overrated games

[sepiasongs]

i think its about time we had this discussion. so to kick start things off i'm going be controversial and nominate the grand theft auto series.

and here's why:

but first things first, to be fair, its not a bad idea insofar as non linearism goes but in practice these games have never really held any more than 45 minutes of my attention each. now, veteran fans of the series may write me off here and now, but think about it, once you've killed a bunch of innocent people, stolen a few nice cars (or other random vehicle which does the same job), and died in spectacular fashion by the hands of two hundred police helicopters (or indeed escape by means of a small miracle), what is there really to see and do? the answer after those 45 minutes of gameplay and weeks of people at work and uni bigging the game up is, well, not a lot really which indeed presents the game's irony, on the one hand its makers boast how non-linear it is , yet to advance in it you need to do missions which are ultimately based upon repetitve actions such as shooting, driving and surviving.

furthermore, the characters are as shallow and stereotypical as the soundtracks, the level design, while admittedly expansive is devoid of any aesthetic charm or true imagination; its just one section of road and blockly buildings after another. all of this combines to something that trades solely on novelty alone and its commercial success in doing so shows off just how the lumpen proletariat masses know little of high art.

[phry]

Can I be controversial as well? I'm going to nominate Halo!

It started off like a definate contender for the best FPS ever, especially the 'silent cartographer level'; those warthogs are fun. Also the co-operative play seemed like the rebirth of a lot gaming art (even though Perfect Dark got there first)

Unfortunately it all went downhill from there with some lazy level design. How about the stage where you had to go through identical bridges and temples, where the only way you could tell you were heading in the right direction were 'arrows' on the floor! Then, a little later you had to go back the other way!! (just one example of many occasions of unnesscesary repitition)

Bet bungie thought, "lets make the levels really long", "but how?", "lets just double up every little bit and hope everyone's too excited about flying banshees to notice".

At least the second one was less repetitive, but by then half-life 2 came out. Never mind!

[Wyvernlord]

I say Chrono Cross. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game. Just not THAT great. Chrono Trigger is still the superior game, at least in my opinion.

Speaking of which, whatever happened to Chrono Break? It just appeared in the news and quickly disappeared.

[Kazuya_UK]

I am gonna sound like a broken record... but.... dare I say it again?

Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

Don't like it much at all. Sure, I love the animation, I'll play the occasional game, and I can see that it plays very well. However for me it is all spoilt by the worst selection of characters in a fighting game for the past ten years... I'd honestly rather spend time with a lot of the generic fighters from the early nineties games than with most of the SFIII cast. Oh and the music was up there with the worst ever in a fighter, until KOF 2001 came along and beat it by miles.

Yeah I know people hate me for this opinion, and I totally understand why... but SFIII is a big fat 3/10 from me

As for the other games you guys mentioned, I do like the GTA games. It's definitely linear no matter what anyone says, but there are other things to mess with as you go along. I'm not sure why, but if I'm getting bored or irritated with the missions I can always get some fun from blowing a few random people up, crashing cars etc etc... but maybe that is due to the immense amount of alcohol I usually consume if I play the game with a few friends... it's always funnier playing it with a group and seeing who can rack up the most/spectacular kills etc etc.

I would have to disagree with the stage design being boring. Liberty City was pretty cool I thought especially as the first game in the genre on the PS2, although Vice City was pretty lame and boring in the way it's city was laid out (although I did still enjoy the game). San Andreas however is massive and very varied I think, and very cool when you consider that there are no load times halfway through driving across the entire city like you would have done in the previous games.

As for Halo, again I'd disagree with it being over-rated, but I do agree with the level design near the end being a bit... well, shit. I think the problem was that they more than likely rushed it to get it out in time for the Xbox's release, because without Halo there would have been even less in the way of quality games for M$ to rave about at launch. I still go back and play Halo now from time to time, but funnily enough the main level I enjoy playing again and again is the silent cartographar", which was probably the best one. Also I used to play a LOT of co-op and death match, so I got more out of it than other people who might have only played the single player mode.

Chrono Cross/Trigger I have still never played

Kaz

[tsimnami9999]

ok REALLY CCONTROVERSIAL THIS ONE :oLAST BLADE 2 i cant play the bastard starts off quite easy then i get to the big guy with his huge club and thats it deflect or no deflect it annoys me and stops me from enjoying it ,ive tried and tried as everyone and i mean everyone loves it what a great game etc but not for me so im afraid 1 last blade 2 mvs with mini marque will soon be on ebay

[Daaren]

Final Fantasy 7 - I don't say its a bad title but i can't stand people that says that its the only good FF and the others are crap

Halo 1/2: From my personnal opinion, it's far from being the greatest FPS, i had more fun with a bunch of other FPS and Halo 2 was fucking rushed and weakly made, there are a shitload of graphical errors and bugs, and the only part that is fun is when you're on earth, after that the game get boring to death. Also the ending sucks

[phry]

Juzoh on the Last Blade 2 can seem a bit cheap sometimes, although admittedly the game as a whole does have a bit of love it / hate it vibe. Doesn't seem as bad as many bosses do though! (I'm sure everybody has their least favourite) Personally I really enjoy that title, though most people I know think it's a bit sedate for an NG game. (must be the music)

Chrono Trigger's not that bad (better than FF 4-6 but not up to Secret of Mana standard) but never played chrono cross. Worth a lot on ebay though!

[phry]

Isn't it strange that the marketing campaign for Halo 2 stressed that 'this time the war is on earth'. Perhaps the marketing people only played that one level!

[MitchMF]

ooooh some very controversial choices there, knocking GTA is silly it's one of the only games in years to keep me occupied longer than a bloody week it's got its crap points but it's cool imo.

SF3 tho is shitty they could do soo much better I think

plus Halo 2 Rules soooo

[Kumavonmitsurugi]

Any Grand Theft Auto...they get old fast imo

GTA 1-2 both sucked; GTA 3 is ok but once you where finished the missions there was really no reason to play the game. GTA VC is an improvement over LC but there are alot of gfx errors(feet going through the floor etc. etc.) and i just hate the whole feel of it. GTA SA is the best of the three (obviously) and it is massive, but you still dont have the ability to enter morst buildings and such... plus i just hate the whole idea of GTA...while at first it's really fun it just gets really really boring and pointless imho.

[sukotsuto]

GTA - got kicks out of it the first few hours when i was waiting for my friend to fix the network in the netcafe he's working in. never played another again since it never appealed me in any way.

FFIX - perhaps it's just me but i never liked this game.

[sepiasongs]

Final Fantasy 7 - I don't say its a bad title but i can't stand people that says that its the only good FF and the others are crap

i agree. but i can see why people say that though. i mean ask most fans as to their favourite final fantasy and by and large most will name the first instalment they played, which in a lot of cases happens to be vii (though i know someone who holds ix to be the best). now i'm not saying vii is overrated, in fact i still hold it to be the best game i've ever played, but the other games that follwed it were by no means bad, in fact i think viii's battle system was by far the best in the whole series while the standards of presentation in ix speak for themselves.

as for the last blade 2, allthe stuff about juzoh, just seems like nit-picking to be honest. the whole game's gorgeous and plays exceedingly well. my only gripe is that doesn't really feel like a proper sequel, rather an updated version of the first one. but even so its still a great game.

FFIX - perhaps it's just me but i never liked this game.

that's how i felt about x-2. while it wasn't a bad game per se but renting it out only to find myself back-tracking through the most forgettable (relatively speaking of course) ff put me off getting into it and in my eyes goes right against the essence of final fantasy i.e. the 'final' bit . which is a shame since i always used to associate final fantasy and square with consistently tremendous games.

[RoninBuddha]

first of all, we are all entitled to our own opinion..

ok, my "list" starts here;

FF7 - Because, its the FAN LOVED FF, the first 3D FF, great story, great gameplay (materia system), blah, blah,blah, but c'mon, its POP. so, i personally don't like it, i ahte it even more when it gets all the hype and shit (im looking forward over the movie though), i dont make sense, mmy point its, its simply overrated...
(imo, FF6 is the definitive FinalFantasy, but that's just me)

MvsC2 - Storm, Sentinel, Cable, Magneto,... need i say more? c'mon, people, its not even MvsCAPCOM anymore, just Marvel.. what did capcom do? did marvel pay capcom so that the game would be sooooooo unbalanced in favor over the Marvel peeps... yes, thew game is faced paced, technical and stuff, but the unbalanced factor ruins everything... and i mean everything... and dont get me started about the flat recycled cappy sprites..

GTA series - same reasons you guys said...

that's all for now..

[phry]

Isn't it a shame how this topic seems to have grown so much quicker than 'underrated games'. But I guess that a game must be pretty good to be 'rated' in the first place, let alone overrated.

Yeah, I guess the Juzoh stuff (last blade 2) does seem like nit-picking. Every fighter's got a character who a particular person loves or hates to fight, though that doesn't make a bad game.

I mean, I think that Princess Sissy from Matrimelee (a game I've recently grown to love) is a cheap boss but that only raises the satisfaction when I kick her arse! (US members read "ass" )

As for Marvel versus Capcom 2, I can agree with what's said although it's got a few people I know interested in playing 2d fighters again, the familiraity of the Marvel charecters bringing in the more casual player who may possibly grow to love Capcom vs SNK and then move onto SNK games. As for FF7, it introduced me to RPGs and without it, I may have missed out on so many other great games.

[Kazuya_UK]

Sissy in Matrimelee is the easiest boss ever... I can beat her (and the whole game) on level 8, which is an achievement for someone with my "skills" . Sissy is cheap, but use the patented Kazuya_UK method for her defeat and you are set ;D

www.neogeoforlife.com/faqs/matrimelee/matrimelee_combos_sissy.php

I don't know why, but since playing and originally reviewing Last Blade 2 and raving about it, I have started to favour Last Blade 1 marginally. Don't get me wrong - Last Blade 2 is still one of my favourite games, and the new characters in it like Setsuna are awesome, but somehow I kind of enjoy LB1 a tiny (and I mean tiny) bit more. Maybe it's something to do with the atmosphere, I dunno...

Kaz