Stay with me and handle me grotesque formatting, this is going to be a long post. :)
This week, after seeing yet another 5 games I’d never heard of that I have to be super excited for, knowing I have enough games to last me til the year 2050 I put my rose-colored glasses on, then took them off, put them back on to play some old games I thought were amazing (minus graphics) and to my surprise, maybe… maybe the majority have been eclipsed. Here’s a few I don’t think have been touched by currently available games or late early access. Feel free to disagree and post others you think should be on this list because when I look at the past few years I just don’t think PC Gaming has ever been better.
Ultima IV - VIII. MMORGS aside I still don’t think there’s anything that comes close to matching this series. Stories, quests, world immersion, and the music still give an amazing feeling.
X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter. Official with stellar single player campaign and fun MP.
Wing Commander type series with a lengthy, deep story, coupled with immersive and gripping missions.
Strike Commander - see above.
Buzz Aldrin’s Race into Space. Yea I know about that other game that was 1/2 a BARIS
Masters of Magic - a lot of people have claimed this throne and none have quite felt like the classic (though it’s nice to have AI that’s not brain-dead nowadays)
Star Wars Dark Forces - WTF Lucas/Disney?
Not from super ancient times:
System Shock 2 - no one has coupled story, rpg elements, sounds, and outright pants wetting fear like Looking Glass’s Masterpiece from start to finish. Bioshock did not scare me. I felt like I was on a sight seeing tour. Alien Isolation - not an RPG.
Dungeon Keeper - a few wannabes but no one has matched nor eclipsed it.
Planescape Torment & Baldur’s Gate series - have they been matched or are they being eclipsed? If I didn’t have such a fondness in my heart for Imoen and Minsk I would say yes. But I think maybe not when I hear their adorable voices again.
Nothing before or since has ever pulled me into their worlds like these two games did. I did my longest gaming marathons with these games. The level design, the amazing audio, the atmosphere. I almost didn’t buy the first game because I had doubts as to whether a “stealth” game would appeal to me, but boy, I’m glad I did!
Last played them in 2009, and their effect on me had not diminished one iota. Sure, the graphics are old, but it did not affect my enjoyment one bit; I barely noticed. Hmm. I may need to re-install.
Covering a bit of System Shock 2’s ground, I’d like to add Ultima Underworld to that list.
I played it for the first time this winter, and I was surprised how lively and interactive the world was. It felt to me like we lost a bit of a magical formula since that time, as I had never experienced such an engrossing first person fantasy RPG adventure before.
Ultima IV - VIII. MMORGS aside I still don’t think there’s anything that comes close to matching this series. Stories, quests, world immersion, and the music still give an amazing feeling.
Ultima VII is the one that for me hasn’t been matched. Some people feel the Elder Scrolls series has surpassed it but for me it’s not quite the same.
Wing Commander type series with a lengthy, deep story, coupled with immersive and gripping missions.
This is a good one. There’s some recent space sim releases that are at least keeping the genre alive but it’s not what it used to be. And the games that are coming out are more of the Privateer type than story based.
Star Wars Dark Forces - WTF Lucas/Disney?
I’m hoping with Disney in charge they can turn around the Star Wars games. Is Lego Star Wars really the best Star Wars game since X-Wing Alliance? Seems crazy to me.
Edit: I forgot about Knights of the Old Republic and it’s sequel. But still!
Planescape Torment & Baldur’s Gate series - have they been matched or are they being eclipsed? If I didn’t have such a fondness in my heart for Imoen and Minsk I would say yes. But I think maybe not when I hear their adorable voices again.
I thought Pillars of Eternity was as good as these games. Didn’t eclipse them though.
I guess I would add the LucasArts adventure games to the list. I think Telltale’s done a great job with their adventure games (including some of the LucasArts properties), but LucasArts games seemed to maintain a higher level of quality.
I was going to add that one. Arx Fatalis was a nice attempt at a modern update, but failed to capture the sheer wonder and scope of UU. One of my most beloved games of all time. I still can recite the intro cinematic dialogue word by word.
Nothing comes close. Obsidian keeps trying, but they’ll never get there while creating more and more off the wall NPC’s and using custom, nonsensical, mmo-like RPG systems.
I have the dearest memory of Starflight on the Megadrive, and found some of that wonderment of random discovery back with another recent game I won’t name because I keep refering to it like some weird proselyte.
I had no idea Starflight 2 was on par with it! Another one for the next GOG sale.
Startopia. No other building sim / management game has ever come close to capturing exactly whatever it is that makes this game one of my top ten of all time. I do wish someone would recreate it. Or at least try.
I seem to remember its author, Bob Saunders, confesses he actually hasn’t played Starflight nor was inspired by it; he, liking to play with numbers, was instead only trying to make an infinitely scaleable roguelike with a space theme.
Well here at least, it ended up being a throwback to that glorious sense of discovery of old, although the game’s format is very different, as you can see for yourself playing the game’s demo. wink wink
The Anno series is obviously a very close match, but it doesn’t have the epic ‘scale’ of building the pyramids, split across tiny islands as it is. Factorio might actually be the closest modern equivalent.
European Air War is the best WW2 sim the PC ever had. Or was it TAW? 1998 was a fucking monster year for sims.
CMANO is the best Harpoon PC gaming has ever had. The first Combat Mission: Normandy was the best wargame for PC, except for Steel Panthers, which was the best, too.
jpinard’s list is pretty much correct, except that I think that Deus Ex can swallow up a lot of the “immersive” FPS games.
Unreal Tournament '99 or UT2004 are, well, you know.
Setting aside Brian’s unforgivable heresy, both Starflight and SC2 are uneclipsed games, and too old to count as eclipsers. I think we’ll have to see how the Stardock’s reboot goes, but it’s a tall order!
I also disagree generally with the notion that more modern takes on older games can necessarily obsolesce the older versions. I find a lot of comfort and joy in playing older games even if there are recent iterations on them. The older versions are often simpler, friendlier, and less bombastic.
Startopia remains a game I still boot up. I have it installed right now! It’s always wonderful to play, though it could have used a little more map variety. I feel it was a brilliant and complete game that would have been even better with an expansion pack or two. I wish it had sold better.
I’ll come out and say it: Tie Fighter had a better single player campaign, and is the better singe player game to this day.
