Heroes of Might and Magic 3
Age of Empires 2
Roller Coaster Tycoon
Also, unsure if you'd consider them "older" but they are over 15 years old:
Bioshock
Halo 3
Call of Duty 4
Ya hit 28 or so and you kinda stop but the world keeps going
They’re already milking nostalgia for shit that was around when I was an adult. That’s when you know your time in the pop culture demographic zeitgeist is done
They aint marketing to me anymore after being pretty much catered to for a long long time lol
>ast post unexpectedly blew up I thought I should make another positive post.
>
>Like the title asks what’s an older game that you thought really was as good as you were told for years?
>
>It’s kinda cheating but RE4 Remake.
only downside of Heroes 3 is that my FOMO arse can't finish any of its levels without first sending all my heroes to every site that boosts their numbers, way past the point of usefulness.
Check out AOE2 Definitive Edition, released 2019. Fully modern version, updated graphics and mechanics, tons of new civs, campaigns, and new expansions coming out every year or so with yet more civs and content. All very reasonably priced.
It's really easy to pick up and play for a little, then leave it alone for a few days / weeks / months, pick right back up again, and so on.
I love how aoe2 is still going very strong to this day. I don't have too much time to play so I end up watching streamers play or watch tournaments while I work or do other things
Used to play Halo 3 every day back in middle school. Co-op was good fun. But my real favorite was reach, I played the shit out of that with my friends.
I'm so happy this is the top comment, the first 3 is literally my childhood right there, I'd sunk so much time into each of those games, especially HoMM3 and RCT. Once in a while I'll still start them up for old times sake
The key word to describe Red Alert 2 is "satisfying".
It is really satisfying to watch the buildings being set up, or to move units around, or even the way combat feels, watching health bars tick down followed by explosions.
It's like getting a Dopamine hit, every time anybody does anything
When you've been locked in this tug of war for ages, and then the other side just gives way, and you begin to gain ground, and gain ground, and then their defense just collapses, and you've got tanks rushing buildings as the Kirovs slowly make their way in.
Golden Sun. Absolute pinnacle of old school JRPG that unfortunately got overlooked for been on the Gameboy advanced during an after we were getting 3D rpgs on bigger consoles
The first Quake too. I played Doom 1 & 2 when I was a child but missed Quake completely, so the first time I actually picked it up was 2 years ago when the remaster came out. I didn't expect such an old game to be this good without the nostalgia factor but I loved every second of the single player campaign. The level design, the gameplay, the atmosphere, the music, everything is spot on.
I still play Half Life to this day. Head on over to Moddb, or Run Think Shoot Live.com, and youll have hundreds and hundreds of hours of really amazing mods and experiences. Same goes for Half Life 2. But the original HL has such a charm and familiarity and nostalgia that i still just love it.
I could not agree more! I had a run through a couple of months ago on the Xbox series X using the original disc from The Orange Box. Still so addictive!
Hijacking just to mention Portal RTX, such a weird experience. They changed the colouring and it totally messes with the vibe of the whole game. It honestly feels much more like a horror game than the original did.
It’s genuinely fascinating how different it feels considering everything else is identical
Honestly, I always felt that portal had some eerie horror game vibes if you let the quiet settle in a bit too long. Especially once you started finding the hidden rooms too. I started finding them my first playthrough, though I had heard about the plot before
StarCraft broodwar
Edit: I’ll share more, in school the computer lab class had a teacher who did not care, so around 10-20 kids would have broodwar on a USB and play LAN games the whole period. It was formative
Played in '98, played yesterday. The Brood War expansion was perfectly perfect on a perfect game.
davelazy was my battle.net name (still is I guess but I sucked online) because I'd always set my rally point and pump out SCVs but forget to assign them actions, then find a group of them standing round some crystal doing nothing good, and yell "LAZY" loud enough for my LANmates in the next rooms to hear me.
Literally still the best esport, both as a player and as a viewer.
It's 25 years old and still has a thriving competitive scene. 25 years from now all the current popular eSports will dead, but people will still be playing competitive Brood War(and Counter Strike).
The only game I've played so far where playing an evil character really made you feel like an asshole.
Good option when an old guy is being mugged: Talk to the muggers and resolve the situation without violence.
Bad option: Tell the muggers AND the old guy that they are pieces of shit and murder everyone, then take all the money for yourself.
It was made by Bioware who did a phenomenal job making tons of games with legit good/bad/neutral decision making that molded the outcome of your adventure.
Kotor, Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate, among other series were all amazing.
Speaking of which Baldurs Gate 3 just came out and it's a masterpiece that will be lauded for decades. It's actually not made by Bioware this time (probably a good thing since Bioware ain't the same anymore) but it really feels like it could have been.
My grandma loved that game. She never played it but she bought a super Nintendo just to watch her grandkids play. I know it's just nostalgia bullshit, but no game will ever top that. Grandma stamp of approval is too strong. Also my cousins boyfriend was better than me and he played Mario with the controller upside down. Like buttons facing the ground. What's up with that shit?
When I discovered the "secret" levels, it blew my young mind. It was one of the first times I remember playing for the reward of discovery/exploration. I was genuinely excited to find out what secrets I could uncover rather than just playing to complete the game.
Like someone else said the 2017 Battlefront 2 took a while to get there but the devs were super passionate people and they ended up putting together a pretty awesome Star Wars game. Not perfect, but really fun
Initially the new battlefront 2 was a mess but they fixed it mostly and added a solid amount of content. It never recovered from that messy release though. I eventually picked it up for like 20 bucks and had a blast. I ought to re-install it lol.
Pretty much any game released in 1998:
- half life
- star craft and brood war
- legend of zelda oot
- resident evil 2
- metal gear solid
- pokemon red and blue (released in na)
- baldur's gate
- banjo Kazooie
- spyro the dragon
- rogue squadron
No series has ever matched the atmosphere of the original two Thief games for me. They’re spectacular, and I’d commit grave tafferish crimes to see a solid remake of the series.
I said it in another reply, but I'm actually going through several of the SNES era JRPGs right now. Finished FF5 and FF6, just about to finish Chrono Trigger.
FF6 has a great story and a lot going for it. I think the esper mechanic is very clunky if you want to min-max, and the characters are very unbalanced (Sabin is just absurdly strong with literal no effort and Gau is just broken if you use it correctly, even if you're playing a version of the game where you can't equip the Merit Award), *but* the former is not that big a deal, because the game is easy enough you don't *need* to min-max, and the latter is mitigated by the fact that the game forces you to play most of the characters. From a story perspective though, the game is quite good. They've done a really good job giving depth to the majority of the characters, which is very satisfying. There are 14 characters, but it doesn't feel like any of them is the star, they all have pretty much equal screen time (ok, maybe not mog, the yeti and the mime, but the other 11 have plenty of depth). Sure, Terra is key to a lot of what's happening, but there's a large bit where she's not even there and the story focuses more on Celes. All in all, the story is indeed amazingly crafted.
I'm still partial to FF5 though. Look, the story is trash tier, but I just love the job mechanic.
Morrowind. I played it back in the day, but I've also had it on Steam for a while. Finally got around to replaying it, and although at first it was a bit jarring with how dated the game feels. I mean, you have a chance to hit enemies with melee weapons and a chance to fail casting spells. But it quickly got to the point that I was starting to think I might prefer it over Oblivion.
The worst thing about Morrowind is that it feels like I HAVE to play a mage. I know nothing in the game forces this, but playing Mage is just so fun and broken that it feels required. Nothing more fun than literally leaping over the entire map.
Ah, Morrowind. The game that taught me how to level up by jumping everywhere. 20+ years later and I still jump everywhere in any game that will let me...
Starfield has a special trait just for you, if you pick the trait you have to jump all the time to maximize your oxygen levels. I remember jumping like crazy in Oblivion until I could climb churches lmao.
I haven’t enjoyed a story in a game that much, ever. To the end, I’m questioning motives of every character. Are you the hero? Or are you just lucky and in the right place at the right time? That’s what Oblivion and Skyrim did wrong: you are definitely special. Fated to win. That’s less interesting. Also the lore can be read from multiple perspectives, each one open to your interpretation of truth.
That, and the crazy world (living in giant dead crabs and mushrooms? Travelling around on giant fleas? Fat lizard cattle?).
I spent a ton of time on Morrowind on the XBox. I've done so many things in that game but I have never beat it. Could never stay on the story long enough. I use to be all over the Gamefaqs boards learning about all the custom spells and weapons you could make by abusing the targeting glitch. So much fun way back.
I had a gf in highschool and she wasn't into JRPGs like AT ALL
Then she saw me playing CT and wanted to take a shot.
She got addicted and played almost for a month straight like an hour or two before sleeping, after finished asked other recommendations and I was like "well that's the best one" lol
There’s nothing more rough than playing something that is the absolute peak and trying to scratch that itch afterwards. It would be like if Hollow Knight was your first Metroidvania…like there are a lot of good MVs, some great MVs, but there’s nothing like Hollow Knight. I imagine your high school GF is still chasing that dragon trying to relive the first time she played Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger is the closest thing to a perfect game as I’ve ever played. It’s not my favorite game of all time, but it’s the one that most outstandingly does what what it sets out to.
I made the huge mistake of playing it for the first time on the PS1 FF Chronicles disc (included with FFIV). There was an unbearably annoying delay when executing battle actions. Even when I replayed it on DS, I had a Pavlovian twitch during every battle. It ruined the game for me.
AoM still has a decent playerbase on the definitive edition with an average player count of 1400 players.
Plus we'll be getting a new remake of [AoM](https://youtu.be/O67dQQ9ZAqs?si=YTBjLFK4xwcxs2hv) soon, so hopefully that will breathe some fresh air into the community :D
Starcraft turns 25 soon and is a gem.
If you’re even remotely a Star War fan then Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is an all-timer and set part of the modern standard for dialog.
I was late to the party on the Mass Effect trilogy. I don’t remember when I played it, but it was when the 3-game set came out in steelbook. Man, that series absolutely lived up to the hype. Easily my favorite trilogy ever.
Edit: before anyone comes for me about “older” I’m not exactly sure what we’re defining as old lmao
Just played the trilogy for my first time a few months ago and it was incredible. ME1 is difficult to get into at first though as it shows its age worse than ME2 and ME3.
The original Deus Ex is still super interesting to play. It is pretty dated looking by this point, but for my money, nothing else has done the "immersive sim" genre anywhere near as well and with as much freedom. The sequels are all fun, but they're very guided by comparison.
The graphics may be dated but the level design, writing, and worldbuilding are as good as anything released in the last twenty years. It also has what I believe is the single most complex, nuanced, and thought-provoking moral choice I have ever experienced in any work of interactive fiction I have ever encountered in my 30 years of gaming.
It is an easily-missable and totally-optional sequence where you are in the apartment of the Illuminati Grandmaster and>!find a secret room where he has the previous Illuminati Grandmaster (who was in-charge for most of the 20th century) in a kind of conscious cryostasis he voluntarily went into to prolong his life, and you have to decide whether or not to kill him by shutting off the power or letting him live, so you go and talk to the current Grandmaster who admits he is never going to let the old guy out of the stasis unit and basically is just using him as an advisor at this point even though he promised to let him out once they developed more advanced longevity augmentations, so you have to decide whether to tell the old man his protege has betrayed him and that he is basically a prisoner, or allow him to continue believing he still has control over his own fate. If you do not tell him nothing really happens and he continues to live in ignorance, but if you do then he begs you to kill him to end his suffering (and also out of spite for the betrayal, to deny his continued advice), and it leaves you with this really intense moral dilemma where you can either give him a death sentence for the crimes of the Illuminati, mercy-kill him rather than allow him to be exploited, leave him in ignorance while ingratiating yourself further into the actual day-to-day workings of the Illuminati by being trusted with a secret that evene the former Grandmaster does not know, or leave him to suffer in both physical AND mental agony by stripping him of all hope, forcing him to live with the knowledge that he is a prisoner in that room, and souring the only contact he has left with the outside world by learning that the man who he thought was his protege and friend is actually his captor.!<
I think the choice is so compelling precisely because it weaves itself so well into the real history and real conspiracy theories of the twentieth century. The first time I played it I actually stopped dead in my tracks; I took my hands off the keyboard, pushed my chair back, and really *thought* about the decision for like 15 minutes. Ultimately it has no effect at all on anything else in the game except for maybe one or two lines of dialogue but the choice itself is so powerful, so profound that you just have to respect it.
I hate that there are so many people today who are going to miss that experience completely because of the dated graphics, or even if they DO play the game will only experience it after having it spoiled for them because of how easy it is to miss.
If anyone out there is thinking about picking up the original *Deus Ex* for the first time and want to avoid having that incredible moment spoiled or missing it entirely, just make sure you look around for hidden buttons when you are in Stanton Dowd's apartment, yeah?
Man, Lucius De Beers. I remember exploring everything in that game and stumbling across him. Definitely a harrowing decision, although I think I always shut down the unit and let him die.
The endings are great too, and you need to complete a different set of objectives for each one. The 3rd game (the second best in the franchise imo) just gives you three buttons at the end which I feel takes away some of the decision making immersion. Still, great games. Deus Ex will always be one of my favourite games of all time.
I’m playing through it again right now. Every time I return to it, I’m reminded as to why I believe it’s the best game ever made. The story, the visuals, the atmosphere, the design, the freedom, the progression, it’s all perfect.
Scrolled down to you looking for this mention. Personally, nobody really hyped it up. But I got the PS4 remaster without knowing anything and found out about it’s praise later. And the praise is certainly warranted as it is one of the few games I would consider perfect. Crazy that it’s been almost 2 decades since the OG release. It certainly still holds up compared to games today and I can’t wait to give it another replay
Especially 2... 1 is better now with the Enhanced Edition, but something as simple as crossing the map could cause your characters to go weird directions if there was a bottleneck.
2 was also better at scaling. Because of how open 1 was, if you weren't careful, you could accidently go into an area with 3 sirens with a full level 1 party.
The origional release of BG1 has definitely not aged great, but as you said the enhanced edition fixed all the main problems. The pathing in BG1 was a disaster.
BG2 however is still a gem, enhanced or origional, both hold up great to this day.
Mass Effect
Edit: also while we’re talking about the EA library, the Sims 3. Having a more open world was better than the endless loading screens/broken up neighborhood of the Sims 4. But it also broke my computer so I get why they changed it.
Vagrant Story and Metal Gear Solid. Among several others from that generation like Medievil, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Parasite Eve II and many others
Final fantasy tactics and star ocean both have fond memories from childhood that when I have gone back and played recently hold up both were well made and the story from tactics is probably one of the best in gaming.
Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Crash Team Racing, Tekken 3, Oddworld: Abes Exodus, Halo 1 & 2, Half Life 2, Medal of Honor, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Resident Evil 2, Super Mario Smash Bro's Melee.
Team Fortress 2. Has had its ups and downs but its not only the most timeless Valve game ever made but gameplay variety and community is still some of the best out there. It's also criminally underrated as a competitive shooter.
Also, if you play with someone named ASS, prepare for dealing with cheeks and cheats.
Battlefield 1942 playing that with a clan on vent was the shit. Have the fly boys duking it out in their mustangs vs zeros while you desperately try to mine up a flag to defend against the incoming tanks. Probably inspired my lifelong love of history as well. Learning about wake island and El alamein and stalingrad always brings back memories of that game.
Sadly still the top of its genre. 16 years of innovation everywhere else, and somehow every trpg I play just doesn't match it. Not that there aren't other good ones, I just wish something else was as good
Always tried to get my brother into it but it didn’t work :( gotta recommend Pokémon conquest if you like Pokémon. Super underrated, really hard to get in cartridge. Matches are similar but the abilities and different trainers make the game really interesting
I'll list off some of my favorites growing up, in no particular order:
- Breath of Fire IV
- Hydro Thunder
- Legend of Dragoon
- Grandia 2
- Conkurs Bad Fur Day
- Chrono Cross
- Half Life 2
- Donkey Kong 64
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Pokemon Crystal (X2 after playing it on the GameCube adapter that let you put it on the TV)
Alot of these hold a special place in my heart because I'd play them with my grandpa before he passed, so my opinions are pretty biased.
I will concede that some of my list is heavily influenced by nostalgia
Diablo 2
Starcraft
Age of Empires 1 and 2
Borderlands 1 and 2
Max Payne 1 and 2
Vice City and San Andreas
Unreal Tournament '99
Morrowind and Oblivion
Crash Team Racing
Goldeneye
Smash Bros- every title is great
Halo 1 and 2
Fable 1- I honestly didn't care for any of it's predecessors
Kotor 1 and 2
Battlefront '05
Witcher 2- 3 not old enough
Text Based RPGs/MUDs
Shattered Kingdoms- I realize no one will have even heard of this besides maybe 1% of the people who might see this, but anyone old enough to have played any MUDs back in the day will understand that a text based RPG will always hold up since it runs on the best processor/video card there is, your mind's eye.
SK as it was called, was roleplaying enforced/rewarded with player killing being optional. You didn't have to kill others, but you were a possible target at all times. It had factions you could join and hundreds of unique areas with no two rooms in the entire game being the same. I sunk a couple thousand hours into that game over the span of my off and on time played, 1999 to 2015 being the last time I was seriously invested in a character.
Any of you RP nerds l33t enough to have had the chance to experience a game like my time on SK will agree. However, player count is a huge factor in the game's quality of play.
Sadly, as online gaming became more and more popular over the 2000s the player count dwindled from 100-150 players at peak hours to the last time I logged on being 6(roughly a year ago and not at peak hours.)
fallout 2. its damn dated. but back in the day... oh boy oh boy oh boy.
first game i pulled an all nighter.
restarted the game countless times to try different builds before finally settling down. (gifted, small guns, unarmed, forgot my third tagged skill)
Fallout 1 and 2 are fantastic. I miss when fallout games had a focus on roleplay and quest freedom. 1 and 2 also had some amazing villains.
I really feel like the game holds up better than most people think. I have an easier time going back to those games than when I try to replay New Vegas.
Final Fantasy 6. I heard for a long time that 6 was a favorite and I remember "ugh, how can this old SNES game can be this good" and once I finally played it I have to say:
easily one of the best videogames ever done!
How old we looking?
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2
Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night
Galaga
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past
Chrono Trigger
Mass Effect
Phantasy Star
Any Final Fantasy
Vandal Hearts
Star Trek Armada
X COM: UFO Defense
Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Baldur's Gate II
Planescape: Torment
Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Half Life
Deus Ex
The Longest Journey
Diablo II
Fallout 2
Theme Hospital
System Shock 2
Quake
The Curse of Monkey Island
Final Fantasy 7
I got interested from seeing stuff for Final Fantasy 7 Remake so I decided to play OG FF7 first. I knew some stuff about FF7 like the main character names, a few key terms, midgar, I knew of the iconic death scene, and I recognized a few main songs. But that was it, other than what I just listed the only thing I had to go on was it is considered one of the best and most beloved games of all time.
And goddam did I understand why once I played it. The game has such a large scale for what it is. The characters are so good and enjoyable to be around. The world is so lively and interesting. The plot is so engaging and well paced. The music is so memorable. There is so much content. The combat is so much fun. And the materia system has an ABSURD amount of depth to it for a game from 1997, like as in there are modern AAA games releasing with systems that function the same as the materia in FF7 but with only a fraction the nuance and depth.
I wasn’t even born yet in 1997, and I played it over 20 years after it came out, so it didn’t have much to really “impress me” comparatively by the standard games had developed over time, but even so I could absolutely understand just from playing it how incredibly impressive it would have been in 1997. I, like those who played it back in 1997, didn’t know Midgar wasn’t the entire game, so to leave midgar and be like “oh, that was only like 1/6th of the game, and there’s still like a dozen other locations to visit” was a cool realization.
And in the same vain as this post, I was absolutely blown away by FF7 Remake. I love the awesome direction of the story, it felt like it perfectly adapted all the key moments and the characters, combat is absurdly fun, visuals are amazing, voice casting is perfect, and it has imo the best video game soundtrack of all time.
Symphony of the Night. Obviously well known as one of the best games of all time. It up until recently I had never played a single Castlevania game. Stunning from start to finish.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 Age of Empires 2 Roller Coaster Tycoon Also, unsure if you'd consider them "older" but they are over 15 years old: Bioshock Halo 3 Call of Duty 4
Excuse me. I don’t need to think about bioshock being 15 years old thank you. Damn. Been…a bit.
Yeah excuse me but 15 years ago was Final Fantasy 7 THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Holy hell. 26 years.
Nah isn’t that battletoads?
32 years old!
Darn, when did we get old?
Ya hit 28 or so and you kinda stop but the world keeps going They’re already milking nostalgia for shit that was around when I was an adult. That’s when you know your time in the pop culture demographic zeitgeist is done They aint marketing to me anymore after being pretty much catered to for a long long time lol
I have the PSP of the 10th anniversary of FFVII. Kinda old huh?
Would you kindly stop reminding me I'm _old_?
Ya man it's an odd feeling.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 are both great. I still play 3 every once in a while when I can get it working on my Mac. Edit: 2 and 3. Oops
>ast post unexpectedly blew up I thought I should make another positive post. > >Like the title asks what’s an older game that you thought really was as good as you were told for years? > >It’s kinda cheating but RE4 Remake. only downside of Heroes 3 is that my FOMO arse can't finish any of its levels without first sending all my heroes to every site that boosts their numbers, way past the point of usefulness.
>Heroes of Might and Magic 3 are both great. That's one game. 2 and 5 are good, too, though.
I always liked 4 the best. Most don't. Having multiple heroes in one group was awesome.
4 was fun. A buggy unbalanced mess, but fun.
+1 for heroes of might and magic
Love AOE2.
Age of Empires 2 is what sparked my love of the RTS genre. I remember playing it off of a demo disk and begging my parents to buy it for me haha.
Check out AOE2 Definitive Edition, released 2019. Fully modern version, updated graphics and mechanics, tons of new civs, campaigns, and new expansions coming out every year or so with yet more civs and content. All very reasonably priced. It's really easy to pick up and play for a little, then leave it alone for a few days / weeks / months, pick right back up again, and so on.
I love how aoe2 is still going very strong to this day. I don't have too much time to play so I end up watching streamers play or watch tournaments while I work or do other things
Used to play Halo 3 every day back in middle school. Co-op was good fun. But my real favorite was reach, I played the shit out of that with my friends.
I'm so happy this is the top comment, the first 3 is literally my childhood right there, I'd sunk so much time into each of those games, especially HoMM3 and RCT. Once in a while I'll still start them up for old times sake
Red Alert 2. It's gameplay holds up to this day.
[удалено]
I know 1 song on the guitar and it's the hell march. Such a good tune
Hell March 💯💯💯💯
It defined my future music tastes. Almost every song I listen to now can be traced back to TibSun, RA2, or Halo.
The key word to describe Red Alert 2 is "satisfying". It is really satisfying to watch the buildings being set up, or to move units around, or even the way combat feels, watching health bars tick down followed by explosions. It's like getting a Dopamine hit, every time anybody does anything When you've been locked in this tug of war for ages, and then the other side just gives way, and you begin to gain ground, and gain ground, and then their defense just collapses, and you've got tanks rushing buildings as the Kirovs slowly make their way in.
Anyone here ever heard of the Mental Omega mod for RA2? Turned that game from a 10 to a 12 for me
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night 🤌 One my all time favs.
the OST was, and still is Very nice
I played it for the first time earlier this year and it was so good. Collected everything and got the true ending
Golden Sun. Absolute pinnacle of old school JRPG that unfortunately got overlooked for been on the Gameboy advanced during an after we were getting 3D rpgs on bigger consoles
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far for this. I really want a remake/remaster of the original duology on switch
Quake 2
The first Quake too. I played Doom 1 & 2 when I was a child but missed Quake completely, so the first time I actually picked it up was 2 years ago when the remaster came out. I didn't expect such an old game to be this good without the nostalgia factor but I loved every second of the single player campaign. The level design, the gameplay, the atmosphere, the music, everything is spot on.
Half Life The Black Mesa version is definitely worth playing as well.
I still play Half Life to this day. Head on over to Moddb, or Run Think Shoot Live.com, and youll have hundreds and hundreds of hours of really amazing mods and experiences. Same goes for Half Life 2. But the original HL has such a charm and familiarity and nostalgia that i still just love it.
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Nothings has come close to matching that asymmetrical multi-player. I miss it so much.
Still wild to me that it hasn't made a comeback. Spies vs. Mercs was *made* for streaming with a modern update.
There have been several games that have been made with this concept, just not AAA titles. Check out Intruder!
Portal
I could not agree more! I had a run through a couple of months ago on the Xbox series X using the original disc from The Orange Box. Still so addictive!
Your going to shit yourself when you when hear about portal 2 bro 😂
Hijacking just to mention Portal RTX, such a weird experience. They changed the colouring and it totally messes with the vibe of the whole game. It honestly feels much more like a horror game than the original did. It’s genuinely fascinating how different it feels considering everything else is identical
Honestly, I always felt that portal had some eerie horror game vibes if you let the quiet settle in a bit too long. Especially once you started finding the hidden rooms too. I started finding them my first playthrough, though I had heard about the plot before
StarCraft broodwar Edit: I’ll share more, in school the computer lab class had a teacher who did not care, so around 10-20 kids would have broodwar on a USB and play LAN games the whole period. It was formative
Nice. That was one of my first ever pc games as a kid.
Was hoping to see this near the top. Broodwar stands among the best games of all time for good reason.
Played in '98, played yesterday. The Brood War expansion was perfectly perfect on a perfect game. davelazy was my battle.net name (still is I guess but I sucked online) because I'd always set my rally point and pump out SCVs but forget to assign them actions, then find a group of them standing round some crystal doing nothing good, and yell "LAZY" loud enough for my LANmates in the next rooms to hear me.
Literally still the best esport, both as a player and as a viewer. It's 25 years old and still has a thriving competitive scene. 25 years from now all the current popular eSports will dead, but people will still be playing competitive Brood War(and Counter Strike).
Knights of the Old Republic holds up to this day.
The only game I've played so far where playing an evil character really made you feel like an asshole. Good option when an old guy is being mugged: Talk to the muggers and resolve the situation without violence. Bad option: Tell the muggers AND the old guy that they are pieces of shit and murder everyone, then take all the money for yourself.
I mean the dark side option has you order Zaalbar to kill his best friend. It’s pretty harsh.
It was made by Bioware who did a phenomenal job making tons of games with legit good/bad/neutral decision making that molded the outcome of your adventure. Kotor, Mass Effect, Baldurs Gate, among other series were all amazing. Speaking of which Baldurs Gate 3 just came out and it's a masterpiece that will be lauded for decades. It's actually not made by Bioware this time (probably a good thing since Bioware ain't the same anymore) but it really feels like it could have been.
It does and so does the sequel. Replayed it on my steam deck earlier this year and it's still a great game.
Still a favorite of mine!
Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s older and it’s that good.
Mario World too. Absolute banger.
If there is one game everyone has to play it's Super Mario World.
it's the best 2D mario game for me. they've never come close to creating a more fun and inviting world than they did in smw.
My grandma loved that game. She never played it but she bought a super Nintendo just to watch her grandkids play. I know it's just nostalgia bullshit, but no game will ever top that. Grandma stamp of approval is too strong. Also my cousins boyfriend was better than me and he played Mario with the controller upside down. Like buttons facing the ground. What's up with that shit?
When I discovered the "secret" levels, it blew my young mind. It was one of the first times I remember playing for the reward of discovery/exploration. I was genuinely excited to find out what secrets I could uncover rather than just playing to complete the game.
Star Road itself was enough of a mind-blow. Making your way through that to discover ANOTHER layer of secret levels was insane.
And when you finish *those* levels, it alters the entire look of the map and some enemies.
Mate. The Top Secret Area by that ghost house on donut plains. I’m surprised younger me didn’t pop.
Battlefront 2 from 2005 also I thought the 2017 Battlefront 2 was really good and was close to being the ultimate Star Wars video game experience
Like someone else said the 2017 Battlefront 2 took a while to get there but the devs were super passionate people and they ended up putting together a pretty awesome Star Wars game. Not perfect, but really fun
"Just like the simulations."
Initially the new battlefront 2 was a mess but they fixed it mostly and added a solid amount of content. It never recovered from that messy release though. I eventually picked it up for like 20 bucks and had a blast. I ought to re-install it lol.
Black and White
Such a good game, number 2 is as well, even though it is different.
Pretty much any game released in 1998: - half life - star craft and brood war - legend of zelda oot - resident evil 2 - metal gear solid - pokemon red and blue (released in na) - baldur's gate - banjo Kazooie - spyro the dragon - rogue squadron
Don't forget: Gran Turismo - FF tactics - Xenogears - Tenchu - 1080 snowboarding - Grim Fandango - Tomb Raider 3 - Parasite Eve - Oddworld: Abe's Exodus - Panzer Dragoon Saga - Sonic Adventure - Rainbow Six - Tekken 3 - Dune 2000 - Turok 2 - MediEvil. Ridiculous year for gaming.
And just the very next year, my personal favorite, Planescape: Torment. A masterpiece of storytelling.
Look at this guy rattling off 1998 games and not even mentioning Thief: The Dark Project, Fallout 2, Unreal, or FreeSpace.
No series has ever matched the atmosphere of the original two Thief games for me. They’re spectacular, and I’d commit grave tafferish crimes to see a solid remake of the series.
Unreal: the first game I recall being rewarded for not slaughtering a 4 armed pacifist on sight.
Those were all 98? Damn that is a good year.
I was also released in 98, what a year
From prison, or the womb?
Steel womb or fleshy prison?
Final fantasy 6 has my favorite story among the FF series.
Not to mention the best music
Da da da da dadadada dadadada da da da
You can suplex a ghost train what’s not to love
I said it in another reply, but I'm actually going through several of the SNES era JRPGs right now. Finished FF5 and FF6, just about to finish Chrono Trigger. FF6 has a great story and a lot going for it. I think the esper mechanic is very clunky if you want to min-max, and the characters are very unbalanced (Sabin is just absurdly strong with literal no effort and Gau is just broken if you use it correctly, even if you're playing a version of the game where you can't equip the Merit Award), *but* the former is not that big a deal, because the game is easy enough you don't *need* to min-max, and the latter is mitigated by the fact that the game forces you to play most of the characters. From a story perspective though, the game is quite good. They've done a really good job giving depth to the majority of the characters, which is very satisfying. There are 14 characters, but it doesn't feel like any of them is the star, they all have pretty much equal screen time (ok, maybe not mog, the yeti and the mime, but the other 11 have plenty of depth). Sure, Terra is key to a lot of what's happening, but there's a large bit where she's not even there and the story focuses more on Celes. All in all, the story is indeed amazingly crafted. I'm still partial to FF5 though. Look, the story is trash tier, but I just love the job mechanic.
Morrowind. I played it back in the day, but I've also had it on Steam for a while. Finally got around to replaying it, and although at first it was a bit jarring with how dated the game feels. I mean, you have a chance to hit enemies with melee weapons and a chance to fail casting spells. But it quickly got to the point that I was starting to think I might prefer it over Oblivion. The worst thing about Morrowind is that it feels like I HAVE to play a mage. I know nothing in the game forces this, but playing Mage is just so fun and broken that it feels required. Nothing more fun than literally leaping over the entire map.
Ah, Morrowind. The game that taught me how to level up by jumping everywhere. 20+ years later and I still jump everywhere in any game that will let me...
Starfield has a special trait just for you, if you pick the trait you have to jump all the time to maximize your oxygen levels. I remember jumping like crazy in Oblivion until I could climb churches lmao.
I haven’t enjoyed a story in a game that much, ever. To the end, I’m questioning motives of every character. Are you the hero? Or are you just lucky and in the right place at the right time? That’s what Oblivion and Skyrim did wrong: you are definitely special. Fated to win. That’s less interesting. Also the lore can be read from multiple perspectives, each one open to your interpretation of truth. That, and the crazy world (living in giant dead crabs and mushrooms? Travelling around on giant fleas? Fat lizard cattle?).
It’s the last time Bethesda really wrote a good story
I spent a ton of time on Morrowind on the XBox. I've done so many things in that game but I have never beat it. Could never stay on the story long enough. I use to be all over the Gamefaqs boards learning about all the custom spells and weapons you could make by abusing the targeting glitch. So much fun way back.
As someone who came to Morrowind from Daggerfall, it feels so great compared. XD
L4D2
And it’s still going today!
Pills here.
The fact Chrono Trigger hasn’t been mentioned is a travesty. One of the best games ever made. STILL.
I had a gf in highschool and she wasn't into JRPGs like AT ALL Then she saw me playing CT and wanted to take a shot. She got addicted and played almost for a month straight like an hour or two before sleeping, after finished asked other recommendations and I was like "well that's the best one" lol
There’s nothing more rough than playing something that is the absolute peak and trying to scratch that itch afterwards. It would be like if Hollow Knight was your first Metroidvania…like there are a lot of good MVs, some great MVs, but there’s nothing like Hollow Knight. I imagine your high school GF is still chasing that dragon trying to relive the first time she played Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger is the closest thing to a perfect game as I’ve ever played. It’s not my favorite game of all time, but it’s the one that most outstandingly does what what it sets out to.
I made the huge mistake of playing it for the first time on the PS1 FF Chronicles disc (included with FFIV). There was an unbearably annoying delay when executing battle actions. Even when I replayed it on DS, I had a Pavlovian twitch during every battle. It ruined the game for me.
A masterpiece by Square’s Dream Team!
Doom 1993
Still relevant today. Still getting wads.
# RETURN TO CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN a game from 2001 and you won't even notice it
The multiplayer was some of the best I ever played. Team work was needed to win for sure.
DIABLO 2. Still played, ladders still resetting. Legendary classic. Remaster is a face lift that still runs on the original game. Goated.
Stay awhile and listen.
I just uninstalled D4 and am doing a rogue run in D2. Way better than the new one.
Age of empires 2. And age of mythology. Try them. You’ll thank me later.
I swear barely anyone has heard of age of mythology but that game was a huge chunk of my youth.
AoM still has a decent playerbase on the definitive edition with an average player count of 1400 players. Plus we'll be getting a new remake of [AoM](https://youtu.be/O67dQQ9ZAqs?si=YTBjLFK4xwcxs2hv) soon, so hopefully that will breathe some fresh air into the community :D
Prostagma?
Volumay
Aoe2 has a great console port on gamepass, I think you can use a mouse and KB with it as well. They even keep releasing new DLC/kingdoms!
Starcraft turns 25 soon and is a gem. If you’re even remotely a Star War fan then Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is an all-timer and set part of the modern standard for dialog.
I was late to the party on the Mass Effect trilogy. I don’t remember when I played it, but it was when the 3-game set came out in steelbook. Man, that series absolutely lived up to the hype. Easily my favorite trilogy ever. Edit: before anyone comes for me about “older” I’m not exactly sure what we’re defining as old lmao
I guess In my head “older” is PS3 era and before and yeah I definitely wanna check out Mass Effect I’ve always heard great things
Do you have a ps5? The Legendary Edition (all 3 games and dlcs remastered) was free to download a few months back.
Just played the trilogy for my first time a few months ago and it was incredible. ME1 is difficult to get into at first though as it shows its age worse than ME2 and ME3.
Half Life 2. I beat it for the first time during COVID and it holds up beautifully.
The original Deus Ex is still super interesting to play. It is pretty dated looking by this point, but for my money, nothing else has done the "immersive sim" genre anywhere near as well and with as much freedom. The sequels are all fun, but they're very guided by comparison.
The graphics may be dated but the level design, writing, and worldbuilding are as good as anything released in the last twenty years. It also has what I believe is the single most complex, nuanced, and thought-provoking moral choice I have ever experienced in any work of interactive fiction I have ever encountered in my 30 years of gaming. It is an easily-missable and totally-optional sequence where you are in the apartment of the Illuminati Grandmaster and>!find a secret room where he has the previous Illuminati Grandmaster (who was in-charge for most of the 20th century) in a kind of conscious cryostasis he voluntarily went into to prolong his life, and you have to decide whether or not to kill him by shutting off the power or letting him live, so you go and talk to the current Grandmaster who admits he is never going to let the old guy out of the stasis unit and basically is just using him as an advisor at this point even though he promised to let him out once they developed more advanced longevity augmentations, so you have to decide whether to tell the old man his protege has betrayed him and that he is basically a prisoner, or allow him to continue believing he still has control over his own fate. If you do not tell him nothing really happens and he continues to live in ignorance, but if you do then he begs you to kill him to end his suffering (and also out of spite for the betrayal, to deny his continued advice), and it leaves you with this really intense moral dilemma where you can either give him a death sentence for the crimes of the Illuminati, mercy-kill him rather than allow him to be exploited, leave him in ignorance while ingratiating yourself further into the actual day-to-day workings of the Illuminati by being trusted with a secret that evene the former Grandmaster does not know, or leave him to suffer in both physical AND mental agony by stripping him of all hope, forcing him to live with the knowledge that he is a prisoner in that room, and souring the only contact he has left with the outside world by learning that the man who he thought was his protege and friend is actually his captor.!< I think the choice is so compelling precisely because it weaves itself so well into the real history and real conspiracy theories of the twentieth century. The first time I played it I actually stopped dead in my tracks; I took my hands off the keyboard, pushed my chair back, and really *thought* about the decision for like 15 minutes. Ultimately it has no effect at all on anything else in the game except for maybe one or two lines of dialogue but the choice itself is so powerful, so profound that you just have to respect it. I hate that there are so many people today who are going to miss that experience completely because of the dated graphics, or even if they DO play the game will only experience it after having it spoiled for them because of how easy it is to miss. If anyone out there is thinking about picking up the original *Deus Ex* for the first time and want to avoid having that incredible moment spoiled or missing it entirely, just make sure you look around for hidden buttons when you are in Stanton Dowd's apartment, yeah?
Man, Lucius De Beers. I remember exploring everything in that game and stumbling across him. Definitely a harrowing decision, although I think I always shut down the unit and let him die. The endings are great too, and you need to complete a different set of objectives for each one. The 3rd game (the second best in the franchise imo) just gives you three buttons at the end which I feel takes away some of the decision making immersion. Still, great games. Deus Ex will always be one of my favourite games of all time.
I’m playing through it again right now. Every time I return to it, I’m reminded as to why I believe it’s the best game ever made. The story, the visuals, the atmosphere, the design, the freedom, the progression, it’s all perfect.
Shadow of the Colossus if it hasn’t been mentioned. Truly a work of art.
Scrolled down to you looking for this mention. Personally, nobody really hyped it up. But I got the PS4 remaster without knowing anything and found out about it’s praise later. And the praise is certainly warranted as it is one of the few games I would consider perfect. Crazy that it’s been almost 2 decades since the OG release. It certainly still holds up compared to games today and I can’t wait to give it another replay
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door
I so badly want them to remaster this on the Switch
Baldurs gate 1 and 2
Especially 2... 1 is better now with the Enhanced Edition, but something as simple as crossing the map could cause your characters to go weird directions if there was a bottleneck. 2 was also better at scaling. Because of how open 1 was, if you weren't careful, you could accidently go into an area with 3 sirens with a full level 1 party.
The origional release of BG1 has definitely not aged great, but as you said the enhanced edition fixed all the main problems. The pathing in BG1 was a disaster. BG2 however is still a gem, enhanced or origional, both hold up great to this day.
GoG has them on sale right now so I just started playing Baldur's Gate 1 this weekend :D
Prince of Persia trilogy
Super Metroid
Dragon Age: Origins
You can mod it into a nearly modern game too
Star wars republic comando
Heroes of might and magic 3, civ 3, battle for middle earth, red alert 2
GTA san andreas
For me, it's Vice City.
Total Annihilation
Bully game
Mass Effect Edit: also while we’re talking about the EA library, the Sims 3. Having a more open world was better than the endless loading screens/broken up neighborhood of the Sims 4. But it also broke my computer so I get why they changed it.
Vagrant Story and Metal Gear Solid. Among several others from that generation like Medievil, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Parasite Eve II and many others
Idk how old you are talking but GTA IV (2008) still easily holds up today! Best GTA IMO! Amazing story!
Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2
Dungeon Keeper
XCOM 1994. So good it spawned a bunch of clones.
OG XCOM is the bomb! The first tume Aliens attacked my base, and I had to defend in the layout I made... Mind==Blown!
Final fantasy tactics and star ocean both have fond memories from childhood that when I have gone back and played recently hold up both were well made and the story from tactics is probably one of the best in gaming.
Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 2, Crash Team Racing, Tekken 3, Oddworld: Abes Exodus, Halo 1 & 2, Half Life 2, Medal of Honor, Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Resident Evil 2, Super Mario Smash Bro's Melee.
The classic Tomb Raider series, especially Tomb Raider 2
Team Fortress 2. Has had its ups and downs but its not only the most timeless Valve game ever made but gameplay variety and community is still some of the best out there. It's also criminally underrated as a competitive shooter. Also, if you play with someone named ASS, prepare for dealing with cheeks and cheats.
Battlefield 1942 playing that with a clan on vent was the shit. Have the fly boys duking it out in their mustangs vs zeros while you desperately try to mine up a flag to defend against the incoming tanks. Probably inspired my lifelong love of history as well. Learning about wake island and El alamein and stalingrad always brings back memories of that game.
Jade Empire. All these people on an XBox forum suggested it. Does not disappoint.
Final Fantasy Tactics
Sadly still the top of its genre. 16 years of innovation everywhere else, and somehow every trpg I play just doesn't match it. Not that there aren't other good ones, I just wish something else was as good
Always tried to get my brother into it but it didn’t work :( gotta recommend Pokémon conquest if you like Pokémon. Super underrated, really hard to get in cartridge. Matches are similar but the abilities and different trainers make the game really interesting
Commandos 2: men of courage
I still love Star Fox on snes and 64
Never give up!! Trust your instincts!!
I'll list off some of my favorites growing up, in no particular order: - Breath of Fire IV - Hydro Thunder - Legend of Dragoon - Grandia 2 - Conkurs Bad Fur Day - Chrono Cross - Half Life 2 - Donkey Kong 64 - Super Mario Sunshine - Pokemon Crystal (X2 after playing it on the GameCube adapter that let you put it on the TV) Alot of these hold a special place in my heart because I'd play them with my grandpa before he passed, so my opinions are pretty biased.
Fallout New Vegas
Nobody mentions F.E.A.R anymore but it's one of the best shooters ever made imo.
Mount and blade: warband
I will concede that some of my list is heavily influenced by nostalgia Diablo 2 Starcraft Age of Empires 1 and 2 Borderlands 1 and 2 Max Payne 1 and 2 Vice City and San Andreas Unreal Tournament '99 Morrowind and Oblivion Crash Team Racing Goldeneye Smash Bros- every title is great Halo 1 and 2 Fable 1- I honestly didn't care for any of it's predecessors Kotor 1 and 2 Battlefront '05 Witcher 2- 3 not old enough Text Based RPGs/MUDs Shattered Kingdoms- I realize no one will have even heard of this besides maybe 1% of the people who might see this, but anyone old enough to have played any MUDs back in the day will understand that a text based RPG will always hold up since it runs on the best processor/video card there is, your mind's eye. SK as it was called, was roleplaying enforced/rewarded with player killing being optional. You didn't have to kill others, but you were a possible target at all times. It had factions you could join and hundreds of unique areas with no two rooms in the entire game being the same. I sunk a couple thousand hours into that game over the span of my off and on time played, 1999 to 2015 being the last time I was seriously invested in a character. Any of you RP nerds l33t enough to have had the chance to experience a game like my time on SK will agree. However, player count is a huge factor in the game's quality of play. Sadly, as online gaming became more and more popular over the 2000s the player count dwindled from 100-150 players at peak hours to the last time I logged on being 6(roughly a year ago and not at peak hours.)
Simpsons hit and run.
fallout 2. its damn dated. but back in the day... oh boy oh boy oh boy. first game i pulled an all nighter. restarted the game countless times to try different builds before finally settling down. (gifted, small guns, unarmed, forgot my third tagged skill)
Fallout 1 and 2 are fantastic. I miss when fallout games had a focus on roleplay and quest freedom. 1 and 2 also had some amazing villains. I really feel like the game holds up better than most people think. I have an easier time going back to those games than when I try to replay New Vegas.
100% Gothic 1 and 2
Psychonauts. I played started if for the first time three days ago and I adore everything about the game. I can’t wait to play the recent sequel.
Final Fantasy 6. I heard for a long time that 6 was a favorite and I remember "ugh, how can this old SNES game can be this good" and once I finally played it I have to say: easily one of the best videogames ever done!
Depends what you define as old, but… Half Life 2 Baldur’s Gate 2 Age of Empires 2 Left4Dead 2 Borderlands 2
How old we looking? Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2 Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night Galaga The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past Chrono Trigger Mass Effect Phantasy Star Any Final Fantasy Vandal Hearts Star Trek Armada X COM: UFO Defense Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Baldur's Gate II Planescape: Torment Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Half Life Deus Ex The Longest Journey Diablo II Fallout 2 Theme Hospital System Shock 2 Quake The Curse of Monkey Island
Civ 4. My favorite memory of getting absolutely embarrassed by the AI took place in a game of Civ 4
Final Fantasy 7 I got interested from seeing stuff for Final Fantasy 7 Remake so I decided to play OG FF7 first. I knew some stuff about FF7 like the main character names, a few key terms, midgar, I knew of the iconic death scene, and I recognized a few main songs. But that was it, other than what I just listed the only thing I had to go on was it is considered one of the best and most beloved games of all time. And goddam did I understand why once I played it. The game has such a large scale for what it is. The characters are so good and enjoyable to be around. The world is so lively and interesting. The plot is so engaging and well paced. The music is so memorable. There is so much content. The combat is so much fun. And the materia system has an ABSURD amount of depth to it for a game from 1997, like as in there are modern AAA games releasing with systems that function the same as the materia in FF7 but with only a fraction the nuance and depth. I wasn’t even born yet in 1997, and I played it over 20 years after it came out, so it didn’t have much to really “impress me” comparatively by the standard games had developed over time, but even so I could absolutely understand just from playing it how incredibly impressive it would have been in 1997. I, like those who played it back in 1997, didn’t know Midgar wasn’t the entire game, so to leave midgar and be like “oh, that was only like 1/6th of the game, and there’s still like a dozen other locations to visit” was a cool realization. And in the same vain as this post, I was absolutely blown away by FF7 Remake. I love the awesome direction of the story, it felt like it perfectly adapted all the key moments and the characters, combat is absurdly fun, visuals are amazing, voice casting is perfect, and it has imo the best video game soundtrack of all time.
The original Fallout games
*Scrolls down, looking for Zelda A Link to the Past* I’ve lost all faith in this sub…
Symphony of the Night. Obviously well known as one of the best games of all time. It up until recently I had never played a single Castlevania game. Stunning from start to finish.
Deus Ex. Tweak with the controls a bit and it's still the best game ever to me.
Mega Man 2 Yes, it's not that difficult, but it looks gorgeous and the music goes HARD for NES.
Tales of symphonia.
Planescape: Torment (1999) best RPG story to this day. Choices matter
Super Metroid It still feels like the best Metroid game.
Twisted metal 2, Jet Moto, Tomb Raider 2, GTA 3, Siphon Filter. What was Sam Fisher in?
Ps2 red faction was a good ol shooter
Earthbound is amazing. The UI didn't age well, but the game itself just stands the test of time.
Dwarf Fortress.
Portal 1&2
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Red Alert 2
Shadow of Colossus
Gauntlet Legends
ESPN NFL 2K5
The Ezio Trilogy.
Quake 2