It was rather bizarre while playing Sam & Max: Ice Station Santa for the purpose of review appearing here or on the podcast, (haven’t decided if a healthy dose of humour, or more blood and guts aka Gears of War will be the best, though I suppose I could do both but that could be a wee bit too much for people) that memories came flooding back for lots of old games, not just adventure but older games we will never see the like off again and the way things have moved on in terms of entertainment.

But I now wish to scare you. Does anyone remember what we didn’t have when the internet as we all know and use to download material of a questionable nature today? Remember a time without Facebook (just gave at least 3 people a heart attack there) and we used to go out and about and socialise while the aforementioned people adverse to sunlight stayed in with their slightly shiny machines?

All you have to is step back about 13 or 14 years ago to the beginnings of when Quake was the next big thing from Doom because it introduced proper 3D shooting monsters (with a taste for brown) and POGS were the only thing to lust for. Well, you wanted them if you were still my age then.

Back then, the internet was restricted to the people with lots of money on crappy modems, and there was bugger all of the fancy crap we see now. So the geeks were residing themselves to gameplay and there were some fantastic choices.

Single Player Romps were where it was at. Just you and the computer. Some of the titles that spring to mind give you a real headache and not just because you were staring at the screen.

Just like what was found in classy adventure games for example Simon the Sorcerer or indeed Day of the Tentacle, they were a joy because the writing was so good, the story so compelling and the gameplay so addictive.

And even giving Monkey Island a go once again today it must be said: some of the solutions were frankly baffling at best, and the problem was you couldn’t stop until you solved a particular bit. Introduce those games to your five year old and basically you’ve given them the digital version of crack cocaine. And that was just for starters.

But once you solve it, you remember and you can bypass that if you play again with ease. And you may not even play it again unless the story and moments were so compelling you wanted to got through it all over again. Max Payne is a good example of this, and the next game I present to you is another.

Descent and its sequels were released by Interplay before they went bust and was something of a real challenge in its day, still is now being honest though the challenge is more getting the f**king thing to run under Windows Vista.

The basic idea was flying around mines in all directions, destroying killer robots, before for some silly reason blowing up the reactor which made you dash for the exit before the whole mine went kaboom. Sounds simple?

But as with all things you get some annoyances. First it was really troublesome to control the bloody ship with just the keyboard as there were so many damned keys it was silly. Second, because you had the ability to fly any direction you want in the mines, that meant you got lost, with the only guide until the second game a minimap so complex, Stephen Hawking would have given up and stuck to making guest appearances on TV shows.

But the fact is, you got to fly around in a fully 3D environment shooting lots of bad robots with various weapons with the sheer thrill of just narrowly escaping the destruction of the mine thrown into the bargain. Descent 2 added further levels, with “wizzo at the time” cinematics and a slight show-stopper of an ending, it kept you coming back for more. Multiplayer was even there so playing in that type of environment was a really test of shooting skill and movement.

Surely the series would have lasted, and with today’s techo-doohickeys, the experience could have been enhanced 100%? Sadly it hasn’t. Descent 3 crashed commercially and so did Interplay, which means that unless there is a miracle, we will not see the likes of it again unless this project comes up trumps.

Another fine example of titles gone by from yesterday (or Tuesday, I forget) goes back even further. Mayhem in Monsterland for the Commodore 64. A technical masterpiece proving you don’t have to have the best machine in the world to produce a great game. It may have been a platformer and only used 16 colours, but by eck. It was fun. Hell you can get the game for your mobile phone now so it can’t be all bad!

Now we come back to the present day and you see, games as we see them now are more akin to Hollywood blockbusters, with huge effects, massive production on the graphics, music but still holding true to the games which came before them, with only a few defying the laws of physics to create something new which would set the mould, then proceed to break it. Half of them even have big name Hollywood stars lending their voices so the production is given that little edge.

Recent examples which span all kinds of genres include World of Warcraft for the online content and community building. You have the likes of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and the Nintendo Wii console and various games for introducing a key idea of bringing games to people who up until then would only thought games were for fat spotty people who fear any living thing with breasts.

You have hordes of Koreans becoming celebrities based on playing games with some killing themselves because they were so stupid as to stay playing for 2 days straight without listening to the body screaming “OK, I might need some food and water, maybe some sleep, don’t want to push it, but if you find the time, it would be nice.”

And everyday people play endlessly online in all manners of ways, mainly first person gun slinging and I do have something to say on that later, but the fact is: all these titles have changed the way people play and perceive the average gamer. It has also raised people’s expectations. Just look at the screenshot below from Gears of War and it is clear that it is far removed from the entertainment of old…

People now talk to one another while playing, and the pastime of slouching in front of the TV, packet of crisps in one hand with controller in the other is losing its old image, being replaced with that of cool hip people, who go around town drinking coffee and then chilling at a friend’s pad to all hang around playing Street Slapper 14 while remarking on how stupid someone they know is. At least that’s what the adverts would have you believe.

But for all the improvements and great stride made in the world, I can’t help feeling sometimes that there is less variety of silliness, these days the shelves at your local shop for local people are stocked to the gills with games all about the earth going down the toilet for the 1226345th time (boy are we humans unlucky?) and you are the only man with a working fridge and the you have blow everything up to save humanity.

Flimsy pretext indeed. And all the while you must blow crap up while it all looks stunning and “photo-realistic.”

But these current games also present staying power in the form of human opponents online, and not just 10s of different opponents but thousands of guys and gals waiting for you to put them out of their misery! New content is created and downloaded to all, even on consoles now which means it takes a good while longer before you get tired of it. How can the old games match that?

Perhaps this is why sometimes it is important to look back on things gone by, to see what they did right and how we go forward now. Hell, storylines are important for Role-playing things like Warcraft, and gameplay remains a vital ingredient in everything today, over the top graphics or not.

Or all this may have been the rant of a guy who is now forced to admit at the age of 25 that he’s old and has caught the nostalgia. Where’s the Kaisers’ “Everything is Average Nowadays” song, I feel like moaning about the environment and hugging a tree.