Standing the test of time: Replaying old games

I would be pretty terrified to go back and play any of the original Resident Evil's. I know it is a beloved series and I loved 2 and 3 when I first played them. Something just tells me that they might not hold up to my memory.

2D games hold up fine but 3D on the other hand are a mess unless there are graphic mods.

Donkey Kong 64. I loved that game when I was a kid, but it sure is boring now, and heavily misinformed about what makes platformers good. I don't even think that it's because the industry evolved, I think it's just that I was too stupid to know better back then. The multiplayer might still be fine though, been meaning to test that.

@DelroyLindo said:

@EVO said:

@DelroyLindo said:

@EVO said:

Goldeneye is nearly unplayable by today's standards.

False, me and a friend played through that game a month ago and then did some multiplayer. Game is made for turn about couch gaming

I played it with friends a few years ago and I found it controlled nowhere near as well as I remember it. But then again, I was using a controller that had played many games of Mario Party.

It does control a bit like ass, but I think that was in large part to 10 year old broken controllers. Still had a great time playing it though

There is a control scheme that uses the D-Pad for movement and the analog stick for aiming its FAR more enjoyable using that control scheme. Goldeneye also has widescreen support so its playable in the correct shape on modern tvs.

If a game is mechanically sound with a solid concept and does what it does well, it will hold up and be timelessly good.

For example, I can always play through the best of the best games from the 8 bit and 16 bit eras. At least a couple times a year I'll play through the greats with emulators. And the more recent classics of the last 10 years or so often hold up pretty well.

But I agree with the general sentiment that the early 3D polygonal 32 bit era games often don't hold up both visually and gameplay-wise. You have to remember that not only the visuals, but a lot of the control schemes and gameplay mechanics dealing with moving around and interacting in a 3D space were in a rudimentary state back then, and a lot of ideas were kind of hit or miss. Things like janky camera behavior were common too.

So I feel like the thing that lets old games down the most is often the sound. I've been watching through Drew and Alexis' halo thing, and some of the voice samples in the first two games just sound rough as hell. Similar with the first Resident Evil game, really badly mixed sound, weird timing cues and terrible voice acting.

It's probably the main thing that bothers me about old games, (yes, Deus Ex included). Which is also why the Baldur's Gate games hold up so well; they had pretty good voice work all things considered, and although its used sparsely they obviously felt putting the effort into getting good voice work done was more important than voicing everything. And I suppoose not having to match it to 3d animations probably helps...

Depends on the system. Everything holds up well, even sometimes better than I remembered except for Ps1 games, excluding the RPGS of course.

Actually played though Onimusha 1 last weekend, beat it in 4 hours. Was a ton of fun. Its nice playing older games sometimes because it's without all the hand holding, multiplayer, online leaderboard nonsense, and DLC content they stuff down your throat when your playing newer games.

Killer Instinct and the first Mortal Kombat for the SNES. My friends and I played the hell out of those back in the day but going back, they're terrible!