recent: tears of the kingdom, or as i like to call it botw 1.2, its the same thing all over again just with one or two added gimicks, the open world is dead, npcs are boring and nintendo just got away with it like that
not so recent: i cant stand persona 5, joker and his entourage are annoying teenagers, the time management is a horrible gameplay addition and the artstyle is just a visual overstimulation
with that being said,~~ plz dont kill me~~
This will be an extremely hot take for some: Almost all recent online games are complete garbage that solely exist to make profit and create addicted user bases and they hurt what videogames truly are, a revolutionary and interactive form of art.
This is why I can basically only play old games or indies. Games shouldn’t feel like work or require me to pay tons of money. I play games to have fun, which I guess is a radical idea now.
games shouldn’t feel like work
Oh, boy. Let me tell you about Eve Online, aka, Excel Spreadsheet Simulator. You would LOVE that game! lol
I also mainly just post old games and indies, too. Modern games for the most part are pretty garbage due to the way they are designed to take all your money.
I have liked a lot of indies lately as well, but the have been a ton of good AAA games recently, for me at least. Elden Ring, TotK, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, God of War Ragnarok, to name a few.
Potentially worded a bit abrasively but…kinda yeah. They rely so heavily on fomo, gacha, and other skinner box tricks to keep you playing other than FUN. Just remember what happened to Titanfall 2: "ohhh it was SO FUN it just didn’t have the events and grinding and stuff I wanted >:( "
How dare they keep the chores out of my fun videogame. Now how am I going to press my dopamine button?!? Huh?!? Think it’s just gonna happen cause I grapple 180 no scoped a guy with a kraber???
I need checklists! Grind! If the game isn’t a part time job I can’t even conceptualize it being fun!
not just an online game problem for quite a few years now
Didn’t see anyone else mention it, so I’ll say MMOs. Pretty much all of them. WoW, FFXIV, Guild Wars 2, Star Wars one (can’t remember the name). I really like the idea of MMOs, having a huge shared world that feels alive, tons of lore, epic quests, but I just find the gameplay loop so boring. They just feel like endless busywork to me.
The content and world in MMOs feels superficial. I much prefer a tightly constructed narrative with deep, meaningful character development. The Last Of Us is a great example of this.
This may just be old man nostalgia talking, but at least part of that spark feels like its gone because the genre became too popular and information flowed too freely.
One of the things I distinctly remember about older MMOs, especially Pre-WoW ones, is how so much information was basically just passed on from player to player. You’d join a guild, because the guild forums are where you could post maps and strategies and the like. But your guild forums were also mostly just private to you, so useful stuff could take a long time to leak out.
With the rise of wikis and big, well connected social communities, a lot of the exploration element of the games is just theme park rides and the mechanical experimentation gets analyzed to death in the first few days because of how collaborative everyone is instead of everyone being stuck in smaller groups with non-perfect info.
Monster Hunter. It’s just so painfully slow and boring. Combat just feels clunky.
I recently tried to play MH: Rise and bounced so hard. They really need to consider how to ease new players to the genre into the game. The first hour included so much exposition, paragraphs of text, and detailed menu tutorials before I really had any context for why anything is important. I know that the games have always been this way, but it felt lazy.
Got through all of that to play with a friend cuz we played the beta together and thought it would be promising
We were so disappointed we spent less time playing together than we did on the initial text/cutscenes.
I feel like World unintentionally offered a better experience with the Defender set. I guess it was brought in to help people “fast forward” to Iceborne content. But I was appreciating it even just for playing through the main game. I would use Defender weapons, with no Defender armor, dealing far more damage than I should have at that point in the game, and monsters still took a good 15 minutes; about as long as I would ever want a fight like that to take without getting seriously bored.
If I ever return to try Rise, I’m a bit worried that it will feel grueling.
Out of curiosity, which one(s) did you try?
MH World was the first and only one I’ve tried.
Oh. World is a bit faster compared to old school MH. So there goes my initial hope. But if you ever want to give the series another try, Rise is faster and flashier.
In general I recommend trying the games with a friend or a guide. The games themselves are not good at helping players “get” them.
Any MOBA really, particularly League of Legends. A number of my friends played these obsessively, but I could just never get into it. I’ve sat in on quite a few Discord calls with people playing this game and I gotta say, not once did anyone ever sound like they were having fun. I’m not sure what it is, but it just seems like the genre attracts toxicity like no other, especially when playing with strangers. On the occasions I tried them myself, the gameplay just wasn’t engaging enough for me to want to put in the tremendous amount of time necessary to become somewhat decent at the game.
And a single round takes so long! I don’t know how people have fun with these.
Hots was great in this regard, matches would usually end within 20ish minutes. I really miss the golden days of that game, had tons of fun with it.
Honestly I kind of like the long matches, but it definitely negatively affects how often I play. For Dota especially it feels like if I’m going to queue I have to be prepared for an hour long game, and while I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, I’m not always feeling it.
Yeah I could never get into MOBAs either. Weird thing is I thought my issue was with the control scheme and how abilities are assigned to number keys, but I picked up Diablo IV and I’ve gotta say I don’t mind it at all. Maybe its an implementation thing since Diablo is a very different type of game, but overall I agree with this. Also gives me overwatch vibes because everyone picks based off what their enemy team picks and get mald when your team isn’t 100% efficient. Not for me personally
Honestly, Stardew Valley for me. I’ve tried it a couple times and it just didn’t work for me. I wanted to like it, and I like the idea of it, but in practice, I hated the time management aspect and not being able to just run around and do as much as I wanted in a day (I haven’t played on PC with mods; I know there’s at least one or two that let you change that). I also hated the fishing. 🙃
The game is kind of a chore at first when you have to manually water your crops. Once you’re more established and have sprinklers you can really put a lot of the farming on autopilot.
As someone who loves stardew (I have 1000+ hours in it) I can see what you mean. I hope you’ll find mods you like, but maybe it’s just better to try other games like sun haven? Never played it myself but I read it eliminates exactly this time managing thing stardew has. And yeah, the fishing is hard. I heard “The fishing in Stardew is the souls-like in farming Minigames” a lot and I think it’s true.
I can see why the time mechanic is there but I agree it can be a negative point to the game. You’re not the first person I see complaining about this.
I liked the game enough but needing to get a rare fish that can only be fished at certain season, certain time period and only when raining to complete quests was annoying, as was needing to get out of the dungeon while I was having a good run because of time. It would have been better if there were alternative means to get the fish, like buying from the fisherman, and the option to camp in the dungeon.
I actually feel like Harvest Moon was more chill and relaxing. Stardew Valley stressed me out because I felt like if I didn’t manage my time properly I was doing it wrong which felt weird given the game’s message about leaving the demanding stressful work life of the city behind.
Genshin Impact or as I recently started to call it Genshit impact
-Microtransactions -Botw 0.01 -Visuals are not original -Bad touch controls besides having 99% of its players playing on mobile.
Honestly, Animal Crossing (new & old). What’s sad is it really is a fun game if you have a good attention span and no depression. I have a hard time keeping basic routines so logging into a game regularly was really challenging for me. By the time I’m reminded of the game it’d be weeks or months since I touched it. In the old game this meant everything you worked on has been undone and you have roaches. The newer one is better about overgrowing weeds and I haven’t got roaches yet, but the neighbors notice your disappearance and have some things to say about it. Last time I logged on one of the characters was so personally slighted by my disappearance I just logged out after the conversation. I haven’t logged on since. When I can keep up with it, it’s fun and cute. When I can’t I’m made to feel guilty for hurting the feelings of an unsympathetic AI. At least my friends in real life understand depression and it’s ability to steal my motivation. I do miss Sherb tho.
There’s one opinion that I’ve been afraid to say out loud forever because people are so passionate about it… Disco Elysium. I love rpgs and I love choice-based, narrative-driven games. But there were two main things which drove me crazy:
- I really didn’t like the writing. Honestly it felt like some fresh English lit major suddenly discovered big words and angst and went crazy with it. It was really cringy to me.
- I didn’t like the false paradigm of choices in terms of world views and beliefs, when the game very clearly sets them all up to suck. With a strong preference for communism. Like when you try to be measured and moderate the game actively negs you for being weak. Why give me the choice when you’re just going to punish me for it? And what if I have some anti-capitalist beliefs but don’t want to kill the landlords? It was just so extreme and off-putting.
I’ve had a hard time finishing the game because of #2. DE is such a weird blend of “the devs thought of everything” and “all conversations are railroaded into insanity”. What at first felt like a game allowing the player to explore and develop political views in an alternate universe is actually more of a hamfisted, cynical parody of all possible idealogies. I think the moment I got South Park vibes (not from the writing, but from the " everyone is stupid " vibe) is when I was doomed to never finish it. That said, I actually love so much about the game, I want to enjoy and finish it. I just find it so tiring.
I’m with you on this one. I got moderately stuck at one point pretty early on in the game (I’m not sure, but I think my save was probably bugged). Anyway, I put game down and never touched it again. Didn’t feel like I had lost anything at all.
I agree. People were raving about this game and it was just a complete miss with me.
For one thing it was marketed as an RPG but really it felt more like some kind of point and click adventure which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing but the writing style just didn’t click with me anyways. And, yeah, a lot of the choices in the game are just false anyways. After a few different starts experimenting with the different choices you just get railroaded into the same thing no matter what.
Couldn’t agree more about Tears of the Kingdom however I’d go one step further and say I can’t stand Zelda. I’ve played a fair few including BotW. Thought they were complete garbage.
The other for me is any game made by FromSoftware, and to that any “soulslike”. The game design and gameplay of these types of games are atrocious imo. It has always bewildered me how much love they get. I can’t comprehend it.
Total agreement on all points.
I tried Sekiro, really gave it a solid go for a couple weeks, thought it was insanely difficult but I was getting the hang of it…
Then the tutorial basically ended. Fuck that game. The difficulty scale looks more like a cliff that turns over your head. No clue how anyone can enjoy that kind of thing. How is it enjoyable or relaxing to die 30, 40 times before beating a boss??
Any game made by From as in their Souls series or that includes Armored Core and Another Century’s Episode too?
Honestly I haven’t tried Armoured Core or others prior, the Souls series was my first introduction to them.
For some context, what are some games you enjoy? Or, perhaps, do you think are underrated?
(As a Zelda fan who also enjoyed but did not complete Elden Ring)
I have a broad taste, but tend to focus on more narrative RPG/Action Adventures.
As for underrated, I loved This is the Police but don’t think I’ve ever really heard it talked about.
I have the exact same opinion as you do. I really don’t understand the hype around zelda games.
DOTA, or any MOBA. I’m an old-school RTS fan and for whatever reason these games slide off me like water off a duck’s back, despite being told multiple times from different folks that I’d probably like them.
I used to play LoL back in 2012 or so but got tired of not being able to play as I wanted so I left and never looked back. Having to choose characters based on the needed role was bad enough, not being allowed to explore new builds and possibilities but what the current meta dictated was so ridiculous. I felt some vindication when a build I was exploring later turned out to be considered too powerful and got reworked (AP Yi, fuck you those who shit on me when I bought the magic ring as my first item).
Counterstrike. I was raised on Unreal Tournament and Battlefield 1942/Vietnam, every iteration of CS I’ve tried is just slow and boring comparatively. Doesn’t help that the maps and guns never change either. I’ll probably give it a go again with CS2 but I’m not expecting anything different.
Speaking as a player with thousands and thousands of hours in CS… I definitely get why it doesn’t appeal to some people. But what you describe about it is exactly why I and so many other people like it. The game changes very little, and pretty much only gives you guns and grenades as weapons, no fancy abilities or anything like most modern titles.
That unchanging-ness and limited toolset means that raw strategy and to a lesser degree reflexes are the only ways to get ahead. With the map designs set in stone, many with decades of refinement and balance adjustments, you get intimately familiar with every door, corner, and corridor. It becomes much more about predicting what the other team will do and strategizing against it, rather than just grappling with the game and mechanics.
Super Hero mod for 1.6 was awesome, though. Zipping around the map like Spider-Man with a rifle was so fun.
I could never get into The Witcher 3. I recognize that it’s purely a subjective thing, but it honestly feels like they handcrafted that game sitting there going “Well what would Action Bastard REALLY hate mechanically?”
Just absolutely nothing clicked for me aside from bits of the story, and even that wasn’t really holding my attention all that well since I’ve already had a lot of exposure to Eastern European mythology and folklore and just don’t really care about any of the main characters.
That said, some of the side quests were absolutely delightful in terms of being fun ideas. I just didn’t enjoy the minute to minute gameplay enough to be able to stick with it.
Monster Hunter. I don’t understand any of it. I tried rise and generations and I just… I just don’t get it.
There’s not much to get. You just hunt monsters. When (if) it clicks, everything else becomes secondary. Any quest, story, goal, and grind, is just an excuse to go and dance with the game’s monsters again.
There’s a very rewarding feeling in how much winning feels like something you did yourself (more with knowledge than skill IMO), and not something the game just “let you” do.
Dark souls, castlevania, smash bros, FIFA (I dont mind a game or two with a friend but it’s the same game every year reskinned but worse).
Final fantasy games past 10
The new cod games, last one I liked was the original mw2
Which castlevania? The metroidvania ones, or the classic ones?
I love the metroidvania ones.
Just in general , its just not my jam. I do like the metroid games however.
For me Skyrim, The Witcher 3, botw and all souls games.
Skyrim never clicked, it just felt buggy and empty and punishing. Trying to climb that mountain just so a yeti can beat you up? Great, here is your save spot form 15 min earlyer, please try again. I know that’s why it’s fun for so many, I just hated it.
The Witcher 3 was too… much dialogue. Most of the time I can play 1-3 hours every couple of days. And in the Witcher you walk 15min through beautiful but otherwise empty forest, killing 1-15 something, walk back and talk like another 15min with the guy who gave you the quest. It’s really deep worldbuilding, but when you don’t have a lot of time it’s more “damn, what happend last?” 5min walking “ah, that happened” takes new quest, so much talking…“ah damn, my hour is gone, so I finish the quest another time.” PC off.
Botw cause the world felt empty and everything broke in an instant and I’m the player ending with 50 healing potions, 10 big scrolls and so on cause MaYbE I’ll need it another time. Doesn’t match with botw. TotK is so much better handling this, cause you can craft any good item in an instant.
And Souls Games are just a broken mess. They’re not hard by default, they’re hard cause of all the buggy and mushy controls. It never feels crisp, it’s just a big blob and maybe your character rolls or maybe it feels like an invisible wall, who knows. Games like Jedi Fallen Order in hard mode or Hollow Knight were so much more fun, cause the controls were crisp and everytime I lost, it was because of me. I did wrong and not some squishi spaghetti code.
It’s funny, your description of Souls games echoes how I feel about 3rd person action games that aren’t made by FromSoft. To me, Dark Souls 1 felt like the crisp combat I had been wanting but never getting from stuff like God of War or the older Monster Hunter games. Bloodborne refined it somewhat, and to this day, that style of 3rd person combat is my favorite.
Crazy how perceptions of a game’s controls are so individual. Our difference really illustrates to me how hard it is to nail a game’s “feel.”
It definitely is! I have a lot of friends who love the souls games and tried to convince me to give it a try over and over again. And one of them speaks about the controls like you do. It was an interesting evening figuring out how different our views of other games were. That’s why I love the variety of games. You can never have a game everybody likes or even feels the same for everyone. And that’s also why I love threads like these, cause even though it seems like everyone likes X or Y, every game will be disliked by someone.
It’s funny because to me Skyrim wasn’t punishing enough. The game literally lets you get away with murder. I would’ve liked more lasting consequences for your actions in the game.
