What games have dated poorly?

[ncf1]

One of my all-time favourite games, or game series, was Medal of Honor on the PS1, so I even went to the extent or purchasing it again - both MoH 1 & 2 - and was rather shocked to find that the games hadn't met expectations anywhere near what I had remembered them to; I realized that they had dated poorly, and although I'd heard that term used so often, I thought I hadn't come across a game too often that I really loved that had dated so badly that I (almost) couldn't play it again.

Some I think have held up extremely well : upon installing and playing Battlefield 1942 I thought it played almost as well as when I initially was engrossed by it and took days off work to play it. Monkey Island II fared extremely well, although I found Monkey Island 3 to have dated very badly for some reason.

Many say early games on CD especially with video footage have aged poorly and certainly in the case of Myst I would agree, but others like Gabriel Knight 3 I think have a certain charm about them - Mad Dog Mcree also, maybe Phatasmagoria - that enables them to get by, they have a certain kitsch quality about them (I think kitsch is the right term).

So I'm interested to hear people's thoughts on games that have dated really poorly - and perhaps some that, like me with MoH, you didn't quite expect.

[killbot]

The graphical style really dates MI3, I find. I loved the look of MI2 - it looked like an oil painting that moved. MI3 went for a deliberately cartoonish style that was far less timeless and suffers for it.

Ridiculously, when Lucasarts updated the first two games they brought them more into line with the look of the third game, rather than going back to the classic style. The fourth and fifth games suffer the same way but I don't think they look as dated as the third (largely due to them using 3D character models).

Aaaaanyway. One look I find incredibly dated is the shiny, plasticy CG look of some early-mid 90s games like Myst, 7th Guest and Killer Instinct. It reminds me of when Amiga mags used to run art competitions and would always get the same people sending in raytraced pics of steel balls reflecting a chequerboard floor.

[RodimusPrime]

A lot of the early 3D games on PS1 and saturn look ugly now ( syphon filter for example )

[Negative Creep]

Pretty much any pre-twin stick console FPS game. Even the hallowed Goldeneye is very hard to play if you're used to anything made within the last 10 years

[Combo-Breaker]

Goldeneye hasn't aged very well at all. Neither has Mortal Kombat.

[shiftytigger]

Having replayed a few od my old favourites I find it weird that the roughness of Grandia still doesnt bother me , Yet replaying Kensei, Dynasty Warriors and Tobal really got to me. Think I may need a smaller tv to minimise the impact on my memories and eyesight.

[ncf1]

[quote="killbot"]The graphical style really dates MI3, I find. I loved the look of MI2 - it looked like an oil painting that moved. MI3 went for a deliberately cartoonish style that was far less timeless and suffers for it.

Ridiculously, when Lucasarts updated the first two games they brought them more into line with the look of the third game, rather than going back to the classic style. The fourth and fifth games suffer the same way but I don't think they look as dated as the third (largely due to them using 3D character models).
quote]

yes I think you are right - the cartoony graphic style they chose just hasn't held up well at all. And agree totally about MI2. MI4 and beyond.. I wont even say a word about. I think kidnapping and torturing my kids would have been easier for me to deal with. Well ok not quite but uh.. y'know how I feel.

[snowkatt]

Goldeneye hasn't aged very well at all. Neither has Mortal Kombat.

goldeneye really has not aged well
it looks shockingly poor now with low poly models and rough textures and the controls are overly twitchy as well
at least the ps1 games are still razor sharp

[DoraemonTheCat]

Mortal Kombat, Tekken (original), Ground Zero Texas (MCD), Battle Arena Toshinden.

[snowkatt]

toshinden aged badley in 1997 already

[mr gryzor]

A ton of games from that Playstation 1 era. Dog rough.

[Misery]

*Everything* that was on the PS1. Ugh. I look back at that thing and wonder how anyone ever thought that anything on there looked GOOD.

My favorites are alot of the RPGs and such that'd use pre-rendered backgrounds, while at the same time rendering the characters way too small to fit the background, so that in effect you had this crappy flat painting being explored by hideous random pixel blobs that didnt much look like anything due to the low resolution and zoomed out models.

[ToxieDogg]

*Everything* that was on the PS1. Ugh. I look back at that thing and wonder how anyone ever thought that anything on there looked GOOD.

My favorites are alot of the RPGs and such that'd use pre-rendered backgrounds, while at the same time rendering the characters way too small to fit the background, so that in effect you had this crappy flat painting being explored by hideous random pixel blobs that didnt much look like anything due to the low resolution and zoomed out models.

Prime examples being the PS1 Final Fantasy games Agree with you 100% about games with pre-rendered backgrounds and small rendered characters...didn't look that great back then, look AWFUL now.

There's still a few PS1 games that look really nice, but they tend to be the ones that stuck mainly to 2D style graphics, like Rapid Reload/Gunner's Heaven, Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night and the first Alundra.

[goldenone]

I recently played Formula 1 on the PS1 and it was dog rough

I honestly can't even begin to think of the amount of hours I put into that when it was first released but 10 minutes now is more than enough.

[thebear]

What games have dated poorly?

Street Fighter and Tekken went out for a meal, it didn't go well and they never had a second date

Too many awkward silences