this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2024
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Are there games that you tried but just couldn't get into because they feel outdated? Games that, in theory, you would enjoy, but don't because the controls, graphics, writing, or mechanics just don't feel good anymore. Games that, compared to today, just don't hold up to your standards.

I recently tried playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, and I realized that a lot of the invisible language used through game design from that era, I do not understand. There are many things that the game didn't explain, and I assume they were just understood by players. Not only that, but I imagine there was a lot of crossover between video games and board games back then, so maybe that language was used as well. I ended up downloading a manual and putting it on my second screen and I get it and played it, but it just wasn't for me.

I also dropped Mirror's Edge, but this time it was because of the graphics. It looks and feels great, but the graphics give me a headache. There is way too much bloom, and for some reason, there are some parts that look like the imaginary lens has been covered in Vaseline. This didn't bother me before, but my eyes are not used to it anymore.

There are also games like the first two Tony Hawk Pro Skater games that I can't fully get into because they're missing mechanics from the later games. The levels and controls feel great, but they don't feel complete without those mechanics. It keeps me from enjoying the games as much as the others.

Please share yours!

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[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

When Witcher 3 was winning all those awards, I wanted to give the original game a go.

Don't. I imagine it's nothing like Witcher 3. It aged terribly poorly.

[–] timo_timboo_@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Pokémon, actually. Just a month ago I wanted to play Soul Silver. But man, it is tedious. There's so much slow dialog, long animations, and little inconveniences everywhere (even in the menus). And I feel like you also have to grind to progress, which I absolutely hate in games (but maybe I also just didn't play well enough, whatever). So yeah, quite disappointed with it since I remember the 3DS games being quite fun.

[–] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Pokemon is better with game shark style cheats. It's way more fun to have the option to get 100x more xp, and force Pokemon to appear rather than grind a 1% appearance rate. Pokémon even made TMs reusable eventually, but you need cheats for that in the early games.

[–] Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

Or just a speedup button! Red and Blue are some of my favorite games ever, but I haven’t played them without a speedup button in like 20 years.

[–] aliceblossom@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I think this is a greater problem with games that are technically aimed at children. There is so little respect for your time generally, but I think it's especially egregious when it comes to menus, dialog, and animations. Additionally, there are many things that are in sequence (with large unneeded gaps between) that could happen more or less simultaneously.

Conspiratorially, I think this is to pad play time, and for kids the animations and what not are jingling keys that keep then occupied enough they don't care or notice.

[–] Argurotoxus@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah absolutely. I think with a lot of these older games that are considered to be the GOATs of their respective genres you'll run into the same problem: They were so good, that the mechanics/ideas become the minimum requirement for all games thereafter. So, if you played the game on day 1, it was an innovative masterpiece the likes of which you'd never seen before. If you play it 10-15 years later after having played modern games in the same genre, it feels like the same old shit except without the 10-15 years of improvements.

For me personally, the game I'll get crucified for not enjoying is Half Life 2. I played through the entire game. It was ok. I was pretty bored for most of it though. Shooters aren't generally my thing for one, but even that aside the game was very milquetoast to me. I did a lot of reading up on the history of HL2 afterwards because I was astonished that I didn't enjoy such a legendary game and I think I came to the conclusion that some new mechanics such as the cover system and story-driven nature of HL2 were what made it such a hit in 2004. But 15 years later those mechanics weren't new and exciting to me and the story is decent but a far cry from amazing.

The other game that stands out to me is Assassin's Creed 1. I couldn't make it more than a few hours into that game. Just so boring and repetitive, the combat was boring, the collectables were boring, most mechanics didn't actually seem to matter...I just hated the game lol. I do think it's another example of later entries in the series/other games doing the same thing but better so going back to the OG just felt like a slog. But I really hated AC1 hahaha.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 years ago

A big part of HL2 was also the physics. No game did that before to the same extent, so it was novel and cool. The gravity gun was super unique and all the physics puzzles were new and cool.

I tried replaying it a few years back and had the same experience as you. Every physics puzzle felt boring and just stopped the flow of the game. The gravity gun is still fairly unique, but it has lost a lot of its charm. It's just not the same experience as it was around the time it released.