So, I finally get it.

[Thyunda]

Came back, gave it another go, loved the hell out of it. Really got into naming my soldiers and trying to keep them alive (Yes, I'm playing it wrong. I don't care). Really enjoy the tense moments when something goes wrong and I'm trying to limp a barely alive soldier to the escape.

I don't understand - how is this playing it wrong? One of my best moments involved the raid on the alien base quite early on. Six soldiers went in - including my medic, a Greek named Konstantinos 'Fast Lane' Poulos, and a Canadian sniper named Susan 'Nightmare' Weaver. A chryssalid ambush saw the other four slaughtered. I was thoroughly unprepared for this. Fast Lane and Nightmare lured chryssalids into the open and nailed them with sniper and laser fire. Slow. Calm. Methodical.
Then I misjudged. I tried to give Nightmare the high ground, but I didn't realise there was a whole room on the other side of what I thought was a walkway. Three chryssalids leaped on her, and she was gone in a turn.

Now it was the laser rifle-armed medic vs three chryssalids and an undead Canadian. And Fast Lane lived up to his name, and he ran. By some miracle he matched the chryssalids' speed, and once they lost sight of him, he could take a shot. I played like this until I eventually fought my way to the sectoid commander...and thought it was all over when he used his mind powers on my dear Konstantinos. Fast Lane panicked, instead, and the sectoid exploded.

Taking care of your soldiers is how you win. Don't let anyone tell you different.

 

[GamerAddict7796]

Dragon Age: Origins for me left one of the worst first impressions of any game. I also went in with an Oblivion mindset after hearing my friends talk about how amazing it was. The combat was horrible as I sat back and pressed A. I turned it off and left it for around a year. Then one day when I was bored I just had an urge to try it (I never trade games in so it just sat there) and for some reason I loved it! The combat made sense, loved playing through the City Elf origin and fighting at Ostagar. I've now played it through twice and am trying to find a cheap copy of Awakening to play through that.

It also led to me buying all three Mass Effects last year and falling completely, absolutely in love.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

*Footnote Tag Removed* "Statistically less than 20% of people finnish games"

How does one "Finnish" a game? Take it on a trip to Finland? Translate it to finnish?[footnote]I know its a typo[/footnote] XD

OT: The Mass Effect series started off weak for me, I wasn't super impressed with ME1 when it was released. Now I love the series, even part 3 and whatnot.

 

[Fox12]

Does Evangellion count? I hated it the first time. Shinji was annoying, Asuke was a horrible human being, none of the christian "symbolism" actually meant anything, and the entire story falls apart at the end. I watched it years later, after seeing Pacific Rim basically make a crappy reboot, and found that... a lot of my complaints were still pretty valid.

However, the things it did well, it did incredibly well. The characters were subtly developed, and I found myself loving them. Shinji was never supposed to be a hero, he was supposed to be a mouthpiece for the writers mental problems. Asuke was actually pretty intersting, and she quickly became my favorite character in a show where 50% of the cast can't stop moping. She worked well with Rei, who managed to be both creepy and tragic, due to her inability to connect with human beings. I absolutely loved the series the second time around.

You might enjoy the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. Is Shinji still kind of whiny? Yeah, he wouldn't be Shinji if her weren't. But he isn't as bad, and there are some changes starting in the second movie that makes them diverge pretty far from the original show. The down side? There is still one more movie left to go and it isn't due out until next year.

Also, Knights of Sidonia is pretty much Evangelion meets Battlestar Galactica without all the whining.

I'll probably wait until it finishes to check I out. Funnily enough, I didn't like end of evangelion that much, so I've avoided most of the films. Are they just remakes, or is it a separate story altogether? I was pretty late to the party to start with, so I don't mind waiting another year. I just don't know if gainax can catch lightning twice, haha. I'll check out Sydonia though.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Does Evangellion count? I hated it the first time. Shinji was annoying, Asuke was a horrible human being, none of the christian "symbolism" actually meant anything, and the entire story falls apart at the end. I watched it years later, after seeing Pacific Rim basically make a crappy reboot, and found that... a lot of my complaints were still pretty valid.

However, the things it did well, it did incredibly well. The characters were subtly developed, and I found myself loving them. Shinji was never supposed to be a hero, he was supposed to be a mouthpiece for the writers mental problems. Asuke was actually pretty intersting, and she quickly became my favorite character in a show where 50% of the cast can't stop moping. She worked well with Rei, who managed to be both creepy and tragic, due to her inability to connect with human beings. I absolutely loved the series the second time around.

You might enjoy the Rebuild of Evangelion movies. Is Shinji still kind of whiny? Yeah, he wouldn't be Shinji if her weren't. But he isn't as bad, and there are some changes starting in the second movie that makes them diverge pretty far from the original show. The down side? There is still one more movie left to go and it isn't due out until next year.

Also, Knights of Sidonia is pretty much Evangelion meets Battlestar Galactica without all the whining.

I'll probably wait until it finishes to check I out. Funnily enough, I didn't like end of evangelion that much, so I've avoided most of the films. Are they just remakes, or is it a separate story altogether? I was pretty late to the party to start with, so I don't mind waiting another year. I just don't know if gainax can catch lightning twice, haha. I'll check out Sydonia though.

I think TV Tropes put it best:

In 1995, Hideaki Anno (fresh out of rehabilitation caused by problems during the production of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water) begins work on what started out as a mecha otaku's dream show. Anno's increasing disappointment in (and dismissive disdain for) the Otaku community, as well as issues in his personal life and Gainax's financial troubles, causes him to transform the show into the brutally depressing deconstruction of the Super Robot Genre (and numerous anime tropes) known as Neon Genesis Evangelion.

In 2007, Hideaki Anno (now Happily Married, filthy rich, and respected by his peers) decides to revisit the most popular and influential anime franchise of the past decade ? but without his previous depression influencing the story. Anno plans to re-tell the Evangelion saga by giving his Byronic Hero cast a second chance (literally or figuratively), making them somewhat more emotionally stable, and giving them hope and light at the end of the tunnel. (He also snags a massive theatrical budget to help his plan become a reality.)

In spite of Hideaki Anno?s improved mental state, Rebuild does not have a Lighter and Softer tone compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion: horrific scenes from the original either remain equally horrific or end up more nightmarish than before. Each Rebuild film exponentially increases the dark tone to the point where people have argued that 3.0 is even grittier than the original series. Though the events of Rebuild don't always turn out well for the protagonists, this retelling seems to give enough glimmers of hope throughout its plot to promise that the story won't end up as soul-crushingly devastating as the original TV series. Think of Rebuild as the original ''Evangelion'' on proper medication: ultimately no happier than before, but a hell of a lot more stable.

It's a complete reboot of the series, though the first movie is pretty much identical story-wise to the first 6 episodes of the show(minus some of the whining, as I mentioned before).

 

[Ryallen]

I'm glad that at least someone has able to look past the abysmal story and characters and is able to enjoy the gameplay for what it is. Personally, I hate this game because of all the love it gets for what is, to me at least, a substandard story of how an older, wounded soldier starts to bond with a young girl who grew up in a setting that's different than what he grew up in, and their journey together to whatever place that they need to go, because it doesn't really matter. I hate the story, but I like the gameplay a lot, and played it for that reason alone. But, once I reached the University, I removed the game, put it down, and said "I refuse to give this game the time of day." I guess I'm just too narrow-minded, unable to look past deplorably written characters to enjoy the core gameplay, but at least someone was able to.

 

[wAriot]

Ah, this doesn't really happen to me. I ALWAYS have low expectations for a game, even if it is done by a company I trust and has had good reviews.
Although surprisingly, EA still manages to disappoint me every time.

Personally, I hate this game because of all the love it gets

But do you hate the game itself, or the community who praises and defends it to death? Because many people tend to mix up these two feelings.
I personally always found it weird that people claim to hate an inanimate object that hasn't done anything bad to them.

 

[Ryallen]

Ah, this doesn't really happen to me. I ALWAYS have low expectations for a game, even if it is done by a company I trust and has had good reviews.
Although surprisingly, EA still manages to disappoint me every time.

Personally, I hate this game because of all the love it gets

But do you hate the game itself, or the community who praises and defends it to death? Because many people tend to mix up these two feelings.
I personally always found it weird that people claim to hate an inanimate object that hasn't done anything bad to them.

It's a mixture of both, actually. I really didn't like the story or the characters, but I never really hated it until people started showering it with praise. I suppose that I hate what others see it to be: a good game, whereas I do not respect any narrative part of it. It alludes me that this game gets unreal praise for it's "well-written" characters when games with writing 100 times better are not given the praise that they deserve. I loved Mass Effect 3, and yet the only part that people still talk about is the ending. I acknowledge that the ending wasn't very good, but what about the rest of the game? What about the well-written and likable characters? What about Garrus and Wrex and Grunt and Tali and everyone else? What about all of the extremely deep and complex characters in Borderlands 2? Why do people ignore the amazing writing in that game simply because that isn't the focus of the game? It's still there, and it's the best writing I have seen in a long time! I could name even more games that I think deserve more praise than this game in the writing aspect, but I don't really have the patience for it.

 

[wAriot]

snip

Well, leaving aside your opinions on those games (which would require a whole different thread - I personally didn't exactly find the characters in B2 "deep", and actually disliked ME3, finding 1 and 2 way better, in both writing and gameplay - but again, that's another topic), I still think that "hate" is word too big for the feeling. Let's say that, hypothetically, you met with a "human" representation of the game. Would you punch it in the face? Use a bat to beat it? It's not "his" fault that other people prefer it.

I'm not sure if this analogy is going anywhere.

 

[Ryallen]

snip

Well, leaving aside your opinions on those games (which would require a whole different thread - I personally didn't exactly find the characters in B2 "deep", and actually disliked ME3, finding 1 and 2 way better, in both writing and gameplay - but again, that's another topic), I still think that "hate" is word too big for the feeling. Let's say that, hypothetically, you met with a "human" representation of the game. Would you punch it in the face? Use a bat to beat it? It's not "his" fault that other people prefer it.

I'm not sure if this analogy is going anywhere.

Okay, A: if you didn't find the characters in Borderlands 2 deep, then you didn't pay attention to any of the dialogue or side missions, B: Mass Effect 3 literally was nothing but improvements on the Mass Effect 1 and 2 gameplay engine, or whatever the term is for it, I have no idea, and C: I would murder it in cold blood and hang it from my house for all to see. I HATE this game. I hate how popular it is for presenting stereotypes and having the masses eat it up. I hate the subpar characters that are lauded as "revolutionary". I hate everything that has anything to do about the writing. I can't move past how much I hate the story and characters and enjoy the core gameplay. It's like if you personally knew Hitler when he was still alive and he was your best friend. You'd still kill him because of all the shitty things he did, even though he was the nicest guy you knew and your closest friend. A gross exaggeration, I know, but I can't think of another metaphor.

 

[wAriot]

Okay, A: if you didn't find the characters in Borderlands 2 deep, then you didn't pay attention to any of the dialogue or side missions, B: Mass Effect 3 literally was nothing but improvements on the Mass Effect 1 and 2 gameplay engine, or whatever the term is for it, I have no idea, and C: I would murder it in cold blood and hang it from my house for all to see. I HATE this game. I hate how popular it is for presenting stereotypes and having the masses eat it up. I hate the subpar characters that are lauded as "revolutionary". I hate everything that has anything to do about the writing. I can't move past how much I hate the story and characters and enjoy the core gameplay. It's like if you personally knew Hitler when he was still alive and he was your best friend. You'd still kill him because of all the shitty things he did, even though he was the nicest guy you knew and your closest friend. A gross exaggeration, I know, but I can't think of another metaphor.

Well, we certainly have a different view on TLoU. I don't particularly like it but I don't hate it either, at least not THAT much, lol.

On the subject of B2 and ME3, as I said, the discussion (which I've already had several times for each) would need another thread. I just want to say that I've indeed paid attention to all the dialogue for most characters (except one of the DLC characters, the Mechamancer I think it was called? I don't remember), and although they had some enjoyable bits here and there, overall I didn't find them particularly appealing. In fact, I was actually more interested by all the arms traffickers wars going on; and same goes for ME3, I could go on and on about how they fucked up many characters and how the dialogues were boring and uninteresting, and how the gameplay got incredibly casualized from the other games.

But, once again, this would deserve a whole different thread (and probably to play those games all over again, which I'm not exactly interested to do).

 

[Ryallen]

Okay, A: if you didn't find the characters in Borderlands 2 deep, then you didn't pay attention to any of the dialogue or side missions, B: Mass Effect 3 literally was nothing but improvements on the Mass Effect 1 and 2 gameplay engine, or whatever the term is for it, I have no idea, and C: I would murder it in cold blood and hang it from my house for all to see. I HATE this game. I hate how popular it is for presenting stereotypes and having the masses eat it up. I hate the subpar characters that are lauded as "revolutionary". I hate everything that has anything to do about the writing. I can't move past how much I hate the story and characters and enjoy the core gameplay. It's like if you personally knew Hitler when he was still alive and he was your best friend. You'd still kill him because of all the shitty things he did, even though he was the nicest guy you knew and your closest friend. A gross exaggeration, I know, but I can't think of another metaphor.

Well, we certainly have a different view on TLoU. I don't particularly like it but I don't hate it either, at least not THAT much, lol.

On the subject of B2 and ME3, as I said, the discussion (which I've already had several times for each) would need another thread. I just want to say that I've indeed paid attention to all the dialogue for most characters (except one of the DLC characters, the Mechamancer I think it was called? I don't remember), and although they had some enjoyable bits here and there, overall I didn't find them particularly appealing. In fact, I was actually more interested by all the arms traffickers wars going on; and same goes for ME3, I could go on and on about how they fucked up many characters and how the dialogues were boring and uninteresting, and how the gameplay got incredibly casualized from the other games.

But, once again, this would deserve a whole different thread (and probably to play those games all over again, which I'm not exactly interested to do).

Alright, so it was an exaggeration. I wouldn't really kill it. But I really do hate this game. And I really do think that Mass Effect 3 and Borderlands 2 have better characters than TLoU.

 

[BlackBark]

I have a couple of choices. First up is Fallout New Vegas. After how much I enjoyed Fallout 3, I was expecting great things from New Vegas. I actually got really far on my first play through, but wasn't enjoying the game much at all. I just couldn't get drawn into the story or the world. However, after leaving it for a while and coming back to it much later, I really enjoyed my second run through and it has ended up being one of my favourite games of recent times. I'm not really sure what changed between plays; I think I just spent a lot more time exploring the land and talking to the characters the second time, which helped get immersed in the game world.

Second one is Valkyria Chronicles. I had such high hopes and expectations for this game, based on the very high review scores it got. Also, from the screenshots, I could tell I would love the animation style. However, I think I went into the game thinking too much about Valkyrie Profile and I didn't research the story or characters of Chronicles much as I never want to have a story ruined in advance.

However, it seems this story ruined itself anyway. I thought the protagonists didn't fit in the world at all; a bunch of whining children don't belong in a war zone. The story was also pretty terrible. It was so predictable after a while and didn't make much sense based on the characters. I guess the problem was that I came in expecting a tale of epic battles and a tense struggle for survival against an almost unstoppable enemy force, complete with awesome ass-kicking valkyrie magic...but instead there was just a bunch of silly anime children somehow effortlessly swatting aside the enemy. If only the game was from Selvaria's perspective. Would have been much better. I couldn't go back to this game again; the story and characters are too badly written.

 

[Sefa Lagaaia]

Dead Island, When I first picked up the game for 360 I really didn't like it at all, the flimsy stamina gauge, the shoddy melee collision detection, the swarms of zombies that literally seemed to spawn from the walls and brutes who flattened you if you so much as looked at them funny... It really turned me off the game for quite sometime even though it was the type of game I'd been waiting for for ages. I was mulling over what to play and I thought I might drop back into nightmare just to see if any updates had improved the game, having loaded none I thought this playing would end like the last but then I found myself enjoying the game more and more, still not a perfect game by any means but it was fun to revisit and I got a lot more enjoyment out of the the second time around

 

[NinjaSniperAssassin]

Bioshock 2. Oh Bioshock 2. I've never owned a 360 or a decent gaming PC so my first experience with Bioshock 1 was a year after it originally released, after the PS3 port launched. I had been hearing so much praise for that game for so long that when I got my hands on the PS3 version I had to fight to contain my enthusiasm in case it let me down. Lo and behold, the game lived up to the incredibly lofty image I had in my mind. Rapture was one of the greatest game worlds I'd ever experienced: a creepy, fully realized setting filled with genuinely unnerving characters (both major and minor), that was simultaneously linear and open. On top of that, the combat was satisfyingly visceral and accommodating of Deception-esque trap-setting and straight-up FPSing. Also, dat twist. Yeah the story came apart at the end and the final boss was a major letdown but the first 95% of the game was damn near flawless.

Obviously, given my adoration for the first game I was ecstatic when they announced a second one. I preordered the game right away (something I never do), and actually let down my anti-hype barrier (after all, the first game surpassed expectations!). I picked up my copy as soon as I could, sat down, and started to play it. I got 6 hours in before I gave up, and each of those 6 hours was filled with disappointment. Where to begin:

- They ruined the mystery of Rapture by explaining WAY too much of the backstory.
- They ruined the mystery and sympathetic nature of the Big Daddies by making you one of them. One that functions WAAAAY better than the eventual end models (seriously, why would Rapture scientists look at the Prototype and say "No, that's not good enough. Make them slower, less agile, and unable to carry 8 different weapons and wield plasmids!") (note: Yes, I know the canon explanation. I don't accept it. It's completely obvious that the devs came up with the prototype by saying "Hey, those Big Daddy things were cool! Let's have the player control one! Oh, but the game'll be terrible if they control like that bit in #1. Quick, someone give me a reason why the player Big Daddy controls like a normal dude!)
- They introduced some cool new weapons (like that wicked speargun), but made them all worse than the default machinegun.
- They actually made me hate the Little Sisters by introducing that FUCKING defending-her-while-she-harvests-ADAM bullshit. Seriously, 3 times per Little Sister? How did that get past the planning stage without anyone saying "Um, isn't that gonna get repetitive?
- The Big Sister concept was kinda cool, but having her pop in randomly after harvests was ridiculous. As if I needed another reason to skip the harvests.
- Oh, but if you did skip the harvests? Bioshock 2 was way too short. Upon discussing the game with someone else I realized that I'd stopped only an hour or so before the end of the game. Seriously, story-driven single player games shouldn't be the same length as a CoD campaign. Oh, but it wasn't a real story-driven single player game, was it? No, they had to crowbar in...
- Useless multiplayer. Nobody asked for CoD: Rapture edition. Just because your game is an FPS doesn't mean it needs multiplayer. What a waster of resources, and the time spent on the multiplayer clearly impacted the quality of the main game (ie. what 99% of the people looking forward to Bioshock 2 were actually anticipating).

Thank goodness they fixed things with Bioshock Infinite. Still not as good as #1, but pretty damn good.

 

[Loonyyy]

I don't understand - how is this playing it wrong? One of my best moments involved the raid on the alien base quite early on. Six soldiers went in - including my medic, a Greek named Konstantinos 'Fast Lane' Poulos, and a Canadian sniper named Susan 'Nightmare' Weaver. A chryssalid ambush saw the other four slaughtered. I was thoroughly unprepared for this. Fast Lane and Nightmare lured chryssalids into the open and nailed them with sniper and laser fire. Slow. Calm. Methodical.
Then I misjudged. I tried to give Nightmare the high ground, but I didn't realise there was a whole room on the other side of what I thought was a walkway. Three chryssalids leaped on her, and she was gone in a turn.

Now it was the laser rifle-armed medic vs three chryssalids and an undead Canadian. And Fast Lane lived up to his name, and he ran. By some miracle he matched the chryssalids' speed, and once they lost sight of him, he could take a shot. I played like this until I eventually fought my way to the sectoid commander...and thought it was all over when he used his mind powers on my dear Konstantinos. Fast Lane panicked, instead, and the sectoid exploded.

Taking care of your soldiers is how you win. Don't let anyone tell you different.

It's not so much taking care of your soldiers, it's bothering to name any character once they've survived one promotion and then trying to force them to stay alive. The way I play won't work on the harder difficulties if I ever try them, because I'm more interested in forcing everyone (Named usually after people I know), to defend my Assault that I named after my dog when she rushes in and blasts aliens in the face with her shotgun. Which is more for my amusement than anything else.

I'd save scum if the scenario you explained happened. It's an awesome story, but it's not the way I'm playing. If I really wanted to play it properly, I'd need to take care of my soldiers, but be willing to make sacrifices and lose soldiers, and make decisions which could result in their loss, but that's just not how I play the game. I prefer to live vicariously through other people's epic firefights and laugh maniacally at my dog savaging mutons.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In spite of Hideaki Anno?s improved mental state, Rebuild does not have a Lighter and Softer tone compared to Neon Genesis Evangelion: horrific scenes from the original either remain equally horrific or end up more nightmarish than before. Each Rebuild film exponentially increases the dark tone to the point where people have argued that 3.0 is even grittier than the original series. Though the events of Rebuild don't always turn out well for the protagonists, this retelling seems to give enough glimmers of hope throughout its plot to promise that the story won't end up as soul-crushingly devastating as the original TV series. Think of Rebuild as the original ''Evangelion'' on proper medication: ultimately no happier than before, but a hell of a lot more stable.

It's a complete reboot of the series, though the first movie is pretty much identical story-wise to the first 6 episodes of the show(minus some of the whining, as I mentioned before).

Really?! Because the Rebuilds definitely feel a lot lighter and softer, both in tone and in character depth. The lack at all of the Human Instrumentality Project already takes away that dark, foreboding feeling that was present throughout the show. And everyone becomes a cardboard cutout of their former self, like parrots mimicking lines and personality traits from the original. Shinji is reduced to regular bland boy hero protagonist.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Katawa Shoujo, which is surpsising. I played it for about an hour. The first act is incredibly boring, nothing interesting happens at all, and the way you're introduced to the girls is... routine. Unnatural.

Then I realised, "I'm playing crippled asian animu schoolgirl porn with a title that translated to "Gimp girls", what the fuck am I doing?"

Played it again a few months after the internet literally exploded over it. Heaving my way through the first act of the game. Became somewhat interested in the story. Finished the game. One of the best games I've ever played, like, ever.

 

[Pink Gregory]

It's not so much taking care of your soldiers, it's bothering to name any character once they've survived one promotion and then trying to force them to stay alive.

I reckon that's kinda been quite a major element of XCOM since X-Com. The memorial wall in Enemy Unknown was a touch that I appreciated.

 

[Altorin]

Fallout New Vegas, when I first got it, just made me want to play Fallout 3... So I played Fallout 3 to near completion (the only thing I didn't do in the game was get a couple missable guns and the Pitt DLC because I was burned out by that point)... I disliked that I couldn't do a full completion game in one go like in Fallout 3, and I disliked that I couldn't have all the skills/perks I wanted to experience everything. I am now aware that these are actually points in New Vegas' favor, and that post-DLC, it really is possible to basically get absolutely everything for any specific themed character build... But once it sucked me in, I was absolutely hooked. Now I know where everything is.


So I can annoy the hell out of any of my friends who play it in my vicinity

"If you go up that route, you can get a Survival book, and if you can get your survival to 45 by level 4 you can get Travel Light, a terrific perk if you're planning to use light armor? You are? you should definitely do that. No? you don't want to? You'll get it later if you want it? But.. But... BUT.... there's really no other good time to get it in the perk list. What's that? you don't want to play anymore? I'm sorry. "