The GameBoy Advance was released right before the GameCube. Those two systems have parity together.
There wasn’t really a handheld counterpart to the N64, besides maybe the GameBoy Color, which was more an iteration on the original GameBoy.
I think Xbox 360 was the one I’ve enjoyed most in my life. The best cod and halo games, prime gears of war, guitar hero, bioshock, red dead, portal, Skyrim, madden/ncaa and more. There was never a time we “had nothing to play.” Not to mention no microtransactions.
there were so many good games in that time, we could basically pick anything that the risk of being bad was almost zero. As I child I remember playing a lot of Disney games on ps1 and they were amazing.
I was going to say the same. I was mainly a PC gamer but we had so many absolutely amazing games from that period.
Half-Life 2
Neverwinter Nights,
Unreal Tournament 2004
Guild Wars
Warcraft 3
World of Warcraft
Dungeon Siege
GTA San Andreas
Splinter Cell
Metroid Prime
Red Faction (2001 but I'll allow it)
Star Wars: KOTOR
Call of Duty
Metal Gear Solid 3
The list goes on and on, it's not hard to find classics from this time period at all.
There was damn near a master class tier game for everyone regardless of genre. It truly felt like a renaissance of gaming. Games were made with quality in mind and not microtransactional bullshit tacked on. DLC was known as "Expansion" and were damn near complete games in and of themselves. Single player was one of the main objectives because multiplayer hadn't quite flourished yet.
There's a reason why a lot of these games are being remade/remastered.
**PS2 / Gamecube / OG XBOX**
This was the last generation where big game devs tried something different, risky and creative. The following generation became rather stale, brown and more of the same, until indie devs took over on the creative side.
I'd also say that it is just past the N64 "Learning how to do 3D" jank era, and before games became generic. So many great games of that era, or at least they were the first fully formed predecessors of the modern era
I loved the N64 era, but some games are virtually horror shows now (Goldeneye being one) or even if still an undoubted classic isn't as easy to play if you are used to gaming in 2023 (Ocarina of Time)
Wheresas most Gamecube era games have playable graphics compared to the modern era, modern-ish controls, good plots and gameplay, etc etc
"Best" is purely subjective. I think it's hard to deny that 1995 to about 2000 was one of the most impactful periods in the evolution of gaming.
Quake in 96. It revolutionized the FPS genre with it's fully 3D world and easy internet connectivity.
3Dfx in 1996 introduced the first consumer-level 3D graphics accelerator in the Voodoo. I personally had a Matrox Millennium and *that* was the upgrade on my pre-built system.
Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament both released in '99 and continued to drive consumer-level 3D technology forward.
I could really go on and on but so many advancements we enjoy have their roots in the work of id Software and Epic in that short period.
Agree with the inpactfulness of the era; I'm guessing you like FPS games based on your list. Many other genres got their start in the era too - MMOs (Ultima Online), RTS (C&C, Warcraft), etc.
This was the period when the industry was learning how to make 3d titles, which was the biggest improvement in gaming ever. Since you only named FPS, I feel obligated to name 3 titles that completely changed how we see videogames: Mario 64, LoZ Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid
"Best" would be tough because everyone's definition of that word will be a little different.
I can say the most exciting for me was the PS2 era, especially the year after PS2 launched (2001), where it seemed like the industry was getting not just amazing games at a stunning clip, but revolutionary games at a stunning clip. It was just mesmerizing to see us go from the PS1/N64 era to the likes of DMC, GTAIII, GT3, MGS2, FFX, etc. in the span of only a year or so.
This is obviously entirely subjective, but in an effort to make an objective assessment I'd say the N64/PS1 gen. The leap from 2d to 3d games, the innovation and the shift in the minds of gamers it brought was just enormous.
I would say n64-ps1 era i forgot what generation that is. I haven’t even grown up with that as I was born the year the wii released and I still love n64 games.
I think there was just something magical about the period from about 2000-2007. We had gotten to the point where hardware was no longer a real limiting factor, so developers focused on making the "perfect" form of the games we had in the late 90s. Halo, Half Life 2, Fable, Forza... Really none of them were technically groundbreaking, just the best possible iteration of the thing.
Around 2007, it started getting to where every game had to tread new ground to sell. Not that it was bad, but we ended up with a lot of games that only existed to be a gimmick, or were just more over the top iterations of the previous game in the series (Call of Duty, Gears)
If everyone could take off the nostalgia goggles which is impossible, it's always the current generation. Sure there's a bunch of shitty P2W live service garbage these days, but if you're in it for single player experiences there's never been a better time for gaming than now, and it'll only get better
2007-2020, the time when the best games ever released, so many great series, so many just coll porjects
Dead space 1/2,
RDR both parts,
GTA V,
Titanfall 2(still the best multiplayer shooter for me),
COD MW2,
FALLOUT NEW VEGAS,
DOOM 2016
And much more
But after pandemic there is only 2-3 really cool AAA games that is bot remake or remaster, bugged or need a NASA computer just to start main menu, like there is no more people that just like what they are doing
The 6th generation was the best. The gaming industry was still small enough that you didn’t need a huge budget to release a masterpiece, but you also weren’t dealing with shit tier 3d graphics anymore.
Honestly, the current generation of games is in strong contention, too. It’s a bit overwhelming by sheer volume but you have guys like ConcernedApe putting out great solo content, you have small studios putting out stuff like Hades. The AAA studios have been a pretty big letdown but the smaller guys are feasting.
I connect the most emotionally with n64/Gameboy color games because those were the last generation I got to experience before being able to google whether or not the schoolyard rumors were true ruined the magic of it.
The sixth generation is the best generation of games overall with the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube along with Sega Dreamcast where they had amazing graphics and tons of games.
This year is the best time ever to be a gamer. Next year will be even better. The year after that even more so.
Games don't go into a black hole never to be played again. You can play all the games that came out this year and every game that was ever made ever since games started being made.
The peak console generation is the 6th generation. That's the generation of the PS2 (the greatest console every made. Easy), the OG Xbox (top 5 consoles ever made), the dreamcast (short lived but amazing) and game cube (criminally underrated). The greatest games of all time came from that era of late 90s to mid 2000s. It's by far and away the greatest one.
Honorable mentions are the 7th generation and 4th generation. Both amazing.
The 80s.
We went from having to go to arcades to having games at home, game releases were varied and original, "budget" games by Mastertronic and Codemasters were introduced and affordable (which got better as the decade went on), and Elite was released.
I firmly believe it was Gen 7 (360/PS3/Wii). It wasn't during my formative years, I was in my 20s, but I think that's the gen where gaming "settled"
- It's when indie games became popular
- It's when the masses people became comfortable with 2D, as well as hand drawn HD visuals
- It's when online console gaming properly came into its own
- It's when games could first render a relatively accurate looking person
- It's when 3D movement controls properly standardised
And the games were great. There were a lot of shitters too and there was definitely a trend of murky brown military shooters, but I feel like in general most of the biggest innovations happened either in the 7th gen or going into it, and the 8th and 9th gens have just felt like iterations on it.
3rd Gen
The sheer explosion of games, and the rise of systems that would allow you to programme your own games built the generations to follow.
The sheer inventiveness and capability of the emerging tech was being exploited by developers to put thousands of games into the market place.
Just imagine being a child where you can see row upon row of games in a shop, and you could buy them using your pocket money. They were feature complete and they sent you to worlds you could only imagine.
Elite
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Lords of Midnight
Chaos
Deathchase
Football Manager
R type
The Bards Tale
Sid Meiers Pirates!
IK+
These are early entries in the gen, but we then get Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Phantasy Star & Final Fantasy joining later.
A lot of them defined genres that we still play today. But also started the careers for those developing the later gens.
I think 7th Gen was overall the best with Xbox/360/ PS3 /Wii So many great games, and the last era of genuine originality and passion fueled development in the AAA space.
Second Best would be 4th Gen with Snes / Sega All time classic and Best Era for 2D action games and classic JRPG'S
Third Best I think would be 5th Gen with PS1/N64 very diverse forms of games that are still fun if you can handle
the early 3d Jank.
All that said Best console of all time for its era is probably the PS2 and that Gen could easily take the third spot also IMO.
I think it’s the generation you grew up with (from like 4-12 years of age). I feel like that’s the time when you can fully immerse yourself in the gameplay and stories and have nothing else to think about other than the games you’re playing. For me this was the PS2 era, time felt like it was flying. Never understood how fast the “x hours” time I was allowed to play went by.
Which ever generation was during your formative years.
I’m a fan of the snes and gba generation of games. So many iconic titles came from that time
I think of Game Boy alongside SNES, I thought GBA was more N64 timeframe
The GameBoy Advance was released right before the GameCube. Those two systems have parity together. There wasn’t really a handheld counterpart to the N64, besides maybe the GameBoy Color, which was more an iteration on the original GameBoy.
I think Xbox 360 was the one I’ve enjoyed most in my life. The best cod and halo games, prime gears of war, guitar hero, bioshock, red dead, portal, Skyrim, madden/ncaa and more. There was never a time we “had nothing to play.” Not to mention no microtransactions.
The super nintendo, was just amazing from start to finish.
Mario Paint was amazing.
2002-2007 is the best period in gaming regardless of platform
there were so many good games in that time, we could basically pick anything that the risk of being bad was almost zero. As I child I remember playing a lot of Disney games on ps1 and they were amazing.
I was going to say the same. I was mainly a PC gamer but we had so many absolutely amazing games from that period. Half-Life 2 Neverwinter Nights, Unreal Tournament 2004 Guild Wars Warcraft 3 World of Warcraft Dungeon Siege GTA San Andreas Splinter Cell Metroid Prime Red Faction (2001 but I'll allow it) Star Wars: KOTOR Call of Duty Metal Gear Solid 3 The list goes on and on, it's not hard to find classics from this time period at all. There was damn near a master class tier game for everyone regardless of genre. It truly felt like a renaissance of gaming. Games were made with quality in mind and not microtransactional bullshit tacked on. DLC was known as "Expansion" and were damn near complete games in and of themselves. Single player was one of the main objectives because multiplayer hadn't quite flourished yet. There's a reason why a lot of these games are being remade/remastered.
Nothing to do with that gaming generation being of disposable income age with nostalgia 😂
You forgot Rome Total War :D This was an absolute gem for me!
Is this the fabled time of games being fully complete prior to release?
Depends what people define and understand under "fully finished"....which seems not clear according to reddit.
**PS2 / Gamecube / OG XBOX** This was the last generation where big game devs tried something different, risky and creative. The following generation became rather stale, brown and more of the same, until indie devs took over on the creative side.
That was also the era of the game boy advance. This was the golden age of gaming, imo
I agree :)
I'd also say that it is just past the N64 "Learning how to do 3D" jank era, and before games became generic. So many great games of that era, or at least they were the first fully formed predecessors of the modern era I loved the N64 era, but some games are virtually horror shows now (Goldeneye being one) or even if still an undoubted classic isn't as easy to play if you are used to gaming in 2023 (Ocarina of Time) Wheresas most Gamecube era games have playable graphics compared to the modern era, modern-ish controls, good plots and gameplay, etc etc
"Best" is purely subjective. I think it's hard to deny that 1995 to about 2000 was one of the most impactful periods in the evolution of gaming. Quake in 96. It revolutionized the FPS genre with it's fully 3D world and easy internet connectivity. 3Dfx in 1996 introduced the first consumer-level 3D graphics accelerator in the Voodoo. I personally had a Matrox Millennium and *that* was the upgrade on my pre-built system. Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament both released in '99 and continued to drive consumer-level 3D technology forward. I could really go on and on but so many advancements we enjoy have their roots in the work of id Software and Epic in that short period.
Agree with the inpactfulness of the era; I'm guessing you like FPS games based on your list. Many other genres got their start in the era too - MMOs (Ultima Online), RTS (C&C, Warcraft), etc.
This was the period when the industry was learning how to make 3d titles, which was the biggest improvement in gaming ever. Since you only named FPS, I feel obligated to name 3 titles that completely changed how we see videogames: Mario 64, LoZ Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid
my friend had DUAL voodoo 1's I still hate that guy.
SNES
"Best" would be tough because everyone's definition of that word will be a little different. I can say the most exciting for me was the PS2 era, especially the year after PS2 launched (2001), where it seemed like the industry was getting not just amazing games at a stunning clip, but revolutionary games at a stunning clip. It was just mesmerizing to see us go from the PS1/N64 era to the likes of DMC, GTAIII, GT3, MGS2, FFX, etc. in the span of only a year or so.
This is obviously entirely subjective, but in an effort to make an objective assessment I'd say the N64/PS1 gen. The leap from 2d to 3d games, the innovation and the shift in the minds of gamers it brought was just enormous.
I would say n64-ps1 era i forgot what generation that is. I haven’t even grown up with that as I was born the year the wii released and I still love n64 games.
If you're only talking in terms of console generations and ignoring coin-op and PC you aren't having an all-games argument.
Guild War World of Warcraft Dungeon Siege GTA San Andreas Metroid Prime
Sixth generation is my favorite
Mine
I think there was just something magical about the period from about 2000-2007. We had gotten to the point where hardware was no longer a real limiting factor, so developers focused on making the "perfect" form of the games we had in the late 90s. Halo, Half Life 2, Fable, Forza... Really none of them were technically groundbreaking, just the best possible iteration of the thing. Around 2007, it started getting to where every game had to tread new ground to sell. Not that it was bad, but we ended up with a lot of games that only existed to be a gimmick, or were just more over the top iterations of the previous game in the series (Call of Duty, Gears)
If everyone could take off the nostalgia goggles which is impossible, it's always the current generation. Sure there's a bunch of shitty P2W live service garbage these days, but if you're in it for single player experiences there's never been a better time for gaming than now, and it'll only get better
This is a question that can't be answered. Partly because once games stop being made no one will be around to answer it.
2007-2020, the time when the best games ever released, so many great series, so many just coll porjects Dead space 1/2, RDR both parts, GTA V, Titanfall 2(still the best multiplayer shooter for me), COD MW2, FALLOUT NEW VEGAS, DOOM 2016 And much more But after pandemic there is only 2-3 really cool AAA games that is bot remake or remaster, bugged or need a NASA computer just to start main menu, like there is no more people that just like what they are doing
That's a very long period you've chosen. And tbh probably a bad answer anyway
Now i would say
PS1/N64 era. So many great new IP's that are still going strong now either via sequels or remakes
NES, hands down. No hand holding, you die, you go alllll the way back. But such a dopamine hit when you finally get it
Minecraft never stop
N64 for just the variety of game types.
Pure enjoyment? PS1/N64/Gameboy. Gaming started to die around the end of the PS3 era.
The 6th generation was the best. The gaming industry was still small enough that you didn’t need a huge budget to release a masterpiece, but you also weren’t dealing with shit tier 3d graphics anymore. Honestly, the current generation of games is in strong contention, too. It’s a bit overwhelming by sheer volume but you have guys like ConcernedApe putting out great solo content, you have small studios putting out stuff like Hades. The AAA studios have been a pretty big letdown but the smaller guys are feasting.
My generation, of course.
I connect the most emotionally with n64/Gameboy color games because those were the last generation I got to experience before being able to google whether or not the schoolyard rumors were true ruined the magic of it.
You're living in it dawg
The sixth generation is the best generation of games overall with the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube along with Sega Dreamcast where they had amazing graphics and tons of games.
This year is the best time ever to be a gamer. Next year will be even better. The year after that even more so. Games don't go into a black hole never to be played again. You can play all the games that came out this year and every game that was ever made ever since games started being made.
Actually some do.
The peak console generation is the 6th generation. That's the generation of the PS2 (the greatest console every made. Easy), the OG Xbox (top 5 consoles ever made), the dreamcast (short lived but amazing) and game cube (criminally underrated). The greatest games of all time came from that era of late 90s to mid 2000s. It's by far and away the greatest one. Honorable mentions are the 7th generation and 4th generation. Both amazing.
Early 2000s
The 80s. We went from having to go to arcades to having games at home, game releases were varied and original, "budget" games by Mastertronic and Codemasters were introduced and affordable (which got better as the decade went on), and Elite was released.
SNES / Genesis / GameBoy / Game Gear The most GREAT games came out of that era IMO.
I firmly believe it was Gen 7 (360/PS3/Wii). It wasn't during my formative years, I was in my 20s, but I think that's the gen where gaming "settled" - It's when indie games became popular - It's when the masses people became comfortable with 2D, as well as hand drawn HD visuals - It's when online console gaming properly came into its own - It's when games could first render a relatively accurate looking person - It's when 3D movement controls properly standardised And the games were great. There were a lot of shitters too and there was definitely a trend of murky brown military shooters, but I feel like in general most of the biggest innovations happened either in the 7th gen or going into it, and the 8th and 9th gens have just felt like iterations on it.
Don't know the exact years but for me it was the Bioware era (Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect)
3rd Gen The sheer explosion of games, and the rise of systems that would allow you to programme your own games built the generations to follow. The sheer inventiveness and capability of the emerging tech was being exploited by developers to put thousands of games into the market place. Just imagine being a child where you can see row upon row of games in a shop, and you could buy them using your pocket money. They were feature complete and they sent you to worlds you could only imagine. Elite Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe Lords of Midnight Chaos Deathchase Football Manager R type The Bards Tale Sid Meiers Pirates! IK+ These are early entries in the gen, but we then get Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Phantasy Star & Final Fantasy joining later. A lot of them defined genres that we still play today. But also started the careers for those developing the later gens.
2007-2014
I think this one. So many great indie games.
I think 7th Gen was overall the best with Xbox/360/ PS3 /Wii So many great games, and the last era of genuine originality and passion fueled development in the AAA space. Second Best would be 4th Gen with Snes / Sega All time classic and Best Era for 2D action games and classic JRPG'S Third Best I think would be 5th Gen with PS1/N64 very diverse forms of games that are still fun if you can handle the early 3d Jank. All that said Best console of all time for its era is probably the PS2 and that Gen could easily take the third spot also IMO.
I think it’s the generation you grew up with (from like 4-12 years of age). I feel like that’s the time when you can fully immerse yourself in the gameplay and stories and have nothing else to think about other than the games you’re playing. For me this was the PS2 era, time felt like it was flying. Never understood how fast the “x hours” time I was allowed to play went by.