I've been getting around to playing a bunch of old games recently,. And here's the problem that I've come up against: They often show their age, badly. Regardless of how good a game might of been when it came out, there are certain things that we have come to expect in modern games. This doesn't seem to be so big an issue with RPGs, as I don't think the genre has really advanced much anyway, but the other genres seem to suffer because of this.
Case in point: Goldeneye 64. I can't deny that it's one of the most pivotal games in the FPS genre, and when it came out people probably thought it was pretty fun. But, playing it today without the benefit of nostalgia-vision, it's pretty bad. The controls are just horrible. Console FPS's bug me to begin with, but Goldeneye manages to take horrible aiming controls to a whole new level. But people who grew up on this game don't seem to mind.
So, by what standard should we judge an old game? Should we try to abandon our preconceived notions of how a game in a genre should be played, based on our modern games? Or should we be objective about it, and realize that some of the things that were good "back in the day" aren't really acceptable anymore?
I think FPSs are actually a bit of an exception to the rule, rather than the rule itself. Success/quality in the FPS genre is in many ways rooted in things like framerates/latency, so judging old games against that standard makes them look like shit.
On the other hand, a lot of other genres (such as RPGs, as you mentioned, or platformers, or puzzle games) don't run up against these intrinsic problems. I would say, with regards to FPSs, judge them honestly (i.e., they look like garbage) with the caveat that, in some cases, they were magnificent for their time.
Going back and playing Goldeneye is insanely annoying and difficult now, at least for me. My brother, who isn't a gamer at all, loves to play Goldeneye though... probably because he hasn't honed FPS skills on a keyboard and mouse
Going back and playing Goldeneye is insanely annoying and difficult now, at least for me. My brother, who isn't a gamer at all, loves to play Goldeneye though... probably because he hasn't honed FPS skills on a keyboard and mouse
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I think FPSs are actually a bit of an exception to the rule, rather than the rule itself. Success/quality in the FPS genre is in many ways rooted in things like framerates/latency, so judging old games against that standard makes them look like shit.
On the other hand, a lot of other genres (such as RPGs, as you mentioned, or platformers, or puzzle games) don't run up against these intrinsic problems. I would say, with regards to FPSs, judge them honestly (i.e., they look like garbage) with the caveat that, in some cases, they were magnificent for their time.
Going back and playing Goldeneye is insanely annoying and difficult now, at least for me. My brother, who isn't a gamer at all, loves to play Goldeneye though... probably because he hasn't honed FPS skills on a keyboard and mouse
Going back and playing Goldeneye is insanely annoying and difficult now, at least for me. My brother, who isn't a gamer at all, loves to play Goldeneye though... probably because he hasn't honed FPS skills on a keyboard and mouse