They sure don't make them like this anymore - PC

Gold_Dust_2

pukkamum wrote: »

I find a lot of games these days are far too dumbed down, puzzles are a lot easier and there isn't any consequence to dying, not like the days of chuckie egg, when dying meant doing it all again!

Pukkamum made a good point in the other thread - games nowadays seem to be getting a lot easier than they used to be. So which ones would you put forward as being one of the best ever, ones that originally set the bar high for your expectations? I've limited this thread to PC as I want to see whether there are any clear winners on a single platform - perhaps I'll get a game recommendation or two!

Anywhoo ladies and gentlemen, I present my own recommendation without further ado.....

pukkamum

Gold_Dust wrote: »

Pukkamum made a good point in the other thread - games nowadays seem to be getting a lot easier than they used to be. So which ones would you put forward as being one of the best ever, ones that originally set the bar high for your expectations? I've limited this thread to PC as I want to see whether there are any clear winners on a single platform - perhaps I'll get a game recommendation or two!

Anywhoo ladies and gentlemen, I present my own recommendation without further ado.....

As far as pc games, I have only recently moved to recent pc gaming having always been a console girl.
In the days of the spectrum etc my faves were chuckie egg, manic minor, space harrier, james pond, to name but a few.
The consoles brought a whole new level of gaming to me, the stories were enthralling, the graphics amazing and at £50 a pop games were bought and played through to the end.
The availability of games now, preowned, steam sales etc has meant that if you get stuck you just play something else.
Dh is terrible for this and wonders why I'm not as interested in gaming with him anymore, it's because I know half way through he will get fed up and we won't play again.
I am currently playing resident evil revelations on my own and as much as I am enjoying it, its just too easy. Where are the puzzles that you would spend days if not weeks trying to complete, sometimes resorting to reading the walkthroughs in magazines in smiths:o,
Where are the consequences in dying?
All these things were what gave me gaming satisfaction, there was nothing better than finally completing the level you had been stuck on for yonks.
Quite frankly I don't care about flashy graphics, amazing cut scenes etc, I just want a challenging game with a great story, is that too much to ask?

Mista_C

I'm sure there are lots but for me these are the key ones

Spectrum: -

Bomb Jack - This sucker never gave up. My Dad and I attempted to complete it once. I left my Speccy on, running Bomb Jack, for almost a month until smoke came out of the back and we killed it.

Skool Daze/Back 2 Skool - I loved both of these games, you had to perform certain tasks and puzzles to steal your report card from the Headmasters safe (Skool Daze) then do the same to put it back (Back 2 Skool).

Zombi - Based on the movie Zombi (Dawn of the Dead '78) it was pretty much the same thing. You had to find your way through the mall, collecting items to solve puzzles along the way. Oh, you also had to 'poke' out the brains of zombies using something akin to a mouse pointer.

Sega Mega Drive/Mega CD

The Immortal - You play a wizard who must make your way through levels of dungeons using magic & wits, solving puzzles and battling other dungeon occupants, all to save your teacher, except at the end there's a twist.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective - You play the part of Sherlock Holmes, finding clues and solving a series of crimes.

Playstation

Resident Evil - The original RE game, for me, was the best of the bunch, puzzles, strategy, and survival horror. The game had an atmosphere that pulled you in, the likes I've not felt since. In fact, this was one of the last games I actually spent any serious time on. I've played games since but not been pulled into them in the same way. I think RE set the bar so high for me everything I've played since has played in terms of 'feeling' part of the game.

Blackjack_Davy

Gold_Dust wrote: »

Pukkamum made a good point in the other thread - games nowadays seem to be getting a lot easier than they used to be.

There are indeed and the industry says so too, the reason? They say that games cost so much to develop they daren't make it too difficult and risk putting people off so they basically make it so simple that no-one can possibly fail to finish it.

A good example is the the Tomb Raider games which have become so dumbed down that they hold your hand through the whole thing, constantly highlight where you're supposed to go and even offer to tell you exactly what to do. So unlike the originals in the series which really repaid effort put in to search every inch of the area and to actually use your brain.

So which ones would you put forward as being one of the best ever, ones that originally set the bar high for your expectations? I've limited this thread to PC as I want to see whether there are any clear winners on a single platform - perhaps I'll get a game recommendation or two!

BBC Micro/Master 128k - yes I now its really, really old but there are some classic games still worth playing - Elite, Exile, Repton 3, Ravenskull, Bonecrusher. Some of the best of the text adventures are worth a throw - Kayleth, Search for Shauna, Rick Hanson trilogy. Emulators cost nowt, the games are available and are abandonware, so what have you got to lose?

PlayStation (original) - Tomb Raider 1,2,3. So raised the bar for gaming in general. Spyro was fun. Gran Turismo 1 and 2. Both hugely raised the bar for what was possible in gaming as far as the physics/driving simulation engine was concerned, they were light years ahead of the competition. Resident Evil 2, Silent Hill - something of a classic and one of the creepiest things you'll ever play.

Can't think of anymore just now but they'll come to me later I'm sure.

Cycrow

Blackjack_Davy wrote: »

There are indeed and the industry says so too, the reason? They say that games cost so much to develop they daren't make it too difficult and risk putting people off so they basically make it so simple that no-one can possibly fail to finish it.

its more that the target audience has changed over the years

There are more people who are interested in the casual, easy games, so thats who most of the games are made for.

you can still find other types of games if you look for them, they just dont generally have the bigger budgets (because they cant sell as many)

pukkamum

Cycrow wrote: »

its more that the target audience has changed over the years

There are more people who are interested in the casual, easy games, so thats who most of the games are made for.

you can still find other types of games if you look for them, they just dont generally have the bigger budgets (because they cant sell as many)

Very true, I feel a lot of mainstream games are now geared to casual gamers,
and kids with countless other games to play if bored or stuck.
I also blame cod for much of the demise, I know many people who call themselves gamers but only play cod, and only buy cod games.
I would love some pointers towards less mainstream games as I rely very much on dh's choices and he has different tastes to me.

Steve-o

Everquest (before they dumbed it down).

If you died, you had to go back to your corpse to loot your own gear. If you failed within a certain time period, your corpse (and gear) vanished. If your bind point (where you appeared after death) was 2 hours away, you had to travel two hours back to try and get your corpse, hence: naked corpse runs! If you died in a place where you couldn't safely get back your corpse, and if you didn't have higher level friends to help you out, you effectively lost your corpse (and all of your gear). If you weren't sure where you died, you had to look around until you found it again

When you died you lost experience, and could drop down levels. If your bind point was in a dangerous placed, you risk being in a bind-loop (getting killed as soon as you re-spawned after death), and de-levelling all the way back to level 1.

If you handed in quest items to the wrong person, you lost them.

If you tried to do trade skill combines, and messed up the recipe, you lost the items. Put in a stack of twenty items that had taken you a year to collect, instead of putting in one? Tough, you lost them all.

When you were out of mana as a spell caster, you had to sit on the ground to meditate (which also raised your agro level), staring at your spell book: the spell book filled the entire screen, so you couldn't see anything else. In a combat situation this was scary!

Lots of tradeskill items didn't stack. If you were doing a lot of recipe "combines" you had to keep travelling back and forth between the the bank and the tradeskill container.

If you carried too many heavy items, you couldn't move until you dropped enough to lighten your load. Carrying too much also slowed you down, and degraded your combat skills. If someone gave you 1,000,000 copper coins, you'd be rooted to the spot until you dropped your new-found wealth on the floor.

Players could charm, and then buff up creatures. In lowbie areas this resulted in minor monsters ("mobs") tearing lowbie players a new butt hole.

There was no map. There was a compass, but you had to repeatedly use the skill to have it slowly rise from zero.

You had to swim a lot to raise your swim skill (and therefore swim speed).

You could not run faster than most mobs. If you were in trouble, running only meant dying slightly further away from where you were fighting.

Tradeskill recipe success was random, and you could easily have a run of bad luck where 100+ tradeskill combines failed, and failed to raise your skill level. If the 'ingredients' had been hard to get, tough. If the ingredients didn't not stack, tough. If you put in the wrong ingredients, tough. If your game connection dropped after you'd put the ingredients in the tradeskill container, tough.

Druid rings, where druid class players could port people to, were surrounded by NPC druids who hated evil races. If an evil race player ported in to a druid ring, and hadn't been made invisible, they were attacked.

Invisibility spell wore off at random, with only two seconds warning.

Spells were very expensive, relative to the fund available at lower levels. It was often the case that you'd have to decide which spell you could afford, and then go back at later levels to buy your lower level spells.

Spells failed to cast, a lot, until your casting skill increased. Even at higher levels, the spells could still occasionally fail to cast. "Your spell fizzles!" was not something you wanted to hear in a combat situation. :eek:

Areas were separate 'zones'. When you crossed a zone-line, you were placed into the new area. If a mob agro'ed on you, it would follow you all over the zone (until you zoned out of the area, killed it, or died). If you agro'ed other mobs on your run, you ended up being chased by a train of mobs. The cry of "Train to zone!" was often heard.

Travel took a long time. A looooong time. At later levels druids and wizards could port people around, but only to a few select places. If you forgot to bind at your destination, dying could mean a 2+ hour corpse run back to your corpse.

Equipment upgrades were few and far between, and so became very precious. Losing your corpse after dying was a nerve racking experience to get that equipment back. Dying meant something more than just a few minutes inconvenience!

With classes that could conjure or charm pets, if you zoned your pet vanished. If you went invisible, your pet vanished. If someone cast invisibility on you for a 'joke', your pet vanished. Pets could be equipped with items, to make them better fighters. Losing a pet after spending 15 minutes buffing them up, equipping them, and then medding for a long time to get your mana back was extremely painful.

Regeneration of mana or health was slooooow. Groups had a lot of down-time, so you had to.....talk(:eek:) to your group to pass away the down-time.

Quests were hard. Players only solved them by pooling information on the internet. There was no indication if an NPC or mob was connected to a quest, it was all trial and error. When hailed, an NPC might say something, which might have contained information about a quest. Or it might just be flavour-text, and mean nothing at all. You also had to say the right things to the NPC to elicit a further response. If you couldn't guess exactly the right thing to say, tough: you had no idea if you couldn't guess the right words to say, or if the NPC wasn't connected to a quest.
You: Hail Jophie!
Jophie: Hello there. Excuse me, I'm a little troubled at the moment.
You: What is troubling you?
Jophie:
You: What troubles you?
Jophie:
You: Can I help you?
Jophie:
You: A little troubled?
Jophie: Yes! It's those pesky bandits! They are attacking my trade caravans.
You: What bandits?
Jophie:
You: Bandits?
Jophie:
You: What pesky bandits?
Jophie:
(you get the idea)

Mob pathing was not brilliant. If a mob saw you, it might travel a non-straight path to you, agro'ing a train of mobs on to you during its journey. Pet pathing was the same: if you pet couldn't work how how to follow you, it could wander round a dungeon alerting every mob to your presence. The first thing you knew about it was when your pet suddenly reappeared, followed by the entire population of the dungeon. "Train to zone!!" :rotfl:


Ah, the good old days.

There are probably a load more things I've forgotten. Back in the day we just got on with it, and weren't molly-coddled the way current MMORG players are. :rotfl:

Steve-o

Oooh, long post.

Cycrow

pukkamum wrote: »

Very true, I feel a lot of mainstream games are now geared to casual gamers,
and kids with countless other games to play if bored or stuck.
I also blame cod for much of the demise, I know many people who call themselves gamers but only play cod, and only buy cod games.
I would love some pointers towards less mainstream games as I rely very much on dh's choices and he has different tastes to me.

it would depend what type of games you are into and what genre you like.
But steam usually has a good selection of other games, especially thier indie and greenlit games.
The steam sales are a good place to get them from as well (althou the summer sale has just ended), so you can get many games for the price of one so you get to try lots and usually get lucky with a few of them being to your liking

sirmosh

Playing modern games has certainly conditioned me to stop thinking. If you sat me in front of an old Megadrive platformer I'd probably wonder what I was supposed to be doing. I've become to used to following the map and so on. Games these days pretty much tell you every single button to press.

Retrogamer

I used to enjoy the old following games back in the day.
Pretty solid to be honest

C64
Dizzy collection
Midnight resistance
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
The New Zealand Story

Amiga 1200
Syndicate
Cannon Fodder
Mortal Kombat II
Lemmings (all of them)
Jaguar XJ220
Vroom
Viz
Mickey Mouse Castle of Illusion
James Pond 2 Robocod
Stuntcar racer

Never completed a single one without cheats, absolutely solid

Moved onto my first proper PC in 2003 but that's not really old school gaming and games were getting much easier around then.