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General discussionAnti-nostalgia ... what do you *not* miss about old games?(290 posts)(290 posts)
(290 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted October 14, 2018
I often read things to the effect of "they don't make 'em like they used to" with regard to games and other media. Everyone who came up playing games in the 90's-00's or so (or certainly earlier) can mention something that they miss, for example, full-fledged manuals.

Well, what do you *not* miss? What annoying feature is now mostly gone? What problem has been fixed?

For me, it's physical DRM. At some point, games required me to have the CD in the drive to play (GalCiv and Age of Wonders being the notable exceptions). This annoyed me, especially when my optical drive stopped working. In fact, when digital distribution started, I thought "Finally! I won't need to dig for my CD!"

Always-on DRM was a nasty surprise.
Post edited October 14, 2018 by sergeant_citrus
Posted October 14, 2018
Cassette tapes and that screeching loading sound.
Posted October 14, 2018
Boy, where do I begin...

Physical DRM - totally agree there. Digital all the way for me (except with consoles as digital Nintendo games seem to be inexplicably more expensive then their physical counterparts)

Manuals - for me a game that doesn't adequately explain it's systems such that you need to spend 20 minutes poking around in a manual to know how to play is a bad thing. I like complicated games, but I also like them to be learnable through playing.

Bad controls - so many old RTS games in particular had awful controls, difficult cameras etc. These days most games seem to be much better experiences as far as input and controls go.

Bad UI - almost an extension of the above (though unfortunately not completely dead) so many old games have tiny buttons with low res icons that are impossible to see properly or just weird UI choices and positioning in general.

Loading times - again, not completely dead and some modern games can be even worse culprits, but in general loading times between level changes, starting or closing games etc. seem to be much better now.

Game prices - console games are still expensive but PC game prices are ridiculous compared to what they used to be. I can buy (often brilliant games) for £1, I've frequently both almost a dozen games for £8 or similar on Humble Bundle, compared to £20 - £30 minimum for anything other than bargain bin stuff (that was either old or crap, or both).
Posted October 14, 2018
Difficulty. I don't want to keep having to play the same level over and over, I don't have the time for that like I did as a kid, I'm more interested in completing the adventure even if it means cheating (so for old games I look for games with cheat codes before buying).
Post edited October 14, 2018 by tfishell
Posted October 14, 2018
Loading.........

Also the pain it is to get alot of these older titles runing on modern systems.
Posted October 14, 2018
Non-responsive parser interfaces
Posted October 14, 2018
Tank controls. Difficult to navigate menus, no mouselook.
Posted October 14, 2018
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adaliabooks: Game prices - console games are still expensive but PC game prices are ridiculous compared to what they used to be. I can buy (often brilliant games) for £1, I've frequently both almost a dozen games for £8 or similar on Humble Bundle, compared to £20 - £30 minimum for anything other than bargain bin stuff (that was either old or crap, or both).
That's a really good one. I used to wait until games hit $20 when I was a kid. These days, with much more income, I rarely spend that much on a single game. That's bonkers.
Posted October 14, 2018
Pixelhunting in adventure games. Hotspot highlights are a godsend. I absolutely loathe the idea of being stuck not because I haven't yet figured out a solution to the puzzle, but because I didn't notice something miniscule I could interact with five locations ago.

And honestly, playing Morrowind I've come to appreciate some of the much hated "handholding" elements of newer games like fast travel and objectives clearly marked on your map. I get it that it feels like dumbing down and artificial and all that, and that making your own way haphazardly around and looking for things just based on directions you were given is more authentic and can be quite rewarding, but with time it just becomes a pain in the ass. The directions can often be vague, if not outright wrong, and losing hours on looking for something isn't much fun no matter how "authentic" it feels. Even more so the lack of fast travel. Every time I need to sell my loot, or train up some skill I have to make the same trip back and forth, to one city, to another, and so on... it gets incredibly tedious.

I play games to have fun. I don't mind a challenge, but I don't want to waste my time on pointlessly tedious or frustrating stuff.
Post edited October 14, 2018 by Breja
Posted October 14, 2018
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tfishell: Difficulty. I don't want to keep having to play the same level over and over, I don't have the time for that like I did as a kid, I'm more interested in completing the adventure even if it means cheating (so for old games I look for games with cheat codes before buying).
Yeah, I came up playing NES and Genesis and some games were just obnoxiously hard. I don't think I ever made it past "Just Can't Wait to be King" on The Lion King, for example.
Posted October 14, 2018
Edit.
I see a slight stuff up on my reading of the thread,missed the ''not''.
So.I would say ''please insert disc 3'' and then a ''Retry'' and so on.
Post edited October 14, 2018 by Tauto
Posted October 14, 2018
Controls are often the big thing for me. Cumbersome, inefficient controls.
Posted October 14, 2018
The limited resolution and memory. So little space for stuff on the screen. That need to open new screens in order to reach options or other parts of the commands. Makes everything feel so heavy and cumbersome.
Posted October 14, 2018
User interface.

It's nice when the controls don't add unnecessary length.
Posted October 14, 2018
Graphics. Of course graphics aren't everything and so on, but I don't miss crude polygon graphics and limited colour palettes... or being limited to 640x480 or lower. It would be amazing to see some of my older favourites with modern visuals too.

Old german synchronisations - They supposedly got better over the years, with some newer games having really high class voice actors, but back in the 90s/early 00s we often got terrible, cheap german versions. When given the option I always went with the english dub. Still prefer them.

Like others said, being dependant on physical discs, especially for games like Riven or Wing Commander with 5-6 CDs and also "paper-based DRM", like having to search for a certain word in a manual or things like that, always was annoying.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnti-nostalgia ... what do you *not* miss about old games?(290 posts)(290 posts)
(290 posts)