I'm not sure why I'm making this thread, I'm not asking for advice or anything... I guess it's just to share an experience with what for many is THE Good Old Game.

I have played the HoMM series so much it would probably scare me if someone told me how many hours it was. It feels like it could add up to years. And most of that was probably HoMM III. But it's been years since that now. Today, a friend came by, and he was really insistant we install HoMM III and play a couple of games. And it was downright surreal how much I forgot of a game I thought was forever etched into my brain. He totally steamrolled over me as I was making mistakes of a total noob.

Has that ever happened to any of you? Returning to a game you think you know like the back of your hand only to discover how much you actually forgot? It's kind of surreal. I guess losing is never fun, but this was somehow particularly frustrating.

I used to be really good at the soccer game on here, VR soccer, I could win damn near any game in my sleep. Now I forget damn near everything and can't win anything.

@Breja: 18 years have passed and i'm still in shape. :p

Don't sell yourself so short; you've always sucked. :P

At many games, yes :D A drunk iguana could beat me at Warcraft at any given point in my life. But not HoMM. Now, I'm not saying I was awesome, tournament worthy or anything, but I was pretty good. Good at least to put up a decent fight. I used to know all the units strengths and weaknesses well enough to instinctively know the outcome of a battle. In fact, I had most of the game down ot instinct, at least the early stages of developing the town and gathering your strenght. Today I didn't even recognise a lot of the artefacts and locations on the map, so I wasn't sure what's worth going for and what's not.

I was just having some fun with you Breja, you didn't have to give me a serious answer. :P

I know, I thought the iguana bit made that clear enough (it was obviously a joke, the iguana would have to be sober). But on the off chance that someone else might join the thread I felt like I may add something more useful :D

This could be a great thread but for my derailing because there are A LOT of games I've noticed I am horrible at years later, mostly platformers and fighting games. I attributed that to my old age and worsening reflexes but someone pointed out I probably don't play Mortal Kombat ten hours a day like I did in high school hence I'm just rusty.

Well, it's probably not quite the same but....

There used to be an old baseball game for the old Nintendo (yeah, the FIRST ONE). I think it was Baseball Stars or something like that. Anyway, you pressed a button to pitch, a button to swing, a certain button to send runners or throws to certain bases.... etc. etc. etc.

I absolutely RULED that game. Everyone in my close association of family and friends refused to even play with me anymore, and it got so if I wanted a game i'd have to go to local watering hole, talk some shiite, and get someone who thought they were good to play me. And then they'd learn they really weren't all that good either.

To put it short, I ruled. Period.

Last week a very similar game was available in a humble bundle. In fact, the buttons are almost exactly the same (if I'm remembering correctly from 30 years ago LOL) but even if they're not exactly the same the gist is it's a very similar game play mechanic with updated graphics and such.

And I suck. I couldn't beat a newborn who played on EXTREME while I played on VERY EASY. Not exaggerating (OK, maybe little, maybe not a newborn... but an infant I have no doubt).

The game of baseball hasn't sped up. But my brain and reflexes have slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwed down. I'm still "thinking" about what button to hit to send the ball to second by the time the runner has passed second and started to third.....

And batting????? Fuhget about it. No way. No how. Not happening.

I played that game for HOURS and I think I hit one or two balls hard and fair... never a home run. And it was so bad on defense I actually got frustrated and finally quit.

It sucks. I just can't play baseball any more even on a computer. I just can't "think" fast enough. Dammit.

I have the same problem and getting older doesn't help. However I think you shouldn't be too concerned, as any game usually takes time to re-establish the synapses. I expect if you played two or three games you would be back at your best.

I know you weren't asking for help, but I always like to mention....in H3 if you dig your coastline, enemies can't land. Nor can you, so leave a spare hero on the last spot until you get TP.

As for going back to games, any flight sim I was known as being good at due to spatial awareness and leading shots. Nowadays I have a job to see the enemy. I watched some lets plays of IL2 stormovik, and STILL can't see the ground forces even when they are being fired at.

Games like Colonization, Alpha Centauri, Civilization, all of which I excelled at when they were new, take time to relearn the best strategies and the little secrets that make the difference between struggling and making good progress.

FPS like MoH and CoD I am a bit slower, but at least I know where the enemy is...except when I forget.

I was only so so at platformers (on the Spectrum no less), but don't even go near them now.

I'd probably get there, but it would take a while. Really though, I think it's not just about being bad at it, it's also just discovering that how much I forgot about something I was so familiar with. It's kinda like revisiting a place you used to know, you knew every nook and cranny, and suddenly you realise that something is actually in the opposite corner, or you don't remember something having been there at all, that was there all along. It's somehow frustrating to confront just how faulty our memory of something we think we know perfectly can be.

Don't feel too bad about it, Breja. I suspect that you, just like me, enjoy Heroes of Might and Magic for its singleplayer experience rather than for its hotseat mode. Let's not forget that Heroes 1-3 had an absolutely superb AI.

I experienced exactly the same thing when I played for the first time against a friend. I was carefully managing my resources to unlock the Pheonexies, and he just quickly built low level 1-4 creatures and utterly destroyed me at the start of the second month. That's the day I realized that I just don't enjoy the multiplayer part of games in general.

I enjoy co-op games immensely, but competitive games are too stressful for me to bother getting good at.

At least not in Starcraft. I've played the campaigns through many many times in the past, and now decided to give it yet another run due to the free updated version.

I was actually surprised how fast and easily I completed missions this time, and e.g. reached the end of the Terran campaign. I think one reason is that earlier I wanted to do everything perfect, e.g. kill and destroy every single enemy unit before proceeding to the next mission, reload the game if I lost some major unit, reload it the enemy Zerg (Defiler) is able to cast Plague on my troops etc.

E.g. yesterday in a Protoss mission I received a Plague on six of my Protoss Carriers, which made their armor permanently go to zero (their shields still work). Earlier I would have reloaded the game so many times until I am able to kill the enemy Defilers before they cast Plague, but this time I just decided to take it and deal with it. I'll manage to the end with my mere shields then, and proceed to the next mission.

All you need is a few games to warm you up, the rest will come back naturally (hopefully) unless you've erased it from your memory. I get the same thing with fighting games where I forget the special attacks and combos.

What races were you guys playing as? I'm still struggling to finish the campaign. I'll probably get steamrolled if I tried multiplayer