1998 vs 2008: How has gaming changed in 10 years?

[m-JeRi]

Sonic

 

 

In 1998, the future of Sonic was laid out by Sonic R, a Sega Saturn spin-off which traded tight design and pace for a single gimmick: 3D. Not the isometric trickery of Mega Drive’s Sonic 3D, either, but polygons, textures, and the sneaking suspicion that something was about to go terribly wrong.

 

Sure enough, after mixed success with Sonic Adventure, the purple blur became gaming’s answer to Jar Jar Binks. Scandalised by trash like Sonic Heroes and Sonic The Hedgehog on 360, barely finding his feet in 2008’s Sonic Unleashed, he still makes a killing thanks to “the kids”. Thanks a bunch, kids.

 

Rockstar

 

 

Remember Body Harvest, the alien invasion game for N64? “The freedom!” praised gamers at the time. “The vehicular mayhem! The boundless manslaughter! Whatever will they think of next?” “They”, of course, were DMA Design, best known for Lemmings and soon to become Rockstar North.

 

What did they think of next? More freedom, more mayhem, more manslaughter, and the three most controversial words in gaming: Grand Theft Auto. Ten years on and there are now ten Rockstar studios scattered around the globe, responsible for over 30 games. And let’s not forget Crackdown, made by DMA founder David Jones and his new company, Realtime Worlds.

 

Duke Nukem

 

 

In the beginning was the word. And the word was “Forever”. Promised “no later than mid-1998”, the fourth Duke (that it’s now the fifth says it all) was a white-hot prospect for the adult FPS, boasting unprecedented interactivity with its 3D universe.

 

A decade later and we’re talking more brown-hot, the closest thing to a release being two – that’s two - screenshots in 2008, neither of which made buttocks tremble. Not in the intended manner, at least. It’s as if someone at 3D Realms said, “Make fun of us? We’ll show ya! We’ll finish this game if it’s the last thing we do. Tell ‘em, guys! Guys..?”

 

Colin Macrae Rally

 

 

As far as technology goes, there’s no better benchmark than the racing game, and none more sophisticated than a racing game by Codemasters. In 1998, the Warwickshire company was pulling away from its bedroom coder days into more complex simulation. The visuals of every Colin McRae Rally and Race Driver game since have been greeted with the same breathless response: “That almost looks like a photograph!”

 

Now, a decade on from the first CMR, it’s the photographs struggling to keep up, along with the sounds and physics of real world racing. Lost, however, are the real driver names and, tragically, Colin McRae himself.

 

The Big 3

 

 

Well, at least the number’s still correct, even if the cast and roles have changed. Sega was celebrating the magnificence of Dreamcast in 1998; now it’s enjoying its freedom from the hardware race altogether. Sony has gone from brand dominator to: “You’re not getting one of those, Timothy, it’s too expensive and the games are all on that other one.” Nintendo has gone from kids and Mario to pensioners and Toilet Training DS (trust us, it’ll happen). And a little-known company called Microsoft, better known in 1998 for Minesweeper than Halo, is now the hardcore king of the hill.

 

Online Gaming

 

 

For the small price of your house, kidneys and healthiest family member, you could rent an ISDN line ten years ago, the internet’s equivalent of a magic beanstalk. You could download demos you’d normally buy on disc, use the term “superhighway” and sound only half-stupid, and play Quake II against people in far-flung lands. Oh, how far we’ve come.

 

Now, for little more than pocket change, you can digest all the ignorance and bile in the “civilised” world, then add the authors to your “friends list” so you can play them at videogames. And you can read these words, of course, you lucky, hateful bastards.

 

Handheld

 

 

A console? In your pocket? With comparable sound and visuals to a real game? That’s quite something. How about you go play on your miracle machine and we’ll call the ambulance? In a year that saw the Game Boy Color trounce the Neo Geo Pocket, the idea of PlayStation-perfect Ridge Racer seemed like crazy talk.

 

There’d been the PC Engine GT, with its superb ports of R-Type and Street Fighter II – but at what cost? Six AA batteries for three hours of play, that’s what. No one in ’98 could have imagined God Of War, let alone Chains Of Olympus. And a game that involves stabbing things with a pen that doesn’t require your stepbrother and a trip to the hospital? Get outta here.

 

Unreal engine

 

 

The launch of Unreal in 1998 was as much a milestone as Super Mario 64. 3D like this, with lights and shadows that weren’t painted on, in high-resolution and smooth as silk, was like something out of a Hollywood movie. An Eighties movie starring talking cereal boxes, perhaps, but that’s not the point.

 

Today, after years that have seen Half-Life and Oblivion, the engine behind Unreal has evolved to power dozens of AAA titles, from Bioshock and Stranglehold to Mirror’s Edge and Splinter Cell. The Unreal brand, meanwhile, has been dwarfed by Epic’s Gears Of War, though the company itself remains as tight-knit a family as ever.

 

MGS

 

 

Despite his best efforts, Hideo Kojima failed in his attempts to make a single line of dialogue last ten years. He did come close, though, and few games reflect the changing times better than his action stealth epic. The coming of Splinter Cell, Gears Of War, and games like Call Of Duty 4 have all fed into its philosophy and design, giving its characters – God help us – even more to talk about.

 

And while its looks have evolved to near movie-quality in some respects, the stubborn tenets of the stealth genre, together with its voice actors’ stilted deliveries, ensure that the whole thing looks somehow familiar. It just goes to show that some things, no matter the technology, never change.

 

source - http://www.gamesradar.com/f/1998-vs-2008-h...122210433062025

 

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Jerin

[rAgHaV]

nice..

[MarketTantrik]

Then

 

SEGAAAAA

 

 

Now

 

 

SEGAAAAWDAWFUL !!

[lastAvenger]

Duke Nukem got me laughing lol

[KnackChap]

Then

 

Now

 

 

was it 97 or 98?

 

[IshmaelIsBack]

 

I needed a good laugh :roflroll2:

 

was it 97 or 98?

 

97

[Spy Bot]

U can also compare, the GTA I and GTA IV

[saberwing]

StarCraft came out in 1998. StarCraft still remains the most-competitively-played RTS game in 2008. Some things never change

[CarbonCore]

Then (GT1)..

 

Now (GT5P)..

[rAgHaV]

^^ wow lol.. too bad i haven't played gt5p yet

[godsend]

Hi guys,

 

Just saw a TED talk and thought will be appropriate to post here.It's titled " Will videogames become better than life?".It's around 23 mins long. So seek to 6.30 to 9.00 for the evolution of games.And a gamer' s thoughts on gaming, a must watch, from 10.00 to 18.35.

 

 

 

for some reason the embeded youtube video is not showing.Please follow this link to see the video.

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=mfv_hOFT1S4&...re=channel_page

[Pushy]

exactly, back then it was less hype and MOAR quality

[Don Karnage]

Then: DirectX 5.2, Now: DirectX 10.1.

1998 was a good year games wise for me as I had just upgraded my PC to a Pentium MMX 166Mhz with a S3Trio 64 graphics card and 64MB RAM. I actually remember playing hours of Total Annihilation with a bit of Descent 2 & GTA 1 at a friend's place during the holidays.

[Pushy]

Were you even alive in 1998 :eyebrow2: ?

 

hell yeah dammit

[The JACKAL]

1998 -2008 need for speed has gone for the worse.

 

1998- Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit- Pure Awsomeness

2008-Need for Speed Undercovcer- sucks donkey balls