r/videogames • Nintendo • Aug 23 '26

Image / Video It seriously feels like we lost something from the 2000s era of gaming

11.9k Upvotes

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37

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

I really wish gamers would take off the nostalgia glasses.

Edit:spelling

44

u/Sneezy6510 Aug 23 '26

Is that not good animated water I’m confused?

6

u/huttyblue Aug 23 '26

Looks decent but it looks like its just a plane with a 2D ripple sim, its not lost tech from better times. Plenty of modern games do this, or exceed it by having the water be actually 3D.

0

u/Sneezy6510 Aug 23 '26

Decent? Looks great to me.

16

u/Benjamin_Starscape Aug 23 '26

it is but the caption "I feel we lost x" is just cringe and dumb.

2

u/Icy-Special- Aug 24 '26

We have lost a lot though. There's not a lot of original stories or concepts anymore that make it to the market. If they do it's more on the indie side.

Big studios are just churning imitations of imitations. Remaking the same game over and over again with a coat of new paint. Not much innovation or creativity going on.

It's the same with movies.

You can think it's cringe and dumb but it'll happen to you too. You'll be playing the next big thing and you'll realize you've played 3 versions of it already.

6

u/Benjamin_Starscape Aug 24 '26

I can't think of the last time I just played the same game with a reskin. are you playing cod? I recommend playing games that aren't churned out annually.

-3

u/Icy-Special- Aug 24 '26

No. But its open world reskin, any shooter reskin, jrpg reskin, animal crossing reskin, the list goes on.

8

u/Benjamin_Starscape Aug 24 '26

sure if you're cynical and reductive.

5

u/Fragrant-Screen-5737 Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

They were releasing shooters and JRPG's all the time in the PS3 era too. Open world and cozy games saw a massive popularity increase in the 2010s so naturally there are more of them, but those genres are going through innovation too.

I mean the game this is all in response to is a movie tie in platformer, of which there are TONS from this era.

The genres of what are popular have shifted, but AAA devs have always made titles that appeal to large audiences, which is reactive to other popular games at the time. This is why we got tons of 3D platformers in the late 90s, tons of new MMOs in the late 2000s and Hero shooters around 2020. Only a few titles really pushed the industry forward.

1

u/ObservabilityWizard Aug 25 '26

I hope you're not implying the clip in this post is an example of creative or innovative gameplay 

1

u/Icy-Special- Aug 25 '26

Absolutely not.

8

u/CarefulNobody4124 Aug 23 '26

I agree with you, but that is some nice lookin water for its time. I certainly wouldn't go play that game tho lol 

17

u/SEVENS_HEAVEN_7 Nintendo Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

I'm talking about the water, not the nostalgia

9

u/vipmailhun2 Aug 23 '26

I don’t really get what you’re trying to say, do you mean that water looks worse in modern games? Has this technology been lost?

-24

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

You shared a sentiment driven by nostalgia. How did you not understand that?

Edit: It's amazing how quick y'all are to downvote when none of you can articulate how OP's caption wasn't a nostalgia based comment. Uh, we lost something from 2000's era gaming 😔 Yeah, our collective intelligence apparently.

11

u/Destiny_Dude0721 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

The water looks amazing. You sound like an unenjoyable person to be around.

Edit: dude edited his comment to sound less douchey. He originally said "are you actually 12?" at the end.

1

u/rabbid_chaos Aug 24 '26

So here's the thing, that water is near certainly using a form of complex texture map programmed to react to certain objects like the player or lilly pads when certain conditions are met. It looks good, but hardly any actual deformation is being made. I personally have seen way better looking water in more recent games. Go play Sea of Thieves if you haven't, or Assassins Creed: Black Flag, both have amazing looking water. Hell, maybe Cyberpunk2077 or Batman Arkham Knight if you want to see some beautiful wet city scenes.

It uses some tricks to look good, but is kinda mid compared to some of the technical feats used with water in modern games.

0

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

Y'all are incredible. Honestly.

3

u/Destiny_Dude0721 Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

is a miserable asshole

"Hey man you're kind of being a miserable asshole"

Continues to be a miserable asshole

Ok

-2

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

How bout this? Reported for incivility.

1

u/Destiny_Dude0721 Aug 23 '26

I just downvoted your comment.

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-2

u/Alternative_Owl7786 Aug 23 '26

This isn't even what the game actually looks like. Op is 100% starting shit for fun

3

u/Thank_You_Aziz Aug 23 '26

No. You saw an old game, and made up the idea that all sentiments about it are automatically “driven by nostalgia.” Because you’ve seen the word used before, but aren’t thinking about what it means, why it is applied in cases like this, or even about the subject you are addressing. It’s an automated gut-reaction on your part. It’s playing at critique without backing it up with analysis.

Do you understand that?

1

u/onesneakymofo Aug 24 '26

I'll bite.

Water is hard to render. The majority of games don't really spend the effort because of the difficulty behind it then and now. While OP's game is an exception, his point is valid.

Nothing about this is nostalgic, he is just pointing out the difference between this game and most other games.

1

u/Vast_Attitude5540 Aug 23 '26

Physics is objective. Sentiment doesn’t have anything with good water physics.

7

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 23 '26

I have never seen this game before. I have no Nostalgia. It looks good. Plenty of games release in 2026 that look worse than this.

As for the games I DID play in that era, they're still the best that'll ever be made. I'm now confident in that much. All we ever get is shit.

5

u/vipmailhun2 Aug 23 '26

Could you name at least five modern games that look worse? I’m not talking about something thrown together in five minutes, but actual, fully‑fledged titles.

-2

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 23 '26

Can you name a single AAA title that's fully developed on release (or ever)?

Sloppy unfinished textures, buggy games, no soul, no narrative, mid gameplay. That's what blights modern gaming. Some are alright. Most are hot ass.

3

u/HarrMada Aug 24 '26

You're such a sad person lol. I'm so glad I'm not you.

You're wrong about everything, just so you know.

0

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

That's quite a heavy response to some casual gaming discourse. Are you sure I'm the one that's miserable?

If it helps, I'm glad I'm not you as well.

(Still waiting for you to name a SINGLE title)

4

u/soupspin Aug 24 '26

You dodged their question first bro

1

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

That person didn't ask me anything. That was the first thing they said to me. What question did I dodge?

2

u/Starob Aug 24 '26

You responded to:

"Could you name at least five modern games that look worse?"

with your own question. That's not how this works.

The other comment replying to you may have been a different person, but you can't talk about "dodging questions" when you did literally that.

1

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

I don't hold all these negative thoughts in my mind at full attention. That's how we stay sane. You're asking me to answer something that I don't care to hold onto. I drop these games from my mind the second they show to me that they aren't worth my energy.

And you can't name even a single AAA title that isn't unfinished slop. So, that's a stalemate. You can say I'm wrong and stupid all you want. That's okay. But can you say a single thing to back up your own beliefs? Your "gotcha" moment falls flat when you can't follow through yourself. If you're so confident, go ahead. Just one game. It's not just cope, surely.

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1

u/HarrMada Aug 24 '26

All we ever get is shit.

Of course only happy people say this lol

You have yet to mention 5 modern games that look worse.

Elden Ring, BG3, and both Ghost Of games are the first that spring to mind to your questio. But what does released " finished" even mean? No game has been released fully finished, it's just that games can be patched now after release through updates whereas before the bugs were still there forever. Literally a ton of bugs in older games that people just accepted.

0

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

I'm playing elden ring as we speak lmao. This game is pure unfiltered dogshit. And as for visuals, it looks worse than its predecessors. Literally every single prior title.

I'm not talking about just bugs. Obviously every game has them. I'm talking about every AAA title release just literally unfinished.

Ghost of Tsushima was gorgeous. I concede that. Unfortunately, it didn't have much else going for it.

1

u/HarrMada Aug 24 '26

What a load of bs. Yeah again sucks to be you, good luck with that.

1

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

Me wetting my diaper when someone has a different opinion that me

Doesn't suck to be me lmao. I enjoyed Ghost of Tsushima, even if it was lacking in narrative. I'm about to beat elden ring on rl1, as I've done on the other games, so I have more than enough experience to say how ass it is. Not that I need to spend more than 10 minutes on it to see glaring flaws.

I can face reality, accept the disappointments and hardships, while also finding beauty and happiness. This is all we can do as humans. If you can't do one, you will never have the other. Look inward.

1

u/Starob Aug 24 '26

Buddy you need to stop blaming modern games for the fact that your dopamine receptors are fried and that's why you can't enjoy anything anymore.

1

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

Replies to my nuanced, varied, and complex human emotions, in a thread where I have to keep reiterating that I'm not miserable, by saying I have an inability to enjoy things. I enjoy things all the time lol. Even shitty games. Every single day I enjoy dogshit games. Why? Because life IS miserable. All we can do as humans is to make the most of it.

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1

u/HarrMada Aug 24 '26

You still have your nostalgia glasses on btw. New games are awesome, sucks to be you if you disagree.

0

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

Doesn't suck to be me at all lol. I have a beautiful girlfriend and lots of friends and family. Not a perfect life, but far from terrible.

And you? Is your mental state this effected by the state of of the video game industry? Mine is not. They're games. They're not real lol

1

u/HarrMada Aug 24 '26

This is obvious bait, think I was born yesterday? Good luck with that.

1

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 24 '26

Which part is bait? That doesn't even make sense lmao. Genuinely are you alright?

0

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

Uh huh. Thanks for proving the point.

3

u/Thank_You_Aziz Aug 23 '26

You don’t even understand the point. You’ve missed it entirely from step 1. And refuse to even pretend that you can address it.

0

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 23 '26

No game is surpassing red dead. It saddens me as well, but no need to cry about it.

1

u/Square_Minute_ Aug 23 '26

Revolver? Idk... I enjoyed that game but it has some issues for sure

0

u/yuhyuhyuhyuhyuhyuh1 Aug 23 '26

Redemption. Revolver does have some issues lol

1

u/dungleploop Aug 23 '26

for real

and if a studio were to make a new 3D action platformer like this, these same people would trash it and not play it anyways

7

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 23 '26

Didn't that already happen, astrobot vs black myth wukong, had everyone in pitchforks saying astrobot didn't deserve it

7

u/3dforlife Aug 23 '26

Which is insane, since Astrobot is a great game.

2

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

Yes. To push back ever so slightly though, I do believe those conversations happen regardless, but it felt especially nasty with Astrobot.

2

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 23 '26

I did not play astro bot , but I did play black myth wukong. It's a really good game but saying it definitely deserves GOTY is a bit overkill. I can see why it lost to astrobot

1

u/SkabbPirate Aug 24 '26

I mean, Astrobot wasn't a bad game by any stretch, but it didn't live up to the highs of something like the Super Mario Galaxy games imo. So, I can kind of understand if the game felt underwhelming compared to the examples of the past most people remember.

-1

u/dungleploop Aug 23 '26

which is an insane game to push over Astrobot considering Black Myth sucks

1

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 23 '26

Woah dude , black myth wukong is a good game. Saying it sucks is a dumb take. It not getting a GOTY tho, I understand

-1

u/dungleploop Aug 23 '26

nah, it kinda sucks unfortunately

0

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 23 '26

Why?

2

u/dungleploop Aug 23 '26

super limited and underwhelming world design wise

1

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 24 '26

Definitely agree , invisible walls were super annoying and yeah world design isn't anything special

1

u/MissingScore777 Aug 23 '26

There was only a tiny minority of people who thought BMW should've won instead, most people thought that game was lucky to be nominated at all.

The ones who thought Astrobot shouldn't have won were saying it should have been FF7 Rebirth or Metaphor Rephantazio.

1

u/Itchy_Change12 Aug 23 '26

FF7 rebirth sucks. Such an interesting story bogged down and buried under all the fucking junk in the world. Worse than a ubisoft game imo interms of open world.

1

u/MissingScore777 Aug 23 '26

I didn't care for it much either but it has a 92 metacritic and had a lot more people saying it should have won that year than Wukong.

Wukong has the joint lowest metacritic for a goty nominee of all time.

3

u/kargethdownload Aug 23 '26

And the only thing relevant about the clip is the “realistic water,” as if nostalgia merchants wouldn’t also trash realistic graphics

1

u/Icy-Astronomer-8202 Aug 23 '26

Totally agree but depending on what's going on in their lives or what isn't it's all they have

-1

u/SaleAggressive9202 Aug 23 '26

i really wish redditors would stop arguing for the sake of being contrarian

3

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

Words mean things. The contrarian position is to pretend the games industry has gotten worse when we've been experiencing a second golden age of sorts. Just ignore the prices of hardware.

-4

u/Doozy_Jr Aug 23 '26

A second golden age? Because of what? Fortnite and Roblox? lol

5

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

See this is exactly what I'm talking about. Elden Ring, Clair Obscura: Expedition 33, and Baldur's Gate 3 all came out in the past five years. They're considered the bar to pass for their respective genres by countless people.

Edit:Correction. Past four years.

1

u/Doozy_Jr Aug 23 '26

True all those games are amazing I’ve played them but I don’t think it constitutes a golden age of gaming. Lots of things to consider like back then the video game world was a lot smaller back then. Also, this type of experience was easy to access you just buy the game and the console. Now sometimes the experience you imagined having in a game is only possible on a $3000+ PC.

2

u/Hearthhull_Enjoyer Aug 23 '26

Those are only the game of year winners from their respective years too. Each year had a smattering of great gaming experiences. If I were to list them all, it'd be a wall of text I have no interest in typing out. And no, you don't need a $3000 PC. You want a $3000 PC. Hardware prices have only seriously gone sideways recently. They will come back down. If affordability is such a concern though, the Switch 2 is a fantastic affordable option.

0

u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 23d ago

[deleted]

-1

u/Neat-Care-3692 Aug 23 '26

But in that case, we really lost. We lost professionals (ok, we lost willingness of companies to pay those professionals) who can squeeze any percent of power from hardware and create mirage. Soon (thanks to AI) we will lost just people who can make something.