I REALLY Want to Like You!

[StashAugustine]

I love RPGs. I love open-world games. I love player-driven narratives.

But I just can't get into the Fallout and Elder Scrolls games.

From the moment I leave Vault 101, the palace dungeon, or whatever subterranean starting location and dump you out into the big, bad world, I just instantly lose all sense of agency in those games.

I've actually tried to play Oblivion three times, and Fallout 3 twice, but it's always the same pattern; I wander around the opening location for an hour or two, then just quit. It's a pity, really, because - on paper, at least - these should be the kind of games I love playing.

I had the same problem with the first Borderlands, really. I'd just mechanically play though the game, but after about an hour I end up giving up asking "what's the point in doing any of this crap?"

May I recommend New Vegas? It's got a pretty directed start for the first couple hours, then you're really set free (although with foreknowledge or luck you can do stuff beforehand). The world is really well-thought out, and you've got a lot of control over the way the plot progresses.

 

[negimafan587]

Well for me its any atlus game, that has anything to do with devils or demons or what have you. I love the concept of all of their games, but each one i've played so far( P3, nocturne,Devil survivor overclocked) just killed me with boredom.. Its like all the guy at atlus are like "hey lets make all our games tough as balls and make them play like something out of the 80's, and lets make them super long but not substance filled by using repetitive backdrops A.k.a. the tartarus" So if they just made a little less insta-death and added some more locations that you can explore, and have substance, we'd be straight.

Ps: You can also drop the school kids save the world stuff anytime!

 

[Wolfhowl the shadow lurker]

I am alive, with just awful combat and climbing up shit slowly and then geting bored while climbing that shit slowly i liked the idea of a road like game but crapy gameplay does not make it so i wanted to like it but i can't not at all

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Deus Ex, and any of the Total War series.

(Shogun 2 is squatting on my desktop after a steam sale)

Deus Ex, because of all the delicious RPG and freedom of choice aspect.

And Total War because RTS is a genre that I often neglect.

For the former, the graphics are just terrible (I try to, but it's hard to get past this) and I can't adjust to the stealth/I can't stealth at all.

For the latter, because I lack the patience to micro-manage and because all my planning eventually devolves into "Ctrl+A, RMB".

 

[coates32]

The Hyperdimension Neptunia games- I like the premise and found the main character is likable, but everytime I watch a Let's Play of it, the gameplay and pointless dialog always scares me from any of them.

Lollipop Chainsaw - I'm a fan of No More Hereos, but I've found the gameplay too clunky for my taste.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

I've given Mass Effect a second and a third try, but I can't do it, maybe because I find the combat boring.\

I've been meaning to give From Dust a second chance. I like the concept, but I haven't gotten into it as much as I thought I would.

 

[Bellyojelly]

Skyrim, I tried, I swear I really did. There was just something about it that felt wrong; could have been the engine. (For the record I was playing on PS3.)

 

[Tombsite]

Okami. Boy do I want to love this game. Great art style and fresh ideas. But I just do not care at all about anything or anybody in the game. The flea is annoying as hell and the NPC's just bore me to death. I really want to like it but I can not even get myself to finish it.

 

[momijirabbit]

A crack in time. I wanted to like this game, but then I realized that it strayed to far from the rest in the series, I just couldn't take it.

 

[regalphantom]

Another one too add: Fable 3. While lacking some of the charm of 1, I think that it was a major improvement when compared to Fable 2. The storyline was good, the gameplay was fun, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was OCD about buying houses and was richer than god by the time that I had reached the end-game the twist at the end might have been a meaningful moral choice. The DLC was also really good, and replaying the game as a whole reminds me of what I like most about Molyneux games.

 

[AT God]

Oblivion/Skyrim. I understand that they are very well made games and playing through them consumed a couple hundred hours of my life so that would be a good indicator of value since I cannot say I was miserable when playing them.

I just cannot get into the fantasy genre, while playing the games I enjoy all the conversations but the entire time I feel like I am too old for the dialog and story. Without the immersion and without a substantial combat system, I cannot say I like them but I know they aren't technically bad.

 

[Adept Mechanicus]

Bioshock. I tried. I really did. I just found the weapons and plasmids were too unsatisfying. There was no weight to any of the weapons, and the RPG mechanics were way too shallow for me. A lot of reviews compared it to Deus Ex, but to me it felt like Invisible War more than anything else.

 

[KillMeOnceMore]

Psychonauts. I really, really, really, REALLY tried with it, but I found the platforming to be so loose, it was almost unplayable to me. I hate myself for it because I feel I've missed out on a great display imagination, but I did actually buy it so at least I was spared of Yahtzee's pencil torture.

Sleeping Dogs is another I totally failed to see what all the fuss was about and got bored after a couple of hours. Genuinely felt like I'd been playing a different game to the one everyone else was raving about.

 

[Kal-Adam]

The first Mass Effect.

I just can't get into it. I've played the second and the third and thoroughly enjoyed them both, but the first one is just so much slower paced, and at points it's like it's a game that doesn't want to be played.

 

[CityofTreez]

Fallout 3.

Shitty combat, with a shitty story, shitty sound quality, shitty characters, shitty graphics. I've seen better plots on SyFy channel. If the story is going to suck, then the combat better be good, and it's not.

Portal

I know why people like it and I thought the writing was really good, but jesus, this game gets called the "Citizen Cane" of gaming so often it's sad.

Battlefield 3

I like this series. It's good fun, but damnit DICE, stop focusing on CoD.

 

[likalaruku]

"Psychonauts is the greatest game you never played" they said, so I tried it.

It had the cartoony graphics & a sense of humor I look for in games.

Sasha was a cool character & Richard Horvitz was voice acting.

So...Why didn't I enjoy it? WHY?!?!?! D:<

 

[Glover09]

Being a car guy and a guy who isn't too picky about the games, while the core racing itself was fine, Gran Turismo 5 is the one for me. I've played again and again, beaten challenges, but it ALL feels like a chore. GTs 1-4 were great fun, even if different types of fun, but GT5 has no appeal to me. The damned PSP game is more ingaging.

Other than that, something that will start crap. Mario games. All of them. Mario 1 and 3 are good timewasters, but I play for 10-20 minutes and I'm done. Mario 64 was the same, as was Galaxy.

 

[funkyjiveturkey]

Shadow the Hedgehog was so terrible, it is literally the worst game i've ever played, it was difficult to even give it away for free as no one wanted it. I paid 50 dollars for it and tried to convince myself for 2 weeks that it was good despite being crispy-fried dogshit right down to the core. i tried so hard to convince myself, i kept playing through over and over until 100%-ed the game, then i put it on a shelf and started feeling depressed that i just spent that much time on that game.

 

[EclipseoftheDarkSun]

Dragon Age : Origins

Then there is Borderlands.

I actually loved this game when it first came out. Never got to finish it, but eventually picked it up several years later on Steam Sale. And my word I'm not sure why I enjoyed it before. It is quite literally the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and you get the idea. The loot system is the only good aspect about this game. I wanted to love it again, I wanted to feel the way I did when I first played it. But now I see it for what it truly is, a Skinner Box in game form.

Agreed. Precisely the reason I can't play MMOs any more. I played some MUDs before they came out and I really got that out of my system big time. Grind grind grind.. I have a day job, I don't want a night job as well! It feels like frantically treading water just to keep your head above it when you're levelling up just to have to get better equipment and kill monsters a slightly different color with slightly different adjectives used to describe them, so you can level up more. I'll leave that to when I'm actually drowning thanks.. Treadmills suck.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

The Witcher. Literally the only reason I haven't touched my copy of The Witcher 2 (which I'm aching to play) is cause I refuse to do so until I get through the first game which is like a particularly annoying chore to play. I just can't enjoy that bloody game.