• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Games that you played at the right time

Hey GAF, I'm curious to know what games you think you played at the right time. For me, one of those games was Sonic Adventure DX on the GameCube. I was enamored with Sonic at the time and a 3D action adventure Sonic was right for me at that time. I don't think I'd play a game like that again in this day and age but for that specific time...it was exactly what I wanted. Guess my tastes have changed over time as I got older. I still have fond memories of my times with the game but it really harkens back to a different time that's long gone...I don't think it didn't age well mechanically, this isn't an argument about what aged well and didn't. Just for that specific game...I feel like I can't get back into it the way younger me did. So what about you, GAF? Are there any game/s out there that you feel like you played at the right time, games that once captivated you at the right time but don't have the same impact on you these days?
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Mass Effect 1 on 360.

The game had the right combo of combat, RPG, dialogue trees and lore.

Looking back, it ran like shit, had the biggest vasoline smear effect, the Mako parts were dreadful, running around planets to find crystals and possibly the longest loading times ever on 360. The final boss scene must had run at 15-20 fps tops.

I still liked it!
 

Damigos

Member
FFVII, VIII, IX, X
World of Warcraft
Diablo 2, 3
MGS 1,2,3

Apart from the impact they had on me but dont so much any more, i think they also dont have that much on the world too
 

kanjobazooie

Mouse Ball Fetishist
The Ace Attorney series during the DS days.
Back then I was interested in stories, long dialouges, and all that stuff. Now, not so much.

I heard that the new Ace Attorney games were great, though.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
Aside from playing everything at release.
spec ops the line. I played it with over 35c weather. Sweating itb was so hot. That was like vr for that game.
GTA 4 was incredible in the time it released. Now nobody remembers
 
Last edited:

Kupfer

Member
Pokémon Red/Gold (when the internet was not as widespread as it is today and you had to exchange ideas with friends in the schoolyard to find things out. )
Halo
GTA Vice City
Far Cry
Half Life 2
Battlefield 1/2
Gear of War
Resident Evil 5
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC
DayZ Mod
CS:GO in a time my friends and me had lots of time and became pretty good
 
Last edited:

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
It was definitely Stardew Valley for me. Going into it I was not a fan of simple-looking indie games nor life simulators. But it scratched so many itches I had no idea I had.

Still not a fan of the genre. But I greatly enjoyed the insane amount of hours I put into that game in a single month. I was obsessed. And I will now buy anything Concerned Ape puts out sight unseen. Publish it Ape, I'll buy it.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
Resident Evil 6

My friend asked me if I wanted to play co-op with him when it came out, I looked up a trailer for it on my 360 and said fuck no it looks pretty bad. Two years later I bought it for like $11 or $13 and some change at a Gamestop, played it alone in 2014 and really enjoyed it. A lot of people hate on it, and it's all warranted in a fair amount of ways, but some of the campaign was very inspiring to me, and still is. It's a mixed bag, and a poor Resident Evil game but I still love RE6 and wouldn't change any part of how I went about playing it or the time in which I played it. Played it at exactly the right time and its impact on me was heightened because of it
 

makaveli60

Member
Death Stranding this year. Kojima is a visionary, it came out just before the pandemic and the themes of that game are eerily relevant to what we are living in.

 

STARSBarry

Gold Member
Tales of Symphonia on the Gamecube, it was coming up to the time when I was entering my years for final exams. I was bumbed out from constant revision and pressure to do well. I got this title and was holed up in my room the entire weekend, and wanted to feign illness the following week so I could keep playing. I was forced to go of course my parents where strict in the way, however just because I was in in classroom didn't mean I was really "there" my mind was always on what I would be doing when I got home.

Well how did my exams go in the end? Pretty Average but I don't regret it in the end, you learn quickly in work that exams scores might get your foot in the door at a higher rung in the ladder but once your in there just being good at your job tops whatever degree carrot top in accounting got last year and it didn't really matter much after all, well unless I wanted to be a DR or something.
 
Last edited:
the first game that came to my mind is Skyrim. that shit blew my mind 10 years ago. i hadn't really been one for open world RPGs. closest i'd play was pokemon/gta. i was hooked on it and opened me up to playing so many new games i would have avoided or not known about. i tried going back to it a few years ago cause i never actually got to play the DLC but i couldn't bring myself to keep playing it. when it came out it was something special but it is really dated now and so many games have surpassed it.

That's it my man. Pre-internet gaming was something different, in a good way. Exploration, mysteries. Takes a boomer back to different times.

i remember going into my local shop every day waiting for new gaming magazines so i could read about Pokemon Gold/Silver. i would always get chased out because i'd sit there reading it without buying it lol. i did have access to internet then as it never came out here until 2001. so i was always online reading about it too. i used to always go on pojo.com (https://www.pojo.com/pokemon/index.shtml). there was a japanese walkthrough i would always read.

then there were the things like how to get pikablu, find mew under the truck, missingno, etc. it added so much excitement and mystery to the games.

playing those games back then was so much fun. i was glued to my gameboy and as soon as i got home from school i'd sit outside with my friends battling or trading pokemon over link cable. it felt magical and almost like the pokemon were real when i imagined them travelling through the cable lol. i had a gameshark too so everyone came to me wanting masterballs, rare candies, or pokemon like mew/mewtwo/celebii.

i still play pokemon today but it's nothing like it was back when R/B/Y/G/S/C were out.
 
Last edited:
FFX, my first final fantasy. Played it with my ex a couple of years ago. I was blown away by the game and fell in love instantly. 💚
And FFVIIR. Playing the game again for intergrade & Yuffie was just what I needed at the moment. It was my happy place. But life happens and didn’t get to finish the playthrough & still haven’t played or seen Yuffies part.. love the game so I will definitely eventually play it 💗
 
Last edited:

Kupfer

Member
i remember going into my local shop every day waiting for new gaming magazines so i could read about Pokemon Gold/Silver. i would always get chased out because i'd sit there reading it without buying it lol. i did have access to internet then as it never came out here until 2001. so i was always online reading about it too. i used to always go on pojo.com (https://www.pojo.com/pokemon/index.shtml). there was a japanese walkthrough i would always read.

then there were the things like how to get pikablu, find mew under the truck, missingno, etc. it added so much excitement and mystery to the games.

playing those games back then was so much fun. i was glued to my gameboy and as soon as i got home from school i'd sit outside with my friends battling or trading pokemon over link cable. it felt magical and almost like the pokemon were real when i imagined them travelling through the cable lol. i had a gameshark too so everyone came to me wanting masterballs, rare candies, or pokemon like mew/mewtwo/celebii.

i still play pokemon today but it's nothing like it was back when R/B/Y/G/S/C were out.
Especially in the time around the gameboy color /advance, the xbox, ps2 and gamecube, I soaked up all the information I could find. as you described, I also spent hours in shopping malls reading various magazines, because I couldn't buy them all with my pocket money.
In the schoolyard we exchanged pokemon trading cards and also pokemon via link cable, we met in the afternoons to play pokemon side by side, each on his gameboy, and show each other things we found out.

Good Times.
 

WoJ

Member
Mass Effect 1 for me. I had basically stopped gaming in 2004/2005 with the exception of NCAA football. And even then I stopped gaming entirely after like 2006. In 2009 I decided I wanted an Xbox to casually play some newer stuff and modern NCAA football.

I opted to get a 360 over PS3 primarily because it seemed like Xbox had some interesting RPGs which had always been my favorite genre. I took a flyer on Mass Effect and was just blown away at the lore, characters and dialogue trees.

On my first playthrough Virmire blew my mind because of the choice between Kaidan and Ashley (I honestly wondered if I could save both but had made the wrong choice). The stand off with Wrex did not go so well either on that playthrough and I was shocked at how that ended. I was hooked.

Similarly Mass Effect 3 multi-player hit at a time in my life when things were just kind of shitty. I never expected to play ME3 multi-player. But it ended up sucking me in and helping keep me afloat during a shitty period of time in my life. I ended up putting over 500 hours into it.
 

nush

Gold Member
Sonic, before it was a pack-in game and became the icon that it is today. For early Megadrive owners it was a technical tour de force, and yes was cool. Then the masses got the game and it was viewed as some casual/kiddie shit.

June 91, I remember it was a hot summer (No AC) and I was in my bedroom playing Sonic and loving it.
 

PaulBizkit

Member
In june 2018 I was breaking up the shittiest relationship i've ever been in and went back to my parents house. It was all very stressful, having go see her two or three more times to get all my stuff back, it was a nightmare.
But I managed to get a Switch during that difficult time and I was playing tropical freeze to get distracted, great game.

In the same week, i finished getting all my belongings, bought Breath Of The Wild and got fired from my job.

I was finally free in all sense of the word, I had no girl anymore (thankfully), finally had a switch and now I was out of job as well.

And the day after getting fired, I started playing BotW. It was THE game for that time, suddenly, I was free but didnt know what to do with that freedom, very similar to the freedom i felt in that game and how adventurous it was. So it was magical, it was THE game for THAT time. We all know how amazing that game is, so im not gonna repeat what we've all been hearing for the past 4 years.
A few days later I started doing some programming courses in-person and a month later i got a job at a private hospital (im still there, great job).
 
Sonic, before it was a pack-in game and became the icon that it is today. For early Megadrive owners it was a technical tour de force, and yes was cool. Then the masses got the game and it was viewed as some casual/kiddie shit.

June 91, I remember it was a hot summer (No AC) and I was in my bedroom playing Sonic and loving it.
sonic was the shit in the early/mid 90s. played it a lot on the mega drive. my dad was the one into video games but even my mum would kick me off the console to play some Sonic.
 

xPikYx

Member
RE rebirth (this in particular looked CGI at that time) and 4 on Gamecube
The first Gears of War on 360
Silent Hill 2 on Ps2
Resident Evil 2 on PSone
And many others
 
There's so many games to list. As every game is of its time.
Like for example, I think mgs1 is one of the best video games ever made. It's that good. That said if I get some teenager to play it today they'll see nothing more than bad graphics and clunky controls.

But playing the game back then was one of the greatest gaming experiences.
 

KAL2006

Banned
I think it's more of the opposite which games age like wine and just as enjoyable now as before. That list would be smaller than the opposite.

GTA games, WWF Smack down games, Twisted Metal, OoT, Mario 64 the list goes on. However games that aged like wine and still just as good now is a different story, you have games like Mario Galaxy that are just as magical now as it was back then and you wouldn't have to play at the time of release go appreciate it.
 
Last edited:

stranno

Member
Race With Ryan. Videogames were getting boring and suddenly..

gregzaj1-ln_strike.gif
 

Alan Wake

Member
Shenmue. It's still a good game and a special experience but in 2000 it was absolutely AMAZING. Groundbraking. It made me a dedicated fan. Up until Shenmue III, sort of...

Tomb Raider, of course. And Sega Rally. Almost unplayable today. I'm also grateful I had the chance to experience Phantasy Star Online in 2001. I certainly felt like a pioneer going online with my Dreamcast.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Resident Evil 4 in hindsight it's obviously a big game, it doesn't feel like any other Resident Evil game. 2005 originally released, I played it almost 20 years later one of the most influential games. When I got to it all the hype was over. Europe, the village, the castle are far from Raccoon City and that's fine.

Jz7g.gif
 
Halo 3.

If I'd played it any later I would have missed out on the custom games craze on 360. When I got in to it, it was booming and I met so many friends through it.

I don't have an Xbox anymore, but I've probably still got so many people added from back in the day.
 

Yumi

Member
Diablo 2. I had been playing Diablo 1 before it online but I was really young and the idea of playing with friends online wasn’t really even an idea or a possibility in my head.

I moved to a new school for 5th grade and made some friends who had computers. I remember installing a Zip drive in my computer so I could get Worms 2 from one of my friends.

by 6th grade Diablo 2 came out and we were all over it. Perfect place and time.
 

Markio128

Member
I’m such an old fart and I’ve played so many classics, but I don’t think that is the point of the thread. I think, for me personally, the game I played just at the right time was when I moved out of my parental home for the first time, and moved in with a friend. He had just bought a Japanese N64 with Mario 64. I’d booked 2 weeks off from work for the move and ended up spending the majority of the time falling in love with Mario 64. The best part was that my mate hadn’t booked any time off, so I had the game all to myself.
 

Perrott

Gold Member
Grand Theft Auto Online.

That first year on the PS3/360 was the best and most balanced version of GTAO ever, before Rockstar decided to destroy it entirely as they introduced flying cars and other wacky shit into the game.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I got a PS1 in 1996. My first batch of games were Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, and Formula One. Tekken 2 and Ace Combat 2 came soon after. Was incredible. The jump from Genesis/SNES was gigantic.

My bro had a mid range PC. He didnt get a 3D card till much later, so at the time Pentiums doing software based 3D were garbage. PS1 games didn't have anti aliasing either, but at least it moved well. Much better than whatever 3D games he ran.

Out of these 3 games, I thought F1 was the best. I dont know if there were better PC racers in 1996, but I was fucking impressed by this. It had shitty commentating I turned off. That Murray Walker guy sounds like an asshole all game. The OST is awesome. I couldnt find a YT video of the game without people having commentating on. So I pasted the OST link.


 
Last edited:

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Oh yeah, who can forget. Put in endless days worth of gaming into this baby. I think I had around 20,000 kills.

Not only was it awesome to be playing one of the best shooters, but also hilarious to see so many studios try to copy COD since then.

Call_of_Duty_4_Modern_Warfare.jpg
 
Last edited:

Cobbet

Neo Member
Days Gone. I was tired of all games and could not game for more than 20 min before I felt it was tiresome and boring. Downloaded Days Gone through PS+ to give it a go and ended up playing for hours. Now I finally got a PS5 and I'm going to order the game just to support the devs. :)
 

GametimeUK

Member
Warhawk whilst the servers were open and not many big PS3 titles. Such a fantastic game and I wish I spent more time with it. It's one of my favourite MP games of all time and it's only upon reflecting on it that I miss it so much.

Also CoD Black Ops multiplayer for me. Obviously whilst the servers were super active. This game is probably the best I've been at a multiplayer game. My reflexes were shit hot back then, my map knowledge was crazy and I could use advanced game mechanics to give me the upper hand in so many situations. So fucking sick I wish I could get this good on another multiplayer game. I think if I studied a game inside out like I did with Blops my knowledge and strategy could help mitigate the fact in getting older and I'm not as good with a controller as I used to be.

Also I like to believe overall I was both lucky and cursed to have lived a childhood before online gaming became super popular. It meant I spent a lot of time local coop with friends. Smackdown on PS2 with a multi tap and 4 players in a room full of us just chilling and passing the pad just hits different. On the flip side I wish I was gaming as a younger teen with online multiplayer in this day and age because it looks so much fun and it would have done wonders for me getting into PVP at an earlier age.

It is what it is.
 

Smasher89

Member
Xenoblade chronicles quickly after release on the wii here in europe. Only rpg experience were basicly pokemon and golden sun, so the game just kept blowing my expectations again and again, and on top of that it has a great ending, thinking I was done with that huge game, I then unlocked new game plus to make a final(?) big twist.
 

Tschumi

Member
Age of Empires 2. MGS2. GTA III. Operation Flashpoint. Wind Waker. SSX Tricky. Metroid Prime. Halo. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Rome: Total War. Football Manager. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Fable. Empire: Total War. Pillars of Eternity. Dishonored. MGS 5. Witcher 3. Persona 4 Golden. Gran Turismo 6. Persona 5. Pillars of Eternity 2 Deadfire. Warhammer Total War 2. The Last Guardian. Hmmm Kena.

100% sure i left out a few absolutely key titles.
 
Fallout 3 on the 360. I got caught up in the marketing for that game for years prior to the release. I had only been exposed to console games up to that time and had a long romance with Oblivion.

I wouldn't play through Fallout 3 again but when it came out I had a blast. It was definitely a moment where my super high expectations met with what seemed like high quality delivery.

It definitely influenced my thinking on gaming and it got me interested in computers for the first time since I was a kid.


I first saw Oblivion at a friends house and I quickly bought it for my budget PC. It farted out a potato version with transparent grass, no fog, brutalist looking structures. It was just very simple, no details or anything but I loved it. I lusted after an Xbox 360 because gaming PC's were prohibitively expensive. I got it, and my pc dreams were lost. I loved Oblivion, loved xbox live, became an Xbox fan, monthly fees, CoD, GoW, etc.

Then I heard about Fallout 3.
I became interested in the Fallout franchise and the advertising and Todd Howard's marketing prowess bit me hard. I got obsessed, and managed to download and play Fallout 1 and 2, which made me interested in PC gaming. They were small games and old enough that my old PC could handle them fine. I had a blast. I also found out about forums and how technical information is shared, I saw command line instructions for the first time, the altruism in information sharing on the internet and more.

I had been an Apple convert and when I tried to get Fallout to work on their platforms I experienced problems because of Apples forced obsolescence, functional design and lack of gaming platforms. Steam hadn't come to Apple yet. I managed to get them to play through apple OS though. That challenge inspired me to have a deeper curiousity about computers and programming. I am changing careers, attempting to break into tech and entertainment by learning Unity and developing my own games, and I am still looking to get that ultimate gaming pc.

So yeah, I definitely I got caught up in the Fallout 3 thing at the right time.
 
Last edited:

fart town usa

Gold Member
ZombiU.

Ubisoft is one of my least favorite developers, survival horror at the time was pretty much dead, RE6 was absolute trash. I had a Wii U preordered but wasn't sure why I wanted one. Didn't know much of anything about ZombiU, other than the developers were saying it was a return to true old school survival horror.

Man, playing that game was one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Just getting baked in my apartment and playing it in the dark. It was incredible, just such a breath of fresh air and was everything I wanted but didn't know. The Miiverse aspect was so much fun, people posting screenshots and all the comments and drawings. Such an awesome time, wish I could go back and relive it.
 
Top Bottom