What era do most of your favorite titles come from

[Shadowstrider]

Reason 1) You said games has advance over the time, and this is true in terms of graphic, music and complexity. But this is not the why a game was fun or not. In this case movies have also advance cause of cgi. The kids from my brother love to play Bubble Bobble on a C64 Emulator, while they also have fun playing the latest Age of Empires.

 

Games get better over time, not only in graphics, music and complexity, but also from learning from past experiences. Play an older D&D game like Eye of the Beholder, then play a game like Baldur's Gate, then move up to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. The games progressed, evolved, got better.

 

Reason 2) You completely blank out the emotional link. In 5 years most teen/kids wouldnt touch a Fallout, a Baldurs Gate or a Kotor either. But I think in 5 years you probable will replay a Fallout cause you remeber it were good and you like it even its far behind the standards of a game in 2010.

 

No I don't. I even explained the "emotional link." Nostalgia, killer of reason. I can't replay Fallout. I hate the combat, always did. The ONLY reason I enjoyed that game was the story and freedom.

 

Baldur's Gate I can replay from time to time, but the simplistic character development of AD&D, and the game in general hinder its staying power.

 

One of the first "rpgs" I ever played was Chrono Trigger (which had zero roleplaying, but I digress). It is and was a great game, and it is a game with more replay value than any I have played, to date(the game had some 30 endings or something). I can't go back and play it though, because its dated. Simplistic combat, no character development, etc(sadly the Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Series haven't advanced much in this department).

[Dragon Lord Jones]

Pong baby .... how much more mind numbing and simplistic can you get. if I ever wasted so much time it was then.

talk about replayability hehehehe. (w00t) "

[Gorth]

People REALLY need to stop giving into nostalgia.  Frank Herbert was wrong, fear isn't the mind-killer.  Nostalgia is.

 

I think you missed the point of the question... it wasn't what era the best titles were released, but what era your favourite titles were released (which includes adjustment for first impressions, nostalgia etc.)

[Alien_77]

Games get better over time, not only in graphics, music and complexity, but also from learning from past experiences.  Play an older D&D game like Eye of the Beholder, then play a game like Baldur's Gate, then move up to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.  The games progressed, evolved, got better.

Genres got mixed over the time, but that isnt anything new finding elements from classic adventures in RGP since the middle of 90's. Take Eye of the Beholder in context with Diablo and not with Baldurs Gate and you will see the core elements are still the same. When I play Buck Rogers from 1990 I still have the same fun as when I play Kotor. Take a classic which hasent evolve over years and is played more than every other game sold in 2004....Windows Solitair. I dont care if the game is from whatever year, at the end all of the games no matter how good they are, they are just neat timekillers.

[Shadowstrider]

People REALLY need to stop giving into nostalgia.  Frank Herbert was wrong, fear isn't the mind-killer.  Nostalgia is.

 

I think you missed the point of the question... it wasn't what era the best titles were released, but what era your favourite titles were released (which includes adjustment for first impressions, nostalgia etc.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

No. I didn't miss the point. I equate quality with favorites. I would bet money that most people do, as well, but nostalgia is, as I said, the killer of reasoning. People play newer games over older games because they're better. to me, if you would rather play Ninja Gaiden 2004 over the original, yet claim the original is your favorite, you're being irrational.

 

Lets even use a more recent example. If you would rather play Everquest II over the original, or Warcraft III over the original, yet claim that the original is your favorite, I think you don't understand the concept of "favorite." Ofcourse mood can vary, but its a general rule.

 

I'll use ice cream as an example. If you buy chocolate ice cream 90% of the time, but claim vanilla is your favorite because it was your first flavor, and you enjoyed it so much, back then, its not exactly a true statement to say vanilla is your favorite if you are consistantly choosing chocolate over it.

[mkreku]

Games get better over time, not only in graphics, music and complexity, but also from learning from past experiences.  Play an older D&D game like Eye of the Beholder, then play a game like Baldur's Gate, then move up to Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn.  The games progressed, evolved, got better.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Simply not true. The Commodore 64 had 8 sprites (moving parts) that were 21x16 pixels (approximately, don't remember exactly) with max 3 colours, of which 2 had to be the same for all sprites. Also, only 4 of those sprites could have different images at the same time. The resolution for the entire screen was 160x240 (I think) and you had 16 colours to choose from! There was no way developers could spend any resources or time on graphics. I won't even mention sound (except that it had 3 channels..) since I assume you get the point already. So what did the developers do instead of work on graphics/sound? They had to sell the games with something so they made the games fun. Pure fun.

 

I personally don't know what makes one game fun and another game boring, but I do know the games of the past offered truck-loads of fun. I still have my Commodore 128 intact, and every summer I pack it up and replay some of my favourite games (Games I forgot in my last list: Bubble Bobble, Paradroid, The Last Ninja 1&2, Barbarian 1&2, Uridium, and so on). And every year I'm equally surprised by how much fun these old games really are! The loading times are horrendous, the graphics are less than impressive, and the sound is so primitive it sometimes hurts my ears.. but the games are still fun, playable and fantastic.

 

And to say games have evolved: pure bs. The games are exactly the same, if not even simpler. The only thing that's evolved is the presentation. Graphics and sound are light years better than they were, but the stories, the gameplay and the general ideas are still the same. Doom 3 is not a better game than Sanxion.

[Gorth]

People REALLY need to stop giving into nostalgia.  Frank Herbert was wrong, fear isn't the mind-killer.  Nostalgia is.

 

I think you missed the point of the question... it wasn't what era the best titles were released, but what era your favourite titles were released (which includes adjustment for first impressions, nostalgia etc.)

 

No. I didn't miss the point. I equate quality with favorites. I would bet money that most people do, as well, but nostalgia is, as I said, the killer of reasoning. People play newer games over older games because they're better. to me, if you would rather play Ninja Gaiden 2004 over the original, yet claim the original is your favorite, you're being irrational.

Thats your choice. Doesn't make it wrong or right for other people to consider some older titles superior to recent games, especially if you value gameplay, game balance and similar over presentation.

 

When all is said and done, when I put things like BG2, PS:T and Kotor aside, I pick up my emulator and play games like Doomdarks Revenge and a couple of old SSI titles because the mechanics and most importantly, the fun in those games are superior.

[Rosbjerg]

Ahh.. so many great titles .. spanning over my entire life!

Used to play "Defender of the Crown", "Supermario 3" or "Turtles 1/2" on the good old Nintendo .. I still have it, and play it more often than games on my PC .. :D

but some of my favorite games are from the late 90'es .. especially during the end of the 'space-sim era' ..

 

of course there are a good number of great titles from both before and after that 'era' .. but that was when I played the most and when games where most interesting to me..

[Buck]

vote CRPGs

 

from Fallout 1 upwards

[roguefrog]

The newer game > older game thing is really a case by case basis.

 

For instance the older Thief games had more (and better) features. (relockable doors, rope-arrows, swimmable water, eatable food, seamless levels, sword fighting replete with parry)

Same with the original Deus Ex (Localized Damage, exp points/skill system, different ammo types)

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Games have indeed become more complex. The production values have also gone through the roof on the big titles to match those of some movies.

 

It's all a far cry from sitting in your room making spectrum games in a week.

 

Overall games have undoubtably gotten better. Stick someone who has never played Jet Set Willy or Mario 64 in front of each game and Mario would win hands down.

 

When it comes to RPGs this isnt always a good thing. If the graphics need to be top notch and the people want "realistic" physics ala HLII, then the story will suffer it. Either by being shorter or by being more focused.

 

Where as in something like HL II (and you know how long that took) the engine is the core of the game. In an RPG you then have to put in rules, plots, characters and a multitude of other things. While not difficult per se, they are time consuming.

[Aponez]

Mid 80s to 2004.

 

SSI.- Panzer General Series (Panzer General, Fantasy General, Panzer General II, Allied General, Pacific, General, etc.), Steel Panthers Series.

 

Sid Meier's.- Civilization I, Civilization II, Pirates.

 

Microprose.- European Air War, Colonization.

 

That were good times

[NeverwinterKnight]

Mid 80s to 2004.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

haha wow dont get too specific on us.

[Phosphor]

This thread has been pruned back considerably. Please refrain from trolling and flaming; there's absolutely no reason for it whatsoever. It's a pretty good topic, and I think worth keeping open, but if it gets out of hand again it'll be locked.

[Shadowstrider]

Danke, Phosphor.

[Loof]

Im with shadowstrider on this one in that i think games in general have improved. Sure there are alot of crap games being released, but then there have alway been crap games.

One think I do think was better about oldschool games where that the designers did more with the resorces at hand which produced alot of very simple but extremly enjoyable games. But then again I probably wouldn't be willing to pay for those simplistic but enoyable games if they where released today.

 

In general most of my "favorite" games are from the mid to late 90s, but I think that has more to do with the type of games I enjoy being "hip" at the time then the overall qualty decresing... *shrugs*

[mkreku]

Wow, I'm gone for a few hours and the thread is shorter than when I left it? What happened?

 

Anyhow, to add to my list of games that I forgot about: Bubble Bobble, Barbarian 1&2, Uridium, The Last Ninja 1&2 and uh.. I forgot them again, damn.

[mEtaLL1x]

Wow, I'm gone for a few hours and the thread is shorter than when I left it? original.gif What happened?

A good moderator job as been carried out.

 

Those two headstrong fanatics have had a very stupid arguement.

[Volourn]

It was my fault.

[mEtaLL1x]

Ah, it's not to be judged. THat's just how it always goes.

 

 

I think all eras have a lot of good games, and new eras will bring great games too, although, yes there is a tendency of simplification and popularization for marketing needs. BUt it's just some games.

[Zach Morris]

What eras do the game remakes fall under?

 

Like Resident Evil GameCube, Metroid Zero Mission, etc...

[shizawn]

Most of my favorite PC games were released in the first half of the 90s. I worked at a computer store during my college years (92-96) and was up on all the latest PC releases, much moreso than I am now.

 

A couple on my favorite list are from the latter half of the 90's (Fallout, Planescape), but for me, the pinnacle of PC gaming was the first few years of that decade.

[Judge Hades]

1997 to 1999, for the most part. There has yet been a game better than Fallout 1 and I doubt there ever will be.

[Skynet]

Late 90s for me too.

[The WarOverlord]

SSI's "Gold Box" Series, particularly The Pool Series, the Savage Frontier Series, the Krynn Series, and Dark Sun Series.

 

Of course I Also Love the Innovative ones like Wallenstein 3-D and it's decedent DOOM, and of Course this board would not exist if it weren't for the Infinity Engine and the Baulder Gate series that basically resurrected RRG and it's decedent the Aurora RPG Gaming Engine and RPG Campaign Development Tools (mouthful, though calling the package "Neverwinter Nights" after it's Demo module might have been a bad Idea considering most consider it "just another CRPG game") that that did what the Gold Box's "Unlimited Adventures" could not....create a new way to run D&D Campaigns and be "the "Kazza of network RPG gaming" for those that wanted to develop their online persistent worlds that shared computers instead of being on a central server.

 

 

And of course though they were often buggy, the Ultima Series...specifically Ultima 7 and 8.