Last generation was like a trial for what we have now. We got to see the beginnings of what developers could be capable of if given the hardware and the budget. Unfortunately, the PS3 and 360 had clear limitations and the step from the PS2 days wasn't so big. This generation seems to be all about making things easier for developers. Games are getting bigger and the turnaround time is getting quicker relative to the size of the game worlds. Open world is becoming the new norm and this is making games more valuable in terms of playing time and replayability. I never thought I'd see the day when Final Fantasy returns to open world in 3D with such high graphical fidelity and I never thought I'd see Metal Gear doing the same. Their TGS presentations showed how confident Japan is becoming again about creating these big budget games and it's all down to the new generation hardware and game engines.
The investment in new IPs is a very healthy shift. Watch Dogs, Titanfall, and Destiny, while not exactly critical masterpieces, shows off the potential of this new generation in terms of the ability of developers to create brand new massive games of good quality. It's only been less than a year and we've already seen such huge investments and that can only get bigger since fans really embraced the new franchises wholeheartedly. With Sony's E3 presentation, it's clear that a whole new string of developers are getting the green light to make the games they've always wanted to make but never had the chance nor the hardware to do so.
Anyway.. I'm just happy that we're living in this 'peak' generation. I say peak because I imagined games to be like this 16 years ago when I played FF7, which was my first (semi) open world game where I could go anywhere I wanted (to a limited degree). I basically wanted that game with the Cloud that looked like the one in the CG animation. It wasn't possible (yet) last gen, which was why FFXIII was so linear. They could get the CG quality graphics but not open world. Now, we're getting both.
Just an awesome generation.
