Abandoned Games

[Dudley]

Can't mitigate it to 0 though, at best down to maybe 6-10, which when your total health is 150 or so, is a lot.

 

But really it's that "Pay to not replay the last hour" mechanic which is horrific unless ultimately it's a tiny portion of your money in which case it's pointless.

 

It's a weird one to abandon, the setting and characters are top notch, I'm even fine with the game but it's clearly determined to lock me out of the good stuff and force me to play the less interesting stuff 11 times both because I won't be able to afford to pay.

[Darren]

Dirt 5

 

Theoretically this is a perfect Game Pass game, and that's how I've been treating it - quick blast, doing one race a day in career mode. The scenery, weather etc. are always pretty and sometimes great, e.g. during thunderstorms at night. But my god is it dull to actually play. The handling is terrible and you never feel like you're in total control of your car. It's especially disappointing in this respect compared to Forza (both varieties), the mighty Wreckfest, and even something like Hot Shot Racing, which is going for a different feel but nails it, whereas this just feels woolly and wrong.

 

And now a couple where I think it's not the game, it's me:

 

River City Girls

 

I've started this twice now but I just can't get into it. Even on normal (i.e. easy) it's too hard, I can't get combos out properly and the first boss just destroys me every time. I think this is down to my failing reflexes and slightly arthritic fingers than any inherent flaw with the game, though.

 

Hollow Knight

 

Ditto!

[df0]

Close to quitting Metro Exodus. I do not why they thought turning it into a watered-down Far Cry was a good idea.

[Dudley]

3 hours ago, Darren said:

Dirt 5

 

Theoretically this is a perfect Game Pass game, and that's how I've been treating it - quick blast, doing one race a day in career mode. The scenery, weather etc. are always pretty and sometimes great, e.g. during thunderstorms at night. But my god is it dull to actually play. The handling is terrible and you never feel like you're in total control of your car. It's especially disappointing in this respect compared to Forza (both varieties), the mighty Wreckfest, and even something like Hot Shot Racing, which is going for a different feel but nails it, whereas this just feels woolly and wrong.

 

All of this.  I think it might be in this thread I said it even but it's Tesco Value racing game.  There's nothing *wrong* as such it's just.... nothing in game form.  It might as well be sold in a white box with "RACING GAME" written on it.

[df0]

On 21/06/2021 at 10:15, df0 said:

Close to quitting Metro Exodus. I do not why they thought turning it into a watered-down Far Cry was a good idea.

Update: I abandoned this. Chapter spoilers.

 

Spoiler

Chapter 4 (or 3 if you do not count the small bit right after 1) - Forest.

 

It literally turnt into a poor Far Cry. Linear path from bandit camp to bandit camp with exposition dumps in between. I grew sick and tired of it. The quirky uniqueness of Metro is almost completely gone.

 

Loved Chapter 1, loved Chapter 2 (the small bit), Chapter 3 took a little bit of effort to sit through, Chapter 4 is not worth my time.

 

[englishbob]

On 04/03/2021 at 13:17, HarryBizzle said:

Maquette - MAde me feel very nauseous. Performance issues and I wasn't that impressed with the puzzles. 

 

+1 That nineties era sense of motion, and performance judder, means I lasted about 20 minutes before I nearly puked

[JoeK]

Alas, I've abandoned SOMA. 

 

Far too much 'nope' in the atmosphere it creates for me to go on.

 

I feel weak and old.

[Jamie John]

39 minutes ago, JoeK said:

Alas, I've abandoned SOMA. 

 

Far too much 'nope' in the atmosphere it creates for me to go on.

 

I feel weak and old.

 

There's an option to turn the Nope-iness off.

[klargon]

I thought that just stopped you from being killed. Presumably the tension remains the same

[Jamie John]

2 minutes ago, klargon said:

I thought that just stopped you from being killed. Presumably the tension remains the same

 

Well you don't have to worry about the monsters any more, and they essentially don't kill you, so that certainly lessens the tension. I played it though in the original mode and actually found the monsters a pain after a while as I just wanted to focus on the story and exploration, not having to run and crouch under a desk every five minutes.

[klargon]

I never even saw anything before I just quit it though.  It could have been a fucking jigglypuff and I wouldn’t have known. The mere threat was enough for me not to want to play it.

[Jamie John]

2 minutes ago, klargon said:

I never even saw anything before I just quit it though.  It could have been a fucking jigglypuff and I wouldn’t have known. The mere threat was enough for me not to want to play it.

Fair enough. You're missing out on a great story, though! I'm not sure if the 'Safe Mode' gets rid of the screen distortion stuff that happens when you see a monster. That was often more panic-inducing than the monsters themselves, I found.

[JoeK]

7 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

Fair enough. You're missing out on a great story, though! I'm not sure if the 'Safe Mode' gets rid of the screen distortion stuff that happens when you see a monster. That was often more panic-inducing than the monsters themselves, I found.

 

The whole ambience of the thing scares the hell out of me really! 

[dumpster]

Didn't see this coming....

 

Resident Evil Village (Xbox Series X)

The first genuinely next gen game for my next gen console and as a big fan of the series it was always going to be the driver to getting a new console.

 

But Village is just boring. How many more games will they release where you put stone carvings in holes in doors, find handles that turn cranks, hunt for keys...  I understand that Resident Evil has always had these elements but in Village that's pretty much all you do.  You endlessly backtrack, talk to the merchant, upgrade the shotgun and theres nothing new. Not even the smallest tweaks or refinements.

It's literally the same game as the last one, done again.  The only enjoyment is from the story and characters because that's the only content you've not seen before. 

 

Also, for the vast majority of the time, there are no enemies.  And when there are, they all look the same.  Resi7 was guilty of this too.  

 

And it's so easy.  I don't think I've actually been killed yet. And I'm three quarters through it. None of the bosses were any sort of challenge and you can run past most of the enemies. 

 

And then, as you progress you realise that once again they front loaded all the content.  Halfway through the game you realise all the interesting characters are dead. You backtrack, you backtrack again, you solve easy and obvious puzzles and hope the next area has some enemies in it.  

 

It's just so formulaic, repetitive, and hugely disappointing. I can't be bothered finishing it, and it's another reminder to wait until games are less than £20.

 

 

[AceGrace]

Conker Live and Reloaded.

Got as far as the hover race and it has been infuriating. The remaster obviously did nothing for the controls.

[mdn2]

1 hour ago, AceGrace said:

Conker Live and Reloaded.

Got as far as the hover race and it has been infuriating. The remaster obviously did nothing for the controls.

The controls are one of the things that got completely overhauled from the original, actually. It's still dated to today's standards, but you really don't want to try the version on Rare Replay if you didn't like the controls in this. 

[AceGrace]

I playing the version on xbox live gold

[mdn2]

1 minute ago, AceGrace said:

I playing the version on xbox live gold

Yeah that's the remake. The controls are vastly improved over the original. Still, 16 years old now though. 

[JoeK]

Death Stranding. 

 

All the news about the director's cut version coming along made me at least attempt to get into it after failing miserably a couple of times before. 

 

Nope. 

 

Despite it looking absolutely wonderful, having a magnificent soundtrack and some really interesting ideas I find it absolutely appalling to play. The story is told in such a way that even Ed Wood's movies are like an Orson Welles epic compared to this.

 

And I still have the niggling feeling at the back of my mind that Kojima has done all this just to piss me off and knows exactly how shite the writing is.

 

 

[Gabe]

Decided to call time on a few games today.

 

First up is No Man's Sky. I haven't touched it since late last/January and I've never had any inclination to either. In fact, the only thing I liked about it was the soundtrack. Floaty controls, awful pop-in, dull worlds is sadly my experience of it. Next was Darksiders: Genesis, which I'd only played less than an hour of. It just didn't grab me and I have too many other things to play. I will probably Youtube the cinematics though.

 

The last one I ummed and ahhed about because I was quite excited to play it - Phoenix Point. I like the idea of XCOM games and this one had some interesting ideas (the 'free aim' was a great one, for example) - but the gameplay just tires me out. The meta stuff is fine and a nice challenge, but the hunting down every enemy on the map gameplay hasn't changed since the original back in 1992. It makes every mission longer than it needs to be and I just can't be doing with it. These days I like my tactics games to have smaller, more focused maps where you can see everybody on it from the get-go. I decided to cut it loose after a couple of hours rather than a further 10-15 later after getting thoroughly annoyed at it all. I sadly think it's a variant on the SRPG genre that is probably no longer for me.

[Marlew]

Cleaning house. 

 

 

Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart 

 

I played about three hours and then every time I turn it on, I'm almost immediately bored. It's identical to my limited experience with the previous games in the series. Some fun weapons and impressive graphics but it feels devoid of personality or originality in every respect. 

 

 

Resident Evil 2 Remake 

 

I don't really like to play RE games besides RE4. I have some fondness for the original on the PS1 but never bothered with the sequels until RE4 on the Wii. I don't enjoy the tension or frustration of survival horror because I am a mindless action gonk, and the constant backtracking to get cranks and gems is an exhausting artifice to me. This game looks amazing, the gunplay feels great but I'm not interested in conserving ammo and putting pegs in holes. I can understand the appeal but it's not my thing. I also find unkillable enemies a really shit trick. 

 

 

Resident Evil 3 Remake 

 

As above, albeit I enjoyed it for a bit longer because it seemed bigger and dumber. Once the unkillable guy started pestering me, my interest immediately dwindled. 

 

 

Control 

 

Seemed intriguing and the destructible environments were jaw-dropping at first. Quickly lost me. I don't enjoy third-person shooters (besides Returnal) and this ended up ehhhh I can't even be bothered to write about why this game lost my interest. It was drab and po-faced. 

 

 

Ghost of Tsushima 

 

Gorgeous, quite snappy and satisfying combat, enjoyable as a walking sim. Every time I fire it up, I try to mainline it to get the most out of the experience, like with most open world games. No. The missions and story are easily the worst bits of this game. I'll probably get the fancy pants edition just to see how good it can look but it's a boring game. 

 

 

Days Gone 

 

I've given this many many many tries. It's not really the protagonist or the characters or the drab world, it's how clunky it feels to play. The movement and melee and bike handling are sub-PS3 Nathan Drake to me. Some of the gun combat is satisfying but the constant ammo and fuel grind is a turn-off for me. I played until well after I'd unlocked the second camp and I found it all a slog. My brothers both enjoyed it, plenty of people I respect enjoyed it. It just does nothing for me. 

 

 

AC Valhalla 

 

Odyssey's shallowness and content bloat, mixed with the superficial aesthetic of The Witcher 3, minus the engaging characters, atmosphere and gameplay of either. Nothing else to say. Modern gaming at its most generic and pointless. 

 

 

Spider-Man: Miles Morales

 

Great fun just swinging around every so often but I checked how far through the game I am and I'm only about halfway. The missions and dialogue and collectible stuff is completely inane to me. It was great for an hour or two and then it settled into the same loop as the original, which I only managed for a few hours. A better effort than many modern open world games, the traversal feels excellent, but I don't want to actually reach anywhere.

 

 

[HarryBizzle]

Returnal

 

Very mixed feelings about this one. I really enjoyed it early on. Bosses 1 and 2 were fantastic. Biome 3 was much more of a slog and the boss was a sticking point for me. The next boss after that was so easy that I don’t really have an opinion on it. 
 

Anyway, the game basically bugged for me in the last area and I had to reset my run and I just can’t bring myself to play it any more. I don’t have that much gaming time and I just can’t deal with the idea of putting 1-2 hours into it and not getting the right drops or whatever. I think the fact that I’m even looking at it that way - just wanting to finish it and be done with it, rather than being happy to play it and take the deaths as they come, as part of the process, says it all really. 
 

I realise people love it because it’s a Roguelike, but I just don’t have the time or patience for them. 
 

It’s a game that I admire and really enjoyed in places, but I do wish there were a cheat/easy mode to just experience it with save points or something. The highlights for me were the difficult bosses, not the slog of getting back to them. 

[Boothjan]

Psychonauts

 

I very, very rarely abandon games (pretty sure this is my first entry in this thread) but after really looking forward to trying this before the sequel comes out on Game Pass next month, I just can't carry on with it.  It's aged terribly.

 

The ideas behind it are wonderful, and I'm sure mid-20's me would have enjoyed it when it first came out on the original Xbox.  But the cut scenes are horrific and everything is just clunky.  And as it's an original Xbox title, there aren't even any achievements for me to mop up.

 

I think there's definitely a time and a place for retro games, but personally speaking, the experience is soured if there's no feeling of nostalgia - I'd never played Psychonauts before, and with so many other games fighting for my attention, I don't have the time for games I'm not getting much fun out of.

 

Sorry, Psychonauts - I'm going to have to be an ageist twat and uninstall you.

[HarryBizzle]

I wonder how much of that is because you're playing it on Xbox. I played it on PC years ago and I think that helped it feel much more modern - patched controls, widescreen support and resolution options.

 

Although, I did play it in 2012, so that's probably going to play a role.

[Boothjan]

12 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

I wonder how much of that is because you're playing it on Xbox. I played it on PC years ago and I think that helped it feel much more modern - patched controls, widescreen support and resolution options.

 

Although, I did play it in 2012, so that's probably going to play a role.

 

Yes, maybe - the lack of widescreen on top of the visuals was a shock to the system, amazing what we become accustomed to!

[Unofficial Who]

38 minutes ago, Boothjan said:

 

Yes, maybe - the lack of widescreen on top of the visuals was a shock to the system, amazing what we become accustomed to!

 

It's on Gamepass, I'm half tempted to have a look and report back. Mind you memories of the Meat Circus are enough to put me off.

 

I managed to finish it back in the day....on the PS2.

[Strafe]

The Ascent. I realised that I'd end up playing about 10 hours of this without really enjoying it so called time on it after 2.

[df0]

Monster Hunter Wold. Again.

 

After a long hiatus I restarted this several weeks ago and had a fantastic time with it. Credits roll later like 120 hours and I wonder why I ever gave up on this. Got myself some neat weapons, good armour sets, small selection of jewels. Great, now to the so called endgame. And that's when and where I realised why I gave up on this.

 

Ludicrously difficult fights with mechanics that you can barely spec for. I have no jewel that nullifies the roars which means I am stunned often, have not enough fire resistance gear and jewels, can not withstand wind attacks, am chugging health potions like an addict. And that's when I am fighting one monster, when a second one joins the fray it becomes at least double as bad.

 

Now I have an Assignment to kill two purple (Tempered?) Beuzelgeuse. Suggested Hunter Rank is 29, I am 29. Optional quest is to kill Lunestra which I can do with like a 50% success rate. HR is set to 19. Both tear me apart. So as far as I know all I can do now is farm Investigations (which are like super optional quests) and hope for the correct jewel to drop so I can increase my fire resistance or nullify roars.

 

Also, this whole Turf War thing really became a massive annoyance. It was neat the first few times, now just let me kill Lunestra. There's no need to have that wind dragon show up EVERY time.

[Unofficial Who]

On 30/07/2021 at 22:14, Strafe said:

The Ascent. I realised that I'd end up playing about 10 hours of this without really enjoying it so called time on it after 2.

 

Same. I made it about an hour and....I'm not sure why I wasn't enjoying it.

 

It probably didn't help that the first level is literally a sewer level. I've had enough sewer levels to last me forever. And the screen is so busy and so packed with detail that I just couldn't parse what was on the screen. I would have adored this 20 years ago. Not for me now though. Glad it's not just me.

 

Made it out of the sewers and just wasn't feeling it.

 

 

 

[Jamie John]

Jedi: Fallen Order

 

This started off quite promisingly, even if it was just Uncharted re-skinned. It looked the part, and I quite liked the diverging paths and secret collecting. Unfortunately, though, the combat and movement in general felt very off, even in 60FPS performance mode - just horribly imprecise and glitchy. Fighting human enemies was normally ok, but as soon as you came up against hostile fauna, it didn't take much for the camera to go haywire and the lock-on to balls up. You can't have a Soulslike with imprecise combat, I'm afraid. If this had Uncharted-style checkpointing to go with the gameplay then I wouldn't have minded so much, but getting booted back 10 minutes because you got ganked by some giant rat you couldn't see didn't make me want to continue, so off the harddrive it came. I played it via EA Play through Gamepass, so thankfully it didn't cost me much.