IMO, gaming is the best it has ever been, and I'm also disappointed with the current generation so far.
Both can be true!
I can definitely agree with this statement. That this current era can be viewed as
both one of the best periods
and one most disappointing gens in gaming.
Hardware seems be capable for longer periods of time in comparison to generations past, and there doesn't seem to be any area where hardware seems weak and is holding thing back, even the initial release models of this generation of consoles - if anything with the gen, four years in they have yet to tap their potential.
In fact, on the console side, there are still plenty of people satisfied with their old PS4 Pro / Xbox One X hardware from last gen, even with releases for the current year - I'm one of them. I believe on a recent Digital Foundry episode they said that something like 50% of all
current PlayStation users are on PS4 level hardware.
On the PC side of things, graphics cards and laptops seem to be quite capable years after their release, even on the newest releases that are graphical showcases. As long as one doesn't push 4K and max ray-tracing, it seems like a four-to-five-year-old mid-range GPU is fine.
The GTX 1650 from
over 5 years ago is still the second most popular graphics card according to
most recent Steam Hardware survey, with only the RTX 3060 being more popular.
I saw a benchmark video the other day, and supposedly the almost 3-year-old Lenovo Legion Pro laptop model I have, which didn't cost me that much three years ago, is capable of running Hellblade II at high settings in 1440p with DLSS at a respectably stable 45fps average, and above 30 fps minimum - good enough for me!....and that's
the powerhouse visual showcase so far this year. 10 and 20 years ago, a three year old laptop or graphics card wouldn't cut it on the latest graphical showpeice at the time, even on medium settings - so that's a boon.
At the same time, this year's hardware - both PC and Console - remains disappointingly and stubbornly high.
On the plus side, there has been plethora of interesting games released in recent years, particularly last year, and if one looks hard enough, there is most likely something for everyone: from the vintage gamer looking to relive the feeling of the good old days in retro-style releases and boomer shooters, to the die-hard old-school western RPG fan, to the old school JRPG fan, to the graphics benchmark enthusiast, to the person who prefers games-as-art and slow-burn atmospheric walking sims and narrative peices.
Just the other day, a game called Mixtape from publisher Annapurna Interactive was announced, which looks appealing to me with it's easy going early 90's throwback atmosphere. So, like I said, there seems to be something for everyone - in some way - if one goes searching, so that can be seen as a boon.
At the same time, four years in we really haven't seen a big tent-poll game that enters into gaming discussion for the long term, breaks out into pop culture and clearly can be seen as a title that helped define a gen, such as what Super Mario 64, MGS, Ocarina of Time, Halo, GTA III / Vice City, Gears, Uncharted 2, and Breath of the Wild were the far into their respective gens past.....and in that aspect there is a void.
At the same time, that seems to be going on in
all entertainment. Maybe things are so fragmented now and everyone is in their own entertainment silo that there isn't that specific group of big things that define the generational landscape.
In movies, aside from Barbenheimer, Top Gun, and No Way Home there really hasn't been much else that movie goers have gravited around half-way into this decade, and especially this year, the way they did around The Avengers films, Harry Potter, The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Titanic, Independence Day, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, E.T., and Star Wars of decades past.
In terms of TV, there are plenty of shows of difference genres available on a bunch of streaming services, but there hasn't been a watercooler level show, at least not one that had a long presence in the cultural mindset, since Game of Thrones - which ended 5 years ago.
So, maybe it's just the entertainment landscape in general.
Isn't the "PS5 as a "Super PS4 Pro" rather than a next-gen machine." quote not true in some way or another?
That's how I've come to look at the current generation of consoles.
I plan to possibly pickup an Xbox Series X in the next 12 months, and aside from something like Hellblade II (which I may play on PC), it'll basically serve as my machine to get better performance of Xbox One games I missed or want to revisit.....or, as you mentioned, a "Super Xbox One X" in my mind rather than a clear breakaway machine.
