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[deriks]

Gaming generations are basically defined by the consoles of the time, and of course the limits of them, how they works and whatnot. Those limitations basically determines how the game design works, and we have some of the greatest masterpieces ever because of that... and some shitty stuff too. Let's put some of those trends in perspective just for the sake of studying

The PC was kind of a no man's land of games in the 80's, but the trend of adventure text games were a thing, and imagination was the key to have a good time on it. You still have some modern games with this in mind, but back then was either this or nothing just because the machines couldn't run

The 8 to 16 bit console era that changed the landscape for real, and had a lot of platformers. Mario and Sonic were the kings, but not far we got Contra, Donkey Kong, Castlevania, Metroid... Instant classics and great hits. A lot of games tried to do their spin on it, and and a lot did fine. Hell, Mega man was created based with the color limitations of the NES. Still, everything was really innovative and great. You collect stuff, get to the end of the level, kill a boss. Simpler time, great experiences

While inn the same era on the PC, the sudo 3D first person games got better year over year with Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, Doom, System Shock... And also adventure games changed from just text to point and click, turning things more immersive with photo realistic snapshots and well crafted scenarios. Dark Seed, I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream, Sam and Max, and many others are still considered the greatest of this time

Then the real 3D era of gaming started for real and many felt obligated to change, and while there was a lot of trying and error, some of them established the roadmap to make those types of games. We got Mario 64 with platforming, Quake with first person shooter, Soul Blade having the z axis well worked in the fighting genre...

There's a lot of experimenting with other stuff since all the machines were way different from each other. The hardware of the PSX could handle lots of data, but was not great to run big environments, so to turn this into a design change lots of pre rendered background games started to appear with Resident Evil, Parasite Eve, a whole lot of RPGs. The N64 could run big scenarios, like we can see in Ocarina of Time, Banjo Tooie and Turok, but couldn't fit much of space because of the cartridge, so resolution of was not the best thing with the console. And the Saturn had the greater resolution, but since his hardware was mostly focused on 2D games, not all games really took the effort with it. Still, since the 3D hardware was too green and the developers stated that the depth of field should be limited to have a acceptable performance, and maybe the biggest trend with all of them was some kind of fog - which led people to create Silent Hill

Then we got to the end of the 90's and early 2000s, and 3D developing became more mature and with new consoles arriving, having better direction and certain shenanigans that we couldn't have before. Basically we can see a "water" trend now, since rendering this changed from game to game and was a way to show how the art and the power of developers got together to make a new approach.

Maybe the first example was Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, having the last stage and boss made by water. We got Final Fantasy X with a whole thing inside the ocean, MGS 2 having cool rain physics and based on a platform in the ocean that you have a part that you swim, Wind Waker with ocean travel, Super Mario Sunshine with a water gun, Kingdom Hearts... Hell, even Silent Hill 2 has the ending scenario to drown you

By the mid 2000s we got the start with the cover shooter, and even with the PS2 and the original Xbox we got Black, but with the 360 we got the primary example of it: Gears of War. Soon a lot of games used it. Binary Domain, Vanquish, Uncharted... Call of Duty was THE first person shooter that has a campaign based on getting covered and turned into a modern standard

A thing to mention is that Resident Evil 4 also could be responsible for the whole over the shoulder crazyness, and Last of Us turned a lot of Sony games into this thing.

With the PS4 and XOne having a lot of memory, games could be bigger and still looks pretty, so a lot of games launched were open world just because

Also, online gaming changed from a thing that you could do it by another standard in gaming, so the market rise, electronic sports got big, Twitch was the channel, and all for competitive online games like League of Legends, Overwatch, Fallout 76, Valorant, and many others. Still is holding up and with no sign to getting down if ever

The new trend still is not certain. Maybe photo realism with no real gameplay influence on it?! Matrix demo, Forspoken and Hellblade 2 are technical marvels - even thou they're basically showpieces with no gameplay. Let's comment here

 

[Success]

Online pass during the 360 era of games.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

In terms of gameplay, nothing has changed since the PS2 because 3D worlds exhaust their limits in the 3 axes The ps4 allowed realism through PBR. The big leap with PS5 is the monstrous expansion of the level of detail on stages and sun like light (GI). But I don't see how this can enhance the narrative. Yes, 3D has exhausted its possibilities, it will be necessary to introduce 4D, that is, adding the time variable in games.

 

[Geometric-Crusher]

I disagree with the way you classified the gens.

2nd gen time attack games, aim to make higher score.
3rd gen games based on characters and the player's bond with them
4th gen improvement of 3rd gen.
5th gen polygon-based games, aim 3D worlds.
6th open world, online multiplayer games and cinematic games.
7th cinematic games have been improved, attempt to transcend traditional gameplay
8th open world games have been improved, vr have been improved
9th first crisis graphic evolution x costs (not yet resolved).

 

[simpatico]

We're still in the PS360 gen tbh. Just the Triple Pro level.

 

[IAmRei]

Gaas and MTX, online reqs, gacha games, are also evolution(if i might say sometimes, EVILution) of video games. Some might positive, for some, its kind of evil though.

Next trend are hard to predict. We are now in the era of diverse genres not like before.

I think there is short hint behind these:
- cinematic games still quite strong, even though lot of people starting to dislike it.

- open world is almost stuck if not because BoTW and RDR, but big names still stuck with it, and the cost are rising too much, at the point, it will down to smaller size, even more than now. Unless they find how to minimize the cost to create open world.

- rpg is stil niche sometimes

- platformers is kinda rising again, one of the old genre, rise in indies and Nintendo still the king of them. GenZ also doesnt seems to avoid platformers, though niche, they still hold their own market. Even Mario wonder sales can fight face to face with spiderman 2, like 13M vs 12M sales.

- racing games are stuck, and being quite niche right now, simulation and arcade still strong, but not as in the 2000s

- AAA FPS are rare now, but in the indies side, we got plenty rising trend of boomer shooter which is cool for me

- retro style indies are still happening, might not slow down as its cheap and doable even just programmer no artist.

- strategy games is still nerdy and niche

- fighting game is evolving via street fighter 6, the world tour is superb evolution.

- visual novel are in the rise these 8 - 5 years. And while good VN still Niche, there are lot of normies people interested to it more now than ever.

Maybe thats my few cents here, i type while i'm at the restroom... XD

 

[SimTourist]

Online pass during the 360 era of games.

That only lasted like a year but people still remember it lol.

 

[SimTourist]

In terms of gameplay, nothing has changed since the PS2 because 3D worlds exhaust their limits in the 3 axes The ps4 allowed realism through PBR. The big leap with PS5 is the monstrous expansion of the level of detail on stages and sun like light (GI). But I don't see how this can enhance the narrative. Yes, 3D has exhausted its possibilities, it will be necessary to introduce 4D, that is, adding the time variable in games.

Too late
https://www.psu.com/news/4d-graphics-a-reality-only-for-playstation-3/