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[ULTROS!]

Inspiration from this thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=464534

I hold less nostalgia for the DC/early PS2 era but I find that although they may seem rough around the edges, they're basically much more polished than the PSX 3D games, and they're not as bad as they look in my opinion.

Do you believe that the Dreamcast/Early PS2 era aged well? Here are some examples of DC/early PS2 era games that were ported to HD consoles:

Crazy Taxi (DC -> PSN/XBLA):

Space Channel 5 pt. 2 (DC -> PSN/XBLA):

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD (DC -> PSN/XBLA):

Ico (Early PS2 -> PS3):

I'll follow up with what games I think will age well.

 

[Alx]

Soulcalibur and Rez got ported to XBLA too, and both still look great.
I think many games of that era will age well, provided they aimed for smooth shapes and clean textures.

 

[Cpt Conifer]

Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram:

fuuuuuuck yeah

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

This topic feels sort of misleading by posting screens at a higher than native resolution and with increased AA, or are you specifically talking about 'HD Remaster' versions of these games?

I don't understand.

 

[trinest]

Lots of early 3D games wont age well which is why you see so many HD ports.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

Project Eden is the earliest PS2 game I've played recently, along with GunGriffon Blaze. Neither were particularly appealing, but I dunno. They didn't exactly have great art direction.

 

[hateradio]

I think ICO looks fine.

 

[SparkTR]

The ancient resolution is what's keeping many of them from being attractive these days, spending some time with emulators has taught me just how good looking DC and PS2 games can be with a massive resolution bump and some AA/AF.

 

[dethforce]

Crazy Taxi (DC -> PSN/XBLA):

i would argue that this game didnt age very well. it looks really ugly nowadays, has serious op up problems and the controls are really crappy and not fun with a controller. the missing original soundtrack and advertisment (pizza hut) isnt helping.

 

[Omikaru]

I think games like JSR age well. I played it the other month for the first time in almost seven years, and the use of bold colours means it looks pretty decent on nullDC. But even in SD I'd imagine it'd still look good.

On the flip side, I also think a very detailed game like Shenmue has aged fantastic too. The environments still look good, but I think its characters -- especially main characters -- keep it from ageing too much. I'm actually blown away that the Dreamcast could play such a good-looking game.

On the PS2 front, I didn't really play many early PS2 games, but I suppose Ico aged well. I never played it until it was ported to PS3, but it certainly looks good even by today's standards.

 

[Desmond]

MGS2 aged very well. What they did with that game in 2001 was amazing.

 

[Splatt]

Zone of Enders: The 2nd Runner

 

[ULTROS!]

This topic feels sort of misleading by posting screens at a higher than native resolution and with increased AA, or are you specifically talking about 'HD Remaster' versions of these games?

I don't understand.

I was asking if DC games aged well for this gen. The pictures that I posted were some of the DC/early PS2 titles that were ported for this gen and I was wondering if they still hold up and aged well since... they were from the DC/early PS2 era.

RECVX had additional lighting in the HD port but do you think it's great or decent looking for a downloadable game?

 

[HyperBitHero]

Shenmue looks alright still.

 

[King of the Potato People]

Some have aged very well indeed.

Shenmue

Shenmue II

Soul Reaver II

Final Fantasy X

Metal Gear Solid 2

 

[Shameless]

I recently tried to play FF12 on my hdtv. It looks horrendous.

 

[ULTROS!]

I recently tried to play FF12 on my hdtv. It looks horrendous.

That's not an early PS2 title.

 

[Shion]

Most Dreamcast games look great through VGA.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

MGS2 still looks fantastic in spots, although the environments are dull as anything.

 

[DigitalDevil]

I really need to get my classic gaming station set up. I'm starting to get really frustrated with all my classic systems sitting unused

 

[Kyoufu]

I recently tried to play FF12 on my hdtv. It looks horrendous.

Looks pretty nice on mine. Using a PS3 though.

 

[Diablohead]

Code V holds up but only just, worst thing about it is the now rather old and bad animations, visually though it's still nice. Don't forget that the xbla port has some tweaked effects and dynamic shadows which did not exist on the dc or ps2 versions.

MGS2 is a no brainer

Dreamcast Tokyo Extreme Racer 2, a launch game in pal land and still looks really nice to me.

 

[Murkas]

I haven't played Onimusha since it's release but I'm sure it will have aged well, can anyone give their input if they've played it recently? Whether for the first time or not.

 

[Splatt]

Soul Calibur

 

[Luigiv]

Some have aged very well indeed.


Final Fantasy X

You're wrong.

 

[jump_button]

ICO start out as a ps1 game

DC game so so colourful

 

[Finaika]

Skies of Arcadia.

Can you believe this game is 12 years old?

 

[Shameless]

Looks pretty nice on mine. Using a PS3 though.

I don't know if it's just my tv or my settings, but the characters suffer from huge amounts of aliasing and the backgrounds are all blurry.

 

[DOBERMAN INC]

Broken Sword 3, Shame about the box puzzles though.

 

[AzureSkies]

I don't know if it's just my tv or my settings, but the characters suffer from huge amounts of aliasing and the backgrounds are all blurry.

Had this exact problem when I replayed the game recently, however after copying my save I found out that the game looked absolutely beautiful on PCSX2.

 

[Atolm]

Ico is wonderful at 1080p.

 

[ULTROS!]

You're wrong.

Please explain why.

 

[Phonomezer]

Threads like these just remind me that there are no new Toy Commander games and make me sad.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Really dislike the term "age well", especially in terms of an entire generation of games. More often then not games that haven't "aged well" were just games that weren't good to begin with, but drew players in with some superficial aspect or gimmick.

Soul Calibur, Jet Set Radio, Chu Chu Rocket, Rayman 2, Rez, etc all still are great games that are a ton of fun to play. Lately there's been somewhat of a mood about discussing games, where some people believe it's as if games just started being playable 4-6 years ago.

Good games from the Dreamcast/ Early PS2 era have aged well, just like good games from the Ps1, SNES, NES eras and so on.

(unless this were supposing this is a purely graphical discussion)

 

[Luigiv]

Please explain why.

Game already started to look pretty damn dated and ugly by 2006.

I assume this topic is just about graphics. If not, then yeah it's gameplay has aged fine but those graphics do not hold up.

 

[Testicle]

Really dislike the term "age well", especially in terms of an entire generation of games. More often then not games that haven't "aged well" were just games that weren't good to begin with, but drew players in with some superficial aspect or gimmick.

Sometimes game mechanics/control schemes/graphics improve enough over the years that it can make going back to more primitive stuff difficult. It doesn't mean the games were bad to begin with, it just means that people didn't have the technology or hadn't figured out the best way to do things.

 

[Mumei]

Skies of Arcadia.

Can you believe this game is 12 years old?

I was playing that a few years ago, and my brother thought it was a Nintendo 64 game. =\

I agree with games like FFX, MGS2, and Soul Calibur, though.

 

[RPGCrazied]

PS2 has, specially if you play your games on the PCSX2 emulator. This is my era of gaming, so many good jRPG's on this system!

 

[StuBurns]

Rez is still basically perfect, Ico is still the best game I've ever played, MGS2 is still the best in that series, Final Fantasy X was the last great Final Fantasy.

I think that period holds up very well yeah.

 

[GoutPatrol]

There is a certain quality about many Dreamcast games that, to me, give them a certain timeless quality to them. Games like Crazy Taxi, Virtua Tennis, Power Stone, Skies of Arcadia...they will never look bad to me.

Now, that doesn't apply to everything. The sports 2K games have aged terribly, which is amazing considered how big of a jump they were when they first came out. Space Channel 5...well, that never looked good.

 

[TaroYamada]

The Dreamcast/early PS2 is what I refer to friends as my threshold, once games look that good I honestly quit caring. I just don't care about advancements anymore, I can appreciate them when they are there, but I don't really need them.

 

[KamenSenshi]

The Dreamcast/early PS2 is what I refer to friends as my threshold, once games look that good I honestly quit caring. I just don't care about advancements anymore, I can appreciate them when they are there, but I don't really need them.

Ha, sounds like what I normally say.
I think there are a lot of DC games that still look good, a lot of it is due to art style/design. I'd say PSO still looks good actually.

 

[sixteen-bit]

lots of 2D games still look good.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

Sometimes game mechanics/control schemes/graphics improve enough over the years that it can make going back to more primitive stuff difficult. It doesn't mean the games were bad to begin with, it just means that people didn't have the technology or hadn't figured out the best way to do things.

I don't think new game design trends invalidate old ones, I think that more often then not they're different but not necessarily better or worse. The last generation of 3rd person shooters aren't necessarily worse without cover systems and rechargeable health.

Right stick camera control is not necessarily better then an automated camera system, it all depends on how it was implemented. There isn't an absolute "best way" to do things. I can agree with some of this principle as it extends to like Atari 2600 games and backward, a lot of times those games are beyond primitive. Even then, though, I had some fun playing Pitfall and Keystone Kapers for the first time.

As far as NES era and forward, though, idk, almost all the games I've been going and playing (for the first time in a lot of cases as I'm 19) have been really great. The concepts are often times more simple, but it's how you execute on your concepts now how complex they are that ultimately makes a great game.

I played Megaman 2 and Uncharted 2 for the first time in the same week, and I thought Megaman 2 was the better game. (UC2 was great as well though)

 

[cj_iwakura]

Jet Set Radio still looks amazing. Better than Future in many ways.

They could port the game as-is to next-gen consoles and it'd look great.

 

[ULTROS!]

Skies of Arcadia on HD will probably be fantastic (stolen from the Dolphin thread ):

 

[MarkusRJR]

Jet Set Radio still looks amazing. Better than Future in many ways.

They could port the game as-is to next-gen consoles and it'd look great.

Boy do I have a surprise for you...

Spoiler

An HD version is coming to PSN and XBLA.

 

[perfectnight]

Shadow Hearts is the best JRPG ever in my eyes and that was a pretty early ps2 tittle. I played it for the first time last year so yeah I think it has aged extremely well.

 

[WhyMe6]

Skies of Arcadia.

Can you believe this game is 12 years old?

Aika's thighs will never age!

Also:

 

[IdreamofHIME]

Game already started to look pretty damn dated and ugly by 2006.

I assume this topic is just about graphics. If not, then yeah it's gameplay has aged fine but those graphics do not hold up.

By 2006? What? FFX still looks pretty nice for the most part.