Games You Hated But Learn To Love

[Beertiger]

Picture the scene it's 8:30am everyone else has just gone to sleep after one hell of a session on Halo/Monkey Ball 2/Mario Party 4/PGR2/Unreal Championship.

I'm sitting there pretty bored because i've gotta drive home and would rather wait until i got back before falling asleep. So i decide to fire up a game i just couldn't get on with before. I mean i didn't even get off the Endor Spire because it bored the hell ouy of me, that's about 3 rooms long.

So yeah i start playing it and after dying twice on the Endor Spire because i didn't have a fucking clue what to do i managed to get off and land on the planet. About 1pm everyone gets up to go so i pack up my box, head home plug it straight back in and get on with my adventure. God damn Knights of the Old Republic is good.

I still think the battle system is a bit pish, i've turned it onto easy now as i still don't get quite what's going on. Although turning on the 'attack time ended pause' on has helped a lot and i can concentrate a bit more now. Otherwise it is the worst real time/turn based hybrid i've ever seen.

Anyone it's the adventures, the people and the settings that dragged me in. Hopefully the battles won't get really hard so i have to give up as i'm truely loving it.

So what games did you not like but then for some weird reason start to love?

oh yeah had to play NFSU a bit more, god it's still awful. It's definitely the worst futuristic racer i've played. Stick with F-Zero GX.

[CrispinG]

You will all learn to love Manhunt for the modern cult classic it already is.

[SeanR]

Red Alert 2... for shame. Left alone for so long. Not really fancying it at all.

Tried it, liked it, loved it...

Shame it doesn't take to being moved around my harddrives so well...

[le sai]

When I first played Goldeneye on the N64 i thought it was utter shit.

then i remembered what an utter tit i was and DIDN'T trade it in and went home and thought "Oh right. Its great".

I'm not sure why that happened.

[acidforblood]

Mario Sunshine. Initial disappointment turned to grudging respect turned to enjoyment.

[Version2.0]

Civ II. Guess I was too young to enjoy it first time I tried to play it then discovered it really is pretty good a few years on.

[elmo]

Rainbow Six 3... just ask the live players!

[Guybrush]

Mario Sunshine. Initial disappointment turned to grudging respect turned to enjoyment.

It's true. I'd say up until you've got about 10-12 shines it can frustrate. Then you start to be able to control Mario better, enjoy using the yellow stick to move the camera around and be in control.

The game's peak is between 25 and 40 shines as in that period I was on a roll and couldn't put the joypad down for days.

I don't think I would complete Mario Sunshine fully mind you. I'm satisfied I've beaten the final boss, but you can't beat the satisfaction of getting that next shine.

A slow burner for sure but once it's got you, it's got you.

[DarhkFox]

I didnt have any probs with Mario Sunshine. Infact the first day i got it, i played for probably a good 8 hours.

However, eventually i came to realise it wasnt really that great..

[kerraig UK]

step games. Thought they were a silly gimmick at first. I'm now addicted to stepmania.

[Hawkeye]

Final Fantasy VII

It took me about seven attempts to get in to this game, and to date I still think it has one of the worst openings of any RPG. I found the first 2/3 hours to be boring beyond belief, and several time I gave up at this point to go play something else and not touch the game for months.

It was only from reading all the praise from others that I felt I must be missing something, and finally I got past the first few hours and started to enjoy the game.

In the end I really enjoyed it, but still don't look at it as the classic many do as the opening few hours and the numerous re-start attempts I had with it still sit badly with me.

[Kamatari]

FVII is a class game:P, completed it once, then used a cheat to bring back aries....:'( why did she have to be killed:'( i got a ps2 a few days ago.......one good thing about getting a ps2 is i can finally start ffvii again, as my disk is scratched and wouldnt read on meh PsOne, stuck it into teh PS2 and all fine

kotor- started playing it when i first got it, didnt like it too much, then after a month or so played it again and was hooked, same goes for Evolution on the DC, pretty sure the was a few other games but cant remember atm

[nohsa]

I did not get into Metal Gear Solid, but after seeing one of my mates playing it, I knew what I was missing.

[Ikaruga]

FVII is a class game:P, completed it once, then used a cheat to bring back aries....:'( why did she have to be killed:'( i got a ps2 a few days ago.......one good thing about getting a ps2 is i can finally start ffvii again, as my disk is scratched and wouldnt read on meh PsOne, stuck it into teh PS2 and all fine

kotor- started playing it when i first got it, didnt like it too much, then after a month or so played it again and was hooked, same goes for Evolution on the DC, pretty sure the was a few other games but cant remember atm

What?

[Boyatsea]

Halo.

Bought it with my Xbox on the first week of release. Slapped it in, thought the graphics were brilliant, but didn't get any further than just after when you land on Halo itself. It gave me a headache, and I thought I didn't like FPS' anyway.

Then about 6 months ago, I was bored, so I thought I'd put it on. Played for an hour. Fell in love. Kept playing it constantly till I'd completed it.

It now falls within my top 5 games of all time.

[Beertiger]

Then you start to be able to control Mario better, enjoy using the yellow stick to move the camera around and be in control.

I actually expect this of every platform game now as to me it worked perfectly. I get so dissapointed when games don't have as good a camera system.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

As noted above, Manhunt. I absolutely despised it but stuck with it and found it became really rather ace.

Also, Broken Sword III - I found much of the game a chore but loved the characters, script and general style/atmosphere so much I went out and bought the first two games immediately after finishing it.

As for older titles, hmmm...

[CrispinG]

As noted above, Manhunt. I absolutely despised it but stuck with it and found it became really rather ace.

I was surprised by the forum's reaction. I was expecting to be bored senseless until the guns were introduced later into the game. I wasn't. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Atmospheric, frightening, funny and startlingly inventive. It's just all that's great about survival horror and stealth action in one puke inducingly nasty package. And Brian Cox. God, I love that man. "You're new at this, so I'll give you a hint: GO KILL SOMEBODY." Haha. And I defy anyone to find anything in a videogame more disturbing than Piggsy.

[Cyhwuhx]

.::: The original Metroid and Kid Icarus. I hated them because they didn't play anything like my other game Super Mario Bros.

Kid Icarus was bought as my second cartridge. It was so different and hard in comparison that I hated it. In those days it wasn't possible to take games back, so I was stuck to it. It took me a year to finally touch it again and start to appreciate it.

Metroid was borrowed from a friend initially. And the title-screen already gave me the creeps. The rest of the game was even more 'frightning'. The game literally gave me the chills. Years later, when on vacation in Germany, I found the game in the bargainbin together with Parodius (which I loved). I took 'em both home. Back home, I started playing Parodius for a while and after an hour replaced the cartridge. I think I've never touched Parodius afterwards.

For some reason Metroid had turned into one of the finest games I've ever played. I got so engrossed in it that I even started mapping out Zebes on graphpaper.

So while I initially hated both of them, they've turned into my most beloved game(franchise)s. It's odd how one can grow and adapt over the years.

[Jim Miles]

Burning Rangers. Played it for half an hour and stopped in a fit of frustration. Picked it up a week later and was compelled to finish it in one sitting. It's really rather good.

[McFly]

Bomberman/dynablaster. Played 1 player wasnt impresse, played it multiplaye...... "do you see"

[bcass]

Viewtifull Joe. Hated the 1 level demo, and there is so much that is shit about the game, but it is compelling.

[mechamonkey]

Metroid Prime, played it this time last year at the same time as playing Halo (no comments needed) , played it this year and I'm just immersed.

[Judas]

Red Alert 2... for shame. Left alone for so long. Not really fancying it at all.

Tried it, liked it, loved it...

Red Alert 2 was a nice suprise indeed. I got it specially after watching 80`s classic "Red Dawn".Cant be bothered to play the Allied Campagn though, they

have no evil plans of world conquest.

Alien Vs Predator 2, a pretty decent game not to be missed if one enjoy that type of scenario.The Marine campagn is kinda like Silent Hill 1st person. Its really creepy walking around in thoose dark places with only the motion tracker going "bleep bleep".

[Cthulhu]

Go!! Go!! Troublemakers. I've mentioned this on some other post somewhere, but initially I was crushingly disappointed with it, especially because it took me all of an afternoon to actually finish the game, which I considered relatively bad value in regards to the price.

In the end though, it turned out to be one of my favourite N64 games, once you worked out that it's really a timetrial/highscore game rather than a linear platformer. It was really, really fantastic, and it provokes the same drive for perfection in me that Viewtiful Joe does. It's not enough to beat the boss... you've got to do it without taking a scratch.

There are few games that make me push myself that hard, and Go!! Go!! was one of them.

[Droo]

I thought Metroid Prime was pants until I got into it a few months back. Gregory Horror show also was a re=pick-up-er.

[valkyrie999]

at first I found the original jet set radio really frustrating...

but afterwards I was totally hooked; the difficulty of the game makes it really satisfying to beat!

[jcafarley]

Splinter Cell. I bought it, found it too hard and gave up after the first two levels, traded it in.

Saw it second hand on the Gamestation site for £8.99. I bought it again and absolutely loved it. No idea why I found it hard the first time around as I finished it in about two weeks of on and off play. It was a bit frustrating in places, but only because I knew I could do it.

Looking forward to the sequel now, hopefully it'll be a little bit more forgiving.

[mystamac]

Project Gotham Racing on xbox when it launched, thought the handling was "too skidey!" (if that is a real word).

Didn't play it again till May 2003 when over in the states visiting some friends. I don't know whether it was the fact that we were actually in San Francisco, racing in San Francisco in a game but....I was hooked??!!??

1st thing I did when I got home (apart from sleep) was to go out and buy a 2nd hand copy. Went on to finish the game, unlock the 13th level and the Ferrari F40 (or was it the F50??).

Funny really 'cos I loved MSR on the DC straightaway.

[TheSlugFormerlyKnownAsNap]

GTA3. I got it based on all the rave reviews, and I just didn't get it. Drove around, caused some mayhem, blabla, boring. So after two days I took it back to the shop and exchanged it for Tony Hawk 3 (a fine game, so not all was lost). I did get Vice City last year, and got drawn in due to the soundtrack and 80's stuff, and really liked it.

Yesterday I bought the GTA double pack for Xbox (for a souped up Vice City and a revisit to GTA3), and popped in GTA3 today. Damn, it's fucking brilliant! In many ways it's actually better than Vice City. So here I am, having loads of fun with a two year old game that I've always dismissed as boring... Things do change, huh?