Finished playing Zelda: The Minish Cap earlier. Okay game, not great. It's a lot like Zelda: A Link to the Past, both in gameplay and structure, so I booted that up afterward to compare. Played a good solid 2 hours and loved it, amazing game.

Now... is it actually better (much better) or does it only SEEM like that because I have nostalgia goggles on?

You can find similar examples... Deus Ex versus Human Revolution, Thief 2 versus 3, Final Fantasy whatever vs. Final Fantasy whatever.

Are these old games really better or do we just think they are? Miami Vice, watched today, is a fucking terrible show... but maybe nostalgia is different with games.

Some old games are just better, some games are better through nostalgia glasses. Anyone who says with universal conviction that older games are better are swimming in a nostalgia ocean.

They are better. At least in my opinion. I really, really tried to play modern FPS games, modern RTS games, and they are all DUMBED DOWN as hell.

Dumbed down so far I just can't stand them. This is why I love to play old games on GOG

I still prefer Ultima 4 than shits like Risen or Arcania, even though I haven't played any Ultima game before GOG hosted them, so nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

it depends not on a genre, but on what you expect from a game. For example, new games have mostly better GUI, better tutorials, etc.

Many of us live here for the nostalgia factor, and sometimes I think we forget this is a business, not a rose-colored scrapbook. (Well, the forum can be a scrapbook...) I'm biased in calling Speedy Eggbert my favorite game of all time; it probably brought me the most joy any game every has at the time, however.

I do think many older games were more colorful and creative, but the difficulty was much higher (and I think many were lacking ability to change difficulty), too, which is a deal-breaker for me.

Super Mario World.

Best platformer of all time.

Don't even try to counter-argument that, or else I will hunt you down, strip you of your skin, and firedance around you naked.

I don't think all of it is nostalgia, but I also don't think that old games are better. There are a lot of good, old games (heh), but, at least from my relatively young perspective, they aren't "better" than more modern games. They are different in many ways, but that doesn't mean they are better.

Super Mario 64 for Nintendo DS.

All I have to say ;)

There are several factors involved, but the biggest one is probably pre-selection of the sample. When you're picking an old game to play, you have a higher chance to pick a really good one, because (1) the total number of good games produced between 1980 and 2007 is bigger than the number of good games produced in the last 5 years, (2) the bad games produced in the past have often vanished into obscurity, and (3) people will talk much more about the _good_ old games than the bad ones. Hence, your chance of ending up with a good game when playing old ones is higher than when playing new ones.

There are other factors involved, of course: Technical progress allows today's games be objectively better in terms of graphics and music, while changes in development philosophies arguably created more mediocre games and less outstanding ones. But imho the biggest factor is the one I listed above.

Actually I like this. Call me a masochist if you wish.

I agree. New games have many things (mostly in terms of accessibility) made better than old ones.

But on the other hand, I tried HARD to find any modern game better than Age of Wonders 2 or even Age of Wonders 1 in the same genre, but I couldn't.

Ps. I like to draw my own maps in dungeon crawlers. It's the whole point, to be honest. Or at least to make your own notes on maps, like in Ultima Underworld. It helps me to suck deeper into the atmosphere. It's just like YOU were entrapped in some dungeon and on YOUR survival skills depends how far you go. I love it.

i believe they are better. Sure nostalgia has a big part but only a big part when you actually played them and loved them all those years back.

When i play a gog that i never played before i am actually amazed how much fun they are and like when i was younger i play them hours at a time. Only a few modern games have that quality. Most of them i quit after 30 min to go play another one for 30 min and so on and so on. Strangely enough when that would not be the case most games these days would be finished in 1 or 2 sittings and that just sad...

And again - I find some classic games so much better than modern ones, even if I haven't played them in my life even once. So nostalgia has nothing to do with it.

I just prefer some old games more than new ones.

Mostly because they are more complex and guarantee more freedom to me, as a player. Like in lords of the realm, for example.

Honestly, I find myself preferring newer games lately. Mostly because of the better accessibility, I think, and more respect for the player's time (though my perception may be skewed there, because I try to actively avoid anything too grindy these days). For example, I have lots and lots of nostalgia for the first X-COM, but I tried playing it the other day and it's torture. Even though I'm sure it's as much fun as it has always been.

(And if you ask me, DXHR is a much better game than the original Deus Ex ever was.)

I'm not sure where I was going with this; I don't think there's a simple answer to this question. But I don't really feel even nostalgia can make me enjoy something that's hopelessly dated.

I've been asking myself this question many times.for me in 75% of cases it is true that old games are better.And if i start to doubt it i simly turn on fallout 2 and fallout 3 and case closed.