Game franchises you just don't get?

Whether you don't get how they caught on, or maybe how one didn't garner the attention you thought it would. I don't get how Assassin's Creed got so huge. Maybe I'm just not drawn enough to that world. What are your picks?

Borderlands. It's shallow as an RPG (every gun being a slight variation of the same 5 types) and it's shallow as a shooter (enemies are nothing more than kamikaze bullet sponges).

It was enjoyable to play, but I don't understand how it became so insanely popular.

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

Heck I thought pokemon was a piece of shiet even when I was a kid, but adults playing it I just don't get at all.

Now I'm going to get lynched. :(

Final Fantasy.

It's just all so awful

Saints Row. That's a franchise, right?

Half-Life series and everything that Blizzard makes. Wether it's StarCraft, WarCraft or Diablo, I just don't see the appeal.

Call of Duty franchise, i just don't...

Metal Gear Solid franchise. I simply cannot fathom how people can hold that story to such heights, it's so damn pretentious and convoluted, and I feel that Kojima is in bad need of a talented editor to cut away all the crap in-between.

But hey, that's my opinion, and I mean no offense to all the fans of the franchise. I just personally can't understand what all the hype is about. :)

@OtakuGamer said:

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

yeah, as if people would just enjoy the game.

@Cincaid said:

Metal Gear Solid franchise. I simply cannot fathom how people can hold that story to such heights, it's so damn pretentious and convoluted, and I feel that Kojima is in bad need of a talented editor to cut away all the crap in-between.

But hey, that's my opinion, and I mean no offense to all the fans of the franchise. I just personally can't understand what all the hype is about. :)

should play mgs3 if you haven't. it's largely free of the technobabble and mystic shit.

@OtakuGamer said:

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

No, it isn't.

Speaking for my brother, who is about as far from a hipster as I could imagine, and who plays Pokemon near religiously, I can tell you that it's because they are really solid games.

Plus the whole metagame thing.

Lego franchise in general. I have a friend who absolutely goes bananas with every release, and for all intents and purposes the games do look engaging, but I don't really get it.

I was going to say Smash Brothers but I can see how that would be fun couch co-op, which I never play.

I'm gonna go with Metal Gear Solid. I did enjoy the first one, but didn't play 2 or 3 and when I played Metal Gear Solid 4 I found the story and writing to be completely unbearable.

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

If they're playing pokemon, they aren't adults.

@OtakuGamer

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

Uhhh.. No.

Metal Gear, same reason as Cincaid.

Uncharted, I really can't understand the appeal except it has nice graphics.

Borderlands, what a fucking bore.

Saints Row, Fable, Assassin's Creed, and Borderlands.

Uncharted, everything about them is so set up I barely feel like I'm playing a game. I did enjoy 2, but I think the amount of praise they get for being great games when they seemingly do everything in their power to be more like a movie has always struck me as strange.

Half Life, i said it!

The original got insane praise because for once it wasent a "get Blue Key Card" type of borefest that single player of Quake, Unreal, Doom and countless others had. But its multiplayer, which is more often than not the absolute core of a FPS game, it was still a good game but it wasent some "GAME OF THE FOREVER OMG!" after beating HL i went straight back into Quake and Unreal for the multiplayer action.

HL2 was even worse in that it had the annoying driving stages which really took the series down for me. Whereas HL1 was good but not great, then HL2 was average.

I think the love people have for Steam (which i understand) often clouds their judgement on all Valve games, they all get alot more praise than they really deserve, Portal getting GOTY nominations is down right absurd. There are plenty of great puzzle ish games that never even got close to a nomination let alone awards.

Gears of War

The first one got alot of attention because quite frankly it was the first game in current gen that actually looked far and beyond above anything the Xbox, GC and PS2 could do. And that is all there was to it

After that and 2 sequels i don't see the appeal at all, its quite simple: The actual gunplay and overall gameplay is something that will entertain you for 4-5 hours but after that it is constant deja vu. These games simply do not have the depth that most shooters today have. Even the most hated series in gaming today, Call of Duty, requires far more from the player than GoW games do, yet because of their popularity they get alot more hate.

Crysis. 
I never found a single sane person with a functional brain who found the story "great" yet there people are, suddenly spazzing out about it because it was cool to like the first game all of a sudden 
 
Edit: Also yes, Half-Life is on the list too.  
Never got what was so amazing about Waiting For Elevator 1 and 2 and the episodes. 

@ZeForgotten said:

Crysis. I never found a single sane person with a functional brain who found the story "great" yet there people are, suddenly spazzing out about it because it was cool to like the first game all of a sudden

dem graphics

Just Cause 2, i never got over the controls in that game, so frustrating. Saints row the third, the story was great but the part were you shoot the guns i didn't like, got super boring.

Fuck you guys, Pokemon is great.

Fuck you guys, Half Life is great

@L44 said:

Fuck you guys, Pokemon is great.

No it's not. Also:

Batman. I played most of Arkham and it was alright, but really nothing special to me. But it's still a well made game, and I do understand it, but hell I enjoyed Prototype more that year.

Overall though, don't really have any franchises like this in games, it's quite easy to see why certain things are popular.

I don't get why people hold Halo to such a high regard. Has always seemed to me to be the most generic space FPS devised with monotonous, boring enemies. I just recently learned that apparently "combat puzzle" is a term used to describe it but playing through Reach on Legendary I felt very little strategy ever involved unless the completely basic elements such as how to approach a heavily armored bad guy as opposed to a light grunt is what this whole "puzzle" thing is about.

@Castiel said:

@L44 said:

Fuck you guys, Pokemon is great.

No it's not. Also:

The first Half Life I understand the praise. It did things with story that other FPS games didn't even get close to. But Half Life 2 ... was a first person shooter with physics puzzles. People get asked "best games of last ten years" or even worse, "most influential", and they say Half-Life 2 and I just wonder what game they were playing. Especially since the most important thing about both those Half-Life games wasn't the story or even the gameplay; it was the engine. Half-Life mods were bigger than the Half-Life campaign ever was. Source (and Steam) meant more than HL2.

I get why Portal is good; the writing is super clever. But it's still puzzle rooms. We've seen what Portal without the writing is; Quantum Conundrum. I don't like Portal because I like puzzles to break up action, not action to break up puzzles.

@OtakuGamer said:

@Toms115 said:

@OtakuGamer said:

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

yeah, as if people would just enjoy the game.

For someone who has to encounter these people on a daily basis. I can assure you they do not play it because it’s fun.

Maybe there are people out there who genuinely enjoy Pokemon, it’s not a bad game per say. I just never really encountered one that does.

I play with a big group of friends. We enjoy the surprising depth of the RPG mechanics and, most of all, the ability to create a team and battle each other to the death.

Devil May Cry types games do not make sense to me. Mostly a "and this is fun because?" sense.

Halo tends to get points for having varied areas and good pacing (aside from Halo 1 library). Its also is not a shoulder high wall simulator. Not that it is neccessarily doing something super exceptional, but it does a lot of tings well that other shooters ignore in the dude-bro military style.

I never understood how Pokemon remains such a popular franchise while changing very little between each iteration.

Madden. Football is boring enough in real life. Why do you need a yearly game franchise about it?

Uncharted.

Pokemon, final fantasy, Street Fighter.

Fuck you guys, _______ is great!

• Any generic medieval fantasy RPG franchise.
• Any rhythm game franchise.
• Assassin's Creed - I'm sure they're great games, I just can't figure out what the appeal is though...

Gears of War. Halo. Half-Life. All Nintendo games. These games bore me to tears except Half-Life because I never played it but I still don't get why people lie it so much. I understand why people love them, but I don't find them enjoyable at all. The farthest I'll ever interact with these games are watching the walkthrough for them on YouTube. Although I did play a bit of gears and halo.

@IntoTheN1ght said:

Half Life, i said it!

The original got insane praise because for once it wasent a "get Blue Key Card" type of borefest that single player of Quake, Unreal, Doom and countless others had. But its multiplayer, which is more often than not the absolute core of a FPS game, it was still a good game but it wasent some "GAME OF THE FOREVER OMG!" after beating HL i went straight back into Quake and Unreal for the multiplayer action.

HL2 was even worse in that it had the annoying driving stages which really took the series down for me. Whereas HL1 was good but not great, then HL2 was average.

I think the love people have for Steam (which i understand) often clouds their judgement on all Valve games, they all get alot more praise than they really deserve, Portal getting GOTY nominations is down right absurd. There are plenty of great puzzle ish games that never even got close to a nomination let alone awards.

Completely agree with Half Life. I just played through HL 2 and Episode 1 and I do not understand what makes it so great. The shooting is ok, the puzzles arren't great, and the story is pretty nonsensical.

@OtakuGamer said:

@CaLe said:

Adults playing pokemon. I can see why kids enjoy it.

It’s a hipster’s tool into deluding himself/herself into thinking he/she is a nerd.

I have never met a person who likes Pokemon because they want to think of themselves as a nerd.

I'm noticing a trend here where many of the people who don't like Half-life haven't played it........@NoobSauceG7 said:

The shooting is ok, the puzzles arren't great, and the story is pretty nonsensical.

What are you even talking about? Nonsensical? How?

Final Fantasy, it's just a cgi fest with a convoluted (and usually pretty shitty) storyline and terrible fight mechanics.

@tyler1285 said:

I'm noticing a trend here where many of the people who don't like Half-life haven't played it........@NoobSauceG7 said:

The shooting is ok, the puzzles arren't great, and the story is pretty nonsensical.

What are you even talking about? Nonsensical? How?

I have only played HL 2 and episode 1 and maybe calling it nonsense is the wrong word but imo it is almost nonexistent. All I know is that we need to leave City 17 and that there are like zombies and combine dudes trying to kill us.

Halo and Gears of War. Tried playing the first one from both series' and I was just bored. Especially the first one, but I'm not a big fan of cover-shooters in general. I also hated all the characters with passion and the bullet sponge enemies really annoy me too. I think I might like the later Halos, but unfortunately I don't have a 360.

How It Caught On: Deadly Premonition

I don't get how this game went from terrible looking budget title to cult favorite. I blame Giant Bomb. :P

Neir:

No pre release hype, game came out to a mediocre reception for a good while and suddenly BOOM!!! cult hit, wtf how did that happen?

How Didn't It Catch On:

DJ Hero:

Amazing game not many liked or tried, tis a shame. :(

Monster Madness:

Outside of a shitty control scheme this game is the closest thing to ZAMN we got this gen on consoles, as far as I know, it's a fun little game if you can get past the shit controls. lol