PlayStation - aged gracefully or not?
 

Heh, PS1 has aged extremely well imo, since it's got some of the best games ever made. Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy series comes to mind, and they're all just as playable as they were back then. Also, Gran Turismo 2 might not be considered state-of-the-art realism anymore, but it's bloody good fun (I try it out regularly, and the physics feels more arcadey nowadays, but it feels extremely good). One of my favourite racing games of all time, if not THE favourite.

There's also Crash Team Racing, considered by many the pinnacle of kart games outside of Mario Kart. Personally, I preferred the fantastic Speed Freaks, and I also had great fun with Muppet Kart Racing (can't remember the exact name).

Crash Bandicoot series has also aged extremely well, and so have the Spyro series. It also had a bunch of other jrpgs not called Final Fantasy that were great, like Chrono Cross (plus Chrono Trigger re-release, but that doesn't really count as it's really a SNES game), Vagrant Story and the severely underrated The Legend of Dragoon.

Not to mention, all the Need For Speed games were brilliant (except Porsche Unleashed, which sucked on the PS1 but were outstanding on the PC). And Ridge Racer Type 4 is still the best Ridge Racer game ever made. Tekken 3 is also considered the best Tekken game there is.

Oh, and don't forget Driver, both of which are great games. And the original GTA games (GTA1, London and GTA2).

In short, it's aged incredibly well, imo.

I was never a big fan of N64, but I loved OOT and Conker's Bad Fur Day. Wasn't a big fan of FPS back then, and still isn't, so Perfect Dark and Golden Eye did nothing for me. Probably the worst Nintendo console ever (not counting Virtual Boy).

I find anyway getting into older games much easier.Just about any old game feel less like it's a game to me as they're miles away from trying to be real- well they had to

I have about 15 games for my N64 that i consider any worth so that would suggest there wasn't as large a collection of great software- enough though these days if you want to jump in late

If you have yet to play one then it'd be probably a let down so really it depends on how you go into it.Good games do remain that though and it's only those most impressive at the time mainly because of their graphics, these tend to disapoint.Getting a console so late is also likely not to impress in the same way.Show the original Outrun to any gamer that started their games playing discovery on an Xbox 360 or PS3 and they'd likely refuse to believe you that it was any good

I suggest you go look at some of those 'great' games on the PS1, theres lots that haven't aged well at all, graphically quite horrific to look at now with its horrible chunky pixel 3D vectors.

Couldn't care less about graphics, if the gameplay is there - and I've tried most of these games regularly since they were released. I can't belive you pull the "rose-tinted-glasses" card on an Amiga forum! :D

My son and daughter play Crash Team Racing regularly, for example.

Well I could care about graphics, I could care when they are at times so shockingly bad, that its difficult to distinguish between foreground and background, and Need For Speed was one of the worst culprits you listed as well.

Its not about rose tinted anything, because lets face it, theres plenty of horrors on the Amiga, but when something looks bad, theres no disguising it no matter what system its on.

Younger kids are far less discerning as well, I wouldn't personally take much from the fact they play Crash Bandicoot.

Yes, because being able to see past the graphcis are such a bad thing. Obviously, this is a very subjective thing, but these games I mentioned in no way represents the games you pretend to describe. NFS 1 and 2 aren't exactly the best looking games, but they're very playable. NFS3 and 4 doesn't in any way qualify for what you describe.

NFS3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J0Bp...eature=related
NFS4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J0Bp...eature=related
Crash Bandicoot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0asnLZeYvE
Crash Team Racing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70RLaIbWgs4

I don't think I need to say anything about the Final Fantasy games, they just look astonishingly beautiful with it's pre-rendered backgrounds - despite the characters in FFVII and VIII looking bad. FFIX on the other hand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9kYCV7X4wA

Also, when the gameplay is good, it shouldn't matter. As long as the graphics doesn't intervene with the gameplay, it shouldn't matter. And none of these games are so bad looking that it detracts from the enjoyment, unless you're a graphics whore.

Oh, and if anything, we should LEARN from the kids. Not play all grown up and say "they don't know any better", because if anyone knows about having fun, it's kids. And in this case, games are about having fun.

EDIT: forgot about Rayman. You can look it up, but I'm sure you know about that one. There are lots of other 2D games on the PS1 that's worth playing and quite good looking, like Castlevanai: Symphony of the Night and Tombi 1/2.

still, PS1 has some excellent 2D games. And Final Fantasy 7 & 9 + Chrono Cross are unbeatable in the big line of Square games. The latter two even still look nice, although pixelated of course. A decent emulator can help there a little.

List of good to great looking games on PS1:

Final Fantasy 7, 8 and 9
Final Fantasy Tactics
Chrono Cross
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2
Gran Turismo 1 and 2
Need For Speed 3 and 4
Metal Gear Solid
Rayman
Tombi 1 and 2
Crash Bandicoot 1, 2 and 3
Spyro the Dragon 1, 2 and 3
Micro Machines V3
Micro Maniacs
Ridge Racer Type 4
Oddworld 1 and 2
Vagrant Story
FIFA 2000 onwards
Colin McRae Rally 2.0
TOCA 2 and 3
Driver 1 and 2
Medievil 1 and 2
Einhänder

Most of these games looks great, some of them looks good enough to not stand in the way of gameplay. Also, before anyone say anything, yes I've played all these games recently. Notice the lack of Syphon Filter? I like that game, but it certainly have a less timeless graphics quality to it. Or, if you like, crap looking.

Still, we still see the same game. We just see them in a different perspective - and it's this perspective that stands in the way of our enjoyment of a lot of games. Some can look past that, some can't. That doesn't mean they've aged badly. If anyone's aged badly, it's the gamer, not the games. The games don't age. The gamer does. And in no way do I consider it being for the better, if you can't even enjoy good gameplay because of it.

The PS1,Saturn,N64 etc were the first real machines that allowed for 3d at the heart of their visuals so they will of course look comparitively shit but there will always be a charm to them like there is also of most of the Mega cd games for example- being these types of things will always be very unique

What you can consider though as the ugly part to these first games is they were'nt very clean- in the sense that they effectively turned into lego the closer you got to them.N64 did fare better in this respect but it was also quite fuzzy too.It's there at the very least you can argue simple flat shaded polygons age better and that Amiga in this case wouldn't be quite the same to compare

I love the era that was PS1 and of course all the great games, but i can see why people may not.That said i fall into older game worlds far easier than the games of today because of how minimal they were back then.I'm less captivated by the game worlds of today's games the more they aproach realism

Some people though just find it hard to adjust back and that results in a less enjoyable experience when they play some of the older stuff.A shame really as this applies to newcomers that would enjoy some of these often better experiences of today

Bah, best game ever made. I even paid over the odds just to get hold of the track&field version.
I still play it now, mainly cause the game play is ok and the sound tracks are awesome, ;).

Moved these posts from the N64 thread into a new one as it's a little off-topic ;)

For what it's worth I still play Crash Team Racing when I have mates round and I think it's a fantastic game. There ain't many better kart racers out there.

The PSx is an amazing little beastie - did you guys know that there was an official game released for it in 2006 by Squaresoft ?

it was a rehash of their Front Mission series of turn-based RPG's (with mech's) - it included all the original outings of the first three releases on the SNES - unfortunately it only got a Japanese release =(

There are somany fantastic games on the PSx it certainly deserves all the acolades and credit it gets!

I still play many PSx titles today on my PSP that I converted (like wipeout / Chrono Cross / Destruction Derby 2 and 3) - on a handheld the graphics are pretty good IMHO!

However on a 42" plasma.... they suffer hard - infact some games are nothing short of hideous - and I am afraid to say that Need For Speed would be up in that list.

Some games had a that mysterious and rare quality known as Game Play - and this helps you past the hideousness of the some of the very poor graphics (usually the first two years worth of game relases)

However one game that still amazes me is GranTurismo 2 - the replays are still stunning when know what the hardware is underneath the plastic cowling!

The PS1 also has the best Mortal Kombat (IMHO) Mortal Kombat Trilogy, I still kept some of my PS1 games to play on my PS3 and PSP(via ISO)

The thing I like most about older games is you just pick up and play, no messing about setting up your player, watching 2hr cut scene, do 20 min forced training session before you can go and shoot people.

Just load up and play!

I took a look at a few PS1 games earlier, and the 3D ones haven't aged well I think. Most 2D games have, though that's not unexpected. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night looks just as amazing today as in 1997 when I first played it.

I personally dont think its aged to well at all and as mentioned above pretty much the 3d games are the ones that let it down, I thought they where ropey when the console was still current though, and when you look at the on a nice big screen the result is horrid, however on a psp they look excellent.

Having said that games like ff7 & 8 are still classics and I did buy a copy of metal gear solid the other week for 99p . And yet again as mentioned above the 2d games are still good.

In my opinion there are very few pre-Dreamcast 3D games that have aged well at all.

They look like painful eye pain.

@ Stareye

Hey dude i am with you all the way but one game you guys forgot to mention was TOMB RAIDER when i played that game for the first time every new room had an immense feeling of atmosphere and emersion like no other before it all made possible by the GFX of the day and the fantastic music.

FFVII my fave game of all time still have a mint copy and PSX to play it on.

Resident Evil or Silent Hill look awful. Both could really need a remake, as the gameplay of both is quite cool. Just can't stand the graphics anymore.

I agree it's a great game, but I don't think it's aged as well graphically compared to those I mentioned. Can't deny it's still a decent game though.

The first Playstation is my favourite console ever, and although it was my first console, I'd rate it as highly as Amiga when it comes to games. It has a vast bunch of the best games ever made, and a console that can tout that horn has not aged badly. The good games will always be good. If the graphics are bad today, they weren't very good back then either.

I agree, that despite the psx aging really badly in the 3d department (man, I loathe that damned texture shifting on that machine) there are indeed some gems on the machine. Most 2D stuff is still quite nice and some of the 3d games are at least nice gameplay wise (and good multiplayer fun). Additionally to the already mentioned I still like:

RC Stunt Copter (one of my personal favorites and a shame it has not been ported/updated)
Tony Hawks Series
Devil Dice
Apocalypse (quite funny german localization)