What popular game(s) do you frequently see being shat upon that maybe don't deserve the level of ire they receive?
I ask because recently I've had a new-found enthusiasm for Skryim, an RPG that seems to suffer its fair share of derision around these parts. I feel like, as far as hack-and-slash RPGs go, Skyrim has a lot to offer - beautiful vistas, elegant art design (albeit ripped pretty directly from LOTR [http://i.imgur.com/rZKgk.jpg] at times,) interesting lore and a more measured approach to world-building than a lot of its contemporaries, and that's ignoring the more obvious stuff like customization and map size. I even enjoy the combat, for what it is - they can't all be Dark Souls, after all.
Show me another multiplayer game where you can play 4 player split screen online from a single account. Can't do it? No, didn't think so.
Halo is one of the best multiplayer party games because you can get 4 people on a single console playing against other players from around the world. It's fucking great and it's something no other game does.
Obligatory Mini-Rant: Overrated is such a stupid term. In order for something to be over (or under) rated, I would have to know your exact tastes and likings. I think Skyrim was an OK game (at best); am I not "rating" it correctly? There's bound to be something that I love that you don't like. Does that mean your rating is wrong? It's a useless term that gives no information other than "I like/don't like this game and I think other people like/don't like it enough) /mini-rant
I've got two games that everyone suddenly decided were overrated after a few months of them being awesome.
The Last of Us: LoU is STILL my game of the generation and it might very well be my favorite game I've ever played period. A cool twist on the zombie apocalypse combined with an excellent story and downright gorgeous visuals with an excellent use of color, I adore this game. This is the kind of game that if that story hooks you, you're going to love it and if it doesn't, you'll think it's alright at best. I wish I could let people who hated it feel the range of emotions I had towards the end of the game because that would help them understand why I believe it is the game of the generation.
Spec-Ops: The Line: (Do we still need spoilers for this? Alright...I'll put it in just in case so spoiler free until the spoiler box). I loved this game. I went into it not exactly knowing what to expect (I just heard that it was really good) and was pretty unimpressed for the first few hours. Then...shit got real. The game sinks you deeper and deeper into the mind of Walker and the cracks that are appearing in his mental state. It's like Silent Hill invaded my Call of Duty game.
and then the White Phosphorous happened. I swear that the WP scene became a huge knock against the game MONTHS after the game came out. For whatever reason, that scene went from a powerful blow that destroyed Walker's psyche and a real look at the mirror for the player into a "the game forced me therefore it's stupid!". As a fan of the Military FPS genre, that scene blew my freaking face off. It is so reminiscent of the AC-130 levels in CoD and the same kind of glossy-look came into my eyes as I just mindlessly blew the living hell out of anything and everything. Maybe that's why people turned against the scene later; non Military FPS people jumped into the game and didn't have the same mindset I had going in...
Edit: Wow, I created a mini-shit storm with one of my choices. Go me!
Lore really took me out of Skyrim. Only a handful of the games lore impressed me when I really got into it, and halfway I was feeling pretty cheated in terms of writing. In particular the part where the game tries to split you between dragon racism and not dragon racism felt pretty stupid, and you were only allowed to choose from things rebellious teenagers would say.
In terms of combat, the game was both an awful rpg and an awful hack and slash. One auto attack and power attack is amazing hack and slash gameplay. Shields were amazingly garbage endgame, i'd be suprised to see anybody ever use them on the harder difficulties at all. There are three weapon types and they are balanced somewhat stupidly, and I bet if you looked into it axes would be complete garbage(having diverse weapons is rare in rpgs so this isn't a huge deal). Choosing race is basically choosing which ugly potatoe you want to look like(MUST.NOT.BE.RACIST.), with high elves/breton being overpowered. Sneaking is only useable when the enemies are easilly dispatched, otherwise you have forced combat. The only real gameplay is the spells, which there is a nice selection for, but not really any remote balance.
I'm going to have to go with one of my favourite games of the last couple of years in Gone Home. Yes, it's not a traditional game with an abundance of traditional game mechanics. Yes, it's short and without much replay value, meaning it wasn't necessarily worth it's price at launch. But, if you don't go into it wanting/needing a traditional game and just let yourself be enveloped by the experience, it is a truly exceptional game. It also really helps to not be spoiled on the game beforehand (which, sadly, is pretty much impossible now) so that the storyline and the way the game subverts traditional genre expectations can play out as they were intended.
I'll fully admit that there are a lot of qualifications in the above paragraph, and I'll also fully admit that Gone Home is absolutely not for everyone, but it's a game taken in context that fully deserves all of the praise it gets even if it's not your cup of tea.
So... "My Favourite Games That Some Meanyhead Once Had The Gall To Criticize"?
Meh.
How about I just argue with other other people over their choices instead?
tippy2k2 said:
Spec-Ops: The Line: (Do we still need spoilers for this? Alright...I'll put it in just in case so spoiler free until the spoiler box). I loved this game. I went into it not exactly knowing what to expect (I just heard that it was really good) and was pretty unimpressed for the first few hours. Then...shit got real. The game sinks you deeper and deeper into the mind of Walker and the cracks that are appearing in his mental state. It's like Silent Hill invaded my Call of Duty game.
and then the White Phosphorous happened. I swear that the WP scene became a huge knock against the game MONTHS after the game came out. For whatever reason, that scene went from a powerful blow that destroyed Walker's psyche and a real look at the mirror for the player into a "the game forced me therefore it's stupid!". As a fan of the Military FPS genre, that scene blew my freaking face off. It is so reminiscent of the AC-130 levels in CoD and the same kind of glossy-look came into my eyes as I just mindlessly blew the living hell out of anything and everything. Maybe that's why people turned against the scene later; non Military FPS people jumped into the game and didn't have the same mindset I had going in...
Even disregarding the whole trying-to-make-me-feel-guilty-about-a-scripted-event aspect, I still had problems with That Scene.
I mean, the driving point struck me as pretty infantile. "What's that you say game, mindlessly blowing people away from a position of remote invulnerability is kind of fucked up? Gosh, thank god I have you to tell me that game, never would have figured it out otherwise. It's not like I realised that while playing CoD4, or hell, while watching actual gun-cam footage."
Insightful, cutting commentary it is not.
Can't really commend it on a storytelling level either. You never get to know anything about Walker before he goes loopy. He's just Soldier Guy Voiced By Nolan North. So when the cracks start showing... so what? I don't know this guy. I am not remotely invested in his sanity or well being.
Also, the behaviour of his comrades makes no sense. In the flashbacks it shows them watching as he talks into the silent, broken radio and giving each other WTF looks. Why are they still following this guy?! He's clearly gone loopy. Military chain of command does not require a soldier to obey a raving nutcase who hears voices.
What's more, why does nobody even think to just retreat and ask for orders when they find themselves echanging fire with "friendly" troops? At first I assumed the sandstorms were blocking communication, but at one point Walker mentions the possibility of calling for evac, so they evidently have a method of communication, yet nobody ever thinks to use it.
Well i was going to "inb4 The last of overhyped crap that is us" but was beaten to it.
So Inb4 "muh dargonage:inquistion."
OT: The Crackdown Franchise. I see people holding it to a higher expectation than is needed. The second may have fallen flat but was still quite fun and the third is looking like its going back to its original Roots.
I'll agree with you on Skyrim (it's my second favourite game of all time).
I'll also add The Witcher 2. People bag on it for its dark story telling. Apparently it's kind of "in" to not like darker stories all of the sudden. Not sure why, we get plenty of lighter stories too. I kind of feel like a lot of people who use this criticism really haven't played the game. It just seems like a cheap, dismissive attitude that doesn't even give the game a chance. By all means, say that it's style isn't in your tastes, but don't criticize something for being too dark (or too happy for that matter) without actually playing it. If you play the game, and find the story suffers from trying to be too dark, then you are of course entitled to your criticism. To make matters stranger, the game isn't actually that dark. Sure, the plot deals with some hefty subjects and there's a lot of serious stuff going on, but there's plenty of humor as well.
Anyway, I realize that there are other complaints that can be made about the game, but that one seems to come up the most and it's the one I understand the least.
So... "My Favourite Games That Some Meanyhead Once Had The Gall To Criticize"?
Meh.
How about I just argue with other other people over their choices instead?
tippy2k2 said:
Spec-Ops: The Line: (Do we still need spoilers for this? Alright...I'll put it in just in case so spoiler free until the spoiler box). I loved this game. I went into it not exactly knowing what to expect (I just heard that it was really good) and was pretty unimpressed for the first few hours. Then...shit got real. The game sinks you deeper and deeper into the mind of Walker and the cracks that are appearing in his mental state. It's like Silent Hill invaded my Call of Duty game.
and then the White Phosphorous happened. I swear that the WP scene became a huge knock against the game MONTHS after the game came out. For whatever reason, that scene went from a powerful blow that destroyed Walker's psyche and a real look at the mirror for the player into a "the game forced me therefore it's stupid!". As a fan of the Military FPS genre, that scene blew my freaking face off. It is so reminiscent of the AC-130 levels in CoD and the same kind of glossy-look came into my eyes as I just mindlessly blew the living hell out of anything and everything. Maybe that's why people turned against the scene later; non Military FPS people jumped into the game and didn't have the same mindset I had going in...
Even disregarding the whole trying-to-make-me-feel-guilty-about-a-scripted-event aspect, I still had problems with That Scene.
I mean, the driving point struck me as pretty infantile. "What's that you say game, mindlessly blowing people away from a position of remote invulnerability is kind of fucked up? Gosh, thank god I have you to tell me that game, never would have figured it out otherwise. It's not like I realised that while playing CoD4, or hell, while watching actual gun-cam footage."
Insightful, cutting commentary it is not.
Can't really commend it on a storytelling level either. You never get to know anything about Walker before he goes loopy. He's just Soldier Guy Voiced By Nolan North. So when the cracks start showing... so what? I don't know this guy. I am not remotely invested in his sanity or well being.
Also, the behaviour of his comrades makes no sense. In the flashbacks it shows them watching as he talks into the silent, broken radio and giving each other WTF looks. Why are they still following this guy?! He's clearly gone loopy. Military chain of command does not require a soldier to obey a raving nutcase who hears voices.
What's more, why does nobody even think to just retreat and ask for orders when they find themselves echanging fire with "friendly" troops? At first I assumed the sandstorms were blocking communication, but at one point Walker mentions the possibility of calling for evac, so they evidently have a method of communication, yet nobody ever thinks to use it.
Everyone has games they like or dislike regardless of whatever consensus might be floating out there in the ether. The real problem is not that, but that for some reason a lot of people commenting on the internet can only express themselves in superlatives of "the best thing ever" or "utter crap" with no middle ground (not helped by them usually professing said opinions in what they consider to be witty one-liners that are anything but that), which immediately spark disagreement and a shouting contest.
Captcha: Cool head prevail
No they don't capthca, no they don't...
Show me another multiplayer game where you can play 4 player split screen online from a single account. Can't do it? No, didn't think so.
Halo is one of the best multiplayer party games because you can get 4 people on a single console playing against other players from around the world. It's fucking great and it's something no other game does.
Honestly the thing that I dislike so much about the Halo franchise is that it's an exclusive to Microsoft console - and purely to sell more Xboxes. I mean really do you think that PC gamers wouldn't love it if the franchise was ported? I know I would
No, not the reboot (that one deserves all the wrath gets). I don't care about the boobs, the level design in some of the classic TR games was really good at times. The platforming style of how to get from X to Y beats the hell out of platformers like Mario and it was one of the first 3D games to impress me that way. The exploration and secrets to be found made exploring worthwhile, it wasn't about just blazing through a level as fast as you can. The one thing I didn't like so much was the gunplay, but I don't think that was why TR was thought to be overrated anyway.
Valve games. Every so often there's someone who plays Half Life or Portal for the first time, and finds that the games don't live up to the expectations that thousands of "Half Life 3 confirmed" memes have given them.
They then go and post their negative review on the internet.
Thing is, and of course opinions are subjective and all that guff, the games are pretty good. Quite deserving of a good deal of their praise.
Valve should make more of them.
The Witcher. Most the criticisms I come across are usually some vague "it's trying too hard to be grim-dark", as if it actually means something. That or "it's misogynistic/sexist" because of the 'sex cards'.
I found the world rich and varied, different play-styles, plenty of exploring and thinking, lots of stuff to get immersed in, and the game changing decisions aren't shitty black and white moral choices. The choices are the best I've ever seen in a game.
Obligatory Mini-Rant: Overrated is such a stupid term. In order for something to be over (or under) rated, I would have to know your exact tastes and likings. I think Skyrim was an OK game (at best); am I not "rating" it correctly? There's bound to be something that I love that you don't like. Does that mean your rating is wrong? It's a useless term that gives no information other than "I like/don't like this game and I think other people like/don't like it enough) /mini-rant
I've got two games that everyone suddenly decided were overrated after a few months of them being awesome.
I don't think the terms "overrated" and "underrated" are stupid, in fact, for me they're pretty good terms. You don't need to know someone's exact tastes to use the terms, the terms are to be used against the general consensus of the reception of anything (in this case a game). Saying something is over/underrated is just saying that; to you, the thing being judged is worse, or better respectively, than the general attitude of the public towards it. It is impossible for "everyone" to think something is overrated because then there is no starting view point to base their opinions on; however if a lot of people think it is overrated then they're just saying that, in their opinion, it is not as good as the majority of people think it is.
OT: I'm going to have to throw another mention of Skyrim in here. Skyrim was my first Elder Scrolls game, and I had a blast with it. As it was my first game of the series; I have no way of comparing it to older games which may have been "better", this may have titled the odds towards me liking it as there's no nostalgia (brain can't think of a better word at the moment)for the older games that could inhibit my enjoyment of the game.
Suprised that FF7 hasn't been mentioned yet so I'll go: FF7. You rarely ever see FF7 mentioned for praise, other than in specific Final Fantasy threads (now addmitedly I do like FF7, but it's a way from being one of my /favourites/), instead, when it is mentioned it's just people ragging on it being overrated for bizarre reasons that defy what the game actually was.
It's become Flanderized far past the point of rational, to point where even Square Enix remember it wrong. People who've played it, remember it wrong and people who play it now, are determined to percieve things that were never there.
A primary point of contention is that it's an emo brood fest, which is a flat out lie. None of the characters brood, except perhaps Sephiroth when he's in that library. Cloud is not a grumpy loner and does actually have a laugh with his friends who he trusts to the ends of the earth and sees as brothers in arms. He's cold at some points, but that's quite the opposite of emo, he is supposed to be a professional mercenary, wherin he "lies" about his past in order for people to percieve him as cool and himself trustworthy. Even if Cloud does at one point brood, it would be completely justified due to his character suffering from delusions and PTSD.
Ironically it's right before FF8, which really was a broodfest, Squalls brooding was part of the plot, as was teenage angst. Even with that in mind, FF7 broke from tropes before it and was actually quite revolutionary at the time, people have /copied/ it, which somehow makes it retroactively generic.
Now I'm not necessarilly praising the game here and you're welcome to have not liked/enjoyed it, just make sure it's for the right reasons and you haven't been sucked in by the hatedom and Advent Children.
It's really stupid too because when it first came out, almost EVERYONE was singing its praises. Talking about how great it was for RPing and how much it improved Oblivion's/Morrowind's combat and etc.
And then after a while, everyone just started to hate it.
Show me another multiplayer game where you can play 4 player split screen online from a single account. Can't do it? No, didn't think so.
Halo is one of the best multiplayer party games because you can get 4 people on a single console playing against other players from around the world. It's fucking great and it's something no other game does.
Honestly the thing that I dislike so much about the Halo franchise is that it's an exclusive to Microsoft console - and purely to sell more Xboxes. I mean really do you think that PC gamers wouldn't love it if the franchise was ported? I know I would
Never thought about saying a Final Fantasy game, but now you mention it; I'll see your 7 and raise to 10. Unless I'm going senile, 7 still appears in quite a few "best" games lists, either ever or for original PS etc. however I think people generally give more shit to 10 than it deserves, and especially more than they give to 7. For example: I hate when people complain about blitzball in 10, you literally are made to play 1 game in the story; that's it, if you don't like it just ignore it. Also, bear in mind 10 came out about 1 year after the PS2, the graphics/aesthetic are still some of my favourites of the series and it was the last FF game that made me care about pretty much all the primary characters; haven't played the MMO games, 12 I cared about 3/4 characters and 13 is just horrible in every way, in my opinion.
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