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| Simple Times. |
Today, we're lucky (and even to a point-- spoiled) to have lush and expansive game worlds thanks to advancements in hardware technology. Hell, some games even reached Hollywood-levels of realism such as the likes of Metal Gear Solid V though at the expense of games now supporting paid in-game content such as DLCs and micro-transactions. Most game companies justify this as a way to for them to generate extra revenue due to the rising costs of game development. Some such as the likes of EA took it a step further and locked essential game components behind paid currency in Star Wars Battlefront II, which sparked outrage from players, critics, and even government officials. It's a long and depressing mess that's to be discussed at a later time as that's not the main focus of this post. Recently, I've been reminiscing at the "old times" when I was young playing my PlayStation 2. I'd plug the system, play the game, and just have fun-- simple as that. So I thought why not make a piece discussing how simple the gaming industry was a decade ago? Back when there wasn't even a PlayStation Network or Xbox Marketplace to buy games and add-ons from. It's a topic that's been on my mind for a while now and finally found the perfect excuse to talk about how most game companies used to care about making quality games before they succumbed to their own personal greed.
The 6th generation of gaming was an exciting one as games started to aim for a high-level of realism as opposed to the previous generation's early transition to 3D. It was also an exciting time for Sony and Microsoft as the former's PS2 was a world-wide hit and the latter's first-ever home-console was a force to be reckoned with. While Nintendo's GameCube didn't enjoy the amount of fame its rivals had, the abundancy of standout classics and overall quirkiness of the system cemented its reputation as one of the best consoles of all time. The 6th gen. was also a time were online connectivity was slowly being embraced as seen by the Xbox's early online capabilities and Halo 2's large install base started to popularize the competitive multiplayer scene. While the PS2 was the winner by a long shot, selling over 100 million units, all of the systems were still great and had their own loyal fan bases. One thing I that constantly bothers me when I'm playing a new game today is the constant presence of launch week patches, which I didn't mind at first due to their small size, but as they reached the 20GB mark, they really started to get on my nerves, not to mention the long time needed to download said patch. Additionally, some games are required to be always online nowadays in a weak effort to combat piracy and are almost always rushed to meet publisher deadlines. All this results in an overall lackluster game and once beloved series' such as Dead Space and the recent Mass Effect series' fell victims to similar practices. This make me adore the 6th generation's, and even the ones before it, simplicity of just buying the game, putting the disc in, and just playing the damn thing. You didn't have to download huge patches as the developers got their games right from the beginning, unless it was really bad like Devil May Cry 2.
To put it bluntly, the consoles were great and the games were fantastic. Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Halo: Combat Evolved, Gran Turismo 4, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Resident Evil 4, Final Fantasy X, Metroid Prime, Ninja Gaiden, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, etc. were all stellar titles and highlights of their time. I love today's advancements in game engines and visuals as they allow modern games to look and perform better than they would 10 years ago. Still, if there was a memorable time I would consider in my gaming career it has to be the ones that I spent on PS2 back in the day. That's it for my all-over-the place ranting, I was really excited to get to talk about what I consider to be the "Golden Age" for video-games as the state of gaming was in much better shape back then compared to now.
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