Are there games that you tried but just couldn’t get into because they feel outdated? Games that, in theory, you would enjoy, but don’t because the controls, graphics, writing, or mechanics just don’t feel good anymore. Games that, compared to today, just don’t hold up to your standards.

I recently tried playing Heroes of Might and Magic III, and I realized that a lot of the invisible language used through game design from that era, I do not understand. There are many things that the game didn’t explain, and I assume they were just understood by players. Not only that, but I imagine there was a lot of crossover between video games and board games back then, so maybe that language was used as well. I ended up downloading a manual and putting it on my second screen and I get it and played it, but it just wasn’t for me.

I also dropped Mirror’s Edge, but this time it was because of the graphics. It looks and feels great, but the graphics give me a headache. There is way too much bloom, and for some reason, there are some parts that look like the imaginary lens has been covered in Vaseline. This didn’t bother me before, but my eyes are not used to it anymore.

There are also games like the first two Tony Hawk Pro Skater games that I can’t fully get into because they’re missing mechanics from the later games. The levels and controls feel great, but they don’t feel complete without those mechanics. It keeps me from enjoying the games as much as the others.

Please share yours!

  • timo_timboo@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Pokémon, actually. Just a month ago I wanted to play Soul Silver. But man, it is tedious. There’s so much slow dialog, long animations, and little inconveniences everywhere (even in the menus). And I feel like you also have to grind to progress, which I absolutely hate in games (but maybe I also just didn’t play well enough, whatever). So yeah, quite disappointed with it since I remember the 3DS games being quite fun.

      • BillyTheSkidMark@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I haven’t played since ORAS, but I think they’ll always have those tutorials cause they’re targeted at kids. Like I was playing the original at 10 and now my kids starting to get into Pokémon at 6.

        I feel like they should allow an “adult” version though. Like no hand holding and harder.

        It’s wild how little the most financially successful franchise of all time has innovated.

        • JokeDeity@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          I’ve always wanted there to be an option when you start a new Pokemon game that just lets you say “I’ve played Pokemon before let me get into it”, it really is a pain in the ass as an adult.

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The games really need an option to just turn off tutorials. I imagine it’s a little bit trickier than that because they need to be designed in a way a small child won’t accidentally turn it on without realizing. But there must be a way to do it.

        • Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          Civilization has settings buried in the menu like

          New to Civilization (default)

          New to Civilization VI

          New to Civilization [Expansion 1]

          New to Civilization [Expansion 2]

          Disabled

          Something like these options could go a long way -

          New to Pokémon (all tutorials)

          New to Pokémon on [Console] (tutorials specific to controls on that console)

          New to Pokémon [Generation] (tutorials specific to new mechanics in that generation)

          Disabled (no tutorials)

    • aliceblossom@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I think this is a greater problem with games that are technically aimed at children. There is so little respect for your time generally, but I think it’s especially egregious when it comes to menus, dialog, and animations. Additionally, there are many things that are in sequence (with large unneeded gaps between) that could happen more or less simultaneously.

      Conspiratorially, I think this is to pad play time, and for kids the animations and what not are jingling keys that keep then occupied enough they don’t care or notice.

      • limeaide@lemmy.mlOP
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        11 months ago

        I was just thinking this exact same thing… but about Red Dead Redemption 2. I had to stop playing it because it had no respect for my time.

        I’m used to driving to places to start a mission like in all the other GTA games, but in RDR2, it would be about 10 minutes of riding a horse before the real mission started.

        The animations take way too long sometimes, and cutscenes and a lot of dialogue are unnecessary and feel like padding. Those 1-2 second animations add up when it’s a 50+hr game

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Pokemon is better with game shark style cheats. It’s way more fun to have the option to get 100x more xp, and force Pokemon to appear rather than grind a 1% appearance rate. Pokémon even made TMs reusable eventually, but you need cheats for that in the early games.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        11 months ago

        Or just a speedup button! Red and Blue are some of my favorite games ever, but I haven’t played them without a speedup button in like 20 years.

      • timo_timboo@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Hm I’ll think about it. Seems like this is really the way to go. I was playing on a modded DSi though, so I will probably have to switch to an emulator to use these kinds of cheats. Still, sounds like a good idea.

      • benni@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This is the way. I stopped playing the originals after X/Y, but some ROM hacks and fan games are so much fun.