I've went through some backlog of a friends X360 and took a look at NBA Street 3, Def Jam Icon and Amped 3 and I just came to realize that back in the time I  thought the graphics were so good looking and such a huge step up and today they're so average that for moments I felt I was back in the PS2 era.

That made me think that this gen in particular hasn't brought any new type of advancement at all, except for more stuff on the screen and AI. But even that experience, in most cases, can be replicated on lower specs, see CoD Ps3 and CoD Wii or Resident Evil Ps3 and Resident Evil 3DS. (mere examples of downscaling)

Brainstorming about the games that couldn't be replicated on the PS2 era I realized that those are just a few handful of titles... ?

- Wii Sports, couldn't be, obviously because of the inexistence of a wiimote back in the time (no, that ancient lollipop tech demo from Sony is not a motion controller, its a lollipop being tracked by your average USB cam)

- God of War 3: The sheer scale of it, even with watered down everything, couldn't be possible on Ps2 I think.

Portal 2: Physics are main part of the game and can't be done on PS2 era hardware.

And I couldn't think about any other title, because I thought about discussing it here. It seems like any title I've seen is just a PS2 game with a shinny coat overneath the last gen polygons, and a little lip stick. Throw in some more characters with dumb AI and lens flare and there you have it, your average PS3 gen title.

Am I spoiled by DX11 PC graphics or do games really feel more of the same for you guys too ? I don't feel the same evolution I've saw from PS1 to PS2.

Not to talk about SNES to N64, that was the most obvious advancement imo.

You could have played Wii Sports with the Dreamcast fishing rod.

It breaks my heart that Sega had both the Wiimote and Xbox Live, and they still died.

It seems the rod just detects any movement, disregarding speed, angle and orientation, and then proceeds to map it to an action. The so called waggle. 

Wii Sports isn't properly 1:1 but it detects left to right, up, down and speed.

But oh well, another one down. 

This gen is a fraud.

Thinking back, I think most PS2 games could be replicated in a downscaled degree on the PS1. All we had during the PS2 era was more characters on screen and sharper graphics and better AI. Did we get any sort of generational advancement last gen?


Rhetorical question, there.

Nothing revolutionary was done but i will take better AI and more realistic animation etc... with a new gen.

Soul Calibur, Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry are the games that come to my mind right now.

Soul Calibur was just a boosted up Soul Blade.  Resident Evil 4 was just Dino Crisis with better graphics.  Devil May Cry was just a stylish action game with fast gameplay mechanincs.  They could have changed up Soul Reaver and made that game. 

The scope of Resident Evil 4 doesn't make it possible on other systems. Splinter Cell is another one because of the lighting mechanics (just look at the poor mans DS version of Chaos Theory)...

GTA San Andreas wasn't possible too. 

The jump from PS1 to PS2 let much more room for improvement than PS2 to PS3, I think.

Soul Calibur was the first 3D fighter with a proper 3D movement system. It also was the first to add air throws, air control to prevent long juggles, guard impact, spirit charge unblockables, and bounce launchers. Biggest leap in 3D fighters in the history. Everybody copied elements from it.

Resident Evil 4 put the camera in a place allow me to see always what was happening in front of me. That allowed Capcom to remove the auto-aim. They added close combat moves on stunned enemies. The knife become useful in combat.

DMC was the first of its genre. It mixed elements from fighting games and adventure games to create something new.