Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

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Exhuminator
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by Exhuminator »

dunpeal2064 wrote:Having played both, I don't think I'd recommend Demon's Souls to someone that didn't enjoy Dark Souls, at least with the expressed complaints. Granted, I would love to be wrong and it just happen to tick the right boxes that DS didn't, but I'd also be very surprised if that were the case.

Imo, Dark Souls also falls under the "legit amazing" branch. I've probably played through it a dozen times.
Sure he might not like Demon's Souls. I was just speaking from personal experience, in that I really enjoyed it. I've seen people contrast DeS and DaS so often that there does appear to be some considerable differences. So the differences there might lead to a game he enjoyed more. Or maybe he'd find DeS even more rage inducing, I dunno.

It seems like his issue is he just can't beat O&S, and that killed his motivation. I usually find with something like that, if I leave it alone a while and come back later, I knock it out no sweat. I don't know why that is, but it is. Perhaps the subconscious works it out during the interim.
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marurun
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

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Sarge wrote:In other words, it's like Ocarina of Time. Certainly a good game, but not worthy of "greatest of all time" status.
Come on, Sarge. Don't INVITE people to come in and try to burn the forums down. Give the mods heads-up you plan on inciting a riot first, at least.

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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by Tanooki »

He's right though, same with FF7. Both will get people angry slapping down a reality check but neither are the best and fall far shy of it but some people can't get beyond 20 year old reviews and see how age has made the problems even more evident. :)

Speaking of unpopular or not -- GTA sucks, it's played out, and just needs to go away. It's just so boring anymore.
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by marurun »

The wink was there for a reason. I'm usually the first person to stand up and say, "I don't like FF7 at all. I think the game is a mess."
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by Ack »

Tanooki wrote:He's right though, same with FF7. Both will get people angry slapping down a reality check but neither are the best and fall far shy of it but some people can't get beyond 20 year old reviews and see how age has made the problems even more evident. :)

Speaking of unpopular or not -- GTA sucks, it's played out, and just needs to go away. It's just so boring anymore.
Original GTA or post GTA 3?
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by marlowe221 »

Exhuminator wrote: Sure he might not like Demon's Souls. I was just speaking from personal experience, in that I really enjoyed it. I've seen people contrast DeS and DaS so often that there does appear to be some considerable differences. So the differences there might lead to a game he enjoyed more. Or maybe he'd find DeS even more rage inducing, I dunno.

It seems like his issue is he just can't beat O&S, and that killed his motivation. I usually find with something like that, if I leave it alone a while and come back later, I knock it out no sweat. I don't know why that is, but it is. Perhaps the subconscious works it out during the interim.
Not being able to beat O&S hasn't helped anything, but that area is just a microcosm of the flaws I see in the game as a whole. I mean, even if I beat every boss on the first try, I was never going to go back and play this game again after I (hypothetically) finished it.

Even at the beginning of Beige Castle Land, I gave a heavy sigh and considered stopping right there - I was ready for the game to be over at that point. I was at a high point in my DS career; I had defeated the giant at the top of Sen's in only two attempts! But I was kinda hoping that Sen's Fortress was the end of the game.

The first half of the game (or at least what I THINK is the first half of the game) is good in a lot of ways. The world/level design is amazing. The atmosphere and sound design are fantastic. The sense of isolation in a hostile world is really cool - a lot of games try to impart that in the player and fall short.

But the good just didn't outweigh the bad. The controls felt klunky and awkward. To me, combat wasn't interesting and tense, it was slow and tedious. Once you figure out to block all the damned time and only take on one enemy at a time, it's mostly a waiting game. The character stats are... obtuse at best - "oh, I better google that shit" game play at its finest.

I really enjoyed exploring the game world through the end of Sen's Fortress. That part of Dark Souls is truly amazing. Just experiencing the world and the atmosphere of the game was worth the time I spent on it.

The strange thing to me is the internet culture around this series - that's at least half the reason I wanted to play the game - just to see what all the fuss was about. To some extent I get it, but to a larger extent I don't. And that's cool - personal tastes will differ.

But there's a lot of OoT-syndrome surrounding this game. You are "supposed" to like it, no to love it! The game is seemingly above criticism - anyone who points out flaws is quickly dismissed by people saying "git gud" and "you must suck at the game, lol." Saying anything bad about it is a major social no-no in a lot of the video game internet world. If you don't think Dark Souls is one of the greatest games of all time, there's something wrong with you, not the game.

That kind of shit gets old. Fortunately, Racketboy isn't that kind of place. ;)

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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

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marlowe221 wrote:The first half of the game (or at least what I THINK is the first half of the game) is good in a lot of ways.
You're not the first person I've seen say as such. A fair amount of people think the back half of Dark Souls fails to live up to the first. That's not my opinion (haven't played this yet), but I've read it quite a few times.
marlowe221 wrote:The strange thing to me is the internet culture around this series - that's at least half the reason I wanted to play the game - just to see what all the fuss was about. But there's a lot of OoT-syndrome surrounding this game. You are "supposed" to like it, no to love it! The game is seemingly above criticism - anyone who points out flaws is quickly dismissed by people saying "git gud" and "you must suck at the game, lol." Saying anything bad about it is a major social no-no in a lot of the video game internet world. If you don't think Dark Souls is one of the greatest games of all time, there's something wrong with you, not the game.
Well there's an aura of elitism that surrounds the entire Souls' series. I suppose it's inevitable given the high level of difficulty and the kind of players that attracts (assholes like me!). It may also be that the feeling of dark isolation the Souls' games accomplishes was a first for many players. Not many games get that right. FromSoftware's King Field and Shadow Tower games accomplished it previously, but hardly any Souls' players had played those (or ever will) to have an earlier frame of reference. So if that's a new thing to a player, it can be rather enchanting.

As for "being beyond reproach", I guess it depends on the circles you run. One of the other forums I dabble in, RPG Codex, has plenty of Souls' haters, who are more than happy to break the games down into pieces, and point out how each piece is flawed and contrived. And being as subjective as it all is, who's to say they're wrong? We can't all like the same things. It is very often that I play a very lauded game (critically and community wise), only to come away unimpressed and disappointed.
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by marlowe221 »

Exhuminator wrote: Well there's an aura of elitism that surrounds the entire Souls' series. I suppose it's inevitable given the high level of difficulty and the kind of players that attracts (assholes like me!). It may also be that the feeling of dark isolation the Souls' games accomplishes was a first for many players. Not many games get that right. FromSoftware's King Field and Shadow Tower games accomplished it previously, but hardly any Souls' players had played those (or ever will) to have an earlier frame of reference. So if that's a new thing to a player, it can be rather enchanting.
Some of the elitism is well deserved. To the guys/gals who are doing SL 1, naked runs of the game - much respect. I've played enough Dark Souls to appreciate what those people are doing and how much skill that takes.

The ones that annoy me are the try-hards doing the bandwagon jumping.
Exhuminator wrote:As for "being beyond reproach", I guess it depends on the circles you run. One of the other forums I dabble in, RPG Codex, has plenty of Souls' haters, who are more than happy to break the games down into pieces, and point out how each piece is flawed and contrived. And being as subjective as it all is, who's to say they're wrong? We can't all like the same things. It is very often that I play a very lauded game (critically and community wise), only to come away unimpressed and disappointed.
This is the part where I confess to reading NeoGaf on a semi-regular basis. :oops:

I mostly use it as a gaming news aggregator of sorts, but sometimes I get off into the weeds.

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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

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marlowe221 wrote:This is the part where I confess to reading NeoGaf on a semi-regular basis.

I mostly use it as a gaming news aggregator of sorts, but sometimes I get off into the weeds.

Don't judge me.
NeoGAF is good as a quick sample of the current gaming zeitgeist, keeping up with new releases and modern gaming hot topics. NeoGAF is terrible as a place of gaming discussion and community dissertation. There are some very knowledgeable people there, hidden among the droves of dingbats. It's just the signal to noise ratio is abominable. As such, I glance over NeoGAF's front page about once a day, just to see what's going on in gaming news. But I've never joined the forum, nor will I ever join the forum.
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Re: Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

Post by Segata »

marurun wrote:The wink was there for a reason. I'm usually the first person to stand up and say, "I don't like FF7 at all. I think the game is a mess."
Agreed. FFIX is the best FF on PS1 IMO.
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