Do you still enjoy new games?

[Valiance]

I'll start out with a little background, and then a relatively open-ended question...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spoiler: Are 2011 games for me?

I have been a gamer for a very long time. I have always had PCs to game on and several different consoles as well, and I enjoyed pretty much all of them, as they are platforms for great games. It doesn't make sense to me to dislike a platform, as a platform is only as good or bad as the games that come out on it. Don't get me wrong: Hardware can limit the games, but a well designed game can create entertainment (fun, creative, unique, compelling, curious entertainment) without technical prowess as it's main focus.

While I have always been predominantly a PC gamer, I have enjoyed many consoles, with many different experiences under my belt. I loved Shenmue, Metroid Prime, and Final Fantasy X (yes, I know) as much as I loved Crysis or Serious Sam.

However, as for personal experiences, many games that I knew and loved have never been rivaled or expanded upon, such as X-Com, Master of Orion II, Wing Commander 3, and Jagged Alliance 2.

With the recent advent of Duke Nukem Forever being basically "Duke Nukem: Combat Evolved" with linear levels, poor scripted events, unskippable cut-scenes, forgettable squad-mates, and of course, a two weapon limit, I am beginning to doubt if I am a modern gamer anymore.

I feel very confused, because the experiences that made me love gaming are no longer really there. There is the occasional niche title for a tactical turn-based RPG lover like King's Bounty, there are diamonds in the rough, there is the "Indie" scene, and there are enjoyable genre-blends. However, what bothers me is that companies and games I used to enjoy are being remade without the core mechanics or soul/feel that made them enjoyable to me.

I don't want to say "Yes, I grew up. I will never play new games as they will never be as good as Homeworld or Freespace 2." Unfortunately, sometimes I'm afraid that this is the case.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This all leads to the topic at hand. With all the changes in the styles/genre of games which are popular, big-budget story-based war shooters cannibalizing the market, the rise and fall of "music games," the boom in console sales and the huge amount of marketing invested into motion controls, I find it hard to still enjoy being a gamer.



Do you feel this way at times? That the gaming industry has passed you by? Do you resent when games you loved as a kid were "Re-imagined for a new generation" without anything that you liked about the original?

Spoiler: Some Examples

I feel Super Metroid was better than Other-M in countless respects, and I feel that the last new IP I really enjoyed was Mirror's Edge. I don't mind spiritual successors. I enjoyed Supreme Commander very much. I think Total Annihilation was more fun, but Supreme Commander's interface and economics system make me want to play it over the original game. I enjoyed Fallout 3 very much, but there's something, something missing, or something that feels not right about it. It could be the hand-holding main quest, or that the skill system, perk system, trait system (or lack thereof), and karma system were all revamped to be "streamlined" and not give players as much choice. Or, speaking from a purely subjective point of view, it just doesn't have the same "soul" or "feel" that Fallout 2 did.

System Shock 2 had more of what I wanted than Bioshock. Not to say Bioshock was a bad game, because it's not. I loved the setting, I loved the theme, the presentation was fantastic, it's just, it's not System Shock. It's a linear shooter with lazy level design, clunky combat, but it's all forgiven because you can shoot bees out of your arm (a reasonable weight in the pro/con debate. I'll concede that System Shock 2 didn't have that.)

Deus Ex 3 will probably be not what I want. Supreme Commander 2 and Front Mission: Evolved were not what I want, and while I want to like Square, it's hard to, it's very hard to.

Front Mission Evolved could have been a fantastic Mechwarrior sequel, but it had about half of the customization of Mechwarrior 4, and about one-fifth of the customization of Mechwarrior 3 and 2.

The most frustrating part is that the old games that I like more are far from perfect. The games I enjoyed and loved are not about nostalgia. Nostalgia is there, and it might be a factor, but it's not the big picture. There has been, to this date, no game that replicates the X-Com experience. Xenonauts [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenonauts] looks like it's going to be an updated X-Com, and that's nice, I guess, but the theme and setting of the game are quite a bit different (Not necessarily a bad thing, just saying...)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I miss games with strategy, depth, creativity, cunning solutions.

For example, Heroes of Might and Magic was a great turn-based strategy game series that peaked around 3 or 4. Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic was a different game, but played more lie HoMaM than Master of Magic, which is really a spiritual successor of. Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes is an interesting use of the HoMaM license, but Dark Messiah [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Messiah_of_Might_and_Magic] might as well not have even had that title strapped on it. Same thing with, say, Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance. Again, a fine game, just nothing remotely like Baldur's Gate.

Spoiler: Allow me to take a quick look at the FPS genre...

Compare the older Rainbow Six games to Vegas 2. Compare Unreal Tournament with UT3, especially the storyline. Today, when I say I want to play a fast-paced shooter, people think I'm talking about Halo. Perhaps it is a fast-paced game compared to CoD, but when I say fast-paced, I mean UT/Q3A/Warsow fast. I also miss shooters that gave your character a personality (Duke 3D, Blood, Shadow Warrior), or had unique environments, inventory systems, and weaponry (Hexen, Heretic, Witchaven). Duke Nukem Forever is a terribly different game than Duke 3D. I do like most of what Duke says, but I really hate most of what the EDF says. I didn't want to play playing Gears of Duke or Nukemstorm or Duke Nukem: Combat Evolved, but that's what the game is...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am also going to put a disclaimer here, because I'm sure in my ranting and raving that I might have sounded like a "PC elitist" or something.

DISCLAIMER: I am not saying things were "dumbed down for the consoles." I have had many, many incredible cognitive experiences on consoles, and some of my favorite games that had some of the most awesome moments were on consoles. Sometimes they were linear, sometimes they really weren't. What frustrates me is that gaming as a whole, on all platforms, has lost the creative edge, the "thinking man's pastime" and has become more of a social/broski/pwnin' noobs sort of hobby. I see very little in the direction of progress or evolution, and I feel that the medium has regressed in many respects.

I personally do not enjoy games that hold your hand. That does not mean that linear games are not inherently bad. Technically, most games are linear, or at least have a set goal and the end result will be the same for all players.

I just think that people should have a choice of how they get there. Many people enjoyed open-ended games like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Civilization, The Sims, and many others also enjoyed linear story experiences like Halo (everyone will have to take the same path through the Library, say...)

Anyway, other than the occasional indie title or remake of a game that I enjoyed a decade ago (Except now I can buy it on Steam/XBLA/PSN/WiiWare, oh the joy of buying the same thing 5 times in 5 different places), there is little for me to look forward to.

I can hope that these new remakes and sequels will be good, but I feel that they will try to ride the nostalgia memories and attempt to capture a different audience than the original game. Considering the sales figures these days, I can't blame them. I just feel very sad when even when I enjoy newer games, they don't quite give me the same kind of enjoyment as older ones.

Most likely, those of you who relate to me are older PC gamers, but I'm sure even people newer to the hobby who have only played on other platforms have the same issue (Halo 2 being more entertaining than Reach or ODST, CoD 4 being better than MW2 and Blops, Dragon Age/DA 2, etc.)

 

[octafish]

I feel your pain, I do, being an older PC Gamer does give you a despairing attitude when the type of games you liked are just not being developed any more. My absolute favorite genre is the squad level turn based stategy, because, to me anyway, it is a lot like chess.

<-------See, Grunty, I know where you are coming from.

There are the occasional mainstream games that I do find enjoyable, Alpha Protocol, The Witcher, but by and large the mainstream games don't hold much interest. That's OK I don't have a lot of time for gaming with work and family. So I spend my time with those few games I like and really interesting mods and indies.

I replay a lot of older games, and Minecraft, I play a lot of Minecraft with mates.

 

[MrGameluvr92]

I'm right there with you man. It seems like developers today focus more on trying to make a game look fancy instead of trying to make it fun.

 

[Gustof26]

I love some of the indie stuff, Amnesia: The Dark Descent isn't exactly new but it did it for me. Many of the AAA titles are slipping off, of course some indie project will succeed, become an AAA titles that, ect, ect, ect.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Do you feel this way at times? That the gaming industry has passed you by? Do you resent when games you loved as a kid were "Re-imagined for a new generation" without anything that you liked about the original?

No, not really. I have always been able to enjoy games from pretty much any era, from recent stuff like Mass Effect 2, all the way back to some really old stuff like Maniac Mansion (yes, I do have a copy of Maniac Mansion on a floppy disc). I can be playing Fallout 3 one minute, Eartbound the next, and AoE II after that. Of course, I am also 18, got my first console when I was 10, and the earliest game I remember playing was the jewel case version of Myst, so it might be different for you than for me. But, honestly, I do not really understand that mentality.

 

[Fightgarr]

I don't necessarily find that I specifically enjoy new games less, but I find more and more than I am no longer attracted to what is common within the AAA games industry. Shooters have become unattractive, to me; not in an aesthetic sense (though I do think there is a lot of bad art direction going on in the shooter business), but rather in the sense that I'm not interested in that kind of gameplay. Similarly, RPGs have stopped attracting me like they used to. Heavy hitters like Dragon Age no longer appeal to me, especially fantasy which attempts to market itself as "dark fantasy". I'm a concept artist/illustrator and an art student, and it's disheartening to see such a lack of originality in the designs and environments of AAA games. It's gotten to the point where games that used to be favorites of mine, like Mass Effect, are losing appeal to smaller, more creative titles.

That said there are "new" games that I still have great interest in, but more an more I find that what I'm interested in is the niche market. I find myself looking forward to Catherine because it seems absurd, and that's something I can appreciate. I still experience a good deal of excitement for games like The Last Guardian because Team ICO has such a history of rich, yet sparing storytelling, and superb art direction, gameplay aside. Not to get all douche-y but I'm enjoying it more, now, when a game forces me to think. Good puzzle design has begun to prevail, for me, over streamlined combat and controls. And creativity of subject matter, setting and designs have become key in piquing my interest in upcoming titles. So yes to answer the overarching question, yes, I still enjoy new games, I just have to look a little harder to find the ones I'm interested in.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I admit so far in 2011 has been a somewhat crap year so far for games but it has also been a shitty year for movies too so perhaps the entertainment as a whole is just having a crap year I can recall other crap years so I figure we are just hitting a lull and things will improve

 

[Camaranth]

I think it's more that as you play more games you become familiar with the style and set pieces and as a result you start to be able to predict stories, events, mechanics etc and as a result find them just dull. But every once in a while something new comes out which does things just a little different, or re-tells a familiar story in a really good way.

Let me try to illustrate that a little, say you have watched a lot of detective/forensic/cop shows, from Sherlock Holmes and Poirot to CSI. By the very definition of being a detective/forensic/cop show anything new in the genre will have similar ideas and themes, and so, for you at least, it's simple to see the patterns and guess what the dramatic twist is and who dunnit. And so finding something that sparks that same enjoyment as the first time you solved the case before the main character did becomes much more difficult.

So to answer your question; yes I still enjoy new games, especially when I find one that is just a little bit different because at times it feels like we're solving the same crime over again.

Apologies for hanging, drawing, and quartering the cop show metaphor.

 

[ZeroMachine]

Not in the slightest. EDIT: As in "I don't feel that way". Just realized the mix up with the thread title. I totally do enjoy new games.

I get a new game to get excited for every year, and every year I get a new game that I love. Usually more than one.

From what I've seen, though, I'm quite a bit more open minded than most people on here (not in a bad way, just in a "I enjoy more games" way). I'm a game slut.

 

[grumbel]

Kind of feel the same, one of the most annoying issues with gaming for me isn't just that some experiences are gone or extremely niche, but that I imagined gaming to evolve a lot further then it really has.

For example 15 years ago Virtual Reality was a big thing, there where VR helmets on the consumer market and games that actually supported them, not many sure, but regular mainstream stuff such as Descent 2. Now 15 years later, the coolest new thing on the market are shutter glasses, something that not only is not new, but also quite a few steps back from the full VR helmets. Which is kind of depressing especially given that we now have the motion sensing and graphics to actually make VR good.

There are of course also many gameplay things, in the flight simulation EF2000 you had a fully simulated war, whenever you flew a mission, you wouldn't just fly your single isolated mission, but the whole full war was going on at the same time. Other crews would fly their completely unrelated missions, the airfields where busy and the whole world felt completly alive. I would have expected more games to build on that concept and while a few other flight simulations did, it pretty much got ignored by mainstream gaming. Instead game worlds getting more dynamic and interactive everything is now linear and scripted. Even most of the open world games don't try to actually simulate a dynamic world, instead the open world is just the location where the pre-scripted missions take place and the world gets reset each mission.

Another thing that drives me nuts is the flood of remakes and tributes. I don't mind that ChronoTriggerS, Mario64DS, Zelda:3DS and all the other remakes exist, but seriously, those games should be nice little additions to the games library, not the best games on the system and especially not launch title stuff. I want new games that are as good or better then those, not the same old stuff. Same with NewSuperMarioBros, while it is a fully new game, it still feels like a step backwards compared to Yoshi's Island, SMB3 or SuperMarioWorld. I want games that don't just ride the nostalgia train, but simply new exciting stuff. Even Super Mario 3DS looks to be the exact same nostalgia train thing yet again. The raccoon suit was cool, but not because it was a raccoon suit, but because it was a wacky crazy idea that had substantial impact on the gameplay.

I could go on for a while longer, be it the death of FMV, the still unfulfilled promise of motion gaming, lack of games with humor or that games seem to be stuck in the "male power fantasy" now more then ever. Not all of those issues are of course quite as bad as they first seem, sometimes genres that are dead on consoles, still have a few titles on the PC done outside the mainstream, but they still irk me now and then.

All that said, there is of course always the shimmer of hope, it just doesn't come along as often as I would like. Shadow of the Colossus for example was amazing in a lot of ways and showed that games could be more then the regular shlock and the first Mass Effect was a fantastic take on a sci-fi action-RPG, kind of like Wing Commander transfered to a third person shooter. On the other side it of course hurts seeing those games then either be ignored by other developers or brought closer to the regular shlock (ME2 removing Mako, making everything less tactic shooter and more regular third person shooter, etc.).

Those details aside, the overall issue with games these days is simply that they no longer excite me like they used to. There used to always be something new, something fresh you haven't seen before, this year especially it all felt very iterative, same old stuff just with a bit more polish, its still fun, but the excitement is gone.

 

[Kahunaburger]

I think Deus Ex 3 might pleasantly surprise you - the leaked early build is getting rave reviews from basically everyone. Other recent games I've enjoyed include Minecraft, Portal 2, and Witcher 2. I'd easily put any of those four games (assuming Deus Ex 3 is as good as people say it is) in the future classic category.

 

[Dan From Aus]

There are a lot of games both PC and Console that I enjoy. This year I'm already happy with many of my purchases. But the difference is that time does breed reverence for what has come before. And if I was too look at my all time games, they are all older games. Given time I'm sure a few of the new crop will make it's way into my those titles I look back fondly on.

 

[infohippie]

I think it's just a question of being more selective with games. Most of the big AAA titles are completely uninteresting to me, and it's been that way for a long time - particularly since I don't like shooters. However, there seem to be more great indie games around than ever before, and I'm hearing about them more easily through things like Steam, and the Escapist. There are also a few AAA titles here and there that are still fantastic game experiences, like The Witcher 2 and Portal 2. I'm also really looking forward to Skyrim. To maintain my interest in games I just have to pay a little more attention to the gaming press and blogs to get a wider view of what's available.

 

[Mr Thin]

No, but I know exactly what you mean.

Certainly the magic is gone; but I attribute that mostly to me not being a child anymore. The magic is gone from everything, games are just the thing I care most about.

I know I will never again experience the pure joy I felt when my dad lifted me up onto his chair so I could play Wolfenstein 3D for the first time, when I was 5; I will never stare in awe of a console the way I did when I saw the Xbox in action for the first time.

I will never be amazed at the sheer variety of a game like I was when I first tried WH40K: Dawn of War.

But I still love new games, even though none of them bring me that old feeling.

 

[ultrachicken]

I just spent over ten hours straight playing inFAMOUS 2 two days ago. So, yes, I do still enjoy new games.

 

[Zhukov]

Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how much fun I'm having with Mass Effect 2 and Bulletstorm.

Also, my copy of Alice just arrived and I had to make a concerted effort to not do the happy dance.

So yes, I enjoy new games.

 

[Valiance]

Wow. Some great replies here. I think I'll respond to all of them. Just skip down to your name if you don't want to look through the wall of text...

@octafish: I too love squad level turn based strategy games. The last good ones I played were Silent Storm and Fallout Tactics...I never played Alpha Protocol or The Witcher but both did look semi-interesting to me. I guess at the time I didn't justify the price, or something.

@MrGameluvr92: It's true, honestly. I can't blame them, considering they have IPs that can be exploited every year for millions of dollars (or billions, in Call of Duty's case), but big developers don't get to take big risks due to how publishing works these days. Like I said, there's the indie scene, but that shouldn't be the only thing I care about.

@Gustof26: Yeah, I recently actually got a chance to play Amnesia for a few hours. I doubt I would have tried it if I wasn't being coaxed into doing so. Definitely wouldn't have paid for it. Anyway, the presentation is nice, the environments are good, the sound design is fantastic, but once I realized how linear the game is and how everything is scripted or on a patrol, it started to cheapen it. However, I must say that the atmosphere is really well done and I'm enjoying it. It'd be nice to see a major dev put something like this together, though.

@BreakfastMan: It's kinda tough to explain. It just feels like most of the new things coming out aren't for me at all, and most of my friends don't even really play anything other than WoW or CoD, so I already feel like the odd one out for even giving a damn about RTS games, puzzle games, platformers, etc.

@Fightgarr: Yeah, I shouldn't have used the word "new." I guess I meant AAA titles or games with modern design. I too enjoy those kinds of games, and Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were both fantastic.

@Camaranth: No apologies are necessary. This is quite an interesting metaphor you used, and it might certainly be the case. I'll have to think about it, because you make a good point. Pretty much every new game coming out gets mentally associated in my mind to something else, like "Oh, it's this game but with this aspect from that game" or "It's another ________" when it might be the first ________ that someone else is playing, ever.

@ZeroMachine: I'm glad you can do that. I unfortunately end up looking at new RTS games and just wanting to play AoE II again.

@grumbel: I too expected better by 2011. Such little innovation and improvement other than what most call "gimmicky motion controls." Personally I am slightly impressed by the Wii, Move and the "idea" of the Kinect, but like you said, these things existed years ago, or if they didn't, they should have. I remember a lot of games that had joystick support and VR headset support, and I always wanted one for Mechwarrior 2 and Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri. That EF2000 concept sounds fantastic. What you sad about game worlds becoming more linear and scripted is what brought me to feeling this way in the first place. The remakes? Like you said - lack of innovation, lack of improvement. I ESPECIALLY agree with what you said about the nostalgia train stuff. Take DNF, I keep going back to this example, but, yes, I liked the Shrink Ray and the Freeze Ray because I hadn't used them in games before. To bring them back is nice, but it's been 15 years since Duke 3D came out in 1996...Why haven't they created new weaponry or items that are memorable? Same with Unreal Tournament...UT2K4 and UT3 really just rehashed the arsenal from the first game with some minor changes. Starcraft II might as well be "Starcraft with the interface ideas that you liked from Total Annihilation in 1997." I loved FMV in some games, but I'll admit it was corny/cheesy in others...But it was fantastic in Wing Commander III, and I'd like to have that kind of experience again too. Male power fantasies will be a problem for a long time, because males 18-24 tend to make up most of the market buying them. It's unfortunate, but I can just ignore and not purchase the games I don't want to play. Iterative is another good word to use, especially with the whole lineup for the 3DS and how I can pull out my Best Buy sales paper and everything is a 3rd sequel. Games no longer excite me either due to that lack of freshness as well.

@Kahunaburger: I certainly hope Deus Ex 3 pleasantly surprises me. It comes out one day before my birthday, so it would be perfect.

@Daniel Hobson: I like when new games end up being games I enjoy and play for a long time. I put 400+ hours into Fallout 3, and I really liked it, I put plenty of hours into TF2, but it's just not the same kind of feeling as older shooters I played.

@lithium.jelly: To be honest, I forgot that Portal 2 came out with how busy I've been with work. A few of my friends nagged me to play it for about a week, but they finished it in a few days and now pretty much don't care about it. I do intend on buying it and going through the co-op with one of them. Thanks for reminding me. I also feel that even though it's a AAA title, Portal is very much it's own style of puzzle game.

@Mr Thin: Touching, considering that was about the age that I first played Wolfenstein 3D with my father. You're probably right. Nothing really excites me like that anymore. I remember when my sister's old boyfriend brought over this "cool new game" (Rise of the Triad) on like, 20 floppy disks or something all banded together. It was hilarious. We got it going over a null modem and ended up playing it all night. That doesn't happen anymore. I mean, one of my closer friends and I do pull out DOSBox and emulate an IPX LAN over TCP/IP, and then use Hamachi to emulate a TCP/IP LAN, and then play Warcraft (the first one) over the internet as a joke, but that's about it.

@Sgt. Sykes: MDK2 is one of my favorites too. It's depressing because most games these days just have tacked on 4-6 hour single-player campaigns that might as well not even be there considering how derivative and samey they're made these days. I'm surprised developers haven't started charging separately for multi-player and single-player. It might be good for the consumer, but it's tough to say. I also feel bad because I love FPS games, and there just haven't been many I gave a shit about the past several years. The new Painkillers are...Arguably worse than the first one. Serious Sam HD is cute, but it's not like Serious Sam looked that bad to me... I don't know. So many looked cool and then totally failed to interest me, like Singularity and Haze, or were here today, gone tomorrow, like Shattered Horizon. The last FPS with decently balanced multiplayer I played was Quake Live, and that's basically just Quake 3 Arena except it runs in a web-browser.

@ultrachicken: I just spent over ten hours straight playing inFAMOUS 2 two days ago. So, yes, I do still enjoy new games. That's really sweet, I forgot about infamous 2. Friends of mine loved the first one, and I tried it for a bit at their house. Felt like GTA III with lightning powers. I'm sure the story has more depth to it but I was pretty much dicking around in the sandbox (you know how it is when you're playing a game at someone else's house) Shows you how out of touch I was.

@Zhukov: I hope your Alice is as awesome as the one I played in 2000! Glad to hear you're looking forward to it.

 

[Veylon]

I know this feeling quite well. Turn-based strategy is all but dead. The exploration and imagination that went into RPGs has melted away. Cut scenes have weaseled their way from being rare treats to dominating games. Paragraph after paragraph of dialogue spews forth with nary a thought of the player.

I feel that the worst thing that has happened to gaming is the cramping. Final Fantasy went from four party members wandering the world in VI to three in a hallway in XIII. In the original X-COM you could land a dozen guys and a tank in a randomly generated battlefield with customized load-out, but now it's three guys in a series of scripted fights. Few games have even attempted the dozens of star systems like Elite or Starflight or Star Control 2 had. There's a real lack of expansiveness that alarms me.

Still, some good games have come out. The indie scene is thriving like crazy. Minecraft has shown that the gaming world doesn't hate color and creativity and, given a chance, will even embrace it. Other games, like Terraria, show that platforming ain't dead yet. Red Faction allowed a great deal of freedom to wander the world. There's a lot of innovating yet to be done and even more synergy to be made.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Do you feel this way at times? That the gaming industry has passed you by? Do you resent when games you loved as a kid were "Re-imagined for a new generation" without anything that you liked about the original?

Never. Not even once.

I do my best to keep up with the new releases as money allows, but I love the trend of rereleases, ports and remakes I'm seeing. It's high time, you know? We HAVE "classics" in our medium that deserve preservation in some way, whether by way of straight digital ports that are free from the shackles of old consoles or through remakes that fulfill the author's vision now that the old limitations are no more.

Imagine if classic novels stopped being reprinted, or if classic music albums stopped being remastered. As long as the original versions are out there for you to find should you want them, bring on the remakes and rereleases. I'm sick of hooking up old ass systems. I barely have room for four as is.

The motto, as always is for me, is "As long as it plays well."

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

There are aspects of the gaming industry that have "passed me by". Multiplayer gaming, especially. I've never really been into it, and now that I'm all growed up, I don't have the time to devote to games to become really good like so many kids do, so that when I do try out the occasional multiplayer, I get completely obliterated. I played Black Ops almost to level 50, and I'm still about as bad now as when I started.

On the other hand, many of the games I loved as a kid are still going strong now. The Super Mario Galaxy games (and even New Super Mario Bros Wii) are incredible. Most of the Zelda games were excellent. Metroid Prime is a lot of fun and feels faithful to the original (not so much Other M though).

So I can't really think of a game I loved as a kid that was "re-imagined" to the point of being unrecognizable. Certainly FFXIII doesn't keep me entertained like the original FF did, but on the other hand FFXII is one of my favorite games of all time.