Games you felt were harshly judged...

[unindexedsearchengine]

Assassin's Creed 3. I seriously don't get where are the hate is coming from. Interesting setting and characters (some, at least), great gameplay and combat, it looks beautiful, there's so much to do (sidequests, mini-games, collectibles), the soundtrack is perfect, the writing is solid, the story is intriguing, the modern world missions are well done, shaun has some great banter, the free-running is at it's best and Haytham Kenyway's voice is reason enough for everyone to love the game.
I understand how it's not everyone's cup of tea (ha), but it's certainly better than 1 and revelations.

 

[xPixelatedx]

Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

Screw attack went on to call it one of the top disappointments/worst squeals in gaming. It's sad, especially since their argument was the same old:
1.It's too hard
2.It wasn't like the first one

Which is really the only complaints people have against it. The thing is neither are real grievances at all.

It's difficult
I admit, as a child I hated this game, and I could not beat it without a game genie. I could say the same about dozens of other "classics" though. Now, as an adult, i find the difficulty refreshing and very welcome considering how pants-on-head-retarded easy these games have gotten.

It was too different
SO? OoT wasn't like the first one either. The Zelda franchise has proven they can change things up quite a bit with the way you play these games, and no one ever complains. But knowing that now, how can we have the nerve to still wave the naughty finger at Zelda 2? It doesn't make any sense. OH NO, I am side scrolling in labyrinthine corridors fighting monsters while getting items to power up. This is just terrible because it's not an overhead view like the first game! In fact it was a lot like another franchise, one with flying jellyfish. And we all know how terrible that franchise is.

 

[Fasckira]

Fable III
I don't understand all the hate. It's an okay game at worst. I just think people hate on it because it doesn't live up to their wild expectations fueled by Molyneux's rampant enthusiasm. I personally had a good time with it, and thought it was decent.

Yeah, I quite enjoyed it too. I had a few graphical issues (screen tearing in points and drops in frames) but that seemed to be happening to quite a few people so I wasn't too fussed. I did however prefer Fable 2 over 3, but as a sequel I think it worked really well. Its certainly one of these game that liked to give nods back to the past games which I always like to see.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Assassin's Creed. I honestly dont see where half the complaints were coming from.

Ridiculously long horse rides? You get a quick travel to places you've already been! Yeah, it'd get repetitive if you had to go all the way from Maysaf to wherever all the time, but you don't.

Repetitive missions? You're looking at it all wrong. The actions aren't important. What's important is listening, the little mini-stories you hear before pickpocketing someone, not the actual pickpocketing.

Weak Desmond side-story that pulls you out of the action? This seems to be a common complaint for the entire series and I just don't get it. I know it's going to vary from person to person, but I have yet to find a person other than myself who enjoys the Desmond sections just as much as the Animus ones.

Bizzarely long speeches given by targets before they die/boring story? This makes it all start to make sense. Everyone else who plays this game seems to be focused on the gameplay and sees the story as something that gets in the way of this gameplay. To which I say, you're doing it wrong. The story and the gameplay are interwoven, neither is simply a way to get to the other. There's a reason you're able to walk around during cutscenes. The speeches advance the story, give an insight into the person you just killed, and help to advance Altair's story. I could undeerstand if people called the game pretentious, but boring? Come on.

Probably just went on a rant there and made myself look like a bit of an idiot, so if I came off as rude, I apologise, please do not judge me.

 

[krazykidd]

Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

Screw attack went on to call it one of the top disappointments/worst squeals in gaming. It's sad, especially since their argument was the same old:
1.It's too hard
2.It wasn't like the first one

Which is really the only complaints people have against it. The thing is neither are real grievances at all.

It's difficult
I admit, as a child I hated this game, and I could not beat it without a game genie. I could say the same about dozens of other "classics" though. Now, as an adult, i find the difficulty refreshing and very welcome considering how pants-on-head-retarded easy these games have gotten.

It was too different
SO? OoT wasn't like the first one either. The Zelda franchise has proven they can change things up quite a bit with the way you play these games, and no one ever complains. But knowing that now, how can we have the nerve to still wave the naughty finger at Zelda 2? It doesn't make any sense. OH NO, I am side scrolling in labyrinthine corridors fighting monsters while getting items to power up. This is just terrible because it's not an overhead view like the first game! In fact it was a lot like another franchise, one with flying jellyfish. And we all know how terrible that franchise is.

This . It was the second god damn game , and at the time ( Nes era) a lot of game were copy paste of others , so the only way to survive was to be different . I think they did good with zelda 2 honestly . I loved that game , and iv'e replayed that recently.

OT: Alpha protocol . That was an amazing game .

 

[Roxas1359]

Time for an unpopular opinion. I think people judged Final Fantasy XII too harshly. The main complaints people had were with the idea that "the game plays itself". However they always seem to ignore 2 facts, for one you can actually turn off gambits, and two relying on just gambits will get you killed faster than anything else.

It still involves a lot of strategy to play rather than just mashing the attack button. I will concede that the license board was redundant, but they fixed that in the International by making the license boards different classes like the Archer glass or the Knight etc. Plus the best thing was that the action wasn't broken up by having a random battle ever 2 steps which happened a lot in FF X.

Then there was the annoyance of Vaan and Penelo. Well those two characters were quickly added into the game because originally the main characters were supposed to be Balthier and Basch but Square thought that they were too old to have as main characters. Basically you have to take the plot as something that is in their point of view while the story mainly focuses on Ashe and Balthier. Heck Balthier even knows his role by calling himself the leading man.

Next was the fact that the game was actually really difficult compared to X and had so much more to do in it. In all I think that FF XII was judged harshly because it actually did things differently and people just don't like change at all, and the fact that they changed so much reinvigorated my love for FF and that's why XII is my favorite in the series.

 

[Nomanslander]

I liked it enough to play through it once but I knew if I was playing a good guy I would have hated it (words can't describe how much I hated escorting Little Sisters).

This is a another huge complaint I saw made by people - Yahtzee included - but I didn't get it because it's not like real escort mission. Escort missions suck when you have to follow after some nitwit AI that tracks through the game, trotting across every enemy and pit fall, and forcing you to deal with it. Sorta like what you had to deal with in the first game when you became a Big Daddy. Also, they can die, and that forces you to start over. But in BS2, you have the little pipsqueak on your shoulders, so you never have to deal with her, see her, or deal with following her pathology around. Also, she's immortal, so when you do set her down to collect Adam, she can't die; and, enemies tend to flock to her first; she becomes a decent distraction, leaving you ample time to deal with them before they have a chance to take bites out of your health bar.

 

[Terminate421]

Clearly this one:

This game clearly stuck to its guns when it came to crafting a story. It's gameplay was okay but thats not the point. The real point behind it is that the game makes absolutely sure you are invested in the characters you meet up with along the way.

 

[coblen]

When I saw the thread title my first thought was bioshock 2.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one.

 

[Zhukov]

Recently, I just beat Bioshock 2, and from my memories of when the game was released, a lot of people didn't exactly have positive things to say.

Wait... what?

Bioshock 2 didn't cop the hate. Not even close. The general reaction when it came out was, "Yeah, it's okay, just not as good as the first one." Which is completely accurate. There were a few extra disappointed people flinging a few turds, and a few silly buggers desperately trying to claim it was better than the original, but the game was generally given a pass.

Hell, I remember a lot of people saying the gunplay a least was actually an improvement.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Clearly this one:

This game clearly stuck to its guns when it came to crafting a story. It's gameplay was okay but thats not the point. The real point behind it is that the game makes absolutely sure you are invested in the characters you meet up with along the way.

Agreed. I can't understand how every single review I saw for that game completely missed the point.

 

[Fearzone]

Brutal Legend is an excellent and fun game, which suffers only from being too short, and lying about the nature of the RTS gameplay core in the demo and marketing.

Elemental: War of Magic certainly had a lot of issues, but that didn't take away from me having a lot of fun with it, after a couple of patches got it working and stable enough to play a game. Despite it all, I considered it one of the better releases in 2010.

 

[Zantos]

I'd definitely agree with Bioshock 2. I'm never a big fan of the "Oh but it isn't as good as..." mentality anyway. I know, I've played it, are you expecting me to just go back and do it over and over? I liked the first one more, but they're both great games and I have a lot of time for the series.

Fable 3 could have certainly been better, and wasn't helped by old Peter there and his fantastic claims, but I saw people claiming it to be the worst game ever made. These people must lead very, VERY sheltered lives. As far as the sanctuary, it was faffy and there should have been an option to use conventional menus, but there was definitely potential for good there. People talk about innovation and how we need more of it, but if you keep diving on riskier ideas like genestealers with rage virus then of course devs are going to prefer sticking to proven formulas. Aside from that, there's a lot I feel could have been improved on, but I still enjoyed it start to finish. It wasn't as good as Fable: TLC, but if you're going to set your bar that high then you'll spend a lot of time disappointed.

Another one I've recently discovered is Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. I grabbed the HD re-release in the GoG.com sale and loved the absolute shit out of it. I heard a lot about how it wasn't in the spirit of Oddworld, which after finishing it I can only assume to mean they just wanted 2D Abe games pumped out over and over. I've got a lot of time for the little green guy, but Oddworld is a big place and I liked the different angle they took on it. One of those few games I got to grips with more after making the decision to use controller over keyboard and mouse, helped immensely by the game supporting it. The first half gets a bit repetitive, but a the twist was to die for. Loved it.

 

[Terminate421]

Clearly this one:

This game clearly stuck to its guns when it came to crafting a story. It's gameplay was okay but thats not the point. The real point behind it is that the game makes absolutely sure you are invested in the characters you meet up with along the way.

Agreed. I can't understand how every single review I saw for that game completely missed the point.

I think it was mainly the expectancies.

ALOT of people play Pokemon for the solid gameplay (Like myself) and while story is nice, it's usually not judged as much. Around this time period, Black and White were not released so the emphasis for review on this game was set dead center on gameplay rather than the fucking novel of a story. I like to think of it as Mass Effect 1 in terms of a game, amazing story, with rather okay Gameplay.

 

[Nomanslander]

Recently, I just beat Bioshock 2, and from my memories of when the game was released, a lot of people didn't exactly have positive things to say.

Wait... what?

Bioshock 2 didn't cop the hate. Not even close. The general reaction when it came out was, "Yeah, it's okay, just not as good as the first one." Which is completely accurate. There were a few extra disappointed people flinging a few turds, and a few silly buggers desperately trying to claim it was better than the original, but the game was generally given a pass.

Hell, I remember a lot of people saying the gunplay a least was actually an improvement.

Critics were generally giving the game a pass, critics like from ign.com or gametrailers.com, but it was made out as they did it out of favoritism of the first game (sorta like how they do with CoD games, as crappy as it actually gets, they still have to give it nothing less than a 9). Regular gamers and fans - at least from my recollection - were all pissing and moaning about the game. Even not on any forums, when I went to the game store, I had the clerks telling me the game was crap.

 

[Subscriptism]

Assassin's Creed 3. I seriously don't get where are the hate is coming from. Interesting setting and characters (some, at least), great gameplay and combat, it looks beautiful, there's so much to do (sidequests, mini-games, collectibles), the soundtrack is perfect, the writing is solid, the story is intriguing, the modern world missions are well done, shaun has some great banter, the free-running is at it's best and Haytham Kenyway's voice is reason enough for everyone to love the game.
I understand how it's not everyone's cup of tea (ha), but it's certainly better than 1 and revelations.

Haytham is the ONLY interesting character in the animus and Shaun is the only interesting one in 2012. Everything is bland and dull. They revamped the controls, and fucking ruined them, run and jump shouldn't be the same button, climbing big trees can be tricky due the to afore mentioned jump problem and you can't disengage from combat without running off leading to the inability to pick up weapons off the floor. Connor is a git who is almost always wrong on the big issues when he talks in-depth to either templars or Achilles and especially Haytham. The whole thing is in addition one whole massive USA USA USA hooha that DOES paint brits as baby eating monsters and blithely ignores the loyalist point of view (except in small mentions in the database which I am convinced are put in just so Shaun can be snarky). The game is laboured and long winded and in not even trying to make me like it. All the good weapons are either very hard to obtain or given to you straight away so the progression in terms of what kit you have is all over the place. The side quests are all horribly dull and there is very little motivation for doing them. The game apparently doesn't want you to be an assassin any more because it give you a target and says go kill someone in maybe one mission in five. The aiming system is laboured and the game is buggy as fuck. The homesteading is dull and strikes me as something that would be considered fun by only those who think Microsoft excel is a retro classic. The assassin recruits system is awful and the recruits are the most un-assassiny assassins of all time (one of them wields a fucking meat cleaver and wears an apron) and they can't even fight. The continuity of time lines is dodgy as you swap between story and side missions it jumps back and forth YEARS at a time. The modern missions are linear and bland. Desmond now has a single character trait after 5 games but I don't think sulky child is a very good one. The combat is not challenging and stealth is impossible (problem in all AC games), the game goes out of it's way to pad itself and make me do chores, for example ONE ENTIRE MISSION bearing in mind each sequence only has about five of these at most, has you follow someone for 5 WHOLE MINUTES and that's it. It contains pointless cameos from historical figures and connor is shoe-horned into historical events. OH and the game can't decide whether the templars are on the British side or the American. Did I also mention that the story has no ultimate goal and is boring as fuck.

Improvements? The free-running is smoother and it's graphically nicer. That's about it.

It's still not COD bad but fuck me it really attempts to make me hate it.
/rantoff

OT: Hitman : Absolution and Mass Effect 3

I just put these in to attempt to justify my momentary rage then.

Sorry

 

[Xannidel]

I will put two games on here.

1) Silent Hill Downpour, The game is not "scary" per se but the atmosphere is quite nice with the otherworld sections (you sort of get used to THOSE segments within the otherworld after a few trips). The side quests also make exploring Silent Hill really worth it and they are not really that repetitive. I will say the combat is still as clunky as ever and the camera absolutely HATES me when I fight those mannequin enemies.

2) Game of Thrones RPG. Okay this game is a little rough around the edges, the voice acting on SOME of the characters could have used a do over and the combat CAN be rough for some players but the story is a nice addition to the Game of Thrones lore. My only complaint is that there is no 're-do chapter' because if you forget to stock up on potions then you good sir are in trouble.

 

[Zydrate]

I have to give an honorable mention to Mass Effect 3 again.

The endings did completely negate any sense of choice one had throughout the entire trilogy, yes. But I feel people's hatred of the endings leaks into their judgement of the game as a whole. I mentioned this in another thread and someone rattled on about all the broken mechanics, graphics, and writing. Frankly, I just think those people are just LOOKING for reasons to hate the game.
One person said the series became broke at 2, in which case they already didn't like the games, so. Taking that with a grain of salt.