Well, dropping on this discussion, there isn't much to add, except my little insight on the matter.
Been a gamer for far too long, and managed to play some of the great DOS titles of the early nineties.
At those times, console games were very different of PC gaming.
I remember when my father ditched my Mega Drive (best known as Sega Genesis), when he bought a very expensive IBM PS/1, which was a 486 SX 33MHz, with whooping 4MB RAM. The best part (for the time) was it's video board, a Cirrus Logic with 1MB. Later, we were very happy to add external cache memory (and it was REALLY expensive, btw). Enough nostalgic ranting.
I found myself literally in a black hole, staring at that DOS screen, with that HUGE manual to understand the simple basics. And I was very disappointed that I couldn't find my personal favorite genres anywhere on that stupid gray box.
Except...
It came with Alone in the Dark.
That changed my life.
Then, it was Doom.
And, the icing on the cake, those brilliant Star Wars games, specially TIE Fighter.
Only later, I could play Ultima VIII. That hooked me into a genre I always tought was tiresome.
At those days, no need to fiddle with different video drivers. The tradeback was getting enough memory to run that stuff (TIE Fighter always made MAD, with that EMS crap). Ah, the good old days of memmaker, and QEMM.
After, let's say, TIE Fighter, I became much more picky about games. It impressed the hell out of me back in 1994, and it still manages to impress today, many years later.
Call that "golden memories", nostalgy, whatever. I'm yet to see something that impress nowadays.
And the only thing that tickles my curiosity, is that Nintendo Wii thing. There will always be something about small red plumbers and mushrooms that makes me feel warm and fuzzy (well, not THAT warm, anyway!).
Today, gaming in general is done by numbers. And big numbers: number of polygons, number of sounds, number of shaders, number of simultaneous online players shooting each other again and again and again. Number of millions wasted in their so called "development". And number of the directX version it "needs" to show you a different light source. Yet, some kids get marvelled at Grid Wars. Amazing, huh?
Well, I guess I'm getting too old for video-games, but when I want a GOOD FPS shooter, I always play Doom again. And not Prey, or whatever they boast to be the new kid in town.
Gameplay is the word.
But seems to be sadly forgotten...
PS: And nevermind my lacking english skills...
