Should Nintendo double down on working with "AA" studios

[Mr Puggsly]

Pemalite said:

Mr Puggsly said:

No, Halo 1 and 2 don't actually look bad. I would argue they've aged better than most 6th gen games. I don't want to elaborate too much on why people actually prefer classic graphics over the remaster graphics, but classic graphics are fine even in glorious 4K.

They really don't. They look terrible in 2019 as we are on the cusp of entering a fully Ray Traced world.

Plus Microsoft seems to also agree, hence why they overhauled Halo 1 and 2's visuals.

Mr Puggsly said:

MCC's muliplayer has been fixed for like a year now. Regardless, the MP was tolerable even before the major fixes and its still active.

Only took them how many years to get to that point though? Tolerable isn't good enough, not from a first party AAA release.
They are still of course patching and improving the experience, even today. In 2019.

At least we can't criticize them for the level of committed support though, more companies should take heed. *Cough*EA*Cough*

Mr Puggsly said:

I actually like the visuals in Gears 1. It has a more gritty presentation than future releases starting with 3. The remaster was basically updated graphics and it reviewed well. On a side note, you ever played Fable Anniversary? The original game actually looked better.

Gears 1 is every shade of brown. Gritty is one thing, but at that time a ton of games were pushing an overly-brown aesthetic... It's textures are low-res, bloom is overblown and unrealistic, it's successors in the franchise significantly improved things in every direction, which has helped make it one of the most defining games of the Xbox platform... There is a reason why I praise Gears 5 so highly, it has a lush colour pallet.

And yes, I have played and own Fable Anniversary. - The PC variant of course looks the best out of all the releases.

Mr Puggsly said:

I haven't checked Halo Wars online population recently, but it was still active when I played over a year ago. It also sold very well on Steam, it has 89% positive reviews there.

Compared to PC RTS titles, it's still average.
Halo Wars has no population on PC.

Even the Xbox version hasn't got any players, probably why Microsoft shuttered support for the leaderboards and such and the population counters are erroneous.

Mr Puggsly said:

Many N64 games aged worse, but they are older, experimental games relatively speaking.

I'm looking at PS1 era FF games for their core gameplay. Not the presentation. Problems aside, I still think they aged well.

For me the tank controls of RE was always a deal breaker. The first game I really played in the series was actually RE5 on 360 and then RE4 on a Gamecube.

Resident Evil 5 was definitely my pick of the franchise, but the first game arguably laid the initial foundations that brought us Resident Evil 5, hence why it needs to take some credit.

Mr Puggsly said:

In regard to our 8 bit and 16 bit discussion. I'll start by saying most games on most platforms were shit until around the 7th gen where quality of the average game quality became higher. Although, the Wii had a ton of shit.

Many 16-bit and 8-bit games are amazing even today... To the point where modern games are trying to "emulate" the look and feel such as Minecraft or 8-bit adventures. - But I think 2D games tend to age differently than rasterized titles.

Mr Puggsly said:

If I were to create a list of the best shooters ever, CoD1, 2, 3 or 4 wouldn't be in it. I think they're all okay games, but nothing special. I don't see them as worth revisiting because the gameplay is simplistic and story isn't engaging (maybe BLOPS1 and 2 for story). I almost see them as sports games, maybe just go play the newest one if you are there for MP. Although, Infinite Warfare had a great campaign.

You are missing the point.
I am not trying to paint any of the Call of Duty games as an amazing game.

I am trying to paint a picture that modern games that take modern design principles, often enabled by superior/improved hardware will often have an edge over their older contemporary's... Call of Duty is a fine example as we can see the yearly evolution of changes being introduced into the franchise, good or bad.

Mr Puggsly said:

I see Perfect Dark and Goldeneye as interesting games for level design really, it was also interesting for shooters to feel like you're controlling a person versus a floating camera. They aren't linear experiences like many modern games, you can make mistakes that fails a mission, so that makes them unique still. But if you're struggling with the controls and the performance is dog shit like on N64, it pulls you out of the experience. Hence, the core games aged well but sometimes need newer hardware to fix the controls and performance.

The Xbox 360 release of Perfect Dark didn't fix some of the games design philosophies though, various nuances of the game engine simply held back design choices.

Mr Puggsly said:

Edit: I didn't even respond to the Oceania MP thing. All I can say is... USA, USA, USA!

Oceania tends to get lumped onto American servers.

You think I am saying Halo 1 and 2 are visually at par with modern big budget games? I'm actually saying Halo 1 and 2 are not the eyesore you're suggesting. These are games that remain active, people are playing the MP with classic graphics.

What's you point about MCC exactly? They took years to fix it and now people will continue to play it for years. Whether its on X1, Scarlett or PC.

I hear ya, but I still feel Gears 1 was had an interesting presentation. Gears 5 looks great but it kinda looks like many other AAA games. Gears 1 stylistically looked like a horror game.

Fable Anniversary's visuals lacked the stylized cartoonish charm of the original and still wasn't impressive for 360 hardware. They did a bad job, I would have been happier with a straight port with a higher resolution or 60 fps. Halo 1 Anniversary had a similar problem and I could nitpick, but they still did a better job.

Halo Wars sold well and people like it, but other games review better and it has a low population so its ultimately bad? Whatever. I think the original point is lost, its a game that aged fine.

I already said we should appreciate old games for moving the industry forward even if they are difficult to enjoy now.

Most 8 and 16 bit games are trash. Its a smaller list of iconic titles that inspire many games.

The 360 port Perfect Dark made what is essentially the same old game more enjoyable. Primarily with a few easy fixes like modern controls, resolution and performance. I'm not arguing it became a perfect experience, just saying the core gameplay actually aged fairly well. I argue Perfect Dark aged better than many games simply because the gameplay was always solid.

Last edited by Mr Puggsly - on 19 September 2019