"Great" games that just never did it for you

The Pheasant2

Are there any highly popular/acclaimed games that everyone else loves but you just can't seem to get into?

My choices: (forgive my sins)

Red dead redemption: I enjoy this game, especially its setting but I find the missions to be repetitive (kill the bad guys while in some sort of chase) and not all that challenging. Otherwise you're just doing a lot of horse riding or doing boring stranger quests collecting herbs or feathers or whatever.

Maybe if I got more immersed in the storyline I'd enjoy it better

Metal gear solid 4: Not gonna lie, didn't give this game the chance it deserves - played it for two hours, got bored, went out and traded it for Oblivion (great game!)

FIFA: I like football, but don't get the obsession my friends have for this game. Seems to be the same thing every year but with slightly updated graphics and players. The real best football game? Actual football!

So what about you guys?

Genghiz Cohen

Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider are my 2 most recent offenders.

Julez

Red dead redemption: Agreed, enjoyable, but nothing amazing for me.. you can put GTA IV in that bracket to, but worse than RDR.

Metal gear solid 4: I gave it the time... a long, long, long, LONG time... most boring game in the world, hours of cut scenes that you cant skip, spent most of the time not concentrating and moving the analog sticks to move the camera and zoom in and out.

FIFA: I don't do single player or the Ultimate team thing, or even any online for that matter, its great fun when you are playing with 2-4 players together in one room. Otherwise I don't play it.

And to add for me...

Oblivion and Mass Effect, just couldn't really get into them, maybe its just because I'm a little older now and I haven't got the time to invest in them that they really need. I dunno.

EDIT: Forgot to add Max Payne 3... Loved the old ones... only played through about half of 3... tried going back to it again... couldn't do it. Too boring.

Julez

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider are my 2 most recent offenders.

Never got into Bioshock either... any of them... really enjoyed the latest Tomb Raider though.

ancapailldorcha

Final Fantasy VII: I'll never understand why this gets the praise it does. Very simplistic battle system, grammatical errors, racism and a very dull plot after the wonderful Midgar opening somewhat ruined it for me. It's a fun game with a wonderful soundtrack but nothing special, especially when compared with Final Fantasy VI.

Half Life 2: A very solid shooter but too clichéd for me to enjoy it too much. I've no idea why this is constantly being rated as the best game of all time.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Just seemed to be lacking the character the previous games had in spades. Couldn't get into it.

Oblivion: Was really getting into it until I got bogged down in the insane amount of pointless sidequests. The combat system needs a serious overhaul as well.

wnolan1992

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Skyrim. I think I was just burnt out on fantasy RPGs having played Dragon Age for the first time a few months beforehand. Just felt like the same game to me.

Pac1Man

Assassins Creed 2 - Trying my best to play it through after the free download on XBL but it's just so monotonous. I now remember why I traded it in a few months ago.

The Pheasant2

Really? I loved Skyrim, although I love any Bethesda RPG! I'm thinking of getting Batman Arkham Asylum soon and I'm worried it won't live up to its acclaim

Harps

Skyrim is the most obvious one, horrible combat, hundreds of pointless quests, rambling dialogue I couldn't care less about and the world was too expansive and empty

Dead Space is the only other one I can think of, I can see why people like it but for whatever reason it just never clicked with me, tried to get back into it a few times but ended up just giving up about half way through

MitchKoobski

Oblivion. Lasted three hours and just got increasingly pissed off until I turned it off and never went back.

Assassin's Creed 3. Killed the series for me. Was really enjoying it up until then.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Assassins Creed 3 was wayyyy over rated.I was a fairly big fan of the series but the 3rd one had turned me off from ever buying another one.

World of Tanks.I can't understand peoples fascination with it. It bored the ****e out of me and the graphics are dull.It reminds me of a real old man or Dad game but yet millions of people are addicted to it.

Agricola

Bioshock. Played the first one for 2/3 hours. The general setting, vibe, art style, plot just bored me. It just shouted "look at me, look at me, Im so artsy and cool" Left it. Recently tried Bioshock 2 - exact same result. Just does nothing for me. Ive decided against bothering with Infinite until its going for peanuts.

flyingsnail

The stalker series never did anything for me, I just couldn’t get into it.

wnolan1992

The Pheasant2 wrote: »

Really? I loved Skyrim, although I love any Bethesda RPG! I'm thinking of getting Batman Arkham Asylum soon and I'm worried it won't live up to its acclaim

I should probably elaborate a bit.

From a technical point of view I could appreciate that Skyrim was great - huge open ended world, loads of stuff to do, good story, etc, etc.

But I put about 300 hours into Dragon Age and loved it. When it came to Skyrim, the story just didn't grab me. It just felt like the Dragon Age formula rehashed with only the names changed (i.e World is in grave danger from an ancient evil that's resurfaced. You have an ancient power in you that can defeat said ancient evil and you haven't realised it yet. Elves, dwarves, etc, etc, etc). I also know that Dragon Age probably rehashed the Oblivion story or something.

So I guess I just don't like fantasy RPGs anymore because they all feel the same, rather than Skyrim in particular.

Dave_The_Sheep

The Witcher series.

The potential was there, the characters were there ... but the combat never clicked. Especially the second one. I just hated it. Which is a pity, I love RPGs. This though? No.

Cienciano

At the moment, The Last of Us.

pablomakaveli

Borderlands 2

Thought this game was really over hyped. I enjoyed the first but the sequel just felt like more of the same and was more like an expansion.

Couldn't understand the love this game got at all.

Sand

Dead Space. Played it on PC, atmosphere was good, controls were horrible and awkward. Uninstalled it after a few hours, never looked back or at any of its derivatives.

GarIT

Any of the Halo games after the original. Gears of War: Judgement just destroyed that series for me.

2Mad2BeMad

for myself

Skyrim - beautiful game ain't going to lie though, I found it very boring, loved the combat system, loved all the classes and how you could forge weopens and make potions. But in the end i think the story killed it for me, i got about half way through and just gave up, got sick of looking at snow all the time as well. Game is great though just couldnt get into it which kinda made me sad, got it for free off a mate so il try finish it out but i got it off him a few months ago and still havnt turned it on so that says alot really.

GTAIV , boring. very dull looking game, characters were terrible, very repetitive imho but oh well hopefully the next wont dissapoint

Fifa13 I have owned every fifa since it was released, ( I was a child when they were released ) so i basicly grew up playing it every year, and I loved it every year until this year, I bought fifa 13 on release, played it for a month and traded it in because I just kept raging and I wasnt having fun. Then stupid me got a feeling to play some fifa again so I ended up buying it AGAIN, then less then a week later I traded it in again.
The AI in it are terrible, even your own AI squad for online play, also the constant getting Rainy matchs for online is horrid, makes the gameplay so unrealistic , I get rain in matchs like 80% of the time even if my team is located in spain haha. so I might just be about done with fifa from now on

Im sure their are more cant remember any at the moment

Baked.noodle

Bioshock Infinite and Skyrim. Bioshock had great art, but I didn't like the shooting, or the AI. Columbia wasn't a patch on Rapture. The dimensional resupply and weapons were just silly. I prefer the setting and mechanics of latest in the Fallout series than Elder Scrolls. I wish they brought back the open world that Morrowind had. You could jump over walls using magic rather than have towns with only one gate and invisible boundaries. Not being led by the hand was also something Bethesda abandoned in their attempt to move RPG's into the realm of console games.

degrassinoel

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider are my 2 most recent offenders.

I'm glad i'm not alone on those two. I loved the original bioshock, didnt think much of the second and the third i wont ever play again after the first playthrough, which wasn't very long anyway.

Tombraider's QTE's bugged the life of that game out of me. I probably would have continued playing and enjoying it aside from those. Felt more like a resident evil game than a lara croft game

ionapaul

The Witcher 2 - covered my reasons in the "Games you've completed in 2013" thread, but to recap - the narrative framework was so idiotic and the plot so weak that my expectations, heightened by so many gushing reviews, were crushed. Thought the attempt at "mature" humour/situations was a tad lame as well, came across as a bit juvenile. For me it was a mediocre game, but nothing special.

Borderlands - thought it was a fine game, but again, nothing special. The art direction was cool though!

Angron

Zelda games in general. They just never really appealed to me, great or not.

I was never a fan of the Fifa games, but then I don't really see how it can be considered a great series anyway.

As good as I thought Skyrim was, I don't think it was as good as the Fallout games. It's something myself and a friend disagree on a lot, Elder Scrolls v Fallout really.

Halo series, it did absolutely nothing for me. I got really annoyed when they announced the new trilogy, and they just won't let it die.

Kerplunk124

Dragon Age..which is extra strange because i'm mostly a HUGE Bioware fan

ionapaul

Kerplunk124 wrote: »

Dragon Age..which is extra strange because i'm mostly a HUGE Bioware fan

Oh yeah, forgot about this one - definitely agree, thought that this game was pretty underwhelming considering the hype. The plot / world just seemed soooooo generic. I had zero interest in getting the second game as a result.

Skerries

Dead Space series: tried to get into it and played 1 and 2 but gave up after about 4 hours into each as it was just boring and the same stupid monsters jumping out at you ala Doom 3

Borderlands series: they just felt like an MMO game with NPC's

Far Cry 2: again it felt like an MMO with the whole respawning enemies syndrome that I hate which also put me off FFVII and System Shock

nesf

Half Life + sequel: Just cannot get into them no matter how much I've tried over the years. I'm not an FPS fan but I thought I'd enjoy it more than I did.

RIFT: I generally can get very into an MMO for a few weeks at least but I could never get into this game despite it having most of the things I want in an MMO.

Bioshock II: I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, I never made it past midway on a playthrough of the sequel.

nesf

MitchKoobski wrote: »

Oblivion. Lasted three hours and just got increasingly pissed off until I turned it off and never went back.

This is a sign of good taste.

GTR63

Meatwad wrote: »

Assassins Creed 3 was wayyyy over rated.I was a fairly big fan of the series but the 3rd one had turned me off from ever buying another one.

Not really overrated by gamers thats for sure, bloody awful & broken with some of the most tedious missions ever divised.
The only way BioShock Infinite let me down was the original premise where you'd have to use Elizabeth's powers sparingly & there were consequences if you relied on them too much. And that Elizabeth was very unique in that she who would do something out of the blue rather than follow a programmed routine, more exciting than the safer game we got.
Games I couldn't get into a big one was Little Big Planet, for a platformer the jumping was just too floaty for my tastes.

Kerplunk124

Oh and Minecraft..maybe that's just because i'm really uncreative and never have any clue what to do lol

chopperbyrne

Half-Life

With the exception of the fantastic opening segment it was just another generic FPS.

nesf

Kerplunk124 wrote: »

Oh and Minecraft..maybe that's just because i'm really uncreative and never have any clue what to do lol

I let my (then) 6 year old play that as I thought he'd enjoy it. He turned to me after a half hour and said: "Dada, why would I play this when I have Lego?" :P

Kiith

You people are crazy. How you can think Half Life 1/2 is overrated or generic is beyond me. Obviously this is an 'imo' thread, so fair enough, and it's all subjective...but come on!

As for me, i suppose the Pokemon series. They are fun, but i've never been able to get properly into any of them.

ancapailldorcha

Kiith wrote: »

You people are crazy. How you can think Half Life 1/2 is overrated or generic is beyond me. Obviously this is an 'imo' thread, so fair enough, and it's all subjective...but come on!

As for me, i suppose the Pokemon series. They are fun, but i've never been able to get properly into any of them.

I adore the original Half Life and I only played it recently. I'm kinder to the sequel than I used to be but I still reckon it's got no business being anywhere near the upper end of a greatest games list.

Will I Amnt

XCom - Bored the life out of me.
Borderlands 2 - Pretty looking game but also pretty boring.
Mass Effect 2 + 3 - Tried hard to get into them but just didn't do it for me at all.

Agricola wrote: »

Bioshock. Played the first one for 2/3 hours. The general setting, vibe, art style, plot just bored me. It just shouted "look at me, look at me, Im so artsy and cool" Left it. Recently tried Bioshock 2 - exact same result. Just does nothing for me. Ive decided against bothering with Infinite until its going for peanuts.

First time I tried Bioshock I hated it, lasted about an hour and it went back in the pile for a good 6 months. It's now one of my all time favourites.

Captain Chaos

Crysis 1-3, just didn't see the "greatness" in the series. Just another fps game with above average looks.

Perfect Dark on the N64, meh. Just couldn't take to it.

Battlefield 3, just don't like the gun play mechanics at all. Just feel very disconnected to the weapons I'm using compared to other fps games.

Retr0gamer

Metal Gear Solid 4: To be honest I'd hardly call this game great. Really didn't enjoy it and suspect it's only love for the series that blinds people to it's flaws. After MGS3 got everything right this one went back to MGS2 and all it's flaws, made those flaws worse and added it's own like pathetic boss battles.

Legend of Dragoon: Regarded by critics as either mediocre or one of the worst RPGs on the PS1. I'd go with the latter. It amazes me how many people can actually like this one and fans aren't shy about expressing their love for it. This game nearly put me off videogames.

Borderlands 2: I'm just not getting this game. Also filling your game with pop culture and internet memes is doesn't constitute comedy.

FFVII Crisis Core: I suppose this one is alright. However the battle system adds depth, random leveling up is ridiculous and the story is atrocious.

GTAIV: Boring missions, dull car physics and an open world that tires to restrict how much fun you can have in it. The attempts at a more grown up story were embarassing. Whoever signed off on the friends mechanic I hope isn't working in the videogame industry anymore.

Killzone 2: Actually all the Killzone series. Do people really like the single player in these games? Tiny closed in levels, terrible lack of variety in enemies and weapons and awful attempts at boss fights. It's just so dull and looks that way as well. I'm guessing people couldn't look past the graphics which actually aren't all that hot, it's easy to pack a lot of detail into your game once you severely restrict where the player can explore and keep the environments small.

Mortal Kombat series and Killer Instinct: Going to shove these two together. Both are absolutely terrible fighting game series that only get a pass due to their gimmicks, blood and silly dial a combos. The underlying gameplay mechanics are dull and simplistic by fighting game standards. There's no point playing these when there's so much better from capcom and SNK. I'll make one exception though, the latest MK is surprisingly brilliant.

Conker's Bad Fur Day: If you are under 15 you'll love this. The only thing this has is the running joke of a cute squirrel that got drunk. It's not funny at all and unfortunately the gameplay can't save it either, it's one of the dullest platformers on the N64.

snausages

Metal Gear Solid 4 isn't great. It's really only one for the fans and even then most are agreed that it's pretty weak

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Half-Life

With the exception of the fantastic opening segment it was just another generic FPS.

It kind of defined the generic FPS though. Which is why it feels that way.


For me it's Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Both games had their qualities but I just couldn't stand the combat. I really liked Trigger so not being able to get into Cross was a disappointment.

Also, Spec Ops. When game critics praise a game for playing badly you know there's a problem

damoPL

Call of Duty - Boring, repetitive and full of screaming 12 year olds. I actually enjoyed it a bit before MW3 but then again that might've been due to my age.

Skyrim - I bought it after seeing videos on YouTube and it had that familiar Fallout look that I love. Unfortunately got bored with it within a day and traded it in soon after.

Batman: Arkham Asylum - I bought Arkham City on release and I completely loved it, got platinum and all that. I then said I'll give arkham asylum a try but got halfway into the story and lost all interest in it.

Borderlands (the Original) - Bought it and got bored with it halfway through. Too many side missions at the one time as well as a must for grinding levels. None of my friends played it either. But then I got BL2 and I completely love it and still play it

Genghiz Cohen

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Killzone 2: Actually all the Killzone series. Do people really like the single player in these games? Tiny closed in levels, terrible lack of variety in enemies and weapons and awful attempts at boss fights. It's just so dull and looks that way as well. I'm guessing people couldn't look past the graphics which actually aren't all that hot, it's easy to pack a lot of detail into your game once you severely restrict where the player can explore and keep the environments small.

Oh God yes!

Spent a tenner and felt robbed.

Also, dat cover system!

Potential-Monke

With regards to Half-Life, people need to remember when it was released and into what conditions. It defined the genre when it was released, but is like all FPS's nowadays. Story is still great though, and Alyx is still one of the most memorable companions in any game.

Anyway, to the games i don't like!

Halo Series
Tried many times to get into it, but it bugs the face off me. Unless you want to spend the whole game lining up headshots, you've to empty 2 mags into the enemies. Really annoyed me, and stopped me from playing 3, wars, 4 and whatever else they're going to bring out.

Fifa
Overly complicated soccer game which lost it's charm sometime after '98. One of the best soccer games i've played is International Superstar Soccer Deluxe - just great fun. Red Card was fun too. Fifa is boring.

Tropico series
Tried a good few times to get into this, and i like (non-turn based) building sims, but this felt like a chore, do didn't continue after about an hour.

Final Fantasy series
Any of them. I hate turned based combat. And while the rest of the game(s) sounded like it might have appealed to me, the combat stops me from playing any of them. I tried VII and XIII (because i got them both for free), but i just can't get passed the horribleness that is the combat.

Battlefield
Now, it's only really the online that i don't like, the single player games can be fun. And i think what it is about the MP that annoys me is that the maps are too big due to people taking vehicles without waiting to give others a lift, leaving you to run for 2/3 minutes before bring picked off by a camping sniper or some coont in a plane who's spent way too much time flying the bloody things. And i won't say i hate it, i appreciate it for what it is and what it does, but it just doesn't do it for me. And i've tried it on the PS3, 360 and PC.

Pokémon
I want to get into these games, but the turn-based fighting puts me off. Pity.

krudler

GTAIV: Took all the fun out of the series, you either love or hate the car mechanics, I thought they were good but the endless chauffuer missions and social bowling and dates ruined it. Include those things if they don't affect the player in any way, fine, but making them detrimental if you don't complete them was a pain in the ass. No parachute was a silly mistake as well, looks like GTAV is going to put the fun and mayhem back into the series.


MGS4: Hideo Kojima isn't half the writer/director he thinks he is, garbage dialogue and insane amounts of exposition and waffley political rambling where the gameplay should be.

Bioshock Infinite, loved the setting, looks gorgeous, great voice acting, but meh, I just didn't take to it, I'll revisit at some point I was playing other games at the same time and maybe I just didn't give it the attention I should but I got sick of the combat after a few encounters, gave up halfway through (I know the ending is revered so want to see it for myself at some stage)

Halo, I played the first, which was a breath of fresh air for console fps games, played half the 2nd which was rubbish and completed Halo 3, which had it moments but The Flood, the worst enemy in the history of video games, ruined it. Any levels based around fighting them is an absolute chore to get through. Boring world as well, grey corridors everywhere.



Can't agree with Half Life being called a generic fps, maybe now you can see it that way but in 1998 it was anything but.

titan18

Half Life 2: Might have been cos I didn't play it when it was released, but could't get into it at all. Was rather bored by it and stopped after a few hours.

Batman: Arkham Asylum and City: I played Asylum for a good bit but never bothered to finish it, and got City and got bored within an hour as it felt quite similar.

Bioshock: Have 1 and 2, but never even tried 2 as I got so bored by 1. Was a nice looking game and was a cool idea, but combat felt meh.

Borderlands: Still don't understand how people consider it a good game, thought it was an absolute mess.

Civ 4: Possibly cos I expected something much different and had been comparing to Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, but seemed lacking in comparison to those games.

The Witcher 1: Couldn't get past the combat, wanted to love the game cos the story seemed interesting, but combat was just too bad. Loved The Witcher 2 though.

Zelda and Mario games: I don't mind these on handheld devices, but was never able to get into them on home consoles.

MadYaker

BF3. Bought in the EA humble bundle and I really don't see what the big deal is. There is no teamwork at all and the vehicles and weapons have a very disconnected feel. And all the maps are too small. Maybe I've just been playing too much Arma, which is far superior in all most every way imo.

5uspect

When was Crysis ever considered great? The first one was super pretty but was a fairly inspired shooter compared to the original Far Cry. It even made the same mistakes as that game. The sequels are just meh.

I've had similar issues as others with Bioshock. Loved envy thing about them except the actual gameplay. Infinite was better but forgettable in comparison to the narrative and interaction with Elizabeth. I'd happily just walk around those worlds and not bother with combat.

BeardySi

Fallout3 - it's sooo clunky it hurts, plays like a game twice its age....

abbir

All the Metal Gear Solid games. I keep trying them and I keep disliking them.

Last of Us. The story is great but I'm not enjoying the gameplay as much as I thought I would.

Halo. Always seemed so poor to me and nothing compared to PC FPS games. Deus Ex, Soldier of Fortune, No One Lives Forever were out the year before, then Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Undying, Aliens Vs Predator 2 were out the same year as Halo.

Oblivion. Although I am enjoying Skyrim.

Anything Killzone.

GTA San Andreas. I loved Vice City but I couldn't enjoy San Andreas. The eating healthy and exercising requirements, ugh.

Devil May Cry. I just don't get it.

Not The Real Scarecrow

Forgot to add Bayonetta. Played through the whole thing and hated every second of it. I stuck with it because of the high praise it got ,but it just bored and frustrated me in equal amounts. Only good thing about it was that I had it completed in under 6 hours.

I agree with above about Metal Gear Solid Series. Could never understand peoples fascination with it. Some of the gameplay was decent enough but the story and long dialogue sucked the life out of it.

wnolan1992

Meatwad wrote: »

Assassins Creed 3 was wayyyy over rated.I was a fairly big fan of the series but the 3rd one had turned me off from ever buying another one.

World of Tanks.I can't understand peoples fascination with it. It bored the ****e out of me and the graphics are dull.It reminds me of a real old man or Dad game but yet millions of people are addicted to it.

I wouldn't hesitate to say AC3 was the worst in the series. AC1 had problems, but it still was a hell of a lot of fun IMO. AC3 just felt like a grind trying to get through the story as opposed to having any real fun.

pablomakaveli

wnolan1992 wrote: »

I wouldn't hesitate to say AC3 was the worst in the series. AC1 had problems, but it still was a hell of a lot of fun IMO. AC3 just felt like a grind trying to get through the story as opposed to having any real fun.

The game killed off my interest in the Assassins Creed series especially given Revelations was quite disappointing as well.

It was very buggy and the setting was boring. I think American history is quite boring to a non-American so just didn't care less about the story.

I hope the next installment might go some way to reviving the series but not holding my breath.