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~~
I’ll probably get roasted for this but… Pokemon. It just seems like endless copy/paste and might be one of the laziest game franchises I’ve ever seen. I’ve really tried to get into them. I was there when the Pokemon cartoon started, I saw it rise to the phenomenon it is today, but damn if it isn’t the most boring grindfest ever.
it doesnt just feel like copy paste, thats quite literally what they are doing, there is plenty of evidence online to show that they do but hey, if you can make whatever low effort thing you want and people still buy it why bother trying?
There’s no problem with copy/paste, games do that all the time (look at portal, most of that game is reused half life 2 assets). I think the problem is that they’re just not doing anything interesting with the games. If the games were good it shouldn’t matter if the Pikachu model is reused or made from scratch.
That’s a very common complaint for the last, hell I don’t even know, 20 games or whatever.
True, I’m not saying anything I haven’t heard before. It’s just crazy that people keep buying it thinking “Maybe this one will match the memories I had when I was 10.” I guess nostalgia is a powerful drug. Even more powerful than I thought… just looked up the Pokemon franchises worth and it’s estimated at 74 billion. Now I know how boomers feel cause I just don’t get it.
Yeah I don’t get it either. I don’t even get the nostalgia aspect, there are just so many new Pokémon that I feel they completely drown out the ones I grew up with, the first like 250 iirc, I have no desire whatsoever to play the new games.
But I suppose it’s still very popular with kids all around the world as well so there’s that.
I do agree that it’s the same thing recycled over and over.
If anyone does want to play them again, I highly recommend emulating them and accelerating the emulation to 2.5 or 3x speed. Makes it much more tolerable.
They get away with the copy-paste because the combat system is fundamentally extremely solid.
The good thing about this is that programming-savvy fans have been creating free fan-games based on the formula for the last decade or so. As with any fan-made content the quality is extremely variable, but I have found some of the newer releases to be genuinely good games, better than anything GameFreak has put out in the last 20 years. Pokémon Unbound is a personal favorite - if you enjoy the fundamentals of the Pokémon games but feel the lack of creativity and puzzle-solving in the official releases I would suggest giving them a look.
Same here, I’ve tried to get into pokemon so many times but I just don’t get it. The games just look so lazily made too
I wanted to say the same; additionally, the games are sooo slow, and everything takes ages compared to most other games.
The pokemon fan games have been way more inventive than the mainline games for a while now. I just recently have been getting into pokemon infinite fusion and it’s FANTASTIC
I so badly want to play infinite fusion but I cant seem to get it to work, it crashes everywhere I’ve tried to play :(
I still can’t make it through any of The Witcher games. Smooth and satisfying gameplay is super important for me to enjoy a game, and The Witcher has always felt slow, clunky, unintuitive, and super menu-heavy. I’m sure the story is great! But I just can’t get past its gameplay.
I adore Witcher 3. That said I’ve always said controlling Geralt feels like driving a boat. God help you for the very few instances that you do platforming.
They added a different control style sometimes after release, didn’t they? I can’t recall the specific difference, but I think I used it for my playthroughs and it was less boat-y.
I’m not sure there. I played it several years after release, but I can’t remember one way or the other if there were alternate control options.
Yeah, pretty quickly. Maybe a month? I remember playing it basically at launch, and deciding I was going to return it, but stopped when they said they were working on an alternative control scheme.
It was actually worse than it is now.
Didn’t return it, but much like others in this thread, never got it to stick. Doesn’t feel good to play.
Boat you say?
I’ve got to catch up on his videos. It’s been months since I’ve watched, but they’re always a blast lol
Same here. I really want to like The Witcher 3, but after trying to play it for 10 hours without feeling any enjoyment, I just gave up.
I’m playing mainly western RPG’s like that, but I also couldn’t get into The Witcher. The gameplay is fine actually (I played way more clunky games with lots of enjoyment). But somehow Gerald just never clicked with me, causing me never to feel really connected to my character and to what’s happening.
It’s sad because I can notice how good the games are, but I just really cannot get into it.
I tried to play Witcher 3 and the combination of strange camera angles and very “tradional rpg” style icons put me off (the later is a really sad thing to be bugged by but whatever) - the interface for everything just seemed very outdated
However, I now have a PS5 and i believe the PS5 update has huge improvements including to camera angles etc, so I may give it another go.
It took me 3 attempts at starting The Witcher before I eventually got through it. I had just came off of Dark Souls 3 combat, so the combat in Witcher was especially clunky feeling. Eventually I moved into a new home, had nothing else to do, and proceeded to do nothing but play the game for 50 hours until I beat the game lol. I would say the story is worth it, but I agree that its kinda tough to get into.
Red Dead Redemption 2. Everyone goes on about how awesome it is, but I just found the story and gameplay really slow and dull.
RDR2 suffers heavily from the same problem as GTAV’s single player mode: it’s a movie posing as a video game and both aspects suffer for it.
RDR2 would have been great if it was just the part where you wander around tracking critters and collecting flowers and playing cowboy dress-up, but the game really doesn’t want you to do that. Not to belabor the point, but between how unpredictable the connection between “interact with item/character X” and “start mission with character Y” can be and the game’s tendency to fail missions the second you go off-script, RDR2 often felt like it was directed by someone who actively resented the concept of player agency.
You articulated my issue with it perfectly. In theory it was this amazing open world with tons of player freedom, but the minute you engage with the actual story at all you have no choice in anything. There was one quest where I HAD to rescue Micah and kill a butt load of people which really annoyed me given I was going for a white hat run.
There‘s this great video essay that basically agrees with you. Rockstar want to create these cinematic narrative experiences but that does not mash well with their concept of an open world.
Rockstar has been moving that way in general for years. They get so focused on the immersive and sim stuff, they forget that they made their name on over-the-top chaotic fun. Everything from GTA4 onward suffers for it, other than RDR1 that struck a decent balance between the approaches.
I was really enjoying it, but I eventually got bogged down in the sidequests, and it really could’ve used a low-gore mode. The bloody deer carcasses got to me after a while.
I think I might have preferred it if it were a little smaller and more focused on the main storylines.
I do intend to go back to it sooner or later though.
My friends love it, but two hours in, I just feel worn.
Then I just drop it and never look back.
Can’t get it to stick.
Same here. It was so frustrating trying to play it.
Here’s a pretty awesome looking intricate and interesting world. No, you can go over there. Or there. Or do that
My main grip with this game is how slow ans cranky everything feels. I miss the arcade feel of RDR1.
I‘m with you. I don‘t get why so many people praise the story and the gameplay.
The mission design is very disappointing. You have this beautiful open world with so many systems that you can interact with. It can be fun to just start some shit and watch the chaos unfold. But the second you start a mission, everything is scripted and like on rails. You have no real freedom whatsoever in how you want approach a mission. The missions are also not challenging in the least (apart from some jank here and there). It‘s mostly just one turkey shoot after another.
Story spoilers
The story is not all that great. It‘s just not believable that anyone sane would stick so long with a gang leader who does not make a single good decision and clearly goes more and more off the deep end. It is also too long and overstays its welcome by tens of hours. Especially the whole Guarma chapter is hot garbage and would not have been missed at all if it weren‘t there.
I made it through to the end. I had to see for myself where they are going with the story. But I was kind of glad when it was over.
I wish another studio could license the world that Rockstar created and make a game that is actually good. But that is never going to happen.
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.
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.
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. 🙃
Didn’t play Skyrim at the time and the two times I’ve tried to get into It didn’t really click for me. I understand why people like It, mayo give another try sometime
Oh thank god, I came here to say Skyrim and was afraid of being the only one.
I should have liked it. Absolutely loved Morrowind. But just never could get into Skyrim despite multiple attempts and now I’ve given up.
In all fairness, you wouldn’t like it just because you liked Morrowind. The games play entirely different from one another and the story of Skyrim is a downgrade by several margins (though some of the sidequests are awesome).
This is coming from someone who has like 200 hours in Skyrim.
Perhaps try a total conversion, skyrim is basically a mod engine anyway lel
I tried that, but in the end it turns out I found hunting for mods more fun than actually playing them.
I never managed to get far in Skyrim. And even if you like it, I don’t think it’s too controversial to say that it has one of the worst intros for an open world game.
I could never get over the fucking monotone same-voice way every NPC speaks.
Everything about that game felt monotone, to me.
I think about trying again, once in a while, but haven’t yet. They keep releasing new versions at prices I’m not willing to pay for it.
Any game that has daily login bonuses or a bonus for playing every day. Animal crossing pocket or whatever it is. Pokémon go. A bunch of afk phone games. A bunch of gacha games. It just feels so shallow to me. Like, I’m not being manipulated to play something, I just end up feeling so guilty to lose a streak I’d rather delete the game.
While not a daily login bonus, the weekly and monthly tasklist of Forza Horizon 5 killed the game for me. It triggered some sort of fomo and I would rush in every week to grind the new tasks/events. That burned me out very fast, so I could not enjoy the rest of the game.
I think this CAN work if you naturally enjoy the game, but don’t want to make decisions about your game plan when you boot up.
I like Deep Rock Galactic. When given 15 mission options, I get choice paralysis, so it’s nice to have dailies/assignments that at least push me into a particular one just to get started.
Monster Hunter. It’s just so painfully slow and boring. Combat just feels clunky.
Souls games.
I like difficult games but I just don’t enjoy the gameplay of Souls games. They feel sluggish and repetitive.
Borderlands: I mean the combat is fine and all, but the story is super weak. What is my incentive to keep playing? Just to click on more heads? There are better games for that (Doom, Quake, etc)
I was enlightened about why I didn’t like borderlands when I realized it was FPS Diablo. I just don’t enjoy the gameplay loop.
I played the crap out of borderlands… until one day I asked myself why… and… I never picked it up again. After that switch was flipped, the whole series just fell apart on me.
I stuggled with it so many times. I think Borderlands games, in general, are the ones I tried the most to enjoy, because everything about it is cool to me, the eastetic, the characters, the presentation…
I restarted the first at least 4 times, alone and in coop, thinking the problem was that it doesn’t work as a solo experience. I layed the sniper and then I tried the gunman because, maybe, the sniper is not that enjoyable.
Then I got the 2, because maybe the first was too raw and basic.
I just… don’t have fun.
I point the cursor toward waves of spongy healthbars, and then I get server a giant plate of paralyzing choices between 64 billion gear options that clutter me and my frail mind.
I ended up loving Tales from the Borderlands: all the good from the worldbuilding and none of the gameplay loop.
I love the Borderlands games (at least 1 and 2, I haven’t played the others yet), including just in single-player, buuuuut I do concede that they have an issue with way too much junk loot. It’s way too infrequent that you find an actual upgrade for your favorite weapons (especially in Borderlands 2).
Yeah basically. It’s a loot shooter, it’s very fun in co-op but not good enough to carry itself in singleplayer.
I was watching an escapist video about modern life service games and he said “saying a game is more fun with friends is a virtue of your friends, not the game.”
If a game needs friends to be fun, I think it’s just a garbage game.
I don’t think that always holds water, some games are just made to be played with others. Nobody is going to accuse Counter-Strike of being bad just because playing against bots isn’t the most thrilling experience. But for games like Borderlands definitely. Point being, the logic goes it’s bad and only saved by playing with friends doesn’t stop it from being a bad game, not that a game is bad just because it’s more fun with friends.
I guess I’m more specifically referring to the modern looter shooter live service bullshit that’s been taking over the industry. Not standard PvP multiplayer. Of course that’s the intended experience there, can’t blame that.
Most jrpgs that I’ve tried to play. The movement is always way to slow, and I’m not a fan of most of their combat systems
The Souls games.
I can see the appeal of the story and stuff, but they’re just impossible for me to get into cause of their difficulty
Here’s the thing I never got: most Souls-like aren’t actually that difficult, they’re just tedious. And I feel like I’m taking crazy pills because people don’t seem to notice and/or care.
I don’t mind doing a boss encounter 20 times to get the move set down. I like the feeling of beating a boss by actually becoming better. But why the hell do I need to run trough a dozen enemies before I get back to him? It’s like a damn unskippable cutscene where I need to mash the same buttons over and over again! And people rightfully get mad at those, but put it in a souls-like dress and people love it.
I’m a 40 year old dad, I really don’t have the time to waste doing stuff I already mastered 20 times over. Just give me a damn quick save that doesn’t work during combat. It doesn’t make anything easier, it’s just less tedium.
The newer games, particularly Elden Ring, got wayyyy better about not having to run back to the boss room.
I replayed Dark Souls 1 last year and it made me want to bash my head into the wall every time I had to hoof it back to a boss, especially in the late game.
I only tried DS1 and DS3. In DS1 I beat the first boss and then got to some kind of place where I couldn’t even get past the regular enemies and the game didn’t feel that interesting to me (especially since it makes you basically most of the thing in corpse mode until you restore your humanity or whatever).
In DS3 I literally couldn’t beat the first boss no matter what I did so I gave up
I agree with this so hard, it’s easily my biggest criticism of soulslikes, I didn’t like hollow knight for the same reason!
Right? I so agree. Further, I feel like a lot of games are just as hard… but they give you a little wiggle room so that you can learn how to fight while you’re fighting, and you get this pleasing feeling of being smart and overcoming something difficult just the same, and you can get into the flow of it and let the music sink into you and feel fucking awesome even if it’s hard and you do end up dying multiple times.
But with souls games, one (1) tiny mistake and bam, you’re dead, and now you have to sit through this long-ass loading screen. That doesn’t feel like more difficulty to me; that feels like the type of bullshit that is like getting sniped from across the map by an NPC you can’t see. It just interrupts the flow of the fight, and the player’s immersion, repeatedly, when it doesn’t need to imo. And without difficulty settings, it screws over people who have hand pain or stiffness for any of a number of reasons, or people who have shitty cheap knockoff controllers, or people who have minimal hardware and maybe the game stutters just enough sometimes to make them die, and so on.
And the ‘community’, at least the one on reddit, is insufferable (in aggregate! I don’t automatically think you’re an ass because you like souls games, I promise. I’m just tired of people trying to use their like souls games as some of kind of proof that they’re better than other people, and of their complaining about difficulty settings and other accessibility measures.)
But yeah. Something like Hyper Light Drifter, that respawns you right by the fight immediately after you die, or something like Celeste where again you respawn right at the same level immediately after you die, is fine. But souls’ games death screen is too long on its own, let alone combined with all the stupid backtracking.
Even though it’s a Soul’s game, there was a hilarious contrast between the Bloodborne subreddit and the Souls subreddits. The Souls subreddits had a lot of non-ironic “git gud” type comments, while the Bloodborne subreddit would just be thrilled that someone was playing their game and even years later posts by newcomers to the game would get really happy responses and the comment section of a newbie’s post that they had defeated the first boss would be a virtual party of congratulations and cheering them on… even when there were many such posts per day.
Probably because it was the smallest community, due to being locked to one system, but it always made me laugh how different the subs were. In fairness the Souls subreddits have chilled out a lot though, but even to this day the Bloodborne subreddit is unrelentingly welcoming in comparison.
You don’t die in one hit to most things unless you run with very low health and armor. That’s a solvable problem.
And while sometimes bonfires can be a bit far apart, especially in the earlier games, people also seem to forget that you can literally just run past enemies. That said, I think it’s part of the journey and the struggle. Dark Souls is basically a rythm game in a way and that takes experience. Basically, you don’t need to kill everything but it’s good exercise.
Also there has always been an “easy mode”, cheesy build and multiplayer. If you think the game is too hard, play different.
I’m a huge Souls fan, but I agree. My top two are Sekiro and Elden Ring. In fact, I think Sekiro is a probably the better game from purely a design perspective, and possibly atmosphere. Almost no run back from what I recall.
See I originally was like this, and then I tackled it like a coin eater arcade game. Its is begging you to throw yourself over and over at the enemy and learn their patterns. It becomes so satisfying when after a few hours your a master at parrying an enemy the day before killed you in seconds. The games do a fantastic job of giving you that feeling of a protagonist whose finally learned to work their powers. Then you get a new enemy and its back to square one.
Ehh, it’s just not really for me
The hardest games I managed to get into have probably been Celeste and Hollow Knight, and I only finished Celeste
Diablo and Diablo-style games like Torchlight. Every time a new one comes out a few of my friends get excited and I’ve been convinced to try it again, but I think I’ve learned my lesson finally and I have skipped Diablo IV.
Diablo and Diablo 2 robbed years of my life. I just can’t get the same enjoyment out of any other game of the genre. I legit tried to give D3 a try… it was nothing the same… not even close.
I don’t why Diablo and D2 were so damn good (IMO) and why the others just aren’t.
RTS games have similar problems for me too… I played C&C and Starcraft a lot… there’ve been no other RTS games that I can even tolerate. Even going back and playing the C&C remaster… It’s just better even though it’s laden with old game QOL issues.
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. Something about the isometric/top-down ARPG genre has never clicked with me, and I really can’t figure out why. I’ve tried torchlight, every diablo (except 4), path of exile - I end up bouncing off of them after a week or so and just lose interest.
It makes even less sense when you consider I can sink 300+ hours into Souls/Elden Ring or Xenoblade… Something about the format just doesn’t work for me, I guess.
The Witcher 3.
It just feels so generic and suffers from one of the things I hate the most about rpgs. Endless sidequests that have nothing to do with the main quest.
Witcher 3 felt more like “I have sex and you should know about it” the game, to me at least
It felt like a chore. All the time I felt like “am I supposed to be having fun?”
