Playing Old Games For the First Time - Give a Short Review of Some 10+ Year Old Game You Played For the First Time

[The Ugly One]

If you didn't play some old game when it was new and are just now getting to it, what do you think of it? Include games you think aged like milk.

I'm playing The Conduit on the Wii. I picked up a Wii a few years ago because Gamecube component cables were like $250, and this was the easy way to play my old Gamecube games on a newer TV (fun fact: when you get old, you do a lot of buying & building entertainment setups that you hardly ever use). Anyway, I picked this up on ebay, remembering it got bad reviews because the developers were unable to wave a magic wand and turn a Wii into a 360, but hey, it's a somewhat unique title in that it was a Wii exclusive that made some attempt at not being a shitty minigame compilation.

So far, I feel like this might be the most unjustly maligned game I've ever played. It looks pretty good, and there are aliens to kill. It's not the most amazing FPS I've ever played, but it's reasonably good enough. I recommend it.

 

[RollerGator]

Clock Tower on PS1 was cheesey but stylish, fun, and even creepy at times.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

I played the original XCOM well after it had come out, but a few years before nu-COM was announced.

Even then, I honestly thought it hadn't aged well. It was interesting, and I'm sure it was a hell of an achievement for its time, but there were a LOT of rough edges that just made it a chore to play.

 

[I am vomit]

It honestly depends on the game itself. I probably wouldn't sperg about the old DOS games that I do if I hadn't grown up on them, and wasn't used to them in general. But as far as trying new PS1 and PS2 games via emulator? I do that pretty regularly.

 

[Cloaca Rimjob]

Played the first spyro last year on duckstation with upscaled graphics and really enjoyed it. couldnt play it for hours at a time though. A level after dinner was enough. Would definitely recommend

Persona bored the tits off me and I hated the music, I wanted to like it because I played strange journey and liked that.

Same deal with the first shining game on the genesis, I guess first person maze RPGs arent my thing. I loved the first two shining force games though, they've held up well. Put hours at a time into them.

Playing goldeneye 007 just now and can definitely see where the appeal came from. You can see the n64 limitations but once you sort the awkward controls and map them to a 360 controller it's a bundle of fun mowing down enemies, the escort mission is a pain though.

Maybe doesnt count because I played it when I was younger but the difference with playing sega rally with a an analogue stick or the digital pad is night and day. Used to think the game was absolute dogshit when I was younger (I was one of the stupid fuckers who asked for a saturn instead of a playstation)

 

[Coelacanth]

Clock Tower on PS1 was cheesey but stylish, fun, and even creepy at times.

The dialogue in Clock Tower 2 (I'm sorry but the SNES Clock Tower has a special place in my heart and I can never refer to The Struggle Within as CT2 because I hate it) is Resident Evil levels of cheesy but once those segments are out of the way the game actually does a good job at being scary.

After being thoroughly disappointed by replaying Sonic Adventure 2 I decided to look into my library and play a Sonic game I'd yet to touch. Sonic 2 washed all the bitterness away and put a big smile on my face when I was done. I still prefer Sonic CD, but Sonic 2 is a damn fine followup!

 

[Lemmingwise]

Yeah, I love certain gems of old games.

Star control 1. Star Control 2. System shock 2. Even starcraft brood war. Fool's errand. I played all these well beyond their release for the first time and they were great.

Honestly, it seems like star control 2 is very much a game that would be liked by average kiwi farm gamer.

 

[Pissmaster]

All I know about The Conduit is that a post about it inspired this meme:

So anyway, I was playing Final Fantasy V a bit earlier in the month. Made it to a part where the party gets thrown in the pokey and they meet Cid, who gets them out.

So far, it's okay. Kind of boring. The job system really ties the game together, though it's very simple so far. It's been fun to throttle through battles with everyone as unarmed berzerkers with Brawl. I don't know if I'll ever complete it.

 

[The Ugly One]

The Wii is what, 16 years old now? Time flies. The Conduit is about on par with a really nice Xbox title. I mean, it's still running on an overclocked Gamecube with extra RAM, but I never thought Gamecube games looked bad to begin with.

While I'm on the subject, I played Metroid Prime 3 for the first time not that long ago. It was boring and kind of ugly. The game structure is too linear for a Metroid game, the visual design overuses washed-out earth tones. They were trying too hard to do...something...but I don't know what. It wasn't bad enough for me to quit playing, but getting across the finish line was a drag.

 

[MrTroll]

So far, it's okay. Kind of boring. The job system really ties the game together, though it's very simple so far. It's been fun to throttle through battles with everyone as unarmed berzerkers with Brawl. I don't know if I'll ever complete it.

The job system only gets interesting after you start mastering jobs and passing their abilities onto mimes/freelancers. Eventually you can customize each character's ability and equipment sets down to the most granular details. But that's end-game stuff.

 

[Psyduck]

The dialogue in Clock Tower 2 (I'm sorry but the SNES Clock Tower has a special place in my heart and I can never refer to The Struggle Within as CT2 because I hate it) is Resident Evil levels of cheesy but once those segments are out of the way the game actually does a good job at being scary.

After being thoroughly disappointed by replaying Sonic Adventure 2 I decided to look into my library and play a Sonic game I'd yet to touch. Sonic 2 washed all the bitterness away and put a big smile on my face when I was done. I still prefer Sonic CD, but Sonic 2 is a damn fine followup!

Something about the first PS1 Clock Tower gives it such a mood, remember being legit creeped out in the first Jennifer level right at the beginning where she thinks she is being chased while walking back home

 

[Judge Dredd]

I'm playing The Conduit on the Wii.

Wait until you play Conduit 2. It ends on a sequel hook that was never, and will never be followed up on, but it's a pretty good hook. Don't spoil it for yourself.

There's a xbox 360 FPS called Section 8 Prejudice. I don't know if the PC version works any more, but it's likewise a fun FPS, albeit an unremarkable one. Singularity is another one.


On topic. I have many from the last 5 years or so, so here's some from best to worst.

• Front Mission 3. Heard about this a lot in magazines and the like. Finally played the PS3 re-release and it's great. It holds up well even today. Well worth the hype and worth playing however you can.
• Misadventures of Tron Bonne. It's decent. Far from the best game on the playstation, and too simplistic in terms of gameplay, but it has charm. I can see why it has a passionate following. Though I think it's reputation is mostly due to it's status as a collectors item.
• Front Mission 4. It's fun, but the difficultly ramps up, and I soon hit a wall. I think you're meant to grind the simulator for levels and money.
• Lords of the Fallen. Hated at the time for being a shit tier Dark Souls clone. I ...like it. Builds actually work. Combat is fun. They changed bonfires in a stupid way, but everything else is much more refined than Dark Souls. You can become a powerhouse by the end, but that's part of the fun I think. I'd recommend The Surge games instead, but Lords of the Fallen is not the purified shit cashing in on the Dark Soul's fad that it's detractors claim.
• Mechwarrior 4. MW4 Mercenaries is widely hated for locking down the customisation and making the mechs run fasher, but I thought it was okay. My main problems with the game is the story isn't explained at all, you're just supposed to know all these factions and mechs from the dozens of novels, the card game, cartoon, etc. I also found the "tactical combat" comes down to who has the bigger mech.
• Mechwarrior 2. Considered to be a classic, but I didn't like it. The persistent economy isn't in it until the expansion. You can easily min-max with nonsense builds. It has the same "bigger mech wins" problem as 4.
• King's Field and Dark Souls. I played Dark Souls before Sekiro came out, and I didn't like it. Too much trial and error bullshit, and I had no desire to earn another notch on my "hard games beat" belt. King's Field had been on my radar for a while but when I finally played it, it didn't hold up at all. I'm a sucker for chunky PS1 graphics and don't mind a bit of jank, but it's very much a trial and error game with slow, clunky combat. And this is coming from a Resident Evil fan.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Virtua Tennis, Ratchet & Clank and Jak and Daxter are proof that late 90’s and early 00’s video games had a lot of pristine and challenge.

Even if the latter two tried to copy and paste the Crash Bandicoot series, it’s still a joy nonetheless.

 

[mr.moon1488]

I tried playing Jade Empire on the PC, but the version on Steam was basically broken for me. I didn't have the crashes some other people had, but it was really choppy.

 

[The Ugly One]

Wait until you play Conduit 2. It ends on a sequel hook that was never, and will never be followed up on, but it's a pretty good hook. Don't spoil it for yourself.

Gamespot shit really hard on the Conduit games because they were so pissed off at Nintendo for not making a console to compete with the Xbox 360. I remember that IGN would dock Wii games points for not running in 720p, which the console is physically incapable of doing. Playing through it, I think this could have been the marquee shooter for Wii, but video game reviewers are retarded children.

I tried playing Jade Empire on the PC, but the version on Steam was basically broken for me. I didn't have the crashes some other people had, but it was really choppy.

A lot of those Xbox-to-PC ports only work properly on NVIDIA cards.

 

[Haffhart]

Persona bored the tits off me and I hated the music, I wanted to like it because I played strange journey and liked that.

I assume you mean the first game for PS1. God I hate that one. Terrible UI and movement, I had the use the controller diagonally. Primitive maze dungeons that you get lost in. It does have late 90s "aesthetic" though, that's its biggest draw.

 

[SpaceMovie1992]

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is NOT good, bros. That game ran out of money like halfway through the dev cycle and it shows

 

[Takodachi]

I sitll play Blood from time to time, I miss the days when FPS were able to curbstomp you if you were a shitter.

 

[el bandito loco]

Gamespot shit really hard on the Conduit games because they were so pissed off at Nintendo for not making a console to compete with the Xbox 360. I remember that IGN would dock Wii games points for not running in 720p, which the console is physically incapable of doing. Playing through it, I think this could have been the marquee shooter for Wii, but video game reviewers are retarded children.

I was a teenager during the wii's lifespan and I didn't have an HDTV and lived in a semi rural area (parents had a form of dial up until 2014 no shit) and so I went with the wii bc online was a no go at home and surprisingly I never really regretted it. you should mod yours. It's easy, I upgraded to a wii U a couple of years ago and the entire gamecube and wii library is on it and they're filled with hidden gems. granted the whole wii library is overkill but I have a lot of fun with friends when I throw get togethers or parties getting fucked up and screwing around with horrible motion control shovelware. but there is actually a lot of good shit on the wii side. you just have to keep your expectations with the limitations of the console.

 

[Humble Crab]

I finally played Planescape: Torment a couple of years ago after somehow avoiding learning literally anything about the game other than it was good. Going into it, all a friend told me was to play as a mage.

It was an incredible experience. A genuinely interesting story with interesting characters and bizarre world. The only other game that's had its philosophies stick with me long after I was done playing is the original Deus Ex, which has only become more relevant in recent years.

The question still runs through my mind occasionally when I'm lying in bed at night; "What can change the nature of a man?" I think about what things have changed my nature over the years while also feeling sad that I'll probably never play another game that hooks me so much with the narrative alone.