Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I know I'm gonna get a lit of slack from this, but I hate it when gamers (primarily retro gamers) get mad about save functions in emulators or collections of retro games. Honestly saving should be there, it's like arguing that a DVD or streaming service shouldn't have a pause function because "you couldn't pause in the movie theater", or arguing that plastic bottles shouldn't have bottle caps that were resealable because "glass bottles and cans don't allow you to reseal".

They're probably the same people who asked for help for games, or looked at a guide to get through a level, or use a cheating device like Game Genie

Save states are a nice way to ease up a game for people would don't want to go through the game's trash.

Rewind is for babies though, and I'm disappointed to say I use those all the time for game collections.

(Yes this argument was based off the latest Scott the Woz video, but I wanted to bring that topic here)

@HotGoomba Personally, I think retro collections should have... "classic mode" functionality for people who want it, which, when activated, will lock them out of added features in a game until they start a new file in a game. It was really annoying to me, for example, that FFVII on PS4 (the remaster, not the remake) always made it where god mode was literally a couple of stick presses away, as I don't like that temptation. When I'm playing a game, I like to go all out, and having some "accessibility" feature two button presses away that trivializes the game takes away from that for me. People say: "just don't use it," but at that point I feel like you're just sort of making it more artificially difficult by not using features that are literally right there, like people who attempt nuzlocke runs in Pokemon games.

I know that's not the same as save states, but I think it taps into the same vein of wanting an authentic experience without having to ignore options in a menu.

But, yes, there's no reason convenience options shouldn't be included for everyone else.

@HotGoomba That's a really good point you brought up there. I'm actually glad that on stuff like Virtual Console, mini consoles, and NSO, you can use save states for these old games, especially for those games that didn't have any way to save your progress to begin with. Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES, for example, desperately needed a save function...that game has a ton of levels to go through, which is why I'm glad that Super Mario All-Stars has save files for all the classic Mario games. You could use the warp whistles as a makeshift save function, I guess, but still.

I'll also bring up a lot of the Mega Man games, too. With the exception of Mega Man 11, those games have you go through Dr. Wily's fortress in one go, and if you shut off the console at any point, you're back to square one. What's even worse is that Mega Man 4, 5, and 6 have two whole fortresses each (Dr. Cossack, Proto Man, and Mr. X respectively), with the second one being Dr. Wily. And yep, you're expected to do them both in one sitting, with around 4 levels each. What was Capcom thinking??? The least they could have done was offer a password when you go through the first fortress. At least they had the courtesy of offering save states for those games on Mega Man Legacy Collection.

@HotGoomba Interesting subject. I'm split on it myself. I think it's important to play games authentically, but save states make old games more palatable. I just finished the original Castlevania and i save stated every screen. If I had to play without that....well I wouldn't have. But, as @Ralizah mentioned with the FF rereleases, it's too tempting to use those features to skip any part of the game that feels tedious. Which happens a lot. Where I draw the line on those features is when it's reducing the experience of playing the game.

@Ralizah That is fair, I do think that should be an option for gamers who don't want any of the fancy features.

@Losermagnet I definitely agree. The user should have choice, but not have temptation if they don't want it.

I'm completely sick of two things:

1) Crafting in games. It usually means i get to gather garbage to make something. How about instead of giving me garbage game you give me the item I'm going to make?
2) Maps that have icons vomited all over them. Visual overload.

I've been playing Horizon Zero Dawn casually and it's a great game - but these two bugbears really annoy me. I've turned almost all the HUD elements off but I still have to craft arrows right in the middle of an otherwise BA slow-mo jump attack.

@Losermagnet ah yea, that stuff annoys me sometimes too. Crafting isn't so bad as long as you can easily get material left and right. Botw did it right with crafting just about anything with ingredients. They may not all be winning recipes, but at least everything went to use. I stopped playing dying light btw. I got frustrated with the crafting and slow crawl of getting new items that are useful. Loved whacking zombies though. It was super fun, but for the most part, I had to avoid them at all costs, which wasn't fun.

@Losermagnet I don't remember it bothering me too much in Horizon, but the crafting was one of my major gripes with the Tomb Raider reboot trilogy. Rather than appreciating the game environments for what they were, I found myself constantly using hunter vision (or whatever its called) to stock up on resources for crafting. It was a real pace breaker in an otherwise generally solid set of games.

Mostly piggy backing, rather than directly responding.

I think everyone and their Nan adding crafting to games, is worse than crafting itself inherently is. There are lots of great crafting systems throughout gaming history, but it feels like often these days crafting is introduced as a way to throttle progression and tempt you towards those boosters for real world money.

Map markers are similarly complicated. There is a certain magic to just stumbling across something you didn't expect to find in an open world game, which is spoiled when the reward is identified right there on the map.

However, there seems to be this push back in gaming, where people don't like any directional assists at all and I just don't get it. Far Cry 6 has a few missions where you are given a location, a photo and just told to figure it out. I did maybe one of those missions as it was mandatory, skipped all the rest and the one I had to do, I just looked up a guide online. so I knew exactly where to go. These aren't fun missions to me, they are a blocker, a hindrance and a nuisance.

I do not understand the appeal of having a game's momentum being stopped dead, so you can waste time bumbling around aimlessly looking for the next thing to do. If there is only one place I need to be and only one way to solve something, I just want a giant ***** arrow and glowing instructions so I can just get through this part of the game and keep progressing.

Crafting in New Horizons is agonizing when you want to craft in bulk.

@NintendoByNature crafting in BotW is probably the best example I can think of. It didn't feel like an alternative currency system where items cost a certain number of random doo-dads. I think what I like about it is you can use the ingredients by themselves. Not that you'd want to - but you can. Sorry to hear about Dying Light btw. Did you end up doing Resi 4?

@Buizel thats pretty much what i'm feeling. When it detracts from the game rather than adds to it. I feel like in most cases it's so they can put a bullet point on the back of the box that says "crafting system!".

@Pizzamorg pathfinding is kind of a necessary evil i guess. I dont mind it too much. I guess it's probably too much to ask that a game address clutter and pathfinding in it's design. Like, after playing BotW without the hud I became so use to using the natural landmarks to know where I was at. I guess to summarize: pathfinding is fine, but i'm more engrossed if it doesn't feel so artificial.

@VoidofLight New Horizons probably has my least favorite kind of crafting. It's random seasonal items that are pointless on their own. It's cute but I'd rather find furniture or clothes.

Unpopular opinion: Mario 64 is a bad game.

(Note before you read I'm ranting here, so I'm more or less just made with how the game ended, I'm also still forming my thoughts on it, This is also with me pointing out just the negatives bc this game does have a lot of Good things about it, amazing even)

Uncharted 3 is one of the worst Uncharted games. I just got through finishing the first 3 games, and my god, The levels, Oh my GOD do they suck, The AI, and the guns. Lets start with the AI/guns.

All day everyday your gonna die to a Bomb they launched out of there gun out the middle of no were, I'm going up a ladder at the last part of the game, out of no were, BAM, Going up the steps, Nope, BAM,

Now this wouldn't be a issue if the level's weren't so poorly made, half the time they bombard me with enemy's, and yes, pretty normal for a Uncharted game, But there no were to hide from bullets, half the time they have you backed up to a wall, once again, the games do, do this, but, Half the time, the enemy's wasn't trying to be all up in my face, So i'm force to move to another spot, but half the time, I cant even do that, Because of the amount of bombs and Snipers.

Sorry if this is taking to long but I have to do this.

There is a level, at the end of the game, Not gonna spoil anything, You can't see jack in this level, and the whole time Your getting Told Nate get and RPG over and over, and over again on top of the games text telling you to do this, So the RPG's are on to points in the area far left, and far right, and you need to shoot the trucks down, So wile you can't even see, They want you to some how get the shot right, miss, and you have to go all the way, back to left or right, whichever one you got your RPG from.

This level, sucked, and it wasn't creative nor was it fun, It had me task to shoot something I couldn't even see, then get punished for it, there's not alot of levels in this game like that, but there sure are alot of poorly made ones.

This next part is pretty small but lets just talk about it, The AI will never react to getting shot, like, ever, so half the time, I never even know if I shot them or not, because they will still be on there marry way, Move to whatever location there moving to.

The story was alright, But definitely not the best, They just felt so, so annoying, idk how to explain it, it just didn't feel, idk.

Ok so the first thing you will also get when you boot up the game, no joke, first thing, is that they changed up the melee combat just a little, So it wasn't a complete button masher the whole time, Ok, But the whole game, there just shoving it in my face, If i'm to close to and enemy, I can't dodge roll, no instead you push them back, Trust me it gets really annoying, especially when half the games enemy's like to run up to your face, Ok quick spoiler, The final boss was complete ass, It was just melee combat, and yes it did look cool, I had had enough of it after using it like half the game, but no, and the way the Villains died, Just sucked.

And with all that, even if you read through my whole rant, I give this game a 7/10. (Also I'm typing this first thing in the morning so Might be Grammer issues, Will edit those out)

@Losermagnet LOL, I kinda agree with you there.

Also I'm not saying 3 is an ass of a game, go play it if your going through em, because I think the action scenes are the best in the series (Haven't played 4 yet) But the game play bogged all this down, Killing the mood for me in a lot of areas.

TIme to go play 4 baby! oh and BTW half of that rant up there, is because of shipGraveyard, Screw Shipgraveyard.

@Losermagnet yea for sure. Yes I did, so I'm playing re4 again, and harmony of dissonance. Good comfort food gaming honestly.

Piggybacking off of this, rather than replying directly.

My unpopular opinion is that no game is truly timeless, in the same way certain films or albums or whatever else are. Whether it be controls, design sensibilities, graphics or something else, there is always an expiry on a game. Things can certainly date on other mediums, but because gaming is active, there comes a point where trying to interact it is just not enjoyable any more but in other mediums, there can always be something to love forever with no barrier to engagement.

And off the back of this, this is why I get so annoyed by games like Diablo Resurrected. Yes, it might play exactly like it did two decades ago, but you know how that plays? Bad. Just because you liked it two decades ago and it is authentic, doesn't mean you can't admit the game has aged like milk, as almost every game does.

I think people just need to really let go of their nostalgia, we can admit games are worse in a lot of ways these days in terms of bloat and predatory monetisation, but mechanically games only get better each and every year. Please don't force developers to make us go backwards, reembracing things we left behind decades ago for good reason.

@Pizzamorg Actually your opinion is in the perfect thread!

But the numbers don't lie. So little players "left" those games you speak of.

Gamers prefer older games with bad controls, graphics or length instead of the most modern, primary online, shiny crap that we are getting.

That is why most modern games get so much criticism while the old ones are favored. Nostalgia most certainly! But they earned it while in 30 years nobody will have nostalgia for 80% of the modern games.

To be flawed and yet loved so much is a great gaming achievement don't you think?