>>11981012
That's not just them. It felt to me like almost the entire magazine field changed with the 6th gen and the 00's, new graphical styles, new reviewers and editorial directions, everyone wanted to pretend they were hip and modern and wanted to make way with the "old world". Americans like to blame 9/11 on everything that changed in the early 00's, but it was much more global.
In 1996-97 you could still find reviews praising difficulty and complaining when games are too easy. In the 00's this mentality was gone and ""hardcore gaming"" was just "we won't go so low as playing sports game yo, DMC and MGS2 now that's games for the true gamers!"
See also Resident Evil being the hottest new thing in the mid 90's, but by 2001 tank controls were "dated old stuff"
