>>8930031
I played the absolute shit out of games with my friends in gens 5-7. Long nights spent playing smash bros, Nightfire and Halo at LAN parties. Then 8th gen came along and not only did my friend and I grow apart, but games lost their artistic value and passion. The technology is there, but it all feels like a lifeless, formulaic corporate product. To this day, MW2 still blows me away with the combined spectacle of its soundtrack, action and art direction. A modern COD is a sloppy, half-finished product made to pander to kids whose brain has been dopamine-fried since birth. Playing the first Spyro game or Super Mario 64 feels like experiencing something genuinely curious and colorful. Even old Pokemon games from the GBA era and earlier feel like a simple escape into a world of manageable adventure.
Fuck, I dunno. Somewhere along the way, games lost their magic and started to be more transparently corporate. The monetary practices didn't help either.