For the very sake of arguments I've pulled out Soul Reaver 2 from my collection and installed it off the disk just now, on my laptop running Windows 7. As previously stated, the game won't run out of the box. Patching it did not help so I had to search for solutions online. Easy enough to find and apply, took 5 minutes tops.
After this I did the same thing with my dusty PS2 copy. Just plugged in the console, stuck the disk in and...well, the dialogue is still fantastic.
Regarding Unreal 2 and Unreal Tournament, my original copies would not run on 4 different PCs -two desktops and two laptops to be fair- without some coaxing with community patches, processor settings and some other baloney. The original versions, not the Steam version, not the GoG version, the disc versions that I have bought will not run on their own except after I work a bit on them.
At this point I'm beginning to wonder why I am answering.
Defending my point? I've just installed a game on a clean version of Windows 7 with everything up to date and it did not run out of the box as I first bought it. I'd say my point defends itself.
I made no specifications that old games will not run PERIOD on current PCs. There are solutions, of course, but they are at times not even official -like Gothic 3's complete revamp that has nothing to do with Piranha Bites or JoWood- or poorly supported.
If it isn't clear now, I am sorry, but it would be a waste of my time to answer once more.
