I was talking to a friend today and he was telling me he tried to go back and play FF7 but couldn't stomach the graphics :O I said who cares about the graphics man just play the game and enjoy it! but he just said I can't play it because it looks to ugly to me now :S

I thought he was mad lol personally I couldnt give a toss about the graphics, Dont get me wrong, Id rather have good graphics if it was possible BUT I would never let it be a deciding factor of whether I play it or not.

On the side not I also HATE it when reviewers down the score because they think the graphics look dated.

Anyways do you still go back and play the classics or have you moved on?

For games that were intended to be realistic at the time, it's hard for me to go back and enjoy them. But with games like SM64 or Crash, I still have a lot of fun with them.

I love the classics. Play them all the time. However I do understand what you friend means. I mean some games have aged brilliantly, particularly sprite based games. FF7 on the other hand actually does hurt my eyes if I am not careful. I actually do mean full blown eye strain.

Sprite based is timeless, I wish all games were still sprite based lol if it was we wouldnt have these super high dev costs we have today and RPGS would still be everywhere.

Well, the PS1 is second only to virtual boy in ugly graphics...

But yes, I do play old games. PS1 on occasion ...I never owned one, didn't play FF7 until about 2006, FF8 later, still haven't played 9 but I plan to! 8 was............not good. It has failed the test of time. It does take some getting used to those very primitive 3D graphics when playing a PS1 game. SNES had games that were easier on the eyes than either PS1 or N64. Very clean, neat graphics.

I play old Gameboy games every once in a while, and SNES too from time to time.

Mario, punch out, old nintendo games are pretty much mostly wonderful, etc. FF7 with mods to gameplay and graphics. Deus Ex with Mods to graphics. A lot of PC games with mods to graphics and gameplay.

The thing with a lot of older games, is that while some of the gameplay ideas are more complex and better (compare Deus Ex to Deus Ex HR). The level design, ways to break into things, and ways to do things is better in the older games. The gunplay, and stealth and level size has advanced a lot since then and HR far surpasses it in that area. Mario 64 has things that no other platformers have. But, it has a terrible camera and things that have been vastly improved since. That said I still like the first Deus Ex and Mario 64 more than the newer ones. But, I could definetely understand why someone would like the newer ones better. This applies to more games than just those as well.

A lot of RPG's west or eastern have better and more fluid combat systems, but a lot of times it comes with other dumb-downed mechanics compared to games of the past.

2D Sprite based games have aged the best (Megaman, Castlevania, Metroid, Mario), because in my mind they weren't near as limited by technology at the time to make the game the desired.

Depends on the game. Half-Life 2, Ocarina of Time, Link to the Past, Final Fantasy VI, VIII or IX, etc. are all games that have aged well. Games like FFVII or Deus Ex however are pretty hard for me to go back to.

Look at my avatar. I was born in 1979. I have all the classics in their original, physical glory and at least one of the systems is hooked up at all times on an old piece of crap CRT tv.

Keep the joys of them in memory, but never go back. Once you know the story and beat it 100%, theres not much to come back to, unless its multiplayer of course. Not to mention theres so many new titles waiting to be called classics.

Its more the game lead designers not project managing properly. What people dont consider when talking about dev costs is that a lot of games are going to multiple platforms. It is not free to port a game, it certainly isnt free with cross development when a game is getting built 2x or more buy multiple dev teams. 

I do miss 2d graphics though. I like me a good side scroller and old school RPG. Not a huge fan of FPS, thoughI will play a select few on an odd occasion. I hate that anything 2D is relegated to PSN. I dont understand why they cant just do a selection of games on bluray or release cheap bluray disk based games.