Anyone preferring the past generations of video games more than the modern era of video games? (As of August 11th, 2023)

Hello there video gamers in the Giant Bomb forums

Here I go for another retrospective gaming thread, so this time I wanted to share my thoughts on why I would prefer the past generations of video games more than the modern era because there are some modern games like Gran Turismo 7 & Forza Motorsport Reboot (Coming up installment) both having online DRM (Requires internet connection to play single player career mode), making motor racing fans feel unhappy about this, unlike the PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 era of Gran Turismo & Forza Motorsport series, both not required internet connection to play the single-player mode, but if I remembered correctly, the Xbox One era of Forza Motorsport series doesn't seem to require an internet connection to play single-player mode while Gran Turismo Sport on PlayStation 4 requires an internet connection for single-player mode.

Meanwhile, for quite a lot of games for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X, the prices have risen including MTX for games like FIFA series, Fortnite, etc. This makes a lot of people complain as they get annoyed about them so all we can do is avoid them as we rather grind instead, unlike back in the early 2000s decade or before that, when there was no MTX being included in games, plus the past generation of PC games are mostly physical copies (Floppy disks, Cassette Tapes, and CDs) and not requiring an online DRM to activate and play.

Also here are the extra things I would like to describe my personal favorite video game genre called Racing, a lot of old-school arcade-style racing game franchises/IPs like Project Gotham Racing, Sega Rally, Dirt Dash (Namco), Ace Driver, Ridge Racer, MotorStorm, Racing Jam, Excite Truck, F-Zero, WipEout, Extreme-G, and many others, they do not seem to be coming back in the modern era of video games and no words about their current status from their respective owners/publishers.

Side note: I'm wishing Gran Turismo 8 (PlayStation 6/PC) and Forza Motorsport 9 (Xbox Series X's successor/PC) to ditch online DRM (Still required to ban the cheaters and toxic players) along with MTX plus improve their handling model even further.

I feel like gaming has generally been in about the same spot since like 2016 or so, maybe 2015. Too many microtransactions, too many buggy games getting released, but also there are at least a few amazing games coming out every year. Despite all the complaints I might be able to make, I feel like video games in general are in a good place. Always be prepared for your most anticipated game to be a turd, be willing to look into things that are not on the top shelf, and don't buy games on day one in case they're a buggy mess.

This doesn't apply if your favorite genre is in a bad place. Amazingly, racing games do seem to be in one of those bad places, something I never thought I'd see because it seemed like a million of them were always coming out every year in the PS1/PS2/PS3 days and they suddenly dried up, like RTS games.

Games are objectively better now than they were in the PS2 era

@justin258: Yeah, not to mention from one generation to one another, game development got more expensive as it will result to have less content or something in order to reduce the budget.

@sombre: It really depends on how well the developers can do.

As someone who almost exclusively plays older games at this point, yes.

I don't know whether it's the games themselves or more likely my preferences, i like music from the 90's/00's more than modern music, so i figure i'm having the same issue with games now, i don't know if that's a thing.

I like all kinds of video games, but I’ve always found soccer games incredibly addictive for some reason. Podcast on, mindlessly creating a player and doing the career mode to unwind. I’m not supporting fifa with their ultimate team Micro-transaction hack bait BS, so I’ve got two consoles plugged in at all times: my PS5 and my PS2 (via a retrotink 2x). For my money, despite the graphics, lack of big club support, etc., Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is the best soccer game ever made. And I can pop in Metal Gear Solid 2 or, god forbid, Persona 3 any time I want (I love persona but who has the time?).

I do agree games are better now but there was a certain magic or belief from around up to the early PS3/360 generation that video games could be capable of so much more. Like how Kojima talked about a concept in MGS4 where a seed would be planted and over time it would grow into a tree or how he wanted The End fight in MGS3 to last 2 weeks. Or Peter Molyneux and all his cockamamie ideas in his various games like that Milo Kinect demo. You could believe that those were possible. I remember hoping that in GTA someday you could be able to walk through the door of every building and there would be a fully realized interior and that still hasn't happened. Now it's known that something like that isn't really possible on a technical level or practical for gameplay but there was a time when you could dream. And it's not like we couldn't get there now with better technology but there's always other priorities.

@gtxforza: I can appreciate most of this. The one item I will disagree with is the comment about games going up in price. Games on PS2/Xbox/Gamecube were $50. The Xbox 360 came out in 2005 and raised prices to $60. Games stayed at this price for 14 years. Soda and candy didn't stay anywhere near this stagnant for anywhere near this long, but games with bigger and bigger teams and higher and higher expenses to create did. Does it suck when things are more expensive? Yes, absolutely, but boy it's tough to argue against this happening. According to the inflation calculator, $60 in November 2005 (launch of 360) is $79 in November 2020 (launch of PS5/Xbox Series). I'm not advocating that game prices constantly increase with inflation, but they theoretically could have propped the price up to $80 and been right in line with inflation. All this to not even mention the number of people who wait for sales anyways.