Have you ever played a game that you respected but didn't enjoy? - CHAT WITH THE STAFF

[tendo82]

Want your opinion heard? Have questions for the staff? Now's your chance!

Every week, from Wednesday through Friday, staff will be dropping in and out of the thread to post responses to the question below and reply to yours. From there, feel free to keep the discussion going until next Wednesday when a new topic goes up. We may even respond over the weekend.

Consider this your chance to join us in some lively debating and hopefully good times. We can't wait to discuss.

This week's question is: Have you ever played a game that you respected but didn't enjoy? What game was it and why?

 

[xitel]

Gears of War. I can respect the mechanics, and I will admit that the game had fun points, but I can't say that I actually enjoyed playing it. It just wasn't all that fun to me. I know other people love it, but I just found it shruggable in terms of enjoyment.

 

[tendo82]

I respect Final Fantasy XII in a big way, but damn if I can find any enjoyment in it. In fact just about any Yasumi Matsuno game I've ever played is like that for me.

There is deep game design at work in games like Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy XII, but they are just so technical in a lot of ways that I find it pushes me away from the game. Vagrant Story like Final Fantasy XII is a game that is really fascinating to read about, but seriously tedious to play, for me anyway.

My other example would be survival horror games. I find that the combination of horror and playing adds up to stress instead of the giddy excitement I enjoy in horror movies. That said, I can definitely respect the genre's best entries.

 

[zauxz]

Now that is a strange question.

I play games for fun, not to show respect. If a game is not fun, thrilling, or interesting, i uninstall it.

 

[SomeBritishDude]

Quite a few times actually.

The creature creator on Spore must have taken some incredible programming to work. I can respect that to a point. The rest of the game is a great big turd though.

I also respected GTA4 for how huge and varied a world it was. I can certainly respect that. It'd just forgot along the way that GTA has always been about fucking around, and for the most part, in GTA4 this wasn't nearly as easy to do.

 

[Cliff_m85]

Team Fortress 2. I loved how it looked but it just wasn't the game for me.

 

[bitzi61]

Gears of War. I can respect the mechanics, and I will admit that the game had fun points, but I can't say that I actually enjoyed playing it. It just wasn't all that fun to me. I know other people love it, but I just found it shruggable in terms of enjoyment.

Seconded. I liked the actual story, except it never really seemed to come together...

I wish they came out with a prequel, where you were fighting just as the locust start their assult on the surface world

 

[Ago Iterum]

Anything made by Valve. I just don't understand why there's such a self proclaimed 'elite' following around their games.

But I respect them because somehow, they've made it happen.

And Halo and Gears of War. They're both really generic, and did nothing new, yet they're so popular.

 

[chumpzilla_69]

Call Of Duty 4. Millions of people enjoy it and it has a huge following, i can respect that, but i never really found it fun.

I also respected GTA4 for how huge and varied a world it was. I can certainly respect that. It'd just forgot along the way that GTA has always been about fucking around, and for the most part, in GTA4 this wasn't nearly as easy to do.

I couldnt agree more

 

[Archemetis]

In fairness, I do respect Fable 2 for what they're trying to do with games and of course the concept sounds amazing on paper, but unfortunately due to the fact that they're more restricted then they obviously think the game has drastically suffered and the quality taken down by several notches.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Baldur's Gate, 1 and 2. I respect them for the obvious effort that's gone into them, and for the influence they've had on RPG's, but i really don't like them. I can't stand the control scheme, the UI and the way you're dumped with a four person party instantly.

 

[Trendkill6]

Bioshock.
It was a wonderfully unique game with a great story, but i just couldnt get into as much as everyone else.
I wont say that i didnt enjoy it, just not as much as i should of.

(edit)
That and it had alot of fetch quests which had you going back and forth through the same areas, and I cant stand those kinda missions.

 

[ihatefullmetalalchemist]

Call o Duty 4
I respected that people good at shooters would enjoy it more, but i couldn't beat the easiest difficulty so i can't say i had fun with it

 

[Librarian Mike]

Absolutely Ico for me. It was beautiful and unique, but it just pissed me off because I couldn't save the girl whenever those shadow things appeared. Also, the fact she would run off at any opportunity made me crazy.

 

[Lex Darko]

Plenty of games:

GTA4, too much lag in the controls, traded it in 5 days after purchase, Saints Row 2 is better.

Dark Sector, bloom/HDR effects hurt my eyes so I always take them off but you can't do that with Dark Sector so I can't play it for than 30 minutes.

Every Half Life game, to me the games really are just another set of FPS games and doesn't feel all that special, I respect that it's so mod-able and some of the best mods have even become full games (which I do enjoy) but the half-life series just isn't fun for me and I can't even bring myself to finish it. Which is sad because I love shooters but these days I think I'm just addicted to the 3rd person view. For that I blame Max Payne, Gears of War, and Oblivion, Mass Effect and Fallout 3.

UT3 I actually have two versions(PC and PS3) of this game but it just doesn't feel like it has the following UT2004/2003 had and there all these great mods out for the game but so few dedicated servers that run the better mods like Gears of Unreal, Jetpack mod, show damage mod. So, why have two verisons? Because I like UT3 but when ever I start having fun all I can think is wouldn't it be better if I could play with this mods active.

 

[Lvl 64 Klutz]

Total War series for me. I bought Medieval II because I am extremely impressed at the game's ability to instill a grand sense of scale in the battles, and I thought the quasi-real time battles would take away from the tedium of the genre. It certainly does, and I can truly respect the innovative ideas, yet the gameplay still remains too tedious for me to enjoy.

 

[Yooz]

Unreal Tournament 3. It's too fast for me, not to mention the lag.

 

[Vlane]

Half-Life 2. It's so boring but you have to respect the game for what it is.

 

[theSovietConnection]

Anything made by Valve. I just don't understand why there's such a self proclaimed 'elite' following around their games.

But I respect them because somehow, they've made it happen.

Seconded, though it's really the part I bolded that ruined it for me.

I'd also say Gears of War 2. The first one was fun, and I have to respect the series for a story I actually like, unfortunately it seems they put too much focus on the Lancer for 2.