Great games that have aged horribly?

[Squilookle]

I'm just going to state the obvious here: GoldenEye 007 was a great game, when it came out.

But holy fucking shit, is it a horrible game now.

I don't think Goldeneye was even great at the time. It was barely a shooter considering the entire game aimed for you.

Don't misunderstand, like anyone, Goldeneye has a very special place in my heart for its objective-based missions that intended to emulate what being Bond is like, and it's multiplayer fun, but it was severely limited by the platform it was on. I feel the same about Perfect Dark really.

Even one of my favorite games of all time, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is guilty of the obscene amounts of auto aim because of the platform. Replaying the PC remaster with auto-aim turned off has made the game feel much more involved than before. Like I'm actually playing something rather than relying on a crutch to get the game playable on a certain console.

Thank god for dual analog sticks later on, or I think console FPS games would have just been held back forever.

Yeah... no. Auto aim could be turned off at any time, and the hardest difficulty switched it off completely if I remember it right. This made it harder, sure. But the controls themselves were still rock solid.

It even allowed for controller configurations that used two controllers at once, delivering your beloved dual analog stick option before it even officially existed. Nobody opted for it though, because the C buttons -were- the second joystick, and they worked just fine, strafing, leaning and all.

Yeah...no, I'm not using two controllers by myself for one game. No one used it because it's absurd. And yeah, the C-buttons worked fine enough for movement, ala Turok style, but the N64 controller was not suited to precise aiming. That analog stick is garbage, as much as I love and still play the system. It's the first 3D console I grew up on. Goldeneye was a okay shooter at the time, but I don't think it was a great shooter at the time.

To each their own I guess. For me it's as great now as it was then- not just for pioneering zoomable scopes, location based damage in an FPS and nonlinear open levels (sharing that one with Turok, let's be fair), but also for it's pixel perfect hit detection (which even modern games often bafflingly struggle with), different objectives per difficulty levels (again, games since never learned how much that does for actually bringing players back) and having stealth and objectives in the first place. Even PC shooters hadn't really worked that out yet. This game and Dark Forces dragged FPSes kicking and screaming out of the dark ages of 'kill everyone, find the key' and forced them to *think* their way through.

The stick wasn't nearly as good as the gamecube/ps2 onwards sticks, true, but I've looked after mine and they still handle fine.

None of them. If it "aged horribly," it wasn't great to begin with. Games don't "age."

I'm probably not even gonna reply to any opponents, because I don't feel like having this argument again. You're wrong.

I concur. PONG RULES!!!

...

Unfortunately Pong is pretty much the only game that will truly ever stand up to the test of time over the years, decades and (hopefully) centuries to come.

It's beauty is its simplicity.

What, no love for Tetris? That game doesn't even need to calculate trajectory!

 

[BrawlMan]

Most 3D games from the 5th generation of consoles.

RE 4 - Yet it stands tall against most of the COD 4 wannabes and it' sequels. HVGN said it best: the game is a certified classic, but it should not be.

<spoiler=Resident Evil 4 | Re:Certified Classic>
DMC1 - The game is still fun, but a bit limited in what you can do. Also, it is the best Devil May Cry game with the best atmosphere and enemy design. Ohs and Speaking of stylish action games...

Most stylish spectacle fighter action games (predating God of War). A lot of them had so much padding in their respective games. Though God of War clones suffered from the same issues.

Streets of Rage 1 - Yeah, the gameplay is really limited. The best thing going for it is the soundtrack and co-op. For those that don't know, Final Fight 1 on SNES lacked co-op and had a missing level. It's a great thing SOR 2 improved on ecerything and then some; nearly surpassing every 2D beat'em up at the time.

The Bouncer - Okay, not exactly great, but it did get some praise. The wondrous thing about the Bouncer now is the soundtrack and graphics. Everything else is not good at all.

 

[kilenem]

Every PS1 and N64 game that uses polygons. Ill be damned if that becomes a design aesthetic as popular as 8 bit and 16bit

 

[gsilver]

Every PS1 and N64 game that uses polygons. Ill be damned if that becomes a design aesthetic as popular as 8 bit and 16bit

Haha.

People are trying.
I saw one of Nitrorad's videos on Youtube where he was looking at a horror game that was trying to re-create PS1 jank in its graphics.

Whyyyyyy???

 

[FalloutJack]

Any great game that you actually think that highly of shouldn't age horribly, unless you have some ridiculously high standards, anyway. I'm not against random encounters. I'm for DOMINATING their asses. Look upon my works, ye mighty, in despair, for I can flick you away with nar'ly an effort...until the next section. THEN, the fun begins again...

 

[gsilver]

Really, the games that tend to age the worst are the ones that are the most innovative, whether that's in graphics, UI, mechanics, etc. Games that come after those are the ones that refine those elements, cut out what doesn't work, pull from other games, and polish the rest.

Like, I have to admit that the original X-Com and System Shock games have both aged horribly, but they're also and still are fantastic games that are still fun to play in 2017. XCOM (the new one) in many ways is a huge step down in terms of depth and mechanics from the original, but is vastly more palatable in the modern age due to the improvements made in the UI and presentation. They both have a lot to offer, but much was both gained and lost in the transition from one to the other.

System Shock to Bioshock is also a similar trend.

 

[kilenem]

Every PS1 and N64 game that uses polygons. Ill be damned if that becomes a design aesthetic as popular as 8 bit and 16bit

Haha.

People are trying.
I saw one of Nitrorad's videos on Youtube where he was looking at a horror game that was trying to re-create PS1 jank in its graphics.

Whyyyyyy???

PS1 horror gameplay is good, not visuals. I think people like that miss remember what made PS1 and N64 games great, its the gameplay not visuals.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

Pokemon Red and Green. Or their less buggy later versions Pokemon Blue and Yellow are games I still technically like that are good RPGs. Bugs aside they really have aged poorly. Gold and Silver handicapped the series in a way but their age shows a bit but far less than Red and Green.

 

[Finis Rerum]

Mass Effect. A while ago I decided to do a full playthrough of all 3 games and yikes. Obviously the graphics are dated as hell, but I did not remember the combat in the first game to be that stilted

 

[Dalisclock]

Mass Effect. A while ago I decided to do a full playthrough of all 3 games and yikes. Obviously the graphics are dated as hell, but I did not remember the combat in the first game to be that stilted

The combat and the inventory system are the two most difficult thing to adjust to whenever I replay Mass Effect. For whatever flaws the sequels have(and they do have flaws), at least fixed both of those issues.

I recently finished replaying Metal Gear Solid, which I played once before back in the 2000's(I think). I know it was really big when it came out and no doubt was really impressive for 1998, but damn if it doesn't feel awkward in many respects today. Cutscenes and radio conversations that break the flow of action over and over again, Characters who prattle on and on about whatever(Liquid's ranting is particularly grating) and Boss fights in a game that really isn't designed around boss fights.

I appreciate what it was trying to do, but at times I couldn't help but think "Kojima, if you want to make a movie, make a movie".

 

[Rangaman]

Anything and everything from the 90s that can be described with the words "three dimensional platformer" is guaranteed to be crappier that you remember it being, though to varying degrees. On a scale from "Crash Bandicoot" to "Conker's Bad Fur Day" in fact.