What games are you playing now?

[chamr]

no interface, quick bar or easy way to glug down the red sauce--

Actually, there is, via a simple uncomment of one line in one of the ini files that activates hotkeys for health and mana pots. A quick google should give you the details. That was one "realistic" thing that subtracted from the fun too much for me to justify it.

 

[Krzychu]

I nearly tripled my RAM recently, so I'm back to playing Gothic 3. The difference is immense. Not to mention how I can enjoy the goodness of G3 now that the stuttering is reduced so much. I don't know how I managed to play through almost the whole game with 640 MB RAM (On medium graphical settings... sort of). Can't finish it though - I find myself unable, as of now, to make a certain decision.

@JemyM: Ah, good old FF VIII! I have some good memories of that game. Still, I found it worse than FF VII (well, obviously, though I know people that thought it was better). The Junction system is a bit complicated at the beginning, but you can get some really cool effects when you use it right. I think I never got bored with the battles in this game. It was cool that even when you had powerful characters, you could've been easily killed by certain enemies if you didn't play your cards right, or just didn't have luck.

 

[magerette]

Actually, there is, via a simple uncomment of one line in one of the ini files that activates hotkeys for health and mana pots. A quick google should give you the details. That was one "realistic" thing that subtracted from the fun too much for me to justify it.

Thanks chamr--I did read about this somewhere and I will probably go back and do it--reloading or taking a slug of health juice really amount to much the same thing, and the juice is a lot quicker.

 

[Jaz]

I did it and reinstalled Morrowind GotY. Performance is a bit better now because my computer was upgraded in February (for the first time since 2001), it runs well under 32bit Vista, and sonny's comments are hilarious.

 

[Ammon777]

World of Warcraft. Still. Waiting for a bunch of games in my sig.

 

[txa1265]

I'm with Gig, I can't believe you guys actually enjoy RPG's that old! I started gaming around '98, but now I go back and look at those games and there's no way I could stand to replay them.

Hehe ... a couple of years ago I completely replayed my first real gaming addiction - Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple ][, that I played on an emulator. Looked fine to me, though perhaps not as stunning as when I played it ~'81.

 

[Malk]

Hehe ... a couple of years ago I completely replayed my first real gaming addiction - Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple ][, that I played on an emulator. Looked fine to me, though perhaps not as stunning as when I played it ~'81.

this just proves my theory. you like it now, 'cause you played it before. if somebody, who played only far cry and newer games, tried to play wolfenstain, he would soon give up.

 

[txa1265]

this just proves my theory. you like it now, 'cause you played it before. if somebody, who played only far cry and newer games, tried to play wolfenstain, he would soon give up.

But I missed out on almost all RPG's aside from sprinklings of Wizardry and Zork in the Wolfenstein time-frame, until NWN came out on the Mac in mid '03.

Since then I have used DOSBox to experience the Ultimas and Wizardrys and other early games I had missed.

I think it is more that if you can't play 25 year old games with DOSBox you are more of a 'graphics whore' than you care to admit

 

[Gig]

I admitted that when I first made the comment. Graphics are what open the window to immersion for me. I'm good with anything from about 2000 forward. Earlier than that things start to get dicey for me.

I could advance the idea that clinging to these older titles is being overly tolerant to geriatric games by being a nostalgia whore. I would never do that because it's unfair and incorrect. You like these games because their appeal has never dulled in your eyes. That's fine and good but in no way makes you any more enlightend than the rest of the gaming masses. Older games aren't better, they're the foundation that built the current generation. Newer games aren't better, they're the product of that foundation.

Everyone likes what they like and they have their own reasons for it. Taste is a wonderfully varied sense and no-one is wrong simply because theirs doesn't match someone elses.

 

[Jabberwocky]

"...Nostalgia whore....." :lol: love it!

 

[txa1265]

Everyone likes what they like and they have their own reasons for it. Taste is a wonderfully varied sense and no-one is wrong simply because theirs doesn't match someone elses.

I absolutely agree - it is just a shame to let some of the great stories and epic games pass you by because of the lousy graphics. To me it is like saying that you prefer the new King Kong because the old one is in black & white. I am not implying 'right or wrong' in terms of taste, just that it is too easy to dismiss the older stuff - at least as easy as it is to be curmudgeony and dismiss anything new.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

And Chess has no nice graphics at all !

 

[GothicGothicness]

Are you kidding haven't you seen 3D-chess WOW it looks so good!!!!!!!11

 

[chamr]

Are you kidding haven't you seen 3D-chess WOW it looks so good!!!!!!!11

Yeah! Especially now that they spent a gazillion dollars and 3 years on expanding the board from the old, boring 8 X 8 to a board roughly equivalent to the size of Rhode Island and added amazing, life-like graphics to the pieces so that you can see the individual stones in the queen's jewelrey and the wind blowing through the knight's mane and have the game get rained or snowed on periodically with life like weather patterns depending on where in the massive board you are! Of course, they had to skimp on the gameplay, so you don't have bishops or rooks anymore. They just didn't have time left to make them work. Also, to make chess appeal to a broader audience, they kind of simplified the rules. All the pieces move like pawns now. And there's no checking or checkmate. Basically, you just run into the other guy's king and he dies right away, no matter what piece you're using. And the game "hints" at what move you should take next. And finishing the game now takes 60 hours, since you have to move your pieces for, like, hours at a time before you even catch of glimpse of the other guy's pieces. But DAMN it looks good!!!!

;-P

 

[chamr]

--reloading or taking a slug of health juice really amount to much the same thing, and the juice is a lot quicker.

My thoughts exactly. Playing the "can-I-get-away-in-time-to-find-the-damn-potion-in-my-inventory" game got real old, real quick.

 

[txa1265]

I know we're joking about Chess, but a few months ago I reviewed a PSP game called 'Online Chess Kingdoms' that had me asking ... *how* do you screw up chess?!?!

 

[Lucky Day]

Just for clarification..real chess players don't use 3d graphics. The most popular interfaces are barely a step up over telnet command lines. And some of those guys still refuse to upgrade beyond that. www.freechess.org

And the upgrades to graphics have not hurt the computer's playing power. In fact, what used to be an interesting quirk easily defeated by closed games is now considered "cheating" especially in blitz, lightning, and 10 second games. Many players have their first few moves macro'd just to save time. Thats still considered cheating too. And for clarification, Kasparov's loss to Deep Blue was phony. The world champion does not fall for a 23 move win that a 13 year old could memorize.

txa..Wizardry again is a blast. Can anyone think of a modern game that requires the player to map out the dungeon with graph paper? For extra challenge it doesn't come with a preset compass..I think there's a spell for it. The manual reads like an abbridged version of the 1st edition DM's guide..even the cartoons are alike.

 

[txa1265]

Can anyone think of a modern game that requires the player to map out the dungeon with graph paper?

Heck yeah!!! One of the best games of the year, and one you'll read me drooling about in my next handheld game article ...

 

[Ammon777]

Actually one of the factors of why MMORPGs are so addictive is actually huge nostalgia factors. I get nostalgia about being a level 1 in World of Warcraft... But then I also get nostalgia from music like Danzig and stuff, lol.

 

[Corwin]

I play Bridge online and the graphics there haven't changed in years either. I enjoy re-playing the old classics in Dosbox; for me it's the gameplay, the characters, and the story that matters.