Games that get it right.. almost.

[fjelding]

Im gonna go with Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

I love the games to bits. I love the world that they have put together, when I play, I read every bit of lore/journals/letters anythig that let me discover all the stories that are told if you pay attention to the environment.

But all the damn freezes? (I have the game for PS3 and so far ive been rather lucky and have only encountred a few bugs here and there) But by god the FREEZES!!!

I sat down to game all afternoon yesterday and had no less than 6 freezes in as many hours. And yet I keep comming back for more.

 

[Dectomax]

battle engine Aquila, a silent entry from the late lost toy games
it could have been an amazing game if handled by a big publisher with lots of cash, fell short, but not so short that i didn't track down a copy for PC on Ebay

I agree, I remember playing this on the original xbox. It was very well done for such a small company, but if it had been left to the larger more experienced talent....I think it would have been amazing!

 

[fishfart]

Alpha Protocol was the last game I played that was like this.

 

[Emeli]

You want to talk about games getting it almost right? Just take a look at Bioware. And this is something I hate to ***** about because I love playing their games, but I just want to know what the hell they have against happy endings.

No matter what the play style, any of the technical points can be overlooked or forgiven since I'm generally so engaged in the story that I really couldn't give a toss if it was Bioware hearts Katamari, I always know that getting attached is a bad idea.

You know why? Because I'm going to die. If I'm lucky. This character I just spent 200 hours getting attached to is at best going to end up an heroic sacrifice. Worst case would probably be whatever was happening in KOTOR although they waited until KOTOR 2 to really drive the knife in on that one. Special mention goes to DA:O for my virtual boyfriend dumping me before I died.

There's a lot to be said for a downer ending when its appropriate, in real life there's no such thing as a happy ending, you toil and struggle until you die. Most of us don't get the shaft directly after the doing the best thing we'll ever do in our lives. When I'm spending the entire game just waiting for the moment when someone says "Oh, by the way, to kill the bad guy you're going to have to cut off your legs and spend the rest of your days unloved and alone in the salt mines" then something has gone terribly wrong in the storytelling process.

The point of giving your story a big finish is not to just evoke whatever kind of emotion is easiest, it should be about evoking the RIGHT emotion.

Bioware: lrn2play.

 

[Tav73]

Red Faction Guerilla. Make a game about blowing buildings up, and then setting it in a wasteland? Good job.

This, I really enjoyed the game up to the point where I realised the missions are mostly "Kill this building and then some others and then this one."
I'm happy that they're pleased with their building demolition mechanic but it's really not impressive any more after the 50th time.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Like, Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines without bugs the impossibly bad character animations?

FTFY.

Also, Mass Effect without the Mako.
Morrowind without the cliffracers.

 

[irani_che]

Vampire the Masqurade: Bloodlines without bugs, a more smoothly running engine and less clunky combat.

in terms of writing and game and characters and locations and levels and their design it is a masterpiece. it had a brilliant sandbox before sandboxes were that popular and so many ways to play that game. a wealth of side missions each giving a bit of sidestory that makes the vampire LA that little bit more awesome and believable. Even all the endings felt plausibly well written.
the stealth missions did that thing were NPCs/Guards walk around talking to each other about mundane stuff, like real guards would while you obfuscate around them.

if it never came out untill now and had 2010 era engine and graphics it would be seen as the RPG of the year

 

[ThatLankyBastard]

When i was playing through Borderlands I loved it! 10 Gazillion guns, a leveling system that I didn't mind too much, and a heluva lotta fun!

... but then my game crashed for no apparent reason

 

[HuntrRose]

Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood
Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE these games, but 2 things make it less than "God's-gift-to-the-world".

First is the climbing thing. Now, it's really cool when you can take your time and choose exactly where you want to go and how to get there, but when you're on the clock, like when you have to chase someone, Ezio just seems to want to climb EVERYTHING! It's like Ezio just hates me and wants me to fail. "Go this way, he's over there! NO! The OTHER wall you god-damned APE!!! Why would I want to climb a HORSE when he's right in front of you!!!"

The second thing is Ezio's outfit. I mean, it looks cool and all, but how the hell does a guard not notice THAT!? Not only does Ezio's outfit display a variety of weapons and armor pieces, but it's white. WHITE! The most easily noticible color in the world!

Sorry, but I love these games, and it irks me when something so close to perfect falls short because of easily noticable issues...

I love those games as well, and I have the exact same issues. Now remember, you can dye your outfit. My complaint is that presumably every guard in the city would know who you are and attack you on sight simply because of how distinctive your outfit is no matter what colour it is.

Of course, they could have made the player character look like every other fool on the streets, and let the player loose sight of him whenever he walked through a crowd. How much fun would that be?
This is a typical situation where gameplay needs priority over commen sense (for the npcs).

 

[HuntrRose]

shutup you asshats
the mako was good shit in bad wrapping paper

Yeah, what's with the Mako hate? I seriously didn't have a problem with it. Okay, the controls could have been tweaked a little, but nothing to go on a hate parade over.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Anything by Valve. Games like Portal and Half Life 2 are not completely perfect. In fact, no game ever gets it "completely right".

While I may not agree about Valve, I do agree that no game has ever gotten it completely right in the sense of it being perfect. I suppose I'm thinking more in terms of games that would be, to use a 10 point rating scale, a 9.5 or 10 but instead end up notably below that because of one or two missteps or questionable design choices.

 

[StriderShinryu]

shutup you asshats
the mako was good shit in bad wrapping paper

Yeah, what's with the Mako hate? I seriously didn't have a problem with it. Okay, the controls could have been tweaked a little, but nothing to go on a hate parade over.

I loved the idea of the Mako, and massively preferred it's use to the way mining and away missions were handled in ME2, but I would definitely agree with the way it was executed (both in terms of control and in terms of planet surface design) being a problem. Having to fight with the Mako, and the way planet surfaces seemed almost designed to make piloting the Mako even worse, is one of the few complaints I had about ME1.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

Starcraft has too many Korean players in multiplayer.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Here's something for every RPG. Say there's a weapon that looks really cool. But the new, more powerful weapon looks nowhere near that awesome. I like to role play, seeing how it's a role playing game. Now I give up appearance for stats. It's a minor complaint, but I wish something could fix that.

Also, games with parkour elements, like AC and Infamous, almost always have annoying moments.

 

[Hosker]

I can think of many examples, but I'm gonna go with Fable(1&2 as I have yet to play 3). They are very fun games but it feels like they could be so much better; I think more could have been done with them.