>6th gen was 20 years ago Fuck I'm old. I still remember everything about PS2 when it was just coming out like it was yesterday, reading all the magazines, playing demos on those demo stands. The air of excitement about the new gen was immense, everything about gaming was great up until then and now an entire new paradigm shift was coming. Gaming has a bright future, how could it ever in a million years go wrong, right? I do feel sorry for the kids of today who have to grow up in the most unhype era of vidya, when even zoomers are turning to older games because contemporary shit is repulsive. Though I myself is fine since I experienced all the best years in gayming and my backlog is thick and wide, but still the thought that an entire generation will grow up without ever experience that giddy excitement about the future of the medium is kinda depressing.

I wanted to get into Forza Motorsport 1 again for nostalgia relax reasons and to finally train myself well in shift changes, have all the gear but just need that mental sweet spot where i know i will have 2 or 3 days without any worries. Prices for the DC and GC are rotten since this whole jewjab thing happened too, i need to ramp up my PS2/Xbox collection or they will get caught too, at least Xbox modding is going up so some prices are going down lol. >>1424 I vividly remember the demos for Xbox and Gamecube at K-Mart and going to the PS2 boots at a big fancy mall, it was Y2K galore and Sony threw tons of money at it, game stores were dressed in chrome and blue lights, it was an event and like you said a paradigm shift, from 2D to actually decent looking 3D in what was 4 years for many, finally Arcade-tier graphics in your own room. I also find sad many will not know that era's feelings, not so much of wondering what would the future would be (many of us thought it would be the same quality but in more quantity, "San Andreas but bigger") but more to the amount of stuff coming in often. Back then you could expect at the very, very least one good game a month, multiplayer-centric games were not that common sadly but it did help make things more simple instead of having to shuffle between 5 or 6 games to get into touch with all your friends. Nowadays one has to wonder if there's going to be one good game a year and everything has multiplayer hamfisted or build just for it, which in theory is cool but there's too many options which makes people either stick with the most popular (not the better option sometimes) or divide themselves a lot, and the offline single-player experience is practically dead outside of small efforts with lack of polish or lack of feeling like a propagandizing piece due to the polarizing atmosphere in society. And some webms just don't want to load, let's try again Goddamn, third time's the deadman, i swear if it doesn't get it up despite encoding it at vanilla...

>>1435 >since this whole jewjab thing happened too The what?

>>1437 COVID-19 and its subsequent laws regarding public health/mobility. >>1439 You can still nail 50 games in Gen 7, Gen 8 is a hard fall from the stairs in terms of quantity, often quality and definitely age, in 15 years very few games will be able to be played from that era due to their online service mechanism.

A question for the nostalgics. Is it possible that Unity and other pre-made engines have flattened a bit the originality of games? I don't mean technically, but in terms of an easier access to development.

>>1442 It's a case where that saying is once again correct, great tools make lazy craftsmen. While it is true some engines are widely used which somewhat also make many games feel the same, the thing is the devs don't really squeeze those tools out of their full potential, and one of the biggest advantages of a game being exclusive to a certain console is the small and unified set of optimization rulings that made disciplined devs pull out very well performing software rather than dumbing down something to make it run in another platform too. You combine both the devs using a quirky/company engine which in turn made them more adept to it and a solid set of perfectly known technical limitations and you end up with either original or at least technically great software. >I don't mean technically, but easier access to development. I don't know, right now the access to development tools and finding some basic documentation for them is easier than ever, even licensing issues seem trivial when Unreal just wants a flat cut of the percentage of your winnings without strange rulings. But ironically the will to finish projects is probably at an all-time low.

>>1440 There are definitely a few good and notable games from the 7th gen, however all of them without exception - especially if they are sequels - were a disappointment and/or a step down from the 6th gen in one way or another. So perhaps pic related is a more accurate symbolic representation. I don't know any games from the 8th gen worth playing... Bloodborne? And 9th gen, you can just add a flat desert to that pic to represent it. I mean it's barely a new 'gen' if at all. >>1442 Hmm, I don't think so. There were pre-made engines before that and easier ways to develop games, hence why so many AA games and games made by like 4 people in their kitchen. The stock 'Unity look' is more of a symptom than a cause. It's really the photorealism that killed originality, once it became the status quo of how a "good video game should look".

>>1444 >however all of them without exception - especially if they are sequels - were a disappointment and/or a step down from the 6th gen in one way or another This is probably true, i am trying to think about one that wasn't and the only thing i recall ATM is Hitman Blood Money, it could be played in PS2 but it seemed way too clunky compared to the X360, the PC version had the unfortunate decision to leave console controls in it so it might've been inferior in that regard but the gameplay evolution was significant if perhaps made the game much easier at times. Midnight Club L.A. was superior in terms of overall gameplay but lacked the musical numbers, customization in many cars and had downright less cars than Midnight Club 3. It was a compromise but the gameplay was worth it, wouldn't count it as an evolution. Same can apply to GTA IV, it was great but a drastic change of direction compared to San Andreas and more akin to a direct sequel of III. Mortal Kombat 9 was quite better than Armageddon in terms of gameplay although not that much in terms of content. Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway was somewhat obscure but did perform as good as the previous ones, ended the series well enough and slipped many strong narratives that predictably were ignored by the media (executing underage german soldiers). Driver San Francisco was a drastic change of direction too but quite refreshing. Forza Motorsport games had 3 and 4 in Gen 7 and honestly those seem to be the peak of the series akin how Gran Turismo 4 was its peak in the PS2 days. Rayman Origins... come on now that was good. Quite some games but still a minority in that sea of underperforming sequels, so i can concede that point in practical everyday terms. >games from the 8th gen worth playing... Bloodborne? It's not so much that the PS4 is a Bloodborne machine, Gen 8 is probably the Bloodborne generation. Some Yakuza games seem good and despite all the memes about them being in PC i can bet good money one will have to do some flips in the future to make them run like we are doing now with some pre-2012 games, so might as well consider them for the console panorama too. Haven't played them so can't say about them being worthwhile, Alien: Isolation, Lego City Undercover and some of the Wii U games seem decent enough if we count them in the same level as past gens' AA and not AAA. >And 9th gen, you can just add a flat desert to that pic to represent it I haven't checked or heard anything lately but that probably means it really is a desert, the crash is here but creatively, not economically. Only remasters and remakes, almost nobody in the industry can create something from zero and those who can don't want their creation getting pimped or want too much money for it.

>>1446 There's also the Last Guardian for the 8th gen. Though it's undeniably a PS3 game running on PS4 so you hardly get the justification of buying an entire new console for it. >Alien: Isolation Kind of a shitty walking simulator, very emblematic of the nuera. >the crash is here but creatively, not economically Worse than that, now the least creative games in history make the most money in history. It's all in reverse, it really is a clown world.

>>1448 >Kind of a shitty walking simulator I thought it really got that vibe of being pursued by some kind of hard as hell to beat shit down to the t, kinda like getting chased by the devil when you ran upstairs at night when we were kids. It is trivialized later with the resources given to the player but the walking simulator while being chased does seem good to me, but i can imagine it overstayed its welcome after a couple of hours. >Last Guardian Right, yeah that practically is a Gen 7 game. >the least creative games in history make the most money in history And to add insult to injury they downright have patches to fuck with the player actively and force p2w antics, like GTA V or your brand of sports game, Fortnite not so much but the meta was so heavily abused by day one i cannot say it's even a game played like it originally should've been, which is making temporal forts rather than the spontaneous tower build mayhem while shooting frantically and let's not even mention the cosmetic game, it's hilarious how mangled it is in terms of aesthetics. A far cry from those Gen 6 days, perhaps the last ones where obscure stuff was completely playable like reviewanon showed, original and big/seriously-made enough to not be like those small digital only games thrown in the side hubs of console marketplaces. But the prices on some of them, goddamn the scalpers.

>>1449 >I thought it really got that vibe of being pursued by some kind of hard as hell to beat Maybe if that was the entire and actual game, like Clock Tower or Haunting Ground, but there's so much walking-talking immersive™ experience® shit spliced in to delude the gameplay that it starts to remind a NuBethesda game. And like you said it's trivialized very fast. So what little decent gameplay there is has to be sucked out like a marrow from a bone, which describes all of modern gaming really - you have to actively search for good parts yourself because they're not gonna come to you. >goddamn the scalpers Yeah even 7th gen games are starting to get pushed as "valuable retro" already. And with this whole grading cancer scam (good video on the subject - https://yewtu.be/watch?v=rvLFEh7V18A ) it becomes harder and harder to get the physical copies while emulation is far from even decent.

Holy hell, I just saw the GTA "remasters". Truly some eldritch horror there. The art design and style of the originals have been completely annihilated, the games look like some mobile crap now, or fan made Unity garbage. This is what normalcattle deserves I guess.

>>1453 >they pulled it down off steam kek

>>1456 Floating point drift?

>>1453 >>1456 Rockstar has been on a steady decline since RDR2 in 2009 and on a downfall since V's development around 2012. RDR3 was technically very good but the story and intrusiveness in the gameplay nullified most of its fun at times. These "remasters" were just cricket fan ports into Unreal rather than real refining of the old games. There's been several compilations of bugs and not a month has underwent, there's even a one hour video about them.

>>1490 Yeah that's the new trend to outsource these "remasters" to third world poojeet shitholes. Same thing happened with Prince of Persia. I guess the funniest thing is that there are normalfags who defend this shit.

>>1602 I have to say, those blue PS2 boxes were probably the hypest console packaging ever. Something about that color and minimalistic approach still gets me excited. No console pics, no slogans, even "Playstation 2" is in tiny font. It's PS2, bitch. That's what brand fucking confidence is. It's surprising that was the packaging across the world and even burgers didn't get to ruin it. I still have that box lying on the balcony in decent enough condition all the way since circa 2002.

>>1453 LOL

>>1616 Bwahahahaha, fucking retards. This might be the epitome of a shitty "remaster".

I remember my first time playing a sixth gen game was on one of these. I believe it was Ratchet and Clank (it's even running on pic related). Spent like 2 hours in front of it in some small media store, holding up an acquaintance who just wanted to buy some blank dvds or something lol. Good memories.

The last 5 videos on this channel document all the minute downgrades of the GTA "remaster". It's way worse than you think. https://www.yewtu.be/c/ENXGMA_YT/videos

What did he mean by this?

https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=x9jvgVhPryY I stumbled on this retrospective about the Konquest Mode in MK Deception - an overly ambition open-world RPG they just made on a whim as an addendum to a completely different game in a completely different genre. Something about its comfy experimental nature aptly represents the 6th gen, with its unhasty and yet undefiled by corporate globohomo vibe.

>>2093 >they just made on a whim as an addendum I played it back in the day and i wouldn't say it was made on a whim, if it was then that was a great job but i think it was thoroughly planned, hell the game's main character/narrator is the Konquest protagonist and the main thing about it is exploring lands and duel important figures. It wasn't particularly good and the kredit system still seems like a pain but they tried, the plot was decent to even good but made barebones due to time constraints, as you said it was too ambitious. To help make it seem more "fleshed" out they did this system of things spawning depending on hour and day but some items, desirable ones, could be missed or were in overly specific windows like available around 2 hours in a certain day of a week of a year, the mechanic was that you could fast forward time via meditation but fast forwarding a year meant you had to wait for a long time, i remember wanting to unlock Liu Kang's alternative skin aka his original, human form aka the most emblematic character of the series in a game where unlocking the fighter itself was also tricky as fuck IIRC for a while and i skipped past the time so i had to do it again, who knows how much i was sitting there but it was easily more than half a hour. They were hidden also, i did this with a guide, if you didn't have one you wouldn't even suspect it and would've had to do the entire Konquest again which i recall well took more than a day to beat. Also has a definitive ending and some areas couldn't be revisited again either if you didn't finish it anyways so, more of a nuisance to play "like it should be" than anything but if you go at it without thinking about collecting or searching for shit then it was really pretty decent. Shujinko was honestly a cool character for me despite his obliviousness, many hate him but i can't, he's honest and a benevolent counterpart to Shang Tsung he was also killed like a dog in the nu games, while in the original story he was sacrificed for being too coy

>>2096 By 'whim' I meant that they didn't have to make it nor did they try and release it as its own thing. They just one day decided to include this mammoth of a project as just a bonus to a different game. I mean, can you imagine this nowadays? An entirely separate game, completely free, just part of the original finished product. This was only ever possible before the current year, the modern era, before excessive corporate jewisness completely took over.

fuck i love the sixth gen so much

>>2103 It was the peak of gaming.

Best gen, fite me irl.

>>2547 Ahem.

>>2573 Not as good. The limitations in both gameplay and storytelling were still all too apparent.

>>2590 >storytelling jewsih invention

>>2593 What isn't.

>>2652 holocaust? oh wait

>>2573 This. >>2590 A focus on storytelling hinders gameplay for most types of games. Games should be allowed to just be games and not get criticized for it.

>>2593 Perhaps in the video game market but doesn't deviate from the gameplay factor, Gen 6 still had many options including old form factors like scrollers, shmups and decent (but hard to get) pads to play them.

>>2720 I disagree. Story is a great reward for gameplay - you play to get the next portion of the story, it's a great loop that's beneficial for both the gameplay and the story and is a unique aspect of gayming. Sadly this loop has been broken now where gameplay is often an afterthought or even an excuse for hack faggot "auteurs", aka failed movie directors, to tell their "important stories".

>>2721 6 gen had it all, 2D, 3D - everything, every genre every style. That's why is best gen.

RIP Ray Liotta. F

>>2723 The 6th gen was a lot more focused on 3D than it was on 2D.

>>2736 Obviously. But there were still many, many 2D games and mixed games to a point that you never felt bereft of the 2D experience.

Sword of the Berserk - Guts’ Rage for Dreamcast has been translated - https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6560/

>>2729 Rest in peace Tommy boy.

Klonoa Heroes: Densetsu no Star Medal, an action-RPG for GBA, has been translated - https://www.romhacking.net/translations/6491/ I didn't even know this existed. Time to play.

>>2738 I can't imagine having the 6th generation as their go-to one for 2D unless they've got a specific game in mind.

>>3008 As mentioned, 6th gen had a ton of 2D and mixed games. It's not a matter of being "the go-to" but rather having everything >>2723

Early gen6 was basically gen5 on steroids. Naturally it had many 2D games.

>>2729 RIP

OG Xbox Live is back thanks to Insignia - https://insignia.live/ Never had a chance to experience it back in the 2000s but I'm having a lot of fun, especially with the Battlefront games, Midtown Madness 3 and Crimson Skies. Friendlists and some leaderboards don't work yet but it's a closed beta after all.

>>3447 That's so cool, as long as the source is released when they hit 1.0 this will be great for preservation.

>>3447 I would have liked to have played Halo 2 online back in the day but don't know how much I'd even enjoy it now.

>>3460 For how much shit the Halo franchise gets on video game boards 2 and 3 easily had some of the most entertaining multiplayer on the OG Xbox and the 360 respectively. The other games suck total shit though, especially Reach and everything after it. Well I guess Combat Evolved's multiplayer was fun too but iirc it wasn't on Xbox live.

>>3468 The best thing to come from the first Halo was Halo Custom Edition by Gearbox, a PC exclusive version of the multiplayer with modding support.

>>3468 I remember playing multiplayer Halo 2 at my friend's house and definitely had fun with it. I played a newer one years later and didn't enjoy it much at all. It might have actually been Reach. I've been wondering for a while how much I'd even like Halo 2 compared to a game like Metal Arms if I went back and played it.

>>3470 >Metal Arms Never heard of this game before, looks like it's worth trying.

>>3471 The multiplayer was fun. There were vehicles you could drive around and different robots you could take control of. I only had a GameCube, and it was the closest thing to Halo I actually owned back then. Maybe TimeSplitters 2, I guess. What I don't like about Metal Arms is that you have to go through the single-player mode to unlock everything in multiplayer. The TimeSplitters games had that too, but I found the arcade mode or whatever it was called actually fun. I'm not big into story modes in those kinds of games.

Hey anons, we're trying to revive julay/v/. Do come if you're still around. https://alogs.space/kong/catalog.html

>>3473 How the fuck did this happen? That board was more dead than this place.

>>3474 Some old posters are still around, so we just decided to start posting again one day. Do come.