Graphics cant make a game fun. I had way more fun with Dreamcast than with ps4. Games have become a bit boring, with too long cutscenes, taking away control from own hands, games have become too easy, if there's no challenge there's no fun. Also nostalgia doesn't count when you had the console, dreamcast at the time I played was the top graphical console, just coming from N64 and PS1.

Also I don't play online, so I hate when games focus too much on online stuff, such as need an online connection to play the game, constant big updates, installations.

Games back then were just put the disc and play, we didn't have this easy modes, in fact difficult modes are actually easy these days.

Also you didn't have the internet to go and check for solutions, you had the challenge of finishing a game by yourlsef.

Also there was none of this nonsense of gamerscores and points and trophies, you used to play the game to enjoy it, the challenge was to finish the game itself. Now a lot of gamers only play for trophies, they don't even enjoy the games, so sad.

Even online gaming was free if you wanted online.

Besides the huge leap in graphics, Dreamcast brought in just a couple years

- Shenmue, a huge advancement of gaming tech at the time, a huge leap in open world games. Then Shenmue 2

- Skies of arcadia, to date the best JRPG ever made, not too much story, just enough, plenty of gameplay, plenty exploration, great music, great characters

- Virtua tennis, to date, the best sports games ever created

- Crazy taxi and Jet set radio, innovative, pure fun games

- Sonic adventure, to date the best sonic game created, great music, great open levels, for the time great graphics

- Soul calibur, to date the best fighter ever created, in fact I haven't enjoyed a fighter since, that game ruined fighters for me

- Resident evil code veronica, at the time for me it was better than 1, 2 and 3

- Phantasy star online, I didn't actually play it online but it was still amazing

- Chu Chu rocket, to date the best puzzle game I ever played in 30 years across many consoles and PCs, game was puzzle but fun and great music

- Tony hawk 2, back then when skater games were actually fun with great music

- Legacy of kain - soul reaver, just fantastic

- Metropolis street Racer, to date I cant remember enjoying a car game more than that, Need for speed is a joke now, Forza horizon is dull, no good music, too much flash, driveclub was a disappointment, GT was the worst being online only, rally games are so boring now, Sega just knew how to have the fun factor

- Quake 3 arena, so much fun

- Ecco the dolphin, that game is still imprinted in my memory, and I am surprised no one has made a better underwater game in 20 years.

We only talked Dreamcast just top of my head, but now enter PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, stuff like Ninja Gaiden, Halo, Final fantasy X, GT4, God of war, Wind waker, GTA san andreas, Black, Crimson skies, Kotor, Metroid prime and many many more, you just can never beat the 6th generation, it had originality in many games, variety, and 4 consoles instead of 3.

If we count the PC then the list gets crazy, I remember the early 2000s being when I enjoyed the most on PC such as Half life2, sim city, the sims, age of empires 2, command and conquer red alert, return to castle wolfenstein and a thousand more great games.

Compared to that this generation was dull, only sequels, remasters, broken games, they only seem to do something slightly better each year, but nothing really new, different and exciting. Worst of all, they fill the games with nonsense like collect 1000 feathers, find 500 treasures, and stuff, its pointless and boring and there just to make game time seem bigger than what it is. Games that take this too far already get bad reviews from me, example assassins creed4 was fine, not too much collectibles, but now I cant even play the new games as I just get overwhelmed and needs 1000 hours to finish the game, what fun is that? 1000 hours looking for collectibles, I don't even buy the new assassins games anymore, same with mass effect, batman, and many games, I just don't buy them, just trash no fun nonsense.

What did we really have besides sequels? Something really great that could be remembered forever?

I vote for switch gen. Wherever gen it is or if we can consider as a console

1990-1999 in general. Best era in games. Best consoles. Best franchises. Most classics. Best OSTs. Arcades were strong. SEGA was making consoles. Neo Geo. NEC. Nintendo and Sony. Nothing comes close.

Going by the title of the thread and the OP, it sounded like the latter, to me at least.  There was so much innovation in generation 3 that every generation since has been somewhat disappointing, especially generation 8 (PS4/XB1/Wii U).  

On the other hand, if I were to make a recommendation to a young person interested in retro gaming today, then I might recommend either generation 4 or 6.  Generation 4 games are similar to generation 3 but with better graphics.  Generation 3 games do look dated even to me (Gen 5 is even worse), and I do not care about graphics as much as a lot of posters on this forum.  Meanwhile you can compare Generation 4 games to the 2D indie games of today and the graphics still hold up pretty well.  Generation 4 games are also easier overall, which might be better for people who aren't used to high difficulty.  Generation 4 probably holds up better by today's standards, so that would be my answer according to how you interpreting things.

But what I've really been missing since Generation 3 is a large and diverse game library, especially one filled with experimental games.  Switch is doing pretty well so far, and it gets extra points for being portable while having a big screen and playing the games of a home console.  But in generation 3 the experimental games came from the leading devs: Nintendo as well as Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, and Enix.  Now the innovation mostly comes from indies, because the bigger companies tend to play it safe.  Nintendo, today, is better about this compared to other big companies, but they are dramatically playing it safe compared to what they were doing during Generation 3.

Generation 8, by a pretty wide margin. While the SNES is my single favourite console, the PS4 and Switch are #s 2 and 3 with the three of them leagues ahead of anything else ever put out. PS4 is by far the best Sony console, the Switch is a perfect blend of portability and the power I personally need (not much), and indies have been absolutely stunning this generation.

while some developers/publishers are fucking everything up with Loot Boxes and Pay 2 Win models inside their 'games as service' model, you can ignore all of that and still be drowning in choice when it comes to options. I genuinely can't imagine gaming being much better than it is now, except with more hard drive spave and a bit more power - which is what Ps5 will be.

Last Generation kinda started the trend of indies on one half and AAA games on the other, but generation 8 has successfully managed the entire spectrum at once, balancing indies, mid-range games, and AAA games all on top of dozens of other options. Gen 8 is the best for me, so far. but I'm sure as long as Sony and Nintendo continue on this path, Gen 9 will be better.

My favorite's the 8th Gen, because of all the high-quality game that've been coming out in the recent years. If not this, then the 6th Gen, purely because of the Gamecube.

I went with Gen 6 since it was the generation when I played on the most systems. Since Gen 7, for many reasons, I have been Nintendo only. But in Gen 6 I played heavily on the PS2, the Dreamcast (I worked in a video store when it came out and was able to play all the games without paying a dime), and the GameCube. So many great gems came out in this generation and it was the last time I feel that Sony was trying to court the Nintendo crowd. From Gen 7 on they seem to have focused on the XBox and more "mature" gamer. Thankfully this coincided with Nintendo's renaissance.

Agreed. I didn't appreciate the Gamecube in its time but its game library has aged the best by a pretty wide margin. I can still play smash melee, Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, Zelda: The Wind Waker, StarFox Adventures, Mario Kart double Dash, and many others today without missing a beat but trying to play PS2 games and Xbox games...kinda feels crummy now.

No argument here. There just isn't that sense of wonder we used to get every generation as developers were always making bold new breakthroughs every couple of years, if not every few months. Our collective minds were consistently blown as the creators were "figuring it out". Not to mention the glimpse into the future that was arcades.

I think that's why I instantly fell in love with VR this generation. It brought back that feeling I used to get as a child. But even that format seems to have stalled in the innovation department.

I'll admit probably my biggest obstacle in the 3rd gen was... I was broke! Couldn't play all of the games I wanted and I traded good games for a lot of turds with good box art! 😂

Yeah I must admit that now gaming has matured, there's definitely less excitement and innovation compared to previous generations, at least to me.

About the only games since about 2009 to really wow me were BOTW in terms of mechanics and Metro Exodus maxed out and raytraced on PC in terms of graphics.

By contrast, in the 90s and 2000s it felt like multiple times every year there was some mind-blowing new breakthrough in graphics or gameplay.