Games you wanted to like & why

[SlitheryDee]

The witcher - good concept but actually playing the game is an interminable bore.

Dragon Age, Mass Effect - I can't stand the amount of time you spend staring at NPCs and choosing dialog option you don't give a shit about in Bioware RPGS. I can never play them long enough to get hooked by the story.

 

[Fenixgoon]

oh, and to stay on topic, Bioshock and DA:O.

Bioshock I just got bored with, especially once i hit the "twist ending"
DA:O was like pulling goddamn teeth trying to beat that game.

 

[dguy6789]

Cue blizzard fanboys telling me game doesnt need these things and Im just a noob.

What's the point of having a discussion if you just say your opinion and then add a disclaimer that basically implies anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong? My opinion is that SC2 blows away every single RTS released in the last decade.

As for most disappointing games, Crysis 2 has to take the cake for me.

 

[Barfo]

Being completely honest with you guys.

Half-Life 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, the Left 4 Dead series. And especially Counter Strike Source.

I don't understand why people praise these games so highly. The games feel bland and shallow and never fully explore the game world that they are set, instead relying on a single game mechanic to carry the game from start to finish. The story is also very vague. On the MP side everything feels so weak and constrained.

Half-life 2 & Portal were so disappointing to me. Hl2 had for the time awesome visuals and physics but a very weak story. I couldn't understand why everyone was jerking off valve with praise. The gameplay was just downright horrid. The core of any FPS game, the Combat felt so weak. Basically what it came down to was use the Gravity Gun to win.

Portal's cake jokes got old the first 15 minutes in, and the puzzles were piss easy. I beat the game on my first try in 1 and a half hours. On top of that the MP component was non existent.

Left 4 Dead series. It's just a button spamming grind fest.

CS:S. I had high hopes for CS:S but alas it was just a remake with better graphics. CS 1.5 was better.

TF2. I can't lie it's the only game from the orange box that I still play, only because it's casual as hell. It does not live up to the standard set by it's predecessor. The updates are nice but the game if it didn't receive this semi-constant attention from the dev's would be irrelevant in the face of newer and better games.

I don't see many Valve haters around.

 

[Atreus21]

F.E.A.R.

I've tried to forget. I've tried so hard to forget.

(JK. Great game.)

 

[kamikazekyle]

F.E.A.R.

I've tried to forget. I've tried so hard to forget.

(JK. Great game.)

Oh, that reminds me. I played through FEAR so many times through the years, but never got the expansions or FEAR2. So I grabbed them all on a steam sale recently and played through the first one yet again. But as soon as I started the first expansion...whoo boy that felt like someone dropped the ball. And from a plane, not waist height. Never could make it through the first expansion to the second, and didn't bother with FEAR 2 yet.

 

[Maximilian]

Supreme commander 2 - I loved the first one it was great, i knew supcom 2 would be simplified a bit but i figured it would simplify the UI and make things easier, maybe overhaul the whole 3 tiers thing without removing it completely. But no.

STALKER - Lots of people say its great, its set in a cool post disaster place but the engine sucked, the loading between the 5 different areas sucked (oblivion didnt do this crap to me) and overall it just wasent all that fun. Fallout 3 was much more my thing

 

[bentheman939]

Man, you guys are so jaded! Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, Halflife 2, L4D, Oblivion... you guys are picking some of the best games in recent history. Need some perspective!

I agree with Dragon age, Bioshock, Mass Effect though borrrinnggggggg

 

[shortylickens]

Man, you guys are so jaded! Warcraft 3, Starcraft 2, Halflife 2, L4D, Oblivion... you guys are picking some of the best games in recent history. Need some perspective!

I agree with Dragon age, Bioshock, Mass Effect though borrrinnggggggg

Which is why we wanted so badly to love them.
Thats the problem with strong franchises, high expectations. Anything too different or less than stellar and its a let down.
Oblivion was different from Morrowind but not in too many good ways (improved physics being a nice surprise), Warcraft 3 brought nothing new except 3D (which by itself is meaningless) and an annoying hero system. Half life 2 was actually OK but it suffered from years of ridiculous hype and could never meet expectations.

 

[Craig234]

You obviously haven't played Supreme Crapmander 2 then

I was saying I especially wanted to like TA: Kingdoms.

But I'd guess you haven't played it, if you think SC 2 was worse.

 

[RobertPters77]

I don't see many Valve haters around.

I don't hate valve. I just didn't enjoy the last few games they published.

 

[Craig234]

Psychonauts.

I like Tim Schafer's earlier stuff, I like the creativity here, it got great reviews... I just didn't like it.

Spore.

I was saying long before it was released, it was going to disappoint I expected, and I think I was right. We all wanted it to be a good game.

All Sid Meiers games.

Haven't really enjoyed any of his games - though Civ pulls you in to clicking a long time.

 

[Raduque]

oh, and to stay on topic, Bioshock and DA:O.

Bioshock I just got bored with, especially once i hit the "twist ending"
DA:O was like pulling goddamn teeth trying to beat that game.

The only part of DA:O that I can't stand playing is the Mage's Tower/Fade.

Oh god, the fucking Fade.

 

[zerocool84]

Counter-Strike: Source
Played the HELL out of Beta 5.2 and 6.1 back in the day, especially on LANs at school. Tried loading CSS up, and just couldn't handle it. I hated how every server I got on the host had added all kinds of custom garbage and sound effects, and frankly, I didn't even feel like they did all that much to the graphics (compare the Lost Coast to CSS and they're like two different games despite both being Source). Maybe part of my problem was my inability to find a server I liked, but I played for about one hour and then stopped.

Well the reason why it doesn't look as good is because it's the first game to ever use the Source engine. CS:S was the beta test for the Source engine.

 

[Nebor]

The only part of DA:O that I can't stand playing is the Mage's Tower/Fade.

Oh god, the fucking Fade.

Yup, I nearly quit on principal even though I loved everything up to that point.

 

[Markbnj]

Sid Meier's Rails - you guys are probably thinking "Huh?" but for fans of Railroad Tycoon, who suffered through the GoD sequels, the news that Sid himself was updating RRT was huge. In the end I don't think he had anything to do with it, and the game was a silly piece of crap.

Empire Total War - saw that this has been mentioned a couple of times. MTW2 was one of my favorite games of all time. ETW, with its balky AI, odd graphics limitations, and dumbed-down play was a big let-down.

Warhammer Online - Lots of us old school DAoC fans were super psyched for this one. My whole guild moved over there en masse, and within three months they were all gone. It was pretty, but the gameplay mechanics were massively over-designed and un-fun.

 

[fatpat268]

RTS Games in general - I used to love them as a kid, and even enjoyed some of the worst ones, but I simply can't get into them any more. I suppose, it was because I was ignorant to the various strategies, and because I only ever played CPU skirmishes, I could play the game pretty casually. Nowadays, I play Starcraft 2 online, and I'm just steamrolled before I have a clue what I'm doing. I just don't have the patience to look up strategies (or form my own), and CPU skirmishes just aren't much fun anymore.

Left 4 Dead Series - I so wanted to like these games. Hell, I feel stupid for buying L4D2 because I wasn't enthralled by the first one. They're fun going through the maps the first few times, but it becomes too damn repetitive. L4D also falls in the group of games that if you're a noob, that you're really going to bring your team down, so the community can be hostile at times. I originally played L4D with friends, but I'm not nearly as competitive of a gamer as they are, so I stopped playing with them.

Counter-Strike - It's been sitting in my steam library for years, and I don't think I've put more than 5 hours into it. I recently gave it a go, but it took me nearly forever to get in a server because it wants you to download so much shit (Garry's Mod is just as bad if you go online... thankfully that game is still fun offline), and by the time I finally got in, I lost interest. But it goes further than that. It's a steep difficulty curve, and as a noob, I don't find it fun. I've long accepted the fact that I'd rather play Battlefield or COD instead.



A couple of months ago, HL2 would've definitely been in my list, as well as Fallout 3. I got over Fallout 3 by playing New Vegas instead. New Vegas is far superior to Fallout 3, but I learned to appreciate the mechanics of those Fallout games, and I was able to go back to F3 and finally enjoy it.

HL2 was one of those games that I started many times over the years and gave up at various random points. It became more of a chore sometimes to play that game. Yea it has its weak points, but it really is a well crafted FPS. The story is definitely there, it's just not necessarily directly told to you. Once I realized that, I loved the game, and I'm eagerly anticipating HL3 and/or Ep3.

 

[shortylickens]

I was saying I especially wanted to like TA: Kingdoms.

But I'd guess you haven't played it, if you think SC 2 was worse.

KINGDOMS WAS AWESOME SHUT YOUR WHORE MOUTH!!

 

[Anneka]

For me Rift. I was waiting so bad for a new WoW game

 

[Aristotelian]

I wanted to like any of the Xenosaga series. When I first played Xenogears, I think I had skipped class on a Friday, and ended up beating the game before Monday night. I don't think there has been an RPG that I enjoyed more than Xenogears.

Yet when the Xenosagas came out all I saw were hollow shells of what Xenogears had been. The music was nowhere near as good, the characters didn't grip me at all, the combat felt far too easy in comparison, and the story was nowhere near as dramatic. I felt like I was playing a "mass appeal: Xenogears for kids" game. It is with great regret that I state that the Xenosaga games weren't for me.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Here are a few reminders I've had.
Dark Age of Camelot. My friends had a good time with it but it seemed real small and everything looked very similar. The villages, creatures and characters all looked the same.
Darkfall/Mortal Online. I never really played these games but the reviews were so bad. I did quickly try MO until I was killed by a bunny and said well that sucks.
With MMO's I think the first one that you play is kind of like your first love, you ultimately get sick of it but you always remember it. Damn you EQ.

 

[Rakewell]

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned Soldier of Fortune: Payback.

I adored the first two; playing the most recent installment sucked the most rancid ass-flavored donkey balls imaginable.

It is the PC game equivalent of the movie Highlander 2.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Daikatana, why? Because Romero created it. But...IT SUCKED!

 

[skace]

Mass Effect 2: I heard they streamlined 1 for the better, it was supposed to be everything improved. But it felt like everything stripped away. I've gone back to it 4 times now and have yet to complete it. As tedius as exploring planets was in ME1, I enjoyed my alone time on the planets, it felt like space. Now the simulated 'planet scanner' bores me to tears and often I end up quitting after I scan a few new planets.

Hellgate London: The hype on this game was so strong, a diablo style FPS game with hordes of zombies. It was supposed to be basically everything I ever wanted in a single game. However, the result was the most monotonous game ever designed. They give you a city, but you spend the entire level traveling straight directly down 1 street. Even the weapons felt like crap. It was disgusting how cool the videos were for this game. The videos + the concept behind the game made it undeniably desirable all the way up to until you actually played it.

Bioshock 2: I heard some rumblings that it wasn't that great but couldn't find any major reasons why. So I started playing it, interested to see how the studio had matured their formula and whether it was more similar to System Shock. I can tell you right now, I never finished it, however worse yet, I can't even tell you how far into BioShock 2 I even got and I can't recall a single locale. The word unmemorable pretty much sums up my experience with it. Deep down inside I wanted this game to be some sort of bridge for the gap between System Shock and BioShock but it didn't happen.

I like people mentioning Xenosaga, since it really let me down. However, I can't comment on it as I don't remember my issues at all. I simply remember it not being what I had come to expect from Xenogears. Xenogears felt like an incredible Mech RPG to me, I really loved all of the mech combat in it and how it intertwined with the story.

Which reminds me, Front Mission had a new game recently that sucked hard if I recall correctly. Crushing my dreams of another enjoyable Mech RPG.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Portal's cake jokes got old the first 15 minutes in, and the puzzles were piss easy. I beat the game on my first try in 1 and a half hours. On top of that the MP component was non existent.

Blame the fan base for that. There weren't many cake jokes in Portal itself, but people latched onto them under the assumption that repeating "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" ad nauseum made them comedians.

The game was very easy, yes, but it was more of a tech demo. If not for the fact that Valve was in charge of the game, it would have already had a sequel a good year ago. But hey, Portal 2 is coming soon and it'll have a lot more gameplay.