The first game that comes to mind for me is Civilizations 4. I’ve probably spent hundreds of hours playing but after getting used to 5 and 6 I have a really hard time going back. Going back and forth between 5 and 6 I need to rethink some strategies but with 4 I feel like I need to rethink everything. I don’t know if it’s because of the tech tree layout in combination with the civics system, things like unit stacking, or maybe just a bunch of little things but it takes me a while to readjust.
Persona 3. It was my first persona game, I loved the characters and the story and it introduced me to the VN medium. I played the port to switch which had quality of life changes, but I do not want to Tartarus again.
That’s fair. I played through reload when it came out, but I couldn’t get through the answer. I really enjoyed the story, but so much Tartarus without enough between it was like eating dry cinnamon.
Warframe. I spent 2 years around 2020 farming up every frame, every item, every pet, every everything – without spending a dime. I was so grateful for the experience I spent nearly $300 in cosmetics when I finished the game.
They’re always adding more stuff, but I consider Warframe “beat”. It was a killer experience, I had a lot of fun with all the different builds and overpowered shit you could pull off if you were smart. Along with Path of Exile, Warframe stands a pinnacle of how to do Free to Play correctly.
I also did a “No Engram” run on ARK: Survival Ascended – You’re not allowed to learn any of the things you can build; you HAVE to find the items naturally in the world. That was a nightmare, but I managed it – and will NEVER do it again. It gave me new appreciation for specific aspects of the game.
I was considering playing Warframe a while back because I was a fan of Dark Sector but the reviews I saw online mentioned an incredible amount of grinding. Do you think it’s worth picking up for someone who isn’t into that kind of thing?
If you’re impatient, no. Most of the “grind” was starting a crafting job, and waiting 72 hours for it to complete.
Unfortunately everyone wants instant gratification and Warframe is not an instant-gratification game.
What I did was work on things bit by bit, and when I started crafting it - I moved onto farming something else.
Some of the worst items to get in the game, I had to wait a year before they ‘unvaulted’ the relics for. Other things, I had to log in daily for over a year before they would become available as login rewards.
So – I repeat – If all you care about is instant gratification, Warframe is not for you. Unless you have deep pockets. Their monetization scheme is “If you don’t want to wait on this thing, pay up”. For people who are patient, this is wonderful.
Warframe has gotten so much better since 2020. I highly recommend coming back for a bit just to do the new quests. All your stuff will still work great in the new content. In fact, it’ll work better now that other damage types are way more viable. No longer have to mod everything viral/slash/heat.
Played from 2020 to around the end of 2022, already did all of the rebalance stuff since Rebecca became design lead. I really cannot go back. I beat it. It’s done. Regardless of the new frames, etc – I’m out of that “cycle” now. I’m mastery rank L2 if I am remembering correctly. No matter how much content they release - they’ll never release enough of it for me to want to return. I conquered Warframe. Legendary 2 rank. Most people don’t even reach MR15 before they crash out. Once I had everything in the game, it was done for me. Permanently.
Man warframe is such an interesting game. I bounced off it twice. When it first released and then again in like '17, but not long ago I fell into it hard for 3 months. So much so it was my #1 played game for my steam recap lol.
Morrowind
Waiting for Skywind to come out
Have you ever tried Morroblivion?
Nope, and now I figure it might as well just wait a little.
Witcher 3. I don’t enjoy “dark” “gritty” stuff the way that I used to. I’m way more effected by some of the more explicit themes than I used to be. When I played it it was my only solace in a rough period of my life. I’d rather protect my fond memories than play it again, as I doubt it will mean as much to me now as then.
Gen 1 pokemon. It was awesome to experience, but the formula is just better in later versions.
GoldenEye, I did try it years ago, but going back to one stick for a shooter is really awkward.
Wow, I don’t have the time for an MMO anymore and they are a lot less fun after your first experience.
Oblivion and Morrowind, the changes in Skyrim are almost all improvements, and the mod support is better. You can smoothe out the edges of the older games, but it’s a long process I’m not interested in. I’ll stick with find memories.
Have you tried the mouse and keyboard mod for GoldenEye? I imagine it makes everything incredibly easy but it could be different enough to justify a playing one more time
wizardry
Ooh, I came here to say this. It was my very first pc game
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
Attack-axe-swing baby!
wizmaker ruined this game for me. I never completed it fairly.
I never completed it, just managed to squeeze in a few hours on the school’s brand new Apple lls (I think that’s what they were but I could be misremembering, it’s been a minute)
yeah my sessions were at the library. whole lot better than oregon trail.
Toe Jam & Earl. As a kid, it seemed just endlessly creative, you could just explore & explore forever. And the shit humor - I was the exact right age where every joke was a banger. Although the game itself would be badly dated today, I bet the music holds up well, albeit in short bursts. I still get snippets stuck in my head.
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For me it would probably be most old DOS era games like Dune 2, Ultima Underworld, Warcraft 1, Civilization 1, etc. All of them were great, but it’s really difficult to get used to those old control schemes nowadays. Pixelated graphics wouldn’t bother me, but those like 15 FPS at max is also hard to get over these days.
Other than that it would be some newer games that lacks a bit of convenience stuff. Like e.g. Diablo 1, where you can’t run yet. Or some of the first 3D accelerated shooters that can’t remap controls to WASD.
Having to rely on reading and retaining information in manuals is a big thing that keeps me away from a lot of DOS games
And don’t even get me started on that damn copy protection level “what is 7th word on 16th line on page 23 in manual”!
Any of the fallout/elder scrolls series. I remember whiling so many hours away in them as a kid and having a great time, and now any time I pick them up it just feels like a second job, looting and managing inventory ad nauseum.
N64
Emulated maybe some games, but I just can’t with most games with the original controller. I grew up with it too, it’s just insane.
I played so much goldeneye that when someone fired it up almost 20 years later the controls were still in my muscle memory. I played fps on pc even back then so I knew the controller wasn’t ideal, but it worked well enough.
Haha, I played it quite a lot and I did not have the same experience! Respect to speed runners cause my goodness…
Starcraft, Starcraft 2 has ruined me with multi-building-selection, the clunkiness, no smart casting, selecting more than a handful of units at a time.
Pikmin 2.
There are a couple of bosses in that game I absolutely hate to this day and do not like whatsoever. One returned from the original and one is a variant of it. Every game has had a variant of that shall which not be named. Any other arachnophobes probably know what I’m talking about without needing to mention the name.
7th Saga. It’s a turn based top down RPG (similar to Final Fantasy 1 or Dragon Warrior 1). The games AI sometimes just kills you (and takes great delight in it). Easily the most frustrating RPG I’ve played.
Blaster Master for the Nintendo (NES) as well. Instead of evil AI you get evil level design that wants to kill you.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to have a sandwich and play some Leisure Suit Larry 3.
Wolfenstein, duke nukem, most early shooters
I still have a blast playing modern source ports of Duke 3D and Doom. Adding modern controls and modern rendering to classic games like that really shows how little modern gaming has progressed in that genre, imo
Yeah no real need to ‘remaster’ the classics