Poll: Games you didn't like but were supposed to

[Infinatex]

Oh hi! I didn't see you there. Well now that you are here sit down and listen.

I bought Mass Effect a few months ago (due to both a friends recommendations and the MASSeffectIVE fan base it seems to have on here), got home, sat down and turned on my 360 and stuck the disc in. I was prepared for the greatest gaming experience of my life. And then... well then nothing.

I got about an hour into it and was just not having any fun. My whole experience involved me creating a character and giving him a backstory (which was pretty much relayed back to me in the first 5mins of play), then landing on some unknown planet where I proceeded to wander around this plant lost, cold and confused. I met a girl, got lost again and then my attention span evaporated and I gave up. I have tried to go back and give it another go but it just doesn't work for me.

So Escapists, has this happened to you? What game have you played, that everyone said was great but just couldn't get into?

 

[Sacman]

Fallout 3 it just didn't work, IMO...

 

[Zacharine]

Dragon Age: Origins.

It was supposed to be the new Neverwinter Nights, the next-gen iteration of Baldur's Gate. The pinnacle of 'traditional' western RPGs.

Yet I found it cliche, the content boring, most of the NPCs utterly predictable, combat unintuitive and lacking depth and the gameworld generic and uninteresting.

I barely managed to garner the will to play it trough even once. A second playtrough, ever, will not happen.

And I'm the guy who loves RPGs of all kinds.

 

[Diablo27]

I personally love Mass Effect but there's nothing wrong with you for having an opinion.

I have a similar tale, Red Dead Redemption. There was so much hype and my friends made it seem so much better, I finished it because I won't trade in a game I have started but haven't finished but it was terrible! The ending was good but I HATED the game!

 

[LogicNProportion]

Too Human.

Got conned out of 60 bucks by my friend so I could buy it on release day with him.

Don't worry, I got him back with Red Dead Redemption. Don't worry, I'm not comparing the two like that, but he loathed it, and while I still like it, you have to admit, it was far from what it was hyped up to be.

And I was looking forward to the Roaming Multiplayer so much...

 

[Space Spoons]

I had a similar experience with Mass Effect. I played it for a couple of hours, but I just couldn't get over how awkward the combat system, upgrade system and general mechanics felt to me. It just seemed like none of the key game mechanics were explained very well, and once I finally did get a handle on how they were supposed to work, I found them to be incredibly sluggish and counter-intuitive.

I've gone back and tried several times, always with the same result. I really, really want to enjoy the game, especially because I love what little I saw of the storyline, as well as the branching conversation options. Thing is, though, if all I wanted was a good story, I'd just go read a book. I need solid gameplay from my games, and ME just didn't seem to meet that requirement.

 

[NotSoNimble]

I voted Yup.

There is something wrong with you.

Why? The fact that you ask the question : So I didn't like ME... Is there something wrong with me?

It is impossible for everyone to like any one game.

Feeling insecure enough to ask if something is wrong with you, means something is wrong. Don't let others opinions confuse your own preference.

Don't let any fanboy ever tell you otherwise.

Now go forth into the world and be proud of your taste in entertainment!

 

[Bakuryukun]

I wouldn't say that I DIDN'T like the game I'm going to list, I enjoyed at, but I thought there were many more noteworthy titles in it's series, and yet people for some reason think it's the best game ever I'm not saying they're wrong, I mean everyone is entitled to their own opinion and all but I personally just thought it was just plain ol' good. Not great, not fantastic, I just thought it was good.


Ocarina of Time.

I personally liked Link to the Past, Link's awakening, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, Minish Cap and Spirit Tracks all better than OoT. I don't hate it by any means....I just don't necessarily love it as much as most folks seem to.

 

[DMonkey]

With the amount we are charged for games, shouldn't every game fall into the category of "suppose to like"?
Anyways, Devil May Cry series. Really didn't like it.

 

[The_Deleted]

I think with that much hype around a game you expect to be entertained, you expect a fantastic experience... and when those expectations are not met...
I had the same with GTAIV, bought in to the hype, consumed every bit of information I could and when I finally got the game, by trading in a DS, guess what happened? GUTTED!
That said, I tried it a few times since knowing what to expect and was still bored shitless. Even the DLC games just left me cold.

 

[sirkickass]

I'm not a fan of Mass Effect either, something about the time it takes to get going and the combat just didnt appeal to me, but each to his own hmm?

 

[chainer1216]

oddly enough, i did the same thing you did, fast forward a couple months and i saw a trailer for mass effect 2 that blew my mind so i tried picking it up again, turns out my original mistake was that i played a soldier, instead of... well any of the other classes.

and OT: nah, everybody has they're own opinions, same thing happened to me and CoD:MW. everyone i knew and a large part of the gaming community said it was awesome. i bought it, beat the game once in one sitting and returned it the next day, its the only game i ever returned after buying it.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Mass Effect for me too and your description matches perfectly with mine. I just can't be bothered to even try playing ME now.

 

[thealmightykain]

Half Life 2

!STOP! I'm not saying I think it's a bad game. Hell, from an academic standpoint I think it's great (good writing, level design, puzzle/gameplay design, etc.). Something about it just doesn't click with me no matter how much I try. I get an hour in and lose all will to continue for no bloody reason (even with the Little Game Critic voice in the back of my head saying, 'Huh, this game is built damn well,').

I want to like this game but I just can't through no fault of its own.

 

[feingat35]

GTA IV. I HATED this game SO FUCKING MUCH, and I don't get what people see in it. It's a mediocre, poorly written, overrated mess of a game, and I hate it more than I've ever hated anything.

 

[Staticous]

WoW. I did the ten day free trial. played alone, with friends, played it for more than three hours in a row. played it in ten minute bursts but i couldn't do it. i just don't like WOW.

 

[Harlemura]

LittleBigPlanet.
The designer's levels were okay, but that's not what the game was about. It was meant to be about creating your own levels and playing others.
So why was that part so crap?

Everything you build just falls down, falls apart or just doesn't work, and the only way to fix it is to spend hours re-doing it so it's perfect to the last centimetre.
I think I'll leave the level designing to the level designers.
And apparently I'm not the only one who found this problem. I spent two months playing it pretty regularly and only found three or four levels that were worth playing.

 

[migo]

I run into this a lot. It happens whenever I've waited for several years to play the game. In my case it's Grand Theft Auto. It just doesn't impress me, I played Oblivion first, and then gave a shot at GTA3 - it's actually pretty mediocre compared to what has come since, but naturally it was ground breaking. I've got the same issue with Zelda and Metroid. They were the first games to introduce certain features, and for that people loved them and were hooked, but having played much better games since I just plain don't like them.

I even have it for games I liked at first and then go back to. Half Life just isn't good anymore but it was awesome when I first played it. Unreal Tournament on the other hand is still just as good. So is Super Mario Land. It's not all that common for a game to still be awesome years, or even decades after its release.