Old games that hold up today

[Your Fearless Captain]

Edit: Actually, never mind, I'll nominate Max Payne 2 instead. The story isn't that connected to the original so it stands alone nicely, the shooting is fun and the fact that the character's mouths actually move helps it not look dated. And it's weird how Max always looks constipated in the original - again, due to no facial animation more than anything. (Original American release: October 15, 2003)

Was Max Payne 2 really 8 years ago? Damn.

OT:I think the Megaman Legends 2 holds up quite well. Recently played the whole thing through again and it still rocks.

 

[Polarity27]

Halo CE. I never get tired of dusting it off and replaying it. Next to Reach, it's still my favorite Halo for gameplay.

Still love the KOTORs, too.

 

[Tom Artingstall]

Interesting note RE: Graphics. Games considered to be high end graphics on their release (Doom 3 remake, despite any personal opinions on overall entertainment value, was a real hardware chugger when it came out) don't age well. Stand them up against a modern example of processor porn and they look... well, old. Cartoony visuals however, age far better. A cartoon is a cartoon no matter how old it is. Personally I think classic Tom and Jerry cartoons from the 30s look better than half the stuff modern animation studios churn out. This is why WoW has aged so well. I mean, it never looked -good- but it doesn't feel like a 7 year old game when you look at the visuals today.

 

[Best of the 3]

Warcraft 3 has to be on the list. Graphics could be better, but the gameplay is solid, and multiplayer is still running with a large-ish community. More than can be said for many other RTS's which are younger than WC3. It'll just be graphics which would be the hard thing to really over look.

And Wacraft 3 Reign of Chaos will be 10 years old this year. Scary thought. I feel old.

 

[spartandude]

Half life 2..most definetly

this

also
KotOR
Republic Commando
Battlefield 2142 and 2
Morrowind
Metrtoid Prime
Jedi Outcast, if you havnt played this and thought Force Unleashed sucked try this game

 

[spartandude]

Interesting note RE: Graphics. Games considered to be high end graphics on their release (Doom 3 remake, despite any personal opinions on overall entertainment value, was a real hardware chugger when it came out) don't age well. Stand them up against a modern example of processor porn and they look... well, old. Cartoony visuals however, age far better. A cartoon is a cartoon no matter how old it is. Personally I think classic Tom and Jerry cartoons from the 30s look better than half the stuff modern animation studios churn out. This is why WoW has aged so well. I mean, it never looked -good- but it doesn't feel like a 7 year old game when you look at the visuals today.

this is actually very very true

 

[veloper]

Master of Orion 2 - still the best 4X game ever made for over a decade
Jagged Alliance 2 - still the best squad tactics / SRPG ever made

followed by tons of 10 year old games that are still very good, but nolonger the best.

 

[Krais101]

I found Deus Ex and Invisible War are still fun when I replayed them.

 

[Berenzen]

Any of the classic top-down tactics view RPG games(Baldur's gate, BG2, PS:T, IWD, IWD2, the Fallouts), you don't really need outstanding graphics for them, hell it'd probably take away from the game.

Also, any Rare game while they were still with Nintendo, I know people don't really like the maguffin collecting that goes on in a lot of their games (seriously, JFG's maguffin collection requirement was sorta BS), but they still stand up today.

This whole idea is subjective though, if the person is a graphics whore, then most games won't stand up, if they're more focused on story or gameplay, then chances are that they will. That's the major flaw with these posts. It may stand up to me, but to someone else, it may not.

 

[Eiv]

MGS1
Grim Fandango
Any nes/snes era Mario game (same for zelda)
Baldurs Gate
Diablo 1&2
Theme Hospital
Icewind Dale
Most text adventures i still quite enjoy.
Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis
Kings Quest/Space Quest/Police Quest
Worms

List compiled while resetting my body clock....so so so tired.....

 

[CulixCupric]

Psychonauts.

The cartoony art style makes the visuals really stand out, and not look old, the story and mechanics are solid, and there really is no other game that's ever had a story even remotely similar.

yeah, I'll [number]ed that.

Also, at least for myself, TES II: Daggerfall. I have Skyrim, and I still do go back to play a bit of daggerfall on occasion.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Let me check my Steam Library...

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. Detective-sleuth, horror, action, general mindfuckery of a game? Challenging and pretty hard to understand while still being easy enough to get through and play.

Hope so, I just bought it through the winter sale.


Metal Gear Solid is still great fun, especially with the stealth being "don't get seen", not "hide in the shadows".

Just playing Star Wars: Republic Commando, awesome, great fun and the graphics haven't dated too badly.

Doom and Doom II.

Half Life, Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2.

Ratchet & Clank. Sure, it's missing the ability to actually aim your guns that's prominent in the sequels, but it's still one epic action-platformer with epic guns. Anyone seen the R.Y.N.O recently?

 

[R3VOLU7ION]

Jet Set Radio Future definitely, Gran Turismo 2 as well.
Plus Abe's Oddworld games, I bought Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus on steam the other day because of the sales for around 60c each. Well worth it, in my opinion they're among the best platformers ever.

 

[MOXron]

Psychonauts.

The cartoony art style makes the visuals really stand out, and not look old, the story and mechanics are solid, and there really is no other game that's ever had a story even remotely similar.

I've only just bought Psychonauts on Steam, and so haven't played much of it yet, but the story seems quite similar to Earthworm Jim 3D, no?

Also, Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets. I don't really know of any other game that has mechanics too similar to it. It's essentially a third-person shooter, platformer, Quidditch sim and Rythm game, all rolled up into one package.

Unreal Tournament 99. The game that revolutionized the FPS genre, I'd say that still easily holds up to most modern games. (seeing as most are partly influenced by it in one way or another)

And finally, the Medievil series! It was so unique and...well, funny, but at the same time, wacky,sad, and damn near disturbing. Hell, even nowadays I still replay the adventures of Sir Fortesque on a regular basis...

 

[SovietX]

Banjo Kazooie. Never gets old. Amazing gameplay and likeable characters.

 

[endtherapture]

Wind Waker. The graphics still look gorgeous due to having that art style, and the game world is vast and expansive and it just feels like a modern Zelda game - more modern than Twilight Princess really.

And Baldur's Gate 2. Still playing this over 10 year on now, and it feels fresh as ever.

 

[marcooos]

Well I bought Max Payne on the XBLA on friday and the gunplay still works stupidly fucking well

 

[TheScientificIssole]

Counter Strike:Source, original, not so much.
CS:S never fails me its highly moddable, and at its core, just a fun basic game.

 

[CryoSynth]

Half Life 2 is probably the only game I can think of that I only saw and/or played for the first time far enough past its time to count as having aged (meaning I wasn't biased in comparing its appearance to modern games by nostalgia).

I only played it for the first time last year. And when I did I was quite surprised it still looks pretty great, much better than I had expected, thinking it'd be comparable to other shooters from back in its day.