Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[The Foxtrot]

Everyone wants to be modern day Crysis, but they keep forgetting the main lesson of Crysis, which is art direction being extremely important. Because nobody ever posts the visual AIDS snow or alien butthole levels from Crysis in their "zomg best graphics ever" threads, it's always the nice, colorful tropical beaches of the first level, or the night levels and their crazy lighting.

And that's something that Crysis, aside from the Nanosuit, had basically none of. It was another generic Modern Military/Sci Fi FPS game that would explode most people's computers upon an attempted boot up. Almost nobody remembers the actual game, they just post screencaps of that first beach level.

They don't talk about the gameplay being nothing special ("you can interact with EVERYTHING!" was already done by the Half-Life games) at best, with the god-awful VTOL levels being the worst...so bad in fact that they were entirely omitted in the console re-release*.

There's a reason the game is mostly remembered for Destroying Your Planet Graphics Card and the "But can it run Crysis?!" memes. Because most people probably either played the re-release on consoles for a bit before forgetting they existed, or they were one of the few that actually had a rig that could fucking run it on release, and likely only played it to completion once or twice before never booting it up again...thus forgetting most of the actual gameplay and only (mis)remembering the best parts (namely, that first beach level).

*It's quite telling that the console re-release of the first Crysis was actually a recreation of the first game, minus the VTOL levels, in the engine of Crysis 2...which was actually made to be accessible to more platforms.
Turns out making a game that almost nobody could run at all, let alone a smooth framerate on the hardware of the time, wasn't the smartest move. Who'd have thought?

The main lesson of Crysis is actually that if you target only high-end PCs and snub midrange equipment (and therefore consoles), you'll hemorrhage money.

Meanwhile, despite featuring (by today's standards) boring and grindy gameplay, World of Warcraft has managed to persist. In the era of its heyday, you know what one of the biggest appeals it had was? You could run it on a damn office potato "PC" and still squeeze out a playable framerate to grind dungeons with your pals.

 

[Green Man]

Also there needs to be some kind of law against subreddit mods being people who work for the company. That's a fast way to make sure nobody trusts you when you can manipulate what opinions spread and what don't.

I'll never forget the hearty chuckle I got out of realizing that the dogshit Saints Row reboot [2022] devs put their fucking subreddit jannies in the end credits. Like I knew the sub was astroturfed despite not being any sort of official community, but found it really fucking odd how after the first trailer dropped, there was overwhelming negativity which by a few weeks later had turned into "wow you guys don't like the new direction??? what a bunch of incel nazi chuds lel" but the confirmation that they had paid fucking jannies was hilarious to me and they weren't even fucking ashamed of it. Of course as usual the sub had been raided by people from r/GamingCircleJerk defending the game to the hilt but apparently they didn't fucking buy it or play it considering Volition has now folded, a fate they richly deserve.

 

[Gondolindrim]

People mostly like MGS for the gameplay. MGS4 is like 90% cutscenes so when you remove all the gameplay only Kojima's writing which is mixed quality at best is left.

See also Death Stranding.

Forgive me sounding like an SJW but MGS4's cutscenes are also too weirdly sexual for me. Don't get me wrong, I love ass and titties but there comes a point in the 3rd post-boss fight striptease or the 9th time the camera goes up Mei Ling's skirt where I get a little uncomfortable.

 

[X Prime]

Listen to the fans or ignore us, but don't put on a show about how caring and "relatable" your employees are.

They have to do this, because certain segments of the population feel the need for a sense of relatedness with the product.

It is known that left-wingers in particular refuse to buy things they do not see as being in "their camp."

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

I think Konami deserves props for one great thing they've done recently: Releasing an official PC port of MGS3 in the run up to the modern remake of the same game.

Its not good though is it. Its only marginally better than the Silent Hill Collection for the PS3 which is not great. OG MGS3 was 3-5 GB maximum with all the addons, the port is 15 GB with no substantial content or graphical additions. Both run the same as well, the emulator one slows down a bit in the cutscenes but not much else.

Companies need to stop trying to control fandoms. Like the very idea of a "community manager" whose meant to be the middleman between the devs and the fans is absurd to me. Listen to the fans or ignore us, but don't put on a show about how caring and "relatable" your employees are.

Also there needs to be some kind of law against subreddit mods being people who work for the company. That's a fast way to make sure nobody trusts you when you can manipulate what opinions spread and what don't.

I really like what Gaben said about it when he said companies have to learn to trust the internet, if they bring suits and PRs who lie to the users theyre gonna post gifs of goats fucking the PR person on 4chan. All it took was the feds and corpos to pay off people to ruin the internet userbases, the US government learnt so much from Occupy and Chanology that its not even funny.

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars fucking sucks. Who thinks these controls were good? Who thinks the cops and wanted system were good? Who thinks all these terrible minigames were good?

It suuuuuuuuuuucks. It sucks so bad.

You clearly havent played GTA advance or the first two games.

"Role-playing game" is such a useless, intentionally vague categorization that it's not worth trying to determine what does and doesn't fit into it.

There are two categories of RPG I feel - the story heavy dialogue heavy visual novels with the barest of minimum customization they can get away with. This is the western CRPG school of RPG with examples like Fallout, Planescape, Baldurs Gate, Bioware, Pathfinder, VTM etc. Then theres the combat gameplay heavy games with ton of customization, material harvesting, leveling and level scaling systems, region locking progress all that. This is the JRPG school of RPG with examples like FF, SoulsBorne, Mana series, SMT, Dragon Quest, Pokemon, Lufia etc. Some games are in the middle like Elder Scrolls, Earthbound, Witcher, Deus Ex, Borderlands etc. Basically an RPG is any game which allows for build customization and player choice/situational options with a degree of non linear progression.

Also the movement in mario 64 is so ass, hes so fucking slippery especially in the ice levels. Jumping and positioning are cool but mario is so fucking slippery and the Lakitu camera is constantly fighting you for control. I dont know how people pull off these complex precise jumps by fighting the camera.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

You clearly havent played GTA advance or the first two games.

I think it's eminently reasonable to hold an original game from 1997 and a 2010 game from a mega-franchise with well established conventions to two different standards.

 

[Calandrino]

Also the movement in mario 64 is so ass, hes so fucking slippery especially in the ice levels.

 

[Dysnomia]

People keep calling things RPG's when they are not for example hack and slash games are not RPG's C Diablo you do not have any choices in that game it's a completely linear story nothing wrong with that but people need to apply the label correctly if the story doesn't change based on any of your choices and no matter what you do the ending is still still the same that's not an RPG either see fallout 4

I consider hack and slash to be a sub genre. Unless it's something more arcadey? I guess. Like an action game with not much else to it. But if I'm visiting towns and buying gear and doing quests then I'm gonna put it somewhere under the RPG umbrella.

Zelda might not be considered an RPG by most. But Zelda 2 has the most RPG elements of the classic games. There's even some level of customization in regards to level progression. You can choose how to level Link by holding back exp for later.

 

[Throng of Titans]

Almost all CRPGs made before 1999 or so are basically unplayable today, and even around the early 2000s they're still borderline.

They're almost always overly finnicky, super luck based, very tedious, or just plain boring. They also have an annoying tendency to carry point and click Adventure DNA with nonsensical puzzles or pixel hunter or "oops you didn't give that item to the right guy so now you're softlocked or stuck on the bad ending path".

There are exceptions, I found Neverwinter Nights's expansions to be pretty good, but I don't know how someone who didn't grow up with or have a formative experience with something like Baldur's Gate 1 could crack it open now and declare it superior to any newer RPG. I get enjoying stories or worldbuilding, but as games, no thanks.

 

[Pig Boss]

Almost all CRPGs made before 1999 or so are basically unplayable today, and even around the early 2000s they're still borderline.

They're almost always overly finnicky, super luck based, very tedious, or just plain boring. They also have an annoying tendency to carry point and click Adventure DNA with nonsensical puzzles or pixel hunter or "oops you didn't give that item to the right guy so now you're softlocked or stuck on the bad ending path".

There are exceptions, I found Neverwinter Nights's expansions to be pretty good, but I don't know how someone who didn't grow up with or have a formative experience with something like Baldur's Gate 1 could crack it open now and declare it superior to any newer RPG. I get enjoying stories or worldbuilding, but as games, no thanks.

NWN is great, you're right there. Have you tried Planescape: Torment?

 

[Rick The Stick]

Ark is just minecraft with dinosaurs and even more autistic. Idk why this shit seems to be so popular.

 

[Throng of Titans]

NWN is great, you're right there. Have you tried Planescape: Torment?

I'm torn on Torment. I like the story and appreciate that it's an RPG where you actually can avoid combat by being built for it and being clever enough.

It's still got issues though, chiefly that the combat is total dogshit, and while you can avoid a lot of it, there's still several mandatory encounters that you either need to exploit around, or just tank on the nose.

 

[The Foxtrot]

Forgive me sounding like an SJW but MGS4's cutscenes are also too weirdly sexual for me. Don't get me wrong, I love ass and titties but there comes a point in the 3rd post-boss fight striptease or the 9th time the camera goes up Mei Ling's skirt where I get a little uncomfortable.

No, I'm with you there. There comes a point where it goes beyond a little fanservice and instead to "Okay this shit is borderline pornographic and you know the developers would have made it outright pornographic if it wouldn't have prevented the game from selling".

If you're going to put a little fanservice in the game, fine. But if you're going to put a shit ton of Ecchi-level material in there, while getting as close to full on Hentai as you can get away with while still keeping below an AO rating, then you're going too far with it.

Ark is just minecraft with dinosaurs and even more autistic. Idk why this shit seems to be so popular.

This is exactly why. It's pure rule of cool, and also (kinda) scratches the itch left behind by the Carnivores game series, which was a hunting simulator series...but based around hunting dinosaurs (or for one entry, Ice Age prehistoric animals).

 

[xXx: State of the Union]

I hate hate HATE movie games/walking simulators.

But David Cage is the only one that comes close to getting it right, simply because there are so many branching paths and alternative options in his games that it feels like it is at least using the gaming medium for something more than just being a failure who never got picked up by Hollywood.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

I hate hate HATE movie games/walking simulators.

But David Cage is the only one that comes close to getting it right, simply because there are so many branching paths and alternative options in his games that it feels like it is at least using the gaming medium for something more than just being a failure who never got picked up by Hollywood.

Too bad they're now working on some licensed trash.

 

[Gondolindrim]

I hate hate HATE movie games/walking simulators.

But David Cage is the only one that comes close to getting it right, simply because there are so many branching paths and alternative options in his games that it feels like it is at least using the gaming medium for something more than just being a failure who never got picked up by Hollywood.

I actually grew to like David Cage games despite the guys I used to watch LP hating them so much. I don't know, they have a certain charm to them.

 

[Edgy But Dull]

There are exceptions, I found Neverwinter Nights's expansions to be pretty good, but I don't know how someone who didn't grow up with or have a formative experience with something like Baldur's Gate 1 could crack it open now and declare it superior to any newer RPG. I get enjoying stories or worldbuilding, but as games, no thanks.

Hey that's me. I played a little bit of BG3 (stopped after the druid vs goblin story), then I played BG1 back in November for the first time but I had no experience with similar CRPGs or old school 2nd edition DND. I can attest that the gameplay was a miserable experience, even more because I played Fighter, which I found out was a dogshit class.

The biggest problem is that there's really no deep strategy and the gameplay becomes even more stale when you realize CC breaks the RNG in your favor. If you don't abuse CC, you get to try your chance at RNG and pray the group of enemies don't all roll high and pop your character in 1 second. If you do abuse CC, you get to knockout an entire room of guards for 30 seconds so you can casually stab them all to death without worrying about missing. The balance is just all over the place with the game, like the part when your break out of jail and there's like a dozen lizards that spam a stun on you.

This gameplay very clearly sits in the camp of "the only people enjoying this gameplay know every single facet of the game so they can break it". The story and how it was told was phenomenal though and completely outdoes all the storytelling I've seen in nearly every game that came out in like the past 7 years. I was going to play BG2 but someone told me of how autistic it gets with mage bullshit as they scale even more out of control and I realized I just have no interest in wadding through all that shit.

Storytelling and worldbuilding has largely been poorly done in most newer RPGs but the autistic doorknob humping that passes as gameplay isn't something I miss.

 

[Fag Albert]

I think it'd be more unpopular at this point to say that BG1 is good. Even the guys doing the full bhaalspawn saga playthroughs usually just speedrun 1 to get all the stat boosts. I usually just end up playing Shadow of Amn because 1 and especially throne of bhaal get to be too much.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I think it's even more apparent when you realize that every game dev and publisher has been pushing for GRAPHICS GRAPHICS GRAPHICS but none of them have really managed to make a game that looks as good as Arkham Knigh

The problem is devs and publishers have to push graphics graphics graphics, else they'll be mocked when some rage bait YouTube channel finds a blurry texture when zooming in with a sniper rifle on a crisp packet in a hallway.

It's like this YouTube video (timestamped the relevant part) where he has the 1000IQ idea that maybe zooming in with a microscope shouldn't be the way to judge games.

This gameplay very clearly sits in the camp of "the only people enjoying this gameplay know every single facet of the game so they can break it".

A lot of 90s PC games considered classic are like that. System Shock 2 and Mechwarrior 2 spring to mind.

Forgive me sounding like an SJW but MGS4's cutscenes are also too weirdly sexual for me. Don't get me wrong, I love ass and titties but there comes a point in the 3rd post-boss fight striptease or the 9th time the camera goes up Mei Ling's skirt where I get a little uncomfortable.

If you're going to put a little fanservice in the game, fine. But if you're going to put a shit ton of Ecchi-level material in there, while getting as close to full on Hentai as you can get away with while still keeping below an AO rating, then you're going too far with it.

I never played MGS4, is it that much worse than the rest of the series?


I guess this counts as a thread tax, but I don't like this wave of puritanism that's coming about as wokeshit dies off. A lot of "Game devs should make the games they want." almost immediately followed by "These elements shouldn't be in games.". It's the same shit the left has been doing for 15 years. Some even going so far as to say Anita Sarkeesian was right.

When I see examples of what isn't acceptable, it's usually one of two extremes. Either attractive women showing half an inch of cleavage that would've been considered tame by 90s standards, or it's some fanservice anime game that sells itself on titillation; as if I'm supposed to believe that people want to play Nikke for the highly tuned gameplay.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

I never played MGS4, is it that much worse than the rest of the series?

It took everything that people had ever criticized about the rest of the series and turned it up to 11. It leaned into the camp, it leaned into the wacky, it leaned into ridiculous plot contrivance, it leaned into being a movie with only token gameplay, all that stuff.

If you love every other MGS game with no reservations, you might like it. But if you've ever gotten even slightly fed up with Kojima's bullshit in the previous games, MGS4 will put you over the edge.