Pretty much all the new AAA games. Kind of lost interested the moment games stopped being innovative. It’s nice to have super dooper realistic looking game and millions of small details but I still haven’t seen a game that would really improve on the game play in the last 20 years. They are still full of simple rules and mechanics. For example, 20 years ago it was common to have the “enemy spotted you but just hide and don’t move for 3 seconds and they will move on” rule in games and it pisses me off when new AAA games do it. Modern games are full of this shit. “If you do A in situation B, C will happen”. Just learn the rules and beat the game. There are more rules, more details, animations are nicer but I still find it boring. It’s still just a bunch of fixed rules, NPCs still move like robots, you can still see the algorithms behind everything. I prefer to play an small indie game that actually tries something new than AAA game that tries to build ‘realistic’ world and fails at it.
Tunic: I thought it had more than one puzzle, with how it was being talked about online, but it ended up repeating the same thing for 6 hours reusing the same gimmick over and over - after a below average first half.
Xenoblade Chronicles (DE): the characters were really uninteresting, the story kept spoiling every attempted twist it had with needless foreshadowing and the combat felt really boring. The world was empty and it felt like a dead MMO.
13 Sentinels: I won’t spoil anything specific, but the story was just a bunch of the most generic sci-fi cliches.
Monster Hunter Rise: I love World/Iceborne and really enjoyed the parts I played of GU and 4U but Rise just felt bad to play.
Games that force daily tasks/gacha games: I hate being forced - or even just being hinted at having - to grind daily. It just ends up pushing me away from the game, even if I’m enjoying it. I can’t play games like Genshin Impact and Star Rail, but also the daily challenges in sf5/6 bother me every time I see them.
I also don’t really get roguelikes, but I’m not sure if I just haven’t found one I enjoy or I don’t like the genre.
If you have a hackable switch, dump your keys and demo it on your PC assuming it’s beefy enough. You’ll know if you like it within about an hour or two.
Xenoblade 1 is over a decade old and launched on the Wii. While it is an important game, and was mind-blowing at launch, the sequels surpassed it imo.
Skip 2 and go straight to 3. The gameplay is a combination of both titles and the battle system is FUN. By the end, you’re changing classes, 7 team members at once in battle - switching between them at will, 12 arts available to each member at once, chain attacks and transformations into massive mech-like beings called Ouroboros where you can really fuck shit up. If you install the rebalance mod it’s even better, battles are fast and if you don’t keep up you can get fucked over quite bad. Or you can just go YOLO and just punch things with the fighter class loaded up with attack gems.
The story is very strong (endless war between two nations where the lifespan is only ten years (born at 10, die at 20), and your life is replenished by taking others) with some incredible voice acting from the UK cast, the world feels alive - full of warring factions and roaming armies, and the quests all actually mean something now (help any colony and you gain their leader as a computer played party member, as well as their class and weapon that you can assign to other team members and level up through use). The game runs a dream on a good Yuzu setup in 4k 60fps too.
The great thing about Xenoblade is that you can arguably play the main games in any order and still enjoy the full story. XB2 is super horny, has a fucking terrible menu system and has a lot of it’s own issues, despite it still being a very very good game. But there’s a reason Xenoblade 3 was nominated for Game of the Year at the game awards, you know.
The thing about the From Software games is that they’re (mostly) fair. Most action games give the player a huge leg up compared to the enemies - the boss has a glowing weakpoint that can be revealed with the item you found in the dungeon - or you’re a badass cyborg assassin vs rank and file goons.
In Dark Souls, you’re just a stubborn dude with a sword - and even the lowliest enemy can take you out if you get careless. But everyone is playing by the same rules, it sucks when an enemy staggers you and hits you while you can’t move - but you can figure out how to do the same to them. And the bosses really are doing everything in their power to make you dead.
The satisfaction of Dark Souls comes from meeting those challenges head on and beating them at their own game - or being clever enough to bypass or weaken the obstacle. It’s not for everybody, and it’s certainly not for anybody all the time - but it’s pretty awesome when you get to be David finally taking down Goliath.
I just wrapped up the last one on my list: Sekiro.
It wasn’t as hard as everyone makes it out to be but that could be due to my having previously gone through Bloodborne and learned how to be aggressive.
All of their games are superbly fun but it did take me a lot of tries for it to click.
I started out terrible at them - and frankly am still nothing special - but am super glad that I persevered.
While I have other favorites as well, the Soulsborne will always rank at the top of my list for gaming perfection.
“Competitive” multiplayer games in general. I miss it when multiplayer games were just fun and not streamlined misery simulators where the attitude is everyone is an idiot except yourself.
I know it’s popular to fart on Overwatch 2, but even when the original came out I thought it was so fucking dull. The No Man Sky quote “Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle” can very well explain the hero roster of that game.
I’d rather do a barefoot pilgrimage to Jerusalem than play CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch, Fartnite, Valorant, etc.
Team Fortress 2 is unbalanced and janky, and it’s 1000x more fun than any of those games. It even proved that the competitive crowd could do their own thing that suit their needs, instead of ruining a game to the ground with “balance” and unfun gameplay.
I can relate to this very much. I love Team Fortress 2 - it has just enough of that random hilarious stuff in almost every match that makes you laugh. I think it’s a huge part of why the game is still alive and broke its player record recently.
streamlined misery simulators where the attitude is everyone is an idiot except yourself.
Too real (talking mostly about CS:GO as I that’s the one I have most experience with on your list). It’s… occasionally fun, especially if your team gets into a slighly less casual mindset and plays it a bit more tactically.
But it often ranges down to the collective team just getting mad all the time and throwing various accusations around for seemingly the fun(?) of it. Fun match? Maybe, sometimes. All the time? Absolutely not, thank you.
Over the years I’ve started reaching more and more for co-op instead (Deep Rock Galactic, PlateUp!, Alien Swarm, Minecraft, Unrailed, …) and it has been a lot of fun, both solo and with friends.
Co-op games are definitely the only fun I’ve had in multiplayer for the longest time. Toxicity can still be found (Looking at you Payday 2), but overall they are a more wholesome, chill and more importantly FUN experiences.
Worms Blast. I didn’t look at any of the game screenshots and thought it would just be like a normal worms games and not more like that arcade game where you throw the coloured balls up to the ceiling to match them.
I have nothing against that style of game, but I just didn’t like it in the Worms style.
The changes they made to the game mechanics ripped a lot of the roleplaying out of the experience. I kept hoping to find a lot of what I loved about Fallout 3 and New Vegas in it, and never did.
It's not even necessarily a bad game, but the aspects of the games that I found fun were either heavily reduced or removed completely, leaving behind an open world shooter with a bad story.
100% agreed. Not only was the Dialoge Choice system of Yes, yes but sarkastic and no (but actually yes) incredibly limiting, but even the story didn’t really do it for me plus the whole settlement thing.
I’m gonna piss a lot of people off, and say that I really, really cannot stand Halo - the whole franchise, not just the 343 stuff.
The way I see it, my problem with the series is twofold: storytelling and gunplay. The storytelling is weak at best: whilst I’m usually a huge fan of environmental storytelling, there’s just so little information in game for me to go off! It wasn’t until I read the Reach novel that I figured out who the Covenant were beyond just “evil aliens”. I questioned this issue on the site we don’t talk about and was told to read the books, but put simply, if I have to read a book to understand your plot, then you haven’t told your plot well enough. Chief is presented in the game as this incredible figure (as are the Spartans), but the games never really tell you why, and as such I never really care about Chief or his bullshit.
Regarding the gunplay, I find it (and movement) simply too floaty to be enjoyable. There isn’t enough recoil from a lot of the weapons, and the SFX on most of the guns don’t give a great sense of power.
I understand that it’s a massive series of nostalgia for a massive number of people. I understand that it redefined FPSes, and I respect the games for this. They deserve every bit of praise people give them. They aren’t bad games, but I just do not enjoy them.
Great question! Really loved the Bioshock series, along with Bethesda FPSs (although they’re not great, I rather enjoy the open worlds). Cyberpunk was great fun, although disappointing in a lot of ways. The Doom series is a personal favourite, although Eternal wasn’t perfect, I really loved how the stories were handled in the previous two games.
For me, I like to seek a balance between story and gameplay. My big thing though is immersion, and being able to really understand the Universe the game takes place in.
Whilst not FPSs, the closest thing to Halo that I loved (Space-Opera shooters), the Mass Effect trilogy tops the list.
Halo excelled at being a FPS on console before auto aim and aim assist were a thing. The terrible, tank-like movement and super floaty, slow jumps would be trash in any PC FPS around its time. But having players move at Quake speeds in Halo would be frustrating, and no one would hit things in multiplayer.
Or would, on a game without modern control assist, anyways. Games don't tend to be as fast as they used to, and Halo has really sped up as a series, but it is still on the slower side.
Gloria Victis. It’s an MMO with factional PVP warfare that uses directional combat (like Mordhau). I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of these games, but I gave it a try since a friend of mine was interested in it. And I do like MMOs for the story content and to see what players can do with and within the world.
It was horribly boring. The main draw of the game is its PVP, but they definitely tried to also cater to the PVE playerbase, but the quests and story were generic and forgettable. I never even got to try the PVP, which I think my friend said was just OK anyway. I stopped playing after like a week. Apparently, the game is shutting down end of October, after releasing back in February 2023.
Another is the first Watch Dogs. I had played and completed Watch Dogs 2 and really liked it a lot. So thought to try the first one. I knew it was a very different mood and style from WD2, but thought it’d be OK. I can deal with moody and edgy. But it just wasn’t at all fun or interesting. I think I played for a couple hours and then uninstalled.
Terraria, it’s a hot take I think but I just dislike it so much.
I dislike the controls, the appearance, the sorta jank, I just find it to be a more boring Minecraft and Minecraft can already be boring. I don’t understand the love for it and I think it ruined a friendship with a group that really only wanted to play that and league of legends
Oh man, I thought I was the only one. I’ve tried to get into it so many times, but I can never enjoy it. I enjoy Minecraft, though.
In other unpopular news, I hate DOTA also. Friends tried to get me into it so many times, and I played a bunch of matches, but found it super overwhelming with all the different heroes and choices and found the entire gameplay boring.
You sound like me lol. Perhaps you’d like Core Keeper? The first game I found that scratches that minecraft itch like no other since I stopped playing minecraft long ago. I found sidescrolling in Terraria no good for me, liking the top down perspective of Core Keeper much more. Just wish you could create more than one storey in a structure somehow. I’m no developer but surely it can be done.
I don’t dislike Terraria per se, and I highly respect the dedication of both the devs and the community to it.
However, each time I try getting into it, I would make a basic house, spelunk a cave… and then forget about the game for a while. I don’t know why, but I just have trouble with games where you have to set your own goals
I am fine with games not telling me what to do cause I love Tunic and Outer Wilds but also there is still a somewhat obvious somewhat linear story available if you want it. The “do it yourself sandbox” games struggle to draw me in fast enough for me to not get bored and confused of learning an entire games worth of mechanics and optimization for no payoff before I put it down. And never pick it back up.
Hotline Miami 1 was such a fantastic game. Frantic, high energy, fun, good art style, a confusing at best story but that’s not why you played it. HM2 was full of off-screen instant kill bullshit that you literally could not prepare for in any way other than to die to it a handful of times before you memorized enemy positions off-screen. In the first game, you could always see threats before they could kill you. Not the case in the sequel. “You died and there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it” is a bullshit mechanic in any game.
In recent memory the two that have stood out to me are Risk of Rain 2 and Halo 4. I thought some 3rd-person action in the former would be fun but I found the core loop and overall shooting boring after a couple run attempts so I guess it just didn’t click for me.
Now Halo 4… I think gameplay in that title is an exercise in tedium. Add on (what is in my opinion as:) poor AI, a bit too much melodrama, dumb retcons, “do X three times!” a bit much and I got a campaign that felt like a chore and haven’t touched it since I left off at the level with the Mammoth. The Prometheans are a pain to fight and I felt funneled into making do with Forerunner weapons to take ranged potshots at Watchers above all other targets and then rushing to kill the one Knight I was targeting before it regenerates, also above all other targets. Yuck. (Update: Coming back here since it occurred to me that I could sum it up as: my ability to make mid-combat decisions and play in the sandbox was kneecapped by poor enemy and maaaybe level design respectively.)
I never got to finish Just Cause 1 and Kill Zone 1 🤔
I wouldn’t say they were unfun, but definitely I felt JC was very repetitive that I sort of left it behind and same can be said with Killzone, I played Killzone 2 and 3 and never got back to 1, but I intend to.
KZ1 was one of my favourite games, but goddamn, the mechanics sucked. I really only liked it because of the level design, like the places you were fighting in were actual places where people had lived once. It was easy to get immersed. The story was good too, imo.
On paper it’s everything I like in games. But when my friends invite me to play, I get bored so much, that I have microsleep episodes. It’s so incredibly boring I can not understand the hype at all.
Even as someone who enjoys it, I also feel it’s overhyped and not for everyone. You’re just doing the same 8 mission types over and over. The only progression is unlocking new weapons and skills/overclocks for said weapons to use in the same missions. And whenever there’s a new event, there’s no actual theme or anything, you just do those same missions yet again just to get a cosmetic for said event, and the actual missions themselves don’t change in any way.
I think it’s one of those games that you play when you specifically have a craving for it. Otherwise, playing it non-stop does get boring after some time
I found spelunky to be a game not fitting for me at all. I really wanted to like it, but I found myself to be unmotivated when I kept losing and didn’t feel like making more skillwise progress. I might just suck, but I just don’t feel like playing that punishing roguelikes.
We had a few cartridges for our Colecovision that I could never figure out how to get to do anything very game-like. I don’t really remember the names of the bad ones. I’d be hard pressed to remember the names of the good ones other than like Donkey Kong. They were pretty hit or miss in general and the controller was really weird, but it made a memorable introduction to gaming and a great starting point to watch it all grow from.
I think the worst game I’ve ever played was the Dragonlance game for NES. There are other equally bad games that are even bad in largely the same way, but I’m a big Dragonlance fan and when I finally got a copy of this I was very excited for about 5 minutes. It’s just bad. I have vague memories of throwing Tass into a hole a bunch of times and like maybe a little bit after that, but it was a mess. Maybe if I’d been able to get past the controls I’d have found a gem in there somewhere, but it just wasn’t there. I feel like if a pizza company can knock out a class A platformer, TSR should have been able to manage.
It’s odd, because D&D crpgs have usually been innovative for their time, using the D&D rules and hitting the ball out of the park. The Dragonlance game didn’t come that long before the Black Sun game they made, and I’m pretty sure they had been making similar crpgs previously. I feel like I remember playing another early one on our 8088. But they decided to make some half assed platformer instead. Huh?
But Dragonlance always seems to get shafted on adaptations. I remember Tracy Hickman talking on Palace in the late 90s about making a live action Dragonlance movie with Aaron Eisenberg as Tasslehoff, but it seemed to just evaporate and instead we got that kinda weird but cool to see very stylized cartoon. I do like that it looked like the book covers, but it was a long way from what we’d initially expected to see.
Some day Dragonlance will get some real love. Maybe Baldur’s Gate 3 will help.
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