If we mention original games made with Source such as Half Life , Unreal the original, Thief : The Dark Project, Far Cry etc.
For me most of the modern games are less fun, is this because of all existing technologies or is there some shift which was made?
Let’s do a bit poll to see what you think is best era of games in your opinion:
I will say early 2000s were good times, but I’m biased due to my age.
And I will also say that nostalgia will often cloud the mind. Many times I went back to some old games I loved when I was younger and often I found myself not liking them at all.
Lots of QoL stuff in modern games have spoiled me to such a degree that a lot of times I just can’t deal with the old ‘wild west’ way games did certain things. Don’t get me started on 90s games keybinds, back in the day where the keyboard was so large you had over 20 F keys. And heavens forbid you lost your printed manual, then you were really screwed.
Modern graphics are nice but honestly, I prefer older visuals, simply because it makes the screen easier to read. Good example is the Gothic Remake. Very pretty, but the high detail graphics are just too distracting.
But there is one thing that will never change. Once a new technology comes out, every development team will drool over it and use it anywhere they can. I believe it was around the late 2000s when game artists discovered bloom and then many games looked washed out. TES: Oblivion comes to mind, or Just Cause. Or when physics became a thing in games. I believe Jurassic Park Trespasser was one of the first ones to do it, an then you saw it everywhere.
I will stop myself here before I yap until I pass out on my keyboard. 
For me, there’s a tendency to push for graphical realism in many modern games at the cost of everything else. If anything, that can get in the way of good gameplay, and fun experiences. You can’t spend any computer time doing anything interesting, because that time is all needed to make the characters look better. It all starts de-evolving into a movie. And everything costs so much, that non-linear gameplay is unfathomable. Make content the player isn’t guarenteed to see? No way.
So, I’m basically pro the pre-3d era. At laest as far as AAA games go. Lots of cool stuff still being made by smaller studios.
I think they were mostly worse but with some exceptions. We say PS1 or N64 were great because we remember the first Silent Hill and Ocarina of Time but not all the garbage games that were next to unplayable even back then.
When people think about 2020s titles in 2050 they will not think about shovelware games but stuff like Disco Elysium, Silksong and Reanimal.
I would guess big studios take less risks these days though as so much money is invested into every big title. Fewer studios would mess around with big IPs today in that way, like suddenly turning a medieval-ish fantasy series like Final Fantasy into sci fi, as they did with Final Fantasy 7, to great success.
Thay where more inventive many yeras ago, gta 3 is crap because thers no ray traceing, oh i know all games have to be 3d becase its better than a 2d games. None of this is true. If the game is good the mechanics are great, people love it. A game dose not have to be AAA to be good. That just means they spent lots of money to follow a business model. “A business model” is where you compare a business against another similar business that you are looking to start. Like i want to sell coffee, ill look at Starbucks model. I would say we are in a very lucky position to have godot as indygames are geting fantastic, schedule 1, prsion escape simulator. The only secret ingredient is, is it fun. We dont need ray tracing, we dont need to push 6 million polygons. I bought a 3 month xbox pass and played starfield when it was first out for about an hour an then found stranded deep and played that instead as it was way more fun. So games do not need to be triple A. Thay just need to be fun. Yay run the hooker over and get a refund 
Happy gaming guys. Keep it indie .
I think what we miss is the nostalgia for the newness of whatever games we came to love first. It’s more difficult to get back to that feeling the more games you’ve played. Also, investors discovered gaming could make them money and the industry as a whole has suffered because of it (IMO).
i’ve played few games from 1990s thou they’re older than me, and i’ve also played some games from 2000s, i’d say that older games had to be good if they wanted success, because there were no steams or no itch.ios, if you wanted to make a game you had to have studio or at least be a coding wizard
now pretty much everyone can learn to make games, and so more amateur games are made, add oversaturation to this and most games are bad
big games also changed to multiplayer giants like roblox, or fortnite, or gta online ect. and they’re more like platforms / all in one games than focused game and this makes them shallow
still there are good games, many games i play are recent, and you just need to search for them
I’d vote for whichever “era” Dark Souls 1 was released in 
I think that, in general, games now are best they have ever been. It’s just that people take them for granted and act extremely spoiled and nitpicky when evaluating them.
That said, my nostalgia triggers are in mid-1980s arcade.
Maybe, but for some reason are less fun then older titles with worse graphics.
It could be thing for how many games are out there and how less surprising content is.
When Icy Tower came out first i haven’t seen many games like it.
I woted pre 90s because that was when gaming was most fun for me. Many things were new for the first time experiences and exiting to see how boundaries where pushed. Todays games always appear to have some catch. Either it’s advertisment, data collecting, pay to win, over complicated game controls etc. But from a technology point of view the potential to make very good games are there. I played quite a bit GTA V and I’m exited to see where VI is going. But I’m skeptical.
I was more exited about VR and potential of Half Life 3 which could bring some new experiences, but it’s speculative for now as we don’t have official confirmation from Valve about release.
GTA VI first impression from extended trailer is GTA V on steroids.
90s were interacting times of PowerPC, Motorola, Intel as it wasn’t all uniformed yet and device like Amiga 1200 still hold some sentimental value for people, with multiple chips responsible for different things.
You should perhaps widen your focus more to real indies. Those also tend to not obsess over graphics. Although discovery of quality titles (that are not hyped) gets increasingly difficult due to hyperproduction of slop and garbage.
Do you have some sources and methods in mind to discover true indie quality games?
There are a lot of mechanics at play here. Players age, rose tinted glasses, previous gaming experience, available technology, novelty factors, access to games, money men and industrialisation, wider public access to make games, slop, pricing and players critical appreciation. Probably many more.
What is the best painting in the world? The most expensive one? The one that took the longest to paint? The one done with the most painters? Or the one your Aunt did for your 21st birthday of your grandfather? Or the one your three year old did for you at playschool?
So it is not “were games better”, it needs to be for who, and compared to what exactly. Otherwise it is like asking “how long is a piece of string”.
I remember back when I was young, I play Monster hunter and dragon quest. VS now
We have a bunch of games going for 60-70 bucks and most of em are short and easy or too hard and so much to do. The last 10/10 game I played was totk or botw (Legend of Zelda)
Ok ok 
I didn’t thought about all those aspects, rather one thing which we have all common : “this forum”.
One thing confirm the games were better: why we get remake, remaster or PS1 era inspired games?
I know answers are subjective but that what’s is nice about it, otherwise we get same old. 
Nostalgia is not what it used to be. 
Or:
“One thing confirming old games were worse: the vast majority of old games dont get any rereleases. Only a very small number of old games get rereleases.”
In every decade there was a lot of trash, too. Every decade had it’s genre defining highlights. In the early days it was easier to come up with new concepts. There are some games which have grown over the years with updates. DLCs and mods. I couldn’t decide what to vote on. As pointed out it’s too subjective, and based on what you have experienced before at the point of playing.
A couple of decades ago we saw a couple of hundred games released (in any significant manner) per year.
Now explain how, now, when literally hundreds of thousands of games are released per year and then disappear into the void ,validate your assertion that the dearth of remakes means that old games were worse.
Are you seeing hundreds of thousands of remakes of todays games coming in the next decade or two?