The "Good For Its Time" Defense

[Koh]

Sometimes you won't know something's bad until something better comes along. 

Exactly.  I actually talked about this on the other set of forums I made this thread on.  But ignorance of something better doesn't change the content of the game either.  Just because that's all we were aware of at the time, and we just accepted it because that's the way things were, doesn't mean it was good.

Let's say you've never owned an N64 and Super Mario 64, right?  Your first game happens to be Tomb Raider on Playstation.  So you have no idea that better 3D controls exist; as far as you know, Tomb Raider is your first 3D game.  Even under those circumstances, you'll still get frustrated with the clunky and cumbersome tank controls.  This doesn't have to mean you won't enjoy the game as a whole, but it will immediately affect your experience.  However, since you're oblivious to the existence of SM64, and this is your first game, you just deal with it because that's all you have.  You overcome that learning curve, get used to the tank controls, finish the game, and have fond memories of all the FMV cutscenes of Lara doing things and such.  Does this mean the game as a whole is bad?  Not necessarily, but once you go play SM64, you'll clearly figure out what was wrong with Tomb Raider, in terms of control.  You just never knew exactly what the problem was until you had something to compare it to.   But just because SM64 didn't exist or you hadn't played it at the time, doesn't suddenly make those tank controls good, lol. Just a milestone or stepping stone towards something greater.