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[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[DaleinCalgary]

1up podcasts

 

[Guardian's Light]

Strong +1 for game manuals, was very passionate about them I miss game booklets so much, was awesome to read control, tips and everything before starting the game, and today could be a good taste while the installation ends

There is no way to ask them back? They could use recycled paper



Also, I miss secret and unlockables packed games, was my nr.1 replay value factor and it disappeared a Long time ago, name me a game with lots of significant post game secrets and unlockables

99% of the Modern games are full of useless collectibles who unlock nothing, and the old secret stuff is now priced dlc

 

[GamerEDM]

 

[Fret Runner]

The 90s cheeseball attitude that spilled over in to most things game related, mixed with attitude era WWF.
Gaming and WWF were my shit as a kid.

Nowadays, Still love gaming even though there is a really bad case of sameyness going on and the whole spazzy wokeness crap and WWE, well, the less said about what that has become the better.

 

[farmerboy]

The look on that kids face in the arcade as you got to the first boss on Ghost n Goblins. He looked at you like you were a gaming god. Felt good.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I miss the mystery behind video games. The magic of finding a JRPG that you’ve never seen before or finding an import somewhere in town. I remember first seeing the PlayStation DragonBall Z imports at a local game store. The quality of games like Lunar Silver Star Story Complete or Dragon Quest VII.

I miss going into the rental store and seeing all the SNES and Genesis boxes. I miss seeing the strategy guides for Mortal Kombat I & II.

I miss not knowing how video games worked at a larger level, but being fascinated by them. I still am fascinated, but there’s this sense that they’re being developer with ulterior motives. That fascinating game could be based upon politics instead of welcoming you to a new world. I miss that sense of escapism.

I miss not hearing the same voice actor for the same AI grunt in big AAA games. I miss going inside a game store and actually buying a game versus knowing exactly what I want. As well as knowing that store probably doesn’t have it and if they do, they’ll charge me a fortune for it.

 

[Pallas]

let’s see...

. Gaming magazines, especially those that contain demo discs, posters and other neat goodies.

. Gaming manuals and even rarer the mini strategy guides(like the one that cane with Lunar silver star story)

. Rental brick and mortar stores, this is more nostalgic than anything but it was always exciting to hit up a rental place and see all of the games lined up for different formats, you could even rent consoles at times.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I miss the time when we didn't know everything about a game day 1.
There was more of a mystery, you'd trade tips, information and secrets you had found with friends. Games had this unknown factor to them were you never really knew if there was something new to discover. Now we have a wiki with everything you can do and find as soon as the game is out, and the entire thing has been data mined to ensure there's absolutely nothing we might have missed.
I guess you can ignore that and just go in blind, which is generally what I do, but it's still not the same.




Also Squaresoft

Amen. It’s like every single video game has all its cutscenes, best boss battles, weapons, and tips all available day 1. You can go to YouTube the day of release and watch the ending. That was unheard of years ago.

The entire game is broken down to the point where you don’t feel special for beating a game. It’s broken down way before you even get to play it. Not even the way strategy guides were made. This is day 1 by someone possibly getting paid for their video. I miss feeling my own sense of accomplishment. I don’t need to see a journal article on a gaming website about someone’s emotional experience with the final boss the same day or week the game gets released.

No offense but I liked things before Twitch and Mixer. There are so many different people making millions, being gifted gaming stuff, and showing off whatever a developer wants to give them. It makes gaming feel like playing professional sports. You see someone doing something and you might try to be like them. I miss my own special feeling of buying an import or watching a cutscene due to my own accomplishment. People from childhood say stuff about how cool it was and then I see some pro gamer on my console. I wish that stuff would be exposed. I miss the days of feeling my own gaming accomplishments.

 

[molasar]

Also something cool like this, not just a standard soundtrack.

 

[Xdrive05]

Here’s another one: I miss the “console underdog fandom” of the Dreamcast and the first gen Xbox in particular. You know, the positive side of those communities and not the dumb console war stuff. There was something extra special about reading the magazines for those in particular.

Dreamcast was this beautiful flash in the pan moment, and it was just exciting to be in that zeitgeist. Reading about all the weird, fun or quirky games (Seaman, Crazy Taxi, Shenmu, etc.) and then getting to finally play them, that was really niche and fun to be a part of, while most everyone else was still plugging away at their PlayStations and N64s, and shit talking the Dreamcast in favor of what would later become the PS2 and Gamecube.

And then Xbox was this kind of really weird, western, BIG (duke controller anyone?) attempt at breaking into a long established industry. We formed a rabid fan base around Halo mostly, and just how fun it was to be a part of that so early on. Bungie was like Id for a new generation as far as studio reverence goes. But once we got to the 360 then Xbox became really mainstream and the character of that fandom changed accordingly.

 

[DSTYR_OF_WORLDS]

I miss demo game discs.

Sometimes the game wouldn’t even get released but you had a small snippet of a game you could play forever.

Still have a few of them for my 3D0.

 

[Holgren]

I miss how in old games when you checked objects the character would give a brief description or commentary about it like in Silent Hill, RE until 4,RPGs games, etc. It gave the game, the characters and the world a whole lot more personality. Now since the graphics are so powerful and you can investigate the areas yourself, much of that magic is lost.

I remember, especially in RPGs, when I would start pressing buttons at every object to see what the character would say. Now this feature isn't often seen in games, it is all about interactivity or just an area where none of these descriptions appear.

 

[pochepiller2]

I miss 2d animated cutscene like in x-wing and tie-fighter.

 

[Bakkus]

Stores who sells them...

 

[pochepiller2]

It was a place of wonder when you were young at that time.

 

[GreatnessRD]

• E3 conference wars between Sony and Microsoft
• Game Manuals
• No Day One Patches
• No fake DLC
• More variety of games than FPS
• Games lasting longer 2 hours

 

[adamosmaki]

shareware not the occasional 10 minute demo

 

[Eanox]

You can unlock characters the more you play especially in fighting games. Now it is locked season passes.

No SJW that’s plaguing the gaming industry. Gamers just laugh it out. We focus if the game is good or not. Not the inclusion of this and that.

There’s a lot of quality JRPG.I miss squaresoft a lot.
Suikoden, wild arms, old FF, Dark Cloud, Metal Gear, Silent hill, Final Fantasy Tactics, 1st party JRPG from Sony, Siren and Rpg from Sega dreamcast.

CE are cheap but lots of quality,

Handheld console from Sony,

Off line coop.

NPD sharing numbers and Media create.

Gaming tv segments.

Start up from console PS1 and PS2.

 

[Hypereides]

Way too many to list, but I'll just highlight those AA/mid budget edgy, action games in particular.

Most modern games seem to strive for realism for some reason. Not to mention some´aim to be politically correct. Its getting really stale, unappealing and unimaginative. Edgy games were self-aware about how blatantly unrealistic they were. It gave them this charming quality. Some times the B-movie plot made the stories even more memorable with qoutable one-liners thanks to it . I don't get why the modern industry studios are so set on pushing this maturity angle. It really seems more like they're insecure about how they're perceived if anything. Its like they've grown ashamed of those nerdy, wacky, humorous, lighthearted, quirky and over-the-top games they used to make. The current industry is the embodiment of "no fun allowed". I'd rather go play something like [Prototype] than anything the current industry shits out.

I also miss when developers could create games with their unfiltered and untouched vision without going through all the focustesting hoops they have to do these days.

 

[Nigel]

Stealth games.

 

[Skyfox]

Voice chat. It used to be huge in the 360 era.

 

[GreatnessRD]

Voice chat. It used to be huge in the 360 era.

The people identifying as toasters and sensitive era has ruined voice chat. Too scared to be verbally assaulted over the interwebs. Trash talking and voice chat in-general with consoles are a thing of the past, sadly. lol

 

[Orta]

I wish the industry was still only Sega and Nintendo battling it out. For all the exposure and clearly, money Sony and MS have brought into it, therefore bigger budgets and better games, I have no time for either of them. Sounds silly I know, I guess its just me a jaded old gamer being nostalgic for the simple good old days of the past.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Dp

 

[MasterDerico]

Sega-like Arcade games, such as Daytona, crazy taxi, Sega rally, Space channel five, dynamite deka, etc...

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

Complete games with no mandatory and overpriced DLC, microtransactions and season passes.

Political correctness has no place in gaming.

Controversial, but I do miss when gaming had more of a “Japanese presence“ to it. Imho, I felt the industry was more genuine, creators had more passion, freedom and more creativity.

When consoles were unique, had identities and even sometimes provided an experience you couldn’t get elsewhere.

Demos to games are much less common now.

Fighting games are now glorified live service games where you will have to fork out a lot of money for the full experience.

 

[South]

buying games and not knowing anything about them apart from the cover art!
big disappointments or massive highs when I got home!

 

[ranmafan]

Theres a lot of things I miss.

I miss the 80s style arcades back in the states. I miss the old Japanese style arcades (and not the mostly filled with ufo catcher/metal games of today.)

I miss the joy of walking into a Toys R Us or store like it and seeing a wall of games that gave me such excitement on choosing what to buy.

I miss all the crazy not so good games (aka kuso games) that would fill up a large amount of the game releases on systems in Japan. There were a lot of hidden gems there.

I miss the days where our game news was from monthly magazines and our imagination would fill in the missing details.

I miss the days where not every little things is scrutinized in some news hit piece or youtube video. Im tired of every small thing being a controversy to someone.

I miss funny Japanese game commercials. They are all too serious these days.

But overall I miss the days when everyone I knew who loved games were a group that felt special. Didn't matter who you were, if you were a geek or cool, man or woman, or whatever your affiliation, it seemed like in the old days, at least where I was and the people i was around, we all were a group that cared about each other. And we loved to talk and pIay games. I feel like those days disappeared recently somehow and its quite sad.

 

[Red Crayon Aristocrat]

Magazines, especially Ziff Davis ones like OPM and EGM, gaming was just never the same for me without those two magazines to guide me along.

Manuals, it was a great way to get you hyped before you played a game, setting the tone wonderfully and sometimes offering bits of lore that would be otherwise somewhat hard to convey in the game itself.

The last great manual I remember seeing, which was even one of the best manuals I've ever seen, was for Sony's Resistance 2, , does anyone remember that? It was themed around an in universe Popular Mechanics esque magazine and included propaganda posters and even pinup girl posters.

Sony always used to really go all out with manuals back in the day, makes me wonder what the manual for The Order 1886 might have been like had they still done manuals when it came out (maybe a Victorian style newspaper?)

Oh and sexy women in western developed games.

 

[Rin_Chan]

Free online play

 

[South]

up down up down left right left right

CHEAT CODES!

 

[MrRenegade]

I miss the games from the games industry. Everything is suppressed, like you watch a Rocco Siffredi porn movie but Rocco has an euphemistic ponytail instead of his megadick.

Have you noticed that very few games have roller coasters? Everything is leveled and normalized. There are no "Oh my fucking god" or what the "mother holy jesus fuck" moments in games, like your best friend betrays you, stabs you in the back, your beloved characters get murdered, plastered on a wall etc.

Writing is subpar, characters are like from a 9 year old adult's dream. Shitty weapon sounds, almost zero gore, everything is sped up, everything is superficial, and everything is spoiled before a game releases. Just these.

 

[MrRenegade]

I miss the time when we didn't know everything about a game day 1.
There was more of a mystery, you'd trade tips, information and secrets you had found with friends. Games had this unknown factor to them were you never really knew if there was something new to discover. Now we have a wiki with everything you can do and find as soon as the game is out, and the entire thing has been data mined to ensure there's absolutely nothing we might have missed.
I guess you can ignore that and just go in blind, which is generally what I do, but it's still not the same.




Also Squaresoft

Yeah, this is very important. They spoil everything because without +5 million in sales someone would surely jump off a cliff... Playing Wizardry 7 back then and imagine playing it now... fucking internet. People don't use their brains anymore. I would ban these info sharing sites big time.

Data miners must be kicked into a well, also speedrunners and all the other useless artifacts (streamers) of modern age.

 

[_Ex_]

Buying a game that comes fully complete on cartridge/disc, which is also bug free enough to play from start screen to credits without needing any kind of external patch.

 

[Old Retro]

Playing coin ops with random strangers. You couldn't do that at this moment if you wanted to! Also miss many of things alredy posted, like gaming manuals. They were a small part of the lore of the game itself. Also miss renting games, 5 different magazines on the shelves waiting for you every month.

 

[VulcanRaven]

Pre-rendered backrounds:

 

[Mexen]

Coming to GAF and reading every thread on the front page.

 

[PPIMystaceus]

E3 existing?

 

[ThatStupidLion]

business plans of game over monetization instead of the other way around

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[Plague Doctor]

When games only used gameplay only for unlockable skins and new weapons and bonus characters.

 

[Samanosuke Akechi]

 

[Ten_Fold]

No politics or sjw bitching about every new AAA release doesn't have poc, trans or whatever they wanna cry about.
Funcoland
No dlc
Not having millions of games coming out, wish steam would limit it again
Squaresoft
Demo disc, last one I had was for the 360.

 

[Ar¢tos]

I kinda miss this (stuff like this) :

 

[un1que]

Unlocking new and hidden characters in fighting games instead of buying them as dlc.
Suppose Unlockables for every type of game really

 

[Lucumo]

I was contrasting it with how the Western PC games had shifted to smaller boxes around the same period.

Ah, ok. Though, here in Europe we had euroboxes from the 90s till the end basically, with some exceptions of course. Never actually compared the size between those and my Japanese games, but the Falcom ones should definitely be bigger. Too bad they are all in my basement currently due to a lack of space.

 

[Hawks Eclipse]

Ah, ok. Though, here in Europe we had euroboxes from the 90s till the end basically, with some exceptions of course. Never actually compared the size between those and my Japanese games, but the Falcom ones should definitely be bigger. Too bad they are all in my basement currently due to a lack of space.

When was "the end" in your case?

In my experience the big boxes started to slowly get replaced around 2000 onwards. Some games still came in them but there was an advent of smaller physical cases which went into full swing a few years later.

I remember buying games like Deus Ex: GOTY and Severance: Blade of Darkness (2001 or so IIRC) and they were in plastic cases around the size of a DVD case. I do remember also buying Crysis in its big box though, which was very nice considering when it was (2007).

By the time The Witcher (not enhanced) was sold it was in cardboard boxes that were roughly VHS-sized.

Well at least you own them! And I suppose it's precisely the fact that they take up lots of space which led to them getting phased out eventually.

If the Japanese boxes are all around the size of that one in the video then yes, I'd say they're larger than the Western ones in all three dimensions in general.

 

[Lucumo]

When was "the end" in your case?

In my experience the big boxes started to slowly get replaced around 2000 onwards. Some games still came in them but there was an advent of smaller physical cases which went into full swing a few years later.

I remember buying games like Deus Ex: GOTY and Severance: Blade of Darkness (2001 or so IIRC) and they were in plastic cases around the size of a DVD case. I do remember also buying Crysis in its big box though, which was very nice considering when it was (2007).

By the time The Witcher (not enhanced) was sold it was in cardboard boxes that were roughly VHS-sized.

Well at least you own them! And I suppose it's precisely the fact that they take up lots of space which led to them getting phased out eventually.

If the Japanese boxes are all around the size of that one in the video then yes, I'd say they're larger than the Western ones in all three dimensions in general.

Hm, around 2006/2007. So basically when MMORPGs started dominating the market and when shitty things like "Games for Windows - Live" became a thing.

Yeah, 2006/2007 still had euroboxes, and even at a later point, although then used as collector's editions. What I did notice though, American publishers switched to DVD cases earlier while European publishers went with euroboxes until the end.

I think it's more due to cost-cutting, rather than space issues. While euroboxes were a standard, DVD case were an even bigger standard and were also cheaper to produce. In addition, less space means less reason to supply gamers with thick manuals, goodies etc.

Man, I would really like to compare but it would be too much of a pain to get through all the boxes. What I remember though, one of my Falcom games (2000) weighing ~1800g. Easily blew away the competition in terms of weight.