Raise the flame shield: Your "controversial" gaming opinion.

some dreams to give up on in my opinion:

Half-Life 3,
The Last Guardian,
(A 3d realms) modern Duke Nuk'em sequel,
Bad Company 3,
Phil Fish secretly making Fez 2
A future sonic game rivaling the orignal classics
SquareEnix remaking FFXII


time to move on
 
I think the Half-Life series is poorly written and boring. They're great with the polish and innovation in their presentation, but I couldn't be more uninterested in the story, world, and characters.

I know that Half-Life 2 was praised for not taking you out of control for Gordon Freeman, even while the story played out... but when the game locks you in a room and won't let you proceed until the characters finish talking, I'd rather just have a standard cutscene. If you're not going to let me proceed, then just take control from me.
 
I think the Half-Life series is poorly written and boring. They're great with the polish and innovation in their presentation, but I couldn't be more uninterested in the story, world, and characters.
thisguygetsit.gif.
 
I feel at some point this thread should be renamed to "List thread for videogames you personally dislike because reasons."

Not averse to complaining, just, truth in advertising or something like that.

In the meantime, I'll say that Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is the best strategy RPG I've ever played. And I've played a lot of sRPGs.

some dreams to give up on in my opinion:

Half-Life 3,
The Last Guardian,
(A 3d realms) modern Duke Nuk'em sequel,
Bad Company 3,
Phil Fish secretly making Fez 2
A future sonic game rivaling the orignal classics
SquareEnix remaking FFXII


time to move on
Bored, so.

Regarding HL3, I'll play it if it's ever released, but I'm not going to fawn over something that doesn't exist.

The Last Guardian... I wasn't a huge fan of ICO or SotC for a variety of reasons, so I'm not really looking forward to watching another game about an abusive relationship.

You can't really replicate 90s campiness again, so it probably can't happen. Duke Nukem was a product of its age, much like DooM.

I would like to see Bad Company 3 too, just not published by EA.

I hope Phil Fish has moved on, though maybe with a bit of humility about how interesting his games actually are (not very).

As with Duke, I see Sonic as a product of its time, though occasionally it produces some really cool music, so whatever it eventually becomes I'm not averse to listening to, though playing, probably yeah. The biggest issue I see with modern Sonic games is that they are no longer 2D platformers with limited, tight stage design. Also the illusion that they're games about speed nearly so much as the appearance of speed. They are, ultimately, platformers at heart, and the early ones were really great platformers.

I'm personally hoping Square drops the Final Fantasy franchise entirely, but I know that won't happen. It's a strange irony that while everyone knows the next Final Fantasy game is going to be bad, the Final Fantasy name also inspires hope that they will return to the faded glory of their yesteryear. The thing most people miss is that the older Final Fantasies were mostly pretty bad games too, but nostalgia colors a lot of that up when you don't have a ton of time to go back and play things as an adult that you originally played as a child. The series continues to both flounder and remain relevant on the laurels of a past neither its fans nor its developers seem to recognize for what it is and was. A pretty average design philosophy with ideologies mostly aimed at teenagers and consumption.
 
People are overhyping The Last Guardian. Ico was good because it was novelty at the time and I also liked the idea of protecting the white girl. SotC was fucking baddass and reinvented how bosses should be fought in video games. In TLG, the pet looks stupid.
 
PC gaming is much better for consumers than console gaming; the latter should die and go away forever. The only arguments in favor of consoles are very weak ones that hinge on old misconceptions about PC gaming being too difficult/expensive or consumers' irrational allegiance to brands that aren't doing them any favors.

No consoles in gaming would really be for the best: games that scale across practically all hardware, not missing anything due to exclusives and everyone gaming on computers ranging from easily setup Steam machines, high-end custom rigs, living room HTPCs, common workhorse desktops from Asus/Lenovo/HP/Dell, gaming laptops, Linux boxes, Macs, etc. I spent over $1K on my recent build a couple of months ago and it was completely worth it; games are much cheaper than closed platforms and I have more games now than I've owned on consoles in my entire life. You also don't need to wait three years to build an affordable PC today that will play every game out there on at least medium settings. I was on a $500~ budget HTPC before my current setup and and played more games than I had in years (e.g. Crysis 2 looked and ran better on my budget box than on PS3/360). One-console monopoly is really stupid for anyone who has read about Nintendo during the NES era and should never be considered.



I have an ongoing problem with a big chunk of Nintendo's fanbase, because I can't stand rabid fans and apologists that are delusional enough to think that "everything is okay" and that Nintendo can do no wrong. Anyone not so blindly and emotionally tied to Nintendo could see trouble has been brewing for years. I have owned many Nintendo consoles as my main gaming platform each gen and practically none from competitors, and still have been accused of having an agenda that involves wishing Nintendo's demise and feverishly desiring rival consoles (which I don't own) to triumph over its corpse. All because I can take a breath, step back and see that the company is fucking up in so many ways, like they've been doing since the N64, and that things will continue to worsen if drastic change isn't enacted.

Nintendo is yet again in their umpteenth severe games drought after yet again failing their promises not to allow another one to happen. I nearly vomit in my mouth when the unflinching fans come rushing in to defend a corporate entity that's performing miserably and not matching or surpassing the rest of the industry in so many crucial ways. One points out how there's SHIT on the horizon and it's always the same trite response: BUT Bayo, X, Kart, Smash, Zelda!!! Good lord, a meager handful of games scattered across the year and beyond, some of which I (and others) don't necessarily wanna play? Awesome. And then each post parroting the same anemic list of predictable, niche, forgettable or mediocre titles that have come and gone as proof that it's a great console with a great library -- same arguments as during the abysmal latter half of the Wii's lifecycle. Really? Come on.

And library aside, the 3DS/XL are such terrible pieces of hardware in this day and age that I can't bring myself to buy one unless maybe it were a bit over $100.
 
Here's a controversial opinion: Steam sales for the most part prey on suckers who impulse buy tons of games they'll never play just because they happen to be cheap.

The lower prices themselves aren't a bad idea, though.
 
Here's a controversial opinion: Steam sales for the most part prey on suckers who impulse buy tons of games they'll never play just because they happen to be cheap.

The lower prices themselves aren't a bad idea, though.
This isn't really controversial, it's pretty much known. It's why Steam sales exist and are as effective as they are. Though I don't think purchasers consider themselves suckers.

There are now tangential benefits to a lot of this though, such as digital artbooks and OSTs more commonly being sold along with the games, a practice Good Old Games instituted perhaps more successfully (or at least, completely).
 
some dreams to give up on in my opinion:

Half-Life 3

time to move on
It bums me out we probably will never actually see Half-Life 3. At best, you may see another game set in the universe (like Portal 3) but HL3 will probably never happen unless someone maybe takes over Valve who is adamant about making it happen.

I know that Half-Life 2 was praised for not taking you out of control for Gordon Freeman, even while the story played out... but when the game locks you in a room and won't let you proceed until the characters finish talking, I'd rather just have a standard cutscene. If you're not going to let me proceed, then just take control from me.
Really? I mean, there's some really nice cutscenes in games but I thought it worked well with HL2. Felt a lot more natural. None of the dialogue scenes in HL2 were that long anyhow.
 
I know that Half-Life 2 was praised for not taking you out of control for Gordon Freeman, even while the story played out... but when the game locks you in a room and won't let you proceed until the characters finish talking, I'd rather just have a standard cutscene. If you're not going to let me proceed, then just take control from me.

Wait, what? You don't like how they give you full control but in a locked room. So they might as well make it a cutscene? Well, technically, just leave the keyboard and mouse alone when they're talking and you've got yourself a cutscene my friend. Either way, you have to stay there and let it play out.
 
The only way to play Persona 3 is on the PSP with the female protagonist. Any other version is wrong.
This.

I think Persona 5 should've been a Vita game instead.

I think the only reason to own a 3DS is to play pokemon and Persona Q

I wanna play MK 8 but I don't want to buy a Wii-U

This Gen has been a shitty one so far.
 
Why the heck should Persona 5 be a Vita game?

Seriously, its an odd request when a port is likely to happen anyways.

The only way to play Persona 3 is on the PSP with the female protagonist. Any other version is wrong.

Give this man a standing ovation. The FES version may have better cutscenes, but its not worth missing out on all the quality of life changes the PSP version has.
 
Major'as Mask is a mediocre mess of a game.

Mario Galaxy isn't better than Mario 64

Suikoden 3 is a better game than 2

Mario 2 (USA) is better than Mario 2(JP)

Chrono Trigger is a good game, but vastly overrated

Castlevania: SotN is one of the weaker Metroidvania Castlevania games
 
Honestly I think this is one of the biggest factors. People try something and if they hate it assume it can only be because it's the worst thing ever.

But I advocate coming back to games (and anything else, books, movies, etc) years later to see what happens. Some might be surprised at their altered reactions. It's especially difficult with games because they're interactive. Players have pre-set expectations for how their current skillset and habits will interact with a game. If the game doesn't play with them, well, a lot of people assume the game is just made wrong. Sometimes that isn't the case.
There's always limits (I don't see something like Double Dungeon being anything more than "well I guess it wasn't THAT terrible") but it is something worth keeping in mind, ESPECIALLY with games you played as a kid because you literally may not have been mature enough to handle them then. Things can change as an adult too, but rarely as drastically, but then most things you experienced as a kid are probably worth revisiting just because of how shoddy your memory will probably be of it, I only consider myself as having watche Ghostbusters or Indiana Jones for the first time within the last few years despite seeing them as a kid.
 
Bioshock Infinite actually has very good combat.

I legitimately feel like a large portion of the people who say it has bad combat either just ignored Vigors and didn't try to experiment at all or just don't like shooters.

If you really think that, you really have to play Bioshock 2, which has combat much, much, much better than Infinite's.
 
I hate MOBAs. Everything about them is passive-aggressive.

-I hate fighting by dicking around to get last hits on creeps. It's so indirect and inane.
-I hate fucking around with a shop with dozens of items in the middle of a game with a million things happening.
-I hate how both of those require deep research outside of the game if you want to have any hope of making proper and timely use of them in-game.
-I hate how you compete with your own team for exp/gold/powers so you either have to be friends or discuss how you'll do shit for an hour so nobody gets pissed at each other.
-I hate how everyone acts in the moment so they get pissed at each other anyway.
-I hate how there are so many different characters with unique abilities and so the only way to properly engage with them is to simply know what they are capable of, which is knowledge only acquired outside the game or through playing hundreds of games. It's different from the same in fighting games, because those are solely about immediately testing each others abilities in full.
-I hate how you have different roles and winning or losing depends on the proper applications of those roles, but unlike RTS games, the awareness of what is happening in each and how to carry the pacing is split between separate people so everything must be communicated and understood on the fly.
-I hate how this makes everything in the game meta yet nobody can see or control the meta, making every important aspect of playing it a passive-aggressive act, which draws in those kind of people, creating a toxic environment in all but a committed serious team of people who play with each other regularly.
-I hate how this dispersion of awareness and responsibility allows everyone to blame everyone else for every minor thing, and even pro commentators can't seem to have a clear understanding of what made a win or loss occur upon review.
-I hate how it makes you feel the weight of what is happening all around you, yet every action feels meaningless until it is either nullified or enhanced by outside circumstances. It is just like baseball in this regard, and makes even winning feel disconnected from yourself and unrewarding.

hmmm, you just put me off MOBAS, they sound like shit. I think I'll stick to fighting games.
 
I have a few:

  • Bayonetta is not attractive.

The twist here is that Bayonetta isn't supposed to be attractive... at least not as an object of desire. She's supposed to be powerful. Her aesthetics are strictly for her own enjoyment, not contrived to please male onlookers (in a sexual sense).

But a lot of people never got it. Some male gamers even criticized her for looking "ugly" and not sexy like one of those Dead or Alive girls, unf unf. Conveniently reinforcing the statement of purpose Bayonetta is making.
 
  • I can't think of a single game that has come close to being as good as any game in the main Pokémon Series.
  • I do not get Minecraft. What is it supposed to be exactly? When does fun start happening?
  • Bioshock Infinite was one of the most boring, fiddly games I've ever played.
  • Half-Life is nowhere near as good as everyone remembers it to be.
 
Now I'm sure I will get a bunch of hate for it.

I find the original Deus Ex to be so damn boring and not very fun. I usually like stealth games but its hard to me to want to play this. Maybe its just me not being that great at it, playing the other games before it, or some other reason. I honestly had more fun playing Invisible War, and Human Revolution than it.
Except for The Fall. Damn, that game sucks.
 
If you really think that, you really have to play Bioshock 2, which has combat much, much, much better than Infinite's.

I have played it. No it doesn't lol.

The gunplay in Infinite is far superior. The only thing I liked a lot about Bioshock 2's combat was the drill.

Also I have a lot more issues with Bioshock 2, such as constantly crashing on PC and not even having an Eve reload button/key.
 
Honestly I think this is one of the biggest factors. People try something and if they hate it assume it can only be because it's the worst thing ever.

But I advocate coming back to games (and anything else, books, movies, etc) years later to see what happens. Some might be surprised at their altered reactions. It's especially difficult with games because they're interactive. Players have pre-set expectations for how their current skillset and habits will interact with a game. If the game doesn't play with them, well, a lot of people assume the game is just made wrong. Sometimes that isn't the case.

I think it's also about your life at the time. If you're generally happy when you play one game you're potentially going to enjoy a game you play at that time in your life more as opposed to a better game played when you are not happy.
 
I am an avid WoW player and I got thinking this when I was putting back together my computer yesterday after a small mod:

I am fairly certain no one enjoyed the Cataclysm expansion; people simply endured it. I can also add, one thing Blizzard took away from that time is the folly in following nostalgia.
 
had some of the indie games of today been released 10-15 years ago, they'd be freeware.

cant imagine you have to pay for crap indie games, while games like Eternal Daughter were developed for free
 
Persona 4 is overrated.

I tried, really. But the combat is so fucking repetitive and the dungeons are so incredibly dull. Also, the time line thing is super annoying and makes it constantly feel like you are missing things or not prioritizing properly. I can hear people saying "but it's meant to be played multiple times!", which is another reason I dislike it. I don't want to be required to play a very lengthy RPG multiple times to feel like I've gotten everything/done the best I could in a run. I liked the FF method of doing the main quest, and as many sidequests as I wanted to to beef up my party/get all the best weaponry & secrets, in one go. 60-80 hours, in and out, maybe replay in another 5 years.

Also, I'm just not that into the whole japanese thing. I like JRPGs, and a selection of anime, but I don't get thrilled with the notion of role playing japanese high school students. I was hoping the game systems would be enough, but I just couldn't get into it.
 
This thread is filled with poorly constructed opinions more so than controversial ones.

Agreed. I enjoy reading this thread, but bumping it just to say "I like Game X, I don't like Y" is not controversial or interesting.

Here is controversial:

Video games are mostly a waste of our lives and have stunted the growth and potential of numerous young men. In the book "Boys Adrift," Leonard Sax makes the compelling argument that today's scientific and military geniuses, the kind of people who obsess over perfection in their fields of expertise, have instead squandered their intellect and talent playing hours upon hours of challenging (but ultimately fruitless) video games. I think one example he gave was along the lines of the next General Patton languishing into his 20s in his parents' home with little motivation to move out and spending most of the day watching porn and playing FPS like Call of Duty or strategy games like Starcraft. Likewise, Patton himself would have been a lesser person or maybe never achieved anything if he had all of our modern-day entertainment distractions.

I somewhat agree with this. It's hard for a lot of us to find a balance between work and play and I've read at least one study that found kids who play video games are "dumber" and less motivated than kids who don't.
 
Naughty Dog is the Crytek of consoles, they make pretty games with god-awful gameplay. At least ND can tell a story to cover for it.

I've had every major console since Gen 3 (minus the Jaguar). I see no reason to consider a WiiU or PS4 this gen. The idea of a dedicated "gaming" console just seems antiquated to me now.
 
I've had every major console since Gen 3 (minus the Jaguar). I see no reason to consider a WiiU or PS4 this gen. The idea of a dedicated "gaming" console just seems antiquated to me now.
I don't understand this... Did you just not include the XBO, or do you not see it as a dedicated gaming console?
 
Agreed. I enjoy reading this thread, but bumping it just to say "I like Game X, I don't like Y" is not controversial or interesting.

Here is controversial:

Video games are mostly a waste of our lives and have stunted the growth and potential of numerous young men. In the book "Boys Adrift," Leonard Sax makes the compelling argument that today's scientific and military geniuses, the kind of people who obsess over perfection in their fields of expertise, have instead squandered their intellect and talent playing hours upon hours of challenging (but ultimately fruitless) video games. I think one example he gave was along the lines of the next General Patton languishing into his 20s in his parents' home with little motivation to move out and spending most of the day watching porn and playing FPS like Call of Duty or strategy games like Starcraft. Likewise, Patton himself would have been a lesser person or maybe never achieved anything if he had all of our modern-day entertainment distractions.

I somewhat agree with this. It's hard for a lot of us to find a balance between work and play and I've read at least one study that found kids who play video games are "dumber" and less motivated than kids who don't.

And there are other studies that claim playing video games improves hand-eye coordination, improving the hands of surgeons. That theory is worthless because it assumes that someone who had the capability to be that great a person wouldn't also be able to overcome his own laziness.

Here's the thing about these controversial opinions. They are controversial in one of two ways:

  1. On GAF
  2. In the "real world"

There are some opinions which, uttered outside this thread on GAF, would get torn to shreds. So they're controversial purely off the fact that some people don't feel free to utter them. Same with the second reason, honestly.
 
Halo is utter shit and only is considered good because it was the first shooter the 13 year olds played when they got their first game system.

and to keep it balanced

ICO is at best an OK game...

Sega fans are the equivalent of Linux fans, not main strem/under dog = bext no matter what

Mario is a self centered prick
 
Agreed. I enjoy reading this thread, but bumping it just to say "I like Game X, I don't like Y" is not controversial or interesting.

Here is controversial:

Video games are mostly a waste of our lives and have stunted the growth and potential of numerous young men. In the book "Boys Adrift," Leonard Sax makes the compelling argument that today's scientific and military geniuses, the kind of people who obsess over perfection in their fields of expertise, have instead squandered their intellect and talent playing hours upon hours of challenging (but ultimately fruitless) video games. I think one example he gave was along the lines of the next General Patton languishing into his 20s in his parents' home with little motivation to move out and spending most of the day watching porn and playing FPS like Call of Duty or strategy games like Starcraft. Likewise, Patton himself would have been a lesser person or maybe never achieved anything if he had all of our modern-day entertainment distractions.

I somewhat agree with this. It's hard for a lot of us to find a balance between work and play and I've read at least one study that found kids who play video games are "dumber" and less motivated than kids who don't.

I don't think you're wrong. We have a lot more distractions and a lot more tools and elements that facilitate and encourage leisure than ever before. Video games are but one of many of those things.
 
And there are other studies that claim playing video games improves hand-eye coordination, improving the hands of surgeons. That theory is worthless because it assumes that someone who had the capability to be that great a person wouldn't also be able to overcome his own laziness.

Here's the thing about these controversial opinions. They are controversial in one of two ways:

  1. On GAF
  2. In the "real world"

There are some opinions which, uttered outside this thread on GAF, would get torn to shreds. So they're controversial purely off the fact that some people don't feel free to utter them. Same with the second reason, honestly.

Atari made my eye hand coordination and twitch reactions mutant level, fyi, true story. All about the levels getting harder by just moving faster.
 
Uncharted 1 is overrated.
The gameplay is just straight shit

Couldn't agree more with this. I've recently gone back to play through the Uncharted trilogy and I'm tempted to skip the first game.
It's a clunky piece of shit most of the time. The jet ski section I'm working my way through now is horrendous.
 
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