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[NinjaBoiX]

I think Halo is absolutely terrible. The world feels generic, the plot seems laughably stupid, the gunplay is weak and it all feels incredibly boring.

THERE! I SAID IT.

I agree with the rest, but surely Halo's weapons are pretty meaty? The physics, hit reactions, recoil, sound effects; I honestly struggle to see how the gunplay is weak, the guns have always felt so powerful in the Halo games.

 

[ShinNL]

I always thought that a huge majority of Sony 1st party games are not worth mentioning, despite some people claiming it to be one of the best. Only GT would be in my list of must-have. Uncharted, God of War and whatever the 90% of obscure titles are? Meh. I mean, I've seen people compare it to Nintendo's 1st party games and say it rivals the line up. Some even suggesting a brawler-like game with just Sony 1st party franchises.... yeah, no.

 

[TaroYamada]

Generally, these are topics that I find I'm at odds with the Zeitgeist on:

1. Online gaming is not fun. I don't enjoy it, it rarely enhances a game experience for me. There have also been very few new online experiences since XBox 1 days.

2. Smartphone/tablet gaming is completely uninteresting, and inaccurate control inputs will keep me away from it. I've played several demos, mainly on WP7, and they have all been rubbish (Katamari, GeoDefence, PacMan CE, some WW2 flying game). I see no future in the market apart from devaluing games in general.

3. I value quality built hardware, when there seems to be a general trend of indifference amongst many people to the shocking manufacture quality of XBox 360s in particular. On these grounds, I would personally rate 360 as the worst major console in the history of gaming. I also value QA'd software, and as such will never ever ever buy another Bethesda product.

4. I dislike the trend of cinematic 'experience' games with 'epic stories'. Games like Mass Effect, Red Dead/GTA, Halo, Uncharted etc do nothing for me any more.

5. I think "the Industry" comes across as anti-consumer, and seems to project a view that customers are an inconvenience. The Industry seems to make games for itself.

6. I think gaming in general would be better off without the existence of EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Microsoft, Take 2, Zenimax and Apple. There are small studios within those companies that are good, but the publishers are inherently anti-consumer, predatory, rubbish at QA and some of them like to steal games their customers buy.

7. Wii is Nintendo's best console, and the best console for gaming this generation. I base this on the access to retro games and some really interesting 3rd party gems which flew under the radar.

8. The shift to digital distribution alone will end my involvement as a customer. I will stick with old systems and carts if I must, in order to keep playing. I don't trust publishers.

9. The most valuable companies in the gaming world are those pushing original ideas. Companies or dev teams like Q Games (Pixeljunk), Intelligent Systems, Oddworld Inhabitants and the like are incredibly underappreciated in the wider gaming world.

10. The entire games media is a corrupt PR mouthpiece, infected with publisher interference and unable to be trusted for any objective coverage. The last six years bear witness to this, and the overwhelming influence the major industry players have in setting the public agenda. Debacles like RROD and PS3 Skyrim "reviews" demonstrate this most strongly.

11. Online passes must die.

I agree with everything you said except about Wii, otherwise I hate DD on consoles and am not ecstatic about it on PC either. Though I mind it there less. I liked Red Dead Redemption and didn't find it overly cinematic, and I really like the Uncharted franchise, one of my main complaints with Uncharted though is how it slows down gameplay and progress for cinematic set pieces. See Uncharted 2's train/cliff scene, absolute trash.

 

[RaGMasTeR90]

Final Fantasy XIII is one of the best games i played this gen and of my favourite games of all time.

Haters gonna hate.

 

[SomeDude]

here's a list:


ratchet and clank: For quite a while i couldn't stand what the ratchet and clank games did to the platform genre. simplistic platforming/puzzles and barren empty worlds with decent gun mechanics.

square's golden era was from 1994-2000. after that there games fell dramatically in quality.

twilight princess was by far the worst zelda game. the uninspired art direction and the whole by the numbers zelda vibe it gave off was offensive.

jak and daxter 1 is one of the absolute best ps2 games. amazing platform game.


I like the old charm of the older resident evils. Such as the old interfaces and the controls. Resident evil 4 was a good game though.

New Super Mario Bros wii is the best 2d mario.

GTA's missions for the most part really suck.

Gears of war, halo and call of duty are all generic games with generic art direction and generic stories.

Metal Gear Solid 1 is by far the best MGS game.

Sonic 3 and Knuckles is still the pinnacle of the sonic franchise.

Retro studios would make a better 2.5d metroid game than yoshio sakamoto

I think Rare is very underrated. They did a great job with the DKC games and there output on the Nintendo 64 and even on xbox 360 has been great.

skyrim reeks of genericness

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

I think the Metal Gear 'story telling' is aweful and anyone who actually thinks they should be held up as the pinnacle of good video game stories doesn't know anything about good story telling.

 

[StarEye]

Where's the controversy there?

 

[DerZuhälter]

Apparently my opinions will not be as "shocking" as I thought because similar sentiments were raised in the thread.

Here we go:


Valve and Bethesda are hugely overrated developers.

Valve made one good game, with Half-Life 1. Half-Life 2 felt like an entire different game in terms of pacing, surroundings, and AI. The only thing similar to each other are Xen and the Citadel sections.

All other games Valve released, aren't really their intellectual property.
Left 4 Dead? Turtle Rock studios did that. Also several Half-Life mods did it before.
Team Fortress? Originally a Quake Mod.
Counter-Strike? Gooseman did that.
Portal? Originally Narbacular Drop.
And now that audacious DOTA 2 release?

Face it. Valve are great business men but apparently not very creative people. Their idea of delivering episodic sequels for Half Life 2, didn't pan out, and basically invented DLC before the term was coined.

People need to take a more critical view on Valve.

Next up Bethesda:

As far as I am concerned, they released (haven't played Daggerfall or Arena) 3 times the same game. The differences between the last three Elder Scrolls are quite negligable. To me they are as unique as different iterations of the FIFA/Madden series.
Fallout 3, is probably the worst "reboot" of a series I can imagine. Worst of all, everything terrible about the GameBryo Engine of Oblivion, reappeared in Fallout 3. The terrible animation, the clumsy menus, the laughable dialogue animation, the terrible melee fighting system of "running backwards and swinging" that defeats everything.
Now add the huge amount of bugs they ship with each game release and you get one of the most overrated developers ever.


Random thoughts:

BioWare RPGs are the epitome of the word, "formulaic". Even the characters are hugely similar for every game.

I enjoyed FFVIII and couldn't get myself to play through FFVII.

I enjoyed Duke Nukem Forever for what it was. Mindless fun, 80s type Duke punchlines. Worth 14 years of developpment? Hell no.

I think it's a shame the original Unreal doesn't get the credit its deserved. It's AI was impressive for it's time. The open environment never seen before. And graphically it was beautiful.


Halo 3's level design is laughably bad. What's this open "arena" the scarab appears in? Are you kidding me? The game is full of these badly designed spots, that *if you take a look* do not look natural at all.

 

[kurtrussell]

Wiimote and nunchuck is only second to keyboard and mouse as the ultimate way to control an FPS.

Also: itt, GAFfers accuse other GAFfers with different opinions of trolling

 

[j.rob]

Super Smash Bros Melee is the greatest fighting game of all time. Nothing comes close to is perfect ballence of accessibility, depth, and uniqueness. Its one of a kind.
Sakurai is a Genius. Although he kinda lost his marbles at Brawl.

And yes. Smash Bros IS a fighting game.

Soul calibur 2 comes in at a close second. Gamecube version > any other version.

Shadowrun is the greatest, most addictive and best FPS I have played in my life.

I think Bethesda is a horrible company who can't make a good game at all. I found oblivion incredibly boring despite being rated so highly. Same with fallout 3. But I hope Skyrim changes my opinion of them.

Resident evil 5, gets too much hate. I felt the game was one of the best in the series. Actually, I thought it was better than resident evil 4.

That is all for now...

 

[AdventureRacing]

Halo doesn't belong in this thread. Halo gets a ton of hate on GAF and every time a thread pops up like this it is pretty much always the most mentioned game.

Just on the first page of this thread it was mentioned like 4 times and has been mentioned on pretty much every page since then. With the amount of hate halo gets on GAF i feel as though it would be more controversial to actually say you really like the game.

Most modern game music is garbage.

Agreed. There are some realy standouts but for the most part gaming soundtracks are very forgettable.

 

[SmokyDave]

Pushmo / Pullblox wouldn't receive the love it does if it was an iOS game. It would just be another iOS puzzler.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

The only great Valve games are Portal and Portal 2. L4D is can be fun with a good group, but repetitive. The Half Life series just isn't very enjoyable.

Agreed with others on Assassin's Creed. After the first disaster I can't believe anyone bought the later games.

Why can't you believe that? The games got a whole shit-ton better after the first, so people bought them; you think one duff game means everyone should abandon the franchise? Metal Gear Solid is still going, right? And it's had 3 chances to redeem itself!

It's not like people need to take a stand against the AC franchise after the kiddy porn outrage in the first game, it was just a dull proof of concept that got expanded into a decent game.

 

[perfectnight]

Super Smash Bros Melee is the greatest fighting game of all time. Nothing comes close to is perfect ballence of accessibility, depth, and uniqueness. Its one of a kind.
Sakurai is a Genius. Although he kinda lost his marbles at Brawl.

And yes. Smash Bros IS a fighting game.

Soul calibur 2 comes in at a close second. Gamecube version > any other version.

Guevara thanks for reminding me I need to replay HL2. That game was awesome.

Also, the entire Assasin's Creed franchise is terrible. All of it.

 

[ugoo18]

I hate Sony as a company but like the Ps3

I am tolerant of Microsoft as a company but hate the 360

I love Nintendo as a company and like the Wii

I have become quite fond of the PC

It irritates me how Microsoft can get by with almost no 1st Party presence whatsoever.

Activision will always be a better evil than EA who can die in a horrible firestorm of destruction.

Tolerance is good and all but people who automatically shoot down any game that aren't bathed in the colors of brown and grey, which apparently are the only colors that exist in our world deserve to have their consoles self destruct before their very eyes taking their entire collection of Brown and Grey: The Revelation with it.

I love NSMBWii not only for it's fun gameplay but because it finally put a cork in the gaping maw that was COD sales (Namely MW2) and proceeded to beat it over the head with higher and higher sales.

EA forever died in my eyes after the NBA Jam fiasco on the Wii

Deus Ex Human Revolution was GOTY last year by a country mile, Skyrim did not deserve that title for many reasons.

The Arkham City and Asylum games get a free pass because Batman is in them. Arkham Asylum was a mediocre game at best and Arkham City at it's best was simply good but neither of them deserve the amount of praise they receive.

3rd parties have been spoilt to a ridiculous extent by Microsoft and to a lesser degree Sony.

Nintendo can be one of the most brilliant and one of the most frustrating companies to follow and defend.

Splitscreen will always (Not sometimes but ALWAYS) be better than online gaming, the sooner some bonehead 3rd parties accept this especially on PC's (Just because i game on a PC does not mean i shun physical contact with other human beings).

Wiimote + Nunchuk will always be better than Mouse + Keyboard simply because of the analog stick.

The Xbox 360 controller is better than the abomination that is the PS1/2/3 controller.

Super Smash Bros Melee was a broken mistake, Super Smash Bros Brawl was the true less broken successor of SSB64 (The only truly balanced Super Smash Bros Game)

Starfox is the most overrated series i have ever had the misfortune of playing. As long as the series remains an on-rails shooter it will dwell in mediocrity for all time, being overshadowed by the far superior Sin and Punishment Series. Starfox Adventures was a correct step for the series.

Super Smash Bros has no business being on the 3DS

Developing a Zelda game is perhaps the most dangerous undertaking in gaming today.

 

[PumpkinPie]

I like the Wii Nintendo shop, I think it's well designed. I also think that Xbox Live is better and easier to use to purchase games than Steam is.

 

[JimboJones]

I believe a lot of iOS games would receive a lower average review score on consoles/handhelds, they seem to get a bump up because it's a decent game on a phone.

 

[DerZuhälter]

Splitscreen will always (Not sometimes but ALWAYS) be better than online gaming, the sooner some bonehead 3rd parties accept this especially on PC's (Just because i game on a PC does not mean i shun physical contact with other human beings).

So true. Push for online gaming only came because you can sell 2 copies instead of 1, for 2 players playing. Still don't understand why so many racing games get released without Splitscreen.

Wiimote + Nunchuk will always be better than Mouse + Keyboard simply because of the analog stick.

 

[ShirAhava]

I dislike all Valve games, especially HL2, and am not too fond of Steam either.

I'll be more specific

CS - You die in one shot and the bullet spread is intolerable. I'd rather play CoD.

Half Life - completely average. Had to drag myself through both of them.

Portal - Makes me incredibly motion sick.

TF2 - Terrible art style, too casual, goofy game mechanics like spy's etc.

L4D - the only one that's kind of ok, but only with friends and in short bursts. Would be more fun if it wasn't a cakewalk even on the highest difficulty.

You are not alone....I thought it was just me!

 

[j.rob]

Aahaha! I knew someone would react like this.

But yeah. Come at me.

 

[Mafro]

Pretty much all Sony first party games this gen are overrated, and are not on the same level as those from Microsoft and Nintendo. The only exceptions to this are God of War 3 and Motorstorm: Pacific Rift & Apocalypse. Particularly:

Uncharted series - glorified on-rails third-person shooter with terrible shooing mechanics masquerading as some grand Indiana Jones-style adventure game. People seem oblivious to its many faults due to TEH ENGAGING CHARACTERS.

Infamous 1 & 2 - glorified third-person shooter dressed up as a superhero sandbox game. For how to do a game like this, see Prototype which bettered it in every way.

Resistance 1 - average at best, but massively overhyped due to it being a launch game

Killzone 2 - looks good, but nowhere near as good as people on here claim. Shockingly sluggish controls and some pretty bad level design. A 7 at most.

Heavy Rain - the attempts at storytelling were laughable and embarrassing at times, yet the gaming press clung to it as if it was some oscar-worthy thriller. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories did it and did it better.

Pushmo is the best puzzle game since Tetris.

CoD: Black Ops has the best campaign in the series.

ODST is the best Halo.

 

[Theonik]

You can say that about most games held in high regards when they came out but you would attempt to play long after that. You need to enjoy them as historical experience and not judge them with the same metrics you would judge things released today. Let's face it, if a game isn't fun, it's not because it evolved past fun; it's because you changed man...

It's not that I compared it with modern games or anything. I just didn't enjoy it. Maybe I should give it another spin eventually.

 

[Yagharek]

Wiimote and nunchuck is only second to keyboard and mouse as the ultimate way to control an FPS.

I'd go one further - I find it preferable to kbam. In the handful of well implemented examples.

I like the Wii Nintendo shop, I think it's well designed. I also think that Xbox Live is better and easier to use to purchase games than Steam is.

I dont personally get the complaints about Wii shop layout. I find it easy to navigate. It's far easier to get lost in the multiple layers of PSN/XBL stores. Though it would be easier to compare if all services had an equal number of games to organise.

 

[DerZuhälter]

Oh yeah:

The internet destroyed low-level multiplayer gaming. Back in the day, skill came from gameintelligence, experimentation and time investment. Now you go to youtube and look what the world champion in game XY does, and try to imitate.

 

[DSN2K]

dont get the love for Castlevania at all.

 

[a.wd]

Sony Fanboys are the worst fanboys on GAF...or anywhere....

ooooh and the best jet set is jet set radio future....COME AT ME!

 

[ugoo18]

 

[TaroYamada]

Guevara thanks for reminding me I need to replay HL2. That game was awesome.

Also, the entire Assasin's Creed franchise is terrible. All of it.

I laughed too, it's a party game and only a fighter in the simplest definition of the word.

 

[AdventureRacing]

I laughed too, it's a party game and only a fighter in the simplest definition of the word.

This is complete bullshit and an insult to the people who play the game competitively.

 

[Misterinenja]

Uncharted 2 is not a classic that will be remembered fondly years to come.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is awesome and still above most games in technical ambition this gen.

Fable 2 is a freaking good and fun game.

Twilight Princess > Wind Waker (no hate)

Super Street Fighter 4 is a perfect fighting game.

 

[PairOfFilthySocks]

As far as I'm concerned, motion controls in Skyward Sword are an utter waste of time and only serve to distract the player and pull them out of the experience with convoluted control schemes that would be far superior on a regular pad.

 

[TaroYamada]

This is complete bullshit and an insult to the people who play the game competitively.

The game wasn't designed with the depth or intentions of creating a highly competitive fighter, the game is rooted in party-game mechanics, and does not rank amongst the Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter franchises. The very fact that the competitive community almost exclusively plays no items on final destination, the fact that wave dashing was considered a 'special move' and was used as a core mechanic of competitive play, despite being an exploit, and the huge tier disparities prove it.

To place the series up there with the aforementioned fighting franchises, in regards to depth, is frankly disingenuous. Smash Bros. is to Street Fighter as Mario Kart is to Gran Turismo. I actually enjoy both franchises, and there's nothing wrong with either Mario Kart or Smash Bros. being party games, but I am not gonna lie about the depth of each series.

 

[j.rob]

The game wasn't designed with the depth or intentions of creating a highly competitive fighter, the game is rooted in party-game mechanics, and does not rank amongst the Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter franchises. The very fact that the competitive community almost exclusively plays no items on final destination, the fact that wave dashing was considered a 'special move' and was used as a core mechanic of competitive play, despite being an exploit, and the huge tier disparities prove it.

To place the series up there with the aforementioned fighting franchises, in regards to depth, is frankly disingenuous.

You do make a valid point. Yes I agree with you on the fact that it was intended as a party fighter. But I think that what makes it as I stated "the greatest fighting game of all time" IMO, is because its so accessible to almost everyone.
Those who don't play fighting games, can pick it up and play it easily due to the simple controls. Then those who want to look deeper and looking for something more competitive can certainly do so to.

I can't think of a fighting game that can cater to casuals and competitive players as easily as smash.

Basically, when I say its the best, I don't just mean in gameplay, because a game such as Street Fighter 4 that was built with competitive gameplay in mind will always be better. But the fact that it CAN cater to them aswell as to casuals it just astounding. I mean there are still to this day tournaments being held, so it certainly has strong following.

And the fact its unconventional too. I love the old "deplete your opponents health bar" system. But I find the "increase damage and knock our opponent out" mechanic as something that's incredibly unique and interesting.
This it why I really wish for Capcom and Nintendo to work together to create a Smash game in the future. Almost everything about its competitive nature was a mistake, so Capcom could really make something out of it if done correctly.

Its nice to dream though...

 

[ScOULaris]

Uncharted 3 was complete ass. Saints Row 2 is only enjoyable for people who have the mentality of a teenage boy and no standards when it comes to polish or design. GTA4 was, in many ways, the best GTA game to date (not that it didn't have its problems).

And last, but not least...

Spoiler

I really can't get into the Metroid Prime series

.

I also agree with these:

Killzone 2 - looks good, but nowhere near as good as people on here claim. Shockingly sluggish controls and some pretty bad level design. A 7 at most.

Heavy Rain - the attempts at storytelling were laughable and embarrassing at times, yet the gaming press clung to it as if it was some oscar-worthy thriller.

Especially with regard to Heavy Rain. There is NO reason why anyone should look to Heavy Rain as an example of good storytelling in games. Simply dreadful writing and acting even by game standards, which is really bad considering there's no "gameplay" to really salvage the experience.

 

[Murkas]

Super Mario Sunshine is the best 3D Mario

Wind Waker is the best 3D Zelda

MGS4 was fantastic, all MGS games are great. MGS3 was the best one

Zelda should go back to being 2D only

Uncharted 3 was the same shit and should have gotten blasted for being so

Gears of War 3 was the same shit and should have gotten blasted for being so

Halo Reach was the same shit and should have gotten blasted for being so

Resident Evil 4 is the best Resident Evil, REmake comes at a very close second

FF7 is the best main series FF

FF Tactics is the best FF over all

People who say the SNES Mario Kart was the best Mario Kart game should be shot for having nostalgia goggles so damn thick.

The Wii's motion control scheme is terrible and should only be used for games like House of the Dead/Resident Evil Chronicles because it's only great in those cases.

Silent Hill 4 was great.

Killzone is a terrible series and should be compared to HAZE

Fighting games with comeback mechanics suck

I don't understand when Valve fanboys love how Steam servers crash during sales, They should be complaining to them demanding better servers , it has happened every sale for as long as I can remember. Start complaining instead of going "Oh Valve, you so silly"

Xbox Live gold is a successful scam, charging people to play online and no, the service isn't good to warrant the price.

Nintendo should crash for not porting Super Metroid to a portable console like its other SNES games

Nintendo should burn for not making another 2D Metroid

 

[Betta Lines]

People who say the SNES Mario Kart was the best Mario Kart game should be shot for having nostalgia goggles so damn thick.

But it is.

 

[AdventureRacing]

The game wasn't designed with the depth or intentions of creating a highly competitive fighter, the game is rooted in party-game mechanics, and does not rank amongst the Street Fighter or Virtua Fighter franchises.

I have no idea if it was designed with the intention of having depth but there is no denying that there is a ton of depth to the gameplay in melee. Why do i care if that was intentional or not?

The very fact that the competitive community almost exclusively plays no items on final destination, the fact that wave dashing was considered a 'special move' and was used as a core mechanic of competitive play, despite being an exploit, and the huge tier disparities prove it.

All that proves is that perhaps the depth wasn't intended, not that it doesn't exist. Also how much variety of stages are used in SF or VF?

There are tier differences but there are still plenty of characters that can compete. I very much doubt that the characters in SF or VF are perfectly balanced. Not that every character needs to balanced for a game to be competitive.

 

[KenOD]

I have never understood playing the most basic stage, ignoring all items, and trying to go away from the basic point of Smash Brothers like those who play it competitively do. They want to do that it's fine, but it seems like such a waste of what the game offers to me.

Oh and Eternal Champions was better than Mortal Kombat.

But it is.

Mode 7 was a horrible and terrible gimmick that was always an ugly thing. The good stages from Super Mario Kart were all done better in later games. They should do more with coins though.

 

[RagingAvatar]

Final Fantasy XII is the best game in the series. With the best music. Best fight system. Best, and certainly most intriguing and mature story.

 

[Murkas]

But it is.

The GBA version was a better improved version of it.

 

[fanboi]

I hate Portal and Portal 2....

It sucks so much.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Metal Gear Solid 4 is awesome and still above most games in technical ambition this gen.

That's like saying Duke Nukem Forever was hugely technically ambitious; MGS4 is a bit of a mess visually, outside of the (post processed to holy fuck) cut scenes.

Ambition don't mean shit without execution.

 

[TaroYamada]

I have no idea if it was designed with the intention of having depth but there is no denying that there is a ton of depth to the gameplay in melee. Why do i care if that was intentional or not?

Because if it wasn't intended you are relying on pure chance that mechanic is balanced. A.K.A. it won't be balanced. Also you ignored my comment about how most of the design is rooted in party game philosophy.

All that proves is that perhaps the depth wasn't intended, not that it doesn't exist. Also how much variety of stages are used in SF or VF?

There are tier differences but there are still plenty of characters that can compete. I very much doubt that the characters in SF or VF are perfectly balanced. Not that every character needs to balanced for a game to be competitive.

Sorry man, the tiers in Melee are undeniably huge, massive compared to VF 4 or Street Fighter 3. Also stage variety is pretty good in SF and VF competitions, search for evo videos on youtube, or in the case of VF, wcg videos.

Also it's 4 AM, hitting the hay, so if you wanna take this further and want me to see your messages, your best bet is messaging me.

 

[JoeBoy101]

The only reason people love Dark Souls is because they think it doesn't coddle them like most other games, which it doesn't. It does treat the player like a complete asshole though, but because players have only had coddling for years, they think it equates to brilliant game design. Much like daddy's little girl going out and dating the bad boy. She thinks its love because he doesn't think of her like a child when he actually thinks she's a brainless dickhead.

Spoiler

Now that should get some flames.

 

[HP_Wuvcraft]

5. I think "the Industry" comes across as anti-consumer, and seems to project a view that customers are an inconvenience. The Industry seems to make games for itself.

6. I think gaming in general would be better off without the existence of EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Microsoft, Take 2, Zenimax and Apple. There are small studios within those companies that are good, but the publishers are inherently anti-consumer, predatory, rubbish at QA and some of them like to steal games their customers buy.

8. The shift to digital distribution alone will end my involvement as a customer. I will stick with old systems and carts if I must, in order to keep playing. I don't trust publishers.

9. The most valuable companies in the gaming world are those pushing original ideas. Companies or dev teams like Q Games (Pixeljunk), Intelligent Systems, Oddworld Inhabitants and the like are incredibly underappreciated in the wider gaming world.

Well, I'm sorry you don't agree with reality or technology or even theory of business (or even creativity to an extent).

But, I mean. These are not subjective things. These are objective, real things.

 

[inner-G]

I don't think Western games are very good, compared to Japanese games.

 

[Earthpainting]

• Naughty Dog creates well-made and very pretty games, but I have yet to play a Naughty Dog game that wasn't uninspired, and utterly derivitive. I expect par for the course with their next NotZombie Apocalypse game.
  
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky was the worst game I had played in 2011 and I played both Call of Juarez: The Cartel and Duke Nukem Forever.
  
• New Super Mario Bros Wii is the best Mario game available at this point. I might dislike how it looks and sounds, but the level design, phyics and controls are without equal.
  
• Knights of the Old Republic was the first Bioware game I could say I liked.
  
• While I think Majora's Mask is an incredible experience, I hated every second of playing it. The first three Zelda games are also the weakest and least appealing in the entire series to me.
  
• Ico is a bafflingly poor game. The game is a giant escort mission of the whitest, most incompetent anime girl you can imagine. Bonus points for the controls, camera and especially combat being some of the worst I have ever seen.
  
• I think Rocket Slime is the best game on the DS and Half-Minute Hero fills that role on the PSP. I also enjoyed both these titles more than anything on PS3/Wii/360.
  
• Super Mario Galaxy 2 is not as good as its predecessor. It seemed to focus too much on the comet runs and the bird sections were simply unplayable with my set-up.
  
• In spite of the frequent hiccups and general unreliability, I still like motion controls. Two-part controllers are also pretty great.
  
• The acclaimed writing and characters of the Uncharted series often get compared to Indiana Jones, but I wouldn't even dare put it next to the worst-received fourth entry. It is much closer to movies like Saharah, The Mummy and National Treasure.
  
• Planescape: Torment is a game that plays as good as it looks, by which I mean "terrible". A real shame because from how people described it, it sounded like something that I could really get into.
  
• I hope Pokémon will never get turned into an MMO and I would be fine if the series starts keeping more hidden stats that the player has no control over. It'll help make the pokémon more unique. I also think it could be great if instead of having a fixed set of Pokémon tied to two versions of a game, there could be a single version of the next Pokémon game and your available creatures are picked at random when you create your character.
  
• Secret of Mana is sloppy in every single aspect aside from its music. It's poorly written, has poor gameplay, poorly designed maps and the wealth of bugs are the icing on the cake.
  
• While people claim the jump in quality going from Assassin's Creed 1 to 2 was huge, I don't see it at all. It was a marginal upgrade based on the template they had. I still enjoy both games. Similarly I don't think Oblivion and Skyrim are all that different, with the exception that I don't like either of these.
  
• Super Mario RPG is the worst of all the Mario RPGs. Not because it does anything particularly wrong, but because all the entries that came after it were just simply better.
  
• The only decent games that star Donkey Kong are Donkey Kong '94, Jungle Beat and possibly some of the Mario Kart entries. All the others are pretty poor.
  
• Of what I have played, Viva Piñata was Rare's first and only decent game.
  
• While I think Other M's depiction of Samus was insultingly stupid, I do not think it was sexist. I filed those complaints on the same level as the racism outcries in Resident Evil 5.
  
• Final Fantasy IX is the only good game the franchise has seen in the last 15 years. 12 came close, but was a little too inconsistent for my taste.
  
• As much as it pains me as a fan, the amount of bad games in the Mega Man franchise strongly outweigh the number of good ones.

 

[AdventureRacing]

Because if it wasn't intended you are relying on pure chance that mechanic is balanced. A.K.A. it won't be balanced.

So why not just skip the bullshit about what the designers intended and just straight up discuss whether it is balanced or not? The mechanic in this case isn't completely balanced across all characters but there are a decent amount who can compete.

Also you ignored my comment about how most of the design is rooted in party game philosophy.

I didn't answer that comment because it was irrelevant and frankly pointless to this discussion. Perhaps a lot of the ideas put in the game were intended as party game features. That doesn't change the fact that the core mechanics are very deep which is what allows the game to be played at a competitive level.

The party game stuff can just be ignored.

Sorry man, the tiers in Melee are undeniably huge, massive compared to VF 4 or Street Fighter 3.

So just to be clear what is the exact amount of characters a game has to have at a competitive level before the game can stop being called a joke?

Also stage variety is pretty good in SF and VF competitions, search for evo videos on youtube, or in the case of VF, wcg videos.

What exactly is the differences between each of those stages besides the change in background?

 

[Betta Lines]

Mode 7 was a horrible and terrible gimmick that was always an ugly thing. The good stages from Super Mario Kart were all done better in later games. They should do more with coins though.

Mode 7 was the only decent way to make a racing game on SNES. It's fine. SMK is the best because it has the least reliance on weapons and the biggest emphasis on actual racing. And if I'm being more subjective, I also think it has the best handing and the best music.

The GBA version was a better improved version of it.

Super Circuit is of course, the second best Mario Kart. It's not as good though, because of the various unnecessary additions (e.g. blue shell, boosts after powerslides) and removals (e.g. feather, coins pretty pointless), and because the Battle Mode just didn't work great (this was maybe a Game Link issue more than anything).

 

[Cheech]

People who defend Sony published games as the "best in the business" either work for Sony or only ever play Sony published games. None of them represent best-in-genre games. Some, like Warhawk, are just Z-tier trash.

I suspect Bronies are gateway pedophiles. That said, that opinion is probably not all that controversial.

That's all I got.