Criticize Your All Time Favorite Game...HARSHLY

[Lt._nefarious]

Halo (just all together as a series):

The Battle Rifle and SMG are poor substitutes to the Assault rifle.
Cortana's appearance isn't consistent. (Not that I don't like her new... Erm... "Enhanced" butt...)
Halo 2 was a bit disappointing...

 

[skywolfblue]

Mass Effect 3. Ho boy, too easy.

- Bugs. (Not sticking to cover properly, enemies glitching out and avoiding hits or becoming invincible, enemies "seeing" you when they shouldn't, enemies walking through walls, etc, etc)

- Cheating bastard enemies. The game is a perfect poster child on how to do difficulty completely wrong.
--- Banshees can teleport through walls and insta-kill you before you have time to turn around and run away.
--- Geth hunters immune to stuns and in some cases still fire off shotgun rounds seconds after they're dead.
--- Banshees, Phantoms and Praetorians have anti-biotic bubbles that make power heavy classes like Adepts useless vs. them.
--- Enemies standing over your corpse and instantly killing you the second you try to revive.
--- Enemies being able to grab and suck you back in to insta-kill you even though you were well out of range.
--- The geth faction have an absurd amount of units with stun abilities. Getting stunlocked to death is a very common occurance.

- The stupid multiplayer random equipment unlocks.

- Lack of true side-missions. No planets to visit other then the main story ones, no mercenaries to kill, no prothean digsites to explore.

- The pre-extended-cut ending. While I actually wasn't quite as bothered as some people, the original ending did have a lot of gaps. (The extended cut was sweet and fixed most of the problems IMO)

The game is flawed, oh so very very flawed. But it's still so damn much fun.

 

[LittleMountain]

Not "favorite" per se, but an old, obscure game with a lot of problems that I still love: Evil Genius.

Now it's a 100% accurate movie villain simulator, so obviously you can't do anything yourself (except gloat over your captured foes). Instead, you give your minions orders. Thing is, the minion AI could be charitably described as abysmal - minions will often stand next to a fire and decide to go get the fire extinguisher 2 corridors over instead of the one right next to them.

Some might say that this is part of the flavor - you wouldn't be a real evil genius if your minions weren't as thick as a cartload of bricks, right? Thing is, even when it works right, it is sloooow. Everything in the game has an animation. Minions leaving the island to go to the world map. World map minions bringing back loot. Minions building. Minions repairing things. Science (more on this later). Everything takes a while. And eventually, you get tired of waiting.

Room and Item descriptions are usually incomplete at best, too. The game itself only gives you a rough idea of what you're supposed to do - you pretty much have to figure out the how. I've played this game twice over and I still need to have the Evil Genius wiki open just to make sure I don't f**k up. (Big props to the wiki guys though; that thing is a lifesaver!)

Special mention goes to the science & research system. Basically in order to unlock new item blueprints, you need to combine an existing blueprint selected by your scientists (which is slow and, worst of all, random) with 1 to 3 lab room experiments. The game doesn't outright tell you which three though, not without you spending thousands upon thousands of dollars bribing the researchers not to waste your time (not even making this up. this is the canon reason: your researchers love to research for the hell of it and will waste your time given the chance). Thankfully, one of the three Evil Genius avatars, the Blofeld/Napoleon expy, reduces the cost of that bribe by 90%...or would, if his ability wasn't bugged. (Again, big thanks to the wiki here - they have ALL the research paths!)

Finally, there are your nemeses: the Super Agents! Each one of them armed with unique abilities to infiltrate your base, and 3 of them - a Bruce Lee clone, a Rambo clone and, obviously, a James Bond clone - are absolute TERRORS. Bruce can basically one shot any minion in melee, and minions with guns don't shoot enemies in melee range; they engage them in melee combat -_- Rambo dual wields M60s...need I say more? And James Bond randomly causes explosions around your base. If it wasn't for a handy glitch that allows you to permanently pacify them until they can be defeated permanently, they'd make the game almost unplayable.

I could go on, but I think that's enough. I still love the game despite all its flaws. Besides, you can execute random minions anytime they get on your nerves. And what more can you ask for from an Evil Genius simulator?

 

[shrekfan246]

[HEADING=2]Final Fantasy IX[/HEADING]​

[ul]
[li]Per usual, the "limit" system used in the game is completely broken and mostly useless outside of a few very specific instances.[/li]
[li]The reintroduction of the class system means there are rather large spikes in difficulty any time you don't have one of the two White Mages in your party, because the only way you'll be able to heal is by using Potions.[/li]
[li]Standard fare for a Final Fantasy game, but around the end of the first disc the plot begins swerving, bucking, and derailing itself so hard that at times you'll think you've ended up in a different game. The final boss is endemic of this behavior, as it's a character that was never seen or even mentioned previously in the game. Not that that's anything new for JRPGs...[/li]
[li]Battle sequences take a fair length of time to actually begin.[/li]
[li]Quina is a terrible character, inside and outside of combat, basically being the "gag" character of the game. Technically speaking, she's one of the most powerful characters if you can utilize her gimmick well, but it's so incredibly frustrating to try and work it.[/li]
[li]While the soundtrack overall is outstanding, there aren't any particular singular tracks that stand out as well as, say, VII's "One-Winged Angel".[/li]
[/ul]

 

[D-Class 198482]

Killing Floor.
Everybody has the same fucking voice except for Ash, the Clots grabbing your ass every ten seconds is annoying as shit, the buttrapings that appear after the third wave can turn around and do it to themselves, there seems to be about five hundred Traders in this universe, as you have clones of her all across the game, when you shoot people they do not act like they are made out of STONE and just have some rocks fall off of their clothes, aren't we supposed to be soldiers being sent into battle with these things, not the a Termninator mixed with a chicken? Why does the story for the Hillbilly Horrors say that they've been eating the Specimens, when the story for the Hillbilly Horrors map says that they were mutated by toxic waste, and on the same topic if the hillbillies became Specimens by accident, WHY DO THEY LOOK THE SAME?

 

[Ravinoff]

Skyrim:
- The combat just plain sucks.
- Horrible low-res textures
- Fibrous/complex objects horribly rendered (see: giant loincloths, fur, trees).

Mass Effect 3:
- Banshees are so amazingly overpowered.
- The ending, of course.
- Useless twats on multiplayer (not a criticism of the game so much as the community).
- How cleverly hidden my favourite weapon, the M99 Saber, is.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

I fail to see the fun bit of that, but I'll play along.

DARK SOULS

- Shit gets too easy after you reach level 110.

 

[ADDmuse]

Wizardry 8

The game was released in 2001 and was the last Wizardry game made by Sirtech Canada before going under.

The graphics were dated even back then.
You can make your own party with 1-6 characters. Most encounters will be set for 6-8. Any less and you'll either have a tough time, or end up a pile of monster chow.
There are only 4-8 faces for most of the races (both genders combined)
The voice-work is good but some voices are downright annoying.
If you don't have someone who can cast protective spells you're screwed.
If you don't have someone who can use area of effect attacks you're pretty screwed.
You're going to need a spellcaster of some sort or you're screwed. Especially if you have a small party and no gadgeteer or bard.
If you don't have a gadgeteer, a bard, or both you can't use a number of cool (and possibly life-saving) gadgets and instruments.
There are quests; but good luck finding them.
All areas scale to your level; scripted encounters do not.
If an enemy spell caster is within range, and can see you, then they can hit you with any of their spells no matter the spells' range.
The Pickpocket skill is only particularly useful in version 1.0. In 1.2.4 they made pickpocketing more random, more difficult, and people remember if stuff disappears from them.
You can recruit NPCs, but all have at least one place they won't go. That place may in fact be between two places they will go.

 

[Dethenger]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.

Babe. You know I love you. But I gotta say, why the fuck does it take me hours of effort to get a mask that I will only use for three seconds? At the end of the Kafei-Anju quest (good on you, by the way) I get the Couple's Mask. This mask is so fucking tedious to get, you figure it should at least be useful, but no: If you wear it at the right spot, you get a Heart Piece. That's it.
This is in no way unique.
If I grind enough Rupees and get a big enough wallet (read: clear a Skulltula House on the right day), I can purchase the All-Night Mask, provided I go to the Curiosity Shop at the right time on the right day and I haven't busted Sakon. You know what it does? It allows me to listen to an old woman's story and... get a Heart Piece. I honestly do think it's cool that I can listen to the whole story with it, but why is that the only thing it does?
The most useful masks are the ones that don't get you a Heart Piece: The Bunny Hood, the Stone Mask. They have functions that actually change the way the game is played, high-speed/ (basically) invisibility. Imagine if you got the Stone Mask, but there was no part of the game where stealth was actually useful. On the contrary, imagine if there was somebody guarding a treasure chest and the only way you could get by was to be invisible, and then in the chest is... a fucking Heart Piece. I'm not saying that's inherently a bad idea, what I'm saying is that it's a lot better for the mask to serve a purpose outside of that one tiny thing.

The problem is that some of these masks are just way too fucking specific for their own good. The Circus-Leader's Mask is probably the worst offender. In order to get it, you have to have access to the Milk Bar. To get access to the Milk Bar, you have to save Cremia's cart from the bandits (the circus-leader's brothers). However, if you go back in time and wear the Circus-Leader's mask while protecting Cremia's cart, they'll leave you alone. This is cool, because they see their brother's face and, in a moment of glimmering humanity, leave you alone. But you've already protected Cremia's cart. If you hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to get the mask.
This mask serves no other purpose in the game other than to be traded in for the Fierce Deity Mask, which by the way can only be used in Boss rooms; there are only 5 bosses in the whole game.

Is it necessarily bad that not every mask is wildly useful? No, not really; for example, you get access to the Milk Bar because Cremia gives you Romani's Mask, which is proof of membership. It serves no purpose otherwise (again, other than being traded in for the Fierce Deity Mask). It's okay for some of them to be essentially useless. The problem is that almost all of them are useless.

 

[username sucks]

Fallout: New Vegas.

-Bugs. Infinite. Amounts. of bugs.(I now keep a minimum of 20 backup saves)

-It gave little to no backstory to the main character(which I like), then ruined that with the Lonesome Road dlc.

-Companions, Boone in particular, are ridiculously overpowered. Even on the hardest difficulty, I will do about 10% of the damage of my party(with just me and 2 people, while I use a minigun, with one companion using a pistol and the other is a dog.)

-Skill requirements to get the only good outcome in a quest. Sorry, I don't feel like putting my valueble skill points on explosives just to come to a peaceful solution with the powder gangers and NCR. Sorry powder gangers, but I need to kill you all mercilessly now.

-Over Abundance of money. I have never once, even when I first started, been short on money to buy what I wanted.

-More bugs

 

[Ken_J]

Bastion

- The combat is repetitive
- Enemies are the types that are annoyingly difficult or difficulty annoying
- Half the weapons you get will just take up space in favor of the Pike and Hammer for Melee and Pistols and Carbine for range.
- Sometimes the screen get so cluttered you have no idea were to go.

But that Presentation, MMmmm! so good.

 

[KefkaCultist]

Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

-The time travel thing could get kind of annoying when trying to collect everything, especially since it resets the bosses too.
-The dungeons and bosses are relatively easy.
-The final boss is super easy if you have the Fierce Diety Mask.
-The game can be pretty short.

 

[Bvenged]

Just gonna' list a few as I have many, many favourite games:

[HEADING=3]Oblivion[/HEADING]
So much damn graphical bloom in this game.
Also conversations felt like interrogations by a poorly stitched-together AI who wants to know my secrets to being organic and human.

[HEADING=3]Fallout 3[/HEADING]
Same as above, but with less bloom. Conversations were painful to say the least. The black & white moral system was too bias at times to both. There were no equal or opposite rewards in quests, just some would reward morally right choices better and vice versa.

[HEADING=3]Halo 3[/HEADING]
Hasn't aged well in my opinion, which is an absolute shame. The series didn't have to be a trilogy if Bungie did their jobs properly and Halo 3 could be a 3rd story with the rings, not a direct continuation of Halo 2 tied in to a 3rd story. The facial animations were not high-tech for the time, which was disappointing for one of the firs HD games, to say the least. All human faces looked like WoW character models but a little more high-res.

[HEADING=3]UT/UT2004[/HEADING]
AI was really, really stupid at times - the only thing that made the game harder as you went up difficulty levels was the AI's inhuman speed and accuracy. Despite that, they always remained foolish and were borderline useless in anything other than a Deathmatch or CTF. complete shame, really.

[HEADING=3]SWAT 4[/HEADING]
There was no point in changing the difficulty as the game didn't get harder in any way; the AI didn't get any smarter, you weren't more prone to ambush and you weren't pressure to use more of your resources. Other than the gradual-steep-gradual increase in difficulty that occurred with single-player mission progression (which was quite short for a 2004 game) If you got used to using non-lethal early the game was a walk (though you could inconvenience yourself for increase difficulty).

[HEADING=3]C&C3[/HEADING]
Multiplayer maps were poorly designed, and while the console version was done really, really well and support for the game in general was brilliant (C&C Battlecast PrimeTime, anyone?),it was dead online after a year which was a real shame. Best C&C yet and a top 5 all-time pure RTS in my eyes... minus the maps.

 

[Ken_J]

Fallout: New Vegas.

-Bugs. Infinite. Amounts. of bugs.(I now keep a minimum of 20 backup saves)

-It gave little to no backstory to the main character(which I like), then ruined that with the Lonesome Road dlc.

-Companions, Boone in particular, are ridiculously overpowered. Even on the hardest difficulty, I will do about 10% of the damage of my party(with just me and 2 people, while I use a minigun, with one companion using a pistol and the other is a dog.)

-Skill requirements to get the only good outcome in a quest. Sorry, I don't feel like putting my valueble skill points on explosives just to come to a peaceful solution with the powder gangers and NCR. Sorry powder gangers, but I need to kill you all mercilessly now.

-Over Abundance of money. I have never once, even when I first started, been short on money to buy what I wanted.

-More bugs

You forgot to mention the bugs

 

[sextus the crazy]

Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword
-Bland Main Characters
-Story is all around bad, goes too tangential, plot holes
-Lyn's mode tutorial is long and painful
-Basic weapons too useful, everything else besides silver, killer, reaver, ranged and S-ranked weapons are kinda useless
-too few mage units, could have used a bigger roster in general.
-Having to unlock difficulty modes. I understand putting off Hector's mode, but Eliwood and Lyn Hard should have been available from the start.

 

[MaAlGon3]

Earthbound:

- The game is completely arbitrary in it's progression structure (which is sort of why it shipped with a strategy guide)
- The difficulty curve is all over the place, bordering on merciless at times. This makes grinding a must.
- Having to backtrack to the hospital every single time something goes wrong gets really annoying and breaks the flow of the game.
- The puzzles can get very cryptic (once again, the strategy guide absolves it)
- Having to spend money to save the game is unreasonable, yet hilarious.
- Some of the world areas can get confusing to navigate around (the area around camp where the monster carries Jeff across the lake, for example)

And I wouldn't have it any other way. Except maybe better.

 

[Moderated]

Ocarina of time sucks
It has shitty graphics and the text in cutscenes take too long.

 

[Gitty101]

I have a couple of games I would call my all time favorites...

Mass Effect 2: Combat can get stale quickly and squad-mates are useless, you end up doing all the work yourself. Also, the paragon/renegade system is completely one-sided, discouraging any actual role-play.

Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition: Online lag and a matchmaking system that is determined to pair you with players far above your actual skill level. Plus, the individual stories for each character are weak.

The Witcher 2: Combat can be frustrating at times and the skill tree system doesn't allow you to fully utilize the abilities available to Geralt. (Can't really think of anything else though - that game was sweet).

That's all I can think of at this time.