Name one game you wish you'd played when it just came out.

[Salus]

Sometimes I'm pained by the fact that I wasn't there to enjoy a game when it was just released. Often I get on the boat late, and by then either not many people are playing anymore, the game has changed or been dumbed down, or it just lost the magic.

I first played Diablo 2 more than a decade after it came out. It pained me, because I knew if I got that game in 2000 I would have played the CRAP out of it. By the time I played it that ship had already sailed, Diablo 3 was due to come out soon.

The irony is, I got Diablo 3 at midnight, after stockpiling food, reading up on everything D3 online, and making all these gaming marathon preparations. I played Hardcore mode from the start. The game was fun, the combat was great, but I before I was even at the end, I knew it was no D2. The auction houses, the lack of skill trees, the bad itemization and the often unfun "don't step in the muck" boss battles were bringing the game down, but could be fixed. However, the WoW-like unit models, the ham-fisted story, the tired "war-zone" levels, the uninspired music and the face-palm inducing voice acting were what made me the most sad, because that sh** is PERMANENT. Diablo 2 looked like decade-old paper mache and scared me more than D3 did, and I played both practically back-to-back, so that wasn't just my childhood perception of it like some people like to argue.

I like D3, but most of the time I was playing it, I just wished I could have been there for D2.

So what about you? What game would you want to have experienced when it just came out?

 

[uncle_yuri]

The Elder Scrolls games. I started playing Oblivion just last year because I stumbled across it on Steam and my friends were shocked that I hadn't played it before. Then I jumped on the Skryim bandwagon this year. There are ups and downs to it; I certainly don't regret getting better prices than release date. I wonder if it might have been worth it to play at the same time as everyone else, though, just so you have something to talk about with everybody. That might be a bad example since Skyrim is still far from irrelevant, but there you go.

Oh, and every NES/SNES/Genesis game I ever played on an emulator. I only grew up with the N64 and those that came after it.

 

[Angelblaze]

Guild Wars 2. Maybe then I would be able to get some friends and be interested in it and stuff but as it is now the game is too old and not drawing interest. The original wave of excitement hath crashed upon the shores of the game industry and died I'm afraid.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Runescape. Then I could have got me some party hats.

 

[GothmogII]

WoW. I actually did, for a bit, but I didn't have my own account and had no idea how to play. Then I didn't play until around BC came out. Kind of would have liked to experience all the old content when it was new.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Probably Final Fantasy VII. I know everything there is to know about Final Fantasy VII, even though I haven't played a single FF game in my life bar some hours into the first game. I wish I'd experienced FF7 in all its fresh glory instead of the trite piece of pop culture it's become.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Team Fortress 2, vanilla TF2 for a long while seems like a great idea. I love after a huge update when Valve breaks the item servers and everyone is forced to use vanilla weapons for hours or even days.

Then again, I'd be dealing with the same few maps, different metagame, tiniest bit worse class balance, initially wonky item drop rate, paying full price for the game, and less extensive community support.

 

[Frankster]

Beyond Good and Evil and Psychonauts for the hipster cred. Since it's for the same reason, cant be decided over one or the other.

Any Elder Scrolls game is the bonus answer, Skyrim was my first and it inspired me to the older titles since morrowind is meant to be the best ES game overall, but even the more recent oblivion was too dated for me to enjoy.

 

[Arslan Aladeen]

I got a chance to play a game that didn't come out. I used to work for a videogame store, and went to E3 and they had Star Craft Ghost being demoed. There was a guy ahead of me, but it looked like he had never seen a game before so I decided to come back later, but by then the line was much more significant. I should have stuck it out regardless of how good it actually was. I could have said I did play it instead of saying I almost did.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Skyrim, I really enjoyed it by Christmas when I got it, but by then all my mates had already had their fill and swapped stories.

 

[Battenberg]

Wow, lot of people saying this but I'd have to go with The Elder Scrolls. Not Skyrim because that holds up just fine still but Morrowind and, to a lesser extent, Oblivion. Unfortunately I played Skyrim first and now when I try and play either of those games all I can see is the difference between them and Skyrim and all the (admittedly minor) issues that weren't present in Skyrim. That and Morrowind hasn't aged well (at least imo). It's a shame because with both games I expect had I played them when they came out I would have absolutely loved them but leaving this many years and a new release between release date and play date seems to have tainted my expectations of them.

 

[Cyan]

Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It's a fairly new release, and only weeks ago the internet was sharing information about it and having tons of fun. But I couldn't get it until after Pokemon X/Y came out, and the internet has gone silent about AC. I feel so lonely playing it now.

 

[gonzo20]

dark souls, definitely dark souls, mostly because people had no idea about anything so the pvp would have been way more fun and not as serious as some people take it!

 

[Mersadeon]

Payday both 1 and 2. For one, I was simply way to late to the party -I didn't know it was any good. Payday 2? I even bought it. It is sitting in my steam library. My PC can't handle it. I wish I could have played it when it came out. When I get a new computer, everyone will have moved on. It makes me sad. (Also, that money could have gone somehwere else.)

 

[Teoes]

My vote is with Baldur's Gate. If I had hit that one at release I would have then branched out to all the other RPGs of that ilk and wouldn't be so daunted now by the prospect of playing catch-up.

 

[Drummodino]

Final Fantasy VII. I've tried playing it but it's so dated that I gave up. I liked it, but man those polygons...

 

[el derpenburgo]

Neverwinter Nights. That thing was HUGE in its heyday but by the time I bought the Classics edition, the community totally died out. Like around 2003 or something, it really was an RPG with endless possibilities.

 

[hermes]

Mass Effect 1 and 2.

I only have a PS3 so, when the game was released, it was years after the other versions did, and I was entirely out of the loop for the first game. By that time, most of the story beats I knew from reading them or seeing it with other people, so I wasn't able to experience it in full.

 

[Saelune]

No specific games, mostly since I don't have difficulty enjoying old games (I rarely play current games currently...)
But I wish I had enjoyed the SNES and Playstation when they were new. I was playing my mom's NES and Sega Genesis when I was still in diapers, so I got to enjoy them, but at that same time the SNES was newly out and I feel like some of Nintendo's best were on that (based on Game Grumps anyways). Though if I had a SNES now Id play it. The playstation my dad did have when it was new, but it was in my parents room and I was intimidated to play it, so I never got into the (then) Sony standards, which is likely part why Im not a huge Sony person. (Tomb Raider, MGS, Crash Bandicoot...)

I did have a PS2, but except the then new Ratchet and Clank I did not own any of their mascoty games.