Games you've forced yourself to play through!

[Beast]

Remember I told you that I've been stuck on a boss for almost a year and a half? Well, I've just beat him! He put that timer on my head again but I started switching paradigms back and forth and got him down to a little bit of health. The timer was still counting down and it was around 300, I just spammed the 'A' button until Lightning attacked again and luckily enough, she did.

 

I'm on disc 3 now. I love the game again!

[Blue Rogue]

Final Fantasy 13..... I kept telling myself it'll get better soon. After finishing it I want that time back Square Enix!

[MindFreak]

Of recently played games, Alice: Madness Returns was a chore to just complete. It was just plain boring.

 

Also, Rayman Legends was a bit of a chore in the end, trying to get the final achievement (Level 10 of awesomeness), and some of the Origins-levels were a bit boring after having played them before in Origins.

[Goron_3]

You should both try 5. I say this because I myself didn't really like III/Vice City/San Andreas/IV (played them just to see what the fuss was about, didn't hate them but hardly felt anything), but enjoyed 5. Don't go expecting miracles as the gameplay and the main missions are still mediocre, but it has such an interesting world compared to the others.

 

I gave 5 a go and stopped around 40% through. The City was pretty cool though.

[Retro_Link]

Super Mario Galaxy 2. I just didn't enjoy it at all really for what ever reason, but felt like I needed to play it through until the final battle with Bowser at least because it was the next big Mario game. Once I made it there and saw the credits, that was it for me with this one, traded it in.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Resident Evil 4.

 

Looking back, I think Capcom did a very good job at conning you into believing that it's a Resident Evil game. It isn't. You can pinpoint the series to this exact game where it went sour. I think I would have liked this a lot more had it been giving a different "cover". It's far too action-based, there are way too many enemies on the screen at one time and it never really felt like a survival horror, to me.

 

I struggled playing this. Generally, it felt like a chore to play. On the other hand, the Wiimote controls were kickass and it was "fun" to play, without ever the game itself being fun or...whatever it was meant to be.

 

Also...quick time events. Although people moaned about Wiimote controls being gimmicky, waggle-fest and so on, QTEs were and are still worse.

 

It's a shame because the controls are great, it looks nice and it's good what Capcom managed on both the GameCube and Wii. But, this isn't the game I wanted.

[The Bard]

Baboooor you make me weep tears of pity and woe. I finished that game no fewer than nine times within six months of its release.

Edited February 27, 2014 by The Bard

[Fierce_LiNk]

Baboooor you make me weep tears of pity and woe. I finished that game no less than nine times within six months of its release.

 

KHALEEEEEEEEEEEED. Did you have nothing better to do? :p

 

Ahahaa. I can't imagine doing that with this game. It didn't seem THAT fun to play through that many times. You should have spent that time perfecting the traditional KHALEEEED SAAAG PANEEEEER.

[Oxigen_Waste]

I can't imagine doing that with this game.

 

You played it wrong. Like you said "it never really felt like a survival horror". Well, it isn't one and it's not supposed to feel like one. It's an action game, and anyone who played it expecting anything but a complete redefining of what the IP was about was disappointed but they have only themselves to blame for it.

I love old Resi... REmake and 2 are some of my all time favourites (I did grow up playing 2, 3 and Code Veronica, but for some reason 3 and CV never really clicked like 2 does), but Resi 4 is just a masterpiece of game design, in every single way... the rest of the series just can't compete with it's brilliant gameplay.

[Blade]

Assassins Creed 3.

[WackerJr]

Once I start I game, I pretty much always finish it.

 

This is why Paper Mario: Sticker Star in particular was a very nasty endeavour of which I dare not speak.

 

I'm of a similar ilk. I finished the main game and then thought it would be just a short burst to get 100% of the stickers... Eugh, I still have hate in my throat for that long old unrewarding!

[Dog-amoto]

Borderlands

 

Played it to see why my mate was making such a fuss about it. Finished it, never really enjoyed it but it was playable. Just didn't want my mate to accuse me of not giving it a chance.

[The Bard]

KHALEEEEEEEEEEEED. Did you have nothing better to do? :p

 

Ahahaa. I can't imagine doing that with this game. It didn't seem THAT fun to play through that many times. You should have spent that time perfecting the traditional KHALEEEED SAAAG PANEEEEER.

 

It was the most addictive game I've ever played, everything from the core gameplay where skillshots to different body parts actually matter and have an effect on the way any given scenario progresses, to the way environments are stitched together with an absurd level of geometrical cohesion. How weapon upgrades were handled (which formed the largest part of my motivation for playing through multiple times) in a cumulative way, and secrets like putting collectables together to make more valuable collectables... everything about that game was perfection to me. And it may not have been horror on the level of the first few games in the series, but it had a tension to it that was real in a way that it wasn't in the original games, because there it came from your inability to properly control your character, whereas in Resi 4, it came from the very real threats posed by your enemies. I remember actively thinking while playing through Resi 1 that any given scenario would have been so much more placid if I could actually maneuver my character without bumping into a pole every five seconds. If your terror is coming from input difficulties, then that just seems like shit design to me.

 

I felt the quicktime events were pretty sparse and inoffensive, and you had fucking ages to react to them.

 

You played it wrong. Like you said "it never really felt like a survival horror". Well, it isn't one and it's not supposed to feel like one. It's an action game, and anyone who played it expecting anything but a complete redefining of what the IP was about was disappointed but they have only themselves to blame for it.

I love old Resi... REmake and 2 are some of my all time favourites (I did grow up playing 2, 3 and Code Veronica, but for some reason 3 and CV never really clicked like 2 does), but Resi 4 is just a masterpiece of game design, in every single way... the rest of the series just can't compete with it's brilliant gameplay.

 

I don't get the culture of telling people they "played it wrong." The whole thing that makes videogames unique is that they cater to a variety of playstyles. If your medium hinges on played input, it seems illegitimate to then go and say, no, your experience is invalid. Because it's not like he can then go and change it; the experience he had is the experience he had, and he's going to base his interpretation on it, and it's a cop out to then de-legitimise because it doesn't match the way you interpreted it. It's not like film or novels where you're 100% certain that the person you're talking to had the same experience you did.

 

Also, the playing of a game doesn't really have much to do with the way you interpret its tone does it? If he didn't like the fact that it wasn't a horror game at heart, that really doesn't impact his playing of it.

 

Babooor, heed the call, why the fuck did you not like this game. It doesn't jive. I don't buy that it's just because it was "called" Resident Evil, you're flip flopping between saying it was fun, but that it wasn't fun? I think if you'd given it a chance you'd have fucking loved it, and a lot of why you say you don't like it probably comes from you having rationalised afterwards that it doesn't fit into what you know as traditionally making up a Resi game. Play that shit again, I guarantee you it's one of the most rewarding experiences of all time.

[Jonnas]

I don't get the culture of telling people they "played it wrong."

 

You make a good point, but it should be noted that the mentality one has when playing a game is a big influence on their opinion. I've had two distinctive experiences when playing the same game before, simply because of the mentality I had going into it.

 

(Also, you're telling Flinky he played it wrong, but with different words)

[Goron_3]

I hate the fact that people played Resident Evil 4 with the Wii remote and not the Gamecube. I completed the Gamecube version of the game several times and the Wii version too, however the Gamecube controls are so much better. Why? Because the Wii version makes the gun play FAR too easy and it completely ruins any sense of danger or immersion. While the game is not meant to be a survival horror title and the focus isn't on conserving bullets, the game does make you worry about how you use the space around you and running out of space is an issue; it's not in the Wii version because the pointer controllers just ruin it by making it too easy. The entire game, including level design and enemy design, is based around using the GC controller and it's most prevelent when using the variety of weapons; the difference between the Blacktail and Red 9 for example is non-existent in the Wii version.

 

tl;dr

 

Play the game how it was designed to be played, and that is WITH the Gamecube controller. Or better yet, buy the Wii version and use the GC controller on it

[The Bard]

You make a good point, but it should be noted that the mentality one has when playing a game is a big influence on their opinion. I've had two distinctive experiences when playing the same game before, simply because of the mentality I had going into it.

 

(Also, you're telling Flinky he played it wrong, but with different words)

 

I'm not telling him he played it wrong, I'm telling him he refused to play it through all the way because of pre-existing expectations, which is different. In fact, he said he enjoyed it, but then doubled back on that assertion, which I interpreted as him wilfully misrepresenting his initial, ingenuous opinion because it doesn't jive with his idea of what a Resi game is and should have been.

 

The mentality one has is undoubtedly a big influence. My point is that no given experience of a game is necessarily "wrong" because it isn't an interpretation of a stable experience. The game experience is created in a different way every time someone plays the game; and by this I mean the actual things that happen in the game are created by the consonance of design and interaction, unlike in a book for example, where you might bring a greater breadth of background knowledge into it every subsequent time you read it, but the series of words and hence the ideas that comprise the text stay the same. So the way you felt when you played it separate times might be different, but neither of those playthroughs is illegitimate.

 

I was simply prescribing a (complete) playthrough for Baboooor that ignores its heritage, because I think it's a really fun game and I want other people to share that experience, not because I think his experience is illegitimate in differing from mine.

Edited February 23, 2014 by The Bard

[Jonnas]

I'm not telling him he played it wrong, I'm telling him he refused to play it through all the way because of pre-existing expectations, which is different.

 

Huh? I thought he played it to the end, like the title of this thread implies? And that he simply didn't get into it?

[The Bard]

Oh ok, maybe I misinterpreted, but my point still stands; he can play the game again, judging it on its own merits and maybe enjoy it for what it is without saying that his initial playthrough was "wrong," but rather just less propitious to a good time .

 

It seems that the whole of his problem with it comes from him trying and failing to fit Resi 4 into the model that defined the first few games in the series. There's nothing wrong with not liking a game because the way you played it wasn't fun; it's part of that game's design to allow that style of play. What I think is kind of unhelpful is judging it entirely on the basis of attitudes that you bring to it from outside.

Edited February 23, 2014 by The Bard

[Beast]

Of recently played games, Alice: Madness Returns was a chore to just complete. It was just plain boring.

 

I know right! Like, I absolutely adore stuff like this but I was surprised at how much it bored me! I couldn't even finish playing it though.

 

Same goes for Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The game was very stylish and I love watching people play it but playing it myself actually bored me. It's the first time I'd actually rather watch people play the game rather than play it myself.

[Fierce_LiNk]

You played it wrong. Like you said "it never really felt like a survival horror". Well, it isn't one and it's not supposed to feel like one. It's an action game, and anyone who played it expecting anything but a complete redefining of what the IP was about was disappointed but they have only themselves to blame for it.

I love old Resi... REmake and 2 are some of my all time favourites (I did grow up playing 2, 3 and Code Veronica, but for some reason 3 and CV never really clicked like 2 does), but Resi 4 is just a masterpiece of game design, in every single way... the rest of the series just can't compete with it's brilliant gameplay.

 

In fairness, I bought the game expecting a survival horror as every game before it in the series is a survival horror. It wasn't the game I necessarily wanted and for that reason we never got off on the right foot. I found it quite repetitive, there did seem to be occasions where there were far too many enemies on a screen at a one time (during some of the set-pieces, I guess you could call them that).

 

I can see the appeal for those who like and wanted it, but it's not what I expected or particularly wanted. I tried to like it for what it is, but didn't.

 

It was the most addictive game I've ever played, everything from the core gameplay where skillshots to different body parts actually matter and have an effect on the way any given scenario progresses, to the way environments are stitched together with an absurd level of geometrical cohesion. How weapon upgrades were handled (which formed the largest part of my motivation for playing through multiple times) in a cumulative way, and secrets like putting collectables together to make more valuable collectables... everything about that game was perfection to me. And it may not have been horror on the level of the first few games in the series, but it had a tension to it that was real in a way that it wasn't in the original games, because there it came from your inability to properly control your character, whereas in Resi 4, it came from the very real threats posed by your enemies. I remember actively thinking while playing through Resi 1 that any given scenario would have been so much more placid if I could actually maneuver my character without bumping into a pole every five seconds. If your terror is coming from input difficulties, then that just seems like shit design to me.

 

I felt the quicktime events were pretty sparse and inoffensive, and you had fucking ages to react to them.

 

The skillshots, upgrades and all are cool and I probably would have seen the game in a somewhat better light had it been given its own licence and not "tacked on" to the Resident Evil series. There were moments where I thought there were some cool ideas, but large portions of it just seem out of place to me. It doesn't fit. I saw a suggestion from years back saying that Code Veronica should have been named RE4 and RE4 should have been renamed something else, that might have helped, as the game is vastly different to its predecessors. I think a large part of it is that I'm not particularly fond of this sort of game, and whilst I can admit that there are some cool ideas, it just doesn't work for me. Therefore, I struggled to get through it.

 

Babooor, heed the call, why the fuck did you not like this game. It doesn't jive. I don't buy that it's just because it was "called" Resident Evil, you're flip flopping between saying it was fun, but that it wasn't fun? I think if you'd given it a chance you'd have fucking loved it, and a lot of why you say you don't like it probably comes from you having rationalised afterwards that it doesn't fit into what you know as traditionally making up a Resi game. Play that shit again, I guarantee you it's one of the most rewarding experiences of all time.

 

I thought I explained it earlier? Apologies if I didn't. It's fun in the sense of the Wiimote controls were pretty fucking cool, you had amazing precision to shoot wherever the fuck you wanted. In that sense, it was fun. The game itself, for me, wasn't fun. Same thing with Skyward Sword. Controls were awesome and in that sense it was the most fun I've ever had playing Zelda. In another sense, the game itself fucking blew. Like that.

 

I might give it a second go in the near future and see how I fare with it. I didn't have much motivation to play through it at the time and I was playing other games (Mario Galaxy) that were grabbing my attention. It could be a case of simply wrong game, wrong time, wrong expectations. We'll see. I'll let you know if I like it more second time around.

 

 

I hate the fact that people played Resident Evil 4 with the Wii remote and not the Gamecube. I completed the Gamecube version of the game several times and the Wii version too, however the Gamecube controls are so much better. Why? Because the Wii version makes the gun play FAR too easy and it completely ruins any sense of danger or immersion.

 

This argument doesn't really make a lot of sense. We can't on the one hand criticise the old games for being sluggish and unfair to the input method, and then complain when those faults are completely addressed and fixed. The Wiimote doesn't really make it too easy at all (unless there's autoaim, which I don't think there is..maybe you can turn that off?) You can still be a shit shot, for starters. The controls make it fair in the sense that the input method doesn't get in the way, it doesn't exactly what you want it to.

 

(plus, dual analogue blows for shooters. Once you've gone down the Wiimote/PC controls, you can never look back)

 

Huh? I thought he played it to the end, like the title of this thread implies? And that he simply didn't get into it?[/color]

 

Oh ok, maybe I misinterpreted, but my point still stands; he can play the game again, judging it on its own merits and maybe enjoy it for what it is without saying that his initial playthrough was "wrong," but rather just less propitious to a good time .

 

It seems that the whole of his problem with it comes from him trying and failing to fit Resi 4 into the model that defined the first few games in the series. There's nothing wrong with not liking a game because the way you played it wasn't fun; it's part of that game's design to allow that style of play. What I think is kind of unhelpful is judging it entirely on the basis of attitudes that you bring to it from outside.

 

I finished it, stuck with it all the way through. To be honest, in some ways, I probably did go into it with the wrong expectations. However, it was marketed as a Resident Evil game, it says that on the box, it was marketed and touted as being a survival horror (which for me, it isn't). It's in the same sorta realm as Starfox Adventures for me, it blatantly just got attached to the licence for the marketing, rather than being its own thing. Even then, discounting all of that, I found certain things annoying that I couldn't look past. The plot was pretty shit (it was a very poor continuation of the series story and it was weak in its own right, so it failed on both counts), I didn't really connect or feel for any of the characters, Ashley was annoying as fuck, Leon was a plank. The gameplay just didn't grip me and I was relieved to finish it because it meant I could put it away and start something else.

 

I realise I'll be in the minority for this one, and I'll give it another go in the future to see how I feel about it after some time away. But, for me, it's not a game that I remember fondly of. Along with Skyward Sword, I found both games very boring to play.

 

Edit: Long post is long. I've been travelling all day since 12 and have only just sat down (and am watching Match of the Day) so apologies if I didn't really answer an awful lot. Basically, I'll try it again and see.

[The Bard]

I'll keep your objections in mind when I buy my fourth copy of the game when it comes out on PC later this month .

 

Fair enough, I'll get back to weaponising my garam masala. The jihad must be fought on multiple fronts Baboooor.

[Fierce_LiNk]

I'll keep your objections in mind when I buy my fourth copy of the game when it comes out on PC later this month .

 

Fair enough, I'll get back to weaponising my garam masala. The jihad must be fought on multiple fronts Baboooor.

 

Fourth copy? You should be ashamed, brah.

 

DEATH TO ALL RESI 4 HATERS. I PUT A JIHAD ON ALL OF YOU. DUKKHA DUKKHA.

[Goron_3]

This argument doesn't really make a lot of sense. We can't on the one hand criticise the old games for being sluggish and unfair to the input method, and then complain when those faults are completely addressed and fixed. The Wiimote doesn't really make it too easy at all (unless there's autoaim, which I don't think there is..maybe you can turn that off?) You can still be a shit shot, for starters. The controls make it fair in the sense that the input method doesn't get in the way, it doesn't exactly what you want it to.

 

(plus, dual analogue blows for shooters. Once you've gone down the Wiimote/PC controls, you can never look back)

 

I wasn't criticising the old games for being sluggish, although most would argue that the controls are out right terrible and artificially make the game scarier than it is. I disagree with the 'wiimote doesn't make the game too easy at all; I recently finished a run of the game on professional mode using only the standard handgun (without upgrading), because it's basically a handgun and a sniper rifle in one and as a result it breaks the whole game. The Gamecube controller input never got in the way; the game and the enemies were perfectly tailered to the aiming speed Leon had and the precision the weapons had. The levels and set pieces are based on this too. Playing RE4 with the wiimote basically makes Leon invincible and vastly overpowered compared to virtually every group of enemies you encounter and it negates much of the strategy.

 

That said, it's still a blast. I booted up the wii edition on my Wii U yesterday and it's great in the sense that as it's so easy to pick up and play, but it gets rid of most of the tension unfortunately.

[Retro_Link]

Fourth copy? You should be ashamed, brah.

 

DEATH TO ALL RESI 4 HATERS. I PUT A JIHAD ON ALL OF YOU. DUKKHA DUKKHA.

Oops. Unlucky. :p