Games That Aged Horribly

[hazabaza1]

I'm gonna jump on the Deus Ex train, here. Played it for the first time a couple years ago, just thinking "How did people like this?!"
Thankfully Human Revolution was good.

 

[spacemutant IV]

Lots of uncalled for whining in this thread. I do not understand how one can dislike a game for using the Quake 3 engine, but whatever.

I recently tried playing the first Turok on the PC again. It's a FPS and IT DOESN'T HAVE A STRAFE. Now this is something that makes the game unplayable by todays standards.

 

[Shameless]

Ocarina of Time, sorry Ninty fans but this game was surpassed by many games that came before it .

 

[Silver Patriot]

Going to have to go with Goldeneye 007. The graphics don't bother me but that control system would be considered broken now. If not for the frankly ridiculous auto aim in that game I would have never hit anything.

Still, it is one of my favorite games. Even with the controls being what they are I still play it now and again.

 

[Arcadian Legend]

FO3...dated, REALLY? REALLY?!

Damn do I feel old now.

Um...IDK...

Maybe FF7/8?

FF7 was never terribly good, but it's aged even worse.
-The extended verse isn't helping.

FF8 is still a favorite of mine, but I've been having a hard time playing it as of late.
Maybe I've replayed it too much, or maybe my tastes have changed, but the game just feels like a chore to play anymore.

In-fact, MOST PS1 games don't seem to age very well for me.

VII has definite;y not aged well (still playable but that's probably due to nostalgia acting as a support to keep playing) though I think VIII and IX have aged surprisingly well.

Going to have to go with Goldeneye 007. The graphics don't bother me but that control system would be considered broken now. If not for the frankly ridiculous auto aim in that game I would have never hit anything.

Still, it is one of my favorite games. Even with the controls being what they are I still play it now and again.

Yeah the GoldenEye 64 control system feels really dodgy now. What about Perfect Dark? It got a remake of sorts on XBLA so that definitely helped it.

 

[splayfoot1]

In my opinion, there's a vast difference between bad graphics, and old graphics.

I still play and love FF7 and diablo 2, the graphics work, sure they are old, but they work.
A game I recently retried for nostalgia, and couldn't stand, is classic world of warcraft, so many changes I never noticed when they were implemented, but makes it near unplayable after playing cata.

Arcanum is another one, loved it back in the day, but just couldn't get into it when I tried it a few months ago, trying to figure out combat and casting was horrible, kept getting killed at the start

 

[White_Lama]

For me it has to be SimCity 3000. Loved it alot when I was a kid, got my hands on it a few days ago, and epic "meh"'s were had.

the first Halo, while it was amazing at the time no it is actually just painful to play (unless you are split-screening shit up, huge shame more games don't have that option)

I must say that in my opinion it is still the best in the series, and I still play the original game on the original disc at least once a year.

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

Tried replaying Max Payne in anticipation for MP3...

Shooters sure have come a long way.

Not enough walls to cover behind or autoaim for you? The graphics are a bit outdated, but the gameplay is still good, fun and fast and the John Woo in the time when he wasn't shit type of plot is still awesome.


Final Fantasy VII didn't age well... It was superstimated when as first released, but it was a good in it's own right, but now I almost unplayable.

Third-person shooters without precision aiming are just painful. I'm pretty sure Max payne 1 did have auto-aim, and that was about the only way it was playable on consoles. I know cover is a dirty word these days, but a shooter without that dynamic is basically a shooting gallery. The story is still good.

I'd didn't think that Max Payne had clunky controls when I first played it a year ago. The Bullet time counter balanced whatever aiming difficulties I had.

To be fair, I played it on Xbox, which was never a good platform for that game in the first place. I imagine on PC it's quite a bit more playable.

 

[Hemlet]

A lot of games from the N64 era haven't aged very well at ALL. I mean, I remember back when I was in the first grade and I had gotten an N64 for my birthday. Super Mario 64 was fucking MIND BLOWING back then, having started with the NES and skipped the SNES. It was beautiful and the controls were nice and tight and everything was wonderful. Now...well...

Spoiler: what the pic does not show is how long it took to angle the camera properly and make that supposedly simple jump onto the penguin's head

Jet Force Gemini actually has aged pretty well in the graphics department, in that it's still actually not too bad to look at considering it was also on the N64. The controls however...well...let's just say they were considered awkward when the game first came out.

Spoiler: control stick to move unless you're holding R to aim, then you use the C buttons to move, but if you do not hold R then the C buttons strafe, jump, and crouch or go prone. If you try to strafe while crouched or prone then you do a dodging roll. A and B cycle weapons. Double tap Up C to jump and then hover if you are the dog. Double tap Up C to jump and activate your jetpack and then hold DOwn C to maintain a steady hover with your jetpack once you obtain jetpacks. These controls are altered depending on the situation you find yourself in, be that piloting Floyd through one of his missions or driving a hover racer or swimming. It is worth noting that Floyd controls like a drunken, oil slicked whale.

Okay one more and I'm done, I promise. Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire, once again on the N64. Back when this came out it looked amazing, had a great variety of levels, and controlled reasonably well in each level. It also caused a serious amount of pants-wetting terror for any kid who happened to be persistent enough to make it to the sewer level of the game. Seriously, that was one hard, scary ass boss at the time. To say that this has not aged well would be a gross understatement. Credit where credit is due though, it's largely thanks to this game that most Star Wars games now have a Hoth level where you can wrap a tow cable around an AT-AT's legs.

Spoiler: One control stick to aim and move, and a main character who controls about as fluidly as a Wampa doped out on morphine. Fuck yeah.

 

[Darknacht]

Tennis for Two has aged very poorly also Senet, yeah its not bad for a game that is over 5000 years old but it still does not hold up against modern games.

Basically every 3d game made in the 90s, 3d was sooooo bad in the 90s.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

Dune II and Warcraft: Orcs and Humans
They're both still a lot of fun, but the controls are abysmal compared to today's standards.

 

[mental_looney]

Orginal the sims compared to the additions in 2/3 that add more interactions and progression/aging options it's just boring living on forever and kids never growing up.

 

[Casual Shinji]

The Jak & Daxter trilogy.

The graphics and all that is still fine, but the controls are fucking ghastly to point of unplayable.

 

[SFMB]

Black Ops looks horrible! Just installed it and almost puked. And the controls are clunky, too.

 

[Master-Jedi]

I get why everyone says Deus Ex, but I think the mechanics still work quite well. I can look past graphics that are dated as long as they don't hinder the gameplay. If the mecanics are bad,however, I just can't get into the game. Like the original Legend of Zelda, not having a map and having link only stab with his sword make it really hard for me.

 

[chimeracreator]

I'm still a fan of the original Deus Ex. The graphics may look terrible, but the game play holds up as pretty solid. Also to anyone knocking turn based games from the 90s... X-COM. The controls are utter garbage (which certainly hurts enjoyment) but egads... that game still scares me.

 

[edgecult]

I get why everyone says Deus Ex, but I think the mechanics still work quite well. I can look past graphics that are dated as long as they don't hinder the gameplay. If the mecanics are bad,however, I just can't get into the game. Like the original Legend of Zelda, not having a map and having link only stab with his sword make it really hard for me.

The deus ex graphic thing catches me every time I sit to play it >.> I do the same thing with FF7.. I remember them quite well when they were new and me and my brother being like awesome 3d graphics -insert obligitory vomit rainbow pic- now I got back to replay once or twice a year between new games( and finally finish ff7 >.> someday...) and I just eye twitch when the game loads up.. in my memories I seem to have replaced those images from the game back when they were new with fake super rereleases with photorealistic graphics.. so to have.... that come on the screen tends to BSOD my brain for a few minutes and makes it hard to keep playing on.. someday I'll be able to sit and do it.. and finally finish ff7.. (and several other good rpgs i'm still sitting on >.>)

 

[imagremlin]

I have a very high tolerance for old graphics and controls. I can play PSOne games despite blocky blocky graphics and non analog controls.The graphic/control shock goes away after a little while for me (that applies to the newest and shiniest too)

Case in point, I'm currently having a blast with a recently acquired (for dirt cheap) copy of House of the Dead 2 & 3 on the Wii. And I revisit old games from time to time.

In short, it takes a lot for me to stop playing a game that was reasonably good in its time.

I can only think of one case, where the graphics and gameplay made me stop playing and that would be... the first Splinter Cell.

 

[MammothBlade]

DOOM, I just can't get past what is a completely awkward interface + mechanics for a first person shooter and textures and animations which don't excite or stimulate me in the slightest. Then again, I never played it when I was younger, so I don't have the sort of nostalgia that some hold.

Contrast that with Deus Ex, which I really enjoyed and immersed myself in despite a complete lack of nostalgia. It's all in the details, I think. Very linear, simple games don't age as well as those with more depth and freedom.

im really curious. what did you think was awkward about the interface and mechanics?

i replayed deus ex a couple of months ago. we may be in the minority but its still just as good as i remembered.

i agree with you about the open world vs linear in terms of aging

i tried to play neverwinter nights the other week thats going to take some effort to get into again

Well, the scenery textures now look like cardboard painted grey and you can only aim in a horizontal 360 degree arc. My first shooter was 007: Nightfire (PS2 was my first console), and Goldeneye 64 doesn't look too bad either. It set a basic standard for FPS that was evident in Nightfire. Free aim, an aiming arc in all directions, and relatively decent animations. Heck, I played 007 NF multiplayer a few days ago. It aged very well.


Deus Ex is just a step up from that.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

A whole lot of games from the PSX/N64 era; right when 2D game franchises were releasing games in 3D for the first time. Like these:

Spoiler: 6 images of varying size representing games which we've seen in 2D now in glorious 3D on the PSX and/or N64

Castlevania 64

Super Mario 64

Mortal Kombat 4

Spider-Man

Final Fantasy VII

Megaman Legend

Spoiler: And here's some games from the PSX/N64 era that were new at the time!

Resident Evil

Fighting Force

Nightmare Creatures

Goldeneye

Super Smash Bros

They may be ugly but I would play the hell out of all of those. In the case of Final Fantasy VII I've been telling myself I'd get back to my campaign for nearly a month now. I need to get back into Super Mario 64 too but other than those 2 I don't even own the other games listed in the spoilers. Just for clarification: while I consider those games to have aged horribly there are games on older consoles that I think look beautiful to this day such as Link to the Past, Super Mario Brothers 3, Final Fantasy III (VI on the Japanese Super Famicom), Super Metroid and, others. They're still a ton of fun too (my opinion)!

[sub][sub][sub]Fallout 3 looks dated; oh these kids today...[/sub][/sub][/sub]