Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@NecuVise They just use the same advertising tactics as the washing powder commercials, my whites have been getting whiter for a very long time now going on that, and I probably shouldn't look at them for fear of my eyes melting from the brilliant whiteness...

@Dichotomy hahaha good comparison

I have a new unpopular opinion....wait for it...Horizon: Zero Dawn isn't very good.

I don't think it's a bad game, but I am confused about all the praise it has received, although I have an inkling as to why that may be in the current climate. I like the idea of robots and tribal humans (new and old) and the combat. The rest I have seen again and again. My typical play session entails opening the map, putting down a marker, running there picking up herbs on the way, fighting a machine or two, saving at nearest bonfire. Rinse and repeat. Some of it, you can replace "fighting a machine" with "finding a thingy". Again, not bad, but nothing we haven't seen many many times before. If Aloy was instead Alan, I doubt this would be as big as it is.

@Shellcore That's true of almost all 3rd person action/adventure games though.

I was fairly hyped by God of War, until I watched a good chunk of gameplay footage. It's beautiful, and well scripted, acted and directed - but the gameplay is much the same as anything else. That's just inescapable.

I'm glad that a good, pretty - solid game from a first party studio has a strong female lead. While those gamers of a certain age grew up with likes of the early Tomb Raider games and had no issue with playing as a woman - at the same time, the internet (as it was) was more concerned with the 'nude Raider' nonsense. I mean, she would've been a collection of a few flesh coloured polygons... but still - it overshadowed the game in some circles.

The rebooted Tomb raider has changed that depiction for the better. But for every Nariko, (new) Lara Croft, Aloy, Faith Connors, Heather Mason, Aveline de Grandpre - there's the entire female cast of Street Fighter et al...

Gaming is not new to strong female leads - but as the industry so completely pushes in to the mainstream of entertainment, it's nice that there is a banner title to hold up to show that gamers aren't just masturbating cave trolls addicted to pornography and Warcraft.

@KALofKRYPTON I agree with all of your points. This is part of why I believe HZD has been hyped to high heaven. My original post points out elements that you rightly attributed to many other games in that genre. The game just doesn't stand out apart from the combat and the protagonist. I disagree that gamers/game developers have something to prove, but that's just me. Creators will create and consumers will consume. Popularity wins out. My post had a hint of the political in it, but I would prefer to keep to the main thrust of my opinion that as a game, HZD was a let down to me due to familiarity and repetitiveness. I came late to the party (last week in fact) and I don't get it.

Edit: I haven't played GOW, but suspect I will agree with your feeling on that also.

@Shellcore I'd sort of agree with some elements, in terms of map markers, repetative actions. For me, the elements that I enjoyed was the character and story (which is entirely subjective) but also the combat. For me, I found I had some really memorable encounters with the robo dinosaurs that I can still recall them now, and I loved the amount of different tactics I could bring to them.

I don't think it is groundbreaking but I thought it had some originality. That said, I can see your points!

@Kidfried Thanks for the your viewpoints on the game. I thought the combat was the highlight. The way you could take out some enemies by stealth, thinning the herd, setting traps and focusing on weaknesses. That was the positive for me.
I think you misunderstood what I was getting at regarding the characters gender. Aloy is a strong character because of her traits and the story (especially the prologue before the more open world). The fact that she is a women is irrelevant. However, as has been leaned into in the posts above, Aloy has been elevated as a character because of this fact. Deserved or not, Aloy is the current banner bearer for female characters in games. This is very on trend and a clever (and probably well-meaning) decision on the part of the developer. I'm sorry you feel the that way you do.

Edit: Reading back, it looks like we share the same view. However, as a game, I don't believe the hype was justified. Gender, Race, Religion or Political slant should not colour the subjective review of gameplay.

@Kidfried No, I think you did the right thing. You sensed bigotry and called it out. I still think this is a good game, however like you said, just not as ground-breaking as I expected (which is completely my bad). Still looking forward to the inevitable sequel.

@Shellcore I enjoyed HZD a lot to the point that I did 100% trophies for it, including beating it the second time on ultra hard, and I think that's the first game since half-life 2 that I've beaten two times.

In spite of this, I agree with you. It really feels like a ubisoft game, but the setting, graphics and combat is what I liked really much. I'm also glad that Aloy was portrayed as a normal girl not some super sexy female, as we often get in games.

I've noticed that Sony exclusive games usually get high praise both from critics and community, and that's why I think you have such high scores for GoW, even though it's a game of corridors and repetition.

@Shellcore
Unpopular Gaming Opinion: I'd rather have a Killzone sequel than a HZD one. (Even though I haven't finished Shadow Fall)

@KALofKRYPTON I enjoyed Killzone 3 last gen. Think it was mainly as I played solo motion only with the gun attachment. Also played it co-op split screen which I enjoyed. Heard mixed views on the game in general though from others. Didn't play Shadowfall. I suspect you may be right that it is indeed an unpopular gaming opinion haha.

2 very unpopular opinions:

1.Xeboblade Chronicles (Wii) is one of the worst jrpg ever released in the West. It encompasses everything I don't like about the genre but somehow manages to be so generic I can't even detest it with a passion. It could only be embraced by the jrpg starved Nintendo audience imho.

2. God of War (PS4) is OK. Just finished it and I am ...uuhm... adequately entertained.. It looks very good technically but I can't really say anything else sticks out for me. This is for the (straight white male) players.

I suppose the fact that I'm not totally against cross play counts for this. I wouldn't mind seeing it on PS4 or PS5, but I understand why it's not happening, even if I don't think it would hurt Sony much, if at all.

My whole stance on the entire thing is weird. I wouldn't mind it, but I don't think it's essential, or THAT big a deal, or hate it.

@DerMeister the same, people are blowing it up far too much especially for a service that's not important and not really needed

A bit like Backwards Compatibility

@BAMozzy Backwards compatibility is extremely important and needed. The more time passes the more older games becomes much more interesting and important for me than newer ones. I would rather play for the 90th time an old game that I really love than try a new one that I'm not sure about.

@LuckyLand Its not really 'needed' if you still have your existing hardware. If you already own the games, then you must have already owned a console on which to play these. BC may make it more convenient than connecting two consoles to a TV but its not 'important' or 'necessary' - its desirable at best.

Given the choice of keeping my PS4 and have a more powerful PS5 for the money or sacrifice power on the PS5 to incorporate the necessary hardware to ensure that 'every' game from the PS4 runs as it should, I would rather keep my PS4 and have a much more powerful PS5.

Its not as simple as just allowing the games to run on the much higher spec consoles. Even the 'boost' mode on PS4 which only changes up the clock speed a bit can affect the way games run. On PC, they are built to run on variable hardware and, if you upgrade, you can often find new drivers to ensure your old library continues to run. The OG PS3 built in a PS2 into it so it could offer BC - One of the big reasons it cost so much and why the revision, which removed that, cost a lot less. You could have 'some' games that work on the new hardware but then you will get the situation where some of the games you really really wanted won't work. On XB1, you only get around a quarter of the 360games that work, on 360 you had less than half of the OG Xbox games that would run. Total BC is incredibly difficult and unlikely - unless you want to build in the old gen into the new gen or use some 'emulation' software - which isn't always that successful with every game either.

Its easier to keep your old hardware to ensure you always have access to all your games and if old games is MOST important to you, then it makes even more sense to keep hold of it.

@BAMozzy I still have older hardware and games, but I keep it only because I loved it too much and I just can't give it away because of that (I've kept only my favourite consoles), it is just too inconvenient and annoying to plug them to the tv everytime. Not to mention that I would need adapters to plug them to the tv I have today and the image quality would probably be worse than playing them on the newer consoles anyway.
I love those games, but really it is so annoying setting everything up that I prefer to renounce playing them or use emulators on pc to play them.

@LuckyLand It is not for everyone and a very small percentage actually use BC on XBO (at least it was not paid much attention to it recently). If Microsoft were in Sony's position i doubt very highly they would support BC. Just like couch co-op, they will look at the percentages and phase it out.

I'm so bored by the BC and cross play stories now and I generally ignore them if I see any. Just an excuse for the media and fan boys to bash the PS4 over the head over and over and over and over.

@JohnnyShoulder Well that's absolutely not my case. I have never liked Microsoft consoles, maybe I don't love Sony as much as I loved Nintendo during the GC and Wii days but I have absolutely nothing against Sony either and for sure I don't want to bash the PS4 in favour of a Microsoft console.