Unpopular Opinions about Video Games -

[JamesFargo]

Even JRPGs had a lot of arbitrary bullshit where you might end up going to every town in the world and talking to every NPC until you find the one that points you the right direction.

Speaking of: an emulator with a fast-forward button is the only way to make those games tolerable.

I don't begrudge anyone who just wants these titles out of their backlog and doesn't want to miss any secrets. Even with a guide, it's not always smooth sailing.

The last time I played one without help was FF9 or something. I got stuck in Oeilvert. Someone at Square decided that the helper arrows were cheating, so they ditched them in 8 and 9. Now I can admire their pre-rendered backgrounds for hours while wandering around aimlessly. F**k you.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

No, that's the right way to play lots of them. Especially adventure games. Boomers can wax poetically all they want about how great old ScummVM games are and how Telltale games suck for being interactive movies, but nobody was beating any of those without getting hints somewhere.

Sierra and LucasArts games in the 90s were at least pretty good about not putting you in totally unwinnable situations usually. Playing games adventure games older than that...good luck.

There was a text-based one I played that was completely bullshit but I don't remember the name of it. You basically had control of an entire party of adventurers, and your wizard could solve most puzzles easily by using magic. Except magic was limited, so you were supposed to figure out nonmagical (and usually nonsensical) solutions to everything because otherwise you'd run out of magic and become unable to solve puzzles that actually required using it.

I don't know why a lot of these older adventure games expected you to keep ramming your head into the wall repeatedly until you were finally able to beat them.

 

[Overcast]

Mass effect 2 is the worst game in the trilogy and fans have no right to bitch about ME3 when they loved 2. ME2 set the precedent where your choices don't matter, rpg elements were stripped out, it went to a shitty action genre instead of scifi, etc. Even the fucking music in the series changed from synth to more generic "epic" orchestral shit. ME3 just picked up where 2 left off because people loved ME2, therefore ME2 is the exact point the series died.

Mass Effect 1 is still an amazing game, even the mako segments. The atmosphere is amazing (even minor shit like hiding a loading screen with decontamination as you get off/on the normandy) and the gameplay was fun as fuck making explosive shotguns or assault rifles that never overheat.

Mass Effect 1 was truly something special.

I guess my unpopular opinion about it is that I really liked the film grain. Gave the game a very retro vibe and helps with the whole 80’s sci fi aesthetic it had going on. Shame it got toned down in 2 and removed outright in 3.

 

[JamesFargo]

I don't know why a lot of these older adventure games expected you to keep ramming your head into the wall repeatedly until you were finally able to beat them.

The old joke goes that adventure games didn't 'die out' so much as commit suicide.

Logic puzzles are the easiest card to play. Kind of like how Star Trek writers bitch about having to write technobabble and then fill a half hour with it, regardless. Actual writing is hard.

 

[albert chan]

If you can’t afford to get your favorite retro games this year, buying multi carts for your favorite console is the best way to go, in my opinion.

 

[eternal dog mongler]

The old joke goes that adventure games didn't 'die out' so much as commit suicide.

I unironically enjoyed adventure games too. Even the older janky ones.

The Hobbit is my favorite and is good for a laugh. Gandalf wanders around randomly the whole game like a fucking escaped memory care patient, but if you can wrangle him all the way to Smaug by telling him which directions to move in you can actually just save and SAY TO GANDALF "GO NORTH, KILL DRAGON, GO SOUTH" and just keep reloading until he manages to strangle Smaug to death with his bare hands.

Truly an ending Tolkien would be proud of.

 

[JamesFargo]

If you can’t afford to get your favorite retro games this year, buying multi carts for your favorite console is the best way to go, in my opinion.

I thought about getting a Raspberry Pi with one of those old school Game Boy shells. Not sure if they still manufacture them, though.

 

[Pissmaster]

I thought about getting a Raspberry Pi with one of those old school Game Boy shells. Not sure if they still manufacture them, though.

View attachment 2256596

I looked into it last year, actually. Amazon has something called a GameHAT that looks kinda cool, but it maxes out at a RasPi 3B+ which I don't have, and Pi Zeros can't really handle anything more powerful than low-end SNES. Like, Earthbound was playable, but had stutters here and there. So it's only really good for NES and Game Boy on the emulation front.

And in that case, you may as well just hack a 3DS or a Vita, if you already have one.

Also, having Start on the left and Select on the right is lunacy and basically worse than cancer

If you can’t afford to get your favorite retro games this year, buying multi carts for your favorite console is the best way to go, in my opinion.

Absolutely. There's a NES multicart with basically everything you'd wanna play for something like $20. I bought one, it's great, everyone with a real NES should get one.

I'd kinda like to repair my Game Gear and find a good multicart for it someday, too. and also an AC adapter for it because 6 AA batteries jfc lol

 

[AlmightyMagichan]

I do wonder why they decided to have a glitch Mario level on the screen there.

 

[Pissmaster]

I do wonder why they decided to have a glitch Mario level on the screen there.

To show that it was manufactured by True Gamerz™

 

[X Pac Heat]

I'm quickly finding out that it's a rather unpopular opinion of mine that video games were not, in fact, an endeavor of high art up until last generation and were simply a means for businesses to make money from the second they were sold.

 

[JamesFargo]

To show that it was manufactured by True Gamerz™

Beat World 9 in Lost Levels and then come talk to me, dick-licks.

 

[X Pac Heat]

Unlock World 9 in Lost Levels and then get back to me, dick-licks.

Does it count if I did it in All Stars?

 

[JamesFargo]

I'm quickly finding out that it's a rather unpopular opinion of mine that video games were not, in fact, an endeavor of high art up until last generation and were simply a means for businesses to make money from the second they were sold

Gamers have always sold themselves cheaply. They get indignant when Ebert says games aren't high art. In fairness, how you can review Resident Evil movies and come away liking games is beyond me.

Now Kojima has the resources to actively remove gameplay (he admits in interviews that he intentionally breaks his own records for cutscenes). Fetch my fainting couch! Kojima is a genius.

It's gotten to where critics and fans point and laugh at anyone with the temerity to suggest 10 hours of cutscenes is atypical for a fucking video game. Don't get me started on paying celebrities to use their likeness.

Does it count if I did it in All Stars?

X Pac also brushed his teeth and tied his shoes today. *ruffles your hair*

 

[whitepumpkin]

besides the story, what's the appeal in W3?

I think it's a combination of a few things, as mentioned, but I always assumed it was Baby's First Gritty Fantasy for a lot of gamers, so they hold it up on a pedestal. The Witcher universe is "dark" and "unforgiving" and everyone's a massive dick to you, swearing and spitting when you walk by, but hey you can bang the whores. You can't do that in Skyrim, can you? You also have "choices" in the game which either leads to an NPC dying or not which puts you, the gamer, with real "tough" decisions. Combine that with sad fiddle music when you're riding around (or female singing if you're on Viking Island), Dad-Geralt, Forced "Found Family", and monsters, and a lot of people will defend the game to death because it's "unique" and "relatable" and "Adult".

It's their first mature fantasy and they hold it up like it's manna from heaven when it is, at best, a semi-pretty setting with a terrible plot. The DLCs are way better than the actual game and that says a lot. And there's a ton of books out there that are way better, but who the fuck reads anymore.

The problem is, like every other thing they do, CDPR once again overextends themselves and the best part of the game is at the start with the Bloody Baron - everything after feels rushed and more retarded when you start picking it apart. Because their time management is atrocious. They focused too much on graphics and not enough on logical plot, cutting things as they went to rush it out into production, and it shows when you observe the game as a whole. It's pretty to look at sometimes, but the story is thin and the recycled monster contracts feel boring.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if the franchise ended with the third. I'd like a remaster of the second game just so I can punch Iorveth in the throat in HD, but considering how terrible remasters are, I'd rather have it forever locked in its current state. Plus they'd probably delete all the references to wife beating and the dick forest, because games aren't about having fun anymore. They're "art".

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm quickly finding out that it's a rather unpopular opinion of mine that video games were not, in fact, an endeavor of high art up until last generation and were simply a means for businesses to make money from the second they were sold.

I mean if anything, they were the result of nerds going "hey look at this neat thing i made on the computer" and then businesses going "oh hey, we can mass produce these and make some cash"

As for high art, I dunno, the kinda people who like high art are pretentious and like to dissertate what the true meaning of different parts of the artwork are supposed to mean, and can't see their own pareidolia. Kinda like Earthbound fans. So therefore, the Earthbound series is the high art of videogames.

 

[JamesFargo]

Kinda like Earthbound fans

Can't grade games by the superfans. Even if they make it difficult, sometimes.

 

[Jet Fuel Johnny]

If they spent as much time on NPC AI as they did on graphics who knows how far they'd have gotten.

Oh, and my biggest one.

All of this 'next gen' hardware has made dev's lazier than fuck. They don't bother with optimization, don't bother writing clean code, just jank that shit up and rely on brute force.

 

[davids877]

All of this 'next gen' hardware has made dev's lazier than fuck. They don't bother with optimization, don't bother writing clean code, just jank that shit up and rely on brute force.

This is the entire computer industry not just games. Most programmers these days don't even know what optimize means. I'm not a programmer but I still sometimes have fun making microcontrollers do stuff that most people would throw more hardware at.

 

[Mnutu]

Sierra and LucasArts games in the 90s were at least pretty good about not putting you in totally unwinnable situations usually. Playing games adventure games older than that...good luck.

There was a text-based one I played that was completely bullshit but I don't remember the name of it. You basically had control of an entire party of adventurers, and your wizard could solve most puzzles easily by using magic. Except magic was limited, so you were supposed to figure out nonmagical (and usually nonsensical) solutions to everything because otherwise you'd run out of magic and become unable to solve puzzles that actually required using it.

I don't know why a lot of these older adventure games expected you to keep ramming your head into the wall repeatedly until you were finally able to beat them.

Bullshit? Sounds like a fun premise, but I can definitely see how it would fail in execution.