Ever made yourself play a game you didn’t like because it’s “important?”

[Razzie.P]

35 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Well said.  If you write part 2, make sure you include Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo side of the coin.  Neither are bad games, neither are the worst, but they're also not the best... middling between good and mediocre.  Move two sequels up from them, dramatic improvement.

I played through Ocarina a couple of times on N64, and thought it was "meh.". Don't remember what changed though, but I really enjoyed the 3DS version quite a bit.

 

Still not great, but went from mediocrity to really good.

[Steven Pendleton]

I am thinking about trying the MSX2 version of Hydlide. I know I will hate it, but I might try it anyway, as it's a very important game (not the MSX2 version specifically, just Hydlide in general).

Edited August 7, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[Tanooki]

On 8/7/2021 at 12:12 AM, Razzie.P said:

I played through Ocarina a couple of times on N64, and thought it was "meh.". Don't remember what changed though, but I really enjoyed the 3DS version quite a bit.

 

Still not great, but went from mediocrity to really good.

It has a bit more polish, the added detail capabilities of the 3DS hardware makes it feel better too, sound is improved as well, various mechanics with better control over Link and the camera.  It's a little little fixes and upgrades that help and not hinder it to be a definitive version of the game.  I recently had a chance to re-acquire it locally on 3DS but haven't had time to fire it up again, been years.  I keep getting distracted by weird finds (gaming or not) along with me trying to do a vast purge of things from various collections.  It eats hours, many, putting together prep to sell off stuff as you need to know sizes and weights in advance and have good images.  I imagine once I start winding down as I'm starting to really thin a bit, I'll start digging.

[+wongojack]

I thought of another game that fits into this category for me - Minecraft.  My niece and nephew were so into it that I made myself play it so that I could play it with them.  I'd actually played Minecraft during the beta stage (probably before my nephew was born) and thought I'd had enough, but I played it for hours more to be able to enjoy it with them.  It payed off for the most part.  I have played it several times with my niece and nephew and was able to even show them some things.

 

I still don't really think it is deserving of all the praise and attention it gets.

[Razzie.P]

On 8/7/2021 at 12:16 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

I am thinking about trying the MSX2 version of Hydlide. I know I will hate it, but I might try it anyway, as it's a very important game (not the MSX2 version specifically, just Hydlide in general).

Ya know, I’ve been thinking about that one a lot lately, too.  NES version though, not sure if there's a difference.  I didn’t know it was ever considered an important game, by any standards, but it’s one of those “important to me” kind of games.

As a kid, I LOVED all things Sword n’ Sorcery / Fantasy related.   The cover of this game sold me on it.  I loved playing it, but I couldn’t figure out what I was supped to do.

 

It’s one of 2 games in my life that I really felt like I “should 100% love this,” but couldn’t make any real progress bc I was simply stumped.  The other was Milon’s Secret Castle

 

 

So yeah, important to me, so been thinking about giving it another go.  Maybe with a wee bit of internet help, I can see it through to the end.
 

[zzip]

11 hours ago, wongojack said:

I thought of another game that fits into this category for me - Minecraft.  My niece and nephew were so into it that I made myself play it so that I could play it with them.  I'd actually played Minecraft during the beta stage (probably before my nephew was born) and thought I'd had enough, but I played it for hours more to be able to enjoy it with them.  It payed off for the most part.  I have played it several times with my niece and nephew and was able to even show them some things.

 

I still don't really think it is deserving of all the praise and attention it gets.

That's a tough one.   I like the building aspect of it.    I always hated the blocky aspect of it.   I would love a game like Minecraft with much better Graphics. 

 

I also never liked the Minecraft minigames.   My daughter always wants me to play those and I hate most of them.   I'd rather just build things.

[Flojomojo]

50-hour JRPGs are like this for me. I want to experience them, but they’re slowly paced and very repetitive. Recent “quality of life” improvements help a lot but they’re still a big time and attention investment. I still want to bash through Final Fantasy VII, but seeing that I’ve had like 25 years to do it, seems likely maybe I don’t want it badly enough to actually do it. 

[Leeroy ST]

You couldn't convince me to replay base MYST if you paid me.

[+KaeruYojimbo]

On 7/19/2021 at 5:42 PM, Keatah said:

That's like saying you like pets, as long as they're not your own.

 Actual quote from my girlfriend: "I love dogs. I just don't want to live with one."

 

Back to the subject, I'll give a game I didn't initially like another try or two if the overwhelming opinion is that it's good, but I won't force myself to keep playing it if my opinion doesn't change. But I sometimes do that with games that are overwhelmingly considered bad too, just in case everyone else is wrong .

[+KaeruYojimbo]

On 8/9/2021 at 8:15 AM, zzip said:

That's a tough one.   I like the building aspect of it.    I always hated the blocky aspect of it.   I would love a game like Minecraft with much better Graphics.

Have you seen Dragonquest Builders? It’s not as blocky as Minecraft, has a pretty good story mode to play through or you can just build stuff.

[Keatah]

On 8/9/2021 at 10:15 AM, zzip said:

That's a tough one.   I like the building aspect of it.    I always hated the blocky aspect of it.   I would love a game like Minecraft with much better Graphics.

The problem here is that as the graphics detail increases, the amount to tools to manipulate those better graphics also increases. And the fun goes away. It turns into photoshop or a 3D modeling program.

[Razzie.P]

1 hour ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Have you seen Dragonquest Builders? It’s not as blocky as Minecraft, has a pretty good story mode to play through or you can just build stuff.

Yeah, those games are great.

[+batari]

On 8/8/2021 at 8:43 PM, wongojack said:

I thought of another game that fits into this category for me - Minecraft.  My niece and nephew were so into it that I made myself play it so that I could play it with them.  I'd actually played Minecraft during the beta stage (probably before my nephew was born) and thought I'd had enough, but I played it for hours more to be able to enjoy it with them.  It payed off for the most part.  I have played it several times with my niece and nephew and was able to even show them some things.

 

I still don't really think it is deserving of all the praise and attention it gets.

That's a great example. I bet a lot of games you play with kids would qualify. I never could get into Minecraft even though my kids loved it and always wanted me to play it with them.

 

Another example in that vein, I think, is Mario Cart. I never found this game enjoyable in any way. It's a mix of annoying and frustrating, in my opinion, with its sloppy controls, lack of a real racing feel, crappy powerups/weapons and the like. The newest version on the Switch looks amazing but in my opinion, it does not play any better than prior versions.

 

As for family games, though, I don't hate all of them, for instance I loved the Lego series, such as Star Wars, Batman, Harry Potter and so forth. I would still play these today but my kids don't want to play anything from the GameCube or Wii era anymore.

[Tanooki]

Hate to say it, but getting there on my procrastinating about playing Witcher 3.  I've put some hours on it, should move from the original open area of map to the next by going from some dock to the next area.  I cleared all the primary story in that area, some secondary, about 1/2 maybe of the ?s are still on the map to explore too.  The thing is, there's issues.  The story seems like it would be (and as we know is) an amazing book or something to watch(netflix series), but play wise it's kind of boring.  The camera is kind of twitchy and bitchy about staying on target, and the whole attack mechanic isn't so far as I'd call clunky, but it's not fluid enough to feel right either...kind of like how they keep re-releasing Skyrim but the mechanics still feel decade + old sucky.  I know I should play it more and give it more time, but it's just not grabbing me enough to keep using it.

[Frozone212]

My mother never let me play Halo when i was younger. Now that i have the Master Chief collection?

 

I still love it, but the magic is gone.

 

RIP EGM and OG Game informer. The 2003-2009 era was the best.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Frozone212
additional

[zzip]

22 hours ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

Have you seen Dragonquest Builders? It’s not as blocky as Minecraft, has a pretty good story mode to play through or you can just build stuff.

I have, I didn't like it.

 

21 hours ago, Keatah said:

The problem here is that as the graphics detail increases, the amount to tools to manipulate those better graphics also increases. And the fun goes away. It turns into photoshop or a 3D modeling program.

This is true.  The thing that Minecraft does really well is make it easy to build things.    I remember when "Lego Worlds" was announced, it looked like it might be a better Minecraft because you could get better detail with lego parts.  However building things in that game was more of a pain in the ass than it was in Minecraft.

 

There is "Dreams" on PS4/PS5 that allows creating detailed 3D worlds and game with standard controllers,  and it is surprisingly easy to create complex things-- they did a good job with it.   But it's still more effort than building in Minecraft.

 

 

[+KaeruYojimbo]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

I have, I didn't like it.

Yeah, thinking about it, the main reason Dragonquest Builders worked for me is it's a game I'd probably enjoy without the building, so it didn't matter as much that it was very limited and the free building mode felt like an afterthought. If building is your main interest, I can see why you wouldn't like it.

 

1 hour ago, zzip said:

I remember when "Lego Worlds" was announced, it looked like it might be a better Minecraft because you could get better detail with lego parts.  However building things in that game was more of a pain in the ass than it was in Minecraft.

I had high hopes for that one too, but I completely gave up on free building after trying it once and I lost interest in the exploring/missions part after a couple of worlds. I also tried Portal Knights, but building is even less a part of that game than Dragonquest. In the end I just come back to Minecraft because it seems to have the best balance.

[zzip]

2 minutes ago, KaeruYojimbo said:

I had high hopes for that one too, but I completely gave up on free building after trying it once and I lost interest in the exploring/missions part after a couple of worlds.

Yeah,  I still don't really get the "gameplay" in Lego Worlds.   Seemed like a lot of walking around and scanning stuff.    Building things almost feels like an afterthought, even though it seemed like the core concept when they announced the game.

 

On the Windows side, you can import designs from a Lego Designer app and paste them in your world, and that is a little bit easier than using the in-game build tools.

 

I'll still boot it up every so often feeling like maybe I'm missed something and should give it another chance-   but I always end up giving up within 15 min or so.

[cimerians]

I no longer force myself to finish a game even if it's rated high by the media or fans. If I don't like it, I don't like it and time to move on. I have well over 1,000 games, life’s short and better to spend it on something I enjoy. (Good recent examples for me were Witcher 3 & Horizon Zero Dawn.....boring as shit).

[Tanooki]

I have half that in physical games for consoles/handhelds -- feel entirely the same.  If there's something that isn't one I want to keep growing up on it, or I find that I like it so it's worth keeping -- it's toast.  Sold, traded, it's gone.  I'm thinking since I still can't motivate myself to do it, Witcher 3 maybe a lost cause.  Well kind of lost, got it free some time back on PC, so it's not gone, just GoG based.

 

Nice to see I'm not alone on Witcher 3 @cimerians

[Razzie.P]

I think I'm about to give up on Hades, now matter how much acclaim it seems to have gotten.

 

Critically acclaimed, but so far all it's done is remind me that I hate Roguelikes.

 

[RJ]

Good Lord, no. Wouldnt even consider it. Life's too short for that.

 

Look up the top 10 "important" games for gaming systems up until 2007 (that's when I quit keeping up) & I've maybe played 2 in each list.

 

Wow the more I think about the question, the more ?? I get.

 

Who DOES that?

Are there ppl who DO that?

[Mikebloke]

On 8/9/2021 at 4:43 AM, wongojack said:

I thought of another game that fits into this category for me - Minecraft.  My niece and nephew were so into it that I made myself play it so that I could play it with them.  I'd actually played Minecraft during the beta stage (probably before my nephew was born) and thought I'd had enough, but I played it for hours more to be able to enjoy it with them.  It payed off for the most part.  I have played it several times with my niece and nephew and was able to even show them some things.

 

I still don't really think it is deserving of all the praise and attention it gets.

Yeah minecraft definitely fits this for me too. I have it for the kids to play, but I've caught myself playing it to the point I want to "finish it" in a very completionistic way. I hate it because every time I think I'm on the next tier of stuff or learnt something I can do better and more efficient I don't feel like I've progressed any further in the game for the trouble. There are various programmer grunts I have about it, namely how basic and how un-creative the game actually is. I'm also bothered by minor things like I can make a sword out of stone but not out of copper. 

[zzip]

5 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

I'm also bothered by minor things like I can make a sword out of stone but not out of copper. 

Copper was only added to the game very recently.   Maybe in the future they will add copper or bronze tools,  right now there doesn't seem to be a whole lot you can make with it.

[TheGameCollector]

One summer I decided to make myself beat Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord for NES just because it was part of my first NES bundle that I got when I was 6. I had finally succeeded in clearing stage 24 of R.C. Pro-Am which constituted beating the game under NintendoAge's old rule of just getting to the part of an arcade game where it loops back to the beginning.

 

Wizardry was the last really hard game left in my first hand-me-down bundle. I found some maps online and a walkthrough and made it through the thing. You may call it cheating a little the way I used my Powerpak to hard power off every time I died or got bad stat changes when trying to make a Ninja or Paladin, but I did all the level grinding and surviving against enemies necessary to play in the most otherwise legitimate way. All I really cheated against was the permadeath and having to re-level and re-level a maxed out character until their stats balanced out just right. Something no other game seems to force you to deal with. At least this time I did not use Game Genie the way I did in my first playthrough in high school. That time I just used a quick level gain code and went straight for the final boss.