Question to gamers who lived through the 90's - Page 11

Maybe this is just my SNES generation bias talking but, the NES was horrid outside of a few titles. The vast majority of the games are so flawed they are nearly impossible to play. It wasn't until the SNES that developers started to figure out what they were doing.



And the reason games aren't as good as they were 15 years ago is that they are all 3D. Taking a 3 dimensional space and projecting it onto a 2d surface is hard, and presenting it in a way that makes sense to the user is even harder. That's why everything is so linear and there's so much hand holding. It also doesn't help that developers keep pushing reality, and that they keep bombarding the users with useless information. Navigating around the castle in Mario 64 was fairly easy, but throw in 500 rocks and trees and make it a mile long and you'll find yourself looking for a minimap or compass. I can remember how to get to the hidden underground dwarven city of Kazordoon in Tibia, a 15 year old 2D MMO, despite not playing the game in a good 3 years. It takes a good 5 minutes to walk from the concealed entrance to the depot in the middle of the city. But I can barely walk from one end of Whiterun to the other in Skyrim without looking the map and following the compass.

Modern games are good, but not nearly as good as they used to be. In the before (im guessing) about 2000-2001, games were made because the dev's wanted to make a fun game. Now its all about profit (it was partially before), release cycles, mass markets, etc. Back then, a game could be aimed at an insanely small audience, and still be done. As a result of "mass market" the games are a bit more bland, less challenging, and so on, but there are still a few that are great (Company of Heroes, STALKER series, Mass Effect 1, Diablo 3, etc.), but they aren't nearly as common.


As for older games (not really that old) that are good, check out Rise of Nations, KOTOR, Diablo 2, Age of Empires (both first and second are good), Age of Mythology (by FAR the best RTS single-player campaign story).

I really didnt START gaming until about '99 or '00, so I cant really speak first hand of the early PC and console games. Just wasnt interested at the time. I've played them since, and while they are good, the technical limitations (bad controls, bad UI, etc.) really holds them back.

IMO the golden era for PC gaming was probably '99 to '04. It really start to go downhill after 2004, and before '99, as I said, I cant really speak first hand.

Do I enjoy today's games as a 30+ y.o. ... Yes and no, I HATE what shooters have become, but that is my main gripe. Beyond that I do love the advancements in gaming technology over all. And still love the retro classics as well.

take a look here, youll find some fresh games, and re.discover some gems

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2680092

I'm 30+ I game moderately too, its not the games themselves that I have trouble getting into its going online as say a level 5 and getting slaughtered by roaming bands of kids that don't leave the tv. AND a really be AND is gad damned dlc if I'm paying $60 or more for a game and a month later theres more game F^^^ YOU!!!

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/consumer-watchdog-calls-ea-games-americas-worst-company-for-2012/

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/clinton-hallahan-g4-is-killing-video-games/

just some quick reading as to why I'm disenfranchised.

I think the OP is onto something. The 90's were a 'Golden Age' of gaming in general, IMHO!!!

For me, it was mainly PC titles, but the games the OP mentions are definately great representations of what consoles had to offer.

I was into the early to mid 90's PC titles like X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Wing Commander, Darklands (if you've never played Darklands, I highly, Highly recommend you deal with the outdated graphics and load this up with DosBox. It is one GREAT RPG!!!), Eye of the Beholder Series, Lands of Lore, and the great Ultima VII (The greatest RPG series ever BTW before EA murdered it)

Nobody makes games like this anymore. No simulations. The sim feel of Tie Fighter or Xwing, Falcon 3.0 or Mig 29. No one want's to invest the time reading the 200+ page manual. Darklands is probably the deepest RPG you'll ever see, but noone wants to have a 200+ hour single player gaming experience learning alchemy or the saints. (Darklands was based on medieval germany) Games were.....'deeper' it seems to me.

'Old' guys like me will always say "back in my day, **** was the greatest". Well....it was! I'm closer to 40 than to 30, but man alive were games great back then.

There are good ones today, but I am much more picky about what I buy and patient. I wait until at least 33% off at steam, then I get it. I'm a Total War nut, DCS Black Shark / A-10, ArmA, Battlefield, Elder Scrolls, Mount & Blade (Good ole school feeling game there), NWN 1 & 2, etc.

Special mention for Demon Souls on PS3 and Dark Souls on 360 and PS3. Damn good action RPG games!



Check your six,

Lancer VI
Edited by LancerVI - 5/17/12 at 12:56am

not to mention games like spiderweb software avernum and geneforge series, that are all 90¡s rpgs and you can play again ang again
and they keep coming

there is a lot of 90's games out there, there are still developers that intentoinally still develop those kind of games
Edited by ibitato - 5/17/12 at 12:58am

In the mid 1990s I was addicted to Street Fighter 2... those SF2 arcades were every where from Donut shops to 7-elevens... Then I got into Counter Strike and hung out at PC Cafes before the gang bangers ruined everything...

What I really really hate, is the regenerative health and limited weapon carry in shooters now. DNF was a HUGE HUGE disappointment, to me it was NOT Duke Nukem, It was an imitation knockoff that should have had a different voice actor and different name.