To clarify, if I was introducing someone to the Diablo series for the first time and told them they’d have to start on the first one. I wouldn’t want them playing the bare vanilla version. There is a Bezelbub mod out there that gives the game lots of QoL improvements, you’d be thinking you’re playing a build of Diablo 2 before its final version.
So, if I had to tell anyone what the best way to play that game would be, it is the Bezelbub mod. That was how I’ve beaten the first game anyways.
Silent Hill - alone, in the dark.
Alone in the Dark - on a hill, silently
if you’re playing FFXIV, especially on Linux, don’t bother with the official launcher/updater. Use XIVLauncher, hell even use that if you’re playing on Windows. Updates a hell of a lot faster plus you also get the dalamud stuff which adds a few quality of life plugin improvements.
The first Kingdom Come: Deliverance was a great game and I think it should be played first, but I understand it’s old clunky and unoptimized. These days it should be played with certain QoL mods like unlimited saving, instant herb picking (no animation), richer merchants, and trough washing deluxe/clean Henry (honestly I don’t want to spend all my time going to the baths or looking shite). There are others, probably about 7-8 total, that I recommend but you get the idea.
Or you could embrace the vision, play on Hardcore with no map marker or compass, accept that travelling through war-torn lands is dangerous, feel the rush of galloping through the woods knowing a Cuman ambush could set you back 30 minutes, accepting that quests can fail, accepting that people will react to you stinking like blood and horse.
Viva New Vegas for Fallout: New Vegas and the Unofficial Patch for VtM: Bloodlines are my go-to examples. Not a mod but Ninja Gaiden Black is the definitive version and much better than both Ninja Gaiden (2004) and Ninja Gaiden Sigma.
Quite niche, but sim racing, I will pick Assetto Corsa Rally as an example.
The definitive way to play is with a proper rig. 9nm+ Direct Drive wheel base, round wheel, a sequential shifter, handbrake and decent load cell pedals. Put it up on a nice ultrawide or triple screen and have an amazing time sliding through the forest. You can also do VR, for complete immersion as well.
Buuut that’s also the expensive way, you can also have a load of fun with a controller or cheaper wheel on a desk.
I’ve been playing BG3 with a loot randomizer. It really makes you have to think about your builds because you can’t rely on certain gear anymore. Makes it almost feel like a roguelike.
Of course, if you don’t look up any builds a first playthrough of BG3 will be indistinguishable from one with a loot randomizer.
Obligatory, if you do want a roguelike BG3 you can get that with the Trials of Tav mod.
Mgs on a ps. With a memory card with konami saves on it. Iykyk
For Chrono Trigger, definitely don’t play the original SNES localization. No disrespect to Ted Woolsey, he was one man working on an unreasonably tight deadline and hard technical limitations, but the retranslation is much better.
There are a host of open source remakes of old game engines that fix bugs and update them for modern systems, resolutions, and aspect ratios. Here’s a few off the top of my head:
- OpenMW for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (probably the most famous one)
- Daggerfall Unity for The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
- OpenRA for Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn, Dune 2000, and (in pre-alpha form) Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2 (the latter requiring extra fiddling with Github repositories)
- KeeperFX for Dungeon Keeper
- OpenRCT2 for Roller Coaster Tycoon 2
- OpenTTD for Transport Tycoon Deluxe
- OpenJKDF2 for Dark Forces 2 and its standalone Mysteries of the Sith expansion
- TRX for Tomb Raider I and II
- Tfix, T2Fix, and the Sneaky Upgrade for Thief 1/2/3 respectively
These are just the ones I know of. There are probably loads more.
OpenJazz is okay, but even after all these years still doesn’t quite feel right
XWVM to play X-Wing and TIE Fighter.
Aaaaand saved. Thanks!
OpenXcom for the first two X-Com games (UFO: Enemy Unknown and X-Com: Terror From The Deep). This reimplementation is insanely good.
- It fixes all known bugs of the original X-Com engine.
- It works on modern systems, including Linux, macOS, Windows, and even Android.
- It has support for modern resolutions and aspect ratios.
- It allows you to use soundtracks from other versions of the game (e.g. look at the website’s “Extras” tab).
- It has mod support including a basic mod manager. And some of those mods are damn good.
- It runs flawlessly.
There’s really no reason to play the original DOS versions anymore.
Sounds good, but is it really still X-Com without the bugs?
I could argue that experiencing the Groundhog Day bug builds character but… no. Nobody should have to deal with that.
Admittedly, a few tactics like filling your base with laser rifles to make attacking aliens spawn unarmed no longer work. But honestly, an experienced player treats base attacks like bonus levels anyway so it’s not like much of value was lost. Besides, you also now get all the loot from big missions and not just the first 128 items.
Also, UFO now actually remembers your difficulty setting and doesn’t revert you to Beginner after the first mission. That’s different but better. I probably should’ve mentioned that separately in my first comment.
OpenRCT2 is 100% the definitive way to play Roller Coaster Tycoon 1 & 2.
But I would never recommend a new player try OpenRA. The game has stellar multiplayer support but they just can’t figure out the campaign scripting at all. Go with the remaster collection instead.
Still? I haven’t played OpenRA in several years and assumed they would have fixed it by now.
Then again Red Alert 2 is even less supported than it was the last time I checked, so I’m guessing their focus is mostly on the multiplayer side of things.
Really nice list. One can spend many hours on these games.
Speaking of Dark Forces 2 and Not about the Force Engine for the first Game? :0 you barbaric! Joking.
Yeah. Force engine fornthe First Game is top notch.
My bad! Every time I think about replaying Dark Forces I remember the sewer level with the dianogas and change my mind.
Oh god. I forgot…
Factorio. It doesn’t matter how you are playing it, you are doing something wrong and that invalidates your whole base.
I finally properly started space age 2 days ago and feel like I know nothing again and have been cooking up spaghetti since
Whichever way is most fun
First off, here’s a big list of unofficial ports:
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/List_of_unofficial_ports
Dhewm 3 for Doom 3. Just updates the game engine to run better on modern hardware since id tech 4 is open source. Mod support sort of, not every mod is compatible. They helpfully list those that do here: https://dhewm3.org/mods.html
The Sims 2 High DPI patch, self explanatory:
https://github.com/lah7/sims2-4k-ui-patchVCMI - Heroes of Might and Magic 3 open source engine/game extension. Has a built in mod manager, really handy: https://vcmi.eu/
Coming soon / WIP: I’m excited to play this port of the MS-DOS game Albion when it reaches feature parity with the original:
Does VCMI includes the ability to play the original campaigns with everything they had, on whatever language they were installed? It’s not clear in their FAQ.
I tried installing the original with HD mod through lutris on a PC I am converting to linux, only to discover HD mod just doesn’t support the French version of the game.
Lutris apparently passes down the system language to the installer with no option to change it. I’m sure there is a way to change the install script, but I haven’t really looked into it yet.
If there’s a way to pass down the French version in VCMI and get about the same improvements HD mod provides, and get all that to run natively, maybe I won’t have to.
It’s on a seperate page:
https://vcmi.eu/translators/Translations/
Edit: oh I got confused you said OG with HD mod. Well, hopefully you have better luck with VCMI.
Well I was trying to run OG with HD, the original game already had a French version (it’s the one I’ve always played, even back in 2000). But I just learned that the HD mod was not directly compatible with it, though there might be workarounds. As is, it crashes as soon as I start a map.
Honestly even though I’d heard of the project before, I had competely forgotten about VCMI, so thank you for reminding me of it (very good timing too). If VCMI let me do what I am trying to do, really there’s no point messing with the OG install. I’ll try it when I can get back to it.
Pokemon Red at 10fps on a gateway laptop circa 2004
Should I put the RAM back in?
Fallout Fixt for anyone wanting to dive into the OG fallout.
I’d like to add a bit to this.
FALLOUT ET TU (Fallout 1in2) - Fallout 1 converted to Fallout 2 engine
Fallout 2 Restoration Project, updated - Bug fixes, QoL and more for Fallout 2
Fallout 2 Unofficial Patch, updated - Bug fixes only
I’d like to add a further bit to this
Fallout Community Edition, a reverse-engineered open-source reimplementation of the original engine. There’s also a version for FO2. It specifically says Fallout Et Tu is unsupported, but there’s no real reason it shouldn’t work, so… best of both worlds!
With headphones.
