Games that aged well (Merge'd - Old Favorites)

[JudeMorrigan]

I have been extremely tired and short on sleep the last week and a half or so.

The fact that I bought a new copy of Master of Magic weekend before last is a *complete* coincidence.

[psion]

Personally, I don't know that I can fully agree that X-COM aged well. It's still neat, but if you just picked it up now, it's hard to get into. The original Descent on the other hand... forget holding on, it's better than just about all modern shooters in every way but shiny graphics.

Modern shooters? Where?

[SirBryghtside]

I think I've worked out the issues with Deus Ex!

Putting Gas Grenades next to alarms to immobilise and snipe 5 guards = good.

Wandering aimlessly and confused around Hong Kong for about half an hour =/= good.

[WarDaft]

Modern shooters? Where?

It's just an expression.

[big boss]

I think I've worked out the issues with Deus Ex!

Putting Gas Grenades next to alarms to immobilise and snipe 5 guards = good.

Wandering aimlessly and confused around Hong Kong for about half an hour =/= good.

Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee has some interesting commentary on Deus Ex 10 years on.

[SirBryghtside]

I never watch Yahtzee's stuff if I haven't finished it yet - I'm just paranoid about spoilers, and because it's from 2000, I don't think anyone would particularly care about throwing them out - least of all Yahtzee.

[Derek]

Roller Coaster Tycoon
Half-Life
Nethack
Quake 3

None of these were new when I first played them except RCT. I first played HL in 2006 and Nethack and Quake 3 (Quake Live, actually) in 2008. Of note on the latter is that even the graphics haven't aged. When I play Quake Live, I don't see old, blocky models, even though technically that's what it is and the technology is over ten years old. It still looks like a modern game (hell, it looks better than some modern games). I can't say that about any other game, including HL and other Quake games.

[MotorToad]

I play a lot of Civ III, which has its flaws, but I find really fun as a whole, I like it a lot better than Civ IV.

I thought so too, until I started playing custom games which made it bearable. Then I tried Warlords, which was great, and BTS is freaking brilliant. haven't had a chance to hit V yet.

[Xanthir]

I play a lot of Civ III, which has its flaws, but I find really fun as a whole, I like it a lot better than Civ IV.

I thought so too, until I started playing custom games which made it bearable. Then I tried Warlords, which was great, and BTS is freaking brilliant. haven't had a chance to hit V yet.

You *must* play the Fall From Heaven mod, then. It's much better than any of the vanilla expansions (and I *love* Civ 4).

[MotorToad]

You *must* play the Fall From Heaven mod, then. It's much better than any of the vanilla expansions (and I *love* Civ 4).

Hrm. I might be an idiot, but I can't get this to work. I've downloaded and installed it, but it's not showing in the lists for "install mod" in IV, Warlords, or BtS. There's a shortcut for FfH in its folder but that tells me that some directory is wrong and then loads IV normally. I've looked at their forum but the thread is 400+ pages long and I haven't garnered anything useful from it. If there's some part of the procedure you guys know of that I'm missing, I'd love to hear of it, otherwise I'll chug along googling on my own. Much thanks.

[Vaniver]

Hrm. I might be an idiot, but I can't get this to work. I've downloaded and installed it, but it's not showing in the lists for "install mod" in IV, Warlords, or BtS. There's a shortcut for FfH in its folder but that tells me that some directory is wrong and then loads IV normally. I've looked at their forum but the thread is 400+ pages long and I haven't garnered anything useful from it. If there's some part of the procedure you guys know of that I'm missing, I'd love to hear of it, otherwise I'll chug along googling on my own. Much thanks.

Hm. You are talking about FfH2, right (found here)?

My shortcut doesn't work either, but when I go to Advanced -> Load a Mod from any of the Civ4 menus, I see Fall From Heaven 2 in the list. You don't see it there?

[MotorToad]

Indeed, FfH2 from there. Perhaps I'll reboot or something...

[Vaniver]

So, this prompted me to play FfH2 again, and I went for a number of strategies I hadn't tried out before.

Main recommendation, though, is to try out the "Erebus" map. It generates a map with mountain ranges in between countries with distinct terrain types- it makes for a very different, very interesting game. (You'll have a few passes in between you and your neighbors, generally, and sometimes only one or two neighbors immediately accessible.)

[CorruptUser]

Has no one mentioned Master of Magic yet? Because Master of Magic.

EDIT: Found it in page 6.

Paladins are overpowered since you don't need to do much with magic to curbstomp anything that doesn't fly. Might take a bit to get them, but when you do...

But otherwise, flying invisible hasted warships, undead regenerating trolls, demon-devouring warlocks, flying invisible warships, midget stonethrowers of killanything, raise volcanoes in your enemies' cities, invisible warships that fly, Torin the Instantkiller, Crusading Holy-Armed Charm'o'Life Warlord of Everyunitisimmortal, did I mention you could make warships fly and invisible yet?

Elemental: WoM was supposed to be MoM2, but they got so much wrong. I've seen ant farms with less bugs.

[SecondTalon]

There was going full-Darkness, which gave you Shadow Demons which were broken as hell in the early game. A pack of them could take on damn near anything for quite some time.

[Xanthir]

That game gave me my most memorable sim-battle ever. I had 5 werewolves and some zombies stationed on a chokepoint between me and the next empire. They send paladins (I think 6 or so) and some other bullshit troops. In the initial clash, I lose all but two werewolves, and they lost all but 3 paladins. This was quickly whittled down to 1 and 1. Paladins easily beat werewolves in a straight fight, but werewolves are slightly faster, and they have regeneration. I engage them until I'm down to a single figure, then proceed to kite them for 30 turns while I regen to full 6 figures, turn on them, and win the battle. They lost a large force, while all of my werewolves immediately come right back. Woohoo!

Also: Gee Willikers heroes with max-powered enchanted items. I only ever get ranged heroes so they can just enter a battle and blast everything to smithereens without moving.

[CorruptUser]

Shuri, with her +1 to hit and natural pathfinding makes her my favorite hero, especially if I'm not nature, even when I replace all other heroes with champions I can never get rid of her.

Anyway, for pure spellbooks, all have their advantages, but combinations are so much more fun. Ever have both stream of life and gaia's blessing in a city? Near-instant size 25 cities.

[emceng]

Hah, yeah I put so many hours into that game. I really wish there was a decent sequel. Besides the balance issues, I also found the AI weak, and it seemed many spells were broken. I'd cast things on opponents cities and not see much effect. There was also the problem that easy mode was no effort, normal was easy, and hard I never beat. I couldn't get past my first city on hard, as some asshole wandering monster would come by and crush me before I had time to build any sort of army.

Pure black though was so sweet. Shadow Demons demolished everything early game, plus planewalk. So you grab all the loot and neutral cities right away.

[CorruptUser]

I only play on Hard. It's Impossible that I have trouble with.

Also, I will restart if my city is in a bad position (e.g., no forests/hills or all desert/mountain). And I usually choose Warlord or Alchemy; spearmen are absolutely worthless without some kind of boost.

[SirBryghtside]

I'm going to throw this out there on the offchance someone here has played it - Lego Racers. The first one.

It's... pretty much my favourite racing game of all time.

[SecondTalon]

...holy crap. Games that were less than a year old when this thread was started are now eligible to be included in it.

... TIME! WHY YOU BE SO PASSING?!

[d0nk3y_k0n9]

I'm going to throw this out there on the offchance someone here has played it - Lego Racers. The first one.

It's... pretty much my favourite racing game of all time.

As far as favorite racing game of all time, I go back and forth between that one and the Star Wars Podracing one (can't remember the exact title). Lego Racers had a more fun, arcadey feel to it, but I eventually got a little too good at it and it lost its appeal, while in the Podracing one you could always screw up, run into something, and blow up since it was really fast-paced.

[headprogrammingczar]

Definitely the podracing game. Between the C-buttons to tilt in tight spaces, the ability to tilt the engines up/down, and temperature control when boosting, there was a lot to keep track of during a race. It was never too hard though, which is a very easy thing to do with a racing game.

[Dark567]

Definitely the podracing game. Between the C-buttons to tilt in tight spaces, the ability to tilt the engines up/down, and temperature control when boosting, there was a lot to keep track of during a race. It was never too hard though, which is a very easy thing to do with a racing game.

Man, that was an awesome racing game. Forgot all about it.

My favorite of all time is probably Gran Turismo 2, but that's more of a racing sim, than the more arcady racers.

[Patrik3]

EDIT: Oops, reread the OP and apparently it's PC games only? But other posts have mentioned console games... so... whatever...

So, this post will read like a list of any of my favourite games that haven't just come out...

1) Gonna have to quote the OP:

Diablo II (2001): STILL occupying a huge player base after 6 years, this game (along with the original it replaced) is one of the most influential ever and just a blast to play. Grinding at it's purest form, this game is all about multiplayer "I'm better than you" with a long grind to 99 and items varying with ranges like 150-250% which just make you try so hard to get that 250 instead of the 249 you currently got. Still a good seller alongside it's expansion pack, this one will undoubtedly survive years from now until blizzard finally gets off it's ass and makes D3. Did I mention some of the best FVM ever? Eat your heart out FF!

I've not gotten D3 yet, (slow computer) but I've not heard great things about it. D2 was great - probably my 2nd favourite of all time. Single player? Meh. Online? Good, but everyone else already has all the uniques and sets. Local/LAN/private online? Absolutely brilliant. I have several friends that have this game and we used to play co-op all the time (though I always got over competitive and ended up handing down loot from my higher level characters!) in fact, we're thinking of starting again this summer!
I think, one of the things that stands out for me is the Skill Tree system. I've no idea why I love it so much, but it just works, and is addictive but fun in a way that pretty much no other leveling system I've encountered has been. Possibly to do with: every skill has its own animation - each skill gives a slightly different way to play - there's so much strategy involved, especially with the synergies...

2) I did a search of this topic for my all time #1 game, but although I found references to Final Fantasy 5,6,7, & 8, I couldn't find any mention of FFIX. Weird - on another forum I'm in, FFIX seems to be by far the most popular of all the series. (No, it's not a FFIX dedicated forum.)

Technically, though, I don't think of FFIX as a 'game' per se, more of a "story with a battle system and minigames." That is to say, although there's no question that the JRPG-style genre is a game genre, my main enjoyment of FFIX is derived not from the gameplay, but from the plot (the ending of which makes me tear up every time!). Thus, I don't believe FFIX will ever really age, because although the gameplay and graphics seem a little outdated, the story isn't really something that loses out to advancements in technology. Unfortunately, my own copy of FF9 hasn't aged well - it's become scratched and won't load...

On a side note, the music, although the quality/format is a little outdated, is the best soundtrack on any game I've played, by far. No other game has such coherent themes - frequently, you can instantly tell what element of the story is being emphasized in any location just by listening to the soundtrack e.g. there are distinct themes for 'Kuja', 'Garnet (and similarly Overworld)', 'Zidane', 'Vivi', etc. and each character represents a different theme/emotion in the plot.

I've tried playing other Final Fantasy games - finished 12, played 4 and 5 but got a bit bored, 8's story looks good but I find the complexity of the summon system/weapon crafting system/leveling/etc. makes it too frustrating to play. I'd love to play 6, 7 and maybe 10, but so far I haven't gotten CD's for them. I also have 13, but I've not gotten around to trying it.

3) Age Of Mythology In short, great game. IMO, best of all the "Age of"s, and one of the best strategy games. Played it a lot with friends, still love it.

Others? Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, if it's an 'old' game now. Can't really put Minecraft here. Rumble Racing was a less well known, but fantastic racing game - a bit like Blur (Xbox360) but way more airborne - i.e. 'real' graphics; 'cartoon' physics...
And then there's probably 200 more that have slipped my mind at the moment, but if I could recall them I'd be like "OH YEAH why didn't I think of that??" but already my post's started getting long...

[Dark567]

As far as the PS Final Fantasys go, the only one that aged poorly was 7. Both the art direction and actual implementation of the graphics have aged very poorly.

[bigglesworth]

Anyone played the recent version which is a re-release?

[Dark567]

Anyone played the recent version which is a re-release?

I've heard mixed reviews. Everyone thinks the new music sucks.

[Will]

As far as the PS Final Fantasys go, the only one that aged poorly was 7. Both the art direction and actual implementation of the graphics have aged very poorly.

None of the graphics from the PS1 aged well, period. The console was just too weak to really have compelling graphics (though Square did a good job of pushing the limits of what it *was* capable of)

Granted, this is coming from someone who never owned a PS1 (I played most of the PS1 classics on the PS2 years later) so take my perspective with an appropriate amount of salt.

[New User]

None of the graphics from the PS1 aged well, period. The console was just too weak to really have compelling graphics (though Square did a good job of pushing the limits of what it *was* capable of)

Please see the above mention of Legend of Mana. I think it has some of the best graphics of any game I have ever seen, period. I guess it's just a personal choice in that I enjoy the art style, but it can't be questioned that even if you don't like the style, the graphics look good even to this day.

As far as the PlayStation Final Fantasies are concerned, I just recently played through Final Fantasy IX and enjoyed it thoroughly. It has been many years since I played any of them, and IX was the most recent one before I recently played it. Still, it had been over 10 years since I last played it. It's been even longer for VII and VIII, but in my memory, VII had the best story but by far the worst graphics. I remember even when that game was new, and it was one of the first PlayStation games I played, I thought the graphics were awful. I couldn't understand why the characters look like LEGO people when I had seen plenty of other polygon characters from that generation of consoles that looked so much better. To this day I don't get it, I mean the other Final Fantasies are proof that they could have done better. Much better. God those graphics were awful. Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the materia system in that game. As far as saying IX had an awesome story, I was just talking to a friend a few days ago about how I am a bit disappointed in the story of IX. It could have been worse, I suppose, but it definitely could have been much better. Unfortunately, it seems pretty standard for a Final Fantasy game, and I guess it's pretty standard for a Japanese fantasy story in general (if other JRPGs I've played and anime I've seen are a fair cross-section of Japanese fantasy story tropes). I have come to realize in recent years that it is actually the gameplay of the Final Fantasy series that I like so much. In the early years, say pre-Final Fantasy VIII, I was really into the storylines. Now I see Final Fantasy games have a story that is too generic, or too.... weird, I guess. Take Final Fantasy XIII as an example; I recently watched a friend play through probably about a third of the game, and I wasn't at all impressed by the story. But I thought the battle system was really cool, and in fact I would love to play the game just to enjoy playing it.

Wow, got to rambling there. No need for this to turn into a Final Fantasy thread, there's already like a fourth of the internet devoted to that.

[Derek]

Definitely the podracing game. Between the C-buttons to tilt in tight spaces, the ability to tilt the engines up/down, and temperature control when boosting, there was a lot to keep track of during a race. It was never too hard though, which is a very easy thing to do with a racing game.

That was one of my favorite racing games, along with F-Zero GX. It's remarkable that a spinoff tie-in was so good.

[IcedT]

I've held onto my PS2 and Gamecube all these years and I feel like a lot of those games haven't aged a day. Final Fantasy X and Metroid Prime (both release titles) are still amazing games that I replay pretty often. I still love going back to the old Pokemon games too (I only played up to Gold/Silver). I wasn't much of a gamer in the PSone era, but I still have a ridiculously powerful nostalgia for Monster Rancher 2.

[mosc]

This thread was supposed to be for recommending PC games to people that were old but should still be tried on their own merits. Not nostalgia, not console games. *Sigh*

[Patrik3]

This thread was supposed to be for recommending PC games to people that were old but should still be tried on their own merits. Not nostalgia, not console games. *Sigh*

Sorry! I'll bring it back on topic then - because I just remembered Heroes of Might and Magic 3.

Not sure if it's been discussed already but it's worth mentioning again - awesome music, decent graphics, good strategy, and I always liked imagining what it'd be like to live in one of the towns (my favourite place to live would probably have been the Fortress/Swamp - it just looked so cozy!)

Also any Anno game. I've been playing 1404 a bit recently, but that's the last-but-one (after 2070) in the series so it's still a little current. I played 1603 way back though at a friend's, and it was good. Dunno how good it would seem now.

[Dark567]

This thread was supposed to be for recommending PC games to people that were old but should still be tried on their own merits. Not nostalgia, not console games. *Sigh*

Well, another thread got merged into this one that didn't serve that purpose, so not surprising.

[jobriath]

A thread search tells me no one has said Dungeon Master yet. It's both an old favourite and it's also aged well---I still occasionally play it! Despite never having finished it.

[IcedT]

This thread was supposed to be for recommending PC games to people that were old but should still be tried on their own merits. Not nostalgia, not console games. *Sigh*

Sorry about that. I just saw "aged well" and "old favorites" and kinda assumed.

[Jorpho]

A thread search tells me no one has said Dungeon Master yet. It's both an old favourite and it's also aged well---I still occasionally play it! Despite never having finished it.

I was just thinking the other day how it was odd that it seems to have largely vanished; it is said to have been quite pivotal in the development of the first-person dungeon crawler. Even SunDog, the other major release of FTL Games, seems to be undergoing some sort of revival. Which version would you recommend?

[Jesse]

It's cool guys, turns out that mosc isn't in charge, so what we should all do is talk about how friggin' sweet No Mercy for the N64 was. Still a great game when you get a few mates round and want to hit big boots without wrecking the front room.

[m4d4sb34ns]

This thread reminded me of my favourite game from my earlier days - X-wing vx TIE fighter. Now, I'm contemplating the logistics of getting my old copy and joystick from ~250 miles away and getting them working on W7...