Games that have not aged well

[Itisnotlogical]

So, just the other day, I was cruising through some boxes I had in my big closet and unearthed a bunch of my older video games! Most of it comprised my old collection of GBA games (Lord, I remember when that thing was brand-spanking new )
but there were a few PC titles in there, including Diablo. Since I had recently seen Devil's Advocate and was itching for some devil-stomping fun, I wasted no time in installing one of Blizzard's landmark titles once again on to my hard drive.

Unfortunately, I found that the game wasn't as fun anymore. The dialogue, which had been corny before, was now simply grating (especially after recently playing Metal Gear Solid 4 at a friend's) and the sound effects fare no better. You can almost see the SFX people crushing tomatoes to simulate blood. The gameplay isn't all that great anymore either- your character moves only in 8 directions, making navigating around the scenery a hassle, especially since you are stuck with a mild trot as your maximum speed throughout the duration of your quest. Perhaps the only thing that has remained solid throughout the years is the graphics. Although you may have to turn up the brightness, everything looks just as musty and evil as it did way back when.

What games have you dug up/bought/torrented recently that have just lost some of their luster in recent times?

 

[Mr. Adventure]

A lot of the PSX-era 3D games have not held up so well.

I jumped through some major (*MAJOR*) hoops to get System Shock running on my Vista PC and I just couldn't take it. I could see where it was brilliant and innovative for its day but its really rough these days.

 

[Bishop76]

Not that the Hitman games were ever works of genius, but they had a special on the old ones for like $3 each on Steam a couple weeks ago. I played them and... well, they're pretty awful. I'm a little amazed I ever thought they were good.

 

[Jadzia]

Vector graphics ages poorly; bitmap graphics ages well.

 

[clint g]

I recently tossed Syphon Filter into the disc tray to discover that what was once a decent third person shooter is now unplayable

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I recently tried a few old consoles that were laying in the cupboard, the Dreamcast, Sega Saturn and the N64...all on a big 42in LCD...and all looked completely terrible....were textures and game resolutions really that low.

No doubt though i have been somewhat spoiled by HD gaming now.

 

[Canadave]

^ *shrug* I can still pull out my N64 and enjoy it. The graphics generally don't bother me (stuff like Goldeneye and Super Mario 64 are actually quite impressive for the time), except in a few cases where they didn't even look great when they were new. The old Mission: Impossible game comes to mind... vaguely playable then, atrocious now.

 

[Reverend]

A lot of the PSX-era 3D games have not held up so well.

Definitely agree with that. There's a whole slew of games for the original Playstation and N64 made during that transitional phase when 3D rendering started to replace 2D that have this problem. Only a handful of classics from that time like Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Metal Gear Solid really hold up at all.

I there's an early PS1 title called Fade to Black that I recently had a go at for the first time in years. Back when it first came out, I remember it had some of the best graphics I'd seen up until that point...now not so much. By contrast, Flashback--the old Megadrive game Fade to Black was the sequel too--was a 2D puzzle/platformer and had aged *much* better.

 

[Volkanismo]

In the recent year, I have reinstalled Civ I and Railroad Tycoon I and II and think that they have not aged well. Perhaps, I played them too much when they were released and was expecting the same level of fun. The same goes to The Incredible Machine, Day of the Tentacle that I considered 'outdated' a few years ago. Games are destined to fade into oblivion, as they are mental exercises, and once we figured out a way to 'beat' them for good, there's not much excitement in playing them any more. The second reason for their fading is the presence of better products on the market exploiting the same idea. I agree with your findings of Diablo. Alas, it was an excellent game as well.

 

[Canadave]

^ Maybe I'm weird somehow, again, but I still enjoy Railroad Tycoon, the original. Almost as much, actually, as RRT 3. Yeah the interface and graphics are shoddy by today's standards, but the basic gameplay fundamentals hold up really, really well.

 

[Volkanismo]

You aren't weird. Few parts of the gameplay are still fun, but it becomes tedious for me within a matter of minutes. I still consider RR2 a better game in terms of user interface, playability and approachability than RR3, a 3D monster with no clear sense of direction. Graphics is not everything.

 

[Smellincoffee]

It's difficult to play The Sims after getting used to the idea of Sims aging in the second game.

 

[Kelthaz]

Some genres just age worse than others do. It's not so much the graphics as it is the advancement some genres have made over the years (remember the days of arrow keys to move and CTRL to fire?). Some genres have made huge objective improvements (FPS, RTS, etc.) making older games hard to play while other genres (platformers, shmups, etc.) remain basically the same. Super Mario Bros. hasn't aged a day while WarCraft I feels like it's from the prehistoric era.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

Since you bring up Warcraft I, I have to mention that Dune II hasn't aged terribly well either, and it was made using largely the same conventions as WCI (selecting and moving each unit one at a time, waiting while your units slooooowly got there, etc.)

 

[Canadave]

^ Yeah, I only ever played Dune II after the fact (probably around 2000 or so), and while I could see how it must have been big at the time, it was largely unplayable to my C&C: Red Alert-trained brain.

 

[Kelthaz]

I never did play Dune II, but I did download the first Command and Conquer: Red Alert last year when it was released as freeware. If you have fond memories of the game, I suggest you don't look for it.

The RTS genre just does not age well. I even have trouble playing the original StarCraft due to the horrible resolution, lack of auto-mining, and total fog of war in multiplayer.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

I'm not a total RTS buff but I have to agree that multiplayer can be frustrating in SC. I have maybe 2 marines, and all the sudden 40 fully upgraded Siege Tanks show up. Oh what the hell fried chicken.

And if you haven't played Dune II it's not really worth the trouble unless you're a complete Dune fanatic, like me.

 

[Canadave]

I never did play Dune II, but I did download the first Command and Conquer: Red Alert last year when it was released as freeware. If you have fond memories of the game, I suggest you don't look for it.

The RTS genre just does not age well. I even have trouble playing the original StarCraft due to the horrible resolution, lack of auto-mining, and total fog of war in multiplayer.

I can still go back to RA, but it can get frustrating, between the lack of build queuing, atrocious pathfinding, and suicidal ore-harvesters...

 

[Icemizer]

My old copy of Night Trap with Dana Plato on the Sega has not aged well.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I don't think any full-motion video games have aged very well, particularly due to the resolution used and the style of gameplay. The only games I know that were remastered with higher-resolution video were the Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective games, and even then that was quite awhile ago.