[General Discussion] Terrible taste in games? Guilty secrets and you

Compared to the game buying public at large, it seems as though I have pretty terrible taste in games. The things I like are often seen as obscure or unpopular and I often don't see what all the fuss is about more popular titles.

For example, I thought Too Human was an awesome game and spent hundreds of hours playing it whereas popular opinion was that it was a bit rubbish. I'm also a big fan of Frontlines, another game that met with less than stellar commercial success. I thought Blazing Angels was a lot of fun and was for a time ranked about 300th on the global leaderboard but that is perhaps due to only about 3,000 people ever playing it online.

On the flip side, I've never liked any of the Mario games, wasn't much of a Sonic fan back in the day and got bored really quickly of Little Big Planet. I thought Final Fantasy X-2 was a much better game than FFX and FFXII is one of my favourites in the whole series. I tried playing FFVI a few times but got really bored really quickly each time.

So what are your guilty secrets in gaming? What games do you really like which the world thinks are shit and what critically acclaimed masterpieces did you think were rubbish?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by OmagnusPrime

Wait, Blue Dragon is a guilty pleasure game now? Erm, OK, well then put me down for that one as I really liked that game.

Not really sure what other guilty pleasures I have, though I guess you could include the Tomb Raider series, which hasn't been amazing for a while, but since Legend I've picked up each one and rather enjoyed them.

Tomb Raider in it's time was as mainstream popular as you could get mate, I'd hardly call that a divergent taste. Deathtrap Dungeon however, that was an obscure and unpopular title I got bang into. Insanely difficult too, like Tomb Raider with worse controls, swords instead of guns, hardly any savepoints and traps that just killed you with no warning. Fucking loved that game...

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Encephalon

Auto Modelista

Ha ha, I played that for hours and barely ever actually did a race. I just pissed around designing wicked looking cel-shaded cars.

I've never seen the appeal in any of the Mega Man games and Assasin's Creed was one of the most boring games I ever played. Was also pretty unimpressed by Bioshock when I watched a mate play it for an afternoon.

I think I've never liked the old school console games like Mario and Mega Man because at the time they started becoming more popular, I was playing Elite on the BBC and all the silly games on the Spectrum and then later Atari and Amiga. I had a SNES but just for Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct. Platform games on the Amiga were just so much better than console ones, I never saw the appeal.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Dark Nation

I guess you could toss me into the jRPG pile because I own all 3 Xenosagas (I don't deny the movie-quality of the first and the shotty battle system of the second though), all four Star Ocean's, Final Fantasy X, X-2 and XII (I had 7 at some point but ive played it more then a couple times so its not a big deal that I can't find it), Blue Dragon, and in a non-rpg example as mentioned above, one of the recent Tomb Raider games (Anniversary).

I'm pretty sure that FFX was one of the biggest selling games on the PS2. I know it gets pretty short thrift round here but in global terms, it was hugely mainstream popular. Jrpgs in general can be pretty popular games, just look at FFVI, VII and X or those Chrono things. Games like Guardians' Crusade (Good call by the way, I loved that game) or those weird things Elixir used to bang on about on the other hand qualify you as odd taste in games I think.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Devo hit the nail on the head I think. Halo 1's campaign mode is fucking astoundingly good. I played that through both alone and with a mate so many times I could probably tell you exactly where every tank spawns. With Halo 2, the campaign was pretty much a steamy turd but the multiplayer was awesome. The maps were for the most part really well designed and the weapons were well balanced. Also, there was a preponderance for objective games online which for someone like me who's not that got at straight up killing made it a shit ton more interesting. Some of the various tactics I saw for assault games were almost genius and a well planned attack was worth far more than simple killing ability. Also, there was Midships, the greatest map in the history of Halo maps. I once played a 16 man, King of the Hill match in midships, pistols only, no shields with a three minute win time requirement that I swear lasted over three hours. I think the kill leader had just above 3,000 kills and it was not boring for a single second, especially as I was mates with everyone in the room so we were chatting as much as playing. Good times.

Halo 3 has a pretty solid campaign that suffers from a lack of imagination and gets repetitive. Even though they added the Scarab setpieces, they are a bit slow paced and once you've seen one, pretty dull. The areas are all too open after the base level near the beginning and the whole thing is just too similar to the previous two games without really improving on them. The multiplayer suffers from poor map design. Most are far too big and favour snipers and long range battle rifle battles, plus the weapon balance isn't brilliant. The two latest maps are a welcome addition though as they're both pretty claustrophobic and these days you find more people actually trying to meet the objectives in objective games.

At the end of the day though, despite me basically being shit at the game, I always have a laugh playing Halo online. Mainly because I play with friends and you can never take the game too seriously. It's fast paced and slightly silly and it's accessibility is what makes it fun. I love playing Rainbow Six or Ghost Recon online and whilst those are fun with mates too, there's a lot more lying in a bush with a sniper rifle involved in those and you don't get the face to face immediacy you get with Halo. In fact, you very rarely ever see who's killed you, especially not if they're good at the games.

I think the bottom line is LeHah, you need to lighten up a bit to enjoy Halo. It's flawed and it's silly but it's just fun.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Is it? Wicked, I loved that map and am really enjoying the last couple released as they're much smaller. I like Halo 3 well enough, just not as much as Halo 2. Hopefully ODST will get the series back on track and not just be Halo with no shields.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

When they first announced it as Halo Recon, I was quite excited about a Halo/Tom Clancy crossover. I guess Ubisoft weren't up for it or something.

One hopes that since you're now just a normal dude rather than a Spartan, the bad guys won't all be the same old Brutes and Elites. Either that or there'll be a load more sniper ammo lying around.

Has that Franky idiot not been doing a diary about this one or is it just that nobody cares this time out?

How ya doing, buddy?