So far would you consider the 8th generation the worst gen of gaming?

Uh no, not even close. I already have several games I would rank among my all time favorites.

If I were to try to rank this gen among the entire history of gaming I don't know where it would fall (and I'm not going to try) but it quite easily beats out last gen for me. This year alone is among the best gaming has ever had. Yeah, there are elements of modern gaming that kinda suck, but there's plenty of elements of old-school gaming that suck too. It doesn't mar the entire generation.

This is the best time to be playing video games.

This gen has been slow to start, this year seems to be the year it kinda started. But in saying that, it hasn't been a great gen so far. Too many remasters, ports and remakes for my liking.

Why is it everywhere I read nowadays people complain of microtransactions in single player games and yet I barely even notice they exist?

@rebel_scum: For the same reason I see a ton of whining about ads yet barely notice them. Some people have very little tolerance for things coupled with a large need to rage about it.

No, definitely not. This year alone has been one of the best ever, this gen is not so bad. There's been plenty of amazing games in all kinds of genres for every type of player. Gaming is awesome and it's a great time to play. There always will be good and bad things, but to say this gen has been one of the worst is crazy.

Well, retrospectively, the second generation is pretty hard to beat given it led to the crash and very, very few games from that area got any kind of legacy. The first isn't great either.

Excluding those two... Maybe. The first half of this generation was a wreck. There's no denying it, low quality ports and a lot of not great cross-gen games with the few games made for these systems generally disappointing. I agree that there also haven't been enough new IPs on consoles, and those there have been haven't necessarily justified themselves for sequels. However, things have gotten better, and there's a lot of good things happening in the indie space along with Nintendo being rejuvenated. It is a pretty damn bad time for third party AAA games as there are fewer and a lot of them are riddled with bad business practices. But that's not all there is to gaming any more. I think gaming is in a state of transition and the end result will be for the better. It has just been fairly rough getting there.

So, we'll see.

I guess I kinda agree. Voted "maybe", though it's a bit hard to judge, both because of how some generations (like the Atari 2600) aged, and how home computers aren't divided into generations the same way (as well as "video games" and "computer games" practically being entirely different entities up until 1990 or so).

All I can say with certainty is that I'm absolutely not the target audience for the vast majority of all games made these days, but I'm not sure I'd go as far as say that makes the current generation inherently worse/worst.

I would say some extremely disgusting practices have taken hold in these last two generations though.

This year rivals any other in my mind so nope!

This year alone has so many fantastic options in such a wide variety of genres. If you can't find something for you either aren't looking in the right places, taking chances outside of your comfort zones, or just plain not trying.

And microtransactions literally only affect you if you let them. They are completely optional and there are incredibly few instances of them having a large negative impact on a games experience.

There was a literal video game crash in the 80's, so no, by comparison, we're doing pretty good. In my opinion, unless that happened again but somehow worse, it wouldn't be possible for any generation TO be worse than that.
Sure there are more ways for publishers to be greedy asshats now, but there are also more ways for indie or self controlled studios to get off the ground. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good.

Every generation is the worst generation. Every generation is the best generation.

Anything before the NES, I have no interest in so it's an automatic no for me. I'm not saying those were bad gens, I'm just not quite old enough and they're a bit too far before my time.

The only thing about this gen, I think, is that it's hard to separate it from the last gen. Every generation before the HD era from NES on, I see clear delineation, a true leap. But I don't see that as a knock against this generation 'cause that's just how far we've come with gaming tech. Micro-transactions and all the sleazy business stuff, again, I see that as a continuing trend from last gen. The way you feel, I felt about last gen so the stuff that bothers you, I think have bothered me longer. In terms of quality of games though, looking at all the games I own from last gen and this gen, I like how this gen stacks up and we're only about half way there in time frame.

Maybe...?

Certainly this gen has had some big problems, and they haven't been totally erased by the good crop of games this year. I'm not going to comment on the first or second generations, since I don't know nearly enough about them. Of the rest, all the generations have been pretty solid, so even the "worst" generation isn't really that bad. And I'm struggling to think of a generation less good than this one; maybe the 6th generation? Most of that was pretty lackluster, but at the same time, the PS2 was great.

Nope, this generation has spawned some of my all time favorite games, and has me super super excited to see where games go in the future

The first couple of generations is hard to beat because it set the templates for the others to follow, so in some aspect it’s kind of an unfair comparison?

but on sheer standalone quality alone, easily my favorite generation

I think it may be the best, not because of big triple A games buy because of the sheer amount of different types of games that are allowed to be made right now. I mean i can't really think of a genre that i cant find a game to play in right now.

In my mind, the battle for worst generation is the 8th generation versus the 1st generation. I have to ask myself, what would I rather have, an Xbox One or a Magnavox Odyssey? Hmm.

I think this is one of the best times to ever be playing video games. There's an extremely broad range of genres being catered to right now, so essentially everyone can find something they like. If all you want is AAA blockbusters, you may find yourself left wanting, but if you're willing to branch out even a tiny bit, there's far too many games to even have enough time to play.

Side note, am I the only one that kinda hates generation numbering? When people talk about something like the third or fourth generation of video games, I genuinely have no clue what they're talking about.

Nope. not even close.

No. The worst gen is whatever Atari and folks were doing before Nintendo came in, it's waaay before my time and whenever Jeff brings up those games I don't get it. I don't think this generation is the best or anything. There are some games I like, but compared to the decade of wii/ps3/xbox 360/DS/3DS/PC games for instance? Of course it's not even close yet.

During last generation we got Punch-Out Wii, New Super Mario Bros, the Rayman reboot, Metal Gear Solid 4, 5 and Rising, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, the new Mortal Kombats, Street Fighter 4, Bastion, Limbo, Brothers, To The Moon, Braid, GTA 4 and 5, Call of Duty came into its own, same for Gears of War, we got all of Platinum Games, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Oblivion, Valiant Hearts, Uncharted 1-3, Dead Space, Saints Row 1-4, the Tomb Raider reboot games, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Borderlands, Team Fortress 2, League of Legends, Portal 1 and 2, Left 4 Dead, Hotel Dusk, Journey, Shadow Complex, the new Strider, Mark of the Ninja, Castle Crashers, Skullgirls, Blazblue, Deadly Premonition, Layton, Rhytm Heaven Fever, Amnesia the Dark Descent, the DS Castlevania trilogy, the DS Mario Kart, the Bioshocks, the Walking Dead, Assassin's Creed 1-100, Starcraft 2, Tales of Vesperia, Little King's Story, Dragon's Crown and Muramasa, Persona 5, Far Cry 2, 3 and 4, Life is Strange, like six Bioware games, the first two Witchers, Batman Arkham Asylum and City, Demon's Souls and two Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Phoenix Wright, Ghost Trick, The Last of Us, Gone Home, Dota 2 etc etc. It's an endless row of beloved games that the current gen can hardly even begin to compare to, though it gets better every year, naturally.

There hasn't even been a single cool, big character action game yet besides like Bayo 2 on the freaking Wii U. We got Mass Effect Andromeda instead of any of the other Mass Effects. The Wii U did so poorly it was shafted in favor of a new console. And a lot of the DLC trends like lootboxes have just become worse since last time. There are design trends I think are exhausting as well, like the generic Ubisoft open world model that just keeps going or the roguelike/procedural generation that half the indies do now, that means I skip those games hard. But I have found games I enjoy, and I basically enjoy my console and controller. It's not bad at all. But it's definitely not my best time to be playing videogames either. Last gen might have been the best gameswise, and the snes era and ps2/gc era were really great to me too, especially nostalgiawise at this point. This new gen isn't looking bad, but it is not the best yet.

I mostly agree with GameSpot reviewers, and given how many 10/10 rated games there are for this gen, I would say this is one of the best generations of video games. Games are also more diverse now, it seems like genres have come into their own, and hybrid genres are coming up with new ideas for people who have grown tired of traditional mechanics.

Probably because a lot of people think microtransactions = automatically bad.

A lot of the time, microtransactions aren't egregious at all. Some of them are harmless, like cosmetic items, or items that can be earned in the game, but can also be bought by people who have more money than time. People seem to think that if there are microtransactions, they have to partake in them. But most of the time, they're completely unnecessary.

lol, those results. Maybe you don't like games anymore.

"There has never been a better time to be playing video games"

Same. I'd also be interested to know how many people who are loving the current generation are primarily PC gamers vs console peeps.

In the AAA and console space, definitely, at least out of the ones I've been alive for. In general, no, simply because there's way more options for playing indie and older games, so you can easily avoid all the absolute garbage that's being pumped out these days.

I'm assuming a lot of things by saying this but maybe try exploring some indie games duder.

PC gamers would say "8th generation of what?"

Nah man maybe I should of been more specific I'm strictly talking about AAA games if you compare the first three years of last gen compared to this one it's lacking badly AAA publishers are scared to make new IP'S this generation and most of the new IP'S are games are heavily deep in microstractions. I know some people are fine with this I'm not it's mobile gaming business practices I hate it. But I'm fine with gaming having good DLC and expansion packs but AAA market is turning into one big Pachinko machine. As far of me liking games I absolutely still enjoy them it's hard for me to find new ones that interest me I guess I'm still waiting for that magical new IP that's going to make everything feel right again.

I still say that we're spoiled compared to the crash of '83 and what games were before the NES and Master System, but this generation feels like a prettier version of the previous generation, for better and for worse.

As Vinny would say, "It's the best time to be playing games." So many ways to play, so many great games. Why, we haven't seen a year this good for video games since '98 dagnabbit!

I keep seeing people saying this I know Vinny obviously means this but are people just saying this because of him? or do you guys really believe this?

Yeah this actually really annoys me. Are the best games ever really coming out right now? Are you personally having the most fun now that you've ever had? I just feel like he says it because you can always go back and play older stuff, at the same time as new games are coming out, and Vinny is a nice guy that always tries to be positive. He's not actually saying "this generation/these games are the best". It gets on my nerves that his jovial greeting has become a meme that's supposed to mean something in this conversation. Dude doesn't even have time to play videogames between work and kids.

I genuinely believe that right now, this moment is the best time to be playing games. The sheer variety of games coming out, with indies and bigger developers trying new things, eclipses any other time. This exact moment is the most exciting time to by playing/making videogames in decades.

Could not disagree more strongly. This year and last year alone have been some of my favorite years for gaming in a long, long time. Stuff like Overwatch, Doom, Nier: Automata, Breath of the Wild, and PUBG have become some of my all time favorites. I've been playing games since the NES days and have a ton of nostalgia for the SNES era specifically, but I've been incredibly impressed with the last couple of years in gaming. Always more stuff to play than I have time for.

This has been one of the best years of games in a very long time so it's really hard for me to say this now.

I also feel like it's too easy to look back on previous generations and just remember the hits, are the remasters and such any worse than the even greater deluge of licensed garbage of past gens?

@redhotchilimist: I actually do believe some of the best games ever made are coming out right now. Whether it is in fact the most fun I have ever had playing video games is hard to say, because there are so many things outside of video games that influence that, but I have had plenty really great experiences with video games recently that would rank next to some of my favorite games of all time. It's not really something I go around saying, because it's not actually that important to me whether it is or isn't, but if anyone feels like this is "the best time to be playing video games" I can't say they're wrong.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way I think it's the best time to find old games that you never experience and it's easy to access them through Steam and Amazon and other sources. It's sucks right now to be a AAA gamer that doesn't have any interest in the indies I have nothing against them I loved playing 2-D games in the 90's but it just doesn't interest me anymore. The one thing I can say I enjoy about this generation is VR to me it's the most impressive and exciting thing to come out of it and the games are getting better for it.

You'd have to be pretty old and grumpy to think that

I'm disappointed with certain trends this generations namely free to play business models in games that are not free to play. But no I don't think is the worst generation of consoles. Some of my favorite games ever have come out this generation (shoutouts to Nier Automata).

no

Quit playing shit games.

No. No I would not.

Thank you for asking.

I agree with all those points. There are just so many games out now, I literally can't play everything I want to in any reasonable time period. Heat Signature just hit and I can't stop playing it, Stellaris just put out it's newest story pack, Divinity: OS 2 came out, the XCOM 2 expansion a few weeks ago, Destiny 2, Yakuza 0 / Kiwami, I also just got Crusader Kings II which was probably a terrible idea...and there's still so much more. There seems to be less huge, Halo-like game releases to me, but there's so much more of other games out there.

I don't hate generation numbering but I don't care about it and would have to google it to figure it out.

Also Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow Of New Despair is my favorite game of all time. I have not had more fun with a single game than I have had with that one. And this year has been pretty fantastic for games.

Not really. But I definitely liked the last gen better.

• PlayStation didn't have a paywall for multiplayer.
• The DualShock still had pressure sensitive buttons, which were used by Kojima Productions, Rockstar and Polyphony Digital, to name a few.
• MGS4 was better than MGS5.
• Max Payne 3 was the last game of its kind. A pure shooter with a noir story and bullet time. Shooters are all about upgrades, iron sights/over the shoulder, cover and health regen now. People kept whining about Remedy not making it, and now we have Quantum Break, and it sucks.
• The Souls series was still fresh and innovative.
• Super Meat Boy and Shovel Knight were two of the greatest platformers of all time. Limbo was pretty good too. I liked Rayman: Origins.
• Mirror's Edge was better than Mirror's Edge the reboot. It succumbed to the open world fad and upgrades.
• GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption were better and more innovative than GTA V.
• The Walking Dead Season 1 and The Wolf Among Us were better than probably anything Telltale has made since.
• Valve still released full games. Portal, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead series and the two Half-Life episodes.
• Naughty Dog still made new IPs, Uncharted and The Last of Us. Still haven't played TLOU, though.
• Arkham City was better than Arkham Knight.
• Call of Duty was still respected, mainly for 2 and 4.
• I'm replaying Crysis. Still a better, more dynamic and impressive shooter than most being released now.
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution was good.
• The Witcher 2 had a better story and was less boring than The Witcher 3. Going full open world may have been a mistake.
• Hideaki Itsuno still made games, Devil May Cry 4 and Dragon's Dogma. I wasn't a fan of either, but they were better than nothing. I liked DD more.

Tales from the Borderlands is so much better than both those games. (I still like them, mind you, but TftB is totally their best game.)

I may play it one of these days, even though I didn't care for Borderlands 2. I'm sore about Gearbox dooming Alien: Isolation with their sleazy mishandling of Colonial Marines. I vowed never to buy any of their games again. I know they didn't develop Tales, but they benefit from its success.

@ezekiel: Telltale did so much better with that license than Gearbox could ever hope to. I don't think you even have to like Borderlands to enjoy Tales.

I kinda get where you're coming from with Gearbox, but it's unfair to punish Telltale over it. Support good games. (Also, apparently TftB was NOT a success financially, according to Telltale, so no worries there I guess.)

Nope. The beginning was slow, but it was slow last time around too, I just happened to skip it by buying a PS3 almost two years after it's launch.

Tales from the Borderlands was also out on 360 and PS3 anyways. Same for GTA V and MGSV. Part of why last generation was so good is that it lasted forever, and even when the new consoles were out I could play MGSV on 360 and it actually ran amazingly well. You could compare stuff like Dragon Age Inquisition(as graphically buggy as it can be) to Dragon Age Origins and be blown away by what had happened in a decade. I kinda still count Persona 5 as last generation, since it's the world's slowest ps3 game to come out more than anything.

@zeik: I can see it depending a lot on what you're looking for. There are basically only three games on my PS4 that I might say I love(them being Bloodborne, Street Fighter V and Persona 5). I'm happy you've found some games you really like, but for me it's just not been enough stuff that appeals hard to me to go "yeah this is he best time" yet.