Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@johncalmc true

@johncalmc Remake was one of the biggest letdowns ever for me... and I am unsure if I ever want to play Rebirth.

I actually really loved the narrative twists/differences in Remake, and enjoyed the 'fresh' spin on a very familiar tale. The combat is also exemplary, some of the best I've experienced.

But it was the side-content, and endless corridor segments + excessive padding that really turned me off. What could have been an amazing 20hr game was dragged out into a bloated 40+ hr experience.

FF7 remake had one of the worst combat systems I've experienced in an RPG. Real time or turn based, pick one.

@Pizzamorg Ok, I will pick one...

But it also goes for all hybrid real time turn based games, not sure I've ever played one that wouldn't have been better if it just picked one or the other.

@Pizzamorg For me the combat system was maybe the saving grace of that game...!

Peoples just too hyped with new Astro bot game.
But I'm the only one who still against with that game.
The kids games with cameo from rated 18+ other franchise, it's really disgusting for me.

@Malaise is it fine if you elaborate on a few of these? Because I probably agree with you.

@Malaise

"Gamers don't know what they want." Agreed. I think a recent example of that is Assassin's Creed Mirage. People have wanted the series to go back to its roots, but then this game came out and it was forgotten rather quickly. People seriously don't know what they want.

One of the first things I learned in business economics is that, as a company, you should give your customers what they need, not what they want. And I wholeheartedly agree with this notion.

"Ubisoft games are fun." Agreed. It baffles me when Ubisoft always gets called out for delivering unoriginal and repetitive games when in reality, basically all games are unoriginal and repetitive at this point. It all depends on how many of them you've played.

"Tomb Raider is superior to Uncharted." Agreed. I also think that Uncharted is severely overrated. The gameplay is the most mindless one I've ever experienced in a AAA game. It's just not engrossing enough and I genuinely don't see the appeal of it. The stories are great, but I'd rather watch them as movies. That's why I enjoyed the Uncharted movie way more than playing any of the games.

woah now, if thats ok then

whats the extra $10 for then? why not keep current gen games at $60.

@Malaise Of course. A couple definitely caught my attention. Basically a lot of so I’ll be doing a lot of quoting.

PS5 is easily the poorest generation.

Interesting, what bothers you specifically? I agree

AAA(A) isn't the way forward. Games need scaling back.
Celebrating failure is unhinged.
Ubisoft games are fun.

Agree with the first two. But can you expand on the first one? And what do you like about Ubisoft?

The Spiderman games are overrated.

I assume you mean the ps4 ones? Yes I agree. Not a fan myself. But what did you dislike about them?

Tomb Raider is superior to Uncharted.

I neither agree nor disagree, just need clarification cuz there’s three different trilogies. Which one are you referring to?

The element of "fun" gets lost too often

I absolutely agree, but I’m still curious as to what led you to this conclusion. I’m interested in other people’s POV on this subject matter particularly.

@LtSarge @Malaise

Yes! Uncharted gameplay is absolute A$$ 😂 you can get locked in repetitive areas because of that A$$ gameplay for a headache inducingly long time too and it makes me want to hate the games. But I still really like all of them, in spite of all that 😅 I think I like a lot of games in spite of various things, to be honest, but that is probably the most glaring example, and it is because of the heart and soul of the games and characters within, which Uncharted nails.

I keep meaning to try out the modern Tomb Raider series but never get round to it. Maybe I did the intro of one game, I cant quite remember if I did, or of it was just watching the start of a walk through 😅 I think because I've expanded the types of games I play genre wise there are less periods in a year where I think "there's nothing for me right now, I'll go play something I've missed out on"

I also very much agree with pretty much everything said about Ubisoft, Spider Man and Horizon. Apart from visually the SIE games have more polish, they are of pretty much the same quality gameplay, writing and open world style, but I usually have more fun in Ubisoft games while I'm at it. Spider Man 2 really annoyed me at how little they had changed the formula, because the formula is much less fun than Ubi's and people gush about them like they are something special 😅 and I also fell off Horizon 2, despite it looking really good. They are just slightly less tasty comfort food, for me, but with shiny wrappers and a big price tag.

Ghost of Tsushima is the one that is a little different, as even though it is itself quite like a Ubisoft game, they do have more quality emotional writing, which is the one area I want Ubi to improve most.

Oh and also, Eastern Developers and European Developers > American Developers is maybe what you meant 😉

@Malaise I do feel like I need to comment on the Uncharted vs. Tomb Raider debate. 😄 Especially since I recently put it out there that I wanted a new Uncharted (and a new Tomb Raider)

I think overall I agree, I like Tomb Raider better but the Uncharted games are overall more polished. In the controversy of ‘gameplay vs. story’ I fall slightly more on the side of ‘story’ as my more essential of the two. Obviously we all want both a good story with compelling characters as well as engaging satisfying gameplay. Tomb Raider has an iconic and interesting main character — in fact I’d say Lara is the absolute queen of video gaming. However I think her story is more interesting in my mind than anything that has actually been put on screen. Honestly I think they could do so much more with her arc and most of the storytelling is slightly awkward. As opposed to Nate, Elena, Sully, Chloe, and Co. The Uncharted universe is so much better developed and enriched from a narrative standpoint. Even with the ludonarratvie dissonance.

If you just take the gameplay then I tip the scales toward TR, because of the better focus on exploration and variety of tools, skills, and move-sets available. It’s a tough call, but more varied gameplay coupled with a more iconic and nostalgic protagonist probably puts the TR series over the edge, but honestly depending on the day I might favor Uncharted, depending on my mood.

I had plans to replay the UC series just to see if they live up to my memories and I’ve only made it through the first one. I don’t replay games very often, so it’s hard for me to commit. I’ve had UC2 on the docket for a long time now. I wouldn’t mind playing the TR games again, and even going back to the classic remasters, but there’s simply too many games.

@Th3solution this gonna be shorter than my wordier replies mainly because I feel for a fact I’m revisiting this topic but for me I fall into the “gameplay” camp largely in fact due to repetition, in where I feel repeated experiences led me to more comfortably slip in and slip back into a mechanically cohesive experience. It obviously also helps that I feel more confident in my understanding of mechanical tropes and genius compared to narrative ones, where I’m confident I can explain and elaborate on the former much better. Another side of it is tangibility as well, but that’s ironically more abstract if you think about it. I feel I’m also open to game being more basic or more complex whereas in stories I feel less tolerant of narrative problems. I have some surprisingly harsh opinions of some game stories and stories in general.

Could also be the fact I interpret a gameplay error as a potentially honest mistake whereas a narrative issue can come off like a more deliberate statement and thus feeling more arrogant. In my own subjective views, at least.

Wait did I say this was gonna be short?

@Th3solution @Malaise while the comparisons between Tomb Raider and Uncharted are obvious (both series being about relic hunters like modern day Indiana Jones’s etc.) and long lasting (what with Uncharted being referred to internally as Dude Raider during its development), I actually think they’re quite distinct apart from the setting.

Uncharted just feels like a fun blockbuster of a franchise as opposed to Tomb Raider (the most recent trilogy at least) feels more like an action adventure. Now I do understand that both could crossover and be perceived as either/or depending on the specific observer… it feels a clear divide to me at least. And it’s that reason that I’m firmly in the Tomb Raider camp in terms of which I prefer… I don’t dislike Uncharted though.

@colonelkilgore that’s actually a pretty valid take. Their differences become quite obvious from the first few minutes of each. IMO anyways.

Good to know it isn’t just me @Yousef- , I wasnt sure that I’d properly articulated my view there… so nice to have a bit of confirmation 👍

@colonelkilgore on an unrelated note, it would convenient to be able to upvote thread comments without needing to reply, not that I mind either way, just here to extend the thumbs up back, ol chap 👍

@colonelkilgore Actually, you are pretty spot on. The genre similarity is actually looser than it would seem at first glance. The ‘ancient treasure hunter’ setting is only one small piece of how each game functions. I suspect this will become even more apparent when the third franchise, Indiana Jones, releases its game this year. The setup and gameplay of IJ and the Great Circle looks distinctly unique from Uncharted and Tomb Raider, despite our temptation to put the three in one genre together.

I suppose it’s like saying Sea of Thieves and Assassin’s Creed Black Flag are in the same genre. Or Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh. I don’t know — there’s definitely a spectrum there where these games that share a setting can probably be lumped together sometimes but it can do a disservice to the finer points of the game.

Nevertheless, I have to admit, even though two games may share only a setting and may be very different mechanically, I usually don’t want to play them back-to-back because the atmosphere and backdrop of a game is one of the first things that attracts me to a game. So I wouldn’t follow Jedi Survivor with Star Wars Squadrons, merely due to my need for a change in scenery. I played Marvel’s Midnight Suns pretty quickly after Spider-Man 2 and I think it eventually took some of the shine off of the game to have so much superhero stuff all at once.

@Yousef- As luck would have it, the colonel has already claimed the title of “the gameplay king” but I suppose we can have a Queen of gameplay as well.

And I say that a game’s story is ever so slightly more important to me only because I just finished (and enjoyed) Life is Strange: True Colors and have a whole stockpile of walking sims, visual novels, and choice-and-consequence (Telltale/Quantic Dream/Supermassive) style games that I adore. If I really had to have good gameplay then I wouldn’t have liked any of those nearly as much as I did. And I don’t understand why I like video game stories so much. We have TV and movies for that. But I just do. For some reason gaming stories hit harder.

@Malaise I think with Lara, there’s been an attempt to reinvent the character a few times and so it’s created some discrepancy in her arc. Having multiple teams and creators attempt to tell her story has also made for an inconsistent feeling. I think that’s one area that Nate and company have which helps. If rumors are true and the next Uncharted is made by a team outside of Naughty Dog, it might end up having the same problem, although the change of main character is likely to soften the situation.

And that the irony, is that Tomb Raider’s greatest asset is Lara, and so the franchise is completely dependent on her. Without Lara Croft, it’s not Tomb Raider. Uncharted was able to have an (arguably better) game with a protagonist separate from Nate.

Lara needs to go on an adventure where she discovers a half sister in Ecuador and somehow gets another strong character in the mix. 😅