Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Sometimes you just feel like ranting, even though you know pretty much everyone disagrees with you.

I create this thread as the home for the minority opinion for popular titles. I'll start because I feel the need to rant.


I've tried, for two weeks, God I've tried. Orange Box. Disgustingly dated graphics that remind me of a day in PC gaming I'm glad we're far past, a terribly gay story line that somehow finds a way to take itself seriously. Decent level design with lame weapons, and a prime example of terrible writing and to a lesser extent voice acting in a well funded videogame. I haven't messed with Team Fortress FWIW, but this is the kind of game that when reading the IGN review I finally question all the secret handshake rumors, if I actually paid for this game I would be so SO pissed.

Yea, so, what you guys got? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I hate GTA games.

The stories are bad. The games are glitch ridden. The gameplay is practically broken. Sure you can do anything, but you can't do anything well. The driving mechanics are terrible, the shooting controls are bad, and flight is downright awful.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Really good read Goofy, I remember the first thing I thought when playing Bioshock was "CONDEMNED WTF". I loved the game though, Im just waiting to forget it so I can play it again, I never played SS2 FWIW.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Though I'm heavily addicted to it at the moment, I must say that World of Warcraft is complete bollocks! Someone once wrote up a stunning essay on how Street Fighter was a fundamentally better game, but I don't have the patience nor the blood alcohol level to find it atm. Suffice it to say, any game that rewards a player merely for time spent sitting in a chair versus actual skill is [censored] in my eyes.

However, as I mentioned, currently addicted to said game. (Though a private server, so I'm not really feeding the beast)

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

The online multiplayer of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is the best available on the xbox 360 (maybe not better than COD4 because I haven't played that yet, but it probably is). This game got cheated in its reviews (7/10's) because of its ridiculously hard arcade style campaign with no difficulty options. Now it seems that a good online multiplayer feature works as a pass of sorts for a shady single player game. If it were released today it would be a 8.5-9.5 game based on multiplayer alone.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I know I'm a big minority here, but Guitar Hero. I played it once, thought it was cool, spent $70 on the game and controller, beat it on medium, switched to hard and realized the time I was spending time learning the songs I could be spending learning the real songs on real guitar. I was so pissed when I realized this and started playing my guitar more and got substantially better. Now I don't like the game at all and kind of loathe playing it.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

this should be titled the d-bag thread [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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Someone once wrote up a stunning essay on how Street Fighter was a fundamentally better game, but I don't have the patience nor the blood alcohol level to find it atm.

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http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...irlin_01.shtml

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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I know I'm a big minority here, but Guitar Hero. I played it once, thought it was cool, spent $70 on the game and controller, beat it on medium, switched to hard and realized the time I was spending time learning the songs I could be spending learning the real songs on real guitar. I was so pissed when I realized this and started playing my guitar more and got substantially better. Now I don't like the game at all and kind of loathe playing it.

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i've played guitar for 16 years and i don't care for the whole 'real guitar' argument...they are completely different experiences...u may as well say "the time i spent on assassin's creed i could have spent learning chinese"

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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I know I'm a big minority here, but Guitar Hero. I played it once, thought it was cool, spent $70 on the game and controller, beat it on medium, switched to hard and realized the time I was spending time learning the songs I could be spending learning the real songs on real guitar. I was so pissed when I realized this and started playing my guitar more and got substantially better. Now I don't like the game at all and kind of loathe playing it.

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i've played guitar for 16 years and i don't care for the whole 'real guitar' argument...they are completely different experiences...u may as well say "the time i spent on assassin's creed i could have spent learning chinese"

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Well I've only been playing for about 10 (2 really seriously) and I was going through learning everything really slowly so I could get the muscle memory down. I hated that because it was to a point where it wasn't fun and it was just practice. I can play any song on medium, but after that it's not fun for me to play because I'm spending time practicing a game for what? So I can play it on hard or expert? I had more fun practicing a real guitar than practicing for GH.

Don't hate because I don't like this game, I thought that is what this thread was for. The one thing that I did like is that it made me want to play guitar better.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Also GH and guitar has far more in common than any other game and the subject that they are turning virtual, so your AC comparison is extremely weak IMO.

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nothing personal; i just disagree with the logic connecting gh to real guitar...u are spending time practicing gh on hard/expert in order to be a better player at that game; similiar to playing madden on pro mode or any other game...but if real guitar is more fun for u than gh, then obv play real guitar...if real guitar is more fun than any video game, then play real guitar instead of that video game...if another video game is more fun than gh, then play that video game

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nothing personal; i just disagree with the logic connecting gh to real guitar...u are spending time practicing gh on hard/expert in order to be a better player at that game; similiar to playing madden on pro mode or any other game...but if real guitar is more fun for u than gh, then obv play real guitar...if real guitar is more fun than any video game, then play real guitar instead of that video game...if another video game is more fun than gh, then play that video game

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Yeah I know, I've just gotten the same response from so many people when I tell them I don't like the game. It was fun for a while, but then it was work to get good. At least w/ practicing for other games it seems like less work and more fun.

For example I love practicing for Halo 3. I get a kick out of playing my brothers and their friends cause it can be 3 or 4 on 1 and I'll still win. Practicing on legendary is also fun, but sometimes frustrating, but still it doesn't seem like work. GH seemed like I needed to work (not play) to get better and I would rather put that work towards something else.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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nothing personal; i just disagree with the logic connecting gh to real guitar...u are spending time practicing gh on hard/expert in order to be a better player at that game; similiar to playing madden on pro mode or any other game...but if real guitar is more fun for u than gh, then obv play real guitar...if real guitar is more fun than any video game, then play real guitar instead of that video game...if another video game is more fun than gh, then play that video game

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Yeah I know, I've just gotten the same response from so many people when I tell them I don't like the game. It was fun for a while, but then it was work to get good. At least w/ practicing for other games it seems like less work and more fun.

For example I love practicing for Halo 3. I get a kick out of playing my brothers and their friends cause it can be 3 or 4 on 1 and I'll still win. Practicing on legendary is also fun, but sometimes frustrating, but still it doesn't seem like work. GH seemed like I needed to work (not play) to get better and I would rather put that work towards something else.

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With the time you spent playing Halo, you could have been an Olympic-caliber shooter.

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nothing personal; i just disagree with the logic connecting gh to real guitar...u are spending time practicing gh on hard/expert in order to be a better player at that game; similiar to playing madden on pro mode or any other game...but if real guitar is more fun for u than gh, then obv play real guitar...if real guitar is more fun than any video game, then play real guitar instead of that video game...if another video game is more fun than gh, then play that video game

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Yeah I know, I've just gotten the same response from so many people when I tell them I don't like the game. It was fun for a while, but then it was work to get good. At least w/ practicing for other games it seems like less work and more fun.

For example I love practicing for Halo 3. I get a kick out of playing my brothers and their friends cause it can be 3 or 4 on 1 and I'll still win. Practicing on legendary is also fun, but sometimes frustrating, but still it doesn't seem like work. GH seemed like I needed to work (not play) to get better and I would rather put that work towards something else.

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With the time you spent playing Halo, you could have been an Olympic-caliber shooter.

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Yeah yeah, I get it. My point is lost even on a thread dedicated to bitching about really popular games.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

nah, the point isn't lost

i'm just writing my own dissenting opinion on the popular thread title of 'play real guitar instead of gh' that people write all over the internets

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I hadnt paid for a video game in like 2 years. Last month I bought: FIFA 2008, Orange Box and COD4. I wish instead of buying Orange Box I had just bought TF2 because everything else in Orange Box is worthless. At first Episode 2 sounded cool, but do I really want to play expansion levels of a game i beat like 2 years ago? Not really. So basically I paid 50 bucks for TF2, which seems like it would sell alone for like 20 bucks. Kind of a lame deal imo.

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Also GH and guitar has far more in common than any other game and the subject that they are turning virtual, so your AC comparison is extremely weak IMO.

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Dunno, many sims require exacting knowledge and don't give much of a good game experience without the proper controllers, either. Airplane flight sims, Apache Longbow, the Nascar series, etc.

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Yeah yeah, I get it. My point is lost even on a thread dedicated to bitching about really popular games.

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Your point's a good one, you're just getting the response that dissenting generally gets. Kind of a, if you don't like the heat, get outta the kitchen deal or whatever when it comes to writing stuff you know in advance people won't agree with. Nature of the beast, and whatever other cliche I can pull out.

The other guys have good points too. It's just that a) they think the game has a better work/fun ratio than you do and b) probably some of them don't play the guitar or have one anyway, so playing guitar is not an option for them in the first place.

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I hadnt paid for a video game in like 2 years. Last month I bought: FIFA 2008, Orange Box and COD4. I wish instead of buying Orange Box I had just bought TF2 because everything else in Orange Box is worthless. At first Episode 2 sounded cool, but do I really want to play expansion levels of a game i beat like 2 years ago? Not really. So basically I paid 50 bucks for TF2, which seems like it would sell alone for like 20 bucks. Kind of a lame deal imo.

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I agree with this for the most part, I havent played the HL2 expansions that came with OJ, but it did also come with Portal. While the game is short, its still fun for most people, and that has a little value...but yeah even that with TF2 doesn't equal the full price of OJ Box.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Oblivion (and the Morrowind series in general):

These games could be so incredible with a major rebalancing and getting rid of all the broken spells (invisibility - THANK YOU FOR GETTING RID OF LEVITATE AT LEAST) and lame repetitive quests and lame repetitive monsters they use to fill a lame repetitive world and their 5 types of lame repetitive dungeons. I actually do like the games, and plan on buying the expansion - but they could be just so much better than they are. I really prefer quality over quantity. I'd much prefer a dozen challenging, well balanced and interesting places to explore than the 1000 clones of crap Oblivion offers.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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Someone once wrote up a stunning essay on how Street Fighter was a fundamentally better game, but I don't have the patience nor the blood alcohol level to find it atm.

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http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20...irlin_01.shtml

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Good article. David Sirlin writes good stuff. I wish the gaming magazines put out stuff anywhere near as interesting as this. They're almost entirely ridiculously fluffy.

I like this bit at the end especially:

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There are mountains of rules in the terms of service that tell you that you shouldn't do things that you totally can do in the game if you want. Why they don't just alter their design and code so you can't do these things is beyond me. But this mentality is drilled into the players to the point that they start believing that it's ok. They start believing that it's not ok to experiment, to try out anything the game allows in a non-threatening environment.


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One of the things that makes games, whether FPS, RTS, or RPG, fun for me is figuring out the puzzle of them, and especially trying to do less with more. It's hugely gratifying to figure out how to take on a monster by yourself that usually takes at least a few people to do, for instance. Or godly equipment to do. Or both. Unless there's truly something broken going on in the encounter -- in which case they really should just fix it instead of whining at players for catching them with their pants down -- players should be allowed to be as creative and skilled as they can manage to be. Endless paranoia and bickering about rules and GM decisions and appeals don't really need to be in a game. Being clever in a game is an adventure in itself, and the opportunity to do should never be discouraged.

Random Example: "Kiting" certain monsters -- having them run after you or some dude while you or he or a whole group beats or spell casts or sics pets on them, while they trail behind you like the tail on a kite, is banned in certain games entirely or only against certain monsters. While kiting a monster over the top of someone so it kills him can be a problem, it's the player behavior that is the possible problem, not the mechanism of kiting itself. You don't need to ban an act, just a player who uses it solely in order to wreck up the other players. If you even need that. Figuring out how to use your abilities to their best effect in a game is the whole point, though, so that should never be discouraged. Just change the game mechanics, if you don't want people to discover, use, and enjoy them to the full.

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Disgustingly dated graphics that remind me of a day in PC gaming I'm glad we're far past

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pardon? heh

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

There are a of games that I really enjoyed the 1s game in the series but can't really stand them any more b/c they are the same old thing over an over. Good examples for this are GTA, tony hawk, and resident evil. I really like other games like madden and halo wich change every little but i could play them forever.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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Oblivion (and the Morrowind series in general):

These games could be so incredible with a major rebalancing and getting rid of all the broken spells (invisibility - THANK YOU FOR GETTING RID OF LEVITATE AT LEAST) and lame repetitive quests and lame repetitive monsters they use to fill a lame repetitive world and their 5 types of lame repetitive dungeons. I actually do like the games, and plan on buying the expansion - but they could be just so much better than they are. I really prefer quality over quantity. I'd much prefer a dozen challenging, well balanced and interesting places to explore than the 1000 clones of crap Oblivion offers.

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I'll redirect this rant towards Oblivion's combat system. This game would be 1000x better if there was any method of skill to it at all instead of just button mashing until the random number generator decided to give you a hit. If I were designing the next Elder Scrolls, I'd steal Fight Night's control scheme, pretty much the only well designed aspect of that game, and modify it for melee combat. Flick up to your weapon side, and you'll stab with the sword. Make a slashing motion, and you'll slash your sword. Use the right trigger to initiate a blocking sequence, and then moving the stick up and down would use either your shield or your weapon to block an enemies attack, depending on which side you flicked the stick. Holding the left trigger would have you move your body around using the left stick to try and dodge an enemies attack. When I played Oblivion, it just felt incomplete, like they had went to all the trouble to create this massive world and then tacked on a combat system straight from 1995, and I could never get into the game because I want to feel like I control my character's fate, not the random number generator. This wouldn't ruin the RPG aspect, make me stronger, faster, able to deal more damage as I leveled up, but fix the damn combat system.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

The problem with changing Oblivion's combat system is that it is an RPG and I don't think that's how RPGs are supposed to work (I mean, I could be wrong, but aren't they based off the pen-and-paper type games back in the day?). Like, your character will meet monsters that it's not supposed to be able to kill at level 5, so isn't it a bit of a cop-out if some players will be able to kill those enemies at level 5 just because they're better at the combat system than others? I think the point of an RPG is that it's not a shooter and it's not about controlling the action down to that degree of accuracy, it's about developing your character until it's strong enough to handle these types of challenges.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Yes, but I'm saying however that it is 2007 and time to stop being constrained by games people were playing 30 years ago when all they had was pen and paper and dice. Take a look at how sports games are evolving, look at the difference between the first Tony Hawk and Skate, how much more fluid and responsive a fully analog control scheme is versus hitting a button to grind. I just love the idea of a world like Oblivion but hate that we're trapped with a terrible control scheme just because that's the way it's always been done. If I'm a thief, I should be able to sneak up behind someone and stab them, not strike five time before my blade connects and then only remove 5 hit points, all because I chose not to spend my first 5 hours playing the game killing rats. It just feels extremely artificial. A game like Deus Ex had it perfect, as you progress you gain skills and experience so you shoot more accurately, run more quickly, lift heavier objects, but if I play smart at the beginning and manage to get myself in a position for a close head shot, I'm not going to end up shooting myself in the foot just because it's the beginning of the game and I have the motor skills of a 6 month old. It's just that for some reason there's this expectation that if your RPG includes sword play, you can't have any semblance of a skill based combat system.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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A game like Deus Ex had it perfect, as you progress you gain skills and experience so you shoot more accurately, run more quickly, lift heavier objects, but if I play smart at the beginning and manage to get myself in a position for a close head shot, I'm not going to end up shooting myself in the foot just because it's the beginning of the game and I have the motor skills of a 6 month old.

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Well put. fwiw I wasn't so much saying that Oblivion's system is great and shouldn't be changed, just that I can see why the developers didn't want to compromise the gameplay experience by turning it into a shooter. I imagine it's fairly difficult to come up with a control scheme that gives the player more control over combat actions without making that compromise; if someone can come up with one, that'd be great. I think if Bethesda couldn't come up with something better though (fwiw, I read somewhere that Oblivion's system is improved over Morrowind's - Morrowind's system was basically straight math, whereas in Oblivion you actually did have a degree of control over stuff like dodging attacks) then the choice they made is fine.

I suspect they will improve it in the next Elder Scrolls game...god, does it make me sick that I already can't wait for it even though it's prob 3-4 years away?

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I think Civ 4 was very disappointing because it substituted complexity for depth, and tacked on a ruinously bad combat system that was vastly worse than games that came out more than a decade earlier.

The thing is, parts of it were wonderful.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Graphics for Orange Box really look that bad to other people. I play TF2, looks pretty damn good to me.

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nothing personal; i just disagree with the logic connecting gh to real guitar...u are spending time practicing gh on hard/expert in order to be a better player at that game; similiar to playing madden on pro mode or any other game...but if real guitar is more fun for u than gh, then obv play real guitar...if real guitar is more fun than any video game, then play real guitar instead of that video game...if another video game is more fun than gh, then play that video game

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Yeah I know, I've just gotten the same response from so many people when I tell them I don't like the game. It was fun for a while, but then it was work to get good. At least w/ practicing for other games it seems like less work and more fun.

For example I love practicing for Halo 3. I get a kick out of playing my brothers and their friends cause it can be 3 or 4 on 1 and I'll still win. Practicing on legendary is also fun, but sometimes frustrating, but still it doesn't seem like work. GH seemed like I needed to work (not play) to get better and I would rather put that work towards something else.

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With the time you spent playing Halo, you could have been an Olympic-caliber shooter.

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this would be a valid point if you were already a competitive shooter, and you spent your free time playing FPS video games instead of at the range. if someone isnt a guitar player i wouldnt expect them to understand, but when you see your guitar sitting there next to you and you re playing a game modelled after guitar playing it makes you feel bad for wasting time when you could be practicing. i dont think any of us here that play poker for money would consider spending much time playing a poker video game even if it somehow was really fun

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

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There are a of games that I really enjoyed the 1s game in the series but can't really stand them any more b/c they are the same old thing over an over. Good examples for this are GTA, tony hawk, and resident evil. I really like other games like madden and halo wich change every little but i could play them forever.

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Halo has changed more than GTA or Resident Evil?? Really?? I guess that is your opinion...but dude, really?

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the thing that broke oblivion was the enemy leveling with you. I don't want to be level 9999 and still fight for my live against a random bearor w/e.

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I really like other games like madden and halo wich change every little but i could play them forever.

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I think he meant to say Halo and Madden changed "very little?"

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the thing that broke oblivion was the enemy leveling with you. I don't want to be level 9999 and still fight for my live against a random bearor w/e.

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IIRC they were pretty proud of this system before it came out, trying to keep it challenging, but I always thought it might be better if certain areas had harder enemies than others, that might make the game somewhat linear though which I think they wanted to avoid, I dunno.

I think my biggest peeve about the entire game was if I go up and kill a patrolling guard in the woods in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WITH NO ONE WATCHING, then bounce on my horse halfway across the world, there's pissed off guards waiting for me in whatever town I land in.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I have never considered Guitar Hero to be work for me. And yet I've gotten to the point where there are only 2 songs I can't beat on the hardest difficulty level between GH 2 and 3. If it's work for you, that's fine, but don't assume everyone else should be playing a real guitar because you can't play the video game.

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nhl 08 for pc is an absolute joke. EA employees should be shot for this atrocity. the worst part about it is their online play. the online server software is so horrible. there's so many obvious improvements that could have been made but they were way too lazy, and focused all their energy on xbox360. to make matters worse, their marketing of the game was the same for all systems. ie. they had one general advertisement talking about all the improvements made for nhl 08, when really those improvements were only in the xbox360 version. the pc version has basically been the same for at least 4 years.

it's a yearly disappointment but i can't help myself from buying it. i'm definitely done with them next year though. i'm so mad it's not even funny. i should have known after last year's disaster, but i got too excited for hockey season and couldn't resist.

god damn it EA, you've ruined my night. i need a scotch.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

I don't care if it isn't really popular, but [censored] you zach and wiki. I like puzzle games, I like having to think. But what I don't like it having to repeat the whole level over because I forgot one dumb step. Checkpoints are nice when you have multilevel complex puzzles where one small mistake [censored] everything up. So yeah [censored] you game, you tilt me worse than poker.

Re: Write a Brief Dissenting Opinion About a Popular Title Thread.
 

Re: Oblivion combat.

I love RPGs, especially JRPGs with turn based or semi-interactive combat. But I also think Oblivion's combat really needs to be overhauled. It's not 'deep'/strategic enough for turn based fans and it's not interactive enough for action based fans. It just kind of leaves both sorts of players feeling disappointed imo (does anybody really like Oblivion's combat?)

Mixing the Fight Night type controls into the game would be awesome if they could actually pull it off. Would also open alot of fun possibilities like obtaining new fighting styles/stances that could be earned through quests.