Support NeoGAF

[Reallink]

Dreamcast. Visuals hit the diminishing returns plateau for Standard Definition graphics on CRT's, pioneered online play, and had so many incredible games packed into only a year and a half.

 

[Die Namek Ability]

Honestly every Sony gen so far. I have noticed during the gen you play games and think oh these are nice, but once you look back at it after the fact years later, you're like oohhhh that was really nice.

 

[Laptop1991]

Mid to late 90's for the biggest buzz when i used my 3DFX Voodoo 1 card for the 1st time and heard that click on Tomb Raider 1 and the FPS games that came out to use them like Quake 2, Half Life, Unreal and all the other good fps shooters, but also the noughties for the open world 3D games that became more popular like the GTA games and the Elder Scroll.s and Fallout.

 

[Happosai]

For many years I felt it was 4th-gen as there are many just now getting to play some of the consoles (such as NeoGeo), which were far too expensive back then (some still are). The truly magical generation where I felt it all came together was 6th-gen. I was just leaving High school and starting college. You look back at 6th-gen and how much of a leap DC, PS2, XBOX (original) and GC. It was the only generation which over the course of those years, purchased every console and I feel they do hold the term classic respectfully. There were still warriors during that time but it's the last BIG gen that I recall nearly every other gamer owning 2 or more of the consoles. You could discuss the games from various platforms without feeling ashamed.

I'd like to think we'll get there again but it may not be all the same faces.

 

[cesar2xtreme]

Dreamcast and PS3

 

[StereoVsn]

Definitely 99 - 00 for me. Dreamcast launch, PS2 launch, and just PC gaming. Wild experiences through and through during that time.

Runner-up is definitely 95 - 96 for PS1 and N64. Another wild time to see games look the way they did for the first time at home. I remember being absolutely blown away by cinematics and FMVs.

Yeah, late 90s was amazing. While I loved the 16-but consoles and games as well as that great jump into 3D era with PSX and Saturn, that jump to Dreamcast and PS2 when shimmering and those blocky polygons were finally reduced was amazing.

And of course let’s not forget about PC during 1998 to 2000 as that’s time was simply awesome. First true MMOs with Ultima Online and EverQuest, Baldur Gate and others. Heady times.

Starting in mid 2000s things just slowed down and weren’t quite the same especially once HD consoles hit. Too many hardware issues, games took too long. A LOT of brown everywhere, and so on.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually now really enjoy PS3 and X360 games, but overall magic kind of stopped with Dreamcast, PS2 and that era PC for me. After that came craft so to speak. Now we are in full on professionalism phase but it is kind of vanilla overall.

 

[ZehDon]

The last truly "magical" console generation for me was the Xbone/PS4 console generation - not because those consoles or games themselves were "magical", but strapping into PSVR for the first time was as mind blowing as stepping out the sewer at the start of Oblivion on the Xbox 360. In an instant, my total understanding of what a game could be changed forever. Astro Bot Rescue Mission remains the closest anyone has ever come to meeting the sheer feeling of wonder I felt playing Super Mario 64 for the first time. Those are the memories that stick with me from that generation above everything else.

 

[TheStam]

Probably the 90s playing Amiga and PC. Loved games and everything was new and gave you a sense of wonder.

In the end every era has a time and place and I love witnessing the evolution of the medium. Ultima VII felt absolutely magical back then and some games truly gave me the same kind of feelings as an adult, such as The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Elden Ring. It feels impossible trying to compare generations in hindsight. I enjoy being along for the ride always chasing that high.

 

[Serge85]

I'm 38.

Most magical time for me, was the PS1-N64-DC era.

The magic went away in the PS3 X360 era

 

[BennyBlanco]

Dreamcast. Online gaming. Amazing graphics. SoulCalibur. PSO. Crazy Taxi. NFL2k. SNK vs Capcom 2. Damn, what a time to be alive.

 

[FoxMcChief]

Just to add to my previous Dreamcast post.

Fucking Shenmue. I remember opening that game up Christmas morning and being transported overseas. That had never happened before.

 

[Shifty1897]

Been gaming since 1989, and every generation has been magical for me.

 

[WorldHero]

- Dreamcast was the first system I could play arcade quality graphics on at home. The House of the Dead 2, Marvel Vs Capcoms and Virtua Tennis were amazing to have at home.
- XBox 360 offered me peak online gaming with the 2K sports games, Halo 2/3 and when Xbox Live Arcade was a thing (RIP TMNT Arcade, X-Men Arcade, and Street Fighter II HD Remix)

 

[Zannegan]

Pretty much all of them, except maybe this latest one. Every gen, someone drops the ball, someone surges ahead, terrible ideas are aired as if they're the next big thing (TV, TV, TV), and some impossible promises actually get pulled off. Just the potential of new hardware and the new gaming experiences it enables is exciting.

This most recent generation of consoles was pretty boring from the get-go, teraflop drama aside. Maybe it was the extended cross-gen period, or maybe COVID clogging up the release pipeline, but the PS5/XSX gen has failed to grab me so far. The most exciting hardware in the last five years was the Steam Deck, IMO.

 

[Arsic]

I’ll say playing half life alyx was legit weak in the knees moment for me. Too bad no other VR title comes close so I sold mine shortly after.

The steam deck has been fantastic allowing me to enjoy games in all new ways around my home and when traveling for work.

Magical generation though? Likely stops at ps3/360 era. Party chat and online voice chat gaming on titles like gears of war and CoD4. Complex online games like MGO that came with mgs4. Fantastic titles that brought doomsday hype like Killzone 2. Anything after has been look at the pixel counts, except for half life alyx.

 

[Lokaum D+]

PS2/PS3 and my first steam sale back in 2012

 

[Quantum253]

Late 90s pc gaming. invention of 3dfx, Unreal.

Then 360/ps3 gen. Amazing ton of new IPs. tons of games. great new games

I think right around when the Xbox 360 launched, PC and Console graphics were very close. It was an interesting time for sure.

 

[mrabott]

For me it was the PS3. I bought it with my own money in 2009 and followed the games as they were released.

I've watched every E3 since 2010. Besides, the graphics left me speechless, as my last console was the Psone in 2001.

 

[Madflavor]

The transition from 16 Bit to the PSOne and N64 was truly something to behold, especially as a kid. Going from 2D platformers to suddenly seeing games like Tomb Raider, Super Mario 64, Twisted Metal, Resident Evil, and Tekken 2 all in the same year was absolutely fucking insane. One of my core memories was my older brother coming home one night with the PSOne. I had no idea about it's existence. Mario, Sonic, Mortal Kombat, Megaman, Street Fighter and Warcraft 2 was all I played in grade school. Then he pops in this game called Tomb Raider and it blew my fucking 8 year old mind away.

If you were a 80s/90s kid, you had the privilege of growing up during the most impactful evolutionary time for gaming. These days graphical improvements are mere baby steps. But back then we were witnessing not only graphical leaps, but also innovative gameplay and genres being born. When us Older Gamers rant about the "Good Old Days" it's because they really were the good old days. It wasn't just because we happened to be kids back then.

 

[Shwing]

54 yrs old

Like some have already said, mid to late 90s on PC. CD ROM just hit and online became a thing... Glorious!

Console wise is say the 360 in respect of HD. I'll never forget playing the first Just Cause game in HD with all the crispness as I parachuted in from sea to land. Awesome!

 

[Azelover]

I started as a hardcore gamer with the Genesis. So I guess that would be the most magical to me.

 

[Rubicaant]

A few different times for me. I started with NES and Super Mario 1 and 3. And those were awesome, but when it really became magical for me was SNES with Final Fantasy 2 (4), 3 (6), Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Mortal Kombat 1 and 2. And PS1 with Final Fantasy VII, Tenchu, Tekken, Resident Evil were almost in a similar vein. When i first heard about EverQuest I immediately called Gateway to order a pc so i could play. I've never quite recaptured the magic from first playing EverQuest.

 

[DirtyBast8rd]

Getting a PS1 was fucking like buying a magic box. C64, Sega Megadrive and then a Playstation 1. These days when something new arrives it feels like more of the same but I must say a 4090 and playing everything on the highest settings at 4k brings back the closest feeling to magic after being console only since I think 1994.

 

[bobone]

N64. Specifically Mario 64.

I had already been playing Saturn at a cousins house; and PS1 at a friends house. And neither impressed me enough to want one.
But then my neighbor got Mario 64 on Christmas 96.
I spent months trying to get the money together to buy one and got it just in time for Goldeneye.

There will never be another generational leap like SNES to N64. Everything since has been iterative. And the iterations are getting less and less meaningful.

 

[SmokedMeat]

The earliest gens were all magical, so the last one for me would’ve been N64/PSOne/Saturn.

 

[AJUMP23]

Mass effect was the last big one for me. Although I think RDR2 was pretty magical.

everything after N64 kinda runs together. I am 46.

 

[AngelMuffin]

4th & 5th gen.

 

[Sub_Level]

Xbox/PS2

360/PS3 was the age of disilluisonment. There were some amazing games but its really when things became more “well this hobby has lots of stinkers actually”, to me.

 

[Puscifer]

100% in hindsight the PS2/Xbox/Dreamcast era, yes I'm including Dreamcast.

1. Game variety out the ass, different pricing structure where you could legitimately have AAA quality games coming out for 20-30 dollars
2. Quick turnaround on development time, Vice City was released a year after GTA 3 which is CRAZY to think about. Also even wilder is that it was only 5 million dollars and was Rockstars most expensive game in their history up to that point. When you consider the development History of Silent Hill 2 REMAKE, it's officially taking longer from what we know to remake Silent Hill than it took to create 2, 3 and 4 to the market from scratch
3. A million copies of a game wasn't important, it was a milestone and many games these days would be considered flops if they only sold that much
4. Creative juices could flow with low budgets and production times, going back to number 2 one of the Houser brothers mentioned the Warriors being his favorite movie at one point and turned that into a wet dream and it was obvious by how much love went into that game and bringing back all those old actors to play themselves and flesh out that universe.
5. Regular console price drops, seemingly felt like consoles got more and more affordable each year.
6. Cheat codes and save editors: Basically made so many games infinitely more re-playable since New Game+ wasn't a thing
7. Costumes and colors were included in fighting games, fuck you guilty gear

 

[WoJ]

PS360 era for me. I had been out of pretty much out of gaming for 5 or 6 years when I started to explore getting a 360. Unlike most people the PS2 era didn't do much for me.

I got a 360 in 2009 and started to play NCAA Football 10 and was amazed at the improvement since the PS2 days. But them I tried Mass Effect and the game changed my life. I had not been so drawn into a game world since Final Fantasy II on the SNES. The game and trip through the trilogy after was magic for me. I ended up taking a week off work when ME3 came out to play it. Later on I discovered the Arkham games, Gears, Uncharted and the other Sony exclusives. Even the Wii had some kick ass stuff. That gen was magical for me.

I also had a core group of friends I played Black Ops Zombies with. Those were some epic nights.

I miss those days. I've still had my moments in gaming, but nothing has quite hit those highs since.

I turn 42 this year for reference.

 

[CLW]

ps2 was the last “magic” generation for ironically bc of online play coming which now I despise

 

[NeverYouMind]

This one is pretty dope. I seamlessly went from doing a race in Forza Horizon 4 to doing an arcade ladder in Injustice 2 to playing GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony in no more time than it would take to load an area or cutscene on the PS2.

 

[NanaMiku]

PS2, so many great games. I was also really surprised with the pressure sensitive buttons of DualShock 2

 

[Deerock71]

The Switch has one little miracle after another on it.

 

[AeonGaidenRaiden]

PS4 I still enjoyed quite a lot, lots of great games and that jump in resolution. PS5 / XsX I donno if im getting old or what but 80% of the games I touch feel so bland. I play them but sometimes I just dont turn either console for days because even the heavy hitters, feel like they are average. Its like more and more games come out broken half the time, they are not even trying anymore as they got so used to fixing it with patches down the line.

 

[existensmaximum]

The 16-bit generation.

 

[CityHunter1981]

NES was the first real revelation for me. Then the immense improvements of the SNES. But u think nothing will beat ever my reaction to the N64, I just couldn’t believe that games can look like that. I was even sceptical if Zelda Ocarina if Time can really be a full length adventure and not just a short game, needless to say it blew me away.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Ps1 era was off the charts in the number of new games, genres, ideas, jrpgs, tactics games, fighters, and action adventure games. Some of my favorites are from that gen.

PC from 98'-07'... When it had AAA exclusives like quake 3, unreal tournament, undying, black and white, Alice, baldurs gate, torment, icewinf dale, battlefield, rune, rtcw, bold, fear, farcry, half life 1&2, vampire bloodlines, kotor, never winter nights 1&2...etc.... Also the tech. Soundblaster live, voodoo 2-5, geforce 256, geforce 3, raedeon. Everything was new.


3rd best era is the ps3/360 era. So many awesome games got released in that era. It was an era in stark contrast to now. Lots of cool HD releases.

 

[Dr.brain64]

Nintendo - N64/gamecube/gb/gba/ds
Sony - every gen is amazing

 

[Joramun]

SNES, N64 and PC (SC, CS, WC3 and WoW days)

 

[Ozzie666]

I remember growing up on C64 and Amiga, part of the attaction for most was 'free' games and school yard swaps. I then remember in 1990 buying a PC for 'school'. Wing Commander was the real reason, the game was just amazing. Origin Systems was really pushing games and story telling.

Having said that for me, the most magical time is the height of Neo Geo and CPS1/2 arcade boards which connected to SNES/Genesis era. So early 1990's 2d Pixel art and beat'em ups.

 

[FeralEcho]

PS3/360/Wii era....every console had an identity and I loved all 3 of them...Not to mention constant years of banger new I.P.s one after another with less remakes and remasters in an entire generation than we get now in a year lmao but back then people could turn out a new I.P. after churning out a masterful trilogy in 8-9 years,nowadays we're lucky if they put out one sequel in 7 years and pray to god it's not broken at launch as well...Devs weren't creatively bankrupt or needing to build countless miles of empty open world wasteland to extend the life of their game artificially so they can justify the 70$ price because the new generation doesn't feel inclined to pay 70 dollars for anything less than a 50 hour experience even though they pay 30 dollars for a 2 hour movie at the cinema with no issue.Or build a broken game after 7 years of development just cuz they know they can patch it back up and recoup the costs from the mtx of their gaas game...

Sorry for the wall of text...now I'm pissed again

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

The first few years of the Xbox 360, Condemned, Oblivion, Dead Rising, Bioshock, Portal, Left 4 Dead.

It's not that there haven't been "wow" moments since then, RE7 was jaw dropping, as was RE2 Remake, but if I had to define the last time gaming broadly still felt "magic" to me it'd be then.

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Amiga 500.

Sitting up till 3AM each night playing Cannon Fodder with a mate and then still being able to manage the next day without having had hardly any sleep lol.

These days I’m in bed by 8pm.

 

[StueyDuck]

The ps4/xbone gen started off with promise but games weren't full there yet.

With destiny and watch dogs and battlefield 1, mad max, the order, ryse, dying light, the Witcher 3 and so on.

All games that were either pushing boundaries in one way or trying something new in another but all flawed in their own ways.

It all kind of reached the pinnacle with metal gear solid V.

Then games kind of just.... stagnated.

Sure gow 2018 and doom 2016 were awesome games but the thread is purely about being impressed by a new generation and nothing really did end up doing so that gen, it had so much promise though.

Also the real answer is VR and half life alyx...

 

[Cattlyst]

Late 90s for me. The excitement surrounding new console launches was on another level compared to now. Maybe it’s because I was a teenager and there was less access to the internet but reading about the upcoming N64 in magazines and its ‘unrivalled power’ or seeing the shots of Dreamcast games from Japan that literally looked like playable CGI…man those were great times and yeah super exciting as a gamer.

 

[Gojiira]

PS1, I never really clicked with NES or SNES, the games I always saw for them were platformers and as much as I enjoyed Mario,Ninja Gaiden,Zelda it was Tomb Raider that first captured my imagination,the intro was incredible and then the atmosphere of the first level just blew me away. Instant love. But the game that clicked the most for me was MGS, everything from the direction, the voice work,the music,the story,the gameplay was just incredible. After MGS I dont think any other game until I first put Zone of the Enders into my PS2 quite grabbed me the way it did.

 

[Soodanim]

Weirdly I don't remember much of the PS2 magical feeling, but I remember wanting a PS1 so badly. I also remember when a friend got his PS3, that was a real "Wow, this is the new shit" moment. Motorstorm looked fantastic.

To a point the question is basically "When did you start peeking behind the curtain?"

 

[AndrewRyan]

They were all magical at the time but VR still is still the most magical of them all.

c64- you guys aren't going to believe this but we used to meet irl to swap games

ps2- variety. low priced games. used games. pre ea bs

nds/3ds- incredible variety, local multiplayer. true portable clamshell gaming

360/ps3- online multiplayer

vive- been waiting for this my entire life
vive pro/wireless adapter/index controllers- how it's supposed to be. still incredible

steam deck- redefined portable expectations

steam pc era- never-ending supply of amazing games for next to nothing from a company not trying to nickel-n-dime you at every turn

 

[ThatPolishGuy]

I remember being blown away by lightning and shadows in Thief: Deadly Shadows and story, I remember Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory how it pushed different shader settings and amazing ost. This was truly an amazing gen for me, also stealth genre was relevant.

I remember feeling the same about Dishonored 1 and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Level design was impressive in Deus Ex, I had my share of fun with enemies evasion.

I miss those games and this genre.

Now we mostly have only stealth elements in open world games with lots of skills to unlock.

Nothing grounded or already established or at least smaller scale semi-open world games with stealth. Shame.

Those type of games don't push big numbers so I guess that's why it's not so popular anymore.

I would love to see a new boom similar to oldschool new retro styled shooters. But with stealth genre.

More indie devs using older engines or smth. And new games in this genre, it's the only hope, I guess.

Doesn't have to be pushing graphical boundaries.

Human Revolution wasn't graphical power house per se, even at launch. Yet it was really immersive and enjoyable.

Hitman: Blood Money was also a big game for me. Something didn't exactly click with me in reboot. It wasn't bad but I liked BM the most out of all series entries.