Why I no longer buy modern Games.. - by Vipersan
Vipersan on 30/7/2019 at 12:59
So ..Is it just me or am I just too old to appreciate modern gaming.
I'm in my 62nd year now and heavily into retro games and systems.
I guess I just long for 'the way it used to be'.
I loved certain first person shooters...but my passion really lay in adventure games..or strategy games like C & C.
I stopped buying games when everything effectively moved on line...and you no longer bought it in hardware ,,CDs DVDs floppies etc.
I guess I longed for a simpler time when your opponent was really the games programmer ..ie missions to do ..puzzles to solve.
You against the machine..
Like Tomb raider ...Elder scrolls...Fallout and the like.
Open worlds in many cases and exploration.
Take Fallout for example ..I started the game to complete the missions ...then spent many many months sidetracked searching out bobble heads.
certainly got my moneys worth.
Just me and my junkyard dog ..& green buddy fawkes...
but then came fallout 76 ..
Pure unprofessional unfinished pants that relied on 'purchases' rather than 'earning' your progress.
For me ..this is when gaming died.
I honestly hate playing in co-op ...and online fragging.
Give me an adventure ..a story ..and puzzles along the way.
Is it just me ..or does anyone else feel like this ?
rgds
VS
Thirith on 30/7/2019 at 13:06
I'm not quite your age, but I have been playing computer games since the early 1980s, and I would say that while gaming, especially of the AAA type, has its share of issues, we're also seeing a gaming scene that is at its most broad and varied. There's plenty of retro games, there are new takes on old genres, there's more to play than can ever be played. Certainly, you have big gaming disasters such as Fallout 76, but there is absolutely no need to play the big names, added to which you just need to wait a few days after the release of a game to hear whether a new title is worth your money or not, and with Fallout 76 it was clear pretty much immediately that it was a disaster.
Why not tell us a few specific games that you liked especially? People here might be able to make specific recommendations that could be worthwhile.
Vipersan on 30/7/2019 at 13:12
I have already mentioned Fallout ...and have loved every incarnation of Tomb Raider ..
Adventure wise ..
All Kings quests ..
Monkey Islands
Sam n Max
Day of the tentacle
Simon the Sorcerer
Discworlds
Leisure Suit Larry ..(uncensored of course)
to name but a few.
At some point I will make a fuller list.
rgds
VS
...oh and just remembered an Indie game ...Machinarium
A work of art..
Thirith on 30/7/2019 at 13:39
If you're into point&click adventures, I can recommend pretty much everything by Wadjet Eye Games, most recently Unavowed. Amanita, who made Machinarium, have done a bunch of games since. If you haven't played them yet, Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentlemen, Please! share some DNA with the wackier LucasArts games. I've heard good things about the most recent game in the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, though I haven't played it myself. If you liked Fallout, there are quite a few old-schoolish RPGs to check out, e.g. Divinity: Original Sin (the second one seems to be better than the first, and you probably don't need to have played the first one to play the second one), Torment: Tides of Numenera or Tyranny.
If you're willing to try something a bit different, Night in the Woods has the storytelling skills of the best of the old-school games, and Kentucky Route Zero has some brilliant writing and atmosphere, though neither is focused on puzzles. I think that something like Outer Wilds ticks some of the adventure game boxes, even if it doesn't play like a P&C adventure. Then there's the most recent Hitman games, which share a lot of DNA with P&C adventures.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts. Probably some of the others have things to add.
Vipersan on 30/7/2019 at 13:47
Many thanx Thirith ...certainly a list to consider.
Anything with a similar DNA to Machinarium I'd certainly want to play.
I confess I do like a bit of dark humour in my point n clicks.
cheers buddy.
VS
I'll _never_ forget the moment I thought of putting a pulley inside a rubber chicken ..LoL
icemann on 30/7/2019 at 15:50
Quote Posted by Vipersan
So ..Is it just me or am I just too old to appreciate modern gaming.
I'm in my 62nd year now and heavily into retro games and systems.
I guess I just long for 'the way it used to be'.
I loved certain first person shooters...but my passion really lay in adventure games..or strategy games like C & C.
I stopped buying games when everything effectively moved on line...and you no longer bought it in hardware ,,CDs DVDs floppies etc.
I guess I longed for a simpler time when your opponent was really the games programmer ..ie missions to do ..puzzles to solve.
You against the machine..
Like Tomb raider ...Elder scrolls...Fallout and the like.
Open worlds in many cases and exploration.
Take Fallout for example ..I started the game to complete the missions ...then spent many many months sidetracked searching out bobble heads.
certainly got my moneys worth.
Just me and my junkyard dog ..& green buddy fawkes...
but then came fallout 76 ..
Pure unprofessional unfinished pants that relied on 'purchases' rather than 'earning' your progress.
For me ..this is when gaming died.
I honestly hate playing in co-op ...and online fragging.
Give me an adventure ..a story ..and puzzles along the way.
Is it just me ..or does anyone else feel like this ?
rgds
VS
Wow. You sound like me. That's scary. Except that I still enjoy modern games too. My trick is that I play a few modern, and then a few retro (eg played through Desert Strike on the SNES last week). I think that as we age, our tastes and things we like to do in games changes. For each person it's a different experience. For me I find much of the retro old day stuff in indies and Kickstarter related games. Where as quite a bit of modern games has become more like taking on a persona and completely stepping into a game world for a few months.
Not that retro games didn't have this, but it was for a long time more confined to Western RPGs (eg play any of the Ultima's of the 80s - 90s, the earlier Elder Scrolls games and the Might and Magic games), but then along came Shenmue and not long after GTA 3 and then it moved beyond just RPGs. I often feel a big "unplugged" feeling for a week or more after finishing off modern games, as you spend SO MUCH time in them, that it's all you've done (gaming wise) for a long time, and moving on is the challenge. I too in these games want to go and complete everything I can, to get the full experience before I'm ready to move on. I never did that, when I was younger but it's something I do now. I quite enjoy the experience honestly. Few of those sorts of games do I like to return to again (due to the huge time sink they are), though Fallout 3 and New Vegas are my exceptions to the rule. Love going back, and love doing every last thing in them every play through. Never gets boring. Plus new fan made content comes out every so often in the case of New Vegas, which plugs on nicely to the existing campaign. Which creates a new experience each time.
Old games though. Hell yeah their still awesome, though I now play more specific stuff when I play retro, where as before I was playing everything I could get my hands on, or download in the case of emulation. Still love RTS games, still love FPS games and still love RPGs. I nowadays don't mind some racing games, which in the retro days I did not like besides Outrun and Road Rash. I think the trick with modern is find the games you still like / love and go for that.
A challenge I'll throw your way on the retro side, is to play through an entire franchise of something. Some of them have QUITE a few entries. The Tex Murphy games of the 90s - early 2000s + 1 Kickstarter game, are FANTASTIC if you love FMV games.
Renault on 30/7/2019 at 17:11
These days, it seems like there's games for everyone's taste out there. But there's a lot more to choose from, so it just requires a bit more digging to find the right thing.
The online stuff is just a sign of the times, but you can still play offline, and there are some nice advantages to the online stuff (persistent saves on multiple machines, easy installation, etc.).
icemann on 30/7/2019 at 19:20
Dark Souls style invasions. The ones in Watch Dogs 1 were excellent.
Jason Moyer on 30/7/2019 at 22:16
They aren't on your list, but since this is TTLG and all, there's always Dishonored 1/2/DotO and Prey (and Dark Messiah/Arx Fatalis of course).
demagogue on 31/7/2019 at 06:20
There are definitely retro style games coming out, usually by indie studios or even individuals.
Surfing Itch is one good way to find them, and when you find one on Steam, it will recommend other games like it.
Just recently, of all the games I have, I've been playing Caves of Qud a lot, which is an ascii roguelike on the scale & with the mechanics of something like oldschool Ultima. It could have come out in the mid-'80s for all the tech it needs. Its magic is how cleverly it's written, and how it manages it to balance good storytelling with procedural generation.
I'll repeat Brethren; if you're into any style, it's going to be out there somewhere. It's just harder to find things because there is so much coming out in so many back corners.