So do I, but I have been always -from 80s years- a computer man/boy, not a console man/boy. I grew up with 8 bit computers, so I like computers for gaming, not consoles. I think computers always had much more game types and more liberty to do innovator things.
In this way I think I'll love Pyra because it is a computer with keyboard -so I can do computer tasks- and also it can emulate old computers, where pocket consoles can't do it well as they don't have physical keyboards (and a screen keyboard is never the same).
I've also actually pretty much lost interest in modern pc titles as well.
I've put it down to ... as has been intimated... my advancing age.
As a kid and teen I loved consoles and computers in equal measure... though my bias could be described thus:
Handhelds>Computers>Consoles.
So as you can imagine, to me the Pyra is one delicious piece of kit... which I would choose over any console, smartphone, or hand-held currently in existence.
You can take your PS4s or even 5s and 6es... But I know what gets *my* juices going.
I've also actually pretty much lost interest in modern pc titles as well.
I've put it down to ... as has been intimated... my advancing age.
As a kid and teen I loved consoles and computers in equal measure... though my bias could be described thus:
Handhelds>Computers>Consoles.
So as you can imagine, to me the Pyra is one delicious piece of kit... which I would choose over any console, smartphone, or hand-held currently in existence.
You can take your PS4s or even 5s and 6es... But I know what gets *my* juices going.
I think this is partly a result of recent games -- or, at least, recent games with enough marketing ooomph that one might be expected to have heard of them -- being pretty uninspired for, perhaps, the last ten years -- I place the "decline" as starting around 2002; I am geeky enough that I have rated all the games I remember having played, by several criteria, and have produced a graph that shows a precipitous fall in the overall quality of the games since 2000, having peaked in 1999, with an even steeper decline in the number of games from each year that I was interested enough in to play in the first place. 2006 is my lowest rated year, excepting the last 5 years (where I have not really paid any attention to new stuff, aside from the Linux-exclusives, RPG kickstarters -- not played -- and FOSS games; generally I don't play new games, watch new films or like, relying on accumulated word-of-mouth to only experience "classics") and the period before 1992 (which I have little experience with, but am trying to "populate"). 2006 should have been one of my better years, from a generational point of view, as that was probably the prime of my life -- I first played games on a 1991 DOS computer given to me in 1998, fist playing significant numbes around 2000 and first playing significant numbers of good games at around 2002, having developed some discernment.
Total score/RAWAVG is the total of all the scores for that year, divided by 5 to scale similarly to the Release cnt. line (which is the number of games released that year that I have played) -- these two use the left y axis; if the blue bar is below the red line, the average game quality was below average. On the right y-axis are RAW Avg. (the average score for the games played from that year), Raw Movavg (the average of RAW Avg. from the past 5 years -- a bit messy/unsound, I know, but easier than doing an average from 5 years of games in Libreoffice Calc) and BayesMovavg, which is a Bayesian average using the year's moving average value as the typical value, reflecting how a user may, typically, play games from a 5-year window. 1999 being the best year, based on games I have played so far, should be clear -- the spike in 1993 is because one of the four games I recall having played, from that year, is DOOM, with the other three being decent (no duds, so far): Phantasy Star 4, Aladdin (Capcom's SNES version) and Might and Magic: World of Xeen; most other years have at least one lacklustre game.
I think one of the reasons why there has been a decline is quality is this: I would not, personally, want to work in the games industry, while being qualified for it. In the past, it seems, one would be doing new things with relatively limited hardware, in small teams with high personal influence on the end-product, with long hours and, usually, less pay than for other jobs (for the programmers, at least -- I know not about other roles). Now, it seems, there are still long hours and relatively low pay, but the work is not as new and exciting, with the work more "corporate", with large groups of people, sometimes scattered across the world, working on behemoth programs, with little personal influence on the end-product. Oh, and, now, we have many programmers used to, and preferring, Unix/Linux and who do not want to touch Microsoft stuff, which I believe would be unavoidable in the modern games industry: large proprietary programs and libraries, and development environments, designed with MS Windows use only, with applications to MS Windows and a bunch of consoles. I do not want to know.
In the meantime, over the last ten years, the new stuff has been web apps, smartphones, robotics and, perhaps, "Big Data", the "Cloud" and the "Internet of Things" (I cannot see past the marketing speak, yet), with most of these paying more than the games industry, with better working conditions. Looking Glass Studios, for example, was supposed to be an MIT colony when they produced much of their best stuff -- why would a new MIT graduate want to work in the games industry, today? I do not see it.
True, it is probable that many of the bad aspects I see about the modern games industry existed in the late '90s "golden era" as well, but, at that time, most of the people working on games (or in influential positions, at least) would have been, I expect, people who joined up in the late '80s and early '90s when, I believe, it is true that teams were small, personal influence high, and the work novel. I view the late '90s as being a product of early '90s talent and attitude (heavily influenced by D&D -- including DOOM as well as most of the western RPGs -- including Wizardry, the inspiration for the JRPG), augmented by the vastly* improved technology of the late '90s itself. This would also, partly, explain the decline since: after about that period, the team size really increased, the early '90s people went higher into management or were laid off from companies, like Looking Glass, that went bankrupt; meanwhile, newer, less-D&D-influenced, and less nerdy (and perhaps less well-educated and intelligent, on average) people **joined the vastly expanding industry. As a result, we got a slow regression to mediocrity.
*I think the most drastic graphical improvements were from about 1990 to about 2000. I suppose 2004-ish graphics to "good enough" -- or, more precisely, "no improvement needed". Screenshots I see from new games tend not to impress me significantly more than those from the prettier 2004 games. Of course, this varies by genre and art-style -- my only graphical complaint with The Dig is with the compression artefacts on the video cutscenes, unavoidable in 1995. Planescape: Torment, from 1999, looks gorgeous, though on modern screens a high-resolution or widescreen mod may be beneficial.
**Another perk of the early '90s, I suppose, would be that, by joining the industry back then, one would have (at least in the PC market) been surrounded by other extremely nerdy, educated people, most of whom were familiar with D&D -- quite a lot of the early games were derived from pen and paper roleplaying game campaigns. Now, I expect to be watered down somewhat, especially the D&D aspect, which I suspect to have greatly influenced early first-person shooters, but no more as the typical person who really wants to make a modern FPS is probably not the same type who likes D&D -- hence simpler levels, fewer secrets and a less D&D-like health system.
Yes, there are indie games, but I do not have the time to sift-through them. Occasionally I play one that I have heard about, but they tend to be pretty shallow, wile for older non-indie games, I suppose, companies were more stable and with more experience, producing, on average, more polished products -- also, of course, these have been sifted by the collective memory of the internet, while the indies have not, yet, as a rule. The post-2011 part of my graph is not very trustworth, as can be seen from the Release cnt. line.
Spoilered, some of my spreadsheet:
*For games where completion is not expected or normal, or particularly revelatory, such as strategy games where multiple playthrough may be required, or games that never end, or games where completion is not necessary to get a feel for all their systems and significant plot etc., THEN “completion” is an indicator of how much significant knowledge I have about the game. 100% completion means that I have seen all that is probaby necessary to see to judge the game.
**NOT technical graphics: though the rendering code is roughly the same for the original Unreal, Unreal Tournament and for Deus Ex, Unreal is clearly the prettiest and Deus Ex the ugliest. This field is somewhat subjective.
***Includes story pacing, character skill development (in RPGs), difficulty curve, weapons and powerups (in DOOM clones) etc.. Also, how I feel I was “dragged along”to wish to continue. Also, just how good the story is, if there is one.
Game nameRelease date (rough)Platform(s)GenreFirst playedLast playedTimes played (meaningfully; short games: sets)Completion*Aesthetics: Art & Music & SFX**Premise & Setting (why play?)Narrative & progression*** (why continue?)Gameplay (experience, thinking)Mood, intangibles and tilt (feeling)Rating (raw)Rating (sqrt)Rating (expo)Diff.Rating (hybrid)Genre numberFirst completionNotes Fallout1997Windows 95CRPG -01200420122.5100.00%4554.554.704.704.310.394.5112004 Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri1999Windows 98Strategy -02200520133100.00%454.5554.704.704.470.234.5822005 Discworld Noir1999Windows 98Adventure -05201520150.570.00%4554.554.701.971.553.153.125 Deus Ex2000Windows 98CRPG -01201420141.5100.00%4554.554.704.073.651.054.1812014 Fallout 21998Windows 95CRPG -01200420112.5100.00%44.54.5554.604.604.220.384.4112005 Thief: The Dark Project (Gold)1998Windows 95FPS -03200220151.5100.00%454554.603.983.571.034.0932015 Homeworld1999Windows 98RTS -04201520150.430.00%455454.601.130.833.772.724 Planescape: Torment1999Windows 98CRPG -01200720112100.00%554.53.554.604.603.980.624.2912007 Thief 2: The Metal Age2000Windows 98FPS -03201420150.980.00%454554.602.762.442.163.523 DOOM1993GNU/Linux, manyFPS -03201420151.5100.00%444.5554.503.903.501.004.0032014 Unreal1998Windows 98FPS -03201420151.2100.00%54.54454.503.493.141.363.8232015 Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines2004Windows XPCRPG -01200920142100.00%454.53.554.404.403.800.604.1012009 Shadow Warrior (1997, Shadow Warrior Classic Redux)1997GNU/Linux, manyFPS -03201420150.830.00%44.53554.301.491.303.002.803 Total War: Shogun2000Windows 98Strategy -02200420091.5100.00%44.54544.303.723.340.963.8222004 Star Wars: KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords2005Windows XPCRPG -01200520112100.00%3.554.53.554.304.303.720.584.0112008 Heretic1994GNU/Linux, manyFPS -03201420150.830.00%434.554.54.201.451.272.932.733 Discworld 2: Missing, presumed…1996Windows 95, SCUMMVMAdventure -05200220102100.00%454444.204.203.630.573.9252002 Grim Fandango (Remastered)1998Windows 98 & 7, GNU/LinuxAdventure -05201520151100.00%554344.202.972.651.553.4352015 Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne2004PS2JRPG -07201520150.640.00%44.544.544.201.451.203.002.707 Hearts of Iron 32009Windows XPStrategy -02201020122.5100.00%444544.204.203.860.344.0322010 Serious Sam 3: BFE2011GNU/LinuxFPS -0320132015170.00%4.533.5554.202.482.221.983.213 King's Quest 61992DOS, SCUMMVMAdventure -05199820122.5100.00%44444.54.104.103.760.343.9352005
Good games do get made. They're just that much harder to find because of all the noise. The game studios that shout the loudest don't necessarily have the best games.
I buy most of my games from gog. With so many old gems out there I find no need to play modern titles. I am currently enjoying thief gold and the first unreal and always have one mod on the go for never winter nights one or two. I am playing through Baldurs gate reloaded on nwn2 at the moment, an awesome fully 3d remake of baldurs gate and the best thing is it's free I have well over 100 gog games and haven't played a quarter of them yet.
I've also actually pretty much lost interest in modern pc titles as well.
I've put it down to ... as has been intimated... my advancing age.
As a kid and teen I loved consoles and computers in equal measure... though my bias could be described thus:
Handhelds>Computers>Consoles.
So as you can imagine, to me the Pyra is one delicious piece of kit... which I would choose over any console, smartphone, or hand-held currently in existence.
You can take your PS4s or even 5s and 6es... But I know what gets *my* juices going.
This post resonates so well with my feelings on the subject that I'd have hard time to describe it better, especially the "Handhelds>Computers>Consoles" part. Only slight difference is that form factor sometimes is issue for me, so there are ocasions when I'd prefer GBA Micro or Pokemon Mini over Pyra.
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