Apparently Awsome Games

[end_boss]

In all seriousness, playing Shadow of the Colossus was what got me back into video games and to start taking them seriously from an intellectual & critical point of view. I just didn't know they made games like that until I fired it up on a whim. Haven't looked back since.

Ironically, Shadow of the Colossus kinda took away from my overall enjoyment of a lot of console games I might have liked at one time. The PS2 got real cheap because the PS3 was coming out, and I spent most of the last generation playing on my buddy's X-Box, so I figured that it'd be a cheap and rewarding investment to get a PS2 and play the games I've missed out on. The first game I got for it was Shadow of the Colossus, because it's one of the games that truly inspired me to want the PS2, when I heard about it. I played it, loved it, finished it, but it was the first game I played on the system, and very few other titles truly compared to it. By the time I got around to God of War, it struck me as just mind-numbing hack-and-slash button mashing, and I had to force myself to play all the way through it.

As my name suggests, I'm a sucker for boss battles, so playing a game with very deliberate pacing between exploration and epic monsters, I was let down by God of War's monotonous slaying of the same five enemies over and over and over with only about 3 boss battles throughout the entire thing. God of War is a game that could lend itself really well to spectacular boss battles, and the few bosses in the game proved that point, but there just weren't enough of them. I think that about 2/3 of the game takes place between the first and second boss.

That said, I have yet to encounter a boss at all in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2), and I'm already having more fun with it than I did with God of War. So, I guess that it's not really so much about the bosses, after all?


Moving on...

The second game I ever played on my PS2 was Suikoden 3. At the time, I was really stoaked on playing a good JRPG, having had fond memories of Phantasy Star 2 and Chrono Trigger, and I read the reviews and it scored amazingly. But I found it mind-numbingly boring and the cutscenes were infuriating. Especially when I died, and had to re-watch an overly long cutscene all over again, unable to skip past it. Shortly thereafter, I traded it right back in, and eventually tracked down a copy of Final Fantasy VII, because I heard so much about how awesome it was. I was only allowed to play about 15 minutes of the first hour of the game, and then thought "screw this! Why didn't they just make it into a movie if they won't let me play it?" And that's how my contempt of JRPGs started.


RTS games are also interesting; I respect them, I think highly of them, I drool at the sight of a good RTS, and that saddens me because I can't play them for more than an hour, thanks to how epically bad I suck at playing RTS games. I really want to like them, and still do, but I just don't have the mind for it, and can never get past the third level of any given RTS game.


I also played Planescape for a bit. I think it could definitely be a great game, but for unknown reasons, I just couldn't get into it. And I have no idea why, since I love several games of a very similar style. It's a game that seems tailored to my tastes, but it just lacked a certain something to really clinch me and keep me going to the end. Maybe I just don't have the time to devote myself to it fully, and would enjoy it a lot more if I had more time on my hands. It seems like something I would have loved and heralded as one of my favourites back in high school or even university, but at this point in my life, it just didn't capture me the way it should have.

Now take that above paragraph and replace "Planescape" with "Neverwinter Nights" and save me the typing. I really wish I had the time to love both those games.

 

[philios82]

Eve online. I had a fourteen day free trial, I didn't last fourteen minutes. It was the mining thing that really put me off, why would anyone pay money to be that bored?

 

[ReepNeep]

*prepares to fend off the rabid villagers*

The Ocarina of Time

Ugly graphics, nasty low bit-rate sound, clunky controls... I messed with it for about 3 hours before deciding the rest of the world must be crazy. Link to the Past is still one of my favorite games, and I liked Link's Awakening and Minish Cap too in spite of the kinstone bullshit. I just hated it.

 

[REDPill357]

Guilty Spark 343(?), was the worst of the lot, annoying the hell out of me because it felt like the level was designed to be as long as possible without having any interesting level design.

Yep. The Library was one of the WORST levels ever in gaming. Nothing compares to the monotony of running through the same two corridors over and over again for half an hour, with a slow lift every 10 minutes.

Also, I never saw how the Zelda games were the best ever. I don't like the whole "forced exploration" thing. I also don't like having a walkthrough handy to get through the forest temple.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Half Life 2. (*dons asbestos underwear*)

Everbody screamed about it being the acme of the first-person shooter genre, but for me the story's pretty light, the visuals are brown, the audio's generic, the soundtrack almost doesn't exist, the gameplay is run-of-the-mill with some out-and-out annoyances (freezie loading screens FTL), the fights are small and repetitive, the vehicle section's perilously close to being on (wobbly) rails, and the physics puzzles are so tired they have to be flogged to draw any attention. I liked the voice acting by the "name" NPCs, but all unnamed NPCs are either generic male 1 or generic female 1... or a Vortigaunt.

It's far from a bad game, just nowhere near the revelatory experience trumpeted by its loudest proponents.

(*damn, this underwear chafes*)

-- Steve

 

[Nerdfury]

Grand theft auto: san andreas. it felt to me like a crappy shooter, a crappy driver, and a bunch of minigames thrown together. thats not fun for me.

THANK YOU!

I liked GTA 3 (Liberty City) and loved Vice City, but San Andreas just put it in the 90's, added a black protagonist with the same basic plot and made it a million times larger with more useless stuff for filler. I got so bored partway near the end and haven't touched it for two years. I can't even get rid of it because of that stupid, inaccessible 'sex game' that Jack was raving about.

All FF games - honestly, they're nothing more than mindless grind.

Shadow of the Colossus - I like it, but it really is very overrated. You just kill bosses, and while that's plenty fun, there's NOTHING except for riding your damned horse about to the next boss.

World of Warcraft - what the hell? Any game that reduces people to tears at their parents because their 'girlfriend' online is supposed to meet them somewhere and mine for fish and makes them get angry at other people because the Tuesday night update was late can't be a good thing.

Oh yeah - and anything relating to Devil May Cry.

 

[ReepNeep]

Guilty Spark 343(?), was the worst of the lot, annoying the hell out of me because it felt like the level was designed to be as long as possible without having any interesting level design.

Yep. The Library was one of the WORST levels ever in gaming. Nothing compares to the monotony of running through the same two corridors over and over again for half an hour, with a slow lift every 10 minutes.

Also, I never saw how the Zelda games were the best ever. I don't like the whole "forced exploration" thing. I also don't like having a walkthrough handy to get through the forest temple.

I must be the only person who actually LIKED the library. Probably has to do with the fact that I love blasting zombies with a shotgun. Anyway, Halo 1 was nothing but awful cut-and-paste level design. Viewed in that light, the library was no worse than any of the other indoor levels. That said, I still like the game because the core gameplay is pretty fun.

 

[sun_and_earth]

lol So I guess I should get it?

ONLY if you like JRPGs, That game is great, but a JRPG through and through.

As for me, I'd have to say World of Warcraft. I can see how it COULD be a good game, but the people who play the game all seem to act like morons, which kind of ruins it for me.

 

[TomNook]

World of Warcraft - what the hell? Any game that reduces people to tears at their parents because their 'girlfriend' online is supposed to meet them somewhere and mine for fish and makes them get angry at other people because the Tuesday night update was late can't be a good thing.

Oh yeah - and anything relating to Devil May Cry.

Have you even played WoW?

 

[ComradeJim270]

Half Life 2. (*dons asbestos underwear*)

Everbody screamed about it being the acme of the first-person shooter genre, but for me the story's pretty light, the visuals are brown, the audio's generic, the soundtrack almost doesn't exist, the gameplay is run-of-the-mill with some out-and-out annoyances (freezie loading screens FTL), the fights are small and repetitive, the vehicle section's perilously close to being on (wobbly) rails, and the physics puzzles are so tired they have to be flogged to draw any attention. I liked the voice acting by the "name" NPCs, but all unnamed NPCs are either generic male 1 or generic female 1... or a Vortigaunt.

It's far from a bad game, just nowhere near the revelatory experience trumpeted by its loudest proponents.

(*damn, this underwear chafes*)

-- Steve

I think Half-Life 2 is held up on a pedestal not because of what it DOES do, but because of what it DOESN'T do. It has some things bringing it down, but all in all it is a very well-done and enjoyable game, with nothing about it that genuinely sucks (it has annoying parts, but they're just annoying, not actually bad). Most shooters have elements that truly suck, so in comparison, one that has elements that are simply lackluster or mildly underwhelming looks good.

It is certainly over-rated, but a lot of the praise it recieves is actually deserved. It's a very enjoyable and well-made shooter, a good standard by which to judge other FPS titles. If you're doing worse than HL2, you need to take up the slack. If you're doing better, you know you're on track for a truly great FPS.

 

[Terramax]

Final Fantasy X - hated it as soon as the intro started. A bunch of dumbly dressed teens with that 'epic' piano music that just feels so subdued and almost like a self-parody.

Mario 64 - sure, a really good game. One of the greatest games ever? I think not. Stupid camera angles, no plot, no humour, no style or anything. Just bland, bland, bland... just like Mario Galexy.

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City - OK, if you've not played GTAIII then fair enough, but all GTAs just feel like upgrades and expansion packs now.

All Zelda games - again, no plot, non-existent main character, why is everyone a flippin' remake?

World of Warcraft - I just don't get it. I played Final Fantasy XI Online, loved it. Didn't think much of the battles, but the game forced you to make friends and teams, the locations and soundtrack were mental too - but I just couldn't get into WoW. You're typical Lord of the Rings, where you just wander around on your lonesome. Just didn't click.

Tomb Raider Legend - Ok, I'll be as diplomatic about this - anyone who rates this more than average should be told to walk the plank. It look pretty, but Lara's attitude is gone, her yank friends are more annoying than Jar Jar Binks to listen to, the camera is frustrating, dumb plot, boring arcade bosses, stupid battles with humans around every corner.

All the 3D Metroids - an FPS without any action, basically.

 

[ComradeJim270]

Tomb Raider Legend - Ok, I'll be as diplomatic about this - anyone who rates this more than average should be told to walk the plank.

I initially read that as "wank the plank".

 

[Psychedeliasmith]

Black and White was a bizarre let-down. I've never been able to find anything interesting in football games or army games (I would say 'FPS in general' but I've started to like some of them.) Also just cannot see the point of any Gran Turismo except 'ooh, shiny cars.' Even if I could be bothered to learn exactly how to brake perfectly to achieve the licenses and start the game, it's just so dull.

GTA(any) and FFVII do very much have to be taken as 'of their time' - iconic and better than a lot of other things when they came out, but have been bettered quite easily since, which makes it impossible to really enjoy them as much as a new player now. I really liked FFVII, but I tried to play it recently and it was tedious and needed SO much polishing to suit my tastes now. Although the bit where you can make Cloud a trannie still rules.

But actually...I hated GTA3 even though it was obviously impressive, and the only thing I really liked about the others was driving around mindlessly listening to the ridiculously good radio. They were just wonderful environments with slightly shoddy games stuck to them.

 

[stevesan]

BioShock. i mainly blame this on my past FPS experience. Deus Ex was a lot more open-ended, and System Shock was a lot more atmospheric to me.

i didn't find the story too compelling either. maybe for video game stories it was amazing, but as far as stories go, it was just another "mad scientist experiment gone wrong" story to me.

 

[kingofwolves]

The first Sonic. I never played the original on Genesis, I had Sonic Collection on PC instead, and no matter how many times I played it, I never really thought it that was that great. It was decently fun, and it looked sweet despite going so fast, but I don't know, it just felt...wrong, in a way.

 

[Terramax]

Tomb Raider Legend - Ok, I'll be as diplomatic about this - anyone who rates this more than average should be told to walk the plank.

I initially read that as "wank the plank".

No, I refer that phrase to Dead or Alive players