Memories From The Last Generation: 2005-2006

I figured it would be a cool idea to create a parallel between the previous generation and the ongoing one by having everyone share their gaming memories or highlight moments from years past. Starting with the official first two years of the last generation, 2005 and 2006.

Personally, I didn't buy any console in 2005 or 2006, and can't remember playing many "next gen"games since I had a pretty shitty computer. Some I did play were Condemned Criminal Origins and Oblivion (all at pretty low settings, ended up loving both of them)

However for me those years were the years of mindblowing videos and images, I just couldn't believe how realistic and amazing some of the games were looking (Gears of War, Bioshock, TES IV Oblivion, RS Vegas).

Gears of war was probably the game that impressed me the most in those 2 years, I was also a big fan of Epic coming over from the Unreal Tournament series (which were my favorite games at the time).

On the PS3 side, Resistance Fall of Man and MotorStorm were pretty much the only games (exclusives) I remember from those years that grabbed my attention.

The Wii was memorable thanks to the unique controls advertised, but I can't remember anything that jumped out at me in the game section (was too busy drooling over the HD games)

Anyway, I bet you guys have better memories and impressions then me.

(btw I'm sorry if this should be a blog post or something, I'm pretty new here, however I figure it's less about me and more about getting everyone to answer)

(PS. if this will be successful, I'l continue it with every year of the last generation)

I was pretty content with my Gamecube at the time. I believe I got a PS2 for Christmas in 2006.

As for when the 360/Wii/PS3 were new, I just remember the PS3 was insanely overpriced and had a garbage selection of games. My brother picked up a Wii at launch so I can recall playing Wii Sports and some party games like Rayman Raving Rabbids and a piece of monkey shit.

I got my 360 for Christmas 06 and Gears of War was the only game I had for it for a long time. Gears dominated my life for quite some time, I wasn't any good at the online so me and my friend decided to go for all the single player achievements and beat the story on the hardest difficulty.

i remember preordering the 360 well ahead of launch (i'd never done that before or since) but getting it in january cause of shortage. got perfect dark zero and didn't have fun with it and thought the system was scary loud. had a good time with ninja gaiden black and played a lot of rainbow six vegas online cause bunch of friends really got into terrorist hunt. bought oblivion but didn't really play it. played a good amount of gears cause friends had it...no one really had a ps3 but everyone had a wii and it was a novel thing...i think my fondest memory was getting a gamecube for dirt cheap cause i never had one and playing the living shit out of ff12

Most of my memories from last generation start in late 2006. Kind of took a console break after GTA SA came out but got sucked back into the hype big time during my freshman year of college in 06. Was going to wait out for a PS3 before hearing about the major shortages so went with a Wii instead. Couple weeks after owning a Wii I decided to join a few friends and get a 360 so I sold the Wii to pay for most of the costs. First three games purchased were R6: Vegas, GoW, and Saints Row which I played the shit out of all of them for the next several months. Loved my 360 dearly until it committed suicide a year later.

2006 was when my 360 red ringed while playing Tomb Raider: Legend. It was the same week as Tool's 10,000 Days, because I recall going to Best Buy for a replacement while listening to Vicarious in my car and having chills at the time.

Playing the shiny Tomb Raider demo at my buddy's was the reason I bought my 360. I also bought Oblivion, despite knowing nothing about it. Had the moment where you walk into the open world for the first time and it was incredible. Also, Gears of War happened and that was some next-level stuff back then.

Then I ordered a DS on Black Friday because it came with New Super Mario Bros. Which, at the time, was super novel and exciting.

As a PS2 fan, this was all weird to me. But the PS3 was so expensive that I had to wait til 2007, in which my dad bought a TV and I chipped in to get the system bundled with it.

Played 10 hours of Final Fantasy XII and it was neat but I stopped. Black was absolutely incredible. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter was a huge online game that year. I really liked Prey and got 1,000 achievements in it. Mortal Kombat: Armageddon had a story mode where you uppercutted dozens of dudes into a giant ceiling fan. Guitar Hero II was kind of nuts.

Sonic the Hedgehog!

I probably won't be alone in saying this but 2005 - 2006 I spent playing World of Warcraft, and no other game came close to that experience at the time for me. I mostly ended up stopping buying other games all together during those years apart from 1-2 select titles. Wouldn't change it for the world, either. Unlike now where you have multiple genres battling it out for online supremacy. WoW was suddenly everywhere and completely dominant.

Edit: I guess one thing I hold dear is that you can go back and play games from 2005 now, but you can't go back and experience what it was like to play WoW with people in 2005 now. Good times.

Rainbow Six Vegas was awesome. Terrorist Hunt.

@turtlebird95 said:

I... uh... well that's an interesting mistype.

Other than Resistance the good 2005/2006 games were on older consoles, Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile 2, and Resident Evil 4 to name a few.

I'l add some videos to try and bring back some of that nostalgia.

Man this Gears footage blew my mind back then: Gears of War early gameplay

Also the original trailer promised a more survival horror experience, kind of wished they sticked to it: Gear of War Early Trailer

Resistance Fall of Man 2005 footage / The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Trailer / MotorStorm Trailer / Nintendo Wii / The infamous Killzone 2 2005 trailer / even though it's a 2007 game, this first look at Bioshock in 2006 was also mindblowing / Mass Effect e3 2006 trailer / Assassin's creed e3 2006 gameplay

I remember getting my 360 and absolutely tearing into the original Saint's Row. Having been such a fan of all the GTA games, it was mind-blowing to see a world rendered in such high-fidelity (for the time). I didn't even care that it was so severely limited in comparison to San Andreas, which had sunk its claws into me for many years prior.

Dead Rising was another game that justified the next-gen jump for me (and prompted an upgrade to a full HD TV, after reading text on a standard definition box proved impossible). Though it was a little clunky, it evoked such strong connections to Dawn of the Dead, and offered so much variety and replayability, that I loved it anyway.

On the PC side of things, I remember playing FEAR a whole lot, and having an absolute blast with the bullet-time mechanic. That game had a great atmosphere and aesthetic, and I remember the gunplay feeling extremely satisfying.

I was really enjoying my 360 that I got a month after launch, then after 2 weeks it died and I had to wait 3 weeks for a replacement.

Not. Cool.

(it died while playing Dead or Alive, maybe it couldn't handle the boob physics)

EDIT - A real first memory is being very impressed by how Condemned looked, and soon after, terrified when playing it.

I hate autocorrect so much.

I got a Wii for Christmas 06. I remember my friend calling me and yelling about how his cousin got a 360, so I went over and I played Gears for the first time, and was absolutely amazed.