Oh, the fun of playing ancient games...

[Wolfmaster]

Well, ok, maybe not ancient but old anyway. We recently installed a wireless network here at home, which also meant shared internet which in turn brought new interest to an otherwise very uninteresting pc. It's about 6 years old, so it's nowhere close to running any new game out on the market. So, since i've been spending quite some time here in the past 2 weeks i decided to dig up some old games that it could run. In the end, i came up with some 7 games and a shitload of dust.

One of those games was M1 Tank platoon II. I couldn't recall ever having played it a lot, so decided to try this game first. I installed it, and loaded it up. I though i could probably beat the game easily, but i was painfully wrong. When i loaded up my first mission and was placed inside the hull of an M1A1, my first though was Riiight.... and now what do i do.... So i went messing around and it didn't take long for me to have my whole platoon be decimated. I ended the mission, and decided to do some training first....

My question about the above: is it just me or has the learning curve for most (note the use of the word MOST, as in there are still games just as difficult as this one) become less and less steep over time?

Anyway, after having completed basic armor training i tried one of the training battles, and lord behold, i won. And i gotta say, it was a lot more satisfying than ending first in a BF2 match. I felt i really DID something to come out on top. That's what made it the game i have played the most over the past few days. NOT the graphics, they suck. NOT the flashy tools and uber weapons, they aren't there. It's simply the ammount of realism put into the game, and the tactical gameplay that really calls for you to THINK which apparently most game developers no longer think appeals to the public. It's not that hard to do, really. Anyone could remake the game with better graphics and physics, and it would be widely played.

And you know what, they put realism over gameplay for the most part, but the gameplay didn't suffer. Yes, the US/NATO tanks disable the enemy in one shot, while the enemy needs multiple shots an also miss more because of inferior ecuipment and training. But they simply gave the enemy more tanks.

The Point: it doesn't matter how good or bad the graphics are, or how hard it is to learn to play the game, there is always a part of the public that will appreciate it. And yes, you have probably figured that out by yourselves already but i felt i needed to state it once again.

P.S. sorry for the long read, if you read all i wrote to this point, here, have a cookie

Wolf

[Beckwith]

there are still games like this out there, LOMAC is one that imediately comes to mind, its a more tehnically challenging game, the graphics are pretty good, i used to love games like that, im still a HUGE fan of the EA Janes series of games, Longbow, ATF, Fleet Command etc etc. they were the first games i really loved to play and im sad here a dieing breed,

as far as why are most games not made that way, the big thing now is online gaming, online gaming and playing with other people rather than computer controlled AI, adds a level of complexity, that combined with the inherant amount of complexity that you find in older games like the one you talked about, would make for a very challenging game to play, one that the masses might not have the patience to learn before they try and go online and compete

[Wolfmaster]

hmm yeah probably. but well, make them i say. like americas army. training first, then you can play for real.

[Beckwith]

BTW of you have that type of computer i suggest getting you hads on Longbow and ATF there fuckin awsome games i miss them soooo much

[Wolfmaster]

what's the full name of those 2? so i know what to look for.

[Beckwith]

http://www.helosim.com/lb2_review.htm

http://www.ao.net/~chuck/atf/atfsycho.htm

theres a couple sites dedicated to the games the second shows a list of several other titles in that series

[Wolfmaster]

thanks. i'm sure gonna look into those.

[dragon10390]

i realize that this is an incredibly old post, but where the hell is my cookie, you said i got one, but its nowhere to be found, i guess i shall have to substitute my own until my payment

[dragon10390]

oh, and one of my favourite old games has to be the original test drive games. i remember the first one we got ran on my dad's old laptop in 1997, which had 16mb of ram, a 4 gig harddrive, and god knows what sort of video card - probably made with some salteens and copper wire... That game was wicked, and it was the first pc game i ever played - if i remember correctly, it was test drive 4

[vanity]

Originally Posted by dragon10390

oh, and one of my favourite old games has to be the original test drive games. i remember the first one we got ran on my dad's old laptop in 1997, which had 16mb of ram, a 4 gig harddrive, and god knows what sort of video card - probably made with some salteens and copper wire... That game was wicked, and it was the first pc game i ever played - if i remember correctly, it was test drive 4

there was a Test Drive available on the Commodore that was really awesome. To shift gears, you pressed a button on the joystick and actually shifted with the joystick itself.

That might've been the original Test Drive.