Inspired of a tread that was about good games that got bad reviews. so why not the other way around?
games that got so great reviews and nearly worshipped of them.

Sure i did have alot fun with GTA4. but. it was not that great. it did have it's flaws and annoying moments with the cellphone.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/grandtheftauto4/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review

I got this recommend by a gamer and i did try this out. and was disappointed because it didn't feel that great. I just got angry at the ending.it was NOT all the money worth at all. and i am talking about Assassin Creed the first game.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/action/assassinscreed/review.html?page=2

I know i already ranted about this before. i hated this ALOT and still does.
Bad characters(you control a kid(Vaan) who wears.. the most gayest clothes ever. even the female did look more male than he did.), stupid battlesystem, idiotical buddy AIs, it looks awful alot like Star wars. just look at the None-humans!! they look like Jar jar or his cousines.
A weird pointsystem. you can't wear a hat before you did gain points for it. -,-
It didn't deserve all the good reviews.
http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/finalfantasy12/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review

So it was that. and please remember it is just what i think.

Halo or pretty much any much FPS actually.

After playing the hell out of Goldeneye, I kinda lost my love for FPS.

There's already a thread like this:
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?cid=242&tid=52893&p=1

Warpedwenger
There's already a thread like this:
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?cid=242&tid=52893&p=1

I'm sure there is, but not that one. That's about popular game series, whether or not the critics like them.

--------------------
DOOM.
At the time people were wetting their pants for it! All FPS that came after were for years ladled "Doom-clones". In fact "Doom-clone" was the name that FPSs's had before they were called FPS!
There had bee a couple of other 3D first person shooters, but DOOM wiped them from people's minds! It was the ipod of games! The new genre definer!

I never liked it. It always gave me a migraine due to the flickery, poorly implemented textured-poly whatsists. The colours were so horrible and sickenly depressingly awful... all blood reds, greys and rotting flesh-tones. The action was so relentlessly similar and it was so focused on death with no possible redemption.
Plus, the controls were nasty.

It wasn't until Duke Nukeum 3D came along and injected humour into the field that I actually started to like FPS.

Fallout 3.

I do usually enjoy a good RPG and I know this one has been praised by everyone and his Aunt Mathilda, but I just found it deadly dull. Making you walk at a snail's pace when you have too much to carry must be the worst game mechanic ever. Limiting the amount a character can carry is one thing (at least it forces you to make strategic decisions) but, to me, reducing movement speed just made the environments seem far too large and boring.

I'm with you there I don't get any western developed RPG. They are so boring D:

Probably the reason why the question works a bit better the other way around is because so many people can easily think of games that got great reviews which they didn't care for. It is much harder to meet or exceed expectations than it is to fall below them, especially with the hype machine these days behind every even remotely noteworthy game and company.

Ummmm at the moment, I'm going to say Bioshock...
I haven't completed it, but so far what I've played hasn't really been that great. I'm still going to finish it probably, but right now I just feel like I'm running around in circles in the same 3 rooms. (Literally. I can't figure out shit)
But like I said, I'm still pretty early in, so maybe it gets better later...

I find it interesting that a lot of people here are dissatisfied with the western RPGs, because I always had the opposite opinion. All of these JRPGs still coming out are starting to become a little stale to me (like the new Dragon Quest). Even FF isn't the shining example of what it used to be, just looking at how unbearable the first five hours or so of FFXIII turned out. I didn't even play beyond that.

But then when a friend recommended Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I probably played that from start to finish nonstop. I haven't tried Bioshock or Fallout, actually, but Bioware has recently given me a high opinion of western developers in the RPG market.

But overall, my biggest disappointment? It's a tie for me, between Brutal Legend and MGS4. The former game had me hooked because of how awesome games with Schafer's writing in it tends to be, and then the RTS element just bombed everything. MSG4 - I had played the second one of which I really enjoyed(skipped the third), and was just utterly turned off by how much of this game had been turned into a movie. I wanted to actually play the game, not watch it.

Mass Effect is a perfect example of everything I hate in the Western RPG genre. In the effort to allow players to "play their own character", most Western developers sacrifice decent story for perceived freedom. In reality, though, you're still playing through a very linear game, only with a really weak, generic, and very cliched storyline. On top of that, the Western idea of innovation is pressing two existing genres together to make a genre that is weaker than the either of the two genres alone.

With Mass Effect and it's sequel, you basically get a third person shooter that's slower, relies far less on tactics and strategy, and is far less interesting than dedicated third person shooters that aren't trying to be RPGs. As far as the RPG elements go, the few things that didn't seem completely uninspired were mostly cut in the sequel (which isn't an RPG despite people classifying it as one). Game length was pathetic for what is supposed to be an RPG, coming in at easily 1/4 - 1/2 the typical length for the genre and then Bioware decided to make matters worse with the sequel. Rather than pick up where the first game left off, they simply give you a game full of filler to draw it out into a trilogy when it should have just been one game from the start. Plus the ridiculous nonsensical changes to the technology and gameplay of the game universe, returning characters pulling complete 180s on their personalities, and their decision to instead of fix problem areas from one game to the next, simply replace them with even more mind-numbingly boring game elements.

JRPs are far from perfect, as well, but I'd still rather play a JRPG than a WRPG any day of the week.

It's funny you mention that, because the Bioware games seem to cut and paste their storylines from KOTOR. If it's any consolation - as far as gameplay goes - I much preferred Dragon Age anyway. Probably more due to the fact that I'm drawn toward fantasy-themes, but the game was much more challenging on Hard difficulty, and I enjoyed the micromanagement elements that seems to have been lost from their other games.

Bioware's RPGs are basically the current golden standard for wRPG, so using them as the reason why you like wRPG more than jRPG may not be the most objective thing to do. Especially since Bioware took its time on those 2 flagship franchises and you can only point to like, 2 games and an expansion.

I think most of what Isukun didn't like about M.E., is not found in DA Origins. I have DAO and it's definitely 1 of the best RPGs I've ever played, period. The thing about Bioware always using the same template for all its RPG plots is pretty true; other gamers have made some pretty amusing comparison threads on Bioware game plots. Good thing I never played any other Bioware games extensively except for DAO, so I recognize it but am not bothered.

BTW, DA2 is coming out next March. I'm definitely getting it. But I have to buy and play all the (good) DLC quests for DAO first. I've dropped DAO for a few months and I should get back to it; several good DLCs came out for it, including one which ties up the #1 loose end.

blindsk
I find it interesting that a lot of people here are dissatisfied with the western RPGs, because I always had the opposite opinion.

when a friend recommended Mass Effect and Dragon Age, I probably played that from start to finish nonstop. I haven't tried Bioshock or Fallout, actually, but Bioware has recently given me a high opinion of western developers in the RPG market.

I wasn't hating on western RPGs per se. Just Fallout 3! (Oh, and I got bored silly with Oblivion too, so maybe it's all Bethesda RPGs!)

I'm with you on Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Two of my favourite games from any genre!

The only one I've ever liked was Borderlands.

DAJB
I wasn't hating on western RPGs per se. Just Fallout 3! (Oh, and I got bored silly with Oblivion too, so maybe it's all Bethesda RPGs!)

I'm with you on Dragon Age and Mass Effect. Two of my favourite games from any genre!

Oh! I'm sorry! Yeah, definitely misinterpreted that. Go ahead and blame my friends bickering over choosing sides between western RPGs and JRPGs. :( Just used to them deciding to sit on one side of the fence or the other. I also agree with you on Oblivion too, though. I know a lot of people loved it, I just couldn't get into it.

In short, Bioware has some shining examples for what a good RPG is made of, at least in my opinion. That's why I mentioned their games, because they represent the "good" half of today's market.

isukun
Probably the reason why the question works a bit better the other way around is because so many people can easily think of games that got great reviews which they didn't care for. It is much harder to meet or exceed expectations than it is to fall below them, especially with the hype machine these days behind every even remotely noteworthy game and company.

I too find the other thread more interesting because it's a good way to find overlooked titles like that sexy one mentioned by Aurora Moon...
But I also think both are equally valid because I generally find most reviewers (on balance) to be reasonably accurate, so anything that goes against that is worth a second look if the reasons are good enough, amd it's interesting to read someone's honest impression of why they didn't like a game.

Your diatribe over the Mass Effect series is a great example of the personal differences you describe though. I thoroughly enjoyed them both- looking at them as interactive SciFi movies rather than RPGs or 3rd person shooters. They were merely ok at those things- only so much as they facilitated the interactive movie aspect, which was the part I enjoyed most.

-------------------------------
It's hard for me to come up with too many games I disagreed with the reviewers on since I haven't played many for a while and most that I did I enjoyed and they had great reviews!

Thinking back in the distant past... X-men on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis. That had great reviews, if I remember right, but it was ugly, dull, and simplistic. ...and boring as hell! You'd have to have been a crazy fan of the animated series to have enjoyed that stale old POS side-scrolling platformer.

I think there could be a whole other thread just for discussing the battle between Western RPGs and JRPGs. There are big differences and such a divide between fans. Lucky for me, I hate almost all RPGs from either side these days, which is quite a change from my Super Nintendo days. While on one side you have effeminate spiky-haired girly men in their ridiculous and pretentious Japanese plots, the other side has such bland and style-free presentation. I don't want anime men in makeup OR photorealism.

This leads me to the game that got some of the best reviews ever, but I still didn't like: Final Fantasy 7, one of gaming's sacred cows.

I was quite a Final Fantasy fan beforehand, starting at FF1 and loving FF6 especially. But FF7 was the exact iteration where I got tired of random battles, angst, and bizarre McGuffin-filled Japanese storytelling. I really wished they could just tell a good story with good characters and not junk the game up with abstract spiritual gimmicks like mako, the lifestream, and materia.

However, I recognize FF7 as a good game. I can see why other people like it. I just think of it like the 10th slice of a good pizza... It's the one I can't finish. And I'm starting to not like the toppings they used.

Lucky for Square-Enix, kids these days think FF7 was the first RPG ever created. They'll keep coming back for more.

Loads.

Any call of duty game. online, yeah they are very good but single player campaigns, they bore me to tears.

Assassins creed as already mentioned. terrible game, although most of those reviews were bought, hence why it got a few weak reviews too. Still I bought it and it was just awful.

Final fantasy 13.

Killzone 2, one of the worst FPS games I have played

Little big planet, just so dull. create everything but with no story it all seems pointless, which it IS.

this could be a different topic all alone but...
World of warcraft ( I assume it got good reviews anyway) dull as dishwater.

Zelda. Any of them. I have not played a good zelda game, I assume there is no such thing. I spent ages trying to get a link to the past as a teenager, having heard it was amazing and it was just dull. nothing of interest, twee plot and dull action do not mix. I tried the N64 ones and they sucked too.
I was tempted by windwaker as the stylized graphics looked good but I resisted.
I sadly wasted money on twilight princess, the wii version. That took the piss, awful graphics, even for a last gen game. terrible sound design. clunky controls and terrible plot. I really don't get it.

Any metal gear solid game. great cut scenes... shame about the gameplay.


As for western vs jap rpgs. I suppose it is preference, I like both when well done.
The finest wrpgs are by bethesda and bioware and jrpgs... well most of the FF games are good and the likes of blue dragon and l;ost oddesy werfe good but of late? pretty poor showing.

For me fallout 3 is the best game ever made. cant wait for new vegas... just watch all my comics go on a three month hiatus as I play it.

God of War and Devil May Cry. I find I absolutely cannot appreciate flashy mindless button mashers like these. The stories are 'eh' at best and a lot of the games of this type pretty much seem identical, one to another. Cookie cutter bad ass hero, stretchy light slinging melee attacks, and endless amounts of the same handful of monsters. The spastic blurring action doesn't satisfy my bloodlust whatsoever. It's just not that satisfying.

The Halo series is also lost on me. I don't understand why I'm supposed to be that impressed.

FF13. Although the reviews weren't 100% on this one, they seemed to approve a lot more than I ever felt it deserved. It had no personality whatsoever.

Someone
God of War and Devil May Cry. I find I absolutely cannot appreciate flashy mindless button mashers like these. The stories are 'eh' at best and a lot of the games of this type pretty much seem identical, one to another. Cookie cutter bad ass hero, stretchy light slinging melee attacks, and endless amounts of the same handful of monsters. The spastic blurring action doesn't satisfy my bloodlust whatsoever. It's just not that satisfying.

I half agree, I like the type of game well enough but those examples are lost on me.
I really enjoyed conan, far more than any god of war game. I also am enjoying dante's inferno.

Someone
The Halo series is also lost on me. I don't understand why I'm supposed to be that impressed.

assuming you have spent time playing them, then I cannot explain it to you in a way I expect will convince you. That said why should you be expected to be impressed, I genuinely think they are the pinnacle of FPS games.

genejoke
assuming you have spent time playing them, then I cannot explain it to you in a way I expect will convince you. That said why should you be expected to be impressed, I genuinely think they are the pinnacle of FPS games.

I played the first two with my brother all the way through. I found them at best to be graphically attractive but otherwise just adequate gameplay wise. The online multiplayer similarly didn't do much for me. It may be a very polished game, but it lacks more of the personality I find in other FPS titles.

Genejoke
Assassins creed as already mentioned. terrible game, although most of those reviews were bought, hence why it got a few weak reviews too. Still I bought it and it was just awful.

I picked up the first one for cheap and I was really excited about being able to run around all parkour style and kill guys. About an hour in I realized the game was going to be repetetive and boring as hell, plus the main character was a huge dick and they gave away the most interesting part of the plot in the intro scene. I put that away and replayed ghostbusters, because if I'm going to play an only halfway decent game it should at least have ghostbusters in it.

For me fallout 3 is the best game ever made. cant wait for new vegas... just watch all my comics go on a three month hiatus as I play it.

I adore FO3 (I could never get into 1 and 2, I know that makes me horrible). I actually have to use up some holiday time so I booked 2 weeks out, after New Vegas comes out. (Same day as Fable 3, too...) I know it makes me a hideous video game nerdmonster but I am really excited about being able to stay home and gorge myself on a new Fallout.

I also loved Mass Effect 1 and 2, Dragon Age and its expansion, Oblivion, and to a PC-mod enabled lesser extent Morrowind. I haven't played a japanese rpg since whatever final fantasy had the little black wizard and the doofy knight.

Well, if you can find Zelda and Metal Gear games to be bad, don't get all huffy when you hear others say Halo is a bore.

I hate FPS in general, but even so I still find some other FPS, such as AvP, more fun than Halo. I played Halo 1 and 3. They're merely decent FPS that came out for consoles back when consoles had no decent exclusive FPS.

As for AC1... I liked it. It's just fun being a freerunning Jihadist randomly shanking white ppl in the back in Jerusalem. I can't get over how deliciously politically incorrect it is. Too bad the game added a stupid "twist" to the story, made it feel all hokey.

I never finished the game, so I guess it started to bore me also. But at that time I stopped playing console games in general.

mlai
Well, if you can find Zelda and Metal Gear games to be bad, don't get all huffy when you hear others say Halo is a bore.

Yeah, I was thinking that too. See, I'm a huge fan of Zelda, but I didn't say anything because I think this is a thread where we should be free to hate anything we want.

Which reminds me... despite its excellent scores, I hate Halo. By technical prowess and craftsmanship it's a good game, but I hate its generic presentation and second-hand scifi aesthetic. Everything about it screams "nothing special". Yet something about it beckons the douchebag college freshman--you know, the guy who was beating up video game players five years ago--as well as the squeaky racist twelve-year-old.

I could go on and on naming FPS games that had better artistic direction, including Team Fortress 2, Timesplitters, Bioshock, Portal and more, and yet I'm hearing through the grapevine that Halo is somehow the "pinnacle" of FPS games. That took me by surprise. I didn't know Halo was released in 2004 by Valve, or that it was Gordon Freeman under that shiny green motocross helmet.

Oh, also Animal Crossing. This game keeps getting praised by gaming press. Why? Probably because it's really good at what it does: make you its slave. And I'm not talking about the part where you're paying off your house. No, that's the fun part... where you have a goal. After you've paid off your house there's nothing left to do but try to collect things and perform menial chores every day. If you don't check in every day? You're punished. You shouldn't have the constant threat of weeds, dead flowers, and friends moving out to force you to play a game. It should be fun.

See, FF7 is the pinnacle of console RPGs, and Halo is the pinnacle of console FPS.

That's why as you said, Halo attracts the PC-illiterate jocks and the annoying tweens.

Genejoke
Zelda sucks, Metal Gear sucks.

Genejoke
Halo... pinnacle of FPS games.

Mlai
Well, if you can find Zelda and Metal Gear games to be bad, don't get all huffy when you hear others say Halo is a bore.

Well I'm sorry I sounded HUFFY for disagreeing with you. I didn't realise it read that way, it wasn't meant to. Reading it back I am still not sure it does, I was trying to say that assuming the person had played them then they have a genuine opinion as opposed to playstation fanboy ranting and that they shouldn't feel they should be impressed just because it reviewed well.

Mlai
I hate FPS in general, but even so I still find some other FPS, such as AvP, more fun than Halo. I played Halo 1 and 3. They're merely decent FPS that came out for consoles back when consoles had no decent exclusive FPS.

AVP now that is ripe for the opposite of this thread.

Hawk
I could go on and on naming FPS games that had better artistic direction, including Team Fortress 2, Timesplitters, Bioshock, Portal and more, and yet I'm hearing through the grapevine that Halo is somehow the "pinnacle" of FPS games. That took me by surprise. I didn't know Halo was released in 2004 by Valve, or that it was Gordon Freeman under that shiny green motocross helmet.

So you didn't realise people could disagree with you and think that maybe Half life 2 wasn't all that? A good game but one I didn't think was quite right for this thread, I liked it but not loved it. ;) see i put that in to avoid sounding huffy. That's the beauty of opinion.
Bioshock, well yes it does have great design no argument there, can't say I agree on the others... Portal though, that was great.

On another note, Hawk has convinced me never to pay Animal crossing.

Oh

RESIDENT EVIL.
I haven't played the later ones but one and two were ruined by the controls, I really wanted to like them which made it worse when they annoyed the hell out of me.
Still I loved Deadspace so I may give RE5 go sometime.

Genejoke
So you didn't realise people could disagree with you and think that maybe Half life 2 wasn't all that? A good game but one I didn't think was quite right for this thread, I liked it but not loved it. ;) see i put that in to avoid sounding huffy. That's the beauty of opinion.

No, you can disagree with me. Especially in this thread. To be honesty, I think Half-Life 2's art direction was blander than Halo's, and I was just joking to imply that it instead was the pinnacle of FPS games... though I do think the game was well-executed.

Genejoke
RESIDENT EVIL.
I haven't played the later ones but one and two were ruined by the controls, I really wanted to like them which made it worse when they annoyed the hell out of me.
Still I loved Deadspace so I may give RE5 go sometime.

I feel pretty much the same. Definitely there was some neat stuff going on in the early Resident Evil games, but the camera angles and controls ruined it for me. I tried hard to enjoy them.

Resident Evil 4 and 5 were different. The controls worked nicely and the games were fun. RE purists complain that they're not really Resident Evil, but I don't care. I think they're better.

The only RE I've ever played is Code Veronica on the Dreamcast, which uses the old control scheme.

I'll admit I panicked and got killed by the very first zombie attack in my first game LOL. That was heartbreaking. But once you get used to the old controls, you can fight zombies with satisfaction without being able to go superhuman like in the RE movies. I like the fact that my character isn't some impossible John Woo character in a horror survival game.

I got used to the old controls well enough that I almost beat the challenge mission where you're that bad guy armed with only a knife. I knifed all the zombie waves but Veronica finally killed me in the end. I don't see how you can beat her with just a knife.

I recall one from WAY back!

Destruction Derby on the PS1
At the time there was a huge console battle for supremacy between Sony and Sega. Sega had their established credentials with the gamer market with the Megadrive/Genesis, but Sony had a MASSIVE edge in the marketing propaganda wars since they owned their gigantic media wing, filled with a whole bevy of superstar celebs and established contacts with all the best marketing and advertising people as well as TV stations, radio and movie people world wide...
Sega were never, ever going to win that one...

Anyway, Destruction Derby was one of the PS1's early flagship games. All the reviewers were going crazy for it, lauding the PS1's abilities, it was all over ads and things, lots of hype for it and lots of fancy talk...
I played it and it was a horrible, horrible looking, pixely, awful POS car demolition game with terrible colours and boring gameplay.
I could only conclude that the hype and good reviews were a direct evidence of the Sony machine's payola propaganda program in action.