Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[Snatch1414]

I think that's a major part of it, yes. Dice rolls remove quite a bit of player agency. In an action game you generally want to depend more on your skill than statistics.

But then again maybe I'm wrong. I only recently started poking at the Borderlands games and that seems to have a lot of dice roll dependence.

I think the people that really get into RPGs are really into the mechanics of those games. I know that on the message boards of Diablo-style games it is not uncommon to see detailed mathematical equations on how damage is calculated for a particular skill or how buffs stack with each other.

People really get into that kind of thing (not me).

That's why most online RPGs lose me quickly. They're fun at first but once I hit the endgame and suddenly it matters to everyone around me that I min-max my character and know the absolute most efficient way to play them it becomes a chore instead of a game.

That trend ruined RTS games for me. Played the original StarCraft back in the day. Had a ton of fun. Played my friend down the street once, which blew our minds at the time that we could actually do that. Just loved the game.

Then StarCraft II comes out and you basically get your ass handed to you if you don't go online and find a build and follow it. You basically have to play the game the way someone else plays it to have success. So now I almost never play those games anymore and I used to love them. People have completely sucked out the fun trying to be a Korean pro gaming superstar.

[Sarge]

I've seen the games you've beaten, Sarge, and you of all people should never say you have a skill deficit. (I mean, you beat Bayou Billy, Not even Captain N could handle that game!). I plug it a lot, but since (I think) you have a Wii U, I'll plug it again. You really must play Electronic Super Joy. It is an amazingly intense and deeply satisfying 2D plat former, and I enjoyed it immensely. In light of the types of games you seem to enjoy playing, I think you should give it a shot. (Nintendolife's reviewer couldn't beat it, and I died over 700 times trying to beat one of its bonus levels...after completing an optional task that, for the better part of a week, I thought was impossible in the Wii Zu port.)

Ha, I appreciate that. I consider myself pretty good, but there are gaps in my skills for sure, and it's taken me years to get where I am. DuckTales was one of those gaps, so it took me a little longer to get the mechanics down (I played it, and beat the second game, but didn't play religiously since I didn't have constant access like I did with Mega Man). I do find it funny that the devs more cited Zelda II as inspiration than DuckTales. I can certainly see it, though. Amping up the downward stab basically gives you DuckTales.

I've got Electronic Super Joy, and I think I went about halfway through the main game. It was definitely tough. It's more along the lines of a Super Meat Boy platformer, tight, quick levels where you die a lot. It did seem really solid. I think I got more mileage out of the soundtrack than anything, though.

Bayou Billy is one of those games that requires really good execution at the end. If you can somehow keep the bulletproof vest, it makes the last stage easier, and if you can get the whip, it helps a ton, too. The thing that sucks is the gun-toting thugs if you don't have a bullet-proof vest. That was harrowing. But the worst thing is the driving levels. Easily the worst. There's almost no margin for error at all. Insanely tight turns, and you can't play safe, because that timer will destroy you. (And yes, I remember that episode of Captain N! That was always my highlight of Saturday morning, even if they did make Simon Belmont a narcissistic dweeb.)

EDIT: I've also accepted I'll never be as good as some of those speed runners. Part of that is just me wanting to play so many different games, but I suspect there's also a reaction-time cap that limits me. I'm not bad, but there are guys that are nailing frame-perfect stuff like it was nothing.

[Exhuminator]

Sarge is the best 2D platformer player I've ever known. He's a freaking savant of the genre.

FPS games on the other hand...

[Sarge]

Yeah, you'd eat my lunch (and supper) in FPSs. To reciprocate, I know that Exhuminator is amazing at FPSs. I mean, he's beaten GRAW for PC, that says something!

[prfsnl_gmr]

I've got Electronic Super Joy, and I think I went about halfway through the main game. It was definitely tough. It's more along the lines of a Super Meat Boy platformer, tight, quick levels where you die a lot. It did seem really solid. I think I got more mileage out of the soundtrack than anything, though.

Definitely, but you should spend some more time with it when you have the chance. It really picks up at the end, and the bonus levels are excruciating. I loved it, and I loved the soundtrack (which is great workout music, BTW).

[Gunstar Green]

That trend ruined RTS games for me. Played the original StarCraft back in the day. Had a ton of fun. Played my friend down the street once, which blew our minds at the time that we could actually do that. Just loved the game.

Then StarCraft II comes out and you basically get your ass handed to you if you don't go online and find a build and follow it. You basically have to play the game the way someone else plays it to have success. So now I almost never play those games anymore and I used to love them. People have completely sucked out the fun trying to be a Korean pro gaming superstar.

That too. I was obsessed with StarCraft like many PC gamers of the time. I watched it evolve from something I thought was the coolest thing in the world to an alien concept of entertainment that I don't understand and I'm not sure I want to. I never even touched StarCraft II.

I'm not slagging on anyone who's really into StarCraft and the MOBA genre it helped spawn but I don't get it. It seems like it's become a job instead of a game.

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm not a big fan of MOAB games, but I'm a huge RTS buff (god awful at all of them, but a big fan nonetheless). I, personally, really enjoy Starcraft 2, but I love it for the storyline and the lore that the first game established more than the actual gameplay in the second game. First game knocked it out of the park with gameplay, though, and was even a fantastic port to the Nintendo 64.

[Ack]

The RTS peaked with Total Annihilation.

[Gunstar Green]

a fantastic port to the Nintendo 64.

There's an unpopular gaming opinion.

[Tanooki]

That trend ruined RTS games for me. Played the original StarCraft back in the day. Had a ton of fun. Played my friend down the street once, which blew our minds at the time that we could actually do that. Just loved the game.

Then StarCraft II comes out and you basically get your ass handed to you if you don't go online and find a build and follow it. You basically have to play the game the way someone else plays it to have success. So now I almost never play those games anymore and I used to love them. People have completely sucked out the fun trying to be a Korean pro gaming superstar.

That too. I was obsessed with StarCraft like many PC gamers of the time. I watched it evolve from something I thought was the coolest thing in the world to an alien concept of entertainment that I don't understand and I'm not sure I want to. I never even touched StarCraft II.

I'm not slagging on anyone who's really into StarCraft and the MOBA genre it helped spawn but I don't get it. It seems like it's become a job instead of a game.

Agreed. It started years before though with like the later Red Alert, Tiberian Sun, and Warcraft III titles. It's sad, but the thing is I enjoy is the fact people have made concerted efforts to keep the older games working on a modern OS. There's this whole setup out there where you can get the C&C the Decade package working in a 64bit modern Windows setup, and there's private projects that got the old Dune 2 working too and I'm fairly certain I saw stuff for the first 2 Warcraft games as well (also Diablo 1 and 2.) It's good that there's a large base of people who realize more isn't always better as it ruins the genre in a way where RTS becomes now more of a find build or fail, buy guide or fail, you can't have creative thought or take your time because you get mowed down.