Golden era of gaming

If you asked people when their “golden era” of gaming was, I imagine you’ll get different answers from every single person. However I suspect the results will correlate strongly with age.

For me my console history went along the lines of Gameboy Color, PS1, PS2, Gamecube, PSP, PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One X. Only in the last couple of years have I got my hands on a PS4, and admittedly it hasn’t really got much use. I still have the Gameboy Color and the PS1, and they both still work perfectly, a true testament to older tech’s reliability.

However I wouldn’t describe these two as being in the golden era at all. Gameboy Color was too limited, the lack of a backlight limited gameplay to outdoors or a well lit room. The PS1, despite being revolutionary and insanely popular with players and developers, and me having very fond childhood memories with it wouldn’t get the title from me either. Being the first generation of 3D graphics, a lot of the games were clunky and still fairly limited.

The PS2 and Gamecube were a big leap, and I loved them both dearly. Legend of Zelda Windwaker, Katamari Damancy, GTA San Andreas, Gran Turismo 4, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Red Faction, I could go on. The catalogue of excellent games for these consoles was endless. I still go back and play games from this generation, and I’m sure I will for years to come because there are so many of them but for me this still wasn’t the golden era, the hardware was still limiting what the developers could do.

For me, the golden era of gaming was the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii generation. I started with the PS3, but moved over to Xbox 360 through the constant hiccups with the PSN online play. I remember when Call of Duty modern warfare came out and the only way we could play online was private games, matchmaking was completely broken. That was the final straw. For the rest of the generation I played the Xbox 360 to death. Halo, Forza and Horizon, Gears of War, Call of Duty were some of my favourite exclusives but the sheer amount of brilliant games that came out in this generation are impossible to ignore. We got not just one, but two GTA games on this platform, we got Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion and Skyrim too. The Assassins Creed franchise started with this console. Oh and Far Cry made its jump to consoles in this generation too. I could go on and on about all the games for these consoles but I’m sure you can find a top 100 PS3 or Xbox 360 games list that paints a much better picture.

I practice what I preach here too. 90% of my current gaming is still done on a PS3. I have 5 working consoles and a couple of spares, and about 6 working controllers and 4 for spares. I’m into this generation for the long run. Hell I even learnt to de-lid the Cell and the RSX to ensure their longevity. I’ve got at least 150 games for the PS3 to play through, and I’m slowly working my way through them.

The beauty of this generation of consoles is that it still has all the creature comforts to not be obstructive. You don’t have to deal with component cables or scart leads, the controllers are wireless, they have Wi-Fi (except some of the Xbox 360’s), they have USB ports and they use simple 2.5″ SATA HDD’s.

If you’ve never played this generation of consoles you really should consider it, even if you did play it and have since left it behind you should pick one up. The consoles are at rock bottom at the moment.

Some of the online servers are still up on the PS3 too. This was the first and only generation of consoles that did online play properly. No micro transactions, in the case of the PS3 no subscription, just good fun online play.

I see where gaming is going, and I don’t like it. Politically correct, corporate, micro transactions, perpetual subscriptions, dopamine abusing brain rot. I don’t want any part of modern gaming if that’s it’s future. I’ve got enough games to last me a lifetime, and enough consoles to play them on. If you want a break from whichever battle royale with micro transactions style game that’s currently popular, consider a humble PS3 or Xbox 360.