Old vs. New Video Games
I want to know what people think of the older games verses the newer games. To do this I propose a poll. I have a very specific agenda in mind here but I will not tell until I get a good batch of results. When you vote please share your reason for your preference! That is especially important to me. I would also be interested in specific games you play in general if you feel like sharing; just not as interested as the why.
I just hope the first person to post isn't a moderator come to say: "This topic already exists noob." (err, except they are nice about it) That seems to be happening a lot lately. Lol. Anyway, enough of my odd jokes on with the data gathering.
Edit: As to the definition of "new game" and "old game" I will leave some of that up to you. However anything released before 2004 would be solidly an "old game". Lets consider a game solidly new if it came out in 2008 and onwards. This leaves an intermediate zone where a game isn't necessarily old or new... Since I cant change the poll try to decide your answer based on which cut off point your games are closer to, or bias yourself to older games if most of them are in this region. I would also like to point out that remakes don't count. Therefore BG:EE would still be a solid member of the "old games" group.
I just hope the first person to post isn't a moderator come to say: "This topic already exists noob." (err, except they are nice about it) That seems to be happening a lot lately. Lol. Anyway, enough of my odd jokes on with the data gathering.
Edit: As to the definition of "new game" and "old game" I will leave some of that up to you. However anything released before 2004 would be solidly an "old game". Lets consider a game solidly new if it came out in 2008 and onwards. This leaves an intermediate zone where a game isn't necessarily old or new... Since I cant change the poll try to decide your answer based on which cut off point your games are closer to, or bias yourself to older games if most of them are in this region. I would also like to point out that remakes don't count. Therefore BG:EE would still be a solid member of the "old games" group.
- Old vs. New Video Games117 votes
- I prefer older games to newer games.34.19%
- I prefer the newer games to the older games.5.98%
- Actually I play both old and new games. I don't have an age preference.55.56%
- Apathy/ambivalence/don't know/don't care/just lemme see the results already!4.27%
Post edited by Tresset on
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Comments
Thankfully, though I know some people have issues with the UI in Baldur's Gate, I find it fluid and well laid-out enough that it becomes transparent to me after awhile, which I think is the ultimate goal of any good UI.
For the sake of science, though, I should mention that I'm "only" 21. So, my idea of old games is the Baldur's Gate series. I heard good things about Syndicate, for example, but I found it unplayable.
Plus, the idea of "balancing" a game after release is really lame. Nowadays everyone thinks the game should match exactly how they feel about every stupid detail. Games likeBG were awesome because they didn't have that nonsense. You figured out the fun little game mechanics and used that knowledge to your advantage, and didn't have to worry about some assclown yelling hard enough on the forum to make the devs change something that you liked the way it was.
Edit: But on second thought, there are indie games that're still as amazing as the best old games out there were... damn, I was a bit hasty with this. Can I change my vote somehow?
For those of you who cut your teeth on RPG's via Oblivion, I highly recommend you take one step further back on the timeline and give Morrowind a shot. Morrowind had a great feel to it unmatched by Oblivion.
As for me...If I had a dollar for every hour I spent on Daggerfall....I truly did contract vampirism.
No fast travel meant you had to actually explore the alien landscape. There were more equipment slots as well. They took away a slot with each sequel. Games are like alot of metal bands. They start out creative and interesting, but with every subsequent release they try to make it more accessible to a larger crowd and ruin what was so great about it in the first place.
It was a truely wonderful game. And the reason for that was it made a genuine and earnest effort to translate the joy and fun of playing a Role Playing Game into a single player gaming experience.
It wasn't perfect, and it required many improvements. But in spite of it's flaws it delivered a truely joyous gaming experience for me.
But up until buying BGEE I would have voted for either "both" or for "newer" games; as I had thought that much of my love for BG was down to nostalgia.
Sadly BGEE did not improve BG as much as I would have liked or would have hoped. And it could have been A LOT better had WotC given Overhaul the okay to make a more comprehensive "enhanced edition" for Baldur's Gate.
However it succeeded in reminding me how much I loved BG, and how I enjoy RPGs; and how much I thoroughly missed playing a real, pure, honest, role playing video game as apposed to the watered down crap we get shoveled at us these days.
Seriously, I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen games advertised as RPGs in these last few years and thought to myself "that isn't an RPG. it's a..." whatever it was.
Strategy games being billed as RPGs because they have a basic storyline and "hero" units that have basic levelling (Diablo 3 and X-Com immediately leap to mind). Or action games with RPG elements being labelled "rpg" (Mass Effect 3 is definately in this category). I have even seen some simulation type games being called "rpgs" because they have some rpg trappings.
It frustrates me because I am an RPG player and I see these reviews and ads for this "HOT NEW RPG FROM..." whatever company. And I look a bit into it and see that what they are selling ain't no fricking RPG.
People don't seem to know what Role Playing means anymore. They think God of War is a role playing game because you step into the role of Kratos. And it totally isn't - it's a hack'n'slash action adventure game.
BGEE made me realise that my love of BG wasn't because of nostalgia. It also made me realise that most of the games I have installed on my computer, and continue to play regularily are "older games".
Master of Orion 1 and 2 is on and stays on and I STILL play both. Civ 4 is still on and I still play it (modded of course). Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries is on and still gets played. KotOR 1 and 2 are both still on and still get played.
Hell recently I downloaded the Open Source version of Star Control 2 - called The Ur-Quan Masters. And I have been playing that alternately with BGEE.
Aside from BGEE, Crusader Kings 2 is the "newest" game on my PC at the moment.
I did have Skyrim installed but I kept accidentally breaking it with mods lol. So it came off for a bit.
That isn't to say I don't own newer games for my PC and Xbox 360. I do. I just don't really play them regularily anymore.
I stopped playing ALL of the Mass Effects (and they got uninstalled) after I played Leviathan, and it wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be (wasn't worth what they are charging for it) and it actually introduced new plot holes into the ending. Once again rendering the ending a nonsensical mess. Yeah.
The whole mass effect thing also ruined Dragon Age for me, and THOSE got uninstalled as well.
Deus Ex got taken off after I completed it because, well ME3 ruined it's legacy for me by stealing the ending of Deus Ex almost verbatim (but in a crap way).
SotS 2 is still a buggy mess, so it's off. Warlock Master of the Arcane is too much like the crap Civ 5 for me to enjoy, so it's off. AC3 was a collosal waste of money.
I could keep going, but this post is getting overly long now.
But that is the effect BGEE has had on me.
I miss playing games that make me feel like I want to play again. And again. And it has been so long since I have felt that.
These days i mostly play old games to be honest with the exception of clearing the singel player campain and testing the MP of Far Cry 3 (The MP was really... dull... generic and... well.. meh..)
Times are changing and these days i mostly just play BG:EE along with some assorted OLD games like Civilization 1, Doom, Duke Nukem 1 - 3, broken sword 1/2, Monkey Island 1-3, Full Throttle (one of my favoritt point and clicks..) and other games around that era :-)
ALL HAIL DosBox AND ScummVM!
I want a new tactical WW2 shooter alá Brothers In Arms.. to many generic shooters thesedays, give me something where weapons have a recoil larger then a bb gun >:(
I used to play all the popular genres. Strategies, RPGs, FPSs, adventures.
My most favorite FPS is Hexen 1. Shooters nowadays are simply incomparable. In every aspect. Short, stereotype, linear, lowering difficulty(regenerating health, next to no puzzles, constant helping either by sidekicks or by hints), frequent interruptions for cinematics, because story must be clear, leaving nothing to imagination. If Hexen would be released nowadays, they would call it RPG.
Best classic RTS is Starcraft 1. All I say is Starcraft 2 is made just for Battle.net ladder games. Campaign can be accomplished in weekend and the biggest gaming company in universe was not able to create AI for custom games, so 15 minutes lasting ladder games or nothing.
There are tons of RPGs nowadays, but which of them can really be called RPGs? All of these modern RPGs are action and those non-action are either small games with low budget and no customization (Drakensang), unfinished ones(Neverwinter Nights 2) or simply sloppy money-grabbers (Dragon Age).
BUT as I said there are some really nice games nowadays. Settlers 7 may be one of the best game in the series, plenty of great adventures, Trine pushes classic platform puzzle games into new level, indie scene overall.
It's one of those little dreams I have that I know will never come true unless they decide to go with a new style RPG for BG3.
You know its a bad situation when the hardest part, regardless of difficulity setting, is to start the game
*Glares at Far Cry 3*
I still play the first game I ever spent any real time on.. Kings Quest II
There is a better distinction between "good games" and "bad games". And there is also a matter of personal taste - for example, I enjoyed playing Morrowind, once. and I hated Oblivion and Skyrim. I never even finished either one of them, and I only played Skyrim through the very first starter area before I was bored to tears and completely lost interest in it.
In the fantasy action hack'n'slash genre, I have played Sacred 1, Sacred 2, and Titan Quest for years and years, ever since their respective releases. I played Fate and Torchlight 1 quite a bit, and I have barely begun to explore Torchlight 2, but I think it will have a place on my permanent rotation of beloved games.
I have a Sacred 2 game going right now, and I still don't see an end to the possiblities of things I'd like to try in it.
Diablo 2 was kind of "meh", to me. I have a couple of characters going in it, and I might eventually get back around to resuming them. Diablo 3 was horrible. I played a monk through normal level, enjoyed it for about three weeks, and then, I was done. I felt the same for Divine Divinity 1 as for Diablo 2. Divine Divinity 2 was horrible.
In the party-based roleplaying genre, my absolute favorites are Might and Magic 6-8. Those are even higher on my list than the Baldur's Gate series, and I will play them all at least once a year for the rest of my life. Baldur's Gate is close second, though. Dragon Age was fun to a point, but it has very limited replayability for me. I tried to start it a second time recently, but I lost interest halfway through.
Neverwinter Nights 1 is also pretty high on my list. It's been a long time since I put it on my rotation, and it's getting about time that I started up with it again. I started a second Neverwinter Nights 2 run recently, but I lost interest about halfway through. I've never finished a Mask of the Betrayer run. I just can't stay interested in the series long enough to get there, plus, I hated the spirit eater gimmick.
In the fantasy strategy genre, I got started as a video gamer in the first place with the classic 1995 Sega Genesis CD game Dark Wizard. I went from there to the Heroes of Might and Magic series, which is still a favorite, especially for its music and chess-likeness. I tried Elven Legacy, but I couldn't stay interested in it for very long, and it went off my rotation.
So, I don't think "old" and "new" matters very much. What matters is good gameplay in each respective genre.
I think what you may really trying to get at with this topic is the fact that current market conditions in the gaming business seem to be favoring advances in graphics over good gameplay. And that is really a completely different topic than what you have tried to start. I think that you are implying that the market needs to shift back toward good gameplay over emphasis on graphics.
There is also a side-issue of the single-player vs. multiplayer markets. Most games are trying to to appeal to both of those markets nowadays, with mostly huge failures to please either one. The big money is in successful MMO's like World of Warcraft. Those of us in this forum mostly comprise a niche submarket. We tend to despise the big moneymaking games. So, there is actually a significant profit to be made by a smaller company, like Overhaul/Beamdog, for example, that caters to us.
There are quite a few elements in today's games that just weren't in the older ones... Ie, "enemies level with you" and regeneration. The first is annoying and makes levelling pointless, while the latter I find to be funny.
"OH GODS I BROKE MY SPINE!"
"Quick! Wait behind this rock!"
"Yay! I feel all better!
To me, thats just a much faster version of save-reload. Nyeh, I don't care. Gimme the story!
Dev: "OK, I have lots of good ideas for story, character development, etc."
EA Exec: "Great! We need more people like you around. George, get this man a computer and get him started on combat animations"
Dev: "uhhh..."
EA Exec: "We start people out in some setting everyone knows. You know Star Wars, some sword & sorcery mumbo jumbo...etc. either way it doesn't matter. Get some level designers to throw something together. We can reskin the models afterwards to whatever setting we want.
Devs: "that's great but..."
EA Exec: "Get these kids pressing some icon on a hotbar so their character can do cool moves. The kids these days love cool moves. Give them some basic gear to find and buy as well. Nothing too fancy though."
Dev: "But good RPG's have interesting combat mechanics and loot to find. Otherwise they get bored. And about the story..."
EA Exec: "George, get this guy throwing together some models for the other dev to start doing animations with. Also lets get this cash shop working so these kids can buy the gear they really want. It has to look cool and be way overpowered so they will pay 15 dollars for each piece of gear. We can throw some story together afterwards just to make the game even more awesome!"
It HAS to go this way. How else do you explain SW:TOR lol.
I am a big fan of the isometric crpg's of the 90's. I am fan of "arcadey" shooter mechanics in games, like picking up health packs, wielding big guns, and taking quite a few bullets to kill enemies, all in the presence of no radar, one-hit melee kills, regenerating health or ironsights. I miss PC games that felt like PC games, because that was the only show in town at the time. I enjoyed the game design of older titles, where "built to last" and "re-playability" was the philosophy, not over-hyped marketing and cash cow games that milk a title for all it's worth, and put more emphasis on the initial purchase, rather than how good the game actually is. I miss expansion packs, that included enough content to warrant the price, rather that having to purchase multiple DLC's to equal to the same thing. I miss when the industry was more about making games than making money - a time where innovation was welcomed and developer studios weren't run by huge corporations.
On another note, I enjoy the technical advances that have been made. I like shiny new graphics and aesthetics that some games show. There have been many times where I would try to play an older title, and just couldn't because it just looked too dated. The substantial strides that game engines have made and what they can do now,is also very impressive. I enjoy the integrations between genres, like how many FPS games now incorporate RPG elements. I appreciate the internet and what it has done to transform the state of gaming. Online updates are both a pro and a con, since it both easily allows for players to get the most recent update, but can also push a "lazy" game design philosophy for devs/pubs. Another double-edged sword is the popularity gaming has achieved. On one side, the increased popularity has made gaming a much more acceptable medium, and it's nice to have all these titles to choose from, but that makes for lots and lots of rushed, garbage titles clogging the market up.
I have been playing games for over 25 years, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. Throughout the years, the medium has changed, both mildly and drastically, and I was there to witness it all. At the end of it all, I think I can say I enjoy gaming for what it is, regardless of its imperfections, but that being said, I think the industry could benefit a lot from looking back and and reapplying some philosophies from the "golden age." Of course, I am looking at things from gamers perspective, and not one from a business perspective, which sadly, is what the industry has turned into.
It is quite a pity that quality isn't that high nowadays, but interesting games still appear once in a while.
There were crap video games back then and there are crap video games now.