The Metal Gear Solid franchise. I've beaten the first, and nearly beat the second. I like the gameplay for the most part, and the idea of a stealth game appeals to me. But the story is fucking ridiculous, the voice acting - sans Cam Clarke - nauseating, and the cutscene-to-game ratio is way out of balance. I don't find obese, rollerblading bombers, Native American behemoths wielding chainguns, or bisexual vampires interesting. I don't think that Otacon's admission of being seduced/raped by his stepmother necessary, especially when the fate of the world is hanging in the balance.
I don't get the series, nor the breadth of its popularity. Is the series supposed to be satire or a parody? Is it to be appreciated like a Micheal Bay film where ludicrous bullshit is topped by even more ludicrous bullshit, with awesome explosions and the worst possible dialogue scattered throughout?
For what it's worth the third one isn't as batshit insane as the rest of the series. The bosses all have crazy superpowers, but the story doesn't even try to explain them and usually the bosses don't even show up until the cutscene right before you fight them.
CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Call of Duty (specifically 4). The games are highly polished, yes, but the single-player is basically a corridor shooter with prettier, slightly wider corridors, terrible AI, respawning enemies and whack-a-mole enemy encounters. I'm all for exciting scripted moments in a game, but almost every damn thing in the entire game was scripted, which left zero room to play the game "my way" (or any other way that differed from what the developer intended). COD is more of an experience than a game, and while that may be fine for most people, I actually want a little bit of good gameplay in my FPS.
Also, the MP is the worst kind of spamfest. While it can be fun for a bit, it gets old pretty fast (especially since DM/TDM is the only mode it seems most people want to play).
Fallout 3. But that's probably because I'm just broken. Or it could be the fact that even with all those NPCs in the world, I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about the lot of 'em. And I find it hard to enjoy an RPG without good characters to interact with.
Eternal Darkness. People gushed over that game because it was a mature title on the Gamecube and it had great cutscenes. The trouble was the gameplay was terrible. If you weren't hacking off heads and watching zombies flail around comically, you were screwing around with spells that made the game waaaay too easy. Did anyone actually die in that game? Completely killed any tension ED might have had.
emnmnme on
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
I'm not into multiplayer games, so that throws TF, TF2, L4D, all of those right out the window. But let's focus on the Half-Life series, because I gave all of those (even the episodes in The Orange Box) an honest shot. I played all the way through both HL1 and HL2, confident that there must be something I was missing. But there wasn't. It's dull. So dull. Unimaginative worlds and enemies. Boring firefights that I could half-sleep my way through. Non-existent story (I've heard people say that the story is "there" but you have to actively seek it out, etc. But the world is so damn dull that I'm not going to do that). The protagonist is mute, which I might be okay with, except that everyone he interacts with (yes, even Alyx) is so devoid of personality that they might as well be mute too. Half-Life 1 was pretty decent about setting you along your path, but half of the time in HL2 I had no fucking clue where to go or what to do, especially during the (awfully-controlling) boating segments. Also, too many stupid physics "puzzles" relying on simple machines that children are taught about in, what, kindergarten? Glad this guy's a professor.
Same boat with HL2. Half Life was a competent shooter, and I had fun blasting aliens. Half Life 2 had a gameworld that was so devoid of life that I just couldn't be bothered going right through it. I was told to read stuff around the place to put the story together, which was real fun on my machine that could barely run the game with textures on medium, so it was like doing a join-the-dots to read anything. A friend told me a simply had to finish it because the ending was mind blowing. Cue Matrix Gman telling me good job, I have more work to do. The ending blew, it didn't blow my mind. But maybe I too am just missing something. I wouldn't mind finding it, because I'd love to find the game everyone loves in there.
I'm not into multiplayer games, so that throws TF, TF2, L4D, all of those right out the window. But let's focus on the Half-Life series, because I gave all of those (even the episodes in The Orange Box) an honest shot. I played all the way through both HL1 and HL2, confident that there must be something I was missing. But there wasn't. It's dull. So dull. Unimaginative worlds and enemies. Boring firefights that I could half-sleep my way through. Non-existent story (I've heard people say that the story is "there" but you have to actively seek it out, etc. But the world is so damn dull that I'm not going to do that). The protagonist is mute, which I might be okay with, except that everyone he interacts with (yes, even Alyx) is so devoid of personality that they might as well be mute too. Half-Life 1 was pretty decent about setting you along your path, but half of the time in HL2 I had no fucking clue where to go or what to do, especially during the (awfully-controlling) boating segments. Also, too many stupid physics "puzzles" relying on simple machines that children are taught about in, what, kindergarten? Glad this guy's a professor.
oh man every word of this
except the played them all bit, I didn't have the fortitude
For Half-Life 2, I think it was that it was the first shooter (as far as I know) to really utilize physics and objects that revolved around it. It is a generic shooter if you don't utilize the gravity gun that much.
Regardless, i'm not a big fan of the Monster Hunter series. Lot of people seem to like it, but (to me) it just feels like an MMORPG without the MMO part. It's a beautiful looking game and I love hard games, but the game doesn't quite grip me.
Eternal Darkness. People gushed over that game because it was a mature title on the Gamecube and it had great cutscenes. The trouble was the gameplay was terrible. If you weren't hacking off heads and watching zombies flail around comically, you were screwing around with spells that made the game waaaay too easy. Did anyone actually die in that game? Completely killed any tension ED might have had.
And I'll add to that Beyond good and evil. I struggled through it, but at no point was I really drawn into it or challenged. Its no wonder it came free with cheese.
Eternal Darkness. People gushed over that game because it was a mature title on the Gamecube and it had great cutscenes. The trouble was the gameplay was terrible. If you weren't hacking off heads and watching zombies flail around comically, you were screwing around with spells that made the game waaaay too easy. Did anyone actually die in that game? Completely killed any tension ED might have had.
Eternal Darkness. People gushed over that game because it was a mature title on the Gamecube and it had great cutscenes. The trouble was the gameplay was terrible. If you weren't hacking off heads and watching zombies flail around comically, you were screwing around with spells that made the game waaaay too easy. Did anyone actually die in that game? Completely killed any tension ED might have had.
i died a lot :<
I did too, but I was also fairly young when I played it so maybe that's why.
Portal. It's short, far too simple (the game practically plays itself unless you're doing challenges), and has one of the stupidest endings ever.
Please don't kill me.
In retrospect, I'll add Call of Duty 4. Linear. Tedious. WORST GODDAMN AI SPAWNING LOGIC EVER. Plot thinner than a scrap of paper. Textures that look like mud. Perfect ten scores across the board. Praised for character development.
I found KotOR to be pretty bland. Baldur's Gate 2 is superior to it in every way. I even like the artwork in BG2 much more. Also, even though KotOR had the famous twist, I enjoyed BG2's story a lot more too. I think, with the exception of maybe Morrowind, that most 3D rpg's just lack a lot of character and charm. With all the time spent making those complex 3D models and textures, they could have made a very charming 2D game thats many times larger and more enjoyable.
Portal. It's short, far too simple (the game practically plays itself unless you're doing challenges), and has one of the stupidest endings ever.
Please don't kill me.
There are no wrong opinions here. Only very wrong people. You sir, are a very wrong person :P
While I think the game was a bit "too" simple at times as well, I personally think the end redeemed it in a big way. I'd agree that it gets more hype than it deserves, however. It was, at its heart, a puzzle game. If you don't like puzzle games at all, then Portal may not be for you.
Half-Life, and later half-Life 2. I don't get it. It's generic shooter as hell and I can't get into it. Further, it boggles my mind how it has become such a behemoth franchise.
HL has so much loyalty because HL1 was basically the Citizen Kane of first person shooters. It took what was, until then, a mindless run-and-gun genre and put a coat of Presentation on it. It wasn't our first introduction to the genre, but it took people by surprise and said, "This is the foundation of how it's done." HL2 wasn't as revolutionary but it's still very well done. Personally, I think I keep buying the new episodes to see what happens next in the story, more than anything.
Someone comes up with something new, a group of people adopt it and talk about how great it is, and eventually a watered down version comes along that the public picks up on. This is just how shit generally works.
I mean all you're basically saying is "man I liked FPSs before they were cool." You are not better than Halo fans because you played Wolfenstein and Doom.
You're absolutely right. And my reaction is the same when this happens to anything. Hell, I feel the same about In-N-Out. People freak about it, but it's just because it's not the utter crap that they're used to feeding themselves. A good independent burger joint is every bit as good, and those have been around a lot longer than In-N-Out. Drives me batty, I tell ya.
I never understood why people say this. Halo added a lot of things to the fps formula, many of which have become staples of the genre. It gave you dedicated melee and grenade buttons first of all, which along with recharging shields changed the flow of combat a whole lot. It also limited the player to carrying two weapons which meant that you constantly had to prioritize which weapons you needed, and added a new layer of strategy to the game. It was also one of the first FPS games to have vehicles be so seamlessly integrated into the action.
Most of those things had been done before, but Halo integrated better than anyone else had. The level design was bad in some areas, but because of the refined AI and controls, Bungie could pretty much drop a bunch of enemies, vehicles and weapons randomly into an open area and the encounter would still be dynamic and fun.
Most of what you list isn't contributions to the genre, but contributions to the genre *on the console*. On the PC those things have not been widely adopted, either because it would be awkward control-wise or flat-out unnecessary. A lot of what you list are solutions to new problems that were introduced by a new method of input.
You know, maybe I should just change my stance to "Popular GENRES you never understand." FPS on consoles.
Portal. It's short, far too simple (the game practically plays itself unless you're doing challenges), and has one of the stupidest endings ever.
I agree that the cake thing is stupid and overdone, but if you seriously didn't get stumped a single time in Portal and it was so boring, you should be in Mensa.
Soccer games. I loathe soccer games. Why? They look the same to me. The same, one after another. If you don´t like soccer you will be bored to tears with them. Also is like everybody in my country believe than videogames are only Soccer games. Because of that my acquitances and coworkers hate my psp and ps2 games collection: no soccer games.
I can see why the game's concept would be appealing, but I've increasingly found myself trying to understand the "quality" in Dead Rising. I think what finally did me in and caused me to trade the game back in after two years was that the game decided it would start to arbitrarily throw the suicide bombing cultists at me after I decided to rescue a survivor that required a rather difficult boss battle to save.
Actually, I think the cultists themselves really weakened the game in my eyes.
Final Fantasy games don't appeal to me for some reason. Not saying they're bad or that I hate RPGs, because I don't, but I never felt like I've wanted to play any of them. Though, with the ones I basically forced myself to play, I gave up not too far into them because I felt bored. I understand why they're popular and why people like them, I just can't get myself to play any of them unless I force myself to.
I have a couple. First one is Vagrant Story. Heard nothing but how great it was. And while the story and dialogue was great I never got a handle on the battle system even though I kept on coming back to it over and over and over before finally giving up. The dungeons and environments were ugly and indistinct leading me to get lost over and over again. On top of that the first time I tried playing it I was ungodly sick which lead to every other time I tried playing it almost feeling like I was nauseous. Not the game's fault but I never found anything in it to overcome it.
The second is Resident Evil: Code Veronica. It got such great reviews at the time but to me it seemed badly designed and really highlighted how outdated that gameplay type had become. It switched from static backgrounds to 3D environments but made little change to the camera system which resulted in a graphical downgrade and no gameplay improvement. Furthermore the developers exploited the limitations of the gameplay to add challenge. You'd be blind walking past corners but unlike previous games where you'd have a second to scope out the enemies in Code Veronica you would regularly walk right into an enemy. If you entered a room with enemies most of the time there would be one or two of them right on top of you making it necessary to run or shoot immediately. It was cheap challenge, nothing rewarding about it. Not to mention the ridiculous backtracking involved. Or the moth hallway. Or the useless bowgun with non-exploding arrows. It was to me a definitive nail in the coffin of this type of Resident Evil game and the only positive thing I can say about it is that it led to Resident Evil 4.
Never played the big Zelda Games (Majora's Mask, Ocarina of Time, etc...)
Also, did not care for Resistance 2 and after playing the Killzone 2 demo I don't really see why its that great either... (I only own a PS3, so please don't kill me fanboys)
Never understood why people have such a hard-on for that game. I liked VI a lot more.
I wasn't really around for FF4, so this is just conjecture: I imagine that it's the FF7 of the prior generation. It was probably the deflowering experience of a lot of people who heard about this Final Fantasy game and thought they'd give the next one a try.
There are a lot of franchises where the first game made its name but is practically ignored. Look at the Hitman franchise. They practically don't acknowledge that it exists, releasing Hitman Trilogy boxed sets consisting of parts 2, 3, and 4.
I agree that the cake thing is stupid and overdone, but if you seriously didn't get stumped a single time in Portal and it was so boring, you should be in Mensa.
I guess I should tell them that.
Mechanical on
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TL DRNot at all confident in his reflexive opinions of thingsRegistered Userregular
edited June 2009
Kingdom Hearts - Attempts to be cute and mashup franchises do not cover a boring game with a plot that drags on.
Viewtiful Joe - Awful cell shading kept me from getting into it.
Any Zelda game after LttP - Same as with Mario 64, the jump to 3D made the games look and play terrible. I guess Ocarina of Time was ok, but it was no Link to the Past.
Pretty much all racing and sports games. What's the point? I own a car and a basketball, I don't need to simulate them.
I have a couple. First one is Vagrant Story. Heard nothing but how great it was. And while the story and dialogue was great I never got a handle on the battle system even though I kept on coming back to it over and over and over before finally giving up. The dungeons and environments were ugly and indistinct leading me to get lost over and over again. On top of that the first time I tried playing it I was ungodly sick which lead to every other time I tried playing it almost feeling like I was nauseous. Not the game's fault but I never found anything in it to overcome it.
I loved when I had gotten a weapon good against one type of enemies and then the game throws a bunch of enemies at you which that weapon does jack shit against.
Challenge is one thing, artificially inflating the challenge is another.
Speaking of artificially inflating the challenge, fuck the last two Ninja Gaidens.
Halo took the FPS and put one hell of a slick shine on it, much like what WoW did for MMO's. And it's so popular because it introduced an entire generation of console gamers to the FPS done right. It also had a pretty good story, decent protagonist character (by video game standards anyway), and solid presentation. And finally they took the time to do the multiplayer right. I would argue it was the main reason the XBOX managed to survive and turn into the powerhouse it has become. But I am in total agreement that while the multiplayer is fun enough while drunk with friends, I yearn for a fucking mouse and keyboard every time I play it, and have never been able to get through the campaigns, I just get bored. And I still shudder when I think about that god damn library level. At least I think that's what it was called.
I'll throw a wild card out there though. Sid Meyers' Railroads. Obviously not a AAA blockbuster title, but it had a pretty good thread going around here before it came out with lots of people excited for a remake of his past classic. Turns out it really kind of sucked, they dropped the strategy elements and made it more casual and cartoony, which ruined it for me, the strategy left was so simplistic you almost feel insulted playing it.
The world was interesting enough but the combat was boring as fuck. I just could not get into it. Compounded with the fact that I absolutely hate shitty ragdoll physics (they just break complete immersion for mer), the VATS felt both tedious and annoying to use. There was so little direction in the main plot of the game and there were so many side options that I never really felt too inclined to proceed with the central quest. As a result, I couldn't care less about the characters in the game or what happened to them. To put it bluntly, I couldn't for the life of me see what was fun about the game. I got a little more than 10 hours into the game and realized that only parts I had enjoyed were the first hour or so. I still don't get what I'm missing.
Gears of War
To the series' credit, the sequel looked to improve much of my complaints with the first. I never played gears 2 extensively though, I only watched, so I can't really say with much certainty whether it played a lot better or not. I found the original GoW to be incredibly boring and, more than anything else, bland as hell. The environments were bland, the same chest high blocks were ubiquitous throughout the campaign, and nothing really popped out among the sea of brown and gray. Sure, unreal 3 allowed for some fantastic effects, but I found nothing in that game really worth looking at on an artistic level. Story was forgettable (literally) and the characters were more like unintentional caricatures. The gameplay felt like 3D space invaders. Like I said though, the sequel looked like it fixed a lot of these problems, and horde mode really does look like a lot of fun.
Dead Space
Was not scary. Gameplay felt too reminiscent of RE4 but without any of the same charm. I only got 3-4 hours in and I know I should really give it another try...and I probably will, but I'll probably always hold it against it that it's a horror game without any real horror. I love horror games, and this one did not deliver.
Fable 2
Bored me to tears because I didn't care at all about the characters or what was happening to them.
Warcraft (all of em) & Starcraft. Perhaps it's because I've played RTS games before them but I just see them as "Alright." games and not really some mystical benchmark of gaming that all other games must be measured. Same goes for WoW.
I'd also like to add Bioshock... I found it very boring...
and pretty much every turn based game ever... from Age of Empires to Warcraft III, I'm no good at them and I have to usually cheat/put it on easy to beat the game.
Any Zelda game after LttP - Same as with Mario 64, the jump to 3D made the games look and play terrible. I guess Ocarina of Time was ok, but it was no Link to the Past.
If you're going to make the claim that one of (if not the) most renowned games of all time played terribly, you need to back that shit up. Otherwise just say you didn't like it.
Pretty much all racing and sports games. What's the point? I own a car and a basketball, I don't need to simulate them.
I don't really like thsoe genres either, but that's a silly reason. First of all, the odds are pretty low that you can play a sport in real life with the same level of skill that you can in a video game. Secondly, it's not always practical to set up a game of football or whatever. Popping a game of Madden in with a buddy is a lot easier than getting twenty people together to play a game of football.
I have a couple. First one is Vagrant Story. Heard nothing but how great it was. And while the story and dialogue was great I never got a handle on the battle system even though I kept on coming back to it over and over and over before finally giving up. The dungeons and environments were ugly and indistinct leading me to get lost over and over again. On top of that the first time I tried playing it I was ungodly sick which lead to every other time I tried playing it almost feeling like I was nauseous. Not the game's fault but I never found anything in it to overcome it.
I loved Vagrant Story, but:
- Navigate four menu screens to use a potion?:x
- Let´s create the sword Z!!. To create it we had to create the swords A,B,C and D. After that use them to create swords E,F,G and H. After that create again the swords A,B,C and D and combine with E,F,G and H to create I,J,K and L swords. Now create another set of I,J,K and L swords, combine both sets and you got the sword Z!!! don´t forget level that sword and combine it with a gem or the sword will not damage that boss who is inmune to everything!!!:x:x:x
Lezard Valeth on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Final Fantasy games don't appeal to me for some reason. Not saying they're bad or that I hate RPGs, because I don't, but I never felt like I've wanted to play any of them. Though, with the ones I basically forced myself to play, I gave up not too far into them because I felt bored. I understand why they're popular and why people like them, I just can't get myself to play any of them unless I force myself to.
I would say the series gets too much credit than it deserves, certainly. At the same time, some of them I feel are worth checking out.
Never understood why people have such a hard-on for that game. I liked VI a lot more.
I wasn't really around for FF4, so this is just conjecture: I imagine that it's the FF7 of the prior generation. It was probably the deflowering experience of a lot of people who heard about this Final Fantasy game and thought they'd give the next one a try.
This is part of it for me, I'm sure. I liked Final Fantasy I okay but the story was kind of sparse with not lots of memorable characters.
Final Fantasy IV though was a pretty revolutionary experience for me at the time. The way the story was presented, the graphics, the music, all of it was way above anything I had seen before in video games.
It's unfortunately impossible to separate one's nostalgia from a good subjective evaluation of a game---I will note though that Final Fantasy X managed to dethrone it as my favorite Final Fantasy, which is a pretty significant accomplishment I think.
Posts
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Also, the MP is the worst kind of spamfest. While it can be fun for a bit, it gets old pretty fast (especially since DM/TDM is the only mode it seems most people want to play).
Fallout 3. But that's probably because I'm just broken. Or it could be the fact that even with all those NPCs in the world, I couldn't give a tinker's cuss about the lot of 'em. And I find it hard to enjoy an RPG without good characters to interact with.
Same boat with HL2. Half Life was a competent shooter, and I had fun blasting aliens. Half Life 2 had a gameworld that was so devoid of life that I just couldn't be bothered going right through it. I was told to read stuff around the place to put the story together, which was real fun on my machine that could barely run the game with textures on medium, so it was like doing a join-the-dots to read anything. A friend told me a simply had to finish it because the ending was mind blowing. Cue Matrix Gman telling me good job, I have more work to do. The ending blew, it didn't blow my mind. But maybe I too am just missing something. I wouldn't mind finding it, because I'd love to find the game everyone loves in there.
except the played them all bit, I didn't have the fortitude
Regardless, i'm not a big fan of the Monster Hunter series. Lot of people seem to like it, but (to me) it just feels like an MMORPG without the MMO part. It's a beautiful looking game and I love hard games, but the game doesn't quite grip me.
I, on the other hand, find Zelda boring and loved every moment of Okami.
Good ol' opinions.
I found Viewtiful Joe to be extraordinarily tedious.
Viewtiful Joe's one of the only brawlers I've had fun with.
VJ2 though was a piece of shit.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
And I'll add to that Beyond good and evil. I struggled through it, but at no point was I really drawn into it or challenged. Its no wonder it came free with cheese.
Also, I'm not fond of talking pigs.
i died a lot :<
Xbox : gunst4r
I did too, but I was also fairly young when I played it so maybe that's why.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
In retrospect, I'll add Call of Duty 4. Linear. Tedious. WORST GODDAMN AI SPAWNING LOGIC EVER. Plot thinner than a scrap of paper. Textures that look like mud. Perfect ten scores across the board. Praised for character development.
My board games -->http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/cpugeek13
My BGG wishlist --> http://www.boardgamegeek.com/wishlist/cpugeek13
You can make some really bad decisions and kinda screw yourself over at times.
We don't need to. If you didn't enjoy Portal you're already dead.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
There are no wrong opinions here. Only very wrong people. You sir, are a very wrong person :P
HL has so much loyalty because HL1 was basically the Citizen Kane of first person shooters. It took what was, until then, a mindless run-and-gun genre and put a coat of Presentation on it. It wasn't our first introduction to the genre, but it took people by surprise and said, "This is the foundation of how it's done." HL2 wasn't as revolutionary but it's still very well done. Personally, I think I keep buying the new episodes to see what happens next in the story, more than anything.
You're absolutely right. And my reaction is the same when this happens to anything. Hell, I feel the same about In-N-Out. People freak about it, but it's just because it's not the utter crap that they're used to feeding themselves. A good independent burger joint is every bit as good, and those have been around a lot longer than In-N-Out. Drives me batty, I tell ya.
Most of what you list isn't contributions to the genre, but contributions to the genre *on the console*. On the PC those things have not been widely adopted, either because it would be awkward control-wise or flat-out unnecessary. A lot of what you list are solutions to new problems that were introduced by a new method of input.
You know, maybe I should just change my stance to "Popular GENRES you never understand." FPS on consoles.
I agree that the cake thing is stupid and overdone, but if you seriously didn't get stumped a single time in Portal and it was so boring, you should be in Mensa.
Actually, I think the cultists themselves really weakened the game in my eyes.
Never understood why people have such a hard-on for that game. I liked VI a lot more.
Also --
I think Call of Duty: World at War was a horrible Call of Duty that in no way lived up to 4.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
The second is Resident Evil: Code Veronica. It got such great reviews at the time but to me it seemed badly designed and really highlighted how outdated that gameplay type had become. It switched from static backgrounds to 3D environments but made little change to the camera system which resulted in a graphical downgrade and no gameplay improvement. Furthermore the developers exploited the limitations of the gameplay to add challenge. You'd be blind walking past corners but unlike previous games where you'd have a second to scope out the enemies in Code Veronica you would regularly walk right into an enemy. If you entered a room with enemies most of the time there would be one or two of them right on top of you making it necessary to run or shoot immediately. It was cheap challenge, nothing rewarding about it. Not to mention the ridiculous backtracking involved. Or the moth hallway. Or the useless bowgun with non-exploding arrows. It was to me a definitive nail in the coffin of this type of Resident Evil game and the only positive thing I can say about it is that it led to Resident Evil 4.
PSN ID : HBoxx
Also, did not care for Resistance 2 and after playing the Killzone 2 demo I don't really see why its that great either... (I only own a PS3, so please don't kill me fanboys)
I wasn't really around for FF4, so this is just conjecture: I imagine that it's the FF7 of the prior generation. It was probably the deflowering experience of a lot of people who heard about this Final Fantasy game and thought they'd give the next one a try.
There are a lot of franchises where the first game made its name but is practically ignored. Look at the Hitman franchise. They practically don't acknowledge that it exists, releasing Hitman Trilogy boxed sets consisting of parts 2, 3, and 4.
I guess I should tell them that.
Viewtiful Joe - Awful cell shading kept me from getting into it.
Any Zelda game after LttP - Same as with Mario 64, the jump to 3D made the games look and play terrible. I guess Ocarina of Time was ok, but it was no Link to the Past.
Pretty much all racing and sports games. What's the point? I own a car and a basketball, I don't need to simulate them.
I loved when I had gotten a weapon good against one type of enemies and then the game throws a bunch of enemies at you which that weapon does jack shit against.
Challenge is one thing, artificially inflating the challenge is another.
Speaking of artificially inflating the challenge, fuck the last two Ninja Gaidens.
I'll throw a wild card out there though. Sid Meyers' Railroads. Obviously not a AAA blockbuster title, but it had a pretty good thread going around here before it came out with lots of people excited for a remake of his past classic. Turns out it really kind of sucked, they dropped the strategy elements and made it more casual and cartoony, which ruined it for me, the strategy left was so simplistic you almost feel insulted playing it.
Fallout 3
The world was interesting enough but the combat was boring as fuck. I just could not get into it. Compounded with the fact that I absolutely hate shitty ragdoll physics (they just break complete immersion for mer), the VATS felt both tedious and annoying to use. There was so little direction in the main plot of the game and there were so many side options that I never really felt too inclined to proceed with the central quest. As a result, I couldn't care less about the characters in the game or what happened to them. To put it bluntly, I couldn't for the life of me see what was fun about the game. I got a little more than 10 hours into the game and realized that only parts I had enjoyed were the first hour or so. I still don't get what I'm missing.
Gears of War
To the series' credit, the sequel looked to improve much of my complaints with the first. I never played gears 2 extensively though, I only watched, so I can't really say with much certainty whether it played a lot better or not. I found the original GoW to be incredibly boring and, more than anything else, bland as hell. The environments were bland, the same chest high blocks were ubiquitous throughout the campaign, and nothing really popped out among the sea of brown and gray. Sure, unreal 3 allowed for some fantastic effects, but I found nothing in that game really worth looking at on an artistic level. Story was forgettable (literally) and the characters were more like unintentional caricatures. The gameplay felt like 3D space invaders. Like I said though, the sequel looked like it fixed a lot of these problems, and horde mode really does look like a lot of fun.
Dead Space
Was not scary. Gameplay felt too reminiscent of RE4 but without any of the same charm. I only got 3-4 hours in and I know I should really give it another try...and I probably will, but I'll probably always hold it against it that it's a horror game without any real horror. I love horror games, and this one did not deliver.
Fable 2
Bored me to tears because I didn't care at all about the characters or what was happening to them.
Halo. So average yet so popular for some reason.
And... that's it for me I guess.
and pretty much every turn based game ever... from Age of Empires to Warcraft III, I'm no good at them and I have to usually cheat/put it on easy to beat the game.
I second BioShock, that game was a waste of cash.
I was also fairly unimpressed with Oblivion and Fallout 3 -- which makes me sad inside.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)
I don't really like thsoe genres either, but that's a silly reason. First of all, the odds are pretty low that you can play a sport in real life with the same level of skill that you can in a video game. Secondly, it's not always practical to set up a game of football or whatever. Popping a game of Madden in with a buddy is a lot easier than getting twenty people together to play a game of football.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I loved Vagrant Story, but:
- Navigate four menu screens to use a potion?:x
- Let´s create the sword Z!!. To create it we had to create the swords A,B,C and D. After that use them to create swords E,F,G and H. After that create again the swords A,B,C and D and combine with E,F,G and H to create I,J,K and L swords. Now create another set of I,J,K and L swords, combine both sets and you got the sword Z!!! don´t forget level that sword and combine it with a gem or the sword will not damage that boss who is inmune to everything!!!:x:x:x
I would say the series gets too much credit than it deserves, certainly. At the same time, some of them I feel are worth checking out.
This is part of it for me, I'm sure. I liked Final Fantasy I okay but the story was kind of sparse with not lots of memorable characters.
Final Fantasy IV though was a pretty revolutionary experience for me at the time. The way the story was presented, the graphics, the music, all of it was way above anything I had seen before in video games.
It's unfortunately impossible to separate one's nostalgia from a good subjective evaluation of a game---I will note though that Final Fantasy X managed to dethrone it as my favorite Final Fantasy, which is a pretty significant accomplishment I think.