What old games have you dredged up recently and why?

Really beginning to groan at playing Tales of Symphonia now. The dungeons in the second half of the game are getting more and more tedious. I just wanna get through the story, man!

YouTube?

Keithustus wrote:

YouTube?

I feel tempted, but at the same time, I'm probably 60% or more through the game. I might as well finish it while gritting my teeth!

Playing Tales of Berseria recently, I benefited from taking a week to play something else when I started getting impatient and burned out on it. Might be worth doing the same.

I appreciate that sentiment, but I'm not one able to jump between games. My memory sucks too much, heh. I'm getting closer to the end, but I don't know...really losing steam here and the dungeons are getting more and more ridiculous.

I'm about 3/4ths of the way, if not 80%, and my judgment so far is that this game just isn't that good. The story is pretty mundane and not all that compelling. The characters are very flat and they don't really grab you at all. Pair this with a game that is hopelessly padded out with long dungeons, tons of back tracking, and lots of filler and it is just not a great experience.

I'd like to finish it being that I am so close, but I don't know. I'm pretty mentally disengaged at this point.

With that level of frustration it sounds like you’re turning the game into work. Try an experiment and stop for a few days to let the game wear off. Then play something else, maybe an old favorite, for one hour. Then if you want to go back, great, or if you want to watch the rest on yt/twitch, great, and if thinking about returning makes you frustrated or angry, then just move on. You’ll enjoy gaming much more when you remember you do it for fun, not to complete everything you start, when you tell games to leave you alone when they’re not delivering the fun they promised to you.

Keithustus wrote:

With that level of frustration it sounds like you’re turning the game into work. Try an experiment and stop for a few days to let the game wear off. Then play something else, maybe an old favorite, for one hour. Then if you want to go back, great, or if you want to watch the rest on yt/twitch, great, and if thinking about returning makes you frustrated or angry, then just move on. You’ll enjoy gaming much more when you remember you do it for fun, not to complete everything you start, when you tell games to leave you alone when they’re not delivering the fun they promised to you.

This service is good advice. It's something I've been working on recently. I always feel that if I've paid the money then I should finish the game/get my money's worth out of it. I'm getting better at just moving on though.

Edit: I don't know why the word service is in this sentence!

Indeed!

Well, I picked it up again today and started doing the latest dungeon and that one was a bridge too far. I ended up uninstalling right after. It feels good! I'm going to google the story beats and be done with it after that.

Onwards and upwards!

Congratulations. It does feel good to just uninstall a frustrating game and be done with it.

Running Man wrote:

Congratulations. It does feel good to just uninstall a frustrating game and be done with it.

It's unfortunate. I would have finished it were it not for the awful, awful dungeons and filler. The second half of the game goes bananas with them and the latest one, the Temple of Darkness, was just a nightmare to even look at.

If a game doesn't respect your time, you don't owe it anything.

LastSurprise wrote:
robc wrote:

I've started playing Civ IV for the last week+ because it was the last Civ that really held my attention for several Sands' units (1000s of hours). I used to play on Prince and won, but I've lost for 8 games straight. I wonder if playing on a regular world instead of large would help.

Are you playing with the expansions, or just the base game?

Back when I played Civ IV pretty regularly, I noticed that the AI opponents that came out with Beyond the Sword -- Justinian, Gilgamesh, De Gaulle, etc. -- seemed to play better and more aggressively than the AI opponents from the base game or Warlords.

Sorry it took me so long!

I'm playing with both expansions - the complete version.

Running Man wrote:

If a game doesn't respect your time, you don't owe it anything.

Yup! It's mind blowing that whoever designed it thought those things were a good idea. And it was so weird because the first half had dungeons, but they were pretty reasonable. You would do a couple small puzzles, fight some enemies, and advance to the boss. In the second half, the dungeons became sprawling messes with tons of puzzles with lots of backtracking and each one was worse than the last.

While cleaning out our basement, I opened a trove of old PC games, manuals, and strategy guides and discovered all the old materials for Pharoah and Zeus. I started wondering if they were available in something Win10-compatible, and sure enough they're on GoG.

I've been playing Pharoah for the last couple of days and it is just as addicting as I remember. Not only that, it also loads up so fast I can go from desktop to playing in about 10 seconds. Man, these are so fun. Except when Bast destroys one of my storage yards. Stupid Bast.

Boudreaux wrote:

While cleaning out our basement, I opened a trove of old PC games, manuals, and strategy guides and discovered all the old materials for Pharoah and Zeus. I started wondering if they were available in something Win10-compatible, and sure enough they're on GoG.

I've been playing Pharoah for the last couple of days and it is just as addicting as I remember. Not only that, it also loads up so fast I can go from desktop to playing in about 10 seconds. Man, these are so fun. Except when Bast destroys one of my storage yards. Stupid Bast.

Those Impressions games really don't get old.

Gameplay, no. The reedy music in Pharoah is starting to grate on me a bit.

BoogtehWoog wrote:
Running Man wrote:

If a game doesn't respect your time, you don't owe it anything.

Yup! It's mind blowing that whoever designed it thought those things were a good idea. And it was so weird because the first half had dungeons, but they were pretty reasonable. You would do a couple small puzzles, fight some enemies, and advance to the boss. In the second half, the dungeons became sprawling messes with tons of puzzles with lots of backtracking and each one was worse than the last.

I personally think 99% of story-driven videogames are way too long, and have way too much filler content. I'd much prefer developers to make short and sweet games that wrap up a neat storyline. The freed up time could be spent on a sort of new game plus mode, for the players who love the gameplay itself above all else.

Unfortunately, game length is one of those things a small but very uhm... loud* part of the 'hardcore' gaming community is focused on. Especially for RPG type experiences.

* by "loud", I mean vile, petty, personal, entitled and probably white and male.

dejanzie wrote:

I personally think 99% of story-driven videogames are way too long, and have way too much filler content. I'd much prefer developers to make short and sweet games that wrap up a neat storyline. The freed up time could be spent on a sort of new game plus mode, for the players who love the gameplay itself above all else.

I like the approach Dragon Quest XI takes, the game is still beatable if you don't want to grind or consider it filler.

dejanzie wrote:

...probably white and male.

Is this really necessary? It doesn’t suddenly become okay to make negative associations with an entire group of people based on their gender and skin color just because they’re white males.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

...probably white and male.

Is this really necessary? It doesn’t suddenly become okay to make negative associations with an entire group of people based on their gender and skin color just because they’re white males.

Necessary? No.

Accurate? Yes.

Jonman wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

...probably white and male.

Is this really necessary? It doesn’t suddenly become okay to make negative associations with an entire group of people based on their gender and skin color just because they’re white males.

Necessary? No.

Accurate? Yes.

That about sums it up.

Playing dragon quest 8 at the moment. I have some long gaps between play sessions, more than a year in some cases. I had to turn to a guide because the gap caused me not to pick up of a few hints that would have been obvious if I had played hours ago instead of years ago.

I'm have a okay time with the game. I wish there was more customization, better hints when talking to the group, and better directions.

Sitting on the fence of starting up 'The Movies' one more time, just found the disc - no idea if it will work under W10

Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Sitting on the fence of starting up 'The Movies' one more time, just found the disc - no idea if it will work under W10

I'd love to hear how that goes if you do. I was always sad that I didn't manage to do much with this game when I had it (and I think I might even still have a copy around somewhere myself).

absurddoctor wrote:
Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Sitting on the fence of starting up 'The Movies' one more time, just found the disc - no idea if it will work under W10

I'd love to hear how that goes if you do. I was always sad that I didn't manage to do much with this game when I had it (and I think I might even still have a copy around somewhere myself).

I had a pretty good movie studio, but never did anything other than random movies.

jrralls wrote:
absurddoctor wrote:
Peoj Snamreh wrote:

Sitting on the fence of starting up 'The Movies' one more time, just found the disc - no idea if it will work under W10

I'd love to hear how that goes if you do. I was always sad that I didn't manage to do much with this game when I had it (and I think I might even still have a copy around somewhere myself).

I had a pretty good movie studio, but never did anything other than random movies.

Also, there is not a single game in existence that captures what it is like to make movies.

I picked up Shadow Man in the last GOG sale. I still have my N64 copy, but I've had an urge to play the game and decided to just pay the $1.50 or so to save the hassle of digging out and hooking up the N64. It's my first playthrough in probably about 15 years. Despite the fact that I'm actually enjoying it a fair amount, now that I'm writing about it I'm finding I mostly have negative things to say which is unfortunate.

It hasn't aged particularly well. It's one of those games that gives you platforming challenges despite clunky controls, which is an instant turn-off. It also plays like a metroidvania, but it has no map and the game is so dark that it's hard to see, which can make exploration a little frustrating. The world is segmented fairly well though, so you don't normally get too lost. And combat is generally super repetitive - you rarely need to do anything other than spam with the first gun you get.

It's not all bad though. The overall setting and voodoo theme is fun and still seems pretty unique. The music is great and the enemy sound effects are generally nice and creepy. There's also a decent amount of plot and lore to read through, which I enjoy.

I recently installed Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. I've owned Baldur's Gate since its initial release. I've probably started that game at least 15 times and failed to get past Chapter 3.

I don't recall why I stopped playing in each of those instances. I love the D&D universe and I've played many campaigns and enjoyed the old AD&D CRPGs.

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm further than I've ever been. I just finished Neera's quest(a new character from the Enhanced Edition) and I'm headed to do some misc quests nearby.

There are a couple of things helping me this time around:
1) I'm playing in Story Mode. This is a new feature in the Enhanced Edition. It essentially makes your party invincible. Encounters are extremely easy but at least I'm getting through the game and am experiencing the story.
2) I am recording my play through and posting on YouTube. I don't have a lot of views but I look forward to posting a new video every few days. Here's a link to my play list : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Oh what a perfect thread! I hauled out my old ps3 a month ago when I learned I could use my ps4 controllers with it. Why, you ask? Fight Night Champion, EA's boxing game. It remains the best boxing game and maybe the best sports games of all time. There is no way to remaster due to having to license each individual boxer.

What old strategy game do you think would hold up best in 2019?