Great Old Games you want to play but feels too dated?

The Madman

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Tuesday Night Fever said:
It's a pretty early mission. I hadn't been playing the game too long before it came up. I'll probably give the game another go eventually, but at the time it just really bugged me. If the game is going to present an apparently winnable scenario to me, then spit in my face for trying to win... it called into question every single future objective in the game and what other dirty tricks they were going to try to pull for the sake of their narrative. If I go back to the game down the line, it's going to be purely for that narrative and I'm going to have to just try to be apathetic toward the gameplay objectives.

I'm fine with a game allowing you to progress past a failure and adjusting things afterward to address it. That's actually pretty cool - assuming the player was able to also succeed too. Like gmaverick019 above said... if forcing the player to give up and fail in order to progress is the gimmick you want to use in your game, just make it a cutscene. Don't present a scenario to players that forces them to fail. It's incredibly immersion-breaking to me.
Being a big fan of Freespace 2 out of curiosity I looked it up and the only mission in FS2 that expects you to fail to some degree is Mystery of the Trinity, where the game will continue sending waves of enemy fighters till a certain objective is destroyed. It's only the fifth mission in the game, you're really missing out if that's where you stopped.

Ihateregistering1 is right as well in that most missions can have varying degrees of success or failure. The game has multiple endings for example, well, two different endings based on how you perform in the final mission. One of my favourite last missions in gaming even if it does end on a bit of a cliffhanger that will almost certainly never be resolved.

Incidentally if you weren't aware, FS2 has a massive modding community which among other things have released a complete visual overhaul mod called Freespace 2 Open, which makes the game look pretty damned good for something around 15 years old now. Trailer for an older release of the mod:


Guide to installing the SPO mod can be found HERE and HERE is a list of fan campaign and missions made for SP2, some of which are of excellent quality including total conversions that use FS2's engine for other settings. There's a Babylon 5 series of mods as well as Battlestar Galactica and even Star Wars.

Hope you do consider giving SP2 another shot, it's among the best space-sim ever released and definitely one that deserves to be remembered.
 

sageoftruth

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Sigmund Av Volsung said:
Lol, that would include most of the "greatest games of all time" that get consistently name-dropped, such as:
-Earthbound
-Final Fantasy VI
-Chrono Trigger
-Mega Man
-Baldur's Gate 1 & 2
-Icewind Dale
-Planescape Torment
-Neverwinter Nights
-Fallout 1 & 2
-Thief 1 and 2
-System Shock 2
-Dungeon Keeper 2
-Starfox 64
-Most Legend of Zeldas

And many more. I grew up on the Xbox(the original) and whilst games from that era definitely have not aged that well, I am even less eager to dive into the first days of 3D rendering :X

Though with the RPGs, the issue is also more mechanical, especially with the Japanese ones since my only point of reference for JRPGs is Persona 4.
Ah yes! Earthbound! I knew I was missing one. I've wanted to delve into the story so much, but everything about the mechanics just pushes me away. Everything is so slow and cumbersome, and some early fights are too reliant on praying that the enemy doesn't abuse a particular attack. Sorry, Earthbound. You're one masterpiece I'll never get to appreciate.
 

Someone Depressing

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I played the original Fallout for the first time in a long time because I wanted to renew my memory of it, and simply because I wanted to.

When I used to play it, the time limit (first one of 150 days, then of 500 days, and then one of 13 years, though unless you were intentionally wasting time this one would never be an issue) never got in my way, giving you just a little under two years to finish the game. I'd finished just about everything without a problem. But when I tried to replay it, I just couldn't wrap my head around all of the mechanics that I'd forgotten about.

I tried 3 different character. One didn't even make it out of the starting cave - Endurance under 3 is worthless, then. Another failed to get the GECK chip and everyone died, and another was just frustrating because she was dead weight in a fight. She got the GECK chip, though only by using the water caravans, and I couldn't do the latter part of the game.

I've now made it my mission of self-redemption to git gud at Fallout again.
 

Shoggoth2588

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If it's on the Nintendo 64 but it wasn't made by Nintendo then I have a really hard time getting back into it. That generation of gaming in general had some games that controlled like absolute ass but the N64 was a bit more difficult for me to get back into and play with than the PSX. Specifically, I couldn't get into games like Space Station Silicon Valley, Perfect Dark, Mystic Ninja, Jet Force Gemini, Body Harvest, Gex, Earthworm Jim...I just can't get into those because of the controls and, camera angles. I'm fine with FPS games like Duke 64, I'm fine with racing games like Destruction Derby and, I'm fine with 2D games like Kirby and, Yoshi's Story but most 3D platformers and 3D games in general are just too much for me.
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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The Madman said:
I've saved the links, and hell, maybe this coming weekend I'll give the game another go. It's not that I disliked the game itself... it's just the no-win scenario in that mission that ended up killing it for me. I'm fine with putting in a little faith that the game won't keep doing that.

Shoggoth2588 said:
Specifically, I couldn't get into games like Space Station Silicon Valley, Perfect Dark, Mystic Ninja, Jet Force Gemini, Body Harvest, Gex, Earthworm Jim...I just can't get into those because of the controls and, camera angles. I'm fine with FPS games like Duke 64, I'm fine with racing games like Destruction Derby and, I'm fine with 2D games like Kirby and, Yoshi's Story but most 3D platformers and 3D games in general are just too much for me.
I'm curious... what made Duke Nukem 64 acceptable and not Perfect Dark, both being FPS titles?
 

Shoggoth2588

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Tuesday Night Fever said:
The Madman said:
I've saved the links, and hell, maybe this coming weekend I'll give the game another go. It's not that I disliked the game itself... it's just the no-win scenario in that mission that ended up killing it for me. I'm fine with putting in a little faith that the game won't keep doing that.

Shoggoth2588 said:
Specifically, I couldn't get into games like Space Station Silicon Valley, Perfect Dark, Mystic Ninja, Jet Force Gemini, Body Harvest, Gex, Earthworm Jim...I just can't get into those because of the controls and, camera angles. I'm fine with FPS games like Duke 64, I'm fine with racing games like Destruction Derby and, I'm fine with 2D games like Kirby and, Yoshi's Story but most 3D platformers and 3D games in general are just too much for me.
I'm curious... what made Duke Nukem 64 acceptable and not Perfect Dark, both being FPS titles?
I guess that is kinda strange...Funnily enough, I grew up playing DN64 as a kid but when it comes to Perfect Dark and Doom 64 (which I only recently played...recently being 'within the last 5 years or so') I guess it's just a matter of memory. I have an easier time getting into DN64 but have since realized that the PC version is the best possible way to play. What's really odd is how much I also played Goldeneye as a kid...Perfect Dark was essentially a sequel of the Goldeneye engine after all...

...

I'm weird
 

Tuesday Night Fever

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Shoggoth2588 said:
I guess that is kinda strange...Funnily enough, I grew up playing DN64 as a kid but when it comes to Perfect Dark and Doom 64 (which I only recently played...recently being 'within the last 5 years or so') I guess it's just a matter of memory. I have an easier time getting into DN64 but have since realized that the PC version is the best possible way to play. What's really odd is how much I also played Goldeneye as a kid...Perfect Dark was essentially a sequel of the Goldeneye engine after all...

...

I'm weird
I was just curious if it was the same issue I had when I tried going back to Perfect Dark. I absolutely LOVED the game when it came out. Finished every challenge the game had to offer, and regularly played it after school with friends.

A couple years back one of my college roommates announced that he was going to bring his N64 back with him from vacation, and encouraged the rest of us to bring in any games that we had for some nights of retro gaming. Perfect Dark and Duke Nukem 64 were among the ones I brought... and man, I just couldn't play Perfect Dark. Its framerate is sooo much worse than I remembered it being, and actually caused headaches. I still love the game, but yeah... not the easiest to play these days.

Duke Nukem 64 on the other hand seemed to play just fine, oddly enough. I actually kinda like the N64 version's interesting take on censorship. Like having the film in the first level's movie theater be an obvious Independence Day reference instead of the PC version's softcore porn, changing the second level's adult bookstore into a gunshop and the strip club into a restaurant, etc. It's actually one of the more respectful cases of Nintendo censorship out there, which is odd since it's Duke. Also, I like the N64 version's dual-wielded MP-5 submachine guns better than the PC version's odd Nordenfelt gun.
 

Scow2

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I can't get past the controls of Duke Nukem 3D.
Someone Depressing said:
I played the original Fallout for the first time in a long time because I wanted to renew my memory of it, and simply because I wanted to.

When I used to play it, the time limit (first one of 150 days, then of 500 days, and then one of 13 years, though unless you were intentionally wasting time this one would never be an issue) never got in my way, giving you just a little under two years to finish the game. I'd finished just about everything without a problem. But when I tried to replay it, I just couldn't wrap my head around all of the mechanics that I'd forgotten about.

I tried 3 different character. One didn't even make it out of the starting cave - Endurance under 3 is worthless, then. Another failed to get the GECK chip and everyone died, and another was just frustrating because she was dead weight in a fight. She got the GECK chip, though only by using the water caravans, and I couldn't do the latter part of the game.

I've now made it my mission of self-redemption to git gud at Fallout again.
You want Endurance 4 and frequent saving - whether you're alive or not in Fallout is pretty binary (I got arrogant once I got power armor and was killed by a Super Mutant with a minigun). Intelligence and Agility are God Stats - agility lets you rock the Action Point economy, and Intelligence is Skill Points and Conversation Options (Cha can be dumped). STR 3 or 4 is good enough - you can get a companion to carry shit for you until you get power armor, then the STR boost lets you carry shit. "Gifted" is an insanely awesome perk. You want Small Guns skill to get to 150 as fast as possible. Science andc Lockpick can be left low if you're not against saves-scumming the results.

Also - the Limited Edition Red Rider BB gun is the best small arm in the game, and can be gotten as soon as you stumble across the crazy Used Car Wreck Dealer - it's in the shack. It's got the damage and accuracy of a sniper rifle, and low AP-per-shot. Remember to aim for the eyes.
 

PaulTheGreater

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I'm gonna go with "Parasite Eve". I remember getting this game many, many years ago because it had a sticker on the front: "FROM THE MAKERS OF FINAL FANTASY VII". I had, up to that point, only ever seen FF7 played on PC and thought, hey, it MUST be good!

(Funny, isn't it: once there was a time where seeing a certain company's logo was almost a sure guarantee that the game would be top-quality. Oh, the 90's...)

I did not know, at the time, that it was a horror game. I was also, at the time, a total lights-on-at-night don't-look-in-the-closet sort of coward who could be intimidated by Resident Evil, so for the most part I ended up playing the collector's demo disc until I bought Xenogears. (Anyone remember that old FF8 promo video? That was so good. Still gets me hyped.)

Anyway, about a year ago I decided I'd replay PE, just to beat it. And Aya. Moves. Like. Molasses. The combat system is good, the music is great, and the environments look pretty. But the character, even when running, seems to be slogging through the ocean. Why this was done, I'll never know, but it's seriously the only thing stopping me from playing again.

Well, that and the monster rat things. Ugh, so creepy.
 

Arnoxthe1

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Final Fantasy 7.

Those graphics... Just... UGHHHH!! SO BAD. They seriously should have waited until 3D graphics had progressed more before they did any FF game in 3D. Today it just looks utterly atrocious. And I'm the kind of person who still likes to play the rather dated first Unreal Tournament and N64 games too.
 

Drathnoxis

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I don't really discriminate against playing games for their age, so I'll talk about a game I played that felt extremely dated.

Morrowind. Goodness, for all the talk about how great it is and how much Oblivion and Skyrim pale in comparison, I didn't actually find it too great. I keep hearing how the quests and story is so much better in Morrowind, but I would have to ask, how can you tell? The conversation system is so abysmally bad it's basically unusable. Every NPC seems to have the same dialogue choices and (most of the time) spout the exact same replies to them, sometimes with a couple words changed around. What is worse is when you start to accumulate more and more conversation topics (after finishing the fighters guild and the main quest, the first 2 random NPCs I spoke to both had 37-38 conversation topics) and so if you wanted to find out if someone has something new to say you need to wade through a never ending mire of text. Even if you just want to know if they have any new topics of conversation, you still have to scroll through an enormous list. This really ruined the game for me, since it makes it very hard to get into the world when you can't talk to the NPCs.

The rest of the game is okay, the graphics are kind of meh, and the interface is pretty clunky, but I could have gotten over that if the NPCs were interesting, instead of encyclopedias on legs.

Arnoxthe1 said:
Final Fantasy 7.

Those graphics... Just... UGHHHH!! SO BAD. They seriously should have waited until 3D graphics had progressed more before they did any FF game in 3D. Today it just looks utterly atrocious. And I'm the kind of person who still likes to play the rather dated first Unreal Tournament and N64 games too.
It's really just the overworld character models, the backgrounds are quite nice and the battle models looks pretty okay, but the overworld models are quite blocky. Personally, I think they are kind of cute and they really are very expressive with their body language animations, despite the poor quality models.
 

Tilly

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SoreWristed said:
I got the original Deus Ex when steam was selling the entire Deus Ex franchise. I installed it, fiddled around for three hours to get it to actually run and uninstalled it about 10 minutes after that. I simply cannot look at those graphics for a while without getting a headache. That along with the archaic pc controls.
I somehow doubt any medical professional would accept that as a genuine cause of headaches. Lol.
You should try and persevere, Deus Ex is one of the best PC games ever made!
 
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I wish it wasn't true, but most games before 2001.

I hate this about myself, but my mind has a certain threshold of graphical and aesthetic quality that I can't go below.

I adore Deus Ex's mechanics and story and everything else, but I can't make myself play it for longer than 10 minutes. Same goes for early Thief, certain Nintendo 64 games, System Shock 2 and Morrowind.

I've tried. I've tried so damn hard because I know for a fact that they're fantastic and it's my own fault that I don't like them, but it doesn't do any good.

Interestingly, it isn't purely a graphics issue. Despite my prejudice, I managed to play and absolutely love Fallout 1 and 2 15 years after they came out. Personally, I think it's because they have such an excellent aesthetic despite the graphical limitation.

I'm really looking forward to Skywind and I hope the make it even a tenth as complex and great as Morrowind actually was.
 

aozgolo

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*deep breath* gonna try to reply to a bunch of these!

Fox12 said:
Fallout 1&2 had awful gameplay. It didn't help that it had the same engine as old school RTS games, so it felt like I was playing a strategy game with one unit. The writing didn't hold up well either. It may have been good for the time, but modern game stprytelling has easily surpassed it.
Fallout 2 is the first Fallout I played, and I still enjoy it but it has an incredibly slooow start. On several replays I give up just trying to get through the temple of trials, sometimes my build is just not suited for it and I die. Even after that, going slowly through your village and even the first town it "suggests" you go to is a rather boring slog, with the only real weapon you have being a cruddy handgun and some spears and knives. It takes several hours to reach the level of having an arsenal on your back and getting to any sort of interesting story bits.

bottero said:
i got into rpg's with dragon age origins. so, craving for more, i learned about the baldur's gate games being awesome. I played and enjoyed dune 1 which came out in '92
i played (the f*ck out of) gp 2 from '96 and quite a few other classic adventure games from the 90's But found baldurs gate unplayable. The graphics were shit and the isometric view is terrible. The combination of both was an impassable wall for me. Very surprised to see sequels to some of the classic crpg's being made with the same crap isometric view.I liked shadowrun dragonfall and x-com but they re more strategic games. rpg's are about exploring the world and interacting with characters. Fallout 3 and new vegas , mass effect and dragon age are my favourite games. i didnt play the latest divinity game for more than 1 hour. isometric view in rpg's is a huge obstacle in the way of immersion.
Having played the remastered version of baldur's gate 2 i feel like, if it had been completely remade with today's technology it would be the greatest game in human history. As it stands i find it an above average game but i did not think about the plot or the characters for a second outside of the game whereas the characters and lore of dragon age and mass effect for instance have made a deep impact
EHKOS said:
Planescape Torment and Fallout 1&2. I can't stand isometric views and the Fallouts have that old difficulty to them that's too hard for someone who started out on consoles in '96. I guess we can throw in Arcanum of Steamworks and Magick or whatever that Trokia game was called.

My basic complaints are usually "It's haaaaaard, the character moves too slow, why do I have to click on places to make him go places, I miss my analogue stick!"
I really enjoy Isometric RPGs and find them to be the absolute best way of playing a party-based RPG. Some attempts at better immersion in dialogue can be made (like having face portraits or voice overs for NPCs) but in general I think the exploration works great in Iso, although not on the minute level that say an Elder Scrolls game might have but it works. Though I can fully understand that not being someone's preference, I don't believe that the view is at all dated.

I do however believe they are designed more for the kind of players who prefer turn-based slower paced games, and that throws a lot of people off. I see many people get turned off from the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and Torment) because they never assume you are SUPPOSED to pause in combat. It's not even really an optional thing, if you don't pause in combat to issue commands to your party then unpause to see those played out, then you won't finish those games. The dialogue also is very text heavy and without getting invested heavily into the world or lore may not interest you as much (I spent over an hour just talking to a single non-important NPC in Torment). Because of this the pacing is very slow. A single map in Baldur's Gate could be a multi-hour affair. Also there is a certain amount of meta-gaming that is to be expected in those older games at least, with save scumming, learning what skillsets the enemy has. It's a very tactical sort of experience and you aren't expected to win easily.

Elfgore said:
Morrowind. It has not aged well at all, but I do believe it has the most content of any Elder Scrolls game. I've tried installing the restoration mode once before and it completely bugged up, causing me to completely reboot my PC. I may give it a go in the future once again and give it a go.
Morrowind is a very difficult game even for some big time fans to go back to after newer installments like Skyrim. I can't even touch it anymore unless it's heavily modded, and modding it CORRECTLY is such a chore that requires so much time and effort that it's more like work, so I never get around to enjoying the game I used to love so much.

It has flaws, the combat, the walk speed, the graphics (especially the NPCs), the dialogue, but luckily most of this is corrected by mods, and it's underneath all that dated mess that a truly amazing game shines.

I've honestly been afraid to get into the Gothic series because I want to start with the first one and am afraid it will be far too dated for me to want to give it much effort.

Dragonzeanse said:
CHRONO TRIGGER:
Oh, now it's just obvious I'm trolling, isn't it? Another classic JRPG? I must be biased, me and my love for Final Fantasy 9, my positive acknowledgment of Final Fantasy 10, my burning passion for Parasite Eve's accomplishments, and my obsession with the Persona games. No, truth be told, I grew up with JRPGs - but not very many. Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Suikoden, Grandia, Skies of Arcadia, and indeed, the earlier Persona games and Final Fantasy 6, were among JRPGs I did not play when I was younger, and still haven't played. I picked up Chrono Trigger over at a friend's house and played it for about five hours. Perhaps I'm missing something by judging this game quite early, but I found it to be a perfectly average - perhaps even above-average - JRPG that successfully pulled off the tactical depth of a JRPG and provided an interesting story without doing much else. Perhaps just accomplishing what it set out to do is exactly what makes this game so beloved, but I saw missed opportunities. Character positioning, for example, seemed to be - like in Final Fantasy X-2 - purely for show save for a few enemy attacks that might have exploited it. You don't get to move around, yet the enemy can saunter about and change their positioning? I'd like to be able to use that, too. It was the natural next step for JRPGs, I feel, and Chrono Trigger missed it.

That's not really why I dislike this game, though. I dislike it because, well, frankly... it's not THAT good. Have you ever picked up a game that was new at the time and played it and thought it was satisfying, but had no strong urge to go pick it back up again? That's what Chrono Trigger is. It's basically a Suda 51 game in that you don't really need to look back at it after playing it. Okay, so there's multiple endings, but I never liked that idea in video games, like, ever. Multiple endings are so rarely satisfying, as I just think to myself "what about those other endings I haven't gotten to enjoy? Maybe I should start up a new game and play those." I'm not pleased, because I know I haven't actually completed the game. It's one of those experimental innovations in video gaming that I've always thought needs to die. This so rarely works. One of the appeals of a lot of western RPGs is playing the game differently a second time, which is the notorious cause of that so-called excuse: "I haven't finished the game yet, but I have made five different characters already." While this certainly presents its own challenges, providing multiple approaches in a game is the sort of depth that makes you want to genuinely revisit it. Many games fail to do it well. People are fans of the Elder Scrolls games exactly because they can do this. This, however, is the reason I can sometimes accept multiple endings. You had a completely different character with a completely different skill-set and (if you're properly roleplaying ;)) a different moral compass. A JRPG like Persona is capable of this as well. But the standard for video games is to have one minor choice in a game or a god-awful binary moral choice system that restricts your gameplay because you want to pursue the most climactic of endings or the mode of gameplay that fits you, the player, best. I'm not going to pretend I know what Chrono Trigger does, but after seeing the status quo from both old and new games providing such lazy incentives for multiple playthroughs, and the fact that Chrono Trigger appears to be a fairly linear JRPG, trust that I won't hold my breath until I know for sure. There are a lot of video games to play, and I just can't give that time to many JRPGs that don't grip me fast.
Part of the allure of Chrono Trigger is it accomplished things no other JRPG at the time did, or at least not nearly so well. Having enemies visible on the screen at all was RARE for a menu-driven RPG, sure you can't move around the battlefield at will, but the fact that characters moved at all during the battle was AMAZING. It is kind of a bit less impressive by today's standards, but back then... WOW!

As for the Multiple Ending thing, I kind of understand your point, but mostly from a modern me view. I have easily over 100 games I want to play and get through now, and I'm never going to go through that whole backlog but having that backlog means that I'm more resolved to want to do a full and complete playthrough the FIRST time I play a game and not replay a game, especially one boasting 40+ hours. As a kid however, particularly one with far fewer videogames to play, the aspect of being able to play a game I loved again and get a different ending based off my efforts was phenomenal and an awesome idea I was really behind, but the adult me who is pressed for time finds that too much work. So I think that idea is great, but should be done in a way that is more about "giving you feedback for your different playchoices" and not "Here's an ending, but it's not the one true final ultra secret hidden special ending", those I hate!

sageoftruth said:
Ah yes! Earthbound! I knew I was missing one. I've wanted to delve into the story so much, but everything about the mechanics just pushes me away. Everything is so slow and cumbersome, and some early fights are too reliant on praying that the enemy doesn't abuse a particular attack. Sorry, Earthbound. You're one masterpiece I'll never get to appreciate.
Earthbound is a masterpiece of style, not of substance, it doesn't have any truly amazing gameplay innovations (aside from the rolling HP counter which admittedly is more of a novelty in the grand scheme) but in general the story isn't breathtaking, the graphics while certainly decent aren't amazing, the battle system works well and is challenging but not INCREDIBLE, the game length is about right for a JRPG, and there's no great degree of interactivity or emergent gameplay beyond it's contemporaries.

What it does to make it such a timeless classic is capture a certain feeling, and it's one really hard I think to reproduce, it's a childlike wonder of the world that is in game form. The setting of the game is I imagine what would happen if you asked foreign children to draw a picture of modern America solely based off the assumptions and stereotypes. It's by no means mean-spirited, but it has a modern day setting with very colorful interesting characters, with a very tongue-in-cheek humor. I don't even know if it's charm works the same nowadays, but at the time it was a turn-based JRPG in a setting no other JRPG even got close to trying, and it was amazing, it still is.

But it is hard.

Arnoxthe1 said:
Final Fantasy 7.

Those graphics... Just... UGHHHH!! SO BAD. They seriously should have waited until 3D graphics had progressed more before they did any FF game in 3D. Today it just looks utterly atrocious. And I'm the kind of person who still likes to play the rather dated first Unreal Tournament and N64 games too.
Final Fantasy 7 is a game I find very hard to recommend to anyone who didn't play it when PS1 was still the thing. It just can't hold up graphically for anyone to overlook it. I remember a time, when I first got my PS1, and it was one of the two games I got, and I remember vividly being AMAZED and BLOWN AWAY by how great this game LOOKED. It was just a sign of those times, and those times are LONG past.
 

Fireaxe

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I know it's not that old, but Half-Life 2 is a game I didn't play until a decade after release and I find myself totally unable to get into it and I suspect it's just the way it's structured not agreeing with me. I kind of missed the mid 2000s gaming wise at the time.
 

404notfound

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X: Beyond the Frontier and X-tension are two games I can't get into because of how dated they feel.

I first got into Egosoft's X universe games at X3: Reunion and loved the experience of playing it. I eventually bought the rest of the series; X2: The Threat was still amazing and didn't feel too dated, however the original two games mentioned earlier felt and looked horrible. I just couldn't for the life of me get into those games the same way I got into X2 and the X3 games.

Coincidentally, at least for me; the X games have formed a bell curve with the newest instalment, X:Rebirth, also being impossible for me to get into. But that's by the by.
 

Twinrehz

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I rarely try playing very old games, because I'm a bit of a graphics diva. I want it to look pretty. It doesn't have to be state of the art, I love the style of the original borderlands a whole bunch, and that game's 6 years old now.

There have been two exceptions that I can mention:

Half-Life. This one many would say is a no-brainer, everyone should play Half-Life. However, I must admit, I didn't really like the game, though I can't put my finger on why. In all honesty, I never technically finished it, because I ran into a bug that broke the game completely, meaning I couldn't progress past the spidery thing's lair. I "completed" my playthrough by watching a let's play of it on youtube (which frankly wasn't easy to find).

When you jump down into the pool that teleports you away from the place, I pressed jump (by accident, iirc), so when the loading screen was done, I was still in that pool, meaning the scene transition had been messed up, and I couldn't go any further. Given how little I felt invested in the game, I couldn't be bothered to start over again. I didn't keep a clean save progress, so I believe my other save was near the beginning of the game. I also tried chapter loading, but the ammo count on the weapons was like 25% of max on all weapons.

Actually I don't understand how HL was such a big thing, I didn't feel like there was any story there. I know a few things about the story, because it's an old game and the internet seems to remember it quite fondly, but as I played the game, nothing seemed to connect the story in any particular way. I just ran through a big-ass facility, shooting at stuff, not knowing what the hell was going on. I guess that could be why I never felt invested in the game, and why I ended up playing only about half of HL2, before just abandoning it altogether. I like the story being told when I read about it, but I don't see any of the story when I'm playing the games.

The Longest Journey. This one I actually completed, maintaining tenacity throughout the game, wanting to finish it (and keeping a strategy guide handy in case I came across another obtuse puzzle that didn't make any kind of sense), however I did have a few issues with it as well. The low resolution of the game, displayed on a 1080p screen didn't help the experience very much, however the story did manage to grab me, after about 4-5 hours of playing the game.

The frankly laughable animated sequences and small resolution that made details very blocky from a distance showed just how old the game was, but I'm glad to say I did actually get past that. Some of the puzzles were, as I said, very annoying, the whole island with statues that relayed your voice I would probably have never gotten past had I not looked it up.
 

josemlopes

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Shoggoth2588 said:
Tuesday Night Fever said:
You both should try the Xbox 360 HD release, it fixes a lot of the issues that were tied with performance. I never played the original one but since I am a Timesplitters fan and both games are rather similar in mechanics I tried it out and loved it.

Also really like Duke Nukem 3D, the biggest problem I can see anyone having is the faux 3D when you look up or down. With Perfect Dark there is certainly more to suffer at the start since for every "Oh damn, the game has this?" there is a "What the fuck am I supposed to do?", I am still suprised that a N64 game has more depth then a shit ton of games now, you can even disarm an enemy by shooting is weapon off. But yeah, there are a lot of weird mechanics, and thank god I didnt get used to the original N64 controls (the xbox version has both).
 

Furbyz

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Planescape Torment for me. I've started it, the dialogue trees are just...wonderful. I mean they are astoundingly good. I can't handle the game part of the game though. Horrible pathing, clunky movement, boring as hell fighting that feels like a chore. If I'm not reading something, I feel like I'm being punished.

If I could just get the exact same game while being able to move about accurately, I think I'd be okay. If there was combat that didn't make me dread getting into a fight, I'd be in heaven.

Sigil and the Hive are just these amazing places with so many interesting things and people and places, and I just can't enjoy any of it. It honestly makes me sad.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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I remember how amazing Supreme Commander's graphics looked back in the day, I recently played Roged alliance with a friend a few days ago and I realised when I zoomed in to see my units how muddy the graphics in general looked, that series has not aged well at all, I don't mind Red Alert 3's graphics since they were more cartoony to begin with and mods already imrpoved that, I looked for mods for Supreme Commander series and got met with the same mods that just make the textures look sharper but it;s still a muddy skin slapped onto a unit, there are limits to that game despite how amazing it looked back then.

I don't mind a slightly cartoony RTS like the Red Alert series, Starcraft II and Planetary Annihilation but those other RTS games that like to be graphical kinds like Supreme Commander, I would expect future RTS games trying to be like them to really make a style that looks great but also doesn't age.

Although I do like playing some older games, there are still some old titles I wouldn't play anymore ebcause some just haven't aged well graphics and mechanics wise, that and having lost hype/interest in them so you're hardly alone on that.