Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[Franz Joseph]

Dragon Age 2 is peak underground storyline in the franchise.
Origins had more dev in world building, but i still like how Hawke is still human after all his shit happens with his family and the end of the game.

DA2 is one of those games that I find myself appreciating more each time I replay it.

 

[Scarthew]

It’s surprising that the top down shooter genre (in the form of vampire survivors) didn’t explode earlier despite already existing in essentially the same form over 20 years ago.

Well traditionally they're twin stick shooters and Vampire Survivors made it a 1 stick shooter. It had a lot of clones around release but it seems to have died off really there's no demand for clones when VS did it so well, it's filled with cryptic secrets, it's very repayable, explores every corner of it's mechanics with different traits and attack methods.

Maybe it's cause a lot of people tried to just copy the surface gameplay but I really don't see any of it's clones seeing any similar success with the exception of Holocure which adds the second stick back in but keeps the auto-firing on cooldown putting it in a weird middle ground.

 

[X Prime]

View attachment 8012384
I do not like this thing, and I will never understand why it's so frequently recommended as (one of) the best PC gamepads. Just out of the box, its directional pad is a squishy, imprecise mess that renders it useless for games that require complex digital inputs like 2D fighters, and its analog sticks are simply not very durable. It has some things going for it, like its ergonomics and the fact that it's not coated with that stuff that degrades into fucking GLUE over time, but it's still a piece of crap.

It is because it is very cheap while being a "name brand" sold in physical stores. That's it. Many people like disposable, cheap things.

 

[Hentai-Semitism]

DA2 is one of those games that I find myself appreciating more each time I replay it.

What are you smoking? I want some.

The reused levels and enemies appearing out of thin air behind you were enough to make me laugh at how bad it was. You could trivialize most encounters by sending one character ahead and doing a 180 as soon as you saw the enemies spawn. Then you could kite them to the rest of you party.

Also, enemies would often lock aggro on a single character, so you could run around in circles with that character and use ranged attacks on the enemy.

Both you and enemies could attacks through obstacles like walls and crates.

 

[Rick The Stick]

Emotes are cancerous and serve no purpose other than letting you know how autistic the people you're playing with are. Just another one of the many things games waste time on that would have been better spent literally anywhere else.

 

[Dave.]

I don’t know about unpopular opinion, but as much as I understand why people love Baldur’s Gate 2 more than 1, I still prefer 1 over 2. There’s just something about an open world for me to dive into with open fields that’s more preferable than one sprawling city.

 

[StimulatedOrb]

Believe it or not, it was this specific image that made it click for me and raised me to a whole new level of understanding:

Nigga, what in fucking Gods name are you fucking playing?!

 

[Quarterback Rex Grossman]

Cutscenes were a mistake and we never should have abandoned cartridges. Sure, N64 graphics looked like low-res mud and it chugged along at 9 FPS without an expansion pack, but at least there wasn't room for hours of ridiculous cutscenes, the existence of which was immediately taken as an excuse to turn everything into a melodramatic movie-game full of gay perversion.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I have no idea how unpopular this idea is, but whatever genre Vampire Survivors, Soulstone Survivors and Megabonk ect. is (reverse bullet hell?) the defining genre for now along with Soulslike, and AAA companies will be late to the party and rip it off 10 years from now.

I've heard them called "bullet heaven"

It doesn't seem too difficult for a small team to make them, which leads to big variance in gameplay. I personally like Rogue Genesia and one called Boneraiser Minions where you summon units from a graveyard to hover around you, so it's almost like a moving tower defense with you as the thing to protect while you are moving. I feel like people barely talk about these unless they are the flavor of the month, when I feel it's some of the best modern gaming has to offer.

You can make a barebones one in days, if not hours, if you know what you're doing.

But I can almost guarantee that 5-10 years from now EA or someone like that will get awards from games "journalists" just for copying that formula.

If game journos last that long.

I knew that, but the full implications didn't really sink in for me until recently.

And yet, you seem to be missing the full implications of it. Things like identification with evil being a part of it. Or the simple truth that they don't really care and will make themselves as hyper attractive given the chance, while condemning others for the same. There's also what I've heard called irony poisoned. They can't enjoy things with knowing nods to the camera about how stupid, childish, and unrealistic it is.

It’s surprising that the top down shooter genre (in the form of vampire survivors) didn’t explode earlier despite already existing in essentially the same form over 20 years ago.

They did. I used to play a bunch of them. Alien shooter, zombie shooter, etc. back in the day. Arguably games like Hotline Miami, Geometry Wars, and Assault Heroes when XBLA took off. There was even a Halo branded one at some point.

 

[Scarthew]

I've heard them called "bullet heaven"

I'm still calling it a twin stick shooter

 

[Billy the Adult]

I have no idea how unpopular this idea is, but whatever genre Vampire Survivors, Soulstone Survivors and Megabonk ect. is (reverse bullet hell?) the defining genre for now along with Soulslike, and AAA companies will be late to the party and rip it off 10 years from now.

Parts maybe. But new age roguelikes blew up and AAA never really got into that, outside some extra modes in a few games. Also, its a cheap genre, varying mostly beween 5-15$, which normally AAA stays out of. You can't really charge more either, because that takes away from the charm of it being a semi-idle game.

Probably the only game in the genre that I think could've used more popularity is Boneraiser Minions. Rogue:Genesia is close, but IMO it still feels a little unfinished last time I played despite no longer being in EA. Although you probably could just play any single survivors game and never play another, since most have a ton of content.

I've been enjoying Megabonk and Vampire Survivors, but I can't help but notice that it's just a mobile game with all the shitty ads and features removed.

Honestly, if these fucking jeets and chinks would just make a decent barebones game instead of trying to gacha-fy everything I'm sure mobile gaming wouldn't be such a fucking joke.

Early mobile games weren't the greatest, but were pretty decent. But in-app purchases are too lucrative, and if you are wanting to make a decent game why bother making it on the joke platform?

 

[Cryptosporidium 138]

Boneraiser Minions

Is this game good? I've seen it on steam and felt like buying it multiple times as it's incredibly cheap and i fucking adore playing as necromancers and I'm always sad that there is very few games that do it at all, and even rarer that actually do it well. Every time i think about buying it i look at the pictures and they just put me off, Is the game as garish as i looks on the pics, where everything is super vibrant and all different colors? I feel like that would give me a headache real fast.

 

[Whatisgoingon]

Is this game good? I've seen it on steam and felt like buying it multiple times as it's incredibly cheap and i fucking adore playing as necromancers and I'm always sad that there is very few games that do it at all, and even rarer that actually do it well. Every time i think about buying it i look at the pictures and they just put me off, Is the game as garish as i looks on the pics, where everything is super vibrant and all different colors? I feel like that would give me a headache real fast.

I love it. What you see in the screenshots are what you get in the game, so if the artstyle looks horrible to you, I wouldn't get it, but it grew on me. I just love that you as the moving player character don't actually get to attack, so you are more dodging things and trying to roll certain zombies/monsters and placing some of them for strategies. It makes more interesting than alot of these style of games where you can completely shut your brain off.

 

[Cryptosporidium 138]

I love it. What you see in the screenshots are what you get in the game, so if the artstyle looks horrible to you, I wouldn't get it, but it grew on me. I just love that you as the moving player character don't actually get to attack, so you are more dodging things and trying to roll certain zombies/monsters and placing some of them for strategies. It makes more interesting than alot of these style of games where you can completely shut your brain off.

I might just buy it then, if i don't like it i can just refund, or not it's five dollars. I wish there was more games where you play as a necromancer. it's a goldmine of ideas and cool ass games and it so very rarely even gets looked at.

 

[NoReturn]

Nigga, what in fucking Gods name are you fucking playing?!

Another Kiwi who I will not name but who may still see this is to blame for sending me to a certain page on itch.io.

There's also what I've heard called irony poisoned. They can't enjoy things with knowing nods to the camera about how stupid, childish, and unrealistic it is.

This one is the one I "get" most because it's very similar to a certain form of bullying where if you show that you care about anything at all you're met with derisive laughter. Like they're "too cool" to have strong feelings about anything or that what you said, even if it's completely true, is ridiculous enough to warrant that response.

 

[The Last Stand]

A good example of those generational limitations is GTA:SA and GTA IV. San Andreas was legendary for pushing the PS2 to it's limits, as well as keeping an insane attention to detail. By the time GTA IV rolled out people were immensely disappointed because it was such a step backwards in mechanics, you were now back somewhere in the III/Vice City era. However, everything else about the game was a gigantic advancement. You had vehicle deformation that was unprecedented for it's time, ragdoll physics that still haven't been beaten even by GTA V, much, much better graphics and models, characters now have actual fingers instead of Zoidberg claws and so on.

If true, I feel that GTA IV was judged WAY too harshly out of the gate. IV was a monumental leap from San Andreas not just in graphical fidelity, but in storytelling, gameplay and streamlining thanks to the technology afforded and ambition from Rockstar Games. People commonly misinterpret scope for "larger," which is what Ubisoft loves to do.

Since we're talking about GTA now, it's humorous how GTA Online has explicit, off-color parodies of real-life brands but would sanction players for inappropriate communication.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Mass Effect 2 and SWTOR were Bioware at their peak of their hype. Sure, not as much freedom as KOTOR 1 and Mass Effect 1, but the character dynamics and storytelling were still there. After that, it was a long way down.

 

[Judge Dredd]

If true, I feel that GTA IV was judged WAY too harshly out of the gate.

If anything it wasn't judged harshly enough.

Fantastic technical achievement, yes, but fucking boring to play. If you were the kind of person who had fond memories of putting on the all weapons cheat and taking turns with friends seeing who could last longest at high wanted levels, GTA 4 was such a downgrade gameplay wise since you spent a lot of time watching TV, taking your cousin bowling, taking your girlfriend to watch cabaret.

Saints Row 2 even made fun of it.

Then there was the plot. Maybe it gets better later, but there's a reason the term "ludonarrative dissonance" became the buzzword of the day. You were this mopey immigrant that was overwhelmed with guilt, only to immediately go out, steal cars, and run over some old ladies. That's assuming the missions were about doing fun crimes and not shoving you into the boring side content like shopping for clothes or setting up dating profiles.

Supposedly this got better with the biker DLC that allowed you to be a villain, made bikes viable instead of a deathtrap, and seriously cut back on all the social bullshit, but I checked out by then.

This might explain why I liked Saints Row 3 even though a lot of people say it peaked with 2.

 

[capitalBBustard]

Fantastic technical achievement, yes, but fucking boring to play. If you were the kind of person who had fond memories of putting on the all weapons cheat and taking turns with friends seeing who could last longest at high wanted levels, GTA 4 was such a downgrade gameplay wise since you spent a lot of time watching TV, taking your cousin bowling, taking your girlfriend to watch cabaret.

This is just absolute nostalgianigger wank. The PS2 GTAs all had shit fucking cop mechanics and combat, which is why everyone always just used cheats to spawn a tank and weapons. (Even you basically admitted this.) These were the games where individual cops would phase into existence out of the ether 5ft in front of you. Even as a kid it was lame as shit.

Shootouts and police chases were for all intents and purposes a larp because everything from shooting to AI to car handling was way too underdeveloped and basic. It was close to awful in a vaccuum, all everyone wanted since GTA1 was doing sick crime shit like in a movie and it didn't even come close. Hence the need for cheats to even have fun. (Again, you admitted this.)

GTA4 is the first game in the series where you could approximate that experience thanks to how much more advanced AI behavior, physics and basic systems like how the police behaved and gunplay felt. You could genuinely have fun stealing a car, swerving in traffic while cops are on your ass and then making a last stand in a building shooting half a dozen SWAT members as they poured in through the entrance. It was exactly the gritty street crime shootout people wanted from the old games.

All you're doing is parrotting lukewarm dogshit from 2010. Erroneous nonsense like muh TV shit, you literally never have to watch TV not even as a tutorial for the mechanic. And the girlfriend mechanic is straight from San Andreas. And you know what else? In SA it was actually mandatory to get a girlfriend's approval to like 50% if you wanted to complete the casino heist, in GTA4 you literally only do it in one mission that introduces the mechanic and then you never have to do it again.

This might explain why I liked Saints Row 3 even though a lot of people say it peaked with 2.

Thanks for outing yourself as a mongoloid with dogshit taste lol.

 

[Judge Dredd]

The PS2 GTAs all had shit fucking cop mechanics and combat,

I never said they were good. I said they were fun.

It's been a long time since I played GTA 4 (basically since release) but my memory of it was that police chases and shoot outs were basically non-existent. Cars were slow and heavy. Realistic, yes, but it meant police chases felt slow as you couldn't get any speed. You couldn't have a shoot out with the cops because you died if someone so much as coughed in your direction. And dying meant going around rebuying everything, unless you had cheats. At least the PS2 games had weapons hidden for you to find. Maybe these existed in GTA4 but I never knew of any.

And bikes I mention specifically for two reasons. In Vice City, they were high stakes. You could weave between traffic but if you hit something you were fucked. In GTA4 they were so slippery as to be useless. And hitting anything travelling above jogging pace basically killed you.

But one of my distinct memories of GTA4 was playing at a friends house. I was riding a bike at high speed only to fly over the handlebars after hitting ...nothing. It was only after returning to the bike that some bins phased into existence. I don't remember PS2 GTAs having draw distance issues, even if they do, I never hit an obstacle because the data streaming couldn't keep up with the game. This might be the reason every car in GTA4 was a lead brick.

Maybe modern PC hardware and patches fixed all of this, but on 360 on release, it was bad.