The New Console Wow Factor Is Gone

My, how far we've come!

I finally got a Playstation 4 for Christmas and as excited as I was, there was also a pang of disappointment when I booted up the new generation. The wow factor is gone. Although each new generation of video games gets increasingly complex gameplay and detailed graphics, the leaps aren't aren't so big anymore. The devil is in the details, and the details are ever more subtle. It's not immediately obvious as it was in previous generations; my mind is not instantly blown away.

I am old enough to be one of the lucky that have experienced video games from nearly the beginning, starting with the Atari 2600. It didn't matter that characters and objects were amorphous blobs and the games simpler than most board games, because video games were new and novel. It was all about simple fun. Then a certain plumber came along who actually looked like a plumber, could traverse multiple levels that were simultaneously simple and complex, and made me rely on skill instead of buggy luck. Real, bonafide video games were here.

Anybody who doesn't squeal with delight at this picture isn't human.

The wow factor continued with each new generation:

• Sonic knocked my socks off racing through huge distinct worlds at warp speed, as did seeing individual muscles on Street Fighters and Mortal Kombatants. Final Fantasy VI sucked me into my first epic, novelesque, story-based experience.
  
  
  

• Mario fried my brain cells running, jumping, swimming, and flying in 3D for the first time. And then Link one-upped him with the most epic adventure ever. Final Fantasy VII made me drool over photorealistic pre-rendered backgrounds. Metal Gear Solid glued me to my seat, feeling Hollywood and video games had just gotten married. Goldeneye practically ruined friendships. This was the golden age
  of games!

• Chopping off orc heads in both LOTR
  games made me feel like I was in Middle Earth. Shadow of the Colossus seemed impossibly large. I never knew racing could be so fast before F-Zero X, or water so pretty before Wave Race: Blue Storm, or atmosphere so intensely moody before Metroid Prime. GTA III felt like a real world for the first time. "I can screw prostitutes, then kill them and get my money back? The future is now!"

• Actually swinging a remote like a golf club to hit a golf ball was the biggest "why didn't they think of this sooner" ever. GTA IV not only felt like a real city but actually looked real too. Skyrim was so vast it was overwhelmingly stressful. God of War was better animated than some Hollywood movies, and The Last of Us had better storytelling than most. Discussion of whether or not games are art now over.

Such amazing progress I've seen all these years. Every time I got a new console it was a complete and utter delight. But those days are now over. Of course, my Playstation 4 brings me plenty of delight, but the wow factor is gone. I'm so accustomed to gorgeous visuals, deep gameplay, and epic stories; the new generation just seems like one small step rather than a giant leap for nerd-kind. These are all expected now, par for the course.

Pretty, but whatevs.

I still find myself being impressed and excited: the water in Battlefront is quite pretty, the details on everything—especially characters—in Metal Gear Solid V have set a new bar, and being able to create my own Mario levels in Mario Maker is refreshingly delightful. But my mind is no longer blown. I don't know if my head will ever explode again with a new console. I miss that.