Are Older Games More Satisfying? 300
Kwirl asks: "While the computer and console gaming industry is growing at a remarkable pace, the focus is usually on better graphics as opposed to stronger gameplay and plot development/story arc. I personally have several titles (Sims2, Half-Life2, Doom 3, MSFS2004, Unreal 2004) sitting on my shelf that were amazing games, but just couldn't hold my interest for long enough to really be considered a worthwhile investment. In the last couple of years I had thought that the answer to my gaming needs would come in the form of MMORPG's. I have purchased and played many of them, but all seem to come to a stagnant point where I recognize that only addiction would drive me deeper into the game, and not better gameplay (Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, City of Heroes, Everquest II). In truth, I have found myself spending more time playing old MUD's (TorilMud, Medievia) again, or even amusing web-based games ( KingdomofLoathing, PimpWar, NeoPets). I am curious to know how many other people here find themselves walking intentionally backwards along the technological timeline of games for your personal expenditure of free time? What games/sites do you feel give you the best return of satisfaction versus time spent playing the game over the long haul?"
One word answer for me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Longer story, my favorite all time game is the old classic Chess. Whether it's getting cremated by my computer or playing and even occasionally beating humans online or offline. The depth and amount it makes me think is just great.
Favorite dedicated computer game you ask? Try Civilization 2. Civ 3 for some reason seemed more fluff and the same amount of meat as Civ 2 (hence making it slower and doing nothing really for gameplay). Though I need to try FreeCiv one day.
In general I just like games that make me think more than anything else. FPS games amongst others are interesting for about 10 minutes then I just walk away.
One word here to (Score:3, Interesting)
The game needs to have a clever or fun design, who cares how it looks. Try elastomania across or whatever it's name is, it's simple yet kick-ass. Same goes for lemmings and so on
"Puzzle"/skill games like those are games I like, even thought I never think about it, and also Strategy and the regular Quake FPS for relaxing.
Quake was love.
One word and a Roman Numeral (Score:3, Funny)
Amazing game. One of my all time favorites. Nothing beat playing on my old Apple
Re:One word and a Roman Numeral (Score:3, Funny)
Re:One word and a Roman Numeral (Score:5, Interesting)
More on topic though...you are right in a way...there don't seem to be a whole lot of women on slashdot in general (no worries...I know you're out there, but statistically, we're in the minority). Ditto with gaming - it's a rarity to find a girl really into some of these new games. They are out there, but on the whole, I've noticed my friends are MUCH more likely to fiddle around with the older games like tetris or arqanoid, or some of the less action-based games. I'm not sure why - societal thing maybe? who knows. But I personally only know 1 woman who really gets into the first-person shooter or RPG type games, but I can name off like 30 guys off the top of my head who just eat it up. Personally, I lost interest with "shooter" games with DN2 (if that even qualifies), but some of my old DOS based sharewares are still going strong.
Re:One word here to (Score:2)
As for FPSes, the old ones also work on old hardware. UT:GOTY is a damn fun game, and is playable (granted, at 640x480) on my laptop (a P3 700 with 384MB RAM and a Rage Mobility M (4MB VRAM)).
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:2)
There's definately something to be said for games that exercise the old grey matter - they ARE more satisfying.
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:3, Interesting)
I found Alpha Centuri a couple years back for $3 and I had to buy it. Now I make a point of uninstalling it when I'm done playing otherwise I find myself starting it up when my work gets boring.
Great game.
I'm also a Tribes fan. Good stuff.
Amen Brother! (Score:2)
This also reminds me of the SimCity series. SimCity 4 is basically the same as all the other SimCities. If you've played SimCity 1, then you're not going to get much more out of SimCity 4.
Given that I've played all the Civs and SimCities, I know exactly how each game will pr
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:3, Funny)
Can you elaborate on this variant of chess please? I would love to know more about it, and perhaps even play it with some people I know...
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been playing Civ since it was just Civilization, and I can assure you that Civ3 was a huge improvement over Civ2. While there was certainly a graphical upgrade, a lot went on underneath too. If you played SMAC (Alpha Centauri) you'd see it was a sort of testing ground for Civ3, a lot of things that debuted there showed up with Civ3 (and some that sucked, didn't). Things like Culture and Resources are major changes, for example, and fundamentally alter how you play. There are also plenty of small changes that generally balance out some of the more annoying things about combat and city management and make an all around more enjoyable experience. I have absolutely no interest in going back to previous versions or to FreeCiv, and that's in spite of having to play Civ3 through Wine on a PIII-866 with crappy onboard video. It's that much of an improvement.
FreeCiv, sadly, is stuck in the past and flat out refuses to implement most of the Civ3 improvements. I suppose if you like Civ2 then you'll like FreeCiv with the Civ2 modpack, but frankly, if you like Civ2 you probably already own the real thing anyway. FreeCiv seems to be mostly popular with people who like to screw around with options and settings (like most OSS projects), rather than people who just want to sit down and play a good game.
The one thing Civilization had going for it that was lost in Civ 2 and 3 was the "conquer the world before lunch" aspect we would always go for. Game have become a lot more like epic weekend adventures. Civ4 plans to address this though, and I have a lot of faith in Sid Meier as a game designer (though I have no idea how I'll play it on this box). I also liked the unit building aspect of SMAC, but I don't expect to see that back soon.
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:2)
At what time did you lunch? I never could conquer the world before several hours into the game. I realize that Civ2 and 3 are even slower, but that doesn't mean that Civ was actually a short game.
That's why I play Master of Orion 1 now that I don't have much free time. I can play a small galaxy in 2 or 3 hours. Although is soon evident if I will get crushed in the
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:2)
I enjoy Civilization but just don't have time for it. RON gives me some of the same feelings of city and empire building in a game that lasts about an hour on average.
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:2)
I agree with the other poster about Rise of Nations. Pretty fun game, and you can always do it in an hours time.
Going to be a good year with RON 2 and Civ 4 is due out :).
Roller Coaster Tycoon (Score:2)
I tend to do this every one-and-a-half year or so, then play through all the levels in about 1-3 weeks and repeat in another one-and-a-half year.
RCT is still by far the best game I've ever played and perhaps the only full-price game I play at all anymore (mostly casual games for me), perhaps beaten only by the game that is a universal drug; Tetris.
Re:One word answer for me... (Score:2)
Return To Chaos - The Dungeon Master / Chaos Strikes Back Clone [ragingmole.com]
DNA/Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Infocom Adventure [douglasadams.com] (online, java)
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time [gamespot.com] (flash)
NetHack 3.4.3: Main Page [sourceforge.net]
Jardinains! [jardinains.com] (fun breakout clone)
mono [binaryzoo.com] (excellent modern asteroids clone)
Thanks, Emulation! (Score:5, Insightful)
The latest games are good, and have a wow factor the first time I play each of them, but they don't have any staying power. I always seem to go back to my megadrive/SNES games, and ScummVM.
Part of it is probably reminiscing, but mostly I think older games couldn't rely on great graphics, so they had to make up for it in other areas.
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:2, Insightful)
"Oh my god... all my base belong to WHO!?!?!??"
While FF3 (FF6j) and to a lesser extent FF2 (FF5j) for SNES did have some of the best stories and cinematic qualities to them, their predecessors left a little sump'n sump'n to be desired. I mean cmon, freggin 4 identical red-haired fighters can save the universe in FF1 for NES and nobody thinks this is strange!? Let's talk about games like Metal Gear when guards yell "I FEE
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:2)
Thankfully there are new games with nice graphics that are still fun to play. ICO for the PS2 is a beautiful games and the sequel Shadow of the Coloses looks like it will also be just as great a game. Katamari Damacy was a wei
Re:Thanks, Emulation! (Score:2)
Amen in regards to Galaga, brother. I play it every chance I get, preferably on the original arcade version, as the newer 'updated' versions suck -- different movement patterns, things move too slowly, etc...
I hang out at a bar in town solely for the purpose (other than the fact that I go there because, unlike a club, people don't bother you unless you want to be bothered) of listening to (sometimes) interesting indie music and being able to play Galaga for a quarter any time I want.
Sadly, their machine
Nethack.... (Score:5, Informative)
In the 90s, it ruined my college GPA as it must have done other people. Everyone once in a while I download it again and play for a few weeks. Then I'll erase it after never getting past the mines and not think about it for a few years.
At least now it only ruins my normal sleep cycle. I work in land development so being awake isn't a major requirement.
There is one advantage for slow development cycles like with Nethack. You can pick it up years later and it'll be pretty much the same.
Games (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm a 2D platformer at heart. The extra dimension allowed developers to get lazy, while the games that came from the 2D era had to be creative to set themselves apart from the hundreds of other 2D platformers.
Nostalgia (Score:5, Insightful)
To be honest, I think that a lot of people like older games because these they evoke memories from a more innocent/carefree time in the player's life (e.g. teen-age years, or college), rather than better gameplay.
Re:Nostalgia (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nostalgia (Score:2)
Re:Nostalgia (Score:2)
Re:Nostalgia (Score:3, Interesting)
However, I only started playing Nethack within the past year, and I'm hooked. It's addictive.
The last PC game I actually bought and played with any regularity was Quake II. I played a few demos after that, and "borrowed" a few titles, but they didn't last more than a week or so.
When I need a game fix, I usually fire up GXMame and play favorite titles from my youth. So there *is* some good-ol'-days psychology there. However, my kids love those old games, so they're stil
Re:Nostalgia (Score:4, Interesting)
To make an analogy, if your board and gamepieces are essentialy a piece of dirt, a sharp stick and a handful of pebbles, the game you come up with had better have some damned good play value if you expect anyone to play it.
Case in point: How many people can remember all the secret doors on the umpteenth map in Quake 2, vs how many people can remember to get the Babel Fish in Infocom's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? And when all is said and done, which was more satisfying to beat?
Re:Nostalgia (Score:3, Funny)
The echoes of my triumphant "YES!!!" upon first solving the Babelfish puzzle still resound through the structure of my parents' house, lo these decades later.
Re:Nostalgia (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't think it's just nostalgia. I think a big part of it is that over the course of years of development on certain platforms, people found some types of games that were really fun, but in the last five years or so we've gotten rid of them because they're "old technology". Getting rid of the 2
Re:Nostalgia (Score:2)
I still think the original mortal kombat games using 2D photographic motion looks better than today's mortal kombat 3D. Why abandon it??
Re:Nostalgia (Score:2)
Re:Nostalgia (Score:2)
As another poster already pointed out, the Gameboy Advance Castlevanias are a trio of really, really great SotN-style games, and the Metroids are pretty damn good, too. Aria of Sorrow in particular is like a shorter, but equally greater SotN, with great gameplay and a great plot.
Re:Nostalgia (Score:3, Interesting)
There is a lot truth there, although the older games that I play now are like five-star "Top Dog" classic "Best Games of All Time" titles that I simply couldn't afford buying back when they were new even if I had heard of them which I hadn't. I run them in DOSBox, compile them in Linux, or whateve
No, games really are getting "streamlined" (Score:5, Informative)
1. Games are becoming more and more simplified, I assume for the benefit of the casual gamer. I'm all for cattering to casual gamers, since I like a good intuitive interface myself. But often it means degrading gameplay as well.
E.g., look at a single series of games, from the same company, not even going that far back to be a case of nostalgia. Look at the (d)evolution that happened between Patrician 2 and Port Royale 2. (And if you're nasty, trace it all the way back to Elite, since Patrician 2 to Port Royale 2 are basically Elite on water.)
The economy got over-simplified. Basically while Patrician 2 was _hard_ and actually a trade and economy simulation, in Port Royale 2 you pretty much are guaranteed to make money as long as you don't actively try not to. It also doesn't help that the whole strategy element of leading a _fleet_ in Patrician 2, eventually devolved into a sea arcade game with a single ship in Port Royale 2. (The rest of the ships in your fleet are basically extra lives in that arcade fight.)
2. As an additional reason for that, there's a bunch of stuff that's just hard to implement properly in 3D, or not obvious to the casual player in 3D, so it either disappeared or got the equivalent of a big neon sign saying "use it HERE ==>"
E.g., I can think of old 2D games where you could scale any wall, or (try to) blow up walls, or use a grappling hook on any ledge. Nowadays you have clearly marked "you can climb this one" walls, e.g., in Sudeki. Or if you get a grappling gun, there will be a big marking where you can use it, and typically not too often.
3. There's a lot of stuff that gets streamlined because everything today has to be real-time. Actual strategy tends to be replaced by whack-a-mole clicking without a plan. E.g., whereas a PC RPG used to involve basically squad tactics and use of a whole range of spells (status effects, buffs, etc), nowadays you get action-RPGs where you have to run, hit and block in real time, and if you get any spells they're direct damage.
Compare for example, the old D&D games from SSI, which were practically a turn based tactics game, to, say, Demon Stone. Right. Nothing says "D&D" like having to do attack combos, and all spells being nothing more than a weapon upgrade for the mage.
4. Variety _is_ shrinking. Games tend to be easily dividable in narrow "genres" lately, often meaning a clone of other games that sold well. While it doesn't necessarily say "new games are bad", playing an exact clone of a game I've already bought before, does somewhat reduce my satisfaction.
Personally... (Score:2)
I've been playing a fan translation of DragonQuest (DragonWarrior) 5 which originally came out in Japan.
While it has the annoying verbose interface common to the DragonQuest series, I'm finding that the game itself is quite enjoyable. Its a shame that it was never officially released in the US by Nintendo. It was a strong SNES title, IMHO.
Considering that Nintendo had a policy of censoring US releases, I'm tempted to drag up fan translations of the other games in the series and play them again.
S
Re:Personally... (Score:2)
Great games though, and I don't know what I'd do without the internet for bringing us gems like these.
My List (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:My List (Score:2)
Marvel vs. Capcom 2
Ikaruga
Grandia 2
Angband/Nethack
Shadowrun for Sega Genesis
Well of Souls
Yup, seems the games on my list are almost all older games, and the newer ones are either for the Dreamcast or are short on graphics.
Older games and commercialism (Score:5, Insightful)
In the end, the newer games get more attention than the older games. Companies spend a lot of money convincing people to keep track of the new games and that technology drives "fun". This is how the companies make more money.
This is actually a very backwards way of thinking of some games. For example, online RPGs (aka MMORPGs) actually get better with age. A game like my own Meridian 59 has had several expansions and tweaks done to the game over the years. These games tend to be very bug-free and well-balanced. The game grows and expands over the years, and the game you can play now is often quite different than the game it originally was.
Finally, sometimes games change. I'm a huge fan of computer RPGs, but the games released these days are hardly RPGs. Instead of being able to create a character (or party), I'm forced to deal with a pre-made character and run him (or rarely, her) through a pre-set adventure. Sometimes I just have to fire up a Wizardry game or the original Final Fantasy as an antidote to the mostly passive games that are released these days. I guess they sell really well, but it's not the type of game I want to play.
I'll post the slides to my conference talk on my professional blog (http://blog.psychochild.org/ [psychochild.org]) when I get the chance.
Some thoughts,
Re:Older games and commercialism (Score:2)
Instead of being able to create a character (or party), I'm forced to deal with a pre-made character and run him (or rarely, her) through a pre-set adventure.
Pre-made characters mean that the pre-made adventure can have a lot of depth and detail. That's hard to do with generic characters. Maybe you can supply your own character interaction ... but, if you can do that, do you need the computer game at all?
I recommend pen+paper RPGs if you want to create your own character :-)
Re:Older games and commercialism (Score:2)
I already play paper RPGs every other Friday, thanks. When I play paper RPGs I want a social experience of hanging around with friends and having fun. I want to say, "Where's the Mountain Dew?" and get everyone laughing.
On the other hand, sometimes I want to just kill things. Combat simulation with dice gets a bit boring after a while, so paper RPGs aren't all that great for this. I want to create a party, flex my tactical ability
Re:Older games and commercialism (Score:3, Interesting)
European Air War (Score:2)
Easy and fun.
I don't play online but there is a large group of people who do with all sorts of mods etc that have grown over the years.
Emulation is my gaming god (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure there are others like me out there who have let their passion take them far enough to the point where they make their own game [allacrost.org] in the "old-school" style. Of course I doubt anyone is out there making loads of money off of making new games that look like they could have been released in the 90s, but I bet there are quite a few like me who spend their spare time working on their game as a hobby.
On a side-note, I bet you kids these days wouldn't give such "ancient" looking games a second glance, since they've been suckered into the game media hype machine of "better-looking game = better game". *grumble grumble* Rotten kids!!!! Why I remember back in my day, we only had one button on our joypads, and that was damn well enough for us!
Re:Emulation is my gaming god (Score:2, Insightful)
"
I was thinking just the opposite of that.
The young generation is still familiar with 8 and 16 bit games only they know them form handhelds and not from consoles.
It's the gameboy/pokemon generation.
And Nintendo is said to be offering all those older games on their upcomming revolution.
So they must think the
Hell, Yeah! (Score:3, Informative)
For example: The Marathon trilogy, made by a few guys whose company went on to make another pretty popular game. [bungie.net] This game was the "thinking man's" Doom, complete with aliens, serious weapons (many of which have returned in one form or another in Halo), and a deep storyline that enriched play [bungie.org]. Marathon was also one of the first (if not THE first) multiplayer FPS game, introducing the concept of the mouse-as-head game control to make for rapid movement.
The coolness of this game is that it's now freeware (not open-source, however). [bungie.org] The game originally appeared as an original Mac OS game. That game is available and (currently) playable only a Mac that can run Mac OS 9 or Classic (in Mac OS X). However, Bungie also released the second game, Marathon 2, as a Windows game. So Mac and Windows users can download a special Mac OS X-native or Windows-native application (thanks to enterprising programmers who loved the game and wanted to play on) to play the original code, complete with a few modern graphic pick-me-ups.
Bungie still puts in a few Marathon in-jokes in their games. The first one you'll see is the insignia on Captain Keyes' uniform in Halo, and later, look closely at the Monitor's eyeball. Familar?
I'm still fond of old-school Zelda games on NES, SNES, and Game Boy, too.
Frog blast the vent core!
One word: Netrek (Score:2)
Long live ModemJoe! king of the BB's...
Re: (Score:2)
Addiction to MMORPGs? (Score:2)
Re:Addiction to MMORPGs? (Score:2)
It's still cool to walk into the auction house on WoW and see it packed to the brim though.
Simple answer: (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, unless your standards truly contain something highly technology based, like "I just can't play a game without reflective glass or incredibly realistic water", which set is going to contain more good games?
Is this really surprising?
Cherry pick from ~20 years of games, and compare that to the cherry-picked games from the last three years, and the former set will typically be larger.
That said, there are some ways modern games are legitimately better. Linear RPGs are one strong example, I think (though non-linear RPGs are, for a variety of reasons, effectively dead). I'm not saying all standards will have this result... just the vast majority of them.
Re:Simple answer: (Score:2)
Precisely. Linear RPGs are incredibly boring to me. All the good nonlinear games (Darklands [darklands.net], Privateer [the-underdogs.org], etc) are old. I have high hopes for TES: Oblivion, even though Morrowind wasn't that great.
Dr. Destructo (Score:2)
It was a 2D side-view shoot-em up where you controlled a little plane and had to shoot down a variety of planes, bombers and helicopters and by making them crash into the ship or island on the screen, sink the island/ship.
I've never seen a game with the sprite control of
Re:Dr. Destructo (Score:2)
Could be "Combat" for Atari 2600 or "Two Tigers" for arcade.
If the destroyed enemies crash down as kamikaze, and the long-term goal of the game is to tear through a large obstacle (carrier ship, etc.) by crashing enough destroyed enemies into it, then it's definitely "Two Tigers"!
Give it a try on MAME if you get the chance. One of my favorite arcade games. Got fairly good at it, too....
BTW, it's surreal to grow up playing a comput
Re:Dr. Destructo (Score:2)
That sounds a lot like a game called Sopwith we used to play in the high school computer lab around 1988. Tha game itself was more simplistic than the one you described, but the control system was the same.
Classic-like games (Score:2, Interesting)
Personally, I get a lot of replay value out of the Metal Gear Solid series. To this date, it retains a very traditional camera placement, with very contraversial or thought provocing themes and fantastic graphics. The games, while holding
New games? What new games? (Score:2)
Starflight (Score:3, Interesting)
The DOS version of Starflight is an 80808 era CGA game that has a lot of things that were way ahead of it's time. Inside of 700K there are hundreds of unique planets, several races and an involved storyline. The planetary details are generated by fractals but remember what you do on them. Almost everything is done in real time; if you stay silent on the comm channel too long, the aliens on the other side can get annoyed or take over the conversation. A lot of descriptions are done by text, so it requires a little imagination, but the atmosphere of trying to survive, alone in a cold unforgiving universe is very strong.
If you want to give Starflight a chance, I suggest using dosbox [sourceforge.net] with the speed set to 1000 cycles. Anything higher will make battles and communication impossible. Be careful, though: saving or even playing the game modifies the main game files (stara.com, starb.com, starflt.com), so make archives of them if you want to save. You can't quit without saving.
Despite a slower pace than many modern games, this game is quite addictive once you get started. I'm going back to it right now... now if I can just find some promethium so I can repair the sheilds...
Re:Starflight (Score:2)
symbols (Score:5, Insightful)
Old games used symbols to display things on screen almost of the time, because the machines couldn't do more. But you didn't treat the things displayed on screen as if they were realistic drawings anyway, you knew they were just symbols which meant tree, kobold, or whatever and all the real action had to happen in your imagination.
So everyone in fact had a different, and extremly rich perception of the game.
Constrast that with 3D. The things you're looking at are generally not symbols, they're literally what you, or your character, see. That means your imagination can't interface with what is displayed. Those realistic, tangible objects aren't compatible with it.
That means that if the illusion isn't 100% perfect, the charm will be broken.
Now, you're just consuming a world someone as prepared for you, the same as everyone else. Before, your brain had to build it itself, but it was incomparable.
The classics are the best (Score:3, Funny)
Old games ARE better (Score:2, Interesting)
This discussion reminds me of Sim City 2 VS Sim City 4. Sure, SC4 had more features, but it lacked the same soul. Pretty graphics can't make up for a sense of humour and fun gameplay. Another example: the decline of the Leisure Suit Larry franchise.
One of my other favourite games is Chopper Commando by Mark Currie. CGA Graphics, but the messages when you died were awe
Re:Old games ARE better (Score:2)
Absolutely. But please, it's not an RPG (just because you can upgrade your ship?). It's adventure/action.
Re:Old games ARE better (Score:3, Informative)
The Ur-Quan Masters [sourceforge.net]
I've spent a lot of time with this one and I was just considering playing it again soon, actually.
Re:chopper commando (Score:2)
Re:Old games ARE better (Score:2)
Happy *campers* are best. *Enjoy* the *sauce*.
Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story) (Score:3, Interesting)
Finally! A subject I'm expert in! (Score:3, Informative)
My hope for the future: Duke Nukem Forever, Jagged Alliance 3, Fallout 3, Quake IV, and Elite 4. They all come from a long lineage of "fun" games and hopefully they will uphold the tradition.
Re:Finally! A subject I'm expert in! (Score:2)
You realize of course that X-COM 1 & 2 run natively on XP now with a patch? I'll be glad to share if you're interested, I spent a lot of time digging up various X-COM stuff on a whim recently. I even found a multiplayer add-on for it (!).
Only problem for me was that, given my habit of building absurd bases, my game crashed irrecoverably pretty late in, but unless you build 10 psi-labs with several hundred guys on staff, you probably won't get
Ask slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
One Game to Rule Them All... (Score:2)
No. (Score:2)
-Ungodly frustrating games that could only be beaten with codes or Game Genie, either because they were just too hard (Konami Games) or too long to play in one sitting and had no way to save.
-Instability - Stability was a horrible problem with console games, although the Japanese have had it far worse than others due to getting the games first. I had plenty o
Infocom! (Score:2)
I spent more time on those games generally having a great time, than I've spent on any game since. That ASCII text was simply captivating, too!
IFNKOVHGROGHPRM! (Score:2)
Though I do wish the adventure game genre would return to popularity. LucasArts used to make some really excellent games.
System Shock II (Score:2)
Older game that kicks the snot out of almost everything to come after it.
Young I is not I (Score:2)
Video games, movies, food, places we have seen in our passed life have been experiences by a different person: ourself younger. Comparison is impossible.
Watch a video game, a cartoon you loved, eat one of those sweets you were so fond of
--
Go Debian!
Alpha Centauri (Score:2, Interesting)
They used to be (Score:2)
While in my memory these were all superb games which i spent many hours playing i must admit only few were still appealing when i tried them again. You find out game play of fps games has improved in a subtle yet essential way.
Memorieeeees...
Darwinia . . . (Score:2)
Take Chess. Chess is popular because, in my opinion, you have very rigid limitations. Pawns can only move two spaces on the first movement. Rooks only horizontally and vertically, etc. It's creative exploitation of combinations of limitations that make the game fu
Game quality stays about the same (Score:2)
I replay older games. The reason is that there are simply not enough good new games to hold my attention (and I play for about an hour a day, which is not a lot). I rather go back to a classic which I know is good, than that I let myself be bored with the new stuff.
So there is good new stuff, but not enough to occupy all my gaming tim
Old board games (Score:2)
Of course, every now and again something special will come out brand new...
Give us... (Score:2)
oldest game in the world (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:long haul? (Score:2)
Re:long haul? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope most people designing games don't have that attitude. I'd much rather buy a game that I know I can enjoy multiple times than one I'll never want to replay. I can play Super Mario 3 over and over again, even though I know where all the stuff is. There are a lot of SNES games that I've played multiple times through - I just have to give myself a few months to forget some of the details.
If I'm only going to play a game once, I'd rather just rent it.
Re:long haul? (Score:2)
Re:long haul? (Score:2)
game designing is most definetly on the engineering side of things. throwing cards into a hat can be a favorite challenge once you get good at it--i think asking 'why does the game succeed' and only looking at the game is silly when the player is a big part of the picture too. i understood and largely agreed with the main post's point, it was just the 'long-term' terminology that i call boo on. i'd call good games a medium-term experience at most. even muds moos n mmorpgs get upgraded now and then. i've pla
Re:long haul? (Score:2)
Re:long haul? (Score:2)
All art is quite useless [upword.com]. (i don't wholly agree with this, but it's famous and interesting anyway)
Re:Yup (Score:2)
Alternatively, there were Windows 95 compatible Direct3D accelerated versions of Tie Fighter and X-wing, which I'd recommend getting - the antialiasing really improves the graphics.
Re:Yup (Score:2)
Re:Yup (Score:2)
Once it's built it provides the virtual machine. Doesn't matter if it is Windows or Linux, you get a VGA card, Soundblaster, MIDI, virtual C: drive, EMS, XMS.
The coolest thing is the ability to toggle up and down with the cycles. As long as your machine is fast enough you usually adjust
Re:Nintendo (Score:2)
Games are now an 'overall experience' (Score:2)
Nintendo creates some interesting extra features with their platform crossovers (Zelda that connects to the Gameboy).
New Updates to Old Games are going strong and inculding new features - Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls, for e
Re:Before Pimp War was a web game (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Games (Score:2)