Is it blasphemy here to note that one of the major reasons I never came back to check out Final Fantasy VII is because the art style is a major turnoff for me? I don't consider myself a graphics snob, but the blocky sprites I've seen look terrible. I think I'd have to wait for the FF7 remaster at this point.

Super Mario 64's camera is probably my least favorite part of the game.

Chuckya would like a word with you on the most annoying thing about Mario 64

Oh yeah, I hated that guy, and didn't even remember him until just now. The camera always bothered me a bit too, so many places where I couldn't quiiiite see what I was doing.




(Toasty!)

Remember what an impact Mortal Kombat I & II had when they released? I distinctly remember Sega having a big leg up here because it actually left all the blood in when you were pummeling your opponents, while the SNES versions left them out (I had both systems, but only received them for the SNES...).

They felt great at the time, they were violent and edgy, and parents everywhere hated them, making them all the more fun to play. And those fatalities were amazing if you could ever pull them off, but of course you rarely did because you were about an inch to the left of where you had to be and ended up just sucker punching your opponent once. But now? The shock value is long gone, and all elements of these games have been refined upon ever since. It will always hold a place as a pioneer, but now they don't have much appeal to revisit. I'm not so sure this would be all that entertaining to just pick up and play at this point, since you would have to look up plenty of move combos and fatalities just to make it interesting, and they were certainly not provided ingame. Heck, Street Fighter 2 may have even eclipsed it back then.

tbh, I'm kind of with you though. I've been trying to play through it again and I'm having difficulty. The game is hideous.

FF8 is only marginally better tho?

FF8 is only marginally better tho?

Personally I love the pre-renders of the psx trilogy.

I love almost everything about the early C&C games. Command & Conquer, C&C Red Alert. Great soundtrack, fun units, cheesy fun cutscenes, etc etc. But the time it takes to build a base and build any decent sized fighting force. It takes so long! 

Maybe there are some mods on the pc that reduce that problem, I've mostly stuck with consoles up until now.

>Thread about games ageing poorly
>Says something about ff8 looking good for the era.�

DT I don't want to spend my entire life arguing with you but I have to laugh at this thread because I reckon I disagree with *every* point and example you've made in it!�

Also your problems with X's predictability/story aren't about the game ageing or not, you just dislike it.
Or your intense love for FF8 makes you criticise every other entry more harshly.

15 years after FFX's release, the story comes across as bland, the voice acting monotonous, and it's predictability is blatant. Tell me you didn't put two and two together when Auron didn't want to go to the farplane or whatever in Guadosalam? And there were those little spires floating around him and he was swatting them?

Tell me you didn't predict the Final Summoning's end result and Sin's reincarnation?

The battle system, as well as the Sphere Grid, although very refreshing at the time, is not as fun or ground-breaking in hindsight. It's kind of a mess, especially in the HD remake.

And the screen I posted is from a PC version of the game, AS I HAD STATED RIGHT ABOVE THE IMAGE. Holy Christ.

Well, stories don't age really do they? If it was bad, it was always bad, you just didn't see it.

Again, this is you not liking the game. Nothing to do with age or hindsight.
I liked the battle system back then, and I like it now.

the game is one of the more mediocre entries in the series.

This is your subjective view of the game. This is what i'm talking about.

Okay, you like the game, whatever. It doesn't change my point at all
You were less critical back when it came out, apparently.
None of your criticisms are tied to its age. Unless the game was made obsolete by something newer.

Let's get this one out of the way. It was revolutionary in its time and in part responsible for initiating throngs of people into the First Person Shooter genre, especially on consoles. Although Quake and Doom 2 players would laugh at 4 people sharing one TV screen for multiplayer at the time, it still ushered in the era of shenanigans with your friends on the couch for great times and endless laughs. But now? It feels so clunky. The multiplayer is bland, the graphics are kind of painful, and the levels are less interesting than I remembered by and large.

"We're all a Sad bunch of SaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaD".

Rinoa
"Stop trying to act cool!!"
(shoves Irvine down a flight of stairs)

Personally, I feel the final fantasy that aged badly was the first one. They've updated the graphics a lot but never bothered to add more depth to any of the characters or the world. It makes the game feel very dry and hard to play through. I can't imagine these games gain any attention from younger fans. Even with the updated releases. In any case. I play games for their story/characters and the first one lacks a lot in both of these fields.

Hey DT, "We're all a Sad bunch of SaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaD".

Just thought I'd throw that reference out there for a fellow VIII fan.

Both of you display a definite quality of being contrarian to each other...does it amuse you? I mean, I'm trying to speak to both of you because you argue incessantly.

You're like...Squall and Seifer, or something. Which is which? Who cares.

...Ugh...people criticize each other too much for my taste, I guess...criticism and polemics get old to read after a while...

But you know, Rome wasn't built in a day. You guys might play nicer, Ranger is Ranging around here somewheres. He ain't never let me get away with nuthin' either, y'know.

Serious question, is English a second language to you?

Minutiae.

məˈn(y)o͞oSHēˌē,məˈn(y)o͞oSHēˌī

noun

plural noun: minutiae; plural noun: minutia

the small, precise, or trivial details of something.

"the minutiae of everyday life"

synonyms: details, niceties, finer points, particulars, trivia, trivialities

"the captain cannot be concerned with the minutiae of shipboard life"

tl;dr DT says game ageing is subjective. I say it's more objective.

...You guys both seem like cool dudes. I hate to see you argue. ~ Spoony

Stairs the stairs

I think Final Fantasy 4 aged poorly, but not in terms of gameplay or graphics or music.... I think time has shown that the plot is pretty one-note. It tells a good tale, but it's just not very complex or interesting. I can forgive that, because it's fun to play and the plot actually WAS pretty deep in its era, but as video games have become more of a storytelling medium, one of the earliest entries just doesn't hold up as well anymore.

Is it blasphemy here to note that one of the major reasons I never came back to check out Final Fantasy VII is because the art style is a major turnoff for me? I don't consider myself a graphics snob, but the blocky sprites I've seen look terrible. I think I'd have to wait for the FF7 remaster at this point.

Wolfenstein 3D is another one. It's a hard game to play now, endless corridors that all look the same. Identical doors, easy to get lost if you don't use the map.
No story, no challenge for most of it, far too easy. Pointless collectibles that do absolutely nothing.
Once you play the fantastic Doom, there's no reason to return to Wolfenstein 3D, pardon the pun.

Well let's also not ignore that fact that as a result of being a 3d game on the SNES, it had to contend with a wildly inconsistent framerate that at top speeds maybe reached 15 fps. That's a not-insignificant hindrance for a twitch shooter to have.

Altered Beast on the Sega Mega Drive was amaaaaaazing when it came out. Really good, clear voice samples did not exist in home console games up until this point. When you push start and that horribly mangled 11000hz voice sample plays, you are totally in the game.

It is a bulls___ quarter-stealing piece of crap. The Mega Drive version is somewhat more malleable, but it requires knowing a code (it's one of those 'hold this button during startup' things) to access its options menu that I can never remember at all.

It scrolls the screen automatically all the time. It is not about exploration or freedom, you are locked on rails the entire game, and forced to keep advancing at enemies that have 100/1 priority over your attacks all. the. time. Your attacks have several frames of animation. Enemies' do not, typically. They just hit you and you're boned.

It is not really a very fair or fun game, but it is more about atmosphere and coolness than actual gameplay guts. Ghosts and Goblins may be a quarter-muncher, but it is technically fair if you know what you are doing, most of the time. Altered Beast just wants your quarter, and it's willing to traumatize young kids who play the arcade version with a MUCH higher pitched and clearer death scream (anyone else hate the game Night Striker for similar reasons? - ed).

I do not care for this game anymore. Double Dragon please.

The last time I tried to play Wolfenstien 3d, I quit because of being unable to assign separate strafe keys.

Anyways, my addition to this topic is TMNT: the arcade game on the NES. With only three different attack abilities, it often comes down to using the same tactics on the same enemy types over and over. The challenge is one of endurance, though whether it's about having enough lives to beat the final bosses (since continuing throws the player back to the start of the pair) or maintaining attention long enough to complete the game is open to interpretation.

I sure hope nothing mind-bendingly insane happens on my paper route today

Paperboy was funny when it came out, but it just kind of lost its charm over time, especially since people do not typically read printed periodicals to get their news these days.

Donkey Kong Country 64. Back at the tail end of 1999 when released, this game was critically acclaimed, and I bought the hype along with the rest (2.4 million, in copies sold). It was riding on a wave of strong platformers and it attempted to capitalize on the success of SM64 and Banjo-Kazooie. I played this game a lot in the hopes it would be as great as Donkey Kong Country was, years before. It felt like there was just so much to do, and so many areas to explore. The boss battles were interesting. I never did quite collect everything, as many of the items were very frustrating to find and acquire. And in DK64, this was a problem, as collecting was crucial to the gameplay and ending.

As time has gone on, this game has gotten more and more difficult to pick back up. I never felt truly free in this game like in Super Mario 64, and it was way more repetitive than Banjo-Kazooie.

I think Final Fantasy 4 aged poorly, but not in terms of gameplay or graphics or music.... I think time has shown that the plot is pretty one-note. It tells a good tale, but it's just not very complex or interesting. I can forgive that, because it's fun to play and the plot actually WAS pretty deep in its era, but as video games have become more of a storytelling medium, one of the earliest entries just doesn't hold up as well anymore.

Wolfenstein 3D is another one. It's a hard game to play now, endless corridors that all look the same. Identical doors, easy to get lost if you don't use the map.
No story, no challenge for most of it, far too easy. Pointless collectibles that do absolutely nothing.
Once you play the fantastic Doom, there's no reason to return to Wolfenstein 3D, pardon the pun.

Warning: This post is a little critical.  Read with care.

C'mon boys and girls.  I 'Struggle' with games old and new all the time.  I'm sure there's a thread around here about ideal games?  I wonder who could have started it?

On the other hand I'll bite and answer here.  Are you saying that games age badly because the aesthetics can vary game to game author to author? 

I'm sorry age has also been a factor is doubting a game.  If the creators of the game had the ability to control time and space, they could predict what you wouldn't like about it. 

This post obviously condescending and a moderator can step in but this is what I'm talking about.

Why does the creator of any game have to obey you if you didn't help work on it?  You can warn them but the rightful owner has the final call.

Also, I don't think they aged terribly.  A game ages 'the same' unless it gets rehashed or modified.