Defend the games you love nobody cares about

Hey... Hey you guys. I LOVE Batman Arkham Origins. Like I think it's the best game of the three. Hear me out here. I HATE the aesthetic of the first two games. The art design is straight out of the late 80's early 90's, the Bane/Doomsday/Venom era where characters were EXTREME and every body was absurdly huge. The Killer Croc design in Asylum is a total joke. For my money Origins is the best Batman aesthetic design of the characters modern history. I LOVE Origins Killer Croc! I LOVE Death strokes incredible look, just terrific. I LOVE Joker. I LOVE the Bat suit! It looks absolutely perfect, and I love how the game is one part Nolans reality, one part Burtons Gothic fantasy, and one part the comic books/Animated Series.

At the same time, I love the story. It's not this crazy goofy too comic booky thing, it's actually very enjoyable. I understand that people are tired of Joker, but frankly it was such a well done version of him that I couldn't be bothered to be apathetic. The moment you hear that wonderful Christmas theme I was grinning ear to ear. It's like Heath Ledger and Mark Hamill had a crazed little Joker baby. Not to mention the gameplay was as good as it has ever been. The detective sequences were cool and engaging and the new toys were a blast to play with.

Honestly, I wonder why this game is thrashed almost across the board. I have to imagine it's "third game" syndrome, where a game is undervalued if simply because people have been there and done that too many times. This has happened a lot actually, and for some reason I always enjoy the third entries as much as the incredible second entry, while others give the game WAAAAAY too much crap for not reinventing the genre. See Uncharted 3 and the extremely underrated Dead Space 3, another game I might have to defend in this thread.

So what about you guys? What's that game that you really really love that for one reason or another seems to be disrespected in the community? FIGHT TO THE DEATH!

hmmmmm, I'm not gonna lie, i dig the art directions of Origins. It'd make for an awesome film. The story is actually good, unlike City where Batman all too eager to help anyone who asks for help, even if it's Bane or Freeze. But man is that game Glitchy, oh baby.

Speaking as a comic book fan, I'm always mixed on all designs. But Arkham Asylum had some weird choices. I really never understood why Carlos DAnda is listed as character design, when his work looks like they just threw it out a window and poured bacon grease all over it with some vain attempt at looking like Simon Bisley. But hey, right now I'm watching Batman Beyond as I'm typing this, so I'm open minding to different design. Origins had a better design sensibility but Arkham Asylum felt like a Heavy Metal magazine version of Batman.

I'm curious what's the future for Arkham Origins it could be the black ops to modern warfare of batman annualized games. The Assault on Arkham is really our only hint.... but then does that just ruined the rumor of a Suicide Squad video game? And also the news that it performed poorly then on sales, but WB games is willing to take a risk on anything, guess we will have to wait till next year to hear what happens.

I really hope we get another game from the same team with similar creative leads. I think it's telling that the new Rocksteady game seems to be leaning towards Origins artstyle as opposed to the initial approach.

@sarnecki:

I like the multiplayer in that game (Batman Arkham Origins). I have yet to touch the single player cause I have been preoccupied with other games. But, I think the multiplayer in that game was overlooked. It took the multi-team concept and made for a playable and fun experience. I've played a ton of multiplayer games and this one had some original ideas.

If I had to defend a game nobody cares about. I think America's Army the US Army based propaganda fueled multiplayer shooter is a really fun game. It has been Call Of Dutied a bit but remains to be a competent shooter with interesting gameplay and physics. It also manages to have complexity without being as Vinny puts it "Arma as fuck". Anyways, I think that is the only game I could think of talking about.

I actually liked Kane and Lynch Dead man. But I don't want to get started :D

I think you mean nobody cares for. A game nobody cares about doesn't need defending.

The Game of Thrones RPG - while it's middling, or even sub-par in most ways, the story captures the Game of Thrones universe perfectly, it's surprising and gut wrenching, and totally worth putting up with.

Vanquish is ridiculously short and dumb...

POY POY!

I, for some strange reason, ended up with a lot of obscure PS1 games in my youth. This one was by far the most fun. I only ever played against th ecomputer though, because no-one else would play it with me. I guess they found it too confusing and didnt know what the hell was going on.

Crimson Shroud is a downloadable 3DS title that is excellent, but I never saw much coverage of. It had a tabletop aesthetic, going so far as having all of the characters represented as figurines, the story is told in a well-written "Dungeon master"-y way, and outcomes of decisions are made by rolling polygonal dice in a little physics box. It took this "dice" concept a step further, as well. By combo-ing up attacks of different types, one could obtain bonus dice of varying sizes (from d4 to d20) to use on rolls as you saw fit.

It's a pretty awesome little game, and didn't seem to get a lot of attention when it came out. It's like seven bucks on the E-shop, I recommend people check it out.

I have 2, both games about tiny mechs for the Gamecube.

First is Custom Robo which currently has a 1.5 on the wiki. Great game with a ton of post game stuff, the combat is fun and the graphics are really nice for a Gamecube game that isn't developed by Nintendo. The story is pretty weak though, and it's certainly not as good as Arena on the DS.

Second is Gotcha Force, a game almost no one has played, found it an EB games on boxing day 2003 and have loved it ever since. It plays like Custom Robo but instead of changing out parts on a single robot you have a team of them, the maps are a lot larger and the story mode is way harder. There are a ton of different Gotchaborgs, ranging from ninjas to cowboys to dragons to entire battleships. It also has some great music.

I will also defend any Clover/Platinum game to the death.

I bought that on a whim on a Steam sale for like 3 bucks, you're kind of making me want to play it, with how average to bad the gameplay looked in videos I was worried the story was going to take a hit as well but if it's actually good I would kind of care more about the story in a GOT themed game then anything else anyways. (which of course has me super excited for Telltales turn at the series)

I kind of enjoyed The Tron Battle Grids game on the Wii, I dig "Hey guys, what if in the future sports were like, craaaaaaaaaaaaaazy!" type of games, and there aren't that many, Dead Ball Zone and Pitball on the PS1 were great back in the day but I haven't had much else in the way those games were, so the Tron game sort of scratched that itch, and the gameplay wasn't terrible, the light cycle battles were actually kind of fun and tense at moments.

I'll also throw my hat into the 'don't think Kane and Lynch were complete garbage' ring, although I did like 1 better then 2.

Also this is a bit of a grey area I suppose, it kind of depends on who you ask/what forum you wind up on. But I think Shattered Memories is one of the best Silent Hill games, and even found Homecoming and Origins both kind of fun.

I love games like Gothic, Arcania, Risen, Two Worlds, Divinity, Ventica, The First Templar, Game of Thrones, Dark Messiah Sacred, etc, etc. I love all those "bad" RPG games. Love them. They are just dumb fun.

Shadowrun, the multiplayer game on the Xbox 360.

Sure, it shamelessly used the Shadowrun brand for absolutely no reason other than to hook those who like the series. It also lacked a lot of content for a $60 purchase...

... but that game is the best Xbox 360 multiplayer game ever made. The races and their abilities rewarded skill and teamwork while still being easy to pick up and learn. It added so much variety to the combat in a genre that solely rewards "aim at head; shoot." And at a time where multiplayer games were hit-or-miss in regards to online connectivity, ping, and lag, Shadowrun was as smooth as like butter.

@sterling: I seem to connect to those weird (and usually) eastern European developed RPG's even through all the bugs and frequently broken systems. I think you get the sense the people making on it really loved the game and had a bunch of ideas. I'll always like a mid sized teams noble failure over a more polished game for some strange reason.

Modnation Racers was met with universal "meh", but I argue that it is the best feeling kart racer, even more so than Mario Kart. Mario is better in almost every other respect, but MR had great feeling driving and the customisation made it super fun. But yeah, the weapons and tracks are far better in MK, which in the long run are more important for a game you're playing with friends in a local setting.

The fact that this franchise has been abandoned should be considered a war crime.

Yo man, that opening cutscene of Crysis 2 where he Spartan kicks the guy was so hype!!

I really like Crysis 2. It is, in my opinion, the best game Crytek has ever made.

War of The Monsters is one of the greatest fighting games I've ever played. Wildly accessible, deep enough to feel satisfying when you get good, and a brilliant homage to the giant monster films I loved as a kid. The game's strength is in how easy it is to get involved and feel like you're doing something. I've played with buddies who refuse to touch Mortal Kombat because they feel embarrassed about button mashing, and they loved playing with me. It's straightforward, you don't have to know esoteric fucking button combinations (which still feel like a huge holdover to me, but I digress), but if you want to get really into it, you can master timing, animation reading, and counters. The arenas actually matter, the character builds are different enough for you to find a favorite, and the art style is so sharp that it doesn't feel weird playing it today (which is fucking rare for a polygonal game). I'll defend this mostly forgotten game to the day I die. If you're interested, it's on PSN as a PS2 classic.

Totally agree, i would even say it may be the best rpg(fantasy) story in the last couple of years. I think what makes it really good is how it carries that story line from start to finish. A lot of games lose that focus with filler, this stay focused throughout and only felt a little off near the end, but what an ending.Totally memorable.

My steam recommendation for GOT: http://steamcommunity.com/id/CitizenX3639/recommended/208730

Gitaroo Man is the single best music rhythm game ever made. It doesn't require defending, because it's brilliant. Not sure how many people even played it.

I love Breakdown, and would defend it to my death. But it's an xbox game, and it's old, and most people never heard of it. To this day I think it was amazing, and was judged pretty unfairly on a couple gameplay hiccups

Star Wars: The Old Republic is an awesome game. I am not a fan of MMORPGs or multiplayer in general and SWTOR is in my all time top ten. There is a huge amount of content and story in this game. There were times I sat down and played the game for eight hours straight. I don't do that. I rarely game for more than two hours a day, if that. I'm about ready to start playing the game again after a five month break.

I must inform you that you are not alone in the Breakdown love, I only played it once so my memory is a little hazzy but I do remember liking it a lot, and throughout I kept having 'woah' moments "Woah! This is just like the Matrix! Woah this is just like Mirrors Edge! Woah this is just like Half-life!" It was like a nice bundle of everything I loved all wrapped in one package. Going to have to replay that again.

@viciousbearmauling: Didn't know people hated that game. It's more of a game people simply didn't play, not dislike.

I'm not sure if I'd go so far to say I 'loved' it, but I thought Resident Evil 6 was really great, and thought Ryse was good. I also don't feel like defending it (I've done so to an extent in the past); it is what it is. People like what they like, dislike what they dislike.

@humanity: Everyone who has ever played Gitaroo Man (and a few that haven't) love Gitaroo Man

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was the business, son. THE BUSINESS.

@sterling:

THey aren't bad.... the rest of the world is bad for not preferring these games. I remember playing Dark Souls after finishing Gothic 3 and thought, "Dark Souls... Y everyone think u so hard?"

This does not mean that I agree with you on the lost Templar. That game is pretty awful...

My addiction to the discussion is the first Unreal game. Sure, it was released at the wrong time, between Quake 2 and Half-Life, but I stand by the fact that I preferred the ideas that Epic and DIgital Extremes tried to get across. Unreal was about a character that crash lands on the surface of an alien planet. It is your job to explore the world for any chance of survival. There is less of a combat focus than the competitors (still a LOT of shooting, but it is less constant than quake or HL), there is more to explore in this world, the path to travel down is not narrow (call of duty), or open world (crysis), but somewhere in the middle, and I prefer that method of level design. Plus the enemy AI is as intelligent as anything that has appeared since, and this lead to so some massive battles. This is the best example of a a game that shipped with dev tool (every tool the devs used to make the game was available... and with documentation set up to teach you how to use it if you are a n00b) The game also had one of the most robust multiplayer designs out there. Epic hired the developers the the quake multiplayer bot mod and hired them the officially do the same for Unreal, this lead to a fun single-player deathmatch experience.

@humanity: I will second Gitaroo Man being amazing. I mean seriously who couldn't love Mojo Mojo King Bee?

Far Cry 2 is my favourite FPS game. People hate it because of some AI issues and navigation issues - I think its the greatest FPS Style game ever. Why? Because I don't think its a FPS game at all. Its a First Person Orienteering Survival Game. I F'ing love that game. I loved planning out how to get to where I was going, which mode of transport I would use, which weapons, what time of day or night I would set. Sure it made no sense that the enemy outposts would respawn as soon as you were 50 metres away but I just took the stance they were hyper organised and added it to the puzzle of survival. The total immersion of never ever leaving first person, not even to look at your map, was incredible. I did everything there was to do in that game, twice, and Far Cry 3 was a bit of a let down to me. You had to pause to see the map......need I say more.

I really enjoyed the first Call of Juarez game. There's a maddening, horrifically shitty stealth sequence where you have to sneak around a series of campfires with a bow and arrow, and I loved it.

I agree with that. It's an obscure game, but anyone who disliked the game has obviously never given it a second thought because I've never seen anybody say a bad word about it. It's a great game.

Zettai Hero Project was pretty good guys.

I thought Crash Bash was pretty fuckin' dope when I was a kid. Never understood the dislike.

Anarchy Reigns.

( Look at the Youtube Comment Section of this vid. Everybody has a code that they live by in this game. Got to listen to the music while reading the comments.)

Anyway yeah, Warframe can start off slow, but gets more fun the more you play. Gotta build your character up and make em strong.

I fuckin love Remember Me. The combat isn't the most complex. It's less of a heavy duty fighter as much as a puzzle fighter, I guess. Everything else about it is fantastic.

@theht:

Just finished it a couple weeks ago, twice. The problem with the game, imo, it struggled on its vision of do i want to be a movie or a game. Either way, i had a great time with it.

I thought Prince of Persia 08 was a masterpiece. It may not have had an actual ending (even the dlc didn't actually end the game in a satisfying way), but it was a wonderfully relaxing and beautiful experience.

I also adored Arkham origins, because more batman is never a bad thing in my book.

1. Resonance of Fate
2. Infinite Undiscovery
3. Star Ocean: The Last Hope
4. Eternal Sonata

These games, made by Tri-Ace/Tri-Crescendo, have some pretty terrible voice acting and some stories that couldn't be sappier, but they all have unique battle systems that make them absolutely worth a playthrough. In addition, the visuals in these games, specifically the character models, are pretty fun to look at. They're short, pleasant, and forgettable enough to make a second playthrough still moderately entertaining.

Just talking about them makes me want to go play one.

Putting a colander on your head and wooden sword fighting until somebody gets hurt is fucking epic.

These for pretty much the same reason. I really enjoy the concept of a first person action/adventure with a decent melee combat system. I preferred the weird trippy story of Breakdown to the fairly generic dark fantasy story of messiah but they were both interesting and unique. Riddick also falls into the same category but I dont think that needs defending.

I also enjoy all Platinum games and buggy eastern european rpgs. But I dont think anyone hates those games, they're just fairly niche these days.

Also the Dead or Alive fighting games are great, obviously they have an audience otherwise there wouldnt be so much dlc for them but everytime I hear anyone talk about DOA they just cant get past the breast physics and oversexualised characters. Even Jeff acknowledged that there's a pretty decent fighting system underneath it all. While not as technicly robust as something like Virtua Fighter it has a lot more personality and happens to share the same universe as one of my favourite games of all time Ninja Gaiden Black.

Muramasa The Demon Blade is maybe the most under rated game of all time. Go play it on the vita or the Wii and it tell me I'm wrong. Was my GOTY last year

The detective parts in Arkham Origins were far from engaging. It was basically a game of find the colored dot.

I will back up people on Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and Prince of Persia 2008, I still remember downloading the demo for Dark Messiah and being completely blown away by the physics. PoP is just a gorgeous game, though that apparently doesn't show in screenshots. Also @falserelic the soundtrack for Warframe isn't just whatever eurobeat album i found with a google search? huh.

Inazuma Eleven is

No difference from detective mode in Arkham City except for the fact you had a rewind / fast forward option.

I guess I'd put Dark Messiah under that umbrella, with the caveat that I don't necessarily think that game is actually very good but actually made it more entertaining in some ways. Kicking dudes into conveniently placed spikes never got old.

I'll also advocate for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes. I never played the apparent travesty that was the original Elemental, but Fallen Enchantress is a pretty solid 4X game. It's no Gal Civ 2, but as far as Fantasy 4X games go, I'd take it over Warlock: Master of the Arcane.

@microshock: So what? The gameplay mechanics aren't the point or the appeal of those segments.

Space Harrier II is an under-appreciated masterpiece and I really wish Sega would re-visit the franchise with a full blown, modern sequel.