Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

That depends, old god of war was more of something along the lines of DMC, the newer games have been compared to legend of zelda. And playing the Norse Duology and some of the previous 3D Zelda titles you can see many things executed in a similar way or even designed in a similar fashion. The jump to 3d for Zelda was not a vast departure on what the 2d games established.

God of War Ragnarok Director Reveals How a Classic Nintendo Game From the NES Era Inspired Him for the PlayStation Blockbuster

The director God of War Ragnarok reveals how a special NES game from Nintendo eventually inspired him for the PlayStation exclusive of 2022.

www.essentiallysports.com

I don't understand your point here.

Also platforming and exploration in a metroidvania is the same thing. hidden rooms are very often hidden behind platforming oriented challenges. You're not going for long lengths of time without some level of platforming involved in a room.

...That's simply not true. You could conceivably create a Metroidvania without any platforming because it's not integral to the core concept. In fact, I bet if I looked it up one exists. Let's see...yep. it's called Unworthy, I never played it but it's described as:

"UNWORTHY is a hardcore combat-focused metroidvania without jumping."

Platforming is so secondary to Metroidvanias that...it can be removed entirely. Try removing fighting from fighting games, or hunting from hunting games, or sports from sports games.

What you're confusing is concepts and execution. The concepts are not what give the games their similarities, but it's how they're executed and implemented in games.

I'm not denying platforming elements exist in Metroidvanias, some like Guacamelee actually focus on it heavily. But that doesn't change that Metroid and Donkey Kong have much less in common than Uncharted and Tomb Raider do with each other.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

All those games you listed have more mechanical differences between each other than the following:

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A lot. The only thing those have in common is that they're 2D platformers.

The pacing is completely different. For example Mario is a fast paced platformer and kirby is slow paced and more about playing around with enemies.

The games play different too. Metroid isn't even linear and Yoshi's island has large open levels. They feel completely different. Whereas the games I cited have one linear section to the other. Cover shooter, platforming QTE, cover shooter, etc.

Even the characters play different. Playing Mario won't feel like playing Kirby or Samus. Can the guy from Uncharted do anything other than Lara Croft?

And the games look distinct and different, instead of one gray blob after another.

 

[Mysterious Girlfriend X]

Command & Conquer was always superior to Starcraft, and the RTS genre would still be alive today if Starcraft hadn't gotten so popular.

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

I legitimately don't think I've played a Mortal Kombat game since MK3 on the Genesis.


Basically, yeah. As I think I said previously in this thread, it's one of the most generic RPGs ever made with a boring cast, bland writing, tedious quests, and brainless combat and it would've been forgotten within a year if not for the Star Wars license.

It's functional, but does literally nothing interesting whatsoever. It feels like a game that a middleware developer might create to show off an engine.

I think it's interesting as a piece of Gaming History if you care about gay shit like that, especially given how much you can see the seeds of Mass Effect in there (like how HK-47's style of speaking was repurposed for the Elcor). It's certainly true that it's nothing special from a gameplay perspective, but how many older games hold up in that regard? Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is also a janked out mess but is still played because of its writing and atmosphere (and facial animation artistry that still hasn't been matched imo).

It's also worthwhile just to prove that you actually can do something relatively original with the Star Wars IP that doesn't involve Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader.

 

[Matt Damon]

I think it's interesting as a piece of Gaming History if you care about gay shit like that, especially given how much you can see the seeds of Mass Effect in there

That's very true. It was the halfway point between Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect and it FEELS exactly like that.

It's also worthwhile just to prove that you actually can do something relatively original with the Star Wars IP that doesn't involve Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader.

Yep, I'd agree that's undeniable. It retains the vibe of Star Wars (which has proven historically very difficult for some reason) while doing its own thing and expanded the universe in ways that feel like a logical extension.

It's certainly true that it's nothing special from a gameplay perspective, but how many older games hold up in that regard?

Ehhh, I can't go that far - there were a lot of games that hold up by 2003. 3D games weren't just playable by then, but getting very close to the modern control and interface conventions we still use today.

 

[topsykrets]

I dunno if this is an unpopular opinion or whatever but I lament every time I learn a game uses UE5, every single game that uses it is blurry as shit and the colors are almost totally washed out, I fucking hate that every single materia in it looks like plasticine, and maybe it's just me but it feels like the games have a half-second delay even if the game itself is otherwise running great.

 

[Dojima's Dragon]

The solid writing was really what made those games like Uncharted and Last of Us good. They all feel like similar games now because they lost the one thing that set them apart. The gameplay was never particularly special.

I mean even then there was the first 3 tomb raiders and PoP sands of time trilogy which in the latter case has better writing than the uncharted series

 

[The Last Stand]

If you hacked Nathan Drake into Tomb Raider and showed it to a casual gamer there's a good chance they wouldn't know it's not an Uncharted game.

Except that Uncharted is superior to Tomb Raider. The reboot trilogy tried to be an open world, survival RPG while sacrificing exploration for a victimized Lara Croft.

 

[Thiletonomics]

The fact that Gran Turismo 7 is only now getting the C8 Corvette added to the game, when Forza Horizon 4 added it last January, is one of the starter cars you get in Forza Horizon 5, and the general lack of new non-Japanese cars for the most part, makes me wonder how people still defend GT7 as a game. It has snail's pace development cycles (5 years), it lacks cars from some racing series (i.e. no NASCAR, no IndyCar, no V8 Supercars), the single-player campaign (the Cafe) is lackluster, it's always online, and so much more things, and yet, GT fans still find ways to defend those choices.

 

[The Last Stand]

Madden has the best sports commentary yet in recent memory. That's it.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

The Binding Of Isaac has so many features that make it a shit game. There's a mechanic in place to keep the player from doing too much damage to bosses, so all damage builds feel useless and bosses ferl spongey.

There's a mechanic that keeps certain items from spawning if you have another item, but it's used to keep you from getting two powerful items, instead of removing game breaking synergies.

Some bosses can't even be beaten by skill. Instead you have to tank them cause they move super fast and splurt one million undodgeable projectiles.

The latest expansion is shit and it breaks more than it fixes, balance wise. There's too many shit and useless items that clog the item pool.

I hate that the game wants me to beat the shitty greed mode and on hard difficulty to unlock stuff. It's boring and repetitive to have to beat the same boss 10 times with shit items.

every single materia in it looks like plasticine

That's because devs are eager to show off UE light engine and don't know how to configure it.

 

[Stasi]

Since Bioware came up - Dragon Age Origins in not that good. It was a basic bitch paint by numbers retread of the tired formula Bioware had been using for years at that point and was just a lesser iteration of a dozen better CRPGs that came before it.

It's a solid game but nowhere near as good as people were saying at the time. There was so much hype you would think it was the greatest thing to grace a neckbeards computer. I remember causing a nuclear chimpout on a vidya forum I was on at the time by merely suggesting that it was good but not as great as people are saying.

 

[Therapy Dog]

I've never understood the appeal of Sonic.

I was born in the 80's, so naturally I played the game (the first one anyway, I don't know or care about how many there are or whatever), but I always thought it was just okay. I used to play it at my cousin's house and it felt like a generic platformer, like 80% of the other shit that was out there at the time. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't particularly enjoy platformers, but I don't hate them either. The only thing that stood out about Sonic in particular was the whole "speed/going fast" thing, which was really just illusory anyway.

Fast forward to the Internet age and people are fucking obsessed with Sonic. I don't know if it's just the character itself or if it's the gameplay or the world or what, but I just don't get the obsession. I couldn't care less about Sonic if I tried, he's an obnoxious blue hedgehog from a platform game. Other than tapping his foot and waving his finger at you to demonstrate his "90's 'tude", does he even have a fucking personality?

To be as fair as possible, I may just be missing something because I never paid much attention to Sonic after that first game, but eh, I really can't be bothered either way.

I just don't fucking get it, man.

 

[The Feline Solution]

All those games you listed have more mechanical differences between each other than the following:

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I'm asking you nicely here, please keep your shitty takes in the Sony Hate thread and don't spread it around. Nigger.

Anyway, he's just being disingenuous at any rate.

I don't think that i've ever seen a bigger contrarian/vidya autist than him in all my years on the internet, not even in all the time i wasted on /v/. This latest hot take of his is like ultra-high effort shitposting but i know by now that he's absolutely serious with his opinions.

 

[Calandrino]

I've never understood the appeal of Sonic.

I was born in the 80's, so naturally I played the game (the first one anyway, I don't know or care about how many there are or whatever), but I always thought it was just okay. I used to play it at my cousin's house and it felt like a generic platformer, like 80% of the other shit that was out there at the time. I'll also be the first to admit that I don't particularly enjoy platformers, but I don't hate them either. The only thing that stood out about Sonic in particular was the whole "speed/going fast" thing, which was really just illusory anyway.

Fast forward to the Internet age and people are fucking obsessed with Sonic. I don't know if it's just the character itself or if it's the gameplay or the world or what, but I just don't get the obsession. I couldn't care less about Sonic if I tried, he's an obnoxious blue hedgehog from a platform game. Other than tapping his foot and waving his finger at you to demonstrate his "90's 'tude", does he even have a fucking personality?

To be as fair as possible, I may just be missing something because I never paid much attention to Sonic after that first game, but eh, I really can't be bothered either way.

I just don't fucking get it, man.

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm asking you nicely here, please keep your shitty takes in the Sony Hate thread and don't spread it around. Nigger.

I don't think that i've ever seen a bigger contrarian/vidya autist than him in all my years on the internet, not even in all the time i wasted on /v/. This latest hot take of his is like ultra-high effort shitposting but i know by now that he's absolutely serious with his opinions.

He seems to get more and more unhinged as the PS5 continues to flop. The man’s entire emotional well being is directly tied into the PlayStation brand

 

[A Sentient Cloud]

The Binding Of Isaac has so many features that make it a shit game. There's a mechanic in place to keep the player from doing too much damage to bosses, so all damage builds feel useless and bosses ferl spongey.

There's a mechanic that keeps certain items from spawning if you have another item, but it's used to keep you from getting two powerful items, instead of removing game breaking synergies.

Some bosses can't even be beaten by skill. Instead you have to tank them cause they move super fast and splurt one million undodgeable projectiles.

The latest expansion is shit and it breaks more than it fixes, balance wise. There's too many shit and useless items that clog the item pool.

I hate that the game wants me to beat the shitty greed mode and on hard difficulty to unlock stuff. It's boring and repetitive to have to beat the same boss 10 times with shit items.

As someone who has wasted a truly fantastic amount of time on BOI, this is an interesting take. I wouldn't say it's a super common occurrence to end up with a build that one-shots most bosses, but it happens with some regularity, especially if you keep an eye on your curse/blessing rating and can grab a few angel/devil rooms.

I'm sure there's some sperg out there who's managed to beat Pandemonium, Hush, and/or The Beast with a shitty build, but I do agree that their attack patterns are kinda bullshit. Mega Satan is a good example of that kind of boss done right.

I don't *entirely* disagree that there are a number of useless items (looking at you, Dead Sea Scrolls), but I wouldn't agree that there are so many that they clog up the item pool. Having to make do with what the game throws at you is kind of the point, right? You can always restart if your current build isn't going anywhere, and you can usually tell that by 2-3 levels in.

Greed mode is a weird one. There are certain characters that are a lot of fun on it that are less so on the standard run, like Lilith, but I agree it can be a bit of a slog if you're a completist. Same for the challenges, the vast majority of which just aren't fun. Ultra Greed is definitely a frustrating boss, his second phase seems to deal damage way too randomly.

Cain and Abel can fuck right off.

 

[Stasi]

He seems to get more and more unhinged as the PS5 continues to flop. The man’s entire emotional well being is directly tied into the PlayStation brand

So this is what Chad Warden has become. Sad.

 

[The Last Stand]

He seems to get more and more unhinged as the PS5 continues to flop. The man’s entire emotional well being is directly tied into the PlayStation brand

Unless you have stock in Sony, there's no reason to be defensive of a console.

 

[The Feline Solution]

Unless you have stock in Sony, there's no reason to be defensive of a console.

I wouldn't be surprised if he actually has.

To get back on topic: I'm sick and tired of Metroidvanias by now. I liked the Igavanias (Bloodstained was disapointing, though) a lot but nowadays just reading that word as a descriptor makes me instaskip a game. Same goes for "Souls-like", "Souls-inspired" and "Survival", it feels like fucking Groundhog Day every time i check out lists of new releases.

Bonus AIDS points if it's in pseudo-8bit, another trend i hate with a passion. I grew up with the NES and know how genuinly impressive 8bit can look in games, 99% of modern 8bit stuff is made by talentless hacks and their product looks like dogshit. I blame Shovel Knight, which has excellent presentation, for encouraging all these inept designers.
Kudos to the few designers who started to work on new 16bit titles instead. Some of these 16bit games, like Blasphemous for example, look absolutely incredible and take a lot of skill and talent to be designed this good.