Nostalgia Thread

[Nino-6-years]

Hi everyone.
Do you share the opinion, that modern games are mostly boring and uninventive clones of older games?
Compared to the last decade, today's game have greatly improved graphics, also the story telling may be slightly more complex, but overall they are crap, because they can't provide interesting game-mechanics and new challenges anymore. Each game looks and "feels" the same nowadays.
Or is it just a subjective "phenomena" of our older generation, because we have played and experienced so many different games already, so that it's difficult for the mainstream to come up with something new and satisfying?

Which games did you enjoy the most in your past, whether in your childhood/teens or past decade?
Console doesn't matter. You can share movies, books or whatever you like too, since they became boring aswell.

My very first game I ever played was "The Legend of Zelda - Link's awakening" on this brick :

One could punch nails in with this beast.

[MertAndacKilicTR]

Well, i’m not that old but if i think about it, there are two game that come to my mind and they are NFS: Underground 2 and GTA: San Andreas. I played these games so much i can easily say that i grew up with these games. Also, Gta IV amazed me back in the day. It was so realistic and such an improvement of a game for me. If i think about these last few years, i can say that Dying Light, Borderlands 2 and The Witcher 3 was such awesome games. Currently, i only play BFBC2 and i still enjoy it after 3 years of consistent gameplay, weirdly enough. xD

[Nino-6-years]

That's interesting. My assumption is, that the success of games are rather depending on a generation of consumers and their experiences than on the actual quality of the game. Maybe I am starting to get old and loosing interest for games in general, because I have played a lot(!) of different games in my past, starting form shooters and strategy to adventures and puzzles etc., and therefore there is not much new for me to see.

For instance I have played some of the games you mentioned and they are quite good, indeed. But nevertheless I can't enjoy them as much as I did enjoy the games for the PS1. They just don't feel the same anymore. Instead of buying a new game with fancy graphics, I would rather consider replaying something like Parasite Eve II (1999), for example - Awesome game! I replayed it about 4 or 5 times from start to finish already
Unfortunately the developers completely ruined the sequel and made it a steaming pile of shit ...


Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive (2001) is a gem, too. A great real-time strategy game for Windows XP I tried too install it a few years ago, but it doesn't work on Win7 and I am too lazy to find a work around (e.g. emulated WinXP)

[[RC]Hunter]

I still own a game boy like this ... ... enyoing many hours of tetris back then ... hahaha ...

Well,
in regards to older multiplayer games, I liked the most that back then that a ranking or unlocks were no deal at all. Everybody could start with the same weapon loadout and fighter classes were designed to make teamplay important. There were less active players a decade or more ago, since Internet and decent PCs were not as cost-efficient like today.

I do remember that I spent "half of my life" in the original battlefield vietnam, wanna remember the graphcis?





The online community back then was much closer to each other and more thankful to anybody trying to provide a server to play on or even a website to chat and compare some statistics. We run BF Vietnam servers for many years of this old game and even had a contest weekend on two servers in parallel 10 years ago already. Yeah ... some of our readers were still liquid I believe ... hehehehe





Saying these days nothing is really new, well ... its amazing what some titles (especially single player titles) do provide in graphics and story telling compared to the past, but what I complain the most is the multiplayer gameplay in recent titles. Just rushing fast and with no respect through the levels (and there are always ranks) and weapon unlocks (and there are always unlocks) in order to be first who played all through?

Auto aim knifing since BC2, hip shooting sniper rifles since BC2, "sniping" pump guns killing you accross the map, unrealistic physics for choppers since BC2 and jets since BF3, heck how easy can a game be made? No surprise that everyone runs solo around like Rambo and it does not really harm the success of a winning round. It just does harm "older players" still remembering the funny teamplay times with dozens of players in Teamspeak channels trying to coordinate the next attack on a particular flag ...

But no more crying from my end, the industry changed, the consumers decide and make the applied changes successful. The older crowd of the player base will simply age out and their purchase value will be compensated by the next generation of consumers bying any game as long it fits to the current movie in cinemas.

Single player titles of the past? Oh yes ... just mentioning WING COMMANDER in the 90´s, put up your sunglasses prior watching this screenshot:

<center>[img]http://www.clusterwars.net/userpix/2_wi ... nder_1.jpg[/img]</center>


or FREELANCER from 2003, you could decide being a good or bad guy, flying as a honorable business man or a privateer through the galaxy:

<center>
[img]http://www.clusterwars.net/userpix/2_free1_1.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.clusterwars.net/userpix/2_free2_1.jpg[/img]
</center>


Nice topic opening @ nino!

[MertAndacKilicTR]

I think i agree with you Nino. For a lot of people, their first game is the best game for them even if it is a bad one. Don't quite know why but that first moment is always special. I remember messing around on the streets of San Andreas for days just for fun or trying to get a new car and customize it to bits on NFS: Underground 2. Didn't quite know about the PS1 era cause i was a baby back then. By the way, you guys are old! xD

[Nino-6-years]

That's reasonable critique on multiplayer-games. Basically, the main objective switched from teamplay to "Look at me, I am the best and the rest of you are noobs!"
However, that doesn't apply to offline-multiplayer. When I grew up, I hadn't access to online-PC-games, but PS1 only. Back in those days multiplayer meant to sit together in one room, talking to each other and playing with 2 controllers. There was no rushing through, but cooperation was necessary to accomplish certain goals. Also it was limited to 2 players (maximum 4 with an adapter).
Some games I remember playing (coop and competitive):
Hogs of War / Frontschweine(ger) (2000) - A delightful turn-based strategic game, similar to Worms Armageddon (1999), except in 3D. The Theme was WWI (or maybe WWII, I don't remember), packed in great humor and a lot of challenging campaigns for single player, too. I know, the graphics don't look very promising, but the gameplay is excellent.


Crash Team Racing (1999) - Probably most people would disagree, but in my opinion it's an strongly improved version of Mario Kart 64 (1996), but featuring characters from the Crash Bandicoot series. I had a lot of fun playing it with friends. It's quite popular though, and not really worth mentioning, since most people do know this game.


Herc's Adventure (1997) - Neat game, both witty and challenging. It had a few flaws, but overall a game worth playing. I never finished it though, because game-breaking glitches started to occur. I assume the CD got scratched by accident

(Couldn't find a proper image)

Also Legend (1998) - It was not that great (or maybe I was just too bad?), but still entertaining on multiplayer.
Diablo (1996) - One of my favorites. Back then it was very difficult, since some gamemechanics weren't very clear, neither to me, nor to my friend. Nevertheless we finished it somehow by using the weirdest strategies ... Oh, those times.
Fighting Force (1997) - Same as Legend, too repetitive and quickly boring, but stil enjoyable with friends fooling around with enemies. ))
Every game mentioned was for the PS1, by the way. That's the only console I ever had (besides a Gameboy with 4 or 5 games).

Mert, this is how GTA looked like, when I used to play it

Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999)