No, this is not that weird JRPG for the DS. This is a review focussing on the concept of nostalgia.
So what is nostalgia? Nostalgia is often triggered by something reminding the individual of an event or item from their past. The resulting emotion can vary from happiness to sorrow. The term of "feeling nostalgic" is more commonly used to describe pleasurable emotions associated with and/or a longing to go back to a particular period of time. However, these days, especially in the circle of gaming, nostalgia is the rose-tinted-spectacles that people put on to defend their beloved originals against remakes, updates and sequels.
"Tango, why on earth are you brining this up? This isn't a game and you've clearly gone mad!" I hear you cry. Well boys and girls, I'll tell you for why I bring this up. The Counter Strike Update.
Personally, I like the update, it has some good features, nice engine update, UI is better, ACHIEVEMENTS <3 and I've been playing it non-stop. This is the most I have ever played Counter Strike, I am actually enjoying it enough to grind it for a few hours, and I can see the improvement, albeit miniscule, of my skills. However, and this is where I drag it back to nostalgia and not just dry-humping the update, many people are not fans of it and they seem to be the ones that have played it since release. They are used to fiddling with stuff, that frankly, I don't see necessary. They hate the UI, despite the improved clarity and they were complaining moments after its release, with servers still furiously updating thanks to Valve giving little to no warning about it. They have petitions against it after only 48hrs, they complain constantly and they rage if you so much as look like you are having fun with it.
This is what I'm talking about. Those magic pink glasses you shove on turn you into an animal whose blood is replaced with liquid hatred (a.k.a. Hitler's piss). It clouds your judgement of what is a truly remarkable update/remake/sequel. You can’t honestly say that Resident Evil (original) is better than Resident Evil (Remake). The graphics are better, the locations are sprawlier, the dialogue is better, the atmosphere is scarier – I could go on, and I adored the original, it’s in my top 5 games of all time. However, I’m not going to place my sparkle-glasses on my face until I can truly see a negative effect; like if they replaced the zombies with a horde of cacti wearing baseball caps...
The point I’m trying to get to is this; nostalgia is a shield of being utterly wrong that people hide behind because of change. Take off your hatred specs and take a look at things for what they really are. If things really have been cocked up, by all means, put them back on and hide behind memories of a better time.
