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What games can you not get into because they feel too outdated?

Are there games that you tried but just couldn’t get into because they feel outdated? Games that, in theory, you would enjoy, but don’t because the controls, graphics, writing, or mechanics just don’t feel good anymore. Games that, compared to today, just don’t hold up to your standards.

I recently tried playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, and I realized that a lot of the invisible language used through game design from that era, I do not understand. There are many things that the game didn’t explain, and I assume they were just understood by players. Not only that, but I imagine there was a lot of crossover between video games and board games back then, so maybe that language was used as well. I ended up downloading a manual and putting it on my second screen and I get it and played it, but it just wasn’t for me.

I also dropped Mirror’s Edge, but this time it was because of the graphics. It looks and feels great, but the graphics give me a headache. There is way too much bloom, and for some reason, there are some parts that look like the imaginary lens has been covered in Vaseline. This didn’t bother me before, but my eyes are not used to it anymore.

There are also games like the first two Tony Hawk Pro Skater games that I can’t fully get into because they’re missing mechanics from the later games. The levels and controls feel great, but they don’t feel complete without those mechanics. It keeps me from enjoying the games as much as the others.

Please share yours!

otp ,

When Witcher 3 was winning all those awards, I wanted to give the original game a go.

Don’t. I imagine it’s nothing like Witcher 3. It aged terribly poorly.

Wizard_Pope ,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

I bought a bundle with all the 3 witcher games and tried both 1 and 2. I could jot even get through the tutorial in 1 and could jot beat the first boss of 2. Each game controls completely differently from one another.

Ashtear ,

That Kayran fight is one of the most unfortunate things about Witcher 2. It’s far too difficult a fight for a first boss, and almost all of that chapter is a drag to boot. The game is so much better after that point.

Lesrid ,

My favorite moment in that game is a serious case of understatement in dialogue prompt. You have an option to help one of two diametrically opposed people and if you choose “Help person A” you draw your sword on person B. If you choose “Help person B” you immediately throat punch person A.

Wizard_Pope ,
@Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world avatar

Similar to how “push dijkstra aside” leads to Geralt breaking his ankle in a really violent matter.

howrar ,

I remember playing the first game and getting stuck on the tutorial because I was mashing the left click button trying to swing my sword only to have Geralt hip thrust at the enemies.

But once you figure out how to swing the sword, the game’s actually pretty fun. One thing I particularly liked is that there’s an investigative storyline where you actually have to go and investigate and figure out the answer with the clues provided, and you can fail. I went into it thinking it would be like most modern games where you only get obviously correct or incorrect dialog options and angered everyone in the process.

otp ,

It did have some positive traits, but the gameplay just didn’t do it for me at all.

I did make it through the whole game, so I feel like I can hold that opinion, haha

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

Yeah, I don’t know how unpopular the opinion is, but the original Witcher didn’t strike me as a particularly good game. It was a… fine… I guess game, but with mature elements and tone that other games in the genre lacked. I slogged through it in preparation of playing Witcher 3.

metaballism ,

People didn’t like its mechanics even back when it launched. Personally, it’s still somehow my favorite even tho objectively it’s less fun to play and less polished than the other two. Something about its story and the atmosphere makes it more unique and genuine.

otp ,

It does have a great story!

Zeke ,

Baldur's Gate 3 was good, but I can't play 1 or 2. They definitely don't feel the same.

For newer games, I can actually play the older Zelda games, but I can't stand the latest games. Not a big fan of the gameplay with weapons breaking and how much they pushed the open world thing. I very much prefer smaller maps with more story.

limeaide OP ,

What’s so different about the first two Baldur’s Gate games? I was thinking about getting the first one on my phone

TheEntity ,

I tried playing Icewind Dale on my phone after enjoying Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 on my PC. Don't bother. The touch UI just cannot keep up in any remotely tactical situation, at least not for my tactics-heavy wizard playstyle with milking every turn as much as I could.

Paranomaly ,
@Paranomaly@sh.itjust.works avatar

To add to what everyone else is saying, the combat isn’t the same in that it’s not turn based like you’re thinking. Fights involve everyone getting into a fracas at once and swinging, the game expecting the player to regularly pause to give specific commands. Also, in BG1 you start at level one which feels reeeeeally weak so fights will be quite difficult until you’re about level 3-4.

That said, I had a lot of fun with the game after I got used to it. Writing is the main star of the show and it’s quite good.

AlolanYoda ,

Oh! I tried playing Neverwinter Nights recently and… I bounced. I want to try again soon because people really love that game (and its modding scene!), and I love D&D (having only played 5e, however), but it’s not appealing to me as much as I wish it did.

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

I played the crap out of Neverwinter Nights back in the day, but I picked up the remastered or whatever version on steam and just can't handle the controls anymore. Hooray for BG3 to scratch the same itch with improved controls!

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I really enjoyed the original Neverwinter Nights, went back and played it relatively-recently (despite the fact that the main storyline, pre-DLC, is pretty bland).

But I tried playing the newer Neverwinter Nights 2 and it just did not draw me in at all.

Still haven’t tried BG3.

Ladrius ,

For what it’s worth, the story to the main campaign of NWN2 is pretty tropey and bland. However, you should give Mask of the Betrayer a shot if you don’t mind main campaign spoilers and think story could keep you invested over gameplay. I never finished it, but the story was quite fresh and unique. It’s wildly well reviewed, to the point that while you have to deal with the Epic level rules, its still worth playing a bit just for the weirdness involved.

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

BG3 is the best version of DnD on a computer in my opinion. Great characters including enemies, so much flavor, and it moves right along with tooltips galore to let you know aht is going on. While there is a lot of gratuitous romance available, you can easily turn everyone down if it isn't your jam. You can do pretty much anything and "screwing up" just tends to lead to more options!

I love talking to the goblins! Make friends before wiping them out!

Being DnD there is a lot of fiddly bits and the devs love exploding barrels, but to be honest they kind of add to the charm.

ryathal ,

Probably going to get some hate for these.

FFVII. The pc port was ass, controls were a pain on keyboard and there wasn’t great controller support. The graphics were really tough to ignore, and the combat felt like fighting the control scheme more than anything. I’ve played and liked many other titles in the series, but I couldn’t manage this one by the time I got to it. The experience was also so bad I have no interest in the remake/remaster.

Morrowind. Played it a ton on Xbox, but I can’t get back into it on pc anymore. Even with mods to alleviate the graphics and draw distance, the game is so dated. Building a character can be very punishing in the early game, and easily break able in the late game. Many weapon skills are garbage because they lack enough support in items. Movement speed was tied to a skill, jumping is significantly faster, but also a skill. The leveling process is arcane and not adequately explained in game. The journal is awful, so you better remember what quests you are doing. Item storage was a pain because crates had weight limits, and merchants had pitiful amounts of gold to sell items.

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

Have you tried Tifa’s Bootleg? There are mods that can drastically improve the graphics

DadVolante ,
@DadVolante@sh.itjust.works avatar

Modded FF7 on PC ruined PS1 FF7 for me. Wonderful stuff. 7th Heaven is such a joy.

tal ,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Morrowind. Played it a ton on Xbox, but I can’t get back into it on pc anymore. Even with mods to alleviate the graphics and draw distance, the game is so dated.

I played through it for the first time a few years ago, using the open-source OpenMW engine. It definitely isn’t graphically-competitive with modern games, but I was still able to enjoy it.

Here’s a current image:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQUYr7JhNXg

Building a character can be very punishing in the early game, and easily break able in the late game.

I feel like a lot of people enjoyed the game because they could break it in the late game.

Many weapon skills are garbage because they lack enough support in items.

Yeah, though I don’t think that any Elder Scrolls or Fallout game has really had a truly balanced skill tree, though.

The journal is awful, so you better remember what quests you are doing.

Yeah, I have to say that automated quest tracking and note-taking is definitely something that I like about modern RPGs. Sometimes it starts to feel too much like “go to waypoint, do thing, repeat”, but I remember manually mapping dungeons with teleporters on graph paper in the D&D Gold Box games, and it was just arduous.

kayazere ,

I started a new play through of Morrowind after lasting playing it in the 2000s. I used OpenMW on my Steam Deck, it plays really well.

It was really refreshing how more immersive it is as you have to read the journal and use the map to figure out where to go for quests. I really enjoy not having a quest marker guiding you.

TheSlad ,

I never did really beat morrowind or even finish any of the factions questlines, i was too young at the time to care about that i just did the infinite intelligence potion exploit to create an unbeatable god character slinging 50ft radius fireballs from level 1.

A part of me really wants to revisit it and and least complete the main quest, but damn does it feel dated.

MyEdgyAlt ,

I actually really enjoyed replaying it recently after many many years. Other than the dialog, what bugs you about it?

By the way, the engine replacement is really good.

Riven ,
@Riven@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

As someone who didn’t even know it existed until like 2 years ago. It feels incredibly dated. I have 2 friends who love it and beg me to play with them with the multi-player mod but I just can’t get into it. Controls feel clunky, combat is janky and graphics are meh. I understand it probably has great systems and writing and for the time it was great but it just doesn’t hold up unless you have prior history with it. I’m not even hating on it, I understand it’s probably a great game. I also played Mario 64 and ocarina of time way after their release (grew up a poor kid in a tiny rural town with no internet and 1 TV that had like 3 channels) and both felt pretty decent and like they held up while also being older than morrowind.

LZamperini ,

Knights of the old republic 1 and 2. First my old PC couldn't run it and my new one it just feels too jank and ugly. I love star wars games and am sad if the remake stays dead.

limeaide OP ,

Personally I love that era of graphics tbh. I bought Valheim on the Steam sale just for the jank graphics lol

canis_majoris ,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

KOTOR is jank, but I would say it’s entirely due to the controls. It acts like point-and-click even on controllers, where you have to use the D-pad to select the element and interact with it using the face buttons.

Also, the semi-pseudo-turn-based combat system doesn’t really totally hold up, I wish there was a way of smoothing it out.

There are higher resolution texture projects for both KOTOR 1 and 2, I think KOTOR 2 has it available natively with the Steam Workshop.

all-knight-party ,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

Funnily enough I've played KoTOR so much that I can still go back and play those, and aside from the camera control it's totally comfy for me.

ImplyingImplications ,

Personally, the earlier Witcher games. Great story, but it’s trapped in an old RPG missing all kinds of modern features and mechanics.

canis_majoris ,
@canis_majoris@lemmy.ca avatar

When the first Witcher came out, Yahtzee’s review was spot on. It’s a good game, it’s got a lot of depth, but a lot of the mechanics are arcane and just not fun.

Witcher 2 made big strides in this department, finally culminating in Witcher 3 - I am in a similar boat in terms of having serious issues trying to play the first two Witcher games.

stardust ,

I really enjoyed the branching paths in Witcher 2. They were two different games depending on what you chose with the different characters and areas you’d go through.

LaserTurboShark69 ,

The UI in the Witcher 2 is awful

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

At this stage, I am loath to go back to any game where the UI takes up half the screen. RTS games especially just used so much screen real estate back in the day, that couldn’t be scaled or hidden to get any back. Like playing your game through a letterbox surrounded by stickers.

smeg ,

I tried playing the original Deus Ex for the first time a couple of years ago and I sadly had to put it down before I escaped the tutorial. Early 3D graphics have not aged well, the controls were not very intuitive, and it just seemed like it wasn’t worth the effort. I then played and enjoyed Human Revolution though; I know, I’m an absolute peasant.

limeaide OP ,

Yeah most older 3D games I’ve tried I just can’t control that well.

A couple years ago I tried playing the original Tomb Raider and geez was that difficult to control. It really makes me appreciate how good the Mario 64 controls were

Cethin ,

One thing that’s really interesting is once you get to the headquarters after the first level, the floors and things are super shiny and have actual reflections. Most modern games use screen space reflections now (although raytracing is fixing this), so things not on screen can’t be reflected. Deus Ex, and many games of the time, have better reflections than modern games. The graphics do look dated generally, but it’s funny how technology advancement can cause some things to be worse

DoucheBagMcSwag ,

Give it a try again with GMDX. It’s a mod that modernizes Deus Ex mechanically and visually without losing the original vision like what “New Vision / Revision,” does

domi , (edited )
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

Thanks for the tip, I started a few weeks ago and barely made any progress. Maybe this will help.

smeg ,

Ooh interesting, how easy is it to set up mods for DX? Reckon it’ll work on a Steam Deck?

domi ,
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

I didn’t do it on the Deck but on Linux, so steps should be something like:

  1. Switch to desktop mode
  2. Download GMDX and place it in the game folder
  3. Install “ProtonUp-QT” from Discover store
  4. In ProtonUp-QT install "SteamTinkerLaunch"
  5. Switch back to game mode
  6. Make sure to launch Deus Ex unmodded once before continuing
  7. Set the compatibility tool for Deus Ex to "SteamTinkerLaunch"
  8. Start Deus Ex
  9. Click “Main menu” in steamtinkerlaunch
  10. Click “One time run” in steamtinkerlaunch
  11. Choose the GMDX exe file in “One time command” and hit "Run command"
  12. Install normally
  13. After installation go back to the main menu and select “Game menu” in steamtinkerlaunch
  14. In “Custom command” select “Play_GMDX.lnk” in the “GMDXv9” folder
  15. Hit “Save and Play” and it should launch modded
TheBlue22 ,

Thief.

But I HAVE to try again! I want to write my bachelors about game design of stealth games and not analyzing Thief would be a crime against humanity

Outtatime ,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

I let civvie11 play it and I lived thru him vicariously

verycoolusername ,

For me it was Ocarina of Time. Ugly, and very clumsy. And I play tons of retro games. Early 3D stuff can be rough.

domi ,
@domi@lemmy.secnd.me avatar

Did you try Ship of Harkinian? It has a lot of improvements that make it easier to play nowadays.

www.shipofharkinian.com

verycoolusername ,

Oh thank you. I’ll check it out. I always wanted to get into the Zelda franchise and I love the lore of Ocarina/Majoras Mask

ChaoticEntropy ,
@ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk avatar

There are specific things about OoT that irritate me, but I can generally still get some enjoyment.

Mandy ,

Super Mario 64, while i started with the nes i never really fully played the 64 title

I played it on stream some time ago but eventually stopped cause mario just felt so weighty and clunky to control. I tried 3 different controllers just in case it could have just been me, but unfortunately, i just didnt jive with it.

Outtatime ,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Same. I turned into a PlayStation gamer before I played Mario 64. It just seemed boring to me at that stage in my life. I’ve never completed it or played it for more than 30 minutes.

bufordt ,
@bufordt@sh.itjust.works avatar

Coming to it from Crash Bandicoot, there was just something off about how Mario 64 controlled.

KinglyWeevil ,

I tried to replay GoldenEye on switch and just couldn’t. The control scheme is just too dated and I can’t get past it.

Hazzard ,

My two are Morrowind, where I loved the quest design and lack of handholding, but the random hit chance and BS difficulty distribution were just… too much to handle.

And also, KOTOR, which I expected to love as a huge Star Wars fan, but the “stand around while dice are rolled” combat was just… exceptionally boring and tedious.

Fiivemacs ,

Anything with consoles as the primary focus. You know the games, the ones where the controls suck if you don’t use a controller…like witcher, and all those dark souls copy/paste clones. Cameras are too jank

amio ,

Morrowind was always this for me. I started the series with Oblivion and Skyrim. Those have their own issues, but at least you hit things when you hit them, and their leveling systems won't actually screw you over if you don't Excel it correctly.

SMB 1 and 2. The SMB1 engine was revolutionary, but I hate the controls. SMB2, the Western one, just never felt like Mario, even back then. I also mostly started on SMB3 which had much better platforming and controls and was actually a Mario game, so that's probably why.

I consider myself, more or less, a "Zelda fan", at least from LttP to about half of Wind Waker. I will never play the first two NES games, though. Aside from 2 being "pretty much not zelda", 1 is so full of arbitrary wonk, "Guide dammit", and "Nintendo hard" that I don't feel like it even for historical purposes.

prole ,

Zelda II is dope. You’re missing out.

nyakojiru ,
@nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Life

MxM111 ,

Not to be confused with John Conway’s the game of life. That one is fine, a classic.

all-knight-party ,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

I dunno man, Conway's Game of Life has a quite boring endgame, I must say.

MxM111 ,

Yes, but absolutely no grind.

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