Hardcore Gamers - Living In The Past?

Thanks to NTSC-uk for their editorial arguing that overly nostalgic gamers are failing to appreciate the videogames of today. The writer suggests that "...this breed of 'l337' gamers refuse to look at today's games", and complains about their unjust criticism of titles such as Final Fantasy X, saying of these retro-focused gamers: "It seems, to them at least, as time passes, all the faults and niggles of yesteryear's games mysteriously vanish, as age irons out the flaws. Rose-tinted glasses donned, we can forget the 'far too flawed' modern games, because the 'golden era' of gaming did it better."

Comments

Crank that gear...

[Absurd Monkey]

There's nothing wrong with following the mainstream, and liking the same things as everybody else. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Yeah, so fall into line, you fucking independent thinkers! And while you're at the mall shopping at "Game" store, stop by the mall and pick up the latest Britney Spears album for when you are happy and Linkin Park album for when you are sad, read Time Magazine, and watch FoxNews!

Wait, was that article ironic?

No you morons. Most new games suck.

[Kethinov]

Subject says it all. I love games as much as the next man but the "good old days" of gaming had a lot more gems than today's bunch. Gaming wasn't as popular a thing back then. To sell a title, you had to put serious effort into it's gameplay, especially because graphics at the time were marginal. These days, teams of hundreds of people work on eye candy and very few develop the actual gameplay. Go beat FFX and look at the credits sometime and see how much manpower is used in each developmental aspect. I assure you graphics are most heavily focused on. Sure, some new games are works of art. But like punk rock, gaming is becoming mainstream. And when something cool becomes mainstream, it can deteriorate.

I am stubborn!

[magiluke]

I am personally one of the stubborn gamers that doesn't accept very many new games. And I can tell you why. They suck! I do admit this is a generalization; there are actually many games that aren't all that bad that come out nowadays, but most of them are just bad for one reason or another.

One of the biggest complaints that I have about todays games is the fact that they all (again a generalization) have to be in some sort of 3-D environment. What happened to side scrollers??? Some of the best games ever made were plain old side scrollers. I probably wouldn't mind the 3-D style that much if someone could perfect, or at least slightly improve the camera angles of most games. Very few games are actually playable as far as the cameraman is concerned. I recall Lakitu to be a very good cameraman, and he should become a teacher. Resident Evil could have definately used him.

I used to be a fan of first person shooters, but really, how many times can you remake Doom & Wolfenstein. There are five thousand FPSs out there, and they just aren't fun anymore. I was on a Counter-Strike kick for a bit, I did like that game, but it just seemed to get old after a while (although I'm sure I wouldn't mind playing it again).

I could lament about the poor quality of modern video games all night, but I just don't feel like it, I'm sure there will be plenty of people complaining for me. Pretty much, nine times out of ten, I'd just rather pick up my Nintendo controller (or even my Super Nintendo one) and play a good old Castlevania game.

Oh yea, Game Boy Advance games aren't that bad at all, they seem to pretty much stick to the old style, and I like that.