Now on rare occasions here at TheSixthAxis we have been accused of being a bit old fashioned, some of us in particular. So maybe modern games are just lacklustre clones of each other, but it seems that Metacritic disagrees with our humble opinion. Apparently they’ve crunched the numbers for the first half of this year, which show that 2010’s games are beating out 2009 so far. That’s right, screw last year, 2010 is where it’s at. Not only is the average score up, but the top tier games are performing marginally better as well.
Now I’ll be the first to say that Metacritic is a very useful tool for getting the overall feel of how a game is performing, but I don’t know if I’d really say that games are really getting better. Yes we have higher definition graphics and more immersive experiences, pushing gaming into a multi-billion dollar industry but are things actually better than they were?
I’ve talked about the glow that youth brings to memories before, the way that Creme Eggs seem smaller than they were when we were kids, the fact that pink lemonade may not have actually been any better than normal lemonade. Is gaming any different? Of course because games don’t expire, unlike Creme Eggs and lemonade sadly do, we can go back and check if they’re any good.
Simple fact of the matter is that games from our youth are still awesome. I’ll happily contest that the 2D GTAs are better than their modern equivalents, the first Super Mario Bros. is still an incredible amount of fun, and of course the modern Sonic games are easily trumped by their classic equivalents. This isn’t to say that all modern games are trash, there are obviously a huge wealth of stand out titles coming to the market today. I think the big difference is with more money in the market increasing the number of games being made, there are more games that can absolutely bomb.
What’s your feeling on this? Is Metacritic right, and we’re heading into years of games that continue to top each other year after year? Have games got worse? My personal opinion on the whole thing is that whilst there are more good games available, the percentage of top rank games has stayed about the same.
Lorcan
Well, whilst people say that old games are better than new ones, I feel it’s never a case of that being true for everyone, but only to the person saying it.
It’s all about nostalgia.
For example, you say you think 2D top down GTA is way better than 3D GTA. However, as someone who only ever played the 2D ones for a short period before the 3D ones and then only fully after some of the 3D ones, I just don’t enjoy them half as much. For me, it’s all about the big 3D worlds.
If you gave me Crash Bandicoot 2 and Crash of the Titans, and then gave the same two games to someone who’s never played a Crash game before, we’d both have completely opposing views as to which is best. Without even blinking I’d say Crash 2. I grew up with that game. But for the other person, they’d probably enjoy the brighter, flashier, more feature filled adventure they’d had in Crash of the Titans.
We always enjoy “older” games because when we were younger, we were less experienced and more easily amused. There was a magic to games most of us didn’t understand. We couldn’t see the triggers, or spot the scripted events. A lot of that magic is lost now.
seedaripper1973
‘Crash of the Titans’? oh the irony…
BetaGhast
I have to disagree and say that older games are ALOT better than newer ones, my basis for this is having recently played alot of games I never played, SNES-PSone games, older Final Fantasies, Chrono series etc.
All of these games have no “modern” equal, there’s a serious lack of originality these days, there is no way in hell that the new generation of games (*cough* 90% FPS’ *cough*) stand up to past generations.
I think the reason for this is the ever-increasing costs to make the games, it’s about profit now more than ever.
I loved Final Fantasy XIII, but it doesn’t stand to compare against the older ones.
Nostalgia clearly has a part in this, but it’s not as massive as people think, to date my favourite game of all time is still Super Metroid, and I don’t think that’s going to change, In my opinion (which is what this debate boils down to) no current gen game can match it.
As someone said above, new games have too much reliance on multiplayer, and when those serves go off? yeah, dud game.
Alot has changed.
10 points if you can guess my age.
Armonster9000
The only games that I’ve actually gone back to were…
Super Mario Bros. Super Mario Bros. 2. Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
That’s all really. I prefer the new games that are out. I have great memories with those old games, and I can see why I loved them, but in my opinion they are nothing compared to modern games. I still like them for what they are but I do prefer the new ones. I think it was just the fact that games were so new to me and there fresh ideas in each of them. Now, all the ideas are stale and nothing new is coming out.
xdarkmagician
I think that every year games naturally get better because developers get more familiar with the hardware. When you look at some of the best games out there today they all have one thing in common, and that’s an interview with one of the designers say that they have become more efficient with the technology available, and that their game wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. It’s just electronic evolution.
Although it doesn’t account for the possibility of reviews becoming more commercialized. It seems like todays standards of reviews are questionable as games usually scoe at least 6/10 just for showing up. And with more and more people/publishers relying on a system like Meta one has to wonder how long that system can operate before becoming influenced or currupted.
ericzap
Funny… I was playing Super Mario World for SNES. Talk about quality. A much simpler style of game to be sure, but success or failure, it’s you who causes it. No lag, glitching, nada. Granted that games have become much more complex but I loved that game.