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[Spaceman292]

Didn't know 36 is old

It is

 

[Ceadeus]

I'm gonna have a good read going tonight!

 

[Elysion]

The loss of ‘plug-and-play’ on consoles over the last decade bothers me the most. The biggest advantage consoles had over PCs was the fact that you could just put in a disc or cartridge and immediately start playing. But these days, where every game has to be installed first (often followed by mandatory updates and ‘day one patches’), consoles have become basically indistinguishable from PCs in this regard. Even the Switch has a few games that require you to download and install additional data before you can start playing, even if you have a physical cartridge! Depending on your connection, downloading this stuff can take a long time.

Unfortunately, I don’t know if we can ever go back, unless we find a way to somehow shrink game data to such an extent that installing or downloading takes just a few seconds. One idea I had in this regard is that maybe consoles could come with a pre-installed, universal game engine (like Unreal Engine 5) and asset library, and any games you buy are merely a bunch of instructions that create the game from the pre-installed engine and assets. It would be similar to things like Dreams or LittleBigPlanet, where the levels you download are just a few megabytes of instructions. Developers would no longer use their own engines, but would be creating games within this pre-installed engine.

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

"old gaming" was obviously more memorable to anyone who was there:
the differences between console generations were massive, arcade hardware was insane and kept evolving, PC gaming was crazy (software to hardware rendering, sound cards, shaders, vga to dvi to hdmi, 4:3 to 16:9/16:10 etc.), and there were so many gameplay "firsts" to experience basically all the time.

people who started w/ x360/ps3 have no comparable experience. not even close.

this isnt to say old games are better than modern games; that's subjective. awesome games from all generations, imo... though music from old games tends to be way more creative/memorable/artistic.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Didn't know 36 is old

36 is the new teenage, don't listen to them.

 

[Ceadeus]

I see the writing praised a lot but I really don't think that it's very good at all.
To some extent it's because of Kratos himself but I don't think that the dialogue for the other characters is well-written either and there's far too much blabbering and refusing to adress things in favor of more brooding that came across as pretentious imo and personalities flipping back and forth in a span of five minutes.
The dialogue is very minimalistic and simplistic to a fault.

I can agree that the game looks nice even if I don't like the art direction but it's more of a preference thing I just find it kinda boring and forgettable but I like more stylized art directions.
I mean I think that TLOU2 is a well made modern game too but I don't think that it's an incredible game.
And I think it gets carried very hard by production value too.

They kinda have that soulless Skyrim writing imo, it comes across as very unnatural to me and like they're saying things for the sake of saying things or that doesn't rly mean anything.
And they often lack personality they're just very bland compared to the characters in Dragon Age Origins for example. It's all so dry.

I see what you mean when it comes to writting in GoW. I gave this example not because it just came out on PC but because i'm currently doing my first playthrough on Playstation and so far I've been enjoying it. Rare are the game that comes complete , without multiple edition and season pass.

I get what you mean about the writting. But as far as Kratos always been, he never talked that much and that's why it's always Atreus talking and asking questions. I'm ok that it let's you interprete. The way the adventure goes, there are lighter and some heavier discussion between the two but it's like Kratos is just making sure the surrounding is safe before advancing. The atmosphere, music and handcrafted world really makes you feel like you're in their odyssey, it's actually incredible.

The Immersion really is one of the better aspect of modern gaming in my opinion. The technologies of today really can help the artist create a world you believe in and suck you in, with it's realistic physic and sounds. I do really like Retro gaming but it's really impressive to see how far we've come right.

 

[Ceadeus]

Old games? What is that? Oblivion is like 15 years old. Had micro transactions and everything. And think about games that were 15 yo in 2006!
New to old is no longer linear. Dark souls is still relevant and played and this shit is 10 years old

I've edited my post! Sorry for being unclear at first. I see older as in before internet inclusion on video game. So also the internet hype, influencers and streamer etc.. !

I choose both

The subject though is, what do you like and dislike from both!

It’s not the games, it’s you.

On a more objective scale, old (like, really old, not early 2000s) games were usually short, loaded instantly, didn’t require having a top-tier TV or fiddling with image settings to look like they should. They had catchy music, tight controls, simple action. They came with awesome manuals. They were bloody expensive. And a broken game was broken forever, there were no patches.
You could tell a bad game almost immediately. Games were unforgiving back then. If the controls, animations or collisions were bad, you’d notice very quickly. Still, most of us would put up with almost everything because you had a game to play.
You’d more likely than not get few new games a year. You’d play them again and again until you knew everything there was to know (like, hold A when pressing Start at the game over screen to restart from current world in Super Mario Bros). You’d discuss your games to death on the playground with your pals, exchanging tricks, strategies and experiences.

Newer games? Often unnecessarily long, stretched out with filler to make them “worth your money”. Resolution wars. Brightness settings. Loading times (hopefully a solved problem going forward). No manuals, but often mandatory tutorials you may have to sit through every time you restart the game. Music is more generic and forgettable or overly complex, the action sometimes calls for you to grow a third hand. And the size of games has ballooned out of control.
But. We get amazing visuals, graphics options, remappable controls. We get patches to iron out bugs and kinks. Games can be expanded with DLC without having to buy a new version of a game. There’s less exclusives (for how long still is anyone’s guess), meaning you don’t need a certain platform to play many famous games. We can have literal dozens of games a year, we have the luxury of dropping a game we don’t enjoy and having a backlog. We have demos (I wish we had demos in the NES era. You kids don’t know the horror of spending your birthday money on a truly bad game. You barely know what a bad game actually is, and if you know it’s because you went out of your way to find and try one). Digital means that even older games don’t go out of print and are available for a lot longer than before - forget finding a 3-year old game on the shelves in the pre- digital era, unless it was a great classic. And a lot of games are dirt cheap - even the big ones go on sale for peanuts after a while.
We can find detailed guides for a lot of games, YT has video guides and strategies for even the most obscure game. If it exists, chances are you aren’t the only one who’s played it. You can’t be the only kid playing Secret of Mana in middle school anymore. We can play with millions of different people from all parts of the world from our couch.

My thoughts also! well said. But there must be something you like about newer gaming? Mine is better immersion, it's great to see what we can achieve today. Vr is really exciting too!

I don't get why you associate old gaming with low frame rates. Unless you only count 3D games. Or 8bit home computers.

Older, 2D console gaming had 60fps as the standard. Gaming was far smoother on systems like the Atari 2600, NES, Master System, Genesis, SNES, etc.

The standards were low in home computers and even PCs because the CGA/EGA/VGA cards weren't good for scrolling graphics. But consoles were golden. Smooth 60fps scrolling in the majority of games. Anything 30fps was very jerky in comparison and most of the times people would notice.

It was only after stuff like 3DO, PS1, Saturn, and the N64 where frame rate took a nose dive. These systems were ready for 3D texture mapped polygons but mostly at 20-30fps. Because earlier 3D games were even jerkier (15fps or lower) this was deemed acceptable and became the standard. Which, unfortunately is still the case.

So yeah, you got it the other way around. Old 2D console gaming is associated with smooth frame rate and CRT motion clarity. Modern gaming is about "cinematic" frame rates and crappy LCD panes with motion blur issues.

Hi, if you were asking this to me, I probably was thinking about the PS1 and N64 era! This gen was so good right, but getting used to the framerate was sometime synonyme of failing in winning until you get used to the weird camera angle versus the 15fps! ahah. It's far from being bad though, i really liked that gen. Incredible IP's came to life in this era.

I've come to accept that I love both for different reasons.

Older games weren't monetized and in the AAA space were so much more polished than the slew of American published AAA games today, and each game felt more unique than they do today. More charm, risk taking, and what feels like little creative interference. Not to mention politics hadn't taken over.


...But newer games? Stuff is way more consistent in terms of controls and design, and the more cinematic feel of newer games only enhances the storytelling. I hate that games launch broken, but am damn thankful games CAN be updated now. Stuff absolutely fell through the cracks back then and they couldn't fix it (Soul calibur 3 COTS save glitch anyone?) And quality DLC is NOT A BAD THING. Games are becoming more accessible, and it's effing awesome to open the xbox and playstation store to view sales and download cheap games with the press of a button. It's insane we got stuff like gamepass and soon playstation spartacus.


Both have pros and cons, and what I do is consistently bounce between my PS4 and my PS2 and my PS3. Keeps things fresh and allows me to appreciate the perks of each generation. I feel like it's so easy to get trapped in "old man" syndrome yelling about MTX, broken games, NFTs, and hell yeah, that stuff is a major issue in modern gaming but I feel like we never appreciate the good of modern gaming, and there's a lot to appreciate.

Nowaday the thing is, like you said, that game gets so categorized scrutinized by people we don't know over the internet. It's literally a war of clicks and influence power, marketing... it actually HURTS the industry as a whole. I like modern gaming but I do feel like people today consume video game and anything the surround the subject like crack. Before, there was only plug and play systems, no internet and friends to talk too at school about it. For the adults that like gaming, if I speak for myself, I remember my father sharing thoughts with his friend at his job about Eye of the Beholder on the Snes. The both hand draw the map of the dungeons, came back home and try their new discovery. It was! , in fact more social and healthy imo. Today , toxicity is surounding the medium so fucking much. I might be wrong or looking at it all the wrong angle though.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I’m in the camp that prescribes to the notion that games are, in the main, just getting better as time moves on. More complex physics, more options regarding how to play, better graphics, entire mechanics and systems that simply weren’t possible before, etc.

Obviously there are games from times gone by that I have a found nostalgia for, but in my experience going back beyond 20 years to try to play them today just feels antiquated and primitive by today’s standards. After that initial “oh wow, this was soo cool as a kid!”, I generally get bored pretty quickly.

It takes a special game to really hold a place in my heart in terms of still being able to have fun playing it today, games like Tetris, SMB1, SM64, Mario Kart SNES, MGS1, LoZ-OOT, etc.

TLDR - modern games are more fun and engaging to play IMO, but there’s the odd game that is still fun despite the limitations.

 

[Ozzie666]

I'll gladly take complete in package full games and not some incomplete beta testing mess, or worse. A digital download code.

I'll gladly play Chrono trigger, FF6, Evermore, Golden Sun and many other RPG's like that. I'll gladly engross myself in 16/32 era 2D fighters. Castle vanias and beat em ups, all of it.

Developers had to release working and full games due to the media and difficulty addressing issues. It's a cancer now, makes developers to lazy and rush stuff out the door. Like Halo and Cyberpunk.

I'll gladly have a physical copy of a game. I own, with no internet DRM needed.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Having reread the OP, there are plenty of games from the 6th gen that I can still have fun playing to this day, Xbox, PS2 and GameCube was my heyday! I just bought Timesplitters 2 and Max Payne from the Xbox BC sale.

But I feel like that generation had already embraced a lot of the more sophisticated systems and mechanics that we enjoy today. If we’re talking about retro gaming, like SNES/MegaDrive and before, in the main it’s more fond memories than actual enjoyment taken from playing them in the cold light of day here and now.

But I totally get why people still enjoy the more simplistic and I guess “pure” design philosophy of games before we could start introducing more complex aspects into the mix.

Developers had to release working and full games due to the media and difficulty addressing issues. It's a cancer now, makes developers to lazy and rush stuff out the door. Like Halo and Cyberpunk.

You make a sound argument, and I agree that devs have taken the ability to be able to patch games post launch as a bit of a crutch to get them out the door to a strict timeframe.

But to be fair modern games are exponentially more complex than the relatively simple games you mentioned in your post. Modern game developers have SOOO many more variables to consider than a 2D sprite walking along a flat plane interacting with other 2D sprites at a predetermined point in the level.

Modern games are sprawling, complex endeavours with a multitude of outcomes arising at any given moment, it’s no surprise to me that things don’t always work out as “planned”.

But yeah, some devs clearly take the piss, the Cyberpunk debacle being a prime example.

 

[TheGreatMusashi]

Good games are good forever.

I completely agree with this.

However I find myself playing way more old games than new ones. I’m just tired of games as a service. Guess what? They aren’t that good to begin with, no way I’m sticking around for years to watch you try to fix the problem that 99% of casuals don’t care about at all.

Shit sucks man. I miss the days when a game was put out with no chance for a patch.

I’ll never call a developer lazy but I know back when, motherfuckers toed the line a lot better because they do now.

Not calling out Nintendo specifically but I wish they (and everyone else) would bring back some sort of “Seal of Approval.” While many companies changed names and shit to get around it back in the day, you won’t find many NES/SNES games with game breaking bugs.

I fucking hate buying a game on day one to then have to wait a month or more for these fucks to fix what they call “game shippable bugs.” Another term that means dick today.

And I understand it’s not developers but share holders and management who call the shots on when to ship but I really hope for some kind of reform.

Unfortunately the business has to overcome a lot of other bullshit, like Activision bullshit which never should have happened to begin with.

 

[Laptop1991]

The noughties up until 2012 after Dragonborn dlc was released, the games released in that time period are the best imo, i do remember the 90's fondly but the games were too dated and basic compared to the decade after for me, i'm talking as a PC only gamer here.

 

[Fare thee well]

There was a period where I couldn't find the various game types I enjoyed from the 90s-2000s; car demolition games, mech games, rts, space sims, arcade racers, flight sims, Maxis-like games, strategy games, westerns, Clancy-like tactical shooters. As the leading companies got bigger they focused on catch-all popularity leaving many genres in the dust. Indie games didn't seem to have the budget to carry them and Triple-A left for shooters, survival games, etc. Finally this void is beginning to be addressed as a middle market is starting to open up for passionate devs of a reasonable team and size. I'm happy to see styles of games I used to love and adore, so 5-6 years ago, I might have said I prefer retro gaming, but now that I can find hidden diamonds I will say modern gaming; because these games could always have been improved upon. No one WANTS to live in the past if the future can do what you love and better. I was getting tired of sounding like an old complaining man, but the games we grew up with really did have a totally different creative energy. Finally we can all have our cake and eat it too.

 

[levyjl1988]

GBA, DS, and 3DS era is what I will fondly remember for handhelds. I enjoyed games where it was featured complete with online connections but not necessarily used for the experience.

I like how people circulated rumors through word of mouth and this was before the era where a game was released it was already data mine and secrets are spoiled.

Now to modern under mine that puzzles are much more difficult requiring entire subreddits to complete.

 

[Rykan]

i am born in 85

I was told there would be no Math.

 

[Stefan.North]

Game from 80s - press power, play for an hour and you have beaten the game.

Game from 2010s - "start" the game, choose file, adjust brightess / sound / controls, make / customise a character, watch opening cinematics, and after an hour (at best) you can start playing.

Developers in the past had much more respect for players time and knew that playing games is just a pass-time activity and fun. Today developers think that one should live a gaming.

 

[Rickyiez]

Bloodborne and Sekiro are still better than a lot of these old games . Pure gaming bliss

 

[alabtrosMyster]

My kids will play dig dug and pac man in between Horizon Zero Dawn and Kena.

Good games will always be good.