Am I the only one that thinks the current era is the best?

Disclaimer: I am pretty much talking about console gaming in this thread.  
 
So many people seem to pine for other gaming eras and it always puzzles me. Sure, there are few annoyances in this ear like some of the DLC scams and what not, but IMO, this era's game development has a level of polish, confidence, incricate visual design (Bioshock is a great example of this) and game design sophistication that surpasses the others.   
 
The SNES/Genesis era is home to many of the greatest games of all time (Super Metroid anyone?) but this era is filled with an insane amount of shovelware that you just don't see today. The SNES/Genesis era seems to be an era of extremely high highs and very low lows. There was just so much CRAP on the market back then. Also, let's not forget how cheap game design could be back then.
 
The N64/PS1 era is probably the era that has aged the worst. It's a transition phase, so there's many games that are revolutionary (Ocarina of Time, MGS1 for example) but there's a general air of awkwardness to that whole era. For instance, play some of the games were considered to be the pinnacle of their genres back then and you'll see just how far gaming has come. Goldeneye is considered to be one of the greatest FPS games of all time but if you play it today, well...let's just say that it hasn't aged that well. Some games that were considered to be just great back then like Syphon Filter and Twisted Metal 2 come off as peices of junk when played now. If you don't believe me, download Syphon Filter the PSN store and behold the horrific enemy AI.  That being said, some of those games have aged incredibly well. Ocarina of Time is one such example.
 
The PS2/GC/Xbox era is way closer to this era in overall quality and polish and I find that the games from that era have aged pretty well, but the full potential of concepts realized in this era are much more fully realized in the era that came after. The PS2/GC/Xbox era introduced the concept of a living breathing city in the form of Grand Theft Auto III but regardless of what you think of GTA IV, the living breathing city in that game makes GTAIII's living breathing city look pretty dead and plastic-like. A similar argument could be made for many franchises. The MGS games on PS2 delivered an extremely cinematic experience but the cinematic aspects are much more fully realized in MGS4 with flawless transitions from gameplay to cinematics and the like.
 
Anyway, I've had my say. What say you?

You need to look again. There is as much, if not more shovelware now than there was back in the SNES days. Back then we didn't get the opportunity to focus on only the top releases like we can today, and as such we forget just how many worthless games come out for all consoles. Each generation has had its highs and lows and this one is no different. I think it will still be quite a while before we can compare this generation to others objectively. 

"You need to look again. There is as much, if not more shovelware now than there was back in the SNES days. Back then we didn't get the opportunity to focus on only the top releases like we can today, and as such we forget just how many worthless games come out for all consoles. Each generation has had its highs and lows and this one is no different. I think it will still be quite a while before we can compare this generation to others objectively.  "

"
I'm answering based off the title alone: No, you're not the only one. I'm enjoying games now more than ever. For me, games have continued to get better year after year. I still love the older stuff, but we've made so many advancements in graphics, sound, storytelling, physics, etc. All of that matters to me. I'm not a, "gameplay is everything" gamer. I'm more of an immersion gamer, I guess - I want richer and more impressive experiences and worlds, more so than new game mechanics - and games have continued to improve in that regard. STALKER, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Crysis, Cryostasis and such...these games drew me in something fierce. I didn't get that in the 8-bit and 16-bit days. It's not about realism either - the worlds don't have to be "photo-realistic" or set in our reality, just believable.This is all just me thinking aloud, so it's probably a bit wonky, but yeah, games are getting better for me. "

I believe the next generation will be better than the current generation. I need games in general to finally live up technically to 2007's benchmark game - Crysis! Everytime I think about Crysis, I feel like we are stuck in the past.
 
Otherwise yes - the current generation's games are freaking awesome.
 
BUT: The golden age of JRPGs happend on the SNES and Squaresoft was king of my world.

Games have become more complicated to produce, I am sure, and it's fantastic that they can patch it if necessary, but titles from older gens were a complete package: A cartridge or disc with a complete, working game on it. 
 
/bitterly bemoaning DLC and Patching.
 
Having said that, there is no doubt that game quality has sky-rocketed.

This is era is big, brash, well marketed and boldly lit by neon lighting.  There's the sound of many cash registers ringing away into the night and the moans of grumbling fans being stuck in ever lengthening lines.  There's even more coverage of games now as news items than there ever have been with the Jack Thompson fiascos, the hot coffee dramaz and the news that us poor Aussies are being held at the mercy of a South Australian turd burgler masquerading as a right wing zealot but in no way is this the best era of gaming
 
That, dear fiends and co conspirators was the 80s when the Commodore 64 was king birthing the first ever MMO made by LucasFilm games "Habitat", the ZX Spectrum was crap but Rare, then called ULTIMATE saved it time and again with one great 8 bit monochrome hit after another while we both giggled incessantly at the Amstrad CPC and it's fucking weird 3" disks which went the way of dodo.
 
In those days there were so many original ideas that the market literally grew exponentially with each week.
 
And still in this post modern age where the fighting game, along with every genre, has reinvented itself over and over, adding more buttons and moves with each generation cycle single, not one single fighting game has ever matched the simplicity and complex mastery that Archer Maclean's International Karate + achieves with eight directions and one single, solitary, some might even say lonely button.
 
 

Like AgentJ pointed out, there's a tremendous amount of shovelware today. I can't imagine there being less today than there was back in the SNES/Genesis era. While it's spread across all consoles, the DS and Wii seem to be the biggest dumping grounds for companies trying to cash in on a quick buck. It's really disappointing how rampant it is and how many people buy into it. 
 
I definitely don't think the PS1/N64 era was the best, though with the PS1, it really seemed to push games further into the mainstream and make them more accepted worldwide. I agree that it was an important transition phase, and while much of it no longer holds up, many important leaps were made that helped turn games into what they are today. 
 
Last gen had a lot of quality titles to be sure and I think it really expanded games in scale, but looking at your post, it's as if you're basing this all just on how well the games hold up today, and I don't quite think that's fair. 6 years ago I played Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and thought it was phenomenal. 5 years later I tried playing it again and found that it seemed so incredibly dated. The truth is.. this will continue to happen. Even with this gen, believe it or not. Though the extent to which we experience this will no doubt continue to diminish, but still it's inevitable. It's hard to imagine it, but in 10 years we will look back at this gen's games and they'll feel  old and unimpressive to us. Sure, many believe graphics will only be able to improve so much more, but if the graphics hold up, surely there will be other things that don't after so many years. Still, despite all that, I think this gen has been pretty excellent so far. It's a little early to call it the best, but it's still certainly possible. 

This is the only generation of gaming that I've truly been able to understand and comprehend, due to my age.

" This is the only generation of gaming that I've truly been able to understand and comprehend, due to my age. "

" This is era is big, brash, well marketed and boldly lit by neon lighting.  There's the sound of many cash registers ringing away into the night and the moans of grumbling fans being stuck in ever lengthening lines.  There's even more coverage of games now as news items than there ever have been with the Jack Thompson fiascos, the hot coffee dramaz and the news that us poor Aussies are being held at the mercy of a South Australian turd burgler masquerading as a right wing zealot but in no way is this the best era of gaming
 
That, dear fiends and co conspirators was the 80s when the Commodore 64 was king birthing the first ever MMO made by LucasFilm games " Habitat", the ZX Spectrum was crap but Rare, then called ULTIMATE saved it time and again with one great 8 bit monochrome hit after another while we both giggled incessantly at the Amstrad CPC and it's fucking weird 3" disks which went the way of dodo.
 
In those days there were so many original ideas that the market literally grew exponentially with each week.
 
And still in this post modern age where the fighting game, along with every genre, has reinvented itself over and over, adding more buttons and moves with each generation cycle single, not one single fighting game has ever matched the simplicity and complex mastery that Archer Maclean's International Karate + achieves with eight directions and one single, solitary, some might even say lonely button."

@Shirogane

" Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

SNES Era I personally think did the best, however I am more familiar and play a lot more of the 8-Bit era, growing up with a Sega Master System and a NES.

I don't think that the current era is best, but it is the most accessible. I've tried playing a ton of older games only to like a few of them. Zelda OoT was one that I could not like as much as I tried. If I played it upon its release, it may have been a different story.

I am rather torn, I quite like this generation of games because I have started to branch out and play games I wouldn't in the past because of terrible controllers/tech issues/etc, but at the same time I do not enjoy how a large portion of RPG development has moved to the handheld consoles for various reasons. The PS2 was an RPG powerhouse, but no home console has came close to or probably will come close to matching that this gen of games for various reasons.

I don't think the current era of gaming is bad at all.  I feel that pure action games are consistently higher quality than ever before in gaming history.  If you take something like Lost Planet or Bayonetta and put it up against the action games of any previous generation, you can see how far we've come.  I think the same can safely be said for sports games, probably first person shooters (overall game quality), racing games...

Graphics are significantly less of a focus in gaming than ever before in gaming history.  Look at Wii or popular PC games like WoW.
 
Still, I think the early 90's were the peak of gaming.  You had Nintendo and Sega in their game developing primes.  Chrono Trigger came out, Tie Fighter came out, the original Doom (which I still hold to be the best playing FPS of all time), Wing Commander, Secret of Mana, Zelda Link to the Past, Super Mario World...  The list of all time classics goes on and on.  I feel like back then the budgets of games allowed more focus on gameplay innovation and quality.  They didn't have to cater to any non-traditional gamer market (all games were designed for the same hardcore gamers that WERE the market).

Well I'm not 12 anymore, so this era doesn't stand a chance of beating my memories.

Having seen every generation to date, I believe that each new generation of gaming is always better than the last.  Yesterday, I made a List for my best games ever, and while they tend to cover gaming back to 1980, I still fervently affirm that whatever generation that you are experiencing is the best.  Too often people are colored by the context of their gaming education.  In other words, the nostalgia of growing up and playing those games makes them seem better than then what they were or how they measure up over time.  I'm not saying that old games aren't as worthwhile as current games.  Again, my list clearly states otherwise.  I am saying that the climate of development and the hope each new announcement brings is more exciting than where we've been.  I have no desire to return to the past and be stuck playing just the games of the 4th generation or even the previous one (6th).  I eagerly anticipate what the 8th generation will bring.  Until then, this is a great time to be a gamer.

Hell, the sales figures alone show the current era to be the best one yet.

" Hell, the sales figures alone show the current era to be the best one yet. "

" @Lind_L_Taylor said:

" Hell, the sales figures alone show the current era to be the best one yet. "

Sales doesn't necessarily mean it's better. It just means that there are more people gaming then the previous one.  
 

Well, I'm playing the best games I've ever played this gen, gaming is absolutely better than it's ever been.

" Anything based on technology always gets better over time. Most people who prefer the past are usually way too nostalgic...

"Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

yeah i think this is hte best gen ever.  
 
but it should be right? 
 
not if you take into account the leaps and bounds in technology that has been made, i think the last gen, and maybe the snes/genesis gen were the best. 

They continue to get better and better with each one. I'm pretty excited for next gen, even though this one's just half way over.
 
But I have a bit more nostalgia of the SNES gen right now, making it my favorite past generation.

No. 

You probably are the only one, most people are completely blinded by nostalgia to have a logical answer about favorite things.  That's why people's favorite things are usually old.

Up until now, the era I've been in is always the best one. I loved the PS2 over the PS, I loved the PS over the SNES/Genesis, and so on and so forth. And, yes, I like the XBOX360 and the PS3 over the PS2. It's inevitable that we'll enjoy the games we play now more than the ones from past generation. There are only a few games that are always worth going back to play - Max Payne 2, the God of Wars, Metal Gear Solid 2, Resident Evil 4, Need for Speed Most Wanted and Underground 2 (that's just me, I really enjoyed those games and do play them repeatedly) - just off the top of my head. Only a select few would make my list. I'm not going to go back and play Yakuza. I'm not going to go back and play Jak and Daxter. I'm not going to go back and play Halo 2. Those games were great then, but just don't hold up.
 
Whatever, I still play Die Hard for the NES. That game is awesome. But, yes, I like this generation much more than the past ones, just as I foresee that I will like the next generation much more than this one.

I agree. A big thing for older generations is nostalgia. Fallout and Oblivion are some of the best gaming experiences i've had ever. Games are getting better at pacing, story telling, graphics, sound, gameplay, and multiplayer also adds.

The biggest difference between the gaming eras of olde and now is the advent of the internet. It's much easier to find information about a game, be it in the form of a good FAQ to help you out or, more importantly, review scores to tell you which games to get. I know magazines eventually took up that role, but those were monthly affairs, and you had to pay for them.

I feel the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era was the best and most exciting time to experience games. While it may sound funny now the first PS2 game I played was Enter the Matrix and I thought it was absoulutly fucking awesome. I tend to get into new platforms one or two years into their cycle, so prior to that I was still playing PS1 games. Jumping from games like Syphon Filter and Metal Gear Solid to Enter the Matrix was mind blowing due to the amount of detail in the envirorments and characters (in MGS Solid Snake and the rest of the crew had NO EYES.) Granted I know PC was already doing shit like this but the only PC games i played were Kings Quest Games. I don't think there will be such a switch visually and creativally like there was from PS/N64 to PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. The pinnacles of that era being GTA III, Resident Evil 4, Halo on their respective systems will probably not be topped for a long time. 
 
PS. Yes I know Enter the Matrix was shit

"Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

" Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

i agree with you. games have been progressively getting better and better. the older games were great for their time. but when someone says tetris is the greatest game ever, i have to disagree.

" @Shirogane said:

" Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

A lot of the greatest games of previous generations were technical power houses for their time. Not much has really changed. "

"@Shirogane said:

"Games this generation seem WAAAAAY too focused on graphics. Back in the older gens, graphics weren't such a big thing, cause it was pretty much all 16bit pixels.  Most of the 'top' games lately have just been eye candy essentially. The gameplay is good and not broken, but the graphical quality is really high. Older games were all pretty much the same graphics wise, and so people focused on making their game good by trying to implement gameplay stuff. "

Man I hate gamers like you who act like you can't have great graphics and gameplay.  Each generation has it's highs and lows. I can't wait to see what the 8th gen has in store. "

The best era in my opinion is the PS1 and N64 era, but thats probably just because that was what I played though all elementary school and some middle school. Second would be the NES era, and third would be this era.

This is my favorite era as well, I'm pretty much like Hamst3r described, loving being immersed into the universe of the game I am playing.  But I can still have a great love for new gameplay, or extremely refined gameplay.

I'm not saying games can't have both, i'm saying that what people look at in games these days is graphics. The very first thing people comment on these days when looking at a game is how it looks. "

" @Shirogane said:

I'm not saying games can't have both, i'm saying that what people look at in games these days is graphics. The very first thing people comment on these days when looking at a game is how it looks. "

Maybe un-informed gamers, and casual gamers, but I can't remember a time where a game was only praised because of outstanding graphics by someone that is informed and serious about the hobby.  I mean, sure, when a game goes above and beyond the realm of "normal" graphics to look beautiful, it is obviously pointed out, but why does that matter?  I can't really think of a game that looks amazing but is just flat out fucking broken.  And I do know what you mean when people only like graphics, my friend who is a very casual gamer and all he plays is Call of Duty and Halo was saying Borderlands was stupid because it looked "cheesy".  He said this while him and another friend were playing MW2 on one TV while another friend and I played Borderlands, and it made me pretty annoyed, but you have to remember that these people don't really understand the hobby and probably only play games to play with their friends and talk shit on Xbox Live and think their awesome. "

" @ShoulderHolster:   * I have not read all posts so I don't know if this has been asked  How old are you? Because that would have alot to do with why you prefer the current gen. I dont pine for previous gen games (Probably because I still have them & play them from time to time) But I am pretty pleased with the current gen.  (I mainly ask about your age because your amanita 1up seems Teenish to me) "

"Anything based on technology always gets better over time. Most people who prefer the past are usually way too nostalgic, misinformed about the current gen, or simply delusional. "

15 year old's shouldn't start threads.

" @Geno said:

"Anything based on technology always gets better over time. Most people who prefer the past are usually way too nostalgic, misinformed about the current gen, or simply delusional. "

I agree with the bolded statement.  Books and movies seem to age better than games because they don't center around technology the way games do.    "

" @SeriouslyNow: Fuck Yeah!!! IK+ Even though the Amiga Version owned all (of course I'd say that), I still love seeing that game. And you're right, sure having two ultra combos sounds like fun, but pressing 'T' and watching his trousers fall down, well it takes a lot to beat that. "