A few of my fondest childhood recollections include coming house from college and spending the afternoon enjoying video games on my PlayStation (PS) 2. From preventing it out on WWE Smackdown vs Uncooked or the Dragon Ball Z: Budokai video games, to watching my older brother and cousin play Resident Evil 4, I felt like there was one thing magical about experiencing videogames within the 2000s. Name me nostalgic if you’ll, however trendy gaming fails to have that very same profound impact on me because the video games from that period.
Within the 2000s, videogames had been extra experimental, with consoles just like the PS2 and PS3 having a bigger library of video games in comparison with newer generations. This isn’t to indicate that extra is objectively higher, contemplating how the rising prices of recreation improvement have an effect on what number of video games are being made.
Nonetheless, it isn’t farfetched to imagine that the shortage of selection is probably going as a result of gaming business present process a case of “advertising myopia”, whereby the product’s profitability is prioritised over the shoppers’ expertise. Once you have a look at corporations like Rockstar Video games, who launched a number of Grand Theft Auto (GTA) titles within the PS2 period, however re-released GTA V throughout the following three completely different console generations, it turns into clear that monetisation appears extra necessary to recreation builders than participant expertise.
These days, many unfinished video games are launched, with updates and extra content material added afterward. However prior to now, you’ll get an entire recreation from the start, as a substitute of ready for chunks to be launched over time. One other characteristic that makes 2000s video games extra interesting to me is that they had been produced in a interval which moved previous the graphical and technical limitations of the Nineteen Nineties, earlier than the commercialisation of videogames within the 2010s. Video games had been made with extra care, and with fewer filters. We will additionally look again on how film/TV present tie-in video games had been a giant factor again then, and whereas they weren’t all nice, we did get sure gems like Spider-Man 2 and Return of The King.
Cut up-screen co-op video games had been extra commonplace again then, however have lessened with the appearance of on-line gaming. On-line video games could also be enjoyable, however the expertise of enjoying a web-based recreation in comparison with a sofa co-op recreation appears like speaking to a buddy over the cellphone as a substitute of really hanging out with them.
Perhaps it is the nostalgia speaking, as I don’t play videogames as a lot as I did in my childhood or teenage years. At any time when I do discover the time to play one thing, I really feel extra inclined to play older video games than newer ones. However I consider that if you happen to additionally grew up in the course of the 2000s and early 2010s period of videogames, you would possibly share the identical sentiments. It could not be honest to say that video games are objectively much less enjoyable now, as newer applied sciences have allowed video games to be grander in scale permitting us to expertise improbable video games like Pink Useless Redemption 2 and The Witcher 3. However trying on the state of the gaming business total, it appears videogames lack the identical enjoyable issue they as soon as had.
Sabil spends most of his time attempting to remain as hopeful as doable. You possibly can contact him at [email protected]
