What games were scored poorly that you absolutely adore?

none. All games get the score they deserve from the person that gave them that score. Also, I don't see whats happening with Amy as a controversy although It is getting more attention then it would have because of all the talk about it.

@allworkandlowpay: Alpha Protocol

@CitizenKane said:

Yoda Stories. I absolutely love to play that game.

Dude, :D High Five!!!

Sound kind of obvious on this site, but I love Deadly Premonition (I actually played it).

@CitizenKane said:

Yoda Stories. I absolutely love to play that game.

Oh that game...i played the hell out of the demo! But i never managed to get the full game..

Wonder if i can find it now.

This thread is making me think I should check out those untouched copies of Alpha Protocol and PD Zero that I have sitting around. Hell, I think the latter is still shrinkwrapped actually.

Simpsons Road Rage for me. Perfectly capable Crazy Taxi clone and the humor was actually pretty funny. It did have some bad collision dectection once in a great while (ie running into something invisible) but I liked it a lot.

Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks didn't rate "poorly" (77 on Metacritic) but it's my favorite 2 player brawler of all time so I thought it was terribly underrated.

Nier, Far cry 2, Dark Void.

I'll probably go with "like" not "love" though

Nier. I was also going to say Resonance of Fate but there is nothing I "absolutely adore" about that game's story.

Just to repeat some already mentioned in the thread, I though Wanted was a lot of fun, and it was the game I tested out my new computer with at the time, Marvel at the not shit graphics! The Saboteur was fucking awesome, I can't believe the flak it caught, I love almost everything about that game.

Other than that I thought The Matrix:Path of Neo was good fun, I prefer it over Enter the Matrix in every single way.

I'm not sure if it was critically panned or I just know too many Chrono Trigger lovers, but Chrono Cross was great, and I will keep on liking it no matter how much I hear how it "ruined" a revered Snes game.

@CitizenKane said:

Yoda Stories. I absolutely love to play that game.

YES! Played the shit out of that PC demo.

@Zidd said:

@GoofyGoober: its got an 81 on metacritic and most game publishers favor a metacritic 85 so yes it did.

This is why we can't have nice things, cause you think an 81 is a poor score.

Kane & Lynch 1 and 2.

Most JRPGs. Nier, I though, was excellent.

Another vote for Alpha Protocol

@Maajin said:

Wanted: Weapons of Fate. Also love the movie.

I got the platinum in that game..... worth it.

The Saboteur

The game felt unfinished in some parts but I loved the art style and driving around Paris was fun. The main issue I had with the game was the variety of side missions-blowing up towers and guard posts became repetitive very fast. I also wish you could fly the warplanes and zeppelins, why have zeppelins in a game if you can't fly them.

Dark void

Excellent Soundtrack and the flying sections were pretty neat. A sequel would have helped this game by polishing the shooting, melee and overall graphics.

War of the monsters

The game received average reviews at release but I loved this game. The 50s style presentation and the creature designs impressed me. Also, giant monsters wrecking cities is awesome. You could also play as sweet tooth-yes!

Far Cry 2, Lost Planet 2, Castlevania HD

The last 2 are only good if you play co-op. Lost Planet 2 I believe received poor scores because most played it solo since it was prerelease and the game was having issues with online until a day 1 patch and more people online. Play that game with some friendly people, random or not, and you can have a great time. It was the dark souls of shooters with how the movement was as well as some of the difficulty. Also lack of explanation made reviewers none to happy. Like dark souls you had to figure out how the systems worked and most were still unexplained clearly. Most people never found out about the multipart robot or the shield that turns into a lazer canon and requires power from team mates to fire.

Castlevania had a similar problem, steep learning curve and almost no explanation on any character as how to make them stronger. Most reviews were littered with inaccuracy of information.

I don't blame the reviewers for the scores they gave though. These games did not play by their rules and a lack of explanation is not often a good game design idea. Also Brad and Jeff are not the co-op people in the team so bad assignment. Though I believe it was because the games were misrepresented. Another flaw that led to low scores I believe.

Nier and Alpha Protocol come to mind.

Alone in the Dark, Far Cry 2, Deadly Premonition, Ghost Master(!!!!!!!!), Silent Hunter 5.

Far Cry 2 kind of pisses me off though. It is ONE design decision away from being absolutely amazing. The respawning angel dust rocket launcher crazies at every roadblock drag the game down like a ton of bricks. You barely even get to enjoy the gorgeous landscape. It could've been Fallout Africa :-(

Mirror's Edge was recieved rather poorly when it came out - and I love that game, although a couple months afterwards the general concensus changed to a positive light.

But the big thing that got scored low (particularly on IGN) was the .Hack games - specifically .Hack://G.U. Volume 1 (Rebirth) got a 5 and volumes 2 (Reminisce) and 3 (Redemption) got 5.5. And honestly I truely love those games. The battle system was amazing. The story was equally well done with each game feeling like their was a clear arc that made the ends of the games feel like something had truly happened throughout (unlike soem other franchises do where either the change is all on one twist at the end, or the characters are basically in the same place as where they started). The realisation of the atmosphere was fantastic, with them truly going all out to make it seem like you were actually a kid playing an MMO while still creating a connection with the in-game avatars. I remember clearly it wasn't even released in the UK so I had to port it from the US, which could easilt have been because of these extremely harsh reviews.

Seriously if you ever get to play a .Hack game (either the original 4 or the three from.Hack://G.U. - I haven't been able to play the PSP one) then definitely do it. Ignore the reviews and play it - it is like a mix of an MMO, Dragon Age: Origins and Final Fantasy 12.

Alpha Protocol

@razkazz said:

Brink - For this one it's mostly the developers' fault for ridiculously overpromising on singleplayer features but this caused the reviews to be really biased and grade the game low for what wasn't included rather than the execution and fun of what was. I've also seen several reviews where it was obvious the reviewer didn't take the time to learn how to play, one video reviewer didn't even make use of the game's SMART system at all in his review footage. It's definitely not a game for everyone but what's there is incredibly well done.

Brink was completely broken on ATI at launch, tried it a month later and it still was. Haven't tried it since but it was a big disappointment for me because I love Quake Wars.

Dark Sector. It was a ton of fun for what I payed for it,.

Tenchu Z. I've played a good 60-70 hours of that game. It's extremely flawed, but I love it.

The Saboteur and Mercenaries 2 didn't do all that well (especially Mercs 2), but I love both games, with Mercs 2 being one of my all time favorites (if not overall favorite).

@CrimsonNoir: 81 is not a poor score at all I think that if outlets are going to use a scale with 100 points on it they should use ALL 100 points on their scale. also sarcasm doesn't really play that well in text form.

Probably the closest game to fit that description for me would be Velvet Assassin (closely followed by Clive Barker's Jericho).

@Djangosix said:

far cry 2

awesome if you have the patience for it

I agree the driving from point to point almost made me quit, but after developing strategies to avoid outposts the game became very enjoyable.

Far Cry 2 this game scored 9's in my memorie and has a 8.5 metascore and has nothing to do with this topic.

Saboteur, Kane and Lynch, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are also mentioned alot. They had huge hype and marketing behind them and then scored 7 to 8's instead of expected 9's ......

I think some reviewers like to make a point by scoring these games lower then they deserve because the budget and hype just to stir up the beehive.

Ontopic I dont play any games that really got lower then a 6 because im a sucker for reviews from sites and people I respect.

I still think Army Of Two: T4D is pretty great. I manage to play through it at least once a year.

@CrimsonNoir: Yeah 81 overall is pretty high to me. I know in the case of PDZ quite a few people complained and favored the other 360's launch title COD2 over it.

So for me a game that I really enjoyed was wolfenstein 2009 on PC which looks great and is super silly fun. It also can be challenging on harder difficulties. I am not sure why some people did not like the game but I am guessing they did not complete the entire game because it gets very crazy in a good way. Its also 12-15 hours long, has open world elements and great level design.

Rage is also a game I enjoyed a lot. It did not quite live up to its promises but it was still a very tight feeling shooter with the best dynamic animation I have ever seen. Also, the gameplay just felt right, skillbased and almost tactical. Try playing this game on nightmare and tell me it is not one of the best playing fps shooters ever.

Supreme commander 2 was also a game I enjoyed and can not figure out why no one bought it. The developers basically fixed all the problems that people bitched about for ages and then none of those people ended up buying the game. I feel like the game is potentially as well designed a competetive game as starcraft 2, but no one played so they stopped making content and abandoned the project. It was pretty sad to see.

Additionally, I remember all the people that panned the witcher 1 when it came out. I mean like 4-6 out of ten review scores. What a bunch of poser game reviewers. The game was not even that buggy when it came out and people professionals actually thought the story was "boring" in that game? Well I guess history made an ass of them so I do not have to.

The entire Dynasty Warriors Franchise and Mirror's Edge(I actually loved first person platformer and found the controls to be fine)

I don't absolutley adore it, but I thought Army of Two 2 was enjoyable. That's the most recent example I can think of.

A lot of stuff. If I'm interested in a game, and it gets low review scores I'm still going to try it. If I didn't there would have been far too many times where I skipped a game that I would've otherwise loved.

THQ/YUKES wrestling games. By god, they're awful, but I'll be damned if I didn't have a shitton of fun with Just Bring It!, three uni pals, a lot of beer and 10 royal rumble matches in a row. The square button was "reverse everything" and you didn't even have to time it right, you just mashed it. Therefore, if you countered a punch with a block and a punch, the punch in your counter could be countered with a block and a counterpunch, which could in turn be blocked and counterpunched. Forever. Or until someone was laughing too hard at how dumb that was and didn't mash hard enough. I would play that shit right now if I had three buddies and some beer.

EDIT: Plus, the commentary was frigging hilariously bad

Lost Planet 2 - seriously some of the best fucking coop in the world. Hated how poorly it was treated by reviewers who ran through it using AI bots, for the most part they also refused to learn how to play the game and knocked it for having a learning curve.

Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad

 
I had a lot of fun playing this not-all-that-great game. Sure it was pandering but it had some clothing customization which was nice, mindless Dynasty Warrior like gameplay and some nice replay value. If I recall correctly I ended up getting all of the achievements in this one.

Nier and Alpha Protocol are among my favorite games this generation. It's possible that I am a crazy person.

@James_ex_machina said:

Adore? Really? I enjoyed The Saboteur and Dark Sector. DS definitely had flaws but I enjoyed it enough to play it twice. I liked the main weapon idea. I liked the atmosphere in The Saboteur with the black and white changing to color as you liberated the people.

but The Saboteur wasn't really rated poorly. it's got a 70+ average for all platforms on metacritic.

btw, I really liked that game as well! did everything there was and had a lot of fun (although I wish there was an option to turn the black and white back on after you've "liberated" everything)

Mirror's Edge.

I was a huge Advent Rising fan. Broke my heart when the cancelled the sequels. I know it had a lot of flaws, but The game had some really good set pieces and "force" type abilities. Running down the exterior of a ship, force flinging enemies into space. Ripping hunks or bulkhead off the walls and into a crowd of enemies, really fun. I beat it twice, and didn't understand why no one else was enjoying it like i was... oh well.

The saboteur was also great. I loved the setting and colors, and just running around for hours trying to take down every destructible on the map.

I wouldnt say it reviewed terrible but Nier had pretty bad scores. Man i love that game, best music in a game ever.

Chaos Legion

I was such a fan of the gameplay that I didn't mind its repetitive nature. Reviewers thought otherwise.

50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. Any score other than perfect is wrong.

Bullet Witch is a really bad game, but I still love flipping around and shooting a giant gun for entirely too much time. Also surprisingly pretty in parts.

None that I can think of, I mean I really enjoyed Army of Two and some games like that but they weren't panned or anything, just got middling reviews. I usually only dislike critically acclaimed games not the other way around.

I mean I like a lot of games I'm seeing on this thread but I don't think many of them got the kind of hate you're talking about. I mean Far Cry 2 has an 85 on Metacritic, I'd hardly call that hate.

The Saboteur, and not sure if it was reviewed poorly but I know people don't like Brutal Legend that much but I love it.

I liked what I played of Damnation

Alpha Protocol.

dont have anything that comes to mind i usually hate stuff that gets below a 6 from reviewers usually because there's something wrong in the game mechanics that makes it hard to play and enjoy.

i however do not like alot of games that reviewers like such as assasins creed modern warfare 2 through 3 come to mind

I like Sonic games. There, I said it. Not the 2006 one, though. That's an objective piece of shit, score regardless.
Oh, and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. It didn't necessarily score poorly, it actually got some high praise from some reviews, but it's generally pretty divisive and has a 70something on metacritic. I love it, though. It always reminds me of if an Elder Scrolls game was a linear action game.