Two things in modern gaming that stand out for me:

1) Digital distribution - While there are pros and cons to modern digital distribution, for the most part the sheer convenience of downloading and installing games digitally outweighs other drawbacks.

2) Ultrawide monitors - Going from 4:3 CRT displays to a modern ultrawide, the difference is immense. The latter is just so much more immersive. For first-person having that extra peripheral vision is fantastic. For 3rd person, it makes those games seem so much more cinematic.

I absolutely hated digital distribution at firstz, but I caved in when Half-Life 2 came out. Now I have a Steam library big enough to keep me busy for the rest of my life!

Nothing.

its good to see old games on steam like Rise Of Nations legacy and reasonably priced.

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-11-17, 21:29:

1) Digital distribution - While there are pros and cons to modern digital distribution, for the most part the sheer convenience of downloading and installing games digitally outweighs other drawbacks.

The biggest pro imho: The price.
Remember when you bought older AAA titles for $1 back in the 90s? No? Because you didn't. If you got them for $5 as NOS, that was really good deal. $10-15 for older titles was far more common. Best value was compilations. But that was still $2-3 per title and many of them were total garbage. Hell, even copying games to floppy disk or CDs was more expensive.

rollback

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-11-17, 20:00:

what aspects of modern games do you prefer, such as quality of life features, newer features, and so on? […]
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what aspects of modern games do you prefer, such as quality of life features, newer features, and so on?

For me, I find it hard to play old FPS games as they were on the original hardware (which has the benefit of me not being tempted to pay $200 for a Voodoo card!). Personally, I prefer playing these games on a larger monitor with a mouse and keyboard, using wasd for the controls. I still play the original Doom, but I only play it in Gzdoom.

For RPGs or text adventures, I really need to have an automap. I'm too lazy to map things myself using graph paper.

The old Sierra adventure games also come to mind. I loved them as a kid, but I don't have the patience to restart because I missed an item early in the game.

Lastly, for some simulations, the newer games are able to provide a more authentic experience. I can't go back to the old Red Baron game from 1990 when I can play Rise of Flight or Wings Over Flanders Field. In 1990 the technology just wasn't able to simulate flight models like more modern computers. Also, combat flight sims are a genre where better graphics aren't just eye candy. Better graphics allow you to spot and identify planes more easily, and a good pilot can even aim for certain areas on the aircraft.

I'm curious about what other people think about this?

all good examples, some based around the ability of the game to simulate reality enough to make things feel 'natural' or engaging, the others around conveniences. makes sense to me

one other i'd add is detail - and modern games still dont do enough. If i can see it I want it to be 'real' as part of the game. a cafe should be visible, a shelf of books should at least have some text to read, if you blow something up then a nearby window shouldn't magically stay intact, just because trees become a bit denser should form a magic barrier. well that kind of thing in open world games, some of the newer ones are getting good at this

other games with their save points and auto-healing still feel weird sometimes, but i dont complain - especially if i am quite bad at them!

Shponglefan wrote on 2022-11-17, 21:29:

1) Digital distribution - While there are pros and cons to modern digital distribution, for the most part the sheer convenience of downloading and installing games digitally outweighs other drawbacks.

I can see the benefits of digital distribution, but for me, they don't outweigh the drawbacks. Of course, there's the convenience of being able to play the game at launch i.e. the instant it becomes available. Some games even "preload" and then simply unlock at launch time, sparing you the download hassle. This is pretty great indeed. Also, the online catalogue is much larger than what you'd typically see on the shelves of a game store, and far easier to browse, which makes finding the games that you like a lot simpler.

However, you don't really own such a game, and once the company shuts down their servers (or stops supporting your OS), you can't download or play it anymore. GOG is the notable exception, since they thankfully still offer DRM-free offline installers which you can backup to an external storage device as needed. Most other digital storefronts don't allow you to do this, at least not in the same way.

Additionally, games are huge nowadays, often ranging in the hundreds of GB. People without fast internet access may have problems downloading them, not to mention any subsequent patches which are often pretty big as well. Sadly, even physical copies of modern games now often require some form of online activation before allowing you to play them. Heck, some discs barely have any data on them, and need you to download the larger portion of the game from the internet. Not a good trend.

Not really a new feature but the ability to save.
One of the things that keep me from playing old Apogee platformers is no mid level saving.
Autosave is a bit dangerous as sometime it can autosave after a point that your screwed, but mostly its saved my skin.

Open world gaming.
I used to mess around in the original GTA which wasn't really that open world. I used to start network games with myself just so the unused 2nd player could stand guard over my garage otherwise cars would diaper if outside of players view.
Compare that with even GTA3 and later where I tend to spend as much time doing whatever you want as you can doing the story.

I do really love ray traced global illumination. I somehow never noticed what a kluged series of hacks most rasterized lighting engines are until a handful of games started doing ray traced global illumination. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Seamless open worlds are pretty dope too.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-11-17, 20:00:

In retrogaming communities, a lot of us like to argue that older games were better. Here is a recent example:

Games don't feel as exciting as they used to

Ah, this is quite a long story on my part.

I spend my formative years in gaming with titles like Airborne Ranger, Hero's Quest (which is later known as Quest for Glory), King's Bounty, Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday, LHX Attack Chopper, Sword of the Samurai, Sid Meier's Pirates!, M1 Tank Platoon, F-19 Stealth Fighter, Gunship 2000, Their Finest Hour, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Wing Commander, Strike Commander, Sid Meier's Railroad Tycoon, and Star Control II, to name a few. Yes, they're all low res 320 x 200, 256 color VGA, and sometimes 320 x 200 EGA! But the gameplay is always totally captivating. Microprose flight sims, for example, always give you theater selection and randomized missions , giving the illusion of dynamic career advancement, and Gunship 2000 also has (well perhaps semi) dynamic campaign. Both Their Finest Hour and Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe are flight sims encapsulated in aerial warfare strategy. Hero's Quest and Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday are great RPGs. Microprose's strategy games like Pirates! and Sword of Samurai have exciting action elements. Origin flight sims like Wing Commander don't have dynamic campaign, but wonderful storyline and cut-scenes instead. And Star Control II is probably the greatest game I played those days.

Then came SVGA and CD-ROM. And all the ugly things that came with it: point-and-click "adventures" (ugh, puzzle games, really), rail shooters, FMV games, and what-have-you. I remember the first time I saw Myst. "Is this the future of computer games?" After all, after reading an article in CGW's September 1990 issue , I (mistakenly) believed that CD ROM games would be like Ultima VI, but with much larger and much detailed world. How wrong I was.

But then I saw US Navy Fighters and Jane's ATF on the shelves. Finally, CD ROM flight sims! But alas, no dynamic campaign. But still, the gameplay is very exciting! Then I noticed the name 'Brent Iverson' somewhere in the game credits. Then I realized that both USNF and Jane's ATF are CD-ROM, SVGA version of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat. Not bad! I can live with that! And even today, Jane's Fighters Anthology, which is a compilation of USNF and Jane's ATF with all their add -ons, like US Marine Fighters and Jane's ATF: NATO Fighters.

The CD-ROM, SVGA version of Chuck Yeager's Air Combat, and I'm still playing it.

But still, no dynamic campaign. But then came EF2000; a CD-ROM flight sim with SVGA graphics and dynamic campaign!

Mine is version 2.0, which is pretty hard to find.

The back cover actually looks better than the front.

During that period, I also found an interesting CD-ROM tank game called 'iM1A2 Abrams', and I instantly fell in love with it, because it is basically Microprose's M1 Tank Platoon with CD-ROM and SVGA graphics! Yes, turned out you can have it all!

Good old gameplay mechanics with modern (at that time) graphicsy.

There was still one thing I particularly dislike during that time: drab, "brownish" color which seemed to be the trend those days. I don't know, perhaps because of Quake. But then I found an interesting game named 'Delta Force,' then I was immersed. Yes, it is basically Microprose's Airborne Ranger with CD-ROM and SVGA.

Despite its drab-and-dull palette, it plays like Airborne Ranger, and that's why I love it.

There is another drab colored game that I really loved at that time: Fallout. Before Fallout was launched, I really worried that the future RPG will be Diablo clones. Glad I was wrong.

Fast forward to early 2000s, where computer games were dominated by FPS and RTS, that I had had it enough of both. But then, look what I found!

Mine comes sans box; I picked it from a bargain bin during a business trip to Singapore.

So, what modern gaming features do I prefer, then? I'd actually welcome any positive technological advancements, like ray tracing and Dolby Atmos and the likes (but I don't welcome negative technological advancements like DRM), but I hope game developers still remember to put captivating gameplay in those games.

Dynamic campaigns are something that I really miss. With multiplayer being the main focus of current flight sims, now we're lucky to get a few scripted missions.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-11-18, 19:02:

Dynamic campaigns are something that I really miss. With multiplayer being the main focus of current flight sims, now we're lucky to get a few scripted missions.

Ah yes, multiplayer is one of modern gaming features that I dislike. To be fair, there is nothing wrong with multiplayer per se, but when game developers focus too much on multiplayer, single player suffers.

In any case, there were many modern gaming features that I liked when there were new: CD ROM, speech pack, SVGA graphics, 3D acceleration, to name a few. But those features alone don't make a good game.

Today, we have ray tracing. At the moment I could care less about ray tracing, the same way I didn't care about SVGA when SVGA games were like Myst. In the same way, a ray traced Quake II doesn't interest me, because Quake II is a 'meh' game to begin with. Give me a ray traced version of Ultima Underworld, Delta Force, or Jane's USAF, and it would be a different story.

Map Markers.

I tried to get into Morrowind a few years ago and as soon as I realized that NPCs would tell me to go to places and I would actually tediously need to find them by myself I stopped playing.

I'm all for "Look into this general direction", but giving me no direction at all except "This guy is somewhere in this city" is not doing it for me.

Controller Support.

When I was a young boy I was mostly playing FPS games on a crappy CRT at my cramped desk. That was fine back then, but nowadays I often play when I come home from a long work day. As such I'm pretty exhausted and play on my couch or even when in bed. I need to use a controller there. Sometimes I see an interesting new game on Steam that doesn't have controller support and it baffles me how developers can still make that decision in 2022.

I also like the detail in modern games, but that's already been mentioned here. I'm currently playing Submerged: Hidden Depths and the places you visit there are just full of objects. Feels nice wandering through them.

There's also beauty in the absence of detail though. When it get's very liminal it invokes a very special feeling in me. INFRA is a game that's doing this very well, it builts big places on the HL2 engine and makes the most out of limited props.

schmatzler wrote on 2022-11-19, 03:44:

Controller Support.

When I was a young boy I was mostly playing FPS games on a crappy CRT at my cramped desk. That was fine back then, but nowadays I often play when I come home from a long work day. As such I'm pretty exhausted and play on my couch or even when in bed. I need to use a controller there. Sometimes I see an interesting new game on Steam that doesn't have controller support and it baffles me how developers can still make that decision in 2022.

Speaking of controllers. I just picked up a Gravis Gamepad Pro and the dpad is terrible! It's next to impossible to press one of the cardinal directions without it being read as a diagonal. I don't know if I picked up a lousy controller or not. Nonetheless, higher quality controllers is another modern improvement.

schmatzler wrote on 2022-11-19, 03:44:

Map Markers.

I tried to get into Morrowind a few years ago and as soon as I realized that NPCs would tell me to go to places and I would actually tediously need to find them by myself I stopped playing.

I'm all for "Look into this general direction", but giving me no direction at all except "This guy is somewhere in this city" is not doing it for me.

Seconded, plus, Auto Journal.

Games like Hero's Quest, Ultima VI, and Star Control II have wonderful quests, great storyline, and interesting dialogs, but I spent more time writing them down instead of enjoying the story. That was particularly true with Hero's Quest and Ultima VI. English is not my mother's tongue, and I was in Junior Highschool at that time. Naturally, my reading comprehension wasn't really good at that time, so I tended to write down the entire dialog to make sure I don't miss anything during the quest.

I would also like to see ray tracing in iM1A2 Abrams. You see, in the game, it is very hard to see the contour lines of the terrain due to the game's crude texture mapping engine. Thus, it is very hard to put your tank in hull-down position, because it's equally hard to figure out where the hell the peak of the hill is. In more modern tank games like Spearhead, M1 Tank Platoon II, and M4 Tank Brigade, ground contour lines are much more recognizable due to more advanced 3D engines. I wonder whether ray tracing would make them much better. I mean, why bother putting ray tracing in something like Quake II, when it would be more useful in tank games?

The terrain is not really flat, but it looks so, due to crude texture mapping.

First person action RPG controls. Games like Ultima Underworld and TES:Arena/Daggerfall controls like ass.

As obnoxious DRM can be these days, I still wouldn't be terribly pleased if you suddenly would have to find a specific word from page 26 paragraph 2 line 5 word 12 of some pdf manual every single time you start the game.