Critically Acclaimed stuff you don't 'get'

[rees263]

Hmm, this is actually a difficult one for me.

I find I'm generally easy to please, so when someone says a film/book/game had no depth or was uninteresting or whatever I tend to say something like "I didn't see anything wrong with it". Which of course doesn't mean I love everything, it just means that there seem to be very few things I actively dislike.

It makes me wonder why I bother to get other people's opinion on things, especially things I like. Sometimes I even start to wonder if I remember things correctly.

As to something that people rave about and I don't like, the only thing that springs immediately to mind (after a quick sweep of my games collection) is Resistance: Fall of Man. I got it very cheap second hand so it's no big loss, but I found it painful to play. No wonder the PS3 bombed at first if this was the best they could offer. Maybe it's becuase it felt so different to games like COD but I just couldn't enjoy it.

In response to everyone saying Bioshock, I'll say that at first, I didn't get the fuss either. It felt like a pretty average FPS with clunky controls and a "scary" setting. I recently replayed it on Survivor mode (I'm a trophy whore okay), and my opinion totally changed. I just felt so sucked into the whole experience it was amazing. (Insert standard gushing review here) I will admit that since my previous playthrough I had upgraded to an HDTV, so that helped a bit I'm sure.

Arkham Asylum. I swear I must be playing a different game to everyone else...

Usually I would not pick up on it when someone says they don't like something (to each his own etc), but to me AA just felt so right. It wasn't without flaw, but most of the individual elements worked great and it was tied together so well by the fact that it was, in my mind, the best possible experience of actually being Batman I could imagine.

I guess you are somewhat a fan of Batman, and so I assume you just didn't get the same feeling I did of being right in Batman's shoes (boots?).

I'm not trying to discount your opinion, but as you may have gathered by my first few paragraphs I'm usually quite an apathetic person, but Batman actually made me feel excited to play it so I thought I'd share

 

[jasoncyrus]

I dont get why people adore Xbox so much...its quite literally nothing new in terms of console ability. It simply has a better graphics card and better network access to it, mostly due to it being made by MS so its basically just an older, outdated, less useful PC.

EDIT: Also E-Sports? Seriously, gaming...not exactly a sport as requires zero real physical skill outside of your fingers. It's mostly mental ability, thus not a sport. Sports are a demonstration of PHYSICAL ability. Just goes to show how physically inept south korea must be if they are resorting to having videogames as a sport. Honestly...starcraft as a sport? The Unreal Tournament series, Halo series or some other FPS series would be far better suited if the world were to sink to the low of declaring gaming as a sport.

No offense to my fellow gamers, but anyone who thinks gaming is a sport REALLY needs to put their time to better use. Whats next? Pokemon as a sport? Mario? WoW? Sports arn't a test of mostly mental skill. They are about physical endurance and whole body control, in that aspect, Wii games are far closer to E-sports than starcraft.

 

[jasoncyrus]

Serenity is the one that astounds me the most. I saw that film twice with two different groups of people, and our consensus was that the movie sucked. I logged into Rottentomatoes, only to find that Serenity had an 81% approval rating. We just couldn't fathom out why it was so great. Granted we hadn't seen the tv show Firefly first (only one of our number had ever seen the show), but even if we excused all the stuff we weren't familiar with (like characters and setting), the dialogue and action was some of the cheesiest stuff we had ever seen. When I say cheesy, I mean cheesy in an annoying way - not cheesy in a kooky, self-aware kind of way.

It's supposed to be mildly cheesey, thats what made the series so good. Cowboy lifestyle...in space. It's cheesy incarnate...but it works, but to be honest, it's a pretty good reflection of how we'd end up doing it.

I don't get Naruto or Full Metal Alchemist. Maybe because I've watched the english dubs perhaps?

Yeah English dubs will do that to anything. Fansubs are much better as they preserve the voices and have ACCURATE translations.

Arrested Development and The Office.

My mates tell me all the time that they're hilarious. I've tried to watch them a number of times, but I just don't find anything about them funny.

Because they took decent british comedy and spliced retarded american slapstick into it. While said slapstick can be good at time, when you try and fuse it with british comedy it just makes a retarded show. Especially when you use actors whos only acting abilities involve playing idiotic people you'd gladly throw down a flight of stairs.

 

[Chrono180]

To kill a mockingbird. One of the most boring books I have EVER read. Took forever to go anywhere, had little point (unless you count "racism is bad" but I think we figured that out in the 80s) and the characters were about as well developed as a stack of cardboard.

 

[nadesico33]

Out of all things, that bloody band, Nirvana.

I get people all over the place throughout the years telling me what amazing musicians these guys are and how their music is full of soul, how they revolutionised rock music and all that kind of bull. I've listened to Nirvana time and time again to see if I think any differently than before and my opinion of them has not changed. They are just not growing on me whatsoever. Their music is downright boring and they suck.

I'll chuck The Beatles and Coldplay in the same pit as I've got similar opinions of them.

Thank you thank you thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Every time I've seriously asked people to explain why Nirvana was good, they give always give me something along the lines "They were so different from everything else at the time." Yeah, that says why people found them interesting, not why they were "good". Aside from the song used in the opening scene of Shoot 'Em Up, I don't like any of their music either.

thank you in my opinion Bioshock is the best shooter of the current console generation because it's not a dumbed down over hyped multiplayer space marine mess with muddy graphics. it felt more like a game that was thought up around the Deus Ex System Shock time of intelligent shooters before the genre simply preyed on every ones instinct to kill. so yeah I think most current shooter aren't even worth looking at other than the occasional exception like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or the Half-Life series... though Metro 2033 sparked my interest I have yet to try it...

Its a little janky in the shooting department, but the narrative for Metro 2033 is good. Very dark and bleak, but also well executed despite its flaws.

 

[The Rookie Gamer]

MW2, Avatar, Twilight, and Lady Gaga.

 

[Sacman]

I stay away from current FPS games, like the Halo games, MW2, and other games like that. If something is that overhyped, I'm put off from getting it.

thank you in my opinion Bioshock is the best shooter of the current console generation because it's not a dumbed down over hyped multiplayer space marine mess with muddy graphics. it felt more like a game that was thought up around the Deus Ex System Shock time of intelligent shooters before the genre simply preyed on every ones instinct to kill. so yeah I think most current shooter aren't even worth looking at other than the occasional exception like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or the Half-Life series... though Metro 2033 sparked my interest I have yet to try it...

let's see here:
Heavy Rain
One Piece
Twilight(books and movies)
Lady Gaga
Ninja Gaiden(I liked the original one on the Nes but once team Ninja started it just went bad)
and finally peeps

PEEPS! They're the bestest!

Sometimes, I randomly buy a game that looks interesting without really knowing it's hyped up or good or ''what all the cool kids play''. An example would be HL2. I got it because the Orange Box was on sale and I figured, why not?

yeah I've done that before I bought Halo for the PC when I first got into gaming not knowing it was hyped for the Xbox release, even without the hype I didn't like it. did u like Half Life 2? I think it's great and one of the few exceptions to modern shooter with having a well written story and cast and being able to balance story telling and gameplay without feeling forced. also being able to break up the action fluently with puzzles and I guess what you can call cut scenes. by the way what is your avatar from it looks familiar?

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

The film version of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

The novel was an excellent story of racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. The film was a bowdlerized piece of crap that changed what was a thought-provoking and partially moving story into nothing more than incompetent family-friendly nonsense. Why it is considered a classic film and a supposedly excellent adaptation of the novel is beyond my comprehension.

 

[Bored otter]

Trying to step on as many toes as possible. GTA IV. I liked san andreas and the previous ones.

And all the press loved number four. But i played it and i still don't like it. Don't get why i have to be an annoying balkan figure. Why can't i create my own character.
Didn't realy like the story either, it had some nice story lines. But most of it was just boring.

 

[Danzaivar]

big ass post

That's my point! I don't know of anyone else who didn't love the game, but I got bored and stopped playing 4 hours in. The bit with Scarecrow was kinda cool, and striking from the shadows was pretty awesome, but it just felt kinda 'meh' to me. I probably just missed how combat works or something, cos all I did was press 'hit' when I could and 'counter' when I was about to be hit, I swear there are moves I just haven't figured out...

 

[AndyVale]

I don't get why people love Halo.

Me neither. It wasn't bad but it wasn't "reason to buy an XBox" worthy.

 

[AndyVale]

Turn Of The Screw

I read it at Uni and detested it. Never has 70 pages taken me the same time as a 400 page book. So slow and clunky without ever going anywhere. Everything was so ambiguous and people were saying "yeah but it can be interpreted so many different ways." I can wipe my arse 200 different ways with the same piece of toilet roll, doesn't make it good. A blank piece of paper can be looked at many different ways, it's not clever. He's just spent 70 pages letting you fill in all the blanks. Don't get me wrong, I like a story that has an open ended element but not the whole sodding book. That's just lazy and suggests you don't have the confidence to actually tell a story (which I'm sure isn't true, but this book did anger me.) Also, the language was too full of itself.

 

[Fiskmasen]

Shawshank Redemption. I've seen it... shit, at least 15 times. All of my friends rave about the film but I just never got into it. The only good thing to come out of this movie is Frank Darabonts "exclusive rights" to GOOD Stephen King adaptations (see The Green Mile [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120689/] and The Mist [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0884328/]). Morgan Freeman's good in it though - but then again, name a movie that Morgan Freeman isn't good in.

 

[cyber_andyy]

Apple.
Ipods.
Facebook.
IPhones.
Anime/manga.
jap pop culture obsession.

This all I can think of now.

 

[Nemu]

Moby Dick. Awful, AWFUL book.

Avatar, I just have no interest in it, does that count?

And a lot of popular music, like Flaming Lips (tho they're old and getting popular late in their existence), Animal Collective I agree is a band I don't "get", actually...come to think of it, any band that Spin magazine has a hard-on for I don't get. WTF HAPPENED to that mag...?

 

[ben---neb]

Moby Dick. Awful, AWFUL book.

Avatar, I just have no interest in it, does that count?

And a lot of popular music, like Flaming Lips (tho they're old and getting popular late in their existence), Animal Collective I agree is a band I don't "get", actually...come to think of it, any band that Spin magazine has a hard-on for I don't get. WTF HAPPENED to that mag...?

Look mate, this is getting ridiclous. I'm Spartacus! Got that?

I hate Bioshock, really couldn't get into it, also anything by Dickens is just too 'wordy' and this is from someone who has read War and Peace.

 

[JimJamJahar]

I don't get why everyone worships Half-Life 2. It's an okay game, but it's not super-amazing! Someone explain this to me

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Oh yah, I forgot to mention, Romeo and Juliet. Possibly the most overblown tragedy that Shakespeare has, and I absolutely hate it.

Anna Karenina sp? - I tried to read this book, couldn't make it past chapter 3. Absolutely boring.

Its a Wonderful Life - Always voted up in the top echelon of movies, I found it ok, but nothing that was particularly good. Maybe it was groundbreaking in its day...not sure.

Apocalypse Now - I read Heart of Darkness, loved it, then watched this movie, and I was like...what? Its close but not good enough for the praise it gets.

Huckleberry Finn - Kid on a raft...got it, move along. Yah yah there's deeper issues about the south and prejudice and blah blah, but I can't get into it because its booooring.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - I guess I just don't like James Joyce. The book wasn't profound, and nothing in it made me have some great revelation. Just boring.

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Moby Dick. Awful, AWFUL book.

Trying to grind through the last half of it...its pretty atrocious.

 

[FlameUnquenchable]

Serenity is the one that astounds me the most. I saw that film twice with two different groups of people, and our consensus was that the movie sucked. I logged into Rottentomatoes, only to find that Serenity had an 81% approval rating. We just couldn't fathom out why it was so great. Granted we hadn't seen the tv show Firefly first (only one of our number had ever seen the show), but even if we excused all the stuff we weren't familiar with (like characters and setting), the dialogue and action was some of the cheesiest stuff we had ever seen. When I say cheesy, I mean cheesy in an annoying way - not cheesy in a kooky, self-aware kind of way.

I think Serenity was supposed to appeal to the fan base that loved Firefly, of which I gladly join, but the movie left something to be desired. Same characters, same ship, same universe...but it wasn't the same somehow. I loved the Firefly series though.