Since it is now officially 2015, I decided to read back through some older comics from Penny Arcade, the only webcomic aside from Megatokyo that I've consistently read since 2000 or before. It occurred to me about 1/3 of the way through the archives that there are a ton of games I loved that just disappeared from memory over time.
Here's a few that I've been reminded of:
Another thing to note: Demos. I don't think I've played a demo of anything in the last 7 years or more. The last time I cared about a demo was around the time Unreal Tournament 2004 came about. It was one of the only games on PC I had at that point (my old PC was stolen along with a huge collection of games), and my brothers and I would take turns playing on the only demo map, no internet and no LAN, just making a game out of the engine itself since there were no bots. Still these days, does anyone really play demos still? It used to be a huge deal at one point, a bad demo could tank a game (in my view) whereas a great demo could sell a game (sometimes to a huge disappointment later). It just seems so weird that I hardly, if ever, hear about demos anymore.
Speaking of demos, anyone remember when PC Gamer was a magazine worth buying just for those awesome demo discs? The extra content on them was sweet too, like DOOM wads to play with... I remember one of them had a great Alien mod. That stuff was so much fun to sift through.
So anyway, what gaming memories can you drudge up? Things you may not have thought about in a long time?
Here's a few that I've been reminded of:
When this game was released in 1999, I was all up in that. It had a bit of controversy surrounding it due to the Columbine event happening shortly before the release and wasn't easy to find in stores. Still I was able to get it and play it and loved it for the way it handled the familiar Quake 2 engine. I don't remember a whole lot of the game without some visual aids due to the fog of memory (and perhaps alcohol binges) but just reading the name sparked an interest in looking back at it. It probably won't hold up well today and would be seen as fairly juvenile, but I loved the shit out of Quake 2 and anything using that engine made me happy.
I wouldn't say I necessarily forgot about Tribes. It remains memorable for an interesting take on team combat and deathmatch gameplay. However I'd forgotten just how much the game ruled my time. I did some memory exercises and a flood of good times began to pour forth from some dammed up part of my mind. Holy shit did I ever play the hell out of some Tribes. This was during the LAN days of yore for me, and there were times where we had 2-3 full LAN games going at once. Man was I ever disappointed with the sequel, so much so that perhaps it scarred out the good times I had with the original. I think this game deserves to be up there with Unreal Tournament as one of the better team based games of all time. But that might be personal bias talking.
I don't know why I loved this game when I was younger, it really wasn't that great. It basically was a glorified Quake 2 mod, even if it had some interesting usage of the engine. Load times were horrendous, even for that period. The best things it had going for it was a semi-non-linear approach to completing levels, some insane levels of interactivity for a game of that period. I think what really screwed that game though was how many out-of-the-box bugs there were and the fact that downloading even a small patch was hell for a lot of people. The memory sparked here was "holy shit dial-up sucked."
Another thing to note: Demos. I don't think I've played a demo of anything in the last 7 years or more. The last time I cared about a demo was around the time Unreal Tournament 2004 came about. It was one of the only games on PC I had at that point (my old PC was stolen along with a huge collection of games), and my brothers and I would take turns playing on the only demo map, no internet and no LAN, just making a game out of the engine itself since there were no bots. Still these days, does anyone really play demos still? It used to be a huge deal at one point, a bad demo could tank a game (in my view) whereas a great demo could sell a game (sometimes to a huge disappointment later). It just seems so weird that I hardly, if ever, hear about demos anymore.
Speaking of demos, anyone remember when PC Gamer was a magazine worth buying just for those awesome demo discs? The extra content on them was sweet too, like DOOM wads to play with... I remember one of them had a great Alien mod. That stuff was so much fun to sift through.
So anyway, what gaming memories can you drudge up? Things you may not have thought about in a long time?
