Game that everybody likes but you dislike

[Noiser]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:57 AM, ReaperAA said:

HL has the justification of being a polished game (unlike C7) and also bringing innovations such skeletal animations (was revolutionary) and also it's AI being ahead of other games at the time.

I don't see anything so unpolished about C7. In fact, I think it was one of the most advanced games of it's kind (wolf3D clones). Of course, it got totally eclipsed by Doom, but the game was full of features not ever seen at the time, like transparent walls, the intruder system, lightning effects, the inventory system and more.

And sorry, but comparing the Capstone budget with Valve was a bit absurd.

Edited December 5, 2023 by Noiser

[ReaperAA]

8 hours ago, Noiser said:

I don't see anything unpolished about C7. In fact, I think it was one of the most advanced games of it's kind (wolf3D clones). Of course, the game got totally eclipsed by Doom, but the game was full of features not ever seen at the time, like transparent walls, the intruder system, lightning effects, the inventory system and more.

 

Is it? I have seen footages and videos of it and while it does have some really neat features (like even the nightvision and infrared modes), it didn't "feel" like a game I would prefer even against its contemporaries like Blake Stone or even Wolf3d.

 

8 hours ago, Noiser said:

And sorry, but comparing the Capstone budget with Valve was a bit absurd.

 

You're right to an extent, since we outsiders don't know exactly how much budget each company had. But one thing is certain, Valve contracted with Sierra simply because they were getting low on budget and they needed someone to help with distribution of HL. Valve wasn't a super rich company in 1998.

[mrthejoshmon]

On 12/2/2023 at 11:10 AM, Asphalt said:

 They are both objectively quite bad if you ask me,

I'm sorry, this threw me off.

 

So... Subjectively objectively then?

[Noiser]

4 hours ago, ReaperAA said:

Is it? I have seen footages and videos of it and while it does have some really neat features (like even the nightvision and infrared modes), it didn't "feel" like a game I would prefer even against its contemporaries like Blake Stone or even Wolf3d.

Well, in my POV yes. But this is very subjective indeed and I understand how you would prefer Blake Stone of Wolf3D instead. In my opinion Blake Stone have a better art direction, but Corridor 7 was more innovative.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Noiser

[hybridial]

On 10/9/2023 at 8:17 PM, Rudolph said:

BioShock. I have gotten over my (extreme) disappointment of finding out that it was not the System Shock 2 spiritual successor it was meant to be, but even after all that time and approaching the game with a more open heart, I just cannot bring myself to like it: the game just does not feel like a good shooter to begin with. Also, I find the story to be too often pretentious and needlessly mean-spirited, and like too many attempts at satirizing a topic, a group or a specific person, it ends up accidentally glorifying it.

 

You know, I don't hate Bioshock, I do agree that it's no System Shock 2. But I do want to point out it still looks like a fucking masterpiece compared to Bioshock Infinite. Especially when it comes to being "mean-spirited", Bioshock looks like Mr Rogers compared to fucking Bioshock Infinite. But I don't think Infinite is that broadly well liked, it has it's fans (why?) but for this topic it's maybe not universally liked enough to be my pick. 

 

Just because I've not been here for a while, I just wanna quickly mention my views on some other games that have been brought up, because in recent months I've played them.

 

Elden Ring - Obviously not got a history of liking these games, Elden Ring seemed okayish. When I fought and beat Leonidas Misbegotten though, I mean I did it on my fourth attempt, but it was such an obnoxious, morale busting fight that I genuinely felt like I was too old to deal with the stress of these types of games. I might just be at the age where I don't give a shit about challenge anymore especially when it's this forced. I mean it wasn't too much for my skill, but it was too much for my enjoyment. I kinda can't judge the whole game but it made me more sure these sorts of games are not for me.

 

Cyberpunk 2077 - well it took over a year but the game is quite playable on the Series X now, doesn't drop to single digit fps anymore. The state the game was released in is something that should probably always be held over this game. That said... I was proven wrong. Whilst in a way I wish the game was more RPG, I cannot deny that CD Projekt Red put a lot of heart and soul into this game. What it is, is actually the best Bethesda game ever made. It follows that design philosophy for the most part only the content is really good and worth experiencing, the polar opposite I guess of Starfield. 

 

Baldur's Gate 3 - Actually I've only played a little bit of it on PC. I feel it's not idea as my PC is just a bit under the requirements, I plan to get it on Xbox. I will say I intend to go into it with an open mind despite not liking the Original Sin games very much. I see a lot of stuff said about the game, new paradigm for CRPGs etc. We'll see, I kinda wonder if that talk comes from people who never played the genre because it wasn't cinematic enough for them. 

 

Now I think the one game I'll mention in relation to the topic is Alien Isolation. I don't understand why so many seem to like that game, it is outright incompetent in everything it's trying to do. I guess I should acknowledge the exception to that are the visuals and environment design, the presentation. But that's it and that gets nowhere close to making up for how bad the play experience is bungled.  It's just fucking terrible and empty and the story is as completely redundant as Aliens Colonial Marines' story. I'm not even convinced Colonial Marines is a worse game, at least it's probably much better paced. But I'm not gonna get into an argument over that game as it didn't end well last time. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by hybridial

[Rudolph]

2 hours ago, hybridial said:

Now I think the one game I'll mention in relation to the topic is Alien Isolation. I don't understand why so many seem to like that game, it is outright incompetent in everything it's trying to do. I guess I should acknowledge the exception to that are the visuals and environment design, the presentation. But that's it and that gets nowhere close to making up for how bad the play experience is bungled.  It's just fucking terrible and empty and the story is as completely redundant as Aliens Colonial Marines' story. I'm not even convinced Colonial Marines is a worse game, at least it's probably much better paced. But I'm not gonna get into an argument over that game as it didn't end well last time. 

I hear you. When the game was announced, I was genuinely excited, but I ended up fully agreeing with Red Letter Media's Previously Recorded video review. Incidentally, the FNAF-style sequel Alien: Blackout looks much more interesting and actually faithful to the Alien experience (i.e. trying to keep a group of survivors alive), but unfortunately, it had to be a mobile exclusive...

Edited December 5, 2023 by Rudolph

[Taw Tu'lki]

Duke Nukem II.

 

[Garlichead]

Super Mario Oddyseey. I found it exhausting to play

[act]

Honest to God, this is going to be an essay. Prepare to use the sidebar scroller to get past this collosus of a post.

 

Team. Fortress. 2. Where the fuck do I begin???

 

Alright, so, 2016 is now considered by many TF2 players to be "the beginning of the end" for TF2. The major reason was the introduction of the Meet Your Match update. Prior to Meet Your Match (Now referred to as MYM), Team Fotress 2 matches were hosted by way of the traditional Player-Hosted Servers model, with some Valve-hosted servers sprinkled in. If you wanted to join one of these, you could have used the traditional Server Browser, or a system called Quickplay, that although imperfect, was fast and generally helped connect players to lively games. Put simply, Quickplay would rank servers based on player retention, and would put players in the fullest available server for the gamemode they picked - Player-hosted or Valve-hosted.

 

In 2016, Valve removed Quickplay in the MYM update, replacing it with Casual. Casual queing only allowed players to join Valve servers, and disabled ad-hoc joining. Once a match started, players could leave as they chose, but players could not join into a match unless placed there specifically by the (extremely buggy and slow) Casual matchmaking algorithm. There was no all-talk, and obviously no player-driven moderation. This had lead to a variety of negative consequences:

 

Number one, the community server has died.

Number two, games are more "anonymous" with how everyone cues to matches with staistically entirely new players, which actively encourages toxic behaviour and actively discourages community building.

Number three, due to Casual games having an artificial pre-match "Let Everyone Connect!" period that lasts anywhere from 30 to 240 seconds, with a manditory 60-second "Vote on the Map!" time that literally has zero gameplay and just wastes players time, players literally all leave Casual matches immediately after they end. This contributes not only to problem two, but also leaves most servers empty, and it pisses me off so fucking much because empty servers get filled with bots (See problem six) and it would be so easy to just not re-que for a new match, and just stay in with all these people you just met.

Number four, players aren't allowed to choose maps that will be played. This encourages players to leave and decreases map variety, duh.

Number five, matches have an "artificial" limit. How TF2 games used to run was that each map had about 15 to 30 minutes of playtime. In a gamemode like King of the Hill, each Team must capture at least 2 times to win. This "best out of three" system, although better at determining skill in a competitive match, ends up making players leave as they have to wait at least a minute worth of time for the next match to begin after a 6 to 9 minute match.

Number six, the "Closed Garden" system mixed with a lack of moderation has caused "The Bot Crisis"; an ongoing problem where Team Fotress 2's Casual Matchmaking cue is flooded with entirely automated and extremely numerous fake players that use aimbot and spam the most abhorrent shit in voice and text chat.

 

Now, WHY was this change made? Because Valve was scared of Overwatch, and wanted to make Team Fotress 2 competitive to compensate. Team Fortress 2 had a flourishing, yet small, competitive scene. Still does, actually. But Valve wanted to make it "official" - as "official" as Counter-Strike's competitive scene is. The only issue is that Team Fortress 2, outside of its competitive scene, lived and died by a wide schmourgousboard of things that ran entirely contrary to Team Fortress 2 as a competitive game!

 

How Casual games work is like a Diet Competitive match. And the worst part? The playerbase, and especially "Community Heads"  like Uncle Dane, still believe a fully-competitive TF2 would rejuvinate the game. It's sad.

[Cruduxy Pegg]

10 hours ago, act said:

TF2

 

I'd say it was getting terrible way before meet your match. Gun Mettle and Tough Break weren't that great and MYM was just the nail in the coffin.

[Patrick_Plays_Doom]

tf2

and half life 2

half life 1 was amazng

half life 2 kinda just.. meh

i mean the story is way better but the gameplay is kinda.... blyagh

 

 

 

oh yeah also fortnite

Edited December 6, 2023 by Patrick_Plays_Doom

[fai1025]

Counter Strike

[act]

3 hours ago, Pegg said:

 

I'd say it was getting terrible way before meet your match. Gun Mettle and Tough Break weren't that great and MYM was just the nail in the coffin.

Oh yeah, and I was gonna write all about that - how after experiencing Team Fortress 2 Classic, and the OG Team Fortress Classic, that TF2 was really losing its wear as it started to, almost go senile in its design with a focus on "le funny hat conga" as opposed to the core gameplay and aesthetics. But I actually only started playing in 2016; so I really can't speak much on the matter.

[Patrick_Plays_Doom]

46 minutes ago, fai1025 said:

Counter Strike

which one?

cs:go

cs:s

cs goldsource?

[NecrumWarrior]

I always get bored of Quake and end up playing Doom instead. 

 

Also I have never been able to get into Dishonored. It seems like a game I should like but I don't. 

[retrokid104]

It’s gotta be Sonic the Hedgehog (any of them).

I know I’m gonna catch a lot of flak off this, but Sonic is just not well designed. A game that encourages you to go fast, but then punishes you for doing so? Not good level design or game design. 
I’ve no complaints with the music though, at least that much is good. 

[Drywtler]

29 minutes ago, retrokid104 said:

A game that encourages you to go fast, but then punishes you for doing so? Not good level design or game design. 

True, but you could also say that's the intention. The first time is a bit of pain but as you play and replay you start to master the game, getting faster times, better scores, which gives you extra lives and continues. However if you are already that good at the game, the extra lives and continues become pretty useless... Maybe now with newer releases of the game (or community ports such as Sonic 3 AIR) which have widescreen support makes traversing its levels a bit easier.

 

Now 3D sonic on the other hand... Never played any so I can't make an informed opinion, except for Unleashed (PS2 version) and it's ok. Music's goated, Sonic missions are fine but the Werehog missions are hit or miss, a bit lenghty but not as long as the PS3/360 ones.

Back to topic, I suck at isometric/top-down RTSes.

• I played AoE2 with friends but I go at my own pace and I get tilted easily when a Scout Cavalry starts killing everyone on my settlement. I got quite far in the main campaign but never finished it.
• One time I tried playing League Of Legends at a gamer cybercafe and I felt overwhelmed by the ammount of stuff you can choose and equip for just one character. The fact that I didn't have a good pc at home to play it, and while I tried to play the tutorial the cybercafé's internet went down so I couldn't complete it factored in to never touch the game ever again. Thank god.
• A friend of mine is a Starcraft fan and tried to introduce me to it. I tried to play the OG a bit but with these prior experiences I just never continued

And a game that never clicked with me: God of War (the original). Can't remember where I left it, it was entertaining but never completed it. I liked DMC more.

[ApprihensivSoul]

I've mentioned it in a different thread, but one of my favorite whipping boys when it comes to works I consider "obviously unfinished and poorly executed games" is one of the most highly rated for sure. I'd consider that game one that fits very well on a list that I'd call "fascinating tech demos", but the grindy and repetitive progression, incongruent communication in a franchise famous for its readable level design, slippery controls, clunky camera, barebones level design, inconsistent and jarring artstyle (also clashing with other games in the franchise), grindy and repetitive progression, strangely unfocused mission design, and unnecessary combat loop, not to mention being famously glitchy as all hell, all of that just alienated me beyond repair, and I've tried dozens of times to enjoy it, and it just feels like one of those games that with any other title character would be a meme for its ineptitude. I don't have a problem with people enjoying Mario 64, of course, I just don't understand why it's not instantly alienating for the majority.

 

 

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, retrokid104 said:

It’s gotta be Sonic the Hedgehog (any of them).

I know I’m gonna catch a lot of flak off this, but Sonic is just not well designed. A game that encourages you to go fast, but then punishes you for doing so? Not good level design or game design. 

I’ve no complaints with the music though, at least that much is good. 

While I disagree with this 90% of the time, as the only game to overtly punish you for that is the first one, (I was amazed at how fluid the flow in 2 was when I finally got around to playing it,) I would say that your comment describes by experience with Sonic Adventure as well, which I also dislike for all the reasons I described for Mario 64.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by ApprihensivSoul

[retrokid104]

3 hours ago, Drywtler said:

True, but you could also say that's the intention. The first time is a bit of pain but as you play and replay you start to master the game, getting faster times, better scores, which gives you extra lives and continues. However if you are already that good at the game, the extra lives and continues become pretty useless... Maybe now with newer releases of the game (or community ports such as Sonic 3 AIR) which have widescreen support makes traversing its levels a bit easier.

 

Now 3D sonic on the other hand... Never played any so I can't make an informed opinion, except for Unleashed (PS2 version) and it's ok. Music's goated, Sonic missions are fine but the Werehog missions are hit or miss, a bit lenghty but not as long as the PS3/360 ones.

Back to topic, I suck at isometric/top-down RTSes.

• I played AoE2 with friends but I go at my own pace and I get tilted easily when a Scout Cavalry starts killing everyone on my settlement. I got quite far in the main campaign but never finished it.
• One time I tried playing League Of Legends at a gamer cybercafe and I felt overwhelmed by the ammount of stuff you can choose and equip for just one character. The fact that I didn't have a good pc at home to play it, and while I tried to play the tutorial the cybercafé's internet went down so I couldn't complete it factored in to never touch the game ever again. Thank god.
• A friend of mine is a Starcraft fan and tried to introduce me to it. I tried to play the OG a bit but with these prior experiences I just never continued

And a game that never clicked with me: God of War (the original). Can't remember where I left it, it was entertaining but never completed it. I liked DMC more.

Idk, it’s just my opinion. You aren’t wrong though. Also I can agree on God of War vs DMC.

[fai1025]

11 hours ago, Patrick_Plays_Doom said:

which one?

cs:go

cs:s

cs goldsource?

in general

[famicommander]

GTA IV

Doom 3

Bioshock

any Assassin's Creed

Street Fighter IV (love me some Third Strike, Super Turbo, Alpha, etc)

[Captain red pants]

13 hours ago, Patrick_Plays_Doom said:

which one?

cs:go

cs:s

cs goldsource?

Yes

[Patrick_Plays_Doom]

3 hours ago, fai1025 said:

in general

 

17 minutes ago, Captain red pants said:

Yes

cs.16 to cs:s arent bad but csgo is just gabeN's money tree

[act]

I'm gonna doublepost ITT and say that Fallout New Vegas is overrated as shit.

[lokbustam257]

Quake 2. It feels soooo boring to me no matter how many times I played it. To me, it always feels like a slower, clunkier, more hitscan hell, 3D version of Doom 2. The soundtrack's kicks ass though.

[Ralseiwithagun]

55 minutes ago, lokbustam257 said:

Quake 2. It feels soooo boring to me no matter how many times I played it. To me, it always feels like a slower, clunkier, more hitscan hell, 3D version of Doom 2. The soundtrack's kicks ass though.

I kinda agree but the ost is very good I’ll give it that

[Rudolph]

2 hours ago, lokbustam257 said:

more hitscan hell

"hell" makes it sound like Quake II is harder than it really is. :(

[Dragonsbrethren]

On 12/6/2023 at 7:26 AM, Pegg said:

 

I'd say it was getting terrible way before meet your match. Gun Mettle and Tough Break weren't that great and MYM was just the nail in the coffin.

For some reason I've been getting a lot of TF2 recommendations on YouTube and randomly put a video on about how this update supposedly killed the game. There's some serious nostalgia goggles about community servers and the server browser. It was awful, finding a good server was nearly impossible, servers ran bots, spoofed player counts, spoofed settings, played ads and downloaded gigs of random shit to your PC. It got to the point where people who wanted to play TF2 as something actually resembling TF2 would just play on Valve's servers or private lobbies. I think there were about three community servers I actually enjoyed when I stopped playing, and that was well over a decade ago.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Dragonsbrethren

[Cruduxy Pegg]

17 hours ago, Dragonsbrethren said:

For some reason I've been getting a lot of TF2 recommendations on YouTube and randomly put a video on about how this update supposedly killed the game.

I didn't say it single handedly killed the game which was already a mess, it was a nice conclusion to a long period of TF2 bot messes and drama.

[Halfblind]

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

 

Garnered as the best NFS game in the franchise but after playing it a while I am not that impressed. There are other racing games in that era that I thought were better, but that's just my opinion.

 

What I disliked:

1. The open world city itself. This city backdrop is unbelievable as a real living city. I wouldn't imagine anyone wanting to live and work here with its clustered random streets and its hilly terrain. This city would be a pain to navigate in real life. I do understand that the backdrop works for a racing game, but I sure wouldn't want to live there.
2. Tight abrupt turns. One of the biggest things that turn me off in racing games are tight and abrupt turns. This creates unnecessary slowdowns in races and is only used to further extend the race time. For a street racing game this works sometimes, but there are a few tight turns here that are ridiculous. This is one of the reasons why I quit playing Horizon Chase Turbo.
3. The brown filter. I know that quite a lot of games of its era were mostly just brown and grey, but looking at the same brown everywhere is just drab and boring.
4. Fully upgraded starter car. When you upgrade your starter car all the way it gives the vehicle extreme amounts of understeer making the car almost unusable. This only forces you to start using another vehicle entirely. I feel that the best way to naturally make the player upgrade to a better car is if they start to lose races with their slower lower tier cars. This just feels more natural in my opinion.
5. The cops. Garnered as the best feature in the game. The cops, in my opinion, feel broken and frustrating. First when the player is required to get high amounts of bounty to progress, but you can lose the cops in a matter of minutes this forces the player to constantly retry the event over and over again. Second when you do get enough cops on your tail, they become impossible to shake off. No matter how much pursuit brakers that you used or how much roadblocks that you avoid at higher heat levels they become almost impossible to get away from. Finally, there are a few places on the main highway that the cops cannot see you at all. This is on the main highway of all places, but unfortunately, it's hard to get to these places when your heat levels are maxed out. This is the reason I ended up quitting the game. I just couldn't get enough bounty to get, I think, number 5 to challenge me.

What I did like:

1. The acting was decent and a nice change of pace. Even though it was a little cheesy it added to the atmosphere.
2. The blacklist itself. It was a great concept to have the player challenge others to reach the top. I do wish it was more in the players control, however. I wonder what NFS: Carbon would feel like if it had a blacklist too.
3. The tollbooth events, one of my favorite events were the tollbooth events because it was a different take on time trials and speed cams. One of the nicest things about them is that you can smash through the toll booths to add to your bounty when you do have the cops on your tail or just for fun.

Even though these are the things that I don't like about this game I am enjoying my time with NFS: Carbon and NFS: Hot Persuit 2010 though. Those would be 2 of my favorites in the franchise.