TL;DR: Since the visual fidelty and gameplay depth offered by video games is very constantly and rapidly increasing due to technical advancement, games get dated very quickly. This is as oppossed to books and movies, where we have works that are considered true 'timeless' classics and you could pick one of those up and your enjoyment of it would not be hindered by the limitation of the technology of it's time. Discuss.

WOT:

So I'v been feeling a littlbe bummed out playing the new Mafia 1 remake. It's a great remake, but it makes me realize how dated the core concepts and storytelling of the original are. Like you've got a modern wrapping for the basically the same gameplay and story as the OG, and it just makes me go like "Damn, this really used to be my favorite game?"

It can still be a really fun experience but like, if this was a brand new AAA game it would be considered far below average.
I kind of got the same feeling when replaying the OG Last of Us before the new one came out, except there the story telling was still top notch all these years later. The gameplay didn't seem as immersive as it used to though, and the visuals were occasionally distracting.

It just makes me think: can games be timeless the same way that movies or books can be? I mean you could pick up 1800s books and still feel that they knock most of the modern competetion out of the park (as they did in their time). But since the visual elements and gameplay depth (and probably also story telling) are constantly evolving in game design, and since they are so core to the final products (as opposed to like CGI in movies being more of a peripheral component) it seems like games get very heavily dated very quickly.

Discuss.

Yes.. uncharted 2 is

Play Final Fantasy 6

Half Life 2

How long ago did you play HL2 last?

i just played HL2 back in march and it holds up

Lowkey a lot of classic 80s arcade games hold up pretty well

Any game that emphasizes graphics and providing a cinematic experience is going to age inevitably, it is just the nature of the medium.

Tetris is an example of a timeless game.

same! portal games too !

exactly, creative gameplay experiences (either actual gameplay or story/acting wise) are gonna last way more than eyecandy (graphics etc)

i think all games that go for 'realistic' looking graphics instead of stylized way are gonna age bad

2015 something like that, remember being very impressed by the game

which is why im also glad half life alyx went with a stylized look

Doom

gta san andreas is a classic. best selling game for the ps2 for a reason

there’s def more of a convo to be had about the timelessness of games than that of music or film, but i still don’t think many games age badly. maybe some stuff from like N64 era at this point

Yeah you ever used a super nintendo those games are p f***ing good still. Mario is forever.

Yup early 3d has not aged well. N64 is headache inducing.

San Andreas, resident evil 4, kotor and silent hill 2 all timeless

Most SNES / NES era games aged pretty well. PS1/N64 era has some games that didn't age well. I am playing Resident Evil 4 and FF9 atm and it doesnt really make a difference for me.

no

There is a difference between classics and timeless

All of those games have aged terribly in one aspect or another

Yes there are tons of examples, from the SNES/Genesis era to the 360 era.

The SNES Classic has literally been sold out on Amazon, Target, Best Buy, GameStop, and Walmart sites for nearly 2 years straight. Nearly every game included on it would be considered timeless by many.

Theres even been a huge indie game surge (and more recently, major studio) in the past decade that specifically use retro-style pixel art because it still looks great and they don't have to design and code an entire game around some graphics engine that takes up 80% of the disc space — so these older and older-looking games are typically much more refined in gameplay that doesn't get tired

i dont think games will ever be timeless, the same way music will never be timeless.

there will never be any game that will be timeless simply because every generation grows up in a different environment. For example I don't expect kids to play half life 2 and love it as much as I did it because of the graphics and how bad the engine is compared to newer engines. That doesn't mean I cant appreciate half life 2 and say its timeless for our generation because its what we grew up on. Every generation has games that are timeless for what they grew up on respectively

but that doesn't mean games can't be classics. and i think being considered a classic is something that is much more fair and important to a game than being "timeless"

pretty dumb question