If you could bring back one thing about retro games what would it be?

[Someone Depressing]

A game that teaches you. You know games like The Void, and Shin Megami Tensei, and stuff like that? Well, yeah. They teach you. Instead of occasionally giving pro-tips and other crap that just clutters the screen when you want to play, the game gradually lets you understand its mechanics and how it works, what to do, ect. Most "retro" styled games have this as their very philosophy.

 

[StriderShinryu]

That's sort of tough given that there are so many retro-esque or retro inspired games out there these days if you look beyond the AAA scene. I also feel that, in general, games today are in a much better place than they've ever been in before. If I did have to pick one thing, though, it would be the music. There was just something that working within the specific limitations of the 8 and 16 bit eras brought out in composers. Working with that limited toolset and the limited resources forced the musicians to create something memorable and special each time out. Now a days there's still good game music, but so much of even the good stuff just sounds like run of the mill symphonic stuff that you could hear anywhere in any medium.

 

[AntiChri5]

The difficulty, pure and simple. No more easy modes that devaluate the value of having finished a game. I don't like the fact that some people can derp their way through games.

And why should everyone be forced up to your difficulty standards or just not play at all?

Are you seriously telling me that it's bad that people play games the way they want to?

If you started practicing a sport, only to discover that all the other participants were obese and that the entire game had been altered so no one could possibly fail, then you would be mad too.

It's true that single player games don't have a direct link like that, but there is an indirect link. Today people who can't handle properly difficult games play the mainstream games and are like "I just finished game X", which is like hearing "I scored 10 times last game" from someone who is not good at football, only to discover that they have changed the rules so that there is no goalkeeper and the goal is 4 times larger.

That is the worst comparison I have ever seen. Games are not sports, league of legends and starcraft excluded.

And people do play different versions of sports. Not official, mind, but still. Have you heard of the special olympics? Have you heard of wheelchair basketball? Your comparison is stupid.

Why do you suddenly get to decide how people should play games?

People decide how people play a certain game. I am a people. This thread was about what I would bring back and I would bring back retro difficulty with no easy mode.

Your comparison to the special olympics is even shittier.

I just don't like the idea of some dumbass derping his or her way through a game that should be difficult. When I accomplish something difficult in a game, the idea that someone else is just lazily laying on the sofa, with the difficulty turned down, doing the same thing just fills me with rage. It used to mean something to have finished a game, Mega Man 9 brought that back, but then Mega Man 10 took it right back.

If other people playing games on a lower difficulty literally fills you with rage, you may need to rethink some of your life choices. A sense of accomplishment is an important thing for most people and relying on videogames for it may not be healthy.

 

[aozgolo]

The absolute bonkers amount of stats and viable playstyles...

I seriously hate this modern "less is more" mentality especially when it comes to RPGs, combining and simplifying stats.

World of Warcraft did it to make it easier for them to balance things when they destroyed the old talents system and made it a streamlined progression that lacked any meaningful ways to make a hybrid build.

The Elder Scrolls did it, first by removing/combining certain skills (IE: Spears, Medium Armor, Short Blade) and then scrapping Stats altogether for only their derived statistics (Health, Magic, and Stamina)

Dragon Age did it when it claimed to be a spiritual successor to games like Baldur's Gate that had classes, subclasses, specialty classes, multiclasses, and dual classes, and DA:O only had Warrior/Mage/Rogue... seriously?



I want developers to quit dumbing things down for the sake of "balance" or "streamlining" and give me a very complex game that actually lets me see what my stats are and how I am impacting them. I get that not every demographic wants to "do math" to figure out what the best build is, or best item upgrade, etc. but I think that leaves the rest of us who want a complex deep game with lots of freedom to customize left in the dust.

 

[Ian Howell]

One word ORIGINALITY

 

[Tellis Argonis]

One word ORIGINALITY

Originality statistically tanks financially unless you do something simple. It -is- a business. Don't act like it's not a business or berate me for saying it's a business because it's a fuckin business.

 

[Tellis Argonis]

The old school DOOM-style shooters, with fast paced gunplay.

Shadow Warrior 2013 does that exceptionally. However, instead of feeling floaty and not in control, Lo Wang is quick, agile, and even though everyone's all 'the humor is infantile' it's spaced out enough that the wang jokes don't get too old. He also cusses and goes all 'OWWw!' whenever he gets hurt bad. Not... every time but he does say fuck a lot when hit with some big attack.

 

[Xan Krieger]

dont understand whats stop anyone from playing any retro games most of the consoles have emulators out there and 99% of all old PC games are still playable on modern PCs

The problem with that is legality, I've heard you can do it if you own the game which is why I keep a copy of Front Mission 3 on my PC with the actual disc being down near my PS2. My question is how can ISPs or the police or whoever monitors emulator sites tell which games you own and which you're pirating? Even then, 90% of the companies don't exist anymore so even if you are pirating who are you stealing from? So many questions.