The 'take a step back' movement

[Jandau]

I just finished reading the entire Girl Genius webcomic, which means I'll be "stepping back" to Arcanum with a full tech character. Kinda hard to find proper steampunk games. Not games that feature a steampunk-themed level or something, but actual steampunk games. Shame, really...

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Most def. I had my reserves with the second game, but the other characters were actually pretty fun to use. I liked using the little girl with the scythe and the wolf guy with the twin swords (and really, who didn't like using that guy?).

Surprised the hell out of me. Made the inability to play Raikoh in every stage a non-issue. For the most part, anyway. I never did like Suetake's play-style.

Now if there were ever a couple of games I'd like in an HD collection...

 

[RustlessPotato]

I'm going back to Morrowind =D. Well going back isn't true. I started with Oblivion and figured i'd try Morrowind. Boy have I been missing out: the completely alien environment is superb. Yes it doesn't have the best graphics, but I think it has aged well and it is great aestethically. I can see now how people found oblivion borin after playing Morrowind. Haven't tried Skyrim yet though.

My brother and i often play ps 1 games together. We settle arguments by playing tekken 3 xD.

But to be honest, not all gaming from today is bad. I think that when people say "gaming used to be better" they just remember the great games of then and not the tons of bad ones. In 20 years people will say gaming now was better, because they'll just remember the good ones.

Though, i might be contradicting myself here, but i do think that gaming now is more simple than it used to be. I base that on Morrowind vs Oblivion, and i realise that I shouldn't base my opinion on my own comparision of 1 game. I think we should up the standards a bit, storywise and willing to take some risk so that we have something fresh.

My captha was "over the hill". Which made me think of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHP6IAxH1aA =D.

 

[Vegosiux]

Old Infocom games for me and later stuff like Space/King's/Whatever Quest.

"Oh, you didn't pick up the screwdriver on the third turn of the game? Well, sucks to be you..."

Ah yes, those were the days *chuckle*

if you wait to long with your expansions, the chance that people will buy it get slimmer.

and that affects also the digital distribution. people lose interest. thats all.

Can we stop using the terms "DLC" and "expansion" interchangeably?

 

[DustyDrB]

I'm pretty much always mixing in old games with new ones. And a lot of them are just as good as I remember them being. And no, it isn't nostalgia at work (though I don't see anything wrong with allowing nostalgia to elevate an experience). Many old games really are just very good.

 

[Minjoltr]

I play undemanding things like Zork, Sonic and Hexen on my netbook on long train journeys and
I've been replaying Morrowind lately because Skyrim made me miss colours, being able to steal every brightly coloured, shiny object in the game to hoard in Fast Eddie's my house and having to put some effort into looking for things.
Don't know if it really counts as old though. To me, Doom is pretty old but I hear some people talking about Oblivion as though it's an old game but I remember when it came out so it doesn't feel particularly old.

I know people will look down on me for saying this. But so many old games are just too damn ugly.

Some games have aged well like doom or most oldschool strategy games where everything is 2d. But any of the first real 3D games is just too ugly for me now. I cant immerse myself in a world like Morrowind anymore and it sucks that I feel this way now.

Plus designs of games were horrible back then, nowadays game developers actually put a lot of work with test groups and stuff like map markers into making sure the player actually has an idea of where they are meant to be going and what they are meant to be doing. The amount of times I would get stuck in some old game because I saved and went to bed and the next day I couldnt remember that one piece of dialouge that said to go west or whatever...ARGHHH!!

Have a look at the Morrowind Overhaul [http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/]. It makes the game prettier and shinier and lets you use magic while holding a weapon (it doesn't improve quest directions though). Morrowind still looks like Morrowind but less derpy.

 

[Luca72]

Have a look at the Morrowind Overhaul [http://morrowindoverhaul.rpgitalia.net/]. It makes the game prettier and shinier and lets you use magic while holding a weapon (it doesn't improve quest directions though). Morrowind still looks like Morrowind but less derpy.

Listen to this man! The Overhaul looks gorgeous. I installed it after my stint with Skyrim, which I loved, but still found myself more attached to Morrowind. The main reason is that the world is really unique, the plot is interesting (direct involvement in a sort of Greek pantheon of Gods that are all fed up with each other), and that you really get to design your character from the ground up. Not just mage, fighter, rogue. I made an unarmed/polearm wielding monk, who can alter his own gravity, and the gravity of others, and absorbs magic and spits it back at attackers. I miss the physics and radiant AI, but I still feel closer to the world of Morrowind than Skyrim.

Got a few tests next week, but after I'm done with them I think I'm going to give X-Com a go for the first time. Any tips for a beginner? I hear it's pretty brutal.

 

[Pearwood]

"Oh, you didn't pick up the screwdriver on the third turn of the game? Well, sucks to be you..."

Ah yes, those were the days *chuckle*

I never said they had superior design, just that they have a certain thing about them that I enjoy. I fully realise game design has come a long way, I just like my interactive fiction.

 

[Vegosiux]

"Oh, you didn't pick up the screwdriver on the third turn of the game? Well, sucks to be you..."

Ah yes, those were the days *chuckle*

I never said they had superior design, just that they have a certain thing about them that I enjoy. I fully realise game design has come a long way, I just like my interactive fiction.

Hey, I was not being sarcastic. Those were the days, and every time something like that happened it made me go "...no...HOW!? AAaarrrrghhhrestart..." And then on my next playthrough I didn't notice something else and so on and so forth...got eaten by a grue...etc. Was fun.

 

[LadyTiamat]

i shall be going back to play old ps2 and gamecube games that i have missed because of either no being aware of them, passed them because of bad reviews, never saw a copy in store (i barred buying things off the internet when i was younger), or just more interested in more genres now.

Currently playing through breath of fire 5: Dragon Quarter, i don't know why this game got so much hate. It has an interesting battle system, setting, atmosphere, and interesting (so far) story. Maybe its cause i never played another breath of fire before.

 

[LiquidSolstice]

I just popped in the first Harry Potter game for the GBC on my phone. Great fun I've still got the cartridge even, back when the color games where see-through and you could actually see the RAM chip inside them. Those were the days...

 

[Pearwood]

Hey, I was not being sarcastic. Those were the days, and every time something like that happened it made me go "...no...HOW!? AAaarrrrghhhrestart..." And then on my next playthrough I didn't notice something else and so on and so forth...got eaten by a grue...etc. Was fun.

Yeah they're great, I love how open they are too. With modern games every single line of dialogue has to be voiced, animated and so on, with text adventures you got fun little bonuses now and then when the developers thought of a witty little remark to something you tried to do. I wouldn't want all games to be like that but they still have their charm

 

[Hectix777]

EDIT: And oh, believe me, if there was ANY WAY I could get my hands on either a Dreamcast or an SNES... hooh...

My uncle's SNES still works, but I haven't played it in ages. I saw Secret of Mana at a game traders the other day and almost jizzed. However, the price tag was $275 ;_;
I was talking to the store owner about the game, an explaining to my friends that came with me about how amazing the game is:

Me: "Think of the best RPG you have ever played"
Friend: "Ok, Fi-"
Me: "Secret of Mana is better. I don't know or care what game you had in mind, Secret of Mana is better"
Friend: "Well what abou-"
Me: "No, you don't get it. The game was made for the SNES back when they were still figuring out how to make games challenging without making them impossible, and this game is fucking amazing. You can play it a dozen times and still have new paths to take. The game makes Skyrim with all of it's 'open world-ness' look like a straight hallway"
Friend: "Wow..."

If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and buy up all the amazing games that I didn't realize were amazing because I was a stupid kid

Y'know that game is on iOS, right?

 

[Torrasque]

EDIT: And oh, believe me, if there was ANY WAY I could get my hands on either a Dreamcast or an SNES... hooh...

My uncle's SNES still works, but I haven't played it in ages. I saw Secret of Mana at a game traders the other day and almost jizzed. However, the price tag was $275 ;_;
I was talking to the store owner about the game, an explaining to my friends that came with me about how amazing the game is:

Me: "Think of the best RPG you have ever played"
Friend: "Ok, Fi-"
Me: "Secret of Mana is better. I don't know or care what game you had in mind, Secret of Mana is better"
Friend: "Well what abou-"
Me: "No, you don't get it. The game was made for the SNES back when they were still figuring out how to make games challenging without making them impossible, and this game is fucking amazing. You can play it a dozen times and still have new paths to take. The game makes Skyrim with all of it's 'open world-ness' look like a straight hallway"
Friend: "Wow..."

If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and buy up all the amazing games that I didn't realize were amazing because I was a stupid kid

Y'know that game is on iOS, right?

Yeah, but its just not the same =/

 

[Hectix777]

EDIT: And oh, believe me, if there was ANY WAY I could get my hands on either a Dreamcast or an SNES... hooh...

My uncle's SNES still works, but I haven't played it in ages. I saw Secret of Mana at a game traders the other day and almost jizzed. However, the price tag was $275 ;_;
I was talking to the store owner about the game, an explaining to my friends that came with me about how amazing the game is:

Me: "Think of the best RPG you have ever played"
Friend: "Ok, Fi-"
Me: "Secret of Mana is better. I don't know or care what game you had in mind, Secret of Mana is better"
Friend: "Well what abou-"
Me: "No, you don't get it. The game was made for the SNES back when they were still figuring out how to make games challenging without making them impossible, and this game is fucking amazing. You can play it a dozen times and still have new paths to take. The game makes Skyrim with all of it's 'open world-ness' look like a straight hallway"
Friend: "Wow..."

If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and buy up all the amazing games that I didn't realize were amazing because I was a stupid kid

Y'know that game is on iOS, right?

Yeah, but its just not the same =/

Is it the lack of buttons? Because I miss those things, and I pray to whatever deity that made this universe that buttonless peripherals are not the future of gaming. It's too weird, I can probably live with something like neural control, but I miss buttons.

 

[Torrasque]

EDIT: And oh, believe me, if there was ANY WAY I could get my hands on either a Dreamcast or an SNES... hooh...

My uncle's SNES still works, but I haven't played it in ages. I saw Secret of Mana at a game traders the other day and almost jizzed. However, the price tag was $275 ;_;
I was talking to the store owner about the game, an explaining to my friends that came with me about how amazing the game is:

Me: "Think of the best RPG you have ever played"
Friend: "Ok, Fi-"
Me: "Secret of Mana is better. I don't know or care what game you had in mind, Secret of Mana is better"
Friend: "Well what abou-"
Me: "No, you don't get it. The game was made for the SNES back when they were still figuring out how to make games challenging without making them impossible, and this game is fucking amazing. You can play it a dozen times and still have new paths to take. The game makes Skyrim with all of it's 'open world-ness' look like a straight hallway"
Friend: "Wow..."

If I had a time machine, I'd go back in time and buy up all the amazing games that I didn't realize were amazing because I was a stupid kid

Y'know that game is on iOS, right?

Yeah, but its just not the same =/

Is it the lack of buttons? Because I miss those things, and I pray to whatever deity that made this universe that buttonless peripherals are not the future of gaming. It's too weird, I can probably live with something like neural control, but I miss buttons.

Lack of buttons are definitely a factor. I just really really do not like playing games on my iPhone.