Games that you enjoy, but the critics did not.

[darkcalling]

I've got a few games that would fall under this category.

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard - Hilarious game with interesting (if silly) characters. Though parts of it were ridiculously hard for me (like the kraken or whatevever it was called) but that may be more cuz I'm just not that good at shooters.

Duke Nukem Forever - This was exactly what I was hoping for with a Duke Nukem game. Anyone expecting it to not be full of sexist misogynistic jokes were kidding themselves. That being said several of the boss fights (the octabrain king for example) were made far too hard due to the boss having absurdly high splash damage and not giving you room to get away from it. also whoever decided that an fps protagonist can only carry two guns was an idiot. I understand realism but please keep that particular "feature" to more "realistic games like Battlefield or even CoD.

The First Templar - A well crafted if somewhat generic romp through the crusades designed from the ground up to be played with online coop all the way through. Too bad that I couldn't do that if I wanted to since I've never met anyone else who's ever even heard of this game.

Dragon Age 2 - I loved the original but number 2 fixed every problem I had with the first one. I'll grant you that it had it's own problems but if repetitive environments and some iffy writing on a couple of the characters (Ander's gay option mostly) are the price I have to pay for a character with an actual personality (the Warden was as charismatic as a bag of hammers for the sake of "immersion") and combat that didn't involve auto-attack (I will concede it's usefulness in a PC environment but I have never played a console game in which I felt like it was helpful or necessary) then I hope that number 3 just like number 2.

 

[HONK Chen]

Only 2 i can think of right atm

Malicious - its very short, it have a terrible camera and you ALWAYS end up fighting the bosses without your pants, but the game more than makes up for its flaws with its big arenas cool bosses and dramatic music, also your weapon is a cape that can transform into GIANT FUCKING FISTS! and a drill ^^


Hyperdimension Neptunia mkII - It's Fanservicey, lightearted, silly and fanservicey. The gameplay is pretty solid and the characters are quirky and likeable. Crtics just cant handle the loli-overdose

 

[TakerFoxx]

Sonic 4: Episode 2. The first one was mehness incarnate, but the second one was awesome in nearly every way: better physics, more original level design, incredible boss fights, Tails is actually useful for once, and freaking Metal Sonic. I mean, come on! You fight Metal Sonic while running at top speed along a roller coaster track! What more do you want?

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

For me it was Bulletstorm, Lollipop Chainsaw. Also Sonic Battle on the gameboy. I still fricking love that game with all my heart.

 

[DishonoredElderSouls]

Oh, and how could I forget Alpha Protocol

Despite the universal negative reviews, I, along with many others, find this to a fantastic game. That great dialog system, the stealth, the twists and turns. The gameplay itself is actually very good if you understand how the game is meant to be played. It's not a run and gun, like reviewers seem to think it is. It's a slow, tactical game. You need to actually line up your shot, wait for the right moment. It takes time and patience.

Though the boss fights were poor, the rest of this game is great.

This is exactly what I was going to say. Alpha Protocol is just straight-up brilliant. Admittedly, it is extremely frustrating in the earliest portions, but within a couple of levels I started to realize that the game is just full of great content. The only reason it received so much negativity is that it didn't cater to the same level of action, graphical sheen, and "OSSUM SET PIECES!!!!!111!!" that many critics need from a game in order to give it more than a 7 out of 10.

Also: Dead Island, to a certain degree. This is a game I had been waiting for since its original announcement in 2007, when it was a single-player in-depth RPG with cutting-edge tech, so I think it stands to show that a lot of gamers are incredibly short-sighted when they feel disappointed by a game they waited two months for just basing their excitement off of one trailer. At the same time, I had accepted and understood fully well that this game I had been anticipating for four to five years had changed its style of gameplay completely, and went into it completely fulfilled with what it ended up being...just because I watched some gameplay demos of dudes hacking apart zombies with electric machetes with numbers popping up over their heads. Instead, most people watched one short video and bought into the thing blindly, expecting some transcendental experience when the gameplay provided on YouTube clearly demonstrated that it was not.

Jaws Unleashed got a mention earlier. I never finished that game, but by God did I love wandering through that open world and just killing hundreds of people and sinking tons of whaler boats. So incredibly entertaining.

BioShock 2, while being generally well-received by critics, has a pretty rough reputation overall, but in my opinion its gameplay and level design often beat out the first game by a fair amount, and always beat out Infinite by miles. I found it to be a really enjoyable BioShock experience that had even greater elements of adventure and exploration, and its story was totally serviceable. Even if you label it a cash grab, it's a cash grab with a lot of heart, soul, and improvement.

 

[bigfatcarp93]

Halo 3: ODST.

Fantastic game with well-done gameplay, excellent pacing and atmosphere, and a soundtrack to die for. Still, critics largely hated it, calling it a "Four-hour expansion." Even discounting Firefight Mode, I'd like to point out to these math-class rejects that the campaign is seven hours long, and does not feel like a Halo 3 expansion at all.

 

[Kyrdra]

For me it is I think Dragon Age 2. It was fun to play even if it does had much to do with the previous game

then there is alpha protocol which wasnt bad but neither really good but in the end I liked it.

And then there is of course the MMOE aka massivly multiplayer online Excel or under the normal name Eve:Online. A lot of people and Critics dont get why there are those people who play it and I can say for me it is the pvp in lowsec. I get adrenalin rush and afterwards I cant hold my hands calm. It simply isnt comparable to anything I have played before no Shooter will give me that feeling. The only thing that came close was Wc3.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

The Punisher from 2005. It's a perfect Punisher game. I love it. 10/10. Even the music was freakin' awesome.

I absolutely love this game. My Xbox won't run that version so I'm shopping around for a PS2 version.

---

I had enough fun with Sonic the Hedgehog (06) to get the true ending.

Fable 2 is probably my favorite in the franchise. I either need a new Xbox or the game is terribly optimized (potentially both) but of the three Fable games, the second was my favorite. I don't think it got bad reviews but it was another game wherein Peter Molyneux promised the moon and was only able to deliver a photo.

 

[lLucky]

Sonic Unleashed. It's a solid game and most insults or opinions on the game I felt were wrong! The Day Stages are a blast and really replayable. I always had enough medals to progress, despite reviewers saying the medals were lazy attempts to replay levels (Which isn't that bad in the game itself). The music, art style, and graphics were outstanding and were the best a Sonic game ever put out back then. The story took a step back and wasn't a big deal, unlike 06 and StH which pushed their silly plots on you.

Then there's the Werehog. He honestly didn't have to exist, and the entire concept of a Werehog is just stupid. I can agree on that and still don't understand how they approved of it. But, the actual gameplay was actually pretty good! Pulling off combos felt nice, platforming was just there, and it was an overall mediocre experience. They never really mixed up the enemy types and platforming was always boring and tedious, which were legitimate flaws with the werehog. Other than that... the Werehog wasn't that bad but it did bring the game down when compared to everything else. I still managed to enjoy the game.

 

[Gone Rampant]

Medal of Honor Warfighter had awesome multiplayer and I enjoyed the campaign which IMO was the best military FPS campaign since COD4

... *Picks jaw off floor*

Oh God, we've one of those people who like spunkgargleweewee over here.

Well, I'm gonna go with the standard option of Alpha Protocol (Sod IGN's 6.5 review, it was one of the best RPGs I've ever played).

Also, I enjoyed Black Ops 2 more then I thought I would, simply because due to the choices, it kinda felt like Treyarch actually tried in this game.

 

[thesilentman]

Do FF XIII and XIII-2 count? From what I hear, they're generally panned by western critics/audiences, yet I'm having oodles of fun with them.

I think they've gotten relatively positive critical response, actually. Lower than the average Final Fantasy generally gets, but still, 8/10 isn't a bad score.

The audience is another story, but, you know.

OT: It depends on what your threshold would be for determining whether "the critics" liked it or not. Below 70% review scores? If so, then most recently both Lollipop Chainsaw and Deadpool, for rather similar reasons.

Otherwise, probably most obvious would be Sonic Unleashed. I'll readily agree with almost all of the problems people say the game has, but I still think the Daytime levels were really fun and they helped pave the way for Colors and Generations.

I'll one up that and say that I loved the nighttime levels as well. Yeah, come at me!

I guess any of the Guitar Hero games count for me as well, even Warriors of Rock. I'm there for the note charts on Expert dammit!

 

[Galen Marek]

Remember Me. Critic didn't like it (only noticed that because it was plastered on the front page of IGN and Escapist). Other then that, no idea because I hold little to no credit or value in a critics comment.

When Kane and Lynch can escape through without punishment because money talks, why would I concern myself with considering their opinions.

I play games because I think they look fun, not because someone else said they are fun.

Play to enjoy yourself.

 

[DishonoredElderSouls]

Medal of Honor Warfighter had awesome multiplayer and I enjoyed the campaign which IMO was the best military FPS campaign since COD4

... *Picks jaw off floor*

Oh God, we've one of those people who like spunkgargleweewee over here.

Also, I enjoyed Black Ops 2 more then I thought I would, simply because due to the choices, it kinda felt like Treyarch actually tried in this game.

I don't exactly...get how you couldn't feel hypocritical while writing that post. Go Yahtzee one second, then discuss MORE spunkgargleweewee almost immediately afterwards?

 

[likalaruku]

Well, some critics gave Serious Sam 2 72-74%, which is lower than Fable: The Lost Chapters.

 

[Wunderhund]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines,
FarCry 2,
Silent Hill 4,
F.E.A.R. 2,
Deadly Premonition,
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst,
Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza,
Condemned 2

...oh, and of course: MIRROR'S EDGE!

 

[shrekfan246]

I'll one up that and say that I loved the nighttime levels as well. Yeah, come at me!

I've got two problems with the night levels:
1) They're far too long.

Most of them would've greatly benefited from being about half as long as they actually are.

2) On the PS3 at least, the engine they used for the game was complete shite, so performance was absolutely terrible in most of the stages.

I did actually like the gameplay, but those two things dragged it down for me. Don't know if it was different on the other systems (since the 360 was easier to develop for and the PS2/Wii versions were heavily scaled back).

The running speed for the Werehog was actually pretty nice for what 3D Sonic should control like (though he turned pretty loosely still), and I imagine Sega agrees looking at what they're doing with Lost World.

 

[tabristhegreat]

yugioh the false bound kingdom...I know it's not good but dammit I really enjoyed that game. Thing is though I'm not really sure why I liked it like I can't think of a single nice thing to say in it's defense other then "it wasn't a card game"

 

[Amaror]

Dragon Age 2 - I loved the original but number 2 fixed every problem I had with the first one. I'll grant you that it had it's own problems but if repetitive environments and some iffy writing on a couple of the characters (Ander's gay option mostly) are the price I have to pay for a character with an actual personality (the Warden was as charismatic as a bag of hammers for the sake of "immersion") and combat that didn't involve auto-attack (I will concede it's usefulness in a PC environment but I have never played a console game in which I felt like it was helpful or necessary) then I hope that number 3 just like number 2.

But, what about ... aaaarhg....
i am sorry i can't have this discussion again, i am just gonna say that it was actually was the only game i ever played were i honestly fell asleep during the combat.

 

[DementedSheep]

Dungeon siege 3, it wasn't a complex rpg and had little to do with the original games but I still enjoyed it quite bit.

Alice madness returns. The art direction alone is worth playing this game for and gameplay was good if nothing particularly spectacular. Puzzles were pathetically easy and it did over stay it welcome a bit though.


If you count those 2 as "bad". They will still generally getting scores of 7 or 3 out 5.

 

[L4Y Duke]

Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard.

Not high art, by any stretch of the imagination, but I had fun with it.

I concur with this. Also, I agree with the guys who said ODST, Bulletstorm and DA2.

Finally, I enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever. Seriously. It gets some of the smaller immersion tricks dead on, so you really feel like the character. If the loading screens were more Halflife-like, and the vehicle sections in first person, it'd be one of the more immersive games out there.