Ben-DutkaYesterday, we asked what game JRPG lovers would recommend to those who have never tried a game from that very niche sub-genre.
Now the question is- What genre just continually fails to arouse your interest? Is there one particular category of interactive entertainment that you just find completely dull? A genre that you stare at in perplexity, confused as to why anyone enjoys such games? Do you just not "get" it?
These days, there's quite a wide variety of available games, despite the fact that blockbuster mainstream productions are often action-based or shooters. There are many gamers, for instance, who have never understood people's love of puzzlers. They don't get why anyone would want to have a chore when playing, while of course, those who love puzzle titles say that "chore" is actually incredibly rewarding. Then there are those who don't get flight sims (or any simulator, for that matter), or those who just have zero interest in sports games. Everyone has personal preferences, after all.
Me, I've never understood the allure of real-time strategy. I get turn-based strategy because I can take all the time I want to plan my next move(s). But being rushed and constantly having to think quickly for fear of being overrun isn't fun for me. That and flight sims…no interest in learning how to fly a plane. None whatsoever. Fighting games aren't my favorite thing in the world, either, but at least I can easily comprehend their far-reaching appeal. Besides, I've been able to get into a few in my time.
How about you?
MOBA's like dota 2. And I'm not a big fan of most RTS games, but if you count xcom enemy unknown as one then they're alright
Well…RTS,and under sport Mixed Martial Arts(MMA)and once in a while the Point and Clicks.
Even the stuff I can't stand I usually "get". Though it's hard to understand a human being that would put themself through a Demon's/Dark Souls game I figure they must need a huge sense of accomplishment.
What I don't really understand is the intense and continued interest in online gaming. I can see how it might be a fun novelty now and then but I never get a sense of progression during play.
It's hyper stressful, I have to depend on people not to be stupid, I gotta worry about not being stupid myself, I am always at a disadvantage compared to those who know how to cheat, and when the whole thing is done with I don't feel like I've advanced toward any sort of goal. Feels like an incredible waste of time that I could have spent experiencing someones creative vision and thereby fed my soul.
Demons and Dark Souls is not that hard, I think it's difficulty is a bit blown out of proportion.
Anyways I agree with you're online gaming take. I don't understand the investment a person gives to multiplayer, when you can be playing a new story and adventure instead. To each his own though.
Its not the sense of acomplishment its more along the lines of something not being a straight line of easiness that every game is nowadays. Seriously, most games hold your hand from point A to B and make sure you win. Demons and Dark souls don't give you hand holding and its my personal reason for liking them. Just in case you wondered lol
It goes far beyond not having a hand hold, no hand holding is like no minimap or mission markers. Those games are like hey if you hit the block a half second too early you die and lose all your souls and gotta start from the worst possible spot even though your weapons are useless and there isn't any way of getting what you need to keep question.
@World, I'm not saying you do or don't, and I'm not insulting your skills (deep down I am), but what I got from your first post is that… you suck online?
Hey, I'm not the best gamer out there, all it takes is a little concentration from your part to do moderately. It takes a lot of your time to be a beast.
I get what world is saying about Dark Souls, but I would like to point out that the game can and is beaten by level 1 characters. The game is 100% skill based and while some fights will be a grind at level 1 it is doable.
I also think World doesn't understand the stamina system very well because blocking is a very easy mechanic to get used to, and blocking early and blocking frequently would remedy the problem he is having. It very rarely asks you to have twitch blocking skills.
The souls games boil down to a test of patience and awareness. If you move slowly with your shield always up you will do well, if you attack once, then back off to regain your stamina you will do better, if you die and step back and say okay how did I die and how can I not die in the future you will beat the game.
In terms of online gaming it just depends on if you're able to find that game you're good enough at to keep playing. I'm that way with CSS and it keeps me coming back year after year. I look to SP for the story and MP for the gameplay.
"Even the stuff I can't stand I usually "get"." – yeah me too. I can understand why/how some can find them entertaining, it's just not for me.
I always get a sense of progression in multiplayer, with every match. Because there's always someone out there better than you (not that I'll ever admit that :P), so you've always got room to improve. Without the multiplayer component of some games (UC2/3, MGS4, KZ2, TLOU, hell even LBP), I wouldn't be as good as I am now. I don't even pay attention to the 'progression systems' in place; if that's what you're talking about.
They really can get stressful, especially when you have particularly stupid people, or people with not-so-great connections (LAGGERS! lol, my favourite word). But it's such a great pay off when you beat someone fair and square.
Some of my most fun moments come in multiplayer also. Like just last night, I was playing with a friend in 2v2v2 in UC3. In UC3 you have kickbacks, and one of them is to 'smokebomb' – instantly transporting you to a random place on the map. Well my friend had a granade launcher, and starting shooting someone, when he got hit by sniper fire. So he uses his smokebomb, and spawns RIGHT into the path of his granade launcher shot, flying away from the explosion. lol! This is like one in a million.
I'm actually not that bad online if I focus, though I can't match up to people who spend their whole life online and still proliferate the beginner matches, but I don't play games to be all focused and controlled, that's what work is for.
I don't really understand the obsession with online-gaming either. It's fun, and I like it once in a while, but I much prefer to play a good campaign or story. What bothers me is not that there are lot of online games, but that (it seems like) almost every developer out there is focusing on it more and more. I understand the rise of the online and mobile gaming industries, but there are people who simply have no interest in it. But I guess I shouldn't mind if it is there as long as it doesn't mess with the game or require you to play it.
Last edited by Masszt3r on 8/27/2013 4:50:35 PM
I don't get the mobile crowd. The games offered on iOS are worthless time wasters.
Exactly, exactly. They waste worthless time on the metro or the bus, to and from work, or anywhere in between.
Jawk you're spot on with just about everything that comes to your mind.
Agreed. I've tried a few of the popular titles. They're so simple that they aren't fun.
I think you just need to find the right games, imo.
I play quite a bit on my mobile and there are quite some games on mobile that are really good for their purpose.
Especially turn-based strategy is a genre on mobile that has really come with age. The game Great Big War Game is an excellent example. That game looks and plays like something that could have been sold as a fully fledged game for PC and consoles not that many years ago.
Another example, one that is my personal favourite, UniWar, has a really simple interface but is very solid and balanced, and with a very good community who are making new maps constantly (the game comes with a map editor).
So to say that those games are "worthless time wasters" is really equal to saying that *all* games are so. And by all means, many do, but I don't agree with that.
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/27/2013 4:46:21 AM
Touch screen games are even worse.
But when I talk about the popular ones, I mean farmville, angry birds, fruit ninja…. they are all so damn lame.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 8/27/2013 8:09:59 AM
@Underdog: "even worse" – worse than what? All mobile games are using the touch screen?
Last edited by Beamboom on 8/27/2013 9:48:24 AM
Jawknee you've picked up a hater crowd 🙂
🙂
I don't get these either. There really isn't any depth to them. I'd much prefer to read a book or listen to music. I do however understand why people buy/download them since not everyone is a hard-core gamer. To me, they simply don't bring any kind of satisfaction. Now, 3DS and PSP/Vita games are a different story.
a gameboy with tetris is all i need.
"They waste worthless time on the metro or the bus, to and from work, or anywhere in between."
But that's exactly their purpose. I don't know too many mobile games that require a lengthy time investment, most are simple ten minute time wasters (that you could also get hooked on). But that's what they are supposed to be. 99% of them are simple tech/physics demos that have characters laid on top. They don't have stories or acting or anything to support a true connection. I mean, who would want to play Lunar for ten minutes on a bus?
I personally eschew RTS and military shooters. I'm fine with twich shooters like Quake and unreal but the WWII era is simply so uninteresting to me as is military in general in any genre unless it's a herzog Zwei (if you want to call that military).
Sports games. ESPECIALLY Golf.
Ditto, for some reason I have never felt tempted to play a sports game, just don't see the appeal of it. Though I can understand why some people play it, especially sports fans.
Also not a fan of RTS, and I'll be the first one to admit it's mainly because I suck at them. I don't like being rushed and when I have to react to something fast, chaos will most definitely ensue.
I can pretty much view real-time strategy in the same light as the fighter category. It's just fighters happen at a faster clip. They could both be considered "real time strategy" I suppose, even if fighters don't fit the conventional interface mold.
There's a very "human" quality added to these types of strategy, where fighting against AI just doesn't do a dang thing. Whereas in turn-based strategy a computer could provide something a little more authentic to most, other than the very best.
classic turn based strategy, depending on the rules, gives you all the time in the world to mechanically, usually mathematically, plan you're next move, bypassing a degree of emotion in the process. I like turn-based. I like Chess. But I like the mixture of human behavior and emotion mixed with the strategy with something fitting into a more reasonable time schedule.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 8/26/2013 10:59:44 PM
I guess it'd be RTS and MOBAs but I really haven't tried to play games of those genres to not "get".
I pretty much can enjoy myself in any genre as long as the game itself doesn't bore me.
Fighting games and sports games, easily. It's just mashing buttons.
Nope.
Yes and no.
I'm with you on fighting games but mainly because I prefer an arcade machine and people standing around. I just can't get into them on a tv with a controller.
technically don't all video games require you to mash buttons?
Sports games, like football and all that. If its so fun why not go play it yourself. But i guess for the people who aren't physically capable its a nice way of doing so… Or if its off season or something. That and any type of simulator. Everything else i could play. Well, FPS is really wearing thin at this point.
Well I too don't care for sports games UNLESS it's with others.
Halo. I have no idea why it's so damn popular. I guess the fanboys are stuck in 2004 playing Halo 2, not realising there's better games out there now.
Granted, while I hated Halo 3, Halo Reach was a BIG step up, and was a far more enjoyable game for me. But it's no Uncharted, or God of War, or Grand Theft Auto.
I hate it even more when people say that Halo revolutionised gaming.
I've only played the original Halo so I can't speak for the entire series but I think it has offered a unique world and interesting storyline. I enjoyed the original though I still felt Half Life a better overall game. I've yet to find a FPS that compares to HL2.
There's no other FPS like Half-Life. It'd be great if we could say that about most titles in the genre.
There needs to be an article about the best most unique single player FPS titles.
I'd have something like this…
Half-Life
Halo
Bioshock
Metroid Prime
Far Cry
Golden Eye (it was hot stuff back then)
Crysis
… there's probably more but those come to mind first
They're all great but none feel like the others in a significant way.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 8/27/2013 12:34:18 AM
Rage. I forgot Rage. It's on there too.
Good list Tem. I'd add Rainbow Six and Timesplitters 2 to the list.
Yeah very good list Temjin. You got all my favourite FPS in there.
Metro needs to be on there too.
so is Metro Last Light really good? Becasue while the first was one was pretty good it was sort of obvious it was foreign and lacking in the quality of play department, even if it had very strong atmosphere with unique creepiness.
Anyway, for my version of this list in order to keep it from seeming like every FPS but a CoD'ish style one, I'm thinking it'd need to have been or is a 9+ caliber offering.
Last Light is amazing, so atmospheric and open to intelligent play. It has some drawbacks like the AI but it's made up for by the overall experience which is unique. Whether it's pumping your generator after your light went out in the dark, wiping the blood off your gas mask manually to see straight, or scrounging the surface while your air runs out things are always awesome.
It might not be a 9 but it's so different thoughtfully different from everything else I'd put it in the list right between Bioshock and Singularity.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 8/27/2013 7:02:05 PM
Online FPS shooters, I don't get what's supposed to be fun about continuously running around shooting people, with no point or plot whatsoever, replaying basically the same thing over, and over, and over again, and doing it for hundreds of hours??
I know it's obviously something A LOT of people enjoy, I just don't get why. I've played through and enjoyed some of those campaigns, like the Call of Duty modern warfare & Killzone 2 for example, but I see nothing fun in the multiplayer portions of those games, absolutely NONE.
This ^
It lets me play in ways that I can't in real life. I'm not trying to join the army just so I can fire a rifle.
I don't see what's not to get? What's the point of playing a videogame at all? You like playing your favorite genre because of "this". I like playing FPS because of "this".
The question Ben is asking is nothing but subjective.
Last edited by Killa Tequilla on 8/27/2013 12:00:35 AM