I do feel the same!

When I try out Far Cry or F.E.A.R. I still get "carried away" and time flies. But most of the new stuff doesn't interest me. I even played a bit of 7th guest when I was testing out the new ScummVM, and ended up playing three puzzles 😊

There are exceptions though. GTA V for example, that game really sucked me in. On the PC I still buy a few Steam sales game, Tomb Raider was quite decent I must say. But all in all, I agree with you!

You know, I think this attitude towards the old and new might be part of the reason indie gaming has taken off as much as it has in the past few years. Myself, I find there's only a handful of modern AAA games which interest me, while the rest are indie titles. Now true, I do get burned by indie titles sometimes in that they don't always work properly on a technical level, whereas I can pretty much always get a AAA game working, either with no effort or minimal effort. The other factor is that most indie titles don't offer more than a few hours of gameplay. (Hell, one title I got awhile back, "Light", I actually beat AND got all the achievements in just 1 hour and 42 minutes!) Mind you, there are those out there I've sunk tons of hours into as well, like Ziggurat and Rogue Legacy, and regardless of anything, indie titles are much less expensive.

But, let's contrast that with the few modern AAA titles I have gotten in recent years, including Mortal Kombat, Skyrim, Saint's Row IV, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Street Fighter IV, Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed... I freaking love ALL of these games... and I just listed about half of my AAA titles on Steam, yet I have over 100 games on there... yeah, the vast majority are indie titles.

My attitude has always been to look at video and screenshots and think to myself: "If I was the one playing this, would I be having fun?" I imagine myself at the controls, looking at the on-screen displays, performing actions with the character, figuring out how to solve a puzzle or defeat an enemy... Part of the reason I avoid most AAA titles is because they show so many cinematics in place of actual gameplay that it's hard to know if I would enjoy them or not. Indie titles often show actual gameplay and thus I can very quickly identify how engaged I would be.

Stardew Valley is an excellent recent example of this decision making process of mine in action: When I first started watching footage of it I was thinking, "This looks interesting... the only thing I didn't like about Harvest Moon was the socialization mechanics and not having enough time to do everything I wanted to do in an in-game day." Then, the social aspects came up in the video and I was like, "Nope. As interesting as this game looks, that mechanic is going to drive me insane." :P

There's a lot of games I avoid mainly because of specific mechanics which I don't enjoy, and a number of games I give a chance to, even if they're not highly rated, because of mechanics which appeal to me, and I ultimately apply this entire decision making process to every game I learn about, regardless of whether it's AAA or indie.

...all that said though, I absolutely can't stand most dull-coloured games, which is like, 90% of the AAA stuff out there. Anyone going through my list of games on Steam would notice the vast majority of them have bright and colourful graphics. :B

^^ Exactly that. I have just about no interest in the new "AAA" titles. They're expensive, they don't run on my machines, the gameplay & concepts all seem derivative and uninspired, and there's just nothing that's been burning my pants to get me to try it out. Then there's the horrendously intrusive DRM, expensive DLC, "subscription models", blah blah blah... no thanks.

The indie game boom though, is the best thing that could have happened to the industry. In one way we're going through a golden age of creativity in gaming, but it's not coming from the major publishers. (IMO Valve and Epic are still pretty creativity-driven, but not so much the others.) Sure a lot of indie games aren't anything special but for every "hey I made a retro platformer just like Mario" there's two crazy experimental VR thing or generative music tech showpiece or infinite exploration zen game or whatever... It's actually what got me *back into* gaming after being more or less out of it since ~2005.

ALSO, most of the indie stuff is multi-platform and runs fine on non-"gamer" hardware, which helps a lot; a lot of the true indie games out there are developed on laptops with Intel HD graphics and they don't demand a nosebleed system and all the free time you have just to play the damn thing. And they sell for $10 on Steam or Humble, which helps a lot.

I'm kind of excited about some mid-budget titles coming up, straddling the line between an indie game and a "full" commercial release - e.g. Overload comes to mind. But that one is being made by a small team of friends making something they love, very much in the indie game spirit. Plus it's being developed for Mac & Linux from the ground up. Give me that over the next mega-release claptrap with licensed music and a seven-figure advertising budget any day.

I'm more likely to go back and play a favourite than make the effort to get into something new but that's more of a time constraint thing I suspect. I'm certainly not one of those "new games are simplified bollocks" grumps though; I think modern games / hardware are amazing.

I'm currently playing The Witcher 3 for example, and it's stunning.

I agree with you. I was pretty dissapointed with Fallout 4, but I am having a blast with indie title Underrail.

Just seen this one - Trackmania Turbo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMxkEs2dp4

Looks like cool arcade fun 😀 Have to try it out someday...

Otherwise I haven't really played anything new in ages... 😒

I'm right there with you guys. Ever since I got back into retro PCs a few months ago, I've had so much fun re-playing old favorites. They are so easy to get into and so entertaining. The music and story often take front and center over graphics and I'm quite okay with that! I have a pre-teen son who is into modern gaming, so I get exposed to modern (mostly FPS) titles. Yeah, the graphics are stunning, but there's no time to enjoy them or any soundtrack because the action is so frenetic you're playing purely on instinct. I'm more of a "thinking man's gamer", so I'll take System Shock over Black Ops III anytime. It's more fun to watch him play a modern game than to take the reigns myself.

For me, I found the line was drawn in 1999 with the release of Counter Strike. I was 30 yrs old when it came out so my reflexes were still decent enough to enjoy the game a bit, but I found the unpredictability of multiplayer...off-putting. There was never any time to slow down and think things through. You had to constantly move and react. As someone who was raised on single player storyline campaigns, I could *never* fully accept how multiplayer took over the gaming industry. It was at that point that my PC gaming started to decline. I'd carefully buy only games that I verified had a good single player mode, which became more and more rare.

In fact, in the past 5 years, the only games I'd given any time to are Minecraft and Battle for Wesnoth. I built and host a Minecraft server for my son and his buddies, and I used to log on to play with them as sort of a chaperone. I found that I only really enjoyed Creative mode for a short time, but really got into Survival for awhile. But once I figured out the "recipe" to survive indefinitely, it became boring too. Wesnoth is quite amazing for a free, open source game. I loved the slow pace, lots-of-thinking-required format, and I found myself leaving the game up on my screen all day, walking by as I had time and formulating my next move, then going to do a load of laundry. It was *perfect* for a gaming adult with lots of responsibilities. 😉

Anyhow, I do appreciate you starting this thread. I was actually thinking of starting a similar one (though more along the lines of how multiplayer destroyed gaming for me 🤣 ).

badmojo wrote:

I'm certainly not one of those "new games are simplified bollocks" grumps though; I think modern games / hardware are amazing.

I'm currently playing The Witcher 3 for example, and it's stunning.

This x1000. For every big-seller formulaic dudebro shooter XXL, there are piles of new ideas and fresh takes on old ideas waiting to be checked out.

Things I've been playing lately that are probably "new" by this forum's standards:

- Spelunky HD (2012) (Roguelike dungeon exploring platformer) PC/XBLA/PSN
- Rocket League (2015) (Football with rocket powered cars) PC/PSN
- Super Mario Maker (2015) (Make your own SMB/SMB3/SMW/NSMBU levels, share them, and play others creations) Wii-U
- SUPERHOT (2016) (Close quarters puzzle FPS, time only advances when you're moving) PC/XB1
- FTL: Faster Than Light (2012) (Space exploration roguelike with RTS elements) PC/iOS

I cannot remember the last time I played a game straight through.
Although, with family responsibilities, I hardly have the time these days to play games anyway.
That is probably also the reason why I haven't upgraded my PC much since 2008. I don't see the point right now in spending a fortune on a gaming rig, only for it to become a glorified internet browsing PC.

I do tend to fall back on my older games and enjoy playing old games from the late 80's, 90's and the 2000's. Just last night (for some weird reason), I though of an old favourite of mine (Lucasarts' The Dig) and thought of playing that game again...
Although, these days I spend more time building up retro PC's and playing around with various hardware than actually playing games on them, but at some point I must make a plan to actually start playing my old games again (before I get too old 😀 ).
I have quite a collection of games I gathered over the years which I probably only played once, or never even got around to playing straight through.

I have only played Age of Empires 2 HD lately. Other games I sometimes play are on DOS machines but I put those away in my closet for now. With kids it is just too hard to get around to much. 🤣

Age of Empires 2 HD is a great remake with great multiplayer. I especially love the new super size maps. Makes for a very strategic rather than micro management game.

The limitations on the hardware-site are small today, but the development process is rationalised, so the potential is cut off. Maybe some people feel this.

Malik wrote:

Either I'm getting old or new games can't interest me anymore.

I tried very hard to like and play some new games, but after sitting for half-hour, I seem to lose interest again.

Aren't we all? 😉

Seriously, I too, prefer older flight sims than newer ones. Of course, DCS Black Shark or LOMAC is very realistic, but Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe and Total Air War has dynamic (or semi-dynamic) campaign where our actions can affect the outcome of the war. Gunship 2000 also has nice semi-dynamic campaign which DCS Black Shark is missing. Aren't such old games that make us build old system or learn how to play old games on new system?

By the way, while we're at it, what is the best Catalyst driver for Windows XP SP2? Just got myself a HIS Radeon HD 7850 IceQ this month, and I wonder if it's possible to play early Direct3D games like MDK, Hyperblade, and Monster Truck Madness on 7850. Those game runs flawlessly on Tesla-generation GeForce --AA and AF turned on. I wonder if Radeon HD 7xxx could do the same.

I LOVE farming simulator 2013, I'd probably enjoy 2015 just as much but still enjoying 2013 so don't see the need to pay for a new game.
I find these days I loose interest in any game after maybe an hour or 2, once I get stuck I give it a few goes then go do something else and try again tomorrow. Guess that's why I like farming simulator, there isn't really anything to get stuck on.
The next most recent game I own is GTA San Andreas but even then I still go back to Vice city more. Either just causing mayhem or trying to complete side missions with self imposed limits (like using the same taxi for xx fares)

Old games are relaxing in their nostalgic value. I'm really into early platform games at the moment mostly Duke Nukem 1 and Crystal Caves. Easy enough to finish 1-2 levels then I'm done for the night.

I'm sure there are great new games out there, I just haven't finished playing with the games I already have yet!

I too have lost interest in new games most feel very stale after just a few hours or less. Usually gameplay is too complex and slows down the feel of the game this is most common in sequels that try to build on the predecessors gameplay. Not many games now that you can play for 20 minutes and have a lot of fun, most modern games have something like a beginners hall to show you how to play the game, but not all complex games are boring I started playing Warframe the other day first modern game that caught my interest in a while.

The graphics race in modern gaming does seem to be going overboard especially when they don't provide modes for people with older hardware, and I don't plan on upgrading my pair of 650Mhz GTX280s even though they are considered fossils by most standards

The only new games I play, or shall I say newer games. Are Real Racing 3 and Minecraft.
The next newest games that I play are Playstation2 games and PSP games.
All the rest are Dos and Win9x games. So yeah... I know the feeling.

I haven't upgraded my 2600k/660ti GTX setup since I got the PS4 in 2014 and thus I somewhat abandoned the pc as a gaming platform these last years... got a PS4 for Bloodborne (huge fan of FROM software) and in the meantime I enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition, TombRaider 2013, Witcher 3, The Last of Us remastered, The Uncharted remastered collection, now playing Salt and Sanctuary and waiting for Dark Souls 3 and Uncharted 4 to arrive.
For me the exclusives and couch-gaming are so good I can't look the other way anymore 😁

It is my opinion that pc gaming sadly took a wrong turn, there was a time where it had really good and innovative games (a decade between 1995~2005 for me) and they were really exclusive games that push genres to the next level. Keep in mind that there were MANY exclusives and awesome games back then for the consoles as well -developers were very busy indeed - the production values were totally different.
Nowdays a good game demands pretty huge amounts of money to develop and from what I can see devs prefer to do their innovation in console territory since they benefit from both closed-architecture and no-piracy.

Just my 2 cents on the current situation 😎

ps.
It may sound like an ad of fanboyism but it's not... if it wasn't for the ps4 I personally wouldn't play anything new 🤣 , I'd just stick to the oldies that I still enjoy.

I got into PC games in the mid-90s after I got tired of Sega. I never cared much about consoles ever since, because PC games were so much more complex and interesting.
In recent years though it does seem that the bulk of major game development is focused on the console market instead of the PC. They might release PC versions but they're just ports of console games and have the design mindset of that world.
Big budget games nowadays are all designed for millions of people to like them, instead of for 100K people to love them. People take college courses telling them how a game is "supposed" to be designed, and any game that doesn't conform to these conventions for a modern mass market game is dismissed as "bad design". Uniqueness and creativity suffers.
There's plenty of typical design practices of modern games that I think is "bad", but I'm sure millions of people disagree with me.

Independent developers are the most interesting thing going on nowadays. I've started running into OS compatibility problems with those (I use XP and developers have mostly grown hostile to it) but the good news is that a lot of the indies are supporting linux, which I run in a dual boot.

Truthfully though, I have such a backlog of older games that I don't pay much attention to new releases anymore. I'm actually holding off on some of them, because this site has gotten me interested in building appropriate PCs to play them on.

I see a lot of people who thinks new games are lacking, while severely limiting where they look.

Some people won't buy consoles or handheld gaming devices. Others avoid titles that aren't released in a retail box, that aren't released on Steam, that aren't released DRM free or that's "indie".

Don't be one of those people.

I won't bother with "nextgen" consoles though due to their compulsory subscriber policy . Nothing about nextgen PCs however 😀

I haven't had a new boxed PC game in ages, like since around 2005