Misjudged Games

[Scrustle]

I think Test Drive Unlimited 2 got unfairly reviewed. It had it's fair share of problems for sure, but it was actually a pretty good game.

The Need for Speed Shift games were unfairly judged too. They were given great reviews even though they were both pretty terrible. The same can be said for several other more recent NFS games.

I think the TDU 2 reviews I read were fair. It wasn't horrendous but it hadn't moved on from the first one and mechanically it was even more broken. I lost count of the amount of times I got stuck in scenery or fell through the floor before I gave up with it. Also the graphics weren't great and the handling was sloppy at best.

I agree with you about NFS Shift thought. I gave up after an hour of trying to make my first car drive properly. Hot Pursuit is good but I'm playing through the Run just now and it's borderline as to whether I'll bother finishing it.

I thought TDU2 did quite a lot better than the first. I've never got stuck in geometry or anything. A couple of times I've hit a curb strangely and it threw me in to the air in flips and spins, but I think they patched that since it only happened when the game had just come out. I think the graphics are pretty good. The detail on the environments isn't amazing, but they are just so huge you can't really expect them to be amazing. I think they do their job pretty well though. The cars look great and the lighting is really awesome too. I don't think the handling feels "sloppy", it's more the opposite. To me it feels pretty rigid. It feels pretty simple too, but I still find it fun. It's way better than Shift anyway. I don't think I would say it's better than TDU1 since I spent far much more time and had much more fun on the first, but I think the second is better in several technical areas.

I personally didn't like Hot Pursuit. I found the handling in that to be pretty terrible. The game looks fantastic, but the turn in is so vague. There seems to be a delay between your control input and the car actually turning, and when it does turn there seems to be no predictability over how sharply your car turns. It seems completely random. Also the fact the world is so small is pretty irritating. I also really don't like the menu system on that game. I guess this is more of a personal taste thing but I hate how you have to wait ages after each race or when you unlock something for a hundred bloody splash screens to come up. Just get on with it! I also think the HUD in the menus is too busy a lot of the time.

I only played the demo for The Run, and that's all I needed of that game. The handling was just a joke. It had a similar problem as Hot Pursuit in that your control input doesn't seem to have any relation to what your car actually does. The cars felt completely floaty and unresponsive too. I felt like I wasn't even playing the game, it was just playing itself and I was just along for the ride.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Some people can't see past the whole "sex appeal" thing Bayonetta has going on and have to ruthlessly misjudge the game on that sole factor. Even though she stops being "attractive" about half an hour into the game because the rampant oversexualisation has made you sort of numb to it. She's just in-character at that point.

For once you can say she's "ironicly sexy" and actually mean it...

I think the scores are generally high, think IGN gave it an 8 or 9. Not that their scores mean shit all to me.

Oh and they didn't give Persona 4 a 10/10. It was an 8 I believe. They are dead to me.

Plus when are people going to stop giving scores altogether? For once Yahtzee's opinion that a complex opinion can't be translated into a mere number is 100% correct.

But then they won't have a shiny number to paste on the box... We can't have that now can we?

 

[The Harkinator]

I think Test Drive Unlimited 2 got unfairly reviewed. It had it's fair share of problems for sure, but it was actually a pretty good game.

The Need for Speed Shift games were unfairly judged too. They were given great reviews even though they were both pretty terrible. The same can be said for several other more recent NFS games.

I think the TDU 2 reviews I read were fair. It wasn't horrendous but it hadn't moved on from the first one and mechanically it was even more broken. I lost count of the amount of times I got stuck in scenery or fell through the floor before I gave up with it. Also the graphics weren't great and the handling was sloppy at best.

I agree with you about NFS Shift thought. I gave up after an hour of trying to make my first car drive properly. Hot Pursuit is good but I'm playing through the Run just now and it's borderline as to whether I'll bother finishing it.

But there is no unpredictability in TDU2. Racing games need to have that sense that everything happens differently each race, even if it the same drivers on the same course. The opponents in TDU2 follow pre determined routes along the race course and only deviate if you crash into them. They will happily drive along their route and run straight into you if you lie in their path, the AI does not react to the players actions i.e. if you brake for a corner the AI does not react and slow down or try to pass you, it keeps driving along the road until it slams into the back of you.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

I thought that every Halo game with the exception of 1, and Reach were seriously overrated. That put too much of a focus on the multiplayer, and didn't develop the single player enough.

 

[G32420NL]

FFXII has been pretty widely panned, when all it really did was make a few pacing mistakes and have a shit storyline. It was pretty awesome if you didn't take it too seriously and try to understand the storyline.

Panned? It's got a 92 on Metacritic. It's got 61 positive reviews and 3 mixed. It's even got a pretty high user score with 7.7.

I think Test Drive Unlimited 2 got unfairly reviewed. It had it's fair share of problems for sure, but it was actually a pretty good game.

The Need for Speed Shift games were unfairly judged too. They were given great reviews even though they were both pretty terrible. The same can be said for several other more recent NFS games.

I am a big fan of test drive unlimited but tdu 2 is pretty crap, i still play it because car collection games are rare on pc but the driving physics are screwed up, networking is a nightmare (taking a half hour to be able to find people that are actually in the same room, let alone start a race) and another thing, steeringwheel support sucks. in tdu 1 you had a functional clutch, starter button, nice ffb, steering ratio's that worked while cruising AND racing. now all the pedals are digital and my g25 feels floaty all over the place. stupid thing is: the last patch only made it worse.

I agree on the nfs side of things, main thing is that many people dont realise is that shift sort of a split off of the series. i love the latest nfs hot pursuit, i liked the run aswell, bit short though. the scenery alone gave me (positive) goosbumbs

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

I just checked metacritic for Splatterhoue. PS3-59 points and for Xbox360 it`s 62 points out of 100 and the user score is at 7.4 from 10. 7.5-8.0 would be my personal score. The scores mean nothing but better sales would have meant a sure sequel and there aren`t nearly enough brawlers out there, especially not ones such as this game...makes me sad.

edit
Since the user score is almost like my personal score this isn´t the best example for a misjudged game.

 

[ZedLeg]

I think Test Drive Unlimited 2 got unfairly reviewed. It had it's fair share of problems for sure, but it was actually a pretty good game.

The Need for Speed Shift games were unfairly judged too. They were given great reviews even though they were both pretty terrible. The same can be said for several other more recent NFS games.

I think the TDU 2 reviews I read were fair. It wasn't horrendous but it hadn't moved on from the first one and mechanically it was even more broken. I lost count of the amount of times I got stuck in scenery or fell through the floor before I gave up with it. Also the graphics weren't great and the handling was sloppy at best.

I agree with you about NFS Shift thought. I gave up after an hour of trying to make my first car drive properly. Hot Pursuit is good but I'm playing through the Run just now and it's borderline as to whether I'll bother finishing it.

I personally didn't like Hot Pursuit. I found the handling in that to be pretty terrible. The game looks fantastic, but the turn in is so vague. There seems to be a delay between your control input and the car actually turning, and when it does turn there seems to be no predictability over how sharply your car turns. It seems completely random. Also the fact the world is so small is pretty irritating. I also really don't like the menu system on that game. I guess this is more of a personal taste thing but I hate how you have to wait ages after each race or when you unlock something for a hundred bloody splash screens to come up. Just get on with it! I also think the HUD in the menus is too busy a lot of the time.

I liked the drifty way the cars handled, although I will concede that it wasn't a long lived game. There wasn't a huge variation in feel between cars. Some were slightly more slidey some were slightly less. It was a good mix of Burnout and NFS though which is what you'd hope for from Criterion. Hopefully Forza Horizon or the new Citerion NFS game will be the sandbox driving game we've been waiting for.

 

[Worgen]

Brutal Legend, I made the mistake of listening to the reviews and canceled my preorder of it, when I did finally get it I ended up loving the fuck out of it. Even the much maligned stage battles, in fact I effin loved those, I'm still pissed at critics for talking me out of getting it earlier.

 

[Legion]

Almost all of the Xbox magazines in the UK gave GTA IV a 10/10. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the game, I played it a fair amount and despite the connection issues, I thought the multiplayer was a blast. But it is not a perfect game.

I do not understand why Bioshock 2 receives so much dislike. Honestly, I truly don't. The combat is ten times better, and a hell of a lot more fun. Research and hacking are more intuitive as well as being more enjoyable. The game-play is mixed up with the occasional 'create a defensive perimeter and hold them off', the story is actually quite original compared to the first games, which is very closely copied from System Shock 2 (I do love Bioshock 1 by the way).

The only criticism I see, which seems to be almost the entire reason for the dislike is that it is set in the same city as the last one, and so it doesn't feel "unique" any more. Which strikes me as hypocritical to the extreme considering how many other games do little more than add a few new guns in between each iteration.

Skyrim is overrated. I like the game a lot, and have put a lot of hours into it, but the way some game related sites and magazines rave, you'd think it doesn't have a single flaw, which is simply not true. It's got a lot of great things, but when it comes down to it, it's incredibly shallow.

Just look at how many different endings/consequences there are in Fallout New Vegas, and yet in Skyrim people barely acknowledge anything that you have done.

I thought that every Halo game with the exception of 1, and Reach were seriously overrated. That put too much of a focus on the multiplayer, and didn't develop the single player enough.

As a fan of Halo in general, I agree entirely.

 

[Darkmantle]

I actually really enjoyed Alpha Protocol as well. I don't know why it scored so low, I guess I'm just lucky and missed the bugs.

 

[Techno Squidgy]

Alright, the gist of this topic is that I want your opinions on game reviews that you believe were way unfair. This can be in the instance that a game was given too low a score, or even too high. One example that I'll give (for my opinion) is Alpha Protocol. I realize that it has it's flaws, but I think that it's a good enough game to deserve a 6 or 7. But definitely not the lowly 2 that it was given from Destructoid.

I won't be the first or the last to say this, but number ratings are meaningless and arbitrary. Which is why I don't understand why people get so bloody worked up about them. It's like the Jimquisition episode 'Hate out of Ten', that just stupefies me. You can't quantitatively judge the quality of a piece of art, it's just not possible. Then again, I struggle to understand people in general.

 

[Nadia Castle]

Star Fox Adventures. Most publications (especially the Nintendo magazines) chewed it a new arsehole for being more of a Zelda styled game and bitterness that Rare was no longer Nintendos. Damn the fact that it was horrendously fun and one of the best presented games on the Cube. Also Lumines on PSP. It was a fun little game but the successor to Tetris? Really?

 

[Beat14]

Almost all of the Xbox magazines in the UK gave GTA IV a 10/10. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the game, I played it a fair amount and despite the connection issues, I thought the multiplayer was a blast. But it is not a perfect game.

I do not understand why Bioshock 2 receives so much dislike. Honestly, I truly don't. The combat is ten times better, and a hell of a lot more fun. Research and hacking are more intuitive as well as being more enjoyable. The game-play is mixed up with the occasional 'create a defensive perimeter and hold them off', the story is actually quite original compared to the first games, which is very closely copied from System Shock 2 (I do love Bioshock 1 by the way).

The only criticism I see, which seems to be almost the entire reason for the dislike is that it is set in the same city as the last one, and so it doesn't feel "unique" any more. Which strikes me as hypocritical to the extreme considering how many other games do little more than add a few new guns in between each iteration.

I felt like I must be severely dysfunctional to have really enjoyed playing through Bioshock 2. Sure the plot didn't quite grasp me like the first but I didn't feel let down or dissatisfied.


For me, I think Jagged Alliance Back in Action got slated a bit much. I've never played the launch version of the game so maybe that is why. However having played it recently... I love it. 30 hours in and still playing. For the record, I think the step away from turn based onto this hybrid system/real time was executed in a decent way and I welcome this change. In case you wonder, I have played the praised Jagged Alliance 2 and an expansion, both I loved.

The hardcore fans of JA2 dislike this new version, and I have my gripes with it too. Quite a few options are dumbed down, and where did "IMP" go, the make your own merc service. It's always nice to project a character from your mind onto something. (Mods helped most of my flaws with it, even though minor)

 

[ZedLeg]

Almost all of the Xbox magazines in the UK gave GTA IV a 10/10. Now don't get me wrong, I liked the game, I played it a fair amount and despite the connection issues, I thought the multiplayer was a blast. But it is not a perfect game.

Totally agree. It took me four attempts to complete GTA 4 and by that I mean just finishing the story not 100% completion. It looked great and some of the missions were awesome but for me the story felt flat. I didn't care about any of the characters so it didn't work for me. The expansions were better but it was still no Vice City.

 

[Pink Gregory]

A word on the word 'overrated'

When someone uses the word 'overrated', is there an objective consensus as to who apparently rated it in too overzealous a way?

 

[Wayneguard]

There are two that immediately spring to mind. First is the Tenchu series. It's like anybody who reviewed any of the series after the first two (the ones on PS1) completely forgot how awful the controls, the AI, the story, the voice acting, etc... were in those first two games. Not saying that I don't love the shit out of Tenchu: Stealth Assassins and, to a lesser extent, Birth of the Stealth Assassins; but, Wrath of Heaven, Tenchu Z and the others not only manage to be good or great in their own right, but manage to improve upon the games that came before. Isn't that the exact thing that reviewers are always clamoring for anyways?

Second is Mirror's Edge. When it came out, everyone was like, "zomFG dat gaem iz liek all in da sewerz cooda been so gud but is sooo gaaaay!!!" No seriously listen to me here and now... the sewer level is one fucking level and it plays no differently from the levels where you're on rooftops. ME had such a great ambiance, fantastic controls and was (still is) completely unique. Mirror's Edge is fucking fantastic.

 

[cjspyres]

Alright, the gist of this topic is that I want your opinions on game reviews that you believe were way unfair. This can be in the instance that a game was given too low a score, or even too high. One example that I'll give (for my opinion) is Alpha Protocol. I realize that it has it's flaws, but I think that it's a good enough game to deserve a 6 or 7. But definitely not the lowly 2 that it was given from Destructoid.

I won't be the first or the last to say this, but number ratings are meaningless and arbitrary. Which is why I don't understand why people get so bloody worked up about them. It's like the Jimquisition episode 'Hate out of Ten', that just stupefies me. You can't quantitatively judge the quality of a piece of art, it's just not possible. Then again, I struggle to understand people in general.

Except that he still uses them. So I suppose that makes him a hypocrite?

 

[Terminate421]

See the box cover? Whats the first thing you think of.

Typical pokemon spin-off right? Well, below that shell turns out to be on the greatest stories I've ever played through. Writing is solid and while a few lines of dialogue throughout the whole thing are cheesy, its still fucking amazing.

 

[D_West]

I think Bethesda is massively overrated, and haven't made a good game since Morrowind. Fallout 3 and Skyrim were particularly bad in my eyes.

 

[TrevHead]

Mainly, though, I'd point to The Last Remnant. The game was sprawling, had great designs of characters, monsters, setting and items, a solid storyline, and a combat system with a surprising amount of depth for those who bothered looking for it. It's a true shame that it wasn't better received for I can not think of another 'new' franchise with greater potential.

I played the PC version as a way to get back into the genre and I must say for it's faults (like not been able to properlly direct your team mates to cast a certain spell) it liked it, probably too much because I sank way too much time into the sidequests and filler that I utterly burnt myself out before I beat it.

I think Square Enix should take the good parts of the battle system, especially the RTS style big battles and put them into another game.