Games you like, but are never talked about

[GrumbleGrump]

F.E.A.R.

This game is barely talked about nowadays, even though it's more enjoyable than the vast majority of modern FPS's. That's not a high bar to overcome, I know, but this game has so many good details that should become standard in the genre. For example, the amount of scenery destruction really adds to the punch of a firefight, with seemingly boring enviroments like office buildings and sewers getting absolutely gored on after a fight. The exaggerated bullet holes left in plaster and concrete made by your guns just makes them more satisfying to use, not to mention the effect they have on your enemies. Quick bursts of blood just make the already brutal atmosphere better.

The AI still holds up, I find. You can get killed and restart only to find that the AI behaves differently than before, using different tactics and being more generally aggressive than your run of the mill bad guy in your run of the mill shooter. I know that the AI was actually a combination of scripting and waypoints, but it worked and made the enemies really take advantage of the enviroment, forcing the level design to be effective.

Ground Control

One of my favourite RTS's, there is something really enchanting I find about this game. The terrain is a crucial element of engagements, forcing you to advance in very deliberate ways. Unit coordination is integral in this game, making the choosing the loadout of your units quite important. Want to use artillery to its full potencial? Gonna need a squadron of Scout-snipers to provide targets. Wanna have safe artillery? Gonna need AA guns. AT infantry destroying your tanks? Should've brought marines in order to kill them effectively. As far as I know, this is the only RTS like this, which is sad because this sort of stuff makes for a great, layered game.

 

[BrawlMan]

F.E.A.R.

This game is barely talked about nowadays, even though it's more enjoyable than the vast majority of modern FPS's. That's not a high bar to overcome, I know, but this game has so many good details that should become standard in the genre. For example, the amount of scenery destruction really adds to the punch of a firefight, with seemingly boring enviroments like office buildings and sewers getting absolutely gored on after a fight. The exaggerated bullet holes left in plaster and concrete made by your guns just makes them more satisfying to use, not to mention the effect they have on your enemies. Quick bursts of blood just make the already brutal atmosphere better.

The AI still holds up, I find. You can get killed and restart only to find that the AI behaves differently than before, using different tactics and being more generally aggressive than your run of the mill bad guy in your run of the mill shooter. I know that the AI was actually a combination of scripting and waypoints, but it worked and made the enemies really take advantage of the environment, forcing the level design to be effective.

I can explain why that one is not talked about as much: F.3.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Online. Both games; especially Online was the death of the series. The 3rd game was just a COD clone with almost none of the mechanics that made the original work. Yeah, the AI was more difficult compared to Project Origin, but that didn't excuse the weak storytelling, dropping plot lines and sub-plots from previous titles like they didn't exist, and for being short. I normally don't complain about short games, but compared to the previous titles, the campaign was 10-15 hours in 1, and 10-12 hours in 2. Online was a crappy Fee 2 Pay, multiplayer only game, outsourced to a Korean developer that put the final in the coffin for the franchise.

 

[GrumbleGrump]

I can explain why that one is not talked about as much: F.3.A.R. and F.E.A.R. Online. Both games; especially Online was the death of the series. The 3rd game was just a COD clone with almost none of the mechanics that made the original work. Yeah, the AI was more difficult compared to Project Origin, but that didn't excuse the weak storytelling, dropping plot lines and sub-plots from previous titles like they didn't exist, and for being short. I normally don't complain about short games, but compared to the previous titles, the campaign was 10-15 hours in 1, and 10-12 hours in 2. Online was a crappy Fee 2 Pay, multiplayer only game, outsourced to a Korean developer that put the final in the coffin for the franchise.

Yeah, already by Project Origin you can sense the subtle cues of dumbing down. The lack of leaning, faster paced gameplay with less maneurability, overall lack of verticality in the level design, et cetera, are all signs of dumbing down. What's worse, the things that F.E.A.R. lacked (proper ADS, sprint function, grenade cooking, and moving cover) were all implemented half-heartedly, to the point that they didn't help or accentuated the nature of the game. Besides, nerfing my favourite gun, the shotgun, didn't enthrall me any.

It's sad really. There should be a spiritual successor to F.E.A.R., with a more varied and more refined gameplay. Just have F.E.A.R. with the aformentioned improvements and it'll be good.

 

[Palpatin93]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 were nice little RPGs for the GBA, I've yet to talk to someone who played them and enjoyed them as I did.

Here! Here! I played the first one (I think), all the way to the end. Awesome game. Ended up using drills most of the time X)

 

[distortedreality]

F.E.A.R.

This game is barely talked about nowadays, even though it's more enjoyable than the vast majority of modern FPS's. That's not a high bar to overcome, I know, but this game has so many good details that should become standard in the genre. For example, the amount of scenery destruction really adds to the punch of a firefight, with seemingly boring enviroments like office buildings and sewers getting absolutely gored on after a fight. The exaggerated bullet holes left in plaster and concrete made by your guns just makes them more satisfying to use, not to mention the effect they have on your enemies. Quick bursts of blood just make the already brutal atmosphere better.

The AI still holds up, I find. You can get killed and restart only to find that the AI behaves differently than before, using different tactics and being more generally aggressive than your run of the mill bad guy in your run of the mill shooter. I know that the AI was actually a combination of scripting and waypoints, but it worked and made the enemies really take advantage of the enviroment, forcing the level design to be effective.

Ground Control

One of my favourite RTS's, there is something really enchanting I find about this game. The terrain is a crucial element of engagements, forcing you to advance in very deliberate ways. Unit coordination is integral in this game, making the choosing the loadout of your units quite important. Want to use artillery to its full potencial? Gonna need a squadron of Scout-snipers to provide targets. Wanna have safe artillery? Gonna need AA guns. AT infantry destroying your tanks? Should've brought marines in order to kill them effectively. As far as I know, this is the only RTS like this, which is sad because this sort of stuff makes for a great, layered game.

Both cracking games. I think FEAR is quite well known, but Ground Control seems to have slipped under a lot of people's radar. I don't recall ever hearing much about it, despite it being quite a solid RTS.

I rememeber when I first played through it, I copped a game breaking bug that stopped me from progressing half way through a mission, and I was a decent way through a campaign. Tried various things, nothing worked, gave up on it for years. Saw it (and the sequel, which I have never played) pop up on sale on Steam recently and grabbed both. Hopefully the bug won't pop up again when I eventually get around to playing it!

For a more recent example, This Is The Police is a great game in the veins of Papers, Please. Haven't seen much talk about it despite it being a good game to boot up and play when one is short on time. Really well put together game IMO.

 

[Fijiman]

Iron Brigade (formally Trenched) is one of my favorite games of all time, but it's usually completely overshadowed by the rest of Double Fine's games. Sure it's not the greatest or best designed third person tower defense game ever (not being able to share the in-level money and not being able to get rid of your own turrets were often problems), but it was still a fun game that I would love to see a sequel to.

 

[stroopwafel]

Deadlight. Didn't even know this game existed until I saw it on sale on PSN and holy crap it's awesome. The game kind of plays like a superior Out of this World from way back but with way better controls and always having you move forward. The backgrounds are amazingly detailed as well for such a low-profile a game and even the sound design matches AAA quality. One of the best side-scroling games I played in years and I never even heard of it. I enjoyed this game way more than Inside to be honest which gets praised to infinity and beyond.

 

[SmugFrog]

-Terra Nova (proof that my annoyance extends past the letter A). This was a Looking Glass game. Looking Glass didn't make bad games. But even amongst their fans, few have heard about this one.

Was that the one that had pretty impressive graphics (at the time) and a wide open area to explore letting me go in any direction - it felt like MechWarrior in a way as your character was in a power suit of some type? I had a demo and thought it was the coolest thing - then finally found the full version many years later but the graphics and controls had not aged well.

Ah yes this one?

Spoiler: And another of the HUD, not as impressive...

Harvest Moon . . . No one seems to want to talk about them as indepth as I do

I tried for years to get a friend of mine into various Harvest Moon games on various systems, but he was always more into other types of games and wouldn't even give it a try. Have you played Stardew Valley? I keep looking at it but I know I don't have the time to put into those games anymore.

 

[Sonmi]

Summon Night Swordcraft Story 1 and 2 were nice little RPGs for the GBA, I've yet to talk to someone who played them and enjoyed them as I did.

Here! Here! I played the first one (I think), all the way to the end. Awesome game. Ended up using drills most of the time X)

Nice!

If I recall correctly, Drills were the most effective way to obtain valuable rare materials from boss fights, I used them as a backup weapon in case I ran into bosses.

I need to play it again, to be honest.

 

[Padwolf]

Harvest Moon . . . No one seems to want to talk about them as indepth as I do

I tried for years to get a friend of mine into various Harvest Moon games on various systems, but he was always more into other types of games and wouldn't even give it a try. Have you played Stardew Valley? I keep looking at it but I know I don't have the time to put into those games anymore.

Yeah, I've been trying to get friends into Harvest Moon for years, especially the friends I know would enjoy it just as much as I do, and yet they all seem to think it's a lot like Farmville and just dismiss it without further thought. Yeees I have, and I have to say it is completely 100% worth it! It is such a brilliant game, it has all the elements of Harvest Moon, but has a dungeon/mine element to it that's a bit more like Rune Factory, in that there's enemies to defeat and they drop certain stuff. It's really good.