RPGs you thought aged well but didn't?

Have you tried Spine for Gothic? It's an all-in-one patcher and seems to work very well. Unfortunately, Gothic2 has become clunky to me. Sad to say, it was my favorite game for years but I just can't get into it anymore.

OK - this is SO cool! Spine took care of my issues on the Surface Pro! Gothic 2 NotR plays great ... interestingly Spine trashed the files responsible for dialog (sound AND text) as apparently it thinks the GoG install looks like a pirated copy and changes a few file extensions. Known problem, easy to fix and BAM - running great again! Thanks again SO MUCH for the pointer!

Yeah, I'm not sure any games age badly while at the same time think that all games probably age badly, and while this may seem like an impossible statement it's really not.

As I have thought more, the one thing I think marks something that has "aged badly" is when it works on release but has so much custom non-standard code that it immediately breaks on a new OS or CPU/GPU generation. My son had a game "Spiderman and the Sinister Six" in the early 2000s that worked great on ONE Dell laptop I had running Win98 but never on anything else ... when the laptop died the game was dead as well.
 
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I would say Fallout 1 and 2. I tried replaying Fallout last year and the UI is a mess. It takes ages to do anything compared to newer games. The graphics look really bad too.

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I'm just going through some games from yesteryear now.

So far I've played two which I would have had down as "All time classics" prior to playing, but upon returning…..found them average at best.

The first - Chrono Trigger

It's not awful by any means, but it really hasn't stood the test of time (irony). The combat is just so devoid of any real challenge or tactical thinking, and the whole thing seems to get really padded out around the half way point. It just gets real boring real quick.


The second - Phantasy Star 4

Overall the game's just SO simple & shallow. The absence of secrets & hidden extras in RPG areas really hurts it, and the excessive battle frequency ground me down.

Also it's been a few years since I played it, but the last time I tried to go through Baldurs Gate 2, I found the pathfinding issues to be simply too much to cope with.
 
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It's just new filters/shaders to enhance like ReShade not actual new graphics.

Still it looks better then the original that I can't deny.:)

Also you can download other mods to help modernize NWN on neverwinter vault.
 
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I prefer the old graphics from the comparison images, they have better contrast and lighting (and also runs on my post 3.0 open gl computer).

Did they do anything to the control scheme to bring it closer to the Dragon Age: Origins control scheme (in that you can strafe with the keyboard while movement is through the mouse)?
 
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Did they do anything to the control scheme to bring it closer to the Dragon Age: Origins control scheme (in that you can strafe with the keyboard while movement is through the mouse)?
Not that I've noticed sorry. There are camera and control mods though.

Back to my earlier reply these mods help. Just search the Vault.

Recommended for Non-Enhanced Bioware 1.69 version.

  1. Enhanced GUI
  2. Improved Camera Mod + Camera Height Control System
  3. NWShader
  4. Project Q
  5. CEP 2.65
 
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Also I'd like to mention these two Sacred Idols:

1. Final Fantasy VII
Yes, I know, but honestly: by today's standards, the CGI is ugly, the gameplay is repetitive, and the story is a jumbling mess.
The only saving grace is the music, which is unequivocally excellent to this very day.

2. Planescape Torment
Again: the game is fundamentally broken on a design level: combat sucks, graphics is very uneven, demands a FAQ to play properly, etc, etc.
The only saving grace is the story and setting, which are great, the unofficial "book" is a good read to this very day.

Make no mistake: these are historically important games, that were great fun back then -- but you have much better options today.
 
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I've said it few times before here at the 'Watch and I still believe it: For me games don't really age as they are simply products of the time in which they're made. It's people who age and change. So I've always questioned the overall philosophical notion of a game actually aging. It doesn't change - it mostly stays the same (not counting patches and DLC haha) whereas it's actually humans who develop and have their taste shaped over time.

To be honest many players are simply spoilt rotten by modern gaming and can't handle anything that doesn't hold their hand or requires an actual investment of their will or imagination. Part of this obviously may also be lifestyle choice and gaming generally becoming less embedded in challenge (as from the arcade era) and more about pure leisure and relaxation.

A gentle change or switch in mentality and approach can often overcome superficial subjective perceptions of "bad graphics" or so called "old fashioned gameplay". Consider the idea that potential peceived flaws in older games are actually more of a reflection of one's willingness to make the adjustments required.

A good example of this for me recently has been competing online in playing the classic shoot 'em up Galaxian. I had some trouble with the game's very unforgiving low firing rate and was quite disillusioned at first with how slow my progress was with it. Now I could have easily rejected the game on some "it's too old, it's out-moded, inferior to Galaga and out of date etc etc" line of thinking, but instead I discovered meaning and joy in its requirement for accuracy and precision. This simple realisation made it much easier to enjoy and my scores quickly improved.

Thus, I would encourage other players holding the notion of a game "aging badly" to also perhaps look within to see what's changed in their own gaming expectations and habits or indeed to understand what is holding them back personally from enjoying an older game before categorically rejecting it. It might create another level of appreciation for it. Anyway, just a few thoughts.
 
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Thus, I would encourage other players holding the notion of a game "aging badly to also perhaps look within to see what's changed in their own gaming expectations and habits or indeed to understand what is holding them back personally from enjoying an older game before categorically rejecting it. It might create another level of appreciation for it. Anyway, just a few thoughts.

Hmm…food for thought as they say I never thought of it that way. Thanks for sharing.:thumbsup:
 
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I've said it few times before here at the 'Watch and I still believe it: For me games don't really age as they are simply products of the time in which they're made. It's people who age and change.

Well, obviously you are right, as games are constants.
However "games aging" has a different common meaning than it's inherent one.
Pretty similar to "The sun is shining today", which everyone accepts as "Today there are no clouds", while in fact the sun is always shining, even at night, just that it shines in the other side of the planet.

Therefore the difference of game which "aged bad" and one which didn't is naturally always that it is stronger entangled or focused in technologies or concepts which have made bigger leaps and which evolved higher standards than they had back then. So if you as a player are not accustomed to these new standards or are not that connected strongly to these standards, you will have an easier time when going back.
 
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I would say Fallout 1 and 2. I tried replaying Fallout last year and the UI is a mess. It takes ages to do anything compared to newer games. The graphics look really bad too.

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??? looks great to me, Fallout and Baldur's Gate aged great. When i think of something that aged badly i would think of Wizardry 6 and 7: no automap, obscure puzzles and dialogue system, no hotkeys, no autonotes, overall slowness, intense savescumming required and you need to spent some good time reading the manual before starting to play the game.
 
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Just playing through FF3/6 now on the SNES. Ugggggh. Horrible experience so far. Has it's moments, but I'm pretty much hating the whole thing.

Determined to finish it, but need a breather from it for a while now.
 
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Probably every JRPG I played in the '90s. One specific one I've been curious about is Vagrant Story. I liked it a lot when it came out, but I have a feeling I would have a tough time with it today.


I would argue that JRPGs actually took a step back in playability with the PS1. Now you've got longer loading times, long flashy, often unskippable animations and of course horribly low poly models. Sure, some SNES RPGs had slightly too long animations as well, but they really went ham with it in the PS1 era. There are obviously exceptions, I recently got the chance to play the Suikoden series, and it avoided most of the pitfalls that plagued many PS1 era JRPGs, but as a rule, PS1 era RPGs have aged worse than SNES era ones (at least post the very early years of the SNES, when they were basically NES RPGs with more colours).

I would say Fallout 1 and 2. I tried replaying Fallout last year and the UI is a mess. It takes ages to do anything compared to newer games. The graphics look really bad too.

I would have to agree. As much as I like Fallout 1 & 2, they're the kind of games that someone who did not play them when they were relevant is likely to give up on, due to the interface. Heck, I got a pretty clear example of this somewhat recently when I was talking about classic RPGs with one of my colleges, and one of my students (who's an adult, just someone fresh out of high school) interjected and mentioned just how bad he thought Fallout 1 was, because of the interface. And I feel like that view is somewhat representative, the interface is making the game a lot less playable than it should be.
 
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