Old games that hold up today

[sniddy_v1legacy]

Lets see:

Master of Orion 2: it's old, it has gorgeous 2D VGA graphics, the gameplay still makes it one of the best 4X games in the world.
Nothing recent gets close, although Sword of the Stars 2 looks like it's going in the right direction.

X-COM: Terror From the Deep. A lot like Enemy Unknown, but much much harder, although you need to be aware of a few bugs to be able to complete the game (a specific kind of research that you need is bugged and can only be discovered with a precise sequence of research topics).
Gameplay is still second to none, and tense as hell. The addition of an aquatic environment really changes things up, and the smarter AI is extremely dangerous.

Planescape Torment: fantastic story, fantastic setting, great gameplay. With a few modern mods (to properly use widescreen resolutions in the game) this still looks absolutely fantastic, and the gameplay is unchanged and great.

Sword of the Stars sounds like a game to watch then as this sums up my list except I would substitute enemy unknown for terror - why?

The bugs - the stupidly long drawn out terror missions, please I never, ever, ever want to play through one of those again. The original was more fun.

 

[pyrosaw]

Homeworld, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, No One Lives Forever, uh, a good majority of my PS2 collection.

 

[Trucken]

Jagged Alliance 2 - still the best squad tactics / SRPG ever made

Seconded. Brilliant game that I still play to this very day. Me and a friend are just playing through Urban Chaos, a brilliant mod for it.

 

[DELETETHISACCOUNT]

Out of this World (Another World) comes to mind first. It's presentation is so unique and well executed that you forgive some of its faults. Even without the HD re-release you'd still see it as an indie that could have easy been released even this year.

There are plenty of other games that have already been mentioned too.

 

[senobit]

Marathon Durandal

Not the other Marathon games too? Not that I take issue with M2 being singled out, as each Marathon is a qualitatively different experience, so it's easy to imagine that it might have aged better than the others. And M2 is something of a pinnacle of total carnage* (IIHARLIMSP perhaps being the pinnacle of the pinnacle). But IMO the other games haven't really aged worse than M2 has; any articulated reason that Marathon 2 is being singled out, or do you just like it more than the others?

*Given the way it's used in the game, I'm not sure if this counts as a pun or not.

I kinda of agree that m2 has aged the best out of the 3, I think its because of its more open environments and the whole game is lot brighter coz its mostly planet based instead of the grey corridors of space ships and stations of the first and 3rd.

Anyway I think 2d platformers, shumps and RPG tend to age better than most. Also light gun games can be pretty timeless too.

Out of the games I've got i think these have probably aged the best:

rocket knights adventures (MD)
land of illusion (SMS)
Prince of Persia Dynamite headdy (MD)
Super Star Wars (SNES)
Another World
Flashback
Lemmings
Prince of Persia
Micro machines (its never really changed)
Story of thor/Beyond oasis (MD) the saturn sequel isn't nearly as good
plok (snes)
cybernator (snes)
Ecco (MD and DC)
Bio hazzard battle (MD)
ThunderForce IV (MD)
The Dig (PC)
Full Throttle (PC)
Grim fandango (PC)
Day of the tentacle (PC)
Darius Gaiden (Sat)
Strider 2 (PS1)
All the Oddword games
banjo kazooie (N64)
Fantasy zone (SMS)
MGS (PS1)
Colony Wars 1,2 and red sun (PS1)
Wipeout (PS1, Sat)
Syndicate (Aminga)
Teddy Boy (SMS) its so simple it never really ages
Alex Kidd in shinobi world (SMS) also the first game I ever completed
Ground control (PC)
Cannon Fodder (Amiga)

Plus you've got the obvious ones like the sonic, mario, metroid, donkey kong and zelda games.

 

[hatseflats]

Rayman 2

A really really good platformer, great gameplay, setting, sound and visuals. The graphics have aged very well. Well worth trying (it's available for PC). Remarkably it seems to have been mostly forgotten (even when people reminisce about old games) despite being quite popular when it was released and many sequals/spin-offs.

Besides that, classics like Morrowind, Deus Ex and Tales of Phantasia are all very good even today. This has nothing to do with nostalgia, as I only got to know them a long time after they were first released.

 

[Fredvdp]

...
Indiana Jones and the fate of Atlantis
...

Great game, but after seeing the Monkey Island special editions I'd love to see Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis with a reskin.

 

[hoboman29]

I would have to say in all seriousness ET as a perfect example of how NOT to make anything.

I would also say the ps2 Ratchet and Clank games except size matters because they made cut-scenes that did not look like ass when that was a huge issue.

Last but not least is timesplitters 2 the best example of fun gameplay over everything else while it doesn't look good or have an epic story it is the funnest fps EVER.

 

[Bostur]

I had the honour of playing Jagged Alliance 2 for the first time. It's not often I encounter an old quality game that I haven't played. It has some of the best tactical AI I have ever seen in a game. The system is solid enough that decisions matter and the player can learn and become better at it. As icing on the cake the story elements and the dialogue is hilarious.
When I watch modern games getting AI wrong to the extent that NPCs can barely navigate without getting stuck, I wish modern developers would observe and learn.

Any adventure game, if it was good back then it still is. Adventure games don't depend on graphics to carry them through.

Master of Magic - One of the most replayable 4X games ever made. Very hard game, very deep.

UFO:Enemy Unknown, and the sequel Terror from the deep - For much the same reasons as JA2.

Deus Ex - I replayed it in preparation for Human Revolution. Absolute rubbish graphics but a level design that is second to none. In the age of railroaded shooter corridors it's refreshing to play a game that doesn't treat the player as a drooling idiot. Too bad the last part of HR turned into another typical shooting gallery, because it started out promising.

Many of Sid Meier's games.

Pirates! - Still the best implementation of swordplay I have seen in a game due to the simplicity and the clear cues. The remake doesn't work quite as well in this regard because the complex animations make moves sluggish.

The Civilization series - Civ 2, 3 and 4 being the best of the series.

The Railroad Tycoon series - The second being my personal favorite.

Alpha Centauri - Not so much for the gameplay, because it misstepped a bit as a 4X game, but one of the few 4X games that successfully integrated narrative.

 

[2733]

[sub][sub]**I know that Metroid Prime was rereleased as part of a trilogy. I have said trilogy and the console to play it on. And I still very much prefer it on the Gamecube because I can play it with a good and proper controller, not any of this newfangled motion control bollocks. Plus I would like to see that game in a true HD rerelease - it still looks really damned good.
[/sub][/sub]

I have the exact opposite thing going: I can't play normal first-person shooters for crap with a gamepad, but the Wii's pointer (without waggle, just the pointer) works like a charm.

I like the pointer for accuracy as well, at least I did before I upgraded to a new HDTV and the thing aims 4in high and 3 to the right, I hope wiiu fixes that.

Back on topic, I'm currently playing Okami for the first time and it is still better then most modern releases.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

[sub][sub]**I know that Metroid Prime was rereleased as part of a trilogy. I have said trilogy and the console to play it on. And I still very much prefer it on the Gamecube because I can play it with a good and proper controller, not any of this newfangled motion control bollocks. Plus I would like to see that game in a true HD rerelease - it still looks really damned good.
[/sub][/sub]

I have the exact opposite thing going: I can't play normal first-person shooters for crap with a gamepad, but the Wii's pointer (without waggle, just the pointer) works like a charm.

Metroid Prime has lock-on, though; doesn't that help at all?

I haven't played the original, and besides, the lock-on makes everything a whole lot more trivial. And when you lock onto something fast, it's hard to move where you want to go because the camera moves without you...
~~~~
Note that every detractor of motion controls I've ever met only talks about the lag on the "waggle" command, even with the Wii Motion Plus. None of them ever bring up the pointer (except with Yahtzee's review of Killzone 3, and that was only because it was shown in a ridiculous way.)

 

[him over there]

Assuming you have someone else to play with Pong holds up pretty way. Other than that the most obvious I can think of The Legend Of Zelda Wind Waker, And the original Paper Mario.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

Sword of the Stars sounds like a game to watch then as this sums up my list except I would substitute enemy unknown for terror - why?

The bugs - the stupidly long drawn out terror missions, please I never, ever, ever want to play through one of those again. The original was more fun.

Sword of the Stars 2 had probably the worst launch possible, Kerberos is patching the hell out of it, but it'll be a good few months before the game even starts looking close to completion. It's playable now (previously it basically wasn't), but many of the features don't work yet.

Trade and diplomacy isn't in yet, but warfare is, research seems to work ok now, and the fleet system takes a lot of getting used to, especially since the tutorials aren't in yet either.

In other words, give a few more months to get closer to what it should have been, and you'll have a game that can compete with Orion 2, although I suspect the latter will still be better liked. ^^

 

[LittleJoeRambler]

StarCraft and Brood War. I've been replaying both of these games recently, and I have to admit there's just something about them that feels... better than StarCraft II. I can't put my finger on it, but I know part of it is the music. The pace feels less break-neck too, although I tend to enjoy faster-paced stuff more. Maybe it's the greater sense of accomplishment from pulling off a victory, because it takes so much more effort to get the most out of all of your units, and it's less about "build giant force and a-move, rinse and repeat until enemy stops moving."

I also still really enjoy playing Titan Quest (though I have the Underlord mod and not the original game), and as such I'm really, really looking forward to Grim Dawn when it comes out.

And the 3rd generation Pokemon games, although it really, really bugs me that the physical/special split didn't take place until 4th gen, so that's really the only thing keeping Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald/LeafGreen/FireRed from being the best Pokemon games ever made in my opinion.

 

[Monkey lord]

when I saw the tread title I was also going to say the original ratchet and clank
It's an incredible game and I'm playing it right now

 

[JasonKaotic]

Final Fantasy VIII !
/flameshield

 

[Sprinal]

Well you can't go past Zork...

As far as story goes there it is a little limited in comparison to some o the more modern games yet this doesn't deter as the game has some solid game play and is very very hard (if your not good at puzzle games).

 

[octafish]

snip
XCom:Enemy Unknown.
snip

Ahhhh there it is. Now I'm one of those few who prefer Terror from the Deep because I can open doors without walking through them, but Xcom is still one of my favorite games to play.

I think JA2 holds up pretty well too, but I'm still looking forward to the reboot.