Topic: Games You Should Avoid Getting

@KAIRU One of the worst things for me with the game was the terrible save system. I don’t think there were no manual saves so you had to push on (slowly) until triggering something to happen and forcing an autosave.

@Thrillho I had forgotten how awful the saves were in that game! It felt like they were so few and far between.

The Professor Layton games.

I just resumed my playthrough of the second game, Pandora's Box, and immediately I was hit by puzzles akin to the ones in the first game, i.e. unnecessarily obtuse ones. It genuinely frustrates me. Not only does the game not want you to think rationally, it doesn't even explain the solutions of the puzzles that well. I barely had the patience for the first game, and while the second game started out with decent puzzles, they've quickly devolved into the series' typical insensible and ludicrous puzzles. I'm not wasting my time anymore with this game or this series in general. How people can derive pleasure from these games is beyond me.

@LtSarge Man, I love those games. For every obtuse puzzle, there are loads of smartly written ones that feel like a lightbulb moment when you get it. The matchstick one with the dog being run over!

The first six PL games had the occasional obnoxious puzzle solution, but, all in all, I was consistently impressed with the quality of the puzzle design. It only fell off with Layton's Mystery Journey, because the original puzzle designer died.

I was recommended Mortal shell as a Dark Souls successor. I would not call it DS anything save your sight.

@Sloane I bought that game on release and while I was impressed given it was clearly an indie effort, it definitely has many issues. It’s hard to say I ‘regret’ playing it, but I guess not everything I play can be guaranteed to be good.

So I just gave up on Racedriver: Grid on Xbox 360. I played it for about 10 hours but I'm just done with it now. There have been so many times throughout the game where I wanted to give up on it because it's just so damn challenging. I'm playing the game on the easiest difficulty and still having a hard time. I'm not that good at racing games but I really enjoy playing them while listening to a podcast, which is why I just turn down the difficulty and race at my leisure. That's what I did recently with DiRT 3 and that game was really fun. But Grid is just too hard.

There's a clear rubber-banding in the game where the other racers constantly catch up to you. Furthermore, the game has a mechanic where if you crash too hard into a wall, your car will stop working and you have to restart the race. This is typically something you can change in the settings if you want more realism, but you can't do that in this game. There are also no lines on the track that let you know when to speed up and slow down, which I need as I'm listening to a podcast in the background. Because of this, I'm constantly focused on the game, which ruins the relaxation aspect of playing a racing game for me. The handling of the cars also don't feel good and the tracks are way too narrow as you're trying to get past a dozen cars. It's just not an accessible racing game at all.

If you want a challenging racing game, then this one is for you. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend getting it. This is the first Codemasters game I've played that I don't recommend getting. They make otherwise fantastic racing games. Even DiRT 2 is way more accessible than Grid.

@LtSarge Forza (horizon) series is really good for that . Very chill and play at your own pace type of game, at least horizon 4 is. it’s the only forza ive ever played, but it can be very casual/accessible and the free roams nice too.

Star Wars Outlaws. I think if you want to play that then wait for a Sale. I'm not going to get into the reasons why I think this game should be avoided as I've already gone over it already and would likely annoy those that want to play it upon release anyway so I'll just leave it at this.

@nomither6 Forza, both Horizon and Motorsport, are easily the most accessible racing games. I've played all the Motorsport games except 7 and all the Horizon games except 4. I'm saving them for a rainy day!

It's actually quite hard to find other racing games that are as accessible as Forza. I tried playing Gran Turismo 5 on PS3 back in the day but I couldn't figure out how to progress. Also, there's no rewind feature. I have Gran Turismo 7 in my backlog so I'm looking forward to giving that a go down the line.

DiRT is really accessible and the later Grid games are good as well. In fact, I actually tested out Grid 2 just to find out if the entire series is as tough as the first game. That game is so much better than the first one. Literally everything about Grid 2 is better.

@LtSarge oh, you’re pretty much a seasoned casual veteran then! you know way more about racing games than i do, but i do have grid 2 as well, but wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to recommend since you didn’t like the first game & personally i didn’t like grid 2 myself - circuit racers and simulators aren’t my thing. i’m more of a midnight club/ NFS heat type of guy.

Glad you could find some joy in grid 2 though, and saving horizon 4 for later. youre pretty much set 👍

@nomither6 "Seasoned casual veteran" is such a funny expression but it might actually be the best way to describe me with regards to racing games.

I do have tons of other racing games in my backlog. It feels like I've played a lot of racing titles but they've been mostly Forza games. I've barely touched upon the Need for Speed games, although I have ones like Heat, Hot Pursuit and Unbound in my backlog. I also have Midnight Club Los Angeles and Burnout Paradise in my backlog. Genuinely cannot wait to sink my teeth into these titles in the future. I absolutely love racing games!

@KAIRU I never played it, but I did recently buy Still Wakes The Deep. Have you tried that game from the same developer, I believe, and if so, is it any good?

@LtSarge hey sarge you ever play (Split/Second: Velocity) Or (Pure) by black rock studio Good fun them games.
Game to avoid is call of duty on the Vita.

@Mr-Elusive I haven't played Split/Second but I do have it in my backlog! Pure was actually one of the first games I played on my 360 back when I got it in 2010. I didn't like it that much though. I don't think ATV racing is for me.

Senran Kagura Estival Versus PS5 via PS4 backwards compatibility. This game has continuous shadow flicker during gameplay. Whilst technically playable, you certainly won’t want to look at it.

Which is a pity because I enjoyed it on PS4 enough to want to play it again now.