Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@shaneoh I've never heard of console commands, but I've read people mentioning duplication glitches online, but I don't know if I really care enough. I'm sure I'll just give up this artifact no matter how good it is supposed to be. And I also saw fire is supposed to be good so I am going to try my fire magic that I know I have, but I have no idea how to make fire weapons, but maybe I can figure that out.

@96OopAmgems Agreed! I don't think old games in general tend to age as well as we think they do, but ESPECIALLY early era 3D games. They were so hamstrung by inexperience in design and hardware limitations that the design decisions in them were genuinely awful. Honestly the second half of Link to the Past hasn't aged well either, though 2D games fare better than early 3D. It just had a lot of very obsolete design decisions in the latter dungeons and the Pyramid that today don't seem like "diffiiculty" they seem like bad design.

I think they were great games in their day and massively redefined what a game could do, but since so many games including in their own series have taken what those did and refined and built on it over and over, it's hard to go back to the rougher origins of those ideas when you've already experienced the polished and tuned results of them.

ALttp is still a master course in game design for the first half until they tried "making the end more difficult" by making it cheap. The big thrill in the start still holds up. Ocarina, the big thrill was how immersive and 3D a game world like Zelda could be, it was a true first, but long term it was an Alttp formula rehash with worse mechanics that, while amazing at the time, certainly is inferior to all the successive improvements afterward.

I can see how anyone there at the time would remember it so fondly because it's remembered in context of what it represented and how new it was. Anyone not there at the time would probably find it horrible. And then there's Zelda II....

@Xyphon22 Elder Scrolls is definitely not a series you "play as fast as possible." It's the standard bearer, even over BotW for doing exactly the opposite. It's a classic CRPG with all the hundreds of hours that involves. The "Main campaign" in Oblivion is probably 8 hours long. There's little to it. It's also about 15% of the actual game. The side quests, exploring the cities and all the characters, and all the characters at different times of day etc to get the hundreds of quests from them, finding the shrine ruins etc..... It's a slow paced game on purpose.

I love that game (I love it more than Skyrim) but it's a game I took 2 or more months to just meander through and live in the world. I think if you're trying to speedrun it you'd miss most of what makes it enjoyable.

My unpopular opinion that tends to get me shot on other gaming websites. CDProjekt Red is overrated and the Witcher 3 is not the end all be all standard of WRPGs.

General unpopular opinions:
Arcade sports games are better than sim/realistic sports games, Bethesda and Bioware make horrible games from a technical and writing perspective but they offer engaging worlds (and romance options for those of us desperate for representation) in a way that hasn't quite been adopted by other devs so they get a free pass more often than not. Annual franchises are killing gaming. Voice acting should be optional.

Those are the only ones I'm willing to whine about. My other gripes are minor enough to live and let live.

@NEStalgia I am sure that is true, and if I had more time to play games and less games to play I would probably take more time. But even saying that, I just find it kind of dull right now. Being a mostly Nintendo-only gamer up to this point, the best game I have to compare is the first Xenoblade. Knowing how long that game was I kind of just wanted to go through the main quest on that, too, but I ended up doing all kinds of side things and wasting time because I wanted to enjoy the beautiful world and I just found all kinds of people in my travels who were interesting and gave me tons of quests that I wanted to help with. In Oblivion, there is nothing in the world, I meet very few people and the ones I do meet and talk to don't say much of anything. The one side quest that I can remember starting involved a corrupt shopkeeper that the other shopkeepers wanted me to bring to justice. I talked to him, got nothing out of him, and then the boring and immersion-breaking pop-up message told me I would have to wait around until he closes the shop and then follow him home. I had no intention of doing that, so I just left to continue the main quest. Everything you are saying makes Oblivion great I am finding dull so far. I know I am in the minority on that, but that is what makes it an unpopular opinion.

@NEStalgia Especially when there are little touches like a character having an allergic reaction to Mead (or rather honey that is in mead) that can alter an assassination quest. I hate the dark brotherhood (I am a paragon...that steals) but I had to test that. Bethesda makes broken games, but they do give you a lot to do in them. I reinstalled Oblivion after our more recent TES convo. Going through my mod lists though is a small nightmare.

@Xyphon22 Well both are huge RPGs, so it makes sense you'd relate them together. Interestingly I find it the opposite, the billion MMO "fetch me 30 of these" quests could all go take a hike in XC. The Oblivion quests are all tightly scripted individually unique events. But the thing is with Oblivion, the "open world" has little in it, it's mostly what happens in the cities that has quests. And there are tons and tons of them. Each unique. Sometimes out in the world you find them too, but it centers on the cities.

I remember the quest you're talking about with the shop keep. And yes, that's kind of how most quests in the game work. Do keep in mind it's a pretty old game, it released on PC about a decade, what, 11 years ago? So little outdated quirks like the pop up message telling you to wait weren't really outdated in its day. This came out, really, during the PS2 era and was first released on consoles as a port much later...and was built only for PC originally. You kind of have to play it with those expectations in mind. Skyrim was the sequel built around the idea of consoles so certain things flow better on console there (much to PC gamers' dismay). Now MY unpopular opinion is that Oblivion is much better than Skyrim, and is a much more living world and a lot less empty and boring. But that opinion is sure to bring wrath upon me.

I plan to give Skyrim another shot on Switch.

@Ryu_Niiyama LOL, so true. There's a lot of wonerful touches, but their games ARE badly broken. I think I'm the only person that's never played a Bethesda game with mods of any kind. I love all the people that say "well Skyrim is fun ONLY with the mods!" Huh? Why is user content required to make a $60 game fun? I played oblivion on launch day on PC, no mods at all. It was a blast! Sadly I never got to play the expansion. Every time I installed it and ran it, it crashed right after entering the first area. Reinstalled like 10 times, it never fixed anything. People always tell me how easy PC is to deal with...I remember things like that and debate whether to laugh or cry "Oh but it's different now, it's all better, no more problems like that exist!" Suure they don't. (Then why is there an extensive troubleshooting FAQ on every game's support site?) There's my other unpopular opinion

BTW, unrelated but sticking it here: Update on the N-Y Setsuna import saga. So after 2 weeks they finally shiped it, it left Japan the after that. So after I bought from them SPECIFICALLY since they let you select non-registered Airmail versus P-A that requires registered because my PO is a mess to deal with, I came home the other day to a USPS card for a registered package they couldn't deliver. The lousy place shipped it registered after all! I'd just have paid the extra $3 for EMS if I had known they were going to do that and had it forever ago! So now I have to wait to get to the PO and pick it up....or have them redeliver....maybe today, maybe not. So all tolled I will have received my in-stock game a MONTH after ordering.

It's depressing that even in Japan you can't get what you pay for....

Also, new avatar time already, huh?

@NEStalgia I only use mods that fix the games. Patches and Texture mods. Unofficial patch mods are required to play any Bethesda game. The amount of broken quest flags alone should make half the QA department hand in their badges. I had the voice files bug when I first got Skyrim (they never completely fixed it actually) so the part where Ersbern (or however you spell his name...I'm lazy today) speaks before unlocking his paranoia door never kicks off so the game just stops. It doesn't freeze but you can't do anything with the main game unless you open up the console. I had the quest skip flag memorized: setstage MQ202 160. I do like weapon replacement mods (appearance not stats) because PC is the one time that I'm all about the pretty. I don't do the weird female body mods because I'm convinced half of those male mod creators have never seen a woman naked, seriously some of those women that are supposed to be "hot" look like aliens. The rest look like barbie (which is also unnatural so yeah). I do use a texture mod that gives my character some muscle definition because I think it is hilarious that the dudes look like they are roided out but the women such as my dragonborn that wields a great axe and headbuts people to death still looked like she couldn't lift a small box. Then again I'm at the point that if a game takes a texture mod and I have it on pc... I'm going to go with that version. I live on the Nexus snagging mods. I'm so grateful people with free time are willing to create and improve so much.

I had to upgrade my GPU last year because I used up the VRAM (2GB) putting in texture and landscape mods. Half of the other mods people love (new quests, script extenders and the like) I don't use because the game is big enough as is and I metagame anyway. My dragonborn has a set schedule, because she earns a living as a weaponsmith. I will admit to using population mods to fill out the game. I run into merchants and travelers (so I can sell my weapons) and I have a Civil War skirmish mod so you know... it looks like a war is actually going on in game. The rest of the junk like putting in Macho Man Randy Savage or Tomas the Tank engine isn't for me. So I'm technically playing the regular game with bug fixes Bethesda missed. Just my NPCs (Lydia) look like this:

Or my armor has this level of detail

I started out console and it will always have a place for me, but honestly the customization alone makes PC gaming my bread and butter. And now that we are starting to get fighting games and my fightsticks just plug and play? Sorry, don't mind the puddle of drool right there. I try not to be a jerk about it (my policy for life in general actually) though and I don't begrudge those that choose not to build a gaming rig. I've never had any issues before but I toss a decent amount of cash into my rig every three or so years (usually GPU and hdd upgrades) so that tends to help. However OTOH the time it takes for me when doing a new install to load mods and or see if they have been updated and then test BEFORE playing is likely enough for you to finish the main quest.

So where do you want me to mail your check? You use paypal?

Aww, come on! I change avatars after two people comment on it! Gonna have to up that policy to 5 or something. This one was funny too...shucks.

Also to add to the thread Don't make a GOTY edition if your game wasn't voted GOTY.

How many people did I just offend on PushSquare with this?

Top 5 PS4 games, as of all the games I bothered to grab

1 - Ratchet and Clank
2 - Just Cause 3
3 - ADIOS
4 - The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth (Temporarily, until Switch release)
5 - Mighty No. 9 (It's better than Far Cry 4 okay?)

@BLP_Software Isn't BoI: Afterbirth already out on the Switch?

@BLP_Software Probably not a lot, but I do wonder why you're letting your PS4 collect dust when there are great game available on it.

@BLP_Software Just looked up ADIOS. That looks cool. Going on my list. Thank you.

@Ralizah Not here it isn't. Don't know why, but its Nicalis so.....fashionably late.

@Octane Its not gathering dust. Its a media box when I cant be bothered to turn my PC on and connect it to my TV. Which doesn't make sense as my PC is far faster...

It's weird. The PS4 has lots of great games sure, but not a lot of great games for my tastes. I think that's why I label it disappointing at this time, as it's taking so long to endear to me when every other PS system did it in record time.

And I will be honest: I'm actually upset about that. I think its a great, albeit in my eyes rather dull, machine, that does what it does fantastically. It just doesn't do it for me that much.

@Ryu_Niiyama Amazing Discoveries In Outer Space is hard as heck but really, REALLY rewarding. I need to stream that at some point...

I can recommend ADIOS to a lot of people. I picked up just randomly when browsing the store out of sheer boredom and I've even spoken to the team behind it. Really nice guys and always listening to feedback!

@BLP_Software Fair, but you aren't interested in something like Horizon, or The Witness, or The Last Guardian? There's bound to be better stuff than Mighty No.9!

@Octane Never had any interest in The Last Guardian, sadly, it just never struck me as something I'd enjoy, if that makes sense. It's been that way with Team Ico stuff actually, it just doesn't jump out at me. Maybe one day sure, but I can't see it based on how the titles look and how I receive similar things.

The Witness is a similar thing. It just didn't jump out at me.

Horizon is interesting but it gets into my problem with the direction Sony is heading. Please, upfront, tell me it has a colour blind mode, because those style of graphics and the way world looks is hitting me very much as pretty at point, amorphous blob at others, and that's a no-no.

That and Horizon does something I see Sony doing more and more. Uncharted, Horizon, Days Gone, God of War, The Last of Us...all these have one thing in common. The same, or very similar camera angle for the player. They stay at one side, and it goes over their shoulder, there's slow plodding and lots of talking with subtitles at the bottom.

I know Naughty Dog is popular, but seeing more and more games doing it gets a sigh from me now, because it didn't feel as good as it could then, it didn't feel good with TLOU, I don't think it's going to change. I don't mind for precision aiming, but I do mind when a lot of gameplay footage has that angle.

I dunno really. I get there are good games but there are so many aspects creeping up that....either I didn't like then that are being used more and more and it begins to get samey, or the graphical push making it harder for me to even see stuff in game...I just...it's really hard to explain, you know?

It feels like a lot of the games do things I know I don't enjoy now, but those are the games that sell so those things keep cropping up.

I'll put it this way. When Ratchet and Clank got delayed repeatedly, I always moaned about it, because that was something I was genuinely over the moon for being knocked further back. Then it came. Been pre-ordered for months. Beat it in 1 sitting with no breaks. Then did it again for Challenge Mode. Then 100%. Then hard Mode. Then Hard Challenge Mode. Then 100% there.

This cycle went for about a week. When Sony hits the right notes with me, I am glued. But it has been 1 game out of 3.5 years of games, you know? The magic that pulled me in keeps missing the mark, or doesn't exist anymore.

As someone who grew up with the brand, learned to read through Spyro, gained a love of games purely through the PSone and PS2, it's heartbreaking to me.

It's why I'm making my game. That little bit of my childhood coming back. That little bit of the Spyro gameplay that hooked me and hooks me to this day, you know?

And hey, Mighty No. 9 is an unpolished turd, but I did enjoy what was there. Not amazing, but not super terribad.

Some flash games that you can play in the web browser are actually really well done. Sure, many of them are short and can be beaten in less than an hour, but I'll take a short, high-quality game over a fluffed, average game.

I just gotta say, me too. They probably did it that way on purpose in the second and third games, with the characters talking slowly and the text being written at the same time. I ended up reading sooner than the other kids—who says games can't teach you anything?

Well, a quick update for anyone who might care or who helped me with my Oblivion problems. I managed to kill all 5 vampires tonight. How you might ask? One of them was a little troll-looking guy with no armor or shield, so I was able to defeat him pretty easily with fireballs and my sword. As for the others, I ran for my life. Even though I was able to run down the mountain just fine, three of them fell to their deaths following right behind me. The fifth actually followed me all the way down the mountain until I made it to some city where like 10 guards came out and killed him for me. Quest complete, but only served to support my unpopular opinion that it is overrated (at least the 3 that fell to their deaths on the same path that I was fine on. The last one being swarmed by guards was pretty cool).

@Xyphon22 the thing you just told is exactly why people love oblivion and other Elder Scrolls game. Its called emergent gameplay. It seems like its just not your cup of tea or you prefer more linear or structured games. The problem with your quest being so difficult is so easy to solve! DO OTHER THING! Do side quests! Level up your skills, wander to other towns or just explore. then do that quest and youll have better gear, level and abilities.

@BLP_Software

Haha, I bet you got flamed about Mighty Number 9.