Whilst I’m not the oldest gamer on TSA’s staff roster (they remember parchment based RPGs), I’ve been around long enough to be privy to the evolution of the medium. From cassette tapes to Blu-ray, every gaming generation has had their classics; the games that get brought out every now and again in ‘best of’ lists, or as part of a reminiscing session down the pub, or even dragged up to settle old fanboy arguments (face it SEGA fans, the SNES was better…).
The first time the camera panned round a fully 3D Mushroom Kingdom in Mario 64; four-player deathmatch in GoldenEye 64; the haunting silence of ICO; your first few steps onto the lush green grass in Halo –if you’re anything like me then these are the things that will always have a place in your mind, even if they’re pushed to the back somewhere.
Unfortunately the last few years have left me feeling slightly empty in this respect. This is in no way a slight on the games that have been released, because we’ve had some corkers, but perhaps more the way that games are now viewed. The constant stream of high quality content means that, in my opinion, new games are often no more than fads.
Two weeks ago Brink was the game to play, and what seemed to populate every slot in my friends list, but that’s old hat now and has been brushed aside as L.A Noire takes centre stage. That hasn’t got long though, because although praise is being heaped on its fantastic looking features, people are now getting their hands on DiRT 3. The cycle begins again; nothing seems to stick anymore.
I’m aware that perhaps I’m coming across as ridiculously old fashioned, and I certainly will have missed out on a few classics that I should really try and play. There is also bound to be loads of you reading this who will disagree, which is fantastic because I hope you all have fond memories of the current generation.
For me though, sitting here scanning through my game collection, there are only a couple of games I can see that will stay with me for many years to come; games that evoked not only an emotional response during, but an amazing sense of satisfaction upon completion.
“So what are the games?” I hear you ask. Ah, well that would be telling…
cam_manutd
Nostalgic classics: FF6-12 excluding 8 :S
MGS series
Crash Bandicoot trilogy
Spyro trilogy
Chrono trigger
Earthbound
Rayman
Croc
Unreal Tournament 1
Resident Evil 2
Vagrant Story
Ridge Racer Type 4
Modern classics: Oblivion
Half Life 2
Resident Evil 4
Gears Of War
COD4
Uncharted 1+2
Killzone 2
Demon’s Souls
Heavy Rain
Dead Space
Mirrors Edge
Warhawk (defo :D )
Heavenly Sword
MGS4
Crackdown
Sympozium, cyclone tornado AGAIN!
excluding 8 :S
Why?…. Final Fantasy VIII is brillant :D haha
Sympozium, cyclone tornado AGAIN!
Oh I completely missed Croc….. that was so good, sad to not see that on the store :(
XisTG
Croc! I loved that game man! But I guess amongst other beasts like Crash Bandicoot he wouldn’t stand a chance :/
cam_manutd
8 isnt as good as the others 6-12 though the draw system does make for some strategic battles but at the time you expected far more from it…9 is far superior :)
And croc is the hardcore platformer :) crash 1 is in the same vein but 2 and 3 are pretty light :/ all great games and everyone who has a pc should try and play Earthbound as it is pretty amazing :D :D
KeRaSh
I agree with you there. It probably has something to do with age. When I was 6-15 years old, I was more impressed with great games than I am now. It’s always easier to impress a child than to have the same effect on an adult. Therefore we remember things from back then as real classics while even better games nowdays are easily forgotten.
Sympozium, cyclone tornado AGAIN!
You know whats classic? a 3D Sonic game!, I still completely love Sonic Adventure 2 and to see that appearing on the Digital services would be a dream come true. Easily the greatest platformer ever made…..
OH and Shenmue,yeah I haven’t played it but again Sega have really losted it with the DC collection unless it just going to be in packs like the Mega Drive collections on Steam/PC.
So to this day the PS3 games that i will forever remember is ones that I truly adored.Yakuza will be forever remembered for its character and exciting gameplay elements, Prince of Persia will be remembered for its art style and charm and White Knight Chronicles will be remembered for endlessly allowing the Princess to be captured. LEONARD!!!!! YOU LOOKED AWAY FROM ME AGAIN!!
I’d likely buy the PS3 games that I used to own and loved at a low price deep into the next gen. Its what the PS2 is like and I have found so many games that I’ve always been wanting to play Final Fantasy X, Ape Escape 2, MGS3 etc, ect….. I’m still hoping for Dark CLoud and the Team Ico games!
teflon
When it comes to the generic shooters, a lot of those will be forgotten very quickly, but there’s undoubtedly a lot of gems in the mix that people will remember for a long time.
LittleBigPlanet will have a legacy, as will Heavy Rain. LA Noire is brilliant in it’s depiction of 1940s LA, along with the potential start of some technological marvels. Uncharted’s gameplay might be a mish-mash from several areas, but it’s also great for the story telling and cinematic value.
Oh, and lets not forget Portal. The game that spawned a thousand crazy ridiculous memes in ’07…
XisTG
Uncharteds and Heavy Rain will surely be classics for me. And Fallout 3 was my first Fallout, so despite the bugs I loved it and it’s story. Played it to completion twice :)
Ganja
Well that’s your opinion. This gen has given me scores of classics. For instance;
Bioshock
Red Dead Redemption
L.A Noire
Dead Space 1 & 2
Portal 1 & 2
GTA IV
Fable 2
FF XIII
Heavy Rain
Uncharted Series
Gears of War Series
Witcher 2
Demon Souls
Enslaved
Heavenly Sword
Dead Rising Series
Super Mario Galaxy
Alan Wake
Braid
Limbo
The Darkness
Crysis 2
Little Big Planet Series
Resistance 1
An tons of other games as well. This gen has given me tons of classics. Some of the BEST games I’ve ever played have come from this gen. But regardless that’s my opinion…
Lordfloyd
I am old enough to have had a NES as my first console, but for me the pinnacle moment was GTA3 on the PS2, i was in awe for the first couple of hours of that.
dogthedog
I think you Dan should really give some break to yourself.Do something else for a year,travel around the world,get married(divorce),swim with dolphins,whatever,BUT DO NOT PLAY.
I bet you going to feel nostalgic about modern games shortly after you give up playin them.Probably after a year you cant stop telling to people how many CLASSICS have you missed.
I was away for a year,and cant manage to play(only on iPhone and coin ops).
That year totally change my feelings about games.
Snakefingers13
I love playing some retro games. My cousin has an old N64, and spliscreen multiplayer on GoldenEye is fantastic. Not to mention Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. I downloaded Outrun: Online Arcade and Crash Team Racing from the Store, too. Just because they don’t have HD graphics doesn’t mean they aren’t great games.
A side-effect of this ‘drop everything for the new game’ thing is also that TSA Meets are almost solely based around the new games. People just don’t want to play some of the older PS3 games, and it’s a real shame.
Foxhound_Solid
Looking at my games I would say they never left. Ps3 gaming is the best it had eve been.