It feels like the current discourse surrounding gaming is a bit negative, from people saying that a fully functional game is unplayable to constant concerns over the direction the industry is taking. You should be more optimistic though, there are plenty of reasons to love gaming and appreciate the state gaming has reached. So don’t worry, I’m not telling you to go out and touch grass, I’m writing about gaming after all, I’m just pleading with you to appreciate it.
This isn’t that Reasons To Be Cheerful podcast, I’m not your middle-class friend who says they aren’t depressed but makes every conversation incredibly sad; nope I’m just outright insane, but I think you should smile a bit.
Gaming is at a peak right now, so ignore the comment section of literally any place ever, and read on…
1. Pocket-Sized Adventuring
We’ve come an awful long way from the GameBoy, the fact that something like Breath Of The Wild is a handheld game is incredible. It’s even more stunning when you consider it’s been out for over seven years now. That’s far from the only modern brag when it comes to palm-focused gaming either, you have the Steam Deck and rumours of a new PSP abound, oh and mobile gaming becoming as good as it has done? In 21 years we’ve gone from a lack of backlighting still being an issue, to incredibly long and brilliant experiences on the go.
Handheld gaming is a joy, that companies are not ignoring and if anything only looks to be getting better.
2. The Great Library of Alexandria Got Nothin’ on This…
It doesn’t matter which of the three main modern consoles you have, you’re relentlessly spoiled for choice when you go on their store. Whether it’s buying games second-hand, or a digital sale, there’s always something incredible on sale. Whatever your favourite genre, there are genuinely too many stunning games to go back and discover, even if it was your full-time 24/7 job, you’d struggle to play them all.
Say you like the Metroidvania style of gameplay, you might try Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, but then go onto Hollow Knight, or the Axiom Verge series, oh but then there’s still more in the likes of Blasphemous. Whatever you want, you can get it and there are so many incredible titles that are so easy to access.
3. Online Play is Frankly Ridiculous Now
This lonely writer is just a solitary PlayStation owner in a sea of Xbox-owning friends. Back in the ‘not so good ol’ days did you read the headline’, this would have been a problem. Nowadays it’s not remotely an issue, I still hop on Discord, and link it to my PlayStation 5 so I don’t have to bother with talking to my friends with others in lobbies, we hop onto the same games, we jump into parties and play together.
I don’t know if it’s just my 1994 birth, but the fact I can say that so casually is insane. Crossplay across consoles, to play numerous and massive online games together while speaking freely, can we just take a moment to appreciate how great that is? My internet isn’t ‘We get it, if your daughter asked for a pony, you could actually afford it’ fast yet we encounter very little lag. Games like Call Of Duty: Warzone and Fall Guys offer variety and fun.
I get to spontaneously do living room with friends gaming, remotely, across platforms and numerous games. I grew up on the original PlayStation and GameCube, it’s incredible how far we’ve come.
Speaking of which…
4. The Geeks Have Risen! Obey Us!
God bless Marvel films, I no longer feel the social equivalent of an 1800s child swearing in church whenever I mention my love of video gaming or JRPGs. No, it’s pretty cool now. Part of me still doesn’t understand it, but pop culture has shifted. Nerd culture has risen and it’s here to stay.
Maybe society is just getting more mature, but the strength of Comic Cons and Esports makes the communities so much more thriving and less underground than they used to be.
I’m obsessed with a certain JRPG franchise (editor’s note: No, please don’t say Final Fantasy… Oh for… Why are you doing this to me?!) Anyway, nowadays it’s a big deal, I had housemates watch me play the Remake during lockdown and I had casual fans of gaming ask me about it when it came up in conversation.
Gaming is cool again and while it might seem irrelevant, I think it makes the atmosphere surrounding the hobby so much lighter and quietly enjoyable.
As a former sports reporter, I genuinely get more stick for liking sports than I do gaming, which given old-school stereotypes is really quite funny.
5. I Can See Clearly Now the Graphical Pain Has Gone
Seriously, graphical performances are ridiculous now. Even the Astro Bot game that comes with the PS5, is so visually pleasing. Gone are the days where graphics are a problem, it’s more about art style or funding. Worlds feel so alive, the minor points of a story that you find by exploring that little corner can prove huge and just as dramatic.
Gaming has hit a very high level with graphics now and with that comes flexibility with style. It’s all gorgeous.
6. Vocal Cords Hit a Sweet Note
With great graphics you need it backed up by performance though but no, I’m not talking about frames-per-second. I’m talking about vocal performances.
Voice acting is now taken seriously and has a pretty eye-opening effect. Even a game like Tales Of Berseria’s lead character Velvet Crowe has such a great way of humanising her and a large part of that is the voice acting. You see her gradually rediscover her humanity as the game goes on and it’s pretty touching. Text is an awful way of communication but you still need to act when you talk for impact. Scenes hit so much harder with a real actor behind the voice.
Heck, you can even give free promotion to a game by having an actor who is both incredible and so happy to be working on the franchise, like Ben Starr for example.
7. Companies Know What You Want, But Not in a Creepy Way
I’m writing this on the morning of the 30th of May, I’ll be writing a piece on Sony’s State Of Play, I’ve already got a predictions bit on a Nintendo Direct that will come in June. It’s so easy to write about them, they’re utterly thrilling. As much as I bemoan the loss of E3, these digital presentations frequently come close to matching the excitement. Major companies know their audience, the marketing is getting smarter and these presentations are incredibly accessible ways of building up huge amounts of hype.
These presentations leave you wanting to call up your biggest friend who’s also into gaming and then giggle like a 14-year-old with some truly juicy gossip. It’s so much fun and exciting, that’s what gaming should be and is, thanks to the prevalence of this consumer awareness.
8. Nostalgia Blooming
I played Legend Of Dragoon last year. Genuinely! I couldn’t believe they’d rereleased it online, I also played Golden Sun The Lost Age again and realised how tedious it is. I was thrilled to be playing both titles. The retro element is usually addressed to some degree, often with subscriptions or ports to modern consoles.
This could be a lot better, Nintendo is not the best with this and Sony isn’t exactly perfect. Yet what they have done, I will encourage because I want more. The ‘mini’ consoles, especially on Nintendo’s part, were quirky and fun throwbacks to a beloved era. This will always leave you wanting one more game added, but it’s clearly something that game designers are always considering to some degree. As retro moves on to the point of including PlayStation 2-era titles, there are a seriously large number of brilliant titles now falling under it.
Encourage it, what we have is pretty great and could be more, but I’m happy with what we have. Long may it continue and develop.
9. The Price is… Well it Depends
If there’s one seriously underrated aspect of the current generation, it’s how game companies are trying to be more flexible in pricing. The Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles have cheaper variants albeit with downgrades that allow for flexibility in approach from the consumer.
It’s a small aspect, but it helps offer customers more price-friendly routes into gaming which cannot be ignored. It’s a creditable offer and promisingly, with all three of them offering cheaper versions, it seems like it’s the approach in fashion.
10. A True King of the Living Room
A lot of the time you will not be using your home console for gaming, with apologies to Nintendo fans here. It could be for Netflix, it could be for talking to your friends on Discord while you do something else. The fact is you can easily route everything through a console now and the ease of switching is remarkable. On the same system, you can switch from watching something on Netflix to being in the midst of a climactic battle within seconds.
Consoles are the true kings of the living room now and it is remarkably convenient, which for the lazy kings & queens out there is just sublime.
Rumours of gaming being awful have been overexaggerated.
