Patient Gamers

Yeah absolutely. I think with a lot of these older games that are considered to be the GOATs of their respective genres you'll run into the same problem: They were so good, that the mechanics/ideas become the minimum requirement for all games thereafter. So, if you played the game on day 1, it was an innovative masterpiece the likes of which you'd never seen before. If you play it 10-15 years later after having played modern games in the same genre, it feels like the same old shit except without the 10-15 years of improvements.

For me personally, the game I'll get crucified for not enjoying is Half Life 2. I played through the entire game. It was ok. I was pretty bored for most of it though. Shooters aren't generally my thing for one, but even that aside the game was very milquetoast to me. I did a lot of reading up on the history of HL2 afterwards because I was astonished that I didn't enjoy such a legendary game and I think I came to the conclusion that some new mechanics such as the cover system and story-driven nature of HL2 were what made it such a hit in 2004. But 15 years later those mechanics weren't new and exciting to me and the story is decent but a far cry from amazing.

The other game that stands out to me is Assassin's Creed 1. I couldn't make it more than a few hours into that game. Just so boring and repetitive, the combat was boring, the collectables were boring, most mechanics didn't actually seem to matter...I just hated the game lol. I do think it's another example of later entries in the series/other games doing the same thing but better so going back to the OG just felt like a slog. But I really hated AC1 hahaha.

When Witcher 3 was winning all those awards, I wanted to give the original game a go.

Don't. I imagine it's nothing like Witcher 3. It aged terribly poorly.

Pokémon, actually. Just a month ago I wanted to play Soul Silver. But man, it is tedious. There's so much slow dialog, long animations, and little inconveniences everywhere (even in the menus). And I feel like you also have to grind to progress, which I absolutely hate in games (but maybe I also just didn't play well enough, whatever). So yeah, quite disappointed with it since I remember the 3DS games being quite fun.

Baldur's Gate 3 was good, but I can't play 1 or 2. They definitely don't feel the same.

For newer games, I can actually play the older Zelda games, but I can't stand the latest games. Not a big fan of the gameplay with weapons breaking and how much they pushed the open world thing. I very much prefer smaller maps with more story.

Knights of the old republic 1 and 2. First my old PC couldn't run it and my new one it just feels too jank and ugly. I love star wars games and am sad if the remake stays dead.

Probably going to get some hate for these.

FFVII. The pc port was ass, controls were a pain on keyboard and there wasn't great controller support. The graphics were really tough to ignore, and the combat felt like fighting the control scheme more than anything. I've played and liked many other titles in the series, but I couldn't manage this one by the time I got to it. The experience was also so bad I have no interest in the remake/remaster.

Morrowind. Played it a ton on Xbox, but I can't get back into it on pc anymore. Even with mods to alleviate the graphics and draw distance, the game is so dated. Building a character can be very punishing in the early game, and easily break able in the late game. Many weapon skills are garbage because they lack enough support in items. Movement speed was tied to a skill, jumping is significantly faster, but also a skill. The leveling process is arcane and not adequately explained in game. The journal is awful, so you better remember what quests you are doing. Item storage was a pain because crates had weight limits, and merchants had pitiful amounts of gold to sell items.

Starfield

Personally, the earlier Witcher games. Great story, but it's trapped in an old RPG missing all kinds of modern features and mechanics.

I never did really beat morrowind or even finish any of the factions questlines, i was too young at the time to care about that i just did the infinite intelligence potion exploit to create an unbeatable god character slinging 50ft radius fireballs from level 1.

A part of me really wants to revisit it and and least complete the main quest, but damn does it feel dated.

I tried playing the original Deus Ex for the first time a couple of years ago and I sadly had to put it down before I escaped the tutorial. Early 3D graphics have not aged well, the controls were not very intuitive, and it just seemed like it wasn't worth the effort. I then played and enjoyed Human Revolution though; I know, I'm an absolute peasant.

Halo, even the remaster. The world's feel empty and vehicles make me long for the Mako

I've since been told it's just one of those "you had to be there" things. Was really hard to admit the hype cycle sometimes has value

Probably controversial but half life 2 for me. I got it very cheap on a sale after years of hearing how good it was. Just couldn't get into it. Even worse, every time I felt nauseated after a couple of minutes.

I guess this is just an example of a "you had to be there" scenarios. I was there as a gamer at the time but had no funds to play all the games. I skipped on HL 2 and can't get into it 20 years later.

Thief.

But I HAVE to try again! I want to write my bachelors about game design of stealth games and not analyzing Thief would be a crime against humanity

At this stage, I am loath to go back to any game where the UI takes up half the screen. RTS games especially just used so much screen real estate back in the day, that couldn't be scaled or hidden to get any back. Like playing your game through a letterbox surrounded by stickers.

Morrowind was always this for me. I started the series with Oblivion and Skyrim. Those have their own issues, but at least you hit things when you hit them, and their leveling systems won't actually screw you over if you don't Excel it correctly.

SMB 1 and 2. The SMB1 engine was revolutionary, but I hate the controls. SMB2, the Western one, just never felt like Mario, even back then. I also mostly started on SMB3 which had much better platforming and controls and was actually a Mario game, so that's probably why.

I consider myself, more or less, a "Zelda fan", at least from LttP to about half of Wind Waker. I will never play the first two NES games, though. Aside from 2 being "pretty much not zelda", 1 is so full of arbitrary wonk, "Guide dammit", and "Nintendo hard" that I don't feel like it even for historical purposes.

Morrowind.

FONV and Skyrim. Even with mods, FONV looks like microwaved dog shit. Im mot even a huge graphics nut but at a point it becomes too distracting and FONV goes far beyond that. Skyrim's sluggish movements keep me completely disengaged, although the graphics don't throw me off quite as much, it feels so outdated that the immersion is ruined right from the very start.

Unpopular opinion for sure, but Vampire: The Masquerade. I've started so many playthroughs over the years but just cannot fall into it like other RPGs on account of its dated mechanics and graphics.

For me it was Ocarina of Time. Ugly, and very clumsy. And I play tons of retro games. Early 3D stuff can be rough.

a lot of the invisible language used through game design from that era, I do not understand. There are many things that the game didn’t explain, and I assume they were just understood by players

A lot of the UI/UX and game mechanics from HOMM3 were taken from Sid Meier's games, like Colonization and Civilization. When you say you didn't understand stuff in HOMM3, I want to ask if you've played CIV6 or CIV5 or other modern games in that same genre? If not, you're going to be confused by them regardless of whether you're starting with CIV1 or HOMM3 or CIV6.

The first witcher. The story seems really interesting and it has some great rpg elements but the combat is just so boring that I ended up startin witcher 3 without knowing the lore

Fallout 1&2. I love isometric top down rpgs and have played every title since fallout 3 to completion. Something about the clunkiness leaves me with a lot to be desired. I didn't pay more than $4 for both titles on a steam sale so I'm not mad they're in my library, I just wish I could break through the barrier and experience the beginnings of that world.

Quite a few, but more recently:

Neverwinter Nights. Even the Enhanced Edition.

Diablo.

Other older RPGs just start off too slow, but that isn't necessarily age related, but by design.

Morrowind, but only because I've lost where I was up to in my saved game from 3-4 years ago, not so much because of the mechanics; they didn't bother me too much.

Super Mario 64, while i started with the nes i never really fully played the 64 title

I played it on stream some time ago but eventually stopped cause mario just felt so weighty and clunky to control. I tried 3 different controllers just in case it could have just been me, but unfortunately, i just didnt jive with it.

Anything with consoles as the primary focus. You know the games, the ones where the controls suck if you don't use a controller..like witcher, and all those dark souls copy/paste clones. Cameras are too jank

Final Fantasy Tactics. I always hear its praise and apparently the story is really great, but... I just can't stand it. Despite being a massive fan of its sequel on the GBA.

I've had multiple story battles end before I even got a turn it, just because the NPC I was supposed to protect walked straight into his death. And that's kinda true for every NPC, in a game with permadeath and NPC companions for a big chunk of the inital hours. Sometimes you just gotta repeat a mission several times for a single chance to actually play and win.

You want to recruit monster? Great! Now they multiply like rabbits and your whole squad will forever be clogged with monsters.

Outside of NPC suicide, a lot of the battles are stomps. Either you know how to abuse the jobs and become a literal god or you kind of suffer, since once again permadeath. Oh, but even if you struggle through, you just get the most overpowered unit for free, making the last part mostly trivial anyways.

There a literal softlocks if you save right after a mission with a mandatory follow-up without being able to handle it. Your save will just throw you into a battle you cannot win.

It just feels like a game made before proper playtesting was a thing.

Pretty much all of the iconic games from my early teens. (I was a teen in the late 80s and 90s). The games that I grew up with, that I fell in love with, are unplayable now.

Dragonstrike, a flight sim where you fly a dragon in the D&D Dragonlance world was mind blowing when I first played it. Now, it's so bad that replaying it spoiled my memory of the original experience!

I feel like after BotW and TotK, older 3D Zelda games seem clunky yet easy. I can't get used to the cameras in OoT and MM it feels so stiff as opposed to an old game like Kingdom Hearts where the first game aged well and the controls are still good.