Unreal

m_cozzy · 9 Jan 2007 at 22:22

Thought I would try one of my all time favorite games tonight, probably havent played it it 6+ years, the original Unreal! What a let down, it looked truely dire on a modern pc. The rose tinted memories were totally shattered.
I think I will leave all the old games I was thinking of replaying in the drawer so as not to be disappointed with them, systemshock2, halflife, supermario64, goldeneye, unreal tournament, all greats in their time, but I think I will stick with the memories of playing them now

Behemoth · 9 Jan 2007 at 22:33

A trp down memory lane, I did that recently with a few games, Need For Speed Underground for one. Although it looked really dated it was still really playable.

Surprised that Unreal didn't look so good, did you not have your GFX card setup right ??

Tical · 9 Jan 2007 at 22:40

For me my "all time favorites" are about gameplay and not the graphics. You shouldn't let the aging graphics get to you, just play it and have fun. Eye candy isn't everything.

PinkFloyd · 9 Jan 2007 at 22:42

I still think Unreal looks great.

May I point you towards this thread over on BuF.

That particular thread is referring to UT rather than Unreal, but nearly all of it, maybe every single bit also applies to Unreal 1

Basicly make sure you run in OpenGL, as it looks far far better.

Behemoth · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:06

Tical said:
For me my "all time favorites" are about gameplay and not the graphics. You shouldn't let the aging graphics get to you, just play it and have fun. Eye candy isn't everything.

I agree with you there, i was playing NFS 2 not so long ago and loving it

GarethDW · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:14

NFSU is only a couple of years old, isn't it? When did it come out.... maybe 2004? Surely it can't look that bad?

For some real nostalgia, you should have a look at Retrospec - they've taken classic games like Manic Miner, Cybernoid 2, Atic Atac, etc... and given them a bit of tarting up. Gameplay is just like it always was though

Behemoth · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:17

GarethDW said:
NFSU is only a couple of years old, isn't it? When did it come out.... maybe 2004? Surely it can't look that bad?

For some real nostalgia, you should have a look at Retrospec - they've taken classic games like Manic Miner, Cybernoid 2, Atic Atac, etc... and given them a bit of tarting up. Gameplay is just like it always was though

Not played any of those, then they could well be a bit before my time.

Vonhelmet · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:29

Mario 64 and System Shock 2 will always be awesome, regardless of graphics.

Speak not a word against them.

GarethDW · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:31

Behemoth said:
Not played any of those, then they could well be a bit before my time.

You calling me an old git?

Come to think of it, I have noticed more and more grey hairs appearing from somewhere, and I've started worrying about excessive nasal hair a lot recently too.

sirlemonhead · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:48

PinkFloyd said:
I still think Unreal looks great.

May I point you towards this thread over on BuF.

That particular thread is referring to UT rather than Unreal, but nearly all of it, maybe every single bit also applies to Unreal 1

Basicly make sure you run in OpenGL, as it looks far far better.

Ta, Knew about the new OpenGL renderer code, but didn't know there was sound improvements too

Behemoth · 9 Jan 2007 at 23:57

GarethDW said:
You calling me an old git?

Come to think of it, I have noticed more and more grey hairs appearing from somewhere, and I've started worrying about excessive nasal hair a lot recently too.

Not at all mate

I think the first PC game I ever played was Moraff's Blast.

Tom|Nbk · 10 Jan 2007 at 00:53

I know this feeling all to well, games you havnt played since there hay day you remember them being visually stunning etc then basically find there unplayable due to how dire the gfx are in todays standards etc, Castle Wolfenstein was one of these games.

Meridian · 10 Jan 2007 at 07:04

Tical said:
For me my "all time favorites" are about gameplay and not the graphics. You shouldn't let the aging graphics get to you, just play it and have fun. Eye candy isn't everything.

Beat me to it: gameplay is far more important. After having a go (and getting bored) with Doom3 I tried the original Doom with the JDoom upgrade. The original was so much more fun it wasn't funny. I still sometimes play the original UT because it simply more fun than the later versions (which tried too hard to copy Q3A in look and style).

M

Grandmaster Fap! · 10 Jan 2007 at 12:11

Streetfighter2 + crap graphics = still the best game evar!

I know the feeling though, i have such great memories of duke3d but when i fire it up now i just cringe

geeza · 10 Jan 2007 at 12:16

Castor said:
Streetfighter2 + crap graphics = still the best game evar!

I know the feeling though, i have such great memories of duke3d but when i fire it up now i just cringe

but if you could fire it up with internet play and get an instant lobby where you can join and create games how much fun would it be!?

same goes for Blood, Shadow Warrior and many other great titles

ShiWarrior · 10 Jan 2007 at 12:35

UT is still great!

#

prefer it to UT 2003 and 2004

SpudMaster · 10 Jan 2007 at 19:27

Castor said:
Streetfighter2 + crap graphics = still the best game evar!

Its the inner beauty of sf2 that really makes its sparkle

HangTime · 10 Jan 2007 at 22:20

Hmm. I must admit I haven't fired up Unreal for quite some time now but I wouldn't have thought it would have aged that badly when running with latest patch, updated dlls in OGL mode with everything maxed.

That said, no matter what settings you use there's probably no getting away from the fact that the textures will likely be fairly low res and the models rather lacking in polys. Hmm.

In general though I find it varies quite a lot with old titles whether they look as good as you remember. I recently tried NFS3 (Hot Pursuit) again, which impressed me in 1998 (same year as Unreal). It looks pretty god dawn awful as it only seems to run in 800x600x16 at best (no 32bit or high res mode).

On the flipside, Forsaken, yet another 1998 title still looked funky when I fired it up last year.

Personally I think the turning point comes around the year 2000. Anything from that timeframe onwards usually looks OK, such as NFS5 (Porsche 2000) or Deus Ex. Move back into the 90s, and you're taking a chance.

GarethDW · 11 Jan 2007 at 10:53

HangTime said:
Personally I think the turning point comes around the year 2000. Anything from that timeframe onwards usually looks OK, such as NFS5 (Porsche 2000) or Deus Ex. Move back into the 90s, and you're taking a chance.

Yeah, I remember NFS Porsche Unleashed... used to play that a helluva lot, and you're right that this timeframe was a turning point for graphics. In fact, think I still have Porsche Unleashed somewhere in a dusty cupboard, gonna have to go find it tonight and play it again

HangTime · 11 Jan 2007 at 21:10

GarethDW said:
Yeah, I remember NFS Porsche Unleashed... used to play that a helluva lot, and you're right that this timeframe was a turning point for graphics. In fact, think I still have Porsche Unleashed somewhere in a dusty cupboard, gonna have to go find it tonight and play it again

Trust me it's still a brilliant game, that's not just nostalgia speaking as around 18months ago I dug it out again (a full 5 years after it came out) and it plays superbly whilst still looking 'ok'. In fact it's still my favourite of the NFS series depsite 5 more games coming out after it. Its also one of a very exclusive list of games I have completed more than once.