyboard" music that was awesome despite the limited palette, the hammy voice acting obviously done by the programmers and office staff back before every game hired Hollywood-level talent, analogless gamepads, etc... It wasn't that impressive in retrospect, but growing up with 16-bit and into 32-bit made me appreciate that graphic style more than ever.

What era do you miss the most, and what exactly do you miss about it?

I miss the PS 2 era because there was an explosion of innovation and whatnot with a nice balance between the freedom to make good graphics if you wanted to but also no particular obligation. Basically, I think this latest generation ruined everything by increasing development costs with minimal user benefit. Unless you're a graphic whore I guess.

On the other hand, SNES had the best graphics ever. Super Mario World remains the first and only game to impress me with its graphics.

I miss times where Science Fiction games had square and/or sphere-dotted buildings with softly pulsing lights embedded in them (think of Raptor Call Of The Shadows or Dune II).

None, really. I'm perfectly happy with this generation.

SNES really was impressive. Never ceased to amaze me and the games were so innovative! It was my first console and my first love. SNES forever, man.

It was even more impressive if you grew up playing the Atari and the original NES.

I somewhat miss the PS 1 era, mainly because it was Squaresoft highpoint in many ways. Yes, the SNES had tons of awesome RP Gs, but PS 1 was when Square started experimenting with a whole bunch of different styles and genres.

Starting with the PS 2 era, their games were more refined, but there just seemed to be a lot less experimentation and innovation.

I'd say every generation only produces its best fruits during the dying years. That's the time people really exploit the capabilities of the console.

The 4th and 5th gens were awesome in this regard (the 4th with some awesome 3d on 16-bit consoles and the few 5th gen games with graphics and gameplay that were almost 6th gen) so it seems really sad that the 6th gen was rushed to the cematorium while it was still kicking. The retro community does produce some gems every now and then but the golden years are past.

I'd like to see the 8th gen consoles and handhelds delayed for a decade or so until the 7th gen can be as fully exploited as the 5th gen was.

I miss a particular generation? I do enjoy several selects from each generation but I'm not going to kid myself, each generation has its own unique favor and experimentation, which is why I can enjoy realistic looking and gritty games like Demon Souls while having fun with Pokemon Red for its basic but still very strategic battle system.

I miss pretty much everything in the past. Everything starting from yesterday is Lostalgia. When it was chic to use photographed human faces as model textures, when it was okay to say "these four pixels are you, a little little man, try to not die!" and you had fun with it, when an FM chip could produce more soul to a tune than a modern-day 5.1 soundtrack can (System Shock and its innovative use of MIDI instruments to simulate haunting screams still worries me), when you first went "wow, holy crap, that leather thong has relief!" (Blood Rayne, before you ask), when 255 colours were enough to paint a mind-bendingly beauticious galaxy of wonders (Tyrian and Simon The Sorcerer, for example, though Star Craft is also this, if you didn't know), and so on and so on. Le sigh.

I miss indestructible games and 2 second load times.

^^ No.

I miss memory cards.  ^*

They've sorta of returned in the form of portable hard drives for the consoles. Only difference is that you'll have to overwrite whatever is on the hard drive first in order for it to work, which means no taking your save games to a friend's house unless he's willing to lose his data.

I did really like the look of the Gameboy Advance-era Pokemon games. They just looked cool, you know?

I kinda wish I could've been around a bit more prominently during the SNES/Genesis console war. The atmosphere, the games, it just felt so cool.

Yeah, same here.

I wouldn't say I miss that era, though. Good games are good, no matter how old or new, and every generation had it's share.

Having grown up from an Atari 2600 to today's gaming... I miss cardriges. Short load times, that nice, weighty heft of a new game... I can remember being blown away picking up the gold N64 cartridge of Ocarina of Time, because it felt twice as heavy as any of my others. I don't know, there was something visceral about chunking that thing into your SNES, Genesis or 64... Or throwing your Perfect Dark cart across the room because those fucking virtual missions against invisible hardsims with tranquilizer guns was INFURIATING without fear of destroying your game. Now, I set a disc down on a coffee table and it will never play again.

I miss the antiquity of 32-bit graphics too... Just something special. I'm still stuck thinking that PS 2 era graphics are good looking. I play 360's now and I'm still awed every time I pick up a gamepad. How far we've come... How far we've come.

Slow cartridges (well, DS cards) do exist, you know. Worms: Open Warfare 2 has Loads and Loads of Loading.

I think I miss the late years of the fourth generation (which is when I was the most in console gaming), though I grew up with home computers (Amstrad CPC 6128, I was born in late 1983).

edited 8th Mar '11 8:04:07 AM by Medinoc

Remember those cartoony "mascot"-esque designs of Sly, Banjo-Kazooie, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Spyro, Mario, etc and their 3D platformers?

I wish there were more of those. Those were what I thought was the best of gaming back in those days. Obviously not, but they were good and they just sort of... disintegrated out.

The rise in graphic technology and the target audiences growing up are what caused the demise of those. I miss them too.

We might conceivably see a return of cartridges, with the dropping costs of memory. Zip drives can hold a *lot* of data pretty cheaply these days. . . and if you designed a cartridge based media properly, it'd be a hell of a lot harder to pirate than disks. Hell, just using a non-standard interface socket would help a lot.

We still get lots of new mascot games... as Wii and DS shovelware, that is.

edited 8th Mar '11 2:46:56 PM by Recon5