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Anybody Else Stuck in Their Gaming Past?

highrider

Banned
For starters I came to playing games later in life, barely even had tv growing up, my first console was a PS2 then an Xbox. My tastes run pretty typical I guess. Halo and Lost Planet are my favorite games, in that I find the gameplay in them keeps me entertained almost endlessly. My first really fun or wow experiences we’re probably on 360 when playing Halo, Gears and Lost Planet.

My problem is I’m just not finding games like this. Currently playing through The Village and Control, Infinite can’t come soon enough. Where are all the cool shooters in sci-fi settings with cool enemies man! I have enjoyed new games and looking forward to next gen consoles being more available I’m down, but I’m really hoping not to have Halo and Lost Planet being games I still play throughout my golden years lol.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Indeed I am - that's why I do the majority of my gaming on this ;

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About five years ago I realized that I was having more fun replaying Thief or Deus Ex for the 50th time than I did playing most the latest new releases.

Stopped buying and playing big budget games for the most part and started focusing on older games and indies. Haven't regretted it one bit.
 
I can’t seem to find games as enjoyable as when I first got my PS2, on which I played a lot of the PS1 Squaresoft games. So, I know how it is.
 
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Xeaker

Member
Games nowadays are more like movies, they don't feel like games anymore.
Also there are almost no games like on PS2 anymore.
i.e The Summoner, Digital Devil Saga, Onimusha, BoF Dragon Quarter, Dark Cloud, Silent Hill 2, Burnout 3
JRPG died completely out. The last real traditional one was Dragon Quest XI many years ago.
 

O-N-E

Member
That's unfortunate.

There's never a plethora of amazing games on the horizon, but they do come out here and there. Nowadays too.

Personally, it's rare for me to replay games at all. I like to dip into older entries in the backlog that I've never touched, and look forward optimistically to upcoming releases that catch my interest. Slowly your list of favourite games grows this way.

In other words -

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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Maybe it’s because many of the most popular games of today are just rehashing very old gameplay with a fresh coat of glitter paint and a lot of unnecessary side stuff to inflate total game time. The grind and the padding have gotten out of hand.

Playing games like Yakuza 6 made me realize that veering video games towards narrative “cinematic” experiences was definitely a mistake. It’s all about making the same things again and again just to trigger a nice cutscene and advance a needlessly convoluted story. This worked much better when games were text only.

The reason I’ll always return to 3rd and 4th-gen games is that they had so little fat. They always give you something to do, at any given moment.
 

Ellery

Member
I love my gaming past, but it is too dangerous to stay there. I realized it is best if I am completely honest with myself and ever since then I have been enjoying and loving modern day games a lot.

You just have to be extra careful with red flag games. Most multiplayer, microtransaction, EA, Ubisoft, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Fortnite, Redfall, Crackdown 3, Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, all the stuff like that.
It is different for each person. For me personally I find gaming most enjoyable when I completely ignore all games that are bland open world and are basically a work checklist of meaningless side quests and bland characters.
I found my passion again in games Dark Souls, Prey, TLOU, God of War and a few indies here and there. It is worth exploring.

Lots of people are just bitter and hateful. It is a reflection of their own life projected onto all forms of media/entertainment without differentiating. Sure there are a lot of shitty things nowadays that are worth disliking, but spending all your energy and focus on that will result in you rotting your own mind into believing that no good things exist at all.
It is mostly a thing about attitude and if you find yourself disliking gaming overall, but enjoying the rest of your life, it is probably time to take a break from gaming and do something else.

The first games we play will always be fondly remember, because that is what got us into gaming, but nostalgia glasses can be a burden at times when we keep ourselves from enjoying something.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
I will never get tired of Shenmue, Rage Racer, Tekken Tag, Jet set Radio, GT2, Mario 64 Zelda OOT, FF7 etc.

No matter how old those games are now, they'll always be timeless to me.
I don't like Shenmue anymore but I have a soft spot for Rage Racer. I also loved oddball games like Pandemonium, Jumping Flash 2, Driver and Die Hard Trilogy.
 

Kev Kev

Member
ive been going through old final fantasy games recently. and doom 1, 2 and 64. i usually go back to skyrim or fallout 4 when i get tired of that. maybe some minecraft vr. rocket league, vermintide 2..... ya now what, yeah man im kind of the same. the last new game i played was ffvii remake and i liked it but also had a laundry list of complaints about it. i hated doom eternal. and i cant think of a new game i played in recent years besides those two.

i dont care for a lot of this new stuff. the terms "battlepass" and "seasons" when referring to online shooters makes me want to 🤮🤮🤮 never played fortnite, in fact i just not that into shooters anymore. i just want a game that makes me feel like im going on an adventure, and last last new-ish game to do that was breath of the wild. before that? no idea.

thankfully ffxii is scratching my adventure itch, so im really happy about that, but its an old game so. ffxvi looks more like an action than adventure, so not much hope there :(
 
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Yeah, this is the first time I didn't buy a next gen console day 1. I just don't care about the games coming out these days, I'd rather play my PS1 library or old PC games. I buy like one brand new game a year now, otherwise I just get them later on super sale and usually only play for a few hours before getting bored out of my mind.
 

Kuranghi

Member
I do both, I love going back to play old PC games with insane downsampling settings, or in the case of old console stuff emulating and playing with fan patches and the like. PC is getting some really faithful homages to old stuff right like that one where you have the cane sword and there are crow mask guys, fuck I can't remember the name right not. Its Thief/Deus Ex-esque.
 

Jaysen

Banned
Nope. I’ve been playing the hell out of Demons Soul remake, Spider-Man MM, Immortals, and Returnal. PS5 has had a great launch IMO. I’m also playing a ton of games on XSX via Game Pass that I missed last gen when I skipped XB1.
 

Kuranghi

Member
Dead Space is coming back though apparently, hopefully if EA don't shit the bed on that one we'll get some sweet Sci-fi shooty again soon, I'd be happy with a full remaster of the originals as well though, they did a near perfect job on C&C/RA Remastered so I'm hopeful.
 
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GymWolf

Member
If anything, i'm very detached from my past, i don't play anymore some genres that i loved as a child like platformers or fighting games and i also was a huge nintendo fanboy and now i'm kinda the opposite.
 
Kinda. I'm still at the 7th gen. Its far more enjoyable now that the noise around it has calmed down.

However, I do honestly think there's been a severe drop in those experimental and unique ideas in recent times. While I do intend to catch up to 8th gen, and do see some interesting games there, I scratch my head whenever someone says its above and beyond the prior.
 
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I am still stuck in 2005 when I played WoW for the first time. I would like to travel in time and experience those again. And No classic is not the same game. It's was the people too who played in my server at the time.
 

OrtizTwelve

Member
It’s because most modern “games” today aren’t really games at all, and instead are pretty gimmicks designed to get you to spend more money over and over again, through microtransactions, season passes and battle passes, and other endless forms of nonsense — and before you know it, you’re not really playing a game anymore but maintaining a “service”.

Some people are ok with this. And that’s fine, let the fools spend their money away. There are still many games that aren’t like this, but the majority of the “AAA” caliber games have adopted this form of business model and it’s the reason why a lot of these games just aren’t good, and are on average, at best, very mediocre, half finished, buggy, and laden with “roadmaps” and other public relations nonsense to push out half-ass games at full retail price with the promise that “it will improve over time”.

The last generation where games mostly shipped finished and complete, and with very little nonsense was probably the 360/PS3 era. It wasn’t until XBOX ONE and PS4 that we started getting a lot of half-baked products and the current modern trends we see today.
 

wOs

Member
Nope, and I've been gaming since the Atari/commodore.

while I might go through periods of not playing from time to time, I still enjoy a lot of games.

most recently playing it takes two with my son and until you fall vr.

edit: are you purely talking about replay ability? My comment still stands. Most recently having played through demon souls remake and ratchet. That and I seem to always go back to blood done. Which at least from your list is last gen.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
I mostly play older games but I don't consider it being stuck in the past. I just prefer them.

Classics are classics for a reason, the new games will always be there and I can pick them up if I want. I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
 

Markio128

Member
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. But the t-shirt is old and frayed now, so it just hangs in my wardrobe for old times sake.
I like to remember old games because they hold good memories of my youth, but I don’t need to play them again.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
You can’t upstage your “gaming past” but games today are on the brink of greatness and has GAF buzzing all the time.
 

Corgi1985

Banned
Games are expensive as fuck to make now so they have to apply to the widest demographic possible so everything is watered down. We aren't getting new IPs like we were during the PS360 era. Everything is a sequel full of the same shit consistently getting lazier and shittier (pokemon), a bland amalgamation of gaming tropes (jedi fallen order), or a broken piece of garbage that blows ass (anthem), or games that feel straight lazy and unfinished (mario golf). Gaming IS getting worse OP it isn't just you.

It would help if nintendo had some competent online. YOU HEAR ME NINTENDO? No matchmaking in mario golf? I have to join your shitty lobby for fuck sake? How is your online worse now than it was the wii?

I have no hope for dead space. If it isn't a team based hero shooter that looks like blandnite then devs don't care. Also what is with the shitty cartoon artsyles everywhere?
 

killatopak

Gold Member
Been playing D2 recently to shake off my rust when d2r comes out.

most fun I’ve had in a while. The game really is timeless.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
For the past 5+ years or so, I feel myself thinking about experiences I had with older games, and how a lot of recent games just haven't hit that way. Not at all.

The memories have spanned different years, platforms, genres, etc. I'm just frequently left with that feeling of, "Man, they just don't make them like they used to." After many years in the AAA game industry, I just came to the realization that game development, especially in the AAA realm, was just more affordable in the past, so there was more room for ambition and ideas. Whereas nowadays AAA development is SO incredibly expensive that so many devs are anxious about being ambitious and having projects completely miss the mark. So, they are safe and go with things that feel successful, or will at least surely warrant some kind of positive response.

However, as the past few years have shown us, indies and AA games are starting to deliver more often, and harder. They always have been of course. I just feel like because of available tools that exist today, the level of quality is going up and up across the entire board in both scenes.

I'd imagine that as a result we're going to see more indies and AA games inspired by classic games with classic ideas with added twists. Which is something I think we need. Obviously some NEWER ideas would be great across the board, so I'm hoping we see more of those too. But only time will tell!
 

Synless

Member
I have a buddy who only plays classic games (Nes - PS1 era's). If it is a newer game, it has to be styled like one of those older games, example being Octopath Traveler or something of the sort. I don't really get it....but whatever.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
For starters I came to playing games later in life, barely even had tv growing up, my first console was a PS2 then an Xbox. My tastes run pretty typical I guess. Halo and Lost Planet are my favorite games, in that I find the gameplay in them keeps me entertained almost endlessly. My first really fun or wow experiences we’re probably on 360 when playing Halo, Gears and Lost Planet.

My problem is I’m just not finding games like this. Currently playing through The Village and Control, Infinite can’t come soon enough. Where are all the cool shooters in sci-fi settings with cool enemies man! I have enjoyed new games and looking forward to next gen consoles being more available I’m down, but I’m really hoping not to have Halo and Lost Planet being games I still play throughout my golden years lol.
Lost Planet huh? This kid's got good taste.

Hmmm, sci-fi shooters like Halo or Lost Planet? That a tough one.

I feel where you are coming from though. I've been on the search for a game that's reminiscent of Phantom Dust for yeaaaaaarrrrrs. Closest thing was a dreamcast game like PowerStone, but not really. There really is no game like Phantom Dust. It really hurt me deep when Xbox cancelled the reboot. I've also wanted a game like Chromehounds for a while. When Armored Core 5 came out I was hoping, but it didn't hold a candle. There was no persistent war, no strategical battle and freedom to build pretty much any mech you could conceive.
 

93xfan

Banned
Huge Halo fan here as well OP. Love MCC multiplayer!!!

I recommend Titanfall 2 for a really solid FPS campaign.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Yep. I prefer gaming from the past.

I think companies are missing a trick here. There are many people would love to play games from the past, but a lot of those games are lost to time. Unless you have the original game, it's pretty difficult to play older games.

I'd absolutely love to play games from my childhood and teenage years, a few examples being Wild9 ( PS1), Chakan (Megadrive), Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2) and thousands more.

If Sony, for example, released a legacy console with a large HD, that allowed people to download and play every game ever released from the PS1 and PS2 then I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
 
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