Ask Slashdot: What Modern PC Games Would You Recommend For An Old School Gamer?

wjcofkc writes: The last time I was a serious gamer, I was playing Quake and Quake World. That type of first person shooter, with the qualities it offered in terms of physics, level layout, and community, produced for me some very fun times. I have long since fallen away from gaming entirely, but frequently look back to that era with great fondness. My question to the community is, are there any current games that recapture the spirit of the original Quake? Note: This is strictly for PC gaming as I do not own a console.

Comments

Nothing

[Spy Handler]

You'll never have that kind of fun again playing computer games, because you're not 19 anymore.

I know because I went ahead and played the games I played when I was young, and it's just not as fun anymore. Games haven't changed, I have.

Re:Nothing

[Bigbutt]

It depends. I"ve picked up the original Doom series, Half-Life 2, Carmagedden, and Starcraft Remastered and still have a good time with them. I've picked up the newer versions of these games like Doom, Wolfenstein, and Starcraft II and even other games like Left4Dead, Fallout, and Bioshock and just don't find them as mindlessly fun. Even jumping across from tower to tower in Doom still gives me a thrill. :)

Hell, Steam is having a sale again. Quake, Quake II, Quake III Arena, and Quake III: Team Arena are up for $1.24 or $3.24 each. Shoot, for $6.24, you can get Quake, Quake II, Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero, Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning, Quake III Arena, Quake III: Team Arena, Quake Mission Pack I: Scourge of Armagon, Quake Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity. (I know what I'm getting right now :D ).

Why not keep playing what you like? :)

[John]

Re:Nothing

[UnknownSoldier]

> Games haven't changed, I have.

Yes they HAVE changed -- often times for the worse. FPS Map Design 1993 vs 2010

Modern games are full of bullshit:

* unskippable cut-scenes
* MTX (micro-transaction) because the game devs don't respect your Time, Space, nor Wallet.
* Season Pass
* bullshit DLC (DownLoadable Content)
* QTE (Quick-Time Events) You remember Dragon's Lair ? Yup, that's what modern "AAA" gaming has devolved into.
* Grindfests aka Skinner boxes
* Flat UI that you can't fucking tell what are UI elements you can interact with vs static elements.
* Multiplayer games that don't allow you to run your own server -- typical EA bullshit.

When the "gaming industry" refers to its customers as "whales" you know they don't give a fuck about you -- only how long they can keep "milking" you. If you wat to know the general state of the "industry" Jim Sterling excellent Jimquisition pretty much sucks up the fuckery that publishers and devs try to pull.

With that said I'm a professional game developer and have over 500+ games in my Steam Library. This is my "best of the best" of modern games are in alphabetical order (I've included the "genre" in parenthesis):

* Borderlands 1 and 2 (FPS)
* Dishonored 1 and 2 (FPS)
* Doom (2017) (FPS)
* Elite: Dangerous (Space)
* Inside (Adventure)
* Left for Dead (1 not 2) (FPS)
* Limbo (Adventure)
* Luftrausers (2D shmup)
* Minecraft (3D Survival)
* Path of Exile (RPG)
* Portal 1 and 2 (Puzzle)
* Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 1 and 2
* Serious Sam 1, 2, and 3 (FPS)
* Terraria (2D Survival)
* Team Fortress 2 (FPS)
* The Stanley Parable (Story)
* The Talos Principle (FPS)
* The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Puzzle)
* The Witness (Puzzle)
* Torchlight 1 and 2 (RPG)

Stay away from grind-shift-fests like:

* Defiance
* Destiny
* Diablo 3
* Evolve
* Fashionframe, er, Warframe

There are still some good games out there -- but about 95% of them are shit. i.e. Any game that has non-cosmetic MTX is crap.

Portal

[iMadeGhostzilla]

I'm in the same boat, played it all in the 90s and hadn't played anything since Half Life, until Portal 1 a couple years back. It was everything I wanted in a game, I played it for about two weeks an hour or so after work, between plays I couldn't wait going back to it. That's not terribly modern but there you go. Someday I will play Portal 2 too.

I played the demo

[Billly Gates]

I am now 40 and bad news. I can't play anymore. My reflexes have remarkingly slowed down terribly. I am done before I see what is up. I get confused and pause on maps too for a good 1/6th of a second too. I am not really out of it like I am 80, but that one 1/6th of a second pause where I wonder where I am on the map and look around is enough for someone to run a rail in the back of my head.

I am not 23 anymore so I gave up on FPS. You can try but the young kids today will 0wn you as they have 200% faster reflexes

If you want to do something fun us old farts do MMOs like SWTOR (star wars the old republic) and or Elder scrolls online based on based on Skyrim. Man this is depressing

Re:I played the demo

[pcjunky]

For those who reflexes are too slow for twitch shooters there is Mech Warrior online.

BTW: Your reflexes will return pretty quickly if you give a little time. I am 57 and still play Counter Strike.

Re:Tons

[war4peace]

There's a difference between "old-school" and "primitive".
Banging a hollowed tree trunk with a bone isn't old-school music.

Overwatch & Faster Than Light

[sursurrus]

Overwatch - It's a relatively casual fun shooter, playable on a nongaming pc, and there's a balancing system so you are playing in games with people of roughly your skill level.

FTL - A cheap and fun Steam game, relateable to old-school sci-fi fans, a full game can be played through in 2-3 hours (or 20 minutes if you're a speedrunner). I have gotten over 100 hours of entertainment out of it, from my initial investment of $10 during a sale.

lowest common denominator

[Anonymous Coward]

As a person who also grew up in the same time, built my own PC's back then (I miss my AMD K6-2 and Athlon) and continues to causally game today (and continues to build my own pc's) the issue with gamming today is virtually all the games worth causally playing are designed to run on laptop hardware. League of legends, TF2, Overwatch, SC2, These are all games you can sit down at not have to worry about remembering were you were in the story since you last touched it a month ago and play for 30 min to an hr. (you really have more than 2 solid hrs to dedicate to gameing as a 40yo?)

Buy a $300 bare bones kit, stick a $300 video card in it and you'll have a gameing PC that will do 95% of what you want. (you'll spend another $1500 chasing that last 5%)

Re:if Quake is considered "old school"

[Osgeld]

when I got quake I ran it from dos in 320x240 on a 486DX2, its pretty old school

Re:Submitter Here - Quake Champions

[wjcofkc]

Update: Damn I did not expect so many hoops just to download and install a game. I really am getting old. Back in my day...

Your Experience Isn't Everyones

[skam240]

The average age of a gamer in 2016 was 35. http://essentialfacts.theesa.c... . I realize that what constitutes a gamer can differ widely based on who you ask but what this assuredly says in that adults play lots of games.

In other words getting older does not equal too old for video games. Sure, your personal tastes have changed over time, mine have too. I have no use for pro sports anymore and I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. Some one starts rattling off team and player names at me now and my eyes just glaze over. (My favorite is when some one asks me if I caught "the game" last night. What the hell are you even talking about?) Do I think pro sports are childish and for kids? Of course not, tons of adults enjoy them. Pro sports just arent to my taste.

I still enjoy video games however and am well into being a responsible adult (although I have less time for them nowadays :( ). Don't confuse your own experience with everyone's reality.