Apparently retro gaming are making a comeback....

[SuperMappy]

...due to modern game flops and over priced garbage.

I’ve never really lost sight of older games, and honestly, I find them far more enjoyable than most modern titles. There’s something about them that still feels more creative and engaging, even years later.

I’m not trying to sound like a moral crusader, but this thought hits me every time I watch previews of upcoming games—whether at a gaming event or back when E3 was still a thing. It feels like an endless parade of FPS after FPS after FPS, and my first reaction is always the same: can’t we come up with something different, or at least something a little less focused on violence?

Recently, I picked up a cheap used copy of Stellar Blade for my PS5. I’ll admit I bought it half for the T&A and half because I was hoping it would be a decent Dark Souls–style experience in a sci-fi setting. After playing a couple of sessions, though, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Dark Souls itself is about a thousand times better. I ended up shelving the game—not because of the shapely protagonist, but because I simply couldn’t tolerate the game play any longer.

[F-ZeroOne]

I think it depends. As I get older, I find it can be more of a struggle to adjust to newer games and I do find myself falling back on older, but not exactly "retro" games (like "X-Com: Enemy Unknown") sometimes. And I of course enjoy having a blast on some emulated goodness from time to time - though it works both ways; modern games have a lot of streamlining that perhaps we take for granted. I bought the Retro Spectrum a while back, and its sometimes been quite painful revisiting some old favourites. Did we just cope with it because thats all we had back then? Or am I just older and have gotten used to using more evolved mechanisms?

Perhaps one issue with modern games, at least really big titles, is what they sometimes say about evolution - everything eventually tries to become a crab. Or as Sir Terry Pratchett once remarked, no matter how fantastic your imaginary world is, sooner or later you have to address the fact that if you feature a scene where someone is eating two slices of bread with a filling in-between, you are going to struggle to describe it as anything other than a sandwich.

[venusian]

I'm really not finding that there's a shortage of really good modern games out there. What is true is that there are handful of really big commercial publishers, turning out 'safe' variations of previous successes, who tend to drown out the hundreds of excellent games both from smaller developers and from indies.

The "currently playing" thread on here is a good source, as are some of the curated channels on Steam.

Really retro stuff, by which I mean anything from the 8-bit era, suffers from the hardware restrictions and development tools of times. Almost every idea has been redone better since. I occasionally kick off an emulator only to be reminded just how extensively they are captives of their era.

[Whiteball]

I'm really not finding that there's a shortage of really good modern games out there. What is true is that there are handful of really big commercial publishers, turning out 'safe' variations of previous successes, who tend to drown out the hundreds of excellent games both from smaller developers and from indies.
...

Definitely agree with this.

Having played games from all the way back when it was blocky ZX81 Space Invaders right up to modern hi-res games I do think big publishers and studios spend to much time still focusing on the graphics and animation 'wow' factor. Games look good enough, games sound good enough. What we really need is much more diversity and originality in ideas and more focus on innovating not iterating gameplay.

The 'biggest' game I've played in the last 5-8 years is the recent Arc Raiders which is really good as a solo player (they use a form of matchmaking based on team member count I believe) so solo players tend to get grouped together in matches and are much more chill and helpful in PVE side of things. Playing in a team of 2 or more though is the usual decent into PVP nightmare which for me detracts from the game immensely because you cant really do any PVE then becuase the COD kiddies just want to relentlessly hunt you down and ignore the PVE side entirely and there is so much more to the game than just Kill count.

[grue]

I truly believe that we are living the golden age of gaming. All those indie game studios putting out games, good and bad, make it so easy to find plenty to enjoy. I have distanced myself from AAA gaming due to old hardware, with the exception of the Dark Souls streak that I'm going through these last few months, and the indie scene has me gaming continuously those last decades. Most of them are retro types of all genres with point'n'click adventures on top. Good times!

[Cloudane]

Hmm yeah there’s a lot of garbage but a lot of good stuff as well, I think people are just getting tired of how Nintendo are nowadays for example compared to how they used to be.

I’m all for playing down the notion of *actual retro* being good - I was hoping to maybe find a CRT to experience my Amiga properly and they’re going for like £300-400 on eBay! Because retro is the fashion so £££££….

Of course to the younger generation of gamers, the PS2 for example sits firmly in the retro category.. or the PS3 for that matter.. or 360..

[Deckard]

And retro "sound" - My Roland JD990 module from 1994 which did the Faithless Insomnia sound just sold on eBay for an obscene amount of money and my Yamaha SU10 did pretty well too there !

[MattyP]

Indeed. As much as I love keeping up with modern games and gaming tech I rarely actually enjoy playing modern AAA games.

I mean I spent hours recently playing Game and Watch Gallery 3 on the Switch 2 and Space Invaders Extreme. Just fun games. The other games I've completed recently have been all indie story games. Light puzzles and lovely visuals.

Think I just tire of over complex controls on games that have epic length. Just get bored of it all and it can at times feel like work! Simple controls addictive gameplay and great sounds and visuals for me. So not isolated to retro games but any games new or old.

Trying to restart Zelda Tears Of the Kingdom at the moment and struggling with it.

[Little stoned kiwi]

The younger crowds have dopamine fatigue. The pokie machines all have the same mechanics behind them; demanding time and money with only just enough reward to keep them hooked.

[grue]

I was hoping to maybe find a CRT to experience my Amiga properly and they’re going for like £300-400 on eBay!

I got a 17'' Philips CRT TV for 10 euros. Amiga sorted!
I always look at the local ads for old tech, most people 60+ years old have no idea how much those things go online.

[F-ZeroOne]

And then you have the middle ground - the updated remake. I've started on "Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth" on Switch 2, which I did with some trepidation because the original is just about my favourite videogame of all time (in a way that transcends "But is it a good game?!"; its wrapped up in who I was, what I liked and how I experienced it when I first played it - on PC, no less). I like some of what they've done - its kind of interesting how despite being massively high fidelity 3D environments the exploration settings still have the feel of the original; but I'm not overly sold on the battle system just yet, which is taking some getting used to. I am crumbling vintage human, I like being able to think about things before taking a turn, thanks very much...

[Misfit]

...I do find myself falling back on older, but not exactly "retro" games (like "X-Com: Enemy Unknown") sometimes

Which does raise the question, at what point does something become Retro?

X-Com was released in 2012 so now 14 years old!

I forget what I was listening to recently, maybe Digital Foundry's new retro show or GenXGrownup, that said "If it's old enough to drive, it's retro to me".

[Misfit]

I'm fed up of pretty much anything FPS and generally don't desire anything AAA.

I find myself always watching videos on the handhelds and their emulation abilities, but rarely emulate anything.

But when I do play, I generally find myself playing small/indie/retro-style games.

[Deckard]

Yeah I have played Satryn DX more than anything else last year by a country mile.

[Cloudane]

I was hoping to maybe find a CRT to experience my Amiga properly and they’re going for like £300-400 on eBay!

I got a 17'' Philips CRT TV for 10 euros. Amiga sorted!
I always look at the local ads for old tech, most people 60+ years old have no idea how much those things go online.

Ha, great

Where do you look? Can’t find anything on Facebook where the owner doesn’t know to write “retro gaming” and mark it up to £250-300ish and all the charity shops just seem to have old pottery and clothes (I think probably because of PAT test requirements etc or I guess they’re just rarely given away and probably get snapped up by people who circulate the shops and bung them on ebay)