🎮 Do you like playing games on modern consoles?

[Sumez | 2,951]

8 hours ago, Rhuno said:

I'm not saying these things are inherently bad, but my gaming time is fairly limited so I prefer something quick and simple. Take Contra, for example: run and shoot. You can have the complete experience in less than 30 minutes and it's a blast to play.

There's plenty of those sorts of games comin out nowadays. It's most of what I play probably.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

At any given moment I like to try and play through the best games I've never played, and which console they happen to be on is irrelevant.

....aside from limitations like not owning a TG-16 and the like.  And the portable nature of systems like the Switch give them a leg up on prioritization.

So, for example I really want to play Snatcher and Bug Fables.  What year they came out and what console they were released on is irrelevant.  I just want the experience.  But the latter will happen sooner because it has a lot fewer obstacles.

[Webhead123 | 675]

If a game is good (and is available at a reasonable price on a platform I have access to), I am willing to play it. For sake of convenience and affordability, I tend to play most all "modern" games on PC these days and I'm a bit behind on the console generations. While there are technically a PS4 and PS5 in my household, those are stationed in my kids' rooms and primarily used by them. I haven't owned a Microsoft console since the 360. I do have a Switch and I love it but the PC is just so flexible, comfortable and convenient, so it gets a majority of my "modern" game time.

When it comes to non-PC gaming, I tend to spend the most time with my NES, SNES and GEN, both revisiting old favorites as well as plumbing the depths of their libraries for games I've never truly experienced before now.

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

6 hours ago, Sumez said:

While I obviously agree it makes no sense to dismiss modern games, this statement is just absurd to me.

Do you truly believe that all (or *any*) types of art/media generally just improves with time? I've never seen any evidence of that for any sort of creative output. There are so many factors (commercially especially) that are bound to affect art negatively over time, that you could never reliably make such an assumption. 

Given that video games are relatively new medium I have no problem saying it is generally  improving with time.  I'm not saying older games are dog shit, but to make improvements is human nature.  Also what is valued in art will change with time too because human culture isn't stagnant.  I put story telling and immersion as very high tiered qualities in games.  So for my perspective this is a no brainer that video games get better with time in general.  And don't think immersion is a fancy word for graphics.  I value the same thing in my books I read and too.  In fact I generally prefer books without any visual artwork so I can draw my own image.  Or I should say I let the author provide the details that I then draw in my mind.

What do you value in video games that has peaked?  I mean since games aren't improving you are implying that they have peaked.

[a3quit4s | 4,097]

I’m not sure how people answered that modern consoles aren’t any better than old consoles. Pretty much everything about next gen games are better than retro games lmao

Thats not a knock on retro games at all I still play the crap out of them. But gameplay, graphics, story, the amount of game you get for the money, replay value, are all generally better on next gen. 

I will say that the last golden age of gaming is probably going to be like ps3/ps4 and Xbox 360/Xbox one because it was still about pleasing gamers. This new generation just seems to be about pleasing shareholders. 

Edited November 6, 2023 by a3quit4s

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,105]

15 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

I’ve pretty much fizzled out on modern consoles. I’m just playing Nintendo exclusives. I’m not a huge fan of AAA games and consoles are all the same now. There’s no other console or era of PC games that feels quite like a Sega Master System with its unique color pallet and audio hardware compared to say NES or Turbografx. Every console now is just a PC. When consoles add unique features like the Wii U screen or whatever the hell is in joycons to make them $80, we just ignore it and demand more games with Xbox-controller control schemes that are identical across PC and 3 consoles.

I'm good sticking with the old 8/16 bit era consoles. Gaming is mostly nostalgia for me anyway at this point so I don't have much interest at all in modern consoles.

[TDIRunner | 2,737]

There are a lot of things about modern consoles that I enjoy.

• Wireless controllers.  Whatever controller I'm currently using just sits on my end table ready to go for the next round with no cables running across the floor while I'm not playing.  (I don't care about cables when I'm playing)
• Being able to turn the system on from the couch without touching the system.
• The general concept of "auto-save" is a great feature
• I'm not ready to give up my original consoles, but the fact that more and more retro stuff is available to play on modern consoles is great

Of course, there is also a long list of things I don't like about modern consoles.  I'm certainly not ready to give up the old stuff yet, but I get enough enjoyment out of modern consoles to acknowledge they belong in my setup.  

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

2 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

I will say that the last golden age of gaming is probably going to be like ps3/ps4 and Xbox 360/Xbox one because it was still about pleasing gamers. This new generation just seems to be about pleasing shareholders. 

That's an interesting sentiment.  If you were to take the top 10 games in all of gaming for every year, I'd bet there's no discernable dropoff.  Hell, if anything it might be continuously on the rise...

[a3quit4s | 4,097]

13 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

That's an interesting sentiment.  If you were to take the top 10 games in all of gaming for every year, I'd bet there's no discernable dropoff.  Hell, if anything it might be continuously on the rise...

I don’t disagree as it’s impossible to speculate on every single game but taking Call of Duty as a self serving example to my point, it was argued heavily that this title represents a majority of gamers during the Microsoft acquisition and the most recent reviews of the single player of MW 3 at least would represent a huge drop off of call of duty modern warfare 2. But to my counterpoint God of War ragnarok was fantastic as was Spider-Man and Starfield. I dunno I just feel like something is very off with the gaming industry these days

Edited November 6, 2023 by a3quit4s

[Estil | 1,264]

Sure, if it's PS3/PS4 and I can get trophies!

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

2 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I don’t disagree as it’s impossible to speculate on every single game but taking Call of Duty as a self serving example to my point, it was argued heavily that this title represents a majority of gamers during the Microsoft acquisition and the most recent reviews of the single player of MW 3 at least would represent a huge drop off of call of duty modern warfare 2. But to my counterpoint God of War ragnarok was fantastic as was Spider-Man and Starfield. I dunno I just feel like something is very off with the gaming industry these days

The irony there is that I bailed on Call of Duty after Modern Warfare II was released as well... back over a decade ago!

The criticism then was that we were getting samey campaigns every year, and I didn't need to experience it for a 6th time.  Plus I found the Bad Company 2 PVP much more engaging.  Probably similar to some variation of what people are saying now

But then and now, CoD is just a sliver of what is available to us gamers, popular or not.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,526]

3 minutes ago, Estil said:

Sure, if it's PS3/PS4 and I can get trophies!

PS3 ain't modern old man.  Pretty soon it's gonna be 20 years old.

Think about that.  We're talking NES to Wii kinda timespans 

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

55 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

PS3 ain't modern old man.  Pretty soon it's gonna be 20 years old.

Think about that.  We're talking NES to Wii kinda timespans 

PS3 was released when I was in college.... My back log is SUPER old too as I got some games I pre-ordered and never played from then 

[RH | 4,903]

Sorry guys.  I'd like to read this thread but I'm busy.  I will say, the one thing I love about the bajillion remasters and re-releases on the Switch is that I now have a  first party portable way to play these games.

I know it's 100% psychological, but there's something about playing old Nintender games on Nintender hardware.  I do play new modern stuff, but I also really like playing old games through the Virtual Console or remastered titles on the device.

Other than that, I'm not much into new modern titles, with the exception of mostly Nintendo stuff and very few indy titles.

[GPX | 1,369]

I have been stuck at X360 and not advancing further with newer consoles. This is mainly because I don’t have the time to invest in modern games while having no room for additional consoles. Also, I think there’s a certain age range that makes nostalgia kicks you really hard and grabs you by the balls, such that your affinity to modern games becomes low. 

Once I buy a bigger home though, I see myself buying a Switch and probably one of the latest Xbox/PS consoles. Will never dismiss playing an ultra cool game if ever I get the chance to play it.

[DarkTone | 984]

I would say its about 50 / 50. Right now I'm playing god of war ragnarok and Donkey kong country. 

[GPX | 1,369]

12 hours ago, Sumez said:

While I obviously agree it makes no sense to dismiss modern games, this statement is just absurd to me.

Do you truly believe that all (or *any*) types of art/media generally just improves with time? I've never seen any evidence of that for any sort of creative output. There are so many factors (commercially especially) that are bound to affect art negatively over time, that you could never reliably make such an assumption. 

I think it’s a fair assumption to think that gaming will generally improve over time. Particularly if you think of a simple formula:

- retro console - X enjoyment

- modern console - X + Y enjoyment

(modern consoles are technically all backwards compatible, and can all produce 8 to 128 bits of gaming)

[Estil | 1,264]

6 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

PS3 ain't modern old man.  Pretty soon it's gonna be 20 years old.

Think about that.  We're talking NES to Wii kinda timespans 

I just mean that PS3 as well as PS4 let you earn trophies.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

8 hours ago, a3quit4s said:

This new generation just seems to be about pleasing shareholders. 

I got to say, I don't think that it is. Definitely not for Microsoft. They're gaming side is a fraction of their overall numbers. Their positioning in the AI space and the cloud is all investors care about. Maybe Sony, but their movie and music business dwarfs any profit from console sales. 

Nintendo is the only company that owns their console and has it run their business. 

From an investment standpoint, who lives and die by the console gaming scene are developers and all the most successful ones figured out all the money is in whale fishing on mobile games. 

[CMR | 519]

I have a Switch and PS4.  I play Nintendo stuff on the Switch and watch youtube and blurays on the PS4.

 

edit: To be clear those are my only modern consoles.  I generally play games mostly on my older stuff and mister.

Edited November 8, 2023 by CMR

[FireHazard51 | 2,043]

2 hours ago, RegularGuyGamer said:

I got to say, I don't think that it is. Definitely not for Microsoft. They're gaming side is a fraction of their overall numbers. Their positioning in the AI space and the cloud is all investors care about. Maybe Sony, but their movie and music business dwarfs any profit from console sales. 

Nintendo is the only company that owns their console and has it run their business. 

From an investment standpoint, who lives and die by the console gaming scene are developers and all the most successful ones figured out all the money is in whale fishing on mobile games. 

Nintendo cares about it's profits because it's the only thing they do.  But Xbox and Sony stockholders don't care about the BILLIONS of dollars in profits because other sectors of company make money too????  You bet your ass if Xbox didn't make any profit they'd pull the plug on it so fucking fast due to shareholders not wanting to LOSE money to a sector of the business that doesn't make them money.  Please tell me what publicly traded company is fine with a sector of the company not making a profit and just lets it be.  Companies will ditch sectors because they DON'T make a big enough profit let alone go in the red.  I think you way under estimate how bad shareholders are with their investments making a profit consistently and with a large rate of return.  

Source

Also you'll see they devote a similar amount of space for AI as they do Gaming in their last annual report for investors.  Seems like Microsoft thinks their investors will care about their gaming sector.  Now when it come to just data storing and cloud services you can see that is where their biggest attention is based on how much they cover it over multiple sections.

https://www.microsoft.com/investor/reports/ar22/index.html

[Link | 2,710]

Microsoft wouldn’t mind using Xbox as a loss leader if it’s their pathway to dominating the living room. They don’t care about individual product lines as long as they can be the basis of as many spaces as possible in our daily lives.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

8 hours ago, FireHazard51 said:

Nintendo cares about it's profits because it's the only thing they do.  But Xbox and Sony stockholders don't care about the BILLIONS of dollars in profits because other sectors of company make money too????  You bet your ass if Xbox didn't make any profit they'd pull the plug on it so fucking fast due to shareholders not wanting to LOSE money to a sector of the business that doesn't make them money

Xbox had never turned a profit on console sales. The only way Microsoft turns a profit in gaming is by services and owning developers which is what I said originally.

Microsofts Xbox had 16 billion in revenue vs their new AI software expected to bring in over 150 billion from a $30/mn service fee. 

Microsoft is essentially the Warren Buffet of tech where they buy companies and provide services and essentially never stop holding and providing until it's successful. Xbox consoles sell at a loss and their services and ownership of developers turns around the revenue side. 

That and Sony is out selling Microsoft 4:1 by some estimates in the US. But Microsoft couldnt care less bc they're the top 2 companies in the world 2nd only to Apple. Sony is 20x smaller and Nintendo is 40x smaller, so yeah. Microsoft is definitely the exception to the rule.

[Jfreakofkorn | 282]

miss the days at when you bought the game , you bought the game 

no upgrade(s) or patches 

 

[Kguillemette | 1,544]

I'm in the camp where I am mostly priced out of modern gaming. Id love to partake, but it's just too expensive of a hobby for me. I buy maybe one new release a year for myself. It's an easy decision what kind of gamer I am when I can afford 3-5 second hand games for the same price as a single new release.