Subjectively "good" games you could not get into.

[Exius Xavarus]

Dark Souls
I have one question for game developers: How can you ever ever ever ever EVER justify frame-rate lag and slowdown on a console game? You know the EXACT hardware that you are working with but that did not stop this game from being a technical mess. Depressing because I did enjoy Demon Souls but technical issues made me just plain give up on this game.

Is there anyone I haven't irked yet? I can keep going if I have to

C'mon, Tippy. You're gonna have to do better than that, to irk me on account of Dark Souls. It really was a technical mess. I mean, From Soft made an update that literally made the strategy guide utterly worthless, they changed that much.

Skyrim: There's so much for you to do, there's nothing I want to do. It got boring, really fast. Oh, and the PS3 version got fucked, sideways. So there's that.

The Last of Us: Third-Person Shooter with some stealth mechanics. I'm not really a fan of shooters, of any kind.

The whole Modern Warfare/Black Ops series: Didn't care for a single one of them.

 

[FrozenLaughs]

The whole Assassin's Creed series. It just feels like a parkour simulator where you occasionally kill someone. With all the extra crap to collect for no good reasons, I could just go play Mirror's Edge and actually enjoy myself.

 

[The Madman]

Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas

I could never even begin to get into Fallout 3, I thought it was absolute rubbish from the start. But New Vegas? I tried to like it, I really really did. Look at my steam profile, I've thrown a more than generous 40 hours at the game... though admittedly some of that is probably me paused while watching TV or something and what's left is divided between two separate attempts to get into the game, one without mods and one with. Whatever the case you can't say I didn't give the game a fair chance and yet even after all that at best I came away from the game with a 'meh' and at worst thinking it was the same sort of crap 3 was.

Seriously the dialogue was mediocre, the story was boring, the gameplay was terrible, the visuals were wretched, the setting was forgettable, I just don't get it. Looking at the way people fawn over those games I realize I must be wrong yet even so despite trying twice now to give it a fair chance New Vegas especially has just continued to disappoint.

 

[prpshrt]

What were some critically acclaimed games that everyone else loved that you didn't? Perhaps they weren't your cup of tea or they had mechanics that just didn't really interest you?

I have two games I just couldn't force myself to like.

Guild Wars 2: I played the first one for hundreds of hours. There was nothing more satisfying in making a unique skill set and having it all synergize well. The 2nd iteration though felt like a huge step backwards in the skill builder. Having to grind 80 levels with the same 5 weapon skills? That felt absolutely horrible.

Path of Exile: I',M probably going to get burned at the stake for this, but not only did I like Torchlight more than this game, but I enjoyed D3 more as well. The combat just felt much slower and less energetic than the other two arpgs. I can see why people love this game because of the massive skill builder, but everything else, the story, the combat, atmosphere, the characters felt quite generic.

I tried REALLY hard to like Path of Exile... it felt kinda cheap after playing TL2 and D3 (please don't hurt me).
As for GW2, I think they have a decent amount of skills but they just made it really easy to unlock them. I remember in GW 1 I didn't have a full skill bar till level 17/20. I also miss elite skill hunting which they should have kept. The new content every few weeks is kinda nice so do try and check it out. A lot of them are really grindy so I've skipped em but the more recent one is kinda nice.

 

[FPLOON]

World of Warcraft: MMOs were never my cup of tea... But, I can still appropriate how cool WoW is from the outside...

Call of Duty (series): It's not like FPSs are not my cup of tea, as my gaming years continued... It's the straight-up FPSs that are not my cup of tea...

Just Dance (series): Sure, every time I played these games at a convention, for example, I would dance my ass off to the beat of some mainstream song I neither cared for before or afterwards... But, I'll stick with Dance Dance Revolution, thank you very much...

GTA IV and V: Haven't played GTA since San Andreas... With that said, I just could not get into these GTA games... (Maybe I'll play V later down the line, but I'm not too sure... Still like open-word games, though...)

Disgaea (series): Love the story, love the characters, liked the anime version... Never really liked SRPGs, though... or any strategy-driven games...

...I can't think of any others right off the back... or at least ones that do not fall under the genre of games that are not my cup of tea, though...

 

[Raggedstar]

Majora's Mask I guess is THE big one for me. The game is just so interesting and atmospheric. I want to like it, I REALLY do, but the save system and 3 day mechanic (on a gameplay level, not story level) bug me so much to the point where I just didn't want to play. All the fiddling with the 3 days and heading to the bank (not to mention retrying time-sensitive sidequests, like the one on the farm, is such a waste of time considering you need to redo EVERYTHING and wait around) was so annoying. I haven't even made it far enough to get pissed off at the Great Bay Temple yet. I see what all the fuss is about, but on a gameplay level I find it so clunky and not aging well.

Majora's Mask, why won't you let me love you?

 

[Hero of Lime]

Most MMOs and RTS games, I haven't played them, and I have no intention to, they don't appeal to me in the first place. Especially since they are heavily multiplayer focused. Plus, they are pretty much exclusive to PCs, which I've never played games on in any serious manner.

This a bit of a controversial answer, Super Mario Bros. 3. It's regarded as the best 2D Mario platformer by many people, and I just have never been too impressed by it. By all accounts, it's a great game, but I never had as much fun with it as other 2D Mario games.

Sports Games, they are made for fans of sports, and no doubt are probably great to those folks. Me, I can't have any fun with sports games, unless it involves motion control. My mantra for sports, is that it is far more fun to play them, than to watch them.

Realistic car and racing games, see the explanation for sports games. Exception goes to the likes of Mario Kart, though it is most likely because it throws realism out the window.

Donkey Kong Country, like Mario 3, I can see why it's so highly regarded, but I just can't have fun with the Donkey Kong 2D platformers, even Donkey Kong Country Returns.

 

[scorptatious]

Well, I'll admit, I despise shadow of the colossus. That's not to say I don't understand why people love it, but it just doesn't work for me. Sure, it looks great, but so does Avatar, and that movie wasn't very good either. besides, if I want to feel like an inconsequential speck crawling over giant animals and stabbing them, I'd just watch Attack on Titan, or play Mr. Mosquito. Then again, I don't really like either of those, so... moot point, or whatever.
My biggest problem though, is what a lot of people seem to like, the complete lack of story. Who is wander? why does he want to save Ms. Comatose? doesn't matter, kill more giants and feel bad about it.

OMG SHADOW OF TEH COLOSSUS IS TEH BES GAME EVAR!!! U R STOOPID!!1! BLABAGSDA

*ahem*

Nah, just kidding, I'm fine with some people not liking the game.

[small] >_>....<_< *twitch* [/small]

OT: Probably Europa Universalis III.

I'm sure it's a great game, but I just couldn't get into it. I had no idea what's going on most of the time or what does what.

Of course, that's my fault, as I didn't bother to read the tutorials or watch vids on Youtube on how to play the game.

So I messed around in it for a couple of hours, eventually got bored and stopped playing.

 

[KazeAizen]

lol. this is a thread that could easily offend a million fanboys. Let's see. My entries would have to be Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield.

All for pretty much almost the exact same reason. Halo I take it easier on because at least its sci fi so that's something. Battlefield and Call of Duty have no distinctive hero or character. I mean they do in the actual narrative yes but I never hear anyone talk about them so obviously they aren't note worthy enough to be talked about and also the covers never give me an indication of who the main character is. Every single Final Fantasy game has the lead character on the cover and the characters in the game are distinctive and people remember the. Whether its for good or ill people can look at a Final Fantasy character and know they are from Final Fantasy and what game they are in. If you put the main characters from the CoD or Battlefield game side by side I could easily get them swapped and confused.

Other then that I am sick to freaking death of the "realistic" aesthetic these games are going for. It usually means lack of color and the environments eventually bleed across the games and its like I've played the same environment on repeat. While objectively they are classified as good games I've just never been able to get into them because of their almost cookie cutter appearance and lack of any real personality beyond "look at the military porn!"

The only saving grace is that at least Battlefront 3 will be objectively good since the Battlefield people are making it.

 

[Sandjube]

Half life 2, I just didn't like it all that much. The story was alright, but I just...I dunno. I couldn't finish it. Maybe if I had played it when it first came out I would get it, no idea.

Can't think of anything else at the moment, though I'm sure there are plenty.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

My biggest problem though, is what a lot of people seem to like, the complete lack of story. Who is wander? why does he want to save Ms. Comatose? doesn't matter, kill more giants and feel bad about it.

It's not a lack of story. It's a lack of overt/front-end exposition. You can't literally read the story coming out of characters' mouths (or a narrator's), but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

Some people think the vast majority of games beat you over the head with narrative like you're some kind of idiot who could never put two and two together. For these people, games like SotC are special.

OT: Can't get into Skyrim. I really, really want to do so, but it's not happening.

 

[jaketaz]

I have always found the GTA series boring, tedious drudgery, thinly-written and badly characterized with weak graphics for the times they were released in. The current one has pretty up to date graphics, but as usual the combat is bad and the shooting is awful. Just chores over and over.

 

[EyeReaper]

My biggest problem though, is what a lot of people seem to like, the complete lack of story. Who is wander? why does he want to save Ms. Comatose? doesn't matter, kill more giants and feel bad about it.

It's not a lack of story. It's a lack of overt/front-end exposition. You can't literally read the story coming out of characters' mouths (or a narrator's), but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

Some people think the vast majority of games beat you over the head with narrative like you're some kind of idiot who could never put two and two together. For these people, games like SotC are special.

OT: Can't get into Skyrim. I really, really want to do so, but it's not happening.

I don't like exposition dumps as much as the next guy, but I feel like Sotc takes it in the complete opposite direction, and a tad bit too far. If they would've given a little more backstory, a little more motivation, hell, if they would have at least said what the relationship the dead girl had with Wander, I'd have liked it a bit more. But hey, just because it doesn't float my boat doesn't mean it's not good, that's what opinions are all about right?

 

[JagermanXcell]

I can get into a lot of games just as long as I don't have more then 1 at a time. Even Skyrim I got into..... don't know how, game was so broken but man did I love sticking with that sexy Ebony Armor.
There are 3 that are still haunting me:

-Ocarina of Time: I just can't... After playing Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess first I can't seem to ever play it for more then one hour. Its now been 4 years and I still haven't continued when I turned all older Link and crap. Its just so formulaic and the dungeons are so dull. Also that original Z targeting... good for its time but wow after playing the new games its very inferior.
GG Oot.

-LA Noir. I love the premise, but thats all there was to it. I finished the first case and I was just DONE cause at the time I bought Arkham City and was more interested in that. Just wasn't feeling it, so I gave it to my cousin whose at the moment loving it.
Why couldn't I though... T_T

-Bioshock. Fought only two Big Daddies then I was done. I'm so fixated on Infinite's on the fly combat that switching between weapon and plasmids was the most frustrating thing i've ever experienced in a long while, but man was that atmosphere AMAZING!
This is definitely one i'll try suuuuper hard to finish if I ever get back to it.

 

[Vigormortis]

snip

Just to clarify: did you mean subjectively good games (as the title suggests) or did you mean objectively good games?

The answer greatly affects my potential list, so I'd like to be sure.

 

[Right E O]

Um well lets see...

Skyrim
Yep, pretty much what everyone else said. A little boring, a little gray and way to uninteresting to look at to work at all on my poor little TV. Add in some boring NPC conversations and meh combat and you have the boring, no guns version of Fallout 3. Which is a bad thing FYI

Fire Emblem Awakening
This one has started some flame wars with friends. I was a huge fan of the series, enough of one to finish the game, but I knew I had stopped having fun as it wore on. I found the shift from a linear progression of levels to an open slog of the same level with new enemies to be damning for the game design. In short, recycling levels with shittier enemies with not at all thought enemy placement makes for a boring experience. I get that it was to allow you to level up some of your characters, but previous Fire Emblem games were linear in nature and never had the slipshod, just playing lazy level design these bonus areas had. And the story didn't do much for me either. I saw potential for fun characters and interesting points but the game flips moods like it was bipolar and can't really find a setting to work with. Sad that this is the new direction for the series, but hopeful for changes to be made.

Any Assassins Creed game
I've tried this one to many times, always to get bored of it in the very beginning. The story is too convoluted to just start in the middle, but ill be damned if I have to finish the first one.

Then you have the games that I like but didnt have time for. These include Okami, Skyward Sword, Metriod Prime, and almost the Phoenix Wright series (glad I came back to that!). I know that they are good, and ill get to them some day. Okay, maybe not Skyward Sword.

 

[Ftaghn To You Too]

My biggest problem though, is what a lot of people seem to like, the complete lack of story. Who is wander? why does he want to save Ms. Comatose? doesn't matter, kill more giants and feel bad about it.

It's not a lack of story. It's a lack of overt/front-end exposition. You can't literally read the story coming out of characters' mouths (or a narrator's), but that doesn't mean it isn't there.

Some people think the vast majority of games beat you over the head with narrative like you're some kind of idiot who could never put two and two together. For these people, games like SotC are special.

OT: Can't get into Skyrim. I really, really want to do so, but it's not happening.

I don't like exposition dumps as much as the next guy, but I feel like Sotc takes it in the complete opposite direction, and a tad bit too far. If they would've given a little more backstory, a little more motivation, hell, if they would have at least said what the relationship the dead girl had with Wander, I'd have liked it a bit more. But hey, just because it doesn't float my boat doesn't mean it's not good, that's what opinions are all about right?

The back of the box says that she's his love. That... sort of counts... I guess?

For me, it'll have to be RTS games outside of Total War. I've tried the big ones. Hell, I've enjoyed my time with them. But I always get bored and drop out after maybe three or four hours and move on to a different game. I have no idea why, since Total War is one of my favorite series. It may be the (in my eyes at least) arbitrary balancing systems, but I don't know.

 

[Lieju]

I tried playing GTA IV but it made sad.
I was interested in the story, but every time I needed to drive anywhere I ended up killing a number of pedestrians by accident and feeling bad about it. (Especially since the game keeps score on how many people you murdered with your car.)


I couldn't play Dead Rising 2 because it made me too anxious. I have a thing about growds, and a human (or zombie growd) in a realistic setting like a shopping centre hit too close to actual situations in reality where I get panic attacks.

 

[rob_simple]

Wouldn't it make more sense to call the thread 'Popular Games You Couldn't Get Into'? Because otherwise, the title really just translates to 'Games I do not like'.

Anyway, being a nitpicking arsehole aside, Halo. I have tried on four separate occasions to get into Halo (once with the first game, once with the second, and twice with the third) and I never got further than the second mission in any of them without becoming bored, bored, bored.

I have played a lot of shooters in the last fifteen years or so, but the Halo games are the only ones I've been so bored with that I never even bothered to finish them.