I originally pirated this game on release, but my PC back then couldn't run it reliably. I played it a couple hours and for some reason I can't remember, I just dropped it and never came back.
Picked it up for really cheap recently on Steam because I wanted to give it a second chance with better hardware, and holy fucking shit, how is this game six years old?
Playing in 2025 a game originally released in 2019 really shows me that there's a certain degree of diminishing returns in the games industry, not necessarily in a bad way, but in the sense that I think we've pretty much reached kind of a peak in game development, in terms of tech. As long as you can provide a solid experience, games will still feel great for much longer than they used to.
I might be mistaken and I don't have any handy examples to back this argument, but I feel like ten years ago, a six-year-old game would definitely feel much more dated than this does. Does that make sense? I don't think games used to age this gracefully 10+ years ago.
I can't think of any modern game that just feels this good. Everything is incredibly responsive, the graphics and art style are stunning, the sound design is top notch, the lore is really captivating and it just overall feels like an incredibly polished experience that's leagues ahead of most recent games.
If it were not for the Hiss and all the nightmarish SCP shit going on in The Oldest House, I'd want to live there. I want to touch these gorgeous brutalist slabs of concrete.
I felt the same way playing Red Dead Redemption 2 again recently. that game will be 7 years old this year and is still an absolutely stunning, beautiful experience. it is leagues ahead of many titles coming out now, and honestly feels timeless. I agree about the diminishing returns, buying a new game these days is a very hard sell, both because of the ballooning prices, and also because of how gracefully older titles have aged.
I recently dug an old Xbox out and played around with some of the games from that generation. they have aged like dried dogshit on a hot sidewalk. you are definitely not wrong on this point. that's not to say I don't still enjoy them, they've still got a particular charm to them, but aged finely they have not.
I think that might just be a problem of the OG Xbox. Your usual Gamecube and PS2 titles still tend to hold up really well
Goddamn, that's true. There's absolutely nothing quite like RDR2 out there currently, it's truly an extraordinary achievement in gaming.