On the subject of badly aged games

What do you still play (let's be honest, I think a lot of us still play some of these old games even if they haven't aged that well)? And for that matter, what badly aged games can't you or refuse to play?

Explain why if you can.

What I can still play:

-Goldeneye 007/Perfect Dark - I'm talking about the N64 originals. Sure, the framerate in both games aren't great this day and age and some will site that the N64 having only one analog stick show these games age when playing them, but for the latter reason, just a switch of controller modes where you move/strafe with the D-Pad/C-buttons and look/aim with the analog works pretty well or it's limits. Of course, using dual sticks is obviously better, but hey, I think it's a nice way to work with what you got. In the matter of the former, it's worth playing to see how Bond FPS (namely The World is Not Enough on N64, Nightfire on sixth gen consoles, and I found myself enjoying Activision/Eurocom's Goldeneye 2010) have improved (which I guess is a typical excuse for ANY of these games, but there are some where you just can't say it), despite being a bit behind TimeSplitters.

-Super Smash Bros. 1 - Melee, Brawl (tripping aside) and what little I've played of the fourth game on the Wii U OBVIOUSLY outshine this, but it's worth playing just to see how far the series has gotten.

What I can't play/refuse to play:

-Metroid NES - One of two games by Nintendo I feel should be added, mostly for how cryptic it is. Blame Super Metroid and it's map system for that. More worth it to play Zero Mission partly due to it having the ORIGINAL Metroid, but also to see how much of an improvement the remake is over the original, even by adding SM's map system.

-Star Fox SNES/Starwing - Yep, the first game in my favorite Nintendo series. Even if you look past the Super FX visuals, the game has a holdback EVEN worse than the N64 controller's single analog stick, the SNES D-Pad and playing 64/Starwing on the N64 REALLY shows how much better these shooters play with analog or joysticks. Even mode seven games like F-Zero still play much better with the D-Pad.

-Civilization 1 - I can go as far back as Civilization II (although my favorite of the main games is Civ III) and that is it. Mostly due to the health bar system added to the units in games since then, which is very helpful when Civ's are at war.

-Soul Blade/Soul Edge - Say what you will about the GameCube controller and how that worked for fighters like SoulCalibur II, even playing it that way is far more smooth than playing the Soul series clunky prequel.

-Core developed Tomb Raider - Chalk this one partly due to me being late to the series starting with Legend, but this one also due to me HIGHLY resistant to play an action-adventure-platformer with TANK CONTROLS, and while I may not have played the original TR's, I have played the PC version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone and those controls for those kind of games do not bode well (I'm fine with them on games like Onimusha and it didn't stray me away from buying the first Fear Effect because of the fixed camera). Thankfully, Crystal Dynamics remade the first game, which I also love.

What are your choices in both categories?

Some games age extremely well due to; clever art style, being high end games that still look good or because they have solid/unique gameplay mechanics.

Big games that I think aged well are:

Thief trilogy

Warcraft 3

Half Life 1 and 2

Freelancer

Max Payne 1 and 2

Broken Sword etc

.

There are some games that I can't go back to despite being amazing till this day, like Starcraft. The reason for that is Starcraft 2, a worthy successor to original. I just can't go back to original after playing the sequel.

Dark Souls aged badly.... I mean it was fine the first five minutes but as time goes by (another five minutes) the mechanics are just shit.... it was outdated when it launched.

I still have my N64 hook up today's standards only because I can play Goldeneye and such. Goldeneye has age horribly, the A.I is stupid as hell, the levels are poorly now, the characters model is dull, but the game is somewhat still fun to play. Perfect Dark hasn't age yet and it still plays well for a N64 but the HD is were it's at.

MGS 1

So, can you still play the game or not? :P

@Lulu_Lulu: Umm excuse me Mr. Lulu but the soul games have always been about gameplay, not graphics.

@davillain-:

Where did I say anything about Graphics, mr. Davillain ?

it feels like a chore and rather out of date

Ah, okay then.

Most of the PS1 games I tried have aged badly. Toshinden and Jet Moto and some of the others that are full polygon. The FF games have aged better because of the pre rendered backgrounds, but the resolution really is tough to stomach in a HD world. I hooked my PSOne to it with a S Video Cable and it did improve it but man... its still rough on the eyes these days.

(Aged well) MGS1 - I don't understand why some people think that MGS1 has 'aged' the worst because personally, its simplistic controls, 2D top down perspective, B grade action flick / anime hybrid story, brilliant music, memorable bosses, suprisingly good performance (little to no framerate issues and camera issues) and actually good voice acting make it a fantastic experience. What, is the graphics?

If you can't appreciate games based on the time and system they released on, then don't attempt to play them.

(Didn't age well) Goldeneye N64 - It basically boils down to two issues i have with the game; that being its shitty control scheme which i cannot for the life of me get used to and its horrible performance that hinders by enjoyment completely.

I'm sure it's a fine game, but Timesplitters 2, which is a game that took Goldeneye's control scheme, level design, mission based progression and improved it tenfold, besides running at a flawless 60 FPS, is my alternative to it.

A bunch of games didn't age well from Gen 5. Most of them are from the N64.

Games like Dino Crisis and all, I'm okay with, especially in handhelds. For visuals at least, I'm in the camp that a cohesive art style often helps Gen 5 and 6 games, along with not trying to achieve too much on screen. It's almost campy for me how games like Dino Crisis fit well together visually.

HD actually kind of screws the ability for Gen 7 games to age well when realism is a short boon but a long term killer. HD also hurts cohesive art styles because of how flatter the textures look in my eyes.

Games like Uncharted 2, where nearly everything is stylized properly and ND basically doesn't allow you to view many ugly textures, I think it will age well.

Dunno about what I would play....I haven't gone back to any old consoles/games in a while.

I do know that every N64 aged like fine shit and it's painful to try and play them now.

I think the oldest game that still looks nice is Wind Waker. Like, really nice.

Games that I still play/can still play? None. lol

EVERYTHING on the N64 aged like crap? *looks at Mario 64, F-Zero X, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Star Fox 64/Lylat Wars, Star Wars: Episode I - Racer* Not sure I agree with that.

Civilization 1 is a perfect example.

And btw, it pisses me off that I can't buy Civ 2 on steam. I have the old disk but it only runs on old computers, so of course I have an old computer I can't throw out just because Civ 2 is on it. Personally I wouldn't mind an updated Civ 2, with some improvements in the AI and maybe a few other changes. I hate the badge system of veteranization that Civ 4 and 5 have. Civ 3 is very good, but the AI there is just insane

And I agree about Goldeneye. So many people say the game has aged so badly that it's virtually unplayable but I disagree. I still play it sometimes because there aren't games today like it. FPSes today have reached an evolved state that is superior, but they've reached a point where they all feel the same. It's probably because the formula has been perfected, but it's still a problem for me.

I buy the notion that certain games age poorly in the sense of visuals or in terms of depth, where a genre/franchise went on to do bigger and better things. However, the notion of actual fundamental good game design aging is a load of shit. Reality is that poor design decisions were always there,and it was just apologized for, and no generation's games got apologized for more than the 5th generation. Some straight up atrocious level design, poor controls, filler, padding, out right bullshit gameplay segments that had no business actually being praised given that we were coming out of one of the finest generations ever in gen 4. A lot of those games got by on graphics and "OMG innovation".

Game that has stayed divine over all that time: Majora's Mask = because Zelda's combat has stayed meh for years, and out of the 4 real dungeons only one was a poor one. But the joy of that game is that the dungeons it does well have intricate time puzzles that the rest of the franchise doesn't come close to doing anymore (as the series has become more room by room), the atmosphere and narrative contextualize your gameplay in brilliant ways. It's a legit special experience that more than undermines a lot of Zelda's short comings.

Games that were honestly shit to begin with: Goldeneye/Perfect Dark. I'm not going to act like I didn't have fun with my buddies during the 64 days just playing a shit load of games of that multiplayer, but considering the era of PC shooters those games came out in, they are fucking garbage with horrible controls that should not have been paraded around as some all time classics, when one platformers mediocre shooters were shitting on those 64 shooters on just a moment to moment gameplay basis. Those games didn't age, they just always sucked, and people didn't know any better. Major difference.

As much as I agree that Twin Snakes is the far superior version of Metal Gear Solid 1. I can not agree with you that MGS1 for PS1 is out of date and poorly aged. I actually think it's well playable and for those that don't have access to the more awesome Twin Snakes version and have not played the First game, should.

WITH THAT SAID.

Devil May Cry for the PS2 did not age well AT ALL. The Game may be fun, but I thought I was playing a game that was meant for the PS1. To put it in perspective, Devil May Cry 2 aged better.

Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 didn't age too well either.

Assassin's Creed 1 also wasn't that great to begin with!!!

Warcraft 1 and 2

in my experience most of the nes/snes era games aged well and I still have a blast games from that era. I find, in general, ps1/n64 era games age the worst, primarily due to 3d being relatively new and most of the games from that age control like poop. Of course there are some exceptions, Mario 64 and Zelda being chief among them, alongside games like symphony of the night which were 2d masterpieces, but in general games from that era are really tough to play.

Don't do it. Its a trap.

I can play all of these.

The games that I can't go back are the old school CRPG's specially planescape torment.

A masterpiece like Halflife can get a lick of paint and make most modern FPS still seem antiquated. This is partially due to being the best in the universe.

I have not played it for the last few years, but one of the longet lasting games I ever played was Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. I purchased that one in early 2003 and played it regularly until end of 2011 when the german fanpage rct-world.de where I used to share tracks was closed.

People love Majora's Mask for its atmosphere and world. I have a hard time believing that it is a well designed game, even back in the day. The game did not explain well what you should be doing or where you should be going a lot of the time. Sometimes you could be stuck wandering around the landscape for hours simply trying to find the one character or item needed. The time mechanic was really cool, but some of the challenges designed around it were very frustrating. For example, hunting down all the zora eggs takes an incredibly long amount of time. Depending on how many bottles you had, you would have spend large amounts of time backtracking to large areas. If you ran out of time, you would have to repeat the entire questline all over again.

The 3DS version fixes a lot of these problems from the original. The N64 original has not aged well at all sadly.

I disagree, a lot of the direction you get is pretty obvious in terms of dungeon direction and simply exploring the towns and chit chatting. The different songs you get let you rewind the clock plenty, so any loss of progression was on the player and just all around poor management. If a game tells you do this, and do it efficiently, and you don't do it efficiently. You deserve to be punished, the game was up front about it, and you had the tools at your disposal to game it. Song of inverted time, double time and all jazz exist. Hunting down the zora eggs is just a shit segment of the game. But, that's hardly different than I don't know the bullshit triforce fetch quest, all of Skyward Sword, any time you had to be a wolf in Twilight Princess before Arbiter Grounds. Otherwise it suffered from the player needing to take a few notes while playing (and I'm not exactly looking at that as a negative, beyond the premise that Nintendo has a kid friendly image and they expected kids to take notes), and the newer version has more of a quest log.

As far as the 3DS version, hey more power to you. From where I'm sitting I've played Majora's Mask recently and it's far more rewarding and satisfying as a game to me than the rest of that series has been in 3D. Wind Waker HD for instance, outside of its atmosphere and presentation? Pretty average. Skyward Sword out right sucked, and I haven't touched Twilight Princess since 07. Playing Ocarina recently too, fundamentally still fun, but if we're comparing between it and Majora "aging" better, yeah I'm going with Majora still.

You're welcome

I've never used this site and don't know them, so my advice would be to check them out before downloading anything from them and then virus check before running it.

And? Can you still play it? :P

It's ok, hes saying it because its not a Sony product. pay no attention.

Not really, those games need a serious overhaul.

Yeah, I said these games aged well.

I can play gen IV games with no problem, and I have lots of old and new favorites from gen III and V-VII as well. It's mostly playing games on the N64 that I think have aged horrendously. Mario 64, Golden Eye, and other 3D games from the era, are painful to play with all the terrible input lag, gameplay, and level design. Also, FPS/TPS games in general tend to age ridiculously fast, so there a lot of games from this genre that I can't go back to.

If only Valve would see that. Now they are content selling some of the worst FPS ever designed (meaning: the developers put 5 minutes of work designing the game) through their service and making money of that.

I still play Thunderblade, Zillion, Kenseiden on Sega Master system from time to time. Miracle Warriors, a great RPG on the same console is still fun. MGS1, 2, 3 as well. Hitman codename 47, Silent Assassin. Max Payne and 2.

Blood Omen and Blood Omen 2 didn't age well. Shit, I don't keep track of the ones I try and realize I cant get into playing anymore.

@MBirdy88:

For fucks sake can you fucking get a hardon for someone else. Fucking shit...go outside or something.

Jesus have some common sense, the person who replied to me saying the N64 aged well IS NAMED NINTENDOBOY16. And I'm the fanboy?

Dude get a life.

@nintendoboy16: I played my N64 a few years ago and the games were blurry as shit. I've heard many ppl say the same thing.

I bet Playstation 1 looks sharp as ever though AMIRITE? "Blurry" .... what the actual....

For me it's a 3d thing when it comes down to games aging. When I first played Super Mario Brothers one, I didn't even consider the graphics. It was just a great game full stop and remains so today. However, if I tried to play a game such as Deus Ex or Doom, the now dated graphics make them pretty much unplayable for me, despite being incredible when they first came out.

I could still happily play numerous brilliant older 2d titles and they'd feel like excellent indie Steam games, but give me a 3d game older than Mirror's Edge and I'd struggle with it. As an example, I think I'd put more time in to the original GTA than number three.

Yes my beloved. Valve's service has been a paradox against the perpetual paradigm of cynicism: Businessmen, husks devoid of soul; robotoic hand gestures, smiles stitched against insincerity. Now, sadly: Valve's original vision has been corrupted, overwhelmed like a music note in a sea of orchestra.

.

@nintendoboy16:

@nintendoboy16 compare pretty much anything on the N64 to the Crash Bandicoot series...those games beat em out. Crash still looks good to me and Mario 64 looks pretty awful.

Age of Empires 1 immediately comes to mind.

Then again a lot of games from that era have aged horribly (PS1, Saturn, N64, some PC games).

A game's age is not just about visuals, gameplay plays an important part too.

@nintendoboy16:

Fair enough.

Crash controls are a lot better than Mario's. Oh god Mario's was awful. And the camera angles. Plus the level design of crash to me was more fun than the fetch quest collecting stars that was mario 6

Ding ding we have a wiener!!!!!

And now lets guess his age:

A) 35

B) 20

C) 12

Hmm 4 curses in under 14 words, says Jesus, and a dis equivalent to u mad bro

Its C definitely, imma call your mommy so she can wash your mouth with soap :)

@notorious1234na: I'm 12.

Man, I probably spend more time playing old school games than the new stuff. So many well designed games that have aged fantastically, too many to list.