[quote]So why is it that some of these newer games can't seem to grasp a player as much as the older ones?[/quote]

Part of it is nostalgia. Part of it is, yeah, we forget the crappy games. But there's more to it than that, in my opinion.

Firstly, simplicity can win out in a LOT of cases. Let's look at Quake 3 for instance. Quake 3 is a simple 1st person shooter based around multiplayer arenas: spawn, grab gun, kill guy with gun, take guy's gun, die, respawn, rinse and repeat. It has no story; it has no super complex mechanic for me to grasp; yet somehow that game was the game I loved most for three or so years, and I still play it on and off afterwards.

I think the gameplay is just way more simple and, well, instinctual than shooters made today. You have health and armor and guns and that's it; you can jump, you can crouch, you can run and duck and weave, but nothing else has really ever delivered that lovely "Run and gun" gameplay that I love besides [i]maybe[/i] Borderlands 2. Even then, Quake 3 wins out. It's good, simple fun. And it has needless gore that looks like a joke rather than like the game is trying to take itself seriously.

Simplicity also makes a game easier to balance. Simplicity also lets you focus on other elements of the game, like making animations feel crisper or adding little details to the scenery. Simple design also means you don't have to drop an infodump onto the player as a "tutorial." In general, simple but deep games are really good.

(Of course, not all of the great games from the past are "simple." One of my all time favorites is King of Dragon Pass. I'm not sure what complexity I'd call that game, but it sure ain't "simple.")

Now, there are plenty of modern games that deliver and [i]damn[/i] do they deliver. But I do think games are getting more complex and we're expecting more out of them. Heck, imagine if someone gave you a sandbox RPG and didn't let you customize your character. In the past, you'd be okay with that, totally okay. Nowadays, that might actually be a reason not to buy a game if customization is important enough to you.

And of course: never underestimate nostalgia, and never forget that the games of the past that are with us today are the big names of their time. Tons of lesser known games have been lost to us.