Amazing games that leave you cold

[El Spatula]

I find Mario to be irritating as all fuck is my main issue. So, so annoying.

[Alan Stock]

For some reason although I love the other Souls games, I've really not got into Sekiro. Maybe its because of the setting, maybe the combats not as satisfying or the level design as compelling. It's hard yes, but I'm no stranger to grinding bosses in other Souls games either. I just cant put my finger on why I'll play for a few hours and then not return to it again for months. I keep plugging away but its never had that same pull. Compare this to Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 which I would play until the sun came up with no concept of real world time. Weird, anyone else get that with Sekiro and can you answer why?

[El Spatula]

Yeah I adore the Dark Souls games, Bloodborne, and many Souls likes. Yet Sekiro leaves me cold, while I loved my first playthrough I have no intention of returning to it and I can't put my finger on why. Partly because it feels restrictive, partly because the combat is a bit one note.

[Timmo]

Breath of the Wild for me. During my entire time with it my jaw was pretty much on the floor, and I was a big fan of them mixing things up and moving away from the structure the games have had for years. That said, however, I quite quickly got shrine fatigue (there were just way too many for me, and they were too bitesized to give me a dungeon-like thrill), I disliked the weapon system (a big part of what I like in games with combat is getting new weapons and "owning" them so it always felt very wrong to me), and finally although I really liked the freeform style of the game in theory, I ended up missing the agency and structure of the dungeons.

 

In the end I drifted away from it as - despite being constantly amazed by it - I just wasn't enjoying it anymore.

[merrychan]

Just now, Timmo said:

 In the end I drifted away from it as - despite being constantly amazed by it - I just want enjoying it anymore.

I think fatigue is a great way of describing this, regardless of the game, it's a very valid point.

[The Mighty Ash]

Last of us for me. I finished it and enjoyed and it but I have no idea why people love it so much.

[Flanders]

1 hour ago, Timmo said:

Breath of the Wild for me. During my entire time with it my jaw was pretty much on the floor, and I was a big fan of them mixing things up and moving away from the structure the games have had for years. That said, however, I quite quickly got shrine fatigue (there were just way too many for me, and they were too bitesized to give me a dungeon-like thrill), I disliked the weapon system (a big part of what I like in games with combat is getting new weapons and "owning" them so it always felt very wrong to me), and finally although I really liked the freeform style of the game in theory, I ended up missing the agency and structure of the dungeons.

 

In the end I drifted away from it as - despite being constantly amazed by it - I just wasn't enjoying it anymore.

My problem with the weapon system wasn’t the breaking itself, which I thought was quite a clever way to make sure you used lots of different weapons.

 

The problem is that this is undermined by the lack of depth in the game’s combat - you can fight 99pc of the enemies in the exact same way so there’s no real benefit to experimenting with new weapons. All the weapons might as well be generic ammo.

 

There is huge scope to improve on Breath of the Wild, which means the sequel should be awesome - fine tune a few systems, chuck in a few dungeons and bosses. 

[Goemon]

10 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

For some reason although I love the other Souls games, I've really not got into Sekiro. Maybe its because of the setting, maybe the combats not as satisfying or the level design as compelling. It's hard yes, but I'm no stranger to grinding bosses in other Souls games either. I just cant put my finger on why I'll play for a few hours and then not return to it again for months. I keep plugging away but its never had that same pull. Compare this to Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 which I would play until the sun came up with no concept of real world time. Weird, anyone else get that with Sekiro and can you answer why?

Play Nioh 2

[Treble]

I'm pretty sure it's all down to fatigue. Either the fatigue of playing too many of those types of games, or a given game being extremely long and tiring unless it connects with you.

 

Most of these games, 90% of people love and 10% dislike. However, there's one game that, like, 90% of people on the forum agree is great but leaves them cold: Forza Horizon 4.  Like many, I played it and couldn't believe the graphics, couldn't believe the  gestalt British backgrounds that felt totally authentic, loved the handling model... but got utterly sick and tired of the incessant, aggressively cheerful voice-over, the driving to and from events that felt like they had no point to them. No structure. Everyone fell in and out of love with it in the space of an afternoon.  

 

 

[Boozy The Clown]

Fuck this thread and all who sail in her. Myself included. This is not why we come here. Actually maybe it is nowadays. When did enthusiasm become petty self centred critique ? There are lots of games and we can't all like them all that's just a rational position, but to take the time out of our days to hate on games when we could be extolling the virtues of them. Encouraging others to join in giving popular games a kicking instead of enjoying our hobby and offering voices of encouragement is the real fatigue here.  Now that this thread has reached the point where someone is making up stats based on nothing to encourage this hate and falsely justify it is really depressing.

 

 

[Treble]

That's a very odd reading of what I wrote! You've lumped me in with the pile-on, whereas in reality I was chastising people (gently) for being unthinkingly critical. 

 

No-one wants another hot take on why they think Zelda is shit, or why Soulsbourne games put them off. But consensus is showing us that some games are tiring, which is coded for boring, and I do think that's the case with a lot of games as they are thin reskins of other games, too long, or both. That's still a conversation worth having. 

[Boozy The Clown]

Where did you get your figures from ?

[Treble]

It was just a daft finger in the air, why is this a big issue to you?? It's shorthand for 'most people love it but there's a vocal minority'. Not sure it's worth arguing about! 

[Flanders]

1 hour ago, Treble said:

I'm pretty sure it's all down to fatigue. Either the fatigue of playing too many of those types of games, or a given game being extremely long and tiring unless it connects with you.

 

Most of these games, 90% of people love and 10% dislike. However, there's one game that, like, 90% of people on the forum agree is great but leaves them cold: Forza Horizon 4.  Like many, I played it and couldn't believe the graphics, couldn't believe the  gestalt British backgrounds that felt totally authentic, loved the handling model... but got utterly sick and tired of the incessant, aggressively cheerful voice-over, the driving to and from events that felt like they had no point to them. No structure. Everyone fell in and out of love with it in the space of an afternoon.  

 

 

Oh god this is so true. It’s a brilliant game that needs to be more cruel to the player. Don’t give me any points for finishing sixth! Make me replay your wonderfully designed tracks over and over until I know them like the back of my hand!

Give it a rest with the wacky challenges, you’re not Burnout, just please make me race.

 

Tbf one of my biggest problems with it is that I don’t understand its online system at all which is almost certainly more my fault than the game. 

[Boozy The Clown]

1 hour ago, Treble said:

 

 

Most of these games, 90% of people love and 10% dislike. However, there's one game that, like, 90% of people on the forum agree is great but leaves them cold: Forza Horizon 4.  

 

 

 

I'm part of a small community who plays this particular game on a weekly basis and it has been a godsend over the years and particularly during current events as an escape. So yes this particular title being called out prompted me to question where you got your stat from, I personally think you pulled it out of your arse.

 

I'm not seeing evidence for this. I just woke up and it was the among the first things I read on here today. I'll just stay out of this thread in future but add that I'm among the 34.6% of people on here who don't come here to complain at every opportunity about the hobby I'm enthusiastic for.

 

edit : now you've encouraged another to join in so I'll definitely be leaving this thread forever.

 

 

[Vemsie]

13 hours ago, Alan Stock said:

For some reason although I love the other Souls games, I've really not got into Sekiro. Maybe its because of the setting, maybe the combats not as satisfying or the level design as compelling. It's hard yes, but I'm no stranger to grinding bosses in other Souls games either. I just cant put my finger on why I'll play for a few hours and then not return to it again for months. I keep plugging away but its never had that same pull. Compare this to Bloodborne or Dark Souls 3 which I would play until the sun came up with no concept of real world time. Weird, anyone else get that with Sekiro and can you answer why?

 

I love Sekiro, but it's quite different from Soulsborne. It's not an RPG for starters. I think that could be an explanation. If you're big on the RPG side of things (like builds or grinding), you'll miss that in Sekiro. I love From's games mostly for the combat, bosses, lore, level design, challenge and art and Sekiro delivered in spades for me.

[Dudley]

On 07/05/2020 at 19:52, iknowgungfu said:

I've not truly enjoyed a GTA since GTA Vice City if I am honest with myself.

 

I have similar thoughts on assassin's creed which just seemike collectathons to me. Trying to ignore them just makes me feel like I am not playing the game "properly".

 

 

I've only played the first 2 but the problem with Ass Creed to me is all the action was in cities that were miles apart and all I had was a horse.  and I'm not even allowed to move quickly on that because it's apparently "Suspicious".  So I'm spending considerably more time trudging between cities down uninterested roads mostly littered with cut and paste buildings (so you can climb them the only ways the game knows how) than I am planning and executing actual assassinations.  Any extra time spent in the cities is collectathon.

 

And the "present day" framing.  Yeesh.

 

I think Hitman is basically the game I was hoping ass creed was from the descriptions.

 

--

 

But if you want a new game to the thread, Blur.

 

I adore Bizzarre Creations.  I have MSR and all 4 Project Gotham games here.  I've played 2 of them in the last week.

I love racing games.

 

Blur left me cold and I have no real idea why. It just wasn't interesting, especially launching opposite Split Second.  I guess if I have any view it felt like PGR with the most interesting bits stripped out.

 

Maybe I should try it again with a decade's breathing room.

[mdn2]

Didn't we do a thread a couple of years ago where the only game we could all agree was amazing with consensus was Super Monkey Ball? Maybe that's the question we should be asking developers. 

 

Why isn't Sekiro more like Super Monkey Ball?

 

Why isn't Smash Bros more like Super Monkey Ball?

 

Why isn't The Last of Us more like Super Monkey Ball?

 

 

[Treble]

1 hour ago, Boozy The Clown said:

 

I'm part of a small community who plays this particular game on a weekly basis and it has been a godsend over the years and particularly during current events as an escape. So yes this particular title being called out prompted me to question where you got your stat from, I personally think you pulled it out of your arse.

 

I'm not seeing evidence for this. I just woke up and it was the among the first things I read on here today. I'll just stay out of this thread in future but add that I'm among the 34.6% of people on here who don't come here to complain at every opportunity about the hobby I'm enthusiastic for.

 

edit : now you've encouraged another to join in so I'll definitely be leaving this thread forever.

 

 

 

Of course I did, I said I did!

 

Look, you clearly like the game and during a stressful time, what I said upset you. I totally get that, man. Glad it brings you a lot of joy and I'm sorry if it read as a Diss. 

 

If it helps, I'd say the bones of the game are amazing. The structure puts me off, but it's a brilliant racer at its core. Glad it's Brough you so much pleasure, especially as it's part of Game Pass and therfore a frigging steal! 

[dumpster]

We will have strayed a little from the OP, which is to be expected, but BOTW is the perfect game for me to discuss, and I can't believe I wrote the OP without including it.  BOTW is a game that is, without question, a masterpiece.  Locally, everyone I know who bought a Switch got Zelda and loved it.  There's something that stops it clicking for me personally, and I think it comes down to just me.  I need a text prompt or a voice to tell me that the reason I died is because it's too cold.  My brain doesn't process that the ice all around me is the reason.  I die a lot.  Between the weapons that break all the time and the continual playing of that little "you died" jingle , it's just a game I do not get on with.

 

But the point here is that I really, REALLY want to like it.  I should do.  I feel like I'm missing out on one of the all time gaming experiences. Everyone says it is brilliant, I play it and it looks great, so what the hell is wrong with me? (Don't answer that), Why can't I get the enjoyment from it that everyone else does?

 

It's not supposed to be a thread about piling on.  It's about that feeling that Jim Davidson gets when watching Vic Reeves Big Night Out with his kids. He said, "what are they laughing at? I get that it's trying to be funny, but I don't know what the joke is supposed to be", and maybe this is a feeling of getting old.  Or maybe just jaded.  I know I've always preferred the arcade game experience to the open world, sprawling adventure game.  I guess it is the same in books and movies too, everyone has their own tastes.  I just wish I could somehow address the issue and have a great couple of hours on Zelda where it all clicks into place, then I can experience the thing that so many people love without getting frustrated by weapons that snap.

[Jazz Glands]

Animal Crossing. Strikes me as the digital equivalent of middle aged men playing with Sylvanian Families.

[Plissken]

23 hours ago, Dudley said:

Blur left me cold and I have no real idea why. It just wasn't interesting, especially launching opposite Split Second.  I guess if I have any view it felt like PGR with the most interesting bits stripped out.

 

Funnily enough, I was the other way around.  Such a shame that they weren't launched six months apart, then one could have been seen as a tweak on the other rather than a direct competitor.  I initially bounced off Blur because I thought that the destruction was the point rather than the racing.  (I've recently realised that I've made exactly the same mistake with Dangerous Driving.)

 

RDR2 isn't really grabbing me, though I suspect that I need to get more than two hours into it.  It feels like I've got a day (literally) worth of tutorial to plough through but there definitely looks to be something there. Its predecessor had me in an instant so I wonder what has changed.

 

3 hours ago, dumpster said:

But the point here is that I really, REALLY want to like it.  I should do.  I feel like I'm missing out on one of the all time gaming experiences. Everyone says it is brilliant, I play it and it looks great, so what the hell is wrong with me? (Don't answer that), Why can't I get the enjoyment from it that everyone else does?

 

There is a definite tendency for some people to get too defensive about games which have given them a great time, but for some people just don't click.  I'm more than willing to admit that the problem with me not enjoying Game X is down to me and not due to any inherent problem with Game X.  I mean, I appreciate Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk for their technical mastery and influence on others but it doesn't mean I'm going to spend the evening listening to them in preference to something that moves me emotionally just because everyone else says it is "better".

[Alan Stock]

58 minutes ago, Jazz Glands said:

Animal Crossing. Strikes me as the digital equivalent of middle aged men playing with Sylvanian Families.

 

 - this is amazing, and so true. Damn, I've become what I mocked my sister for when I was seven!

[Qazimod]

3 hours ago, Jazz Glands said:

Animal Crossing. Strikes me as the digital equivalent of middle aged men playing with Sylvanian Families.

 

I don't even mind the cutesy setting, but I kicked my Wild World habit after it felt like the most adorable daily schedule of chores. It's a trading game where the reward is more trading (to pay off your next mortgage.)

 

At the same time, I know that I'm the problem - the whole "point" is to get the nice item for your house, or customise the thing and show it to others, or complete the record collection. I just see a big number that I have to reach and grind the fun away.  

[CrashedAlex]

@Plissken done the Eliminator in the "Formula DD" yet near the end? LMK

[Ry]

BOTW left me freezing. 

 

Gave it around 10 hours and gave up as I realized I wasn't enjoying it. I stuck with it for that long as I totally expected it to become something special.

 

It's my least favourite Zelda ever. 

[sandman]

On 9 May 2020 at 11:12, The Mighty Ash said:

Last of us for me. I finished it and enjoyed and it but I have no idea why people love it so much.

This.  A million times this 

[gossi the dog]

On 09/05/2020 at 16:37, Boozy The Clown said:

 

I'm part of a small community who plays this particular game on a weekly basis and it has been a godsend over the years and particularly during current events as an escape. So yes this particular title being called out prompted me to question where you got your stat from, I personally think you pulled it out of your arse.

 

I'm not seeing evidence for this. I just woke up and it was the among the first things I read on here today. I'll just stay out of this thread in future but add that I'm among the 34.6% of people on here who don't come here to complain at every opportunity about the hobby I'm enthusiastic for.

 

edit : now you've encouraged another to join in so I'll definitely be leaving this thread forever.

 

 

 

Did you play it in single player?

 

I never played the multiplayer but I get the impression it was built around that and the single player was a side thought. The single player is in my opinion a structureless mess.

 

The two DLC packs addressed that and were both excellent.

[Treble]

20 hours ago, dumpster said:

It's about that feeling that Jim Davidson gets when watching Vic Reeves Big Night Out with his kids. He said, "what are they laughing at? I get that it's trying to be funny, but I don't know what the joke is supposed to be", and maybe this is a feeling of getting old.  .

 

I'm part of a small Big Break community who watches Jim Davidson on a weekly basis and it has been a godsend over the years and particularly during current events as an escape. So yes this particular entertainer being called out prompted me to question where you got your quote from, I personally think you pulled it out of your arse.

 

Spoiler

 

https://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?/topic/316150-amazing-games-that-leave-you-cold/&do=findComment&comment=12686159