Features - QOTW: Are computer games better now than they were 20 years ago?

[ET3D]

I'd say that if you draw the line at 20 years or older, then yes. 20 years ago there was no Quake, Unreal Tournament, Baldur's Gate, Warcraft, Heroes of Might & Magic, to mention but a few. Draw the line at 10 years, it might be a more interesting discussion, but at 20 years ago you're eliminating many of the highlights of gaming including complete genres.

[3dcandy]

A number of the older games can be way overrated IMHO,as people tend to look at them through rose tinted glasses.People tend to forget there were loads of absolutely crap older games,which is what lead to the crash of the computer game market in North America in the early 80s.

They are plenty of modern games which are fantastic examples of story telling and immersion,and many of them more importantly are fun too.

Moreover,when you start looking at the credits of many modern games,you start to realise how many people have had to work on them - it almost looks like the credits for a film at times.

People also need to consider games cost relatively less now than say 20 years ago, and even the hardware needed is not as costly as it used to be I suspect.

Disagree, Mastertronic were kings of the £1.99 game on tape for the C-64, and sometimes it was worth it for the Hubbard SID tunes!

[ilh]

I've just about given up on gaming now and will have completely I reckon by the time I get married in August. Games just aren't what they used to be, it's hard to get any real enjoyment out of them anymore so have become little more than a time waster.

[3dcandy]

I must admit I've started playing oolite this week, an OpenCL port of Elite!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

It does make think that people really should take of their rose tinted glasses at times,when they make generalisations about modern gaming. Unlike 20 to 30 years ago,we have a massive choice of games,from small Indie studio efforts to larger efforts with budgets like movies,with all sorts of genres covered.

We are not even limited to desktops or consoles anymore with the rise in gaming on phones and tablets,which gives further opportunities.

Its like people are so spoilt by choice,that they CBA even to look anymore.

I am thankful we have that choice as opposed,to 2D,more 2D and more 2D type games we had mostly in the early 1980s. It is actually nice to even play a game which focuses on immersion and realism at times,just,you know because its actually fun sometimes??

There are loads of fun games out there and they even don't cost that much,especially when you take inflation into account.

It makes me think they might have been like the old folk in the 1980s,saying why do you need those useless PC games,because the board games they played when they were young were 10X better.

The funny thing is that the people whinging most about modern games and how the good old 2D ones were 10X better,seem to be the ones who still have decent systems.

[3dcandy]

But the whole point of rose tinted specs IS that you look fondly back in time...

I understand what you're saying, but perhaps it was the lack of games that made people remember them, not the quality...

[OilSheikh]

1993 ?

DOOM2, HERETIC, RAPTOR : CALL OF SHADOWS, NFS2, NFS HOT PURSUIT, NFS PORSCHE UNLEASHES, JAZZ THE JACKRABBIT, DUKE NUKEM 3D, SONIC, ALADDIN, MOONWALKER, CONTRA FORCE


good times!

[Pleiades]

Maybe games now are fantastic but they just don't excite me in the same way as those clunkers did in my childhood. Just getting old & jaded I guess :-(

[michaelshodge]

i would say when it comes to gameplay and graphics most new games are better but there isn't enough risk involved in most new games. now when i say risk i don't mean it's not hard what i mean is that you either instantly respawn nearby maybe losing some life or go back to a checkpoint that's not very far back but anyone that says ALL new games are easy needs too play dark souls although its almost a year old now so maybe it counts as an old game now? i don't know lol

[Output]

My initial response is to agree that the games were better back then, but another part of me thinks that instead it is a combination of nostalgia and the seeming lack of time to devote to games these days that is making me think that.

I say "seeming", as I think that it is a case of a lot of choices being available now, but that with the widespread availability of always being online, there's a lot of distraction by emails, YouTube, online news, etc.

[Gitch28]

Nostalgia gets in the way for too many middle agers. There is no competition. Modern games are superior in every single way. They couldn't do any more to the games.

[WritersBlock]

I still, on occasions, resurrect my amiga for a game of elite; it plays better than using an emulator.

Games now, look better visually; that is an obvious improvement.

There are games I'd like to play, but putting up with all the DRM crap keeps me away from them.

Weather or not games are better is subjective. What isn't subjective, in my opinion, is how customers are treated. There was little interaction with a game producer/supplier years ago; there didn't need to be, one bought the game, and could easily play it. Now, well, I don't tend to bother.

[Lucio]

I think in certain genres, such as RPG's the quality of the games has improved as newer technologies allow developers to realise ideas that just weren't possible before.

Other's, like arcade-style games, or even FPS's, the gameplay isn't particularly any different.

[TooNice]

Duke Nukem 3D is 1996, which is Quake era. 1993 is Doom 1. Okay Doom 2 came a year later, but it did not bring that much more, other than new mobs and the double barrel shotgun. And yes, it was really exciting at the time. But let's not forget it had no mouse look, no localised hitbox (no headshot etc.), no jumping. It some way, it was more like a 3D (2.5D) version of 2D run & shoot games. It was great for it's time, but 20 years is really pushing it. A couple years later and the FPS market really boomed. There were some great stuff, but I must have bought at least 2 or 3 FPS that no one heard about.. for good reasons (they weren't very good).

[ET3D]

There are games I'd like to play, but putting up with all the DRM crap keeps me away from them.

I much prefer DRM, which typically isn't noticeable, to all the code wheels, map, manual lookups you had to do every time you started the game, and downloadable games to the diskette or CD shuffling which afflicted some periods.

Other's, like arcade-style games, or even FPS's, the gameplay isn't particularly any different.

Saying that FPS hasn't changed since Wolfenstein 3D is something that only someone who hates the genre could say.

[aidanjt]

Nostalgia gets in the way for too many middle agers. There is no competition. Modern games are superior in every single way. They couldn't do any more to the games.

Maybe if you have the attention span of a magpie.