As this era draws to a close, and we usher in another load of bloated, over-powered and under-utilised machines that we don't really need. It's time for some reflection. I always think of consoles like people starting at the gym - flabby and inefficient to begin with, becoming leaner and more efficient as time goes on, and we've seen some really good stuff coming out over the past couple of years.
So, with only a few titles left of note that remain to be released before the big switcheroo (like Okami, Shadow of the Colossus and Twilight Princess), what are your standout games from the current gen? By this, I mean PS2, Xbox and Gamecube (Dreamcast is too old, plus it deserves its own thread anyway, GBA games could come from any period during the last 8 years, and the DS and PSP are too early in their dev cycle to be included).
Starting with the Xbox, I have to say very little has interested or excited me on this console, and it's displayed little innovation. Despite a rash of good Smilebit games at the start of the console's life, its huge bombing in Japan saw off any decent Japanese development, leaving Gun Valkyrie and Panzer Dragoon Orta as the high watermarks. Halo 1 and 2 save the machine for me, plus its abilities once modded. Knights of the Old Republic is pretty good and quite enjoyable, and Outrun 2 is one of the best arcade conversions in years and years. I'll be getting Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory to play online co-op, but my interests end there. For me, the weakest output of the three consoles appeared on Xbox, with far too many cross-format games and little use of its hardware advantages.
The PS2 is my most bought-for console of this gen. I have about 40 games for it, and remains for me the broadest and most interesting console around. Amongst its great games, I'd have to pick Devil May Cry, as it still impresses to this day, Gradius V, which is the best horizontal-scrolling shooter of the past 5 or 6 years, easily. There's the magnificence that is Metal Gear Solid 3 (and, controversially and to a lesser extent, 2) which are stuffed full of innovative ideas. There's the insane Katamari Damashii and its sequel, which takes oddness to the nth degree whilst remaining fresh, simple and intuitive. There are tons more I could name, but i'll finish with what is, for me, the greatest game of this generation, that being ICO. So good, it doesn't need me to remind you why.
The Gamecube falls between two stools for me. Although it produces arguably the prettiest games of all three machines, and some wonderfully solid and immersive titles, its small catalogue and long waiting periods between big releases harmed it to no end in many peoples' eyes. Me? Not fussed about waiting, as I have so much stuff to play at any given time, so I consider it a great - if not, perhaps, 'classic' - console. From the start, I was totally happy with the lovely, charming and underrated Luigi's Mansion (especially as I don't tend to like over-long games) and the arcade-style Rogue Leader. A little later in its life, the supreme Super Monkey Ball arrived - a simple premise, lovingly executed and great in multi-player. After that, it was a long waiting period for me, which then saw what I thought was the best ever GC game released: Metroid Prime. It still divides people (some older gamers think it strays too far from the Super Metroid template; some argue it ought to have FPS controls) but inarguably it has beautiful visuals and a starlting sense of place. One of the few games to successfully and complete place you in an alien world. Second to that in my affection is F-Zero GX. Again, a controversial game, mainly because fans of the N64 title didn't like the way it had been 'SEGA-fied'. Personally, I loathed F-Zero X and wouldn't touch GX until a mate forced the controller into my hands. Once I felt it handle like an AM1 game rather than a Nintendo game, I was sold 
Sadly, Resident Evil 4 didn't at all click with me. I found it an un-scary shooting gallery with dated gameplay. The clumsiness is excusable in the other titles, as it's deliberate and based around the camera angles. In 4, with its shifted perspective, its restrictions seem pointless, and the lack of puzzles and Gothic atmosphere drag it too far from the Resi template for me. However, it's only fair to include it in the list I think.
Well, I hope that wasn't too boring. What are your picks?
Weeell, I tend to agree on the XBox, there's little on there that really gets the juices flowing. However there have been some titles that made me moist. Outrun2 is the one that immediately leaps to the front of my mind, but Halo was also quite good. I played a fair bit of PGR2, but I'll probably never go back to it, so I guess that doesn't really count as one of the bricks finest in my book. XBox = lack of innovation
Next up is the Cube. Super Monkey Ball is utterly fantastic and remains so. Can't really fault it. I didn't play the Nintendo 1st and 2nd party stuff, so I can't really comment too much on the cube. I've got a whole shelf of untouched games including Zelda, Metroid, FZeroGX and Viewtiful Joe. I think it's high time the ol girl was brought out of retirement and canned in the run up to Xmas.
PS2, is probably this generations home console with the highest attach rate for me. Highlights are ICO and the utterly superb Katamary Damashii
Finally GBA which I have loads of games for. High points are actually not that high, but I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the following: Broken Sword Works really well on the handheld format, shame about the massive game wrecking bug that forced me to restart the damned thing - finished it, so it must have done something right. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance I actually hate this game, no I really do, it's got the worst designed interface ever and some really REALLY annoying rules to remember, hasn't prevented me from pouring like 40 hours into it though. Golden Sun - (First Half) Don't bother playing this through to the end, after you've collected enough Djinn it becomes an irritating snore-fest, but the first 10 to 20 hours are pure RPG magic. Final Fight Yay a non RPG game. What can I say it's Final Fight, always good for a quick blast.
Weeell, I'm a bit wierd about generations as you'd expect, but I bought an Xbox for OutRun 2 and then tried playing the other games available... It was boxed with Halo (Dull), Rainbox 6 3 (Just a sad sad sad port of the PC version) and Midtown Madness 3 (seriously? it was like one of those really bad SNES games that vomited their way onto the machine, hideous). Then I heard good things about Chronicles of Riddick (Or the Camp Adventures of Vin) played that, freaking embarasing, nice hand to hand ideas, kinda immature level design and then just lost itself in the final third. Now I've tried MotoGP2 which I also find incredibly dull, just doesn't engage me one single bit, it has no anima. My house mate bought FIFA Street which is a button mashing abomination of life. Panzar Dragoon Orta gets a play now and again, that and that's it.
PlayStation 2 I bought purely for the possiblilty of playing Winning Eleven patched, which I have been doing non-stop ever since. That was from Winning Eleven 6 FE onwards, my housemates all enjoy it, but the magic is wearing thin on that game, basically Offsides are broken. Other than that, I've not really dabbled too much, the loading times and the pads really get on my nipples. I KNOW I have some catching up to do, as I did ave to early irrational distaste to the whole PS2 gig, so I've ordered Katamari Damashii the first one, and hope to play that, I also have some Devil May Cry games to play properly and so forth.
The GameCube gets the most attention, simply because over the years Nintendo have never let me down, you know that when you sit down to a Nintendo game you won't sit there half way through, lost, confused, bored or in some cyclical bug. That means I could commit myself to Mario Sunshine (Very underated), Wind Waker fine, but too familiar in places but still worth the effort, Metroid Prime the most amazingly satisfyingly consistent and wonderful single player game I've ever played ever and of course FZero GX for me the best future hover racer in the history of the universe, another perfect, faultless game, althrough arguably the Cups are a bit too easy.
Xbox
A huge disappointment for me. Its the only console I have sold and bought 3 times and each time I rebuy it I wonder why I bothered. Halo was very good but I dont really care if I never play it again so that isn't included. In fact I can only think of a single title I loved and that is Moto GP 2its the greatest bike game ever made and it has a full field of racers even in multiplayer mode (which ALL racers should have).
PS2
Like Treble, this is the best console this generation but only because I got it chipped. If I had stuck with PAL it would be quite low on my list. All the Winning Eleven games are brilliant, Psyvariar got me back into shmups, VF4: Evo showed how to do 3D fighters and Frequency was a revelation.
Gamecube
There weren't many great titles for it in my opinion but it does play host to the best game this generation hands down and that is Super Monkey Ball 1. Perfection on a tiny disk.
All in all it has been a rather poor generation with only a handful of great highlights.
Funny how a release title for the Cube is still top of the pile for a lot of people. You're quite right though, I'm struggling to think of a better game this generation. Katamary comes close for me, but there is something just magical about Monkey Ball. (sheds tear)
Open, simple-input, puzzle-based games are often the most enduring. Of this gen, it's quite easy to argue the best games include:
Super Monkey Ball
Katamari
Lumines
Meteos
ICO
We like them because they are 'pure' gaming, unrestricted by poncey graphical effects or flavour of the month physics. I may not like Resi 4 and Jibber may not like Halo, and that's fair enough, but we'd both be idiots if we disliked something like Tetris. Pure stuff like that just endures.
I half agree with you, Cookie, that it's been a poor gen, but on the other hand the highlights are SO high, they supercede tons of what has come before. The only thing we've really, truly lacked is a briliant new 2D platform game. I'd argue almost every other (major) genre has had a new leader produced in this gen.
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♫ I promise to commit no acts of violence,
Neither physical or otherwise,
If things come alive
And by your own criteria you have to discount the 2 qb games on your list.
The 2D platformer does seem to have gone the way of the dodo, for now at least. I'm sure it will make a triumphant return and we will fall in love with it all over again.
I half agree with you, Cookie, that it's been a poor gen, but on the other hand the highlights are SO high, they supercede tons of what has come before. The only thing we've really, truly lacked is a briliant new 2D platform game. I'd argue almost every other (major) genre has had a new leader produced in this gen.
I totally agree with you but it would be nice to have had some good games in between too.
SMB1 is perfect because its simplicity belies a great complexity. If you remove the fantastic mini games (each one could have been released as a budget title in their own right) the standard single player offers so much replayability. Barring the opening level on easy, each floor has several routes you can take in order to complete your objective. So few games offer true freedom like that anymore.
Inspiration is the hardest thing to find, and is impossible to replicate (although most developers try). A great game in 3D should have width and breadth literally (in other words, it should be a solid and consistent polygonal world in its own right) as well as figuratively (there should be several ways to employ your skills during gameplay). Devcos are calling these concepts 'sandbox', which is a catchall metaphor that implies that you have freedom to be creative in their environment.
Now that's fine, but it's in its own way as restrictive as any other concept: it implies you want realism or some semblance of it when playing a game. I think there's room for behaving like a child in a sandbox, throwing shit around and making your own shapes, but nothing beats good structure.
A good 3D game, then, is sort of like a racetrack and you the driver in the racecar. Just because you are whizzing round the same bit of 50 foot-wide tarmac each time, doesn't mean you don't need oddles of skill to compete. The effective games like SMB, KD and ICO are, despite their different graphical trappings and perspectives, stick to this principal.
Halo 2 tries to do this with an established genre (the FPS) but fails in single player because Bungie fail to replicate the continuity of the first game, turning it into a series of short set pieces that are unsatisfying. In the first, it gets it right when the levels are open and enticing but still quite linear, and it's the enemies' AI you are competing against, sort of like a constantly shifting puzzle with the enemies as the rapidly changing components.
All that is a long way of saying that the drive to make ultra-realistic games in environments where almost anything is possible ignores the need for focused gameplay and introduces a style of gameplay where time, rather than skill, is needed for success. Spend long enough wandering around an environment and you'll eventually gather the items or money you need. They're a commitment to a work ethic rather than the spirit of competition, in my opinion, and are typical of the noughtie's "You shouldn't have to try too hard to be 'special'" attitude.
I've probably ranted too far from my original point (as per usual
) but I think there's some bits of truth in it, at least.
One thing about the next gen I liked the look of: Sega's presentation. Massive sandbox games? No. Huge online arenas? No. Ultra-realistic visuals? No.
VF5, Afterburner 3, HOTD 4, new Sonic game? YES.
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♫ I promise to commit no acts of violence,
Neither physical or otherwise,
If things come alive
God I hope they (SEGA) don't fuck it up.
It's bullshit too to think that people don't want skill based games anymore. I still purchase a lot of skill based games, despite lacking a lot of the skills necessary to compete. This constant march for realism really bites the fat-one. It'll be like playing real life ffs; who wants to do that?
When I play a game I want to experience something that is quite literally out of this world, I want something that bends and breaks the rules which govern my existence. That's what the next generation needs and I can't see it coming on XBox360, which is rapidly dissapearing up its very own realistic and accurately modelled areshole.
Let's start with the DC:
Psyvariar2 I played exclusively for about 2 months, not touching anything else. Untouchable this gen imho and will get played forever.
Test Drive Le Mans for managing to look gorgeous AND have semi-decent AI AND 24 cars on screen at once.
Rez for simplicity triumphing.
Xbox:
Purchased late in the day, specifically to play Outrun2, I ended up disappointed once I realised the restrictions it places on your driving style necessary to get the best times (a similar problem I found with F355 actually). Great fun if you don't take it that seriously though.
So what did I enjoy? Halo1 single player, Halo2 online, as long as I could find some friends to play with.
Rallisport Challenge 2 Online has the best community I've experienced and the games are always fun and a laugh even with strangers.
Playing Trevor's Gun Valkyrie again last night, I saw the potential, but just could never get it to click (sic).
Orta is lovely, but somehow not enjoying it quite as much as I did Rez.
PGR2 was almost great, but didn't look as good as MSR somehow - washed out visuals and odd in-car camera height settings. Again, great fun online with people you know.
So it looks like for me, the Xbox has only been special as an online gaming tool for a select few games - although at the £100 price I paid for it, still a good purchase.
PS2:
Not owning my own (bit of an error), I've only sampled other people's games.
Katamari is the stand out moment of genius.
Ridge Racer V was submlime until a certain level of difficulty was reached that taxed even my legendary RR skills.
Finally the Puyo Puyo game in Sega Superstars eyetoy - more fun in 5 minutes than I'd had on most other games in ages.
GC:
I played it through over a few days, and then as soon as it was finished, I played it through again twice, the first time in a day. This hasn't happened with a game since my C64 days. Which is nice.
P.N.03 - game of 2003 surely?
GBA:
Most lunchtimes at work were spent playing linkup bomberman for months, thus making it to the top of the list, even though it's not the best version - it's readily available.
Guru Logic Champ - an awesome puzzle game which sold out everywhere just after I reviewed it, and I had foolishly decided to buy a copy at the end of the month, so now I can't get hold of it
This Generation Is Nearly Dead. Pick Your favourite Games From It
I'll tell you when it really is "dead". Still lots in my "to play/complete" pile, and new games to look forward to.
Xbox has been dead since OutRun 2 though, and I didn't even think that was all that great. JSRF is probably the only Xbox game I really enjoyed. I've bought the machine three times (the last one solely for OutRun 2) and have had to sell them pretty soon afterwards due to there being no games to interest me. Hacking it for teh r0mz never interested me either.
Highlights on GC so far, would have to be F-Zero GX, which is probably the finest racing game this generation. Paper Mario 2 was also one of Nintendo's better games, and Super Monkey Ball of course (does anyone not like it
). There's still loads of high-profile games I need to get around to completing or playing properly as well. Overall, the GameCube has been a fine machine.
PS2 has been my favourite machine this gen. It didn't start out that way, but the software won me over. Too many good games to mention, but I like the fact that (surprisingly?) it's taken over from the DC as the platform of choice for shooters & fighting games, and "arcade-style" games in general.
Surprising from a DC fans perspective certainly, but on paper the PS2 is the only logical choice for arcade ports from non-console* derived hardware. The PS2 has a huge installed userbase compared to the other two, so you're far more likely to shift enough copies to make a port worthwhile if you port to PS2.
I think what's surprised me though is the quality of some of the arcade titles that have come out over the last few years. There's a lot to love in the arcades at the moment.
* I'm not including the DC/NAOMI in this as the DC isn't being included in the current gen in this thread.
One of the tricks I've been meaning to get is Virtua Fighter 4 Evo played it on release a while back and I absolutely loved every second of it... so far and away above the rest it's disgusting.
The Playstation2 was the first next gen console that I bought first. I can clearly remember my pants getting wet playing Devil May Cry. What a game. Absolutlely F-ing loved Metal Gear Solid 3. Such a massive improvement on number 2 visually and the story.Another fav of mine is Prince of Persia the sands of time which was just a quality platformer that I really enjoyed.
There have been many great games over this generation of consoles. The cute but contraversal Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Admittedly I wasn't particulary keen over it at first but the charm of the game finally won me over. Sadly I didnt buy that many games for the Cube because there wasn't that many that caught my eye, except for greats like Resi Evil, Metroid Prime, and Eternal Darkness which I thought was great.
Next in line was the Xbox which has over the years given me great moments in gaming such as Panzer Dragoon Orta, Halo, throwing sticky grenades at the big hunters and just blazing away with your assault rifle. Another one of my faves was Gun Valkyrie which you either loved or hated. I myself have really enjoyed the Splinter cell series which really showed off some great lighting effects while you sneaked around. Burnout3 the high octane racer which just goes to show that racing games can be fun.
I could list many more which tickled my fancy (oh er!) most of them original innvotive and fun. Lets just hope this next generation does the same.
Ah you beat me to it. I was going to nominate Prince of Persia: SOT it just bought so many new ideas to the table and was the only game I'd seen where both game and non-game playing mates were impressed with it.