The Golden Age
I don't think I'd be capable of counting the times that I've heard someone say, "This game looks alright, but not as good as Game X." Where game X is of course some game that that individual spent a large amount of their personal time with when they were younger. These people I'm sure I've been one of them at some point, and still am at other points understand the incredible weight and attachment that their personal nostalgia brings to the table.

This mentality is natural. Games are different then other medias because they ask for a larger investment of time, you can't simply or even passively experience a game, you must take an active role or nothing will occur.

For a while, and less so now, people would often wonder if games were going to suddenly come to a halt, interest in them diminish and their value decrease. This idea stemmed off the fact that a large portion of games released are from unoriginal IPs (Note games such as: Guitar Hero 3, Devil May Cry 4, Halo 3, GTA 4, etc). .There was also a point in which people debated whether or not gaming was an art form, but was that ever really relevant, if anything games coalesce many arts,
and are undeniably art by the fact that it's individual parts certainly are.

Anyway, It's been said that the time in which the NES was dominate was the "Golden age" of gaming, and it's been said that the time in which the SNES was dominate was the "Golden age" of gaming, and of course the same bell has been rung for the PSX era. Now again for the 360/Wii era, but I'm happy to announce that I don't believe we're there yet, we've never seen it, but every year we get closer and closer to it.

Capcom for example has sudden realized the power of their sleeping IPs. Just recently the Daxter team got to live a group fantasy and work/re-release Okami on the Wii with motion controls. Which I'd advise everyone to play whether it's the original version or the Wii version. They've also got a remake of Bionic Commando for XBLA coming out which I personally have a large attachment too and have always considered a classic, but more importantly they've gone and fulfilled every Mega Man fan's wet dream by announcing Mega Man 9.A brand new, 8-Bit stylized sequel to the original series. .

Square Enix has been releasing remakes of old, truly classic RPGs with visual over hauls for a while now and while none of these games are new, the characters, the stories of these games have pulled at the heart strings of boys now men, or girls no women for over a decade. Whether you think it's easy money, lazy developers or any other negative quality, in a way, Square Enix is simply a tradition bearer for a culture that makes there past tales impossible to play. At any point a new console can make our past library of games obsolete (Ex: PS2 to PS3). So as annoyed as people are by companies constantly re-releasing and spending the time of their teams to make classics new, it's also sorta comforting. It feels good to know that the stories that I grew up on will be available to my children. I can read my child the dialogue of Chrono Trigger and let them beat the bad guys with loving guidance.

Don't be fooled with the announcements of another Diablo another Starcraft, or another GTA having just been released, we are going forward. Creative people are always creating.

I've never been one to be to excited for an EA game especially with their desire to be the Galactus of smaller game studios, but a game has been popping it's head out into the gaming news from time to time that I've been unable to ignore since seeing a trailer of the game in action.

With Mirror's Edge, then with Rock Band becoming such a platform for music, one in which the music industry can once again reclaim some money lost in illegal downloads, I'm not sure anyone should throw in the towel and call any single generation of consoles a golden age. So far they've each done something vital to the growth of the industry, I also imagine each has a respectful amount of games that will end up on the lists of many University's gaming canons.