We've already seen great games as the Microsoft Xbox 360 hits two years while the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii reach their first birthdays. Gamers have enjoyed countless titles, especially those who grabbed consoles during launch, but how can we say if those games are next-gen? It wouldn't be fair to say games haven't improved since the last generation, but some arguably don't step up much aside from having better graphics.

Fanboys talk about specs of their machines or what their consoles can do, but what is there that separates new from old? Is it the surround sound audio? Online capabilities? Motion sensing controllers? With so many questions, we can at least be certain that game design plays a major role.

Adventure games, first-person shooters, platformers, role-playing games - name any genre, and it'll definitely be one that has been established years ago. Whether it's jumping around as an Italian plumber, journeying to save the world, or fighting off an alien invasion, we can be sure that we've done it before. That isn't to say 32-bit consoles back in the 90s could deliver what current technology can, but the gap is sometimes not phenomenal.