Most "Next Gen" Game To Date?

I think GTA4 is the most impressive game technically this gen, on both consoles. Playing the TLAD a few weeks ago reminded me how amazing everything in Liberty City is. The sheer amount of detail in everything is nuts.

COD4

/thread

Dead Space



Actually, come to think of it, I'd have to agree with GTA4. The 3D world that they created, and the scope of it, is so freaking amazing. I don't think GTA4 is one of the best games on the Xbox from a pure playability standpoint (it gets pretty repetitive after awhile), but just driving around the world they created, it basically is just awe inspiring.

Frogger2.

COD4 did nothing special from a "next gen" standpoint IMO. Yeah, it's a great game, but it's just a FPS with pretty next-gen graphics and a couple innovative ideas (like perks). Whoopee.

I will shout out to GTA4. It may not be the most "fun" game, but the pure amount of detail in that world they created amazes me everytime I play it. Even my non gamer friends are amazed at it, especially when they realize everything is not just "background" and you can get out of your car anytime and walk or swim to a building 2 miles away. Standing on a street corner and just watching the city be alive all around you is really something that should not be taken for granted. It's really something amazing they've done, but it's too bad a lot of that gets lost because the gameplay is a bit lacking, I guess (even though I enjoyed it).

Honorable mentions:
- Mass Effect
- Little Big Planet
- Crackdown (not as detailed as GTA4, but man did that run smooth for such a huge environment)
- Rock Band 2 (only because this is the first gen where DLC runs supreme and RB2 has taken great advantage of it. It's great to have (literally) 600+ songs all inside one game. It's too bad GH is still stuck in the "let's release $60 discs every 6 months and force the player to change discs all the time to play different songs" mindset)

The first thing that came to mind when I read this thread title was Mass Effect...

...BUT, I like FPSs. COD4 is the best FPS I've ever played on a console. The next gen consoles have taken my favorite genre to a whole new level with COD4. I play this game much much more than any other.

Strictly on a "next gen" level I'd give the edge to Mass Effect.

What is "next gen" exactly about Mass Effect? The universe wasn't fully explorable at all (not even close), the combat was that of a really janky third person shooter, the RPG mechanics were very simplified (especially from KOTOR etc.), side quests were throwaway, and it had tons of technical problems.

I really liked it, it had cool characters and good dialogue, tons of backstory, and the main story missions were good, but I can't figure out why it pushed anything forward or opened up some new realm of roleplaying videogames.

199% agreed

Mass Effect? It's KOTOR without Star Wars, how is that next gen?

The most next gen, in terms of never been done before is LBP. The create tools have allowed thousands of people to make hundreds of great levels. As long as they create, we all have something new to play.

Do you mean user-created levels are what makes it next gen? I was doing that with Doom 13 years ago. Just not sure what you mean by "never been done before" unless you are referring to just console games. It is nice to see the user community being able to create their own levels for a commericially available game, even if it's well more than a decade behind the PC.

For me, frankly, it's Obilvion. I know the game is three years old, but I just went back to playing it and I cannot believe how massive and beautiful it is. For a development team to create that on basically new hardware (at the time) is an unbelievable accomplishment. I haven't played Fallout 3, so perhaps they've even improved on the formula with that one, but with over 1,000 NPC who all act differently depending on what you do in the game, including altering their dialog to adapt to what you've done is simply amazing. Add in great looking visuals (which admittedly are a bit dated now but for the most part stand the test of time), I think that's the game I view as most "next gen" when taking in the whole package. It's even more open and massive than GTA4.

x2 oblivion for me as well

I love Fantasy and SciFi, but I can't play either Oblivion or Fallout 3. The games they make are so close to being fun for me but just something missing that makes me actually want to play. Someone said that it has no soul, I don't know what that means for a game, but I would have to agree.

GTA4 would be my vote, it's actually fun.

another vote for oblivion.

I must admit that Metal Gear Solid 4 had amazing graphics, very smooth control wise, and of course, an interesting story. On the Xbox 360 side, I spent many hours on Fallout 3. I'm passive aggressive so my decision is not to make one. It's a tie.

For starters, please oh please stop saying "Next gen"!!!! Its not next gen, it this gen, and either way it sounds ridiculous when referring to a video game as "next gen". Just one of my little weird pet peeves.........

Good question though. Two games that come to mind for me. The first, in terms of graphics and audio, Gears of War 1 when it first came out was the one where my jaw dropped and I thought "Holy sh#%!". Overall a great game but not the best game necessarily.

The other game, without a doubt to me was Halo 3.....and the funny thing is it really wasnt that impressive right off the bat for some reason, but Ive come to absolutely love some of the things it brought to the table. The film feature for one, is amazing. By far one of the best features of any game, and its done perfectly. To top it off they added in the network file sharing aspect for videos and pictures. When I was playing the game regularly these features were so much fun. I didnt use forge much, and I know map editors have been done, but I've played in some very creative maps so I'm thinking that was a well done feature as well. Oh, I almost forgot about the 4 player co-op aspect as well. Again, flawlessly done and Im not sure if there have been any other console games to do it yet? We take things like that for granted, but its a lot of fun being able to play through a single player campaign with friends, and compete with each other in a scoring game. Halo 3 has more in one package than any other game without a doubt whether you like the Halo style game or not.

Gauntlet II on the NES

Red warrior shot the food!

edit: for those who don't know... i fired up an emulator and recorded an mp3 i wanted a new text message alert for my phone anyway.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mjmxj1qqt40

Fight Night: Round 3 did it for me in the beginning.

There isn't one in my opinion. I can't think of anything game wise that's been done this generation that couldn't have been done last generation (outside of graphics).

Think of last generation like pgr2 or halo2--could those games been made for the ps1? No way, the online aspects were way beyond anything previous generation.

Are we playing with more players this generation online? No. Better gameplay? No. Better graphics and Sound? Yes.

About the biggest advance has nothing to do with gaming, it's the video marketplace and other stuff like that. You couldn't do that last generation.

Taylor34

I'll go out on a limb here and say the skate. series, though the sequel's feature-skimping to DLC has really rubbed me the wrong way. Huge playable world with no load times plus the ability to save video highlights to an online server and then pull those into standard video editing software with minimal effort or skill required to make skate videos similar to those made by real skaters being the clincher on top of everything else it brought to the table for future action sport games.

Haze

Its on the PS3.

LittleBigPlanet.

+1, encompasses old school to you tube.

I also think MGS4, Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Assassins Creed are worthy of spots on the list.

Miner Dig Deep

N+

I think if your talking about "next gen" it should, nay has to be, a game that either brought a new feature to the table or took it too a "whole new level"
Games such as Halo 3's Mulitplayer, 4 play co-op ONLINE with voice chat, I think thats first to consoles.
And while replays have been done on consoles (and not nearly enough lately) The ability to truely controll the camera and record a clip with your camera angles and then send the clip around to Halo Players.

or Through I haven't played it.
Skates replay system sounds like a true step above all the generic pause/play replays out there.

uncharted, MGS, mass effect

Oblivion/Fallout 3. Bethesda has taken the "next gen" consoles by the throat.

Imo Oblivion is the greatest game ever created. I've been gaming since Atari. Just my .02.