/vr/ - Retro Games

>>8502317
I always remember my parents and generally the media portraying the 80s as a wacky time with crazy fashion and music, but also a lot of fun.

I was born in '87, I do think that it was probably a bit after 9/11 that things started to feel different, but it's so hard to pinpoint any exact time. It was gradual as you might expect, but sentiments and outlooks definitely were down after 9/11.

In terms of gaming, there was still a lot of '90's feel' in the early 2000s I think. One big thing in gaming in the 90s for me was just the level of excitement around games in general. There was so much happening and a very real sense of wonder at everything that was coming out. Look at Sonic the Hedgehog on Mega Drive vs Sonic Adventure on Dreamcast for a comparison of early 90s to late 90s in terms of tech leaps, it was ridiculous compared to 2012 to 2022 for example.
Gaming magazines and not having such access to the internet helped, since you only got news in a monthly cycle, and it was only in text and still images unless you were lucky enough to get demo CDs with trailers. Now you can see the entire game played start to finish sometimes before it even releases, and in general I think gamers just don't get excited as much as we used to. There's probably a bit of oversaturation as there's just so many games everywhere on the indie scene, yet the AAA space is monopolised by a few big franchises. It means you have trouble finding the stuff you like in the low budget games, and it's easy to be jaded with big budget games.
Check out the feature for Shenmue from CVG in 1999. This was one of the late era games I recall being so amazed by that I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I don't think I even ever saw it in motion until I bought it.