Gaming, as it is, is creatively dead. Indie and mobile are the only gaming platforms offering new experiences.
Buying a ps4 or xbox one is pointless.
Gaming's quality is going down the toilet. Hyped disappointment after disappointment.
Final Fantasy VIII is my favorite Final Fantasy.
My iPhone is my main gaming system these days. I have bought only two retail games in the past year - Evil Within, Samurai Warriors 4 - and they both ultimately disappointed. Between the two of them, I spent 120 dollars. Maybe 110, I forgot if SW4 cost 40 or 50. Either way, compared to paying 1-5 dollars for an iPhone game. This has caused me to quit console gaming.
iPhone was the best gaming system last year along with Steam.
Most games today are nothing but inflated hype that don't live up to their own promises (Alien Isolation) or are lack a single hint of creative integrity (The Order 1886).
I am positive that I likely won't get a truly unique game experience (Mr. Mosquito, Mad Maestro, Chulip, Shenmue, Suikoden series, Killer 7 , Parappa The Rapper;etc.) ever again. I have seen it all, done it all. Gaming has potential but rarely aspires for it. Masters who at one point made wholly original works are stuck making homogenous schlock (Suda, Kojima). Gaming has become boring and tired.
Gamers are completely satisfied with playing the same stuff over and over again. Better yet, gamers suck and games suck. Being a gamer is depressing and breaks your heart. I will never get an ending to Suikoden or Shenmue or another Chrono game.
The playstation/saturn/n64/dreamcast/ps2/xbox/gamecube era of gaming was gaming at its height, and the sales numbers proved it too. The 32 bit and ps2 generatiosn were incredible wholly because it birthed 3d gaming and gaming experimentation was running rampant. Back then, the rules weren't set in stone and developers did all they could to make their game experiences unique and brought something new to the table. With new technology, things developers would only dream of in the past were now being realized. The only thing I can see creating such a boom in creativity again is vr or holograms.
Resident Evil 5 is a fantastic game and the most content heavy game in the franchise. I'd say it's the "funnest" RE. I think RE4 is the best RE, though. Code Veronica is the worst RE I've played (haven't played 6). It's truly terrible. Awful enemies (Bandersnatches), awful design (takes sometimes upwards of 40 minutes to get to a type writer, you have to literally empty your entire ammo on the tyrant in the cargo plane or you need to start over), Steve Burnside is awful.
OL wrote:
I don't actually think the Dreamcast is all that great. Shenmue, Jet Set, the Sonic Adventures, and a scant few other brilliant obscurities make it worth owning, of course, but the prevailing "OMG best console ever!" mindset is just something I could never get behind.
I think that if Dreamcast hadn't lost the bulk of its exclusives, then DC would be in the running for one of the best systems of all time. I already think it is without all of its exclusives. For two years of life, the amount of quality DC produced was off the charts. I can totally understand "best system ever" sentiment towards Dreamcast. It was THE fighting game system for a long time. It was also THE 2d shooter system next to the Sega Saturn as well. Plenty of great stuff that never got ported and have been lost through time such as Shenmue 1, Cosmic Smash, and more.
I think the Persona series is being milked at the moment just as bad as Squeenix does with the Final Fantasy series.
Persona is being milked because it's the only thing Atlus has going that makes a lot of money aside from EO series. SMT isn't that popular anymore and they can't afford to give it a bigger budget. Persona's milked because they need money, and their games are selling under expectations (Catherine, which was fantastic).