Old games resurgent!!

[Kyriakos]

I have never played Morrowind.
In fact, only rpgs I played were jrpgs (which for many aren't really rpgs).

I'd like to see remakes of WarcraftII and Seven KingdomsII.

 

[Theov]

Last night I was playing Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole for a while then played Streets of Rage for a level and then Sonic 2 for a few minutes to see how far I can get by casually playing.

Streets of Rage?
On the genesis?

I only play old games, if I have even time.
CM0102, Civ3, RCT old sports games.

 

[Fippy]

You shouldn't underestimate the Knight's family tragic poet-samurai appeal ^^
Though I have never played 2. Only 1+3.

I think you should get GK2, one of my favorite storylines
It's frequently high on best adventure games of all time lists.

 

[Kyriakos]

I think you should get GK2, one of my favorite storylines
It's frequently high on best adventure games of all time lists.

I've heard the story is better than 1 and 3, but I just don't find the GK actor believable at all. He is far too nerdy imo ^^

 

[Hygro]

I'm a regular at playing old games. Some of them just age very well, some others I play just for nostalgia factor.
I've replayed Dark Sun : Shattered Lands somewhat recently, and it's defintely the former. Graphics are a bit of an eyesore, but rather quickly you just... forget about them, and play the game, and enjoy. Dune and Doom are also firmly in this category.
Some time ago I decided to redo the whole Eye of the Beholder serie, which are rather the latter - I have very fond memories and enjoyed tremendously the first one, but the game itself is... well, it's the basics of a dungeon crawler with really, really minimalist story.

I'm also replaying Dragon Age, but from my point of view despite being from 2009 it's not an "old game".

I also replayed Dark Sun Shattered Lands a couple years ago. That game is great.

 

[Angst]

I still like playing Morrowind, more than Oblivion or Skyrim. I think it is nostalgia, just like music of a certain era means more to me than more recent stuff.

i wanna give morrowind a try because of the writing, but knowing my track record with enjoying jank in spite of excellent writing (the old crpgs come to mind), i'll probably never really get to enjoy it

 

[Broken_Erika]

i wanna give morrowind a try because of the writing, but knowing my track record with enjoying jank in spite of excellent writing (the old crpgs come to mind), i'll probably never really get to enjoy it

There are mods that can improve it somewhat. Especially the character models.

 

[AmazonQueen]

i wanna give morrowind a try because of the writing, but knowing my track record with enjoying jank in spite of excellent writing (the old crpgs come to mind), i'll probably never really get to enjoy it

There are mods that can improve it somewhat. Especially the character models.

There are lots of good mods and I'd recommend using some of them.
There is also Morroblivion although I haven't tried it.
As an ARPG Morrowind probably isn't the best Bethesda have ever made but as a RPG its the best Bethesda has ever done.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Morrowind mechanics are like old-school rpg mechanics, unless you have a high-skill in that weapon type, you aren't going to hit anything.
Plus the vendors never had much money so all these high-end armors and weapons could only be put in a massive pile to gawk at. Although the item stacking was fun.

Spoiler :

 

[Broken_Erika]

I played Dungeon Hack a few years ago......Apparently, not the best the developer has made but still fun.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_Hack

 

[Sommerswerd]

I'm talking about stuff I played on my Windows 98, Vista, and XP.

Some of the XP games I bought from Big Fish Games still work. A lot of them don't. Some sorta work but are glitchy now.

I was lucky enough to be able to just re-purchase, so a bunch of that stuff I just went ahead and got it for STEAM. The hassle of trying to make it compatible with my new computer(s) just started to make it not worth it anymore with STEAM its always compatible. So for example I have all my Civ games on STEAM instead of on disks.

 

[Plotinus]

I find that old games (by which I mean games from the 80s and early 90s) mostly don’t hold up very well. They tend to be brutally difficult and the graphics and sound are much worse than I remember, plus you need to have a book to hand to get you through the loading screens. Arguably the least dated-looking are the text adventures, but most of them fare very poorly by comparison with modern IF, most of which is free to boot.

But I did recently play my way through the entirety of the original Populous, and that one still plays like a dream. Oh, and I’ve been playing a lot of Angband recently. That one never gets old. I’ve yet to really get into FrogComposBand, its most advanced descendant.

 

[H4run]

I find that old games (by which I mean games from the 80s and early 90s) mostly don’t hold up very well. They tend to be brutally difficult and the graphics and sound are much worse than I remember, plus you need to have a book to hand to get you through the loading screens. Arguably the least dated-looking are the text adventures, but most of them fare very poorly by comparison with modern IF, most of which is free to boot.

But I did recently play my way through the entirety of the original Populous, and that one still plays like a dream. Oh, and I’ve been playing a lot of Angband recently. That one never gets old. I’ve yet to really get into FrogComposBand, its most advanced descendant.

@Synobun don't just like this post, play Morrowind kajsdlkjafq!

 

[Synobun]

@Synobun don't just like this post, play Morrowind kajsdlkjafq!

Watching my dagger stab a bandit twenty times and having it only land a blow once mathematically does not spark joy inside of me. And I also don't like cosplaying as a scavenger hunter working off of vaguely worded clues for every quest.

 

[H4run]

Watching my dagger stab a bandit twenty times and having it only land a blow once mathematically does not spark joy inside of me

And I also don't like cosplaying as a scavenger hunter working off of vaguely worded clues for every quest.

The lack of quest marks, coupled with poorly worded directions, is indeed one of the game's weaknesses. I also agree with you on the hit-or-miss combat dictated by dice rolls. However, aside from these issues, aspects such as the immersive world, dynamic guild interactions, engaging main quest, and the sheer freedom the game provides are simply mind-blowing. I hope they impress you as well (fingers crossed!). Morrowind truly feels like it was created by a team focused on crafting an incredible, grand-scale game, rather than just aiming for profitability. I highly doubt that there will be another game developed with such dedicated personnel, unless it's an indie game developed by a small team of fewer than ten devoted developers, or sometimes even just one person.

Morrowind in gaming context, it's not just a mere game, it's a relic.

 

[Moriarte]

The lack of question marks, coupled with poorly worded directions, is indeed one of the game's weaknesses.

To me it's the main strength of games such as Morrowind. Having quest marker show me where to go exactly kills my joy instantly. Turns a game from being RPG into action title. Like Tomb Raider or Skyrim.

Compared to contemporary and modern titles especially, Morrowind has a very advanced combat system. It may appear as if the game has trashy combat system, because you missed mud crab 20 times. As a matter of fact the opposite is true. The initial dice role sets the magnitude, yes. Then skill with weapon gets calculated, opponent's skill with weapon, your strength, opponent's strength, armor skill, points of armor currently wearing, luck, endurance, how much stamina you have left, how healthy are both yours and opponent's weapons, etc. Compared to a modern game like Skyrim, this is International Space Station-level of complexity of combat. For the uninitiated it is very easy to write down 20 swing misses to bad design. In Skyrim, for comparison, every swing of a sword merely considers weapon hit points and armor rating.

I get it, some people want it simpler. Sometimes I want it simpler too. But I think it would be unfair to say that Morrowind's complexity is it's weakness. It's actually a strength some modern games urgently need to learn from, if they want to evolve.

 

[H4run]

To me it's the main strength of games such as Morrowind. Having quest marker show me where to go exactly kills my joy instantly. Turns a game from being RPG into action title. Like Tomb Raider or Skyrim

I agree with you on this, so it is clear that it's not the lack of quest marker that ruined the game but it's the poor worded direction. I still remember during the era of poor internet (where you need to visit an internet cafe in order to have internet access) I was literally stuck for a very long time on a mission trying to retrieve a certain item in a dwemer ruin (iirc, it's quite a popularly confusing and misleading quest due to a wrong wording of the game developer), even when you're 20s and got lots of free times you feel like you are wasting your time, now at 30s we definitely would not appreciate such error that would impact heavily on the gameplay.

Compared to contemporary and modern titles especially, Morrowind has a very advanced combat system. It may appear as if the game has trashy combat system, because you missed mud crab 20 times. As a matter of fact the opposite is true. The initial dice role sets the magnitude, yes. Then skill with weapon gets calculated, opponent's skill with weapon, your strength, opponent's strength, armor skill, points of armor currently wearing, luck, endurance, how much stamina you have left, how healthy are both yours and opponent's weapons, etc. Compared to a modern game like Skyrim, this is International Space Station-level of complexity of combat. For the uninitiated it is very easy to write down 20 swing misses to bad design. In Skyrim, for comparison, every swing of a sword merely considers weapon hit points and armor rating.

I disagree with you on this. I'm not gravitating toward challenge for challenge sake, it should also has its logic. Game is our way to fantasize/represent reality where we can do or explore things that we can't explore or do in our life, that's part of the enjoyment, so realism should be there in order to enhance the game immersion. And that kind of mechanic is objectively immersion breaking, I can't really wrap my head and understand anyone who prefer hitting over a holographic mudcrab until they git gud. I think your preference is due to nostalgia in that regard.

I get it, some people want it simpler. Sometimes I want it simpler too. But I think it would be unfair to say that Morrowind's complexity is it's weakness. It's actually a strength some modern games urgently need to learn from, if they want to evolve.

Alright, I'm an avid Morrowind fan, as the game got lots of its strength that may will never be repeated in the future the game sure has its weaknesses also, so tell me in your view what's its weaknesses?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I find that old games (by which I mean games from the 80s and early 90s) mostly don’t hold up very well. They tend to be brutally difficult and the graphics and sound are much worse than I remember, plus you need to have a book to hand to get you through the loading screens. Arguably the least dated-looking are the text adventures, but most of them fare very poorly by comparison with modern IF, most of which is free to boot.

But I did recently play my way through the entirety of the original Populous, and that one still plays like a dream. Oh, and I’ve been playing a lot of Angband recently. That one never gets old. I’ve yet to really get into FrogComposBand, its most advanced descendant.

I was reading some threads about Civ I the other day and realized that I can't stand to look at it. I got thoroughly spoiled with Civ II (and I must be the only person on the planet who loves the original Test of Time for its units and maps; I see no need to "upgrade" them).

A few months back I acquired the Zork game on Steam (along with whatever else is in there besides Zork).

I really wish the text version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was available to play now. I only ever played it on my old Amiga, and that was a borrowed disk.

I never did manage to get off Earth before it was destroyed.

 

[MrCynical]

For the uninitiated it is very easy to write down 20 swing misses to bad design. In Skyrim, for comparison, every swing of a sword merely considers weapon hit points and armor rating.

I get it, some people want it simpler. Sometimes I want it simpler too. But I think it would be unfair to say that Morrowind's complexity is it's weakness. It's actually a strength some modern games urgently need to learn from, if they want to evolve.

I'd class myself as a Morrowind fan, but the melee combat system is a major weakness of the game. Whether there's more "complexity" under the hood than Skyrim (very questionable), the fact is that melee combat amounts to - keep clicking on enemy - miss, miss, miss, and wait until the dice roll and formula deigns to say "hit" instead of "miss. It's much less immersive than Skyrim, where whether I hit an enemy depends on - y'know, whether I actually hit the enemy.

It means Morrowind makes a terrible first impression when it comes to combat. For a lot of people, the first taste of Morrowind combat is them clicking on a mud crab outside Seyda Neen for two minutes while it slowly nibbles them to death, while missing practically all of dozens of their attacks. I know people who've dumped the game then and there, and it's hard to blame them after such a lousy first impression.

Yeah, the miss percentage does get less unreasonable as your in-game skills improved, but all that means is that the difficulty curve is upside down, which is another design issue.

 

[Moriarte]

Alright, I'm an avid Morrowind fan, as the game got lots of its strength that may will never be repeated in the future the game sure has its weaknesses also, so tell me in your view what's its weaknesses?

Initially, Morra was a buggy mess with primitive graphics. That got vastly improved over the years, however, through modding work. Broken quests, as you mention, general instability too.

I can't really wrap my head and understand anyone who prefer hitting over a holographic mudcrab until they git gud. I think your preference is due to nostalgia in that regard.

My nostalgia, and consecutive annual returns to Morrowind-verse, are partly a factor of many modern games being inferior in complexity, which, for me, leads to lower difficulty and replayability.

There’s no need to hit over mudcrab excessively to get good once you know to attack with full stamina only and other small considerations picked up over the course of multiple replays. I observed many uninitiated youtubers hit npcs dozens of times unsuccessfully, while having empty stamina and then complaining that the game is broken. Ironic. It isn’t broken, just requires extra thinking between attacks.

I still remember during the era of poor internet (where you need to visit an internet cafe in order to have internet access) I was literally stuck for a very long time on a mission trying to retrieve a certain item in a dwemer ruin

I see what you mean! Time-wastin’. I was more fortunate in that regard. Early 90-ies dad brought home an old 286 PC written off at his work, a little later we bought a 14400 modem (14.4 kb/s) for some (very weak) internet, it all seemed like magic back then. Thus I mostly skipped an internet-cafe uprising, tinkering with hardware and playing games at home. Later we played over local internet with some mates from around the block - quake, later half life.

By the way just before internet cafes there were mortal combat (and other old non-internet game) cafes over here. Imagine two fighters, armed with wired game pads in front of old TV, 20 people behind their backs cheering for one fighter or another, screams, cigarette smoke. Constant fights for who’s next. Epic. Most experienced fighters hid their gamepads under the table, so that others couldn’t replicate secret combos.