Are they bad or do we just *want* to hate them?

[Rapadas]

People think hate=cool?

 

[Syphonz]

I'm renting Haze this weekend just to see what all the hate is about. I find that game reviewers (and gamers in general) have a tendancy to butcher a game when something is hyped and dubbed 'Halo killer'. Killzone, a great example. I didn't play it for a year and i half because everyone told me it was shit. Well, i rented it..three days after return i bought it because i really really enjoyed it.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I'm gonna go all out and put out a theory that's against all I stand for pretty much.

Maybe most of the popular stuff IS good, and a lot of the dislike does come from it being popular.

After all, Britney Spears, stupidly popular, recognised the world over, generally considered by a lot of people here as a talentless pointless puppet churning out the same old stuff over and over.

High School Musical, engineered to fit the likes of a certain age group and demographic, I saw about 30 seconds of it and decided it was utter wank. My niece however is 12 and loves it.

This is one of the first times I've considered a very simple point, in that there's got to be hundreds of beta britneys and amateur Justin Timberlakes out there, drama schools full of HSM wannabees, but, only the select few good enough get the job.

Sure Halo isn't that innovative, but its good, its not my kinda game and it bored me after a while if I'm honest, but from playing FPS's I can't really see many flaws in it, and it has many many fans.

Same goes for FF, except that I can appreciate it more, having enjoyed FF3/6,7, and currently playing X. Sure the grinding is ridiculous, the weapons are just silly, and the hair would make SF's Guile go' ah come on now, lets be realistic'. But , its an RPG, its there to tell a story,and the way the games play, they work!

I've always been horribly cynical, thoroughly enjoying hating reality talent shows, manufactured pop and other 'popular' stuff.

Really tho, they don't do any harm, and maybe they even feed enough cash into the giant empires that they might risk some money on the next 'Braid'.

 

[astaldodhol]

I admit I dislike World of Warcraft. I've never played it, I just got sick of every single time that I play a game my friend (Who doesn't actually play any games outside of WoW [On her brothers account] and Need for Speed) compares it to WoW. It's popular here in Icycoldland and they had to put up advertisement warning people that if they are going to play Wow they have to still go to work. It annoyed me, plus I play EQ, and EQ is cooler than Wow.
I don't dislike Halo. I've played the first two games with a close friend of mine zillions of years ago,
When I dislike games I tend to have a reason.
Oh and I've never played Final Fantasy so I have no opinion. (Actually I did when I was 13, and I was stuck on some ship and I couldn't get out so I gave up)

 

[TaboriHK]

The only games I demonize are the ones who try to show themselves off as more than they are. Reaching and not quite making it is fine, but telling the world who great you are (aka Molyneux Syndrome) is fucking aggravating and provokes me to sharpen the critical axe.

 

[Xanadu84]

Enjoying a game is subjective. Judgments are based on personal experiences. Its hard to have a proper gold standard for an art form, because something might be considered good precisely because of how it breaks established rules for what is good. Take the, "Rejected" cartoon (If you are unaware of this film, Google it, but don't say I didn't warn you). By any standard for storytelling you can think of, it is a crime against nature. But it is hilarious because it is so bad. Games try to appeal to a certain market, and specific niches. Some games appeal to wider or narrower niches. And some niches are a travesty compared to our own niche. Play games as a way of melding story and game play seamlessly, and want gameplay that is deep and satisfying, and find a semi-interactive movie contrary to your tastes? Then your probably going to hate Final Fantasy. Like games with a little depth and sophistication, with players who are focused and thoughtful? Bet your gonna hate Halo. You can argue the points ad nauseam, but at the end of the day, you just have to ask yourself if you had a fun, rewarding experience.

 

[-Seraph-]

I make it a priority not to jump too far onto the bandwagon. I hate games on a personal level and not because so many people may hate such game. I admit I have jumped on the group hate wagon for various reasons from time to time, but it has always been rather unique cases. Aside from that I am rather impartial and wait until I have played it, or have enough information to make a legitimate reason of weather to love, like, commend, dislike, or hate the game in question.

 

[Theo Samaritan]

Also remember that while Halo 1 was good, Halo 2 and 3 were both lacking what H:CE had in many respects. Considering that Halo CE was never more than an arcade shooter with not much depth (the story gains depth with the books, other than that its average in the games) you can see why Halo 2 and 3 are sub par in everything other than multiplayer (which is by no means innovative).

As much i hate myself for being 'this guy'. Please explain why you find those aspects lacking and don't just assert their poor quality as fact.

It is on those innocent seeds that a flame war is born.

And everyone hates certain games, after seeing what the Escapist does to Halo fans, i'm not surprised if 50% of them are just going along with it out of fear. Here they tend to disperse... but should blood be smelt in the water they rush in with such old-time favorites as 'every Halo player 'TALKZ LIK DIS!!!11ONE''

Ah, pack hate, was there ever such a more beautiful thing?

I find them lacking for many reasons. The main ones being the stupidly short campaigns (I don't care if they are hard or not on Legendary, Halo 2 and 3 both had shorter campaigns than Halo: CE, or at least it fealt and played that way).

What little substance the story had in CE was removed as soon as there was no mystery around it. Dual wielding was the only way to go with some weapons as alone they were underpowered by a long way in order to balance it. To be honest the only thing that really is anywhere near better is the graphics in my opinion.

Unfortunatly alot of the people I have met who are not die-hard-hype-sponging Halo fanboys agree Halo: CE was the best of the bunch. Please don't get me wrong I have nothing against fanboyism. I just wish people would start looking past the multiplayer. Halo 3 was basically a multiplayer mode with a singleplayer campaign shoved on for good measure.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Not as much into truly visceral hatred of games or movies as some, probably because I've met some humans and companies (non-video game) who deserve it far more. I will always try to give a game a chance so long as it's not Sports or Fishing genre. Outside of those, there's only one game I've ever hated without playing it a lot: Halo, not because it's cool to hate Halo. Because of the effect it's had on not only the FPS genre, but the industry as a whole. Only played the first one for brief periods and it just felt kind of meh... But that was when it first came out.

I believe hating on a game or console for no reason other than you can't get it for whatever reason is a nasty aspect of Fanboyism. Surely there are better ways to show your likes and dislikes than through such horrid abuse of grammar and caps lock. However, Yahtzee and a few other comical fellows preceding his existence taught me that hatred can be funny in small doses, and truth be told there is a great number of works out there who seem to be asking for it. Not that I can hate them, just smile and look away. Games, like movies, seem to invite some folks to turn hatred into an art form. Check out the Dark Knight and Casino Royale boards on IMDB to see what I mean.

 

[meatloaf231]

Off topic a bit, but one thing I noticed:

People claim to be tired of all they greys and browns that come with most shooters nowadays, but when Halo 3 comes out and is all colorful, they complain that it looks cartoony.

 

[Space Spoons]

Off topic a bit, but one thing I noticed:

People claim to be tired of all they greys and browns that come with most shooters nowadays, but when Halo 3 comes out and is all colorful, they complain that it looks cartoony.

Can't stand that. Bright colors are great, screw anyone who thinks otherwise. D:<

I hear the exact same argument about The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker/Twilight Princess, too.

On topic, I guess it's mostly a case of people wanting to seem "ahead of the curve." If it's popular, people who aren't "with it" must enjoy it... And therefore, it must be old, outdated and generally detestable. Basically, it's all those kids who stand around saying, "Look at those posers playing Team Fortress 2... I liked it before it was cool, but now I hate it."

In particular, I used to encounter that kind of attitude regarding Halo 3 quite a bit. One of my best friends is a huge FPS fan, and total Steam devotee... But he hated anything and everything related to Halo, even though he had never played it. That is, he hated it until I talked him into joining me for a few rounds on the Ranked Big Team playlist. Now he can't get enough of it.

 

[Atrer]

I dislike when a game is A) really really terrible or B)it was really really overhyped.

Halo 2 was great in multiplayer (glitches notwithstanding) in my opinion and in Halo 3 it just felt watered down and made easier. I think thats the primary reason that people hate it so much. That or they're the extreme CoD4 players who for some reason feel the need to wage a frigging crusade on the Halo franchise for some reason..

 

[Gotham Soul]

Hate is a fairly strong word. Anyone with any sort of rational thought should already recognize that nobody is forcing you to play these "terrible" games and that you are perfectly free to just forget about it and move on.

I'd like to say that I believe in the right to "hate" on a game that is too popular, and the reason for that being is that other developers will look on that game's success with weeping envy and proceed to copypaste the formula in the slight hopes that their game will be just as successful (prime example: World of Warcraft and pretty much any other MMORPG made after it was released).

As for multiplayer games, my hate isn't really for the game itself, just those video-game-jingoist narcissists who seem to populate every game I play.

 

[PersianLlama]

I absolutely love Final Fantasy, but the reasons I hate Halo are:
1)it's boring
2)I don't want to pay $5 a month to have a decent game (multiplayer isn't bad when you get around the shoot

Its more down to what people want in a game I feel. You are a Final Fantasy fan so I can best explain it as the differences between FFVII and FFIX. Both brilliant games, but some people hate IX and love VII, whereas some people (noticably those who played FFVI) Like FFIX and hate VII.

Also remember that while Halo 1 was good, Halo 2 and 3 were both lacking what H:CE had in many respects. Considering that Halo CE was never more than an arcade shooter with not much depth (the story gains depth with the books, other than that its average in the games) you can see why Halo 2 and 3 are sub par in everything other than multiplayer (which is by no means innovative).

It is down to pure opinion in the end. Of course with the internet, opinion soon becomes "fact".

You sir, are full of win.
Except I didn't like halo 1 much either, but I'm not much of a shooter person either.

 

[pieeater911]

I enjoyed Halo: CE, and Halo 3. They were fun. Not amazing, spectacular, or mind-blowingly innovative, but fun.
But damn, Halo 2 was horrid.

And I hate Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid. Not because they are games that everyone else loves and I want to be different, but because, in my opinion, they suck. They suck hard.

Metal Gear Solid was shitty as a "stealth" game (Splinter Cell completely mops the floor with it in that department). The controls and shooting system sucked and the damned walkie-talkie segments where you spent over ten minutes staring at text and two small pictures were mind-numbingly boring. And the story made no sense. It wasn't deep, it wasn't awesome, it was stupid.

And I hate Final Fantasy because:

A. It's overly pretentious
B. I hate anime
C. I hate JRPGS
D. I hate the rabid fanboys
E. I hate JRPGS

Note to self: Prepare for incoming hate posts.

 

[Mark B]

I think hype plays in to it quite a bit, with Halo3 for example they hype train was at full speed. The game just could not live up to the expectation which people had, and it didn't (execpt the fanbois).

A while ago I got Alone in the Dark, I got it just before the ZP review and since even he marked it as the "worst game evar", I was thinking it was going to be terrible from start to finish, and I enjoyed it more since it seemed to be better (to me at least) than generally people were saying about it (I still have yet to complete it however).

Brothers in Arms Hells Highway is one that is comming out soon but the hype for it has been minimal at best, I think its going to be interesting to see how well recived it is or not?