New G.O.A.T When?

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is the Greatest of all Time (G.O.A.T).

Final Fantasy VIII is the second best game ever.

Final Fantasy VII is the third.

Uncharted 2 is the fourth.

I'm less certain about the fifth, but for now let's say it's Final Fantasy Tactics.

Five spectacular games, and none of them less than fourteen years old. And certainly nothing from the last two generations of consoles. The closest a contemporary-ish game would come to making this list would be The Witcher 3 (2015), which might crack my top twenty. Rez Infinite (2016) would rank higher, as it is excellent, but c'mon, Rez was on Dreamcast.

I haven't played anything on PS5, Xbox Series X, or Switch that would bother my Top Twenty. 

So why aren't any modern games encroaching on my G.O.A.T list? Is it my fault, or is it theirs?

Let's get this out of the way right now: I love modern gaming. This isn't a modern-games-are-wank post. I spend far more time playing new releases than I do revisiting old favourites or newly-discovered retro goodies. Games are good, now and always. We've never had it better, and to argue otherwise would be foolish. We are spoiled rotten. 

That being said, games today don't quite resonate with me in the same way that they used to.

Of course, that could change. A G.O.A.T-challenging, instant-classic could be just around the corner. I think it'd have to be something new though. Entirely new, like a fresh IP, or at the very least from a series that's new to my G.O.A.T list. Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Uncharted - I hold those series in such high regard and therefore can't help but set impossibly high standards for new entries. They're doomed to be weighed down by unreasonable expectations. 

It's unlikely to be an issue now for Metal Gear Solid, as it no longer seems to be a going concern outside of remasters. However, last gen I struggled to get past my disappointment in The Phantom Pain's narrative delivery, when compared to previous games, and it impacted my enjoyment of it's near-immaculate gameplay. That being said, I do still rate it. I marked down Uncharted 3 for not being Uncharted 2; I struggled at times with Uncharted 4 as it was neither of the previous installments. Again though, still rated it. Just last week, I spent 1500 words explaining my feelings towards FFXVI by directly comparing it to every other mainline Final Fantasy that came before it, because I couldn't get my head around it in any other way.

But it's not just expectations and bias that I, and new games, must struggle against. You can't cheat nostalgia, and the older I get, the more I cling to the past, at least when it comes to entertainment. Games that I liked evolve into games that I love, thanks to the passing of time. Games that I was once unfussed about are raised above their station.

Thirteen years was the best thing that ever happened to Lost Planet 2, for example.

My cut-off for nostalgia seems to be PS3-360-Wii. Anything after that doesn't qualify. I look at the dozens of PS4 games that line my shelves and I feel nothing. No great fondness for any of them. No warmth. If I shift my gaze down a shelf, I see PS3 games and I feel all tingly inside. Am I really that simple? The Sega Saturn copy of Jonah Lomu Rugby that I re-bought last month, just because I used to have it 25 years ago, suggests that yes, I am. I am that daft.

Could I crown a new G.O.A.T without the benefit of nostalgia. Or more crucially, could a new game knock off one of my five that are steeped in it? I hope so, but it would have to be truly exceptional; an unquestioned cut above everything else.

Perhaps I'm being too hard on myself. Maybe it's not my fault; maybe the games are to blame. 

Are they worse than they used to be? 

No, I don't believe so. Today, almost every taste is catered for and our hobby is more accessible than ever. From AAA to indie, we have access to games designed to satisfy us for a week and others for a lifetime. Experiences that even in our wildest dreams we couldn't have imagined back in the day. Worse? No, not even remotely. But for me at least, they are certainly more disposable. There are more of them, for one. I'm encouraged to move on quickly and completely, jumping from one release to the next. I don't replay anything, and I'm cheating myself out of building lasting relationships. I must've beaten Snake Eater at least half a dozen times, which has afforded me the opportunity to develop new opinions and a deeper and more nuanced appreciation of it. In the early 2000s, near-annual replays of my favourite Final Fantasies was standard practice. That shit is unheard of nowadays in my house. No time and no desire.

I consume games differently then, and they have therefore been rendered disposable. In the past, I was more impressionable and interested in making long term and deep connections with the things I enjoyed. Music, games, movie, fashion, that fit lady off the TV that we liked - we feel that these things define us far more in our youth. They were more crucial to our being. This is something I reject now, with greater age, wisdom (?), confidence and comfort in who I am. And frankly, I have far more important things in my life than computer games. Says the man who has continued to blog about them into his forties and spends an ungodly amount of time each day thinking about them!

Did we underrate The Order: 1886? I say we, but I mean you. I rated it. Not sure what your problem was.

Maybe I'm fooling myself, and the truth is that I just like games less, and that's why my G.O.A.T is untouchable. But no, I know that's rubbish. Nothing quite tickles my fancy the way that a good game does. That rush of excitement when a new one turns up, the comfort that comes from knowing I'll get in an hour of play in the evening, no matter what, and the joy of sharing my thoughts with others. It's all still there, as strong as ever.

So it's settled: I still love games and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater remains the unchallenged Greatest of all Time. And given how the odds are stacked against new challengers, perhaps that'll never change.

But I hope it will.