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Anybody Else Stuck in Their Gaming Past?

Dark Star

Member
I still play PS2 games every once in a while. Like I made a new save file for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets the other day and I got that game like 18 years ago lol. Sometimes I find myself enjoying old school horror like OG Resident Evil way more than new stuff too. I feel like games 20+ years ago just had way more love and attention and creativity put into them. Nowadays it’s all about “bigger is better” and that leads to half baked projects like Cyberpunk 2077.
 
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SpiceRacz

Member

haha classic :pie_roffles: (y)

Hy0EVPM.jpg


Haha classic :pie_roffles: (y)
 
I just need to have my games on 15 disc floppies and then not running due to a hardware problem I have to call a retro computer mechanic to fix.

I also need low quality IBM speaker sounds and CGA. I just didn't like games with more than 5 colors. I also need to config my rig everytime I switch games to feel comfortable

.

Lol op, THAT'S being stuck, you're just upset because there's not much variety these days and things are becoming formulaic. A much less concerning issue.

Take a small break then come back later refreshed.
 
Eh, why does it matter?

I'm a time god of gaming, I play any game from any year that I could potentially find and that would interest me.

It's totally possible to be forward thinking in wanting to see what the next generation of games can offer, while also resorting to play old games to seek new experiences and/or replay old ones.
 
I have no problems playing and finding new games to enjoy. Though I’m currently playing banjo tooie so yes I love my gaming past.
 

cireza

Banned
There are some nice games every once in a while, but I can't count how many I was trying to enjoy my time on a modern game, and thought to myself "fuck this" when the 35th cutscene kicked in or whatever, or when the 46th uninteresting gameplay section happened.

When this happens, I simply boot my Megadrive, Mega-CD or Saturn and enjoy any game instantly.
 
There's a lot of really good games out there nowadays, but there are certain aspects of old games that aren't as common as they used to be.

One of my favorite things about most games pre-2004 or so is that the majority of games (obviously there's exceptions, especially with certain genres) is how quick you can get into playing the actual game.

Pretty much any game released by the big publishers, whether its "AAA" or not, is bloated with way too many tutorials, cut scenes and just too much bullshit. By the time you actually get a feel for what the actual gameplay loop is you've already played 5 hours. There's way too many games that don't get into the meat for way too long.

Check the difference between Morrowind and Skyrim. In Morrowind, you're basically set completely free in a massive world within 15 minutes of loading the game up. Get off the boat, create your character, talk to a couple dudes, alright now do whatever the hell you want.

Skyrim has a relatively short intro sequence compared to a lot of games over the last 10 years, but it's still a good hour or so before you're set free.

Or even RE1 vs Village. Village, the actual meat of the game doesn't start until an hour or so after you walk through several scripted sequences. RE1, turn the game on, watch intro cut scene, and we're off to the races.
 

Nitty_Grimes

Made a crappy phPBB forum once ... once.
During lockdown and working from home for over a year now I’ve been bored out of my tiny mind so have been buying an Amiga 1200 and and a SNES.

Just after a High Def Graphics and Sound model Megadrive now that’s in excellent condition…
 
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Amiga

Member
I'm found of my old memories but I can't stand old game design. I moved on.

..Where are all the cool shooters in sci-fi settings with cool enemies man! I ..


Have you seen Titanfall 2.

Destiny 2 is still putting out story content(though I dropped off a couple of years ago).
 
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Last night I perused my substantial backlog on Steam and psn before I decided on playing Icewind Dale for the 4 billionth time.
 

Ikutachi

Member
Yes, but that's where I'm going to stay. It unfortunately means I can't participate in much gaming threads.
 

ksdixon

Member
I still don't understand why the platform holders don't re-liscense the old games for resale/streaming, even if they have to wrap the games in an emulation layer to do so. Talking specifically about Sony, we know they have a working PS2 emulator (PS1 too I guess by default), and a PSP one. That's how that Parappa The Rapper game got a 'remaster' on PS4, it was sideloading the PSP Remaster.

All I know is that I'd for sure like RE2 PS1 lined-up next to RE2 Remake, or all the multitude of Tomb Raider games etc.
 
100% yes. I’m pushing 50 and find myself more and more going back in time. Nothing against modern games (which I do love) but there is something special about older games that still really appeal to me.
 

Belmonte

Member
I can't even imagine not playing older games. Why would I do this to myself?

There are many great games these days. From Software releases classic after classic, Capcom is in a great shape, Tekken 7 is a ocean of deep, Streets of Rage 4 is one of the best 2D brawlers ever, etc.

But a good game is a good game, don't matter if it is old. And one generation <<<...<<< all other generations summed.
 

Vagswarm

Member
Definitely not. I remember having to wait in anticipation for a quality title to release from a developer you liked, who took their sweet time with nothing to play inbetween. Now instead of waiting for games, I have a ton of quality titles in the backlog. There's so many games and so many platforms, it's not hard to get a game anymore. Steam especially has been a huge relief in being able to access a massive amount of games from one location (including ones you never heard of), and there's better optimization for PCs in general. I don't have difficulty getting a game to work anymore, or having to download 10 different things from 10 different places. Even services like Game Pass, EA Play, Rockstar Launcher, etc are smooth and easy to use. The web in general has been much more streamlined than in the 90s.

Then you have all the different genres available, including the ones that were predominant in the 80s and 90s. A lot of top-down games are still being made, by indies or major companies (like Nintendo). There's a ton of variety and I can easily switch when one gets boring. Not to mention all the sales... during the N64 era, some Nintendo games were $70. Do people forget? SNES games weren't that cheap either. Greatest Hits didn't exist. Now I buy most stuff on sale for very cheap, even if it's years down the line... it doesn't go "bad" if you wait a while to play it.
 
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MayauMiao

Member
I still don't understand why the platform holders don't re-liscense the old games for resale/streaming, even if they have to wrap the games in an emulation layer to do so. Talking specifically about Sony, we know they have a working PS2 emulator (PS1 too I guess by default), and a PSP one. That's how that Parappa The Rapper game got a 'remaster' on PS4, it was sideloading the PSP Remaster.

All I know is that I'd for sure like RE2 PS1 lined-up next to RE2 Remake, or all the multitude of Tomb Raider games etc.

Probably platform holders don't want to deal with having to pay royalties associated with the old games.
 
I play a gen or 2 behind. That way I can focus on the good games. Sure some new games I try. Doom eternal being the most recent one.

But besides thst it's usually older games. Playing portal 2 now
I had so much fun with portal and portal 2. Great games that make you think. I played them when they came out on 360.
 
I'm feeling the same. Just bought a ps3 again and I have a hacked vita with lots of emulators. But honestly I just got fatigue from open world games. Everything now is online or open world with a lot of repetition (there's still lots of great games coming out but I'm prefering more and more the older ones). There's a reason my most anticipated game was Mass Effect Legendary edition,now I'm waiting for Tales of Arise.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I feel you OP, only my problem is different.

As a kid I got into what at the time would have been considered retro gaming. Mostly on PC. Then I pretty much didn't game much at all as a teen or in college, so I missed entire generations save for a handful of games. Once I started earning a little scratch I got back into gaming, but again, I was a generation or so behind. I feel in love with Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, and other games, on the PS3 when most other gamers would have considered them "old" games. And that's still where my major interests lie. Back in the world of, err, 2008? 2009?

I feel like most games these days fail to deliver the same kind of compelling experiences that those old games did. They look pretty. They have all kinds of RPG mechanics and other things to keep a person busy with. But they're just not as fun in a raw way.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
I find myself more and more incapable of going back to the 8/16/32/64/128-bit era ... but I still invest on the sequels and spiritual successors of the IPs I loved as a young man, as well as the newer IPs which appear today.
 

Xeaker

Member
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.

Yes like Silent Hill 2, if you don't own the original PS2 game you are fuked.
Same with Onimusha. The HD Release has complete different Soundtrack!!!
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Normally when I finish a new release like Returnal or Ratchet, I go back and play some classics. Snes, Megadrive, Saturn, PS1 etc
Right now Im going through the Sly Cooper series, really enjoying it
 

brian0057

Banned
Given how mind numbingly boring this gen (and the previous one sans a few exceptions) has been, I've spent the last few weeks thoroughly enjoying going through the Gamecube's catalog I didn't play when my console still worked.
Got Dolphin running both Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radian Dawn (Yes. I know it's a Wii game) through some roms I've down... I mean, legally purchased on eBay using legal tender.
 
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Trimesh

Banned
I'm not sure about "stuck in the past" - but I have to admit that I've been finding less and less games I really wanted to play on modern systems and spend much more of my gaming time playing older titles.

This really came to a head when the PS5 and XSX were launched - I had about $1800 in my "gaming slush fund" ready to buy them - but as the launch got closer and details started trickling out my interest in them just carried on dropping, and to this point I still don't have either. And this is from a guy that bought 4 generations of PlayStation and 3 generations of Xbox at launch. I also have to say that I found the previous (Xbone/Ps4) generation seriously underwhelming. It's not that there weren't any good games - there just didn't seem to be that many of them.

It's also quite telling looking at the shelves and seeing a huge number of PS1, PS2 and Xbox360 games, a smaller but still significant number of OG Xbox and PS3 games - and a relatively anemic showing for both Xbone and PS4. I also suspect the market may have moved away from the things I like - there have been a bunch of titles (RDR2, Uncharted 4 and TLoU2 come to mind) that I didn't exactly hate, but I did find all the "best game ever!!!" screeching about utterly incomprehensible. U4 is a case in point - that was a game I didn't consciously quit, but I just took a break from and never went back.
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
I have been playing old games in retroarch and I had a blast. It's just so convenient to have ripped games from several consoles in a hard drive, with save states, CRT filters and all.

Besides the one thing I love about old games from the 90s is that you had the best studios putting together 2D games with amazing looking pixel art. Indie games can't reach those heights for the most part.

And I am a bit fed up with the bs from modern AAA gaming
Buggy releases, massive downloads, gaas, MTX massive open world borefest and more.
 

Aldynes

Member
If you love the media as a whole, you tend to find enjoyment not only for playing but for everything it encompass.

I came to appreciate modern gaming even more by playing older games, digging in the past to see the roots of each genre, discover what game inspired the other, what crazy new idea a particular game introduce, many flew under the radar because they failed to be properly executed, truly fascinating.

It's hard sometimes to go back to play games made the early 3D era more than anything else (32 bits onward) due to abysmal framerate, long loading times, blurry mess of textures...etc

So one thing that worked for me is to recontextualise what was the gaming landscape at the time this game came out, If I grew up during it I recall memories of that particular year, the other games that were out by then read some old preview / reviews, old magazines, then watch youtube / play older games similar to it to compare it too and that way I'm not getting my perception wrong.

If you don't do that and just go from Xbox Series X / PS5 / modern PC gaming 4k at 60/120 fps with a game like Titanfall 2 or DOOM Eternal to say Goldeneye or worse Perfect Dark (10 fps with high res mode) on N64 you're doing it wrong by putting you in a bad position to begin with.
 
Nostalgia is a toxic crutch.

Look to indies or smaller team/budget "AA" games. There's still a lot of cool shit being made, you just have to look past big publisher marketing to find it.
 

GreatnessRD

Member
Nostalgia is a toxic crutch.
I used to be 50/50 on this until I saw many games not hold a candle to the features of PS2 titles against today's latest and "greatest".

For instance, playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 (PS2) and then playing the garbage that is WWE 2K20 (PS4) and the PS2 title puts that game to shame. Bugs or no bugs.
 
I play a lot of different games but sometimes I really just need to go back to something like a SNES or GBA game to remember why I love games.

I’m not that old, almost 30, but the first system I really got into games with was the GBA. Games like WarioLand 4, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, Gunstar Superheroes, etc. were my shit. I just did two speed run play throughs of Zero Mission and started playing Samus Returns and it’s just good to play games where it’s primarily a game with cool aesthetics and any story is just tertiary at most.

Currently I’ve been playing Samus Returns, Shovel Knight, and Cyberpunk because I can’t really decide what I want to play.
 
I used to be 50/50 on this until I saw many games not hold a candle to the features of PS2 titles against today's latest and "greatest".

For instance, playing Smackdown vs. Raw 2006 (PS2) and then playing the garbage that is WWE 2K20 (PS4) and the PS2 title puts that game to shame. Bugs or no bugs.
I absolutely agree on that aspect. A lot of PS2-era games do have better developed and more fleshed out gameplay mechanics than more recent games. Especially sequels to IPs that were launched in PS3/X360 era.

I was thinking more along the lines of gamers holding on to to art direction and music styles from two decades ago. Those things obviously change over time, yet I still see people clinging to early 2000s electro and drum and bass lol I like that, too but I don't expect devs to implement those past styles in today's games and have it mesh with the game.

Like, I see that Bomb Rush Cyberfunk game and I think " Okay, that looks like a cool imitation. Sega probably had a good reason for not making a follow up to JSRF 20 years ago". Gamers need to think like businesses and they're historically bad at doing it. Majority of these "inspired by" indies only capture a fraction of the visual and gameplay mechanic spirit of what they're attempting to ape. Gameplay feels like an afterthought for those.
 
I love games that have been part of my past, I often take them back, but I am always looking for new things, I am fascinated by the evolution of videogames (I started with Atari and Commodore) I don't think they are better or worse, I think the age is gradually changing my approach.
Like an old movie that I always enjoy and never get tired of, there are games with which I have the same relationship.
 

buenoblue

Member
I'm actually the opposite. Playing beloved older games from previous gens bums me out. They just seem so shitty compared to new games. Even games from 5 years ago that I loved seemed to have aged terribly to me.

I pretty much stay on the cutting edge tech wise though so maybe 4k high fps games have spoilled me.

I do have a bartop mame cab I built with all the old old stuff though so I do have old games when I get the itch.
 

TastyPastry

Member
i feel like a healthy mix is the best for me. i play old games, new games, indies and AAA games. just playing the latest ubisoft open world live service game or the latest activision/ÉA mtx trash would make me hate my hobby.
also there are certain genres that simply don't really get made anymore. i mean when was the last fps from the half life 2 school of game design? wolfenstein new order maybe? when was the last wing commander/x-wing alliance type space sim?
 

WoJ

Member
I would say this describes me. I rarely play new games at launch and tend to play one "new" game per year. And by new I'd say anything that's been out in the last year or two when I play it. Last year it was Days Gone. This year it is Final Fantasy VII Remake. I loved both. I have also spent the last couple years catching up on stuff that's been out a while including Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Inside, Dying Light, Assassin's Creed, Gears of War (first one), Onrush, Silent Hill, Until Dawn, Dead Space, The Walking Dead Season 3. There are more but those are the big hitters.

I just can't keep up with games as they release so I pick them up dirt cheap on sale and have a large library to pick from. As you can see above I played Gears of War for the first time last year. It was great. So were Silent Hill and Dead Space. In fact, Dead Space 2 is my next game after finishing FFVIIR.

I would have skipped new consoles until mid gen upgrades if it wasn't for the fact that the Series X is an emulation beast. While having the ability to play new games on it is nice, I am more excited about emulating everything from the past - NES, SNES, GBA, NDS, Wii, Gamecube, PS1, and PS2 games all centrally located on that bad boy.

All that said - games today are amazing. What Square was able to do with FFVIIR is amazing. I LOVED Days Gone. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was also great. But I'm in no hurry to play the latest and greatest. In fact, I'm in a phase where I kind of enjoy picking up and playing through "bad" Xbox 360 games - games like Quantum Theory, Fracture, etc. There is just so much out there to play.

I have a soft spot for the 7th generation and before. But it isn't all I play.
 
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