A meditation on PC games

[EyeMWing]

Currently, I'm playing:
Half-Life 2
Doom 3
Command & Conquer (the original)

Which of these consumes the most time? C&C. Which of these is more fun? C&C. Which one of these has the better storyline? C&C. Which one of these has the better graphics? Not C&C. Which one has the better soundtrack? C&C. Which game am I going to beat first? C&C.

Why, since 1994, have we been utterly unable to come up with a game that tops this? C&C isn't the only game that has done this to me. In the past, I have been distracted from newer games by:

Deus Ex
Civ 1/2/3
Final Fantasy 1-6
UPLINK
Marathon 1/2/Infinity

Why!?! I've been chewed out by "gamer" after "gamer" for "wasting my time" and "not throwing out that garbage"

Why are these games so much better than their successors? Am I the only one that thinks that there must be some kind of negative correlation between a game's graphical component and it's overall "goodness"?

 

[Hankysmoo]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Currently, I'm playing:
Half-Life 2
Doom 3
Command & Conquer (the original)

Which of these consumes the most time? C&C. Which of these is more fun? C&C. Which one of these has the better storyline? C&C. Which one of these has the better graphics? Not C&C. Which one has the better soundtrack? C&C. Which game am I going to beat first? C&C.

Why, since 1994, have we been utterly unable to come up with a game that tops this? C&C isn't the only game that has done this to me. In the past, I have been distracted from newer games by:

Deus Ex
Civ 1/2/3
Final Fantasy 1-6
UPLINK
Marathon 1/2/Infinity

Why!?! I've been chewed out by "gamer" after "gamer" for "wasting my time" and "not throwing out that garbage"

Why are these games so much better than their successors? Am I the only one that thinks that there must be some kind of negative correlation between a game's graphical component and it's overall "goodness"?

Maybe because C&C was a milestone game. All the new games are more of just the same and it's just not as fresh anymore.

 

[Quasmo]

HOLY CRAP!!! UPLINK!!!!
YOU ARE TEH 1337 HAXX0R!!! HAX TEH SYSTEM!!!

 

[OulOat]

You forgot Starcraft

 

[OulOat]

And Counter-Strike

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Quasmo
HOLY CRAP!!! UPLINK!!!!

I've bought it 3 times. It's just THAT good.

Oh, and Tribes is also a great game to come back to from time to time.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Hankysmoo

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
Currently, I'm playing:
Half-Life 2
Doom 3
Command & Conquer (the original)

Which of these consumes the most time? C&C. Which of these is more fun? C&C. Which one of these has the better storyline? C&C. Which one of these has the better graphics? Not C&C. Which one has the better soundtrack? C&C. Which game am I going to beat first? C&C.

Why, since 1994, have we been utterly unable to come up with a game that tops this? C&C isn't the only game that has done this to me. In the past, I have been distracted from newer games by:

Deus Ex
Civ 1/2/3
Final Fantasy 1-6
UPLINK
Marathon 1/2/Infinity

Why!?! I've been chewed out by "gamer" after "gamer" for "wasting my time" and "not throwing out that garbage"

Why are these games so much better than their successors? Am I the only one that thinks that there must be some kind of negative correlation between a game's graphical component and it's overall "goodness"?

Maybe because C&C was a milestone game. All the new games are more of just the same and it's just not as fresh anymore.

A game can't be fresh when you're playing it through for the 478357435587th time.

 

[RaDragon]

Leisure Suit Larry
Space Quest
King's Quest

... I was a Sierra freak! Oh yah, and Monkey Island!

 

[Toastedlightly]

I agree with tribes, play the origanol and the second one, the new one just tries to be another shooter that caters to all, but falls short.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Toastedlightly
I agree with tribes, play the origanol and the second one, the new one just tries to be another shooter that caters to all, but falls short.

Yeah. I lost my login to Tribes 2. Didn't care after a few minutes.

Tribes 1 + mods = mmmmm.

 

[faZZter]

Total Annihilation......

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: RaDragon
Leisure Suit Larry
Space Quest
King's Quest

... I was a Sierra freak! Oh yah, and Monkey Island!

Since I have the Tandy, I'll have to track some of the stuff from those days down and try it out. It was all before my time.

 

[RaDragon]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: RaDragon
Leisure Suit Larry
Space Quest
King's Quest

... I was a Sierra freak! Oh yah, and Monkey Island!

Since I have the Tandy, I'll have to track some of the stuff from those days down and try it out. It was all before my time.

You won't regret playing Space Quest -- Roger Wilco was/is hilarious!

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: faZZter
Total Annihilation......

TA blows. SC for life!

 

[Quasmo]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing

Originally posted by: Quasmo
HOLY CRAP!!! UPLINK!!!!

I've bought it 3 times. It's just THAT good.

Oh, and Tribes is also a great game to come back to from time to time.

I hate you.
I still have the game,its only 69megs or something if anyone wants to host it

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: OulOat
You forgot Starcraft

Originally posted by: OulOat
And Counter-Strike

And Warcraft II

 

[Schadenfroh]

Xcom UFO Defense > all

 

[Gurck]

You only remember the good ones, of course it seems like it was so great back then partially for this reason... Further, your imagination was needed more when games had crappy graphics and sound, much in the same way imagination is required with books. Further yet, you were younger then and new to computer gaming, both of which will make it seem like it was better back then... There are plenty of good new games out there. That being said, I still play some of the oldies like StarCraft, and some of the real oldies like the LSL & KQ series using DosBox, and even some old NES & SNES games using an emulator. Matter of fact, I've been playing (and being greatly frustrated by) Shadowgate for the past week or so

 

[malbojah]

I look at it this way: when I move into my new place next week, I'm going to be without TV or internet for about another week, so all I have is computer games to keep me going. Old computer games...I've bought...HL2, Halo (a little late) and Hitman 2 this year. The other 50 some-odd games are the older ones that are more fun to play...the Descent series, Mechwarrior series, maybe some Freespace. Heck, I might even install Dune or Wing Commander: Prophecy and give them a try

 

[Mo0o]

It all seems to be personal choice. Personally i think first person shooters have been constantly improving from WOLF3D -> Doom 1/2 -> Quake -> HL -> Doom3 -> HL2. This is my pesronal opinion of course. Other people may add in Quake3 etc but those werent revolutionary enough. As far as RTSs go i think the best was Starcraft, personally im not really into the new style but WC3 and DoW were both really good.

 

[Narse]

Originally posted by: Gurck
You only remember the good ones, of course it seems like it was so great back then partially for this reason... Further, your imagination was needed more when games had crappy graphics and sound, much in the same way imagination is required with books. Further yet, you were younger then and new to computer gaming, both of which will make it seem like it was better back then... There are plenty of good new games out there. That being said, I still play some of the oldies like StarCraft, and some of the real oldies like the LSL & KQ series using DosBox, and even some old NES & SNES games using an emulator. Matter of fact, I've been playing (and being greatly frustrated by) Shadowgate for the past week or so

I would love to play shadowgate agian, what a great game!!

 

[Neurorelay]

The old ones, old times, old friends always seem better. Why? Because they were new to you for the first time, nothing like it had come before. I think you'll find as you get older alot of things will fail to impress you, every now and then something will come along to make you have fun again. For me, it was the remake of Pirates by Sid Meier, same game, better interface and graphics/sound.

 

[Kilgor]

X-Com, Master of Orion, Syndicate I think a lot of the old game companies worried more about gameplay than bling.

 

[faZZter]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: faZZter
Total Annihilation......

TA blows. SC for life!

No way.......TA rocks!

 

[styrafoam]

Why are these games so much better than their successors? Am I the only one that thinks that there must be some kind of negative correlation between a game's graphical component and it's overall "goodness"?

Features/graphics don't necessarily make a game, but to be unable to recognize the brilliance in the 100's of A rank titles of the last ten years is a gigantic stretch. You like one story over another, its within your right to make an opinion based decision. The subtle improvments like unit formations, ai behavior scripts, physics engines, and so on have only made more recent games that much better.

Classics will always be classics, and people will always remember their early gaming experiences as their most fond. On an honest scale about the only way C&C competes with any other more recent game is in its narritive storyline. It is completely outclassed in every other way.