I experienced this situation with Halo 4 somewhat. I enjoyed what I played but my friends were of lesser feelings. I think they might have had an affinity for Bungie and their way of applying things to their games. Since Halo 4 was developed by other folks, it does feel different in specific ways but my friends took it strongly and considered it as detriments.
For an opposite situation, I never really liked the original Portal after completing it. In short, the journey, the destination and the aftermath didn't seem exciting within the deliberately sterile environment. I had my reasons and everyone else I talked to about it were questioning me strongly.
In the end, it's all about personal enjoyment. You just have to take outside views as light as necessarily possible.
You know, if all you wanted to do is troll people that like Halo 4, you probably could've done it in far fewer words.
Sure, Halo 4 has its faults, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that it's "objectively bad". There's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying it.
i kind of had the same thing with Ninja Gaiden 3, except, well, that game in its entirety wasn't very good. i was oddly hooked to the awful multiplayer for a little bit, because it had some sort of weird appeal to it. i guess had it been a lot better designed, it would have been something pretty rad.
how did i stop? well, people just stopped playing it. i guess they knew better than i did.
I'm kind of enjoying Deadpool? I can dig the crude humour behind the character as it essentially nails the character right out of the comics but the gameplay... It's just never-ending waves.
Two of my more recent blogs were on this subject. On an intellectual level, I can fully understand why Dark Messiah and RE6 are bad games but there are goofy dumb things that they do right that really act as a draw. Of course, I'm also dead inside and derive pleasure from irony, so not sure how my situation applies to others.
I've never enjoyed a game I thought was bad, but I've certainly enjoyed games other people thought were. Alpha Protocol and Deadly Premonition both instantly jump to mind. I've also forced my way through sub-par games before, but I never really enjoyed them, I just felt the need to finish them or was just using them to kill time while listening to a podcast.
7th Legion wasn't a good RTS, the pathfinding was downright bad, the UI was unresponsive, the perspective on some of the sprites looked really weird and it had an unbalanced card game mechanic instead of resource gathering. But the music, cutscenes and atmosphere made me really like it despite all the issues it had in the core mechanics.
That's the example that comes first to mind, but I didn't think Daikatana was that bad either.
I recently bought Derek Smart's infamous/hated 3000AD/Universal Combat games, but haven't gotten around to playing them yet. so I'm not sure of what I'll think of them yet.
7th Legion wasn't a good RTS, the pathfinding was downright bad, the UI was unresponsive, the perspective on some of the sprites looked really weird and it had an unbalanced card game mechanic instead of resource gathering. But the music, cutscenes and atmosphere made me really like it despite all the issues it had in the core mechanics.
You know I've always wondered what that game was like. I came off C&C and Red Alert at the time and something similar with mechs seemed really cool, but circumstances just didn't happen.
When I first played it I hated it, but after playing alot of boring military shooters. I gave it another try and I enjoyed it, I even downloaded the Doctor Who Cloned Me DLC campaign. Which I thought was more fun then the main campaign.
I've enjoyed games critics and other people thought were bad. I've never enjoyed a game I thought was bad.
Example: I fucking love just about everything Atlus, NIS, Koei, Compile Heart, Idea Factory and all those guys put out. Cross Edge, Trinity Universe, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Mugen Souls, etc etc. I would literally play any of their games an infinite number of times before I ever took another stab at, let's say, FFXIII, a game I genuinely did not enjoy.
Its fine to enjoy anything, well as long as it doesnt hurt others.
I have a weird fondness for BAD movies. Like I enjoy great movies even more, i apperciate them more than most. But there's something just FUN about bad movies.
For games though? If I'm having fun, then it's not a bad game. Sure the mechanics might be objectively bad, the story/ characters might be awful, the graphics could be ugly. Whatever. But if its FUN its not a bad game.
Ok, ignore what i just said. I liked both Dead Rising, and Dead Rising 2, and yeah. Those are bad games.
Bad games are throughly enjoyable if played in the right context. Hanging out with friends riffing on how bad what your playing is one of the most fun times I have these days. Games like 50 Cent Blood on the sand, Afro Samurai, Alone in the Dark (The newest one), Bulletwitch, Deadly Premonition of course, Otomodious Excellent, Splatterhouse, Too Human and more. Games like these all have something good in them that's worth finding as well as copious amounts of stuff you can make fun of and laugh at. That and games like these show you how damn good great games are it gives you a grounding it shows how bad they could be.
Think of it like this bad games are awesome because things like MST3K are awesome enjoy them like that.
Personally I tried to like Bullet Witch but that didn't fly. The only other remotely bad game - Deadly Premonition - I loved because of the story and background.
@startedfromthebottom: I have liked games that are badly received, but I feel a bit weird about saying it is bad games. Being willing to gloss over glaring flaws is more how I would look at it. There are bad games also (in the sense of the irredeemable stuff where nothing works), but that is an unfair label to something like Dragon Age 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, or Hydrophobia: Prophecy.
I really enjoyed my time with Mass Effect 3 and Black Ops II which, if the internet consensus is anything to go by, are crimes against humanity on the level of child molestation and genocide.
The worst game I ever enjoyed was A Bard's Tale. Something about the companion based gameplay resonated with me, even while I noticed that there was something off about a game about a musician that has no soundtrack.
7th Legion wasn't a good RTS, the pathfinding was downright bad, the UI was unresponsive, the perspective on some of the sprites looked really weird and it had an unbalanced card game mechanic instead of resource gathering. But the music, cutscenes and atmosphere made me really like it despite all the issues it had in the core mechanics.
You know I've always wondered what that game was like. I came off C&C and Red Alert at the time and something similar with mechs seemed really cool, but circumstances just didn't happen.
Yeah, it's pretty much a clunky Command & Conquer clone with unauthorized Warhammer 40K units + dinosaurs, and the Killzone plot (compare: 7th Legion / Killzone intro cutscenes). I'm pretty fond of it.
It doesn't run in modern versions of Windows (flawlessly in Wine if you've got a linux box though).
Nope. I thought I could make it through FEAR 3 and Red Faction Armageddon, but upon realizing it's stupid to stick with a game you're not enjoying, I stopped that shit.
I've been pretty tempted to get Aliens Colonial Marines just to see how bad it is.
As for enjoying a bad game. Alan Wake comes to mind as does Wet. Not really bad games but the bad control mechanics make them bad in that respect.
If you haven't yet, you should play Alan Wake on PC, the controls feel fantastic with mouse and keyboard. I haven't played the console version so I can't comment on that, but you feel nimble and in total control on the PC version. If that is the only problem you had with it on console it's worth the replay on PC.
Also, yeah. I love bad games, but not all bad games. Some stuff like Aliens: Colonial Marines, and in my eyes a lot of this console generation, is just bad because it's offensively bland, not because it's incoherent or eccentric or badly made. So many games have been released even over the past couple of years that are blockbusters that just seemed like shitty games to me because of how much it all sticks to the status quo. Something that's ECCENTRIC on the other hand, whatever the eccentricity, I can probably find an enjoyment for. Dynasty Warriors? Sure. Deadly Premonition? Great! Sonic 2006? Pure fucking art.
I've been pretty tempted to get Aliens Colonial Marines just to see how bad it is.
As for enjoying a bad game. Alan Wake comes to mind as does Wet. Not really bad games but the bad control mechanics make them bad in that respect.
If you haven't yet, you should play Alan Wake on PC, the controls feel fantastic with mouse and keyboard. I haven't played the console version so I can't comment on that, but you feel nimble and in total control on the PC version. If that is the only problem you had with it on console it's worth the replay on PC.
Nah there's more too it than that though. I hate how running is so limited in the game and how bad the combat is. The only good things I like about it is the setting, story, cutscenes, characters but its just such a chore to play.
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