Do you value 'old' games?

[NyQuil]

No offense and I don't mean to sound like an elitist, but it's very easy to tell who had experience with "real" FPS games prior to BioShock, and who had only played mainstream matchmaking games like Halo or Counter-strike.

Speaking of overrated.

 

[Warden of the North]

I like the thought of old games more then I actually like old games. I cant count the number of games Ive re-bought due to nostalgia but have played abrely a handful of minutes in. I feel like in the past 5 years or so games have taken a significant step forward that makes it hard to go back. I used to be a firm believer that presentation didnt really matter as long as the gamplay/story was good, but the ready affordability of fantastic audio/video equipment has changed that. 15 years ago only the richest people could afford a 60" screen, now an average Joe can go to WalMart and walk out with a HDTV and stereo that really makes a gaming experience.

Advancements in game design have also played a part. I struggle to go back to even Fallout 3 or New Vegas after Fallout 4. The changes 4 made to the franchise, while from a distance may not look like much, are enough that I just cant go back. Thats just one example.

Im 32, Ive been gaming my whole life. Ive gone from the NES to where we are now owning at least one console in every generation and also PC gaming along the way.

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I like the thought of old games more then I actually like old games. I cant count the number of games Ive re-bought due to nostalgia but have played abrely a handful of minutes in. I feel like in the past 5 years or so games have taken a significant step forward that makes it hard to go back. I used to be a firm believer that presentation didnt really matter as long as the gamplay/story was good, but the ready affordability of fantastic audio/video equipment has changed that. 15 years ago only the richest people could afford a 60" screen, now an average Joe can go to WalMart and walk out with a HDTV and stereo that really makes a gaming experience.

Advancements in game design have also played a part. I struggle to go back to even Fallout 3 or New Vegas after Fallout 4. The changes 4 made to the franchise, while from a distance may not look like much, are enough that I just cant go back. Thats just one example.

Im 32, Ive been gaming my whole life. Ive gone from the NES to where we are now owning at least one console in every generation and also PC gaming along the way.

I struggle to play Fallout 4. At one point in the game I asked myself why I was continuing to play other than to level up my character and how I was having fun. I couldn't really come up with an answer for those so I uninstalled it and never played again.

 

[Warden of the North]

I struggle to play Fallout 4. At one point in the game I asked myself why I was continuing to play other than to level up my character and how I was having fun. I couldn't really come up with an answer for those so I uninstalled it and never played again.

Thats fine. I love it and have put hundreds of hours into it. I started a new playthrough again a couple weeks ago.

But my point isnt about Fallout 4s quality in whoevers opinion, its about how its made the games I previously loved almost unplayable for me due to the game mechanics changing.

Ill give one small example in the game that made me giddy the first time it happened. Jumping off a building in power armour with my surround sound cranked made my my actual house shake with bass. It was phenominal when it happened. The presentation of games has reached a level that not all that long ago was totally inaccessible to the average person and its changed gaming on a massive level IMO.

 

[X66]

The elephant in the room is that Non-Japanese games age terribly compared to Japanese games.

That's why Japan is #1 and the master race of gaming.

 

[NyQuil]

The elephant in the room is that Non-Japanese games age terribly compared to Japanese games.

That's why Japan is #1 and the master race of gaming.

Meh, every male protagonist is an emo teenager and every female protagonist is Sailor Moon.

 

[NyQuil]

Jumping off a building in power armour with my surround sound cranked made my my actual house shake with bass. It was phenominal when it happened. The presentation of games has reached a level that not all that long ago was totally inaccessible to the average person and its changed gaming on a massive level IMO.

How about jumping off the Prydwen?

 

[Commander Clueless]

I struggle to play Fallout 4. At one point in the game I asked myself why I was continuing to play other than to level up my character and how I was having fun. I couldn't really come up with an answer for those so I uninstalled it and never played again.

Isn't having fun sort of the point, though? If you were having fun, why would it matter?

The elephant in the room is that Non-Japanese games age terribly compared to Japanese games.

That's why Japan is #1 and the master race of gaming.

I mean, how well a game ages is a very small factor when it comes to quality of game in an ever advancing market.

I'm not really posing a counter-argument, I'm just thinking that it's an odd thing to be "the reason" that you consider Japanese games to be the best.

 

[X66]

Meh, every male protagonist is an emo teenager and every female protagonist is Sailor Moon.

Timeless.

 

[Gardner McKay]

I absolutely value old games.

Can I recreate the same experience from when I first played the game? No. I cannot. I can't be 10 years old playing FF7 again. I can't recreate the weekends where I was snowed in and had nothing to do so I spent multiple days playing FF8. I can't recreate the feelings I had the first time I finished Illusion of Gaia or Lufia 2. I can't recreate the one summer when I was in 6th or 7th grade where I spent most days at the pool and would come home and do nothing but play Star Ocean 2 until 3-4 am.

I can't recreate those moments. And you know what, that is okay. Just because I can't recreate those moments, it doesn't mean I can't recreate new ones with those same games or simply enjoy some of my favorite games all over again. Just because it isn't the same now as it was then, it doesn't mean that the games are no longer good or that I can't have fun with them.

I value old games the same way I value old movies or an old book. Just because I have already experienced it once, that doesn't mean I can't get enjoyment from the experience again.

 

[Shareefruck]

Isn't having fun sort of the point, though? If you were having fun, why would it matter?

I would say no, fun isn't what matters. Just because something is compulsively fun or gives you a cheap thrill, doesn't mean it's worth spending your time on it. There are tons of potentially addictive soul-eating things out there (games or otherwise) that are awful and potentially toxic to really get into. I feel really bad and gross when I spend too much time on things like that, personally (and it's the aspect of videogames that I dislike most).

 

[Whiplash27]

I tend to find that there's a certain point where when you go back and the graphics just feel too clunky because we're used to so much better. I can go back and play old 2D games and they're still fine. It's like watching an old Disney movie. Give me an 8 bit or 16 bit game and I can still play them just fine. Give me the early 3d games and it's just brutal. Really, I have a hard time touching any 3D pre-2005 and even then it's not the easiest. KoToR 1 takes me a good while to get used to. Even a game like the Witcher which came out in 2007 is rough to get used to at the beginning. Playable, but not the best (I know it was using dated technology at that point). Mass Effect 1 is another 2007 game that's a bit rough when you first start it up. I'd say about a decade back is about the limit of where games start looking too old for me that I have to really decide whether I want to invest the time into it.

 

[Shareefruck]

I'll go out on a limb and argue that in a decade, even ultra-realistic current generation games will likely feel more dated than some of the better 16 bit games to most people. Graphics have gotten to a point where it looks like many will hold up, but I feel like we're turning a blind eye to all kinds of glaring aesthetic problems with how awkward facial animations/character animations/lip syncing/voice acting still is, and how much game developers seem to bite off more than they can chew in that regard, the same way that we turned a blind eye to how ugly early 3D polygons looked. Most boundary-pushing games today are still not doing that great of a job of working within their limitations, and likely will not hold up that well for this reason, IMO.

Something like "Inside" is sure to hold up better aesthetically than something like "The Witcher 3".

 

[bambamcam4ever]

Isn't having fun sort of the point, though? If you were having fun, why would it matter?



I mean, how well a game ages is a very small factor when it comes to quality of game in an ever advancing market.

I'm not really posing a counter-argument, I'm just thinking that it's an odd thing to be "the reason" that you consider Japanese games to be the best.

I think I may have worded that wrong, I struggled to find how I was having fun as well.

And I enjoyed Fallout 3 and NV, so I'm not sure if it was fatigue of a game I'd seemingly played before, but I just didn't get the same "fun" from 4. I do think that Bethesda games become overrated in many people's minds due to how addictive they are designed to be (including my own- I couldn't stop playing Skyrim after I got it, but when you reflect on some of these games they quality doesn't seem quite as high).

 

[Nalens Oga]

I've been too lazy to soft-mod my Gamecube, it's like a $40 investment. But I do still occasionally play it and I still use PS3 instead of getting a PS4 which doesn't seem different enough not to mention I had a PS3 backlog. Maybe PS5?

 

[bambamcam4ever]

I mostly play Nintendo games so it's kind of hard to be a graphics snob.

But look at something like Metroid Prime, which came out for GameCube in 2003. Something with comparable graphics could be released as an eShop game for Switch today by some studio with a $500k budget. And really, the game looks fine. We've kind of reached the peak graphics threshold, and honestly we reached it a while ago. It's just a matter of cost and ease now.

Honestly, frame rate is a bigger deal to me than resolution. If it runs smooth I don't really care how many pixels they jam in there. Something like Breath of the Wild looks better to me than some grimdark hyper realistic dual-core engine bull**** that keeps getting pumped out by third parties.

And tbh, BioShock was very good but it got REALLY overhyped. It was kind of a more mainstream version of some serious mid-90's shooters like System Shock, Deus Ex, and Half-Life. A bit more challenging, atmospheric, cinematic, and a good old fashioned twist. In 2006 that was a big deal, because there was really nothing like that from mainstream big budget studios. And it was a very good game, I enjoyed it a lot. But I see these lists calling it a game that defined a decade, or the most influential game ever, or a top-5 games of all time, and I just have to shake my head. BioShock was a very cool shooter but it was hardly the first or best game to do what it did. No offense and I don't mean to sound like an elitist, but it's very easy to tell who had experience with "real" FPS games prior to BioShock, and who had only played mainstream matchmaking games like Halo or Counter-strike.

That game honestly still looks incredible due to the art design. And I agree about the graphics threshold- as long as the technology isn't hindering you from understanding the environment around your character and also doesn't look repulsive like 90% of N64 games, the additional sharpness or detailed textures doesn't usually add a whole lot to the experience.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I think I may have worded that wrong, I struggled to find how I was having fun as well.

And I enjoyed Fallout 3 and NV, so I'm not sure if it was fatigue of a game I'd seemingly played before, but I just didn't get the same "fun" from 4. I do think that Bethesda games become overrated in many people's minds due to how addictive they are designed to be (including my own- I couldn't stop playing Skyrim after I got it, but when you reflect on some of these games they quality doesn't seem quite as high).

Oh I see. I misunderstood.

That makes sense.