For me, it’s borderlands 2
I thought the gameplay was pretty good, in a “turn your brain off and shoot guys with gradually increasing numbers” kind if way, and I absolutely adored whenever Handsome Jack showed up, but that’s pretty much it
I’ve heard from more than a few sources that the shooting on that game’s peak, but it’s just kind of generic. Outside of Jack, I thought the writing was honestly pretty lacklustre as well, even getting annoying in more than one instance (CATCH A RIIIIIDE FUCK OFF DIPSHIT). The cell-shaded artsyle is quite pretty, I will give it that
At its core, I think it’s just… fine.
Life
The entire Mass Effect series. Many of the missions were dredging through mostly empty buildings that had copy-pasted boxes and random shit in them. Just generic buildings with generic crap stuffed into them. The world felt purposeless, sterile, and generic to me.
Also, the story just didn’t really grab me that much as I cringe at the romance parts of any story. And lastly, the gameplay was just clunky and awkward to me.
Mario Kart World.
Soundtrack is 11/10. But they dropped the ball hard on the entire open world aspect. Completely wasted the entire potential.
Instead we get lame ass intermission tracks that count as the first two laps of the next race, so you don’t even get to enjoy the new and remade tracks during championships, because you’ll blink and miss them.
statisfactory 1.0: the game is pure eye candy there’s no endgame. factorio is leaps and bounds better
Being on the patient side of things, two games I’ve played in recent years and didn’t enjoy were:
God of War (2018) - it just felt like AAA slop to me. Meaningles upgrades, tons of obvious puzzles at any corner - never throwing in even a single brain teaser, boring combat - the best option was almost always to throw the axe, that thing were you start walking at a snails pace to mask loading and/or play a cutscene and on top of that and of course your god powers being mostly cutscene exclusive. Just your bog standard AAA game with no ‘friction’ - boring.
Factorio - it just feels like work to me. On top of that, going in blind, I just didn’t enjoy building something up just to tear it down again because I’ve unlocked something new changing the requirements. Once again, feels like a job in IT. On top of that, resource patches being limited just gave me the weirdest kind of anxiety despite never actually seeing one run out.
Factorio’s the awakening for a lot of people on certain ends on the spectrum. My AuDHD makes it crack for me. I will say though, while the tutorial teaches you some essentials, it just throws you into the deep end once you start a real game.
I only discovered all the tips and quality of life from videos online, and there are some troubles in the game you can solve on your own but good fucking luck (belt balancing).
Might not be your kinda game, but if you ever feel like giving it another chance, check out some vids online for beginner tips (: It’s a game about stimulating the Eureka! part of our ooga booga caveman brains and it feels amazing.
I finally have a computer that can run Cyberpunk 2077, but it is such a dull game.
LOL I could have told you that before you spent the money.
Thankfully there’s a lot of good games that really shine on high-end hardware. Like that Indiana Jones game and the Spider-Man games. Also you never have to worry about games being an unoptimized mess, when you can just brute force them with pure processing power.
The Elden Ring.
The open world just did not do it to me. I enjoy much more tighter game world like in the previous souls games.
Most of the side bosses were unintresting and if you found them too late you were completely overpowered.
I still enjoyed Elden Ring, but I agree completely. I prefer the metroidvania world design of earlier From Software games. The sense of progression is one of the best parts of those games, and Elden Ring’s open world robs the it of a lot of the magic of earlier titles, where discoveries were around every corner and in every nook and cranny. I never felt the same joy of exploration and hard won progress as I did in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro.
Horizon: Zero Dawn. I have yet to finish it but apart from robot dinosaurs, it feels so generically open world… Admitedly, a very pretty-looking open world. Can‘t really get into the story so far either since it takes itself so seriously while I‘m having a hard time not thinking too much about how ridiculous its world is. So apart from sight-seeing, there hasn‘t been much in this game for me thus far.
Edit: This comment section is a treasure trove of hot takes, so many of my beloved games mentioned making me go „What the fuck…,“ I love it
I liked both games, but combat is ruined in the second. Literally just constant spamming of massive AOE attacks. All the nuance of the first is literally nuked from orbit.
Took me awhile to get into it. I did eventually finish it. My criticism of the game was more that the dungeons aren’t really all that challenging and are mostly just places where the story advances. Not many puzzles or fights. You just do your fighting out in the open world. Also, eventually the fights are easy as you learn how to fight each type. Eventually you just avoid confrontations because they’re just time consuming.
Dude. I have tried like 3 times to get into the horizon series. Just can’t do it. It’s so generic, just pretty.
It’s absolutely a generic open world game, bit that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The formula is fun if it’s done well, which I think it is for Horizon Zero Dawn. The combat style is also uncommon and provides a satisfying loop of stealth and bullet time mechanics.
I don’t think it was quite as generic at the time of release, but yeah I tend to agree
I had a great time with that game with the difficulty turned up a few notches. It really makes you use the tools in your tool belt, plan ahead for weaknesses, and lay traps. Without that stuff, I likely would have found it to be a generic open world, too. The story will always be ridiculous, but even taking itself seriously, there’s a payoff toward the end of the game where taking itself so seriously is still satisfying and makes sense, even with a world filled with absurd robot dinosaurs.
Space marine 2. You shoot things with guns that don’t feel powerful and you die if you don’t have perfect reaction timing to do executes. I’ve never played a game where the world says “oh you’re amazing and powerful!” but then makes you feel incredibly weak. Also, the timing for executes is not fun. It would be nice if they were bonuses but they are necessary to survive because they replenish your health. The gun gameplay is just shooting. No strategy. Boring. I’m going back to hell drivers 2.
I personally loved it the part where i was weak. Its lore accurate and it was like travelling back in time to the olden days.
It was great nostalgia rush to play a game where you could really die and it was not unusual to need and try same fight multiple times.
Now days i feel like most games are allmost impossible to loose. I dont want it from all the games, but its nice to have games like that available.
Helldivers 2 is hard game, but dying a lot is something the game mechanics are build around and you dont loose instantly and when you loose you just fire up a new game, it does not give me the same 2000’s vibe i got from the space marine 2.
Also the reaction times are not that tight. Even my dad reflexes can manage those.
You and my buddies say that the reaction times aren’t that tight. I must be doing something wrong then because they’re no different than any other reaction game for me: I miss a majority of the.
Elden ring. Repetitive, ugly, boring. I don’t think I made it past the wasteland you start in but I never saw anything worth seeing and the dying over and over gameplay is frustrating for me, not fun. I played for a couple of hours and just gave up on it, i saw no progress or any story, just repetitive killing
Bg3. I think the flaws are glaringly obvious and everyone has heard them already (inventory, everything after act 1, the main characters being generally gross) it’s just whether they’re a deal breaker for you personally. For me they are, especially inventory.
The characters being gross? Im not sure ive heard that complainant, could you elaborate please
Same. I tried to just ‘go with it’ and ignore the flaws so that I could play multi-player with my SO. Act 2 was a slog. Act 3 is where we gave up completely. The only good part is that the whiny companions started dying on their own.
Cyberpunk 2077.
It’s okay, but it’s a far cry from giving me the feelings of a cyberpunk world in my opinion and I’m a massive fan of blade runner and the like.
Why am i spending so much time wandering at the street level where everywhere just looks and feels the same. Travelling is so boring.
And the voice acting of V (I played female) is so overreacted, it’s one of the cringiest performances in gaming, considering it’s meant to be all serious and whatnot.
Yeah seriously, V gets so worked up over fucking everything and I just couldn’t give a fuck. Calm the fuck down and take your Xanax, V. She’s stressing me out over nothing.
Yeah ok im glad to hear someone say that about cyberpunk 2077. Its been only just ok, but I want to like it more, but I don’t so far lol
Why am i spending so much time wandering at the street level where everywhere just looks and feels the same.
What game are you fucking playing?
“Looks and feels he same”!?
What are you even going on about? Every neighborhood, every nook and cranny, looks and feels different and has it’s own personality and story to tell!Night City is the real protagonist of the game! I could spend hours upon hours just walking those streets, experiencing the city (and have), and I’m far from the only one…
And the voice acting of V (I played female) is so overreacted, it’s one of the cringiest performances in gaming
I’m sorry, what? Cherami Leigh got a well deserved BAFTA nomination for that performance!
(Lost to Laura Bailey for her work as Abby on The Last of Us Part II.)What, were you playing with your eyes closed while listening to something else…?
My problem with Cyberpunk is it feels like all style and no substance. Night City is probably the best looking city I’ve ever seen in a game. The world designers did a phenomenal job with the visuals and atmosphere.
But it just doesn’t feel like there’s enough to do in the city or ways to interact with it or the NPCs. There should be more buildings you can enter and more activities to do. For me that’s what sets GTA and Red Dead apart from Cyberpunk. They have much more to do when you’re not on missions.
The game is definitely too sparse and spread out. It should’ve taken more inspiration from the likes of yakuza than gta and made a smaller but more dense world to play in where every nook and cranny ACTUALLY meant something rather than giving the illusion of doing so.
I agree. It feels like it would have benefitted more from being a linear game than an open world game.
This is something that still disappoints me despite all the updates made to add immersion. The street food vendors just kind of hang out and stare at you. That and how every vendor interaction is just popping open their inventory and grabbing things.
I remember Postal 2 having a really clunky attempt at customer to vendor speech interactions where both were NPCs. Not as cool as a ridable metro system, but still.
They could have at least given us some:
“What news from the provinces?”
“I’ve heard others say the same”
“Be seeing you”
To be fair style over substance is one of cyberpunk’s (the style, not specifically the game) main design philosophies…
But yeah, sure, the game could stand some more fleshing up. Most games could.
That said, there’s a lot of stories going on in Night City that you won’t get through quests, but are told bit by bit through messages, notes, minor encounters, and environment design… more than in most similar games I’ve played.
Would it be nice to be able to enter every building, take a job at any random hot dog stand, ignore the quests and, I don’t know, infiltrate Biotechnica and leak all their ugly business to the world…? Sure, but that’s not something V would do (without getting paid), especially once they’re on a timer, the engine probably wouldn’t be able to support, and, most importantly, we’d still be waiting for the game to come out.
deleted by creator
To me every nook and cranny just looks bland with nothing to do there. Everywhere just had the same sidewalks and railings. There’s no way i could ever navigate that game without waypoints.
And with the acting the emphasis she puts on certain words in a sentence just don’t match the situation and the others she’s talking to, and it feels like she swaps between extreme emotions on the same dialogue and it’s like tonal whiplash to me. There was no nuance to lay in between, and nothing to unpack for the listener. You know when she’s angry because she has her 110% angry voice on and so on.
Unless the situation is heightened and dire, it just never fit in my opinion. Her performance fits a stage play more than what’s meant to be an immersive video game in my opinion.
Jackie’s and Keanu’s voice acting though was stellar.
Agreed. I have bounced off this game a few times for similar reasons. For a game that is about a cyberpunk future, it felt so much like a gta clone. Having played the ttrpgs, I think I just have a different version of the world in my head, and the games version just feels off.
I love everything about ‘Disco Elysium’ in isolation. Art style? Gorgeous. Grimy noiry mood, right up my alley. I love isometric RPGs, though it’s been a while since I played any. Writing is great, from what I’ve heard. Novel mechanics, probably beautiful.
Only, I get into a couple dialogs and realize I need a second computer on the desk, to type up notes. Ain’t no way I’m remembering any of that, especially since I tend to take long breaks in a playthrough. And I just decided in recent years that I need to pay closer attention to stories in games, which I neglected to do back in my youth.
I’ve put twenty notes into the phone (with swipe-typing, thankfully), and that ended my initial experience.
What are you making notes of? I never had this urge.
Also, in case you weren’t aware, Steam has notes built in and it saves them for each individual game
Stuff about the setting that I learn from the characters. Perhaps you have better memory than me.
Steam has notes built in
This is great to know. I need to see if Steam accepts my copy of the game, for which I didn’t pay to the company after what they did to the developers.
You can add any game to Steam and play it through it. Just add the exe as a non steam game.
You must have a better memory than me
I wouldn’t be so sure lol… My memory is shit these days.
The game has some built in “mission” stuff, and I’m sure I probably accidentally went to the same place a couple of times when trying to figure out how to progress, but never felt the need to write anything down. I found that the dialogue itself was usually good enough to remind me of anything important I might need to know for the current conversation
It’s just that I made a resolve recently-ish that I need to properly get into stories in games. Unlike back in the day, when I played through ‘Half-Life’ 1 and 2 and gathered pretty much nothing about the plot. ‘Disco Elysium’ seems to be the type of a game where a lot of the story is in the details dropped by the characters, reading materials, etc.
I’ve been recently replaying the original ‘Deus Ex’, and had Denton crawl around every level for hours, reading each newspaper and poster he comes across. The papers do in fact frame the main story, clarifying the relations between factions and such.
An extreme case of this is apparently the ‘Elder Scrolls’ universe, with which the community gathered sizeable lore and history that goes several layers deep. I’ve never played the games (perhaps for the best), and only happened upon a tangential discussion about this, but the impression was that they’re deciphering it like ‘Ulysses’.
You’re playing a middle aged detective (though he looks older, or at least more worn down) who just woke up from an alcoholic coma after taking all the drugs, unable to remember anything about himself or the world he lives in, except for the fact that there might have been a woman, which was somehow both the best and the worst, and possibly some trivia about disco.
I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to remember or understand everything the game throws at you, at least on a first playthrough. That’s what Kim is for.
Just go with the flow, and remember that in this game failure often leads to more enjoyable outcomes than success.
But he’s a professional detective, presumably with the skill to gather information and put it together. Meanwhile I’m a professional scatterbrain who writes down notes for programming projects that take more than a day. It would be unrealistic for me to roleplay as him, especially if I step away from the game for a couple weeks and forget most of the details. If I can code while hungover, he probably can do detective stuff while hungover.
He was a professional detective. You know, before he erased his brain with massive quantities of alcohol and drugs.
It’s up to you to decide who he is now.
Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau, reincarnation of Kras Mazov and art cop, is one of the many possibilities where gathering and putting information together would be… secondary, to say the least.
Just put your points in Drama or Inland Empire, and dull concepts like “reality” will be quite irrelevant for our good detective (much to Kim’s stoic chagrin). 🤷♂️
Persona. I didnt play it to the end. Not even sure I past the tutorial. So many text boxes. So much dialogue.
thats the point of thoese games. more story than gameplay almost
Damn, remind me to never play them, then.
A good story shouldn’t need to be told through endless dialog boxes, it should be told through gameplay.
So wrong 😆
