Games people and/or critics were too hard on.

[TehCookie]

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/2/22269/1822245-duke_nukem_forever_logo.jpg
Oh, yeah... I'm goin' for the big one!

Duke Nukem Forever isn't bad. Granted, I think Duke Nukem 3D was better, as was Serious Sam 3: BFE of the same year*, and it's much like a mix of Half-Life 2 and some Halo, both of which I also think are better, but the game isn't bad. It lacks some polish, but it's far more creative than most shooters to come out lately. It also doesn't take itself seriously at all. How often do you see that? This is so much better than the alternative of what we normally get. We finally got something that dared to be a little different and how did people react? Thanks a lot...

*As Duke Nukem Forever, not Duke Nukem 3D.

Seconding this.

I don't play many shooters, but I didn't find DNF horrible or unplayable. It felt like a solid shooter starring Duke Nukem. It wasn't cutting edge innovation, but what games are. The worst part in the reviews is when it was criticized for being too 90's or out of date. That was the point, and in my opinion the best part.

I really think the reason it got so much hate was because people had ridiculous expectations for it. It's Duke Nukem in a modern shooter. How much you enjoy Duke is how much you'll probably enjoy the game. I don't understand how people thought they were going to get something different, especially those who thought it was going to be an innovative change the industry game.

 

[Pink Gregory]

Halo 3: ODST

Maybe I'm just not enthralled by the Halo lore or whatever, but I played the campaign co-op in a single session, and I was falling asleep towards the end - and not due to tiredness.

I 'unno, I felt it did nothing that Halo 1-3 hadn't done before, and the story just sort of glanced off of me like shiny 'pon a mirror.

I think there is something to be said about the 'not playing as a Spartan' point. Felt like there was such a reduced weapon variety thanks to removing dual-wielding; apart from that it didn't noticeably feel any different. Could have done better to not kick you out of every cutscene with probably the most effective weapon in the game, that's how it felt to me anyway.

Also co-op squashed the aspect ration into 5:4; I'm sure there's probably a reason for that, but it was irritating; 'specially when Halo is something like the last bastion of local co-op FPSes.

 

[Darkslayersparda]

Ride to hell retribution

I will leave now

 

[JonnyHG]

What exactly was morally gray in that game?

From what I remember, many of the choices were morally grey. Siding with either the Templars or the Mages didn't make me feel especially good because they both had major flaws and were both in the wrong in some instances. I ultimately sided with the Mages because I could not discriminate against a whole group of people based on the actions of some which belong to that group. The fact that a game would make me consider my choices that carefully makes it more significant to me.

Yeah, some people forget that clearly explaining reasons instead of criticizing can lead to better understandings.

 

[Aesir23]

Can I cheat and just repost what I said in a similar thread?

No? Well too late! HA HA! Take THAT society!

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Do.....do I dare say it? The game that shall not be named, lest the anger and brimstone of Ze Escapist falls upon me like death via words?

...oh God....forgive me Father for what I am about to do....

*Sigh...

Dragon Age 2

Yup, THE Dragon Age 2. The game that seems to be the cause of every bad thing that has ever happened to anyone at any point. The game that, even more than two years later, seems to be the reason why everyone hates The Escapist reviews and is proof positive that The Escapist is being paid off by EA, Big Publishers everywhere, and Satan himself.

But I'll go ahead and say it:

Dragon Age 2 is a good game. Now, I certainly agree that it's not a 5/5 (though I 100% disagree that people should be blasting Greg Tito for that review; his review and his opinion are perfectly valid) but it's a very good game. The bad guys and the moral gray that they explore is very compelling. The battle system, while VERY different from Dragon Age Origins is good. The good guys are all relatively interesting with their own reasons and motivations for why they do what they do.

Yeah, the repeated environments sucked but that alone does not make this the worst game ever. The game itself is great. I feel like it's a huge shame that the fact that it changed so much from Dragon Age Origins matters more to some people than the game itself. Look past the name and you'll find yourself a great game.

I agree with you whole-heartedly. I can understand the complaints people have about it even if I don't agree with most of them. The only ones that have the tendency to irritate me are the complaints that essentially boil down to "It's not Origins". Yes, it was an objectively mediocre game in spite of my love for it but I feel that if it didn't have Origins as a predecessor, it wouldn't get as much vehement hatred aimed at it as it does now.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

I thoroughly enjoyed Sonic Unleashed, Werehog and all. The game was clearly flawed, collecting sun medals was a bit shit, but it was mechanically sound and very fun.

I also quite liked Dragon Age 2. Again, very flawed, but I had a lot of fun! I also liked the relatively smaller-scale story. I don't want to always be saving the world, yo.

 

[Artaneius]

To better elaborate on my previous post about gundam games I'll use one I find very impressive considering it came out in 2001.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front

Probably if not the best gundam game in terms of depth, story, gameplay, and replay value. It combined the gameplay style of the old rainbow six games and put it into a gundam game. It contained so many things that was ahead of its time. The ability to create plans and routes BY HAND to accomplish mission objectives. Use a combination of different mobile suits to different teams each with different equipment and weapons. Tons of missions and simulations that offer a great variety of scenarios including ones in the anime. Creates a story within the anime that actually works with it, instead of overlapping. This game was fucking brilliant for its time. And it only gets a average score of around 5-6.5 across all the review websites. This game has so much content and replay value that made most games pale in comparison.

 

[Frankster]

Hunted: Demon Forge.

It is one of the best coop games released in the past decade and I'm deadly serious about that.

Sadly critics didn't really take that in consideration and judged it purely as a single player adventure game, in which case reviews were still too harsh since it was a solid game.

 

[Ratty]

I always see people complain about "Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness" when it's actually a great game. Especially for the N64. Usually I can tell right away from the complaints people list that they haven't even played it. CV:LoD is really "Castlevania 64: Finished Edition" with additional characters and content, plus more refined levels & gameplay that the devs had been forced to cut from the original CV64 release by Konami to make the Christmas release or whatever. And it's really fun with a lot of replay value.

I also see purposeful misinformation about the N64 Castlevania titles spread around for laughs sometimes. Like when the AVGN reviewed Castlevania64 and said you couldn't save- which you can you just need an N64 memory card (and with all his boxes of gaming stuff you know he has at least one of those) and he also said you can't drop an explosive item when you actually can.

 

[MerlinCross]

To better elaborate on my previous post about gundam games I'll use one I find very impressive considering it came out in 2001.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front

Probably if not the best gundam game in terms of depth, story, gameplay, and replay value. It combined the gameplay style of the old rainbow six games and put it into a gundam game. It contained so many things that was ahead of its time. The ability to create plans and routes BY HAND to accomplish mission objectives. Use a combination of different mobile suits to different teams each with different equipment and weapons. Tons of missions and simulations that offer a great variety of scenarios including ones in the anime. Creates a story within the anime that actually works with it, instead of overlapping. This game was fucking brilliant for its time. And it only gets a average score of around 5-6.5 across all the review websites. This game has so much content and replay value that made most games pale in comparison.

Holy crap I remember that game. Loved it.

Personally I can't think of games that got hammered by reviews/critcs that I like. Not off the top of my head mind you. I can think of several of the inverse, games that weren't hammered enough.

 

[marioandsonic]

Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts

It got way too of a harsh rap for simply being a banjo kazooie game that wasn't a 3D platformer. I grew up with the n64 banjo tooie was my most played game ever and initially when it came out i was there with a pitchfork aswell, then i actually brought the game and it was fun, it still had that rare charm and the gameplay was great.As jontron had stated it didn't need to be a banjo kazooie game and yes im still waiting for a true banjo threeie game (Which considering how M$ has rare on a leash and is giving them no freedom it is likely never to happen) but still it was a fun game and didn't deserve to be shot down (I really want to see a sequel to it)

A thousand times this. I recently played the game from scratch, because I recently got a new hard drive for my 360, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Also, I remember an earlier Jimquisition video where he said Viva Pinata was the best looking game of the "PSWii60" generation. I would argue Nuts and Bolts is the best looking.

Anyway, I'd also say every single 3D Sonic game ever.* People seem to treat that the Genesis games were the only good ones, and all the 3D games are nothing but failure. Sonic Lost World was even a contender for many "Most Disappointing Game of 2013" lists, and I'm not sure why.

*except Sonic 06, which actually was nothing but failure.

EDIT: I would also like to add Star Fox Assault to the list. The reviews were kinda mixed, but it might be my favorite Star Fox game behind Star Fox 64. I enjoyed the on-ground third-person shooting stages. While I still say Star Fox 64 is a classic, each stage is pretty much the same thing (flying a set path and shooting bad guys), and it can get repetitive after a while.

 

[keniakittykat]

Bully (Renamed "Canis edim edit" for some regions.)

This game got a lot of media fire in the day. I even remember the news reporting on it for god sakes!
So many people couldn't get past the title and premise that the ratings plummeted even before anyone got their hands on a copy! They talked about this game in schools, gaming magazines were filled with pages upon pages on how this one game was doing the gaming community a disservice. And to this day, it remains as the biggest unnecessary freak out in gaming history.

I remember, I was there.



And how controversial was it really? It was so disturbing that my mom loved to watch the game while I played it.

 

[Savagezion]

I to this day don't understand why people like DA2. Outside the combat ( which did become repetitive at some point), the game had 0 redeeming qualities. While i won't stop or complain abou people liking it, i just don't understand why.

I didn't like DA2 very much overall, but its redeeming qualities in my eyes were:
- A protagonist that actually talks (compared to DA:O) and has some personality.
- Somewhat interesting characters. I didn't always like the execution, but I appreciated what they were going for. Isabella, Varric, Merill, Anders, all nice concepts, I think.
- An attempt at innovative storytelling. It ultimately felt flat for me, I felt like I was doing secondary quests only most of the time, but again, I appreciate the attempt. No generic ancient evil to defeat, episodic structure, a focus on one area, no black/white story but lots of moral ambiguity, the narrator exaggerating certain parts of the story and being forced to re-tell them again, the framing of the story in this way in general, and perhaps a few more things.
- A story that was largely about the two interesting features of the Dragon Age World, the Qun and the Mage-Templar-Fade-Demons-Thing, and not about, say, DA:O's supremely generic Dark Spawn and Arch Demon.
- The style of Kirkwall. There wasn't much style, and what little there was underused, but this depressing slaver / refugee city theme, that was nice. In general, compared to DA:O, the setting and the outfits and had at least some style to speak of.

So, all in all, I liked some of the ideas, I could see some potential, it was such a shame that they pushed out such an obviously rushed, unpolished game.

Hawke has a personality?Aside from their choices of being silly,nice,and a jerk Hawke has the personality of clay which is fitting since he/she can be bipolar if you play it right.

I agree with Cloud. Cloud never said Hawke had A personality she said Hawke had SOME personality. While I may not like the execution or voice acting personally, she's right. The entire game was designed around it. It is WHY Hawke could be bipolar if you play it right. Like it or not, bipolar is a personality. A frustrating one that makes no sense but it is one. Some personality means some personality, not a specific personality.

I saw some potential in that aspect of the game but even given time to flesh it out, I think that particular feature still would have fallen flat. The feature of voiced protagonists with vastly different attitude responses needs a whole different interface than a dialogue wheel. It probably needs personality meters like alignment in Arcanum. However, given time Bioware may have come up with something like that, I dunno. However, it would have needed to remain unvoiced to make it less costly. But then again, Bioware didn't get in bed with EA to make games limited by budget - they went seeking to get money, not make better gameplay. Cloud probably differs from me on that stance though.

DA2's story was just as generic as DA:Origin's and I don't know why people praise the game as somehow having a original story when it has the classic "main character gets swept in events he/she can't control but tries to make the best of it regardless" which is common in many stories that have time travel.

Predator, A Beatutiful Mind, and Blazing Saddles are about what you describe. I can understand people being tired of the "chosen one" stories in gaming due to its constant appearance. I can even see where people come from on the whole amnesia plot device. But I find your criticism too vague for me to agree with. The story in DA is what redeems is a redeeming feature for me but the setting makes it hard to appreciate. They would have done a great job having you backtrack around a single city for a whole game if they would have had more time and money (The reason they went to EA) to develop some varied dungeons and instances. With the amount of doors in a city, one city should be enough to encompass a whole RPG. One city is enough to spawn many GTA titles with good stories.

I particularly like the story told about the Qunari or whatever. While I am sick of elves so much I could puke, I really liked Meril's story. All the characters had a decent story. I will say I don't care for the tone the story is told in. It's really hammy to the point of being a little conceited. Hawke thinks he is so funny. No one IS witty, they just act like they are witty. This is probably a dialogue problem. Personally, I don't like much of the cast of characters, but the story was crafted well enough that given time a lot of these problems could have been fixed. DA2 was released 1 year after DA:O (3 year dev cycle) and was fully voice acted. The combat model showed good potential as well. Given another year alone I think this game would have been better all around.

I can't fault someone for saying it is a bad game because honestly, even the best parts had poor execution. I would even agree it is a poor game. I still like it for what they tried to do in limited time. I like the concept as a whole outside of the voiced dialogue. Perhaps if they went more cinematic in approach like Mass EFfect, I may have appreciated it better. But that would also require time and money.

 

[Dragonlayer]

I felt XCOM: The Bureau (hey, I spelt it right on the first go!) was going to be doomed in reviews when the whining hordes heard that the revival of the old XCOM franchise was not going to be turn based strategy and lo was it so. Which is a shame, because I really enjoyed it and thought it much better then the reviewers suggested. I've always had a fondness for seeing the action in RTS games up close and personal and The Bureau combined very solid Mass Effect 3 style gameplay with an engrossing 60s atmosphere. I was surprised Yatzhee didn't give the game any praise for the abundance of his favourite hat!

I also loved Dead Space 3 even though it admittedly wasn't as tense or spooky as the previous two games - that said, it further explored an excellent universe, let me make some bitchin' assault rifles (A big plus in my eyes, I always prefered actual weapons to the mining tools that the series weighs you down with) AND had an absolutely superb co-op campaign.

 

[Dragonlayer]

To better elaborate on my previous post about gundam games I'll use one I find very impressive considering it came out in 2001.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Zeonic Front

Probably if not the best gundam game in terms of depth, story, gameplay, and replay value. It combined the gameplay style of the old rainbow six games and put it into a gundam game. It contained so many things that was ahead of its time. The ability to create plans and routes BY HAND to accomplish mission objectives. Use a combination of different mobile suits to different teams each with different equipment and weapons. Tons of missions and simulations that offer a great variety of scenarios including ones in the anime. Creates a story within the anime that actually works with it, instead of overlapping. This game was fucking brilliant for its time. And it only gets a average score of around 5-6.5 across all the review websites. This game has so much content and replay value that made most games pale in comparison.

You seem to be in the know about this particular anime and I've been meaning to figure something out for ages now: back in the ancient days of the PS2, I had a demo of a Gundam game that had playable campaigns for "goodies" and "baddies" alike where you played as a player-named character (so basically just a grunt in either side's army), let you unlock progressively more advanced mecha-suits through mission completion and allowed you to take on what I imagine were the invincible heroes and villains of the anime. Now I FREAKING loved this game despite never watching any of the animes themselves, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was called and the last time I tried to do so, I ended up with some shitty Dynasty Warriors rip-off! Do you have any idea what I'm rambling about?

 

[MetalDooley]

Ride to hell retribution

I will leave now

I often think people are too harsh on certain titles and that a lot of it is just people jumping on the hate bandwagon.For example I quite enjoyed the likes of Duke Nukem Forever,Aliens:Colonial Marines,Dragon Age 2 and Metroid:Other M.With that in mind I decided to buy a copy of Ride to Hell(dirt cheap mind you) and check it out for myself

I can confidently say that this time the critics were spot on.RTH is an absolute mess of a game and it's borderline criminal that Deep Silver and Eutechnyx released the game in that condition and charged ?60 for it.The only redeeming feature is the sex scenes which are hilarious because they're so ridiculous and out of place.Other than that it deserves to be ranked alongside the likes of Superman 64 and Atari E.T as one of the worst games ever released

 

[MetalDooley]

Lately, we've been too hard on Mass Effect 3 for its convoluted and dissatisfying ending, despite it being corrected with the Extended Cut. I've found nothing wrong with the rest of Mass Effect 3, because even if its ending sucked, it was still nice to see multitudes of Shepard's squadmates' story-arcs reach full circle, most especially Urdnot Wrex in the krogan/genophage arc, and Tali'Zorah in the quarian/geth arc.

Personally I would argue that we weren't hard enough on the rest of Mass Effect 3.It had a lot of flaws that were overlooked because everyone was too busy raging about the ending.This video goes into detail about some of them

despite it being corrected with the Extended Cut

Debatable as well.The Star child is one of the worst things about the ending imo and he's still there and even given an extended role.That's far from fixed in my book.At best that extended cut made the ending slightly less shit