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Old vs. New Video Games

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  • thedemoninsidethedemoninside Member Posts: 188
    ajwz said:

    I've been playing video games since the early 90s and although gaming has evolved over the years and not always for the better, I can't exactly generalise video games to that degree.

    There were crap video games back then and there are crap video games now.

    I agree completely. I can say though that possibly the crap of today manages to reach a new record low at times.

    I think the big difference maybe, is that when I was younger I only got maybe 5-10 video games for nintendo/pc a year So even if it was crap I still loved it because it was something different and I was just happy to have it. Sometimes i go back with an emulator and try to relive some of the nintendo days. It makes for an evening of fun I guess, but mostly I find the games boring now. If I had a nintendo emulator with 300 games on it back in '89...now that would have been amazing.

  • gunmangunman Member Posts: 215
    I prefer older games. BG, Fallout, Arcanum, Ultimas, Eye of Beholder, Lands of Lore, M&M to name a few RPGs. Stopped playing games that turned to 3D graphics.

    In fact, I'm not yet convinced that BG:EE is better than the original. Original BG1 works perfectly on my Win7 64bit laptop and it looks charming at 640x480 resolution.
  • deltagodeltago Member Posts: 7,811
    I play both, however, newer games always tend to let me down as expectations are always high.

    For example XCOM. The original is by far superior to the newly released one.
    The same can be said about Diablo.

    I still enjoy playing newer console games, however, older games are far superior. There are few games being released these days that I would consider becoming classics.
    Chaotic_GoodFear
  • IllustairIllustair Member Posts: 877
    Just as long as they're good games (esp if it has an engaging story), I don't mind when they were released. I've played the following titles and their sequels and expansions: BG, NWN, IWD, Morrowind, KotOR, Total War, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, GTA, NBA 2k10 on Xbox with my friends before, Warcraft (esp Dota), Starcraft, Battle Realms, C&C games, etc. Although I have to say, I may have played more of the relatively older games. Only recently did I have a decent computer to play games with good graphics.
  • HesseHesse Member Posts: 27
    As long as it is a good game with a good story and great characters I'll play it.
    ElectricMonkDJKajuru
  • Chaotic_GoodChaotic_Good Member Posts: 255
    Old games for sure
    Reasons:
    1. The community
    2. The art
    3. The effort

    1. Back in the day you would see unofficial expansions/mods for many games i.e. Diablo BG . I don't know if it is the learning curve or what but it seems to happen a lot less. I know You can find skin mods no problem but these guys would make content, and put there hearts and souls into it.

    2. Graphics are over rated the things we look at on new games don't look like people they look like a glossy Gumbys. It is a lot of time and effort for something trivial when there are amazing games like kings field where npcs didn't even have faces, and it was a more gripping and immersive a game than I have played in years with exception to Dark Souls and a few others.

    3. So many companies are selling out like bethesda and blizz to name a few (I can feel your eyes burning through me).

    Bethesda - Their main stay is the elder scrolls and in each release since Morrowind there has been nothing but devolution apart from the combat system upgrades in oblivion. The worlds get smaller and smaller and less immersive. Someone above mentioned the fast travel system so I wont go into it. They took away flight ...%$#@ they ripped the wings from the butterfly why? lastly I played Morrowind for 3 years and didn't complete it. I completed everything in the last two games in a few months. Dishonored is a watered down version of Duex ex human revolution. It completely lacked subtlety, and the combat system and environments were so simplistic It makes me want to puke.

    Blizzard - I am not going to go into it if you are a wow or D3 player you know already.

    I brought up a few of fromsoftware's games above It's because I think they are one of the few companies that have not sold out, but you noticed they were not mentioned in really any top 10s for the year. There like the video game Jesus dieing for our sins. The reason there are so many bad games Is because we promote them. Baa Baa
  • Key_StrokesKey_Strokes Member Posts: 36
    A quick Google search reveals thousands of articles/academic journals discussing the question of a cultural paradigm shift towards instant gratification, particularly in "younger" generations which I would count myself a member of. I'm not here to posit the existence of such a shift but I certainly think that modern game design is symptomatic of a belief in its existence. While this thread would be better addressed towards game design, you can certainly argue that in the context of its evolution there are commonalities between "old" games and "new" games, beyond the superficial, that render this type of age analysis valid.

    As for the question as posed, I derive entertainment from games that meet certain personal criteria irrespective of age, though increasingly I find that there are fewer new games released annually that manage to meet them (hence why I'm browsing these forums and playing BG:EE).
    ElectricMonk
  • ElectricMonkElectricMonk Member Posts: 599
    edited January 2013
    Wasn't sure which option to pick, but I think this one was technically correct since "I don't have an age preference" and I don't prefer old games due to them being old. Most of the games that I play, however, are older games.

    The increasing lack of "quality games" over the years has a very simple explanation, greed. Or business ethics, etc. Business is business, and companies these days seem to care about one thing: profits. Companies should care about profits of course, but not (in my opinion) when it comes at the expense of screwing over customers and potentially destroying the market that you're a part of. Companies are in the business of making money, and they've become very, very good at doing just that over the years.

    This is why we see the degradations that we do in games. If a plot mechanic is too complex and may confuse more potential consumers than it will satisfy, it's cut (same goes for specifically instructing every quest, etc.). If battles are challenging enough that they may cause more people to ragequit and complain than not, then they're made easier. Big business is focused on one thing: making games in order to sell them at the highest possible profit to the largest number of people, and these two guiding models for making a game simply don't make the best possible game, but rather a watered-down mess that most will be able to mildly enjoy, and therefore will pay for. There is no such thing as a "labor of love" in big business game design, because the publishers control the design and don't give two sh*ts about how truly good the game is as long as it sells.

    And good luck doing your best as an independent low-budget (<2 mil$) studio to create a niche/actually good game and offering it to people currently playing the $100 million monstrosity that is Diablo III (the budget is an estimate based off WoW numbers/development time). Because the truth is that the stimuli provided by games that "look good" (I'm using this term in reference to the graphics of modern AAA 3d games) will often outweigh quality story, etc. in the average consumer's mind, and so they'd rather play a bad game that looks good than a good game that looks bad, and they'd rather play a bad game that's easy enough for them to beat than a good game that takes a lot of effort (and possibly many reloads) to complete. So what's to blame in my opinion: a complete lack of business ethics in most companies today, and the majority of consumers for settling for whatever's pushed at them from said businesses (this applies to more than video games). Okay, that's my rant, sorry for the long post.
    Post edited by ElectricMonk on
  • WendschlagWendschlag Member Posts: 33
    Newer games tend to not have any re-playability due to bad game mechanics or poor storyline.
  • eltonbarreleltonbarrel Member Posts: 262
    for me old means hour and hour and again hour totally playing ..... dead. reload. dead.reload.
    now video games are so....... EASY...............
    do you remember something called..... MEGAMAN.? .......
    DJKajuru
  • thedemoninsidethedemoninside Member Posts: 188
    I actually played Kings Quest III Redux a few days ago. I had the original way back, and the remake was free so I gave it a go. The first time I picked up an item I wasn't supposed to be carrying around and the evil wizard found me with it, he killed me and I thought "Wow...I remember now what old games where like." I couldn't even complete the game without checking a walkthrough guide nearly every step of the way. If I didn't do this, I probably would have played the game for months trying to figure out how to progress.

    Games back then made you think, and where not afraid to punish you repeatedly until you got something right. I think game design still improved greatly from the old days, but it capped out and started making a turn for the worst sometime around the popularity of purchasing DLC instead of paying a modest price for a full expansion. Also cash shops embraced by these gaming companies continue to suck the life from newer video games.
    KankDJKajuru
  • karnor00karnor00 Member Posts: 680
    It's not really a fair comparison because all we really remember of old games are the very best ones. There were plenty of terrible games produced back then, with a few really good ones.

    Not much different from today - there are a lot of bad games produced but still a few really good ones.
    Son_of_Imoen
  • Chaotic_GoodChaotic_Good Member Posts: 255
    edited January 2013
    There are good and bad game now just as then, but now the bad are making it in to the top 10 or even winning game of the year. The games are not the issue it is our perception of quality great effort is being swept under the rug while large companies are producing trash and being praised for it.

    There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception. - Aldous Huxley

    Edit: spelling - addition
    Post edited by Chaotic_Good on
    SilyElectricMonk
  • KankKank Member Posts: 38

    I actually played Kings Quest III Redux a few days ago. I had the original way back, and the remake was free so I gave it a go. The first time I picked up an item I wasn't supposed to be carrying around and the evil wizard found me with it, he killed me and I thought "Wow...I remember now what old games where like." I couldn't even complete the game without checking a walkthrough guide nearly every step of the way. If I didn't do this, I probably would have played the game for months trying to figure out how to progress.

    Games back then made you think, and where not afraid to punish you repeatedly until you got something right. I think game design still improved greatly from the old days, but it capped out and started making a turn for the worst sometime around the popularity of purchasing DLC instead of paying a modest price for a full expansion. Also cash shops embraced by these gaming companies continue to suck the life from newer video games.

    Ahhh, Sierra games. There were sooooo many fun ways to die in most of them. There were so many ways to die that The Secret of Monkey Island made fun of them in-game.

    Remember the old Sierra hint books? They came with a marker you would use to uncover the hint boxes? They'd fade in a year or so and become unreadable. How the internet has spoiled us. ;D

  • Key_StrokesKey_Strokes Member Posts: 36
    @Kank: spoiled indeed! I miss those Sierra games, and can remember thinking to myself in my youth, "these are going to be... heir today, gone tomorrow". Eh? Eh?
  • thedemoninsidethedemoninside Member Posts: 188
    edited January 2013
    I wish i could remember the name of the spy game i used to play on pc. You tapped phone lines, placed bugs on cars of suspects, and infiltrated their gang house to search for incriminating documents and shoot some of the bad guys.

    It Was probably my favorite game back in the early 90's.

    Managed to find it after alot of vague google searching. Sid Meier's Covert Action was the name. Easily one of my favorite games on our first PC.
    Post edited by thedemoninside on
  • WilburWilbur Member Posts: 1,173
    The new games have nothing on the old games. Nothing!
    DJKajuru
  • KidCarnivalKidCarnival Member Posts: 3,747
    I prefer older games because I dislike being forced to be online even in single player campaigns.

    I don't really care if a game as outstanding graphics, if the gameplay is good. Some "old" games I still play frequently and have a lot fun with are the odd Heroes of Might and Magic (3 and 5, 1 doesn't work anymore on my PC), Civilization (4) and Colonization.
  • moopymoopy Member Posts: 938
    edited January 2013
    Kings Quest and Quest for Glory FTW

    Gold Rush FTW * Infinity

    Gold Rush was ahead of its time. EGA graphics but had several paths you could play the game through and several different solutions for a given problem.

    @thedemoninside

    Screw that cat. As a cat he killed me more times than anything ever.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    I'd like to compare DIABLO with its newest sequel DIABLO 3.

    Diablo was an incredbly scary game with a consistent story . The graphics , items , gameplay ...all of it made me see it as a dark, twisted hack and slash dungeon crawling. Powerful items were very hard to find or buy and you had to fight hard in order to level up.

    Diablo 3... well, the atmosphere is a lot softer.It's not a dark "rock and roll" hellish game like the previous ones. 'Looks like it was made for 11 years old players:

    Powerful items can be found from the beggining, and really powerful ones can be bought as DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT. Your character can repeat a quest for extra experience. Really, how silly is that? This was supposed to be heavy dungeon crawling .

    If developers are going toward this kind of game, I'll carry on with the ones I've played since 10 years ago.
    WendschlagTeflonFear
  • GSMGSM Member Posts: 34
    edited January 2013
    I actually prefer ancient games compared to most newer games. I don't mind getting some direction in games these days, but I really don't like the hand-holding in a lot of these games.

    Been gaming since the very early 90's playing systems even older than that. There aren't very many new games that I enjoyed (and still enjoy) more than old games. Quest for Glory series, Space Quest Series, King's Quest Series for example, etccccccccccccc
    DJKajuru said:

    I'd like to compare DIABLO with its newest sequel DIABLO 3.

    Diablo was an incredbly scary game with a consistent story . The graphics , items , gameplay ...all of it made me see it as a dark, twisted hack and slash dungeon crawling. Powerful items were very hard to find or buy and you had to fight hard in order to level up.

    Diablo 3... well, the atmosphere is a lot softer.It's not a dark "rock and roll" hellish game like the previous ones. 'Looks like it was made for 11 years old players:

    Powerful items can be found from the beggining, and really powerful ones can be bought as DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT. Your character can repeat a quest for extra experience. Really, how silly is that? This was supposed to be heavy dungeon crawling .

    If developers are going toward this kind of game, I'll carry on with the ones I've played since 10 years ago.

    I don't know I always found the first Diablo pretty easy except for Diablo himself

    I actually prefered Diablo 2 to 1... D2 was easily miles better than D1 in every way.

    as for Diablo 3 I am pretty sure they fixed the XP exploit a long time ago. Also getting powerful items when you start? Simply not true! Even if you buy the best items with real money you still have to get to the max level to use that crap. Diablo 3 is easily the easiest except for inferno (before they nerfed the hell out of it).

    Actually Diablo 3 has gotten pretty good compared to when it first came out... I enjoy it

    Downloadable content? lol, it sounds like you never played d3 before. You use the auction house to buy items with real money or in-game money... simple as that.... no downloading.
  • TJ_HookerTJ_Hooker Member Posts: 2,438
    This has been touched on before in this thread, but I want to mention it again; there are reasons why you might think old games are better, even if they aren't. The reasons are nostalgia and selective memory. Nostalgia is pretty straight forward, so I won't bother explaining it.

    When I say selective memory, I mean the tendency for everyone to forget all the crappy games, and just remember the good ones. The same thing happens for movies and music. A person might turn on a classic rock station and think, "now this is real music, unlike that pop garbage", but it's not a fair comparison, because that classic rock station gets to hand pick the best songs from a couple decades worth of music, unlike a pop station which just plays whatever's popular now. In fact, a bunch of songs that people consider classics went largely unknown in their time, while some of the chart toppers ended up fading into obscurity. The same thing happens with video games. If a truly great game only comes along once every few years, of course you're going to come up with more great games if you can choose from a couple decades worth of games rather than just the last few years.
  • GSMGSM Member Posts: 34
    edited January 2013
    I would agree with that but I still have those old games/old systems and I still play them.

    lol
  • ChowChow Member Posts: 1,192
    It's true that there were a lot of bad games back then too as they are these days, but I'd still say it's not all nostalgia: games of today are pretty straightforward, streamlined, committee-designed, and almost disgustingly safe. Back in the day people still dared to try new things, they could actually be complex, and didn't need railroads full of arrows where to go next.

    You still have indie games, sure, but it's kind of sad they're not in the mainstream anymore.
  • DJKajuruDJKajuru Member Posts: 3,300
    @GSM , I do have D3, but haven't played it in a while heheh - but I spoke seriously , I feel that they made it more "friendly" and less hardcore hack and slash.
  • Chaotic_GoodChaotic_Good Member Posts: 255
    I think it's hard to have this discussion when this was such a bad year for gaming even though a lot say otherwise. If I was the head of one these companies and these low budget games were beating out my high budget productions heads would roll.

    I really really hate assassins creed and dishonored or really any game where you only way you die is if you try to. keep in mind every game I play I do so on max difficulty when able, and I am not saying I am good just that they are not.

    If I am all powerful at the start why play? I have already won lol the whole game is just going through the motions after that point.
  • WendschlagWendschlag Member Posts: 33
    DJKajuru said:

    I'd like to compare DIABLO with its newest sequel DIABLO 3.

    My head hurts when making this comparison.

    Chaotic_GoodDJKajuru
  • DarkcloudDarkcloud Member Posts: 302
    I like both.

    Newer games are often a bit more fleshed out at least in the UI department (though I still think no RPG has a better UI for complete party control than the Infinity Engine games) and in general thought about the interaction with the player.

    You have to remove your armor first before you could put on your new one in Might and Magic III-V. A new game would do that automatically (would only be problematic with rings).


    Older games on the other hand don't think I'm stupid and tell me stuff like "this is a blazing fire demon, it hurts you if you touch it" and many games are way to cautiousness about actually punishing for doing something really stupid or being very uncontentious or even give you a really special reward for something hard.

    Then there are indie games where the good ones combine the good factors of both but they are often a bit arcadish and kind of lack substance while many indie RPGs have UIs that make clunky old dos games look intuitive.
  • State_LemmingState_Lemming Member Posts: 375
    There have been some great improvements in how games spin a narrative in the past few years. But I still play plenty of old games, there are some unique gems that really deserve to have an influence on games today.
  • toanwrathtoanwrath Member Posts: 621
    ajwz said:

    I've been playing video games since the early 90s and although gaming has evolved over the years and not always for the better, I can't exactly generalise video games to that degree.

    There were crap video games back then and there are crap video games now.

    Except that I have been playing since late 90's, I 100% agree.
    TJ_Hooker
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