New frontiers are a time of excitment, experimentation, and sometimes teething problems; which do you personally think was the better generation, the first proper 3D gen with N64, PS1, and Saturn, or the first proper HD gen with PS3 and 360, and why?

(Yes, I know there were some 3D games on SNES/Megadrive and some HD games on the OG Xbox, but I'm talking more about when it became the standard)

Cant say. Im biased. My formative years coincide with the release of the first 3D gen, so those games left a bigger impression and so i will never admit how overrated some of them are.

First 3D gen, hands down. The HD implementation was just a visual improvment. Even the expression High Definition is subjective. High to whom? Every visual improvment over the other can be considered a higher definition if you think about it

The first 3D gen was, at the same time, a horizon of new possibilities regarding game development and a restrain due to the limitation of this new technology, which forced the develops to think outside of the box and come up with creative ideas for gameplay, game's aeasthetics and enven programming, to deal with those restrains. Besides, the poligonal visual from that time was impressive back then, and charming and nostalgic nowadays

Easily the first HD gen. The 5th gen is probably my 3rd least favorite gen.(Still WAY above the 1st and 2nd) It just hasnt age very well on the whole. Still some great games for sure though. The 360, PS3 and Wii just had SO many great games between them.

Speaking from a Nintendo perspective: 3D and it’s not even close. Nintendo struggled hard to keep a steady output during the introduction of HD, whereas they soared with flying colors entering into 3D. Mario 64 v Mario 3D World, Zelda OoT v no Zelda (or you could say Zelda MM v Zelda BotW), Kirby Crystal Shards v Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, etc. MarioKart is really the only franchise I can see having done better during Nintendo’s first generation of each gameplay style.

I would agree with almost all of this; I would say though that Tropical Freeze tops DK64 in my view and that I do think BOTW beats Ocarina and Majora, but yeah otherwise it's a clean sweep for the 3D when it comes to Nintendo.

Easily first gen HD. It really made game look gorgeous with so much details.
First gen 3d games looked terrible plus controls were awful, I rly think they should have delayed 3d till PS2 and just focus on standard side scrolling.

3D gen for sure. Early HD games were just the same games but more brown / monochrome in higher resolution. PS1 / N64 brought so many new experiences while perfecting 2D games like Heart of Darkness, Oddworld, Castlevania, Paper Mario, Super Smash Borthers. And of course FF7, OoT, MGS, Wipeout, F-Zero X, Tombraider, Driver, Silent Hill, GT, Banjo Kazooie, Conker's bad fur day, Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, Wave Race, Pilot Wings and many more.

I’ve never played DK64 but yeah, Tropical Freeze sets the bar very high. I’d be shocked if DK64 could top it. (Though TBF Tropical Freeze leaned heavily on previously made assets.)

The 5th generation is my favorite generation period. Nowadays 3D games are more or less forced to follow a pre-designed template when it comes to controls, mechanics and even camera perspective. A lot of this standardization developed during the 7th generation, although there certainly still was a lot more experimentation then than now (I can’t imagine things like Gears of War, Crackdown, Infamous, Rock Band, Wii Sports, LittleBigPlanet, Portal and L.A. Noire being launched today as new AAA ips).

But the 5th generation had an almost unlimited amount of creative force, as there was no established consensus on how a 3D game should play. Hence we got stuff like Syphon Filter, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, NiGHTS Into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Tekken, Ape Escape, GoldenEye, Spyro, all finding their unique ways.