Computer games.

[LostLegend]

No man's sky has to take some credit for driving this. Should be great when it comes out. My only gripe with elite is the controls feel a bit sluggish on console. I remember getting absolutely destroyed in combat.

While they did well with the controls for the initial launch, there’s so many new features since then that trying to access them with a controller was an absolute finger contorting nightmare.

I’ve been toying with getting it on thePC, but there’s still not cross play, so I’d have to start again from scratch... fills me with existential dread just thinking about it!

 

[Zezti]

Anyone playing Cyberpunk on PC might find this useful to help with performance optimisation

Home - OC3D

www.overclock3d.net

Best
FF7 - just the best
FF10 - linear but I love the story, characters and Blitzball and when it opens up later it has some really good challenges
FF12 - grew on me over time and has become one of the games I've replayed the most
FF14 - thousands of hours on this MMO. I don't get hooked on the grind like some people do but its given me so many amazing moments playing with people
X3 Terran Conflict (+ Albion Prelude expansion) - the first sandbox game I really got into, the progression going from a little fighter to a megacorp with huge destroyers and carriers is still amazing.

Worth mentioning: Terraria, Slay the Spire and Divinity Original Sin 2.

Disappointments
PUBG - It went from a tense survival shooter to a run around like a headless chicken esports-wannabe game. Topped off with dogturd performance.
FF15 - think there was genuinely a good game in there at one point but it turned out a total mess in terms of story telling with gameplay that got stale very quickly
FF9 - just really never liked the setting or design. Too goofy for my liking.
Pillars of Eternity - too mathmatical to ever feel enjoyable
Path of Exile - I have some friends who are crazy about this game and I've given it a good try but I can't come to any other conclusion than its horrendous and lacking basic things like camera control. Completely mechanics driven gameplay that uses the same controls so you're just doing the same things again and again and again.

Thinking about this, should really add X Rebirth and X4 Foundations to top disappointments.

I absolutely loved the games before, then Rebirth came out and it took nothing that was good, ran like ass, added so much dead travel time and superficial fluff like exploring space stations that had about 3 different possible layouts with NPCs that did nothing and had really bad animations. Worst of all, limited the player to their one single starting ship. If I was some kind of game dev professor I would use it as an example of what never to do.

Then X4 Foundations came along and they marketed it as a return to what made the series great, before Rebirth, and people (me) got all excited that they had learned their lesson.
It was Rebirth 2.0 instead. It launched in as bad a state as Rebirth. Had even more superficial fluff and pointless stupid crap like having to 'scan' [closely move slowly around] stations just to get quests to do. They at least added the ability to move between ships again but they also added instant cross-universe teleporting at no cost between cockpits, basically a cheat to get around the dead travel time. Cheap solutions and bad decisions again due to not realising the problems people had with the game before, and seemingly forgotten all about what people liked from the older games.

Not to mention these games were full AAA priced and how they incrementally added desired features behind expansions which each cost about £20.

I could write a whole dissertation on how badly Egosoft managed everything about these games.

 

[Tubey]

CD Projekt Red have now bent over to Chinese censorship by not releasing a game with a piece of placeholder art critical of the Chinese leader.

Or they've "pulled a Blizzard" to put it blunt.

They've destroyed their reputation inside a week. The crunch for developers already had them on the ropes, but now they've full on went from most admired gaming company to one of the most despised.

 

[The Legend of Southall]

I thought I'd add my own unique perspective to these lists. You see, my gaming taste isn't what you'd call normal, or main stream. I very rarely like challenging games, and much prefer open sandbox games. It's also very rare a game will be meet my expectations of it. So I'm a bugger for cheating. For example, Theme Park. I used to use the money cheat to create my own game within it. Where I can't open the park until it's fully built. Which allows me to build a superior park, with all the popular rides at the front where people will ride them. I did similar with Theme Hospital, Medieval Total War, and Civilisation 2. The latter two using the money cheat to create a more sandbox type game.

So my list will contain games that have engaged me over the years, and ones I haven't needed to cheat in order to alter the game into something I'd prefer. In no particular order then:

Fifa 95
The first football game I really liked. I used to create leagues by selecting all 6 playable teams, then doing every weeks round of fixtures as a highlights show. My favourite being the Italian one, because I could pretend I was doing my own version of that Italian football show on Channel 4 ( I was only 10).

Micro Machines 96
This game lasted well until I turned 13 and finally got a Playstation. I used to love the multiplayer battles, and I'd spend hours racing my shadows around on time trials. I also remember exchanging those codes they gave you, when you built your own track, with a mate at school. I remember that being mind blowing at the time.

Grand Theft Auto 3
The first GTA was a bit like my coming of age game, where I graduated from cartoonish games like Micro Machines into something more serious. And I consider GTA 5 to be the best one they have done. But 3 is the stand out for me, because it was heavily anticipated (GTA in 3d!). It is also the only GTA I've spent the most time on, and the storyline generally absorbed me more than the other titles.

Timesplitters
I genuinely could of chosen any one of the 3 in the series, I loved them that much. However I chose the first one simply for the mansion level on the hardest difficulty setting. If took me and my mate ages (and several all nighters) to complete that level. In fact, we played it that much, I still remember my part in the opening routine we set up. Spawn, take out the two skeleton zombies. Go though to the next room, take out the other 2 skeleton zombies. Take out the shooter on the stairs, then enter the mansion's basement, deal with the spawning zombie, then head round the corner and take out the police zombie in the distance. Wait for my mate to finish his routine, by taking out zombies on the other side of the basement, then head up into the kitchen for an ambush. Great times.

Eldar Scrolls Oblivion
I really got into this game. I completed virtually every mission, I covered virtually every blade of grass, I bought all the expansion packs. I recently rebooted it, to show my daughter my castle and many, many, many hours worth of loot and goodies. Only to discover the expansion pack longer worked and it was all gone. I nearly cried. Skyrim was a better game, but it just never lived up to my experience with Oblivion.

My list of 5 games that have dissapointed, again, in no particular order:

Medieval Total War 2
I had really loved the campaign mode on the first game. For those who never played it, it was kind of like risk, but just based in medieval Europe. You know when you play a game so much, you know it's weaknesses inside and out. So when you hear of sequal, you get so excited in hope they have fixed them, and enhanced the bits you love? Well it turns out Creative Assembly were more concerned with the other, main aspect of the game. The campaign mode in this sequal was awful. I was so bitterly disappointed. And it's the one they have persisted with since. Ruined an entire franchise, Total War games are now dead to me.

No Mans Sky
I remember a mate telling me about this game. It sounded perfect, and right up my street. However it proved annoyingly frustrating. The grind of having to keep mining resources to stay alive just put me right off. Not quite the freedom I was hoping for.

Final Fantasy VII
Disclaimer, I was 12 when I last played this. Now obviously I'd heard everyone rave about this game, and it should of been a game I'd enjoy. Despite not being a fan of turn based combat. However, for whatever reason, I couldn't get past the first boss. Now I know some games like to make the first boss really hard, so as to hook you. I'm not that type of person. It did the opposite to me, putting me off the series that much that, dipping my toe into 10 aside, I've not touched the series since. To be honest I am giving serious consideration to giving this game another go.

Black and White
On paper this sounded like a really good game. But my God was this a clumsy train wreck. The whole pet aspect, the never ending building that just got messier the longer you played. Never got further than the 2nd level. Not to mention the jumpy, jerky graphics.

Dynasty Warriors 8
I got hooked with DW2, really, really loved DW3, and played DW4 and 5 (especially 5XL legends), but not to the same extent. By the time 8 came out, I was ready to go full on again. But they had ruined all the characters I once considered decent. Zhou Yu with a wooden stick, ffs. And why did every female character get a bow and arrow. Sun Shang Xiang was really good with those sol chakrams. Absolutely ruined it for me. Which was a shame, because I thought their whole bases idea was pretty decent.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

Surprised ocarina of time is in no ones top 5

 

[The Legend of Southall]

Surprised ocarina of time is in no ones top 5

To be honest, it didn't make mine because, despite 3 attempts, I've never completed it. In all 3 attempts, I've pretty much got to the same place before becoming disinterested.

The only thing I can think of that may of caused this was the boss fights. They where extremely repetitive. Find the bosses weakness, then repeat the same attack 6 or 7 times. To be fair, it could also be that the boss I get to is just too much of ball ache to beat (that one were you have to look through the lens of truth every time to find it's weakness). Like I said, I'm weird and fussy.

 

[ChesterBlue]

CD Projekt Red have now bent over to Chinese censorship by not releasing a game with a piece of placeholder art critical of the Chinese leader.

Or they've "pulled a Blizzard" to put it blunt.

They've destroyed their reputation inside a week. The crunch for developers already had them on the ropes, but now they've full on went from most admired gaming company to one of the most despised.

Genuinely been quite upsetting to see. They were so good with Witcher 3 and have been so consumer friendly in the past, but they’ve utterly destroyed their reputation in a week by conning gamers into buying a unfinished product

 

[JimmyJeffers]

To be honest, it didn't make mine because, despite 3 attempts, I've never completed it. In all 3 attempts, I've pretty much got to the same place before becoming disinterested.

The only thing I can think of that may of caused this was the boss fights. They where extremely repetitive. Find the bosses weakness, then repeat the same attack 6 or 7 times. To be fair, it could also be that the boss I get to is just too much of ball ache to beat (that one were you have to look through the lens of truth every time to find it's weakness). Like I said, I'm weird and fussy.

Timesplitters had that mad robot fishbowl head thing in. Can remember spending hours on a challenge breaking every bit of glass in a mansion with a brick

 

[Wizard]

Surprised ocarina of time is in no ones top 5

No Ocarina, no Breath of the Wild and as far as I can tell no Mario games.

I'm trying to think of my 5 but BotW would definitely be in there. Ocarina would be close as would Mario Galaxy which I played recently for the first time and absolutely loved.

 

[JimmyJeffers]

No Ocarina, no Breath of the Wild and as far as I can tell no Mario games.

I'm trying to think of my 5 but BotW would definitely be in there. Ocarina would be close as would Mario Galaxy which I played recently for the first time and absolutely loved.

Mario 64 was my fave. Mario galaxy 2 is class. I haven’t played anything new in a while though.

 

[The Legend of Southall]

Timesplitters had that mad robot fishbowl head thing in. Can remember spending hours on a challenge breaking every bit of glass in a mansion with a brick

Deadwina was a favourite of mine 'my mother sucks lolipops in hell'

Used to love some of those challenges as well. One that stands out is Sergio's Last Stand. I got a platinum trophy on that first time of asking. Strutting round my room like a boss

 

[Wizard]

Mario 64 was my fave. Mario galaxy 2 is class. I haven’t played anything new in a while though.

Loved Mario 64 too. Have that to play again on the Switch which is where I finally played Galaxy. Hoping Galaxy 2 is released on there at some point as well

 

[Tubey]

Final Fantasy VII
Disclaimer, I was 12 when I last played this. Now obviously I'd heard everyone rave about this game, and it should of been a game I'd enjoy. Despite not being a fan of turn based combat. However, for whatever reason, I couldn't get past the first boss. Now I know some games like to make the first boss really hard, so as to hook you. I'm not that type of person. It did the opposite to me, putting me off the series that much that, dipping my toe into 10 aside, I've not touched the series since. To be honest I am giving serious consideration to giving this game another go.

I think you fell victim to one of the most infamous mistranslations in the game.

Basically, you don't attack when the scorpions tail is up. As opposed to what the game actually tells you...



It's just a mistake. The boss is ridiculously easy - all you do is leave it alone when the tail raises, then just spam Bolt from Cloud and it's dead. Pretty harmless, definitely not intended to be hard in any way.

Indeed FF7 is a very easy game up until Jenova, arguably Demon's Gate if you don't know the trick, and of course the Weapons.

 

[The Legend of Southall]

I think you fell victim to one of the most infamous mistranslations in the game.

Basically, you don't attack when the scorpions tail is up. As opposed to what the game actually tells you...

View attachment 111336

It's just a mistake. The boss is ridiculously easy - all you do is leave it alone when the tail raises, then just spam Bolt from Cloud and it's dead. Pretty harmless, definitely not intended to be hard in any way.

Indeed FF7 is a very easy game up until Jenova, arguably Demon's Gate if you don't know the trick, and of course the Weapons.

I think you're probably right. I certainly don't remember anyone else struggling where I did.

At some point I will get round to getting the remastered game, and giving it another go. If all else fails, this time round I have the internet at least

 

[Hjefc]

Outrun zx spectrum the music was ace and I was a kid that loved cars!

Mario Kart SNES fantastic two player mode(as someone mentioned earlier). Came out when I was doing A levels we used to leave school to play winner stays on any free period we got.

SNES Empire Strikes Back, great audio track, simple game play but ace.

Goldeneye N64, never owned it but someone at University did, incredible two player head to head. Fantastic game.

gran turismo ps1. Start from the bottom, develop your car and improve and buy better on the way. The game I always wanted, loved it.

misses

uncharted, just never got into it annoying gameplay

tomb raider (all) annoying

any online game, I’m older now, I rarely play on my console so have no chance against sweats (as my son calls them). Fortnite is fun but would be better against AI than 11 year olds that spend most of their waking hours on it.