Ask GR... What has been the best console generation?

Ask GR... What has been the best console generation?

For around 48 years now, people around the world have been enjoying using home videogame consoles. Over that time, many variants have been released onto the market and GRcadians have been fortunate to experience many of them.

> As we approach the dawn of a new generation, it feels like a great time to decide what the best console generation has been. And there's only one surefire way of doing that... we Ask GR!

> Please select your favourite console generation from the voting list below. It's a tough choice! Please also feel free to jot down words that support your reasoning!

You can remind yourself of all the consoles that were available in each generation by clicking here to check Wikipedia.

This is a tougher choice than I'd imagined. I can look back through all those generations and think of good games and great times; the Master System is so nostalgic for me, the MD / SNES era was incredible, whilst the PlayStation really changed the gaming scene. Later, the trio of 360, PS3 and Wii all being strong performers made that time so memorable.

For me, though, the current era is the best. I think it's due to a combination of excellent games and the rise of online channels; the ability to do things like download updates, stream gameplay, post screens to Twitter and play multiplayer has really opened up the scene. Now there are drawbacks, of course - loot boxes, season passes, AAA game editions and pricing - but thankfully it has just about been possible to overshadow those elements with the fun and community aspects.

So, I voted for gen 8!

There's definitely a lot of nostalgia driving my decision, but I'm going to lump with the PS2/Gamecube era. It was the era where I properly got into gaming as a hobby, and it was also the prime generation for mid tier third party games. Titles not as big or polished as the AAA titles, but still a long way from the indies of today. You had a load of really experimental titles doing some really cool things and taking risks, coming from full sized studios, that you see so much less of these days.

Generation 6 was definitely excellent and probably my favourite.

4, 5 and 7 weren't too shabby though

For me it just has to be the 4th generation, I don't think you can beat the SNES and Megadrive there the games I find myself returning to the most.

kerr9000 wrote:For me it just has to be the 4th generation, I don't think you can beat the SNES and Megadrive there the games I find myself returning to the most.

I think the 4th (and 5th) generation(s) was the one that really got me into gaming, it was only that I didn't have the income (I was still at school) to actually buy many games that I have fonder memories of gen 6 as by then I had a decent amount of money, plenty of free time and no commitments, and basically just ate, breathed and slept videogames .

It was glorious.

WiiU and Switch being in the same generation says a lot about the concept of generations

In an attempt to be objective I voted for the PS2 generation. Just the sheer size of the library, and the abundance of all-time great games, as well as the mid-tier Knoyleo mentioned.

PS2/Gamecube/Xbox. The hardware had come far enough and provided enough opportunities to innovate, creating titles/series that are revered to this day, but they were still complete, standalone packages with none of the gouging microtransactions, live service models, roadmaps, season passes and all the other gooseberry fool.

Ps2. true halcyon days.

I went for Gen 6, fantastic line up of games across the 4 consoles.

The current generation is fantastic though, fantastic new games and also remasters of some of the classics. I really hope that by the next generation all the classics from previous gens will be available in some form.

Gen 6. Never been a better time in gaming IMO.

I'm a rarity in going for the PS3 generation. It was when things went properly online. Before that, all games were "big" but now you could get things like Super Stardust for a few quid. Which was great for people like me who didn't always have hours to sink into games. Although there were plenty of the big open world games too. So you got the best of the old school as well as the new. Plus the jump to Bluray.

4th for me.

There's no doubt that more recent generations have been amazing and almost certainly objectively better, but nostalgia for the Mega Drive era will forever sway me towards it. You just can't compare how exciting things felt as a kid to the experience as an adult.

There are plenty of things I get hyped for now but it barely registers compared to how much my tiny soul yearned for more Sonic the Hedgehog on the build up to Sonic 2sday back in 1992! :wub:

8th.

I don’t do nostalgia, and the Switch is the best machine Nintendo have done. Perhaps not the best generation (why are we not including handhelds?) but the best machine.

The Ps2/Xbox/GC era was definitely the best for me, and was the only generation where I owned all the systems. The ps2 in particular gave me so many hours of gaming, and its tech was pushed to the max. Just the fact that we experienced the transition to 3d in GTA and then seeing it evolve to the masterpiece that was GTA:SA and Red Dead Redemption and the various Final Fantasy games (not the most memorable in the series but I spent hours grinding on them particulary FFXIII)

I voted for the 360 generation.

I have lots of fond memories of local multiplayer games from this generation.

The Wii was basically an arcade in a box when you had games like ghost squad and HOTD: Overkill as well as the usual suspects and it seemed like all my friends, in our early 20's at the time had one so you could guarantee 4 controllers for any game. On top of this you had the PS3 which was the ultimate party console. Many great nights at my friend's playing Rock Band, Singstar, Buzz and gems like Motorstorm and Calling all cars.

I would probably call the Xbox 360 the greatest console of all time. It was a lot faster than the PS3 on terms of having the store baked into the OS and controllers were cheaper so getting 4 player games of Scott Pilgrim were a lot cheaper. Online was second to none. We used to play Perfect Dark HD online every Sunday night and it was just like the N64 days again. XBLA is still the gold standard for online stores.

Interesting range in the voting so far; looking back over the console eras, it sure is hard to just one as being your favourite. I can see the attractions of gen 6 - four terrific main consoles, lots of good games and even (gasp!) manuals being provided in boxes.

I kinda feel bad for gen 5; PlayStation was an absolute beast and really brought gaming to a wider and bigger audience. It had a ton of great games across a big range of genres. Plus the mighty N64 which, although having a smaller range of games, certainly had plenty of memorable big-hitters and is maybe better appreciated now than it was at the time! I wonder if the feeling that some of those early 3D titles in the generation have not aged particularly well is a factor?

I think in terms of the quality of games that have been released, the current generation is miles ahead of the others, so I voted for that.

jawa wrote:I kinda feel bad for gen 5; PlayStation was an absolute beast and really brought gaming to a wider and bigger audience. It had a ton of great games across a big range of genres. Plus the mighty N64 which, although having a smaller range of games, certainly had plenty of memorable big-hitters and is maybe better appreciated now than it was at the time! I wonder if the feeling that some of those early 3D titles in the generation have not aged particularly well is a factor?

Late gen 5 was especially great, Tekken 3, Soul Blade, RR: Type 4, MGS and Wip3out all pushing the ageing PS1 hardware to its limits still hold up surprisingly well imo.

Gen 5 has some of my all time favourite games in it, but it just doesn't have the nostalgia hit of the generation before it, or the refinements of those that came later.

In fact I think a more interesting question would be to try and work out which is the worst generation. They all have their plus points and once you get beyond the growing pains of the very early days it is hard to think of a genuinely bad generation.

Ask GR... What has been the best console generation?

Which console generation has been your favourite?

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