GTA

I just don't get it.

I am fully ready to be down voted for, but Cyberpunk 2077.

I finally got around to trying it out a little after Phantom Liberty came out and the game itself had all of the updates, so I thought it would be the best time to try it out.

I just couldn't get into it. I got so tired of the constant stopping my progress for dialogue and that God forsaken fast forwarding mechanic that I feel they just put there to mock me.

The game itself is just fine, but I don't understand why everyone is now calling it one of the greatest games of recent times.

Breath of the wild. I loved Zelda games up until then, and everything after is so fucking boring. I don't get it.

Balatro. It becomes a spreadsheet sim very quickly, in my opinion. I think part of the reason Binding of Isaac and Hades feel much more timeless to me is that every run has this sort of intuitive randomness vs this just full rng you have to counter with math. Balatro feels solved, and while I guess you could count Hades max heat run as “solving” the game, the replayability of it feels much higher because builds feels more dynamic than “make number go up faster”.

Any of the Dark Souls. They're hyped up for being difficult, but the only thing that makes them difficult is the clunky controls.

Like, I could make Pokemon Yellow equally difficult by taping a dish sponge to a Gameboy and requiring the player to operate the buttons through an inch of fluff.

The story's kinda there if you dig for clues, but it comes off as random bullshit if you don't.

They are fucking gorgeous, I'll give em that.

I'll never understand the 'git gud' circlejerk... I 100%'d DS2, and made it a good chunk through Elden Ring (think I was about 80% done before finally saying fuck it). I 'got gud'... But DS never got fun.

I absolutely love the style, setting, visuals, and music - I really wanted to like DS... but the combat and clunky controls absolutely murder the experience.

For me at least... to each their own.

Global Thermonuclear War.

Elden Ring. It's like they just glued inconsistent creature ideas next to each other. Every couple of hundred ingame meters you come across a different biome with different creatures that appear nowhere else and has a boss that visually and equipment-wise completely out of place. It feels like fighting your way through dozens of puzzle-pieces forced next to each other without any explanation why. You have to try to make your own story as to why things are the way they are and any criticism of the game is shot down by the worst stereotypes of gamers.

Sorry to say but Stardew Valley for me -- and it is not for a lack of trying, I've put in a bit over 82 hours into it, but a fair amount of that was forced and it quickly got stale. Maybe I just played it wrong or the game simply isn't for me.

Anything Bethesda. I can never play more than a couple hours before I get bored.

League of Legends

I just saw the post about Red Dead 2 becoming the 4th most sold game.

It is 100% not my thing.

Its sad that I enjoyed GTA V, and am semi looking forward to GTA VI too, but the wild west genre is not for me.

GTA. Games 3 and 4 were good, 5 was kinda fun, but I'm not really at all excited for the same formula over and over again. Even battlefield feels a bit samey. Only indie games are really taking risks these days. And some of them are fantastic.

Outer Wilds.

Almost every single major AAA game. For example: GTA, CoD, Battlefield, The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, FIFA, Madden, ~~Silksong~~, Ghost of Tsushima/Yotei, Mario and Zelda (any of them), etc. If it's a AAA game, there's a decent chance I have no interest in it.

Edit: Correction.

Pretty much anything based on collecting cards or deck building.

COD and most multiplayer shooters. I guess I'm just not competitive.

Zelda or pokemon

Undertale. I tried playing it a few weeks ago, but the controls are clunky and the story isn't really entertaining. It was just boring and annoying.

Pretty much every flash in the pan game that the whole gaming sphere seems to obsess over for a few weeks and then never talk about again

Undertale. I'm sure it's a great game, but after a decade of hearing everyone and their mothers shout about it, I've oddly been put off by it.

Anything Soulslike

I had to work all through COVID-19 because of my job status. So while I understand people had time to sit around and play video games and "git gud"... I ain't got the time.

I much more appreciate Animal Crossing. Also a pandemic game (the one on Switch) but it respects your time. Sort of. I mean you can just pick it up for an hour and run around catching bugs or fishing (I'd only do this in handheld mode, the lag with any controller and the HDMI connection make it impossible to catch 3/4/5-star rarity fish), so it's a fun little chill game. And it's not like you have to start over if you miss a fish on your lure. Or even if you get jumped by a scorpion or tarantula or wasp (yes you can "die" in Animal Crossing, but really, you just get knocked out and you return to your house and lose nothing except the chance to catch the bug and sell it to the little raccoons in the shop).

Do I "suck at games"? Eh, maybe. I got no excuse, I've been gaming since the 80s. I played NES games. I played computer and Atari games before that (and many computer games since). I've really got no excuse for sucking at hard games except I have a full time job, but the truth is... I just don't care. I can beat Bethesda games. I can beat Cyberpunk. There are games I can play and I enjoy them. I haven't beaten Blue Prince yet (that one is also very hard, but not punishing... you just aren't advancing without a lot of luck and/or a very specific strategy... but a "losing" run is still fun and can still teach you something... a thing I think Soulslike games could learn from. They don't have to be easy if a losing run is still fun. The difference is, the Soulslike is repetitive because you have to do repetitive things very well (blind QTEs to parry and dodge, for example), whereas Blue Prince is a highly randomised puzzle game you're not going to win unless a very specific order of cards (blueprints) are drawn for you. You CAN manipulate the pool, but not enough to guarantee a win.

Baldurs Gate 3: people hype it up as the best CRPG ever. When in fact it's not even close. It loses in every category that matters to several dozen contenders (including Baldurs Gate 1 & 2): build diversity, story, writing, the UI.

Opportunity to promote !askgaming@piefed.social

Most recently Battlefield 6 and Arc Raiders.

I think Battlefield 6 is basic enough to capture the stray call of duty crowd, but it's very dumbed down and not at all a Battlefield game.

And Arc Raiders, as I have said in another thread, is incredibly bland. I think thats hyped and popular because it's the first real taste of an extraction shooter for consoles.

Hollow Knight. Didn't click for me. Don't think I really like Metroidvania games generally, it just often plays out as lazy game design to me.

Control. It felt like being lost in an office building. Dull.

Most of them. The quieter ones are often better.

Sadly a lot of popular indie games, I really like a game where I can feel like I'm living another life in it, get to be someone else for a while, and that just isn't a thing in most indie games because of the limited scope that comes with a small development team. There's games like MotorTown or Stardew Valley, that have what I'm looking for, but those are unfortunately rare so I often have to turn to AAA games and damn it's hard finding a good one of those.