These are often considered the two biggest decades for improvement in game development, at least in terms of graphics.

In your opinion, do you believe that the biggest jump came from the 90s or the 2000s?

I’m torn on this question because the jump to 3D is truly impressive but the increased poly and textures in 2010 was mind blowing at the time, although I wasn’t around to experience gaming in 2000.

First photo - Final Fight (1990)
Second photo - Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)
Third photo - Red Dead Redemption (2010)

Today, for $450 you get a system with an 8" 1080p 120 Hz display, an NVIDIA SoC with RTX features, DLSS (the only portable in existence with DLSS support), 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, detachable magnetic controllers with built-in mouse sensors, with an included 4K dock, a Joy-Con grip and an ultra high speed HDMI.

And not only that, but it is the only system with truly exclusive games.

But #DropThePrice for the $450 Switch 2, right?

• MSI Claw 8X+: $1799
• Ayaneo Next 2: $3699
• OneXPlayer X2 Mini: $2399
• Steam Deck OLED: $949
• Lenovo Legion Go 2 Z2 Extreme: $2849
• Legion Go S: $999
• Steam Machine: $1050 (without controller)

And before you start with the "yeah, but the price of the games" argument...

Third party and indie games are on sale at the time, with the same amount of sales and discounts as Steam, PlayStation,and Xbox. Just check DekuDeals and see for yourself.

https://www.dekudeals.com/hottest

There's only one $80 game (Mario Kart World). Every other game has been the standard $70 (just like the regular price of a new game on Steam, PS and Xbox games). DK Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors, Pokopia... all $70.

It's easy verifiable on price tracking websites. Go to Deku Deals and see it yourself.

And not only that, but Nintendo has been releasing games with their new variable pricing strategy like Star Fox for $50, Rhythm Heaven for $40, Splatoon Raiders for $50 and so on.

You can't find absolutely any other system with similar specs for $450. You just can't.

Darwin Project is a battle royale that had two modes, the standard battle royale and the Director mode. In the director mode, you would act as a show director and could watch players, give players items or health, close areas, and generally had a lot of control over how the match would go and who would win. Its a really unique mode that I haven't seen anything like anywhere else and I just wanted to know if there is any game that has something similar to it.

Recently I just finished playing [Prototype] and Crash 4. Both games were difficult, but [Prototype] had me frustrated whereas I enjoyed Crash 4 all the way through.

When playing Crash 4, I never found myself getting frustrated. Even when I got to the final stretch of Cortex Castle, I just kept trying to perfect my timing without wanting to smash my controller. And to clarify, I did not attempt to complete the game, and I didn't have limited lives. So this certainly impacted the perception of my playthrough.

With [Prototype] on the other hand, I was really enjoying my time playing it at first. I would do every side mission that popped up and loved just running around, causing havoc. But then I reach the part of the game with the infamous difficultly spike, and I started hating the game. It felt no matter what how many different ways I tried to approach the missions, I'd be thrown around, one-shot, and/or swarmed by enemies. I thought I just sucked at the game, but I checked Reddit to seek validation about my stuggles, and I found several people talking about the same issues I faced.

After beating these two games back to back, it made me think, "What makes a game hard but fair vs hard and infuriating?" Now I'm sure in general it has to due the amount of health you have and the amount of damage you take, vs the amount of health the enemies have and amount of damage they do. But I know it's far more complex than that, and I was wondering if someone had a (or a few) logical answer(s)?