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

Tams

Gold Member
Apart from handheld console games and sprite-based games (often the same thing), anything before the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox generation.

The world's are just too bland and empty, often right up to the characters. Even one of the previous favourite games, Age of Empires (I) is unplayable to me now. Whereas Age of Empires II is perfectly fine (even the non-HD version).
 

Emet_bp

Member
It all depends....
I can play Gran Turismo 1, Delux Sky Jump 2 or any Metal Slug game any day and have a great fun. At the same time many PS2 or PS3/X360 titles are hard to play today (titles which I liked/loved back then).
 
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I can’t really go back to anything NES or older. SNES is fine depending on the genre. Some GameBoy games are in the same boat too. There isn’t a specific cutoff though.
 

Elysion

Banned
The biggest deal-breaker for me is archaic controls. I can get over wobbly polygons, blurry textures or bad framerates, but I can’t play stuff like the old Tomb Raider games; tank controls in 3d environments are the absolute worst (they’re only tolerable in games with fixed camera angles/backgrounds, like OG Resident Evil 1-3). In fact, I hated tank controls even back in the PS1 days, and found it hard to get into games that had them. On the other hand, other PS1 games like Spyro, Soul Reaver, Medievil or Crash are still perfectly playable for me, mostly thanks to their semi-modern controls. The same goes for the big N64 games like Banjo-Kazooie or OoT.

As for 2d games, they’re generally playable for me I guess, but I never liked 2d games in the first place; I started playing on PS1, and going from 3d to 2d always felt like a huge downgrade to me, like going from modern cinema back to silent films. I tolerated it for GB and GBA games, but that’s about it. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the DS and PSP came out, since I could finally leave the 2d era even on handhelds behind.
 
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Eimran

Member
I was boven in 1990 but on occasion I still play games from the 80's and 90's.

The older I get, the more I appreciate how sick some graphics are from games in the 90's. Considering the hardware then.
 

Shut0wen

Member
Personally i find 8bit and 16 bit games incredibly play able in todays standard (with custom saves on most games) but when consoles jumped to 3d theres certain games which are just unplayable, a majority of n64 games are pretty unplayable and theres also a majority of ps1 games which are pretty unplayable too, id also say a majority of multiplatform ps2 games are fucking ugly especially when compared to xbox with, but id say there are some decebt titles that are still playable like burnout 3 and revenge, outrun 2, forza motorsport, project gotham, okami zone of enders mgs 2, 3 viewtiful joe 1 and 2 and a majority of dreamcast games as well, also halo, ninja gaiden black, black, majority of gamecube games are still playable as well especially early ones like wind waker, luigis mansion and bloody roar
 

RickSanchez

Member
The original Deus Ex was the game that came to my mind as well when i read the post title. I can even get over the dated visuals but clunky controls will kill it for me. Hell, i cant even go back to play Assassin's Creed Unity anymore because the parkour movement feels unintuitive after playing Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Valhalla.

2D games are a different story. I could still pick up and play Apogee's BioMenace and enjoy the hell out of it!

But there is something else to be said about modern AAA games - they just do not bring the sense of wonder in you that almost any 90s or early 2000s game could bring. probably because i have gotten cynical and jaded with age.
 
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But there is something else to be said about modern AAA games - they just do not bring the sense of wonder in you that almost any 90s or early 2000s game could bring. probably because i have gotten cynical and jaded with age.
I believe this is very true and i think what has happened is not a evolution of gameplay but a devolution of gameplay which is why i still can play Deus Ex , Tomb Raider , Metroid Prime, Descent. however this is not a cut it all genre thing its mostly based around action adventure or just exploration games in general that involved mainly on exploration for rewarding a player. now a days its either Stealth or Combat focused games that are evolving. games like Elden Ring "dark souls" , god of war or bayonetta. so in short if your cynical i am surely also and i do not believe that to be the case. just saying.
 

Neo_GAF

Banned
there is no such thing as obsolete. Only thing dated is you. i dislike games with loading times. if i have to wait for more than 30sec. i dont want to play it.
 

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
I think pre-NES for sure is too old at this point. NES is on the line it really depends on the game.
 
🚨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:
Deus ex was jank right out of the door, just like Morrowind. I bounced off of both of them when they were new. Both are classics but really clunky. Much older games play much better than both of those.
 

Tg89

Member
Depends on the game. Some age better than others.

Games like Counter Strike, SMB3, StarCraft, Diablo II, LttP, etc. are ageless to me. Meanwhile there's stuff that came out relatively recently and already feel dated.
 
"Obsolete gameplay"..."Good contender for a youtube playthrough"...

GIF by Achievement Hunter
Imagine a VR game where you get to punch Greg Miller
 

BlackTron

Member
Some games are painfully obviously dated and just refuse to die anyway through sheer fun factor, like StarFox64
 
I find modern games rarely give you a feeling of excitement purely from exploration and discovery. I just fired up Fallout 2 the other day, and right out of the gates, the vibe is just incredible.
 
Apart from handheld console games and sprite-based games
Sprite-based?

So you're asking is at what point do 3D games before the PS2 become too old for people to play?

I would say most 3D console games from 1993-1998. Control being the biggest cause, graphics trying to be too ambitious despite the limited hardware being the other cause.
 

MagnesD3

Member
Atari, I dont think I've ever seen an actual good atari game. NES and onward have a ton of objectively good video games.
 
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Tams

Gold Member
Sprite-based?

So you're asking is at what point do 3D games before the PS2 become too old for people to play?

I would say most 3D console games from 1993-1998. Control being the biggest cause, graphics trying to be too ambitious despite the limited hardware being the other cause.
Yes, I don't find PS2 era 3D games enjoyable due to the graphics.
 

JCK75

Member
It depends on how it feels
Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong, Pacman, etc feel timeless to me
quite a few games I grew up playing on Atari 2600 I don't care to play again at least not in their Atari Console release version (will take arcade versions every time)

Quite a few PSX/N64 era games I don't care to revisit as that was the puberty of gaming and there is too much jank.

I support Remakes/remasters as there are a lot of games that were great in many ways but feel like a slog to play with their outdated mechanics.
 
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