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At what point a game becomes too old for you to play ?

Humdinger

Member
I started gaming around 2000 (Xbox, PS2), so anything before that era seems too old to me. I admit the gameplay might be good, but I can't get motivated to play it. It's mostly a visual thing, but other aspects come into play, too, like control schemes. Even going back to original Xbox or PS2 games is rare for me.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
So I'm curious, do you feel there's a point where old games (3D or 2D) are too dated for you to enjoy playing them, wether it's gameplay/graphic related (or other) ?
i'm not too demanding in that front. For visuals, anything 2D is fine with me and i'll only take issue with those really early 3D games running at 10fps and 240p where you can barely react or make out whats on screen. They probably looked and felt better on CRTs but i'm not going out of my way to get one just for that.

Aside from that, some old games have really bad control schemes, probably because devs still didn't bother with ergonomics.
Also, tons of old games had game breaking bugs or were just extremely janky in general, which is kind of ironic given how much people nowadays act as if unfinished or bugged releases is a problem of the modern age.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
I would still play pac man and space Invaders.

If the game was good back then. It would be good to me now.

Hell. (Pun intended?). The original Doom is fucking amazing.
 
PS2, PC maybe before 97/98 graphics are barely tolerable. Depends on type of game of course, Geometry Wars doen't need much, while narrative games in that style would need to be very special to work and also on how long a game is. 10 hours of Quake2 should probably be doable, 50h of that I'd avoid. Practically everything since PS360, LithTech, Unreal1 is perfectly fine without 4k, HDR, RT.
Audio aged probably better than graphics even though that beeping sound is a bit annyoing but it also has a certain charm the orchestral thing many games go after now have not. Lack of audio in old adventures would be a problem. though Switching to original Monkey Island was interesting but a hard no for me. Also its controls but that has anyway hardly improved in that genre with the ever obscure solutions and dumb hiding of a trillion small parts. There are games I liked when I played them but Zelda 2, Goldeneye and Starfox are certainly games I could not stomach at all today. My taste might change a bit over time, getting bored of some element or gameplay loop (Uncharted I think) or liking something I did not at first try (MGS2). I am recently most annoyed by games that have elements I really love but are riddled with stuff I dislike. From Software atmosphere, but their get gud philosophy and all open world games that are keep me busy simulations and thus murdering their maybe even great plot with that nonsense.
 

tygertrip

Member
🚨By "old" I mean Outdated in terms of gameplay/visuals/audio/anything you can think of, not old in the sense that games realeased before "enter date" are not enjoyable.🚨


So I downloaded the original DEUS EX on PC because I love the Cyberpunk genre and loved both Human revolution and Mankind Divided but never played the first one. (I was something like 6 y.o. when it released)

I started a new game after fidling with the option menu. First impression is that visuals are more than dated but that was to be expected so it's not a big issue. But damn as much as I would like to experience the story, I just can't get pass the obsolete gameplay. I played games from the same era not too long ago (MGS1 comes to mind) and it wasn't as bad. The first person view might not help it, but gunplay, movement, and AI is too dated for me to enjoy playing it. i fell 3D games suffer much more from this than 2D ones. I guess this will be a good contender for a youtube playthrough.

So I'm curious, do you feel there's a point where old games (3D or 2D) are too dated for you to enjoy playing them, wether it's gameplay/graphic related (or other) ?

PS: Yeah sorry guys I know this forum has a majority of its audience that is around 40 y.o., but 2000 was 22 years ago, games from that time are old now :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I still play Yars Revenge, so to answer your question: "never". A good game is a good game. I also want to add that Deus Ex is a horrible example to use. Deus Ex ALWAYS felt janky and awkward, and i bought and installed it on release day. People (including myself) loved it in spite of that.
 

Scotty W

Member
In the long run, most games will become unplayable. Very few 8 or 16 bit games are playable today. The PS1 is almost entirely trash, N64 is becoming progressively worse, and with the Saturn, though it is cool, the first thing you will notice is how jank it is.

With the radical leaps to be made in technology to be made in upcoming decades, probably only 4 or 5 games will have any kind of survival, apart from historians:

Pong, Pacman, Asteroids, the Marios, Zelda 3 and Doom.
 

tygertrip

Member
Actually i began to struggle to play games that are not 60 fps..
This console gen has spoiled me
Dude. I recently finished Red Dead 2 on my PC. 4K and 60 fps, and everything that matters on the highest settings. After that, i had to see the rest of the story, so I dragged out my old PS3 to play RDR 1 (I had only played a few hours of it when it was new, my kids were young and i didnt have time). That shit was ROUGH!!! 720p on an 82" 4K screen is not pretty. And the framerate... jesus christ i swear it only hit 30 fps occasionally. Ugh. Anyway i got used to it and finished it the other day. Shit was rough. But fun... at least i could walk more than 5 feet away in a mission without failing it, lol.
 

tygertrip

Member
Season 6 What GIF by The Office

Cool, so Half Life series is shit, Doom is shit, Zelda OoT is shit, FFVII is shit, Bioshock is shit, just to name a few… you’re mental!
He's joking.
 
is that similar to the revision mod you can find on steam ?

I've not played Revision, but I understand GMDX is much more faithful to the original. It just modernises some of its more dated elements.

Revision makes quite drastic changes to the level design and most people consider it to be inferior to vanilla.
 
if the controls suck and haven't held up well. i mean that's the interface between you and the game and if it isn't good then it ruins the entire experience to the point it might be unplayable to you.

old graphics don't bother me. i guess i could argue about dated gameplay but i think well people managed to play it fine years ago so just deal with it.
 

Ogbert

Member
Nothing in terms of visuals or sound. I can play any game.

But I struggle as soon as mechanics drag. I’ve just started another Skyrim playthrough and I’m not sure I can handle the combat anymore. It was always bad, but it feels like it’s crossed the rubicon now and needs to be consigned to nostalgia.
 

kapshin

Member
Atari or before for me, I'm old enough for Atari but we had nes growing up never had Atari but my friends did that shit sucked.
 
Nothing in terms of visuals or sound. I can play any game.

But I struggle as soon as mechanics drag. I’ve just started another Skyrim playthrough and I’m not sure I can handle the combat anymore. It was always bad, but it feels like it’s crossed the rubicon now and needs to be consigned to nostalgia.
i enjoyed Skyrim when it came out but by 2014-2015 it felt really dated to me. i loved playing it and want to go back to it especially since i never go to play the DLC. i've tried many times but i can't do it.
 
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Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
Hard for me old games that were meant for crt on modern displays. I can still play them but rather use a pvm.
 
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Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
Not much I have to admit. The combat just wasn't enjoyable for me so I dropped it pretty fast because I know I won't be coming back to it

Well thats too bad but maybe one day you’ll give it another shot. I dropped System Shock 2 twice before picking it up the third time and everything finally clicking.
 

Ogbert

Member
i enjoyed Skyrim when it came out but by 2014-2015 it felt really dated to me. i loved playing it and want to go back to it especially since i never go to play the DLC. i've tried many times but i can't do it.
Agreed.

It’s that feeling of having to force yourself to enjoy something. It’s ‘almost’ fun, but the absence of that critical gameplay element almost makes it worse.

Fallout 4 is similar.

I notice I appear to be naming Bethesda games!
 

clarky

Gold Member
In the long run, most games will become unplayable. Very few 8 or 16 bit games are playable today. The PS1 is almost entirely trash, N64 is becoming progressively worse, and with the Saturn, though it is cool, the first thing you will notice is how jank it is.

With the radical leaps to be made in technology to be made in upcoming decades, probably only 4 or 5 games will have any kind of survival, apart from historians:

Pong, Pacman, Asteroids, the Marios, Zelda 3 and Doom.
Theres loads of games that still hold up.

its mostly the early 3d stuff that doesn't. Even then theres some worth playing.

Cant be arsed with lists but theres a fuck ton of games from the 16bit era that are better than most of todays games. No rose tinted specs in sight.

A lot of Treasures back catalogue is still and will always be awesome, for example.
 
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nush

Gold Member
If you could play Asteroids in a cab with an original vector monitor today, nothing is too old to enjoy. It's all the shit in the middle of the greats that's too old.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Graphics wise, Atari stuff.
Gameplay wise, anything pre-90's if it's on PC, and and on consoles even some NES stuff.
 
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Caio

Member
I could play Mario 64 now and it would be still fresh for me. But depends from the game.
 

TheUsual

Gold Member
Depends on the system as well. I've tried messing around with the N64 controller and some control setups just aged poorly. Remasters giving the ability to use modern schemes helps. (Perfect Dark on x360 I think did this)

Granted everyone was figuring out how to do 3d controls during the N64/PS1 era.
 

Fbh

Member
I find NES era games "too old". We didn't have any consoles at home during that time so I have no nostalgic attachment to it either.
It's not like I find them bad, and I can still appreciate their historical significance. But I'd much rather replay Super Metroid than Metroid 1, or A Link to the Past than Zelda 1, or FFIV-VI than FFI-II, etc
 
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64bitmodels

Reverse groomer.
Anything before 1980 is nonexistent to me
It'll stay that way forever. 80s games and up are modern enough for me to consistently replay and enjoy them
Unless some weird revelation happens in the future that completely reinvents games that won't change imo
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
I wanna say never, as I agree with that sentiment honestly, but if I'm being honest I don't enjoy any games made before the NES era, so maybe I can go back to around 87, can't do much before that.

Deus Ex is fucking magical though and you're crazy for giving that up. Best PC game of all time for me.
 
It depends. Do you see games as disposable entertainment for killing time or are you are actively interested in the medium and its history? Also, what kind of games did you grow up with? I was always more of a PC gamer, and I find Metal Gear Solid 1 much clunkier and harder to control than Deus Ex.

is that similar to the revision mod you can find on steam ?

Revision is cool in places, but it does go overboard with the changes to the level design. Also, it doesn't improve the combat, which GMDX does.
 

zephiross

Member
It depends. Do you see games as disposable entertainment for killing time or are you are actively interested in the medium and its history? Also, what kind of games did you grow up with? I was always more of a PC gamer, and I find Metal Gear Solid 1 much clunkier and harder to control than Deus Ex.



Revision is cool in places, but it does go overboard with the changes to the level design. Also, it doesn't improve the combat, which GMDX does.
Well I might give it a second try then. And to answer your questions, I grew up with consoles. I started PC gaming 5 years ago so I'm not used at all to older PC control. And even then I didn't really play any first person game back then, mostly racing and platforming games. The first FPS game I played on PS3 was Rainbow Six Vegas, so quite a few years after the release of Deus Ex.
 
When it's no longer fun to play, as simple as that. What determines that is different for each game, as it's more about the sum of its parts rather than specifics.

Recently I've been going through my OG Xbox collection and revisiting some old games, and some of them are still great and some of them are just too outdated.

For example, Buffy The Vampire Slayer has aged terribly. It's not all that fun, it's janky as hell and it looks ugly. I played it for a bit, and after the third level or so I realized I was not enjoying myself, so I stopped.

On the other hand, games like Fatal Frame 2, XIII, The Suffering, The Punisher and Black have aged really well, and I could pretty much pick them up and get right back into them. Sure the graphics are dated, some of the mechanics are nowhere near as well designed as modern games, and you have to get through some initial annoyances, but once it clicks, I'm having a good time.

So in the end, I guess it's less about specific mechanics or graphics, and just simply this feeling of "does playing this make me happy or not". If the overall package is solid, I'm willing to deal with some minor issues.
 

aclar00

Member
Depends on how strong the nostalgia drug is for that specific game.

Pretty much this.. I can play the OG Resident Evil and Twisted Metal 2 more than any game in the last 25 years. May not be long sessions, but most current games I beat once and then put them back in the drawer forever...just wish i could play my PS1 Classics from PS3 on 5 without having to repurchase or upgrad PS+
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Alot of older polygon based earlier 3D games I have a hard time getting into. Around the ps2 Era specifically. Actually I think a lot of saturn and GameCube games are good so maybe it's a Sony issue.

Atari games are too old for me except for pitfall and pacman. Not that I've played those in years. Nes and snes all good.
 

Knightime_X

Member
It's all on a case by case basis.
Sometimes some older games feel less dated than some newer games.

Most modern 2d souls like games kinda suck because they try way too hard.
Meanwhile, Zelda 2 remains 🔥
 

Sgt.Asher

Member
Probably the atari 2600(colicovision too), don't like how they look or play. That's probably it. I can still play NES games, super mario 3 is a masterpiece.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
When the visuals are off-putting or look broken. I once tried GT4 and vice on a PS2 on a HD TV and GT4 looked really weird it kinda looked like mode7 on the snes.
 
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