So now that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been released, what was the 'current' console generation is now the 'previous' generation. I had two consoles of the previous generation (Wii & PS3), which was a new experience considering I didn't have any from the one before that. It was a pretty long generation, spanning 2005 to 2013, and I think a lot of gamers were grateful at that.
It was also a generation in which gaming matured a whole lot. Not only maturing technically into things like high-definition, proper online connectivity, and social capabilities, but also maturing in terms of games being a medium for storytelling and emotion.
It has seen the fall of some previously big developers, and the rise of smaller indie studios. In looking at each year of the generation, whilst there are stand-out games on each platform every year, for me the stand-out year for games overall in this generation has to be 2007.
2007 was a year where there were a lot of industry-changing titles: Modern Warfare moved the blockbuster FPS away from World War II and into the modern setting, Bioshock amazed us with a great story and location, Mario Galaxy redefined the platformer to almost perfection,Β Crysis produced the best visuals to date, andΒ The Orange Box with HL2:Ep2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal produced probably the best value release that gaming has ever seen.
Added to this, other fantastic achievements like Unreal Tournament 3, Supreme Commander, and the launch of 'proper' episodic gaming with the first season of Sam & Max. Wow, that really was a great year for gaming.
Unlike me being drawn into buying a Wii at launch, I don't see myself buying a current-gen console any time soon. There's still not much to play on the Wii U (despite being out for a whole year), and there's nothing to entice me to upgrade to a PS4. In fact, things that I actually use my PS3 for, like DLNA, now are conspicuously missing from the PS4 at the moment.