Your Arch-nemesis Game

[SilverBullets000]

I was a huge fan of the Sonic Adventure series. I even enjoyed Sonic Heroes and (to a much lesser extent) Shadow the Hedgehog.

It was the other way around for me. The nerfing of Shadow's character growth from Adventure 2 aggrivates me in retrospect, but the new team-based gameplay mechanics was what made me dislike Heros as a kid. Add that onto the fact that the ring-collecting minigame had come back in the form of balloon-popping madness, and it was the perfect recipie for disaster for me.
Admitidly, it did have a better story than Shadow the Hedgehog did...I still say they need to hire better writers, though.

The sad thing is, that kid I mentioned probably went and bought the game because of me. And I probably crushed his childhood and his innocence.

He was already a fan, so he was going to get it sooner or later with or with out your help. Don't let it get to you.

OT:
Real Answer: Dream TV for the SNES.

As a child, there was a locally owned game rental store that I visited from time to time to rent videogames. When it went out of buisness, it began to sell the videogames dirt cheap. For some reason or another, I chose to buy games I was unfamiliar with. This led to me buying Super Metroid, Dr. Mario (I...think), and Dream TV.

It so happens that Dream TV wasn't only the blandest game I had ever seen, it was one of the worst ones I had ever played. The story is as nonexistant as the tutorial, the mechanics were terrible and frustrating, the music looped from the second the title screen appeared, the goal was unexplained, and weapon changes did nothing but change the pixels. I left the game on the title screen once and the credits started rolling to reveal that only eight people actually worked on this game. I'm still annoyed that this turd still sits in my cabinets today instead of some other great game.

Alternate/Somewhat False Answer: Demon's Souls for the PS3.

In all honesty, I don't hate this game per say, just certain things about it.
-Halfed HP when you die in body form. Why?
-Experience points as currency. I suppose that would be fair if I didn't need 24 strength to equip the best armor that you sell to me, you old git. It ensures that you'll have to go back and grind. A lot.
-You drop souls when you die in a level, making said grinding even more of a chore, particularly when starting a new game.
-Enemies in levels actually get stonger when you die in body form as opposed to only doing so when you manage a perfect run. That makes no sense. If a player is having a hard time going through a level with full life, what makes you think they'd want to do it with half!? (Yes, Cling Ring, but that's still less than full)
-Speaking of stronger enemies, why is it such a pain to change the world tendancy in offline mode? I suppose that offering to brighten it by offering souls would've made for more grinding, but still~
-Certain bosses are easier with help from NPC characters...and almost impossible without them.

I love the gameplay. I love the minimalistic approach to storytelling with the emphasis on atmosphere. I even love the idea of leveling the character one stat at a time so that he can be either perfectly balanced or a juggernaught in both offense and magic while being able to be cut down by a paper sword. However, everything else in the game makes the legendary difficulty that it's known for feel cheap.

EDIT: I somehow managed to forget the thread title half way through typing the post. Demon's Souls would be the only answer since it's the only game I keep coming back to, whereas Dream TV has collected enough dust to be a miniature litter box.

 

[crimson sickle2]

Probably a common one, but FF7. Back when I was just testing the waters of RPGs I tried that disgrace and I was thrown off the genre for two years except for a couple series I had already enjoyed. Luckily FF5 showed me a rpg can be fun, simplicity can be a good thing, and not all rpg protagonists cut themselves after ever battle.

 

[Andy Beaumont]

Daxter for the PSP. I have defeated this terrible spin off, but I wish I hadn't. It makes no sense to the original storyline of Jak and Daxter (a game series I adore and spent many hours on during my childhood.)
He becomes a bug catcher? Really? Those fucking hive queens that can insta-kill you however weak they are, the poor tie ins to Jak 2 that seem to cheapen it in some way. The way that your bars of bug spray go down ridiculously fast,especially while hovering and all having to be controlled on the original PSP with its horrible single faux-joystick.

It took me so ridiculously long to complete, I picked it up again last year and thought to have another play through, realised all the issues I had with it, put it straight back down. I do however have this odd sense that I should keep it just to have the complete series intact, even if it is the evil many times removed retarded cousin of the entire series.


Also someone above mentioned Mario charged football online reminded me of Mario Kart wii. The main game is great fun and amazing as a splitscreen time waster with friends.

The online... Oh the online...people use the cheapest tricks and have learnt the tracks so well as to know the exact lines of the tracks that make the shortest route. They hang back a lot of the race so they get amazing weapons in last place like a blue shell then suddenly jump up the positions until they finish in first. It just sapped all the fun out of that game for me and I am not masochistic enough to even try to go online today years later, there are still people online even today (I just checked quickly) who have been playing for countless hours for years... Perfecting their every turn, their every powerslide and starting boost.... My idea of hell.

 

[aguspal]

The online... Oh the online...people use the cheapest tricks and have learnt the tracks so well as to know the exact lines of the tracks that make the shortest route. They hang back a lot of the race so they get amazing weapons in last place like a blue shell then suddenly jump up the positions until they finish in first. It just sapped all the fun out of that game for me and I am not masochistic enough to even try to go online today years later, there are still people online even today (I just checked quickly) who have been playing for countless hours for years... Perfecting their every turn, their every powerslide and starting boost.... My idea of hell.

Hey that does sound like fun actually! so long as they play legit, I am all for one of those matches. It seems like it would be epic.

 

[Drakmorg]

Grand Theft Auto 4.
Solely for the reason that it's the last game I can remember ever getting 'stuck' on.

Either that or Mass Effect 2 and 3 for pissing all over what made Mass Effect 1 good and making Cerberus a big deal.

 

[Sp3ratus]

And calling someone out for arguing with opinion in an opinion-based thread isn't a waste of time?

Touché, I'll shut up after this and go use my energy on beforementionted games, instead.

And besides, sometimes you spend the money on what you think is a good game only to find out it was bad. Doesn't that validate the feeling of hate?

Doesn't work. For someone to hate a game, they will have had to play that game, which means they'll have already purchased said game. Can't refuse to buy something you already have.

Well, there are reviews and you can research a game before buying it, if you don't like throwing money away. I know those are subjective as well, but buying a game doesn't have to be a blind purchase. You can get at least some idea of what you're getting into.

Also, the whole point of this thread is to ask people's opinions, so it's pretty lame of you to try to say that someone else's opinion is wrong.

Dismiss all arguments with one word

Stay classy.

I'm not trying to point out that the opinion to not like BL2 is wrong, that wasn't the point of my post. I'm just really tired of people misusing the word objective to justify their opinion of a game. It's particurly bad on these forums. Saviordd1 is, of course free to dislike whatever game he wants and I apologize if my post came off harshly.

 

[Ultress]

Wild Arms 4, I've reamed it plenty of times on this forum so I'll keep it short,it's stupid and caused the decline of the entire series.

 

[Nonomori]

I don't have one. I like to see the positive side of things and...

Oh, who I am kidding? Gears of War is one of the ugliest games ever made, but at least influenced much better products. Saints Row 2 got me even more disappointed. Visually unappealing, highly repetitive, not funny or fun, only remarkable for being incredibly embarrassing. Definitely my worst purchase.

 

[ecoho]

Too human....how do you fuck up norse mith mixed with space age i mean marvels done half your dam work.........

 

[Coffeejack]

snip

Did you play in English or Japanese? Because I played it in Japanese, and I ain't Japanese. The camera angles were the least agreeable part of the game, particularly when coupled with jumps that required precision. A great example would be that later map in which you have to get to the top of the mountain. The one you mentioned, in fact, where something steals your hat. There are lots of big red toadstools near the bottom of the map, over an abyssal pit. Some challenge involved jumping across them. That was fun.

I cried when the game ended, though. The music was too much. They really don't make them like that any more. So many high and lows, it felt like a real journey.

 

[Froggy Slayer]

Spore. I trusted it to bring a beautiful and exciting experience and it betrayed me. I WAITED 6 YEARS FOR YOU TO COME OUT.

 

[Lt._nefarious]

Happy Wheels. I never liked Happy Wheels but... But if it weren't for Happy Wheels PewDiePie wouldn't exsist and thus my Inbox wouldn't be full of "YOUR JUST JELLY CUZ YOU DON'T HAVE AS MANY SUBS YOU BARREL FAG!" Seriously, what does that even mean!? Why won't you people leave me alone?! I made ONE comment on ONE video, the first of his videos I ever watched saying it wasn't any good and dozens of people have called me a troll! One, goddamnit, one! It was a Happy Wheels video.

Happy Wheels has been a large contributor in defiling my sanity! *pumps 870MCS" I'ma comin' for ya, Happy Wheels!!!

 

[AgentLampshade]

Devil may Cry: Devil May Cry, and it's not even out yet. I'm judging from trailers, gameplay footage and the demo because...well why else are they there?

I could go on about how Ninja Theory are a bunch of pretentious, incompetent, arrogant pricks, but you've heard all that before. I could also go on about how the writing is bland, but I think people will figure that out when they play the game.

Instead I'll go on about the redesign. There, I said it. Everything in the game looks like it was stained with mud and shit then looks at you and tells you to accept it's originality. Dante's hair looks stupid and it looks even worse when it's white, I mean, how can they fuck that up? The music sounds like robots fighting each other and Dante's ALL voice actors just sound sluggish and bland, as if they only glanced the script five minutes before they left to record the lines.

The combat's dumbed down. The music is bad. The lore is butchered. The characters unlikable. Every single "creative" decision the developers have made (and the publisher has forced) is terrible.

Ugh, that felt good to get off my chest. I see people arguing over everything about this game and that nobody is pissed at the redesign anymore, but every time I see promotional artwork, I look at it and it reminds me that I am pissed at the redesign.

As for specifically why it's my arch-nemesis, simple. It's trying to kill the previous franchise. I loved the previous franchise and feel it's being kicked while it's down by the bad guy, his henchman and the once-faithful sidekick-turned-traitor. (Ninja Theory, the gaming press and Capcom respectively.)

 

[Saviordd1]

-snip-

Alright lets go block by block

Storyline: Cliched and characters that are one dimensional, predictable "twists", and glaring plot holes about the only good thing was the villain who was occasionally funny. Not to mention the use of meme's (which is just lazy) and a misunderstanding of how references to pop culture should work. (All characteristics of objectively bad writing)

Gunplay: I can't really complain I guess, you shoot things, they fall over. That said it's pretty bullshit with the whole "Hazillion guns" or whatever they're up to now. But this is opinion so take it as such.

The loot system: It's manipulative, plain and simple. It uses the same logic that a casino does, especially slots. You aren't guaranteed a good weapon from a certain area and as such it encourages you to go back and get it. This is bad, it's feeding off a part of the human mind (a negative part) that tricks itself into thinking "it could be the next one".

Locations: Admittedly this has been fixed slightly in the second game but the first game was pretty much a universal desert, bad and lazy design.

Vehicles: They handle like ass, no way around that, and it's not that hard to make them work.

Fucking quests: It's a damned MMO, go to place, get told to kill X or get Y (normally from bandits) and go back to the quest giver for XP and LOOTS. This is as bad design as it is lazy. The MMO-ness also goes into the zone creation which is another way to be lazy.

Meme's and the word badass: The overuse of meme's is simply bad and lazy humor writing, showing that the writers aren't willing to actually use their fucking brains. (This is accepted writing fact, and even if you like it, its still objectively lazy or idiotic)

Also, they need to stop saying badass. The term applies to people who are awesome, when you overuse the word it loses meaning. (Opinion of course)

Both the meme's and badass portion make the game feel immature, like it was written for a 12 year old.

Overall the game shoots bad game design out of its pores but still gets lauded as being awesome, that's pretty shit.

-snip-

Well I'm assuming you heard about the Star Wars poster fiasco, if not, look it up as it was pretty large news.

On the other hand they also blatantly stole their art style and several set up scenes from an movie made in 2006 called "Codehunters". The similarities are absolutely scary; there's a scene on a train in a desert with 4 "hunters" who are all visually distinct, and the train winds up crashing. There's a scene on a beat up bus where they introduce characters, etc etc.

Source [http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2012/11/12/pound-of-flesh/]

By the way, Dragon Age (at least Origins, I won't speak for the travesty that was DA2) exists because it's a good old fashioned RPG, not the dog shit we get nowadays.

 

[Nightmare-Child]

Baroque. That game is borderline not playable.

 

[Anthony Wells]

-snip-

For reference im mostly referring to borderlands 2 in this one especially during the plot holes and twists sections since borderlands 1 had very little story to speak of.


i will give you the overuse of memes and badass. thats undeniable. But it doesnt make the game "bad" just slightly annoying to some people (i however liked it. it pushed the whole over the topness of the game forward for me)


the story here is not... see while you may have seen it as bad i thought it was really good? cliches? i love cliches. Its almost impossible to make a good story without one or two of them. one dimensional characters....eh i thought the characters were pretty fleshed out but thats opinionated.


plot holes. ok you need to explain the plot holes to me. if it involves the new u system in anyway, that can be chalked up to jack having an amazingly bad ego and overconfident ,slash, it just being a gameplay mechanic and not part of the story. I need to know what others there are before i can definitively say its


loot system: same as every loot based game, torchlight, diablo, dungeon crawlers, sounds like you dont like loot systems in general.


MMOness: well it WAS designed around a 4 player co-op... so the MMOness kinda makes sense in that regard. I also very much like MMO style quest...this one comes down to personal opinion and preference.


predictable twists.. ok i gottta say i saw NONE of the twists in the story coming. only reason i knew of any of them before hand is i spoil shit for myself by coming onto the escapist here or randomly in youtube comments.... point being, i enjoyed most of the twoists in the story and most people i knew didnt see them coming. This can be chalked up to you being very well versed in story telling and seeing all of this stuff from the inside out. But i cant say that for sure.




the vehicles.... ok i never got why so many complained about this you point the direction you want to go and press forward and you go that way.. i found no difficulty navigating with the vehicles and having a damn good time doing so, same for the mako in mass effect 1, everyone says kits horrible yet i think its just fine. want horrible vehicles, play gta4 or need for speed prostreet or the shift series... those are terrible handling vehicles. But since its a universal complaint i can chalk it up to me being more tolerant than others about this so its valid.



ok so in recap



. 1 complaint is completely valid (although still in my eyes subjective but when its universal one mind doesnt mean shit)



4 of them loot system, MMOness, and story being shit and filled with predictable twists, are opinions



and 1 of them i need more info on before i can defend or agree with it



still doesnt seem "objectively" bad to me. just "subjectively" bad.


and thats perfectly fine Im not trying to change your mind on if you like it or not.







also heres a link to an update about the art design and theft. Doesnt make it and less true but it does bring to light that they at least admitted to it



http://kotaku.com/5945276/upset-artist-claims-borderlands-2s-manual-art-swipes-from-his-designs?post=52881852

 

[aguspal]

-snip-

Alright lets go block by block

Storyline: Cliched and characters that are one dimensional, predictable "twists", and glaring plot holes about the only good thing was the villain who was occasionally funny. Not to mention the use of meme's (which is just lazy) and a misunderstanding of how references to pop culture should work. (All characteristics of objectively bad writing)

Gunplay: I can't really complain I guess, you shoot things, they fall over. That said it's pretty bullshit with the whole "Hazillion guns" or whatever they're up to now. But this is opinion so take it as such.

The loot system: It's manipulative, plain and simple. It uses the same logic that a casino does, especially slots. You aren't guaranteed a good weapon from a certain area and as such it encourages you to go back and get it. This is bad, it's feeding off a part of the human mind (a negative part) that tricks itself into thinking "it could be the next one".

Locations: Admittedly this has been fixed slightly in the second game but the first game was pretty much a universal desert, bad and lazy design.

Vehicles: They handle like ass, no way around that, and it's not that hard to make them work.

Fucking quests: It's a damned MMO, go to place, get told to kill X or get Y (normally from bandits) and go back to the quest giver for XP and LOOTS. This is as bad design as it is lazy. The MMO-ness also goes into the zone creation which is another way to be lazy.

Meme's and the word badass: The overuse of meme's is simply bad and lazy humor writing, showing that the writers aren't willing to actually use their fucking brains. (This is accepted writing fact, and even if you like it, its still objectively lazy or idiotic)

Also, they need to stop saying badass. The term applies to people who are awesome, when you overuse the word it loses meaning. (Opinion of course)

Both the meme's and badass portion make the game feel immature, like it was written for a 12 year old.

Overall the game shoots bad game design out of its pores but still gets lauded as being awesome, that's pretty shit.

-snip-

Well I'm assuming you heard about the Star Wars poster fiasco, if not, look it up as it was pretty large news.

On the other hand they also blatantly stole their art style and several set up scenes from an movie made in 2006 called "Codehunters". The similarities are absolutely scary; there's a scene on a train in a desert with 4 "hunters" who are all visually distinct, and the train winds up crashing. There's a scene on a beat up bus where they introduce characters, etc etc.

Source [http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2012/11/12/pound-of-flesh/]

By the way, Dragon Age (at least Origins, I won't speak for the travesty that was DA2) exists because it's a good old fashioned RPG, not the dog shit we get nowadays.

Well... I guess it all is down to tastes like always. I think Borderlands 2 is a pretty damn good game and it completly, but I mean UTTERLY destroys Dragon Age, but tastes and opnions and all that. I love doing quests, maybe its not your thing simply. I also like one devoloper actually dare to use memes and "badass" I think its a good move and it puts a smile in my face every time I reconize a meme (this is at least way better than Bioware with Dragon age with a boring as fuck story in my book. Like, WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY better).

The loot system its good, EXACTLY because of what you said. Thats how loot systems are SUPPUSED to work IMO. They are suppused to make you try to go for the next best weapon... to be fair, it isint what all loot system game (should) do?.


Localitations its about the only thing I kinda agree, the first game had a love for brown deserts or something, but I actually MISS some of the desert now. I dont know, it had a different feel in borderlands 1, but that might be me just begin crazy.

Veichles.. I dont have a problem with them once you get used to them.



In my book, BL2 is one of the best games I have played (Althougt not the best of the best, and theres some aspects I find was better done in the original game), and compared to fucking DRAGON AGE (the most boring, dull and souless game I have ever played) of all the things, well... again it just utterly destroys it, to say the least.

 

[Vhite]

TES: Oblivion

We were best friends for months until my eyes opened and I found out he was stealing money from my wallet, having sex with my girlfriend and beating my mother.

Mods and good stealth missions were what kept me playing, but as I kept leveling I realized how pointless everything was. I had my fun with it but once you know Its dark secret, you can never play it again.

 

[thatryanguy]

Milon's Secret Castle. Haven't played it since I was but a wee sprite, but no other game has frustrated me quite to that degree.

2nd place: The SimCity franchise. Enjoy the hell out of them. Suck so bad at them.