Games/Game series you want to enjoy and get into but can't

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

I used to have that same problem too, but I found that the fun comes from accepting and embracing the randomness. My issue now is that most older RPGs and GSGs are really terrible at incorporating or validating randomness. It’ll tout it, but it never seems to actually expect it or plan for it to be meaningful.

I'm no min-maxer but to set up an entire one-move deathzone in BG3 only to then either do zero dmg or do all the dmg just feels bad. RNG I can deal with. Having to rest after every fight I can learn to accept. But to do the deed and not be rewarded appropriately is off-puting and I don't even know why. I just watched a WWII bomber plane series and the way they set up for a mission, barely return alive and then do it all again is basically what I "hate" in games, yet present in the games I wanna play.

I think it's because barely surviving a fight tells me that they're the new standard and it's only gonna get harder, so if you're already behind, tough shit. Might as well quit. Few games actually do have spikes up and down that rather makes you think "phew, I'm getting a break after this boss surely":

Speaking from experience I felt the same with Crusader Kings until I decided to take the Dwarf Fortress approach: Just dive in, flounder and expect many hilarious losses before you finally get the hang of it.

See above. I wanna get into it so fucking bad and watched a 5 hr tutorial on CK2. I'm ready to really give it a shot but the entire notion of guides and tutorials is telling me I'm being too stupid for a game cause "nobody needs those anymore". Like cheat codes- when'd we last have those?

I've got a friend with similar taste who loves fighting games but bounces off anything that requires a lot of autistic planning like RTS or more in-depth grand strats. I think you probably just engage with games differently because you have a different way of thinking. Where I love menus, optimizing things and watching little guys running around doing stuff you like reaction-time stuff and being the little guy running around. Nothing wrong with that.

Ironically when SC2 was huge on Twitch I'd practice builder orders on repeat but never dare play 1v1. RTS and fighting games are on the same scale; 100% on you to win or lose. Raw zero-to-hero type shit. And likewise I'd see people "just play it" their way to gold and got so envious. I don't mind losing and when I finally got a leverless controller I was like "finally, no more touchy-feely about gates and joysticks and shit. Just raw buttons like a zoomer". Then hype myself up, practice a bunch, never go online, lose interest, repeat.

My issue with gaming boils down to what I'm losing out on. Having those 3 fighting games installed and visible on my list tells me "I could open up a whole new world here if I got hooked on these games". Or with CK3 or Trails in the Sky. Whole new part of gaming I've yet to explore; jrpgs, ttrpgs, RISK type shit. So I feel defeated and "why even bother" if I do then lose interest and uninstall Tekken or what have you. I'm not too jaded for games, clearly, but I just can't pull the trigger as easily. I'd genuinely have to sit down and force myself to play games, (probably enjoy it), but passing up on easy builders I could otherwise enjoy start to end.

 

[The Blue Morpho]

See above. I wanna get into it so fucking bad and watched a 5 hr tutorial on CK2. I'm ready to really give it a shot but the entire notion of guides and tutorials is telling me I'm being too stupid for a game cause "nobody needs those anymore". Like cheat codes- when'd we last have those?

Brother, for anything at the complexity level of a Paradox game or above peripheral materials (whether thats wikis, guides, third party tutorials, etc) are almost a necessity to learning the game in an efficient manner. A lot of that is on the developers, who do a poor job making accessible in-game tutorials for many of the more esoteric mechanics in their games.

Like, I've probably got well over 1000 hours of EU4 under my belt BUT if I hadn't learned how the trade system works from watching better EU4 players I probably would still not know all the subtleties of how it works. That's not because I'm dumb but because Paradox are a bunch of herring-niggers who've been amending the same code-base for over a decade at this point.

Hate it or love it, but a lot of the more complex and systems-rich games are like that these days, not even just strategy and simulation. If you want a bowl of slop deeper than rapid-fire button combos, thinking-man's slop, get ready to read a book nigga

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Those Dark Souls and Skyrim games. The Witcher series as well.

 

[Mnutu]

See above. I wanna get into it so fucking bad and watched a 5 hr tutorial on CK2. I'm ready to really give it a shot but the entire notion of guides and tutorials is telling me I'm being too stupid for a game cause "nobody needs those anymore". Like cheat codes- when'd we last have those?

Disagree with the other guy; all you need to do is run a few small games and fail a few times to get a grasp of what’s happening. The thing is with CK2 and CK3 specifically is that the learning curve seems steep at the beginning, but once you’ve hit 5-10 hours of actual play time, you’ll be 80% of the way to knowing how to play super-efficiently. The games themselves are actually way easier than they appear, and the fun comes from intentionally handicapping yourself later. Stuff like raising armies, declaring wars, intrigue plots, etc will make sense when you set a small goal and try to accomplish it.

The problem with tutorials and guides is that none of it makes sense because you’re not picking a goal you want to accomplish and accomplishing it; you’re following a guide and trying to accomplish someone else’s goal. Because you don’t know the end, you’re not going to understand how to get there.

 

[eDove]

The Binding of Isaac. Conceptually, I love everrything about the game. Its art direction, its story, but I could never quite get into its gameplay.

 

[Norstein Bekkler]

iirc the games are canon, so he's too. time to kitbash /yourdudes/

maybe some, idk. definitely not bludflagg's game tho, because the tutorial mission for each faction (6) has them kill another faction's leader. and kitbashing is basically impossible for bludflagg. he'd be boss sized, and the only freebootaz kit is arguably flash gitz (nob sized).
grukk has the right face structure and badrukk has the snazz, but neither really work for kitbashing because they're (respectively) monopose and finecast.
it's why even 13 years post release, the best conversion you can find is either 3rd party, or someone putting a shitty pirate hat on a standard warboss.
there's far cooler ork stuff than bludflagg anyways.

 

[The Blue Morpho]

Disagree with the other guy; all you need to do is run a few small games and fail a few times to get a grasp of what’s happening. The thing is with CK2 and CK3 specifically is that the learning curve seems steep at the beginning, but once you’ve hit 5-10 hours of actual play time, you’ll be 80% of the way to knowing how to play super-efficiently.

I almost made a carveout in my original post for Crusader Kings games, specifically 3, because of all of the paradox catalogue CK3 is the most "pick-up-and-play" experience available and pretty accessible for what it is. I agree dude can probably just boot that up and be fine after a couple hours. CK2 I think is more debatable, at least if you play with all the DLC enabled.

 

[Anti Alien Alarm]

Silent Hill 3. I'm sorry, but after playing the masterpieces that are Silent Hill 1 and 2. I just can't get into the third. It's too different; the plot doesn't grab me. Why should I care about this obnoxious girl?

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

The Binding of Isaac. Conceptually, I love everrything about the game. Its art direction, its story, but I could never quite get into its gameplay.

Seriously?! I thought people just tolerated the art because they liked the game so much.

 

[Ibanez RG 350EX]

the plot doesn't grab me. Why should I care about this obnoxious girl?

It never really gets any more interesting, either. The characters are bland with unclear motivations and a lot of the scary/disturbing stuff feels generic, like it could be transplanted to ANY horror game and still have the same impact.

The art direction is excellent and it may have been THE most visually impressive PS2 game, but otherwise it feels like a sequel that exists purely for the sake of making a sequel.

 

[eDove]

Seriously?! I thought people just tolerated the art because they liked the game so much.

I'm just hopelessly bad at whatever genre that is. I have a similar relationship with Cuphead.

 

[The Hardest R]

I’ve never liked the Bethesda RPGs. Seems like internet has come around to this opinion but there was a 20 year period starting with Morrowind where I’d get dogpiled for that opinion. I always thought they were bloated and buggy pieces of shit.

I’ve never liked the Souls series. I get the whole git gud thing but getting killed dozens of times unless I twitch roll just the right way is not rewarding to me.

Most roguelikes are just bad. When they’re good, I like them a lot but most of them think cranking up the difficulty or just various little fuck yous to the player is good design. It’s not.

 

[Down From The Champions]

Souls series. I feel if I got into the series when I was younger and had way more patience/free time I would of loved it.

 

[Lone Wandering Courier]

I couldn't get into the GB/GBC/GBA Super Mario games because most of them are super zoomed in and give me a headache. It's a similar reason I can't play (most) console FPS games.

 

[Rololowlo]

I couldn't get into the GB/GBC/GBA Super Mario games because most of them are super zoomed in and give me a headache.

When I was playing Untold Legends on my handheld it felt perfectly fine but near the end I moved the saves to my PC to wrap it up with more fastforward speed. On my monitor it felt like a different game, my first reaction was "was it really that zoomed in?" Handhelds are the only way I can play certain games because of that.

 

[Preacher ✝]

When I was playing Untold Legends

Found this thread because I checked to see if anyone else on this website ever talked about this old gem of a game, time for a bit of thread necromancy.

Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade is a game that haunts my memories, in a good way. I had a ton of fun with it on the PSP back in the day after getting into that style of game by playing Dark Alliance II on my friend's Xbox. Several times over the years I've gotten the itch to play it again but I know that it won't live up to my memories if I try to emulate it, just like Dark Alliance II didn't. The closest I've found in a more accessible sense is Titan Quest. However when I played that the old sword and board style wasn't as effective as a rapid fire poisoned throwing weapons build I ended up with and that, while still fun, completely changed the feel of the game.

Thread Tax:

Recently I bounced off of Albion Online. I got the MMO itch and it looked like a good candidate to scratch it but the combat doesn't feel good to me, I don't enjoy it enough to practice it and get proficient for PVP. Fishing was fun enough, but I leveled it past the safe zones so I would either have to just keep fishing in the same zones forever or risk getting killed by PVP gankers in the PVP zones when all I want to do is fish.

Aniother type of game I have a hard time getting into is MOBAs, they just aren't for me. Same with RTS for the most part, with a big exception for Star Wars: Empire at War with the Awakened series of mods. I'm not entirely sure why but when it comes to RTS games that one clicks for me and I love it.

On a larger scale Grand Strategy games are more often miss than hit for me but I do enjoy some of them, like CK2. However I really can't get into 4X games at all.