Games ruined by outside things.

After seeing some of the threads today I started thinking about how some games leave bad tastes in my mouth not because of the game itself but because of something else. I just wanted to know if you guys have any good examples of this happening. Here are some of my examples.

Portal: All of the memes and jokes. I'm so sick of hearing all of them even to this day that I don't think I could ever play through this game again. Which is a shame because it's one of my favorite games.

The Witcher: I played through probably the first five or so hours and then lost my save. I just can't bring myself to go through the entire start of that game again, it doesn't bother me much because I got the game for 5 bucks but still.

Mass Effect 3: No not the ending, or even that I didn't like it or that other people don't like it. It comes down to two things. 1. All of the complaining before the game even came out. I played through the entire game waiting for everything to go to shit and it never did, it doesn't sound like a bad thing but when you play through a game expecting it to become terrible out of the blue it's hard to enjoy it. 2. It's Impossible to talk to anyone about this game without talking about the ending. Whenever I want to talk to a friend or anyone online about something in this game the topic always comes to the ending and guess what I've had that conversation, one billion times.

Dragon Age 2: While we're on Bioware I should list Dragon Age 2. I played through it once and thought it was decent, but when I played through it I hadn't heard any of the complaints about it. When I was finished with it I was left with the feeling of "That was alright, not really what I wanted from Bioware or Dragon Age, but eh". Then I heard everything about it and honestly I don't want to play it again because I feel my opinion on it would drastically change.

WoW: I just hate most of the community at this point and can't play it because of that. I'm not saying everyone who plays WoW is a dick and I know some great people in that game but still. Fuck most of that community.

Uncharted 2: I was late to the Uncharted craze and picked this up last summer finally. All the hype kind of ruined it though. I was expecting such amazing things and you know what? It was great but it didn't seem like this super crazy thing. I think if I didn't hear all the hype about it I would have enjoyed it more.

Anyway I just want to hear other users experience with this phenomenon.

Would Tomb Raider be a topical game that falls under this category or is it too soon?

Uncharted 2: I was late to the Uncharted craze and picked this up last summer finally. All the hype kind of ruined it though. I was expecting such amazing things and you know what? It was great but it didn't seem like this super crazy thing. I think if I didn't hear all the hype about it I would have enjoyed it more.

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

@Irvandus said:

It's Impossible to talk to anyone about this game without talking about the ending.

I'll get a Wii U just to disprove this notion :P.

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

It's been nice knowing you!

@EquitasInvictus said:

Would Tomb Raider be a topical game that falls under this category or is it too soon?

Considering that a lot of people are put off by the whole sexist and "rape" thing I suppose there's no reason why it shouldn't fall into this category. I haven't exactly been paying a lot of attention to it since it's a massive clusterfuck of...fuckery. That aside the game does look interesting so I'm just going to wait until it comes out and see how it turns out.

My picks would be Bioshock, the Megaman and Nintendo franchises. I've nothing against those games but I'm really, really tired of seeing people make art or references to it. I want something original damn it!

@EquitasInvictus said:

Would Tomb Raider be a topical game that falls under this category or is it too soon?

Definitely.

I totally agree with Mass Effect 3. Seeing the absolutely scathing response to the ending from most of the gaming internet had me stressed almost the entire way through it.

Also, the combination of unbelievably hyperbolic praise from the GB crew and kind of fucked up online co-op pretty much killed Saints Row the Third for me, although the fact that I found a good portion of the referential and absurdist humour aggressively un-funny probably didn't help much either.

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Well it kinda makes sense Naughty Dog improved the franchise with each iteration , I still think people are crazy when the say U3 wasn't as great U2, when in fact Uncharted 3 did everything 2 did and better.

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Anyway, I tend to not let things like arguments and inane banter stop my enjoyment of a game. Despite all of the cake memes, I still find Portal to be quite entertaining.

@believer258 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Is that relevant to anything?

@Video_Game_King: jak is made by naughty dog

silent hill homecoming > Video_Game_King

@killacam said:

silent hill homecoming > Video_Game_King

I haven't played it, so I can't say.

Communities can really kill games yeah, seeing some companies message boards just kills the will to ever play a online title of theirs again.

@Video_Game_King said:

@believer258 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Is that relevant to anything?

Both are made by Naughty Dog, and I'm a good bit disappointed in the Uncharted series. They're essentially interactive movies. Like the OP, hype made me think that the Uncharted games were supposed to be some great and amazing games worth remembering. Nope; they are at their most fun when you're not really playing them, which is not the best thing I can say about any game. Jak is their previous generation series which, while not without issues, is still quite fun as far as gameplay goes.

@believer258:

But it's a completely different game series with wildly different mechanics and overall feel. Weren't the Jak games open world platformers or something?

Diablo 3 is pretty much ruined by Blizzard. And if you're brave enough, the community is also piss poor.

L.A Noire, its a great game but all of that behind the scenes stuff made everything about it feel dirty.

Honestly games are only ruined by outside stuff if you let it. It's the same with movies. Everyone was really down on Prometheus, but I didn't let it get to me and I ended up enjoying it anyways. Same goes for games that were way over-hyped. When I went into the Uncharted games, everyone over-praised it, but it didn't make my experience worse. I always try to come in with low expectations so I'll be surprised if it ends up being good. I went into the Dark Knight thinking I was going to hate it because there was so much buzz, but I ended up liking it anyways.

I laid off BF3 for a while cause of one dude who couldn't shut up. He was/is always on battlelog and every time I logged in he jumped right at me. And when I got into a different game than him he always asked why. I don't know him irl but I kind of felt bad at the end for ignoring him so I just quit. Might sound like I have some serious issues but that's the fact. Never really got into BF3 after that.

yeah, I'm an asshole.

@JoeyRavn said:

Diablo 3 is pretty much ruined by Blizzard. And if you're brave enough, the community is also piss poor.

I'd argue the community makes me dislike the game more than Blizzard considering most of the things they do don't bother me since I play it pretty casually and everyone feels the need to yell on boards about how terrible all the changes are and I find it ridiculous that they didn't expect something like this to happen with a game that gets patched constantly.

@Hizang said:

L.A Noire, its a great game but all of that behind the scenes stuff made everything about it feel dirty.

Hell yeah.

Internet!!!

@Video_Game_King said:

@believer258:

But it's a completely different game series with wildly different mechanics and overall feel. Weren't the Jak games open world platformers or something?

Yes, and I'm not saying that linearity is a bad thing but the Uncharted games, especially the shooting sections, kind of suck. They're not downright horrible but, like I said, they're at their best when you're watching the game and only interacting with it minimally instead of playing it, which means that the developers didn't do very well at the game part of their video game.

They are gorgeous and technically impressive, well-written, and fun to watch, but actually playing Uncharted is at best bland and at worst an infuriating chore. This is as compared to the Jak series, which are open world and give you a variety of things to do. The shooting can still be problematic because there isn't any strafing and it uses a very generous auto aim, but it's hardly as bad as it sounds on paper. And most of all the Jak games maintain an interesting story and great technology while keeping the gameplay fun and interesting for the most part.

I'm happy that I can dissociate those two things. I tend to enjoy games for what they are. Not that I don't take into account other people's thoughts and criticism, but I can play games without worrying about outside influences.

@EquitasInvictus said:

Would Tomb Raider be a topical game that falls under this category or is it too soon?

Yeah I'm worried that if I try and then enjoy the game I'll be seen as a HORRIBLE RAPE-MAN!

Came to post Mass Effect 3. All the negativity deflated my game boner

@believer258 said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@believer258 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Is that relevant to anything?

Both are made by Naughty Dog, and I'm a good bit disappointed in the Uncharted series. They're essentially interactive movies. Like the OP, hype made me think that the Uncharted games were supposed to be some great and amazing games worth remembering. Nope; they are at their most fun when you're not really playing them, which is not the best thing I can say about any game. Jak is their previous generation series which, while not without issues, is still quite fun as far as gameplay goes.

I disagree , in the airplane setpiece in U3 you're controlling Drake at all times there's not cutscene there even when you're gliding through the air you're still in control , the same with the burning chateau and the sinking cruiser and everything in the desert actually most of the cutscenes are just characters talking not really doing anything exciting or dangerous wich is what you do when you're controlling Drake so the whole "it's a interactive movie" is false, is not even QTE like Heavy Rain or Asura's Wrath , the game never takes the control away from you even in the most hectic moments.

One time when I was 8, my friends and I were about to beat Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game, but then my mom was like, "Shut that off and go outside!" And I was like, "Moooooooom!" Outside things like red rover and flag football ruined a lot of games for me, forever.

Am I doing this right? I'm doing this right.

@AngelN7 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Well it kinda makes sense Naughty Dog improved the franchise with each iteration , I still think people are crazy when the say U3 wasn't as great U2, when in fact Uncharted 3 did everything 2 did and better.

The story is weaker in Uncharted 3, the shooting was, initially before the patch when I first played through it, a complete trainwreck, the difficulty is considerably more unbalanced, and the set-pieces aren't nearly as memorable. Nothing in Uncharted 3 managed to top the awesome Train section in Uncharted 2. The only things that are an improvement are the graphics (though I still personally prefer the grittier style in Uncharted 2) and the multiplayer.

@AngelN7 said:

@believer258 said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@believer258 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Is that relevant to anything?

Both are made by Naughty Dog, and I'm a good bit disappointed in the Uncharted series. They're essentially interactive movies. Like the OP, hype made me think that the Uncharted games were supposed to be some great and amazing games worth remembering. Nope; they are at their most fun when you're not really playing them, which is not the best thing I can say about any game. Jak is their previous generation series which, while not without issues, is still quite fun as far as gameplay goes.

I disagree , in the airplane setpiece in U3 you're controlling Drake at all times there's not cutscene there even when you're gliding through the air you're still in control , the same with the burning chateau and the sinking cruiser and everything in the desert actually most of the cutscenes are just characters talking not really doing anything exciting or dangerous wich is what you do when you're controlling Drake so the whole "it's a interactive movie" is false, is not even QTE like Heavy Rain or Asura's Wrath , the game never takes the control away from you even in the most hectic moments.

I didn't say there wasn't any gameplay in the Uncharted series. I said that what's there is subpar, and pretty slim on top of that. It's a super-linear game where you do some cover-based shooting here and there and other times you're scanning the screen for where you're supposed to go next. This doesn't sound too terribly different from many other games, but then most other games don't feel like they're just shuffling me along to the next scripted sequence or cutscene where I don't interact much. It feels a lot more like a sightseeing tour with a game attached than a game with some pretty sightseeing attached.

@Yummylee said:

@AngelN7 said:

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Well it kinda makes sense Naughty Dog improved the franchise with each iteration , I still think people are crazy when the say U3 wasn't as great U2, when in fact Uncharted 3 did everything 2 did and better.

The story is weaker in Uncharted 3, the shooting was, initially before the patch when I played through it, a complete trainwreck, the difficulty is considerably more unbalanced, and the set-pieces aren't nearly as memorable. Nothing in Uncharted 3 managed to top the awesome Train section in Uncharted 2. The only things that are an improvement are the graphics (though I still personally prefer the grittier style in Uncharted 2) and the multiplayer.

Well I guess is a matter of opinion (isn't it always) I didn't found any problems with the shooting probably because I played after that patch was released, while the game has certantly challenging on normal I wouldn't say it's unbalanced after completing it on crushing normal is still normal and as for the story again everything is subjective I found the focus on Drake and Sully relationship much more deep and engaging than the thieves tale in Uncharted 2 as for the setpieces not only they are "better" but there are more of them , the enemy IA is better (they aren't as bullet spongy) the melee system is better and the gameplay aditions (throwing back granades) made the gameplay much more fluid , Uncharted 2 was amazing and still is because of the seamlessly transitions between gameplay and cutscenes , characters, gunplay and action-movie like gameplay experience , Uncharted 3 did just that while improving on small things, it didn't clearly exceeded what Uncharted 2 (no other game since that has done it really) and it didn't have to, Uncharted 3 just provided more of what we liked and in no way is less of a game than it's predecessor.

I bought Little Big Planet 2 to play co-op with my girlfriend but she was too sick to play and passed away a week later. That soured me on it. Similarly I didn't get Portal 2 because I had planned to play it co-op with her. And Killzone 3 was a game that I purchased about a month later to keep my mind off it. It worked then but now it's a reminder.

I still haven't played mass effect 3 and I don't think I will ever be able to without thinking about all the craziness that surrounded it. Also, everything on xbox live ever before party chat came out.

@Irvandus said:

Uncharted 2: I was late to the Uncharted craze and picked this up last summer finally. All the hype kind of ruined it though. I was expecting such amazing things and you know what? It was great but it didn't seem like this super crazy thing. I think if I didn't hear all the hype about it I would have enjoyed it more.

I felt like the levels of Uncharted 2 love/hype/whatever was going to be a problem for Uncharted 3 before it even came out so I still haven't played it.

diablo 3 because of the athene mess and i just assumed that was most of the community

Fucking JOURNEY!!!!! It had to be said. You would think this game can turn water into wine the way the internet goes on about it. I was very unimpressed by it. However, to be fair, I had the same problem Ryan had on the Bombcast (getting stuck between two mountains) and having to restart. Still, my expectations far surpassed what this game delivered.

@believer258: Well I can't argue with what you think of the game but expecting something that doesn't belong on an action game for a reason is rather silly even considering that they try to mix up the pace of the game with some light stealth secuences , platforming and puzzle solving and even so far as having levels where you don't shoot anyone "it's so linear" is not really a valid complain what would you try to change? "hey you can go to France or you can go to Siria chose wich mission you want to do? but you'll still have to play both of them" that doesn't really work for that kind of game but your complains go deeper than that and I can't change your mind about the game for me it was awesome, is a shame you didn't have the same experience.

@AngelN7 said:

@believer258: Well I can't argue with what you think of the game but expecting something that doesn't belong on an action game for a reason is rather silly even considering that they try to mix up the pace of the game with some light stealth secuences , platforming and puzzle solving and even so far as having levels where you don't shoot anyone "it's so linear" is not really a valid complain what would you try to change? "hey you can go to France or you can go to Siria chose wich mission you want to do? but you'll still have to play both of them" that doesn't really work for that kind of game but your complains go deeper than that and I can't change your mind about the game for me it was awesome, is a shame you didn't have the same experience.

You aren't catching my main argument. It's that the first two Uncharted games have a bunch of sequences where the game expects you to do exactly what's been laid out in front of you, and never deviate from what's intended. This would not bother me so much if each piece of gameplay that was laid out in front of you didn't pale in comparison to other things. The set pieces do not come across as exciting as the ones in Dead Space 2 or, for an earlier example, Call of Duty 4; the cover-based shooting falls flat on its face when compared to that of Gears of War 2; the puzzle solving is almost insultingly easy and formulaic when compared to some of the things that the Tomb Raider games have done, etc.

Do you see my point now? The Uncharted games aren't downright bad and I'm not saying that someone can't enjoy them. As far as I'm concerned, though, the games are quite flawed. Naughty Dog can do far better.

For the record, I have not played Uncharted 3 but I have never heard anyone say it does anything different. As it stands, I gave examples of games that did what Uncharted 2 did, and better, before Uncharted 2 even came out. I only used one example from afterwards (Dead Space 2) and in that same category I gave an example of a game that came out before Uncharted 2.

@Hizang said:

L.A Noire, its a great game but all of that behind the scenes stuff made everything about it feel dirty.

I just finished this game yesterday, and I guess I'm glad to say that I have no idea what you're talking about when you say "all that behind the scenes stuff." I'm content with blissful ignorance when it comes to pulling back the curtain.

@wewantsthering said:

Honestly games are only ruined by outside stuff if you let it. It's the same with movies. Everyone was really down on Prometheus, but I didn't let it get to me and I ended up enjoying it anyways. Same goes for games that were way over-hyped. When I went into the Uncharted games, everyone over-praised it, but it didn't make my experience worse. I always try to come in with low expectations so I'll be surprised if it ends up being good. I went into the Dark Knight thinking I was going to hate it because there was so much buzz, but I ended up liking it anyways.

It's one thing to go into a game with knowledge that other people loved/hated it, if you can keep that from coloring your personal experience too much. This is how I approached Mass Effect 3, and I honestly enjoyed that game (and didn't even mind the ending all that much). But I think the ideal situation (in some cases, at least) is to go into a new game or movie completely blind.

Uncharted, Journey, and Skyrim were all ruined by the hype. I don't want to even mention Mass Effect anymore ,and it was one of my favorite franchises this gen.

@Irvandus said:

WoW: I just hate most of the community at this point and can't play it because of that. I'm not saying everyone who plays WoW is a dick and I know some great people in that game but still. Fuck most of that community.

-Some of this for me. After one of my hiatuses from the game, I came back and everyone was a petulant 12 year old who act like they developed the game. Some just getting tired of the formula.

-Bioshock franchise. People were S-ing that game's D so hard that summer it made me want get hyped for Halo 3 by buying a Mountain Dew. Also, in my mind at least, it seemed to start the trend of acting like a game is the greatest game ever made only to totally lose it's mindshare or to have a backlash against it mere weeks or months later. GTA IV is also a prime example of this, and to a lesser extent L.A. Noire.

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Anyway, I tend to not let things like arguments and inane banter stop my enjoyment of a game. Despite all of the cake memes, I still find Portal to be quite entertaining.

I liked Dragon Age 2 a whole lot more because of all the shit that got talked about that game before I played it. I went in expecting something that was barely worth the $10 I spent and ended up liking it more than Origins in a lot of ways.

@Sackmanjones said:

@believer258

@killacam said:

uncharted 3 > uncharted 2

there. i said it.

Jak 3> Uncharted anything.

Anyway, I tend to not let things like arguments and inane banter stop my enjoyment of a game. Despite all of the cake memes, I still find Portal to be quite entertaining.

Rachet and Clank 1,2,3 > Jak 1,2,3 Take that! Also like uncharted 3 more than 2 as well

Take what? I agree! Well, OK, better breakdown:

Jak and Daxter > Ratchet and Clank

Jak 2 < Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando

Jak 3 < Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal

I never heard Portal jokes anywhere but the internet, and almost every time someone makes one now, there's at least 20 people to tell that person that the jokes are old and that they should stop.

But, man, the original Witcher has a pretty bad opening. Okay, the opening itself isn't bad, but it's one of those things where I have no desire to do it twice. Then chapter 2 is even worse. It's only by chapter 3 that the game gets really good, but by that point most people are burned out by all the fetch quests from the first few chapters. At least they listen to fans and stepped up their game (no pun intended) with the sequel.

So what you're really saying is that you want to talk about the end of Mass Effect 3? OK!

Fallout franchise ruined by Bethesda.

@Jimbo said:

So what you're really saying is that you want to talk about the end of Mass Effect 3? OK!

No I'll talk about it again, I just hate how you can't talk about anything else in that game save for the few conversations about multiplayer.