Kill your darlings- on what charges?

[darkjak]

So a few months back I read a Swedish Gamemag, which has a monthly section called "kill your darlings". There they write articles about old games wich once were considered great, and they now think are crap. That specific month they reviewed my alltime favourite console FPS, Perfect Dark.

They complained about mainly the framerate, going so far as to stating that the game was unplayable.

A little more than two weeks ago I came home from the univerity to my parents home, where I have my TV and consoles, and I replayed PD. Sure, when things got a bit hot, there was a slight bit of slowdown. In multiplayer things stayed the same. Sure, when all the bots were turned on and people were playing about with mines, pinball grenades or the Phoenix, the framerate got really low, and things got slightly worse with more players. But what did they expect? It's a console from 1996! Did they expect the game to run at an average 60fps?

I just wonder what people complain about stuff not being top of the line. Or for that matter, why they complain when things are too top of the line. I've heard people whine why Crysis needs such an extreme computer. It doesent, it's just if you want to play with all the graphical candy turned up to max that it needs a supercomputer. If you can survive the most basic graphics settings, my quite crappy computer will do.

 

I've also heard complaints about my favourite Dreamcast game, Shenmue. Yet again it's the graphics. Shenmue is from my point of view the best ever attempt to recreate a graphically credible depiction of the world. Sure, Gran Turismo 4 had more realistic graphics, but as far as games with characters and a story go, Shenmue was unparalelled up untill the release of Half Life 2, and few games since then have come close. YES, the characters popped up out of nowhere in the freeroam mode, YES, some character models (mainly those of old, wrinkly people) have quite bad textures. YES, the framerate drops when there's a LOT going on on the screen (a lot with a big l, because there has to be very much going on at once).

 

So this is basically a thread for telling people how strange they are for looking down on these old classics.

[Chris the great]

well i played perfect dark in 06 and the jerkyness was a shock, dont get me wrong, it was fantastic, but in just the jump from n64 to cube it looked old. still plays a treat.

[Patch]

Agreed, the framerate is really the only thing that lets it down. I'd buy it full price if it was ported to GC/Wii.

 

Do you hear me Nintendo? FULL PRICE!

[killthenet]

I hope they do give it a nice port over Wii Ware. I find it difficult to play FPS's on the N64 now because the control's seem a little clunky. I had no problems back when the N64 was in its prime, but after playing RE4 with the pointer on Wii its difficult to go back to analogue stick aim.

 

I'd be happy if it was just released on Virtual Console, but a proper Wii Ware port would definately be my prefered option.

[Shorty]

I was amazed at how slowly and jerkily PD is, and how we put up with it without batting an eyelid at one point. Our standards have risen gradually enough that we haven't noticed.

[Chris the great]

I was amazed at how slowly and jerkily PD is, and how we put up with it without batting an eyelid at one point. Our standards have risen gradually enough that we haven't noticed.

 

yeah, that was a shock too me, did i blot it out? was i that ready to love or am i just spoilt by modern tech?

[Jimbob]

Looking back now, PD was a great game and it did look very good for its time. Today, yes it is still a good game but it looks shabby to todays standard.

[Indigo]

Perfect Dark is still a fine game. Co-op and counter-op may be quite unplayable, but barring a few intense single-player moments and the use of explosives in multiplayer the game has aged well.

 

Over Easter me and my friend played a lot of two-player combat simulator - it was damn fun. It sure beats any shooters that Nintendo consoles have since had to offer.

[Jamba]

Perfect Dark is still a fine game. Co-op and counter-op may be quite unplayable, but barring a few intense single-player moments and the use of explosives in multiplayer the game has aged well.

 

Over Easter me and my friend played a lot of two-player combat simulator - it was damn fun. It sure beats any shooters that Nintendo consoles have since had to offer.

 

Two player sims were fantastic. I think I still have nightmare about fighting the 2 Elvis guys.

 

I find that animation gives a lot of life to old games as no matter how low poly the character of how badly they are textured, if they are animated well then they feel alive. OOT is the best example I think of this.

 

But hell I go hit back on old PC FPS that I used to love and I still prefer them in many ways to modern ones. AVP2 single player and Quake multiplayer are some of the best FPS shooter experiences that I've ever had and they are ancient now.

 

Then there's one of my favourite games for pop up and slow down. Starfox. That game is still the best of the series and game just flings sodding everything in the world at you at the same time. Fantastic game.

[BlueStar]

The first generation of 3d console games have aged really badly compared to their 2d predecessors.

[Emasher]

I guess the thing you have to think of is.

 

If *insert the name of a random shitty game here* was somehow released back on the NES exactly how it is now (not saying this is possible its just for the purposes of this idea) people would think it was the most amazing game ever it would be revolutionary with its 3D graphics and more modern gaming elements. But the same game today is just awful, most likely everything in it has been done many times before, ect.

 

The other day I was playing Mario Kart 64 with my parents and sister and they kept ranting on how awful the game was because it was old and had bad graphics ect. I told them that this game was one of the better multiplayer games of its time. Then the started saying stuff like its time was up ect. I was pretty annoyed by this especially because MK 64 was the first Nintendo games that I had a chance to have a proper play session on. (I had played OOT, SM64 and Yoshi Story before that though).

[darksnowman]

I haven't replayed any of Perfect Dark too recently, but I remember playing it post-N64 and having most of the problems with the N64 control stick. That stick just doesn't hold up anymore! Don't get me wrong, I think that controller has a better layout than GC/PS2 etc for FPS (Duke, GoldenEye, PD, etc are classics) but the joystick is woeful nowadays. Sure Perfect Dark has a wonky framerate nowadays, I didn't notice it too much at the time but of course its noticeable now when its pretty much 60fps or bust in games.

 

What I was gonna say is I can give an example of a game I didn't think was any use at the time, but which I recently played and think is decent enough... Snowbo Kids on the N64! When it came out I thought it was so slow, crap controls, and just an overrated game. I played it the other week however and found it to be ok and even good. Still has wonky controls, but it was enjoyable enough!

[D_prOdigy]

On the flip side, I played Golden Sun earlier for the first time in years, and considering it is a 2001, early Game Boy Advance title, I was amazed at how beautiful it looks compared to handheld games of today. It puts most DS games to shame, that's for sure.