What Games do you think are Underrated?

[Feathers]

Feb 24, 2012 16:29:29 GMT -5 Pumpkinhead said:

That franchise may possibly have the scariest and most fragmented fan base I have ever seen...

Next to Twilight that is... LOL

Feb 24, 2012 16:29:29 GMT -5 Pumpkinhead said:

I wanted to touch on what you also said in your other post too, about a game's progression in difficulty being a better factor to judge it by. I think that's an interesting point...because I think sometimes people will play a game expecting themselves to be an instant expert at it and then call it a bad game if they get stumped by it later. They don't take into account that maybe they just need to practice at it.

I don't recall this being underrated per se, but one of the best examples I could think of that fit this was Star Fox 64. At first I didn't like it because it seemed really easy to die, and once you lost all your lives you had to start the game all over from the beginning. But even though it's learning curve was a little steep, the more I kept trying, the further I could get, until by the time I beat the game I was a pro at it and felt really accomplished with myself :3 Now when I play it the entire game is cake because of all the practice I put into it XD

I think the most important thing about a game's difficulty is whether practicing makes a difference or not. If a game is so hard that it doesn't matter how much effort I put in, and I barely slip by thanks to dumb luck instead of skill, or I keep dying because the controls are just terrible no matter how much I practice, then that's when I call it a bad game. I wonder some times if critics are spoiled and expect a game to be perfect on their first play through, when the point may be that they have to really work at it in order to get good at it.

Correct there. My bro and sis are active gamers and they think its stupid to give a game a horrible review just because it's difficult. We all figure you get more for your money if its difficult. It's kind of the point of playing. LOL Another big DUH video game reviewers seem to enjoy pointing out. :/

On that note, I'm rather annoyed in general by all these "reviewers" that have their main purpose of ripping apart video games. I mean, why can't we accept the fact that some people DO actually like the game you're bashing? Granted, that number might be small, but you don't have to make them feel like a dumbass. o.e

Yes, there are only like three people out there who love this game, but they could be watching/reading your review. And you say its garbage? Reviewer, you sir or ma'am are very rude...

It could be I'm just a sensitive person though.....and it's also 1 a.m... I really should go to bed. LMAO

[Pumpkinhead]

Feb 26, 2012 0:43:49 GMT -5 Feathers said:

On that note, I'm rather annoyed in general by all these "reviewers" that have their main purpose of ripping apart video games. I mean, why can't we accept the fact that some people DO actually like the game you're bashing? Granted, that number might be small, but you don't have to make them feel like a dumbass. o.e

Yes, there are only like three people out there who love this game, but they could be watching/reading your review. And you say its garbage? Reviewer, you sir or ma'am are very rude...

My feelings exactly. I think there's a difference between critiquing a game and maliciously kicking the sh*% out of it.

I think also when someone just tears a game apart, then people are more likely to overlook it because Game Informer or whoever called it worthless crap, so why should they bother checking it out? :( But in reality it may not be the game's problem at all—it could just be that, for example, maybe these critics love first-person shooter games, so when they strongly prefer one gameplay style over all the others than of course they're less likely to give a high score to game styles they don't like as much.

[Rogo]

I don't know much about video games but I will jump in and point out that a reviewer's job is to give their opinion on a game, analyse whether it's any good or not in their eyes and tell the consumer their thoughts. The idea being a consumer doesn't have to waste money buying every new title that comes out to find out if it's any good.

Reviewer's who 'bash' bad games are probably doing so because they think the game is bad. If people like it, that's fine but they don't and their paid for their opinion. A reviewer doesn't exist to stamp a seal on something that forever labels it as good or bad, they exist to provide an opinion.

I'll quote Yahtzee here; "Reviews are merely a subjective opinion and if you like a game it shouldn't really bother you."

[Feathers]

I can understand that, Rogo. What I meant was that there are some reviewers that kind of go on overkill. If you know what I mean. Yes, the game might be bad, but is it really needed to curse out the creators and refer to the game with every colorful word imaginable? I don't deny that the purpose of the reviewer is to give their opinion on it, but some of them take it a bit too far, and that's what I was referring to.

An example for a reviewer I adore is Tanime(who reviews anime, so sorry for getting off topic a bit). She will give her opinion on an anime, but then make suggestions at the end of each review to people may have actually enjoyed the series and want more anime like it.

Now a video game reviewer does not have to do that, but there are some out there that seem to make it their living ripping apart video games, rather than actually providing their opinion for it like you said they're supposed to. I am not sure if I am making sense here... LOL

[Rogo]

Uh... that's because the term 'reviewer' has kind of... shifted somewhat.

There are now two kinds - critics and ranters.

Critics will analyse what's before them and give a balanced and fair review, listing it's good and bad points. They exist to give consumers advice.

Ranters exist to entertain people by ripping apart bad games. Nine times out of ten the point is to laugh at the jokes they're making rather than walk away with an opinion.

So I watch a lot of TGWTG stuff and theat site is littered with examples of both.

Nostalgia Critic, Cinema Snob, Linkara and Spoony are all ranters - they mock the bad stuff.

JesuOtaku, Nostalgia Chick and Film Brain (on Projector anyway) provided fair and balanced critiques.

But again, I maintain that there is no such thing as 'too far' when it comes to reviewing - especially when it comes to the truly wretched stuff.

Using my reviews as an example, so far we've had nothing truly wretched come my way but be assured when we do (and we will, I have stuff scheduled) I'm not gonna pull my punches.

But this has gotten derailed, and to assuage this I'll say this;

Shadow the Hedgehog (whilst not good) was an underrated fun game.

*flees*

[Pumpkinhead]

Feb 27, 2012 6:17:42 GMT -5 Rogo said:

But this has gotten derailed, and to assuage this I'll say this;

Shadow the Hedgehog (whilst not good) was an underrated fun game.

*flees*

GRRRRR!!! DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE ME! YOU MAY RUN ROGO, BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE ON THE FORUMS!! >

...but in all seriousness your post made me laugh XD

Really, you can like it if you want, I'd be a hypocrite to say you can't call Shadow underrated when I'm going on about how Sonic Adventure is so great. To its credit I think it had the potential to be a good game.

[Rogo]

Sonic games usually have one big gimmick that ruins the experience and makes it not worth it.

Shadow's was the guns and terrible story which everyone focused on.

Gameplay otuside that was glitchy but I liked it enough.

[Pumpkinhead]

Feb 27, 2012 12:02:06 GMT -5 Rogo said:

Sonic games usually have one big gimmick that ruins the experience and makes it not worth it.

They do?

Honestly, I'm curious why you say so. Though this is probably a discussion we should take to a different thread.

To shift back on topic, I think Zelda: Majora's Mask is underrated compared to other games from the Zelda franchise. It's the most different from them for sure, and I can see why people didn't like the saving system and the whole 3-day countdown, though I think the latter made the game challenging in an interesting way.

Basically the moon is going to crash and destroy the world in 3 days, so within the game you have a time limit to stop that from happening. However, naturally it's all too much to handle in only 3 days, so you're required to use the Song of Time to relive the same three days over and over again until you have all the tools you need in order to confront the final villain. And in order to save you have to go to these owl statues when you're done playing, even if you got on for 2 minutes and didn't really do anything, otherwise you'll start back at the beginning of the three day cycle. That I admit is kind of annoying. But turning into a other creatures like a Zora was totally kick-ass! And I really liked its mature, melancholy tone.

Although that damn mask always creeped me out and gave me nightmares. It didn't help that I had a poster of the game in my room where those bulbous demonic eyes stared out at me in the dark D:

[Rogo]

That's something I've heard but from my experience it's pretty apt.

Honestly I might be wrong there XD

[Pumpkinhead]

Ah gotcha.

EDIT: I risk going off topic again, but.....I just remembered about Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games.

*facepalm*

Now THAT is a game with a gimmick. XD

[Feathers]

Ah! I love Majora's Mask! Okay, that is certainly one I can play over and over too. LOL If you travel to YouTube there's some really creative abridged series made from it too. So it's pretty popular in itself, but I think the big problem is no one really talks about it. o.o

[Pumpkinhead]

Yeah, I don't think it's as well-known by people in general, even though it's critically acclaimed like all the other Zelda titles. From what I seem to remember its popularity among fans seems more polarized: you either love it or hate it.

But maybe I'm getting that mixed up with a different game or something. But what I do know is that the fans who do love it LOVE IT :3

I have the manga for it too and for the most part it's a surprisingly good adaptation.

[approvedjunk]

Okay, I got to put my two cents in. Has anyone heard of Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy? If not, how about a game by the same company called Heavy Rain? Now there is are two games worth trying to find and playing.

I had first heard of Indigo Prophecy through Yahtzee as a side mention. It perked my interests. A game that questions right and wrong? Allows you to play a multiple characters, making choices for them and influencing the outcome of the game by those choices? And did all this using only the R and L buttons and the analog sticks? What a game, I thought. I must look this up and try and find it somewhere.

Well lo and behold I somehow stumbled upon it while in a gamestop. It was the only copy I could see and at only 7ish dollars I figured it was worth it. So I went home, popped it into my PS2, and turned it on. Went through the into sequence and thought, hmmm...this could be interesting. Paused it and went into the tutorial. I was completely blown away. The tutorial was outstanding, set in a large sound stage complete with sets and the feeling that what you were about to do was only part of a movie they were making.

Anyways, I completed that and with the feeling that I could easily breeze through this game in one sitting, I went back to the main story. Sat through the opening sequence again and when I got to the game I was thrown off by the situation I found myself in, and the short amount of time I had to make my escape. I panicked at first and just went with my gut feeling. Then I realized that what I chose may not have been the right one and I wanted to see what else would happen.

I did this and played around with the first scene multiple times. I had to sit through the opening so many times that i got sick of it, so eventually I chose a way and stuck with it. I was enjoying playing it and thought "Okay. This is your usual 'solve crime to finish game' type of a story." Boy was I wrong. About..halfway through it seems like someone threw a switch and decided that they were going to have one of your characters go completely mental. All of a sudden I was leaping around his office, dodging giant green bugs and doing back flips all around. He finally snapped out of it and that's when I realized his co-workers were watching him do this. "What the heck did I just do and what do they think I was doing" was my only thought.

If you thought that was odd, trust me; it gets better. The twists and unexpected turns make this game far from boring and mediocre. I found myself on top of a building fighting a man who had been alive for centuries matrix style, I kid you not. (do not worry, there are no vampires in this game). I will not go on, for there are many more wtf moments to be had in this game.

I think it was very underrated and even though it may not be the best game, I think it's brother, if you will, Heavy Rain only adds to the wonder of this type of story telling. Though it may not be as odd or off the wall wtf just happened as Indigo, the story and twist well make up for it. Just a word of warning. If you play Heavy Rain, be prepared to hold your controller in awkward positions and getting hand cramps from trying to hit all the correct buttons in the correct order. It is also a slight tear jerker, as the story would make a great movie if only you could set it to one person's walkthrough, no matter how it went.

[Pumpkinhead]

Indigo Prophecy sounds really bizarre but really intriguing It sort of sounds to me like a choose-your-own-adventure but in a video-game form. It's too bad I've never heard of these games before. Do you know if I can get them on Gamecube or are they PS2 exclusives?

[approvedjunk]

Um, it seems like Indigo is for Xbox, PS2 and PC and Heavy Rain is PS3 exclusive, seeing as they incorporated the PS move into the game. And you are right when you say that they are like a chose-your-own-adventure. Even though the story follows a somewhat written story, you have the power to influence what happens next. I have only played through it once and can not wait to play through again to make different choices and see the outcome of them.