Fifth To Sixth (1995-1999)
This trusty generation was started by Sega, as they tried to get ahead of the rest by launching their ill-fated Dreamcast in 1999. Sony and Nintendo joined in on the action with the PS2 and GameCube, but this generation also watched Microsoft enter the ring with its Xbox. All of the competitors chose disc based gaming this time around, with Nintendo opting for miniDVD's in an attempted to avoid piracy. Sony included DVD playback with the Playstation 2 at a time when DVD players were super expensive. The original Playstation was able to play CD's, but the inclusion of DVD playback meant that this was a lot more than just a gaming machine. An important development from Microsoft though, was its introduction of online gaming. Xbox live allowed gamers to connect to the internet to play against friends instead of sitting next to each other and playing split-screen. These were still the early days of the internet, when most people didn't have broadband. There were also the power and graphical leaps that you would expect from 3D gaming- now smoother with longer draw-distances and many more characters on the screen. GTA III set the benchmark for what could now be done in games, as developers Rockstar created a living breathing city for gamers to play with.