It's like rap; after Rakim people couldn't go back to the "Yes Yes Y'all!"

I also agree at the rise of AAA gaming; it's huge and along with the more adult content went a long way to make videogames 'respectable' as an entertainment medium


>Specifically, I feel like Metal Gear Solid (98) was the first
>game to tie all the elements of what we think of as modern
>video games together (but you could make a case for earlier
>stuff like Resident Evil (96)).

Res Evil had the atmosphere on lock and it was the first time that it feels that console games were immersive enough to cause fear. But because of the lack of overall polish compared to Metal Gear I can't give it the nod* Actually id give it to Metal GearSolid and Gran Turismo..I remember reading articles about how professional drivers were practicing tracks for real life races on it...in addition to the 'realism' kinda hard to not take a system seriously when it took you five hours just to get a 'drivers license', lol.

*Funny enough though with Assassin Creed proving once again videogame movies suck its nuts how well Resident Evil easily and successfully switched mediums into movies...on the low because of it the brand recognition might be bigger then other more popular games. Im about to go have a whole mini marathon of them sons of bitches cause im off the next week in a lead off into the new one. Not cause im a huge fan but out of respect that they were able to make such a consistent group of perfectly serviceable B movies