I want to love it.

[Lacedaemonius]

Destiny. It looks like people had fun with it, warts and all.

 

[sageoftruth]

Transformers: Devastation

I love Platinum Games and their combat, but this was a low point for me. Having already played Bayonetta 2, the system was nothing really new to me.
- While the weapon drop/weapon levelling system was neat, its not very satisfying for such an intense fighting game to be limited by RPG elements.
- The enemies were small in number and not very unique. There were only a handful of enemy types in the game, not including bosses. Enemies rarely did anything too unique either.
- The combat system just felt like pressing buttons and waiting for the blue flash to press shift. I didn't feel a need for advanced combos or interesting techniques. Dodge, hit buttons, hit shift.
- The bosses were just massive bullet sponges. A good run on the first boss takes 7-10 minutes of the same 6 attack patterns. The triple insectoid boss fight was kinda fun, but most of them were pretty bare.

I respectfully disagree with you sir or madam. While do admit that Devastation has its flaws, it is not Platinum's low point; TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan fills that space. In this game, enemies and bosses especially, have a huge amount of life with no little strategy or thought. Most of the time you'll be button mashing and constantly switching between each turtle (if you are not doing co-op). Not to mention you have to do bullshit requirements just to fight a few hidden bosses that aren't worth it.

At least Devastation had fun combat that was Bayonetta lite. Enemies in that game became a lot less damage spongy when you properly leveled up all of the Autobots. I am more so talking about when you play on Magnus and Prime difficulty (a player should at least be lv. 50) If you're at least lv. 30 or more, the bad guys health bars go down quickly if you're playing on Warrior or Commander. Getting A, S, or SS Rank weapons can whittle bad guys to nothing if you level those up right too. If you play Mutants in Manhattan, Transformers: Devastation will seem like a huge step in comparison. Honestly, I blame Activision and hope Platinum will not have to waste time with them ever again.

Anarchy Reigns I wanted to love, but the single-player was lacking and the multiplayer was just not that fun. You can't find anybody online now, unless you got a few friends who are heavily invested in the game. As spiritual successor to Mad World it failed, and Mad World has aged better in comparison.

On the subject of leveling in Transformers Devastation, that game really needed a more efficient means of weapon synthesis. I enjoyed the combat, but the weapon synthesis sucked up so much time and so much of my patience. If it let you synthesize more than one weapon at a time, it might have been more bearable. At times, I'd skip doing it when I had the chance to, just because I knew it was going to be such a snorefest. I think I agree with Cage, that the RPG elements only hurt the game by forcing weapon grinding into it. I preferred the Devil May Cry/Bayonetta method of rewarding you with new skills and weapons, rather than just adding some numbers to your damage.

 

[sageoftruth]

Many open-world games tend to lose me due to all the time spent walking from one place to another. It's a shame, since I often want to enjoy everything else they have to offer.

Also, multiplayer games. I tend to avoid those, since my time after work is supposed to be "me time", and I just don't feel like dealing with other people. There are a bunch of great fighting games out that I'd like to play. However, I know I'll be wasting my money if I forego the multiplayer element. I don't mind couch gaming with friends, but my circle of friends only seems to be interested in playing Street Fighter 4.

Lastly, and most disappointingly, games that make me sick. I can't play Half Life 2, Serious Sam, or Red Dead Redemption, because the camera makes me nauseous.

 

[Worgen]

Kotor 1. Fuck Taris. I played and beat 2, but everytime I go back to one...Taris.

For those who don't know, Taris is the first planet of the damn game.

And then ... many endless games. Minecraft for example. Or Hearts of Iron. Or Mount&Blade. Anything that does not give you a task. I just can't motivate myself to create one for myself.

I know what you mean, I like the idea of endless games but I tend to get to a point where I think things are fine then I just can't think of anything else to do. In skyrim it was winning for the empire, in minecraft its when I finish making my log cabin on top of a mountain. I get to that point and then go play something else.

 

[McMarbles]

I just can't seem to finish Fire Emblem games.

 

[Zen Bard]

Not to be intentionally contrarian, but I'll say Fallout 3.

It is, effectively, a first person shooter with role-playing game elements. A large amount of the game forces you to use the subway tunnel so you can get the Doom-esque feeling of roaming through cut 'n' paste corridors while things pop out at you from the dark.

In addition, the story was kind of silly. Or maybe I just couldn't relate. Plus the game had the same leveling issues as Oblivion. I remember being at around level 25 and being mobbed someplace by Feral Ghoul Reavers and Glowing Ones where ten levels ago there were only plain old Ferals.

I did manage to finish it, but never played it through again. By contrast I've played New Vegas a few times and always find something new.

Honorable mentions go to The Witcher (for its clunky combat and magic system) and Red Dead Redemption.

I'm not sure what it is about that last one. I really DO want to like it and it's certainly fun to play. But I simply don't feel compelled to pick it up and continue after setting it down for awhile...

 

[Level 7 Dragon]

Simple. Dwarf fortress.

Why? The UI.

 

[Blitsie]

-Assassin's Creed (Series is just so huge now that trying to get into it feels like a lost cause)

If it makes you feel any better, the plot that used to bind them together hasn't really mattered for a couple games now. That was wrapped up in AC3 and everything since then has been Ubisoft killing time. So you can pretty much jump in at this point without missing much as far as plot goes(and the games tend to be fairly self contained).

Was just about to say, any semblance of story was put on life support with Revelations and taken out back to be shot with AC3.

Just play Black Flag and call it a day, or if you don't mind it being quite old, number 2 is also very good.

 

[Denamic]

The Banner Saga. It's weird, I actually do love them, but I can't actually get into playing them. I don't know why. I love turn based strategy games.

 

[Zaeseled]

Card games, I cannot for the life of me get into them. I don't even know what makes it fun for people.

 

[Vausch]

Probably Dead Rising 3. It seems to have a new flaw created for every improvement I felt it made.

Now you can make combo vehicles that let you mow down zombies in a variety of ways! But we put up roadblocks everywhere so navigating around the city is obnoxious and you often have to abandon them if you want to keep to reach where you need to go in time.

We created a few more fun combos and made it so that you don't need the exact item any more thus making it so you can use any bladed weapon for sword combos instead of requiring a specific one! But you have to find the blueprint now and you're not able to experiment.

The world is much bigger and most survivors are will give you a saving PP bonus just for clearing out zombies and then they leave on their own! But at the same time that kind of takes away from the core of what the games were about to begin with and all the survivors that DO follow you require an obnoxious fetch quest that can send you all over the city to find one specific item.

Guns are much more effective now! But kind of take away from any of the challenge because they work very well on psychopaths and are everywhere, especially later in the game.

Psychopath Battles are back! But there are surprisingly few of them and they aren't very memorable and none have the same hilarity factor as the store manager from the first one, the crazy chef and repressed giant pink chainsaw wielding perv in 2, or the midget clown in Off The Record.

It's still a goofy Capcom zombie story that has terrible writing but comes across as hilarious because of it! But there isn't anywhere near as much colour and the scheme in general for the game is rather drab despite the crazy world.

I did enjoy the game overall but I'm really hoping DR4 has a little more of its roots. And more colour.

 

[Kyrian007]

I'd say The Witcher. I bought 1 and 2 on a really good gog sale, installed them, played maybe a couple of hours worth of the first one. And just wasn't interested in going on. Every time I say "hey, I'll start Witcher 2" I won't. Gotta play 1 first and the thought of playing through that first couple of hours again (to find out what I was supposed to be doing) makes me turn away to something else.

 

[The_Sacred_Flame]

I would say Final Fantasy Tactics mainly due to the battle system that I'm not entirely used to. What's hilarious is that I enjoyed the one for the DS, even though many would probably say it's the weakest of the three.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'd say The Witcher. I bought 1 and 2 on a really good gog sale, installed them, played maybe a couple of hours worth of the first one. And just wasn't interested in going on. Every time I say "hey, I'll start Witcher 2" I won't. Gotta play 1 first and the thought of playing through that first couple of hours again (to find out what I was supposed to be doing) makes me turn away to something else.

I entered this thread ready to say "the first Witcher", it's funny that you're the last answer I see.

I've played the 2nd one about 4 times, and I'm ready to tackle the expansions for 3 and I've read the first 3 books. To you specifically I say: Just play the 2nd one. I have the same problem with wanting to not jump in the middle with any kind of media, but your experience really won't be lessened at all and you shouldn't be any more confused than 2's pretend politicking was for everyone. I want to be able to finish the 1st Witcher, but it's far too mired in dated design that asks the player to do daisy-chaining fetch quests on foot all over the place and assumes you're willing to deal with no-fun to get the story or so you can feel hardcore about it or something. Honestly, I haven't lost any sleep over not finishing that one and it would be a shame to miss out on seeing CDP getting better and better at simply doing what they wanted to do with 1 in the first place. There's also the issue with W1's old-school Bioware engine being absolutely inappropriate for the gameplay/camera/nearly everything that CDP tried to do with it.

As for a second answer, Hearthstone. I loved collecting the WoW TCG physical cards and playing the raid decks with friends, and I hoped that when it died that Hearthstone would capture some of that magic for me but I just can't get into it. If you don't have certain cards you're practically asking to get spanked when playing online, and I really don't like the way it feels to buy booster packs of cards that don't physically exist. It also sucks that there isn't any kind of dynamic in Hearthstone that matches the group-against-one WoW raids that the CCG had, I'd probably forgive a lot more in order to have a digital representation of that.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'd say The Witcher. I bought 1 and 2 on a really good gog sale, installed them, played maybe a couple of hours worth of the first one. And just wasn't interested in going on. Every time I say "hey, I'll start Witcher 2" I won't. Gotta play 1 first and the thought of playing through that first couple of hours again (to find out what I was supposed to be doing) makes me turn away to something else.

Yeah, I beat the Witcher recently. It suffers from one of the worst cases of "Shitty opening, but it gets better" syndrome I've seen in a long time. Once I got to Vizima, the world building starts kicking in but the prologue is tedious as hell with some terrible combat(and a rather difficult boss to boot). Which is really too bad because the whole plot starts coming together nicely later in the game. You just have to get through all the early game crap to actually see it.

Unfortunately, it also suffers from the fact that both sides are racist assholes(and one of them are terrorists as well), who want you to join their side and the game doesn't give you many 3rd options to take when both sides come to blows. It also has some terrible, terrible presentation issues(such as a Camera that doesn't want to focus on the right thing during the awkward looking as hell cutscenes).

But I didn't want to play 2 first because if I did, I knew I'd never play the first one. However, I've since heard that like 90% of what happens in the first game doesn't even come up on the later ones. Apparently Alvin was also supposed to be Ciri and then changed for some reason(but you can hear Ciri's story despite the fact she doesn't show up in the game).

 

[Death Carr]

Killing Floor 2
I absolutely loved the first, played it to hell and back with my friends
but for whatever reason, killing floor 2 just doesn't have the same magic to it
it's never grabbed me quite like the first one and that's a real shame

The Witcher 1&2
I've played ~1 hour of 1
~4 hours of 2
and ~100 hours of 3
I really wanna play the first two to experience the story, but the combat drives me away everytime (and probably that when I bought 2 my computer wasn't much more than a toaster and so it ran like ass)

 

[sXeth]

Transformers: Devastation

I love Platinum Games and their combat, but this was a low point for me. Having already played Bayonetta 2, the system was nothing really new to me.
- While the weapon drop/weapon levelling system was neat, its not very satisfying for such an intense fighting game to be limited by RPG elements.
- The enemies were small in number and not very unique. There were only a handful of enemy types in the game, not including bosses. Enemies rarely did anything too unique either.
- The combat system just felt like pressing buttons and waiting for the blue flash to press shift. I didn't feel a need for advanced combos or interesting techniques. Dodge, hit buttons, hit shift.
- The bosses were just massive bullet sponges. A good run on the first boss takes 7-10 minutes of the same 6 attack patterns. The triple insectoid boss fight was kinda fun, but most of them were pretty bare.

I respectfully disagree with you sir or madam. While do admit that Devastation has its flaws, it is not Platinum's low point; TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan fills that space. In this game, enemies and bosses especially, have a huge amount of life with no little strategy or thought. Most of the time you'll be button mashing and constantly switching between each turtle (if you are not doing co-op). Not to mention you have to do bullshit requirements just to fight a few hidden bosses that aren't worth it.

At least Devastation had fun combat that was Bayonetta lite. Enemies in that game became a lot less damage spongy when you properly leveled up all of the Autobots. I am more so talking about when you play on Magnus and Prime difficulty (a player should at least be lv. 50) If you're at least lv. 30 or more, the bad guys health bars go down quickly if you're playing on Warrior or Commander. Getting A, S, or SS Rank weapons can whittle bad guys to nothing if you level those up right too. If you play Mutants in Manhattan, Transformers: Devastation will seem like a huge step in comparison. Honestly, I blame Activision and hope Platinum will not have to waste time with them ever again.

Anarchy Reigns I wanted to love, but the single-player was lacking and the multiplayer was just not that fun. You can't find anybody online now, unless you got a few friends who are heavily invested in the game. As spiritual successor to Mad World it failed, and Mad World has aged better in comparison.

On the subject of leveling in Transformers Devastation, that game really needed a more efficient means of weapon synthesis. I enjoyed the combat, but the weapon synthesis sucked up so much time and so much of my patience. If it let you synthesize more than one weapon at a time, it might have been more bearable. At times, I'd skip doing it when I had the chance to, just because I knew it was going to be such a snorefest. I think I agree with Cage, that the RPG elements only hurt the game by forcing weapon grinding into it. I preferred the Devil May Cry/Bayonetta method of rewarding you with new skills and weapons, rather than just adding some numbers to your damage.

On Transformers : Devastation, while I've enjoyed the game immensely. The inventory management really is a badly implemented mess in it that kills the pace. I never particularly noticed much effect to any of the mess of stats and perks beyond raw damage either, so it seemed like a lot of busy work for something that just regular leveling could've easily covered.

 

[votemarvel]

I want to love Dragon Age: Inquisition. On paper it seems like a game I should love, and it's the third Dragon Age game in a series I enjoy (there's value in the characters of DAII).

Yet when I try and play I end up hating it. I can't control the game as I could the first two (I never used WASD to move in the first two games) and returning characters (unless they made their debut in Dragon Age II) look nothing like who they are meant to be.

I bought all the DLC when it was on sale, so I want to play through just so I don't feel I've wasted my money (which I already feel I have with just buying the base game) but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Mass Effect on the PC.

Ok first problem was the screen resolution didn't match my so I had to played it at the highest it got which was bad. It was only when weeks later I read somewhere it turn out there were more options that were hidden well it was offscreen and you just have to keep scrolling down! Bad display design!

There are no hidden options in the menus, what you see is what you get. Windowed Mode at the top, Film Grain at the bottom.

I would agree about the bad design though as for some reason you can't access all the resolution options with the in game menu. You have to go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Mass Effect\Binaries and use MassEffectConfig.exe to set it to the correct resolution for your monitor.

Second problem, I just find it so dull at the start just trying to get into it and I was not fully adjusted to the control like I keep forgetting to sprint.

I've always said that the opening on the Normandy and the first mission on Eden Prime is the entire game in miniature. If you don't like it by the end of that, then the odds are high that you are not going to like the rest of the game.

Personally speaking I love the opening to the game, it still takes me 25 minutes to get off the ship at the beginning as I like to go through all the conversation options.

Third problem (the last straw). When the quests did open up, it was kinda too much for me well I felt like I choose the wrong one as in they were higher level to do? Anyway I stoped playing when I got back to the main quest to find that blue alien chick first but I keep dying halfway through the level and it ALWAYS take me back to the start of the level! Also my recent saved files was at the start of it and the others were back at the beginning so yeah, I called it quit!

If you ever do go back and play, leave Liara to last. It's actually a really funny scene as she's gone a little mad and thinks you are a figment of her imagination.

The autosaves in the game are very unforgiving but there is a quick save option (it defaults to F6 if I remember correctly but I moved it to F5 long ago) and a manual save option as well. I tend to quick save after every fight, just in case I do die on the next one.

Edit: If you want to just experience the story, then enable the command console and make yourself a god with some of the PC Tweaks http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/PC_Tweaks

 

[RanD00M]

Both KoTOR games. Combat just does not do it for me.
Dragon Age: Origins. Same as above but worse. The half cut full-time/turn-based just makes me irate.
Divinity 2: Ergo Draconis. Maybe it's one of those games where only certain builds are viable, and as much as I have enjoyed it so far, playing as an archer is going downhill fast.

 

[gorfias]

Grim Dawn, by contrast, is very similar to Diablo (and is primarily made by people who did Titan Quest), so enemies will be back every time you reload the game and they'll all have a maximum level based on which area of the game they're in and which difficulty you're playing on. Kingdoms of Amalur, meanwhile, is very MMO-styled, so it also has respawning enemies which have specific level ranges (they might need a reload to respawn as well, or you just being far enough away from the area, I can't remember perfectly anymore).

Most JRPGs that I know do have specific level ranges for enemies, too. Xenoblade Chronicles, Persona, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Tales of, Drakengard, Resonance of Fate, Fire Emblem, etc.

And then there are games which have level scaling but don't make it too noticeable usually because you're not revisiting old locations very much, like Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Honestly, the only games I can really think of that have had an egregious level of obvious scaling would be Bethesda's RPGs.

Great response, thank you! I will be giving Grim Dawn a shot ASAP. I just watched the trailer at steam and it looks terrific, even better than Torchlight 2.

I got lost in a maze in Kingdom of Amalur. I'll have to give that another shot. I'm too cheap to buy Xenoblade yet but may get to it. Drakengard and Resonance of Fate I do not know. Reviewing.