Which games are you trying to compare between now and 20 years ago?

From my point of view, 2006-2012 was a nadir of PC gaming. A string of unoriginal games or bad console ports.

I'm always happy to keep my mind open to alternate points of view, but I'd really struggle to name the big and cheap hits of that era.

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Xirdus an hour ago | parent [-]

What do you mean "and cheap"? Video games at the top range have very consistent pricing throughout history, about $80 adjusted for inflation.

That era in gaming had many releases that are still considered among the best games of all time, that pioneered trends that reshaped the whole industry. Almost every year had at least a couple such titles.

2004 GTA San Andreas, Half-Life 2

2005 God of War, Need For Speed: Most Wanted

2006: TES: Oblivion, Gears of War, Okami

2007: Call of Duty 4, Portal, Bioshock

2008: Dead Space, Left 4 Dead

2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2

2010: Read Dead Redemption, Bayonetta, Starcraft 2

2011: Skyrim, Portal 2, Dark Souls

2012: XCOM, Guild Wars 2, Diablo 3, Far Cry 3

2013: GTA V, The Last of Us, DOTA 2

	▲	xnorswap 24 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		The best of those games are either outside 2006-2012 or were console exclusives and not on PC, the strength of games before 2006 ( and Oblivion only just sneaks into the window ) and 2012 onwards only prove what drought there was in PC gaming in-between. Red Dead Redemption still hasn't even come to PC yet, it's due out this year! Okay, so I was the one who narrowed it to talking about PC games, but if we look at console gaming then it has got consistently cheaper. Sonic & Knuckles cost around $60 in 1994 money, that's about $130 in today's money. Games have got vastly cheaper, for decades they were consistently around $60 and it's only recently they've crept up.