The games when he was young WERE cooler. Why is this such a difficult idea to understand? We are not at the pinnacle of art. 2014 is not the best year for everything ever.
If someone said Hollywood was better in the 70s than today, it would be a completely uncontroversial statement. Why is it so hard to accept that games may have been better at some point in the past?
Hollywood might have been better in the 70s (quite controversial statement to me, though), but movies had good and bad examples in the 70s as much as they have today. I'm a quite avid movie watcher in German, English and sometimes even Chinese. I can tell you there are loads of good movies, even today.
And there are awesome games today. I'm currently playing and enjoying Bard's Tail and McDroid. Before I played the new X-Com which I enjoyed a lot. And I've spent so many hours in Civ5 and Crusader Kings. While I enjoyed games 15 years ago with a passion I can't have today, I would never change playing the new games for the old ones. The graphics are better, the games are more complex, but better userinterfaces make them easier to handle.
If someone said Hollywood was better in the 70s than today, it would be a completely uncontroversial statement. Why is it so hard to accept that games may have been better at some point in the past?