Old games that didn't age well.

[Imbechile]

Baldur's gate 1+2. Yes, flame me but the gameplay is so clunky.
The graphics still look nice. I'm still going to beat it

How dare you!
Actually I find the gameplay to be one of the few things that aged well.
The graphics only look nice in windowed mode where the resolution stays true, otherwise it's horribly pixelated.
Lack of voice-acting is also quite noticable, there is some but there are tons of text on top of that, they probably put a few full books in there.
And the gameplay, well it's old school RPG and not an action RPG, if you go in guns blazing your guys will die, alot, and you haveto fork over hell of a fortune to resurrect them.

I agree with this guy (Mr.K). Unless you're used to playing only modern RPGs which use their own rule system (which will be simpler to understand than any D&D one to the newcomer) then the gameplay is still brilliant. In form, function and ease-of-design it is hard to fault it. Sure it's not possible to deftly control all 6 party members unless you utilize the 'Pause' mechanic of the engine, but outside of multiplayer it arguably never was meant to be played all real-time.
But if you're used to the good autonomous AI of Dragon Age or only ever having to command 2 people (every other Bioware game since KOTOR) or no people at all (Witcher, Oblivion etc) then you may well find it slow to play and more of a strategy/RPG than action/RPG.

The graphics will never look pixellated so long as you get the Widescreen mod and a few other mods which allows the game to run at 1920x1200 (or whatever your res). Eg:

Spoiler: High Resolution Athkatla

I prefer old school RPGs over the new ones and I love D&D games, but the combat in Baldur's gate feels so.... weird, even for a D&D game. I think it's because the AI and pathfinding of your campanions isn't as good as, lets say, Dragon age.
As for the graphics, I installed the Tutu mod and a resolution mod so it looks nice. The old graphics have a certain charm to them

 

[Devil's Due]

none of your points are valid.

Sorry friend, but none of your points are valid either. Half-Life 2 is a good game, amazing at its time. But I must agree that it's aging rather poorly than I thought it would have otherwise. Just because you're a fan for a series doesn't mean you have to instantly jump on someone's opinion if they dislike a game of your choice. Hell, a lot of my favorite games in this thread are being ripped apart too. But I don't call them out as "trolls," because it's their opinion. Seriously, take a step away from the keyboard whenever you're feeling angry at a comment.

Trust me, I've been here for almost three years. Sometimes you just have to take a small break before posting a reply. Don't worry, it'll still be there when you get back, unless the thread is deleted. (Though if that's the case, then it's best if you hadn't posted there in the first place!)

As for the thread... It pains me deeply to have to say this...

But the original Command and Conquer series hasn't been aging too well. I still love 'em so, but whenever I try to replay them again, it just gets harder and harder to want to see those sort of graphics.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

Hrmm....I can say just about every psx game. If I had to choose a specific game...tomb raider. God it's so sluggish.

Although I'll never forget this part,

Spoiler: Hmm, I wonder what will happen if I go down this dark pit?

I was so not expecting that.

Anyway, my choice would probably be Gex: Enter the Gecko. I'm quite happy to leave that one in the nostalgia tinted part of my brain.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Not a lot of launch titles have stood the test of time, specifically of this generation. They raised the bar for this generation and were then trounced by the likes of Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and so forth. Looking back on, say, Lair, Halo 3, Gears of War, Crackdown, Resistance, Motorstorm - some of them are barely comparable to the sixth generation. They helped set up this generation's possibilities, but more than ever they were quickly sweept under the carpet and trounced beyond compare by the quickly learning and advancing contemporaries.

 

[Choppaduel]

none of your points are valid.

Sorry friend, but none of your points are valid either. Half-Life 2 is a good game, amazing at its time. But I must agree that it's aging rather poorly than I thought it would have otherwise. Just because you're a fan for a series doesn't mean you have to instantly jump on someone's opinion if they dislike a game of your choice. Hell, a lot of my favorite games in this thread are being ripped apart too. But I don't call them out as "trolls," because it's their opinion. Seriously, take a step away from the keyboard whenever you're feeling angry at a comment.

Trust me, I've been here for almost three years. Sometimes you just have to take a small break before posting a reply. Don't worry, it'll still be there when you get back, unless the thread is deleted. (Though if that's the case, then it's best if you hadn't posted there in the first place!)

As for the thread... It pains me deeply to have to say this...

But the original Command and Conquer series hasn't been aging too well. I still love 'em so, but whenever I try to replay them again, it just gets harder and harder to want to see those sort of graphics.

I'm not calling him a troll,(if it came across that way, I didn't want it to) I'm saying that if its a troll post I fell for it. ones an accusation, the other is a hypothetical.

He fails to to provide any evidence to points he made qualifying the game to have aged poorly, and neither have you provided such evidence.

I appreciate the advice, but I would appreciate it more if you would be more specific in your case that hl2 has aged poorly.

I made a point against the case. The faces look realistic, even by todays examples (citing f:nv)

I'd like to add that the freedom of movement (see hl2:dm videos on strafing & skating) is something that has become rare since the rise of cover based combat. Its challenging and fun and quickens the pace of dm which has a pronounced effect on the top of the learning curve (see quake-con finalists)

...and as for the validity of my points. you have not made any effort to refute them on their merits, so I remain unconvinced that they're invalid. (though they aren't the best points, u still have to do more than just give a blanket statement)

On a slightly different note. I agree that the c&c series has not aged well. The decision to have each unit producing structure have its own build queue dramatically accelerated the game play and made it much competitive, which has increased the appeal of the series. c&c dedication to this mechanic has stalled where its competitors have excelled.

 

[The Night Shade]

Deus Ex,the A.I for the game is really stupid some of the voice acting is a little silly and of course the graphics are bad

 

[Dr. Awesome Face]

resident evil 2, the controls are just so god awful I can barely play it today, I'd also have to say the original fallout (I know I'm gonna get flamed for this), it just doesn't stand up in my book. Games like Baldur's gate, which are in the same genre, still stand up pretty well. But fallout, and also fallout 2, just really didn't age well.

 

[Devil's Due]

\

...and as for the validity of my points. you have not made any effort to refute them on their merits, so I remain unconvinced that they're invalid. (though they aren't the best points, u still have to do more than just give a blanket statement)

Very well then.

Half-life 2's use of puzzles are rather pointless. Such as the time you must get to the higher ground by using a teeter-totter with a box.

The guns are fairly basic, as the crowbar, pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, laser assault rifle, rocket launcher, etc. Only unique weapons are the Gravity Gun and the Antilion bait, yet their rather basic and un-interesting as weapon choices, even at its time.

The graphics for the facial animations are indeed well, but for the body graphics and especially the layout of the surrounding areas are fairly poor. The lighting as well is fairly weak, especially during the underground levels.

Lastly, while the game had an amazing storyline that still stands up well and the ending is memorable, the final "battle" as you may call it is rather uneventful, boring, and bleak. You simply grab electric balls and fire them into a larger electric ball to create an explosion that would otherwise kill you.

But I can tell arguing against a rather eccentric fan is as pointless as trying to stop a train by jumping in-front of it. I'm done with this thread, and my points are made. Regardless whatever someone replies, they are valid to me and I will still consider Half-Life 2 fairly dated by todays standards and view it with only memories. Apologies bud, hope you still enjoy it for a long time.

 

[Reg0]

ocarina of time
ff7
goldeneye

 

[CrystalShadow]

Kingdom Hearts is still fun but when you go back and play it, you realize how linear all the levels are, as well as how annoying the camera is. KHII has aged slightly better but the levels are still pretty confining.
Also Banjo Kazooie's controls can be a little clunky at times. and the levels feel extremely small.
and finally, play Bioshock, Fallout 3 or any modern shooter, then go play Goldeneye 64. it feels very awkward

Well, im not sure about KH, but with Goldeneye, one must remember that we were playing that with a single stick on what had to be the worst designed controller in history...

I disagree on the N64 controller being bad, but I appear to be in the minority. As for playing goldeneye with 1 analog stick, why would anyone do that? ;p - I used the dual controller setup, (which, ironically is only possible because of the 'crazy' design of the N64 controller - It's actually viable to hold one in each hand. Granted, this becomes meaningless when later controller designs had 2 analog sticks anyway, but that's a somewhat different issue.)

 

[Frankster]

If I could find it back, I'd still play Jagged Alliance 2.
After so many playthroughs, I think I finally found everything.

The entirety of the Jagged Alliance series can be found on gog.com If you didn't know off it yet, I also reccomend the jagged alliance 1.13 mod to give it a fresh spin.

I disagree with most games listed by people in the thread thus far (gta3 being the main exception, but the I still like its soundtrack xP), but then I'm more forgiving then most when it comes to old games as I can still remember the context in which they were bought out (ff7 being perfect example).

Honestly, only games from ps1 era onwards that I can't play anymore due to old age are the original grand theft autos.

 

[Verkula]

My head doesnt make up false memories corrupted by nostalgia about games, so i remember them for what they are and were in their times. Which means to me, they dont age. Thats why i still play Crash 1-3, MediEvil, Omega Boost, MGS, Megaman 1-6, 9-10, FF4,7 or 9, etc. and never even think about this.

 

[Fanta Grape]

Erm... I think Half-Life 2 aged horribly. I mean I enjoyed the story of the games, but I was horribly annoyed by how predictable everything was. Basic weapons with simplistic mechanics, no bonuses in the game and no exploration, horrible driving sequences, very little strategy, etc etc
It was revolutionary, but it doesn't hold up

-_-

not gonna let this slide.

Predictable: how is it more predicable than current games? HOW? I guess you foresaw jumping on rocks to avoid antlions, yeah that was in the first game. you new that that the gravity gun would get supercharged anadsnhshv.... (my nerd rage is making it hard to finish this one)

Basic weapons: many weapons have two firing modes for one thing. yeah THE GRAVITY GUN was basic... sigh. I bet you didn't predict you'd be using a pheropod command a small army of minions! AND HOW ARE THE WEAPONS IS HL2 MORE BASIC THAN CURRENT GAMES!! you offer no evidence.

No Bonuses: whatchu talk bout willis?

No exploration: so I guess you didn't find all the caches, find the mystic vortigaunt at the end of that tunnel, use the barrel to get to that place in the coast, explore all the sections in sandtraps....... I could go on but you won't get it even I mentioned all the out of way places, secret, hidden caches, special scenes (G-man). Theres a lot of exploration to be had in HL2, its just not obvious.

driving sequences: the first person driving may be hard to get used to but its a whole lot more immersive than switching to third person every time you enter/exit a vehicle. and you try driving a rusty buggy over rough terrain.

little strategy: you can go fast, slow, try melee only, try only using the gravity gun, repeat different combat sequences with different two weapon combos, try different turret positions positions, etc etc... lots of strategy to be had for those who take the time.


none of your points are valid.
I hope you enjoy the current situation of FPS design. You, and the people like you, caused it.

damn, i try not to get trolled, but this one hit me hard.
If your not a troll then, in the future, give evidence when making points.


hl2 faces still look more real that some modern games. fallout new vegas for one.

When I say its predictable, I mean I run forward, do a little platforming, fight the same enemies, uncover plot, and maybe engage in a physics puzzle. Lather, rinse and repeat every chapter and every episode. And let's not forget the elevator stuff. Think about Fallout 3. A huge open game, so many people to interact with, so many different ways to play the game.

The problem being that it's a single player campaign based game but the game never enforces variety in combat. The weapons are heavily situational. The revolver ammo was far to scarce to effectively use, the pistol was pathetically weak and you'd never use it because the SMG ammo was always a plenty. The crossbow with the crosshair was never a necessity at all. Throughout the whole game, I only ever needed my shotgun and the SMG/Assault Rifles for fighting. Yes, the gravity gun is glorious as a mechanic, but it was never used to its full potential. It was only ever used to push a cupboard away from a door or throw away the tracking balls. Let's look at Team Fortress 2. I mean we have nine very distinct classes purely based on three aspects. Speed, health and weapons. And yet they play and feel completely different. I guess you could apply the same complaint to a game like Left 4 Dead but that game is more of a mastery of these weapons. You can breeze through half-life 2 by just shooting at stuff as much as you can.

When I say bonuses, I mean the game was very simplistic in what you were able to do. Even if you found the mystic vortiguant, explore athe santraps, etc, you were never sufficiently awarded. Let's look back at Left 4 Dead. Taking a different route than usual or backtracking ever so slightly might reward you with a pipe bomb which could easily save a life later on. Exploring the world was extremely fulfilling. Highly immersive and it was melded into the main mechanics of the game. When I was looking for the caches, that felt totally unnatural and took me out of the game. I mean the small details are great. G-Man and small extra areas, but it doesn't hold up.

Driving sequences. This is pretty subjective. Some people like it, some people didn't. I just didn't, I suppose. I think it may be because you never really needed it. It was only ever required as to not have to tediously walk through long parts of empty space or rush by enemies. I did particularly like the water boat sections if only because it wasn't so restricting on where you could go. Although I can't really think of any game that's mixed vehicles fluidly into a non-racing game.

The game does not enforce a variety of strategy. Yes, you CAN decide to put on restrictions or combinations, but it's never the wisest choice. Putting this in contrast with something like Bulletstorm, which is totally centred around trying new things and making it fun. Using only a gravity gun is something that's only hinted at by the Ravenholm achievement and is about equivocally fun as using only a white mage in Final Fantasy and the likes.

It's a great game. It's a fun game. But because of so many modern titles taking what it had originally done, it won't feel as unique to anyone who first played it years later than its release. Like me, who only got the Orange Box last year.

 

[Woodsey]

Erm... I think Half-Life 2 aged horribly. I mean I enjoyed the story of the games, but I was horribly annoyed by how predictable everything was. Basic weapons with simplistic mechanics, no bonuses in the game and no exploration, horrible driving sequences, very little strategy, etc etc
It was revolutionary, but it doesn't hold up

-_-

not gonna let this slide.

Predictable: how is it more predicable than current games? HOW? I guess you foresaw jumping on rocks to avoid antlions, yeah that was in the first game. you new that that the gravity gun would get supercharged anadsnhshv.... (my nerd rage is making it hard to finish this one)

Basic weapons: many weapons have two firing modes for one thing. yeah THE GRAVITY GUN was basic... sigh. I bet you didn't predict you'd be using a pheropod command a small army of minions! AND HOW ARE THE WEAPONS IS HL2 MORE BASIC THAN CURRENT GAMES!! you offer no evidence.

No Bonuses: whatchu talk bout willis?

No exploration: so I guess you didn't find all the caches, find the mystic vortigaunt at the end of that tunnel, use the barrel to get to that place in the coast, explore all the sections in sandtraps....... I could go on but you won't get it even I mentioned all the out of way places, secret, hidden caches, special scenes (G-man). Theres a lot of exploration to be had in HL2, its just not obvious.

driving sequences: the first person driving may be hard to get used to but its a whole lot more immersive than switching to third person every time you enter/exit a vehicle. and you try driving a rusty buggy over rough terrain.

little strategy: you can go fast, slow, try melee only, try only using the gravity gun, repeat different combat sequences with different two weapon combos, try different turret positions positions, etc etc... lots of strategy to be had for those who take the time.


none of your points are valid.
I hope you enjoy the current situation of FPS design. You, and the people like you, caused it.

damn, i try not to get trolled, but this one hit me hard.
If your not a troll then, in the future, give evidence when making points.


hl2 faces still look more real that some modern games. fallout new vegas for one.

When I say its predictable, I mean I run forward, do a little platforming, fight the same enemies, uncover plot, and maybe engage in a physics puzzle. Lather, rinse and repeat every chapter and every episode. And let's not forget the elevator stuff. Think about Fallout 3. A huge open game, so many people to interact with, so many different ways to play the game.

You've just destroyed your own argument.

Fallout 3 is an open-world RPG, HL2 is a linear first-person shooter. They're two completely different things! If you don't like HL2, that's because you obviously like a completely different genre.

Deus Ex,the A.I for the game is really stupid some of the voice acting is a little silly and of course the graphics are bad

Fun fact: they had to make the AI bad on purpose to make the stealth work.

 

[Retosa]

The original Master of Orion. I tried playing it just recently, and the interface, while not atrocious, didn't lend itself to being enjoyable. Master of Orion 2 however, I can still play for hours and get sucked into just as much as I do Civilization.

Speaking of Civilization, Civ 1 and 2 didn't age well IMO. Civ 3 kinda made both of them obsolete. While Civ 3, 4, and 5 each have different things going for them that make them all amazing.

I have to agree with a lot of people on Goldeneye, it aged horribly just due to the controls.

Tales of Phantasia (SNES/GBA) and Tales of Destiny both didn't age very well, due to the very slow clunky combat. It was a godsend, considering how amazingly innovative it was, and it spawned what is, in my opinion, the greatest RPG series out there, but until Tales of Eternia (AKA Tales of Destiny 2), the combat really didn't take off. I can play Tales of Eternia and LOVE the combat, but it's more difficult with Tales of Destiny and Tales of Phantasia.

Also, the original Star Ocean for the SNES didn't age very well either, again, due to the combat, which was groundbreaking for its time as well. The first RPG with a semi-real time 3D battle environment.

I know there are more that I've ranted about, but I can't think of them at just this moment. So you'll have to just make due with these.

 

[Squilookle]

Nothing. You hear me? Nothing.

Not a single game that was genuinely good when it came out is any worse today. Like good movies, good games simply don't 'date'.

 

[Antwerp Caveman]

If I could find it back, I'd still play Jagged Alliance 2.
After so many playthroughs, I think I finally found everything.

The entirety of the Jagged Alliance series can be found on gog.com If you didn't know off it yet, I also reccomend the jagged alliance 1.13 mod to give it a fresh spin.

I disagree with most games listed by people in the thread thus far (gta3 being the main exception, but the I still like its soundtrack xP), but then I'm more forgiving then most when it comes to old games as I can still remember the context in which they were bought out (ff7 being perfect example).

Honestly, only games from ps1 era onwards that I can't play anymore due to old age are the original grand theft autos.

Meh, it's also on Steam, I just lost my cd's.

 

[Fanta Grape]

You've just destroyed your own argument.

Fallout 3 is an open-world RPG, HL2 is a linear first-person shooter. They're two completely different things! If you don't like HL2, that's because you obviously like a completely different genre.

People can enjoy more than one genre of gaming...

If I compare it to something more similar, like Portal, it doesn't have to resort to repetition and yet is completely linear and manages to have creative diversity. Or maybe you'll argue that it's a puzzle. But then I'll look at the metroid prime series which, although linear and pretty straight forward, but manages to have many different things you must do to complete the series.

I said Fallout 3 because even if you could only play one way, you'd still have the option of playing the game with stealth or big guns or bla bla bla.

P.S. I'm pretty sure I said I liked Half-Life 2.

 

[Frankster]

Meh, it's also on Steam, I just lost my cd's.

It is? o0 I honestly never realized it, knew they had the xcom series there but didn't check to see if they had other oldie games.

My condoleances to your lost cds.

 

[WanderingFool]

Kingdom Hearts is still fun but when you go back and play it, you realize how linear all the levels are, as well as how annoying the camera is. KHII has aged slightly better but the levels are still pretty confining.
Also Banjo Kazooie's controls can be a little clunky at times. and the levels feel extremely small.
and finally, play Bioshock, Fallout 3 or any modern shooter, then go play Goldeneye 64. it feels very awkward

Well, im not sure about KH, but with Goldeneye, one must remember that we were playing that with a single stick on what had to be the worst designed controller in history...

I disagree on the N64 controller being bad, but I appear to be in the minority. As for playing goldeneye with 1 analog stick, why would anyone do that? ;p - I used the dual controller setup, (which, ironically is only possible because of the 'crazy' design of the N64 controller - It's actually viable to hold one in each hand. Granted, this becomes meaningless when later controller designs had 2 analog sticks anyway, but that's a somewhat different issue.)

Dual Controller Setup? You actually played the game holding a controller in each hand... damn...