I have been playing games fairly heavily for 20 years. Not sure if that makes me old or if I just started young. I grew up in the generation where the gaming industry has really kicked off.
This all started for me in the 80's with my parents owning a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with its tape deck and 30 hours of load times. I cannot remember the games specifically but I remember that cause I liked Sooty and Sweep from TV that I did own a game and play it when I could. I only remember the opening segment with Sooty and his wand and what I remember as Spiders as enemies and a stair case. I was only little and I was rubbish. So often I would die and have to start over. the issue with this was that starting over did not always work and so you would have to reload for another few hours! It was not an great machine and I quickly grew bored. However shortly after we got our Amiga 500 with its floppy disc's (I did also play on a Commodore at my Aunties but this was very rare). I remember Postman Pat delivering letters, Thomas the Tank Engine and my first real love in gaming, 'The Point and Click' adventure games.
It started with 'The Secret of Monkey Island' and I loved the humour involved in the game. Guybrush was such a wonderful character and someone I could relate to. He was an ordinary and kind of weak guy but wanted to be a pirate and through determination he got there. I remember the changing of the disc every few minutes when you went from one area to another (There was 4 in total) and Stan selling the ships. I recently played this on Xbox Live Arcade and it still held its magic for me. Later I would play the sequels along with The Dig, Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle on PC's. Around 1990 I think I got my first console of my own which was a Sega Megadrive. I had played on the NES and SNES at a family friends house but for some reason I went with Sega.
I remember that fondly. Sonic, Road Rash, Sensible Soccer, Micro Machines, Pete Sampras Tennis.... The list could go on. When I finally traded that in towards a PlayStation I had some 30-40 games. I never went with the other consoles around this time. The Mega CD or the 32x and the Sega Saturn all skipped me by. I knew a few people who went with these but it was only the odd person and to be fair they never really talked about it. It was only when the PlayStation was launched that games became the playground topic. Everyone had one or wanted one. Like I said I went into my local Game store around my birthday about 6-9 months after it had launched and traded in all of my Megadrive stuff (A decision I wish I had not had taken as I want them back today!).
I think I had almost all the value of the console paid with my trade in and so used the little bit my parents would spend on me to buy a game or two. For the life of me I cannot remember which game it was. I know I played Tekken early on so it may have been that. Through the following years I played some AMAZING games. They were probably the best games I have played and to be fair, release them today with the current graphics and they would still receive great reviews because the games were so solid. We are talking things like Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and of course 'Final Fantasy VII'. That game took so many hours of my life up, they all did. But the games were just so much more absorbing than anything that had come before. Before long everyone I knew had a PS and we were swapping games and talking about them. I had mates round to play and we even chipped in together for a 'Multi Tap' so we could play 3-4 players on one console on things like FIFA and Pro Evolution Soccer (I would always win! Even 2 against 1).
Then we all moved on to the PlayStation 2 which was kind of more of the same. At this point I was actually working in a game shop and so I also ventured onto the Xbox and the Gamecube. The Gamecube was such a nice console. It had some great original titles along with some great remakes. Just look at Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes. These were probably the first HD remade games and the new features and graphics were brilliant. Unfortunately this little console got caught out by the big 2 of the PS2 and Xbox and gems were missed by the general public.
I will have fond memories of Mario Kart Double Dash and Metroid Prime amongst others. This was also the time where I was buying old consoles again. I picked up my Saturn (Huge pile of rubbish) an N64 with Goldeneye etc and found I could not stand the pad. I also picked up a Sega Dreamcast console... Again this was a missed gem of a machine. Shenmue was a fantastically scripted title. Chu Chu rocket was a fun little puzzler and I thought Metropolis Street Racer was not a bad game either. The more mature of you might have also enjoyed Dead or Alive... But not for the fighting.
I owned Crazy Taxi on this machine which was also a huge arcade hit. I recently brought the re-release on XBLA and found without 'The Offspring' soundtrack the game felt weird...
I went further back and played things like D and Sega Rally on the Sega Saturn.
I am honestly not sure if this was just terrible or whether the PS1 had this crummy graphics but god it looked awful. This coupled with the unfortunately low sales of the Dreamcast killed off Sega consoles. It was amazing to see a huge company like Sega go through the tough times they did. It has been said that Sega just did not really have a long term plan. they quickly released products without really thinking and with poor implementation. I think from memory that the Mega CD and Mega 32x were released within the same year.. 2 Consoles in a year with development costs and advertising would cost loads....
By the early 21st century it was Sony that had the large market share and everyone owned a PS2. They were so successful that they were still selling well into the following console generation. But somehow Sony messed up with the PS3. The high price and late launch date compared to Xbox 360 meant that they had kind of missed the boat. Plus soon after they launched Nintendo out of nowhere released the Wii. Now I did go out and buy one. But after the first few weeks it became apparent that it had no games that got my attention. So I quickly sold it. The Wii did so well because it was different. But it was not for me.
My PS3 to a degree was the same. I still own it, but it sits under my TV only getting used to take advantage of the free games on PlayStation Plus each month. This service on discounts is better than Xbox but I use my Xbox more for games now. There have been a handful of exclusive titles on Xbox but bar Gears of War I can't say many have really been great games. Left 4 Dead, Forza and a handful of Arcade titles have been good but would not make me buy the machine. It was mainly the price and release date that made me get one. I cannot say there have been any games that have really grabbed me like the early ones. Resident Evil has gone off the rails and point and click had almost disappeared. Then out of the darkness and from a pretty random publisher called 'Telltale Games' came the game of 2012.
The Walking Dead made huge waves in the gaming industry and really got under my skin during my play through. We are currently in a gap between series 1 and 2 and the excitement is amazing. Everyone I speak to has played the game and raves about it. We had nearly Zero point and click games through the first decade of the 21st century and it was said that they were dead. But suddenly other games are sprouting up as people realise that Narrative sells games.
Now we are getting to the point where the Next Generation of consoles is on the horizon. We have the Wii U out already but the sales for this over the 9 months it has been out have been terrible. It is being outsold by consoles nearly 10 years old... Nintendo seem worried. The Xbox One and PS4 will hit down this year. But which way to go? Sony have said all the right things and the product is cheaper. Microsoft have made mistakes, have a weaker machine (On paper but they do have cloud power which can be limitless potentially) and a higher price point. It seems a role reversal from the last gen and I am torn... Loyalty to Xbox and my gamer score of 75k which is pretty big, or a console that seems to have the needs of the gamers at its core... I have a few months to decide but I am seriously on the fence.. Do you buy a console for Spec or for the games? For me I would prefer the games. The story of games is what draws me in. I did not spend 50 hours playing Final Fantasy VII for graphics but the characters.
To be fair waiting for game reviews would be best option. But reviews are subjective and may not answer my questions. Many of my must buy games are turning out to be remakes. I cannot escape the nostalgia. Flashback HD coming soon. Mickey Mouse's Castle of Illusions next... These games are 20 years old. But they take me back to when games were great and graphics did not rule.
MR
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