The Things That Everybody is Wrong About Thread

[Atty]

This thread is about things in games that you liked or thought were awesome that it seems like everyone else hates. I'm thinking of it not just as a thread to find fellow nondums but to hopefully get people to revisit games or the preconceptions of certain mechanics in games.

I'll lead off with a fairly big one for me:

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The Mako from the original Mass Effect. It gets a lot of hate because it's clunky and doesn't aim properly if you zoom while aiming, but I quite loved it and found it greatly preferable to just scanning planets from orbit in the next two games. Dropping onto a random planet and exploring it felt like exactly that. The story was streamlined after the first game but it came at the cost of both the Mako and that feeling of exploring the unknown.

The clunky mechanics only ever bothered me when I would do something stupid like ride up the side of a mountain, flip and get stuck. Really, any problems I ever had in my (many) playthroughs were my own fault and I kind of feel that this could be true of a lot of others who wound up moaning about this one aspect of the game.



So, what things in gaming do you all feel have been unfairly maligned? What is everyone wrong about?

[Rancid_Planet]

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51W8C95QDDL.jpg

Over the years the general opinion seems to have changed a bit but when The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker came out it was bashed for its cartoonish cell shaded graphical style. And the fact that Link was a very small boy in this game did it no favors.

To this day many feel the game is too short simply because it doesn't have as many dungeons as a Zelda game generally does. But I personally feel this is an unfair critique. Wind Waker also had an immense, sprawling overworld full of interconnected secret mini levels and hidden items. It had side quests and hidden adventure elements, including using an in-game camera to take pictures and unlock statues of virtually everything in the entire game, that added tons of playing time. So if you really put in the effort to get involved with the game you'd find it quite time consuming.

http://static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/1146/11469234/2410758-8778282523-zelda.jpg

But "CELDA IS 4 GAY BABIES" the fan boys cried.

Zelda had always been a franchise for the "grown up gamer". An adventure game with puzzle solving elements and battles involving wizards and dungeons and goblins etc. This franchise was treated by Nintendo hardcore fans as the Holy Grail. And fans were already aching for a Zelda game just like Ocarina of Time and here they were staring at eight year old Link in a game that looked like a cartoon. It was just so hated by some.

Yet defended by others. Many note that Wind Waker's complex system of islands throughout the game added tremendous depth to the feel of the overworld. While also pointing out that the graphics were impossibly beautiful. Years later, when Nintendo released Twilight Princess and gamers got the gothic/adult/dark themed Zelda game they'd been begging for, people finally started to admit they had unfairly bashed WW. It's had direct sequels on the handheld systems and an HD release for the WII U that is breathtaking to see.

[The_Mike]

I hated that stupid Mako thing. Yes, I sucked at driving it, but in an RPG I think it's a bit daft to give you really awkward skill-based segment you have to drag yourself through before you can continue the story.

I don't get why people would think that cell-shaded Zelda is for babies. Wasn't this around the same time as Dragon Quest VIII? That game was really well received, looked gorgeous, and clearly wasn't for babies.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/3100000/Jessica-Albert-dragon-quest-viii-3197858-1280-960.jpg

I think FFVII is a bit unfairly maligned. People who think it is overrated tend to lay it on really thick and act like it is a terrible entry in the series, and seem to resent that it brought more people to the games. Not everyone who prefers another Final Fantasy is like that, of course, but if someone doesn't like hearing about the game they'll usually put a lot of effort into saying how terrible it is without giving much of a reason.

[Rancid_Planet]

Both of my younger brothers feel the same way. They both have played every FF at least once. And while neither feel VII is the best, they both love the game and will tell you all about how that was the game that got them into RPGs.

[The_Mike]

That part seems to be a particular bone of contention for some people. They think that it is only fondly remembered by people who had never played an RPG before. I loved RPGs before I played it.

[Atty]

Wind Waker is such an interesting example. I sort of hated it until I actually played it, at which time I loved it. Being such a Zelda fan, how long it took me to play it is really alarming. I didn't get a GameCube until Twilight Princess was coming out and got it for that. I got Metroid Prime too, as any decent human would and then figured "sure, why not give this Wind Wanker game a go as a laugh?" I liked it so much more than TP that I was really caught off guard. Really changed my preconceptions about games forever.

I also, on the story end, loved how it finally addressed the continuity of the series and its place in the timeline. The intro is one of my favorite touches in the series. All the games should have that.

[Rancid_Planet]

Wind Waker is such an interesting example. I sort of hated it until I actually played it, at which time I loved it. Being such a Zelda fan, how long it took me to play it is really alarming. I didn't get a GameCube until Twilight Princess was coming out and got it for that. I got Metroid Prime too, as any decent human would and then figured "sure, why not give this Wind Wanker game a go as a laugh?" I liked it so much more than TP that I was really caught off guard. Really changed my preconceptions about games forever.

I also, on the story end, loved how it finally addressed the continuity of the series and its place in the timeline. The intro is one of my favorite touches in the series. All the games should have that.

The intro. I distinctly remember that line about "a fell wind" and people on the boards assuming it was bad English translation until they learned that usage of "fell". :lol:

But yeah I used to tell people that it gave an interesting perspective on the Zelda timeline and how it alluded to the "hero of time" and all. Trying to sell the game's OoT connection to anyone that would hear me.

Its not that the game did poorly in sales. Not at all. But TP did far better as did the N64 games. So to this day I consider it the hidden gem of the home console Zelda games.

[Bad Collin]

Bioshock is boring. Go to this corridor, shoot some things, open up another corridor, shoot some more things. Maybe I played it too late and it suffered in comparison to later games but I struggled through half of the first game and never enjoyed it.

[Cewsh]

Well if you don't enjoy the story, then yeah. Bioshock isn't a game that works on gameplay alone. It isn't meant to.

[Rancid_Planet]

I used to complain about games that went with content and story over game play. But as games have evolved I've had to just accept those types of games as their own genre. Games have basically developed into interactive motion pictures in many cases.

[Beefy]

Bioshock is boring. Go to this corridor, shoot some things, open up another corridor, shoot some more things. Maybe I played it too late and it suffered in comparison to later games but I struggled through half of the first game and never enjoyed it.

Bioshock and its sequels are the only FPS series in recent years that I can play. I get bored of pretty much any other FPS I've tried, although I did enjoy the first Resistance game. prior to that I guess you need to go back to Medal of Honor: Frontline. So to me story and setting are the most important thing in an FPS.

I only played the Bioshock series for the first time about six months ago and completely the third one yesterday actually. I loved the first one the most though.

I thought that was the reverse of this thread though - if we're covering games that everyone thinks are brilliant but you don't get/hate then I'll need a whole thread (probably entitled Final Fantasy).

[Romford Pele]

Final Fantasy. Its just a load of bollocks, most boring saga of games I have ever played.

[Beefy]

Ok well Natureboy just stole my thread's thunder.

[Romford Pele]

Haha whoops.

[Beefy]

I really struggle with anything with RPG elements. I literally don't see the point - any video game is by definition role playing so why add a load of wank on top of that? It doesn't connect with me at all.

That said I have intended to do a FFVII play through for a few years now but may wait for the new version.

[Romford Pele]

On top of that, those kind of games require a crazy amount of hours to make decent inroads into, and I can't spare 8-10 hours a week to plough through a game like that now.

[Dreyski]

Final Fantasy XII is a great game, and everyone apart from JP is wrong about it.