Games you want to really love but... just can't.

[Dalisclock]

I know I harp on this a lot, but the latest Honest Game Trailers pretty much brought it back.

Final Fantasy X. I like the combat, appreciate the sphere grid, enjoy the idea of a pilgrimage as the central plot, the entire concept is fascinating and like the fact they chose a Polynesian setting that wasn't Medieval Europe inspired(Clock/Steam/Diesel punk Optional). However, Tidus was a massive pain to have to deal with(and I get he's supposed to be, but that doesn't actually make him likable. Holden Caulfield is supposed to be whiny and I hate him too), Blitz-ball is just badly implemented(you hear a lot of talk about it but don't get to play it until you do and then you never have to play it again ever), and the whole Church of Yevon thing sticks in my craw. As in, they have a hierarchical religious organization that is not the catholic church(for once) but doesn't have any clear Asian counterpart that I'm aware of, which they apparently are the sole faith of the entire planet that determines everyone acceptance of the whole "Sin exists because man grew proud and used too much tech" thing, and yet the only thing you really ever do at any of the temples is some really uninspired puzzles...instead of World Building and explaining the actual beliefs of the religion. If you're doing a straight Catholic Expy, you can get away with not having this. In this case, you kind of need it.

 

[Zhukov]

Have you ever played a Dead Rising game?

I love Dead Rising, but Dead Rising is made to be played over and over, and you keep some progress after you start over. If Fallout 1 had you start higher level every new game, Id probably be able to deal with the time limit, but then experimenting would also not be so discouraged. "I wonder if I can kill this Deathclaw?...Nope, ah well, New Game +" Its why I like Rogue Legacy too.

If you can handle Dead Rising (I can't, I refuse to play those games chiefly because of the time limit bullshit) then the time limit in Fallout shouldn't bother you.

It was a stupid design decision, but you have to intentionally waste time to ever hit it. And I don't mean play sub-optimally, I mean spend hours upon hours walking in circles on the overworld map.

Oh, and there are mods to remove it.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Dragon's Dogma ticked all of the boxes for me. And to be honest I'm even sure what it is that I don't like about it, but for whatever reason it just didn't hook me.

I've always been interested in the Metal Gear series, everything I've heard about how batshit insane the plot is has me intrigued. I even like the gameplay of MGS for the PS1 despite not being much of a stealth fan. But there's just so much bad dialogue to wade through and it drags on and on. I can't stomach it.

There are a couple of games I couldn't get into for technical reasons. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and it's slow text crawl speed that you can't change. Whoever made that decision should be condemned to the deepest circle of hell. As someone who's a fairly quick reader I found it unbearable. It was like being stuck behind someone driving 20 kilometres under the speed limit with no chance of overtaking.

The other one is Lumo on the Vita which I recently bought on sale. It's a platformer that is divided into rooms. Each time you transition from one room to the next the game hangs for a second to load it in. Annoying, but I could deal with it. What I couldn't deal with was that when that happened the music would also stop for a second. And the rooms are very small. I assume they get bigger and more complex later in the game but at the beginning it usually takes 5-10 seconds to get through one. This probably seems like nitpicking to some people but I found it very irritating. Presumably the PC and PS4 versions don't suffer from this. Maybe when I stop being salty about it I'll pick it up on a Steam sale.

 

[Saelune]

Have you ever played a Dead Rising game?

I love Dead Rising, but Dead Rising is made to be played over and over, and you keep some progress after you start over. If Fallout 1 had you start higher level every new game, Id probably be able to deal with the time limit, but then experimenting would also not be so discouraged. "I wonder if I can kill this Deathclaw?...Nope, ah well, New Game +" Its why I like Rogue Legacy too.

If you can handle Dead Rising (I can't, I refuse to play those games chiefly because of the time limit bullshit) then the time limit in Fallout shouldn't bother you.

It was a stupid design decision, but you have to intentionally waste time to ever hit it. And I don't mean play sub-optimally, I mean spend hours upon hours walking in circles on the overworld map.

Oh, and there are mods to remove it.

I dont really fault the idea. It is kinda bad how many games stress the situation, but in game mean nothing. I mean, those Dragons in Skyrim sure are patient. Though Dying Light is the worst perpetrator of "OMG YOU HAVE TO DO THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!...or whenever you feel like it".

Its mostly cause of the effort expected that is the issue. Dead Rising would be less bearable if it took place over a month or year, not just 3 days and after 100 hours you had to start from scratch cause you took too long.

 

[Saelune]

Dragon's Dogma ticked all of the boxes for me. And to be honest I'm even sure what it is that I don't like about it, but for whatever reason it just didn't hook me.

I've always been interested in the Metal Gear series, everything I've heard about how batshit insane the plot is has me intrigued. I even like the gameplay of MGS for the PS1 despite not being much of a stealth fan. But there's just so much bad dialogue to wade through and it drags on and on. I can't stomach it.

There are a couple of games I couldn't get into for technical reasons. Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors and it's slow text crawl speed that you can't change. Whoever made that decision should be condemned to the deepest circle of hell. As someone who's a fairly quick reader I found it unbearable. It was like being stuck behind someone driving 20 kilometres under the speed limit with no chance of overtaking.

The other one is Lumo on the Vita which I recently bought on sale. It's a platformer that is divided into rooms. Each time you transition from one room to the next the game hangs for a second to load it in. Annoying, but I could deal with it. What I couldn't deal with was that when that happened the music would also stop for a second. And the rooms are very small. I assume they get bigger and more complex later in the game but at the beginning it usually takes 5-10 seconds to get through one. This probably seems like nitpicking to some people but I found it very irritating. Presumably the PC and PS4 versions don't suffer from this. Maybe when I stop being salty about it I'll pick it up on a Steam sale.

Maybe Dragon's Dogma is because its not super engaging. Feels almost MMO-ish. The combat and stuff is neat, but it doesnt engage me in the world very much.

As for Metal Gear, I say give MGS3 a shot. Its overall the best I think, (and I dont think Im alone in it). Maybe you still wont get into it, but I mean, might as well try the best. Plus though the 3rd, it is the first game chronologically.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Baldur's Gate:
I've installed and then uninstalled a few hours later almost into double figures. I've never got futher than the area where you meet the Ankhegs in the farmers field. As mentioned above, the realtime/pause thing was a bit difficult to get used to. The 2nd ed rule set works OK in a PnP environment, but low level you are very squishy. Not much of a problem in PnP where you can do all sorts of things to entertain you, but in a CRPG where it's mostly about the fighting and you can't go outside of what the game has been programmed to do, the first bit can be a pretty rough slog.
I think ultimately I just wanted to play PnP (my old RPG group had split up, gone off to university etc) and found that CRPGs are no substitute.

Vermintide:
Good game, but really needs other players, ideally friends with teamspeak, the bots are utter fucking morons. I'd like a mode where you can just wander through the levels with no enemies because it's a pretty stellar rendition of the Warhammer world close up.

Mordheim:
Clump up, roll up the map, beat the enemy but fail to gather enough warpstone. Repeat exceptionally boring tactic and never have enough money to upgrade skills which might make it a bit more interesting. Split up to try to gather enough warpstone. All your team get fucked. Run out of money paying medical bills. The end.

Secondary objective, gather 2 specific enemies "dogtags". Knock out second one, enemy warband fails route test, you win! Except you don't because then you can't pick up the second guy's dogtag. He's knocked out. He's right there at my feet. I have actions left. He's surrounded by 4 of my fighters. But I fail the secondary because the game is fucking retarded.

Enemy warband will scale to your level but be given increasingly more hit points and damage depending on mission difficulty to make up for the stupid AI.
Enemy warbands are generated on the spot for each battle, so they can (and do) suicide into you the second they see you without giving a fuck about long term effects on their warband.

Some of the above could be ameliorated by playing enough to git gud but the basic gameplay of take turns hitting each other until one of you falls over just isn't entertaining enough to keep me playing.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Dishonored

Everything from the world to the character designs felt so original and unique. And the gameplay felt smooth and overal satisfying. Yet something about it was just so lifeless and dull. I tried a couple of times to get into it, but I never made it past the three hour mark.

I had the exact same experience. Everything should be ticking my boxes. Steampunk Bioshock staby stab in a mask should work! but I got the first mission with dudes throwing corpses onto a boat and couldn't for the life of me find a reason to keep going. I was just so un-engaged, so bored, so ready to Alt+Tab out and watch something on Hulu.

And then it turns out to get the good ending, you basically have to stealth KO everyone and never use your sword, darts, guns, or black magic because killing is wrong.

 

[09philj]

Dark Souls: Just a bit slow and dull for me. It's not quite got the reward curve that attracts me to Monster Hunter.

Final Fantasy (All of them): Shallow as fuck combat. Pales in comparison to Persona, Bravely Default, and Etrian Odyssey.

 

[aozgolo]

Dishonored

Everything from the world to the character designs felt so original and unique. And the gameplay felt smooth and overal satisfying. Yet something about it was just so lifeless and dull. I tried a couple of times to get into it, but I never made it past the three hour mark.

I had the exact same experience. Everything should be ticking my boxes. Steampunk Bioshock staby stab in a mask should work! but I got the first mission with dudes throwing corpses onto a boat and couldn't for the life of me find a reason to keep going. I was just so un-engaged, so bored, so ready to Alt+Tab out and watch something on Hulu.

And then it turns out to get the good ending, you basically have to stealth KO everyone and never use your sword, darts, guns, or black magic because killing is wrong.

I actually bought Dishonored Definitive Edition during the last Steam Sale to see what all the hub-bub was about. I got through the prologue and to the hideout and did the little magic initiation quest, but my interest kinda fizzled. I can't say it's one of those games that ticked all the right boxes before I got it but it didn't sound bad. I ended up refunding it, mostly so I could get some other game I would like more instead (Got a few actually Rebel Galaxy, mad Max, and Dragon Fantasy II). I didn't hate Dishonored by any means and I understand why it appeals to some but it just failed to pull me into it's world all that well and the idea of player freedom and going about missions how you choose is a bit stifled when you learn that you could end up with an ending you don't want for not playing a way you didn't want to.

 

[TheMigrantSoldier]

Sonic the Hedgehog. Doesn't matter what iteration, from the Genesis originals to whatever the latest outing is. I've tried a number of them over the decades via rentals and friends' copies, and I just can't get into them. The games always feel too loose and "floaty" to me.

Pretty much describes my attitude when I tried it about 2-3 years past. On the other hand, I really like the Sonic-inspired Freedom Planet, which lacks enemy damage collision.

 

[BrawlMan]

Geist - Too flawed, so I returned it.

Shadows of the Damned - I don't hate the game, but it's really RE4 with demons. The fact that there is no NG+, meaning you don't keep your upgrades made me not buy it.

Skullgrils - A fun M vs. C style fighting game, yet I loss interest (and with most fighting games in gerneral). The artwork is amazing though, I like jazz theme going on.

Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds -Cocoa's Nightmare Attack - Not a bad game, but once you play Guardian Heroes or already played it; especially on XBLA, there is little to no reason to play this.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Morrowind. Everyone harps on and on about how it's their favorite and I just don't get how.

I mean, I get why it's appealing at first, with a unique world, open-ended quest design, countless things to do, but that combat. What the hell is that combat?

Even for an older title, what is that combat? No impact. Hardly any response. I know it's skill based and slightly random, and that's fine, but the developers really need to make it feel more like you were making an impact.

I have yet to find a mod that really helps with this either. It's just one of those games I really want to play, but I feel like I get bored after a couple hours at best.

 

[Saelune]

Morrowind. Everyone harps on and on about how it's their favorite and I just don't get how.

I mean, I get why it's appealing at first, with a unique world, open-ended quest design, countless things to do, but that combat. What the hell is that combat?

Even for an older title, what is that combat? No impact. Hardly any response. I know it's skill based and slightly random, and that's fine, but the developers really need to make it feel more like you were making an impact.

I have yet to find a mod that really helps with this either. It's just one of those games I really want to play, but I feel like I get bored after a couple hours at best.

What makes Morrowind great is everything BESIDES the combat. Skyrim is too combat heavy. A million ways to shoot fire, and little else. My favorite time in Morrowind is rarely fighting anything, but exploring the world, doing quests, many if not most that arent just go into a dungeon and kill a thing.

 

[Saelune]

Dark Souls: Just a bit slow and dull for me. It's not quite got the reward curve that attracts me to Monster Hunter.

Final Fantasy (All of them): Shallow as fuck combat. Pales in comparison to Persona, Bravely Default, and Etrian Odyssey.

I hate when people compare Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. They are really not that comparable.

 

[aozgolo]

Shooters in general. I think I've finally burnt myself out on them. I could see myself finishing Wolfenstein: TNO and Portal someday, and maybe if I really like it getting Portal 2, but as it stands there just isn't enough there anymore to hold my interest.

It kinda sucks because some of them look awesome, but to me there is just too much else out there that's more appealing. For the record, I don't consider Deus Ex games outright shooters since I mostly play stealth using melee and augs. But even that series has gotten formulaic in a not-so-good way. I really have to be in a certain frame of mind with a good chunk of downtime to tolerate hacking door codes, stealing supplies, reading emails, etc.

About the only upgrade-centric series I can enjoy yet is Souls, because it feels more adventurous and rewarding to permanently find everything. But I'm also happy that series has found a conclusion as well because the industry needs to break away from these rather outdated design tropes.

 

[09philj]

Dark Souls: Just a bit slow and dull for me. It's not quite got the reward curve that attracts me to Monster Hunter.

Final Fantasy (All of them): Shallow as fuck combat. Pales in comparison to Persona, Bravely Default, and Etrian Odyssey.

I hate when people compare Monster Hunter and Dark Souls. They are really not that comparable.[/quote

They're hard as fuck hack and slash games with huge and complex boss fights, and an extremely deep gear system.

 

[Tanis]

Borderlands (series):
I'm not a huge FPS fan, but I do enjoy RPG and arcade-ish shooters.

But nothing about the BL series could drag me into it for very long...O well.

 

[wings012]

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura sounded great. Steampunk Fallout! Another CRPG adventure and countless hours to sink!

I couldn't get past the first 20 or so minutes really. The absolutely clunkiness of it all, horrible UI, dicerolly auto attacks and the game looking like absolute ass. Maybe I've been spoiled by contemporaries like Pillars of Eternity.

Or maybe I just don't like CRPGs as much as I'd like to think I do. I just like... Fallout. I've tried to get into both Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale and gave up shortly. I thought I'd try something more modern but Divinity Original Sin also didn't do anything for me.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Deus Ex 1 and Human Revolution.

IT's got great player freedom, the latest ones have great writing and speak to moral and philosophical issues of their universes, I figured I would love them but I just can't bring myself to finish them. I watched a playthrough of Human Revolution and I'm gonna get Mankind Divided still, maybe that one will click better.

Mass Effect

I played through 1 and 2 for my friend, currently own a copy of 3, I'll probably finish it at some point and pick up a copy of Andromeda as a conversation piece between us but I just never felt the magic, I don't dislike them per se, but I'm more likely to pick up other games on a given day.

 

[Zombie Proof]

Dishonored

Everything from the world to the character designs felt so original and unique. And the gameplay felt smooth and overal satisfying. Yet something about it was just so lifeless and dull. I tried a couple of times to get into it, but I never made it past the three hour mark.

Same here. It kinda baffles me actually. On paper, it has all of the stuff that I really like: Awesome mix of stealth and action, interesting abilities, beautiful art direction. I just can't find it in me to play past the first few missions you get from that bar. I'm overcome with an unbearable feeling of bleh whenever I do.