Which games have aged worst?

dearg_doom

Lads, ye can't look at old games being dated just because their graphics are crap by todays standards, that's like one of my aquantainces who says that Kraftwerk are shoite because their music sounds simple compared to modern dance music, the guy reckons he could come up with better after a few hours on Reason therefore the music must be shoite. Obviously I told him how wrong he was.


For example, people still play old speccy/NES/SNES etc games on emu's like SensibleSoccer etc..

SF2 is the best 2d fighter ever probably, depth, good charachters etc...

Starwing is brilliant, the only 3d SHMUP that really works well. IMO the graphics looked kind of **** on release(1994 iirc) but I was still blown away by playing a real game in 3d, I felt like I was in the future! The superFX chip was ingenious and added atleast anothe 18months onto the shelflife of the SNES(for free to consumers too, which was nice)

TombRaider, as was said, is great too, really clever design, if not my particular cup of tea.

VR racing on the other hand was crap in the arcade, and even worse on the MD;)


One game that has aged terribly imo is RidgeRacer on the PS; I thought it was crap at the time tho so that probably doen't mean much... 1 track?!WTF

Oh and the 3d GTA games too, I loved them a lot when I first played them, but, I just can't be arsed struggling with them now(I tried to play VC a couple of weeks ago, hopped on a motorbike, 'Sunglasses at Night' on the radio... and NOTHING... it just felt like a chore. I can't tell you how sad it made me feel realising that I probably won't ever play the game again:()

1huge1

ya i know what your saying dearg doom for me gta sa really put me of the gta series was totally same old same old was a chore to complete it i can imagine that becoming obsolete easily

Retr0gamer

I've a feeling time won't be kind on the GTA games.

I think a lot of people are concentrating on graphics and not gameplay. Graphics will always be bettered but a true test is if the game is still fun e.g Starwing.

iregk

Well the thing time hasn't been kind to any gta game. As I said in another post how wretched and horrible are the top down versions of GTA? They were and are woeful games. At the time they were different and completely original that was about it.

As for the 3d. GTA 3 was class, vice city gave us what we wanted, more of the same please. San Andreas, im playing at the moment, i wont say its bad because I love the 3d series but you can see how dated it looks already. They still use the same engine and core as GTA 3 so in retrospect its purely an update.

If they release a GTA4 or what ever they will call it they must pull the game apart and completely redo the graphics engine and core of the game. Another version of the same again please simply will not do and I think would kill off the series completely.

Retr0gamer

I think they would need to re-do the combat. It controls like a bad 3rd person game for the PS1.

tman

iregk wrote:

If they release a GTA4 or what ever they will call it they must pull the game apart and completely redo the graphics engine and core of the game. Another version of the same again please simply will not do and I think would kill off the series completely.

as much as i adore rockstar. i'll point blank refuse to "buy" gta4, unless it's nothing short of the revolution gta3 was.
and that's pretty damn impossible really.

i can't think of any other games to add that weren't already crap in the first place...
shiny graphics may lose their appeal over time. but the core gameplay will still be intact. (just look at pacman ffs. it's still fun!)

1huge1

god i never liked pacman though i was born in 1990 so its well before my time

ExOffender

Can't believe everyone's so down on GTA! The top-down versions blow, I agree, but I never played them. My mate gave me GTA after I got 3, and I'm like wtf?!?! How could anyone play this sh*te? Vice City was class, ok, it was basically just an update of 3, but SA is a whole new game! I confess I don't know much about the techy side of things, but you're all ignoring just how massive the game is. Of course it doesn't look the Mae West; graphics have been sidelined to concentrate on size. All this reminds me of a conversation I was having at a party the other weekend (do I not rock? :rolleyes: ). Will post thread in due course.
The reason so many early 3d games have aged worse than late-generation 2d games is just that... 2d games 1990 and up were building on 10 - 15 years of experience, precedent and the mistakes of others, they were at the top of the 2d ladder. Being that the first 3d games were at the bottom of the 3d ladder, naturally they're only going to get worse, look embarrassingly crap, etc. Even the gameplay ware was new, and thank f*ck they've improved.

seamus

The top-down GTA versions were good at the time. The top-down gameplay wasn't new, but the concept was (mostly). They have aged a bit now - they're still playable, if a little bland. Of the last three, the 3d versions, each has come on in leaps and bounds. I can't believe that people are saying that San Andreas looks the same as the other two. Have you gone back and played the other two?

djmarkus

The top down versions blow??? well gta2, yes, but gta was soooooo much fun, i still play it when i'm bored, maybe do a mission or two. it isn't great graphically, but it doesn't blow. as was said earlier gameplay is 75% of a game.

ExOffender

That's as may be for someone who played it initially, but I can't drive a car top-down to save my feckin life... I can't tell what are people and what are road markings... overall just not great.

the_syco

Still play Wolfenstein3D every so often, but it has aged a little...

GTA ruled, as the top down was cool at the time, multiplayer ruled (esp if there was 5 or more of you playing), and the actual storyline is still very good, imo. The dodge at full speed always looks good.

redmosquito

Sega Worldwide Soccer on the Saturn has aged so bad. I remember when it came out it was hailed as the greatest soccer game ever, and at the time it was the tits, I played it for hours upon end, but having played it a couple of days ago for the first time in years it just looked so bad and played like a complete dog. It was so easy, you can just walk past defenders, gauranteed at least 4000 one on ones with the keeper a match and the keeper just stands on his line!

Retr0gamer

redmosquito wrote:

Sega Worldwide Soccer on the Saturn has aged so bad. I remember when it came out it was hailed as the greatest soccer game ever, and at the time it was the tits, I played it for hours upon end, but having played it a couple of days ago for the first time in years it just looked so bad and played like a complete dog. It was so easy, you can just walk past defenders, gauranteed at least 4000 one on ones with the keeper a match and the keeper just stands on his line!

It was always hailed as being crap. Can't remember seeing one review of it above 40%. The poor Saturn owners were starved of a soccer game and it sold rather well.

Prior Of Taize

Retr0gamer wrote:

Another one!

Unreal: It looked lovely and still looks okay today so it ensured the graphics whores loved it.

funny enough i think Unreal 2 has aged the worst of that series. the graphics are so flat and plain looking. i was never a fan of the series but having recently played it i found it horrific looking.

TerrorFirmer

Unreal 2 still looks good if you have a good computer. Unreal Tournament and even Unreal Original hold up pretty well for games of their age.

One game I was playing last night that's still as fun as ever and graphics are managable is Medal Of Honor on PSone. True Classic. The Enemy AI still holds up against FPS games coming out on the Xbox and PS2....even better in some cases. Fantastic sound as well....music score in particular.

Deadwing

MobileInfantry wrote:

Unreal 2 still looks good if you have a good computer. Unreal Tournament and even Unreal Original hold up pretty well for games of their age.

One game I was playing last night that's still as fun as ever and graphics are managable is Medal Of Honor on PSone. True Classic. The Enemy AI still holds up against FPS games coming out on the Xbox and PS2....even better in some cases. Fantastic sound as well....music score in particular.

Yeah i remember being blown away by MOH back in the day. It was a class game, before EA turned it into another one of thier cash cows and sullied its good name with crap like rising sun

jaggeh

i for one think that the 2d version of GTA were better. the missions were fun, the driving was simple and incredibley fun. the story and inyourendo's was very good. it was a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the carbon copy games that came out around the same time.

anyone ever play 8 player cannonball run? now that was fun.

thelordofcheese

Retr0gamer wrote:

It was always hailed as being crap. Can't remember seeing one review of it above 40%. The poor Saturn owners were starved of a soccer game and it sold rather well.

I think Sega Worldwide Soccer '98 had Jack Charlton doing commentary, and it's probably the most unintentionally hilarious thing ever.

Only slightly more funny was the way that a run down either wing, followed by a cross would magically find your strikers head and result in a goal about 70% of the time...

iregk

thelordofcheese wrote:

Only slightly more funny was the way that a run down either wing, followed by a cross would magically find your strikers head and result in a goal about 70% of the time...

So its kind of like FIFA 2005 so...

90% of my goals are crosses and headers, can't miss...

thelordofcheese

thelordofcheese wrote:

Only slightly more funny was the way that a run down either wing, followed by a cross would magically find your strikers head and result in a goal about 70% of the time...

iregk wrote:

So its kind of like FIFA 2005 so...

90% of my goals are crosses and headers, can't miss...

Once again proof that sega were ahead of their time...

johnny_ultimate

Deadwing wrote:

Yeah i remember being blown away by MOH back in the day. It was a class game, before EA turned it into another one of thier cash cows and sullied its good name with crap like rising sun

Yeah i did enjoy the original MOH back in the day. That is until a dodgy PS1 sequel and then THOSE next gen MOH games tarnished my memory of it. I just gave up after frontline. Note to EA : A good first level doesnt make a good game

TerrorFirmer

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Yeah i did enjoy the original MOH back in the day. That is until a dodgy PS1 sequel and then THOSE next gen MOH games tarnished my memory of it. I just gave up after frontline. Note to EA : A good first level doesnt make a good game

The thing about MoH Underground was that it started off terribly, and really turned me off the game. Some of the later levels and weapons are fantastic, and by that stage it really once more feels like playing the Original MoH....that is, if you can stick it long enough to reach the good parts. The opening few levels in Paris needed serious, serious work....the levels in Paris, North Africa and the Castle are great though...

Frontline on PS2 and Xbox is a great game. Couldn't really ask for more, loved the game to bits. Rising Sun, now, it was reasonable as a stand alone game, but it had none of the MoH atmosphere or feel....really disappointing game!

Deadwing

In fairness moh on the pc was great, and still looks..okayish..today. Not a patch on COD, but still fun, and the beach landing level in it kicks the holy livin crap outta the beach landing of frontline

Retr0gamer

I was very disappointed by MOH underground. There were some good levels but it just wasn't as consistently good as the first game. And the last two joke levels especially with the knights did my head in. Frontline started great, Omaha beach was a little disappointing because the PC version was so much better but the second level was excellent. After the shipyard is was a bit of a dull corridor shooter with a hand full of decent levels.

I loved MOH:AA. Up until COD there was no better WW2 FPS game.

amp

Kind of a hard question to answer given that I generally only remember the games I've played for a while and I tend to forget games I didn't play at all or very little.

If it's the demise of a franchise then I think my vote would be for Sim City. Simcity 2000 was where it peaked for me and the subsequent versions just didn't seem to catch me like that did. Likewise the second Deus Ex "game" just annoyed me more than anything else, but I think that's because they decided to get into the console market and thus killed off the game play which began with System Shock.

Lastly, I think the game I played a lot that I will never play again would be Combat for the Atari 2600. Apart from an amusing teleport exploit, the game was boring as hell and I only played it because it was the only game I had for it apart from Pacman.

Deadwing

on the other hand, one gme i think has ages fantastically has to be quake3. I played it today and the graphics still look implressive in it, over 4 years later

1huge1

how about the whole fifa series (was good for like a day)

the_syco

jaggeh wrote:

anyone ever play 8 player cannonball run? now that was fun.

Hell yeah:cool::cool::cool: Hope they have something like it in MultiTheftAuto:San Andreas. They did mention a race mod... so me hopes its something like it.

arbeitsscheuer

thelordofcheese wrote:

I think Sega Worldwide Soccer '98 had Jack Charlton doing commentary, and it's probably the most unintentionally hilarious thing ever.

Only slightly more funny was the way that a run down either wing, followed by a cross would magically find your strikers head and result in a goal about 70% of the time...

Oooh, dunno bout that... Remember Fifa International Soccer on the MegaDrive?

Whenever you were gonna get booked/sent off, the ref had to run over to you and then pull out a card - but all we used to do was leg it off away from him!

Used to have hours of fun just runnin' around the pitch a la Tom n Jerry!
Probably more fun than the game itself, tbh.