^ I agree with all of that.

Older games are just more fun to me. I want to say it has nothing to do with nostalgia. Many older games dared to be more difficult. They'd just throw you into the fray and you had to figure things out yourself.

I recently replayed a bit of Blood, the 1997 shooter, and it's quite difficult. Even the reviews at the time said it was one of the tougher shooters to ever be made. Games don't have to be impossible to be fun, but there's something about the challenge and frustration that makes it enjoyable.

One thing I notice about recent games is that they sometimes provide the illusion of interactivity with your environment. For example, the level guides you to a certain point where you have to climb a wall or hang from and move along a pipe on the wall. The screen tells you to push a certain button to perform the action. You think, "Oh, look at that! You can climb walls in this game!" No. You can only climb that wall or certain other ones that are predetermined to progress.

I find that illusion of immersion to be incredibly misleading. What I love about older games is that part of the fun was figuring out what you could and couldn't do. While the game overall might have less interactivity than a modern one, it just feels more natural and genuine in its presentation. But that's probably the nostalgia speaking.