The Quality of Yesteryear Games

[Zak33]

I'm at the Inlaws....

A while ago I chose them a Dell PC, made sure I chose one with a cheap graphics card upgrade so I could be certain that it has a PCI express slot on the mobo and time passed.....

here, in May 2012 I am sat in front of a PC with a Radeon 3450 in it.... and behind me, in a shelf unit, is a copy of Jowood's very very excellent Rally Trophy. No one remembers why my father in law was given it... wasn't me... I know he can't play games....

OK... it's a Vista PC so it took some fiddlying with Admin rights to get the sod to run... but man it looks DIVINE.

19" 4:3 monitor 1280x1024 lovelyness, smooth as silken pyjama's and playable , via key board....

OK.. I admit I loved it long ago.. this game was awesome.. but now.. here in 2012... it's still awesome.

I've made it through the Russian stages, but failed to make top 6 so I'm out... gotta try again...

class..... total class!!!

[Matthammer]

Mentioned elsewhere on the forums but my GPU died recently and as that gives me some time away from my big games and removes the temptation to spend hours on games when i have so much else to do, i've decided to stick with the on-board for a while and save towards a new card. In the meantime i've gone back to a load of older games. Many running through dosbox and am really enjoying them.

I think aside from the memories that may be associated with them, the older games still have that magic. They might have been a new thing at the time but even now they maintain some of that break from the norm feel.
Most of today's games can look pretty samey and often built on over-used engines. Look at Dune 2 as an example and then consider the Age of series and the Rome series and various others which are all basically the same but with different pictures. The doom and quake series all spawned masses of copycat games and elsewhere on here despite their parallel production and development times you've got the new Syndicate release looking pretty damn close to Deus Ex Human Revolution.

Don't get me wrong, if i enjoy a game to an extent a clone is good, but when the only things changing are the name and the style/period of graphics its a bit shocking that game prices are as high as they are these days. Yes the developers etc. of each company still need to be paid, but you have to wonder with some of the clones how much original work is there.

Right i should be going and getting some work done, but i think i might just have 5mins on Ascendancy

[Zak33]

/\ that is what I'm talking about... some of the older stuff is sheer genius.

and what is now lowly graphics power runs them like a DREAM.

I played Rally Trophy for several hours and it was super smooth.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I still think that the original Unreal is still one of the most atmospheric games I have played - you really do feel like you are totally alone on the planet and have no clue what you are going to face.

System Shock 2 has SHODAN which clearly influenced GLADOS in the Portal games especially with her rants against the player. There are games like Unreal II(great character models for the time) and XIII(look at Borderlands) which still look pretty decent today IMHO,and these came out before games like HL2. Then there are games like Max Payne 2 with their fantastic story telling.

Graphics can make a game look nice but does not mean a good game needs to look nice to be good IMHO. The story telling aspect and design of the game are what makes one memorable.

[Ferral]

See I am one of these where if the storyline is superb and grips you from the start then the visuals come second.

Dont get me wrong, I love high end visuals on new games like Deus Ex Human Revolution and RAGE.

Thing is though, you cant beat good writing, story and art direction. Some of my favourite games are from late ninties and early 2000. Soul Reaver to this day tells one of the best stories ever brought to a computer screen, the epic sprawling regions of Baldurs Gate 1 & 2 and the snowy landscapes in Icewind Dale just captures you and you can virtually feel the warmth when near a fire. Giants Citizen Kabuto for the 3 campaigns which play very differently from one another, Sacrifice mixing action type gameplay with excellent humourous writing with the warring gods and on the fly RTS elements.

There are so many worthwhile classics out there that are worth visiting again, I have lost count how many times I have played through the first Mafia game and still own the first edition copy of it. You really feel for the characters and their loyalty towards one another and their own personal families. Not forgetting how much more you used to get out of a game for your hard earned money. Recently a single player campaign lasts between 6 and 10 hours if you are lucky. Go back to 2000 and even the shooters you got a good 15 hours plus out of them start to finish.

[snedger]

Recently, I got reminded of the game, Dungeon Keeper 2 - has anyone got that working on Vista?
If I get a positive response then I'll look forward to studying the dust strata core sample for 1999-2012 - who knows what I might learn about CC, or maybe just bloke idleness.

[jim]

Preaching to the converted, Zak. I'm currently completing Driver, Theme Hospital and Rollercoaster Tycoon because I never finished them as a kid... fantastic games, still just as much fun as anything current although you do notice certain features lacking that you'd expect as standard these days - things like autosaves, being able to transfer savegames, and alt-tab support. Doesn't detract from the fun though.

[Mama Sumae]

Well in late years I found my interest in games fading considerably, although I still find the concept attractive I can no longer justify wasting considerable amounts of time playing and searching for games that I find increasingly less rewarding.

Part of it is undoubtedly due to age and although I understand that not every game can be a masterpiece in regards to storyline (and they don't need to be as they are after all games) I cant help but feel that most recent games lack the quirkiness and charm of older titles. I find recent games take themselves too seriously particularly in terms of technical achievement and often pollute their gameplay with repetitive and rather unpleasant actions. Marketing groundbreaking features seems to be the new line while more substantial aspects such as environment, storyline and gameplay are left behind.

Recently though I had to replace the GPU so I installed a few games and got myself a copy of Deus Ex, a well placed game in terms of reviews that I can't particularly fault but cant really praise either. Interesting but at most generic it help reinforce my feeling that playing two games nowadays of a particular genre is perhaps one too many (the main character and particularly his voice was terribly cliche and typical of this sort of series).

[Ferral]

I will try my copy of DK2 later tonight to see if it runs on 64Bit Windows 7 and see what happens. Sure I have had it running on Vista in the past, you do need to locate the patches also as it helps things no end. You can get it on GOG but from what I have read on the community there you will still get issues.

Mind you, Overlord is actually a good game that reminds you of DK series in a way, pretty cheap on Steam also

[directhex]

Yesterday's games are all well & good. Know what really excites me though?

Tomorrow's games.

[roorooroo]

Yesterdays games are generally a lot longer, not dumbed down as much and of course they cost less now
Most of my games playing time is spent on previous year's releases.

[kalniel]

Yesterdays games are generally a lot longer, not dumbed down as much and of course they cost less now
Most of my games playing time is spent on previous year's releases.

In RPGs it's the other way around sometimes - modern RPGs are much bigger (Skyrim) and/or have more complicated control schemes/combat (Kingdoms of Amalur) and/or have choice-consequence systems that actually mean something (The Witcher 2).

Old RPGs have a huge amount of charm, but were tiny and had little concept of branching or choice-consequence - you were the good guys by default, you received your adventure down the pub and just did it for the gold coin

Of course, if you want that simplicity/charm, you can get that in a modern game as well (legend of Grimrock).

So it's all good really

[Pob255]

But then you look at something like ff3/6 or chrono trigger, far from short, yes they have the your the hero thing but that's more being down to jrpg
If your want more western rpg, then the ultima series, fallout 1&2, or one classic that often gets/got overlooked arcanum (steam punk fantasy from back in 2001 before steampunk was enjoying it's current trend, plays a lot like the original fallout games) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcanum...Magick_Obscura

But moving away from rpg's you have to remember that the simpler graphics ether 2d or more early 3d are generally take a heck of a lot less time to produce than the far more detailed graphics and environments used these days.
dig out the original half life or opposing forces, they where long detailed and a major shift it the way single player fps's where designed, but when you look at them now they are still a heck of a lot simpler and less detailed.

[abaxas]

Who cares who a game looks like, it's how it plays that matters.

Some games play well, others look good. We only remember and return to the ones with great gameplay.

* currently playing Gran Turismo (as in the first)