Games you just couldn't get into....

[Agent]

I'm fully aware that I'm at risk of getting lynched with this thread, but it's worth a shot

What recent games do you think have been massively overrated? I don't mean in terms of just reviews / fans, but that you've played and you just couldn't get into? Ones that you've paid hard cash for, only for them to end up on the shelf with the occasional glance being given and the thought "why?"

Being brave, I'll start:

Minecraft - At first I thought this was awesome. An open world where I can do what I want with friends. Build, destroy, enrage 13 year olds that join the server....sadly it just turned into a massive time sink with no real goal / reward. I could spend hours or in some cases, days with friends working towards a goal, but in the end....why? I never felt that sense of reward that others seemed to. For the cost I have no regrets, but it just didn't hook me.

Amnesia - I don't even know where to start with this one. Bland environments and unnecessary long sections at several points. If there was ever a game for people to fake reactions on Youtube, this is it. As someone who has a decent understanding of game psychology and theroy, the amount of these videos made me worry about the state of some of these peoples mental health. Case in point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1RKuM57nPA

The narrative however was pretty good and the overall game design I thought was okay, but that just wasn't enough to carry it for me.

Alan Wake - I have to be fair and say that the gameplay wasn't terrible with this one, but most things surrounding it were. Maybe it was the tacky start "Nightmares exist outside of logic, and there’s little fun to be had in explanations; they’re antithetical to the poetry of fear" - A Steven King quote, which the game then tries to live up to. Sadly the writing is poor, offering little to keep me interested. Combat was repetitive to the point where I'd want to stop playing...and I won't even comment about that silly torch.

To top it off it had one of the most predictable endings ever. Not that I got that far, I just happened to be in the room when the other half finished it, sadly. I'm glad she did though, as that special edition wasn't cheap!

Dark souls - Lets start this off by saying I consider myself an old school gamer. I wasn't brought up with any of this 'easy mode' malarky. The first time I played UT my dad wouldn't let me play it on anything less than God Like or he'd disown me and I'd probably not be celebrating Christmas with him that year.
For this reason I was looking forward to Dark Souls given how in depth and difficult it apparently was. Sadly it was anything but. For me, this is a textbook way on how not to do difficulty.
It's a classic "do it again" mechanic that wore thin on me very quickly. Finding a currently unknown technique to kill something isn't exactly a new or exciting mechanic for gameplay, but what made it worse was that if you made a mistake you were dead. Do it again. Messed up? Yup... again. Requiring the player to press a series of buttons in the same order, with timing being the deciding factor isn't how you make a game difficult.
Challenge me by outsmarting me. When I think I've got the technique, change the way the NPC attacks. Make me think. Bring other mechanics in that change the gameplay. Something that's difficult should require brain power. It just got incredibly boring.


So that's my 4 overrated games. Now tell me how wrong I am

[Pob255]

Deus Ex human revolution
Why? I just don't know, it's got every thing I love in this sort of game, allowing you to do thing in different ways with maps that are not just a single corridor, a cyberpunk story, great graphics & sound . . . played it for a couple of hours and never again.

Although I think I've got general gaming apathy atm hardly played anything atm, not lacking free time just not playing games, I watching more youtube game videos than playing games.

[Pleiades]

Deus Ex human revolution
Why? I just don't know, it's got every thing I love in this sort of game, allowing you to do thing in different ways with maps that are not just a single corridor, a cyberpunk story, great graphics & sound . . . played it for a couple of hours and never again.

I agree, found it a distinct let-down, maybe because it was so obviously a console port, not sure

I also spent a few minutes looking at DOTA 2 but I just cannot fathom what people see in it...

I think I'm just old & jaded in general...

[jim]

I wrote quite a long post about a couple of games, which apparently I forgot to submit

Anyway - I haven't played any of the titles mentioned in the OP, but my immediate reaction to the thread title was Red Dead Redemption. Everything was bland. I was bored rigid within a couple of hours, and I only carried on doing the missions because I hoped in vain that sooner or later either something interesting would happen, or I would complete it and then job done. I'm not even sure if I got close, but eventually I couldn't take any more and packed it in. I might give it another crack if it ever comes out on PC.

The other was Metro 2033, which seemed to have so much promise - I thought it might be in the vein of Fallout, and whilst there were a lot of similarities, I felt the storyline and plot was really vacuous in Metro. My main grip with it though was the way the game functioned. It felt like they couldn't decide whether to make an RPG or an FPS, and ended up half-way between the two. I spent significant periods of time just being utterly lost, because there was a huge map with multiple routes to the destination (or at least it appeared that way), but absolutely no indication as to where I ought to be and how I might get there. Eventually I got fed up of being lost, wandering around in circles until I was either killed or used up all of my resources, and gave up.

[0iD]

I loved Metro 2033 upto a point. The point where I had to get from A to B and just not enough gas mask filters no matter how I tried. Gave up. Penumbra I couldn't get into despite it being a nice game really. Fallout and STALKER just got dull for me too in the end, just lost interest.

[Phage]

Same as OiD for me. Could be my short attention span. I get so litle time for gaming, that I'm always looking for the next thing to shoot.
On the flip side, I really liked Doom 3 which most people seemed to hate.

[0iD]

Funnily, loved DOOM 3 too

[kalniel]

Deus Ex human revolution

Same. It was kind of good enough.. but just haven't really got very far with playing it. Maybe when I've got more time I'll head back to it and find it amazing. A good reminder to myself not to get games just because they are generally well rated, but to check that they fit my schedule/current play preferences.

Same story with the batman games - got them on bargain basement offer, started them, then never touched them again.

On the other hand, it dawned on me the other day I've played Diablo 3 for well over an hundred hours.. and I have no idea how - I just pick it up for short play sessions after work perhaps as a bit of a wind down. Don't tell me I'm turning into someone who doesn't have the time/patience for more involved RPGs??! Noooooo. Have thoroughly abused kickstarter for lots of old school RPGs so will see if that's actually the case later on.

[fatguy666]

I loved San Andreas but GTA IV just didn't do it for me. Found the characters boring and the radio stations sucked. Fair enough they made a replica of NY but there wasn't enough variety in the enviroments compared to San Andreas. My brother kept saying once you open up the city it gets better but before I could get there I deleted save by accident and couldn't be bothered going back and redoing it all.

Also played Oblivion for an hour to see what the big fuss was all about, think my problem was maybe cause I've only really played JRPGs and there wasn't enough dudes with spikey hair.

[Dooms]

There are a few games that I really struggled with for no real reason:

Mass Effect 3 - My god that took be a long time to get round to playing which was strange. I mean I completed ME1 6+ times on 360 (Getting level 60 was a bitch) and then again 3-4 times on PC, ME was completed 4~ times on 360 and about the same on PC yet I just couldn't get into ME3.

Finally completed it but the 2nd playthrough has been shelved.

Witcher / Witcher 2 - Both these games tick sooooo many boxes for me, in fact on paper they are a perfect game for my RPG love however both have never held my attention for more than a couple hours

Two which come to mind straight away. There are obviously more though

[shaithis]

Another Metro 2033 here but not because of the content.....it just made me motion sick

Resident Evil past version 4 (although not tried revelations yet).

[Ferral]

For me Stalker and Clear Sky have always bored me to tears (Quite like Call of Pripyat though - strange). I have only ever got around halfway through the first game, got to the township place, done all the missions but just got bored, seems like pointless side missions to go collect or kill something then go back, gets tedious quickly. Clear Sky is even worse, done the first missions where you kill the guys in the field and the tower and then I uninstalled it as it was more of the same. I understand that it was ground breaking open world and with the unofficial texture packs looks amazing, its just the gameplay is so utterly boring and tedious.

I know many will clobber me for this but I also REALLY don't like the older Metroid games, its just not knowing what to do with a huge open environment, so easy to get lost. Same for the Metroidvania type titles like La Mulana, I bought La Mulana thinking it would be like the old Rick Dangerous (certainly looks the part) but I prefer something that has a bit more structure to it with levels that you can work through start to finish.

Darkness & Darkness 2, played it for all of about 30 minutes but hate both of them, just feels like a generic shooter with a few whistles and bells thrown in for good measure. Yeah it has a few nice touches like the tentacles you can use to off the bad guys (or should that be even worse guys). It just doesn't sit right, can't get into it and enjoy it. Story is intriguing must admit and that is what attracted me to the title in the first place thinking great a Mafia style game and story with supernatural elements.

[Whizzkid]

must be MMO games for me. Tried Age of Empires back in the day but for some reason it just doesnt pull me in. First person is definately the way forward and seems to tick all the right boxes.

[fatguy666]

@shaithis I'm playing RE Revelations just now and really enjoying it, feels like they were aiming more towards 4's style. Give the demo a shot.

@Ferral I love Super Metroid (most Metroidvania games really) and the Prime games but tried to play the NES original the other day and turned it off. There's no map whatsoever so you REALLY have no idea where you're going!

[Dooms]

I love Super Metroid, still one my fave games of all time. Love reading about the resent issues on Wii U with new generation games stuck on the most simple parts at the beginning of the game as there is zero hand holding.

I still have my SNES and about 80 carts and play quite a few of the classics on a regular bases

[stilkun]

For me Morrowind: GOTY edition sitting on my shelf collecting dust... I have been attempting to play and complete this game to end several times but I couldn't be bothered as it is large map so many quest available and I have no idea what I am doing when I play this Used to play story driven quest RPG like NWN.

Command and conquer: Tiberian sun is another game I try to play but definitely not for me as I am more used to RA2 controls and shortcut therefore causing me confusion on playing campaign and skirmishes.