I knew I'd be accused of nostalgia because people have the tendency to talk out of their ass without knowing the subject. While I do hold a degree of nostalgia, I am capable of seeing when a game ages very badly, and I also enjoy some modern games quite a lot. My opinion that games today are worse is based on a long history of playing games and seeing if the newcomers are a revolution, evolution or recycled material. Most of the stuff that comes today is either recycled crap or, worse, a terrible idea that someone thought would be good. For example, Divinity original sin is a good RPG to couch coop with friends and family, but the complete mash of ideas (zombies, necromancers, trolls, ogres, and much more, a children's recipe basically) makes it very frustrating; good execution gameplay wise, but atmosphere and immersion are kind of bad. Would write more but I'm on mobile.

On the other hand you have some excellent experiences available like Papers Please, Hotline Miami, KSP etc. So it isn't like games in the old days were better, rather you have more shittier stuff available today that is much better marketed.