I tried playing Harvest Moon on the SNES today and having played Stardew Valley for hours, I thought I’d try and see how tolerable the original Harvest Moon was in comparison. I know and understand it is unfair because there’s a 20 year gap between Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, while also discrediting Harvest Moon’s later entries since there’s more than one.
Harvest Moon to me is a bit hard to revisit. Having to get used to only carrying two tools at the same time, your farm doesn’t seem as big, you don’t have a way to know that you’re tired as readily, you just have to watch for the signs and the village you visit doesn’t seem as characteristic. It’s a basic farming sim, it has to start somewhere.
But Stardew Valley does so many things that it is easier to revisit.
I have set up the original Fallout (fully modded and running through Fallout 1n2), but it’s pretty hard to get into. Not because of the graphics, which are actually fine, but just because the mechanics are quite intricate and I think my ability to learn new gameplay mechanics is declining as I enter my mid-30s (I’ve only played Fallout starting with Fallout 3). I’m going to keep trying to get into it!
As someone who played Fallout 2 as a teen it’s not your age, the first 2 have a lot of little things that end up having a big effect, and they are difficult. They do not pull their punches and will happily smack you around.
I restarted Fallout 2 many times when I was first playing it trying to figure out a build I liked.
No worries bud, the mechanics for 1 and 2 has always been shit. People sucked it up and played anyway because the writing was so damn good. If you can’t get into the game because the mechanics or controls are bad thats the games fault not yours.
I have been trying to replay both for years and everytime I give up after a few hours because the experience is just painful.
The classic Fallouts do have some quirks, but I hope you get through them and can get into it. They are absolutely amazing games, well worth your time.
OK, maybe a slight twist, but Left 4 Dead absolutely sucks vs. Left 4 Dead 2. Want L4D? Fine. Play it inside L4D2 with better guns and zombies.
There’s something different between the two that I can’t put my finger on. Like everything feels a lot more solid?
I personally have a lot more memories of L4D and it’s cast of characters over L4D2.
Oof, can not agree. I found the first one being much easier to palate, not having any of those sections where you have to collect a bunch of items into another item. Like fueling the car in the mall. Absolutely frustrating trash.
Super Mario Bros 3 after playing the all stars version.
Probably nostalgia, but I prefer the original graphics…
The All-Stars versions of all the NES classic mario games do it for me better than the originals.
Mount and Blade. Warband is just the better version all around. It works in reverse too cause Warband is better than Bannerlord.
Add Floris and it’s basically the only game in that sphere worth playing at all!
Prophecy of Pendor is legendary. I might get bannerlord if they release a Pendor mod for it.
I was going to comment harvest moon after reading the title!
A lot of the older games for me. They’re just a lot harder. Like maybe they expect you to be willing to replay an area or a level over and over, getting a little farther each time until you beat it and I just don’t have the stamina for that anymore, or the time.
Newer games baby you, they increase the difficultly perfectly along side your ability growth. They might even make a level easier if you’ve failed twice. Older games don’t care if you’re having fun as much. There was less competition (fewer game choices) and more of a “gamers like this. If you don’t like it, you’re not a gamer” attitude, and now games want to attract everyone.
I have become such a baby about games. I want to have fun the whole time! I can’t handle failing over and over. I’d rather just read a book.
Same, this is how I got frustrated by Hades. I no longer have endless time to sink into a game to get good.
The “story” of Hades is that the guy you control gets better over time and finally escapes. How else can you convey it? With text (cardinal sin)?
I don’t think anyone is saying that the story of Hades isn’t portrayed well with the rougelike style, but it’s totally ok to say “I don’t have time to play a game that’s designed such that you fail dozens of times before you win”
Zork, or any of the old text bases adventure games.
I can’t even leave the starting room of the original System Shock. So glad the remake updated the controls.
I did manage to finish System Shock 2, but the “puzzles” are just RNG, so I’m hoping the remaster changes that and maybe even fixes the ending.
I just played the original System Shock and System Shock 2. Incredible games.
I saw the trailer for the remake for the first one and wanted one last memory before I get my mind blown.
The remake for the first game is so actuate to the original, you can use the old walkthough guides to beat it.
You could tell the ending was cut short for time with SS2. It would be nice if they took some creative liberties to bring it closer to what it was originally suppose to be.
This is ironic because I loved Prey but couldn’t finish SS2’s tutorial!
007 games. But the N64 soundtrack was great.
Esp given 007 on N64 varied so widely.
Idk how Goldeneye was ever playable yet it damn well was and the best!
I recently finished playing Breath of the Wild and declared it as one of my favorite games ever played. I just started Tears of the Kingdom, and it feels like I may not go back to BOTW, which is crazy that I could consider it one the best experiences ever, and also feel like I may never play it again so shortly after beating it. TotK seems to have everything in BotW and more, with quality of life changes on top of it all.
Totk is… more of an expansion/dlc than a sequel. Even the intro has near identical beats. The map is literally re used.
Fun game still.
Starcraft! I really think Starcraft Brood War is a better, more balanced game. The quality of life changes in Starcraft 2 make it so hard to go back to playing Brood War. I don’t know if I can adjust back to only selecting a lot amount of units or needing to click on each building to build stuff or not having smart-casting and good pathing.
Halo MCC version over the original.
I saw Halo running on a classic Xbox and tried to play with the clunky Xbox controller. Couldn’t do it. Everything looked so low res and blurry.
Dark Souls 1. Especially on PC it’s almost unplayable due to bad porting and DS3 and Elden Ring have refined the formula so much, it’s insane. The remaster is ok though, so I don’t know if that counts.
The original is rough yes, but I don’t know anyone that would play it over the Remaster these days. And the remaster is fine as far as playability goes. However, it’s still a candidate for this thread simply because the DS1 bosses will feel very anticlimactic for anyone who has played DS3/ER/Bloodborne/Sekiro.
I kind of prefer DS1 with DSFix to the Remaster, but I might be weird. I just think it nails the atmosphere better somehow.
I grew up playing King’s Quest 5, 6, and 7. I was curious about the earlier ones and eventually found them on an abandonware site a while back and they didn’t age very well. Turns out 5 was the first one that was all point and click based. Prior to that, they were text based and you needed to know the exact wording or alternatives that they had thought of or you couldn’t do anything. I’m sure they were great games for their time but I just couldn’t get into them.
More recently, I bought the collection on steam. I’m not sure how well someone who has never played them before would enjoy them, but I found 5 and 6 still stood up, despite being like 30 years old. Though it might also help that I could still remember a bunch of the puzzles, as they could be pretty unforgiving of mistakes. Save often because you could die at any moment, and hope you don’t miss picking up an item you’ll need later on or you might get eaten by a yeti or something.
Old Sierra games do suck as actual games. But the satisfaction of beating them is unrivaled, I’d put them above any Souls like.
They played best when you had other people to commiserate with. Hot seat multi-player getting more and more frustrated until someone realized you have to walk completely around the police car to check it before driving… 🤬
KQ6 was great though. You’d go through and beat the game but notice that you’re many points short of the maximum and there were a bunch of loose threads that never got solved. It was the first game I ever played with two paths to the end and finding that second path was so good. Especially getting to play during one scene that was seen many times before as a cut scene, along with a puzzle whose solution completely changed the tone of the scene (figuratively and literally lol).
Though I don’t think I have the patience to do all of that again. I think I originally played that game over a period of months with no progress at all in many sessions. But I kept coming back to it as a kid.
I cut my teeth on Space Quest 1 and Kings Quest 3. Not only was the very spefic vocabulary a pain but so many solutions were a dead end trap.
I remember in Space Quest if you typed use [item] it would give you a message about not being a simple 2 word game and tell you to say use [item] on [thing]. It required that format.
Then halfway through the game the solution to one puzzle is use glass. Not use glass on laser. I has figured out the puzzle right away but it took me days to get the right wording.
Those games have not aged well.
God, I still remember struggling for hours, days because I didn’t specifically type “Get out from boat”, in Kings Quest II.
You’d think “Get out of boat” would suffice, but nooooo.
Check out The Crimson Diamond for a modern indie game that uses the keyword thing like in early King’s Quest, but it actually works well. The graphics are pretty endearing too.
I can’t see myself going back to the original Half-Life after playing Black Mesa. The changes to Xen alone are massive improvements.
Just started a playthrough of Black Mesa the other week after having played HL1 like fuck idk, 18 years ago? Barely remember it, but going through the levels I’m like “Oh yeah I remember this part, with the mine cart/train thingies”
Looked at screenshots of HL1 the other day and laughed that I will never play it ever again
Call of Duty: World At War Zombies
Every map in WaW zombies has been re-released at least twice. WaW zombies is cool because of how simple and barebones it is, but holy fucking hell that game was not coded for any sort of melee combat. The zombie bodies are so damn large, according to their hit boxes. Try to run past them but brush up against their pinky? Guess you’re done. Also for some reason the co-op splitscreen is not split vertically, and it’s not split horizontally, each of the two players just gets a quarter of the screen in a tiny box. Who knows why.
I love it to death but it’s real hard to go back to it.
