Playing visually dated games?

Visual Novel Community Anime/Otaku Discussions
#1

Can you do it after HD gaming? Are great visuals important?

I realized this past week that many games I once thought were charming are simply unplayable to me now. I’m talking about the classics before the PS2 wave. Am I alone? I tend to think the 2D community still loves their 4th generation rpgs, so I am a little shocked that I can’t bring myself to play them. I only mention 4th because a few of the games I wanted to go back to this week are from it, but it is tough. I am one who thinks modern games of the genre are traditional and not dated, so I really don’t think the game play that I am comfortable with is the problem. [size=35]It has to be the graphics…[/size][size=20]Was Shining Force always this bad…?[/size]

[size=20]Shining Force[/size] may be a bad example for myself because the tactical rpg genre has expanded greatly, but there are plenty of old games I am not ready to admit that I cannot play anymore.

#2

Two words: Baldur’s Gate
I just started replaying it again, even though it’s over a decade old now. The visuals are pretty bad, though the backgrounds are okay, but the story and other aspects of it more than make up for the bad graphics. Granted it’s not a console game, but the principles are the same. Good gameplay and story will always trump flashy graphics for me, after all graphics can only get so good before your brain actually starts to reject them for being too realistic.

#3

For me, it seems to depend a lot on whether I first played a game when it was relatively new. If I did, I don’t have any trouble going back to it. If I didn’t, I often have trouble getting into it. For example, I still enjoy a good game of X-COM, and I replayed Might and Magics III, IV, and V just last year. Like Vardest, I still play Baldur’s Gate, well, mostly BGate 2. On the other hand, I tried Fallout 1 in '08, (before 3 came out), and I just could not get into it, (although that may have been as much or more an interface issue as a graphics issue).

#4

Are we going to
limit the discussion to rpg only? If that’s the case, I still enjoy older games, although they do look aged. It is the story development that I after.
If we move to fps, I must say that older graphics may turn me down.

#5

No, feel free to discuss whatever. Metal Gear Solid really turns me off now. Perhaps any game where faces are hardly detailed is a little creepy. I don’t mind games where they don’t have detail on the little things, but not having defined eyes is when I start thinking what I am playing is too visually dated.

#6

I would kill to play in a video arcade, that still has the original two Dungeons and Dragons arcade machines.

I still play the old NES version of Gun.Smoke - IMHO it was ahead of it’s time (and a pity was never followed up on the SNES). Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse is also one of my favorite to the series of all time.

I’m hoping that Castlevania: Bloodlines and Contra: Hard Corps get on Wiiware. Streets of Rage is always awesome. Comix Zone was ahead of its time, as was the Earthwork Jim entries.

For PC the old school I still love to play are Master of Magic and Master of Orion 2.

I think on SEGA Saturn, Dragon Force and Dragon Force 2, still haven’t lost their charm.

Bushido Blade 2 for the PS1 still makes me smile: that one-hit kill realism was so awesome.

#7

I just downloaded Grandia on my PS3 and will eventually dust off those Arc the Lad PS1 discs I have.

#8

Since I’ve been a video game fan since the NES era, I got to experience a lot of classic 2D games. I still enjoy 2D today. And I watched 3D games evolve from the simple polygons of Starfox to today’s designs. I don’t typically like 3D games, but there are a few I enjoy despite their drawbacks.

An awful lot of PS1/Saturn games with 3D graphics look pretty embarrassing now. For instance, I’m a fan of Harvest Moon Back to Nature and its PSP port, and I have to admit that the 3D environments are rather lousy. I should prefer the games in the Harvest series which have 2D graphics. But despite all its flaws, I can’t stop liking Back to Nature’s gameplay more than the others.

The same is true for some PS2/XBox/Gamecube titles. For instance, the 3D character models in Persona 4 have a limited range of movement, so during cutscenes they repeat motions a lot, and sometimes seem to flail around. But despite that problem and some of my other P4 complaints, I enjoyed the game’s difficulty, characters, and writing.

Finally, I knew from the moment that the Pia Carrot PC-FX fan translation started, the art style looked rather old. By the time I played it in 2009, I appreciated the differences between the mid-90s 2D sprites and more contemporary art styles.

#9

i’m still playing on my PC-Engine (i have 6/7 different version of It…i’m a PC-Engine Otaku ^^) a lot… mostly because, nowaday, awesome Shoot’em Up are really really rare.And you find them by dozen on PC-Engine… So ^^
Anyway, i’m a 32 years old dude who prefere 2D gameplay for a lot of game (like Plateform… I still prefere the old 2d Mario, PC Kid and such by far than the 3D version)

So, i don’t care a lot about this matter…Well in case of 2D… 3D game tend to get older and ugly far more quicly than 2D game.

#10

I still play my Win95 erogames (some being in 16 colours)… if only because I have a few in my backlog. ^^;;;;;;;
Still enjoying them when I play even if the lack of some features (no backlog, no keyboard support, no possibility to save anywhere, etc.)is kinda annoying sometimes; the lack of features, not the visuals, though.

#11

I’m playing the Baldur’s Gate saga all over again… I blame this thread and Viconia.

#12

Same here, though in retrospect using the Trilogy mod to inculde BG 1 isn’t really worth it. I can’t put my finger on why, but the BG games blow modern RPG’s out of the water. Of course the massive number of mods certainly helps, especially considering most modern mods are utter crap with only a few exceptions.

Fixed that for ya. :wink:

#13

Well, anyway… None of the Game of this “HD generation” made me say : WoW the graph are awesome…
I don’t now why, but, i’m not fond at all of those render… They’re too “cold”, too much Specular Light, too much Bloom/Glow, too much useless effect in fact.
They’re missing the warm of the PS2/X-Box1/GC generation.Where the color was more on the red/orange/yellow side (color used in 3D for “warm” impression), more on the pastel side.Now they’re more on the blue side (color used for “cold” impression), it’s more “hard”.The fact also that now they can use Specular Light, and not fake them with texture + Bloom/glow, had to this hard and cold impression.

Well, after 25 years of gaming, it’s the generation of game that i less like.

#14

I’m actually getting some old Playstation games I missed back in the day and have been playing them on and off like Vandal Hearts, Alundra, Suikoden 2 (yeah I managed to find a copy that wasn’t in the triple digits cost), and Vagrant Story and found them to be enjoyable

#15

Vandal Hearts is the T-RPG i played the most with FFT on my PS1 when i was around 18 years old (in 1996/97)… argg…Need to play it again ><

#16

If Gran Turismo 2 counts as visually dated, then I guess I’m on the same boat.

#17

I’ve been out of touch with the current generation of HD gaming… so I can’t answer properly…

But I’m going to answer anyways!

First off, I’m out of touch with most of the HD “popular” gaming of the last 7 years… No PS3, X-Box360, Wii…
How could I lose touch?
Indie games, fan communities, modding, VNs/eroge… not to mention being disappointed with the newer shinier and prettier games I tried.

Are great visuals important? Yes they are; but they are not the deciding factor.
My opinion has been like this :
You can attempt to emulate real life, and it will look very nice if it’s cutting edge, but give it a few years and tada! IT’s old stuff…
I usually prefer games with a refined art style over an evolving tech-limited style…

But, then again I love modding existing ‘great game’ graphics, and seeing what other people have created…
Like Baldur’s Gate and related games have a Widescreen mod now… That’s cool.
Morrowind probably has over a million graphical enhancement/replacement mods to improve graphics… (And BOY it completely changes the game from old 2001 to 2010, complete with shadows, cloud shadows, sunrays, realistic water, all textures replaced, improved sounds, models… etc etc…)
I imagine Oblivion is now starting to get a comprehensive facelift thanks to modders…

So, I’m okay and approve of HD and 3D. But, the game has to be worthy…
It defintely is not the deciding factor. In fact when I visit gamestop, most titles I see look the same; and I get bored quickly…
“Whee another 3d shooter!” …Give me another Iji instead any day… (used to play a lot of shooters but thanks to Quake 2 and Tribes I’m bored of being a ground lubber :P)

It’s usually the anime style covers that catch my eye now :slight_smile:
(reminds me I need to play Odin Sphere…)

#18

Let’s see; I’ve been playing Planescape: Torment again recently (and if you’ve never played this most superb of rpgs, you must) and been really enjoying it. I played NWN2 a month or so ago and while it might not qualify as truly old, compared to today’s games it really is outdated. (though, again, I was having a great time until conflicts with my video card and drivers made it impossible to play)

I attempted to play Dialbo 1&2 earlier this year and simply could no do it - the graphics are far too dated and your characters look like little blocks on larger monitors.

It is easy to become spoiled by modern graphics, though the games I still count among the best rpgs of all time predate the Dragon Ages, and Mass Effects of today.

#19

Found the Good Old Games site a while back and I’m loving it. What’s more they just released the complete Baldur’s Gate II collection. Of course on that note, I just played through the Dragon Age mod that let’s you go through the first dungeon of BG II and it was awesome. They really should remake that masterpiece with modern graphics, just so the kids of this generation can see what TRUE greatness is when it comes to RPG’s.

#20

Graphics-wise … it really depends on what kind of computer game is in question.

Let me use something from the '90s. A traditional hex-based wargame published by TalonSoft, titled The Operational Art of War. You can draw your own map and set up combat and support units (the game engine has a huge database, representing different types of equipments), then program other things like weather, formation orders and objectives, replacement and reinforcement schedules. In this instance, having a fancy map is actually counterproductive as what you want is to have a map that is informative, each unit counter clearly showing its unit type (e.g., infantry, armor, headquarters, etc.). Similarly, you want simple graphics representing rivers, cities, roads, railroads, ports, airbases, etc… Meanwhile, I actually did not like the default non-unit map graphics, so I ended up surfing to a site hosted by TOAW hobbyists to download a different set of map tiles which was actually easier to read.