Objectively good, subjectively bad

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Soviet Steve

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May 23, 2009
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If we simply go by the title I'd say Far Cry 2. Technically sound game, looked pretty enough for its time. The subjective qualities, the storyline, characters and so on were rubbish however.
 

Angry Camel

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Mar 21, 2011
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The COD and Battlefield franchises. Both look fun and I enjoy watching them being played, but I can rarely stand to play them for too long.
 

DracoSuave

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Uncharted. There, I said it. I didn't really like it that much.

I can see the appeal tho, and what it is to them.

Not really into God of War either.
 

veloper

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Jan 20, 2009
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Colin Mcrae Rally games and the Gran Turismo series

I just don't like straight racing games, but the games are good for the genre.
 

someonehairy-ish

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Everything by Rockstar. GTA,red dead... all of them look great, have a huge amount of detail, blah, but I just can't play them.
 

Michael Hirst

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JesterRaiin said:
Dead Space 2.
It's superior in most ways to its predecessor, however... Meh. There's something missing. I don't know, maybe i got used to silent Isaac or something...
Dead Space was rather lonely, you only got the odd radio chat through from your two team mates neither of which you could fully trust. In Dead Space 2 you couldn't walk 5 steps without another human cahracter especially that woman who is completely forgettable talking with you. A big part of a horror amtosphere is to feel alone and powerless. Dead Space 1 managed alone but failed on powerless, The Plasma cutter alone could DESTROY enemies. Dead Space 2 failed on both alone and powerless therefore it wasn't as scary. (I still enjoyed the game though) Oh also Issac being silent doesn't make you feel like him but it does make him seem more distant from the other characters whcih enchances his loneliness.

For me the Call of Duty series and I suppose just what shooters have become. I don't like moving slow and only having 2 weapons with regen health it just removes fun and depth from the game. It always feels like there's little control over getting killed in newer games, like death is unavoidable whereas playing Unreal Torunament 2004 always made me feel like I fucked up when I got killed. This was mainly because double jumping and dodging combined with the most powerful weapons needing time to travel before hitting added a shit ton of depth to the game which is just gone when in Call of Duty you get an aim assist and all bullets hit dead center of the target while you have absolutely no way to dodge the incoming fire.

Istvan said:
If we simply go by the title I'd say Far Cry 2. Technically sound game, looked pretty enough for its time. The subjective qualities, the storyline, characters and so on were rubbish however.
That was poor objectively they made so many bad design choices it's unbelieveable just look at the travel times for every mission and how monotonous and routine it was to drive from location to location, stopping to take out a boring checkpoint, repair car, keep driving, rinse repeat.
 

adamtm

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If I see a good game and don't feel inclined to play it theres usually -some- reason for it.

Like for example Dragon Age Origins, I can see its a good game, but the cutscene/dialogue-mania and ENDLESS FUCKING FADE makes this game unplayable for me.

Red Dead Redemption - can't play it on console, had the same problem with GTA IV and Alan Wake. Controls are weird. But its a console exclusive.

Penumbra/Cryostasis - Freaks me the fuck out, i dont like horror themed games in general

Star Wars games in general - KOTOR2 being the exception, i do not like the star wars setting.

etc.

So in essence I always know why I can't play a game even if its supposedly good.
 

Soviet Steve

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Michael Hirst said:
That was poor objectively they made so many bad design choices it's unbelieveable just look at the travel times for every mission and how monotonous and routine it was to drive from location to location, stopping to take out a boring checkpoint, repair car, keep driving, rinse repeat.
Believe it or not I have heard of people who felt it was a brilliantly designed and deep game. Design isn't a science, by objective I mean the technical point, and in my experience it worked well and looked good at the time, though a glorified tech demo is still a tech demo.
 

ABLb0y

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Gears of War. I can see why people like it, but all the characters (apart from Baird and possibly Sam, if just because she's voiced by Claudia Black) are unlikable and for some reason I identified more with the locusts than the humans. Yes, they're evil, but at least they had the good taste to shut their bloody mouths once in a while.
 

Nazulu

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Honestly, no. I know exactly why I don't like or complete certain games, and dismiss others.
 

Zenichi

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warhammer online wrath of heroes..granted its a beta..i played it for about 25 mins lost all interest completely altho i see it having some good mechanics and gameplay + i love all things warhammer. just can't touch it anymore...
 

Michael Hirst

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Istvan said:
Michael Hirst said:
That was poor objectively they made so many bad design choices it's unbelieveable just look at the travel times for every mission and how monotonous and routine it was to drive from location to location, stopping to take out a boring checkpoint, repair car, keep driving, rinse repeat.
Believe it or not I have heard of people who felt it was a brilliantly designed and deep game. Design isn't a science, by objective I mean the technical point, and in my experience it worked well and looked good at the time, though a glorified tech demo is still a tech demo.
It looked good, I don't dispute that but it incorporated many elements one would see in an open world RPG but without being truly structured as such which lead to predictable encounters and an upgrade system that was never compensated for in the difficulty level. Taking down checkpoints and doing side missions were grinding elements, the design for the open world meant that all encounters had to be balanced for someone who hadn't unlocked anything so each checkpoint could only number with a few men because what if you'd just wandered in there with the starting equipment?

There's also fairly objective disputes with the game such as a stealth system that only works half of the time and the developers being completely unable to program friendly AI when you work for that faction then just leaving it out of the game completely.

Lets also not forget how it introduces factions that have almost no effect on gameplay, you end up working for both no matter what because you can't progress otherwise...so what's the point? You're supposed to introduce 2 opposing factions with conflicting ideologies to add depth and make the player choose one of them to suppport, Far Cry 2 doesn't let you do this, instead you work for and get betrayed by both making the whole thing rather worthless.
 

WaysideMaze

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DracoSuave said:
Uncharted. There, I said it. I didn't really like it that much.

I can see the appeal tho, and what it is to them.
My older brother raved and raved about how great Uncharted was, so I finally got around to trying it and...yeah. It just did nothing for me. I could understand what he saw in the game, but personally, nothing. I just found myself wishing I was playing something else.
 

ScoopMeister

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endtherapture said:
Elder Scrolls games. Everyone loves them, but to me the gameworlds just feel empty and lonely and too vast and I don't see the point in them - they're just like an offline MMORPG. I can understand why people like them and they're of course massive achievements but I just don't want to waste my hours on them.
This. As a fantasy world, I just can't seem to enjoy it. Although to be fair, Skyrim does look pretty awesome.
 

Soviet Steve

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Michael Hirst said:
There's also fairly objective disputes with the game such as a stealth system that only works half of the time and the developers being completely unable to program friendly AI when you work for that faction then just leaving it out of the game completely.
One could also make the case that it was a design choice to leave out friendly AI, though I really don't feel like defending this tech demo more than I have to. Again, I heard praise about the stealth system being briliant and in my own experience it worked perfectly fine.

Michael Hirst said:
Lets also not forget how it introduces factions that have almost no effect on gameplay, you end up working for both no matter what because you can't progress otherwise...so what's the point? You're supposed to introduce 2 opposing factions with conflicting ideologies to add depth and make the player choose one of them to suppport, Far Cry 2 doesn't let you do this, instead you work for and get betrayed by both making the whole thing rather worthless.
How you prefer factions to be handled is a subjective, not an objective matter.

"A chocolate sundae has more calories than a turd" is objective. The game functions and the tech behind it is pretty solid, therefore being objectively sound.

"A turd tastes better than a chocolate sundae" is subjective - The game's design is not liked by many people (Myself included), but that doesn't change the fact that it works. The factions is something you can dispute, the game being technically sound is not.

Opposite examples would be Skyrim or Fallout: New Vegas. These games didn't function too well and the technology behind them was inferior to most things on the market, but the subjective aspects were enjoyed by a larger number of people than those of Far Cry 2.
 

Father Tunde

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Uncharted. Looks beautiful, and I found it so very... ugh. Only bought the second, and didn't finish it, though I had a fun watching my cousin fully playthrough Uncharted 3 one day last week. Would make a better movie, though I have doubts that it would be a very good one.

In both the Resistance series and Gears of War series, I only bought the second installment, and had good fun with my brother in co-operative playing, although I found the only in both quite lacking.
 

Guffe

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Angry Camel said:
The COD and Battlefield franchises. Both look fun and I enjoy watching them being played, but I can rarely stand to play them for too long.
Same here, when friends play them I get all excited and shout stuff like "reload" or "top left" or "GRENADE!" but when I pick up the controller I can play a few rounds and then it just falls of me. And the thing that bugs me is that I don't know why...
 

Uncompetative

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GTA IV is an amazingly ambitious seemingly do anything open world sandbox simulated ironic comedy city. How could I not adore it?

GTA IV gets mired into a storyline I can't abide, rather than simulate warring gangs and corrupt police whose activities do not require my direct involvement, but can be happening "off-stage" as it were. The flow of money, drugs, sex, fear, trust and political power could have been used to drive the actions of NPC AI rather than some miserable written-down beforehand script. Your involvement would then be more RPG / RTS.

I'd hoped that Rockstar would do this with GTA V, but it looks as if we're getting another linear story.

I'd hoped that Rockstar would wait until the release of the Xbox 1080 to then do the whole game as a rich 1st Person Adventure, a bit like:


Although, this video has better contrast and textures whilst lacking in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Hm4K5_Pr0

Also, GTA IV is too orange. This is how "New York" should look in a game:

 
Aug 25, 2009
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Portal, Dragon Age, PROTOTYPE, Gears of War (I guess, if you like that sort of thing) Bioshock.

All of them, I can see why they are considered good, i can see why people throw down perfect scores at their feet, I can see that they are techincally brilliant, or fantastically well told, or whatever.

Don't like them. Haven't finished Dragon Age, Only finished Portal and PROTOTYPE once, haven't finished Gears of War, only played Bioshock once while round a friend's.
 

MiracleOfSound

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Jan 3, 2009
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Psychonauts.

I've tried to play it 3 times now and each time I've been bored shitless after an hour or two.

I just don't find Raz a very compelling character and despite the very clever level design I just can't enjoy the game.