As much as we all try to keep a rational head on things, sometimes the things we liked, or the things we fondly miss, don’t really make that much sense. Nostalgia is a powerful thing. It can even make us miss things we even actively disliked, purely because it’s now unobtainable. As we’ve built up a catalogue of years spent gaming behind us (roughly 22 for myself), gaming has changed dramatically. There are things we miss; aspects of gaming that have just become obsolete. Let’s celebrate them.
This can be anything, whether it was installing a game from a ridiculous stack of floppy discs, blowing on your cartridges, or, shudder, trying to set your sound settings in MS-DOS for each and every game.
I’ll proffer up my suggestions first - total conversion mods for first-person shooters. Mods are still alive and well in certain sectors, but the AAA online shooter has effectively killed them dead in the genre. I used to absolutely love trying out the latest Battlefield 1942 mods, whether that was Battlefield Pirates, Forgotten Hope, Battlefield: Galactic Conquest, or the bane of my life, Interstate 1982. Plenty of them were a steaming pile of cack, but it was fun whatever the case to download them at 80KB/s and hope for the best. Oh, the things I would do to see projects like these make a return.
Secondly, multiple discs. Call me old-fashioned, but I love physical media. I love owning a game, despite what the fine print tells me otherwise. Part of this necessitated swapping out discs (or floppies) for the install. You still get the odd game that does this, GTA V a case in point. But there was something about opening a game and unfolding it, revealing disc after disc, each holding an epic slice of unknown adventure. Looking at disc four of Baldur’s Gate was like peering at one of life’s great mysteries. Now we just click download and 20 minutes later it’s ready to play. Simpler, yes, but it saps the fun out a little bit.
Over to you - what do you miss about gaming now you're in the year 2017? Are changes always for the better, or do you think we've left some great things behind? Let us know!
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I miss ol' good boxed games and expansions, when one wouldn't need to be scared of buying a game which requires sh!tload of "day one" patches to be playable, tons of sold-separately DLCs to unlock content already present in game folder etc...
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I miss at least under average skill that was needed to play games back then. In AC:Syndicate just hold SHIFT and you will win.
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i miss my 15 inch crt monitor.
i miss my neo geo games.
because old is gold
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physical game media, backwards compatibility to older consoles, also old school game port joy sticks
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Remember back in 96 had only 3 diskettes and when Duke Nukem 3D came out,i had only one empty.So,go to my friend at the other end of the town on a bus with it-35 min>copy from him part of the game>went home>copy on my PC>back to him>erase>copy>home...you get the picture.Must have been around 10 times i did this on a hot,dusty day.Still very fond to this day,when i was able to play it at nightfall.
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Copying one MP3 file with a diskette was quite fun too xD
MP3>zip&split>copy>delete>copy-another-splitted-part>repeat (depends on file size)
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I miss the no dlc, no premium, no season pass bull****. everything was much simpler then. Everyone had the same game too no diluting of the player base.
I also miss the old school physics laughs and health system
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I totally agree with you. I miss the times when there wasn't all these microtransactions BS. However, I know that there are some businesses that need to use these methods to generate a profit as the $60 alone is not enough to cover development, operating , marketing and other costs involved. I do abhorr businesses like EA and Ubisoft though that take advantage of this situation though.
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OldSchoolDRM
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As far as hardware goes, I don't miss much. But on software end, I kind of miss some of old games and how games were back then, no DLC, no overdoing it on copy protection,... Also I kind of miss more creative freedom some companies had, due to corporations not breathing down their neck, but that is not always bad.
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Also I miss RTS genre from back then, C&C used to be fun.
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r.i.p command and conquer series to bad it went out with a flop with that wretched cnc 4 I been having a hard time satisfying my rts craving lately can only play older titles so much
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well i miss the feeling of having a full and complete game without any pre-orders exclusive bonus and stuff. i seriously miss those era where u always get a complete and full game instead of many DLC's and wht's more tht worse online only DRM's like Denuvo instead of tht friendly CD or DVD DRM. i miss those type of games now.
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I miss the innocence I used to have towards games... I've been spoiled by fast downloads, detailed textures, huge resolutions (4K and 5K +AA), high refresh rates and life-like graphics. I've been spoiled by realistic physics, AI interactions, reactive environments and the variation in today's game worlds...
It's easy to forget the thousands of hours I spent with my PSP, playing amazing games with crappy graphics at a res of 480x272. The fun I had playing Moto Racer 3, Sacred, Diablo and other games with crappy graphics.
I want my innocence back :)
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Oh and CheMax - used that puppy a LOT when I was a kid.... so much fun!
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Let me help you...
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"Fresh" smell of newly bought game floppies/CDs along with still shiny manuals that came with it back in the day was so satisfying :)
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Singleplayer is in no way obsolete but I feel that some devs are focusing more on multiplayer and less on singleplayer depriving it the love it deserves. Although GTA V is a fantastic game, the singleplayer story felt somewhat bland and short especially when compared to legendary GTA IV and previous installations of GTA. I just fell in love with the characters in GTA IV.
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But felt indifferent to GTA V characters except Trevor who was quite unique and not-so-clichéd. This not only limited to GTA V though, other games are also being developed this way with the same mindset.
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yeah gta 5 said they would do single player dlc but I doubt that's ever going to happen theyre milking way to much off of those multiplayer shark cards probably making more then they would from a single player dlc that requires more work so sadly wont be seeing that :( for a long time if at all
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I miss physical copies the most. Having my games on my shelves made me feel I really own those games. Now I can still buy physical copy, but after activating the required code in required online-platform, the CD is pointless and makes me feel I don't really own the game, I just have it "permanently rented" from somewhere. Yes, I still could install game from CD, but it's faster (for me at least) to download latest version of game right away, no need for patches.
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One more thing I miss is game manuals, maps and other extras what came with game. I always loved to check out content within the boxes/cases and was happy to find a map of the game. Although, I didn't look at map that much while playing, only when I needed it. But it was fun to have it. Some of the maps and almost all posters I wanted to put on my wall, but I can tell, the walls in my room wasn't pretty looking because of that, it was a little messy :D
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so true mate, so true
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I have had that to that's why I almost stopped buying physical I remember buying command and conquer ultimate collection there was 1 disk with bonus sound track ALL games were digital download its like wtf is this lol a lot of games are like that or activate through steam and don't even need disk anymore so went to straight digitial mostly so I hear the pain in that one and I missed those to for it maps posters etc
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buying a game and knowing you really owned the game, nothing else but the disk needed to play. You could sell it anytime you wanted and if you would pop it into a computer a hundred years later you could still play it. The games I buy today basically have no value, unless I sell my entire steam account...
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Not if your game disk was plagued with DRM...
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most games back then weren't they had the drm to try to prevent burning it to another disk but I could install it on every pc computer and every friends pc I own without issues :P all games were different of course
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I really liked the physical versions of games with real paper manuals. But nowdays especially for pc games they are either not availible physically or cost quite abit more. And even when you find one it won't have a paper manual in it and some games don't even include the dics anymore but just a cd key.
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Game Demos
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And manuals
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I think most companies publish the manuals online, but if you mean physical manuals then yea, they are pretty much gone.
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Yep I agree with both of these. I do miss the old thick manuals you used to get with games. As well as the game demo disks I used to collect on PS1 & PS2.
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"Now we just click download and 20 minutes later it’s ready to play."
SAY WHAT? D: NOT MY INTERNET
But yeah, agreed with second point on physical media, but with a different reason - I used to order retail discs from Amazon UK, not buy on Steam, due to my 4mbit DSL. Most notably Red Orchestra 2. Can still do today, but more often than not you just buy a key in a box with no CD, lol.
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I really miss the good old game manuals/booklets that came with the physical packaging. I mean that *** SMELLED nice.
sniffs fresh plastic* AAAAHHHHHHH
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lmao yeah for sure back when manuals were thick and explained the game and everything in it and now today most of them are some white piece of paper saying don't eat this paper or disk in 8 different languages XD
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Haha I know what you mean about the way it smelled...Ahh..nostalgia...
I liked flipping through the manual to look at artwork, which was especially prevalent in Blizzard titles.
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Multiple save slots
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Two-player splitscreen. Emphasis on "obsolete", because for gaming companies nowadays thats how it feels.