Old timers : Do you REALLY enjoy the games today like past games?

Yes and no, what I HATE is the constant hand holding in today's games. I know not all games are like that but for the ones that do have the hand holding is annoying.

I do enjoy a lot of recent geames like The DIvision, MGS V, the Battlefield series, etc etc.
 
Well, I don't like commercial games the way I used to... except for maybe a few Ubisoft and Nintendo games. Outside of that, I generally go around finding games from the SNES/NES era that I haven't played yet, or indie games. The problem is basically that games are becoming the way movies have been for a while... formulaic and predictable. The costs of making a game are so high that most studios don't want to take chances, so they just make stuff they know will sell.
 
Astral Abyss said:
It's just nostalgia. I built a DOS box a few years ago to play Master of Orion, Master of Magic, Syndicate, System Shock, The Ultimas, Wing Commander, etc in all their glory. Truth is they looked and sounded like crap now and I got bored fairly quick. For the same reason I ditched my C64 years ago, because all it really did is sit there and gather dust... and Jesus H was it really always THAT SLOW loading games?

I remember in the 80s and 90s struggling to find a game to play that didn't suck. There was just as much shit back then as now. I find that the modern gems shine just as brightly as the gems of 30 years ago.
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I see it differently. In relation to the Commodore 64 I see a computer from 1982 able to render graphics and sound that I find very impressive considering the hardware. You're talking about a 6510 processor running at 1mhz if your lucky with custom graphics (VIC-II) and sound (SID) chips and graphics scroll so smoothly and sound is amazing - You have to remember just what computing was like in 1982 to really appreciate it.

In relation to loading times, a 1541 Ultimate II+ and JiffyDOS takes care of that - Even in the day, a 1541 with an Action Replay cartridge wasn't that bad at all.

I also have an Amiga 500 and an Amiga 1200, considering the A500 was released in ~1987, the PC at the time didn't stand a hope in hell in direct comparison as a gamer. Nostalgia does play a part, however I believe these games need to be preserved as part of our computing history, in comparison modern PC's are just so soul less.

Proof in just how enjoyable the games were in the day is seeing kids enjoy titles on an old C64 or Amiga, they simply love them! In comparison they can play Roblox on their PC and spend most of that time just chatting to their mates as opposed to actually playing any games.
 
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Just look at sames of the NES remake, I believe they sold more of those in a month that the Wii U since release? And people are working out how to hack them to add more games.
 
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No. The number of modern games that I truly enjoy is far less than that of the classics. The biggest problems are (IMHO):

* dumbed down, consolified, hand-holding
* heavy on graphics, light on gameplay
* no proper multiplayer, only match making
* all sorts of bullshit around the game, monetisation, microtransactions, pay to win, freemium, DLCs, DRM, the constant hype, gaming "journalism", feminazism, whining about violent games, yadayada...

The last modern game that I truly loved was Stalker: Call Of Pripyat. I'd say Call Of Chernobyl, but that's a mod and not a published game.
 
endalykt said:
No. The number of modern games that I truly enjoy is far less than that of the classics. The biggest problems are (IMHO):

* dumbed down, consolified, hand-holding
* heavy on graphics, light on gameplay
* no proper multiplayer, only match making
* all sorts of bullshit around the game, monetisation, microtransactions, pay to win, freemium, DLCs, DRM, the constant hype, gaming "journalism", feminazism, whining about violent games, yadayada...

The last modern game that I truly loved was Stalker: Call Of Pripyat. I'd say Call Of Chernobyl, but that's a mod and not a published game.
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Did you ever set up a multiplayer server and play Stalker, gawd damn that was good fun! Multiplayer in Chernobyl with time of day weather effects. Myself and a group of mates had an awesome time playing that game.
 
BulletDust said:
Did you ever set up a multiplayer server and play Stalker, gawd damn that was good fun! Multiplayer in Chernobyl with time of day weather effects. Myself and a group of mates had an awesome time playing that game.
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A few times, yes! I didn't have too many friends to play with, but oh my ramen appendages, THAT was good! I am still fuming over Survarium being just another shitty COD clone :(

The good news is that there is a mod for COP: http://www.moddb.com/mods/ray-of-hope-co-op-online

With any luck, multiplayer might even be added to COC, and then all stalkers will rejoice!
 
endalykt said:
A few times, yes! I didn't have too many friends to play with, but oh my ramen appendages, THAT was good! I am still fuming over Survarium being just another shitty COD clone :(

The good news is that there is a mod for COP: http://www.moddb.com/mods/ray-of-hope-co-op-online

With any luck, multiplayer might even be added to COC, and then all stalkers will rejoice!
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The last time I tried to get another Stalker server up and running the software simply wouldn't work. We used to run the server on an old Compaq dual Pentium 3 500 server with 3GB of ram and a four 10k SCSI drives in raid 0, surprisingly it handled it's duties perfectly.
 
That dual P3 500 server ran Halflife 2 Deathmatch dedicated server with custom maps and low gravity and Mani Admin packs as well as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R dedicated server software that I had to work out how to install and get running by translating Russian using Google - Everything was done via the command line and controlled using scripts, at the time the server was running Windows Server 2003.

I still have the install of the Halflife server, although it's a Linux install as years later I switched to a Pentium 4 Xeon server and Windows was having major performance issues with any more than 5 players in the server whereas the same machine running Linux handled it just fine. I'd really like to get STALKER server up and running again but the server software just won't work anymore, I think it needed a link to a master server in order to appear in the in game server browser, without that master server the software won't fire up.

The ability to make and self host your own dedicated servers and customise them was the peak of multiplayer PC gaming in my opinion.
 
Being only 27 I'm not sure if I qualify is an old-timer, but I do enjoy new games.
There are certainly elements and even genres I miss dearly, but at the same time I like a lot of games released in the past 5 years too.
I would kill for another STALKER, Unreal 1, Icewind Dale or Homeworld though.
 
I haven't turned on my Xbox One in 2 months. I've been playing my modded original Xbox with console emulators and roms. So far I have beat Megaman 1-6, Super Mario Bros. 1-World, Megaman X1-3, Earthbound, Keith Courage, Splatterhouse 1-3, Secret of Mana and Journey to Silius. Currently I am playing through Final Fantasy 1 for the NES.
 
No, not really. I put together this reasonably priced gaming computer with a GTX 1060 6GB so I can play anything modern. But I find myself playing modded Duke Nukem 3D


My Xbox 1 has less than 10 hours of run time on it. I'm not really sure why I bought it actually.
 
I think good games have been around throughout the time scale I've known them (since cassette tapes..). That said, I prefer most of the slightly more modern games, 90s and up as I was a little older and more able to enjoy them by then. Loved everything from Descent to Abes Oddysee/Exoddus (with Oddysee superseded by remake new n' tasty IMO) FF8 (yes, over 7) (only on PS2 fat.. near-ultimate nostalgia chill), Wipe3out (+series), Total Annihilation, Half Life1&2 (HL1 superseded by Black Mesa imo) etc etc I will gladly play again and do to this day. I'd love to give old wolfenstein 3d a burn too, spent countless hours on an old AMD sx386 playing that... Syndicate wars is also on the list.

Thought new doom captured old doom very well with modern twist and kept it very interesting and dynamic. So many ways to skin a cat in that game, great replay value, I spent hours playing the same level in SP sometimes. I also love Doom3 and the suspense, darkness and foreboding it has. I'm one of those weird people who also appreciates EP1-3 (but still think the originals are best).

And no I don't have any apple products. xD
 
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I'm 37 years old, been playing since 12, and i enjoy games today even more, and put in twice as much gaming time today.
It may be because i actually have money to buy good hardware, now.
 
endalykt said:
No. The number of modern games that I truly enjoy is far less than that of the classics. The biggest problems are (IMHO):

* dumbed down, consolified, hand-holding
* heavy on graphics, light on gameplay
* no proper multiplayer, only match making
* all sorts of bullshit around the game, monetisation, microtransactions, pay to win, freemium, DLCs, DRM, the constant hype, gaming "journalism", feminazism, whining about violent games, yadayada...
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This is really where I stand on modern games. I've picked up a few that I really enjoyed, but many lacked any depth of gameplay compared to older games. I like good gameplay mechanics that aren't too complicated, but require some skill to master. In other words, I can enjoy the game with basic skills, but know that I could get better and feel accomplished when I've finally mastered it. I also like a single player game that has a good story to it. Even the old 8 bit games that had no dialogue had a good "story" attached and my imagination could do the rest.

I really hate the combat games where the enemies spawn at certain points that your avatar crosses on the map. You can be in a completely isolated area, not a sound or soul to be seen, take one step further, and then tons of enemies come streaming out of nowhere!

Sometimes I just want to sit down and have some fun, and don't worry about an immersive environment, but the worst thing a game can be for me is if it bores me. That has happened with a number of newer games within just a little bit of playing. If I can get hours of play time before getting bored with a game, that's good. For example, I currently am bored with Sims3, but I put over 100 hours into the game before getting bored. That's not bad!
 
piscian18 said:
I was one of the original backers for Tim Schafers "Doublefine adventure", but when I actually played the game it was kind of meh.
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Same here, following the documentary was really worth the admission alone, but maybe spoiled the final game for me as I sorta knew what was going on in the game.

One of the things I like about games is the motivation to see what the next environment looks like, who the next character you meet will be like, what new plot twist is coming. I started playing The Longest Journey and it's giving me much more pleasure in those departments. I also really enjoyed Mechanarium and others from that developer and despite there being no story it was really immersive and emotionally moving, I guess in a similar way Limbo, Ico, and other "simpler" games are.

To me, as I get older, it's all about the quality and artistry and uniqueness. Great visuals, great music, if there is a story or character it takes a lot to make me care about it, so it better be good. Anything like "save the world, go" or "save the princess, go" doesn't do much for me, and can often get in the way if they are really trying hard to impress with "kewl" dialog. Yes, a great story and dialog can be very beneficial, playing Anachronox recently was a joy in that way, despite everything else being pretty horrible by today's standards...

and I guess that's why I can still really enjoy old games. Mostly what's improved since 20 years ago are graphics. If you only ever thrive on experiencing something substantially "new" then it'll be really difficult.
 
jardows said:
This is really where I stand on modern games. I've picked up a few that I really enjoyed, but many lacked any depth of gameplay compared to older games. I like good gameplay mechanics that aren't too complicated, but require some skill to master. In other words, I can enjoy the game with basic skills, but know that I could get better and feel accomplished when I've finally mastered it. I also like a single player game that has a good story to it. Even the old 8 bit games that had no dialogue had a good "story" attached and my imagination could do the rest.
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I am horrified at how quite a few modern games rival Daikatana in the intro/menu-to-game time... o_O Yes, Daikatana. Let me say that again — D A I K A T A N A!

I'd say the problem is that nowadays games usually throw a story at you, while most older games (mostly due to technical limitations) had you explore a story. Some great examples of this (old and modern) are Metroid, Zelda, Deus Ex (the one and only), and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Having a story doesn't mean you need to have long walls of text, long intros, or long explanations. There is a differene between games and books, and how to use them to tell a story. Thus you end up with games where you sit 20-30 minutes without any gameplay, watching some intro, cutscene, or listen to some explanation.

Not because you wanted to, but because the script required it.

That doesn't mean it's all bad, I certainly didn't have anything against Morrowind and it's walls of text, but it all depends on how you implement it.

jardows said:
I really hate the combat games where the enemies spawn at certain points that your avatar crosses on the map. You can be in a completely isolated area, not a sound or soul to be seen, take one step further, and then tons of enemies come streaming out of nowhere!
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You take all the time in the world to create a sneaky sniper character, but the enemies never spawn until you get close. *LE BLOODY SIGH*[/QUOTE]
 
BulletDust said:
Just look at sames of the NES remake, I believe they sold more of those in a month that the Wii U since release? And people are working out how to hack them to add more games.
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Why not just use an Everdrive in a regular NES? By the time they figure out how to mod the mini system, it will have been way cheaper to just to get an Everdrive.
https://krikzz.com/store/

I got one for my TG-16 so I could load all the cart games on it. No more swapping out carts. Has a nice menu and everything.. and just works.

I really want to get one for my N64 as well.
 
dopefishz said:
I'm 37 years old, been playing since 12, and i enjoy games today even more, and put in twice as much gaming time today.
It may be because i actually have money to buy good hardware, now.
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Same here for the most part.

But a lot of the newer games are just crap in regards to gameplay.

Sure, a lot of older games were like that as well, but at least you usually had the option of playing a demo before buying the game and finding out it was crap.
 
cyclone3d said:
But a lot of the newer games are just crap in regards to gameplay.

Sure, a lot of older games were like that as well, but at least you usually had the option of playing a demo before buying the game and finding out it was crap.
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Are they? Last year I played XCom 2, Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Dark Souls 3, Deux Ex: Mankind Divided (great gameplay, bad story), Dishonored 2, Doom, Bloodborne and probably others I forgot and enjoyed them all.
I don't really think games are getting dumber on the whole, certain genres maybe.
 
endalykt said:
I certainly didn't have anything against Morrowind
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I just started playing this one also... was never interested before because of the "wall of text" thing, but now sinking a few hours into it you can really skip all of that and still enjoy the game. I mean, the books and conversations are there if you want, but you can also just obtain objectives and get going with the game, and still get a sense of the story as you go along. I'm enjoying it, anyways... definitely needed a couple mods to get it looking correct though (high res, widescreen, fov, etc... I didn't do any texture/model mods)
 
Youn said:
I just started playing this one also... was never interested before because of the "wall of text" thing, but now sinking a few hours into it you can really skip all of that and still enjoy the game. I mean, the books and conversations are there if you want, but you can also just obtain objectives and get going with the game, and still get a sense of the story as you go along. I'm enjoying it, anyways... definitely needed a couple mods to get it looking correct though (high res, widescreen, fov, etc... I didn't do any texture/model mods)
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True as well. You don't need to stand there listening to some "dude" you've never met before in your life suddenly go on a 3-hour "let me tell you my entire personal story from birth" rampage. You can choose how you want to interact with this NPC. Go in, get the task, get its location, and on your merry way! Or you can get some background information, learn about their guild, get some gossip, dig around a little. It's simply not a one-way street — such a simple thing, yet it actually imparts a little bit of depth and complexity to the game.

I don't know... redundancy? You can actually have redundant stuff in your game, not everything has to be scripted and given a purpose. Just because it's in the game doesn't mean you need to use it. Just because it's not part of the main tutorial quest campaign doesn't mean you need to omit it. You can have locations/maps that aren't connected to the main game, just wasteland. You don't have to read every single text or book, you don't have to listen to everything, you don't have to make the player visit every single vertex on the map, you don't need to make the player use every skill and item in the game.

It's there, but YOU decide what to do with it.

Player choice? Is that what's missing? The freedom to play a game, rather than just follow a script?
 
To me, it's time management. I remember playing Baldur's Gate for hours on end. I just don't have the time anymore.
 
cyclone3d said:
Why not just use an Everdrive in a regular NES? By the time they figure out how to mod the mini system, it will have been way cheaper to just to get an Everdrive.
https://krikzz.com/store/

I got one for my TG-16 so I could load all the cart games on it. No more swapping out carts. Has a nice menu and everything.. and just works.

I really want to get one for my N64 as well.
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They already figured out how to mod it. :)

https://hardforum.com/threads/nes-returns.1905060/page-2#post-1042743146

I miss my TG16 with the CD addon.... don't know where it ended up over the years, but I'd kill to get it back.
 
BulletDust said:
Did you ever set up a multiplayer server and play Stalker, gawd damn that was good fun! Multiplayer in Chernobyl with time of day weather effects. Myself and a group of mates had an awesome time playing that game.
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Ironically I only ever got to play Stalker Multiplayer in that leaked version that just had the 4 maps you could play in a few years before they finalized the original game. This was when they were still going through the directx troubles or whatever it was. Seems like a really fun idea but no community ever picked up on Stalker Multiplayer, that I ever found.
 
dopefishz said:
I'm 37 years old, been playing since 12, and i enjoy games today even more, and put in twice as much gaming time today.
It may be because i actually have money to buy good hardware, now.
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With NES carts, you could beat most games in 30-60min. Once you got the mechanics down they were dead simple.
16 bit consoles upped that to 3+ hours depending on the game, but at least you can save.

Now modern games you can play in 15min missions, and put in 100's of hours. That is great for me. I can get home and kill "Cinderella" in division in 10-15min and move on with my life.

people who have 500 hours in a game and think is too repetitive, have no idea how much fun it would be to instead play castlevania 250 times to completion to get the same amount of game play.
 
Damar said:
They already figured out how to mod it. :)

https://hardforum.com/threads/nes-returns.1905060/page-2#post-1042743146

I miss my TG16 with the CD addon.... don't know where it ended up over the years, but I'd kill to get it back.
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Nice. Holds a max of only 60 games though. I would much rather have an Everdrive over that thing. You can load ALL the NES game on it really quickly. The mini took forever to just load 3 games on.

That being said, a modded Wii is a much better choice for playing NES and SNES games.

I have the CD addon for my TG16. I bought it all together over 14 years ago. I have about 100 original games (carts and CDs) for it as well in addition to a good number of burned CDs.
 
There was a time when my interest in gaming started to wane, and I thought it was just age. It was more so that I was playing to wrong type of games (specifically WoW to the ignoring of all other games). Now, at almost 44, I've had a number of games grab me like the old games did, including:

Mass Effect
Dragon Age: Origins
Bioshock 1 & Infinite
Last of Us
Tomb Raider (2013)
Skyrim
Don't Starve
And numerous others.

But the creme de la creme:
Dark Souls 1, 2, & 3
The Witcher 1, 2, & 3
The Witcher 3 and the Dark Souls series are some of the best gaming experiences I've ever had.
 
Most of those old games we have so much nostalgia for wouldn't hold up to today's games. I started gaming on a tandy 1000. Games like lemmings, sopwith, Oregon trail, rise of the triad, doom, Hexen, warcraft, Diablo etc have all been bettered by a sequel somewhere along the way. (Even if some sequels were worse).

Putting a game like Wolfenstein New Order up against any of the old nostalgia games is like putting Mike Tyson up against the local second grade kickboxing champ.

Games have come a LONG way. I used to love a lot of those old games. Going back to revisit I realize it is mostly rose colored nostalgia.

Games are better now, at least the highly recognized games. We have changed. Our attention spans have changed, our expectations have changed. The bar is absolutely raised.
 
braamer said:
Dark Souls 1, 2, & 3
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I can relate - it's a genre I never really played growing up and it took me quite a few tries to get into them, but I fell in love with the series like almost no other.
Even bought a PS3 and PS4 for Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.
 
cyclone3d said:
Why not just use an Everdrive in a regular NES? By the time they figure out how to mod the mini system, it will have been way cheaper to just to get an Everdrive.
https://krikzz.com/store/

I got one for my TG-16 so I could load all the cart games on it. No more swapping out carts. Has a nice menu and everything.. and just works.

I really want to get one for my N64 as well.
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I have no idea. But there's no doubting that the device was certainly popular.

I love the old games and I'm a big Commodore retro gamer. Hell, they still release games for the C64 and Amiga platforms and they're great.

piscian18 said:
Ironically I only ever got to play Stalker Multiplayer in that leaked version that just had the 4 maps you could play in a few years before they finalized the original game. This was when they were still going through the directx troubles or whatever it was. Seems like a really fun idea but no community ever picked up on Stalker Multiplayer, that I ever found.
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With our own dedicated server, we loved it. Hiding in the roof cavity's of buildings with the sniper rifle, hearing footsteps around where you were hiding and having day turn into night or have it suddenly start raining was just awesome.
 
I prefer mostly older games. Sooner or later, games evolve. It's similar to how my grandparents preferred different movies than my parents, who preferred different movies to me. And when I browse sites like reddit, which are mostly kids, half the games they love, I can't stand. You either evolve with gaming, or gaming moves on without you.

And games have always been about graphics, since they first were created (with the exception of text adventures). Gameplay has always been secondary. It just happens that the games we remember also happened to have good gameplay, just as 30 years from now, the games people remember from this era also had good gameplay.

But what defines good gameplay is different for each generation. It use to be you read the manual, and part of what made the game enjoyable was the note taking, using graph paper to make maps, etc. Now, that's considered tedious. In a couple decades, probably what people love today will be considered terrible gameplay. Not because it's bad, but because what people prefer will have changed.

The one area I don't like, is that games have gotten longer. $60 for a 5 hour game is fine with me. I honestly can't stand games that require more than 15 hours of casual play to beat. I don't mind if it requires replays, or you get a different experience, such as playing rounds in an fps. I can put in 100+ hours, if the matches are only a few minutes each. Honestly, with Battlefield One, I can't play Operations, just because it's far too long for my tastes.
 
I like todays games better then some of the oldest games that I played in the genres but some of the middle games I liked better.

EA has not bested Battlefield 2 yet. They keep trying but they keep making it worse, but Battlefield 1 is far better then original Quake and Doom or Halflife 1 for me. They just made me ill due to how they did the walls etc. Lots of motion sickness. Modern games (not made by Blizzard) usually don't do that to me.

Xwing series... unmatched by anything out today.

Original Arcade Street Fighter 2 vs sitting down to SF5 today? Kinda like the old one, but... Super Street Fighter 2 on Genesis with 6 button was better. Thus the middle wins again.

Counter Strike 1.6 vs modern? hmmm very nostalgic. Hard to say.
Old Rainbow six games? now that was fun.

No MMO lights my fire the way Everquest did originally. Final Fantasy XI almost did.
But Wow for all its fun never had the OMG factor that EQ did with everyone screaming outside town in chat trying to sell something.

Now racing games have really come a long way. There is a genre that really I find more fun today then when I was younger.

No modern football game is better then Tecmo Bowl. Some of the old baseball games were crazy fun even with the kids against the adults. Today those games are to close to the real game in design and difficulty so the whole family doesn't get involved the way we used to.

Original Baulders Gate vs Knights of the Old Republic vs System Shock vs Witcher III?
Now thats a hard call.... the new ones are more imersive, but the old ones are real fun.

Still to this day nothing in gaming has excited me the way that 386 SX-25mhz with Cirus Logic video onboard firing up X-Wing on 1.44 Floppy and grabbing the CH Flightstick and going ok here we go.... I'm in an X-Wing. Nothing has stood up to that moment in gaming for me.
 
TwistedAegis said:
I think part of my issue is that, since I don't game NEARLY as much having a career, being in a relationship, etc, that I no longer have an online community of gamer friends. And only 1 of my IRL friends games, and quite frankly is pretty bad so I dislike playing with him ;) . A lot of the fun I had in MP was in the Q1, Q2 RA:2, CS days where I had a dedicated server and was part of a community, or WOW in a guild. Not having that anymore, I find it less fun.
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You bring up the most vital thing to me. Community of the games you played. I flew to Dallas, I drove to Wisconsin, and I drove to NY and NJ to play video games with people I'd met online. We would LAN our asses off for weekends. We'd rent hotels and conference rooms and game till it hurt. We were a great group.

That's all dead and gone now. Gone for me are the days when I watched a kid drive enough Bawls to stack it 2 ft diameter and 4 ft high in a castle. and he did that over a 3 day weekend. The fucker never slept till the LAN was over, we were cleaning up and found him stuffed in a sleeping bag under his desk.

Thats what I miss. I'm sure it still exists in many realms, but a 40 year old guy can't do that stuff. People look at you like you're a fucking douche or a pedo cause ya still enjoy gaming.
I been playing CS since beta 5. I been a part of that community forever, and while the game has gotten better, the community is a fucking disaster and has nothing like what we used to have in the CS 1.x days.

I was kinda hoping that Unreal Tourney would bring back some of the twitch fire love to FPS games, but I haven't heard much about it lately at all, so I can only assume its a dud.
 
I found this article on YouTube, in my opinion it really highlights what made older games so special. I admit, the presentation does go for a long time, but give it a few minutes just to see the 8 bit graphics - The effort those developers put into those games was simply amazing, it really was a labour of love.

 
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