My overall thoughts on the 360/PS3/Wii era has been very mixed for me and almost every criticism I have on what I was focusing on have been controversial, but worth mentioning. While I had some of the most fun time during the Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era, the 7th gen was a step up in the a technical sense of the word, but not as qualitative, as quantity flooded the 360, PS3, and Wii. There a lot of major issues for 7th gen is that the whole gaming industry was so desperate to make more money than ever before at the point where they had to change how they used to make games. For instance,
- Releasing games that are incomplete by making us pay more for DLC (I will still remain critical for that)
- So many horrible game endings that are there for sequel bate (Pheonix08 mentioned it on Boochow)
- Over saturation of the shooter market (I'm sick of the COD topic and all of their competitors)
- Kids games are taken more childish with new gimmicks and fads that came and went (Kinnect and Wii)
- Too much focus on multiplayer than the single player (I hate using the word "campaign")
- PC Gaming lost a lot of popularity (multiplat, Steam, mod, and Blizzard still keeps it alive)
- Requirement to log in whenever you play a certain game (EA and Ubisoft)
- Installing and updating a game (seriously, PC's should be the only machine for downloading, not consoles)
- Too many dark and gritty games and also too many shufflewares for families, and not enough games which are a balance of both.
- Gimmicks that tried to be innovative but became a fad.
Can you see why I believe that the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox era was a better time in gaming? We didn't have to deal with half of this garbage but the PS3, 360, and (sometimes) Wii had to punish their consumers for not paying more than $50/$60 American dollars because of their capitalist behavior and practices. I have been very critical with last generation of gaming, but I have given a lot of attention to see if there is an exception to this new practice that the industry is doing nowadays. Fortunately enough, there are over a dozen games on this list that (probably) didn't have to deal with this sort of stuff and gave us a breath of what gaming used to be like; a complete experience on a singular copy/downloaded game. I may a lot of doubts with where the gaming industry is heading to, but it's interesting to see nowadays how it continues to have its ups and downs as you couldn't even believe how stupid many people in the industry really are (DRM for Xbox One). Since the 7th generation of consoles is the last time I'll ever become a "modern gamer" and continue to treasure hunt some of the classics that I miss the most and missed out, here are the games that weren't fools gold, but instead titles that made it to the history books!
I won't say too much about the honorable mentions, but I will just post the box art here to say that these were the dozen that made me satisfied, despite the fact that they have some of the 10 reasons why I dislike this generation of gaming.
Shocked to see these titles not make it on the list? Well, just be happy that they are on my radar as being my highlights of 7th Generation of Gaming. They're so worth your time that it's worth purchasing! So here are the 6 Last Generation of games that I still find myself playing time, after time, after time again!
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Number 6. - Fallout 3
I have to admit, that I never got into the original two Fallout games because their gameplay was so complex that it was far too unusual for me to play it. Thankfully, you don't have to know what happened from the older games of the series in order to play Fallout 3. Out of all the Bethesda games I would have picked as my favorite, it had to be this title over Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Skyrim. Old school Fallout fans can bitch about Fallout 3 for being "Oblivion with Guns" but the game seriously needed to grow up from the isometric turn-based RPG that I feel was a failed experiment (even Bulder's Gate and Planescape: Torment played better). What Fallout 3 did so damn well is to make the post-apocalyptic America to be as dangerous, as harsh, and yet so beautiful as can be. This is one of those games that grasp you into this world and left you playing for many hours, only to have you back to reality when you start seeing the sunlight through your window. Yep, Fallout 3 is that title where it is required to keep level-grinding, adventuring, and scavenging for many hours to beat it. But it's at a point where you don't think of it as a game anymore, but instead a post-apocyliptic simulator that makes you really feel like you're really there. In fact, there have been so many post-apocyliptic themed stories in our modern era (like The Road, The Book of Eli, Rage, and more) I can easily say that Fallout 3 is just the best of its kind. There are so many locations, quests, side-quests, points of interests, and many other attraction to visit just to make your character to be more powerful and stronger. Though the morality system is pointless for this type of game, at least it makes you feel like the character is developing as you journey throughout the wasteland with so many surprises almost everywhere! Plus you get so many abilities in this game when you level up that feels very rewarding each time! Now, there are a bunch of drawbacks from enjoying this game at its entirety like so many glitches, overwhelming difficulty that makes things unfair, certain people you just can't kill, and lock picking & hacking, but even despite all of it's flaws, I just couldn't stop playing Fallout 3. This title has been so loved by many that Bethesda actually gave us more DLC (after a disappointing ending) that actually feels like its worth the price for expanding the Fallout universe (you rarely hear me say that). Plus blowing enemies' heads off is never gets old!
Number 5. - Rayman Origins & Rayman Legends
One aspect that I liked about last gen is that, even though there are a lack of 3D platformers, there were more than enough 2D Platformers to play! This was a perfect time to have Michel Ancel to bring the Rayman series back on its feet from the over-saturation of the stupid Raving Rabbits characters. For once in a long time, Rayman had his legit title into some of the most well crafted 2D platformers of the genre! Hell, Rayman Origins won the Platinum Platformer Award in 2011 and it deserved all praise that everyone gave it. Most of all, it just avoided some of the issues I have playing with cooperatively with friends in other 2D Platformers like LittleBigPlanet (for having players to wait for a check point when they die) and New Super Mario Bros. Wii (when you carry other players and be able to throw them off screen). Whenever a player gets killed off by an enemy or deadly object in Rayman Origins, they form into a bubble and is able to return to the game when the surviving playing pops it out. But when all players turns into a bubble from loosing all health then they restart to their last check point or replay the entire level. This is 2D Platforming at it's most basic and at its best in co-op because there's no issue of continues, unlike the Mario series that still does. This left a lot of room for being able to scavenger/search for collectables and secrets everywhere and each and every one of the levels in this game have a high replay value in them. Since this game is just so simple, I was able to get my entire family (brother, mother, and father) to actually play this game with me and for the first time ever, this is our official family game! Sure there are aspects of the game that are very difficult, but I've long awaited to get my folks into a game that we can all play and after over 20 years we finally found one. And you know what? This Christmas, we actually have a second favorite game, Rayman Legends and during my time with my family playing this title, it takes me back to our enjoyment of Origins when we first played it! I won't get in too much with Legends because we haven't finished it yet, but it is every bit as fun as Origins is but more features and content in a singular disc! If I were to do another Platinum Platformer Award Show then I would have made Rayman Legends the winner!
Number 4. - Super Mario Galaxy
This is a masterful title that will go down in the game history books as some of the best Nintendo games of all time! I still feel that way since 2007 and it's debatable whether or not this is better than Mario 64. You have to remember that Galaxy came out when people thought that 3D platformers became a dying breed and after all the damn shooters that came and went, this title is still remembered so fondly. Part of the game's appeal is the focus on gravity, rotating on a small sphere acting as platforms, and the wondrous design that no game before has touched. Sure this title did borrow elements from Sonic Extreme (cancelled title) and the Ratchet and Clank series, but to have this magical experience to be interacted with felt wholesome! Some people wonder why I think Super Mario Galaxy 2 is superior than the first one. Well for the fact that it feels less galactic like, overselling Yoshi like its a big thing, and hardly fixed any technical problems from the first game made it feel like an overrated title in comparison to the first one. Speaking as a platformer veteran, this title truly tested my platforming skills where I had to really manage my jumps when I had to make it from one orbit to the next because of the focus on gravity. 2007 was an amazing year for gaming. Every system had at least a great exclusive, but Mario Galaxy still is my favorite Wii game along with Metroid Prime 3. In a matter of fact, those two games are the only Wii games that I still find myself playing time after time, while the rest became forgettable in comparison. That's one of the reasons why I could never put the Wii anywhere as my favorite consoles because it only titles like this one that I give two shits about! Who knows if Mario Galaxy 3 would that feel of galactic/space-like design like the original, but for now, I say that this is my last favorite Nintendo game before I lost interest with the company's products completely.
Number 3. - Bioshock & Bioshock Infinite
I never got a chance to mention this but I a huge fan Bioshock! And what a spoiler, Bioshock Infinite is Gexup's favorite game of 2013. Just like the Oddworld and Metal Gear series, I heavily examine Bioshock series trying to understand Rapture and Columbus at its entirety and see what I missed the first time around. Part of me loving Bioshock series, other than being a shooter series that actually gives a damn about telling a great narrative, is that it is a spiritual successor of one of my favorite PC classics; System Shock 2. Though the first Bioshock is basically System Shock 2 (both story and gameplay) it had more fast pace action, relatable characters, and a stronger sense of storytelling about morality.
Never have I seen a game that created this amazingly, deep world that I want to explore in. I never seen an FPS that wanted to be taken seriously by making itself as artsy, as original, and as creative as humanly possible. I love the story about morality that really is the biggest difference between this and System Shock 2. I really felt effected when I’m rescuing or harvesting the Little Sisters because they stick out to me as the most innocent bystander of the game. Despite the fact that I never once was scared with Bioshock, the crazy variety of what the player can do from plasmids, shooting, hacking, and a sense of exploration, no doubt this is a game that’s up in my alley. Even though most System Shock fans would say otherwise, (despite how similar the story is) Bioshock was a true successor of System Shock 2. EA will never give us a System Shock 3 and the only way we can actually have the similar gameplay as to SS2 is to start the Bioshock series with the developers who made System Shock 2. Novels have accomplished sci-fi originality with Jurassic Park, Movies have accomplished sci-fi originality with The Matrix, and Video Games accomplished sci-fi originality with Bioshock! Bioshock really is one of those games that deserved all the credit that it has gotten and it has been one of my personal favorites from the 7th Generation of Video Games!
And as for Bioshock Infinite, we all just thought that Bioshock was just a game about blowing shit up in a city underwater and Bioshock Infinite was the same game over again, but this time up in the air in Columbia. I am mixed with some of the gameplay that this game offers, however I am completely satisfied with the game’s plot where no one could ever see it coming. I haven’t been so fascinated with a plot this complex since Watchmen and Metal Gear Solid because it’s something that I have discussed and (probably) argued with fans’ theory of the game’s plot because it left a lot of mysteries and we’re still waiting for the developers to give us a clearer story. I’m also wishing that a DLC could actually add a lot more than just explaining the plot because there are a lot of miss opportunities to make it a brilliant game (gameplay-wise). If only they didn’t downgrade most of the best things from the past two Bioshock games, I could easily say that this is the best Bioshock game of the series, but manages to be equal to the original Bioshock. But that doesn’t mean the gameplay is at all bad, it’s just because Bioshock 1 & 2 did is so much better that I wish that it was implemented better. Let’s not forget that Bioshock Infinite has given us the pleasure of railing on rails and have nonstop shooting and the ability to make holographic objects to be physical with Elizabeth’s ability to “tear” them into our dimension. And this is a game that focused heavily on the adventure and the plot that goes along with it, unlike Bioshock 2 that had miss opportunities and focus of a multiplayer which is unnecessary. These are all the things that we’ve never done in video games before and I’m happy that the Bioshock series still does bring brand new things to a genre that I mostly hate for its lack of creativity. In fact, I can go as far as to say that Bioshock is the only series that’s actually giving life to FPS. The series gave us an amazing plot, phenomenal and original gameplay, and a breath taking experience!
Number 2. - Mass Effect 1 & 2
These two games made me more of an admirer of science fiction than I ever was before. Though it's now a curse to be fan to suffer through a failed conclusion at the end of the trilogy, but the first two games were a major step up from Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. You have two entities that is more of an RPG than a shooter (ME1) and more of a shooter than an RPG (ME2) but none of the consistency or continuity was ruined. I never felt so engaged to a game like how I did with Mass Effect when Highwings89 finally got me into the series and I became a bigger fan of the game than he was. For the entire year of 2011, I was starting many new characters with Mass Effect 1, played him/her to the very end of the game, then carried out my decisions and progression from save files in Mass Effect 2. I never had that experience before but it was one hell of jump from the first game to the second. Part of me constantly play this game back in 2011 was because I really had an emotional connection with many of the characters (especially Tali). This is a game where you have to make interactions with many characters and decide what to say in order to progress through the game. All of your actions and decisions serves as consequences to the later part of the game and sequel (except for the third one) creating delusion that the player is making their story but it is after all a pop-up book element that has alternative outcomes everywhere. To mention the way you customize your character's face, background, and class really changes the overall gameplay experience. I was amazed that your character's customized face was able to lipsinc to all of the dialog of the voice actor/actress of commander shepherd perfectly. This is the type of game where they've created a universe where it is so complex that it's worth understanding all of the details of the aliens, technology, backstory, and many more! I never had experienced how much pressure a character had to deal with to save the universe from the apocalypse known as the Reapers and it truly brings us feeling completely overwhelmed! If that's not saying anything to you, then I don't know what will. I still say that doing that overview of the Mass Effect Trilogy on Boochow was one of the best episodes that we've ever done because this was the first time in a long time where I was more than excited to see a game series that was and still is ahead of our time! For the fact that Mass Effect ruined itself entirely with the third game makes me so eager to actually tell a better story than the Mass Effect series!
Number 1. - Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time
No doubt, this game is my favorite 3D platformer of all time! The Ratchet and Clank series has constantly got better and better all the way from the first game and since then, nothing else from the PS3, 360, and Wii era has made me more satisfied and happy than A Crack in Time! As veteran of Platformers, I can see that Insomniac Games has put more effort on this title than any other 3D platformer because of its Pixar-level presentation, gameplay that's perhaps the most exciting I've ever played (both Ratchet and Clank are so damn good), and the story is really the best one ever told in a 3D platformer! Sure, in comparison to the previous titles of the series, there are less gladiator stages, free roam crystal stages, and racing stages, but that's all in favor for the space exploration to capture Zoni's in many orbits and little planets that makes it so much more fun than Mario Galaxy! If you scrap out the fact that this is a Ratchet and Clank title and look at its own merits, it really reminds me of a couple other 3D Platformers but it's more refined and blended into a wonderful masterpiece!
- Sonic Adventure - The nonlinear storyline happening at once, and the fast speed when playing with Ratchets hover boots has a similar feeling towards Sonic's speed.
- Ape Escape - The time traveling theme was from Ape Escape.
- Blinx: The Time Sweeper - The time control powers & puzzles of this game are very similar
- Banjo-Kazooie - The scavenging for collectables in almost every stage, plus Ratchet and Clank is on each other's backs
- Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - The spirit, wit, and tone of this very adventure feels very similar to Insomniac's older title proving that no matter how much has changed old friends can stay the same.
- Gex: Enter the Gecko - Like Gex, characters always say a funny one liner during gameplay
- Super Mario 64 - The Crazy acrobatics that Ratchet can do, is similar to Mario 64 but done better because Ratchet is the only character that is able to jump in many different directions while simultaneously shoot a rocket launcher. EPIC!
- Super Mario Galaxy - This is the first time that the series ever explored this much amount of time. in space in many galaxy. Plus when you select a landing zone in a planet you're given a platforming challenge that goes around the sphere but (again) does a much better job than Mario Galaxy
- Conker's Bad Fur Day - It's a game that has comedy everywhere and A Crack in Time refused to slow down, except for the emotional parts when you see the characters frustrated or sad.
- Jak 2 & 3 - Though we may never get a Jak 4, at least the tone and pressure of our heroes to save time felt very similar to the ending of Naughty Dog's old classics from the PS2.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon - Zookstar1000 always said that playing as Agent 9 in that game was the precursor of that Ratchet and Clank series that we know and love today. That's very true and it continues to get better and better up till A Crack in Time!
These are all the many similar elements that I felt that was borrowed from previous games were mixed together into the finest game ever created and made it so much better than all the rest of the 3D Platformers that I have played. Remember, there is nothing new or original under the sun, but if you're attempting to make something refreshing, make it your own take and make us believe and feel that it is new. And that's something that the Uncharted series never did for me, but Ratchet and Clank series prevails platforming satisfactory that I have long been looking for! That's the reason why Insomniac made it at Number 2 of my favorite video game companies because after all of these damn fine years of being a fan and see them get better and better making these 3D platformers, they reached that goal that no other game developer has done for me! Despite some nitpicks like Angela Cross not being a lombax, Talwyn Apogee disappeared all of the sudden, and a bunch of gameplay features that was absent from the past games, minus all of that… this has to be the best 3D Platformer I've ever played in my entire life! It's a shame that the general public doesn't even know what they're missing because this title totally blows its competition out of the water in terms of quality. If you never played this game or any other Ratchet & Clank game, from these exact words that I'm saying to you right now, there is not a more qualitative game than this series as whole and I can't recommend any other game for you to play than Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time!!
Thank you all for reading this list of my favorite games from Last Gen, and I'm hoping to see you all discuss about it in the forums! Sorry that I had to change the list of my favorite video game stories, but a new list keeps popping in my head that I think I need to delay that list for next year's Gexup's 12 Days of Christmas! For tomorrow's list I'm going to go ba humbug and count down the Top 5 Most Disappointing Games of Last Gen! Get ready because this is mean being my most "Scrooge" this Christmas break, and that's saying a lot considering that I have so many disappointments from this generation of consoles. Till then, Happy New Year, everybody!
