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…
BritishBlue
I think Call of Duty 4 is a modern classic, single player and multiplayer. Fighting on a ship in a torrent of rain, crawling through the long grass suited up in a Ghillie, sniping at extreme ranges with an extremely large rifle, last stand at the ferris wheel, dying in a nuclear apocalpse, Gaz being mercilessly executed. Most of you will know immediately which parts of the game I refering to…
Mass Effect is a modern classic, in my opinion, even if it is flawed.
Bioshock is definately a classic (would you kindly…).
Portal will be remembered for years to come.
As for future classics keep an eye out for Bioshock Infinite, even the trailer was a joy to watch and usually I hate them.
skibadee
for me GTA 3 changed the way games were a lot of devs would say the same thing to me that is the ultimate classic.