I didn’t buy my 360 until ’08, I think, and it was a while before I played Oblivion. A borrowed copy, although I ended up putting about 200 hours in. I didn’t actually buy it myself until a few weeks ago, funnily enough. And what’s amazing to me is how it doesn’t really feel ten years old. If you were playing 1996 games in 2006 (or, even more so, 1986 games in ’96), that was some serious retrogaming. But Oblivion… yes, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but then it always was. It’s still a perfectly enjoyable experience, even without your nostalgia glasses on.

So, am I getting old, or have games – as I always suspected they would – reached the point where technical advancements are now just tinkering with details? As an example, you can still watch movies from the 1940s and ’50s in more or less the same way you do with current releases. Some of the conventions may be a little different – slower pacing, a quieter soundtrack – but you don’t have to be an obsessive film geek to enjoy North by Northwest. However, a silent movie from the 1920s is almost like a different medium entirely. Is that where we are with games now?