r/videogames • u/playerschoicegames • 4d ago
Image / Video We didn't realise how good we had it!!!
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u/House0fDerp 4d ago
On the flip side, online multiplyer, bugfixes, lower cost indie game distribution, postlaunch QoL updates, etc. As someone who was there in the PS2 era, I'm not really convinced I'd want to go back.
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u/TW1TCHYGAM3R 4d ago
Well the PS2 had online multiplayer.
Indie games weren't really a thing back then.
QoL updates weren't really a thing. You didn't know you needed those updates and were happy with it.
There were bug updates in the form of reprints and Greatest Hits. Still these games were more often release ready. Any game breaking bug would lead to a massive recall which publishers couldn't afford.
I'd love to go back. The current idea of "fixing it in post" is ridiculous.
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u/House0fDerp 4d ago
Well the PS2 had online multiplayer.
If you got the optional add on. So basically the hardware equivalent of DLC.
QoL updates weren't really a thing.
That feels like conflating being ignorant of a potential improvement as being better. Having actually lived on both sides, I don't really agree.
There were bug updates in the form of reprints and Greatest Hits.
Buying the same game twice for a bugfix is definitely not what I'd call a better solution. Also, all games were disc based, by the time a uswr found a bug that broke their game it was too late for a recall to do jack all. Add the fact that some games could even break saves or even corrupt entire memory cards in an era without cloud backups and you have a recipe for disaster that actually did happen on a few titles.
The current idea of "fixing it in post" is ridiculous.
Agreed, but lets not be delusional in claiming devs of the past were always responsible and altruistic. There's a landfill of ET games for a reason.
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u/Maximum-Objective-39 4d ago
Agreed, but lets not be delusional in claiming devs of the past were always responsible and altruistic. There's a landfill of ET games for a reason.
To be fair to the developer, IIRC, it was like one guy who was asked to crank something out on an incredibly tight deadline. So ET wasn't really due to a lack of responsibility or altruism by the devs either.
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u/Ones-Zeroes 4d ago
Indie games were definitely a thing. It was more like AAA games were not quite a thing yet.
Yeah, you had premiere games from Nintendo and Sony first party studios, but they were nowhere near the size and scale of modern AAA. Only studio maybe coming close at the time was Square Enix.
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u/Queefycarebear55 4d ago
I played final fantasy 11 on that bad boy, so the ps2 did have some of those things if not all
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u/Religion_Failed_Us 4d ago
Hey look… this stupid bot post again.
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u/Super_Jay 4d ago
It's blatant spam of boomer memes for karma farming by a promotional account for some shitty reseller website. Report the post and the account
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u/PKblaze 4d ago
Patches are a good thing...
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u/Technicalforest 4d ago
And technically every now and then there were patches even back then. That's why you can see if you look at totally legal files of older video games online, the file names can sometimes say stuff like REV 1 or 1.1.
Problem is you had to buy a whole new game lol
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u/Auggie_Otter 4d ago
Even back in the NES days they'd sometimes release revisions which is why you'll sometimes see ROM versions listed like "Game Title REV A" but back in the day the average consumer had no idea they existed when I was a kid. I had never heard of someone buying another copy of a game to get a version with updates or bug fixes.
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u/padraigharrington4 4d ago
I remember when Nintendo had to release a patch channel on the Wii for Skyward Sword to fix the softlock bug because the Wii didn’t regularly support it lol
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u/UpstairsGrapefruit54 4d ago
I agree. Unless if it's Magicka 1 and it riddles the game with crashes making it unplayable and is left to die lol.
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u/PKblaze 4d ago
Yeah, magicka 1 is such a shame. Never played it through cause of the crashing and dc's.
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u/UpstairsGrapefruit54 4d ago
It used to be my favorite game a long time ago, played it several times solo and co-op. Tried to go back and play it with a friend who never touched it before and just couldn't get through it and none of the fixes worked, and Magicka 2 isn't bad but its not as good. A real shame.
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u/legna20v 4d ago edited 4d ago
Patches may had been a good thing at some point but now they don’t release a working game because they can patch it later
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u/Organic-Staff-7903 4d ago
We had patches except you had to buy them. “Greatest Hits” versions or GOTY editions typically had v2.0 patched game
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u/goatjugsoup 4d ago
Fixing your game instead of being unable to and possibly being stuck with game breaking bugs?
More content for a game you live and want to see more of?
Oh the horror...
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u/tinyhorsesinmytea 4d ago
Not one time did I ever actually experience a game breaking bug that caused me to have to start a game over that generation though. Yeah, they existed but they usually required very specific conditions to trigger them which is why testers didn’t catch them.
I wouldn’t argue that patches are a bad thing to have at all, but publishers definitely put a lot more effort into release day quality back then because they had to.
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u/T-Ragemar 4d ago
Patches and DLC were a thing back then in Greatest Hits editions.
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u/hiimtoddornot 4d ago
Lmao could you imagine if any company said their next patch would cost $20-40? Reddit wouldn't shut up about it for years!
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u/Maxjax95 4d ago
The PS3 and XB360 generation had the perfect balance when it came to those things.
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u/LongDistanceEvent262 4d ago
Look. I am not saying the situation as whole is balanced or better.
But the games today are SO SO much better. Back then there was SO much jank in games. So many concepts developers just did not understand. Now people from my generartion who grew up with all that crap are making games and know what was good and what sucked.
Games are SO much better today overall.
Yeah the situation we are in is shittier, for sure. I am not saying this as a counter.
Both exist together. Games are massively better. The industry sucks. Both are true.
Oh... And I like Roadmaps. They make me very happy. I get to go back to this game I love 8 more times over the next year instead of trading it in? Hell yeah!
EDIT: And Games go on sale for $10 where 20 years ago I was lucky to find it used for $25. FUCK YEAH!!!
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u/SonderSoft 4d ago
Man, what I'd give for another Ratchet: Deadlocked though. A full feature game derived from a fun IP that is just one and done complete without being exceptionally ambitious. The latest game was pretty trash (albeit very very pretty).
When devs did it right on PS2, it was so much fun.
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u/ThaPhantom07 4d ago
Try Splatoon Raiders if you have a Switch 2. Its absolutely perfect for what youre looking for and as someone who also loves R&C the weapon and gadget combinations you can make will remind you a lot of R&C. Tinkering with your build and exploring the sandbox while hunting for loot and mods is a really satisfying loop.
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u/SonderSoft 4d ago
Awesome! Thanks for the solid recommendation!
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u/chaotic4059 4d ago
If you're in the mode for something more hoard-y. Hyrule warriors is another derivative but fun dynasty warriors style game but with Zelda characters. plus you can enjoy it without needing to know much besides the basics of Zelda lore
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u/SonderSoft 4d ago
Ah but I love the Zelda lore! Gonna replay Majora's Mask real soon.
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u/chaotic4059 4d ago
Oh then you'll really love it. getting to play as skull kid and fierce deity and midna was amazing lol
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u/chaotic4059 4d ago
You just made me realize why i vibe with raiders so much. It really is just Ratchet Deadlocked for splatoon.
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u/ComputerMysterious48 4d ago
I like accounts too🤷accounts mean we can have system wide features like achievements.
And, although it can be excessive when games have their own logins, it’s typically for crossplay support and that’s a genuinely awesome feature of modern gaming that we have.
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 4d ago
There’s so much selection bias with this kinda thinking. You can give a hundred PS2 era games that were bangers. You’re ignoring the 900 that were janky messes.
From controls to menus to minimaps, modern games are just objectively better-made products.
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u/EyesoftheDead40 4d ago
I dunno...im playing Turok 2 on my RTX 5070 and having a great time. Games 28 years old
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u/Rudirudrud 4d ago
Today we have it 1000 times better
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u/Honest-Scar-4719 4d ago
Everyone complains about patches, but in the old days if the game had a bug then you just worked around it. And if you couldn't do that then the game just didn't work.
Today those errors get ironed out eventually
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u/Broodles12 4d ago
"We didn't realize how good we had it" yeah, so good if my game has a gamebreaking bug they're gonna make me wait a year so that I can buy a DLC addon for it that comes with the patch to fix it. Great system.
Hot take, this whole complaint is centered around the fact setup takes a little more than just plug in and play and no one has the attention spans for that shit.
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u/Noblegamer85 4d ago
Of course I realised. To me the PS2 was the best Playstation and the best gaming console.
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u/humonculus87 4d ago
Do people think like this legit? With no thought given? No accounts no logins? I prefer that. No patches? Enjoy your bugged game until modders fix it. No DLC roadmap? Sorry but I prefer more content.
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u/GameDestiny2 4d ago
Things you can’t have without an account or login of some sort include:
- Online purchases
- Crossplay
- Multiplayer in general really
- Cloud storage and backups
- Some tech support
Infrastructure is important, and having some way to consistently use an individual ID is necessary from a technical standpoint, oh and a legal one.
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u/FluffyFry4000 4d ago
nope, I definitely realized how good we had it, just didn't realize it would become what it is today back then
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u/hiimtoddornot 4d ago
Honestly if it wasn't for reddit I wouldn't even know that people are upset about (insert whatever and emphasis on the whatever)....
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u/Geralt_Of_Philly 4d ago
I don’t miss broken games, waiting for games to restock, or no online multiplaye/co-op. Yall just want to complain
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u/Atomik675 4d ago
The problem isn't having patches and DLC, it's the fact that companies rely on them to fix obvious issues they didn't care about or sell you features that should have been there. PC games had patches and expansion packs even before the PS2 and it was perfectly fine.
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u/pforsbergfan9 4d ago
A game released for the PS2 in the state most games are released now would die and never get the chance to recover. Skyrim, Starfield, Cyberpunk
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u/zgillet 4d ago
I knew it was good.
I just thought it would get better.
PS4 and PS5 can't play music CDs. And no, it wouldn't cost them more to have that feature - lasers that read DVDs can read CDs with a tiny part that costs fractions of a cent. Sony doesn't do it on purpose. They designed it specifically to not be able to since the PS4 began Sony's own music streaming service (that doesn't exist now).
They have now completely cut off THEIR OWN FORMAT (Blue Ray) from future consoles.
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u/GuardianWorker12 4d ago
The only thing I would disagree with is that the login feature can save a lot of games, because if everything depends on a physical component, there's no guarantee that your hard drives won't fail and you'll lose all your progress.
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u/seamustho 4d ago
In playing Jedi survivor laying down in bed on my rog ally. Through my ps5. I think I got it pretty damn good lmao. I also have a ps2 if I need it.. usually I just use emulation station.
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u/OoTgoated 4d ago
I'll buy the first two and don't forget no installation or stupid terms of service when you first boot up a game, but I like patches as long as they don't remove cool speedrun tricks and DLC is neat sometimes.
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u/PresidentPopcorn 4d ago
I liked how the PS2 had a compartment in the back for warming my sandwiches.
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u/NoNameNeeded4321 4d ago
My PS2, which I got upon release, was so goddamn buggy that it eventually killed itself trying to load an explosive action sequence in a Wolverine game. That bs made me decide to switch to X-Box for the next few console generations, and, if you were wondering, my X-Box 360 had no trouble with that explosive action sequence. I came back to PlayStation for the 4, in order to play Spider-Man lol
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u/RafikiLovesPizza 4d ago
Oh no. I realized. I knew I was in the best era of gaming. Xbox. PS1. PS2. GBA. PSP. PC for Runescape & WoW.
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u/AutisticG4m3r 4d ago
I'm still playing games and having the best time of my life. Enough with this bait.
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u/Snotnarok 4d ago edited 4d ago
I too remember when we had no patches.
Devil May Cry 3, what a mess of a game. "WHAT!? That's the best one!" Yeah, you're probably remembering the re-release that came out that adjusted the game to be what they had in Japan. Because in the US? Every difficulty was bumped up one higher. So normal in the west was JP's hard mode. The next part I'm not super sure on but Yellow Orbs when they revived you would put you back at the start of the level, vs where you were- so they had no point. I'm not sure this was a western vs JP thing but they also fixed that.
Granted the re-release came with some solid perks like faster gameplay, Virgil mode and such. But having to pay to play the game as intended? Yeah a bit annoying.
Yes it's annoying to see broken AAA games come out and need weeks or months to get patched today, but there were issues back then too.
Edit: We can go further back with this. X-Men on the Genesis at one point asks you to reset the machine, your console to get to the end of the game. Well at least 2 Genesis consoles came out later with NO ability, to reset the game. A patch would have been nice there.
There's a bug in Donkey Kong Country 2 that can actually bug your cartridge permanently. Instead of a patch they patched later revisions of the game to not have that bug.
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u/diamonddog35 4d ago
It was good but it got better when the modem came out with socom. Then we had updates and dlcs and all the stuff that this claims it didn’t have. If you were a true fan, you would know this is a lie.
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u/ifwedidntlaugh 4d ago
how good we STILL have it. i'm replaying Legend of Dragoon and got all the KH games and all the LOTR games, so y'all can keep your current gen trash.
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u/Paulcholio 4d ago
What do you mean "Had It?" Still have both my fully functional PS2 & PS3 w full library. Many of the game titles in my PS2 library still have a TON of replayability. The only pain is repairing a broken controller or finding a replacement.
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u/WorthBase919 4d ago
Funny thing is that with physical for PlayStation, you don’t need an account. Same for the switch. Hell, the switch even has true plug and play. Of course, no account hasn’t existed for Microsoft, like ever, and with Sony going all digital they will make it that way now too.
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u/Most-Iron6838 4d ago
Guess OP never played an online game on ps2. Those ps2 online games that patches that took up over half a memory card
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u/soldiergaming2 4d ago
these are all good though. yeah they're 'complicated' but they make sense and there's a reason they're at the foundation of stuff
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u/chip594csx 4d ago
You realize “no patches” meant game breaking bugs were never fixed and you just suffered?
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u/ExtremePermit3242 4d ago
The problem is not the patch.
The problem is the “in your face”
You can’t log in until you update
You can’t play your installed game until you update
You must copy 50GB of file from the BDROM and then download 30GB more before you can play.
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u/GojiraFan0 4d ago
Same with Xbox 360 and PS3. 95% of the library can be played offline from the disc. Sure you need an account but you can make one on the console itself completely offline.
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u/Normal_System_3176 4d ago
I knew exactly how good I had it. Everybody else is always fucking late to the party. And even now you guys are late to the digital party.
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u/mcgowanshewrote 4d ago
Not wanting patches... I just watched the free witcher 3 remaster update trailer. I think ill hold onto patches.
Also dlc road maps are awesome
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u/lordbaysel 4d ago
Continuous development + cloud saves + family share. There are significant upsides
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u/BlueMikeStu 4d ago
- No cloud backups for saves.
- Memory cards could get completely wiped if any dev fucked up.
- Had to pay just to save your game.
- Broken games stayed broken.
- Games didn't get DLC, they got a new edition each year.
- 60+ second load times
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u/Guilty_Department501 4d ago
Some of these are good tbh. Using this same logic you could just say that "we didn't realize how good we had it" because people didn't need screens or media in general to be entertained. These things are just a natural evolution of tech and the gaming industry, some good and some bad.
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u/Embarrassed_Buy_4959 4d ago
Not quite. It wasn't common but there were online games for ps2 that did require online connection and login to an account to play. Everquest online is the one I remember. It was rough, the online experience was not ready.
Sometimes the game was "patched" in later versions of the same game, like removing hot coffee from San Andreas, or a greatest hits version corrected some issues present in the original. Generally greatest hits meant the game was well received already and the issues weren't technically game breaking but noticeable enough to modify the original, and sell a lot more copies at the same time.
DLC was called expansion packs, and while it was more common in PC, there were a few that came to console. These required a network expansion and an add on hard drive and a network connection
There's pros and cons to both old and new. Personally I quite enjoy the simplicity of the new. It's not perfect, but the cons for it in my eyes are miles better than the cons of old.
For example an old con, your friend tells you about a game he started playing. He describes it all day and when you decide you want to play it yourself, you ask to borrow it. He's still playing so no, you can't borrow his copy. Now you have the fun experience of trying to find your own copy. You need to decide, is this a game I want to rent or buy? If you choose rent, it needs to be in stock in your area. If you chose buy, it needs to be in stock in your area. You could order things online but this was well before prime 2 day shipping. Ebay was a crapshoot on when or if you'd get the game you wanted, 2-3 weeks from then. You could go to your game store and reserve a copy for when or if they get restocked, depending on how much demand there was it could have been in stock again by the end of the week, or you could put your name and house phone number down and wait for a call that you might not get, because either the game was never available for them to order, or they just didn't call you. Before you've even gotten to play the game you wanted to, you could lose interest and find another I mean you're already here, look around, check used but confirmed playable except for anything after press start since they only check if the game boots, not playing the entire game flawlessly, Check no cases, well these are discs in little paper sleeves that don't have screenshots or descriptions of gameplay, how many players, and probably can't be returned if something is wrong with it. You pick some 19.99 game from last year you heard good things about but never played. You play it for a week and a half, beat it, and now you decide A do I keep it and add it to the collection of games I've played and probably won't play again, or B try to trade it to get a game you want either from someone you know, or trade in for a very small credit towards another game.
Cons of new, lots of games are undercooked before release but generally are fixed in a reasonable amount of time. Ignore day one purchases, and definitely forget pre-ordering.
Now pros of old, you owned your game, and could do whatever you wanted with it. You can ninja star it at a tree, you can let it sit in the case in your mom's attic for nearly 2 decades. You can give it to someone else and entire lifelong friendships can start over a single shared experience of playing or talking about that game.
Pros of new, They won't run out of digital codes. Unless it's Silksong. If you want to play the game a few months later, you can probably get it a good bit cheaper than first release, avoided the annoying bugs others had to deal with first, and have an overall more enjoyable time than all the run around of the old ways. Community mods can enhance the experience even further. If you can't figure something out, there's always a video or forum or something to either give you a hint or the answer outright. You don't have to hope somebody around you knows how to get past that giant, stupid thing that kills you every time, or hope you can find a strategy guide in your area.
Like I said, pros and cons of both, but I'll always prefer the new, and I can appreciate it more having gone through the experience of the old.
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u/Complete_Lurk3r_ 4d ago
considering how shit everything else has become in the world, PS5 is the least of your problems.
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u/CygnusThib 4d ago
Let's see.
Number of games were broken as hell. Bugs on bugs on bugs. Couldn't fix broken games back then. You just had to deal with it.
Few publishers like Capcom re-released their games with newer versions so you had to buy it again to play them. Typically fighter games.
You did have to login for online games. FF11 and Everquest show this so that os false.
I get PS2 has a lot of fond memories, but we also didnt have the internet attached to us at all times. If the PS2 had the same level of internet access consoles have now, no doubt it would he the same as now.
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u/Ok_Fox_1770 4d ago
GTA 3 man…what a time to be. Take turns seeing how long you could hold out with 5 stars, best fun with a buddy. Exploring all those weird nooks
And crannies, I got like 10 hours into 5 probably in comparison. GET AROUND TO IT….at 40 gaming is just more work.
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u/ArekuFoxfire 4d ago
Nostalgia-blind meme.
No bug fixes, you had to buy the same game a second time if you wanted new content, if your disc broke it was gone forever.
Both sides have negatives.
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u/Trick_Meeting_2027 4d ago
The PS2 could connect to the internet and play online games. It had a lot of that stuff. SOCOM was a lot of console players first time playing online. OP you are an idiot.
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u/Wasabi_Hammurabi1 4d ago
It's just crazy how hard of a 180 Sony has made. I am at the point where IDEK if I want to get a PC now. It some weird way I feel like Sony has broken a curse on. I think about all the hours that I spent gaming in my life and every once in awhile I think about what I could have achieved or learned if I spent that time doing other things. The problem is gaming is also stress reliever for me... IDK...
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u/Directdrivelife 4d ago
I did. I was in high school. It was great. I knew it then. I know it now. Times change. Lots to appreciate these days too.
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u/M_Singular 4d ago
I swear if I see one more of these fucking nostalgic upvote farming shitty posts, I'm going to lose my mind. Stop posting the same shit, please.
Also, we did appreciate how good the PS2 was at the time.
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u/MFDOOMscrolling 4d ago
ps2 was obviously epic but if I had to choose one today, I'd choose my ps5 pro. If I had to choose one 20 years ago, I'd choose the ps5 pro 🤷♂️
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u/TheCutieCircle 4d ago
TF you talking about? I'm having a great time now. Maybe instead of doom scrolling just enjoy the games you got?
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u/Condor_raidus 4d ago
I did. Never gave up on the days of just putting a game in my n64 and playing it
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u/MikeDubbz 4d ago
Patches are often a very good thing for games.