Computer graphics and sound effects have come a long, LONG way since the good old days of 2D sprites and MIDI music. However, the standard of games have dropped a lot since those days. Today, Ken takes a hard look at the current state of gaming. Just how did we progress so far in games and yet lost touch with what was most important? Click to find out! Link : Where Have All The Good Games Gone?
Hi all! I'm a gaming dunce. 3D-Tetris and Spider Solitaire are about the extent I go. I like Worms (cute game -- although I can't play it) and Sims (SimTower and The Sims are the only ones I spent any amount of time playing). However, a few of my friends who do game read the article and here is some of what they had to say:* * If you're wondering how come I'm posting their comments, it's 'cause they haven't -- and didn't want to -- register in the forums yet.
Hahhaa...I thought Lucas Arts was synonymous with adventure games... I've just finished Sam & Max today I have missed out almost a decade ago!!! I don't like Sam & Max that much. I think Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, Monkey Island are seriously good. Those were the days...
oh. I totally forgotten about Sierra and their line of superb games too. my friends and I used to cramp up at his place last time for a go at King's Quest... Indeed those were the fun days. None of the recent games have given me such an impact. The last one I remembered was Planescape: Torment... that was one real superb game. Played it through even though it was my STPM exams during that time. Thank god I passed my exams anyway
I've just tried Uplink which dashken so recommends i have to agree with him. That game rocks. it's reminds me about the time when i played UFO: Enemy Unknown and UFO: Terror from the deep. always wanted to know how it feels to be a hacker? Highly recommended Thanks Dashky!!!
Although I'm a terribly poor adventure gamer, but I have to admit, they are just so damn enjoyable and funny! Even if you play it again today, you won't feel it's outdated at all, except for the graphics. There's even something called ScummVM to allow you to play those LucasArts games based on Scumm (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) engine, which includes all the games I've mentioned above. Of course you will still need the original copy of the games.
hello, I've got this article in my inbox and posted it at my local hardware/software/gaming review site; However I do not agree with the author on several levels. Please tell me what you think is a "high end" system? I reviewed a last generation nForce2 400 motherboard from MSI with a XP2200+ I got 2nd hand and powered with 2x256Mb PC3200, videocard.. 2nd hand Geforce 4 Ti4600. All together the system did not cost me a lot (less then $500 to be exact) I can run the latest games at 1024x768 with medium/high quality on this machine, including Doom3. so the argument of having to have to latest gear to play todays games is invalid in my eyes! your second remark is that there are no games out there now which don't require fast videocards? Locomotion (the follow-up of Transport Tycoon) is just released, it runs fine of even the most modest systems gameplay wise you are wrong to believe that no other good things but FPS and RTS have been released recently. I'm sure a lot people had tons of fun the GTA series on the PC, including the latest one, Vice City. Which plays wonderfull with the multiplayer mod add-on! if you like a bit more serious, then I strongly suggest you check out the game "Mafia". it is recent, but not from this year. It has a great storyline, good voice-overs, good graphics (even today), entertaining gameplay (very varied!) , great sound, awesome music and a convicining atmosphere, recreating the '30 Gangster scene. I think you should not look at all the hype game titles to base your opinions one. Smaller, less funded, games are being released constantly which retain the gameplay and innovations of "yore". or they recreate a golden oldie and update it to a new version. TrackMania comes to mind, multiplayer fun like the original "Stunts". where you and your buddies play on the same PC and try to beat the tracktimeof your friends on your self-created tracks. but.. I'm rambling and ranting here keep up the good work Rojakpot, and please drop the "The" before each article your publish
I think you misunderstood quite a bit. "I reviewed a last generation nForce2 400 motherboard from MSI with a XP2200+ I got 2nd hand and powered with 2x256Mb PC3200, videocard.. 2nd hand Geforce 4 Ti4600. All together the system did not cost me a lot (less then $500 to be exact)" This is considered as quite a recent system, it's still less than 2 years old. Many people are still stuck with GF2MX till today. And I'm pretty sure you won't be able to enjoy Doom 3 with that card. During the 386/486 era, we don't have to spend SO MUCH on 3D cards, there are so many good games that will work without 3D card. Even if you have an extremely slow system, these games do not depend on raw framerates to play. For example, adventure games. All the games you have mentioned are all 3D games, and yes, I've played Mafia and I agree it's a good game. But how often do you get games like this today? What you have to understand is, all these cool graphics still need a good 3D card to enjoy. I remembered playing Mafia on my Kyro2 and it wasn't really playable at high details, which already proves that you still need a decent system to play game.
I've been gaming since the Sega Mega Drive, way back since 1989. ALot of games have passed through my hands and heart, ranging from the bad to the good to the downright horrible. One game i still play to this day? Tarnsport Tycoon Deluxe (1995). Wow, honestly, never have i played a transport sim so engrossing, easy to understand and FUN! I've spent hours and hours and hundreds of hours desiging my own maps, building and rebuilding my transport empire and fiddled with it to my heart's content. And sadly, no other sim or game I have played since has ever come close to replicating the level of replayability of that one title. The editor bundled with the game was so intuitive and easy to use. You cant say the same about the latest editors for Far Cry maps or Unreal Tourny 2K4, can you? Good graphics are not a prerequisite for a great game. It's that simple. I play tetris on my PDA and it's fun. I played the much-maligned GOlden Axe 2 on my sega mega drive, and it was fun. And dont get me started on FF1, 2, or 3. 2d Sprites, and great gameplay? gimme gimme. The focus of the industry has shifted. It's a sad reality. The gamers don't really matter anymore, the mainstream do. And the mainstream are more likely to buy something they like to see? There, eye candy has substituted substance. DOnt get me wrong, I enjoy good graphics as much as the next guy. But look at the emphasis nowadays. Hardly anyoen talked about Doom3's storyline. It was always going to be about John Carmack's latest masterpiece, the in-game graphics engine. Is that what made the original Doom a hit? No! The same can be said of Far Cry, and the hype tacked on to its CryENGINE. It's a good game, yes, but not everyone can play it. To even appreciate the WATER effects, you'll need at least a Geforce FX. ANd most of my non-geek friends are still stuck with GeForce3s or 2s. There needs to be a change in game design emphasis. The last title that truly hit me in the heart and stayed, was TTD. And that was almost ten years ago. What a damning indicement of the current gaming industry.
hi jmke. thanks for your comments that's the purpose why i wrote this article.. to get us all to be a bit more critical at the gaming industry today then just take any crap they give us. anyways. i do agree with you that we can get a pretty decent system that runs most of the games today at lower quality levels without a problem. however, my point was (perhaps i failed to put it clear) was that there are many people out there that do not see a point to upgrade their current system that runs their daily apps well. so why is there a need to upgrade their systems? Such an example are my brothers. They aren't serious gamers, but uses computers for their work and is stuck with gf2mx class cards. so, just because they don't want to upgrade, should they be penalised from great adn fun games? i think not. Sometimes, it frustrates my brother that publishers don't re-release games such as full throttle, monkey island, UFO: Enemy Unknown, Fallout and such anymore. These types of games have very low resource requirements but it extremely fun to play.. why? well, i think i said 9 out of 10 .. lol.. agreed, there are still some games that don't need fast vid cards. but it's far too little. Well, FYI, I just agreed to buy from Dashken an old copy of the game Uplink he bought 2 years back. this game has only one interface... no fancy graphics at all.. but one word.. F-U-N! I'd definately like more games like this to come into the mainstream market. Sigh... so much for all the commercialisation. Cheers!
Reason why the old games are better Back then you could program a game with a few programmers and alot of the good programmers started out simple selling shareware games and moving onto bigger things. The problem with todays games is they tend to get made as some kinda big production. You have all your coders, your artists, sound guys, motion capture guys etc etc. I'm pretty sure all the good ideas get shot down by the endless amount of mangers / project managers. I doubt all of the games I listed below were made by a whole team of people, all still having great playablity. There were some great games such as lemmings, cannon fodder, carmen sandiago, 720, the incredible machine, jones in the fast lane, ironman super off road, street rod, rampart, prince of perisa skate or die, stunts , ufo enemy unknown, syndicate etc. Almost each one took less than a disk each when compressed, nothing close to the 1-4 cds required for most games now days. None of them needed a 3d card all had great gameplay each having completely different tasks to do. And those are just the ones I remember playing. Since I haven't seen alot of quality new games i tend to focus on retrogames and abandonware games also following emulation projects like MAME gives me the ability to play all those old games that i used to put all my money in.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Lemmings! Cannon Fodder! UFO : Enemy Unknown! Man.. Those are really great games! Thankfully, there is now Lemmings on Palm but I have yet to try it out. Hmm.. I wish they would start creating games like The Pandora Directive, UFO : Enemy Unknown and Close Combat.
new user on these forms, but i saw this article and i just couldn't help it. i've been saying the same thing for years! what happened to the good 'ol days?? i remember when i was 13 and i picked out my first PC game for myself: Privateer2. i still play that thing today. what happened to the good adventure games? anyone played the joyrneyman series? what about the famous zork series? (ok maybe not the text ones, but all the cd games were all gold). anyone tried lighthouse from sierra? wish i could get that one working again, but the cd is too wrecked. now i know someone here has played at least ONE wing commander game. or possibly freespace 1 or 2? and how can i forget the two system shock games? pure originality there in my opinion. i'm sure there are plenty out there, but in the last couple years i've taken to collecting older games. some are worth a bit nowadays too....remember me mentioning my first game privateer2? at one point i couuuld have gotten $80 US on ebay for it....nearly double of what it was bought for. if anyone's currious, my small vintage collection follows. if not, move along. wing commander 3,4 and 5 (i have 1 and 2 downloaded) privateer 1 and 2 (of course) system shock 1 and 2 bang gunship elite bioforge (can you tell i like origin games? hehe) freespace 1, 2 and silent threat (FS1 expansion) lighthouse joyrneyman project 1,2 and 3 (the third one sucks...on the fall of adventure games) return to zork, zork nemesis and zork grand inquisitor bloodnet chronomasater all i can think of for now....most are in full retail boxes with all the documentation. its one of my little hobbies oh and one last thing about the article...since when did you need a radeon 9600xt to enjoy generals at full throtle? i play it at full throtle , 1024x768 on a radeon 9000 pro 64mb and an athlon xp 1600+...nothing too powerful by any means. hell i even play doom3 on this at 800x600 and medium detail. sure the framerate isn't always great, but its more than playable.
I hope you are refering to C&C Generals and not Full Throttle! Actually, that game has pretty high requirements for an RTS game. I know it was pretty bad on my bro's P3 750 with a Radeon 9100.
Haha I loved that game! Used to go over to my friend's house to play. Completed it so many times but never got bored of it And as Adrian mentioned - Lemmings! Btw, has anybody played a game called OMF 2097? It's a side-view robot fighting game. Best. Game. Ever. Released around 1994 or 1995 I think. Played it on my 486DX 33MHz, then when my uncle got a Pentium I played on that too...it became insanely fast Man those were the days...
Well... A couple of comments... First, there have been some good recent innovative games you don't need a high powered computer to play. Try out the Hitman series for one, single player assassin and your choice of FPS style where you can blow everything up or choose to sneak through the entire map with heart pounding to put a wire around your targets neck. Graphics are pretty good actually. Second, games do take a lot of resources to make nowadays and usually its the corporate mindset that ruins the innovation. Piracy is also ruining the chances of anyone going out on a limb, why develop games where a lot of people will simply download a copy of it and play it (single player like). Theres really no profit in video games anymore, especially RPG and Flight Sims. We've created a generation of impatient video gamers who base their self esteem off of how well they frag others, and download/develop hacks when their skills are sub-par. They have no place for flight sims or rpgs or any game where they have to think. Want a perfect example? Go play Americas Army, a FPS where skill combined with tactics/thinking will piss off people to no end. When you kill some guy for the fourth time in a row by suckering him to an ambush and not rushing like your are 'supposed' to do in a FPS you will get insulted. Third, you are right... games are sadly lacking these days. I grew up on Zork adventure games, AH-64 Apache and F-117 Stealth Fighter, and the various shareware games you mentioned. I remember Fellowship of the Rings, it had a manual a couple hundred pages thick of documentation/storyline. You won't see that nowadays in the latest 'graphic' releases. Yes, I mourn the loss of sims like Descent series, Freespace, and RPG's like Baldurs Gate. So many games that could have their potential like Dungeon Seige which is beautiful and they could put in the storyline if they just took the time. It could easily be as good as Baldurs Gate if they changed the gameplay slightly and actually put in a storyline with quests etc. Turn based strategy games as well... Lord of the Realms 3 was a big dissapointment for me. Why couldn't they combine the old style Lords 2 with oh... can't think of the name of the game, recent Castle strategy game where you build and micro manage everything. Really slick graphics. Oh well... rant off. I too hope the industry comes to its senses and anti-piracy is put in place strong enough to give them incentive. I also hope that things change for other reasons, the generation we are raising up literally doesn't think things through, they can't type, and they can't spell... just look at all the forums with their 'leet' talk. Its saddening to say the least. Bring back the days of wing commander with story and heart, Baldurs Gate or Krondor, Descent, Civilization... thats my hearts cry.
consoles are going in the right direction, they have a 5 year life span and many great games (and bad ones too) and you don't have to upgrade your GFX every six months, whenever a console comes out that does AA & AF with great visuals and backwards compatible with older games, that will be the end of my pc gaming and back to console gaming, for there are more games on console with great replay value then they are on pc
