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Games you got turned and burned on?

cormack12

Gold Member
You know the deal - the internet puts you onto a game that is absolutely hailed as the next 'Citizen Kane' of gaming. A game that's new to your radar, you read impressions and they're all overwhelmingly positive and describe things that sound awesome. You eventually take the risk and buy it and then it's just a complete disappointment to the hype and what you was expecting.......

Right now, that game is 'SOMA' for me. It's not bad and I got in while in the PSN offer so I don't feel too badly burned. Went in blind as advised but just not feeling it. The robots and hiding feels tedious, the setting isn't as gripping as say Bioshock. I'll still complete it and don't think it's bad, but I was expecting more from the 80-85 metacritic score.
 

mcjmetroid

Member
Bioshock Infinite.

Like I'd go as far as to say it's a very boring average game that looked nice and got fantastic reviews. Like how? It's one of those "Did we play the same game", moments.

I would say my usual answer: Final Fantasy XV but I bought that only recently for very cheap so I can't say I was too burned. The game was still shit though.
 
Fallout 4.

I thought the game was a big step back in RPG mechanics and feels more like a RPShooter. I think the high review scores are too generous. Easily a 6 to me. Not a bad game but doesn't have the same wow factor compared to FO3 or even NV.

And to top things off. I bought the pip boy edition. Like an idiot.
 
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Titanfall 2 and Yakuza 0. Regretted both purchases and it was here on this forum that everyone was hailing these games as one of the best.
- Titanfall 2 specifically I bought because people were talking about this emotional campaign, you and your mech, spiritually closest thing to HL2 (one of my favorite games). I found the campaign short and average at best, saw no glimpse of HL2 storytelling. Im not saying its a bad game, it was just so average I sold it right away. MP didnt catch my eye either.

- Yakuza 0 because I never played a Yakuza game before and they said this is the best time to jump in. I think I was expecting something completely different, I thought its slightly more open world but it was very limited space to work with, graphically and technically it looked more like a game that belongs in a Japanese arcade than a next gen title. The quick time mini games were difficult for no reason...how can you complicate a proven genre of dancing games and instead of button presses and directions I had to play snake, with a timer and combining colors...instead of being straightforward, every single mini game is for no reason overblown with weird controls. Getting attacked on the streets every 30 seconds didnt help either. Once Kiwami 1 came out for free, I actually finished it and enjoyed it because this time I knew what I was getting in, enjoyed the story so I might give it a second try but yea, bought out of glowing reviews and dropped it like a dead rock.
 
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LostDonkey

Member
Bloodborne.

Everyone tells me its the best PS4 exclusive and its genre defining and this and that..... Yet I cant help thinking everyone is mad.

*shrug*
 

Shotpun

Member
I haven't really been burned by a game ever since gameplay videos on youtube became a thing, no need to trust written and more or less biased reviews anymore.

Honestly I think the last game that really did burn me was Metal Gear Solid 2 back in the day.
 

Verdanth

Member
Titanfall 2 and Yakuza 0. Regretted both purchases and it was here on this forum that everyone was hailing these games as one of the best.

- Yakuza 0 because I never played a Yakuza game before and they said this is the best time to jump in. I think I was expecting something completely different, I thought its slightly more open world but it was very limited space to work with, graphically and technically it looked more like a game that belongs in a Japanese arcade than a next gen title. The quick time mini games were difficult for no reason...how can you complicate a proven genre of dancing games and instead of button presses and directions I had to play snake, with a timer and combining colors...instead of being straightforward, every single mini game is for no reason overblown with weird controls. Getting attacked on the streets every 30 seconds didnt help either. Once Kiwami 1 came out for free, I actually finished it and enjoyed it because this time I knew what I was getting in, enjoyed the story so I might give it a second try but yea, bought out of glowing reviews and dropped it like a dead rock.

giphy.gif

Persona 5 for me.
 
This is kinda tricky as I can't think of a game that the internet heaped praise on that I played that I flat out disliked, but I can think of games that didn't completely blow me away.

Dark Souls being a perfect example and now I liked the game a lot, I thought it was great, but I've heard it called "one of the greatest games of all time" and it just inspired such a fervent following for years and years now.

I didn't think it was quite all that, I think it got so rewarded simply because of the time in which it came out, a time when a lot of games seemed to be getting easier and easier and there's a certain type of gamer who thinks a game is only "real" if it's extremely difficult.

Since I have no real fetish for high difficulty that aspect of the game didn't excite me as much it does some, though I certainly appreciated the fact that it offered a hefty challenge while still usually feeling pretty fair.
 

brian0057

Banned
Metal Gear Solid... any of them.

As a stealth gaming fan, I delve deep into the genre with masterpieces like the Thief trilogy, the first 4 Splinter Cell games, all of the Hitman games (except Absolution), and more (even the sub par Dishonored series has some stealth merit, even if it's just a poor man's Thief).

I always hear people extolling the virtues of the Kojima led franchise as the "pinnacle of stealth gaming", "the pioneer" or "one of the best stealth series ever made", only to finally play the games and be thoroughly disappointed with how shallow the stealth is and how over-the-top the Michael Bay style narrative is (if we can call that a "narrative"). MGSV is the only entry in the series closest to an actual stealth game I've played, and that's mostly because it's an open world ripoff of Chaos Theory.

I'll never understand, for the life of me, the love this franchise gets.
 
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Mhmmm 2077

Member
Definitely Watch Dogs for me. Was expecting Person of Interest: The Game, got typical Ubishit..

- Yakuza 0 [...] graphically and technically it looked more like a game that belongs in a Japanese arcade than a next gen title. [...]
Yakuza 0 is a crossgen title, it was developed on PS3 engine, also released on PS4.
 
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jroc007

Neo Member
Definitely Watch Dogs for me. Was expecting Person of Interest: The Game, got typical Ubishit..


Yakuza 0 is a crossgen title, it was developed on PS3 engine, also released on PS4.
Hated the first one but I loved the second one.
 

nowhat

Member
BOTW. Before you bring out the pitchforks, I'll try to explain: I got a Switch in December 2017. By that time I'd been told repeatedly that it's basically the best game that ever will be made for the past nine months non-stop, so my expectations were extremely high and I was really looking forward to playing it.

And then I did, and... it's more a case of "it's not you, it's me". I can see why people love it. But I'm not really that into sandboxes. Some of the mechanics I find quite annoying. The combat doesn't really click. I miss the old Zelda dungeons. Sure, I can do a lot of stuff in a huge world - but the game fails to answer "but why?" . I put something like 20 hours into it and haven't felt an urge to touch it since. It's not a bad game by any means, but it's just not for me it seems.
 

Husky

THE Prey 2 fanatic
Aw geez, mine are pretty hot takes. I guess disliking any extremely popular title that hasn't hit oversaturation is a hot take.

For one, Borderlands. The first game was alright, but the second game was just a consolized, even unfunnier version of the first game, for me. As my co-op buddy says, everything I dislike about Borderlands, its lore, characters, humor and such, is what makes it Borderlands. Just wasn't for me.

I've played all three of the Dragon Age games for some reason, and all three of them really disappointed me for, again, its lore, and what I found to be some of the worst dialogue I've heard in a game. They come off to me like generic worlds designed by a middle schooler, and I'd constantly get frustrated by the childish philosophies I interpreted from the writing. It all seemed like "babby's first fantasy game :)" (to me--obligatory subjective modifier).

Max Payne 3 was generic third-person shooter trash don't even @ me over this

I like Payday: The Heist, but Payday 2 made me feel like I was firing a pea-shooter, shooting needles or something. The guns feel so light, it's very unsatisfying, and the progression mechanics and microtransactions made being a new player feel very punishing.

and um, The Witcher 2. I absolutely love The Witcher 1, and I love The Witcher 3 almost as much, from their gameplay to their writing, from their head to their toes, absolutely amazing games. The Witcher 2, however, feels like a major step down in terms of its RPG mechanics, its dialogue, its stories, its combat, and its map design. It's a very frustrating experience for me, given the extremely high hopes I'd had for the title.
 

BlackTron

Member
BOTW. Before you bring out the pitchforks, I'll try to explain: I got a Switch in December 2017. By that time I'd been told repeatedly that it's basically the best game that ever will be made for the past nine months non-stop, so my expectations were extremely high and I was really looking forward to playing it.

And then I did, and... it's more a case of "it's not you, it's me". I can see why people love it. But I'm not really that into sandboxes. Some of the mechanics I find quite annoying. The combat doesn't really click. I miss the old Zelda dungeons. Sure, I can do a lot of stuff in a huge world - but the game fails to answer "but why?" . I put something like 20 hours into it and haven't felt an urge to touch it since. It's not a bad game by any means, but it's just not for me it seems.

Agree. I love BotW as a Princess Mononoke simulator. As a Zelda game, it has many failings, and still leaves me wanting a new one.
 
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Vawn

Banned
Gone Home

Spoiler. Entire plot of Gone Home.

I'm home from college. Where's my sister?
I don't see her. Let me look around the house.
Couldn't find her. I'll check the attic.....

Wow. She's a lesbian and ran away. Ok.

The end
 
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Fbh

Member
Wolfenstein The new Order: Internet hype (and Gifs) made me think it was all about being a badass shooting down nazis with my dual shotguns. Instead I spent most of the game hiding behind cover slowly chipping away at bullet sponges.
 

ROMhack

Member
Funnily enough, I replayed SOMA last year and absolutely loved it. You're right that the gameplay isn't great but the story - or at least themes - are very interesting indeed.

I wouldn't compare it to Bioshock as that's more about politics whereas SOMA is about philosophy: what it means to be human and technology as an extension of the mind. It's ancillary is something like Deus Ex: Human Revolution - a game about the melding of technology and the body. Or maybe The Talos Principle. I love games like these.

On topic, Firewatch. I expected to fully love it and just didn't. Felt like a game made by millennials with nothing to say.
 
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RedVIper

Banned
Bloodborne.

Everyone tells me its the best PS4 exclusive and its genre defining and this and that..... Yet I cant help thinking everyone is mad.

*shrug*

Can we know why you think that.

Personally it was Stalker for me, I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't, don't think it's a bad game, just not my thing I guess.
 

LostDonkey

Member
Can we know why you think that.

Personally it was Stalker for me, I really wanted to like it, but I just didn't, don't think it's a bad game, just not my thing I guess.

Sure. I feel the combat is terrible and the performance (on pro) is really bad. I dont like the souls games either (same thoughts about combat) but was led to believe Bloodborne was much more fluid and less clumsy. It feels exactly the same to me except you have a gun, I'm just not a fan of the sluggishness or the slow *animations I guess.


*I dont know if thats the correct word to use
 
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trikster40

Member
Lately, it’s mostly indies. Indies seem to get a LOT of praise, and there’s been quite a few that just didn’t do anything for me.

Oxenfree is one of the first that jumps to my mind. I just thought it was more of a chore than fun to play through, and the I didn’t think the story was as amazing as people said it was.
 
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#Phonepunk#

Banned
7th Guest

this was one of the first CD-ROM games i ever bought. we purchased it cos the graphics looked so amazing. i've probably played it 3 or 4 times total in my life.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Deus Ex Mankind Divided. I had enjoyed Human Revolution and I just wasn't feeling the game play in Mankind Divided. The beginning of the game feels like Ninja Warrior. I got so sick of being in the room that I never played it again. I believed all the hype and wanted to enjoy it.

The Force Unleashed. I went to the midnight launch worrying that I wouldn't get a copy because I didn't pre-order. The combat didn't have any meat to it and the level design of the hanger made me want to quit. It was hyped up too.

Persona 5 wasn't that great for me. I was trying to enjoy it, but the fights were the same thing. Exploit the weakness and use the team attack. The story just didn't work for me. Sure, the end result of the plot is interesting, but that's it. I liked Person 4 a lot more. Then you see it praised all over the internet. I enjoy the SMT games, but this one wasn't doing anything for me.

Titanfall 2 I got later on. I had a day 1 preorder for Titanfall 1. Then I got into the campaign. I should have stuck it out, but I got so bored with it. It felt like someone had stuck me in the grand canyon and I had to walk all the way back home. I didn't play a lot of it, but it felt like it was a hot dinner (good while its hot, but bad when you leave it alone for a long time).

Call of Duty Infinite Warfare was the first Call of Duty in the last decade that I didn't want to finish. If you've ever booted up a game and it gave you the same exact feeling you had with Advanced Warfare you know what I'm talking about. I really enjoyed AW and even Ghost.

I also didn't really like Nioh past a certain point. The level design could have been better and they could have had more enemies. I wanted to like it and I tried telling myself it was fun, but I got to a certain point and I wasn't really enjoying replaying the same level. I do hope the sequel is good though.

Mass Effect Andromeda really got me down. I didn't like the characters and I had no real reason to enjoy it because it wasn't the same Mass Effect as before. Same with Gears of War 4. It had its moments, but the cast didn't do anything for me. I didn't want to replay Gears of War 4. When the creative director implies its like the Force Awakens in comparison then you know it didn't exactly do what the trilogy did. Judgement was already disappointing and now they're just a group of dude working with the same engine as Gears 1-3. I don't see it doing what the original trilogy did at all. I could list more, but those are the ones that come to mind.
 

wvnative

Member
Not really anything new, but I saw a ridiculous amount of praise for the Xbox Buffy the vampire slayer game...

Was hyped to play it, but this game is... not really bad at all, they certainly tried to make a cool game. But... combat is sorta whack. You must have a steak to kill a vampire, fair enough. But Buffy gets knocked down nearly every time she gets hit, and drops her steak. By the time she bends over to pick it up, she is getting pounded again. You get stuck in a loop of get knocked down>drop steak>bend down to pick up steak>get knocked down again

If not for that flaw I think it would have been a neat game. This was on the most basic enemy types too. There is a block button but it never worked for me. Hate games that fall into tedium like that.
 

Silent Duck

Member
Burnout: Revenge
Loved Burnout 3 Takedown. Internet told me Revenge was even better. Internet lied.
I had multiple road rage sessions where mine was the only car on the road. Kind of defeats the purpose of that mode.

Crash mode was turned into a shitty psychic golf game. Press the buttons on the meter at the exact time or your car blows up. Actually succeed in the meter launch portion and then you have to hit random cars that appear randomly at random places or else you fail. Oh, and you need to succeed at this to unlock race tracks.

The crash physics sucked. Burnout 3 was glorious crash porn. Amazing scrapes and forcing twisted wreckage into other soon to be wrecks. Burnout Revenge? The internet said it had cooler crash physics. No, it didn’t. All the cars had pool ball physics. Tap a car and watch as it shoots off diagonally into other cars that shoot forward diagonally.

Burnout Revenge.... you broke my heart.
 
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wvnative

Member
Burnout: Revenge
Loved Burnout 3 Takedown. Internet told me Revenge was even better. Internet lied.
I had multiple road rage sessions where mine was the only car on the road. Kind of defeats the purpose of that mode.

Crash mode was turned into a shitty psychic golf game. Press the buttons on the meter at the exact time or your car blows up. Actually succeed in the meter launch portion and then you have to hit random cars that appear randomly at random places or else you fail. Oh, and you need to succeed at this to unlock race tracks.

The crash physics sucked. Burnout 3 was glorious crash porn. Amazing scrapes and forcing twisted wreckage into other soon to be wrecks. Burnout Revenge? The internet said it had cooler crash physics. No, it didn’t. All the cars had pool ball physics. Tap a car and watch as it shoots off diagnally into other cars that shoot forward diagnally.

Burnout Revenge.... you broke my heart.

Oh yes how could I forget? Burnout 3 is way beyond better. Revenge is like... I dunno... a focus tested game it felt like...

Paradise made up for it though.
 

Mr Hyde

Gold Member
Inside.

Got rave reviews from everyone, hailing it as the best thing since sliced bread, but my god was it boring and pretentious. I loved their previous game Limbo, but this one I could barely stomach.
 

120v

Member
Yakuza 0

i mean, it was a perfectly decent game and i don't particularly regret my time with it but the way people talk about it... yeah... almost like we played two completely different games
 
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badblue

Gold Member
Destiny 2.

I got it for free on PC and still felt like I over payed for it. Gun play was nice, but everything else seemed so boring. I uninstalled it after about 10 hours.
 

BigBooper

Member
Just about any emotional flavor of the month game. Walking Dead Season One is the only one I can think of that I didn't feel burned honestly.

Undertale. How people have some kind of emotional connection to an anthropomorphized dog mother through this "I'm too quirky for my booties" gameplay is amazing to me.

The Last of Us. The story was okay, but the melodrama between pushing boxes and slow walking just didn't work for me.

God of War. I actually like the game quite a bit, but hearing crap about how this game helped people understand their father better made me think I was going to be crying through the blood spatter. Come on people.
 

Pantz

Member
Pokemon Blue

Bought into the hype of it being sold out everywhere. Even at the prime age of 12 when it came out, I found it to be simplistic, repetitive and boring. Battling friends was never fair since whoever played the most would win automatically it seemed.

I never gave the series a second chance. Maybe I would end up liking it now since I like just about any game now.
 
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Planescape Torment.
I LOVED the Icewind Dale and ESPECIALLY the Baldurs Gate series back in the day and I heard regularly about how great PST was, but when I got around to playing it, the setting was brown and ugly (pretty much throughout the whole game), there wasnt enough combat and I just wasnt that interested in the story.
 
PUBG. Played it for a few matches and refunded on steam. Just wasnt for me.

I had a bunch of friends get talked into buying Overwatch and they traded it in after a couple weeks, wasn't for them.

Bioshock 2. I love BS1 and Infinite, I played BS2 for a couple hours and never finished it.
 

Nymphae

Banned
Right now, that game is 'SOMA' for me. It's not bad and I got in while in the PSN offer so I don't feel too badly burned. Went in blind as advised but just not feeling it. The robots and hiding feels tedious, the setting isn't as gripping as say Bioshock. I'll still complete it and don't think it's bad, but I was expecting more from the 80-85 metacritic score.

Ditto Soma. Picked it up after watching insanely glowing reviews on YT and just reading great things from users who played it, and I was really bored and frustrated with the gameplay, particularly that one section where you're walking really slowly through the water.
 
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KINDERFELD

Banned
FuckFest15: Unforgivable travesty on behalf of Square Enix.
Bioshock Infinite: devs forgot they were developing a Bioshock game.
Bayonetta 1: clusterfuck of an action game.
Yakuza 0: good storyline but everything else is boring.
Octopath Traveler: Switch fanboys will make it seem like the game is better than FFIII(Snes) but nothing is further from the truth.
Horizon Zero Dawn: beautiful graphics but boring gameplay.
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
I'm 10 hours deep into Final Fantasy 6, and it's ok, I guess. If this is supposed to be the best JRPGs have to offer, then I think I'm just not their audience. The game basically plays itself, and while the cast is pretty cool, it's not enough for me. Not a LTTP issue either, I played Chrono Trigger in 2015 and thought it was way better, even if it was also almost mindless to play through. I'm not sure I can do another ~25 hours of this, though.
 

bati

Member
Literally every MOBA, battle royale and team objective games like Overwatch and Team Fortress 2. I just don't see the appeal, and I actively tried to get into some because some of my friends are obsessed with them.
 

Greedings

Member
I have to say Bioshock Infinite too. What a boring game. It plays like something from the early 2000s, with a boring story that goes no where, except to direct scifi tropes.

Undertale. What a fucking piece of shit. I've never disliked a game more than I disliked that.

Literally any JRPG. I don't know why I buy them. I always hate them. Story telling for emotionally stunted teenagers, and gameplay that makes me yawn.
 

120v

Member
I'm 10 hours deep into Final Fantasy 6, and it's ok, I guess. If this is supposed to be the best JRPGs have to offer, then I think I'm just not their audience. The game basically plays itself, and while the cast is pretty cool, it's not enough for me. Not a LTTP issue either, I played Chrono Trigger in 2015 and thought it was way better, even if it was also almost mindless to play through. I'm not sure I can do another ~25 hours of this, though.

well in 1994 that degree of storytelling/'cinematics' in a game without FMV was pretty much unheard of. so some of it is 'you had to have been there' though i find it odd you could get down with CT but not FFVI, i thought CT 'played itself' moreso with its less nuanced (but still fun) battle system and mechanics
 

Kadayi

Banned
Bioshock

I get it that a lot of people love the game, but for me, the inescapable truth is that the environments never managed to sell me on being anything other than combat arenas first and foremost with vague illusions to being living breathing environments gone to ruin. Despite the promise of that opening sequence before you descend the spaces themselves felt rather pedestrian and mundane and more notably devoid of rhyme and reason in terms of their arrangement, and that lack of rationale really nagged at my designer brain to the extent that it constantly just pulled me out of the immersive experience. I got about 2/3rds in, but just stopped caring and I've never felt the urge to go back since. Same deal with Bioshock Infinite also. just not for me.
 

Shifty

Member
Hmm, Serious Sam 3 VR is probably the closest thing for me. Great impressions all around as far as I could tell, but I had to take off the headset and give up before I even got to the good-ass wide open arenas. The initial hours of CoD parody are, in retrospect, not to the game's benefit.

Still love it in 2D though.

B R E A T H O F T H E W I L D

Except that game turned and burned me somewhere around the 20 hour mark, so it doesn't really count.
 
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yurqqa

Member
Black and White - I don’t remember exactly - all that is left in my memory is some cow kung fu and the feeling that I don’t understand what exactly is so revolutionary after all the hype. I guess that is where new Moulinex era have started.

Also read some great review for Cryo’s Dreams to reality. It was boring summer school break, I had nothing else to do and I still stuck in the first 20 minutes and never got through it.

In the recent time I buy many hyped games, play for 20-30 minutes and they jut say in my backlog (GoW, Spider-Man, Horizon...). Last games I finished wereboth Shenmues, Wind Waker and Trails in the sky. Now I play FF XII and Persona 4 Golden that I dIdn’t Finish earlier. Maybe I’m just getting older and more nostalgic.
 

OldGamer

Member
Now we are talking about critical darlings, not so much over hyped games that disintegrated into a joke upon release.

In this case I can agree with Bioshock: Infinite. Its heart was in the right place and had some nice visuals, but it really left me wanting and the gameplay was not particularly memorable.

Final Fantasy XV was very well received critically if I remember, but the story and the journey is just seriously undercooked.

However I believe both of these games have had tarnished reputations since release now that time has left them to stand on their own two feet.
 
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