I REALLY Want to Like You!

[UrinalDook]

Do I need KOTOR to enjoy KOTOR2? I'd rather skip straight to the game developed by Obsidian. I consider them far better story-tellers than pretty much anybody else in gaming atm.

You don't need to play 1 to get most of 2, but some of the best talking points in 2 concern some fairly small details present in 1 that you probably won't get from reading a plot synopsis. It's a difficult thing to suggest, but honestly the more you find to love in 1, the more 2 will impress you. But you could skip straight to 2 if you wanted. Just be wary that a couple of mechanics tweaks in 2 may make 1 feel very backwards if you do decide you want more backstory later.

Knights of The Old Republic 2.

From a content perspective there was the weird retcon to the end of the first game that "Revan flew away with no explanation" and now the Sith have somehow taken over the galaxy despite my Revan purging them and leaving the Republic and Jedi firmly allied and in control.

There was the stupid plot twist of the evil companion you meet in nefarious circumstances at the beginning called Kreia is actually "Darth Traya" I mean, the names are so similar they literally rhyme, and the woman oozes evil and is basically insane, the game could never make it's mind up whether it should tell you straight out or keep it a secret

I'm going to sound like a total douche here, but my honour compels me to say it: Congratulations on missing pretty much the entire point of a 30+ hour game. I know taste is subjective, and I know that KotOR 2 does have its odd flaws, and gaps left by its brutal development time, but not only are you making a bigger deal out of many of these issues than they actually are, you've missed a couple of the things it was beating you over the head with.

Namely, labelling Kreia evil is totally doing it wrong. And no, the game isn't confused about whether or not it's a secret. It's right out there, but it's only obvious to the player, not the Exile. And as a last thing, there's a reason the names are assonant.

Mass Effect: I'm not really sure what did it in for me. It was probably the lackluster combat. Maybe it was issues I had with the fact that I couldn't complete a single optional mission because I didn't have enough Paragon or Renegade points(Which btw, the first set of optional missions shouldn't require you to have the same rank that you'll have about half-way through the game).

The game does scale the required persuasion check. You are aware that paragon/renegade points aren't enough, right? You also have to put points into the charm/intimidate skills. The first couple of sidequests with a charm/intimidate option only require a few points put into either. Not to mention that charm/intimidate isn't necessary to complete a sidequest, they usually only offer either better rewards or a slightly neater, happier conclusion.

Don't get me wrong, I understand what it's like to simply not click with a game (and if the combat dissuaded you, I'd totally get that), I just feel you're being a little unfair here.

As far as games I wanted to like but didn't, well chalk up another one for Bioshock. I had fun playing it, I just got to a certain point where I stopped, went and did something else and never had the urge to put the disc in again. I'm not sure whether or it was the clunky feel of the guns, the dreary setting (cool idea, sure, but visually it just did nothing for me) or the fact that I didn't give the slightest shit about any of the characters. Either way, it didn't do it for me, even though normally that sort of game would be right up my straight.

To a lesser extent, the Witcher 2 counts. I hated all of the prologue and first act, and again wasn't really well disposed to any of the characters other than Triss. Rage quitting a certain boss fight didn't help. I pushed through though, and was pleased to discover how good the second act was. I've stopped playing again, because I'm struggling with a decision at the start of the third act, but at least I can finally appreciate what people meant when they said it's how to properly do a mature fantasy RPG. The only downside is that it's slightly lessened my opinion of Dragon Age.

 

[Todstyak]

Well i was super excited for RAGE and then........yeah that didn't work. With both it and Dishonored, I felt they needed to be more of an open world and not linear but at least Dishonored was fun to replay while I got sick of RAGE really quickly. Never liked any of the Bioshocks that much, they where just average: not good, not bad. I've tried to play KOTOR like 4 times but the combat is so sticky AND I ALWAYS GET STUCK ON THE FIRST PLANET, it makes me feel stupid when people talk of their exploits later in the game like on Tatoonie and i just get embarrased. When i picked up Just Cause 2 i thought it was quite good so i picked up the first one and that didn't work out well either. Finally there is Saint's Row 3. I tried my best to like it but it does not compare to SR2 or even SR1 and thats saying something.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

The Penumbra series and Amnesia. Beautiful atmosphere, nice storytelling... but the mechanics seemed designed to FORCE the player into scary situations instead of allowing them to develop organically.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

Dishonoured.

Even Yahtzee didn't think that highly of it, and it making his top 5 of 2012 had tinges of hesitation behind it. I wanted to get into Dishonoured and keep *trying* to like it...but it seems to have not an original bone in it's body, and I was literally singing along to the story as it went. Yet somehow it's become a critical darling.

tl;dr: The game copied most of it's so called "original" content from better games, but the bigger obstacle is that it commits the cardinal sin of entertainment - it's bland, cookie cutter and above all else BORING.

 

[Todstyak]

oh, I forgot FTL which I hate because I enjoy breezing through games without much challenge but with FTL that will never happen. It has more of a trial and error style to it and call me what you will but I find I save scum ALOT in games so when I dont get that option I get pretty frustrated. Everything else i thought made it amazing; the style, the art, even the constant death had a chaotic charm to it. I just didnt find myself playing it as much as I wanted.

 

[shrekfan246]

Do I need KOTOR to enjoy KOTOR2? I'd rather skip straight to the game developed by Obsidian. I consider them far better story-tellers than pretty much anybody else in gaming atm.

Nope. It gives you a bit of context behind a few of the things that happen later in the story, and a few large references to the first game are made, but they're not sequential stories.

You would likely want to get it on the PC with the Restored Content mod though. I preferred it to the first game even back on the Xbox, but the story does just fall off a cliff and abruptly end when you approach the end-game, because of how rushed Obsidian was during development. Though, a fair warning is that the opening of the game is pretty goddamn long and slowly-paced.

OT: Final Fantasy XIII, as someone else previously mentioned.

And...

Lately I've been finding it harder and harder to enjoy older RPG's. They're just so god damn poorly paced, have totally obtuse UI design, and tedious, at best, gameplay. I know I liked them when I was a kid, but now? It's a struggle to get through them.

For those curious, the game's I'm talking about are Morrowind, Daggerfall, Fallout, and Baldur's Gate. I did love these games, I still love these games, but god damn do they try my patience. And people say older games were better... Story-wise, probably. Mechanic-wise, HELL no. Hopefully Wasteland 2, Project Eternity, and the new Torment don't inherit the problems from RPG's of old. That'd suck. I'd love to play an old-style RPG that was paced well, has a good UI, and is decently fun to play.

Yeah, this too. I've tried multiple times to get into Morrowind and Baldur's Gate, but I just can't do it. The combat, UI, and pacing are so horrible that I get bored before I can actually invest myself and really dig into the supposed depth those games hold. I'd probably feel the same way about the KotOR games if I didn't have nostalgia to pull me along through the tedious openings, truth be told. I'm tentatively curious about Project Eternity and Torment because I really want to enjoy those isometric party-based RPGs. Hopefully they won't be so clunky...

 

[Soldern]

The legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I'm a huge Zelda fan, having played most of the games and loved them, but I actually put down Skyward Sword and have no intention of ever touching it again. While there were some really nice aspects of that game, like the art style and the stamina meter, they get overshadowed by the bad parts, like the piss poor motion controls or the tiny,and constantly recycled zones. I wanted to like it, but I can't.

 

[regalphantom]

Assassin's Creed: The game was so incredibly disappointing that I am surprised that it got sequels. The gameplay was incredibly repetitive, you often had the choice of either moving at a snail's pace through the city or instantly getting a trail of guards a mile long after you, and the story was ok at best. I tried for far to long before giving up on it.

Dragon Age: Origins: Again, a game where the gameplay just didn't work for me. I wanted to like it, but I found that in the end I was forcing myself to play through it as I just couldn't stand how close the gameplay was to working. The best way I can think of describing it is that it is like driving a car with power steering without any built in resistance, there is so little connection between what you think you are doing and what you are actually doing that it feels like you aren't even completely playing the game. The story was alright (perhaps it was because I got a lot of dark fantasy prior to playing it that it didn't leave as much of an impression on me) and while the characters had SOME good moments, it wasn't enough to make up for it.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Fable 2. As I was playing the game I knowingly was lying to myself, telling myself that I was satisfied that this is what I was hoping for after Fable came out and it took them 3 years to make a sequel that would surly expand and build upon what was in Fable 1. But by the end I threw in the towel and just admitted this game was a colossal let down that did not live up to one thing the dev team said it would be while it was in production.
But as a positive it was kind of my incitation into the fooled by the Molyneux hype train club seeing how I never knew or heard anything about Lost Chapters until it was already out and I played it before I was really introduced to forums or saw the reviews or interviews.

And a potential second placer...

Fallout New Vegas. I really suck at this game and it?s not really all that fun. I am liking the characters and world. But because of the way things are going I don?t know. The gameplay is just draining and tedious (fucking wasps!) I mean I am either doing something very wrong when it comes to making my character or...the one I am hoping for it just takes a while for you to be able to kill the common bandit without breaking much of a sweat. Yeah they?re wiping the floor with me too! Any advice is welcome by the way because I really REALLY! Want to like this game.

 

[SoranMBane]

I have the strangest, most bipolar love-hate relationship with Fallout: New Vegas. I pretty much adore everything about its story, setting, and gameplay, it's just that it's also a glitchy, unstable, largely unplayable mess on a technical level. If I could actually play it for longer than thirty minutes without it freezing or the framerate tanking, it would probably be my favourite game of all time.

 

[redmoretrout]

LA Noire, I wanted to love this game so much. A story-based game where you act like an actual cop, and don't run down civilians or steal cars. A game that focuses on actual investigations instead of ludicrous car chases and gunfights. Yes Please!

Unfortunately, the game couldn't live up to its own premise and couldn't avoid those GTA trappings. Oh, and the story was kinda shite as well.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Fallout New Vegas. I really suck at this game and it?s not really all that fun. I am liking the characters and world. But because of the way things are going I don?t know. The gameplay is just draining and tedious (fucking wasps!) I mean I am either doing something very wrong when it comes to making my character or...the one I am hoping for it just takes a while for you to be able to kill the common bandit without breaking much of a sweat. Yeah they?re wiping the floor with me too! Any advice is welcome by the way because I really REALLY! Want to like this game.

I hate to say the obvious but... Have your considered playing on easy mode? I think I turned the difficulty down when I first started playing, then turned it back up later when my player got stronger. As for making a character, I usually completely drain my perception to like, 1 or something and make my strength (more melee damage), endurance (resist more damage), and intelligence really high. Everything else stays low like charisma cause I found them to be useless, and I use ED-E's radar perk to make up for my lack of perception (he's best companion).

Another way to play would be make your luck 10 or something. You instantly win any gambling game is what I'm told so money for guns and everything, not to mention more criticals. And some ass hat designer made everything a speech check in the game, so keep up with leveling speech. Unless you're on pc. Use the console to turn speech and lockpicking to 100. They're bullshit skills in my opinion. And you might find the guns skill more helpful than energy weapons because there are more guns with more power. Melee weapons too. I'd also suggest using the Fallout Wiki to maybe find you a quick unique weapon that rapes all (This Machine comes to mind). And yes, if all goes according to plan you will be the invincible son of Zeus and bandits will cower before your might. Game pro tip: if an enemy has and explosive equipped, shoot it in vatts to blow them up. That should help early in the game

And for lols and irony...

The original Fallout games. I loved fallout 3 and I only heard good things about 1 and 2 so I bought a steam bundle with those games and Fallout tactics, and I just can't play them. I started Fallout 1 and was kind of annoyed with the time limit but whatever so I walked around the desert and suddenly I used up a bunch of my days. Crap. Restart. I went to the first town, then went to that vault or something and needed rope but had no idea where to get the rope and I just quit. The combat and gameplay just wasn't fun and the stress of a time limit was stupid. I tried tactics and 2 and even though they didn't have the time limit, I just wasn't enjoying them. I get that they might get better after playing for a while but I'm just too impatient. I'll have to give another go when I have more time

Having just beaten Fallout 1 after getting it from GoG, I can help a bit: Once you get to the third town, you can increase the time limit by 100 days.

After that, all you have to do is go to Necropolis for the water chip and the time limit disappears.

If you don't like the combat, you probably don't want to go back anyway, but I figured I'd let you know anyway.

Thanks, I forgot that the game's update took out the second time limit in the game. Now that I know it doesn't take that long to get the chip I'm a more motivated to try

 

[Zac Jovanovic]

Bioshock, tried 3 times. Got as far as maybe a hour and a half in.
Atmosphere was nice but that's pretty much the only thing I liked in it.

 

[Xdeser2]

Morrowind. Oh man, am I expecting to get some hate for this. I really wanted to get into this one, because I'd keep hearing how its so much more amazing than Oblivion or Skyrim, how everything is so much more deep and complex...

But, except for the (Admittedly) great reputation system, its not.

The combat system is just abhorrently bad.

The leveling system is basically identical to Oblivion (except that the enemies dont scale and you can just wait to level up)

The guilds have no real storyline to them, just "Hey, go do more shit", there's almost no motivation to go through them.

The draw distance is about 12 feet.

The journal system (even with Tribunal) is terrible. I can understand why some people feel that showing you where a quest is might feel like just following a quest marker (if your not smart enough to be paying attention to the world around you) but it's far better than vague instructions, a pat on the back and saying "Good Luck"

Would someone please explain to me who thought it was a good idea to drain your stamina for the sheer audacity of going slightly faster than a snail?

Now, dont get me wrong, I never HATED the game, it defiantly has some really good points working in its favor (The setting and atmosphere, the reputation system, the well crafted lore of the TES universe, and a multitude of little things that add flavor to the game) but these issues soured the experience enough to really pull me out of it every time I attempted to play.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Far Cry 2: Got half way, and then FC3 came out. After that improvement, I can barely do anything without getting bored.
GTA 4: It's just so bloody long.
Deus Ex: It's all just average. The shooting is alright. The items are alright. The story is... OK the story is pretty aweful in my opinion. But it just doesn't do anything particularly wrong. (apart from the story obviously).
The more recent Lego games. The stud-collecting mania was fun for Star Wars, what with each character having a class (jedi, small person etc) and it all flowing well, but I was playing Harry Potter and it's just so tedious. Not to mention the attempt at an open hogwarts... What? The best part of Star Wars was the impromptu cantina fights with that catchy music and lore-fuckery.
EDIT: Oh, Oblivion. I love Skyrim to bits, but.... Well, y'know people say Skyrim is just watered down Oblivion? Consider that this is probably not a bad thing. It's just too hard to enjoy with the stupid interfaces, stupid faces, stupid dialogue, floaty world, stupid map, stupid skills and stupid controls- this is coming from someone who considers Bethesda his favourite developer (Skyrim and FO:3 being my favourite games #3 and #1 respectively)

 

[unstabLized]

Most recent, Assassin's Creed Revelations and Assassin's Creed 3. I loved the franchise, I still love AC1,2, and Brotherhood is okay too, but the last two have just bored me to death. AC3 specially. I got so bored, I couldn't be bothered to finish it.

An older one, and I have to prepare the flame shield for this, would be Half Life. I played it on three different periods of time: When i was a kid, when I was about 12, and just a couple of months ago (I'm 18 now). I just can't get into it. I know it's a great game and it was a turning point for the video game industry, but it just doesn't fit right with me. I get bored every time.

 

[Kyber]

Witcher 2
I know that it has to be a good game because it is loved by so many, but i just can't get the feel for it, even when my favorite genre of games is Fantasy WRPGs. It awaits me in my steam folder, probably will try again in the summer holidays, when I have more time.

 

[Daveman]

I tried very hard to like Mass Effect, but I just found it really boring. I hoped it would be a cool sci-fi RPG series I could really get into, but I couldn't. Forced myself to play the entire game and every part of it was boring. Didn't bother with the sequels.

Dragon Age: Origins I'm still making my mind up on. Some aspects I really like, like the characters who I find really interesting unlike in Mass Effect, but I feel it's really dependent on where you go first. I tried various bits until my mate said the Mages tower was the best to start with, so I did that. Now I'm lost underground in the Dwarf places and I'm not sure I can be bothered to go back to it. I guess I wish it was linear, so I wouldn't go somewhere only to find out afterwards that there's effectively a glass ceiling in each place I go so I have to try somewhere else.

 

[Jimmy T. Malice]

Morrowind. Oh man, am I expecting to get some hate for this. I really wanted to get into this one, because I'd keep hearing how its so much more amazing than Oblivion or Skyrim, how everything is so much more deep and complex...

But, except for the (Admittedly) great reputation system, its not.

The combat system is just abhorrently bad.

The leveling system is basically identical to Oblivion (except that the enemies dont scale and you can just wait to level up)

The guilds have no real storyline to them, just "Hey, go do more shit", there's almost no motivation to go through them.

The draw distance is about 12 feet.

The journal system (even with Tribunal) is terrible. I can understand why some people feel that showing you where a quest is might feel like just following a quest marker (if your not smart enough to be paying attention to the world around you) but it's far better than vague instructions, a pat on the back and saying "Good Luck"

Would someone please explain to me who thought it was a good idea to drain your stamina for the sheer audacity of going slightly faster than a snail?

Now, dont get me wrong, I never HATED the game, it defiantly has some really good points working in its favor (The setting and atmosphere, the reputation system, the well crafted lore of the TES universe, and a multitude of little things that add flavor to the game) but these issues soured the experience enough to really pull me out of it every time I attempted to play.

Yeah, most of the Morrowind fans seem to be looking at the game through some serious nostalgia goggles. Even for its time it was clunky, the world is mostly lifeless as you move through it at glacial speeds, the combat is awful and the NPCs are all the same. Most of them have the same generic dialogue, at least.

 

[Weaver]

Dragon Age 2, I tried so hard, I just couldn't like it. The only thing worse than DA2 was the console version of Origins.

The Wither just felt super slow and drawn out. I just felt bored the whole time.