Hm... That's a hard nut. Unless we say MMO, in which case it is, like 95% of the population, World of Warcraft. But the game that has truly "broken" a genre for me? I would say... Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 for squad based combat. I mean, Mass Effect comes pretty damn close. Millimeters close. But the way that Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 handles it, it's beautiful. Your squad helps you, without helping too much, leaving you to do some of the work yourself, you can coordinate it, you can prioritise targets, tell them how to breach a room, but, but, BUT! BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT! Most importantly, you could tell them to be stealthy. Or not to be stealthy. You lugged these two nutters around, everywhere, and you DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SHOOTING SOMEONE AND TURNING IT INTO A MASSACRE! I LOVE IT! I can choose to just vacate the brains of the people in a SINGLE room and that's it. Done. No more. I don't have to worry about anyone else hearing it because of the silencers, I don't have to worry about my squadmates taking this as a all-clear to just start murdering the fuck out of everyone, I don't have to worry about any of them. Just up against the door, open door, smoke grenade, enter, pop the one closest to cover, pop the guy with the biggest gun, then pop the rest. Clean, lean, efficient, done. Next room.
Games that are so good they've ruined every other game in their genre for you
- Thread starter someguy1231
- Start date
Resident Evil 2 N64's 3D analogue controls have ruined fixed camera+tank controls survival horror games for me.
Oh I dropped the anime adaptation pretty early, around episode 3 or so. It's not bad exactly, it's not the Umineko anime levels of bad adaptation but it looks way too simplified which I know is an almost unavoidable problem for adaptations of ridiculously long VNs. Almost unavoidable because the Higurashi anime was super awesome and better than the original VN entirely.urlorjkron said:
Hell I saw the end of episode 1, saw that shit with Sachi (which /a/ had a fucking field day with) and just got a terrible feeling about the whole thing.
Why is she making bombs? She has no reason to at this point in time because she hasn't received the request that is beyond her to complete. Furthermore she wasn't the one who even acquired or even thought of the idea to use actual explosives, it was Yuuji who gave them to her. The point being that she subconsciously rejected the kind of obvious if you really think about it idea that you have to use serious hardware to take out the school instead of just setting a fire, she's a smart girl you can't tell me she wouldn't have figured it out. Illustrating that she isn't SUPER far gone by the flawed doctrine she forces upon herself.
Or i'm overthinking things like always but hey, talking about fiction is always more fun if I do
Or i'm overthinking things like always but hey, talking about fiction is always more fun if I do
Some good VNs I recommend that are on the level of Grisaia are Comyu, which is a battle centric VN which dark themes that are not overbearing enough to get depressing but still make an impression (which is the sign of good writing in my opinion.) Sharin no Kuni which is about an unnamed society forcing obligations on people with I suppose "undesirable" personality traits to make them reform in a super unethical way. Devil on the G-String is really damn intelligent and is a must play if you have any interest in the mystery genre and it has a great overarching story and characters even if you don't have a thing for mystery like I do, the plots twists in the game are hands down the best I have ever seen in any form of media, never before have I actually had my mind blown literally instead of an expression for the kind of surprising but they managed it multiple times. Both are made by the same devs funnily enough too.
If you have ever had someone try to tell you that all VNs should just be books, point them towards Devil. It makes use of how VNs focus on the perspective of one main character 100% of the time spectacularly.
I do recommend Umineko No Naku Kuro Ni but with the massive asterisk that you will only get into it with the right mindset and you already need a mind that likes mystery stories. It's a Kinetic Novel which means you have zero gameplay but it encourages you to make your own gameplay by trying to figure out the mystery, this is the main plot of episodes 1-4 until it changes to a very "meta" and character focused plot in 5-8 and it becomes a massive love letter to the entire genre and really explores what makes a mystery, a mystery.
Also evil witches. Evil witches that have the best voice acting ever. Also a fight to the death between two individuals about if magic exists or not via the medium of murder mystery.
lol *tipshat*Wiggum Esquilax said:
As much as I loved BG2, I actually prefer DA:Origins. BG2 was stunning at the time, but DA:O took everything to a new level, and the day they make a proper sequel to it is the day I'll rejoice big time.
It doesn't even have to be Bioware. If any company out there wants to make some big money, just take DA:O's formula and make it your own.
Same as Morrowind. Oblivion & Skyrim are both OK in various ways, but neither draws you in and absorbs you like the lush completeness of Morrowind. If some company takes that base template and reproduces it in their own fashion it will be stunning. Alien like monsters, a dark, mysterious land and culture, REAl RpG aspects such as spell crafting etc.
It's like there's pots of gold out there waiting to be thrown around, but no one wants them lol.
I've never played DA:O with mods mate, I play a basic 360 version. It's absolutely stunning.ecoho said:
Fair play with your points chap, and I'm not saying that DA:I hasn't got some quality or it's fans. It's actually nice to hear that you enjoyed it.
What I am saying is that overall the majority of people who played it didn't get anywhere near that "amazing" experience so many reviewers promised.
Polls & threads on here, user score & reviews on metacritic, people I know in real life etc. - I'm not saying that there isn't a mixture of opinion and that no-one likes it or that it's outright rubbish, I'm saying that the claims that it's "one of the best games in Bioware's history" and lavish praise raking in ratings arounf the 9/10 from the likes of Gamespot, IGN, Gameover, GRYonline, etc...... Christ alive even The Escapist gave it 5/5 with this tagline......
"BioWare has created a role-playing game which feels like a massive monument to our culture. "
WTF???
It's not that I'm saying I'm right they are wrong, I'm saying the mass populace is right and the reviewers are miles out of line with them.
As someone who's worked in and out of the music industry for over 15 years I've seen reviews bought for albums, and printed without the reviewer even listening to the album (they've given their mate a copy, asked their opinion on various songs, and then printed said paid-praise review). This practice is undoubtably happening in the games industry now (some of the reviews - especially those praising it "epic content" read like the reviewer hasn't actually played it!), and the more we tolerate this "subjective" excuse the more we'll get lied to, the more EA will get our coin and the less smaller, more quality companies capable of producing awesome games get backed.
For me these reviewers are either incompetant or sell-outs. Sorry, but that's my opinion.
Civilization 5 (with both expansions, of course) has ruined the 4x genre for me; I've played the Endless Series, I've given Galactic Civ 2 and 3 a go, hell, Civ 5 even knee-capped Beyond Earth despite them having similar properties, and it even feels like a smoother experience than the haloed Alpha Centuri.
But to me, it manages the perfect balance of depth without difficulty understanding, control without drowning you, it doesn't need to make demi-plots for you to follow because it's a good game in of itself; other games feel clunky in their interface (Endless Legend, while good, falls short here), the fighting is nice and the hexes add a bit of terrain while not allowing a stack of doom or being a wargame. Diplomacy has a place (but all 4x have trouble here), but trade, religion, politics, war, intimidation, geography, all place a good part without getting too complex. A beginner can work out most of the mechanics with little to no explanation, but it's complex enough that I'm still learning things several hundred hours in. Also, it's fun, which is such a hard thing nowadays when some of the newer 4x believe that complex is the same as obtuse.
But to me, it manages the perfect balance of depth without difficulty understanding, control without drowning you, it doesn't need to make demi-plots for you to follow because it's a good game in of itself; other games feel clunky in their interface (Endless Legend, while good, falls short here), the fighting is nice and the hexes add a bit of terrain while not allowing a stack of doom or being a wargame. Diplomacy has a place (but all 4x have trouble here), but trade, religion, politics, war, intimidation, geography, all place a good part without getting too complex. A beginner can work out most of the mechanics with little to no explanation, but it's complex enough that I'm still learning things several hundred hours in. Also, it's fun, which is such a hard thing nowadays when some of the newer 4x believe that complex is the same as obtuse.
Ever since I started playing the Episodic Adventure series Life is Strange by DontNod Entertainment three months ago, I can no longer get into any of Telltale Games's Episodic Adventures.
Some of the reasons appear in this video:
I loved The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us. I enjoyed the first episodes of Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones. Since playing LiS though, it's made everything in TftB and GoT seem completely artificial.[footnote]I am well aware they're video games and thus wholly artificial. But when I step into a game, I can usually forget that and lose myself within immersion. There's no longer immersion for me with TTG.[/footnote]
When I played the new Telltale episodes it bothered me that I have no freedom of movement and ability to explore within actual levels, only fixed cameras within simple set pieces. It's disappointing that there are barely any objects to interact with. The quicktime event action sequences were once welcome breaks between slow moments, but now come off as force injected intermissions to break up mainstream gamer ADD. None of my dialogue options seem to matter; I could just stay silent/wait for the timer to run and still come to the same conclusion as any "choice." All of the "big decisions" with no time limits are so extreme and binary...yet they don't seem to matter at all.
I concede the writing is still excellent, in terms of dialogue and narrative. Yet, the story structure is lacking for its medium, feeling more like animated choose your own adventure novels than actual interactive games.
The beginning of every GoT episode is prefaced with a message.
Last week I began playing the third episode of Game of Thrones - "The Sword in the Darkness", and I stopped abruptly and never resumed. There was no pressing matter to attend to, or something better to do. Telltale Adventures typically last only 2 to 5 hours. Yet I couldn't finish. I just didn't care.
PS: I realize that I also lost interest with the Fables comic series, TWD comics and show, never got into Borderlands shooters, and was losing interest in the GoT TV Series until the previous episode Hardhome. Is this ironic or a coincidence?
PPS: Telltale still beats the hell outta DontNod when it comes to dialogue tree diversity, voice acting, and animation.
Some of the reasons appear in this video:
I loved The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us. I enjoyed the first episodes of Tales from the Borderlands and Game of Thrones. Since playing LiS though, it's made everything in TftB and GoT seem completely artificial.[footnote]I am well aware they're video games and thus wholly artificial. But when I step into a game, I can usually forget that and lose myself within immersion. There's no longer immersion for me with TTG.[/footnote]
When I played the new Telltale episodes it bothered me that I have no freedom of movement and ability to explore within actual levels, only fixed cameras within simple set pieces. It's disappointing that there are barely any objects to interact with. The quicktime event action sequences were once welcome breaks between slow moments, but now come off as force injected intermissions to break up mainstream gamer ADD. None of my dialogue options seem to matter; I could just stay silent/wait for the timer to run and still come to the same conclusion as any "choice." All of the "big decisions" with no time limits are so extreme and binary...yet they don't seem to matter at all.
I concede the writing is still excellent, in terms of dialogue and narrative. Yet, the story structure is lacking for its medium, feeling more like animated choose your own adventure novels than actual interactive games.
The beginning of every GoT episode is prefaced with a message.
Yet we all know that's a lie.[footnote]I suppose part of enjoying entertainment is wanting to be lied to.[/footnote] There are never branching story paths in Telltale Games.[footnote]The conclusion of TWD season 2 doesn't count. And neither does Prince Lawrence in TWAU[/footnote] Your decisions will have little effect on the story and environment. The most you will have control over are the lines said in the moment, and they might be brought up briefly later. The ineffectiveness of player choice is doubled by the fact that their current games are all licensed titles working in established universes with established characters and established canon, so we will never make significant effects in these worlds.
Last week I began playing the third episode of Game of Thrones - "The Sword in the Darkness", and I stopped abruptly and never resumed. There was no pressing matter to attend to, or something better to do. Telltale Adventures typically last only 2 to 5 hours. Yet I couldn't finish. I just didn't care.
PS: I realize that I also lost interest with the Fables comic series, TWD comics and show, never got into Borderlands shooters, and was losing interest in the GoT TV Series until the previous episode Hardhome. Is this ironic or a coincidence?
PPS: Telltale still beats the hell outta DontNod when it comes to dialogue tree diversity, voice acting, and animation.
Oh and HL2 ruined all physics in other action games.
Since 2004, I keep having these same thoughts when playing a 3D action game:
"Nice effect, but wouldn't it be nice if these physical interactions were actually incorporated into the gameplay instead of being there to look pretty"
"Nice looking props, but wouldn't it be better if I can move them?"
"Hey I can move this? Why can't I move anything/everything else?"
"Nice physics based puzzle. But it's very artificial considering can move or destroy these things now and nothing/nowhere else in the game."
Since 2004, I keep having these same thoughts when playing a 3D action game:
"Nice effect, but wouldn't it be nice if these physical interactions were actually incorporated into the gameplay instead of being there to look pretty"
"Nice looking props, but wouldn't it be better if I can move them?"
"Hey I can move this? Why can't I move anything/everything else?"
"Nice physics based puzzle. But it's very artificial considering can move or destroy these things now and nothing/nowhere else in the game."
Agreed on WoW, though I think I mostly burned myself out on MMOs (that currently are flagged as such) rather than other games in the genre not being as good (I loved SWTOR and think it has a ton of better mechanics than WoW, including combat).someguy1231 said:
Battlefield 4 is fixed? Huh. Might have to try it again, I've bought the game and the Premium (hi, I'm one of those suckers, sorry, it's my favourite franchise since I was a kid) but couldn't play it anymore due to the constant disconnects and the game crashing on me (got a pretty beastly PC that wasn't the cause of the issue, game was just buggy as all hell). As I said though, it's one of my favourite franchises, nothing beats BF in FPS multiplayer, love the whole concept of warfare with vehicles and Conquest mode.
OT: Hack&slash/action RPG - Dark Souls. I can't get into Witcher 3 no matter how much I try, the character control is the most important aspect of the game to me (in the sense that it's a prerequisite to me enjoying a game) and no one so far that I've seen did it as well as DS games, the movement, the controls (not to be confused with the control scheme), everything is just perfect.
RPG: Either Seiken Densetsu 3 or Dark Souls. Seiken Densetsu because it was from a time when Square actually knew how to make games, and Dark Souls because it's trying to emulate a retro-like feel while also adding new concepts that don't clash. Either effect is beautiful.
MMO: Wakfu, especially since the most recent update. It's not alienating, irritating or overly complicated unlike most MMOs, it's fairly easy to make a decent character build and stick to it (you only really need to pay attention to 2 stats - Lock and Dodge - and the rest is up to you. If you want to make a tank with almost no HP but ridiculously high defence, then that's possible too) and the world is open and vibrant. There are also no level barriers aside from dungeons.
I never really liked WoW. I honestly prefer games where I can distribute my own stat points - a weird pet peeve of mine.
First-Person: Mirror's Edge. The game was a buggy piece of crap most of the time, but I loved it for the novelty and stylistic choices that went into it.
Survival Horror: Rule of Rose. It's like if Lord Of The Flies was a game, and everyone was a lesbian. Better than any RE game.
MMO: Wakfu, especially since the most recent update. It's not alienating, irritating or overly complicated unlike most MMOs, it's fairly easy to make a decent character build and stick to it (you only really need to pay attention to 2 stats - Lock and Dodge - and the rest is up to you. If you want to make a tank with almost no HP but ridiculously high defence, then that's possible too) and the world is open and vibrant. There are also no level barriers aside from dungeons.
I never really liked WoW. I honestly prefer games where I can distribute my own stat points - a weird pet peeve of mine.
First-Person: Mirror's Edge. The game was a buggy piece of crap most of the time, but I loved it for the novelty and stylistic choices that went into it.
Survival Horror: Rule of Rose. It's like if Lord Of The Flies was a game, and everyone was a lesbian. Better than any RE game.
For MMOs, for me the favorite was City of Heroes, by a long shot. (Nostalgic ramble incoming.)
Now, don't get me wrong, the game was by no means perfect; it had randomly generated levels with recycled assets out the wazoo, graphics were obviously quite dated, etc. But what they DID with what they had made the game perfect for anyone who just needs some narrative context, and their own imagination, to forge their character's adventure.
There was a sense of progression that (for me, at least) felt far better than any MMO; you began your heroic career as this weak little guy with two attacks, relegated to fighting some drug dealers with guns and knives in an otherwise normal looking 'burb. Eventually, you expanded a little; first to a seemingly benign park region that was soooorta stuffed to the gills with a mystic cult, and then to a region that had been torn apart by some form of disaster, leaving chasms and cliffs scattered throughout what had once been an inhabited area, but was now largely inhabited by a green-skinned gang who were taking, for lack of a better term, super-steroids. You didn't even have a travel power until level 10 or so, (been quite awhile,) and so got around essentially like a mountless WoW character would, making the last location I mentioned INCREDIBLY tricky to navigate, especially given it was littered with higher-level mobs. I remember that, if you were in a group, you always tried to get a player who had the earlier-earned 'Summon Friend' teleport ability, which as you might guess let them summon a teammate to their location, one at a time. Whoever had the ability became the scout, braving dangerous mobs to reach the distant mission door while the rest of the team largely sat around eating cookies, until the scout finally arrived and was able to summon all the teammates to the mission start point.
Off topic. Anyway, from there, as you grew more powerful and gained new abilities (including unlocking a travel ability, though you could have more than one,) you would continue to expand into increasingly bizarre and fantastical things. The homeless in the sewers, genetically enhanced by an alien race and sent to do their bidding, the inevitable appearance of the aliens themselves, megacorporations with private soldiers and brainwashed superhumans, honest-to-god Frankenstein monsters and the sick surgeons who sewed them together, Supersolider neo-Nazis, an elemental race full of golems and other creatures. Crazy mystic cultists, SEVERAL flavors of gang, and plenty more, even a late-game Dark Mirror universe where all the NPC heroes in the canon are in fact dictators and villains, ala Justice Lords. I'm not even counting several different types of giant monster (like, size of a city block, it felt like in some cases) that would require the combined forces of dozens of heroes to take down, necessitating public and unofficial collaboration. In any case, towards the peak of my character's progression, I ended up in a parallel dimension, composed entirely of floating islands with rivers of blood, fighting horrid creatures aplenty with such kickassery I was a kick-throwing martial arts master with darkness powers who could @*##&$ TURN INTO A WINGED DEMON! >.< *coughwithacostumequickchangemacrocough*
The important thing here, though, is becoming a badass hero felt EARNED. I played DC Universe Online, reached level cap in THREE DAYS, which culminated in saving Superman from Lex Luthor. Whoop-de-freakin-do, because I swear my progression from newbie to savior felt faster than Neo's. With City of Heroes, when the story said 'Wow, you're one of the big boys now, looks like,' I was able to look back on the countless missions and storylines I had taken part in, and think 'YEAH. Yeah I am!' As someone who enjoys slapping a head-canon story on characters he creates, City of Heroes kept me engaged in new story arcs and areas so long, my character went through multiple changes, and ultimately ended up a completely different person than when he'd started out.
That and the community was SO nice, my God, I have never, in any online circumstance, had such a pleasant time, with few if any actual problems with anybody. I normally inch away from multiplayer nowadays, but I was quite a social butterfly on CoH because I felt genuinely comfortable bumping into new people. Missions with large groups were far MORE difficult because the mission areas scale depending on players, and with eight players you'd often end up with mobs so big they melded with other mobs to become UBER mobs, so one bad foe-summon teleport could bring forty baddies down on your head, leaving heroes dropping like flies as the strike team fled for the elevators. But we'd always bounce back, form a new plan, and ultimately strike down our foes with fire, fists, ice, lightning, SO MUCH COOLNESS. >.<
And I'm still leaving out City of Villains, building bases to house your Supergroup, holiday events, an absurd level of character and costume customization including bold choices like making you wait til you reach a certain level to EARN the right to wear a cape, making you feel so awesome when you finally could, and... just...
...Goddamnit I miss that game.
Now, don't get me wrong, the game was by no means perfect; it had randomly generated levels with recycled assets out the wazoo, graphics were obviously quite dated, etc. But what they DID with what they had made the game perfect for anyone who just needs some narrative context, and their own imagination, to forge their character's adventure.
There was a sense of progression that (for me, at least) felt far better than any MMO; you began your heroic career as this weak little guy with two attacks, relegated to fighting some drug dealers with guns and knives in an otherwise normal looking 'burb. Eventually, you expanded a little; first to a seemingly benign park region that was soooorta stuffed to the gills with a mystic cult, and then to a region that had been torn apart by some form of disaster, leaving chasms and cliffs scattered throughout what had once been an inhabited area, but was now largely inhabited by a green-skinned gang who were taking, for lack of a better term, super-steroids. You didn't even have a travel power until level 10 or so, (been quite awhile,) and so got around essentially like a mountless WoW character would, making the last location I mentioned INCREDIBLY tricky to navigate, especially given it was littered with higher-level mobs. I remember that, if you were in a group, you always tried to get a player who had the earlier-earned 'Summon Friend' teleport ability, which as you might guess let them summon a teammate to their location, one at a time. Whoever had the ability became the scout, braving dangerous mobs to reach the distant mission door while the rest of the team largely sat around eating cookies, until the scout finally arrived and was able to summon all the teammates to the mission start point.
Off topic. Anyway, from there, as you grew more powerful and gained new abilities (including unlocking a travel ability, though you could have more than one,) you would continue to expand into increasingly bizarre and fantastical things. The homeless in the sewers, genetically enhanced by an alien race and sent to do their bidding, the inevitable appearance of the aliens themselves, megacorporations with private soldiers and brainwashed superhumans, honest-to-god Frankenstein monsters and the sick surgeons who sewed them together, Supersolider neo-Nazis, an elemental race full of golems and other creatures. Crazy mystic cultists, SEVERAL flavors of gang, and plenty more, even a late-game Dark Mirror universe where all the NPC heroes in the canon are in fact dictators and villains, ala Justice Lords. I'm not even counting several different types of giant monster (like, size of a city block, it felt like in some cases) that would require the combined forces of dozens of heroes to take down, necessitating public and unofficial collaboration. In any case, towards the peak of my character's progression, I ended up in a parallel dimension, composed entirely of floating islands with rivers of blood, fighting horrid creatures aplenty with such kickassery I was a kick-throwing martial arts master with darkness powers who could @*##&$ TURN INTO A WINGED DEMON! >.< *coughwithacostumequickchangemacrocough*
The important thing here, though, is becoming a badass hero felt EARNED. I played DC Universe Online, reached level cap in THREE DAYS, which culminated in saving Superman from Lex Luthor. Whoop-de-freakin-do, because I swear my progression from newbie to savior felt faster than Neo's. With City of Heroes, when the story said 'Wow, you're one of the big boys now, looks like,' I was able to look back on the countless missions and storylines I had taken part in, and think 'YEAH. Yeah I am!' As someone who enjoys slapping a head-canon story on characters he creates, City of Heroes kept me engaged in new story arcs and areas so long, my character went through multiple changes, and ultimately ended up a completely different person than when he'd started out.
That and the community was SO nice, my God, I have never, in any online circumstance, had such a pleasant time, with few if any actual problems with anybody. I normally inch away from multiplayer nowadays, but I was quite a social butterfly on CoH because I felt genuinely comfortable bumping into new people. Missions with large groups were far MORE difficult because the mission areas scale depending on players, and with eight players you'd often end up with mobs so big they melded with other mobs to become UBER mobs, so one bad foe-summon teleport could bring forty baddies down on your head, leaving heroes dropping like flies as the strike team fled for the elevators. But we'd always bounce back, form a new plan, and ultimately strike down our foes with fire, fists, ice, lightning, SO MUCH COOLNESS. >.<
And I'm still leaving out City of Villains, building bases to house your Supergroup, holiday events, an absurd level of character and costume customization including bold choices like making you wait til you reach a certain level to EARN the right to wear a cape, making you feel so awesome when you finally could, and... just...
...Goddamnit I miss that game.
first an foremost never trust metacritic for any game that may be on the receiving end of mindless hate(ie people writing bad reviews because they still feel bad about ME3)Danbo Jambo said:lol *tipshat*Wiggum Esquilax said:
As much as I loved BG2, I actually prefer DA:Origins. BG2 was stunning at the time, but DA:O took everything to a new level, and the day they make a proper sequel to it is the day I'll rejoice big time.
It doesn't even have to be Bioware. If any company out there wants to make some big money, just take DA:O's formula and make it your own.
Same as Morrowind. Oblivion & Skyrim are both OK in various ways, but neither draws you in and absorbs you like the lush completeness of Morrowind. If some company takes that base template and reproduces it in their own fashion it will be stunning. Alien like monsters, a dark, mysterious land and culture, REAl RpG aspects such as spell crafting etc.
It's like there's pots of gold out there waiting to be thrown around, but no one wants them lol.
I've never played DA:O with mods mate, I play a basic 360 version. It's absolutely stunning.ecoho said:
Fair play with your points chap, and I'm not saying that DA:I hasn't got some quality or it's fans. It's actually nice to hear that you enjoyed it.
What I am saying is that overall the majority of people who played it didn't get anywhere near that "amazing" experience so many reviewers promised.
Polls & threads on here, user score & reviews on metacritic, people I know in real life etc. - I'm not saying that there isn't a mixture of opinion and that no-one likes it or that it's outright rubbish, I'm saying that the claims that it's "one of the best games in Bioware's history" and lavish praise raking in ratings arounf the 9/10 from the likes of Gamespot, IGN, Gameover, GRYonline, etc...... Christ alive even The Escapist gave it 5/5 with this tagline......
"BioWare has created a role-playing game which feels like a massive monument to our culture. "
WTF???
It's not that I'm saying I'm right they are wrong, I'm saying the mass populace is right and the reviewers are miles out of line with them.
As someone who's worked in and out of the music industry for over 15 years I've seen reviews bought for albums, and printed without the reviewer even listening to the album (they've given their mate a copy, asked their opinion on various songs, and then printed said paid-praise review). This practice is undoubtably happening in the games industry now (some of the reviews - especially those praising it "epic content" read like the reviewer hasn't actually played it!), and the more we tolerate this "subjective" excuse the more we'll get lied to, the more EA will get our coin and the less smaller, more quality companies capable of producing awesome games get backed.
For me these reviewers are either incompetant or sell-outs. Sorry, but that's my opinion.
polls here though tend to go up and down some thought it was great while other thought it meh, the one real poll I saw had mostly meh and like 15 terrible which was less the 1%.
As for your concerns, the difference between the games industry and music is the sheer amount of resources the customer can use to see reviews from people who arnt even getting paid for them. Its also good to note that those are the opinions of those reviewers most of the time. You do see some reveiwers like polygon who should never be taken seriously though so I can see why your concerned.
Between them, Just Cause 2, the Saint's Row series and Spider-Man 2 (not Amazing, the old one for PS2) have ruined most other sandboxes. Because if you aren't grappling cars to planes, hitting aliens with a dildo or frantically swinging to deliver pizza, what's the point?
I'm sort of shocked no one has mentioned "Freespace 2". That game was so good that a lot of people blamed it for essentially killing the Space-Sim genre, the theory being that developers said "yup, no way we can top that" and didn't even try after that.
But anyway, for me personally, Prototype (and Infamous, to a smaller degree) killed GTA style sandbox games for me. "What the hell do you mean I have to drive a car across the city and then take an elevator to the roof of the building? Why can't I just run 70 MPH while parkouring over cars, then jump 50 feet straight up and run up the side of the building?"
But anyway, for me personally, Prototype (and Infamous, to a smaller degree) killed GTA style sandbox games for me. "What the hell do you mean I have to drive a car across the city and then take an elevator to the roof of the building? Why can't I just run 70 MPH while parkouring over cars, then jump 50 feet straight up and run up the side of the building?"
But for every mindless bit of hate there's also mindless fanboyism & love, so for me that balances out over almost 1400 people easy. I think 5.8 is a fair reflection of general, honest opinion.ecoho said:first an foremost never trust metacritic for any game that may be on the receiving end of mindless hate(ie people writing bad reviews because they still feel bad about ME3)Danbo Jambo said:lol *tipshat*Wiggum Esquilax said:
As much as I loved BG2, I actually prefer DA:Origins. BG2 was stunning at the time, but DA:O took everything to a new level, and the day they make a proper sequel to it is the day I'll rejoice big time.
It doesn't even have to be Bioware. If any company out there wants to make some big money, just take DA:O's formula and make it your own.
Same as Morrowind. Oblivion & Skyrim are both OK in various ways, but neither draws you in and absorbs you like the lush completeness of Morrowind. If some company takes that base template and reproduces it in their own fashion it will be stunning. Alien like monsters, a dark, mysterious land and culture, REAl RpG aspects such as spell crafting etc.
It's like there's pots of gold out there waiting to be thrown around, but no one wants them lol.
I've never played DA:O with mods mate, I play a basic 360 version. It's absolutely stunning.ecoho said:
Fair play with your points chap, and I'm not saying that DA:I hasn't got some quality or it's fans. It's actually nice to hear that you enjoyed it.
What I am saying is that overall the majority of people who played it didn't get anywhere near that "amazing" experience so many reviewers promised.
Polls & threads on here, user score & reviews on metacritic, people I know in real life etc. - I'm not saying that there isn't a mixture of opinion and that no-one likes it or that it's outright rubbish, I'm saying that the claims that it's "one of the best games in Bioware's history" and lavish praise raking in ratings arounf the 9/10 from the likes of Gamespot, IGN, Gameover, GRYonline, etc...... Christ alive even The Escapist gave it 5/5 with this tagline......
"BioWare has created a role-playing game which feels like a massive monument to our culture. "
WTF???
It's not that I'm saying I'm right they are wrong, I'm saying the mass populace is right and the reviewers are miles out of line with them.
As someone who's worked in and out of the music industry for over 15 years I've seen reviews bought for albums, and printed without the reviewer even listening to the album (they've given their mate a copy, asked their opinion on various songs, and then printed said paid-praise review). This practice is undoubtably happening in the games industry now (some of the reviews - especially those praising it "epic content" read like the reviewer hasn't actually played it!), and the more we tolerate this "subjective" excuse the more we'll get lied to, the more EA will get our coin and the less smaller, more quality companies capable of producing awesome games get backed.
For me these reviewers are either incompetant or sell-outs. Sorry, but that's my opinion.
polls here though tend to go up and down some thought it was great while other thought it meh, the one real poll I saw had mostly meh and like 15 terrible which was less the 1%.
As for your concerns, the difference between the games industry and music is the sheer amount of resources the customer can use to see reviews from people who arnt even getting paid for them. Its also good to note that those are the opinions of those reviewers most of the time. You do see some reveiwers like polygon who should never be taken seriously though so I can see why your concerned.
Even I it's a tad lower due to hate, you're still looking at a 6 or 6.5 game at best. It's not terrible, it's just "meh". Whereas most reviews paint the game as "monumental". The difference between professional critical opinion and user opinion is huge. The polls as you point out show this too. I don't want hate for DA:I, I just wanted reviewers to be honest and say it's"meh", or at least be honest about it's flaws and not paint a dull, repetitive, filler-full world as amazing.
Each to their own, I just think it's getting a bit silly how far wide of the mark these reviews are getting so consistently now. There are posters on here I trust far more with their opinion.
While it's certainly not the only factor, or even the contributing factor, the Megami Tensei franchise has sort of soured me on other JRPGs. I notice I have a lot less patience for the genre ever since I started playing MegaTen games.
But like I said, I know they aren't the only factor in this. There are a lot of reasons why JRPGs and I have drifted apart.
But like I said, I know they aren't the only factor in this. There are a lot of reasons why JRPGs and I have drifted apart.
Will also have to say that the Shin Megami Tensei series, especially Persona 4, have made me revaluate many games in the JRPG genre.
Also, this might not be the same thing, but I distinctly remember playing certain games and immediatly wanting to play something else.
When I played Lollipop Chainsaw, I remember thinking "Wow, Bayonetta is so much better than this game."
When I played Witcher 2, I remember thinking "Wow, Demon's Souls is so much better than this game."
Lollipop Chainsaw was hack and slash in the worst way as it was repetitive, and Witcher 2 did not know how invaluable invincible frames are when it comes to a dodge roll, or at least making it responsive.
Also, this might not be the same thing, but I distinctly remember playing certain games and immediatly wanting to play something else.
When I played Lollipop Chainsaw, I remember thinking "Wow, Bayonetta is so much better than this game."
When I played Witcher 2, I remember thinking "Wow, Demon's Souls is so much better than this game."
Lollipop Chainsaw was hack and slash in the worst way as it was repetitive, and Witcher 2 did not know how invaluable invincible frames are when it comes to a dodge roll, or at least making it responsive.
I realized I haven't been able to get into any shooter that claims to be "tactical" or "realistic" since SWAT 4.
I then went to Steam to buy it, and to my dismay discovered it's not available on digital distribution.
I then went to Steam to buy it, and to my dismay discovered it's not available on digital distribution.
I was going to post this in the "What are you hoping for in Fallout 4" thread, but this place is much more appropriate. Like many of you have said already, Witcher 3, really made an impression. After playing that, it'll be a miracle if I ever touch a Bethesda game again.
I didn't think an open world WRPG could have such an engaging story. The side quests felt like actual quests, and the main quests were great enough to make the side quests seem unnecessary. I just wish they hadn't marked up the map with all those secret locations. I'd prefer to discover them on my own, rather than beeline from question mark to question mark. If anything, Bethesda still has better exploration because of that, but Witcher 3 showed me just how unconvincing Bethesda's NPCs were, and how poorly their stories were delivered, and how dull their combat was. To be honest, I already knew that. I just didn't know that it was possible to do it much much better in this particular genre. At this point, I doubt that any Bethesda game I'd want to play would even feel like a Bethesda game.
I didn't think an open world WRPG could have such an engaging story. The side quests felt like actual quests, and the main quests were great enough to make the side quests seem unnecessary. I just wish they hadn't marked up the map with all those secret locations. I'd prefer to discover them on my own, rather than beeline from question mark to question mark. If anything, Bethesda still has better exploration because of that, but Witcher 3 showed me just how unconvincing Bethesda's NPCs were, and how poorly their stories were delivered, and how dull their combat was. To be honest, I already knew that. I just didn't know that it was possible to do it much much better in this particular genre. At this point, I doubt that any Bethesda game I'd want to play would even feel like a Bethesda game.
Gears of War. The first game was an absolute gem. In my opinion, the best game on Xbox 360 to this day. I must have played so many weeks of gameplay on that. It was just awesome, first time I had really been involved in a storyline so good and deep and the first time I actually felt that I wanted to play online. When it gets down to 1v1 at the end of a 4v4 and you're both just using shotguns to end the round... Most adrenaline pumped thing I evee used to play.
Nowadays, League of Legends ruined games for me for the longest time ever. Like a few months back I was in a spot where i wanted to play story based games and get back into consoles or just relaxing and playing the story of something new, but I literally found every game so boring in comparison. Which is dumb because I was playing the same map over and over again, playing the same positions over and over again. But I took some time off tryharding and now I just wanna play a few games. LOL is the only game I can honestly say I had an addiction to.
I will follow in the manner the OP has posted and go through Genres:
- RTS - Command and Conquer: Generals
- TPS - Gears of War
- Open world - GTA: San Andreas
- FPS - Goldeneye 64. Classic and innovational but it gives me nostalgia which overpowers my other FPS choices haha
- MOBA - LoL
- ARPG - Fallout 3
Nowadays, League of Legends ruined games for me for the longest time ever. Like a few months back I was in a spot where i wanted to play story based games and get back into consoles or just relaxing and playing the story of something new, but I literally found every game so boring in comparison. Which is dumb because I was playing the same map over and over again, playing the same positions over and over again. But I took some time off tryharding and now I just wanna play a few games. LOL is the only game I can honestly say I had an addiction to.
I will follow in the manner the OP has posted and go through Genres:
- RTS - Command and Conquer: Generals
- TPS - Gears of War
- Open world - GTA: San Andreas
- FPS - Goldeneye 64. Classic and innovational but it gives me nostalgia which overpowers my other FPS choices haha
- MOBA - LoL
- ARPG - Fallout 3