I don't think they're more immersive across the board. There are many many old games that I didn't find particularly immersive (any shooter/action game really)

I don't think they're more immersive across the board. There are many many old games that I didn't find particularly immersive (any shooter/action game really) and plenty of recent games I found super immersive (some recent ones: The Last of Us, The Witcher 3, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Life is Strange). I think that as azeirah says, nostalgia is probably a big part of it. About two years ago, I played Final Fantasy 7 again for the first time in 10+ years. This was a game that 12/13 year-old me spent countless hours on and a game I considered to be one of the most immersive games I ever played. However, when I played it again, I found the game to be quite weak. The dialog is super super weak, the story is quite formulaic (although I obviously already knew the story so its hard to evaluate fairly), the gameplay wasn't amazing by modern standards etc etc. Its still a good game, but it showed me how much games have advanced, across the board (not just graphics) and I didn't find it at all immersive playing it again now. So, there were immersive games in the past and there are immersive games now, but how they immerse you has likely evolved over time too.