How gaming has changed in the last five years

First-Gen Next-Gen

GamesRadar's first 'next-gen' review - Ridge Racer 6 - was posted Febuary 15th, 2006. While we waited for the PS3 and Wii, the Xbox 360 was all by its lonesome, so PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube games still dominated store shelves. And, of course, the PC is always relevant.

In 2006 and early 2007, the big titles were games like Bully (a.k.a Canis Canem Edit), Call of Duty 3, Final Fantasy XII, Tomb Raider: Legend, God of War II, and Okami.

The 360's early line-up included some great titles, like Project Gotham Racing 3 and Dead Rising, and, of course, some not-so-great titles, like Perfect Dark Zero. Many of the games, however, were HD-ified ports of PS2/Xbox titles, a trend which lasted until the PS3 was released in November. That same month, the 360 flipped its new competitor the bird in the form of Gears of War, to which Sony responded with Resistance: Fall of Man. Then along came Nintendo with a bunch of funky little white remotes and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. And so the exclusives battle began. November 2006 was a hell of a month.

Above: One of these things is not like the others...

2006 also marks the very first of our end-of-year Platinum Chalice awards, dubbed then 'GamesRadar's potentially annual Platinum Chalice awards.' We gave Twilight Princess the top honors, followed by Gears of War as runner-up. We also declared that the PSP "doesn't actually suck," gave Tomb Raider: Legend a pat on the back, gave The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion a nod for consuming one hundred forty-seven hours and twenty-three minutes of an editor's life, and, most importantly, gave Okami the 'Too beautiful to live' award, which we nowsimply refer to as the 'Okami award.'

Next-Gen Current-Gen

Five years later, and some of the biggest upcoming titles are... what's that? Gears of War 3? The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword? The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim?! RESISTANCE 3?!?! NOTHING HAS CHANGED!

Alright, that's not true, tons has changed. The PS3 and 360 are filled to the brim with great downloadable titles, Steam is chugging along stronger than ever, and the Wii is... still getting some pretty good games now and then.

We remained alive in Portal, endured inside jokes like that one ad nauseum, and will shortly be treated to Portal 2. Fighting games made a forceful comeback. The Call of Duty series exploded. We got Halo 3 and Halo: Reach, and Bungie has moved on. Final Fantasy XIII happened. Peter Molyneux made himself a virtual boy. Battlefield 3 looks stunning. Quality DS titles have continued to roll out,most recently withPokémon Black/White. And, even more insane, DUKE NUKEM FOREVER HAS A RELEASE DATE.

Above: Do what the yellow text says

Get down

At the same time as the blockbusters, smaller, downloadable titles, both by indie and major developers, have spread like herpes, only a really good kind of herpes that makes you sexier. XBLA, PSN, and Steam's continued dominance opened the gates to digital distribution, and major publishers, which would have previously scoffed at the idea of putting out a game without a box, have embraced cheaper, instantly-available games.

Minecraft is an internet sensation, Tim Schafer and Double Fine are producing awesome stuff like Costume Quest and Stacking, Super Meat Boy kicked our asses, Braid and Limbo made us get all philamasophical, and even major franchises like Lara Croft have taken the disc-less approach. HD remakes, such as the recently-released Beyond Good & Evil HD, have become increasingly common - there's even rumors of a Halo: Combat Evolved do-over. And that's barely a scratch on the surface of the past five years of downloadable titles.

Additionally, DLC has pervaded the industry, and microtransactions are the new way to monetize MMOs (though World of Warcraft is still riding strong... some things just don't change).

Casual Attack

On the sidelines of the triple-A battle, a new enemy has been stealthily building its army. Its soldiers have infiltrated things you already use for other purposes, like websites, cell phones, and low-end PCs. Sometimes they're ugly, annoying little bastards who want only to take 99 cents from you and piss you off in return. Other times they're totally chill, like Plants vs. Zombies - that dude can hang out in my phone, on my laptop, or wherever!

On the next page, self indulgence...