Gaming often fetishises the new but many great things exist in the past, so let's strap into our time machines and talk about our favourite games released before say 2010?

InsurgentRat@beehaw.org to Gaming@beehaw.org – 11 points –

Just as with books, movies, plays etc the past holds a treasure trove of amazing experiences. Unless you have a lot more free time than I do it's unlikely you've played anywhere near the majority of the classics. Let's get out those pink sunnies and compare notes on some of our favourite releases.

I've recently been going back in time a little on the retro pi and looking at console games I never had.

  • I have to say Chrono Trigger blew me away with it's stunning art, puzzles with surprisingly little moon logic, and beautiful music.

  • Mario golf on the SNES is very simple but for tired evenings cuddling on the couch it's been a winner in our household.

  • The n64 Zelda games are surprisingly great too although that awkward period of 3d had some unusual controls. Even the gameboy ones are a blast although the water temple in oracle of ages it a bit frustrating.

  • Heroes of might and magic 2 and 3 hold a special place in my heart and I can still dump hours into skirmishing with those (32167 for when hom2 gets too frustrating amiright?)

  • I loved neverwinter knights as a kid but recently tried to check it out again and just... idk the magic wasn't there. I think now I'd rather just play some actual ttrpgs instead of sprawling CRPGs

PS1 is a mystery box to me so I'd love to hear some recommendations from that old thing. All I ever played on it was time crisis at my mates house (which was and is soooo coool, RIP lightguns).

What about you folks? What games hold a special place in your heart? or what have you checked out for the first time recently and found it's actually pretty good?

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I'm going to go waaay back to a gem of a '90s CRPG: Betrayal at Krondor.

The main quest-line was engaging, the combat was cool, and the puzzle boxes were fun, but I remember being blown away by the size of the world. You could wander for literally hours, exploring new terrain, and discovering additional characters and bonus quest-lines. Its world was expansive and immersive, and it felt alive, like nothing else playable on a 386sx ever had been before.

The next time I felt that sense of aliveness - but better - in a video game was about a decade later, when I took my first Wyvern ride in World of Warcraft, and realized that everything I was seeing below me was really happening. This wasn't a teleport: if you saw someone fighting something down below you, it was because another player was really fighting something down there. Mind-blowing!

I remember buying Betrayal at Krondor back in middle school simply because it came bundled with the book. I loved both reading and gaming, so it was a win-win for me.

you know I've read the book but never played the game (I don't recommend the book. My god Raymond e. fiest was sexist as hell)

I remember trying to read the books, inspired by the game, and not being able to get through them. I'd like to think that I recognized the sexism, at whatever-teen I was at the time, but I doubt that.

I suspect they're not very well written? There were so many poorly-written fantasy books around in the eighties; my buddy and I referred to them collectively as "Cheap Tolkien Knock-offs".

"Any good?", I'd ask. "Nah. CTK," he'd reply. Sometimes I'd read them anyway, but not unless everything else was checked out of the library.