I've been spending a lot of time playing games on my PS2 because I'm somewhat disappointed with the selection of games available for the new generation. Only recently was the spark rekindled when I got my hands on Heavy Rain and thought, "wow, here's a bunch of guys and girls who have really put their hearts into making something great." I mean, R700 is a lot of money to spend a couple of hours so I would like the hours to be worth it. I remember spending R600 on Grand Theft Auto 4 and I still haven't finished it because, while it is a fun game, there's something that's not bringing me back to it. I found myself replaying Grand Theft Auto San Andreas instead - and that only cost R300. I can't quite put my finger on it, and I don't want to say that I'm demanding, but I'd rather spend R600 - R700 on something epic that will leave me with happy, buzzing feelings afterwards. I can get my quick fix of "fun" from something like Peggle or even the free, indie games that come with NAG's DVD. They're awesome, but when I'm buying I need to be careful about what I'm spending my money on.
I've been playing games for about 18 years now and I'm impressed far less now than I was before. Maybe that's me not changing with the time, maybe I'm getting old or maybe something has gone a bit funny with the gaming industry. Thing is, I have very little faith in it today. Square Enix used to be one of my favourite developers until FF XIII because that game felt less like a game and more like CGI porn.
Additionally, what really gets to me sometimes is the way some of my friends say, "Sure, I'd play that but the graphics are crap so I wouldn't enjoy it." $%*&#?! There are some incredible games that were available for the PSone, such as Abe's Odyssey, and I've watched people call it horrible because it didn't live up to their eye-ball popping, blood-spewing God of War 3 (which is good, but you know what I mean?). Not sure what point I'm trying to make, then again I'm not entirely sure why I'm not enjoying today's games as much as I enjoyed yesterday's games.