Was 1998 the best year for video games?

[Dojima's Dragon]

Funnily enough i remember being scared of playing manhunt 2 as a kid not because of how scary or messed up the game was but it was because of the FUCKING cover art but eventually i fought my fear and boy did the game not scare me in the slightest but i loved the game nonetheless

Despite everything I am optimistic about the future of video games, I think technology will reach a point where things get advanced enough that they go full circle and the cost and manpower needed to develop a game will go down, just like how you can easily have access to high quality cameras today.

And SJW shit won't last, it simply doesn't make any money, it's on borrowed time.

I do think there will be a Renaissance someday and we'll see another '97 to '01 period for gaming.




Last of Us 2 is a bad example, God of War 2018 is a better example.

Story driven single player hasn't gone away yet but the Minecraft generation has grown up playing games that are virtual toyboxes where you make your own fun, it's going to be hard for them to grasp games as a specifically crafted experiences meant to evoke specific emotions and not something where you can do whatever.



Silent Hill 4? What about 2 and 3?

But yeah, the PS2 from 2001 to 2006 was phenomenal, I miss that era dearly, even though thankfully there's plenty from it that I haven't played yet or never finished, it's definitely something I will always go back to.



I was 12 in the fall of 2001 and it's funny that I was playing games like Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2 and Grand Theft Auto III, some might say I was too young but I'm sure glad I did play them.

I had already seen my fair share of R rated movies like Saving Private Ryan by that point so it wasn't too extreme, although it was pretty shocking to shoot a guy in the head in MGS2 and see blood splatter on the wall behind him, to say nothing of what you could in GTAIII, I truly felt like an outlaw playing that at the age I was lol.

In the case of SH2 though it simply scared me too bad and I didn't finish it until years later, I've always regretted not nutting up and finishing it when it was new though.

Another funny thing about 2001 is how long it took me to play/finish some of those games and what games I still haven't finished almost 20 years later.

I didn't play Dead or Alive 3 for example until.... 2016, that was also the year I beat Devil May Cry because when I tried to play it in 2001 it was simply too difficult for me and I wasn't able to beat it.

I've also never played Ico (beyond a demo) nor have I finished Final Fantasy X, one of these days though.



It's really depressing the sheer massive numbers of developers both eastern and western that went of business during the 7th gen, I mean it was a total bloodbath.

Two random examples that bum me out both eastern and western is the American dev Terminal Reality going defunct.

And the fact that the creator of Katamari Damacy was never able to go onto anything of note, you couldn't have asked for a bigger success story for all those weird Japanese 6th gen games than Katamari Damacy, but the 7th gen wasn't as friendly to that sort of thing and eventually he faded into obscurity.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I'm quite a bit younger than most of the posters here in that I technically lived during the 90s but was too young to remember any of it, but I tend to agree that the late 90s early 2000s was probably the most exciting time for video games. 3D technology was being perfected for one thing which allowed new and interesting ways for games to be played. If 1996 and 1997 were the formative years of 3D, 1998 was when developers figured out how to effectively develop games in 3D.

Other users have also mentioned that development times weren't nearly as expensive or required a shit ton of people and man hours. I think you need only look at Quake as a point of comparison. Quake was one of the first fully 3D engines produced for computers, and it took about 18 months and was developed by 9 people. It took 18 months and 9 people to develop the most influential 3D gaming engine, which is impressive when you consider that games today can take longer to make and with 10 times the number of developers. That period was a sweetspot when you could develop groundbreaking stuff with a small team and a decent amount of money.

There's also the fact that a number of genres were catalyzed during this period. Horror and stealth were perfected in the forms of Resident Evil and Thief respectively. RPGs were seeing a breakthrough in the mainstream, both from Japan and in the West with games like Final Fantasy VII and Baldur's Gate. These genres existed, but the late 90s were when they got big and when technology was advanced enough to where developers could make something truly amazing.

I do think that the mid 2000s was also a great period, especially if you were a console gamer because that generation's capabilities and limitations ensured that developers could make cool shit without having to sacrifice manpower for graphics, but that could also be because I'm most nostalgic for that era of video games.

 

[muh_moobs]

The greatest five year period was 1987-1992.

I do think that the mid 2000s was also a great period

The Golden Era of chat lobbies.

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

I'm quite a bit younger than most of the posters here in that I technically lived during the 90s but was too young to remember any of it, but I tend to agree that the late 90s early 2000s was probably the most exciting time for video games. 3D technology was being perfected for one thing which allowed new and interesting ways for games to be played. If 1996 and 1997 were the formative years of 3D, 1998 was when developers figured out how to effectively develop games in 3D.

Other users have also mentioned that development times weren't nearly as expensive or required a shit ton of people and man hours. I think you need only look at Quake as a point of comparison. Quake was one of the first fully 3D engines produced for computers, and it took about 18 months and was developed by 9 people. It took 18 months and 9 people to develop the most influential 3D gaming engine, which is impressive when you consider that games today can take longer to make and with 10 times the number of developers. That period was a sweetspot when you could develop groundbreaking stuff with a small team and a decent amount of money.

There's also the fact that a number of genres were catalyzed during this period. Horror and stealth were perfected in the forms of Resident Evil and Thief respectively. RPGs were seeing a breakthrough in the mainstream, both from Japan and in the West with games like Final Fantasy VII and Baldur's Gate. These genres existed, but the late 90s were when they got big and when technology was advanced enough to where developers could make something truly amazing.

I do think that the mid 2000s was also a great period, especially if you were a console gamer because that generation's capabilities and limitations ensured that developers could make cool shit without having to sacrifice manpower for graphics, but that could also be because I'm most nostalgic for that era of video games.

Nice to see you here

 

[Judge Dredd]

You're all wrong I'm right.

Not really, but at least you guys have the sense to say 1997-2001. 1998 specifically gets a lot of credit as the best year in gaming, but in order to make that happen it requires a lot of a fudging. Pokemon came out in 1996 in Japan and 1999 in the UK, but is credited as 1998 due to that being the US release date. Such staggered release dates were the norm back then, so what you end up with is 3 or 4 years of games fudged into one super year by taking release dates from different regions as the one that counts.

One reason I've seen hinted at, but not directly credited here is that from the release of the PS1 to the end of the PS2 gaming was grown up enough to tackle mature content well, and by the time of the PS2 devs had figured out 3D enough, while not having specific aspects of game design as locked in as now. You could make weird games without being relegated to an indie novelty. In that sense, Deadly Premonition and Persona 4 could be seen as the end of an era. Now when a game with weird ideas is given a budget (EDF, Nier) it's something of a novelty.

An example is how duel anolog controls for FPS games weren't a thing. When Aliens Resurrection did it on PS1, it got slammed in reviews for bad controls.

I never ever got what supposedly was so "redefining" or amazing about Halo. I played it when it came out for the PC, and nothing felt that special about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a really good game, and I enjoyed it immensely, but I never got the hype surrounding it.

One way to look at it is mainstream popularity. Alone in the Dark pioneered the survival horror genre, but it was Resident Evil that polished those ideas into a form that many people could enjoy and was the one that was copied.

The claim of it being the first good console FPS were overblown at time, but every other FPS after Halo was advertised as a Halo killer. In a way, it was the Fortnite of it's day. I remember people talking about how mind blowing the plot twist of the Flood was, or complaining that the library was a bad level. It also helped that it was the one exclusive game the Xbox had, meaning it was the center of console war fanboy slap fights.

 

[Kosher Dill]

1998? How about 1989? In one single year on NES you got (among others)
Mega Man 2, Tetris, Dragon Warrior, The Guardian Legend, Legacy of the Wizard, Ninja Gaiden, TMNT, Ducktales, Bomberman
And that's in a year that didn't even have any Mario games (besides Super Mario Land which doesn't count)

Not to mention this was the year Windows got Solitaire and Minesweeper, the biggest time-wasters in human history

If you expand the focus to Japanese or arcade releases you get even more, and if you widen the time period to a few years you get an embarrassment of riches.

 

[The Penultimate Warrior]

Not forgetting one of the all time great football games, FIFA Road to World Cup '98.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I remember playing games growing up because I wanted to see how the story ended.

I wonder how alien a concept story in games is to the Minecraft and Fortnite generations and it really worries me.

The top games of a console generation are usually gameplay focused. Think back to elementary school discussions about games. How often did the plot of Halo or Call of Duty come up? If something more age appropriate like Spider-Man 2 was the topic, did anyone talk about the story?

The kids growing up on Fortnite aren't any different from the Halo/CoD kids.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

For me the golden age of gaming extends from 1985 to 2007

 

[Syaoran Li]

If I had to pick a single year to be the "greatest year" of gaming, I can see why 1998 is a popular one although I think 2001 is also an equally worthy contender.

But really, I'd say the real "Golden Age of Gaming" would be 1996 to 2006, when all the advances of the 80's and early 90's had finally culminated into the Fifth and Sixth Generation console eras and the wide variety of landmark PC gaming titles as well.

I think the Seventh Generation of Games was what really ended that golden era and led to the mess we're in now. That began at the end of 2006/early 2007* and I'd say the release of Call of Duty 4 was the nail in the coffin, even though I actually liked the first Modern Warfare at the time.

The Wii was also a terrible mistake in hindsight, as it more or less solidified Nintendo's image as the "kiddie console" and helped ensured its future popularity with bearded widemouth soyboys

But there were good things to come out of the Seventh Generation of Consoles. Stuff like Fallout: New Vegas, Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag, and the like.

Overall, the Seventh and Eighth Generations have been eras of finding hidden gems in a sea of trash, but I'm with @Dom Cruise on the idea that we might see a second Golden Age or at least a Silver Age in the coming years.

Once woke culture falls out of fashion and the pretentious hipsters and punk culture types leave the indie gaming scene to glomp onto the next big trend, I think things will slowly get better.

*-I know the Xbox 360 technically came out in 2005, but PS3 and Wii didn't come out until the tail end of 2006

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

Should we reticle this thread to “what was the best year in the history of gaming?

 

[Dom Cruise]

What you mean you don't remember the award winning video game A Bug's Life?

It's harvest time!

I'm quite a bit younger than most of the posters here in that I technically lived during the 90s but was too young to remember any of it,

No offense, but I feel bad for you, son.

The 1990s was a time of magic.

The top games of a console generation are usually gameplay focused. Think back to elementary school discussions about games. How often did the plot of Halo or Call of Duty come up? If something more age appropriate like Spider-Man 2 was the topic, did anyone talk about the story?

The kids growing up on Fortnite aren't any different from the Halo/CoD kids.

This is a good point, I guess I should say it isn't just about the story it's also about the gameplay itself being a specifically crafted experience.

When you play something like Halo you're having an experience the devs wanted you to have, the pacing, the highs and lows of action.

Something like Minecraft is more akin to a virtual lego set, for the generation of gamers whose introduction to games was Minecraft the idea of a "video game" not being a virtual toybox where they can build everything themselves is going to seem alien to them.

This is why Fortnite so exploded because it had those Minecraft elements.

For me I've never cared about building shit myself in a game on such a large scale, I just don't have the patience for it, but for an entire generations of kids now that's what a video game means to them.

For me the golden age of gaming extends from 1985 to 2007

I was going to say this myself that if you want to talk about a golden age in the broadest possible sense 1985 to 2007 is the perfect time frame.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

No offense, but I feel bad for you, son.

The 1990s was a time of magic.

Eh, I had older siblings so I caught some of the magic mostly through them. I can remember when Pokemon was a cultural phenomenon and when Game Boy Colors were the height of portable gaming.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

I'm quite a bit younger than most of the posters here in that I technically lived during the 90s but was too young to remember any of it, but I tend to agree that the late 90s early 2000s was probably the most exciting time for video games.

You too huh? Despite being born at the absolute tail end of the twentieth century Ive always had an affinity for older media

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

It's harvest time!



No offense, but I feel bad for you, son.

The 1990s was a time of magic.



This is a good point, I guess I should say it isn't just about the story it's also about the gameplay itself being a specifically crafted experience.

When you play something like Halo you're having an experience the devs wanted you to have, the pacing, the highs and lows of action.

Something like Minecraft is more akin to a virtual lego set, for the generation of gamers whose introduction to games was Minecraft the idea of a "video game" not being a virtual toybox where they can build everything themselves is going to seem alien to them.

This is why Fortnite so exploded because it had those Minecraft elements.

For me I've never cared about building shit myself in a game on such a large scale, I just don't have the patience for it, but for an entire generations of kids now that's what a video game means to them.



I was going to say this myself that if you want to talk about a golden age in the broadest possible sense 1985 to 2007 is the perfect time frame.

THESE BERRIES....WONT WORK

 

[Sexual Chocolate]

You forgot another important stealth game. Thief The Dark Project.
View attachment 1379927

I loved Thief. Even at the time, I remember thinking the graphics were a little crude (maybe just on my shit PC, idk) but it was a groundbreaking game.

The voice acting and sound effects really sold it, and the gameplay made you feel something games rarely do... genuine tension as you're carefully trying to sneak past the guards and steal shit.

The story was good too. It was fun how they built up the Hammerites as the bad guys, only for you to find out the hippies they persecuted were much worse.

 

[Pissmaster]

The Wii was also a terrible mistake in hindsight, as it more or less solidified Nintendo's image as the "kiddie console" and helped ensured its future popularity with bearded widemouth soyboys

Ironically, the Wii aimed at an older audience, to get away from Gamecube's focus on being kid-friendly. The notion seems to be getting lost to time, but the Gamecube really was a true blue kiddy console, with a pretty mediocre lineup all around and lots of colorful games at a time when the popular style was dark edgy shit. Like if I had to point to one video that summarized the style of the early 2000s, it'd be the music video for Evanescence's Bring Me to Life, except it was treated as completely unironic.

That just landed the Wii as a fad console, they had a lot of success for a couple of years and you'd see Wiis set up at bars and such running Wii Sports, but those kind of people aren't the kinds that'd go on to buy Super Mario Galaxy or whatever. They'll buy that, maybe some other random shovelware, and then shove the console right into their closets only to try and sell them for $50 at garage sales and swap meets only for me to see them and go "what the fuck".

But at least Nintendo now knows to aim shit at their best demographic:

But there were good things to come out of the Seventh Generation of Consoles. Stuff like Fallout: New Vegas, Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption, Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag, and the like.

Overall, the Seventh and Eighth Generations have been eras of finding hidden gems in a sea of trash, but I'm with @Dom Cruise on the idea that we might see a second Golden Age or at least a Silver Age in the coming years.

I wish I had some photos of what store shelves looked like in the 90's to point out the massive signal:noise ratio, like I remember how only Toys R Us stocked Squaresoft games until the very late SNES era, so you just couldn't buy Secret of Mana at Target or whatever like you can today. It's easy to forget just how much total garbage was everywhere, heavily advertised and promoted by gaming mags and commercials. Like I even remember hearing about Superman 64 selling better than F-Zero X at the time, since Superman was heavily advertised and not yet known to be a legendary piece of trash.

Once woke culture falls out of fashion and the pretentious hipsters and punk culture types leave the indie gaming scene to glomp onto the next big trend, I think things will slowly get better.

Yeah, I think so too. Woke culture is extremely creatively stifling, with good-spirited humor being all but impossible due to how woke fundamentals are antithetical to how humor fundamentally works, with so many concepts and ideas just being off-limits that've ground creatives down to making a whole lot of samey sludge that's just everywhere. I'm glad Goodbye Volcano High is in the spotlight right now, because immediately every single person could name exactly what that game was: yet even more superficial LGBTQAITF@G0T+ garbage that's gonna explore the totally not color-by-numbers relationships with the protagonists coming to terms with exactly how gay they are, and as the cherry on top, the most vocal person working on it so far was already in the doghouse for writing a Kotaku article full of uncensored loli porn. This shit isn't just familiar, it's straight up Groundhog's Day. The game will come out, nobody will give a shit, and it'll bounce around the deep discount sales events at like 80% off and eventually end up in a Humble Bundle. In fact, I'm calling it now: Goodbye Volcano High will be the first PS5 game to hit 75% off or more on a PSN sale.

 

[King Daddy Telomerase]

I do think there will be a Renaissance someday and we'll see another '97 to '01 period for gaming.

The late 2010s would have been a great time for a focus on gameplay renaissance with stagnation in consoles, CPU and GPU technology. I don't think they're coming back, there's too much money in online gaming and gacha shit.

 

[Emperor Julian]

A general year is tricky, I'd say the late 80's to early 00's was the waxing era of gaming we are now in the stagnent age, on a certain level I look forward to the wane

Does anyone really give a single fuck about the next gen of consoles? I was honestly more enthused that i was playing phantasy star 4 yesterday. It's bassically just an incoveniance at this stage I'm going to have to throw some money down when a game which looks interesting eventually comes out.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

Does anyone really give a single fuck about the next gen of consoles? I was honestly that i was playing phantasy star 4 yesterday. It's bassically just an incoveniance at this stage I'm going to have to throw some money down when a game which looks interesting eventually comes out.

I already spent like $1500 on my PC. I don't want to spend $500 on another system right now, especially since I'm probably not going to be interested in a lot of games on PS5. My PS4's become a Devil May Cry machine these days and all the games I really liked I ended up getting on PC anyway.