Topic: How do YOU prepare yourself to play a bad game?

As a collector of Switch physical releases I'm keen to keep certain portions of my collection complete. As a result I'm prone to purchasing numbered releases, even though those games may not be...good. Yesterday I finally received my order for Red Colony Trilogy from P-A. Critically panned and there's not much support from fans of the survival horror genre either.

But it's a numbered release, so here I go.

Poorly received games? I just play them and that's about it, never prepare myself since chances are I may like that game, even if the majority hasn't. Can't count how many times I've played a poorly received game, and ended up liking it and considering it to be "good" in my opinion.

Plus, I can't count how many times I avoided a game because the poor reviews it received, but ended up liking it after renting it (wow, that long ago), and liking. If a game just interests me, I play it and go from there.

@Sunsy Same, a lot of my favorite niche games were extremely poorly received, but I got good enjoyment out of them "Looking at you Sword Art Online games".

@LilyGoMEOW

Which reminds me. I need to place an order for Alicization Lycoris.

Thanks for that.

Lower expectations as far as you can. That way if the game is actually good, you’ll be even happier playing it!

I usually don’t tend to play bad games as I just don’t have the time for them. If I do find myself playing a bad game, though, I just try to keep my expectations low and not get too irritated by it’s missteps. Usually I’ll end up dropping the game after a couple of hours anyway, like I did with Other M.

@Magician SAO: AL is easily the best out of all of them, though Hollow Realization had an amazing post game and DLC. Not going to say anything else since the entire post game is a HUGE spoiler.

This is not a problem many will have so my answer is really niche... But I end up with a LOT of games of varying quality from all the Eshop sales (turns out I can't resist if its under £10 usually) and then I'm like why did I buy that, Spaceland is one example I have in my head which will probably be ok, but not great, and time is too limited on this earth to play bad games, but nonetheless I do it, I kinda promise myself to play a game next that I think I will love after it, and it makes me feel better removing another game from my backlog, even though next sale you just know I will add like 20 more to it...

That being said if I try it and its outright bad and I'm not enjoying it then I will just uninstall and move on.
And trying pretty much everything means I've found a lot of fantastic games that no-one would even have heard of. Honestly name a genre, and I would have played a cool underrated game in it thanks to my fomo sale compulsions.

No one "prepares themselves" for a bad game, unless you're a doing a bit for an internet comedy video 10 years ago.

@Link-Hero In my experience, occasionally experiencing a below-average game helps enhance the experience offered by good games. It's a reminder of how dire this collective of artistry we call a hobby can get. Somehow coming from a bad experience to a more enjoyable one makes the dopamine hit that everyone gets from gaming...land harder.

I dont games that are bad to be honest. I read reviews and such before spending my money. Honestly why would a person purposely buy a game that reviews bad?

Therefore since I don't buy bad games I don't play bad games.

Unless you're a professional critic or academic, a collector, a streamer, or just enjoy hate-playing stuff, the chances aren't great that you'll intentionally play a bad game.

Every now and then I'll play a game that's divisive, but there's always something that intrigues me about it — and it usually has its fans. (Metroid 2 is the latest to fit that bill.)

I can see why someone might want to play a flawed game where it's mostly awful but there are still a few redeeming features that make the exercise worthwhile. The likes of Pathologic and Alpha Protocol spring to mind, but I wouldn't go so far as to call either of them a bad game. Quite the opposite; they're both brilliant in spite of all their flaws.

There are just too many good games on my to-play list to bother with ones where I just can't find anything good about them at all though.

Also, I want to say that not all poorly reviewed video games are going to automatically be "bad" to everyone. There's a very good chance that a game critics may not like, might just be a game you enjoy. You really won't know until you try.

As mentioned before, a good chunk of games I've liked over the years never got close to a 10/10, and I still loved them. I don't think anyone goes looking for "bad" games, but I do feel if someone plays something and likes it, I really don't see that as a bad game at all.

I search for Action Replay Codes, so can see the End of a badly designed Game

cheat codes turned on

There are so many average/above average games, that a poorly-reviewed one across both professional and user scores, would have to try really hard to get my attention in the first place.

I look at reviews, but if I am interested in a game, I still buy it and give it a go myself.
When switch came out I kind of jumped at all the limited release games, so I have got a few games (Flame in the Flood and Slime Sam) which I just do not get on with even though the reviews were very high.
It's all personal preference, playing Sonic Frontiers which got 4/10 on here, but I think that was really low for the game that I am playing I would give it a 7 at least.