Old games feel more 3d than modern games. does anyone else feel that way?

[Noon]

I like any kind of graphic level. I do like the older lighting/shadowing style compared to the simple colours anime style that’s really ubiquitous today, something I don’t really jive with in new games is hyper realistic style, it’s not wrong but for my mind it just loops back around to just normal TV people, extremely expensive normal TV people.

 

[Graw]

Take a show like Reboot... by today's standards, its 3D looks awful. But for the time, it looked amazing, and that's kind of the point.

There's a group that's working on transferring the original Reboot master tapes as they were rendered directly off their computers and honestly it looks great

There's already 5 episodes available on the Mainframe youtube channel

I can't post the last one but there's another one on the channel.
Plenty of people use a low poly aesthetic intentionally just for the look these days. Just because something looks more realistic it doesn't automatically make it better.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

I thought about making a youtube video about this but I am actually way too lazy so I rather have a discussion with you guys here.

I PERSONALLY feel like first generation 3d games like PlayStation 1 and N64 feel way more 3d than modern games and they still make me go WOW in 2026 even if we have way better graphics nowadays.
Can anyone relate to this?

I think I figured out why old games feel way more 3d. Back then 3d was the latest craze, it was brand new so people were trying to show off what 3d can do. Nowadays everything is way more subtle and I feel like everything kind of happens on a "flat plane" nowadays, there are not too many ups and downs. When I play Mario 64 and I go up a slope I am like WOW. I played the first Pandemonium last night and you get all those crazy camera angles, it already starts with the first level where you just walk down and the camera pans around you, you jump on watermelons and you can go all the way up in the sky and it all feels so magical and really like a 3d world. Maybe this "effect" also works better with less objects and since we have so many objects in modern games the 3d wow effect is gone.

I hope ANYONE knows what I am talking about and can relate.

So what is your take on this?

Oh yeah I feel that, when 3d was a new thing developers REALLY made the most of it, I miss those games that fuck with the camera a lot

Wether it be to make cinematic shots in fixed camera games, like the forest in silent hill 2 having certain angles that make you feel like you're being watched, or the water level in Klonoa feeling like you're walking ina beautiful diorama
I'm gonna say Einhander, so few 3d STGs REALLY feel 3d

I love the camera moving, it feels epic

 

[MaxKopf]

holy tier nostalgia rose tinted glasses post.

>simple mesh polygon
"omg 3D!"
>state of the art model with shaders, tesselation, shaders, physics, lighting
"not 3D :("

haha of course I realise that it is 3d but it does not feel like that. Now here is something that you have to keep in mind: Those are NOT nostalgia goggles that I am wearing. I am a PC gamer and I skipped the entire first 3d console generation because BACK THEN I thought those those consoles look like SHIT. The PS1 was too wobbly for me and the textures of the n64 were too blurry for me so I did avoid those consoles. I REALLY (as in sat down) played Mario 64 last year and it had this strange 3d feeling when you walk up on slopes and everything. Right now I am discovering the PS1 and I am having the same feeling.
It really is not nostalgia.

I think back then 3d was the latest thing so people tried to show off what is possible. I am a professional video editor so I will use examples from my work field. I remember when in 2013 flying drones were kind of a new thing for filming or rather it was the latest craze so everyone would use drones and people would be like OH WOW look at this. Right now Adobe Premiere introduced the feature to mask objects very easily (a feature DaVinci Resolve had for some while but nevermind) and I already see everyone left and right using it: "OH LOOK I CAN PUT TEXT BEHIND ME" right now people are still getting WOWed but it will get boring very quickly. Just like when AI images were new and people who did not know it yet were impressed but now everyone is sick of it.

So I think the same happened with early 3d. They showed off what was possible and everything was right in your face and exaggerated. Nowadays it is: less is more. Everything is more subtle. So coming from those subtle games to an old game gives you this great shift.

I also think it is some kind of optical illusion. If you do not have so many objects on screen it is way more visible.

But those are just my 2 cents, THIS IS why I made this thread to discuss it but for me it is certainly NOT nostalgia because I had never touched those games before. I grew up with Doom and Duke Nukem since I am a PC gamer and you do not get those crazy angles or walking up slopes and what not in those early FPS.

 

[BigTony]

I think it was the devs genuine excitement for the new technology they were constantly trying to find new ways to use it. I think a lot of VR games capture that same ambition

 

[-------]

Actually, I never really thought about it that much. Is it really important? No idea.

 

[Anoobis]

In the case of modern action games, where you lumber around at a slow jog and look over your character's shoulder all game, they are meaningfully less 3D. Aside from the yellow paint or white cloth points that allow for curated vertical traversal, most of the player's motion takes place on a plane.

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Like other users have indicated:

- Your mind fill the gaps
- The design actually let you explore, even encouraging you to do so. Rather that today design where there has to be something happen on the screen at all times, so they either just make a glorified hallway or just strongly guide you through the level.

 

[Yousef Yousef]

Yes, without a doubt. You’ve got more agency compared to the over-animated, carefully curated stuff we have these days.

Some old platformers also required skill, so it felt like you have more power when you master them.