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Forums - Gaming Discussion - 3D games of the 90s that have aged the best

Man, this thread is making me want to fire up my N64, Saturn, and PS1 games Such an experimental, creative time in gaming. I really hope Nintendo pulls the trigger on an N64 Classic console...



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Pemalite said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

Looking back, it seems like the 90's and early 2000's were the best time for PC gaming as far as unique and cool games go. Too many PC gamers these days aren't even interested in games like this, Civ, or RTS. 

Also, how much would it have cost to run Homeworld in 720p 60 fps back then? 

I really feel like a lot of PC games from that era didn't age well. But that's not a bad thing. Just a testament to how well their sequels have improved in recent years. Civ III, and IV would still be perfectly good games, if Civ V and VI didn't blow them out of the water. Same goes for a lot of the older Total War games. I'll get Homeworld Remastered eventually on GoG. From what I've seen it looks to have held up well. 

Any Pentium 3 Katimai or Coppermine would have been enough in conjunction with a TNT2 Ultra/Geforce 256... But those were high-end.
A Riva 128+Pentium 2 would have been good for 60fps at a moderate resolution.

I think in general games of that era didn't age well... But 2D games from the likes of StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, Dark Reign, Baldurs Gate did remarkably well over the years due to strong art direction, it wasn't until the PC was pushing towards 1440P/2160P that those games 2D art assets started to look excruciatingly limited... Hence the need for HD remasters.

Games like Battlezone 2, Homeworld, Dungeon Keeper 2 which are full 3D titles have stood the test of time though in my opinion... They were decent graphical powerhouses even back in the day, but the strong art direction has meant they matured fairly well... Certainly far better than the Nintendo 64, Playstation 1 and so on.





Images speak for themselves, none of the consoles were coming anywhere near those PC at the time in 1999. - Dreamcast could have gotten closer than the Nintendo 64 or Playstation 1 though.

sethnintendo said:

I've played Civ3 most then next would be Civ5.  Civ3 was bad ass except it was usually turned into stacks of doom.  I played user made scenarios most from 3 getting them off Civfanatic.  I didn't like 5 that much at first but it grew on me.  It was finally fleshed out with the 2 expansions.  Currently just 30 hours into 6.  I like it but sometimes even though they seemed to dumb it down I find myself just clicking away and skipping info and other shit.  Like governors.  I put them in city and then just upgrade them when get chance but hardly care or do much with them except if take over far away city then I'll move one to that city to help loyalty and prevent flipping of city back.  Sure it beats the random overthrow of cities that you took in 3 which would piss me off if had lots of troops stationed there.  It's like there is no fucking way partisans retook the city with my army (tried to not use armies as much because cpu never learned to use them properly in 3) or huge stack sitting in city.  It was all about culture and military presence be damn.  Anyways I almost had more fun micromanaging cities in 3 than doing most bs in 5 and 6.

I am partial to Alpha Centauri to be honest. Been my favorite "Civ" game so far, still go back to it even today and give it a run! Although after all these years even the highest difficulty isn't as much of a challenge.

Sadly the game wasn't a looker even on release... But that is okay, the gameplay is solid and there is a reason why it's one of the most acclaimed PC titles in history. - I had hoped that Beyond Earth would be closer to Alpha Centauri than Civ... So that was a let down.


I am absolutely happy that I was a PC gamer during the 90's, I got to experience the 3D acceleration revolution and the era when developers were mashing together various concepts to try something new.

Don't know which version of Alpha Centauri you own, but in the GOG release at least, you could create a new faction with many debuffs to give you a new challenge.

While we're at it, what faction do you main?

And yeah, Beyond Earth was a letdown for me, too. It's just not Alpha Centauri.



COKTOE said:

Soul Calibur on the DC baby! The Champ!

It's kinda too bad so many Dreamcast games are disqualified....

Super Mario 64, F-Zero 64, ISS 64 ( the Konami Soccer game ), Einhander ( PS1 ), Tekken 3 ( PS1 ).....Those are few I can think of. PS1 and Saturn 3D games dind't age particularly well. Not that N64 was THAT much better. But it's 3D best aged better that the best from Sony and Sega. IMO.

The ONLY major N64 game that's not aged exceptionally well, IMO, is Goldeneye 007.

I've tried to tweak it to play with modern control schemes and it just doesn't work out.



 SW-5120-1900-6153

thetonestarr said:
COKTOE said:

Soul Calibur on the DC baby! The Champ!

It's kinda too bad so many Dreamcast games are disqualified....

Super Mario 64, F-Zero 64, ISS 64 ( the Konami Soccer game ), Einhander ( PS1 ), Tekken 3 ( PS1 ).....Those are few I can think of. PS1 and Saturn 3D games dind't age particularly well. Not that N64 was THAT much better. But it's 3D best aged better that the best from Sony and Sega. IMO.

The ONLY major N64 game that's not aged exceptionally well, IMO, is Goldeneye 007.

I've tried to tweak it to play with modern control schemes and it just doesn't work out.

Goldeneye seems to come up a lot as far as not aging well. I haven't played it since the 90's, but just thinking about that control scheme....Yeesh. Also, I called F-Zero X "F-Zero 64" in that post.



- "If you have the heart of a true winner, you can always get more pissed off than some other asshole."

Virtua Fighter 2 

This was made in 1994.



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Bofferbrauer2 said:
Pemalite said:

Any Pentium 3 Katimai or Coppermine would have been enough in conjunction with a TNT2 Ultra/Geforce 256... But those were high-end.
A Riva 128+Pentium 2 would have been good for 60fps at a moderate resolution.

I think in general games of that era didn't age well... But 2D games from the likes of StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, Dark Reign, Baldurs Gate did remarkably well over the years due to strong art direction, it wasn't until the PC was pushing towards 1440P/2160P that those games 2D art assets started to look excruciatingly limited... Hence the need for HD remasters.

Games like Battlezone 2, Homeworld, Dungeon Keeper 2 which are full 3D titles have stood the test of time though in my opinion... They were decent graphical powerhouses even back in the day, but the strong art direction has meant they matured fairly well... Certainly far better than the Nintendo 64, Playstation 1 and so on.





Images speak for themselves, none of the consoles were coming anywhere near those PC at the time in 1999. - Dreamcast could have gotten closer than the Nintendo 64 or Playstation 1 though.

I am partial to Alpha Centauri to be honest. Been my favorite "Civ" game so far, still go back to it even today and give it a run! Although after all these years even the highest difficulty isn't as much of a challenge.

Sadly the game wasn't a looker even on release... But that is okay, the gameplay is solid and there is a reason why it's one of the most acclaimed PC titles in history. - I had hoped that Beyond Earth would be closer to Alpha Centauri than Civ... So that was a let down.


I am absolutely happy that I was a PC gamer during the 90's, I got to experience the 3D acceleration revolution and the era when developers were mashing together various concepts to try something new.

Don't know which version of Alpha Centauri you own, but in the GOG release at least, you could create a new faction with many debuffs to give you a new challenge.

While we're at it, what faction do you main?

And yeah, Beyond Earth was a letdown for me, too. It's just not Alpha Centauri.

Zakharov/University. I have Alien Crossfire from GOG, so it's the latest version.

Alpha Centauri and Master of Orion 2 are two games I have always kept going back to over the decades.

Late 90's/early 2000's though, the PC stood above the consoles, no contest.



--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

r type delta, einhander, resident evil 2, street fighter 2, axelay, super contra,



Pemalite said:
Bofferbrauer2 said:

Don't know which version of Alpha Centauri you own, but in the GOG release at least, you could create a new faction with many debuffs to give you a new challenge.

While we're at it, what faction do you main?

And yeah, Beyond Earth was a letdown for me, too. It's just not Alpha Centauri.

Zakharov/University. I have Alien Crossfire from GOG, so it's the latest version.

Alpha Centauri and Master of Orion 2 are two games I have always kept going back to over the decades.

Late 90's/early 2000's though, the PC stood above the consoles, no contest.

Similar to me, though I switched to Aki-Zeta-5 lately for some novelty. And early on, I was more of a Gaian player. My friend who introduced me to the game at the time was Spartans all the way - fitting for a gun nut like him.



Conker is still awesome the humor is timeless
Mario 64
Paper Mario, if it counts as 3D...
Diddy Kong racing, Mari kart.
On ps1
Silent hill
Metal gear
Grandia, fft and xenogears, 3D environments with 2d sprites
Dino crisis
Tony hawk 2
All crash games
On Saturn
Radiant silver gun
Shining force 3, looks ugly but the gameplay is pretty solid




Panzer Dragoon Saga. I'm so lucky to have that game. It still looks amazing because of the artstyle and how they worked aroudn the Saturn's limitations. (Oh, and Panzer dragoon Zwei still looks good too)

Ocarina of Time looks good because of its artsyle too. Blocky but nothing looks out of place.

Super Mario 64 holds up because of its whimsical style.

The first Metal Gear Solid still has a cool vibe to it.

Virtua Fighter 2 still holds up as an excellet fighting game.

The first Smash Bros is still an amazing party game. Super fun.

Lylatwars is still the most fun Star Fox game and one of the best 3D rail shooters.

Sin&Punishment is still great.

People might find this controversial but Turok:Rage Wars still outclasses many modern shooters in terms of fun. You have a gun that places an alien fetus in another players' chest to burst out and insta kill him later. You have a gun that makes players fatter and if they get too fat they explode. You have a throwing weapon that drills into people's brains and explodes. You have a gun that freezes people. And so on. And also they get the controls right for once. Move with the c buttons, aim with the analog stick.
As good as a multiplayer FPS can get on N64 IMO. (yes, better than Perfect Dark)



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