31–40 of 64 posts
Just the other day I was wondering about getting an old version of the OS running under SheepShaver to try it. I'll probably dust off an old machine instead.
one thing to recognize is that modern games generally have a lot of high-cost content. this is stuff that teams of 100+ people have to work on for 2+ years to make. so in that sense it would be really surprising if modern games didn't appear substantially better to us than in the past, when teams were tiny by comparison
It's the most well-designed game I have seen to date.
Timeless classic games: - Super Mario 3 - Super Mario World - Mega Man X - Baldur's Gate Still 100% fun. Dunno how they manage it.
In practice, many games are both. For example, the original Half-Life was a breakthrough for FPS games in tightly integrating an engaging story into the experience. Integrating the story in such a way has become standard fare by modern FPS standards, but Half-Life remains playable and enjoyable today. The graphics are dated (and a little painful), but the gameplay is rock-solid, and the story is still significantly better than 95% of what's on the market, both in terms of what the story is and how it's told. Deus Ex also ages well. It's gameplay innovation of putting RPG elements in an FPS game is now quite standard in FPSes, but the plot makes the game fun to play. Its gameplay innovation isn't really obsolete yet because there isn't something significantly better, but it is exceedingly common, and yet Deus Ex remains a better game than most other games that use it. I strongly suspect Portal will fall into this category as well--portals are cool, but when I think of Portal I think of GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube. As a game, it is held up by way more than just a technical gimmick.
Unrelated: My personal favorite timeless classic is X-COM: UFO Defense (known as UFO: Enemy Unknown on the other side of the pond), which is apparently available now on steam, 17 years after its release.
I know it is all a matter of opinion, but as someone who dabbles in game development (I am an admin of the Dark Mists MUD, after all), here is my perspective: If you look across the spectrum of oldstyle games, there are a few aspects off the top of my head that were responsible for our fun: challenge by control limits, challenge by time limits, and challenge by perfection (restarts, saves, etc). Joust is a perfect ex…
I still love playing PacMan, etc. Actually I can't stand modern games at all out of the "casual" ones, because they're just too demanding, and I have no time to spend for this. I don't need any special involvement to play PacMan, Activision Enduro, or Intellivision AD&D. They're fun, anyway.
Timeless classic games: - Super Mario 3 - Super Mario World - Mega Man X - Baldur's Gate Still 100% fun. Dunno how they manage it.
I know it is all a matter of opinion, but as someone who dabbles in game development (I am an admin of the Dark Mists MUD, after all), here is my perspective: If you look across the spectrum of oldstyle games, there are a few aspects off the top of my head that were responsible for our fun: challenge by control limits, challenge by time limits, and challenge by perfection (restarts, saves, etc). Joust is a perfect ex…
mentioning WoW inevitably leads me to consider the social component. Especially once I reached the endgame, one of the main sources of enjoyment in WoW was my interaction with other players. Sure, there were social aspects to arcade classics (leaderboard w/ initials) and I'm sure those aspects were crucial to some players' enjoyment. But now that I've played MMOs, Facebook games, predominantly multiplayer FPS's (Unre…
And on many levels -- just my opinion -- it is more fun to play with people I know than to play with a bunch of strangers, especially groups of people selfishly interested primarily in their own advancement in the game. This is one reason WoW bores me. The social arenas in online gaming are usually annoying, something to tolerate rather than enjoy.