Which gen had the worst load times?

bell_hooks · Mar 23, 2021

I mainly played games on PC before ps4/xone gen and I like playing my ps4 but load times on this console make some games unplayable. For example Hitman 2016 by design has like 3 loading screens before you enter the game. On PC (even with hard drive) it's still ok. On PS4, when you factor in load times after death I just don't want to play this game.
Was it as bad in 360/ps3 generation?
Or how about og playstation and slow CD drives. Which gen (or console) was the worst in regards to load times?
I know there are fantastic outliers like ghost of tsushima but lets consider average gaming expierience

Patitoloco · Mar 23, 2021

Mmm I would say the PS4/Xbox One gen, also because on top of loading times, 99% of the time it had to load stuff from servers as well.

But also it's recency bias, it might have been way worse a few years ago and I just don't remember lol

Phediuk · Mar 23, 2021

C64/Spectrum tape loader era

Dirtyshubb · Mar 23, 2021

As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

Serein · Mar 23, 2021

Cassette drives for home computers were slower than continental drift.

Aarglefarg · Mar 23, 2021

Dirtyshubb said:
As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

I'd be worried about someone getting a seizure from that...

Yuntu · Mar 23, 2021

For me personally PS3/360 and PS4/X1 felt the worst. Which is why I really wanted SSDs.

Dirtyshubb · Mar 23, 2021

Aarglefarg said:
I'd be worried about someone getting a seizure from that...

I did a search to see if it is a known problem and couldn't find anything so hopefully it should be fine.

Pyro · Mar 23, 2021

I thought PS3/X360 was worse than last-gen tbh

Stairouais · Mar 23, 2021

Switch has probably the worse loading times for a cartridge based console.

ACNH is excruciating.

Wrexis · Mar 23, 2021

Old fogies should stop the "back in my day" talk and assume this topic is from 2000 onwards.

It's probably the PS3? I don't remember the Xbox 360 being that bad though. It had twice the RAM of the PS3, I think.

Zip Stick · Mar 23, 2021

Dirtyshubb said:
As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

Yep, and the cherry on the top would of been if it crashed and you had to load up the start of the game again. Also having the ability to pause the game is a god send you didn't get back then.

*wait 5mins to load*
"TEAS READY...."
"OOOoooooh mum... i cant pause this"

Schlomo · Mar 23, 2021

I just connected my old 360 and started up Hard Corps: Uprising, and it loads like 2 minutes before starting a level. It's quite ridiculous.

AIan · Mar 23, 2021

This made me realize how fast PS1 levels took to load. Crash Bandicoot levels loaded super quickly for example. Final Fantasy loaded in seconds. Obviously if your disc was scratched then the load times slowed down.

dskzero · Mar 23, 2021

If you didn't play PC games back in the late 90s and early 00's you can't really known what long loading times are.

Fucking Postal 2.

Ales34 · Mar 23, 2021

I think last gen was the worst in that regard: games got bigger and more open world, which resulted in huge load times because of the weak hardware.

Betamaxbandit · Mar 23, 2021

dskzero said:
If you didn't play PC games back in the late 90s and early 00's you can't really known what long loading times are.

Fucking Postal 2.

I used to read a book while playing champ manager on the PC in between loading. The old addage of "one more game" meant that you would be there till next week before you actually completed that "one more game" lol

Adryuu · Mar 23, 2021

Yeah I also came to post my Spectrum 48k that ran on cassette tapes.

dskzero · Mar 23, 2021

Betamaxbandit said:
I used to read a book while playing champ manager on the PC in between loading. The old addage of "one more game" meant that you would be there till next week before you actually completed that "one more game" lol

I played Archmage, nowadays called The Reincarnation

dark_prinny · Mar 23, 2021

Phediuk said:
C64/Spectrum tape loader era

Came to post this.

Trucy Wright · Mar 23, 2021

the switch, games take forever to load and its a current gen console

rahji · Mar 23, 2021

PS4 felt like long loading times especially in games like AC Odyssey and RDR2.

TheBiInBilingual · Mar 23, 2021

Trucy Wright said:
the switch, games take forever to load and its a current gen console

Half agree. Totally depends on which game. Clubhouse Games loads within seconds.

The Spoony Hou · Mar 23, 2021

Games have been taking longer and longer to load, even with internal hard drives. Makes me wish graphics were worse, really.

And no, I won't count tape games from the 80s.

KDR_11k · Mar 23, 2021

How were the load times on the Famicom Disk System?

I think the PSP and Vita might be candidates. I stopped playing Wipeout 2048 because of the looooooong loads. How much of an outlier was that PSP wrestling game that involved like 7 30 second loads to actually reach the gameplay?

Dirtyshubb said:
As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

Odd, on diskette games that usually happened after the loading finished as the program did computations on the loaded data.

If anyone's wondering about the flashing, that's a profiling technique. Each part of the program sets a different color on the screen so as the CRT draws the screen it draws more of the colors that take more time.

Xater · Mar 23, 2021

I think we have to go back quite far for the worst load times like C64 and stuff. On the other hand last gen got pretty bad. The load time for some of these games was just shocking. I remember launching RDR2 and then I went to make myself a coffee. That isn't even the worst offender.

Hayeya · Mar 23, 2021

PS4 Gen.
Most games needed eternity to reach main menu:

Loading Game - Publisher and Developers Logo's - Loading from servers - Loading menu - checking saved data - ........

Necromanti · Mar 23, 2021

Objectively worst is one thing, but usually it's on a case-by-case basis for the ones I distinctly remember (and it also depends on where the load times happen). Metroid Prime 3 (Wii) and Gravity Rush (Vita) were obnoxious to me, to the point that I even gave up on the latter.

Westbahnhof · Mar 23, 2021

Whatever gen my PC was when I got Oblivion for the first time.
Literally 10 minutes, which is sometimes followed by an instant crash.

dunkzilla · Mar 23, 2021

Probably PS4/XB1, but I think PS3 loading times were just as awful. Can't remember much about 360 loading times.

Profondo_Rosso · Mar 23, 2021

As a child with a Commodore 64 I probably spent more time loading games than actually playing them. Was amazing when I received a Master System for Christmas as a child an experienced loading from a Cartridge for the first time.

Last gen got really bad in places to the point where I put games down due to how long stuff would take for the initial load or to reload after dying. The jump from One X to Series X has been massive in this regard. Playing Prey at the moment and to load a save after dying is almost instant on the Series X.

NekoFever · Mar 23, 2021

Dirtyshubb said:
As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

10-20 minutes and then no guarantee that it would actually work.

LOL at the last couple of gens having the worst load times.

Red UFO · Mar 23, 2021

I always associate bad load times with the PS2 but it could have just been the games I was playing.

Martinski · Mar 23, 2021

Loading games from disc was really slow on 360, it was so bad they allowed you to install games on the harddrive after an firmware update. Yes... installing games on a harddrive to make load times faster.

It was bad on PS2 at times too especially textures or so not loading in, in games like GTA San Andreas. If you drove too fast the road would not load in for a moment lol.

Red Liquorice · Mar 23, 2021

Yeah the Spectrum/C64 were bad - 15 minutes and then it craps out and you have to try again? I don't miss those days!

But for consoles, I'd say the past 2 generations have been the worst - PS3/360, PS4/XBoxwhatever era. I really hate when technology takes one step forward and two steps back, and that's what it felt like to me in the 32bit generation - I got that CDs offered more space, but now we've got loading times again? Bummer. I suppose nowadays people are completely accustomed to this half-assed approach to technology.

The Shape · Mar 23, 2021

PS3. It takes ages to play Metal Gear Solid 4 after inserting the disc.

Martinski · Mar 23, 2021

Diane said:
PS3. It takes ages to play Metal Gear Solid 4 after inserting the disc.

You had to install Disc 2 etc after reaching a certain act of the game too. Which took a long ass time to do.

Naner · Mar 23, 2021

Martinski said:
You had to install Disc 2 etc after reaching a certain act of the game too. Which took a long ass time to do.

Not disc 2, there's even a joke in it about only using one disc.

But you're right, the second half of the game was installed separately and took forever.

Malcolm9 · Mar 23, 2021

The cassette days. I'm 41 so I can say that wasn't always the best experience when it crashed, but I uses to love the C64 loading tunes; I think Ocean did the best ones.

As for more recent times, I'd say the PS3/360 gen.

Martinski · Mar 23, 2021

Naner said:
Not disc 2, there's even a joke in it about only using one disc.

But you're right, the second half of the game was installed separately and took forever.

Ah right it was one disc but the installation and such were split up for some reason.

Pavemaniac · Mar 23, 2021

Dirtyshubb said:
As a 36 year old, seeing people complain about load times always makes me laugh.

Yep. I would not want to return to the era of wondering if the Spectrum ZX will even load up a game before my next meal.

Wrexis said:
Old fogies should stop the "back in my day" talk and assume this topic is from 2000 onwards.

The OP talks about the PS1 - a mid 90s console. Seems anything is fair game.

Hilarious_Bearious · Mar 23, 2021

The GTAV generations, purely because it wasn't a technical problem but just utterly terrible code. Although gen 8 also had Ghost of Tsushima... That game's load times are insanely fast.

BadWolf · Mar 23, 2021

For me PS1 usually comes to mind due to the load times between rounds in KOF.

But last gen did suck, especially for the initial load etc. for open world games.

SeriuzBiznus · Mar 23, 2021

I think it depends on the games more than the generation. Skyrim on Xbox 360 was painful but then so was Dragon Age Inquisition on PS4.

Legacy · Mar 23, 2021

I used to have an Amstrad with the tape deck, that's easily the worst load time for me.

I know it's not a gen but MHW: Icebourne had some really bad load times, before they patched it.

shadowman16 · Mar 23, 2021

As has been noted already - Spectrum *and other computers of the time are the worst for load times. Takes several minutes to load a game/level, have to hope the load doesnt fail.
Amiga was also pretty bad for games that required lots of disk switching (fighting games) as you'd usually be asked to change disk 2-3 times between fights to load the next one.
The last few gens, while having some bad games load time wise, dont begin to touch what it was like with 80s computers.

BadWolf said:
For me PS1 usually comes to mind due to the load times between rounds in KOF.

Have you ever played Street Fighter 2 (for example) on the Amiga, or even worse, a ZX Spectrum? Not that Id recommend it - lack of buttons, hit detection, quality of ports etc. were awful but you were loading for minutes at a time, swapping disk or loading the next fight from tape... PS1 load times for fighters (especially KOF) were bad no doubt, but even the Neo Geo CD load times felt lightning fast compared to home computers of yesteryear trying to play fighting games.

BadWolf · Mar 23, 2021

shadowman16 said:
Have you ever played Street Fighter 2 (for example) on the Amiga, or even worse, a ZX Spectrum? Not that Id recommend it - lack of buttons, hit detection, quality of ports etc. were awful but you were loading for minutes at a time, swapping disk or loading the next fight from tape... PS1 load times for fighters (especially KOF) were bad no doubt, but even the Neo Geo CD load times felt lightning fast compared to home computers of yesteryear trying to play fighting games.

Never had one of those.

Luckily, it seems lol.

ShinAmano · Mar 23, 2021

Gen as a whole I'd vote fore ps4/xone gen but don't really know.

However for a single game nothing can top MGS4 or as I call it the see how long you can wait until you fall asleep before the game starts. Like 45 minutes and up.

.exe · Mar 23, 2021

Last gen seemed pretty bad at times considering it could be slow on a SSD.

Dogui · Mar 23, 2021

Never played this super old cassete stuff, but for me the PS1 was crazy about loadings.

Lots of games has like a screen with some art and a slow af loading bar before title screen not mentioning inside the game itself. And then there was stuff like FFIX where you had the background running every single battle.

I think i didn't feel big loading times in the last gens since i was more focused on pc.

Which gen had the worst load times?

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